OHERIE-L Archives

From: Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman <>
Subject: Orphan Trains (2b)
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 10:30:53 -0400

Public Perceptions

The community's understanding of the placing-out strategy and other CAS
programs can be derived from the print media. From 1853 to the 1920s, much
media attention was given to the circumstances of impoverished children in
the city and the inadequacies of their parents. Descriptions of these
children appeared to solicit public responses of pity and fear. For
example, in "Homeless children" [1859] these children were described as
born "into sin and poverty"; were identified with "tears, rage, dirt, and
cruelty" during their formative years; and were likely to become "ulcers of
society" unless intervention occurred. Impoverished parents of these same
children were generally presented in the press as unsympathetic characters
who constituted "a class from which spring mainly the great tides of
wretchedness and crime."

Parents were seen as the source of their children's entry into criminality;
the parents encouraged the children to contribute to the family's income by
engaging in "semi-vagrant occupations" [Vagrancy among children 1881], such
as selling newspapers or gathering rags and bones, or in small crimes such
as stealing or begging [Our city charities 1860; Crime and charity. . .
1861]. The New York press also provided coverage of the organization,
including articles that singled out the CAS placing-out program
because it was accomplished "without expense to the public" [Children's Aid
Society 1890] and had produced "the ripest fruits of the society's labors"
[The Children's Aid Society 1902: 8]. As further evidence of the success of
CAS, the press reported that "very few lapses into criminal life" were
known among the children who had been placed-out [New York child saving
1895].

The Demise of the Placing-Out Program

By the latter part of the 1800s, placing-out supporters such as Jacob Riis
[1894: 624, 625] acknowledged the contribution of the environment to the
human problems of the poor. Riis pointed out that environmental conditions,
the "influences and instincts of tenement life" and "the evil forces of the
slums" contributed to poverty. Despite this recognition, both Riis and C.
Loring Brace, the son of CAS's founder, concluded that saving the children
by relocation was the most effective solution [New York child saving 1895].

The emigration program peaked in 1875 and began a steady decline, then
ended
in 1930 [Young & Marks 1990]. At the end, Social Services Review offered a
complimentary description of the vision behind the program and the
difficult times in which it had been carried out [An early adventure 1929:
75, 77, 78]. An editorial reminded readers to keep in mind "the condition
of
the dependent and neglected children of New York City in the days when
there was almost no social work, public or private, in their behalf" and
"no juvenile court to protect such a child." The editorial went on to
identify
Brace as "a great pioneer who had courage and faith, enthusiasm and
tireless
energy."

Reasons cited by some authors for the demise of the program included the
initiation of new ways of coping with industrialization, the recognition of
environmental factors as causes for some social problems, and the reforms
of the Progressive Era, including compulsory school attendance and child
labor laws. Another relevant development was the emergence of social work
as
a profession, which focused on new methods for working with impoverished
children and families. Social workers promoted new and revised strategies,
including publicly funded aid to mother-headed families to prevent the need
for out-of-home care; the development of in-state family foster home
programs; the promotion of temporary rather than permanent out-of-home care
whenever possible; a more comprehensive approach to regulating agencies and
monitoring out-of-home care resources; and the redesign of orphanages,
using homelike cottages rather than large dormitories [Addams 1910; Ashby
1984; Bremner 1971; Costin 1983; Fry 1974; Hays 1957; Heale 1976b; Langsam
1964; Mangolin 1978; Minton 1893; Patrick et al. 1990; Stansell 1982;
Takanishi 1978; Thurston 1930; Wheeler 1983; Wohl 1969; Young & Marks
1990].

By 1875, several states had passed laws limiting child immigration.
Michigan
first limited interstate placements of children in 1875 and in 1895
required the child's home state to post a bond, according to Langsam
[1964]. In 1899, similar requirements were passed in Indiana, Illinois, and
Minnesota. A
1901 Missouri law required that the home state's Board of Charities
guarantee that the child was free from communicable or incurable diseases
and was neither "vicious" nor mentally handicapped. Missouri also required
that the sending state reclaim any child who became a ward of the state
within five years of placement [Patrick et al. 1990].

Appraisal of the Orphan Train Approach

The effectiveness and appropriateness of placing-out as a plan for
orphaned,
homeless, and dependent children were widely debated during the last half
of the nineteenth century. Since CAS had the largest and best known
emigration program, much of the praise and criticism was directed at CAS
and at
Charles Loring Brace.

One of the earliest charges was the accusation from Catholics that the
intent of the emigration program was the conversion of Catholic children to
Protestantism. Critics alleged that this was being accomplished by placing
Irish immigrant children with non-Catholic families. Other accusations
were
that children were being sold into slavery and that brothers and sisters,
separated in placement and given the surnames of their foster parents,
could meet as adults and marry without knowing they were related. Some
critics charged that CAS was ridding New York City of its criminal-minded
and
otherwise undesirable children by sending them to unsuspecting midwestern
families. Others argued that New York City was being deprived of future
solid citizens because the best immigrant children were the ones who were
being placed-out: [Ashby 1984; Brophy 1972; Langsam 1964; Nelson 1985;
Patrick et al. 1990; Wheeler 1983; Young & Marks 1990].

