A Legacy of Caring

by John McCullagh

  Another initiative undertaken by the Infants’ Home was the key role it played in the adoption of children. In this era, adoptions were managed through an Indenture of Adoption. This signed agreement was not binding, and was all too often entered into with the impression that the child could be returned if the plan did not work out. Any problems of adjustment were attributed to bad background coming out in the child.

  The agency did much to make adoption a less hazardous undertaking by developing procedural rules as early as 1876. One of the requirements was related to the obtaining of good references.

  Those wishing to adopt children must bring a certificate to the board from a clergyman or some well-known resident in the neighbourhood where they live stating that they are able to bring up a child properly. If these references are considered satisfactory, they will be allowed to come and make their selection.

  “Those wishing to adopt children must bring a certificate to the board from a clergyman or some well-known resident in the neighbourhood where they live stating that they are able to bring up a child properly. If these references are considered satisfactory, they will be allowed to come and make their selection.”

  — Procedural rule for adoption, 1876

  The Infants’ Home handled all adoptions in Toronto until 1891, when the CAS was founded and began to share the responsibility. However, it would be another thirty years before the province recognized that adoption was an important public responsibility and regulated it under the Adoption Act, 1921.

  Funding

  The budget of the Infants’ Home in 1875, its first year of operation, was $2,558. By 1919, it had reached $35,000. Throughout those years, the agency depended mainly on voluntary contributions, raised by the board of managers, to finance its operations. Donations were made in cash and in kind — including food, clothing and household wares.

  This method of fundraising was maintained until 1919, when the home joined the newly formed Federation for Community Service, one of the earliest united charitable fund drives in Canada.

  Meanwhile, Mayor Howland arranged for the city to pay an annual stipend of $250 to the home, in return for which the mayor had the right to admit any seriously neglected infants who came to his attention. The city also paid for the care of foundlings admitted to the home.

  The province initially contributed a grant of $150 a year. In return, it tried to enforce the admission of the children of prison inmates and patients of mental hospitals, without any further payment but under the threat of withdrawal of the grant.

  These government grants increased over the years. By 1919, the city was contributing $3,270 annually and the province $1,383. That same year, the Infants’ Home hired the nurse and social worker Vera Moberly as its first executive secretary. She was to go on to a long and distinguished career as the organization’s chief executive, taking it into the modern era.

  CHAPTER 2

  A Society to Protect Children,

  1891–1919

  John Joseph Kelso

  John Joseph Kelso did more than any other person in nineteenth-century Canada to improve the lives of poor and needy children. Perceptive and energetic, a persuasive speaker and a convincing writer, he brought their experiences and requirements to the attention of a largely apathetic public.

  Kelso — or J.J., as he became known — founded and became the first president of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, then went on to establish similar societies across Ontario and in much of the rest of the country. For forty-one years, he was the provincial government’s Superintendent of Neglected and Dependent Children, responsible for ensuring that systems were in place to protect young people from exploitation and neglect.

  Born in Ireland on March 31, 1864, Kelso came to Canada in 1874 at the age of ten. His father, George, and his mother, Anna, had been left penniless after a fire destroyed their starch manufacturing business, and they decided to try their luck in Toronto. Unfortunately, George found he could not support his family of six girls and three boys on his earnings from a low-paying clerical position. They suffered from hunger and cold.

  J.J. — George and Anna’s youngest child — was deeply affected by the family’s disgrace at their circumstances. This spurred him, at age eleven, to skip school and get a job at a local bookstore. The ensuing years often found him as a messenger for the Dominion Telegraph Company or as a cash boy at Timothy Eaton’s department store.

  In 1884, when he was twenty years old, he enrolled at Jarvis Collegiate Institute to complete his education and, with the help of private tutoring, graduated in one year. He found work as a printer’s apprentice, but soon started to dream of becoming a journalist. Eventually, he landed a job as a proofreader at The World, a racy, colourful newspaper aimed at Toronto’s factory workers and clerks. In his spare time, he wrote articles for the paper — without pay — and became expert at reading and writing shorthand. This led to a promotion to crime reporter.

  Kelso’s success on that beat led eventually to a job at The Globe, a paper whose news coverage was soberer in tone than The World’s and which was more in tune with his aspirations. At The Globe, he exposed the circumstances under which the poor — and poor children, in particular — lived.

  Kelso’s success as a reporter led eventually to a job at The Globe, where he exposed the circumstances under which the poor, particularly poor children, lived.

  Kelso’s campaign against child labour

  As a crime reporter, Kelso had spent most of his working days in and around Toronto’s downtown, where many poor children, most of them boys, engaged in street trades to help support their families. They worked long hours as bootblacks or sold newspapers, shoelaces, pencils and other small items. Sometimes they were their families’ sole support in times of illness or unemployment.

