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145 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1929)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0145 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD

THis volume has been prepared with
the definite purpose of laying before
the legal profession, the social work
group and other interested persons, in
untechnical language, an interstitial
field in human welfare lying between
those covered by the law on the one
hand and by social work on the other.
The method of approach treats both
these groups as concerned with the
solution of specific human problems
and the consequent amelioration of the
condition of the common man. Our
task is to portray not the way in which
law solves legal problems within the
field of law, not the way social agencies
solve social problems within the field
of social work, but the heretofore in-
adequately charted field where the
individual suffers from conditions not
solely in either field, and both law and
social work are required to work to-
gether to effect a complete solution.
It is a discussion of relationships.
There are many human difficulties
in this field. A claim for wages earned
but not collected may be a legal prob-
lem in one sense. The consequences
to the wage earner and his family are
often social and economic. A woman
deserted by her husband, with her
children around her, may present a
legal problem in so far as the law is
called upon to arrest the husband and
force him to support his family, but
the immediate responsibility of caring
for the family, giving them medical and
financial assistance and  advice, is
largely social. Similarly, groups of
persons, for instance, immigrants, pre-
sent, in the process of Americanization,
certain difficulties to be dealt with at
the same time by law-others that
must be treated by educational, psy-
chiatric, economic and social agencies.

The lawyer is called on for legal
advice or action, the social agency for
food, clothing, shelter, advice and
guidance of other sorts.
Each case represents one person
suffering from various problems. If
the treatment he receives from the
legal counselor, while good in itself, is
unrelated to the aid from social agen-
cies, the individual may suffer more
than he gains. If the social solution
indicates that some result is desirable
for the victim, regarding him and his
problems as an entity, common sense
would indicate correlation between his
legal and his social advisers so that the
final result may be beneficial.
In the past, for various reasons, there
has been a lack of correlation and many
individuals have suffered. Much of
the misunderstanding has arisen be-
cause there was no common ground
where the two groups could meet and
each learn about the aims of the other.
So we have limited this book to a brief
survey of the way in which law touches
social welfare and what is being done
for the individual.
More concretely, we are interested
in the relationship between law and
social work, in the legal-social field, in
the problems that arise and the ma-
chinery already devised to give us a
better understanding of this phase of
human activity.
For some time it has been apparent
that while here and there lawyers,
social workers, sociologists, medical
men recognized such a field, there was
comparatively little exploration in it
with an eye to devising machinery,
discovering what sorts of problems
arise, what ought to be done with
them, and how social workers and
lawyers may be brought together so

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