# Justice, Not Pity: Julia Lathrop, First Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau

Julia Lathrop was an American social worker at the turn of the 20th century, a pioneer in the field of child welfare who investigated child labor, studied infant mortality and pushed for separate courts for juveniles. Her career and significance as a political force is the subject of a lecture by Cecelia Tichi, holder of the Chair of Modern Culture in the John W. Kluge Center. According to Tichi, "No Washington notables were on hand to greet Julia Lathrop when she arrived at Union Station in the spring of 1912 to be sworn in as chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau. Lathrop, a well-groomed, Gilded Age lady from the Midwest, had detested politics all her life. Ironically, she was about to become a political force on the national scene and a figure at the cutting edge of momentous change in federal policy." Lathrop faced many challenges when she assumed the helm of the Children's Bureau. Tichi said, "Congress was wary and watchful for missteps, and opponents of the new bureau were already massing, furious at governmental meddling in family life. Lathrop's credentials were no guarantee of success, and the first year's bureau budget was tiny. If she failed, her name would be synonymous with governmental waste and female incompetence. Worse, the children of the United States, the very future of the country, would needlessly suffer and die."

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2007
- By: John W. Kluge Center (library Of Congress)
- Genres: Education, History, Children's
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687867/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687867?play=1)