The process of screening potential families in receiving states was also
criticized because of the possible hesitancy by local screening committees
to deny approval to their neighbors. It was alleged that children were
sometimes placed with families who abused or neglected them, or overworked
them or evicted them. It was also said that bad situations went unnoticed
by CAS agents, who made inadequate or infrequent follow-up contacts [Ashby
1984; Folks 1902; Langsam 1964; Nelson 1985; Patrick et al. 1990; Thurston
1930; Warner 1908; Wheeler 1983; Whol 1969; Young & Marks 1990].

Brace [1880] took the lead in defense of the emigration program. He denied
charges of slavery and anti-Catholicism. He swore that both Catholics and
Protestants served on the local selection committees and that children were
offered homes by families of all religious faiths. He further reminded
critics that older children were free to leave any placement they found
unsatisfactory, since the emigration program was not indenture. Likewise, a
family could request removal of any child who was deemed inappropriate. He
also evaluated the accuracy of allegations of child abuse and neglect by
families and of children's criminal activities. Though he reported that
there was little evidence to support either concern, CAS did take steps to
decrease the possibility that children would be mistreated. For example,
several agents were permanently assigned to western states [Brace 1880;
Brace 1894; Children's Aid Society 1893; Langsam 1964; Patrick et al. 1990;
Thurston 1930; Young & Marks 1990; Warner 1908].

At the 1893 National Conference of Charities and Corrections, CAS reported
that of the 84,318 children placed between 1853 and 1893, 85% had been
placed successfully. Success was defined in terms of children who remained
in foster homes and were not either returned to New York or placed
locally in a correctional facility or orphanage. According to Thurston
[1930], a similar study on placement outcomes conducted at 10-year periods
between 1865 and 1905 was completed by George G. Ralph of the New York
School of Social Work in 1923. The study found an increase in
favorable results, that is, children who remained in placement, from the
starting year to the end of the study period, but the study also noted
unfavorable results for 38% of the boys and 20% of the girls by
1905.

Several retrospective studies have evaluated aspects of the emigration
program strategy. Nelson [1980] concluded that Brace's plan grew from
aroused public concern, had proven to be more economical than institutional
care, and was the predecessor of modern family foster care. In a
follow-up study, Nelson [1985] found that there was little evidence to
support the belief that in-state placements were superior to the interstate
placing-out program of CAS. Bellingham's [1984] study concluded that
placements through CAS were generally intended to aid family economic
circumstances by providing substitute caregiving or to serve as an entry
into the labor force for an older child. In a later analysis of the same
data, Bellingham [1986] found that (1) placements and custody transfers
were initiated voluntarily with parental approval to help parents cope with
structural life problems or to help older youths in transition to
adulthood, and (2) placements were based on utility rather than on imposed
designs of social control. Research by Ecks [1984] suggested that the
arrangement for a
purchase-of-service approach to out-of-home care was based on insistence
within ethnic communities on family input into the religious beliefs to
which foster children were exposed and the public's conviction that
government officials were not the best source for determining children's
values. An analysis by Holt [1992] concluded that "placing-out and the
people it involved reflect the complexities of American life and growth"
[p. 184], including America's expansion and the corresponding need for
adequate labor to support western growth. According to Holt, the end of the
placing-out program was also influenced by changes in American life,
including early twentieth century social reforms, the development of social
welfare theories that led to a holistic approach to serving children and
families, the establishment of specialized training for working with the
poor, and changes in rural regions that increased populations and decreased
the need for imported labor.

The credibility of some criticisms of the placing-out program also has been
confirmed, particularly in light of more currentchild welfare thinking.
Research has indicated that sometimes siblings were separated for
placement, some children were abused or neglected, approximately as many
children
were placed whose families were poor as children who were orphans or
homeless, and some children were permanently removed from their biological
families when a temporary separation would have sufficed [Langsam 1964;
Patrick et al. 1990; Thurston 1930; Young & Marks 1990]. The present
author conducted indepth interviews with 25 individuals who had been placed
by CAS or the New York Foundling Home during the latter decades of the
placing-out program. Some of the findings have been identical to those
noted by other researchers, including sibling separation, family poverty as
a principal factor in some placements, and permanent removal from
biological
families in some situations in which temporary placement could have
resolved the problems in the home. In addition, some participants in this
study expressed concern over the quality of their placements, the lack of
contact
with their siblings after placement, prejudice in the communities in which
some placements were made, and the failure of placement agencies to monitor
some placements as promised. Some interviewees described circumstances in
which they were treated by their adoptive or foster families as unpaid
workers, more like slaves than family members.

Despite the identified flaws in the placing-out program, however, Charles
Loring Brace can be acknowledged as a pioneer who realized that the
charitable services of his time were insufficient to deal with the social
problems of a rapidly changing society. Latter-day evaluators generally
have
concluded that the program was the forerunner of modern practices in child
welfare, was well-intentioned, and can be understood best within the
context of the times and environment in which the program operated [Ashby
1984; Heale 1976a; Holt 1992; Kitterson 1968; Langsam 1964; Nelson 1985;
Patrick et al. 1990; Wohl 1969; Young & Marks 1990].

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