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ORGANIZING
THE COMMUNITY
The Century Social Science Series

ORGANIZING
THE COMMUNITY

A REVIEW OF PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES

 

BY
B. A. McCLENAHAN, M.A.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR MISSOURI SCHOOL OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, ST. LOUIS; FORMERLY
IN CHARGE OF THE BUREAU OF SOCIAL WELFARE, EXTENSION DIVISION, STATE
UNIVERSITY OF I0WA; AND DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY STUDY SERVICE,
SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION, AMERICAN RED CROSS

EDITED BY
GEORGE B. MANGOLD, Px.D.

DIRECTOR MISSOURI SCHOOL OF SOCIAL HCONOMY, 8T. LOU

 

 

 

 

 

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1922
Copyright, 1922, by
Tue Century Co.

Printed in U. S. A.
To the faculty and students of the
Missouri Schoot of Social Economy,
whose generous interest and enthusiasm
have inspired the writing of this book
PREFACE

Tus book is written with the hope that it will
interest college students, men and women, in the
fascinating subject of community organization,
and that it will give, not only to students, but to
anyone already active in organizing communities,
some practical suggestions. The material has
been gathered during the course of a number of
years and the author is indebted to friends and
co-workers without number, and especially to
those members of survey committees and welfare
boards who have given so unstintedly of their time
and thoughtful energy to the work of improving
their home cities. Mention must also be made of
the students in the different classes of the Mis-
souri School of Social Economy who have re-
sponded so enthusiastically in the class room, and
who, having gone out as community leaders, have
sent back reports of their successes and failures
and the methods which they have found practi-

cable.

The author is especially grateful to those friends
who gave so much time in patient perusal of the
original manuscript and offered suggestions for
its revision; to Professor Richard T. Ely and

Professor Don D. Lescohier, of the University of
vii
viii PREFACE

Wisconsin; Robert E. Bondy and Miss Susan E.
Ramsey, of the Southwestern Division, American
Red Cross; Miss Viola Kilgen, of St. Louis; and
to Dr. Geo. B. Mangold, who has so painstakingly
edited the manuscript. The author wishes also
to make acknowledgment of the valuable sug-
gestions offered by Professor E. A. Ross, the
editor of the series, through whose generous ap-
preciation the manuscript has become a book.

Certain valuable illustrative material is used
through the courtesy of Professor Manuel C. El-
mer, of the University of Minnesota; Miss Eliza-
beth Alling, American Red Cross; Miss Florence
R. Curtis, Manila, P. I.; George W. Guy, Co-
operative Education Association of Virginia; J.
H. Krenmyre, North English, Iowa; and O. E.
Klingaman, State University of Iowa.

A discussion of the organization in the city,
which is touched upon briefly, has been purposely
omitted as constituting a subject deserving treat-
ment in a separate volume. Community organi-
zation has been handled from the standpoint of
the country, the small town and the county, the
problems of which are filling the horizon of so-
cial work.

B. A. McCienanan,
Sr. Louis, April 17, 1922,
FOREWORD

CommuNITY organization represents a new
development in social work. Fortunately, it is
based on fundamental democratic principles and
therefore builds wisely for the future. Although
it is possible to organize a community from the
top down and to carry on the work so organized
for a considerable period, nevertheless the only
right way is to take the community into the con-
fidence of the worker and to construct an organ-
ization based on the best sentiment and the good-
will of the people. An organization formed in
this way rests on a secure basis and performs a
genuine service to its constituents.

In this book the principles and methods of
democratic community organization are set forth.
Details are given, when necessary, to guide the
organizer in his practical work. I[lustrative ma-
terial is added to enforce conclusions.

This book is designed to fill the need of a guide
for the development of community organization
and should serve effectively in this capacity.

Gerorce B, Mancotp
INTRODUCTION

Many difficulties and uncertainties confront the
social worker, the teacher, the clergyman, or the
interested citizen when he studies his home com-
munity and considers what may be done to make
it more attractive, more alert socially, more active,
and more progressive. Everywhere people are
asking, ‘‘What can we do?’’ and ‘‘How shall we
do it?’’ These questions are the popular reaction
to the need for some definite plan through which
community spirit may become active and potent—
the need for community organization.

The writer has come in intimate contact with
this problem in small cities, towns, villages, and
rural districts. In some communities brief sur-
veys were made and definite plans of organization
proposed and adopted. In others the need was
no less present, but the people were not ready for
a cooperative social venture. As a result of
varied experiences, the conclusion was reached
that the need was not for more or different or-
ganizations, but for a pooling of interests, an
actual combination of efforts, a reorganization on
a cooperative basis with a concrete and simple
program which could be carried out by the people
themselves and which should revolve around the
most pressing problem or combination of prob-
lems, whatever that might be. The corollary

xi
xii INTRODUCTION

necessarily followed that no plan could be set
down as the ideal one, but that, on the contrary,
the plan presented must be as varied as the prob-
lems demanding solution and must be made to
conform to local needs and resources. It is true
that certain general rules can be formulated and
different types of organization indicated, but
always much leeway must be given and every
allowance made for local peculiarities.

This book is an attempt to put into definite form
the principles and methods of community organ-
ization that have been literally hammered out
through actual experience in helping communities
work out their social salvation. Concrete illus-
trations of forms of organization are given, as
well as an outline of procedure for the worker
entering a strange community as its community
secretary. Always the reader must keep in mind
that the methods and procedure here given can
be used only as suggestions, since the very nature
of community organization demands a flexibility
of form and a variety of activity to challenge the
most resourceful.

Community organization is the special contri-
bution of the day to social work, and to under-
stand its significance the spirit of social work
itself must be understood. Social work as a pro-
fession has developed only within a comparatively
brief time. Its history can be very positively
traced through the different humanitarian move-
ments that led to special lines of social welfare
INTRODUCTION xiii

activity, such as organized charities, social settle-
ments, social centers, and child welfare and health
organizations. It is the expression of an ideal
that is permeating law, medicine, the ministry,
literature, and government—the ideal of social
responsibility.

The story of the development of society reveals
the basic principle of social service of to-day.
Anthropology and sociology have established the
fact that in the misted past men came together in
increasingly large groups until the state resulted.
The early struggles were for sheer existence.
Together men overcame physical difficulties,
learned to make tools, and conquered natural
forces. At the same time that this struggle with
physical forces was being waged, men were build-
ing custom, tradition, religion, and primitive edu-
cational and governmental institutions. All of
these were at first the unconscious outgrowth of
the need to control the group for success in war-
fare; but as the years passed they became instru-
ments for the conscious effort to better social con-
ditions. Just as men from simple beginnings
learned how to dominate in large measure the
physical world, so they will in the end master
social inequalities and injustices. The recogni-
tion of the fact that men together can accomplish
social mastery is the basis of a new social
philosophy. In practice it means that democracy
must inspire every social welfare movement. To-
gether men must remove the handicaps, social,
xiv INTRODUCTION

economic, and political, that limit the develop-
ment of their fellow men; and in proportion as
men accomplish this task the individual will be
freed to work out his own salvation. Community
organization is the modern interpretation of the
new social philosophy.

The community organizer must necessarily be
a trained social worker, conscious of the fact that,
as he molds community life, he is limiting or en-
larging the opportunities of the individual citizen.
While he works from a community point of view,
he works with people, and the ideals of conduct
dear to the social worker must necessarily be his.
The spirit of modern social effort forbids auto-
cratic dictation of the lives of others; but pro-
motes real helpfulness and friendliness. As a
consequence the present-day social worker is
earnest, honest, sincere; or he has no right to con-
sider himself one. It is a dangerous policy to
meddle light-mindedly with the lives of other
people, even though one takes such liberty with
his own life. Besides, the community organizer
works not with any one group but with all groups,
and the very diversity of his tasks demands an
unusual degree of poise and self-control. <A cer-
tain dignity and a positive professional spirit
with reference to courtesies due even the most
casual acquaintance mark the well trained man or
woman. These standards of individual conduct
are especially significant in view of the fact that
in any phase of social work the social worker is
INTRODUCTION xv

dealing with the most subtle, delicate thing in the
world—personality.

The community organizer comes in touch with
all types of people, and to be successful he must
be able to get the other person’s point of view
and work from and be guided by it. If he at-
tempts to force his own point of view upon the
individual or the community, in the end he is
doomed to failure. On the other hand, he must
utilize both the individual citizen’s attitude of
mind and the temper of the group in solving the
local problems. He must think clearly and he
must have trained vision, so that any social
situation may be appreciated in its right propor-
tions and the problem it represents may be accu-
rately formulated and understood in its relations
with other problems.

Finally, the community worker must not confine
himself to the task for each day and settle down
within the narrow limits of one particular ‘‘posi-
tion’’: he must be able to adapt himself to many
and sometimes unexpected demands for service;
he must be vitally interested in life and its ab-
sorbing relationships; brimming over with the joy
of living; enthusiastic; sharing in various activi-
ties; acquainted with modern novels, dramas, and
poetry; a normal, active, healthy, happy citizen—
not set apart, but none the less consecrated to
bettering the conditions of living, and inspired
with the ideal of the common interests and the
common welfare of all men.
CONTENTS

IntTRopUCTION

CHAPTER

I.

II.

III.

IV.

Tue ComMUNITY

Definitions

Life in the Small Town

Life in the Rural Community, Especially
in the Country

Tue Soca Survey
Community Organization
The Social Survey

Types of Surveys

Method of Procedure
Organization for the Survey
The Publicity Campaign
The Exhibit

The Community Plan

Survey MetruHops anp Data .
Background for the Survey
Survey Outline

Sources of Information
Importance of Schedules

SmatL-Town ORGANIZATION .

Types of Social Welfare Activities ote fie
Smaller Town and City

Forms of Organization for the Small Town

Methods of Effecting Organization

Further Aspects of Organization

RuraL CoMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Forms of Rural Community Organization
xvii

Pa@E
x1

36

73

100

118
XVIil

CHAPTER

VI.

VII.

VIII.

CONTENTS

1. The Community Club Plan
2. The Community Council Plan
Rural Community Programs

Tur County PLAN OF ORGANIZATION . .

The Significance of the County

The Iowa Plan

Organization in California

County Child Welfare Boards in Minnesota

County Welfare Boards in North Carolina

The Missouri Plan

Welfare Boards in Kansas City and St.
Joseph, Missouri

Puans oF THE AMERICAN RED Cross AND
OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES .
The American Red Cross
1. Home Service Sections
2. Community Nursing
3. Organization of the Chapter
A Community Health Association
A Community Recreation Association
A Chamber of Commerce Plan _

SuMMARY i, Ee Fat, este

The Approach to the Community

The Office Equipment of a Community Or-
ganizer

Summary of Principles of Community Or-
ganization

The Trend of Organization

Conclusion

APPENDIX” ¢ GG (6) “es BL Owe ew

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . 2. 1. 1. ew ee

InpEx

PAGE

142

173

201

225
245
255
ORGANIZING
THE COMMUNITY
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

CHAPTER I
THE COMMUNITY
DEFINITIONS

Many words and phrases in current usage lack
definite content. They serve as shibboleths of
popular theories and are loosely used by the gen-
eral public. In the last few years two such words
have been heard from pulpit and platform, seen
in the newspapers, magazines, and books, and dis-
cussed freely by the uninitiated. At the same time
these words are pregnant with real significance.
They are community and neighborhood. What do
they mean? How shall they be defined? A few
attempts have been made, but no general conclu-
sion seems to have been reached as to how the two
words shall be differentiated. In this book effort
has been made to keep the words distinct in mean-
ing and to develop the vital character of the rela-
tionship between them.

“Community. A body of people having common
organization or interests, or living in the same

place under the same laws and regulations’’
3
4 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

(Webster). In this study the definition just given
has been taken asa basis. A community is a social
unit with definite territorial boundaries, with com-
mon laws, common interests, common privileges,
and usually with a common organized govern-
ment. This formally organized social unit may
be made a socially minded group of people with
conscious community or group spirit and with a
consciousness of group needs. When this result is
attained and the unit becomes active for promot-
ing its own welfare, community organization has
been effected. The community may be concretely
regarded as a city, a town, a village, a township,
or a county.

A very succinct definition of community, similar
to the one already given, is the following: ‘‘A
community is a unit of territory and population
characterized by common economic and social ex-
periences and interests.’’? There are two basic
ideas underlying an understanding of the word
community: one is that of social cohesiveness, and
the other that of a high degree of self-sufficiency.

Diffendorfer says: ‘‘The word community
signifies a population group which has become
socially conscious and is working together as one
body to satisfy common needs or ambitions. The
real community is one that has organized its popu-
lation, invented efficient social machinery, and has
trained effective social engineers to make use of

> Morse, Hermann N., ‘‘The Underlying Factors of Rural Com-
munity Development,’’ N. C. 8. W., 1919, p. 553.
THE COMMUNITY 5

all its available resources for all the people within
the community. In short, a community is a com-
munity when it has developed adequate social ma-
chinery to connect human needs with available re-
sources.’’? However, even though a community
is dormant, perhaps socially dead, it is still a com-
munity. There is a definite geographical location,
a population of certain size and various social
institutions, including schools, churches, govern-
ment. The problem existing in the community is
how to apply its strength to the purposeful elimi-
nation of its weaknesses—the problem of com-
munity organization.

In considering the rural community, various
authorities have given different definitions. The
United States Census classifies all groups of peo-
ple numbering fewer than 2500, whether living in
incorporated towns or unincorporated territory,
as rural; and above 2500 as urban. As a matter.
of fact, a town of 2500 is potentially larger than
the figure indicates, since almost invariably it
draws to it the patronage of country dwellers and
near-by small villages. A rural community usually
centers about a village or town that is the trad-
ing, educational, and social center.

