[26] When such inquiries have been undertaken by the government they have often been proposed and prepared for by social work. See for example: Lillian D. Wald, The House on Henry Street, on the U. S. Investigation of the Condition of Women and Child Wage Earners, p. 137, N.Y. Child Labor Committee, p. 144. [27] Proceedings of National Conference of Social Work, 1920, p. 171. [28] Ibid., 1919, p. 613. [29] Charities and the Commons, April, 1907, p. 577. [30] American Year Book, 1919, p. 402. [31] Roscoe Pound, at National Conference, 1919, p. 105. CHAPTER IV THE TESTIMONY OF THE CONFERENCE We have now propounded a tentative definition of social work based upon an interpretation of its development and present practices. We will not be sure of the correctness of that interpretation until we have tested the applicability of the result to the whole range of social work. Nor can we do this fairly by making our own presentation of social work. For such a test we must find some ready-made presentation which will marshal social work in all its diversity. The reports of the national conference do this and, indirectly, the courses offered by the school for training social workers. This chapter will test and, if possible, expand the definition by the testimony of the conference and the succeeding chapter by the testimony of the schools. The conference is divided into ten sections: 1. Children. 2. Delinquents. 3. Health. 4. Public agencies and institutions. 5. The family. 6. Industrial and economic problems. 7. The local community. 8. Mental hygiene. 9. Organization of social forces. 10. Uniting of native and foreign-born. At the annual convention each of these ten sections holds its own group meetings at which papers are presented and discussions conducted on the subjects appropriate to the section. It will be seen that the division into sections is on a basis of administrative fields rather than technique or function. The fields however are not mutually exclusive but overlapping. Children although giving their name to the whole first section appear among “delinquents” in the second, candidates for health in the third and so on. Indeed, all of the ten section names might serve as subheads under most or all of the other topics. More significant in the search for a definition is the fact that these several fields are not exclusively possessed by social workers. “Children” are also the special concern of elementary teachers, “delinquency” is primarily referred to the courts, “health” is the conceded bailiwick of the medical profession and so forth. Even at the conference many papers are presented by persons other than social workers.[32]