Public Welfare News
Published Monthly and Distributed Free by The North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare
MRS. W. T. BOST, Commissioner . A, LAURANCE AYDLETT, Editor
VOLUME 3 RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA, JUNE, 1941 NUMBER 9
State Board Plans Department Work
For Next Fiscal Year; 40,875 Needy
To Receive Assistance Fund Grants
Increase Shown In
Public Assistance
Grants For 1940-41
$6,416,528 Spent From
Federal, State and Lo¬
cal Funds During Year
Public assistance payments for the
fiscal year ending June 30 were
$027,340 higher than the previous
year, according to Nathan H. Yelton,
director of the division of the state
welfare department handling old age
and dependent children funds.
for 1940-41 the total paid from fed¬
eral, state and local funds was $6,416,-
528 as against $5,788,188 spent last
year. Of the 1940-41 amount, $4,284,-
776 went to needy old people over 65
years of age, of whom 37,734 received
checks averaging $10.19 out of the
$384,385 di stributed in this category
in June.
Last year total old age assistance
payments amounted to $4,179,207. The
June figures for old age assistance
included payments averaging $25.52
and amounting to a total of $15,029
going to 589 widows of Confederate
veterans who had met public assist¬
ance requirements and had been trans¬
ferred from the State pension rolls.
In June, 23,733 dependent children
received an average payment of $7.06
in the total spent for the month of
$167,595. Total payments to children
during the fiscal year amounted to
$1,940,351, up considerably from the
$1,608,981 spent during fiscal 1939-40.
Fifty-five counties shared in the
$119,564 spent from the equalization
fund set up to aid local units whose
tax assessments of ten cents on the
$100 property valuation was insuffi¬
cient to meet the county's share of
expenditures. The fund paid three-
fourths of the extra money necessary
to meet the county expenditure.
In the equalizing fund $83,171 went
for old age assistance leveling, and
$36,393 was allotted to aid to depend¬
ent children.
All funds are made up jointly by
federal, state and local units, the
national government contributing half
the cost of grants and administration
and the state and counties making up
the remainder on the basis of one-
fourth each.
The 1940-41 fiscal year represents
the fourth since North Carolina first
instituted its public assistance pro¬
gram on July 1. 1937 under provisions
of the federal Social Security Act.
BULLETIN 21 POPULAR
Mind Your Mind, Dr. James Wat¬
son’s series of newspaper paragraphs
on mental problems published by the
state department as Bulletin No. 21,
has proved immensely popular with
requests for additional copies coming
from as far away as Hawaii.
Dr. H. B. Haywood, president of the
N. C. Medical society, wrote the fore¬
word to the bulletin, copies of which
are still available from the state office.
NATHAN H. YELTON
. . . did a good job.
Yelton Leaves Public
Assistance To Go To
School Commission
Nathan H. Yelton, director of the
public assistance division of the Stale
Board of Charities and Public Wel¬
fare since its formation in 1937, re¬
signed June 30 to accept the position
of executive secretary to the State
School Commission, replacing Lloyd
E. Griffin of Edenton.
Back in May, 1937, Yelton came to
Raleigh from Mitchell county where
he was born and where he had been
head of the school system and the wel¬
fare work, and took over in the Cap¬
ital City the job of building from the
ground up, a program that would
handle as smoothly as possible the dis¬
tribution of $4,500,000 yearly to needy
old people and dependent children.
The General Assembly of that year
had placed North Carolina in con¬
formity with provisions of the federal
Social Security Act and the state was
eligible to receive contributions from
the national government to be matched
with county and state funds.
As a monument to Yelton's ability
workers employed in the public as¬
sistance and accounting divisions
handle smoothly nearly 60,000 checks
a month with all the bookkeeping and
case-history editing, correspondence
and filing that that number of ac¬
counts would make necessary.
In four years his division has
grown to be the largest in point of
number of staff members necessary to
carry on the work, and in the number
of chocks sent cut each month proba¬
bly touches more of the people of
North Carolina than any other divi¬
sion of the state office.
Yelton was born in Bakersville
April 5, 1901, the son of David and
Sarah Jane Dcyton Yelton. He mar¬
ried Miss Cerena Polk in 1922, and
they have one daughter, Natalie, who
has just completed her second year in
college. He is a member of the Pres-
(See YELTON LEAVES, Page 2)
R. EUGENE BROWN
. . . did research jor his work.
Brown Named as Acting
Director of Assistance
Pending Merit Register
It. Eugene Brown will take over
supervision of the public assistance
division of the State Board of Chari¬
ties and Public Welfare as acting
director July 1, to serve until a
director is chosen from the merit,
system register, Mrs. W. T. Bost.
State welfare commissioner, has an¬
nounced.
Brown has been assistant to the
commissioner since 1930, and since
1937 his work has included direction
of field social work service in all the
counties. He has been secretary to
the Eugenics Board of North Caro¬
lina since 1 933.
Brown’s first connection with the
State welfare department was in 1925
when he became director of the
division of institutions and correc¬
tions. a post in which he continued
until taking over direction of field
services when the public assistance
act greatly expanded the depart¬
ment’s work.
The acting public assistance head
received two degrees from the Uni¬
versity of North Carolina majoring
in sociology and social work. He has
been Boy’s Work Secretary at the
Central Y. M. C. A. in Spray, served
as research assistant, at the Institute
for Research in Social Science at the
University, and as assistant to Lewis
Merriam of the Institute of Govern¬
ment in studying personnel of North
Carolina State departments and in-
(See BROWN NAMED, Page 3)
Records of Welfare Agen¬
cies Must Be Kept
Confidential; Health
Suggestions Adopted
For Maternity Home
Medical Staffs
The State Board of Charities and
Public Welfare met in Raleigh this
month to review plans for the work
of the state department for the next
twelve months and receive a report
from Nathan H. Yelton, who re¬
signed as director of public assistance
to become executive secretary of the
State School Commission, that an
estimated lota) of 40,875 needy aged
in the state could be cared for during
the new fiscal year.
Yelton said the figure included
Confederate widows who had been
transferred to the public assistance
rolls and that the average grant for
the group during the year would run
in the neighborhood of $10.36 a
month to be paid from $5,082,330 in
combined federal, state and local
funds available for 1941-42.
The retiring director told the
board (hat 67 counties would partici¬
pate in the $176,348 equalizing fund
during the next 12 months, and esti¬
mated a total of 25,379 dependent
children could be cared l’or out of
the combined fund total of $2,099,-
952 set aside for that purpose. The
average grant for children would run
about $6.90 a month, he said. Pub¬
lic assistance expenditures for the
year closed yesterday were set at
$6,416,528.
E. I-Iervey Evans, Laurinburg, ap¬
pointed by Governor Broughton as
acting chairman of the state board
in the illness or absence of Chairman
W. A, Blair of Winston-Salem, pre¬
sided at the meeting. Present also
were Miss Carrie McLean, Charlotte;
Mrs. Walter C. Crowell, Monroe;
Robert Hairston, Reidsville, and
Commissioner of Welfare, Mrs. W. T.
Bost.
Confidential or privileged infor¬
mation made available to a welfare
agency in the process of investigation
of eligibility cannot be disclosed out¬
side of professional practice, and
state and county department l'ecords
of assistance cases should be kept in
lock filing cabinets and should be ob¬
tained only through one person in
the agency charged with responsi¬
bility for their safekeeping, the board
ruled. Authority to provide regu¬
lations for safekeeping of records
was given the state board by the 1941
General Assembly.
Announcement was made by the
commissioner of the appointment, of
Miss Lessie Toler as acting director
(See STATE BOARD, Page 2)