Butterfield defines a rural community in the
following words: ‘‘A true community is a social
group that is more or less self-sufficing. It is big
enough to have its own centers of interest—its

*Diffendorfer, Ralph E., ‘‘The Church and the Community,’’
p. 4. :
6 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

trading center, its social center, its own church, its
own school-house, its own grange, its own library,
and to possess such other institutions as the peo-
ple of the community need. It is something more
than a mere aggregation of families.’’ ?

Galpin suggests a standard definition as fol-
lows: ‘‘That the term community, when construed
in a technical sense in reference to farm popula-
tions, be employed to designate the population-
group which is formed by a village or small city
or city, together with all the farm families making
this village or city their regular business cen-
ter.’’?* He also has referred to the territory in- .
cluded as a ‘‘trade zone.’’ The word rurban has
been coined for this type of community. Galpin
has recommended ‘‘that the term country, when
used in a rural sense, apply to the areas outside
the limits of villages and cities, incorporated or
unincorporated.’’ 5

In considering the content of the term rural
community the author desires to call attention to
additional factors not adequately presented in the
foregoing definitions. A rural community may
not have a common local organized government,
since many of the residents will live outside the
town limits and therefore will not pay town taxes.
However, all the residents are as a rule under the

* Butterfield, Kenyon L., Introduction to pamphlet ‘‘ Mobilizing
the Rural Community,’’ by E. L. Morgan, p. 9.

‘Galpin, C. J., ‘‘Proceedings of the First National Country
Life Conference,’’ 1919, p. 128,

*Ibid., p. 127, ;
THE COMMUNITY q

same county government. The rural community
in some parts of the country, as for example
Massachusetts, is co-extensive with the town. In
other states it may be limited for organization
purposes within certain boundaries, such as
county, township, consolidated school district
lines, or simply main roads. The rural commu-
nity, then, may be defined as a social unit com-
posed of a population center, together with the
farm families using it as their trading center, with
definite territorial boundaries, with common laws,
common interests, common privileges, and the
latent capability of bewmg organized for co-
operative action.

In any treatment of community organization
the distinction between the terms community and
neighborhood must always be observed. <A neigh-
borhood is a group of people living in close
proximity. Its boundaries may or may not be
defined. It forms a division of the larger organi-
zation of society, the community, which is often
made up of several neighborhoods. It is the focus
for the influences operating in the community, and
exhibits in unmistakable fashion the results of
those influences on the individual and the family.
Robert A. Woods has said that the neighborhood
is the ultimate testing-place of all social remedies
and reforms; that it is the unit of measurement
of social well-being.

The neighborhood may be a section of the com-
munity in which immigrants live, and which, be-
8 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

cause of this fact, takes on a certain specific
character ; it may be a school district held together
because of the common interest in the children;
it may be an outlying rural district in which the
few neighbors are cut off from any large share
in the community because of their isolation. More
often its unity will not be very apparent and it
will have no conspicuous characteristics except
that of a group of families living near one another.

LIFE IN THE SMALL TOWN

Small towns are of various types: the suburban
town, which is a residence community for people
employed in a large near-by city; the pleasure
resort, which draws its population during the holi-
day periods and has an uncertain stability; the
small villages made up of laborers brought in for
a harvest-time of some special crop, such as the
sugar-beet, cotton, or fruit of different kinds; the
company-owned town built around some factory
or manufacturing plant, where the residents them-
selves have little to say about the administration;
and the mining camp, with its monotonous rows
of squalid, unpainted houses, with yards filled with
rubbish or carpeted with cinders. The towns that
have just been indicated constitute peculiar prob-
lems and must be dealt with individually. The
conditions vary so greatly that the form of or-
ganization must be designed specially for each
community, and can be planned only after a care-
ful local study.
THE COMMUNITY 9

The communities considered in this chapter are
the typical centers for agricultural territory and
are permanent and autonomous in their constitu-
tion. They are largely the communities of the
Middle West, especially of the Mississippi Valley,
including both northern and southern states.
They are usually more or less homogeneous; their
population is ordinarily largely native; they are
fairly, if not very, prosperous; and they still re-
tain much of the old pioneer spirit. This type of
community may be highly individualistic and
ultra-conservative. However, it may be convinced
of the need for action, and, once convinced, the
sturdy will-to-accomplish will carry the adopted
program through. In this part of the country the
comparative freedom from tradition and the un-
limited opportunities for social development must
appeal to the more adventurous social workers.
The social welfare field here is almost virgin, and
tillage is certain to yield a rich return. In the
South the problem of the negro complicates the
solution, but does not make it impossible, and
community organization is being successfully un-
dertaken there.

In discussing towns of various sizes it is diffi-
cult to draw a line of division. The village of less
than 1000 will have many of the characteristics
of towns as large as 5000, and the city of 25,000
will duplicate many of the problems of the town
of 5000. The town of fewer than 5000 is often
largely rural in its interests. It is usually the
10 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

trading center for the rural districts and has re-
tained much of the simplicity of country life. The
yards are large and the houses are usually of good
size with plenty of light and air. Many of the
smaller communities have the main street paved,
and if there is a public square in the center of the
town, often the paving will extend around it.
Electroliers make the main street a ‘‘white way,”’
though frequently the other streets are insuffi-
ciently lighted, and the school yards and the park,
if there is one, acquire a bad reputation because
of being poorly lighted or entirely dark. Many
villages of 1000 or 1200 and small towns under
5000 have a municipal water plant and sewer sys-
tem. Often, however, even in cities of 20,000 or
more, use of the sewer system is not required, or
if there is an ordinance requiring toilet connec-
tions it is not enforced. Asa result, outside toilets
are used, and these are not always kept in sani-
tary condition. Sometimes the offensive odor
from these toilets is noticeable for a distance of
several blocks. Wells and cisterns supplying the
drinking water are often in such insanitary loca-
tions that contamination is easily possible. Gar-
bage and refuse of various kinds, including
manure-piles around the barns, are not removed,
but are permitted to remain undisturbed, and con-
sequently serve as breeding-places for flies. The
individualistic spirit of the farm obtains in large
measure in the village, and the condition of the
home and of its immediate surroundings is re-
THE COMMUNITY 11

garded as being largely a personal rather than a
public matter.

The small town almost always presents another
problem that is equally important for considera-
tion—the problem of recreation. A survey (by
the author) of a town of 3000 showed that, while
each of the four largest churches had an audi-
torium to accommodate their respective congrega-
tions, and while there was a small assembly hall
in the court-house, there was no hall large enough
for a community gathering. An open-air taber-
nacle built of steel was used occasionally in the
summer for union church services, and had in the
past been used for Chautauqua assemblies, but it
was not so built that it could be inclosed and
heated for use in the winter. This lack of a possi-
ble community social center handicapped every
effort to organize a community club or hold mass-
meetings for the discussion of local problems.

There were two motion-picture theaters, one
open every night and the other on Friday and
Saturday nights. The town owned a beautiful lit-
tle library building well equipped for adults. An
attractive children’s room was being used as a
store-room for books and magazines. The build-
ing was not open on Sundays, even for quiet read-
ing. The school had no gymnasium, and the larg-
est room in the building had been condemned as
unsafe for large gatherings. Two of the high-
school teachers had voluntarily given some in-
struction to the pupils in football and basketball,
12 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and the girls had had a very little folk-dancing.
There was one small group of Camp Fire Girls,
which was exclusive and rather snobbish. A boys’
club had been organized, but had been allowed to
die for want of a leader. After school the boys
and girls strolled around the court-house square,
and almost the entire community promenaded
there on Saturdays and Sundays. The boys had
a convenient ‘‘loafing-place’’ in the most popular
restaurant; the girls had only the streets.

Among the adults a few far-sighted parents had
recognized the need for some constructive amuse-
ments for the boys and girls; others felt, and
frankly so expressed themselves, that the boys
and girls ought to be doing some kind of work
and not be encouraged to play more than they
were already doing. There was a seeming in-
ability on the part of the latter group to recog-
nize that the desire for good times is natural and
normal, and that it must be satisfied in healthful
ways or will inevitably find an outlet in undesir-
able activities.

Sometimes the small town is puritanical in its
attitude toward recreation, so that the social dance
and theater are condemned by the adults. They
may, however, be surreptitiously enjoyed by the
boys and girls. Usually, where this spirit exists,
the townspeople make no attempt to substitute
what they consider proper recreation for the kind
they so unhesitatingly condemn. The lack of
wholesome recreational facilities is very common
THE COMMUNITY 13

in the smaller towns, and is largely responsible
for the juvenile delinquency, shiftlessness, and
lowered moral standards that may exist.

Often the seeming lack of potential leadership
is a handicap in the little town, even though there
should be a more or less well defined feeling of
the need for a community-get-together movement.
No community undertaking can hope to succeed
if it depends entirely upon imported leadership.
As a matter of fact, there is rarely a community
that does not have individuals capable of success-
ful leadership. Their inertia may be due to in-
difference, to doubt of their own ability or to
ignorance of feasible and simple methods of pro-
cedure. Sometimes local jealousies impede prog-
ress. For instance, in one town, observed by the
writer, a certain woman of some wealth had pro-
moted virtually every social welfare agency, and
the other residents had come to resent what they
considered her feeling of superiority; as a conse-
quence, any undertaking she proposed was apt to
fail. Eventually the town undertook a local sur-
vey and adopted a centralized community social
program, but its undoubted success was largely
due to the fact that the work was done while this
woman was out of town. Other citizens felt that
now they had an opportunity to demonstrate their
own ideas of what the town needed, and they
worked with a united will and a surprising effec-
tiveness.

Occasionally a line of social division drawn in
14 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

early days has become fixed and stands in the way
of community activity. The railroad tracks, a
street, a river, or some artificial boundary sepa-
rates the favored and the unfavored or less
favored. One incident typified this distinction
very clearly. A lecture on the development of
community spirit had been given in the assembly-
room of the newly erected high school. A woman
approached the lecturer at the close of the pro-
gram, and, with eyes intense yet troubled, said
very earnestly: ‘‘That was a splendid talk, but I
do wish it could have been given to the people
who live across the tracks, because really, you
know, we don’t need it up here on the hill.’’ In
her mind, the railroad tracks prevented any con-
ception of a united community becoming prac-
tically significant.

In the smaller town and city over-organization
often presents a serious problem. The failure to
recognize this condition has many times proved
to be the unsuspected obstacle to success in a com-
munity venture. People belong to so many dif-
ferent organizations that they regard what seems
to be only another addition to the already long
list as a decided annoyance and imposition. In
a town of 5000 people a social survey revealed
the fact that there were one hundred and eighty-
nine organized groups. Only associations with
actual though sometimes simple form of organ-
ization were included in the canvass. Outside
of the churches, there were sixty-three women’s
THE COMMUNITY 15

and girls’ societies, consisting of social and study
clubs, women’s lodges, and four Camp Fire
groups. Ninety-eight were religious groups made
up of the churches, brotherhoods, women’s aid and
missionary societies, Sunday-school and organ-
ized Sunday-school classes with officers and club
formation, Bible-study groups, the Y. W. C. A.,
and the high-school Y. M. C. A. Twenty-three
were men’s business and social clubs and lodges,
and this figure also included the four Boy Scout
patrols. There were four musical organizations
and one social club composed of both men and
women. Until the names of the societies were
submitted, such a total—one hundred and eighty-
nine—seemed almost unbelievable. This fact of
excessive organization, however, was not given in
the report of the survey as a criticism, but as an
illuminating factor in the social scheme of the
city, and was actually used as the most telling
argument for a centralized social welfare pro-
gram. It was pointed out that every group had
been organized as the result of the desire for
some kind of activity, even though it might have
been nothing more than the spending of a pleasant
afternoon. The question was then put squarely
to the citizens whether or not this desire for activ-
ity might not be expressed through a coérdinated
and cooperative plan for common welfare in which
all groups might have a share and through which
each citizen might serve the home town and help
to improve the community as a whole.
16 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

Life in the small town or city of from 2500 to
25,000 people, especially in the typical community
about which this chapter is concerned, is socially
compact. General acquaintance is widespread.
Many of the citizens have known each other all
their lives; they attended school together, played
together, perhaps even fought each other. After
school-days there followed the sometimes exciting
rivalries for position in lodge, church, politics,
and business. But withal life became rich in its
intimate friendships and personal social relation-
ships. The town has been home and the personal
note has always dominated. The town of this size
is really only an enlarged village. The traveler
from one of these smaller Middle West towns
going to such a city as New York instantly senses
the difference. It has been well phrased in the
following lines, the soliloquy of a weary villager
on his first visit to a big city:

I’m lonely, homesick: Western ways are mine.

Our cities are so homelike, human, kind.

In contrast—your indifference, their quick warmth.
They note my life and watch me climb or fall,

They bid me God-speed on my journeys; give

Me welcome home.
You, cool, blasé, brand my

Enthusiasm crass; repulse me with

A dignity assumed to frighten me—
You would repress my Western energy,
Yet envy me my larger faith.

It is true, however, that this same widespread
acquaintance has its disadvantages. Where
THE COMMUNITY 17

every one knows every one else, gossip is general.
Individual affairs are common property and
frankly discussed. Besides, every small town has
its established social customs and traditions, its
standards of conduct; and when any man or
woman, boy or girl transgresses these standards,
swift condemnation follows. The attitude of the
small town is apt to be rather narrow and some-
what harsh toward social eccentricity or uncon-
ventionality. Once an individual is labeled as a
failure, as peculiar, as dishonest, as morally dere-
lict, as ‘‘anarchist’’ or as ‘‘Bolshevik,’’ it be-
comes almost impossible for him to regain a posi-
tion of social stability or influence.