  In downtown Toronto, many poor children, most of them boys, engaged in street trades to help support their families. They worked long hours as bootblacks or sold newspapers, shoelaces, pencils and other small items. Sometimes they were their families’ sole support in times of illness or unemployment.

  An 1887 survey found that at least 700 Toronto youngsters were engaged in this kind of work. The newsboys were the most numerous and the most prominent. The papers were complicit in supporting child labour because, without the newsboys, they would have been hard-pressed to distribute their product. Boys who were not living with their families were paid ten cents a day for a bed and meals at lodgings, or just over a dollar for full weekly room and board. Some privately run agencies, such as the Newsboys’ Lodging and Industrial Home, also gave shelter to a limited number of boys.

  The newspapers were complicit in supporting child labour because, without the newsboys, they would have been hard-pressed to distribute their product.

  Even though these children had important roles in business and the family economy, reformers found little good to say about the youthful vendors on city streets. Their lives and living conditions were all too often thought to be conducive to rootlessness and criminal activity. Reformers were concerned that the young vendors might eventually become violent, untrustworthy adults who would become dependent on public resources.

  Kelso and like-minded associates set about tackling the problem. In 1889, they were successful in having the Toronto Police Commission enact a bylaw that required street vendors under the age of sixteen to be licensed by the police. These licences were conditional on the child not acquiring a criminal record, steering clear of thieves, and spending at least two hours a day in school. Boys under the age of eight and girls of any age were barred from street vending. Children who broke the rules could be fined or sent to jail or an industrial school. (Industrial schools, first established in the mid-1880s, were the forerunners of Ontario’s young offender institutions.) Employers could also be fined heavily for violations.

  In response, the newspapers, as the most affected vested interest, labelled Kelso the “enemy of the newsboy” and — because of the bylaw’s stipulation tha
t newsboys wear identification tags — “Tagger Kelso.” As was always the case throughout his life, J.J. was impervious to such criticism.

  Newspapers called called Kelso the “enemy of the newsboy” because he and like-minded associates helped enact a bylaw that required street vendors under the age of sixteen to be licensed by the police.

  The Humane Society of Toronto is established

  Kelso was now in the public eye. W.F. Maclean, the editor of The World, had received a letter from John Kidston MacDonald, a prosperous businessman prominent in charitable activities, in which he complained about the lack of a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals — in particular, the overburdened delivery and street railway horses. This letter was forwarded to Kelso as something else for him to write about. He took the suggestion in earnest and, in response to his articles, money started to roll in for the establishment of such an organization.

  Kelso, however, began to envision a society oriented toward the prevention of all types of cruelty, including the mistreatment of children. According to Jones and Rutman, Kelso was strongly influenced in this direction by a personal experience.

  Walking along Yonge Street late one night in November 1886, he came across two sobbing children, a brother and a sister. They told him that their father had promised them a severe beating unless they could beg at least 25 cents that night. So far their tally was only 15 cents. J.J. took pity on them and searched for three hours to find a charitable institution to take them in for the night. The parents were charged the next morning with neglect but the case was dismissed by the judge on the basis that there were insufficient grounds for prosecution.

  Shortly afterward, the secretary of the Canadian Institute, where reform issues were often discussed, casually asked Kelso to speak. J.J. took advantage of the opportunity and, on February 19, 1887, delivered a paper whose title was “The Necessity of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty in Toronto.” He called for a non-denominational humane society with a broad set of objectives that would include the protection of both children and animals. Among its aims was the safeguarding of children from abusive and neglectful parents, the appointment of a full-time police officer to investigate complaints, and the establishment of a refuge for destitute children. His ideas were received enthusiastically.

  Kelso called for a non-denominational humane society with a broad set of objectives that would protect both children and animals.

  Encouraged, Kelso began to set up the Humane Society of Toronto and was elected, at age twenty-three, as its organizing secretary. Mayor William Howland was named honorary president. For the next two years (in his spare time, for, like all such positions in those days, it was a volunteer job), Kelso collaborated with the police to protect both children and animals. Reformers were pleased with the society, while critics mocked it. The Toronto journal Life Magazine, for example, referred to Kelso in a May 1888 article as “The Secretary of the Humane Society, the General Reformation Society and the Interfere with Everybody’s Business Society.”

  “The Secretary of the Humane Society, the General Reformation Society and the Interfere with Everybody’s Business Society.”

  — Critics from the Toronto journal Life Magazine mock Kelso’s efforts

  Undaunted, Kelso, under the auspices of the Humane Society, promoted free, tax-supported children’s playgrounds. Another initiative was the Fresh Air Fund, which received a small municipal grant to provide excursions to the Toronto Island and the lakeside parks. In the first five years, 30,000 children benefited from it. Christmas entertainments and gifts were also arranged. To make happy Christmas celebrations for poor children, the society also organized a Santa Claus Fund that sponsored a party on Christmas Eve for hundreds of children.

