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About SSA

SSA Tour: Grace Abbott

Grace AbbottGrace Abbott was born in Grand Island Nebraska on November 17, 1878. In 1907, she entered graduate study in political science and constitutional history at theUniversity of Chicago. She earned her Ph.M. in 1909. Grace became interested in social work while in Chicago,and took up residency at Jane Addams' Hull House in 1908. That same year, she became director of the Immigrants' Protective League organized to protect immigrants from exploitation and to assist in their adjustment to American life. She held this position until1917.

For several years, Grace also taught at the University of Chicago and the School of Civics and Philanthropy. Through her work with IPL, Grace was able to secure new state legislation in Illinois controlling private employment agencies and preventing loss of immigrant savings by so-called private "banks." She developed a state plan for the enforcement of compulsory school attendance of immigrant children, enlisted the Chicago Bar Association's support for the protection of immigrants in the courts and by unscrupulous lawyers, and ammeliorated the effects of stringent federal regulations regarding debarment and deportation.

Grace also became active in the labor movements of the times and as a member of the Women's Trade Union League, she assisted garment workers in their struggle for better working conditions. In 1912, she successfully persuaded President Taft to veto an act of Congress providing "literacy tests" for immigrants.

In 1917, Grace accepted a position as director of the Industrial Division of the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor, where she was responsible for developing enforcement plans for the first federal child labor laws enacted by Congress in 1916. After being granted necessary inspection authority, Grace directed an investigation in 1919 of practically all the important shipbuilding plants on the Atlantic coast, Gulf of Mexico, and the Great Lakes.
For the next two years, Grace returned to Chicago to serve as executive secretary of the Illinois State Immigrants Commission and then as chair of the child laborsection, Illinois State Children's Commission. Then, in 1921, she returned toWashington as chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau. Her accomplishments include the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act into law, providing for the first federal grants-in-aid for social welfare purposes and authorized government cooperationwith the states in promoting maternal and child health.

Grace was also responsible for incorporating social statistics and research into legislative policy-making. Her leadership led to the funding of over 100 social research investigations and their publication, these usually undertaken by the School of Social Service Administration. Among the most important of these were: "Maternal Mortality in 15 States." "Children in Agriculture," Children in StreetWork," Illegally Employed Minors and Workmen's Compensation," and "Youth andCrime". Through the use of motion pictures and radio, she sought to make mothersinformed about the best methods of child care and to keep the public informed asto the state's responsibility for child welfare.

Grace also developed systems for collecting data from the states relating to child labor, juvenile delinquency, dependancy, and statistics on the work of local private and public agencies. In 1929, in response to the depression, she became the foremost advocate for federal aid for relief, and was responsible for collecting and distributing, to national agencies, relief reports from 203 cities.

From 1922 to 1934, Grace Abbott served as the official representative of the U.S. on the League of Nations' advisory committees on traffic in women and on childwelfare. She was President of the National Conference of Social Work, and servedon the committee organizing the first Conference on Social Work held in Paris in1928. From 1930-31, Grace Abbott received wide-spread popular support for the then vacant position as Secretary of Labor in the President's cabinet and in 1931she was named as one of the twelve greatest living American Women in a nation-wide poll conducted by a popular women's magazine.

In 1934, Grace resigned as chief of the Childrens's Bureau. Upon her resignation, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described her career as on of "inestimable value to the children, the mothers, and fathers of the country, as well as to theFederal and state governments."

From 1934 until her death in 1939, Grace held a professorship at SSA and served as editor of the Social Service Review. She remained active during these years, serving on President Roosevelt's council on economic security and helping to draft the Social Security Act. She continued to chair international labor conferences andstate committees dealing with child labor, and to serve in many efforts including the peace movement and women's rights.

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