As a rule, in the small town public officials are
poorly paid, and the man who is best equipped
to render service either refuses to be burdened
with the thankless task or is indifferent as to how
the local administration is carried on. Sometimes,
because of friendship or personal animosities,
there is a hesitancy on the part of officials to en-
force local ordinances. For example, a physician
acting as health officer hesitated to order the
cleaning up of certain filthy privies, even in the
face of a typhoid epidemic, because they were on
property belonging to a wealthy and influential
but not socially minded fellow resident. Matters
that should arouse the community to prompt
action are ignored, stoically accepted, amusedly
or cynically regarded as the business of a few well
meaning but insignificant cranks, or committed to
18 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

the care of the Ladies’ Aid Society or the
Women’s Club.

Often the only conception of social service is
“‘charity work.’’ A few families are regarded as
‘‘poor families.’? They have always been poor
and the town considers that they always will be
poor. For the most part, they are neglected until
Thanksgiving or Christmas, when they are loaded
down with provisions for weeks to come, and then
forgotten until the generous impulses again stir
at the next holiday season. Ordinarily no effort
is made to force the non-supporting father to care
properly for his family; to insist upon the chil-
dren’s regular school attendance; to remove
abused or neglected children from improper sur-
roundings; to care for the mentally defective; to
prevent immorality and illegitimacy; to remedy
bad housing; or to improve the sanitary and
health conditions of ‘‘the bottoms,’’ ‘‘shanty
town,’’ ‘‘the flats,’’ ‘‘the packing-house district,’’
or any other despised and neglected neighbor-
hood.

The ‘‘homeless men,’’ ‘‘tramps,’’ ‘‘hoboes,’’ or |
transient men are more or less disregarded, ex-
cept when they come to the back door for a meal
or some discarded clothing. In a town of 6000
the small one-room jail was ‘‘hospitably’’ thrown
open to the tramps as a lodging-house. There was
a small stove in the center of the room, and on
this the men prepared the food that they begged
at houses and stores. In other communities,
THE COMMUNITY 19

transient men are permitted to sleep on the floor
of the jail. They may be given their breakfast;
more often, however, when morning comes they
are simply ordered to move on. In another com-
munity of 5000 a codperative plan was adopted
by the town marshal and the welfare secretary.
Able-bodied men were lodged at the jail and given
work to do at a wood-pile in the jail yard. Every
man understood that the wood cut would be used
as fuel by needy families. In return for the work
the men performed at the jail, the welfare secre-
tary gave them orders for their meals at a res-
taurant until regular employment could be secured
for them. If the men were not able to work, they
were given medical treatment by the city physi-
cian, temporarily lodged at the jail, and furnished
meals by the welfare secretary.

The petty thief, the disturber of the peace, and
the drunkard are likewise of little concern to the
citizens of the average small town. Arrests are
casually and easily made, and certain offenders
soon become chronic criminals or ‘‘repeaters.’’
Little or nothing is done to rehabilitate them, and
they drift aimlessly along, serving out their short
sentences in the town jail. Occasionally a man or
woman is committed to the reformatory or peni-
tentiary for some more serious offense. If the
sentence is suspended during good behavior, it is
no one’s business to take a personal interest in
the man or woman and serve as probation officer
to encourage right living.
20 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

Perhaps one of the most appalling conditions
in the small town is the neglect of the child. Child
welfare is not even a ‘‘catch’’ phrase in some
communities. In many cases the moral and social
training that the child must have to become a re-
sponsible citizen is a negligible quantity. To a
large degree the task is unhesitatingly left to the
school, with such help as the Sunday-school can
give. Usually the only recognized plan of treat-
ment for the delinquent child is the reformatory,
and for the orphaned, neglected, or abandoned
child the orphanage. The advantage of placement
in private homes, either by boarding or adoption,
is rarely appreciated. The parent-teacher asso.
ciations are helping to stimulate an intelligent
understanding of the child in all the aspects of
his life, mental, physical, moral, and social, and
this will doubtless bear results in a saner program
for the child’s welfare.

Occasionally there takes place in the small town
the barbarous public exhibition of orphaned or
semi-orphaned children to excite the sympathy of
men and women in order to find homes for them.
One such performance witnessed by the author
will never be forgotten. A dozen children were
brought from a distant state and placed upon the
stage of a theater, which was filled even in the
lobby with half-hysterical men and women. The
woman who had charge of the children gave a
brief talk in which she told the history of each
child who sat waiting for a home. The children
THE COMMUNITY 21

were then numbered, and ushers passed down the
aisles with pencils and slips of paper upon which
the future foster-parents were to indicate which
child they desired. These slips were then col-
lected and taken behind the scenes, where they
were examined by the local committee. If the
applicant for a child was considered a reputable
citizen, the child was given to him. There was ap-
parently little appreciation of the need for know-
ing the kind of home the applicant for the child
maintained or anything about his character and
social life beyond the facts that he paid his bills
and had committed no crime.

During this process the audience became more
and more excited. Women wept and cried out that
the proceeding was as bad as the old slave market.
This overwrought nervous condition communi-
cated itself to the children, and some of them
sobbed throughout the entire time they were on
the stage—a period of more than two hours.
Needless to say, the effect of the whole proceed-
ing upon the children, the uncertainty of place-
ment and the suspense that accompanied the long
wait in the theater, were inevitably hardening to
their sensibilities.

The woman in charge said that the homes in
which the children were placed would all be care-
fully investigated, and that the children would
be visited at least once a year. However, some
of the homes in which this woman had placed chil-
dren were visited by the local state agent, and
22 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

in several instances it was discovered that the
children were not permanently located and that
new homes had to be found for them. For ex-
ample, one little girl had been placed in a home
where there were only an old father and mother
and a grown feeble-minded son. Some people
had taken children on the impulse of the moment,
and had regretted it afterward. One little chap
of six had been taken with his younger brother
by a couple who wanted a little boy. After much
persuasion, they had accepted the older boy too,
but they explained that they had done so against
their better judgment and that they were not
going to keep the older child. This little fellow
was all unconscious of the impending disaster.
He was supremely happy in his new home and
brought out with a great deal of pride the photo-
graphs of ‘‘his’’ grandpa and ‘‘his’’ grandma.
He had adopted every person and every animal
on the place, and his joy in them was pathetic.
One fairly shuddered at what must be his dis-
illusionment when he was thrust out of ‘‘his’’
family. His joyous faith in people would in-
evitably be broken, and there might be thus
thoughtlessly engendered the seeds of bitterness
and cynicism.

In view of the various social problems that are
to be found in the smaller towns and cities, the
necessity for community organization, to give con-
sistent and continuous attention to them in the
THE COMMUNITY 23

attempt to solve them, must be recognized as im-
perative.
LIFE IN THE RURAL COMMUNITY, ESPECIALLY
IN THE COUNTRY

Since the rural community, according to the
definition adopted in this book, includes both the
population center and the people who live in the
open country adjacent, the problems of the rural
community will include both those of the town and
those of the country. Both must be considered
in approaching an understanding of the rural
community. This peculiarity of a twofold popu-
lation group is often intensified by the lack of
understanding, and even antagonism, that may
exist between the townsman and the farmer. They
forget that their interests are mutual, that the
town depends upon the farmer for its prosperity
and that the farmer depends upon the town for
his marketing, his recreation, his schools, and his
churches. The town is the farmer’s social center.

But back of the problem of the relationship be-
tween town and country, underlying all the social
problems of the rural district, is the economic
problem—that of making farming profitable. The
solution of the economic problem is complex, and
is dependent upon many factors, such as: methods
of increasing fertility of the soil; crops that can
be most profitably raised on the particular land;
breeds of stocks that thrive best in the climate and
on available food supply; conservation of farm
24 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

products; farm labor and farm machinery; farm
business methods, including codperative enter-
prises for buying, selling, and manufacturing;
farm accounting and bookkeeping; and transpor-
tation. These problems are the concern of both
the farm-owner and the tenant. However, the
tenant’s problems are made more acute by his un-
certain tenure of the farm, short leases, and high
rents growing out of the continued increase in the
value of farm-lands.

While an appreciation of the economic problem
is necessary for a complete understanding of the
social problems, one other phase of the situation
demands attention—the social attitude of the
farmer. In the early days of the development of
the great Middle West agricultural districts, the
pioneer farmer faced difficulties and actual phys-
ical danger that put the supreme tests. Thrown
largely upon his own resources, isolated from his
kind, the farmer developed a sturdy independence
and self-sufficiency that, in the face of the ob-
stacles nature put in his way and the perilous
fights against Indians and wild animals, did not
prevent his hearty cooperation with his neighbors.
Together the farmers of the pioneer days tilled
and reaped; fought their common enemies; and
laughed and shouted at their barn-raisings, log-
rollings, spelling-bees, and singing-schools. As
the country became cleared and settled and as the
science of farming developed and new labor-sav-
ing machinery was invented, the farmer became
THE COMMUNITY 25

increasingly independent of his neighbors. The
early tendency toward individualism was fostered
and nurtured by the growing recognition of the
importance of agriculture and the ease with which
the farmer withdrew into himself once the pres-
sure of necessity for working with others lessened.
This spirit of individualism still persists, and is
the greatest single factor in the way of the social
welfare of rural communities.

Formerly, in the rural districts, the church was
one of the most potent factors. It was often the
only community center, drawing to it men, women,
and children. To-day the question of maintaining
the rural church is a serious one. Literally thou-
sands of country churches have been abandoned.
Many of those in the small villages and towns to
which the country people have transferred their
membership are maintained only by tremendous
struggles and sacrifices. The country church as
a rule (and often the village church) receives only
from one-fourth to one-third of the minister’s
time. The salary is pitifully small. The pastor
comes intermittently ; interest lags; attendance is
irregular; money for the support of the church is
increasingly hard to get. No wonder that the
few faithful give up the fight and the church is
abandoned. Sometimes the cause lies in the lack
of training and fitness of the preacher; sometimes
in the competition between country and village
churches; and often in the fact that too many
churches of different denominations have at-
26 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tempted to cover the field. Another cause may
be found in the failure of the church itself to meet
the needs of the people who have come to it seek-
ing a satisfying life philosophy.

The church is just awakening to the necessity
of giving the people not only inspiration for future
salvation, but also the more practical present sal-
vation and such an interpretation of life as will
meet the daily trials and vexations of spirit. The
different denominations are seriously considering
this problem of the rural church. Many of them
have established in their national organizations a
department on rural life. The Federal Council
of the Churches of Christ in America, composed
of thirty Protestant denominations, has a Com-
mission on Church and Country Life.

Various solutions are offered. Rural surveys
have been made in purely rural church parishes
in the hope of arousing the community to action
and to the support of the church. The suggestion
has been offered that rural pastors understand
agriculture in order that the church may pro-
mote agricultural or farmers’ conferences and
the pastor be able to advise regarding methods
of farming. One of the favorite remedies offered
is to make the church the social center of the com-
munity. This plan has been successful in some
places. The consolidation or federation of small
weak churches into a vigorous community church
is a logical solution of the problem, and the dif-
ferent denominations are getting together in
THE COMMUNITY 27

friendly fashion to accomplish this task. In some
states there is an effort to district the state and
assign different territory to the different denomi-
nations in order further to promote the building
up of strong, independent, and self-sustaining
rural churches. The consolidated or federated
churches for the most part are located in the town
or village that serves as the natural center of the
outlying rural district. With the consolidation
of churches must come the recognition that the
minister be well trained and adequately paid. A
social vision on his part is much more necessary
than a knowledge of farming. An honest consecra-
tion to the fundamental purpose of the church, the
inspiration of spirituality, is absolutely essential.

In recent years the rural school has received in-
creasing attention, and effort has been made to
remedy its inadequacies. About one half of the
children in the United States, twelve million of
them, are enrolled in village and country schools;
212,000 schools are classed as one-room schools.
The conditions of the one-room schoolhouses are
notorious—wretched ventilation; disagreeable
cross-lighting ; outworn and old-fashioned desks;
poor water supply; offensive toilets or none at
all; barren or neglected school yard; disrepair of
the building itself. These physical disadvantages
are enough to constitute a menacing problem, but
there must be added the more serious one of the
inadequate teaching facilities. Rural teachers are
often—not always—indifferently trained. Many
28 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

of them look upon teaching as a makeshift, and,
since interest in their work is limited, they change
schools frequently. As a consequence there is an
instability in the service of the teacher, which
reacts against the regular and consecutive attend-
ance of the pupils.

The education provided in rural districts is
scanty, although the need for it, as shown by the
figures dealing with length of educational train-
ing and the amount of illiteracy, is tremendous.
Foght says: ‘‘Recent educational surveys have
disclosed that in certain states the level of school
education must be measured by about six and one-
half years of school attendance for villages and
less than five years for the rural districts. Such
limited education can not furnish the intelligent
leadership required at this present time of en-
trance upon the new era of scientific agriculture.
. .. There are in the United States between five
and a half and six million illiterate adults, and
more than one-half of these people live in rural
sections where there are little or no school facili-
ties.’’ ®

Constructive plans for meeting this problem of
rural education and the rural school have been
made and in many communities carried to suc-
cessful completion. Rural school districts sup-
porting one-room schools have been consolidated

*Foght, H. W., ‘‘Rural Education,’’ Bulletin No. 7, United

States Bureau of Education, 1919, pp. 3, 4. The federal census
of 1920 reports 4,931,905 illiterates in this country.
THE COMMUNITY 29

into one large district supporting a modern well
built and fully equipped grade school (and some-
times a high school), with a sufficient number of
teachers and such a comprehensive curriculum
that the school may be fully accredited. The spe-
cially planned rural school naturally becomes the
social center of the community. Farmers’ insti-
tutes, domestic science short courses, agricultural
demonstrations, community-day celebrations, field-
days, picnics, lectures, and commencement-day
festivities bring the people together in a center
which they themselves have bought and main-
tained. There were in 1918 about 10,500 consoli-
dated schools in the United States. The new plan
of building a ‘‘teacherage’’ for the residence of
the principal or superintendent of the consolidated
school, and his employment for a full year rather
than for the school year, is meeting with much
favor.