  Eventually, the Toronto Star took over the Fresh Air and Santa Claus funds. The good these funds did, however, gave only temporary relief to poor children who participated. More reform was obviously needed. Initially, this took the form of legislative change.

  Under the auspices of the Humane Society, Kelso formed the Fresh Air Fund to provide excursions to Toronto Island and the Santa Claus Fund, which sponsored a Christmas Eve party. Eventually, the Toronto Star took over these funds.

  Children’s Protection Act, 1888

  Existing legislation to protect children was notably lacking. With the help of a lawyer friend, Kelso drafted a model law for the consideration of Ontario Premier Sir Oliver Mowat, who was also the province’s attorney general. With Mowat’s backing, the legislature passed the Children’s Protection Act in 1888.

  The act established a legal basis for interceding in the lives of children who were being harmed by parental “neglect, crime, drunkenness or other vices,” were “growing up [in] harmful, idle or dissolute” circumstances, or who were “orphans found begging.” The act also provided for children under the age of sixteen who were found associating with thieves or prostitutes to be charged. In all these situations, the youngsters could be sent away to an industrial school or placed in the care of a charitable agency, where they would be required to stay until they reached the age of eighteen.

  The act was important because it recognized, for the first time, public responsibility to care for neglected children in institutions that met their special needs. As historian Clifford J. Williams writes,

  [It also] allowed charitable organizations to place children in foster homes as an alternative to institutions and permitted some intervention between a child and unsatisfactory parents. But this latter idea was still far from popular acceptance. It seemed to most citizens a dangerous invasion of personal rights when the state presumed to regulate the way in which parents treated their own offspring and even delegated power to strangers to abduct the child from the family home. Cruelty to children was deplorable but the rights of parents and citizens were precious.

  The Children’s Protection Act of 1888 was important because it recognized, for the first time, public responsibility to care for neglected children in institutions that met their special needs.

  “[The Children’s Protection Act] allowed charitable organizations to place children in foster homes as an alternative to institutions and permitted some intervention between a child and unsatisfactory parents. But this latter idea was still far from popular acceptance. It seemed to most citizens a dangerous invasion of personal rights when the state presumed to regulate the way in which parents treated their own offspring and even delegated power to strangers to abduct the child from the family home. Cruelty to children was deplorable but the rights of parents and citizens were precious.”

  — Clifford J. Williams

  Hostility toward the new act quickly developed as opponents argued that, on constitutional grounds, such provincial legislation could have no authority to deal with offences under the federal Criminal Code. As a result — and because juvenile offences such as petty theft were relatively minor — the act was not enforced. Nevertheless, it was the foundation for all subsequent legislation to protect children.

  Though the Children’s Protection Act had failed, pressure for reform continued to be applied, thanks in part to the leadership of Mayor Howland. One outcome was the appointment, in 1890, of a prison reform commission before which Kelso appeared to present his ideas about the needs of children. Despite the success of the Humane Society, he talked of his belief that neglected, delinquent and homeless children could be better served if their needs were separated from those of animals.

  The origins of the children’s aid movement

  The movement that Kelso joined, known variously as “child rescue,” “child saving” or “children’s aid,” originated in the United States. In 1853, the philanthropist and social reformer Charles Loring Brace established the first children’s aid society in New York City. Its aim was to send children who were living on the streets to work for and be cared for by farm families in the American west.

  The movement that Kelso joined, known variously as “child rescue,” “child saving” or
“children’s aid,” originated in the United States.

  New York’s Children’s Aid Society was followed by the establishment of similar organizations in Philadelphia, Boston and other cities on the U.S. east coast and in the Midwest. The scheme was copied by English child rescue organizations such as Dr. Barnardo’s, which sent large numbers of youngsters to Canada as immigrant workers.

  The children’s aid society founded by Brace did not offer assistance to children living in families. In 1875, however, the publicity given to an abused and neglected New York City child, Mary Ellen, caused many to recognize the need for agencies to intervene in situations in which children were being ill treated. The case had a strong impact in Canada and paralleled the advances that were beginning to be made in Ontario.

  The children’s aid society that originated in New York did not offer assistance to children living in families. In 1875, however, the publicity given to an abused and neglected New York City child, Mary Ellen, caused many to recognize the need for agencies to intervene in situations in which children were being ill treated. The case had a strong impact in Canada and paralleled the advances that were beginning to be made in Ontario.

  The founding of the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto

  In the wake of J.J. Kelso’s success in gaining support for the idea of a children’s aid society, he organized a meeting on July 21, 1891, chaired by Mayor Howland, to bring his ideas together. The seventy-five people who were present that evening at the YMCA on McGill Street passed the following resolution:

  Resolved that this meeting, realizing the importance of united work in behalf of neglected children, do approve of the formation in Toronto of a “Children’s Aid Society and Fresh Air Fund” to deal with all matters affecting the moral and physical welfare of children, especially those who, through lack of parental care or other causes, are in danger of growing up to swell the criminal class.