CPS Worker 001494 - Carter, John H.

CPS Worker 001494 - Carter, John H.

Birth year: 1912

Denomination: Friend

Original occupation: Teacher

Drafted from: Lansdowne , Pennsylvania, United States

Entered CPS: 5 15, 1942

Left CPS: 3 1, 1946

Notes:

Carter shared the following observations regarding camp #83:

 

Unit men led work crews of 9-20 patients from the wards in performing “all sorts of work—farming, coal hauling, greenhouse work, vegetable peeling, gravel digging and washing, canning, snow shoveling, picking up scraps around the buildings, and many other types of work as the need arises.” An additional duty was to “chase run-away patients any time day or night."

 


“In the married building we have a room, closet and bath room with tub.  The rooms vary slightly in size but are approximately 14’ by 16’.  The building is relatively new and very comfortable.  . . . The single men live on the third floor on a new building, two to four to a room with central toilets, showers, etc.”

 


Carter also noted that the work for the wives proved more difficult than the work for the men.  “First the women patients are more difficult to handle.  Second, the shortage of help is greater on the women’s side than on the men’s side.  Third, their working day is almost without exception from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.  The women are made to feel their position as attendants more than are the men, because the men are allowed to do more specialized medical work. This is logical as the women are frequently working under R.N.s. whereas the men almost never are."

 

--Taken from Untitled report by John H. Carter (Assistant Director), January 28, 1944, in information compiled by Anne M. Yoder, Archivist, April 2011from Swarthmore College Peace Collection, American Friends Service Committee: Civilian Public Service Records (DG002), Section 1: CPS Administration, Box 57d, folder "Warren State Hospital (Unit # 83: Steering & Planning Committees – meeting minutes, 1944 (Feb. 4) – 1945 (July 25)."