A statement of ‘‘Aims in Rural Education’’?
is given here because of its pertinency:

1. An academic term of not less than 160 days in every rural
community (8 school months).

2. A sufficient number of teachers adequately prepared for
their work.

3. Consolidation of schools where practicable.

4, Teacher’s home and demonstration farm of five or more
acres as part of the school property.

5. An all-year school session adapted to local conditions.

6. A county library with branch libraries at centers of popu-
lation, the public schools to be used as distributing
centers.

"School Life, February 1, 1919.
30 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

7. Community organization, with the school as the intellectual,
industrial, and social center.
8. A high-school education for all country boys and girls
without severing home ties in obtaining that education.
9. Such readjustment and reformation of courses of study
in elementary and secondary rural schools as will adapt
them to the needs of rural life.
10. The need for federal aid in public education.
11. The elimination of illiteracy.
12. The Americanization of all citizens through a better civic
and patriotic instruction.

Since almost fifty per cent. of the population
of the United States live in the rural districts, it
is important to know under what conditions life
is carried on. The most vital of human relation-
ships are found in the home. Here the child is
born and here are spent his early years, when he
receives the impressions of people and the funda-
mental ideals of conduct and training that to a
large degree make or mar his future. Rural sur-
veys in widely separated areas of the country have
given a fairly vivid picture of rural homes.

In the more prosperous farming districts the
farm-house is commodious, usually painted white,
surrounded by an attractive, well kept, and fenced
lawn. There may be inviting shady porches, and
within the house such modern comforts as elec-
tric lights, furnace, bath-room, inside toilet, and
adequate water supply piped into the house. On
‘the other hand, even in those townships where
farming has been successful, there are houses only
partially weather-boarded, unpainted, weather-
beaten, without porches, and unscreened. As a
rule the housing accommodations provided for the
THE COMMUNITY 31

tenant and farm laborer are of the poorest type.®
In some farm homes there is overcrowding—for
example, six persons living in two rooms, seven
in three rooms, eight in three rooms, nine in four
small rooms, nine in three small rooms. These
conditions exist not alone in the tenant houses.
The farm-owner may and often does live in just
such overcrowded quarters.

Farm-house yards are often neglected, some-
times grassed but uncared for, many times with
no grass at all and used as a catch-all for worn-
out machinery and discarded farm implements.
The water supply is often obtained from springs,
cisterns, or shallow-dug wells, and if so it may
be easily contaminated by reason of primitive
toilets or lack of any, or through the location of
privies and stables nearer than one hundred feet
and on higher ground than the well or cistern.
The condition of the privies is sometimes shock-
ing. Few are regularly disinfected or cleaned.
They are often dilapidated, and many times are
provided with no vault or pit. In some instances
the contents are exposed to flies, fowls, and do-
mestic animals.

In one rural township a survey discovered that
the contents of privies were disposed of by six
different methods. ‘‘In eight cases they were re-
moved and buried; in one they were removed and

* Peirce, Paul S., ‘‘Social Surveys of Three Rural Townships in
Towa,’’ University of Iowa Monographs, Studies in the Social
Sciences, Vol. V, No. 2, 1917.
32 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

burned; in four they were used as a fertilizer; in
three the privy was moved and the contents cov-
ered up where they lay; in one they rolled down
a bank into a ditch below; and in six they were
eaten by chickens and pigs which had free ac-
cess.’? Some kind of toilet is considered a neces-
sity for decency, yet many rural families have
no toilet of any kind. A rural survey reports a
family that had lived on a farm for fifty years
and had never had a privy.

The neglected opportunities for beautifying the
yards and houses of the farm dweller, the
wretched housing accommodations provided ten-
ants and farm laborers, the occasional overcrowd-
ing, the menace of contaminated water supply,
and the lack of the most necessary sanitary con-
veniences make rather an appalling picture. On
the other hand, there is the inspiration of pure
sweet air, of vast stretches of field and hill, the
ever-changing colors of the passing seasons, and
a sense of personal freedom.

In the rural districts but little effort has been
made to standardize the working-day, though here
and there sporadic efforts have been made by farm
laborers to restrict the number of hours. Some
threshing-machine outfits enforce the eight-hour
day. However, the farm-owner, spurred on by
the uncertainty of the weather and urged by the
necessity of garnering a good crop and the diffi-
culty of securing help, often labors from ten to
fifteen hours in summer and about ten hours in
THE COMMUNITY 33

winter, though work in the winter months is rather
irregular. The long working-day leaves little time
for recreation. While the hard physical work of
the farm tends to develop physical fitness, the
farmer needs mental and social stimulation to
counteract the deadening effect of physical effort
alone. Recreation for adults and play for chil-
dren are essential for normal living. In addition,
the children’s play should be supervised to insure
fairness and good moral conditions and to develop
the social instincts of each child. On the farm
recreation will depend largely on the facilities
provided at home and the social contacts with
neighbors. Besides, the recreational provisions
of the near-by town or village will have a decided
influence upon the farm dwellers, depending of
course upon the frequency with which the town
is visited and the use made of the facilities there
provided.

In the rural districts, while the question of con-
gestion is not particularly pertinent, the question
of a definite play space is. The school yard, where
the rural child’s play is largely carried on, is
often inadequate and rarely equipped or super-
vised. Furthermore, the need for the cultivation
of a social spirit is just as important as in the city,
perhaps even more so because of the rather in-
dividualistic tendency of +he rura! population.
Besides, when the country child goes to the vil-
lage with his parents on marketing, trading, or
shipping days, or attends school and boards in
34 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

the town, he is largely without social opportuni-
ties. He sits in a store or convenient ‘‘loafing
place,’’ attends the ‘‘movies,’’ saunters through
the streets. He complicates the problems of play
for the village or town child. The need for super-
vised and organized play exists for the rural and
small-town child alike, to develop social contacts
and an aggressive social spirit.

In the farm home there seems to be little recog-
nition of the need for play equipment. Many
rural homes do not provide so simple a thing as a
rope swing for the children. Many families
possess no musical instrument of any kind. Out-
side the home, hunting and fishing, socials, visit-
ing, picnics, and the ‘‘movies’’ in the adjacent
town serve as the most popular forms of recrea-
tion. Weekly papers and standard magazines are
frequently popular in the farm homes, and many
families are interested in Chautauquas, farmers’
institutes, and county or state fairs when these
are available. Dances are sometimes looked upon
with disfavor. The prejudice against them is often
due to religious feeling and sentiment.

Too frequently in the rural community there is
an attitude of indifference and even of repression
toward recreation. Its importance is not gen-
erally recognized, and on all sides there is evi-
dence of the failure to grasp the significance of.
the problem of recreation as it affects the chil-
dren and the young men and women. Rarely is
there found a central gathering-place or a neigh-
THE COMMUNITY 35

borhood or community plan for providing recrea-
tion for adults and children. Occasionally a
church or a school in a rural community is utilized
as a social center; but as a rule the success of this
venture depends, not upon the leadership of local
residents, but upon the minister or the teacher
who has initiated the movement, and, as a conse-
quence, it is apt to disintegrate when that minister
or teacher leaves the community. The problem
resolves itself into that of building up such a com-
munity spirit as will express itself in some form
of community organization developed and financed
by the people themselves and under the direction
of local leaders. Only as such a plan is adopted
will the individualism and even suspicion of
people give way in the rural mind to a sense
of personal responsibility for the welfare of the
community and an active participation in any
social effort that seems to meet a local need.
CHAPTER II
THE SOCIAL SURVEY
COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Communitigs are as individual as people. They
differ in history, social composition, economic and
industrial institutions, and welfare agencies. Any
intelligent plan for community betterment must
be based upon exact knowledge of local social
problems and resources. Like many other words
and phrases used in social service, social problems
and social resources are not always clearly defined
and their meaning is taken more or less for
granted. Nevertheless, the content given reveals
the worker’s attitude of mind and something of
his social philosophy.

Ellwood says that social problems may be
summed up as one—the problem of the relations
of men to one another; in other words, the prob-
lem of human living together.2 Whenever and
wherever two people come in contact, conflicts of
desires, of interests, and of opinions are the in-
evitable outcome. The results of these conflicts
between individuals and between groups of men,
multiplied beyond computation through the years

° Ellwood, Charles A., ‘‘The Social Problem.’’
36
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 37

of humanity’s history, are to be seen in the pres-
ent conditions under which men live. These re-
sults have been determined by the adjustment of
the conflicts, and that adjustment has depended
upon the social, economic, and ideal values
possessed by the individual or the group. Civili-
zation, Ellwood states, is at bottom the creation
and transmission of ideal values by which men
regulate their conduct. This statement brings
the discussion squarely to a consideration of the
kind of ideal values that have dominated and so
produced present living conditions.

As society has developed from small indepen-
dent groups through combination and consolida-
tion to the state, a corresponding change has taken
place in the character of the struggle for exist-
ence. Physical or brute strength was the first
element of characterization, and was particularly
true of primitive man. His fight was against
nature and against animal forces. As he slowly
conquered them, driven by the intensity of the
conflict, he formed a coalition with a neighboring
tribe. His awakening intelligence recognized
that order, law, and control of the individual made
for efficiency. While codperation was compulsory,
the ability to codperate was developed. Unfortu-
nately, along with the desirable features, dictator-
ship was bred. One man or a few men controlled
not only the means of livelihood but also the very
lives of other men. Power, dominion, possessions,
were the accepted ideal values,
38 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The lack of appreciation of man’s obligation to
man and of men’s mutual dependence and re-
sponsibility for the common welfare became the
foundation for modern social problems. These
problems can be solved only as the ideal values of
honesty, of individual responsibility, of obliga-
tion to every member of the community, are gen-
erally adopted. Mangold touches the quick of the
matter: ‘‘Social reform depends on the limitation
of individual rights and the subordination of the
individual to the group of the community... .
Furthermore, it is necessary to teach the lesson
that the interests of all are greater than the selfish
interests of the few.’’?° Social conditions are the
objective outcome of the ideals of men, their stand-
ards of value. Only as these ideals change will the
social conditions be permanently reconstructed.

The social problem, then, may be defined as a
lack of adjustment of individual to individual or
of the individual to his environment, physical, in-
dustrial, or social. Concretely, social problems
include such conditions as poverty, neglected
homes, delinquency and crime, inadequate sanit-
ation, corrupt government, low wages, unemploy-
ment, insufficient educational and recreational fa-
cilities. Social resources are available means for
solving social problems or for overcoming them.
These resources may not have been properly cul-
tivated ; they may be inadequate; they may be mis-
directed and their uses perverted; but, neverthe-

* Mangold, George B., ‘‘Problems of Child Welfare,’’ p. 490.
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 39

less, they do represent possibilities. They consist
largely of the laws, customs, traditions, social in-
stitutions, agencies, and organizations that have
grown out of some conception of a social need.
They vary with the community and state, and their
use and influence will depend upon the presence or
absence of an active community sprit.

Since every community is confronted with some
unsolved social problems, the thoughtful citizen
questions how all the people of the community may
be brought together into a self-conscious working
unit. As a matter of fact, community organiz-
ation is one of the biggest problems of the day.
Nothing of permanent value can be accomplished
without it. Any constructive program must have
some operative machinery for its practical details.
Organization is necessary for adequately carry-
ing on the daily task; for educating the people;
for securing economical administration by elim-
inating unnecessary overhead expenses; for pre-
venting duplication and for obtaining the great-
est return for the money invested. Community
organization is the codrdination of all the com-
munity resources for the solving of community
problems.

Hart gives an inspiring explanation of commun-
ity organization when he says: ‘‘The task of
community organization involves the development
of a social order inclusive enough, rich enough,
varied enough, stimulating enough to reach every
normal human being; to transform all our com-
40 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

mon social institutions into instruments of service
and to compete with all lesser elements for the
loyalty and support of the individual.’’ 4
Sanderson conceives community organization to
be ‘‘that integration of the social forces of a com-
munity which will insure its unified action in the
chief concerns of its life and will make possible
a progressive realization and attainment of its
highest values. This will doubtless ultimately
require some adequate mechanism through which
the will of the community may be expressed; but
the essential thing in community organization is
to secure a sense of devotion to the community
good, a community consciousness. . . . The mech-
anisms of community organization are still too
new for any of us to form any safe judgment as to
their relative worth, but whatever their form it is
essential that there be some sort of central com-
munity agency (the ancient council of the elders?)
which is representative of all interests, has the
confidence and support of all elements, and which
can direct the thinking, ascertain the purposes,
and carry out the will of the community.’’ 1?
The final purpose of organization is to direct
community feeling to build up as nearly as possi-
ble an ideal community. It is a recognition of the
responsibility of the community for conditions
‘‘which conduce to the health, morality, happiness,

4 Hart, Joseph K., ‘‘Community Organization,’’ p. 50.

“Sanderson, Dwight I, ‘‘Democracy and Community Or-
ganization,’’ in ‘‘The Problem of Democracy,’’ publication of
the American Sociological Society, Vol. XIV, pp. 89, 90.
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 41

and general good citizenship of all the people.’’
The elements that go to make an ideal community
include a satisfying social life, wholesome recrea-
tion for every man, woman, and child, regular em-
ployment with income sufficient for a high stand-
ard of family life, modern school system, virile
civic and moral life, strong active churches, and a
clean, beautiful environment. The question that
interests every alert citizen is, ‘‘How nearly does
my community conform to the standards of an
ideal community? What are its advantages and
what are its disadvantages?’’ The answers to
these questions, which will give the foundation
for a wise plan of community development, may
be secured through what is known as a social sur-
vey or a community study.

