Social work as a profession
Social work is tending toward the rank of law, medicine, and the other established professions, all of which passed through a preliminary stage similar to that which social work is now experiencing. Several years ago (1916) social workers themselves were surprised when the report on positions in social work by Edward T. Devine and Mary Van Kleeck was published, showing that there were at least 4,000 paid social workers at that time in New York City alone, 1,200 of whom being men; that there were in New York City twenty-one organizations paying salaries of $5,000 or more a year for social workers; and that salaries ranged up to $10,000 a year. Social work has suffered from the fact that almost anyone with a little zeal and leisure could qualify. Consequently social welfare activities have often been directed by persons who were ill-trained or not trained at all; who had a single idea or plan which they were sure would transform the world; who primarily sought flatt...