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Social agencies and institutions should be prepared to satisfy the various needs presented by all of these causative conditions. The prevailing orthopedic sentiment against surgical interference in tuberculous cases makes necessary proper convalescent and heliotherapeutic facilities. Various types of therapy should be provided to restore the poliomyelitic patients to the use of their limbs. It is of primary importance that two groups should interest themselves in this problem: a non-professional group which will provide the resources to support these facilities, and a professional group which will operate them. In the next chapter we shall study the non-professional and professional social agencies.

CHAPTER IV.

SOCIAL AGENCIES

The glowing sun lay close to the horizon as hundreds of Memorial Day merry-makers crowded onto homeward bound trolley cars at Elyria, Ohio, May 31, 1907. Two of the latter had covered more than half of the distance from the baseball field to the central part of the town when the motorman of the second car turned his head to address a member of the throng packed into the space behind him. In a second his vehicle had crashed into the car ahead. Several hours later the Elyria Evening Telegram printed the following account of the accident:

"A disastrous collision between two sections of the regular six o'clock run on the Cleveland and Southwestern occurred tonight a few minutes before six o'clock, on Middle Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets. The second car was following the first section at a rapid rate of speed. With a deafening crash the cars came together, the rear one rising upon the other and forcing its way into the front one a little above the floor, catching the ill-fated passengers, crushing feet and limbs.. . .At the hospital, the scene beggared description. Crowded and poorly equipped for such an emergency, the victims were perforce strewn upon mattresses on the floor -- or anywhere they could be placed. Volunteer nurses tendered their willing, if inexpert, help. Homer Allen has a badly fractured arm and his feet are badly crushed."

On June 3d, appeared this item: "A large concourse gathered at the home of E. F. Allen on Third Street to attend the funeral services of his son, Homer, yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock."

Out of this tragedy, fourteen years later, was born the International Society for Crippled Children. To Edgar F. Allen, the wealthy father of the deceased young man, this horrible catastrophe seemed a divine intercession. He first saw the need of an adequate hospital in Elyria. And in 1908, The Elyria Memorial Hospital opened its doors. Slowly there came to him another vision. He began to realize that there were helpless little ones with no facilities for care or education. And so, in 1915, was erected a new building, adjacent to The Elyria Memorial Hospital. The Gates Hospital for Crippled Children had come into being. But "Daddy" Allen realized that this would not solve the problem of the crippled child. He saw that it was a responsibility of neighbors. He saw that other people must be interested. He spoke to nearby Rotary Clubs, and clinics were opened that the crippled children might be found and given the necessary attention. Each Rotarian was given the responsibility of following up two children.

The new movement spready -sic- rapidly. In 1919, interested Rotary Clubs organized the Ohio Society for Crippled Children. Two years later, New York Rotarians had followed the example of Ohio. And soon there was in existence the International Society, a group of such organizations engaged in this work.

To Mr. Allen goes the credit of finding a social vehicle for carrying the message of the crippled child. But "Daddy" had put into practice what predecessors had hoped for and attempted for years. As early as 1889 a group of Cleveland girls had organized the Sunbeam Circle, which eleven years later had established the first kindergarten for crippled children at Alta House. In 1900 was organized in New York City, the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children. In 1914, a New Haven group had organized the Crippled Children's Aid Society, Inc.

Thirteen years ago, one man assumed the task of calling the attention of his fellow citizens to the responsibility they were shirking. Mr. Douglas Crawford McMurtrie, at that time Director of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men in New York City, was certainly the pioneer in the movement to awaken the American public to the problem that was facing it. In the great metropolis, the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children co-operated with the Board of Education in transporting children to and from school, and maintained eight nurses, who endeavored to improve home conditions. A limited number of convalescent homes and orthopedic hospitals was caring for a few of the handicapped, but existing agencies were isolated exceptions.

For a period of five years, Mr. McMurtrie published a prodigious amount of literature urging education and better facilities. He aroused sufficient interest so that in 1912, the Russell Sage Foundation employed Miss Edith Reeves to make a personal survey of thirty-seven existing institutions. Two years later she published the first comprehensive study of the subject ever written, the Care and Education of Crippled Children in the United States.