THE SOCIAL SURVEY

A social survey is a ‘‘stock-taking of social fac-
tors that determine the conditions of a given com-
munity, ... with a view to providing adequate
information necessary for the intelligent plan-
ning and carrying out of constructive and far-
reaching social reforms.’’1* It is an inquiry into
social problems and social resources and thc rela-
tionship between them. It questions whether the
social facilities are adequate; whether they are
correlated with each other and offer amelioration ;
or whether, lacking codrdination, they offer one
more problem to the social engineer.

® Aronovici, Carol, ‘‘The Social Survey,’’ p. 5.
42 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The most effective survey includes the follow-
ing four steps: (1) gathering data; (2) outlining
a community plan and program based on an in-
terpretation of data secured; (3) conducting a
publicity campaign to arouse community spirit;
(4) securing the adoption of the plan for com-
munity organization.

The initial step of the survey is the gathering
of facts. Data must be accurate, and must be
obtained without bias or prejudice. The survey
should reveal both the good and the bad social
conditions. However, effort should be made not
to present such an overwhelming variety of facts
that the townspeople are confused or startled out
of sympathy with the survey. As a result of the
survey the community should be able to see itself
intelligently and honestly, and should understand
the difficulties in the way of higher standards of
community life. On this basis the survey should
reach the second stage—the outlining of a com-
munity plan or program.

Efficient community organization has as its pt
mary aim the control of community conditions,
which form the environment of the individual
and which may adversely restrict or limit his in-
dividual development. Through this control and
the consequent correction of the disadvantageous
conditions, the community can make it increas-
ingly possible for every individual to enjoy the
greatest social and economic opportunities. The
removal of handicaps from the individual will
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 43

free him to reach the maximum development of
his innate powers, and will in turn raise the social
standards of the group.

Unless the surveyor supplements the collection
of data with a suggested form of community or-
ganization, the survey has not accomplished its
purpose or its possibilities: it is unfinished. How-
ever, the impetus for organization must come
from within, as the result of a conviction that the
community has social problems that it must solve.
The plan presenting the methods of procedure
must be simple, explicit, and concrete; must fit
local needs; must inspire codperation; must co-
ordinate existing social resources; must outline
feasible combinations of functions; and must in-
clude a budget large enough to provide for trained
executives.

After the data have been analyzed and the
course of action mapped out, the third step—the
publicity campaign—should follow. It may in-
clude a formal exhibit. The exhibit will furnish
opportunity for the presentation of the data in
attractive and unusual epigram, charts, spot maps,
diagrams, models, lectures, conferences, and dem-
onstrations. Addresses, newspapers, letters,
pamphlets, and circulars will offer other methods
of advertisement.

The last step of the survey, which is the adop-
tion of the plan, depends upon the local commu-
nity; but the preliminary work must be done by
the social engineer. He must have secured for
44 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

the community program the enthusiastic support
of all agencies, public and private, of leading citi-
zens, of clubs, lodges, churches, and business men.
His success will be measured by the degree to
which preconceived notions, long cherished but im-
possible schemes, old social feuds, and attempted
monopolies of social welfare agencies are given
up and all effort merged in one codperative plan.

TYPES OF SURVEYS

Surveys differ greatly in purpose and method.
Until very recently the survey was regarded as
complete when all possible data had been com-
piled. Rarely is a survey now made that does not
include a draft of suggestions for solving the most
obvious problems. Only a few of the more daring
surveyors have undertaken to develop actual com-
munity organization as the survey neared com-
pletion. Such a policy is undoubtedly very effec-
tive as well as very difficult. It demands the
greatest degree of finesse. It is no slight task to
bring into harmony a great diversity of opinions
and secure for a new form of organization the
hearty support of a variety of local agencies. The
secret of success lies in the ability of the surveyor
to work in such close harmony and codperation
with the central survey committee that the plan
takes shape naturally and as the inevitable result
of the cumulative evidence that the survey dis-
closes.

Surveys may be classified according to content,
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 45

the following classification having been suggested
by Kellogg’s article, ‘‘The Spread of the Survey
Idea.’’

1. The general survey, which represents a cur-
sory review of the community resources and
problems, and which may be made either by the
local community or by an outside agency. The
Men and Religion Forward Movement made this
type of survey in various cities of the United
States several years ago.

2. The comprehensive, interlocking survey,
which is a very detailed and analytical study of
the entire social, economic, industrial, and political
structure. It requires experts in the various fields
and is an expensive undertaking. The Pittsburgh
survey made in 1907 under the auspices of the
Russell Sage Foundation was the first and most
striking example of this type. The Russell Sage
Foundation has made similar surveys in other
cities. The Springfield, Illinois, survey (1913) is
perhaps the most comprehensive survey up to this
time, and has set a high standard in effectiveness
of organization to conduct the survey and in the
practical results obtained.

3. The unit survey, which may be a careful study
of a given neighborhood or a city block, or which
may be concerned with the most obvious local
problem. In either case, the individual study
should be related to the community as a whole and
to the different phases of city welfare.

4. The informal survey, which is a quick review
46 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and summing up of a local situation. It is usually
made by an outside expert brought in for the pur-
pose. It may be followed by a comprehensive
survey or by a unit survey.

d. The continuous survey, sometimes called the
permanent survey, which is carried on by a local
association, such as an endowed institution or a
centralized agency supported by private subscrip-
tions or by public and private funds. In the Mid-
dle West are to be found strong centralized public
welfare bureaus which are giving to the public
yearly reviews of the status of community wel-
fare, of its progress in the foregoing year, and,
on the basis of actual facts, are pointing out
needed reforms.

METHOD OF PROCEDURE

There is one infallible rule for every survey.
To be successful it must come from the people.
Its success will be measured, not by the amount
of data unearthed, but by the spontaneity of the
citizens in adopting the program growing out of
the survey and putting it into operation. Conse-
quently the people must feel that the survey be-
longs to them, that it is their project, and that
it is a vital and pressing need.

In the promotion of a survey there are two
phases to the method of procedure: (1) the
method to be used in getting the need for the sur-
vey before the people and enlisting their interest
and support, and (2) the method or plan of
initiating the survey itself—that is, of organizing
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 47

the community to facilitate the accumulation of
data, to secure wise publicity, and to maintain
complete cooperation of all local groups. The
initial organization is very important, since it will
serve as a basis or nucleus for the permanent as-
sociation that should result.

The first phase, namely, ‘‘selling’’ the survey
to the community, arousing enthusiasm for it, may
be developed in numerous ways. It must be as-
sumed that some one person or group of persons
desires the survey; otherwise there would be no
point of attack. Procedure may be along any one
of the following suggested modes of operation:

1. The individual or group may spread the idea
by talking with acquaintances and friends. A
canvass of all clubs, churches, officials, business
men, and welfare agencies may follow, after which
a convincing mass-meeting should be held. Such
an effort may lead to the importing of a surveyor
or to the undertaking of a survey by the citizens
themselves. If the latter plan is followed, expert
advice and direction should always be secured.

2. A small group may gather certain suggestive
data to be used for publicity material. This plan
was adopted with excellent results in a town of
about 7000 people. The idea of a survey spread
like wildfire, the Extension Division of the local
State University was invited to make the survey,
and as a result a welfare or social service bureau
was organized with a trained social worker as its
executive.
48

ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The preliminary data collected by the voluntary
committee were embodied in a circular and also
printed in the local newspaper. The contents of
the circular follow:

THE PROPOSED SOCIAL SURVEY
A. Brief Statement of Facts

What we propose to do.

I.
II.

IIT.
IV.

VI.
VII.

VIII.
IX.

XI.
“XII.

Strengthen and codrdinate the work of all present
agencies.

Unify the work of all charitable agencies, such as
churches, lodges, individuals, and the county work in
the city.

1. To avoid duplication.

2. To secure proper balance among families.

3. To insure thorough and confidential investigations,
to punish the fraudulent, to respond to the genu-
ine, and to encourage the timid.

Aid the County Board of Supervisors in administering
the county fund for the relief of the poor.

Determine whether or not there is a possibility of de-
creasing the tax burden.

. Make social work a city-wide responsibility and not

leave the matter to a few individuals.

Secure an immediate survey of the city’s social condi-
tions, know the truth and use it.

Keep a confidential classified card-index record :of all
persons and families aided, and of all needs.

Give aid when needed and where needed.

Educate needy families in the principles of ventilation,
spending, and saving.

. Insist upon better care of homes. Prevent sickness

through education and sanitary measures. Protect
the community by better care of the sick and the
dependent.
Employ a competent trained: social worker responsible
to a committee of sixteen representative citizens.
Raise the necessary budget for administration of the
above program.
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 49

B. Some Present Conditions

I. At this time there are twenty families who need the
assistance of some competent person to direct ex-
penditures, improve housing, instruct in living condi-
tions. All of these families have had severe sickness;
one, a death. All have from two to five children
each, one half of whom are in school.

LIVING CONDITIONS OF SOME OF THESE TWENTY FAMILIES

Family A. Lives in one room; windows nailed down;
rags stuffed in cracks.

Family B. Five people who live in a basement room.

Family C. Five people living in one room upstairs.
Mother takes in washing.

Family D. Three rooms; telephone, graphophone,
county aid.

Family E. Five children, father, and mother in two
small, poorly ventilated rooms.

Family F. Nine people in two small rooms; poorly
furnished and with almost no ventilation.

Family G. Five small children, anemic, uncared for;
mother sick, and even when well a poor
manager; father shiftless.

Family H. Nine children, father, and mother living in
two rooms; father’s earnings inadequate
for family needs; family aided in haphaz-
ard way, so it is either a feast or a famine.

All of these families have had sickness a great deal of

the time. All the homes are poorly managed, and in all

of the homes there are children of school age.

II. Other social conditions demanding the community’s
attention.

1. Youngsters of both sexes loitering in the entrances
and shadows of the schools and churches late at
night.

2. Young girls, without escorts, meeting evening
trains, though they have no friends coming or
going on trains.

3. Young couples visiting for long periods in public
halls and stairways.

The survey will tell us more about our town and show us
how to get together to solve our problems,
50 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

Without doubt this circular may be criticized,
but it is at least a most interesting illustration
of what may be done by a few people when once
aroused to the necessities of the local situation.

A small earnest group might bring together
data concerning both the relative advantages and
disadvantages of the town, resources and defici-
encies or needs, and put them in the form of two
charts to be placed side by side; or a diagram or
graphic drawing might be made to show the pres-
ent town and the ideal town it might be made.
The members of the group might each act as a
publicity agent for the survey and educate every
one encountered. Then the group might call a
meeting of representatives from all organizations
to consider a survey, or it might have small group
meetings of different clubs, the clergy, newspaper
owners or editors, of school officials and teachers,
of physicians and dentists, of business men, and
of county and town officials. Finally, at a mass-
meeting, it might be voted to have a survey.

3. Instead of the small group gleaning a few
facts with which to drive home the need for a sur-
vey, this interested group might invite an expert
surveyor to review the community briefly and at
a mass-meeting to point out one or two of the most
salient problems. A more detailed and compre-
hensive survey might then be made under the
auspices of the community itself.

4, A fourth method is represented by a town of
5000 people where churches, lodges, clubs, labor
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 51

organizations, city and county officials, and the
commercial club were each asked to send repre-
sentatives to a special meeting. An expert sur-
veyor had been invited to explain what a survey
is, what it may be expected to accomplish, and
how it may be conducted. After the address there
was an open discussion, and a motion was passed
that it was the sense of the meeting that the town
should have a survey. A committee of three was
elected to have the matter in charge. The repre-
sentatives present were instructed to report the
action taken to their respective organizations, to
urge a vote of codperation, and after such a vote
to report the result to the central committee. It
was decided that the survey should be made only
if all agencies agreed to support it.

5. The survey may be promoted by a business
men’s association. This fact may be illustrated
by a very interesting development that occurred
in a town of about 22,000. The minister of one
of the churches, who had always taken a promi-
nent part in all the social welfare activities of
the city, felt that the social energy being expended
was dissipated and not focused as it might be upon
the city’s problems. He was convinced that if all
the citizens knew the facts concerted action would
result. At first he presented the matter to the
ministerial association, and was delegated to in-
terview the commercial club. The commercial
club was immediately interested, called a meeting
of its members, secured a speaker, and at this
52 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

meeting voted to have a survey. The minister,
who was a member, was made chairman of the
survey committee of three, the other two being
business men. After the commercial club assumed
responsibility, the ministerial association dropped
into the background, none the less interested, but
convinced that the survey would accomplish more
if it was not regarded as the project of the re-
ligious group of the city.

6. The survey may be made at the request of
public officials. In a town of 5000 people, located
in a prosperous agricultural county of 20,000, sev-
eral of the leading citizens made a quiet investiga-
tion of county expenditures. To their surprise
they discovered that their town, comprising one-
fourth the population of the county, was expend-
ing for poor relief four times the amount spent
in all the rest of the county, and that this condi-
tion existed in spite of the fact that their com-
munity was a college town, which had congratu-
lated itself that it had no poverty. These citizens
discussed the situation with the county board of
supervisors, with the result that the supervisors
employed the writer to make a survey of the sit-
uation and to report a plan for lessening the ab-
normal expenditure.

