"Miss Bailey says": Common sense in 1930s relief programs

Listen again to the common-sense voice that spoke for dignity and put a human face on “The Welfare” during the Great Depression.

In the depth of the Great Depression, the March 1933 issue of Survey Midmonthly carried the first in a series of columns that would continue for a decade. Miss Bailey, the creation of journalist Gertrude Springer, became an influential and respected means of in-service training for the thousands of front-line social workers who were pressed into service in rapidly expanding social welfare bureaucracies across the country.

The Social Welfare History Archives presents selected examples of Miss Bailey’s wisdom, beginning with her very first column.

Articles

"When Your Client has a Car." Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (March 1933) pp. 103-104

"Are Relief Workers Policemen?" Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (April 1933) pp. 156-15

"What Price the Power of the Food Order?" Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (May 1933) pp. 182-183

"How We Behave in Other People's Houses." Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (June 1933) pp. 218-219

"I Think I'd Better Call the Nurse." Mary Ross, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (July 1933) pp. 253-254

"When Families Won't Behave." Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (August 1933) pp. 277-278

"Thank You, Officer, We Can Manage." Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (September 1933) pp. 317-318

"What? Clients With Bank Accounts!" Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (October 1933) pp. 347-348

"Children Must Live Their Own Lives." Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (November 1933) pp. 376-377.

"When Hidden Resources Turn Up.” Gertrude Springer, author. Survey Midmonthly, 69 (December 1933) pp. 406-407.