The Lexington Civic League: Agent of Reform, 1900 - The Filson ...

1988] Lexington Civic League 351
and a few other luxuries until a later time. The laying of the
cornerstone of Lincoln School on 6 December 1911 capped a
little more than a decade of civic improvement. 3°
The reforms promoted by the Civic League were not, of
course, the only ones being supported by Lexington citizens
during the first decade of the twentieth century nor was the
League the only active reform organization. During the same
period, the Associated Charities was formed to promote a more
efficient dispensing of charity by using the case-work method. 31
The Fayette County Anti-tuberculosis Association was organized
to fight the disease which was then the leading cause of death
in both the city and the state. 32 During these years, membership
in the Kentucky Equal Rights Association also increased as the
movement for woman suffrage gained momentum. The year
1910 saw women on the verge of winning school suffrage, a
30 Ibid., 15, 17, 20, 23, 25 November, 1, 2 December 1910, 7 December
1911; Margaret Preston Johnston Diary, 21, 22, 23 November 1910, Preston-
Johnston Papers, Special Collections Department, Margaret I. King Library,
University of Kentucky.
31 Lexington Herald, 3, 8 January, 28, 30 March, 1, 2 April 1900;
Breckinridge, Madeline McDowell Breekinridge, 42, 156, 158; Report on the
Associated Charities of Lezington, Kentucky (Lexington, 1909), 12. The
underlying principle of the case-work method is the individualized study
and treatment of each client in an effort to alleviate the cause of distress
without increasing dependency. The term "case work" came to be used
commonly after the turn of the century in the charity organization movement
and probably had its origin in the case method of teaching law.
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge and Edith Abbott ably argued for the treatment
of juvenile delinquency by the case-work method in their book, The
Delinquent Child and the Home (New York, 1912). For more on its development,
past and present, see Philip Kline, From Philanthropy to Social Welfare,
An American Cultural Perspective (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, "
1968) ; and Ronald C. Federico, The Social Welfare. Institution (2nd ed.;
Lexington, Massachusetts: Heath, 1976).
32 At this time the primary treatment for tuberculosis was rest, fresh
air, and good nutrition. In November 1905 the Lexington Civic League led
in founding The Fayetto County Anti-Tuberculosis Society for the purpose
of collecting and disseminating information about the dreaded disease.
The new organization pushed for the establishment of a state tuberculosis
sanatorium and itself founded the Bluegrass Tuberculosis Sanatorium in
1917. For details of these activities, see Hay, "Madeline McDowell Breckinridge,
" 94-97, 135o98, 167-76, 209-10.