In a city of 50,000 an informal survey was made
under the auspices of the commercial club. This
brief study revealed a lack of adequate county
records, superficial investigations of applicants
for county aid, and much overlapping of work by
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 53

public and private agencies caring for dependent
families and for neglected and dependent chil-
dren. These facts induced the county supervisors
to employ a trained investigator for a period of
six months to make a more comprehensive survey.

In another city a small but influential women’s
club held an open meeting and secured an address
on the possibilities of community organization for
the constructive care of dependent and poverty-
stricken families. The members of this club had
been doing volunteer social work, and had come
to the conclusion that the social work of the city
was being done in a haphazard fashion or was not
being done at all. This club decided to finance a
survey, but the surveyor invited to do the work
refused to consider it until the city as a whole was
ready to cooperate. Almost a year elapsed before
the surveyor undertook the task. In the mean-
time the club had been interviewing the business
men, the city and county officials, and the Mission,
which was the largest private relief and social
agency in the city. Asa result of this persistent
and enthusiastic effort, the commercial club, the
Board of Supervisors, and the Mission asked for
a survey, and the Board of Supervisors agreed
to pay all the expenses.

From this discussion of the first phase of the
method of procedure, namely the winning of the
community’s codperation and support, two conclu-
sions may be drawn: (1) that all the diverse ele-
ments of the community must give assurance of
54 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

their willingness to share responsibility for the
survey and (2), that this responsibility must be
concentrated in a central or survey committee.
The latter conclusion leads directly to a considera-
tion of the second phase of the method of pro-
cedure—the organization of the community for
the conduct of the survey.

The form of organization will depend upon the
type of survey to be initiated, that is, upon the
thoroughness of the inquiry, the number of ex-
perts requisitioned, the variety of problems in-
vestigated, and therefore upon the expense in-
volved.

The expense will vary greatly. Surveys may
be made by the people themselves, though in this
case advice must be sought from some expert in
order that the survey may be adequate. If the
work is done by local volunteers the expenses will
consist only of the printing of forms or schedules
for the tabulation of data, of stationery and post-
age for announcements and correspondence, of
any printed publicity other than local newspapers,
and for the salary and expenses of the expert sur-
veyor who should by all means be brought to the
community for a personal consultation. In a
number of states, Kansas, Wisconsin, Iowa, and
Minnesota, the state universities, generally
through the Extension Division, will make local
surveys upon request. The expense in such cases
is nominal, since the salaries are paid by the state.
The community is usually expected to pay the
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 55

traveling expenses and provide entertainment for
the Extension workers.

There are a number of independent organiza-
tions that make surveys upon invitation, notably
the Department of Surveys and Exhibits of the
Russell Sage Foundation, Community Service In-
corporated, the National Child Labor Committee,
and the American Association for Organizing
Family Social Work, all of New York City. The
rural life departments of various churches have
also conducted surveys, sometimes on request and
sometimes on their own initiative. The Children’s
Bureau of the United States has done some un-
usually excellent work in its surveys of the con-
ditions of child life in different parts of the coun-
try. In some sections of the country the Ameri-
can Red Cross has made community studies; but
its community study service has been discontinued
and the only surveys now made are brief studies
made through the field service at the request of
the local chapter to determine the best program
of work for the chapter.

If a preliminary survey is followed by a com-
prehensive one and expert workers are employed,
the community will be obligated to pay the
salaries, which will vary from one hundred and
fifty to three hundred dollars a month per worker.
Besides, the community will be expected to meet
the bills for all printing and publicity expense.
The length of time needed to complete the survey
will vary from two weeks for a superficial study,
‘\

56 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

six weeks to two months for a more detailed sur-
vey, to a year for a comprehensive survey. In
some small communities, especially where com-
mittees of volunteers are gathering the data, the
survey may be made to cover the period of a year.
A monthly program may be outlined, dealing with
the various subjects to be considered. Lectures,
entertainments, stereopticon and motion pictures,
and special reports may serve to arouse and hold
the interest of the people. The year’s program
and the survey may be concluded with a com-
munity institute lasting a few days or a week.
During this time lectures based upon the findings
serve to emphasize the community’s needs and the
possibilities of the community program. Clinics
may be conducted, together with child welfare con-
ferences and round-table discussions.

ORGANIZATION FOR THE SURVEY

Two plans for a working organization may be
suggested. One is rather elaborate; the other very
simple. The community may find practical some
variation of these two outlines, which are neces-
sarily only suggestive. It must never be forgot-
ten that in making surveys, as in every other kind
of social service, no hard-and-fast rules can be laid
down, but that procedure must be adjusted to local
conditions.

1. The more complex form of organization is
presented in the diagram on page 57. The survey
committee should be representative of the various
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 57

local interests. This central committee may be
chosen from the membership of the organization
financing the survey, such as a business men’s
club; or it may be chosen at the mass-meeting at
which the survey project is considered; or it may

DIAGRAM OF PLAN OF ORGANIZATION OF SURVEY

  
    

 
  

qa)
Voluntary Officials Professional Labor Churches Unorganized
Organized and business organizas citizens
Groups interests tions

 

Survey committce

or
Central committee (executive)

Executive Volunteers

Finance Cobperation

Publicity

 

1. Surveyor in charge
2. Experts for various data

8. Volunteer

€
Committees to secure duta:

Population
Health
Education
Recreation
Living conditions 4
Industrial und economic conditions,
Welfare agencies

 

 

 

     

Conmunity Plan
58 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

be composed of members elected to it by the dif-
ferent participating agencies. The number may
vary from five to fifteen. Ordinarily it should not
be larger than fifteen. There should be a small
executive committee of three, chosen from the
membership of the central committee, which
should be conversant with the work and progress
of each sub-committee and which should direct
that work as need arises. The executive commit-
tee may have charge of the finances, or there may
be a separate finance committee. The money may
be secured through private subscriptions or
through some one organization or furnished by
the agencies jointly. Usually the sub-committee
on publicity should not have as its chairman a
newspaper editor, but the chairman must appre-
ciate the necessity for publicity because of its edu-
cational and advertising possibilities. Two other
sub-committees are necessary, one on cooperation
and the other on volunteers. The first should
make certain that no society or group is unin-
formed about the survey, but that each is kept
interested; the second should secure for the aid
of the surveyor as many volunteers as are desired.
Working with the surveyor should be small com-
mittees to help uncover sources of data, to collect
data, and to help in their tabulation. If there
are experts for different types of data, each
of these small committees should have an expert
as director. These committees should include
such subjects as Population, Health, Education,
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 59

Recreation, Living or Home Conditions, Indus-
trial and Economic Conditions, and Welfare
Agencies.

2. The simple form of organization shown in

DIAGRAM OF PLAN OF ORGANIZATION OF SURVEY
«2)
Business — Loca? and Churches Lodges Clubs Jabor Unuffilioted

men county organi- citizens
ottcials zations

   
 
  
 

   
   

         
    

Finance
Central committee { Fauci
Covperation
Surveyor
plus

voluntecrs

  
  
 
 
  
  
 

 

   
 
 
  

History of Z Survey data:

community Organized Population
groups Health

“Key” Edueation

people Recreation

Welfaro

Living conditions
ugencies

Industrial and eco-
Public nomic conditions

otticials

      
   

Community Plan

the diagram above consists of a central com-
mittee of from three to seven, chosen from the
membership of the agency or agencies promot-
ing the survey, or perhaps made up of a business
or professional man, a local official, and a repre-
60 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

sentative woman. The surveyor should work
with this central committee in getting a grasp of
the local situation, in meeting ‘‘key’’ people, in
obtaining an appreciation of local prejudices and
cliques, and in enlarging the community’s under-
standing of the survey and its spirit. In addition
the surveyor should make use of all possible vol-
unteers. Under this second form of organization
the survey is usually in the hands of one expert,
who, with the help of the central committee and a
few volunteers, endeavors to cover the field to be
surveyed.

To be successful—that is, to maintain the sym-
pathy of the community and to prevent disastrous
antagonisms—the surveyor must observe the fol-
lowing rules, which are offered very tentatively
and must not be taken as complete guides. The
tactfulness and genuine courtesy of the surveyor
will smooth away many seeming obstacles and
overcome latent opposition.

A. With relation to the community:

It must be made clear that the spirit of the
survey is helpful and not meanly critical or
harsh.

The purpose of the survey must never be
permitted to become obscure—the ultimate
betterment of conditions in the community,
not the mere accumulation of facts.

Every member of the community must feel
that confidences given are held inviolable.
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 61

B. With relation to the central committee:

The central committee must be informed
of each new development and of every impor-
tant finding as the survey progresses.

The central committee must never be per-
mitted to forget that it is the responsible
agent for the survey; the surveyor must not
assume any undue authority; the central com-
mittee must make the decisions in consulta-
tion with the surveyor. Such a policy simpli-
fies the formulation of the plan for community
organization.

C. With relation to volunteers:

As many volunteers should be enlisted as
can be advantageously employed. It must
be kept in mind that every volunteer is a pub-
licity agent for the survey.

Simple, definite, and concise instructions
must be given volunteers, so that they under-
stand what they are to do.

Schedules or forms for the collection of
data must be clear and not complicated.

Volunteers must understand each point of
the schedule and its significance for the entire
survey.

They must be impressed with the necessity
of carrying their work to completion.

They must not be given so much to do or
such complex work that they become discour-
aged and withdraw their services.
62

ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The surveyor must be in constant touch
with the volunteers to insure their filling out
completely the schedules and to check the
data they secure.

D. With relation to the survey and himself:

Data must be accurate.

The surveyor must know the exact wording
of laws and ordinances. Hearsay evidence
must not be taken as conclusive; it must be
verified.

Hasty publicity must be guarded against.
Conclusions should be held in abeyance until
all data have been garnered.

The surveyor should not be too ready to
criticize, but must not be blind to defects.

Snap judgments should be avoided. The
rules of logic should be unfailingly applied.

The surveyor must be sympathetic and ap-
preciative of all the social welfare efforts
that have been made, and should remember
that every social agency is the result of an
effort to satisfy some social need. It is true
that the effort may have been inadequate or
abortive, but the fact remains that it was
made.

The surveyor must not assume to know
everything. A modicum of modesty is at least
becoming.

As is true of all social workers, that sur-
veyor will be most successful who is enthusi-
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 63

astic, interested, sympathetic, cordial, and re-
sourceful. Ill humor and irritability can not
compete with a friendly smile and a warm
nod of understanding.

THE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

That there are social problems in every com-
munity, small or large, is unquestionable. Some
people are wide-awake and fully aware of them.
In this group there will be active and passive indi-
viduals, all thinkers but not all doers. Another
group may realize that conditions are not ideal,
but do not know just where the trouble lies. Still
another group, through ignorance or indifference,
is unconcerned. The social engineer must work
with all three groups. The individuals who consti-
tute the first group will form the nucleus of the
working organization of the survey, since their
civic pride and sense of social responsibility will
spur them to active participation in its develop-
ment. The secret of success lies in the ability of
the surveyor, together with the most enlightened
citizens, to inform the community generally of the
nature and purpose of the survey, and to give as
many people as possible something definite to do,
so that the survey is felt to belong to the people
and is not regarded as an extraneous thing, an im-
pertinent inquiry made to satisfy the curiosity of
an outsider.

An appeal may be made to local community
pride: for example, the statement made in a letter
64 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

sent out by the Child Welfare Survey Committee
at Manhattan, Kansas: ‘‘The State Board of
Health is finding out the conditions that prevail
in all the counties of the state for the welfare of
children. This committee has been appointed to
learn these conditions for Riley County and to re-
port to the State Board of Health. We believe
that conditions in this county are the best of any
county in the state, and wish to demonstrate that
fact by a complete survey.”’

Some publicity is necessary, both preceding the
survey and during its progress as well as follow-
ing its completion, in order to make clear its spirit
and possibilities for effecting community organi-
zation. Furthermore, its promoters should talk
‘“‘survey’’? to every friend and acquaintance,
should present its necessity to all organizations,
officials, and business men. It is essential that
the business men be actively interested, since the
adoption of the community plan growing out of
the survey will depend very largely upon their
financial support. There is one very telling argu-
ment that may be used. Hither through taxes or
voluntary contributions to various private chari-
ties, business men pay for inadequate sanitation,
bad housing, unwise charity, neglected children.
A constructive community program based on
actual conditions, designed to solve the problems
and to prevent their recurrence, always appeals
to the far-seeing business man. Besides, he under-
stands that better social conditions result in fewer
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 65

dependent families and reduce the number of de-
linquents, thereby raising the tone of the entire
community. Naturally, he is vitally interested in
the welfare of his home city and desirous of
making it the best possible place in which to bring
up his children.

Personal interviews with ‘‘key’’ people should
initiate the publicity campaign. In addition, the
interest of welfare agencies and the public of-
ficials should be enlisted. News articles should
be regularly furnished the newspapers, which are
always most generous in finding room for them.
A good plan is to have a certain space in the
paper devoted to the survey, in which may appear
interesting comments on its scope, its spirit, re-
sults attained in other communities of about the
same size, summaries of important social legisla-
tion, simple analyses of familiar technical phrases
of the social worker, such as dependent, needy, or
disadvantaged family, family treatment, con-
structive family plan; a definition of social work;
and briefly explained figures relating to expendi-
ture of community, county, and state funds for
poor relief, care of dependents, and conduct of
institutions.

