Yet “social work” in spite of all uncertainty does stand for something real. Annually there meets a National Conference of Social Work with 2637 individual and group memberships representing 46 States, the District of Columbia, Cuba, Hawaii, the Philippines and Canada and 6 foreign countries.[2] There has lately been formed an American Association of Social Workers[3] composed of master workmen in its several lines, who must qualify in terms of preparation or experience and who are associated for the purpose of maintaining a high standard of work. All this indicates that there is a general concept of social work, and if there is such a thing it must be amenable to some sort of description or analysis. Though water-tight definition seems impossible it is frequently not necessary. If any characteristics can be found which appear in all the forms of social work and not in activities unrelated to it they will at least serve the three practical purposes for which definition is so urgently needed. Materials for analysis are not wanting. Social work has had its national conference for fifty years, its magazine for thirty-six[4] and its schools for twenty-five[5] and the conference reports, the magazines and the school curricula constitute a competent body of evidence that can be consulted either in cross section or in chronological perspective. If we forego expectation of a precise and all-mentioning definition and adjust our demands to the practicabilities of the case we may hopefully challenge these compact sources of information, together with the dispersed literature of the subject, with observation and experience to stand and deliver a working definition. FOOTNOTES: [1] For examples see Appendix I. [2] Conference Bulletin, published by the National Conference of Social Work, Nov., 1922, Vol. 26, No. 1, 25 E. 9th St., Cincinnati, Ohio. [3] 130 E. 22nd Street, New York. [4] “Charities,” which has since become the “Survey,” was first published in 1887. [5] The New York School of Philanthropy opened its full term winter course in 1904; a summer school had been opened in 1898. CHAPTER II THE CHARITABLE ELEMENT IN SOCIAL WORK The “charities directories” of New York[6] and Philadelphia[7] offer the most inclusive available lists of the various types of social work. For present purposes it will be sufficient to review them by groups. Duplications, omissions, and extraneous inclusions (all legitimate for the purposes of the directories) make the figures of agencies of each type inaccurate but they serve to show the multiplicity as well as the range of social work undertakings.