Traveler's Aid Society records

Biography/Profile

Compared with other welfare agencies assisting the city's new immigrants Travelers Aid Society combines a unique array of clients side by side with its services to the foreign born. This difference arises out of the locale in which it operates, namely railroad terminals, airports and docks, where a motley assortment of depressed travelers come to the attention of the Society. The immigrant shares the services of the Travelers Aid Society with runaway children, old travelers, mothers accompanied by children, fatigue servicemen, and sick or stranded travelers in need of financial or medical assistance. These protective services demand the talents of an organization capable of dealing with more than one type of social problems.

The Chicago Travelers Aid Society is but one of many similar groups operating in major cities of the United States and federated with the National Association for Travelers Aid and Transient Service of New York City. The first such organization was the St. Louis Travelers Aid Society which originated when a former mayor of that city, Bryan Mullanphy, left one third of his fortune in 1849 to provide aid to stranded travelers on their way west- ward to the gold fields, During the following years, the national association of the Young Women's Christian Association urged its branches to establish Travelers Aid departments, which resulted in an inevitable duplication of efforts. The non-sectarian Travelers Aid Societies were then organized, first in Philadelphia in 1901, and then in New York in 1905. By 1948, there were 98 local Travelers Aid Societies, only four of which being departments of the Young Women's Christian Association.

The Travelers Aid Society of Chicago was established in 1888 as an adjunct of the Young Women's Christian Association, which opened in the same year a residence for transient women seeking employment in the city. Volunteer workers were stationed in railroad terminals to meet and assist newly arrived women. With the rapid transformation of Chicago into a busy urban center and a railroad terminal point, it became the destination or transit stop for immigrants, the unemployed, and traveling servicemen. The need to devote greater effort and bring specialized skills to these problems resulted in the organization of a separate Travelers Aid Society of Chicago and Illinois in 1914, with a Board of Directors numbering representative of Jewish, Protestant and Catholic groups. A residence providing temporary shelter for women was established, only to be discontinued in 1926 because of the availability of similar community facilities. The first Board of Directors also took steps to establish branches throughout the state, with the result that some of which, namely Peoria, Danville, and Springfield, survived until the present day.

Increased unemployment accompanied by the unusual dislocation of populations in the early 1930's alarmed the federal government into financing a federal transient program in 1933. When a public relief agency for inter- state transients in Chicago, named the Federal Transient Service, came into being, a re-division of responsibilities became necessary and the Travelers Aid Society was made responsible for the care of dependent children under Juvenile Court age and special cases of transients in other age groups, in 10 addition to its services in transportation terminals. But in 1935, the Cook County Bureau of Public Welfare supplanted the Federal Transients Service. Yet the need for the services of the Travelers Aid Society was not diminished, and with the influx of immigrants and the troop movements during and after the Second World War, more and more responsibilities were shouldered by the Society.

The Society's Board of Directors, often referred to as the Administrative Board, directs and controls all activities. It tries to include within its ranks representatives of the city's civic, professional and business circles. Members of the Board are elected at each annual meeting and serve for a three- year term. Officers of the Society are elected by the Board from its own ranks for a term of one year. The Board also oversees the employment of the necessary salaried staff. First officers of the Society who served in 1914 included Thomas C. MacMillan as President, Dr. Gerson B, Levi and the Reverend Peter Joseph O'Callaghan as Vice-Presidents, Albert Harris as Treasurer, Mrs. Ignace J. Reis as Recording Secretary, and Everett L. Meservey as General Secretary. The annual report of 1959 lists the following people as officers of the Society: Robert E. Johnson as President, Douglas Campbell, Mrs. Charles F. Cutter, and L. Hyland Erickson as Vice-Presidents, Wesley H. Loomis III as Treasurer, and Mrs. Herman H. Pevler as Secretary. In 1939, a Woman's Board composed of 35 young women was appointed for the purpose of interesting women in the programs of the Society. Officers of the Woman's Board in 1959 included Mrs. Ike Sewell as President, Mrs. John Brittingham as Vice-President, Mrs. Robert A. Beebe as Secretary, Mrs. Bernard J. Cooper as Treasurer, and Mrs. G. Robert Parry, Jr., as Benefit Chairman.

Standing committees of the Society are: The Executive, Service, Finance, Publicity, Membership, Nominating and Development Committees. The Society finances its operations through contributions from the following groups: Community Fund of Chicago, United Service Organizations especially during the Second World War, foundations, transportation companies, women's clubs and church groups, individual contributors, and the Woman's Board annual benefit. People of note who corresponded regularly with the Society are few. Jessie Florence Binford of the Juvenile Protective Association must be singled out though, for her letters afford an interesting view of the cooperation or lack of it between various social welfare agencies.