Throughout the progress of the survey great
care must be taken in handling publicity. Data
must not be given out hastily or prematurely,
especially since later data may radically change
the seeming importance and significance of facts
secured earlier. As rapidly as collected, informa-
66 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tion should be reported to the executive com-
mittee, but should be largely withheld from the
public until the study is complete and the plan
formulated. The data may then be used with tell-
ing force to fortify the conclusions presented in
the report. It is often possible to secure open
meetings of lodges, and not at all difficult for the
executive committee to secure for the surveyor
opportunities to speak in churches and before
various clubs. Sometimes it is advisable to call
meetings of representatives of different associa-
tions for some special purpose, for example, to
enlist their aid in securing some data difficult to
obtain.

As the survey approaches completion and the
plan takes shape, a date should be set for a public
mass-meeting, at which the findings may be given.
Just before this day arrives, it is well to have
meetings of the executive committee and boards
of welfare agencies or of county supervisors,
especially if the plan involves either their pro-
fessional or financial codperation. Such confer-
ences make it possible to report at the mass-meet-
ing the attitude of these agencies.

Letters, notes of invitation, posters, newspaper
notices, and widespread announcement should
herald the approach of the mass-meeting, which
should be held in a public building, auditorium,
court-house, city hall, commercial club, or school-
house, preferably not in a church.

Before the plans for the mass-meeting are com-
THE SOCIAL SURVEY 67

pleted, the survey committee should decide
whether or not an exhibit shall be prepared and
thrown open to the public at the time of the mass-
meeting. If an affirmative decision is reached, an
exhibit committee should be appointed to work
with the surveyor and make use of the material
as it is compiled. Publicity for the exhibit can
then be added to that for the mass-meeting.

THE EXHIBIT

The exhibit may consist of charts and graphic
diagrams showing sanitary and housing condi-
tions; density of population by blocks; extent of
dependency and delinquency; and expenditures of
various funds for care of the community’s wards.
Spot maps may be made showing the location of
recreation centers and of different nationalities.
Photographs serve as telling illustrations and
evidences of local conditions. A chart should deal
with one item only. Lettering must be clear and
must not be crowded, but so arranged that it is
attractive and easily read. Slogans, striking pic-
tures, and facts put simply so that they are quickly
grasped will make the exhibit interesting. Related
subjects should be grouped together. Some one
should always be in attendance to explain the ex-
hibit. Stereopticon slides, moving pictures, tab-
leaux, conferences, and demonstrations at stated
times will increase the popularity of the exhibit.

White holland-cloth and composition-board are
excellent materials on which to make charts. The
68 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

facts and epigrams may be printed or painted by a
sign-painter. The maps may be the ordinary
printed maps, mounted on cardboard or light wood
and framed. Colored tacks or pins may be used
to differentiate data; the explanatory legend
should be neatly printed and tacked in one corner.
Outline maps of the community or of different,
blocks may be made, and a set of symbols used to
indicate different social facts. The outline of
symbols given here is taken from the pamphlet
“‘The Collection of Social Survey Material’? by
Florence Rising Curtis. It may be varied or
added to as the case requires.'*

The exhibit should be located on a first floor and
on one of the principal business streets. The
windows should be made inviting with colored
charts, pictures, and well-phrased slogans. The
success of the exhibit will be measured not only
by the number of visitors in attendance but also
by the degree of their interest.

The increasing popularity of the pageant has
suggested its use upon the completion of the sur-
vey to present in song and pantomime the history
and civic conditions of the community and the
future with its comprehensive plan for the wel-
fare of every member of the community family.

At the mass-meeting the report presented
should be short, concrete, readable in form, and

in such shape that it can be given to the news-

“In the appendix will be found an outline of symbols used by
the students of the Missouri School of Social Economy in mak-
ing maps of block studies.
O
A
X
oP
O
-
A
°

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SOCIAL SURVEY 69

Symbols
Institution, public building, factory, store, ete. To be num-
bered to correspond with numerical key

Large well kept dwelling-house
Small comfortable dwelling-house
Dwelling-house in poor condition

Church To be numbered to correspond with numerical key

School To be numbered to correspond with numerical key

Hospital
Motion-picture theater

Saloon
Cemetery

Park
Vacant lot or field

Woods
Pond

Bluff or cliff

City, village, or borough Sine

- Street

Paved street

Canal
Steam railroad

Electric railroad

Bridge
70 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

papers for publication in its entirety.15 Its con-
clusions must be simple and consist only of logical
deductions from the data. There will be two
parts of the report, one dealing with social facts
and statistics, care being taken that long state-
ments of figures are excluded and only their sig-
nificance given; and the other outlining the com-
munity plan.

THE COMMUNITY PLAN

Community organization includes not only the
development of centralized administrative ma-
chinery through which the social resources may
be utilized, but also the creation of a community
program that will help solve the social problems.
The community plan must seek not only to remedy
present evils, but to be preventive for the future.
It should bring together different groups of people
with varying ideas for a common purpose. It
must consider the interests of all groups. It must
be of such character that its usefulness will grow
with the years. It must not be narrow in its
policies and must have within itself the power of
expansion and unfoldment. It must not be bor-
rowed from some other community, but must be
indigenous.

Any complete community plan must make pro-
vision for three functions; administrative, promo-
tional, and supervisory or advisory (the last is

*A detailed statistical report is, of course, given to the com-
mittee,
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71
72 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

possible only when statute or ordinance gives the
necessary legal authority). The work actually
carried on under each function will depend, of
course, on the type of community, the agencies
already active, the degree of combination of ex-
isting agencies effected, legal provisions, and the
problems demanding attention. A skeleton form
of the plan is presented on page 71. Different
practical forms, variations of this outline, will
be suggested in the chapters discussing organiza-
tion in rural districts, villages, towns, and
counties.1®

*The method of conducting the discussion following the pre-
sentation of the report at the mass-meeting and of initiating the
community plan will be considered in detail in Chapter IV.
CHAPTER III
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA
BACKGROUND FOR THE SURVEY

THE social survey is concerned primarily with a
study of social problems and social resources and
the relation of the two. The inquiry, however,
has the definite purpose of determining a plan for
their better codrdination. Therefore, before the
surveyor begins his detailed inquiry into local
problems and resources, it will be well for him to
get a general idea of the community and its spirit
or ‘‘temper.’’ He must determine very soon after
reaching the community whether or not there is a
strong community feeling and ready codperation,
for without them community organization is vir-
tually impossible. It is also necessary for him to
obtain a background or a general impression of
the community to aid him better to appreciate the
facts collected and to fit them into the specific
picture that the community presents. A ride
around the city or the community will furnish a
bird’s-eye view of its location, its general plan or
layout, and its appearance as a whole. Always
the surveyor must be on his mettle to gather sug-

gestions about the town’s history, clues to im-
73
74 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

portant political bargainings, old quarrels, pos-
sible disagreements between employers and labor
unions, early social welfare activities scoffed at
and discarded, and booms that failed or succeeded.

It is essential that he understand the history of
the community. For example, in one town a sur-
veyor discovered that in its early days the town
had been sharply divided over the liquor question.
For many years this community had the reputa-
tion of being one of the most lawless in the state.
Eventually prohibition was adopted, but illicit
liquor-selling flourished, winked at by the authori-
ties. The town was divided into two hostile, sus-
picious, and bitter groups. With the passing of
the years it became a prosperous business center,
but no effort had succeeded in bringing the two
antagonistic elements together in a working whole.
Any plan proposed by either faction had failed
miserably, and there was no community program.
The project of a social survey was presented at
a meeting of business men by an outsider who was
later invited to make a survey of the town. This
social engineer was wise enough to work with both
groups, and because of his good-fellowship, his
ability to mingle with all kinds of people, his in-
dependence and disinterestedness, he was ulti-
mately able to bring the diverse elements in the
community together for the first time in a common
plan for the welfare of all the people.

In another city the surveyor learned that so-
cially the city was divided into two cliques, each
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 75

led by one of two sisters. One of these was very
wealthy, and the other, because of her newspaper
connections, very influential. The former appar-
ently had little interest in social welfare move-
ments; but the latter was a leader in their pro-
motion. The problem for the surveyor was to
bring both groups together for the support and
direction of a centralized social welfare agency.
When the plan was put into effect, a part of each
group was working. In the course of the next
year or two the social service bureau carried out a
continuously developing program by engaging a
visiting nurse in addition to the trained social
worker and later establishing a day nursery.
Through this constructive plan the city became a
harmonious unit, with its energies concentrated to
solve the common problems.

Besides the history, the surveyor must learn
whether the community is dominantly agricultural,
manufacturing, or commercial; whether it is made
up of retired farmers or is a suburb of a larger
city and therefore largely residential. Other ques-
tions will naturally follow: what are its natural
resources, the soil, climate, waterways, and avail-
able power? and what are its acquired or devel-
oped resources, such as water supply, transporta-
tion, lighting, paving, and sewerage system?

An acquaintance with the governmental régime
is indispensable. Not only must the surveyor
know the type of local or town government, but
he must also be familiar with its relation to the
76 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

county and to the state. The code of state laws,
the method of procedure and rules of the county
officials, especially the county supervisors or com-
missioners, and the local ordinances must be thor-
oughly digested and must be always at hand for
ready reference. Such knowledge will enable the
surveyor to fit his plan for the community into
the general governmental scheme. He would be
helpless unless he knew what are the tax-raising
agencies, what are the legally established social
institutions, such as the different courts, poor
relief administration, almshouse, correctional fa-
cilities, hospitals, child welfare agencies, and what
are the laws governing child labor, juvenile and
adult delinquency, desertion, non-support, adop-
tion of children, school attendance, compensation
for industrial accidents, health and sanitation, and
police protection. The surveyor should make a
special effort to cultivate the officials charged with
the enforcement of these laws and in charge of the
regularly and legally created social agencies.
After the social engineer has acquired a work-
ing knowledge of these factors, he is ready to
begin the inquiry into the more intimate social
facts that the survey must depend upon as a
foundation for the community scheme. These
social data will deal with the people—their nation-
ality, living conditions, occupations, incomes, and
expenses; their facilities for recreation; and the
conditions of sanitation and general health. An
examination must be made into the different
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 77

phases of child life; the amount of juvenile delin-
quency; and the provisions made for neglected,
dependent, and delinquent children. It is not
enough to study the child, the boy or the girl; the
survey should also include the adult and the
family as a unit, with a review of the degree and
kind of adult delinquency, the number of families
more or less dependent, the causes for such de-
pendency, the amount expended for relief by pub-
lic and private agencies, and the character of
efforts made in behalf of the poverty-stricken.
The facts thus gained will lead to an investigation
of the organized social agencies, whether sup-
ported by private or by public funds, to ascertain
their purposes, their forms of organization, their
business methods, their equipment, their manage-
ment and administration, and the efficiency of
operation in attempting to carry out their pur-
poses. As a result, a definite knowledge of their
relation to each other and to the local needs will
be obtained, and judgment may be reached as to
whether they are adequate. All of these facts
have a distinct bearing on the formulation of the
community program.

The background of the survey, as has been
shown, consists of a number of component parts
which dovetail and against which the details will
stand out in full relief. These elements are the
local spirit, type of community, history, natural
and developed resources, social laws, and insti-
tutions. The more minute data to be gathered
78

item by item will be concerned with the population
or people; health; education; recreation; living,
industrial, and economic conditions. A number of
survey outlines with elaborate questionnaires have
been printed. To these reference is made in the
bibliography. Because the method of making a
survey varies with every community it is believed
that the particular content of the questionnaire
must be left largely to the surveyor. Therefore

ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

only a skeleton form is offered here.

SURVEY OUTLINE

I. THE SOCIAL AND LEGAL BACKGROUND

1. History

a.
. type of settlers

. early activities, industrial
. real-estate booms

. early labor disputes

. early political affiliations
. political issues

. local leaders

. social divisions

. early welfare efforts

SS FQ MA Ao &

date of settlement

2. Type of community

Ame aQaanrs

. agricultural—active

. retired farmers

. suburban—residential
. manufacturing

. mining

. commercial

. railroad

3. Natural resources

a.
b.
C.
da.

soil—fertility

climate

available minerals, lumber and coal
drainage
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 79

e. scenic advantages
f. water-power and waterways

4. Acquired or developed resources

. lighting

paving

ATO AS TA

steam
electric

. water supply
. Sewerage system

. available power for manufacturing

. roads, country roads leading to community
. transportation

auto-express

marine

5. Governmental régime

A. State laws

a. regarding children

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

(6)

(11)

support of by legal guardians

adoption of

delinquencies defined and treatment of
juvenile court and probation officers

) mothers’ pensions

school attendance, truancy or school at-
tendance officers, provision for special
classes

child labor

illegitimacy, support of illegitimate child
age of consent

recreation, restrictions on pool and billiard
halls, license regulations, playgrounds,
social centers, wider use of schools

health, inspection of school children

b. regarding adults

(8)

vagrancy, begging

non-support

desertion

intemperance

use of drugs

prostitution

limitation of hours of labor, men and
women

minimum wage
80 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

(9) workmen’s compensation
(10) safety protection in industry
(11) employment bureaus
(12) health, birth registration, reportable dis-

eases, quarantine
(13) settlement or residence
(14) housing
(15) taxation, assessment value
limit of tax levies

state

county

city

sehool

B. State boards and officials having to do with social
welfare: composition, duties, service to local com-
munities, authority

(1) state board of control
(2) board of charities
(3) prison board or board of parole
(4) other boards for control and administration
of state institutions
(5) commission for the blind
(6) factory inspection bureau
(7) bureau of labor statistics and state indus-
trial commission (workmen’s compensation)
(8) board of health
vital statistics
examinations and licenses
protection of local water supply
establishment of local health units
(9) food and dairy commission
protection of food, inspection
inspection of dairies
tuberculin test of cattle
refund for destruction of animals
(10) library commission
(11) state superintendent of public instruction or
education, elected or appointed, or state
board of education
examination of teachers
state aid
inspection and grading of local schools
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 81

