sponsible. They may be boarded or
adopted by families or placed in institutions by any one of several
local officials having jurisdiction, but none of them have the means of
determining whether the children are being properly cared for, nor does
the county or state provide any agency for this purpose. In several
states the registration and supervision of such wards of the state is
placed in the hands of a state child welfare board or a state department
of charities or public welfare, but in other states the supervision of
their welfare is wholly dependent upon private philanthropy. Experience
has shown that where a trained social worker is employed to look up the
relatives of such children and to assist in finding homes for them and
in visiting the homes and institutions to which they are committed, a
considerable saving in the cost of their maintenance to the county is
frequently effected. In order that all of the care of children may be
centralized under one county office which can employ competent persons
for its work, several states have created county boards of child welfare
which are charged with the whole responsibility for the care of
dependent and neglected children, which is then taken entirely out of
the hands of local officials. In a few states, county boards of public
welfare have been created which have supervision not only of children
but of all dependents, defectives, and neglected, and in some cases also
have charge of the public health administration. The centralization of
such authority in a county board which can employ executives who have
had special training and experience for such work is not only good
business, but it is the only method by which the state can
satisfactorily fulfil its obligation to those who are dependent upon it.

Usually the rural community has few if any private agencies or
associations devoted to the assistance of its dependent. The churches
and the lodges assist some of their own members. Here and there are
isolated groups of King's Daughters or similar societies which devote
themselves to the care of the poor and the sick, but they are
comparatively rare in the country. The Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children often prosecutes rural cases, but it is usually a
town or city organization and has practically no rural membership. Over
the United States as a whole, the American Red Cross has probably done
more to introduce the idea of social work into rural communitie