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317 14 “Another Growing Pain” The spring of 1946 should have been an exciting, even heady time for the founders of the National Mental Health Foundation. What had started as an off-duty project by a small handful of Byberry COs had evolved into a formidable national reform movement. Life magazine and PM newspaper had featured stories based on the reports painstakingly collected from COs and others working at mental hospitals and training schools, and other national and local media had published stories announcing the formation of the NMHF. The Attendant and then the Psychiatric Aide had received national recognition, and the COs assigned to the Mental Hygiene Program of the Civilian Public Service had published or drafted handbooks, pamphlets, and other educational materials that could be distributed by the newly established foundation. Out of Sight, Out of Mind was close to being finalized and ready for national release. The now former COs had gained the cooperation, if not active support, of prominent, reform-minded psychiatrists and mental hygiene leaders. National figures, including the wife of the recently deceased president and a former U.S. Supreme Court justice, had agreed to lend their names to the national foundation and to enlist the support of other civic leaders and well-known personalities. What should have been a time of celebration for the foundation was filled with internal turmoil and uncertainty about its future. The controversy between Barton and Edelstein over the use of names in Maisel ’s Life story was the first open rift within the NMHF, but tensions had been building for quite some time. When the COs were part of the Civilian Public Service , the personal lives of the men were not easy. They were not paid for their work and were under the thumb of the Selective Service and the control of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. However, the Mental Hygiene Program could operate as a loosely run grassroots group, and its expenses were underwritten by the American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, and Brethren Service Committee, with contributed space and resources from Byberry superintendent Charles Zeller. The move from being a detached CPS unit to an incorporated foundation placed new demands on the group. With the discharge of the men from Selective Service control and the pending end of the CPS, the 318   |   “A Lasting Contribution in the Field” church committees would no longer fund the program’s expenses. Just as important , after years of going without pay, the former COs needed to start earning a living and to carry on with their lives. At least two of the founders of the Mental Hygiene Program, Edelstein and Barton, were married and ready to raise families. Not only would the four founders of the program need to be paid, but so would other members of the staff if the foundation were to fulfill its aspirations. The program could no longer rely on the unpaid work of other COs and volunteers. Fund-raising and spending priorities would become critically important issues for the new foundation. Further, an independent foundation, with an as yet unnamed board of directors, would need to be organized differently than a CPS unit run by a central committee. The national foundation faced the same challenges as any other grassroots movement that becomes formalized. Len Edelstein had the title of coordinator of the MHP, while Barton, Hetzel, and Steer headed different divisions. Barton was responsible for education and the “Summary Statement,” Hetzel directed the Legal Division, and Steer was editor of the Attendant and then the Psychiatric Aid. Edelstein handled external relations for the program and then the national foundation. He drummed up support for the program among influential public figures, took responsibility for fund-raising, and handled relations with the media. He was the primary contact with Life’s Maisel . Edelstein’s 1945 Pendle Hill pamphlet, We Are Accountable: A View of Mental Institutions, had caught the attention of prominent Friends and others. Edelstein was known as sophisticated, forceful, and personable.1 He especially impressed many of the civic leaders with whom he came into contact. Mrs. Curtis Bok, the wife of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, described him as “the prototype of a young man who could attract older people to his mission—never sentimental, but hard-hitting and reliable,” whereas author Pearl Buck characterized him as “one of the finest young men we have met.”2 Edelstein’s title of coordinator of the Mental Hygiene Program was ambiguous . The program was...

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