(12) department of agriculture
bulletins
extension service
county and state fairs
refund for destruction of crops
(13) highway commission
C. State institutions: location, administration, conditions
of admission, cost to county, support, cost of opera-
tion, population
(1) school for the blind
(2) school for the deaf and dumb
(3) state orphanage
(4) hospital for crippled children
(5) industrial homes for boys and girls
(6) hospitals for the insane
(7) colony for the epileptic
(8) institution for the feeble-minded
(9) sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis
(10) reformatories, farms for misdemeanants
(11) penitentiaries
(12) soldiers’ homes
D. County system of government
a. supervisors or commissioners, number, how elected,
powers
b. tax levy, amount, for what purposes
c. other county boards appointed by supervisors,

duties

d. other county boards independent of supervisors,
duties

e. county superintendent of schools, powers and
duties

f. county institutions
(1) almshouse
(2) hospitals
(3) juvenile detention home or orphanage
(4) jail or reformatory
(5) farm colony
(6) workhouse
g. county board of welfare, composition, duties, rela-
tion to state board or boards and to county super-
visors
h. county board of visitors, composition, duties, re-
lation to state and county authorities
82 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

4. county board of health, composition, duties, rela-
tion to state board
E. Municipal government
a. form
b. tax power and yearly budget, items of same
c. what publicly owned utilities
waterworks
electric-light plant
gas plant
city railroad
ad ordinances
(1) vagrancy
(2) begging
(3) housing
(4) garbage collection and sanitation
e. city boards, how chosen, duties, relation to county
and state
(1) park board, any plan for civie center
(2) recreation commission
(3) board of health
(4) board of charities
(5) board of child welfare
(6) board of public or social welfare
(7) civil service commission
f. courts, how chosen, duties, relation to each other
and to state, county, and city authorities
(1) cireuit or district
(2) county
(3) municipal, domestic relations
(4) police
(5) justice of the peace
g- municipal institutions, supported by municipal,
not by county, funds
(1) outdoor relief
(2) almshouse
(3) children’s home or child-placing agency
(4) hospitals
(5) parks and playgrounds
(6) farm colonies
(7) jails or reformatories
(8) lodging-house
h. school district activities
(1) tax levy and items of budget
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 83

(2) school board, number, how often elected,
functions

(3) schools

(4) social centers

(5) playgrounds

(6) athletics

t. local officials, how chosen, duties, powers
(1) police
(2) town marshal
(3) truant officer
(4) probation officers
(5) judges
(6) township trustees
(7) health officer
(8) sanitary inspector
(9) superintendent of schools
(10) county agent (farm bureau)
(11) county welfare superintendent
(12) overseer of the poor

The first objective of the surveyor should be
the material represented in the above outline. A
knowledge of the legal background and general
characteristics of the community is an indispens-
able tool, and the surveyor makes a grave mistake
if he undertakes to conduct the examination of
community problems and resources without this
preliminary review for his own benefit.

The survey proper may be divided for conven-
ience into three sections, one dealing directly with
the various social, sanitary, industrial, educa-
tional, and recreational conditions; a second treat-
ing these features of community life as they are
found reflected in the individual homes; and the
third giving analytical consideration to the wel-
fare agencies. The methods of compiling the

data should be modified to correspond with the
84

ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

sources of information for each of the three
divisions.

SURVEY OUTLINE
Il. SURVEY PROPER
Section 1. The Community

1. The people

a.
b.
c.
da.
e.
f.
g.

number

nationality

growth or decline by decades

causes for such growth or decline

any congested areas—what is block or acre density?
character of such areas

is population of shifting type? are there constant
removals?

2. Sanitation

a.
b.
Cc.

eo. TO, 8 Q

kind of water supply

extent of use

sewer system; extent of; how completely used? where
available?

. any dump; location of; near homes?

any gullies, ponds, or swamps?

. any bottom-lands that are subject to floods?

. garbage disposal

. condition of streets; how cleaned? how often?
. protection of food and milk

3. Health and vital statistics

a.

b.
e.

number of disease cases recorded within past five years;
what are reportable by law? any epidemics?
death-rates by age, disease, and nationality

birth-rate by nationality

4, Education

a.

schools (indicate number of each type)
(1) type:
public
parochial
(2) grade:
elementary
high
normal
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 85

(3) special:
night
technical
special types of pupils
retarded
feeble-minded
deaf
blind
crippled
medical inspection
. social centers in schools
. number of children of school age
. percentage in attendance
. percentage finishing grades; finishing high school or
other course
. percentage dropping out after passing age of compul-
sory school attendance
. vocational guidance or training
. libraries; kind, accessibility, and use
. art galleries and museums

5. Recreation: kinds, number, equipment, supervision, require-
ments for admission, attendance

a. public through community
(1) parks
(2) pienie grounds
(3) playgrounds
(4) swimming-pools and bath-houses
(5) public baths
(6) social centers
(7) band concerts
(8) municipal dance-halls
(9) athletics—baseball, football, tennis, ete.

b. semi-public, largely philanthropic
(1) settlements
(2) social centers
(3) churches—elubs, classes, gymnasium, lunch clubs,
moving pictures
(4) Y. M. C. A.
(5) Y. W. C. A.
(6) Y. M. H. A.
(7) Knights of Columbus
(8) patriotic societies
(9) Community Service Incorporated

SoF Q wea S
86 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

(10) lodges
(11) Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls; other
boys’ and girls’ clubs
c. commercial recreational facilities
(1) moving-picture shows
(2) dance-halls
(3) theaters
(4) concerts
(5) pool and billiard halls
(6) bowling-alleys
(7) shooting-galleries
(8) skating-rinks
(9) amusement parks
(10) boat excursions

d. miscellaneous
(1) streets
(2) “loafing-places”
(3) club-houses
(4) promenades

6. Crime

a, kinds of courts and their jurisdiction

b. number of arrests and charges preferred
(1) men
(2) women
(3) children

e. convictions and disposition of cases

d. probation officers for children; for adults
(1) how appointed
(2) salaries

e. is suspended sentence used? to what extent?

f. are domestic relations cases summoned by prosecuting
attorney and settled informally, ze., without formal
court hearing?

g. are there women police?

7. Industrial and economic situation

a. per capita wealth of community
b. percentage of homes owned
ce. kinds of employment through different industries
d. number of men, women, and children employed in each
e. steadiness of employment
what industries are operated all year?
what ones are seasonal?
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 87

f. rate of wages paid for different types of work

g. activities of unions, number of unions, degree of con-
trol of industry

h. employers’ leagues, membership, activities

i. strikes in last ten years, causes of, settlement

j. child labor

k. industrial accidents

1. welfare work

m. employment agencies

n. cooperative business enterprises

Section 2. The Homes of the People; Living Conditions

1. The house

type—single, duplex, tenement
number of rooms
owned or rented, amount of rent
ventilation; heat; light; overcrowding
roomers, boarders
repair
2. The sanitation
a. water supply, city, driven well, dug well, cistern
b. toile-—type
c. bath
d. sewer connection

3. The yard
a. space; grassed; condition
b. out-buildings, barns, garage
c. animals kept on premises
d. chicken-yard

4. The family

number of children by age and sex

b. number of adults, father, mother, other relatives

ce. lodgers

d. boarders

e. nationality

f. how long in United States, in state, in community, in
present dwelling

. health of each member of family

. education of each member of family

i. occupation of each member of family (income if pos-

sible)

TS As Ss

=

sso
88 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

j. recreation at home °
k. recreation away from home™

Section 3. Social Welfare Agencies

1, Agencies dealing with needy families
Facts desired:

name of agency

purpose

volume of work

financial report

equipment

method of operation, investigation, records
number of employees and plan of administration
codperation with other agencies

Types of agencies:

a. public relief, county, city, state
(1) poor relief
(2) widows’ or mothers’ pensions
(3) pensions to blind
(4) soldiers’ relief

. associated charities or charity society
American Red Cross

church societies giving aid

lodges

clubs

. Salvation Army, Volunteers of America

. confidential exchange or registration bureau

(Nore: If there is no confidential exchange, the surveyor or
his assistants should compile a card catalog of names of all
families aided during the past year, any family data possible,
problems found in different families, kinds of aid rendered.
This plan will give at least an approximation of the number
of families cared for, types of problems, and duplication of
work.)

FES Oo

2. Child welfare organizations

Facts desired:
any state supervision
purpose of society or institution
auspices under which conducted
volume of work

™ Typical schedules for Section 2 will be found in the appendix,
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 89

finances; amount of yearly budget with items, source of
funds, subscriptions, or endowment
equipment
plan of administration, executive board and employees
rules of admission, placement, and supervision of children
Types of agencies:
. orphanages
. child-placing societies
. boarding-homes
. day nurseries
why necessary? are mothers encouraged to work and
fathers encouraged to shift responsibility?
e. summer outing work
f. milk stations
g. free ice distribution
h, maternity homes

Qa WS

3. Homeless men and women.

Facts desired:
type of work; under what auspices? public or private?
equipment
finances
volume of work
administration, employees
conditions of admission; work test
supervision

Types of agencies:
a. lodging-houses for men
b. cheap hotels
ce. care at jails without arrest
d. boarding-homes for women and girls
e. refuges for unmarried mothers

4. Health

Facts desired:
kind of work; group reached
support
supervision and inspection
finances
volume of work
administration

Types of agencies:
a. visiting nurses
b. clinics
90 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

c. hospitals

d. city and county physicians

e. anti-tuberculosis society

f. social hygiene association

g. society for the prevention of infant mortality
h. rest cottage

7. convalescent homes

j. rest-rooms

k. comfort stations

5. Institutions for special classes

Facts desired:
type of ward
supervision
conducted under what auspices
finances, volume of work, equipment, cleanliness
administration, employees
conditions of admission and discharge

Types of institutions:

a. jails, reformatories, farm colonies
b. detention homes for children
c. hospitals for insane
epileptic
crippled
. homes for aged and infirm
. schools for blind
. schools for deaf
. almshouse
. institution for feeble-minded

SQmro &

6. Voluntary organizations

Facts desired:
name
membership, conditions of membership
purposes, activities
finances

Types of organizations:
a. lodges
b. grange
c. farm bureau
d. women’s clubs
e. men’s social, business, and professional clubs
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 91

f. civic association
g. cooperative societies

7. Churches

Facts desired:
denomination
membership
building and equipment
activities for members and attendants
social center features
finances
cooperation with social welfare agencies

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

To cover such a variety of topics involves a
vast amount of labor and an investigation into
many unexplored fields. However, the investi-
gator will without doubt find much information
available in every instance. The ordinary citizen
does not realize the wealth of significant social
data lying loose, as it were, which may be readily
compiled through the effort of a few questions.
Old residents, ‘‘key’’ people, leading business
men, politicians, physicians, lawyers, ministers,
priests, teachers, officials, the county agricultural
agent, labor leaders, and representatives of any
established social welfare agencies will be glad to
pour into sympathetic ears the history of the
community, its problems, and their dreams for
its welfare. It is sometimes astonishing to one
who has done little community work to find how
eager the people are to discuss the community’s
problems, and it sometimes humbles the investi-
gator to hear the hopes and the struggles of the
92 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

few far-seeing citizens for a more perfect home
city. Often old and much prized treasures of pho-
tographs, old newspapers or clippings, old reports
and letters will be unearthed for the delight of the
stranger. The personal interview will not only
result in obtaining information, but will also en-
list in intimate fashion influential and oftentimes
conservative men and women.

In developing the outline submitted, the sur-
veyor will find that there are two general sources
of information to be utilized for Section 1, dealing
with the community: (1) official reports and statis-
tics, which are already compiled or which he must
compile himself from official sources; and (2) per-
sonal visits, careful scrutiny, and critical observa-
tion on his part. The state and the national cen-
sus, reports of state and local boards of health,
of the state food and dairy commission, of the
state auditor, of the state board of charities and
other state boards, of local and state engineers,
of the county agricultural agent, of the state geo-
graphical survey, of state departments of agricul-
ture and of mines, of state railroad commissioners,
and of the county auditor, county supervisors, and
the city clerk will afford valuable information.
Many states issue a ‘‘blue’’ or ‘‘red’’ book giving
state census reports, lists of officials, changes in
laws, concise summaries of reports of different
state departments, and a review of the general
progress, prosperity, and wealth of the state.
Such books are invaluable. The state code, rules
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 93

of the county board of supervisors or county com-
missioners, and local ordinances must always be
in the possession of the surveyor and diligently
studied.

The secretary of the school board or the super-
intendent will be able to give local schcol statis-
tics, but it will also be necessary to consult the
state superintendent of instruction or state board
of education to learn the rating of the schools.
The surveyor should personally visit all educa-
tional institutions in the community in order to
appreciate the plant and equipment, and should
interview each principal and superintendent.

The survey of recreational facilities should be
most exhaustive, since in many communities the
problem of recreation is most pressing, but is sel-
dom recognized except by a few thoughtful fathers
and mothers. Reports of the local park board,
of settlements, churches, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A.,
Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, lodges, and other
public or private agencies should be reviewed and
their facilities carefully investigated. All com-
mercial amusement places should be quietly vis-
ited, not once, but often enough to understand
their character and their patronage. The sur-
veyor must be on the alert when on the street to
observe play spaces for children, ‘‘loafing- -
places,’? and the conduct of young men and
women on the streets, especially at night and on
Saturday and Sunday nights.

Figures regarding both juvenile and adult de-
94 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

linquency should be secured. They may be ob-
tained from the different courts, from police, town
marshal, and probation, parole, and truant or
school attendance officers.

Employment offices, unions, pay-rolls, commer-
cial organizations, employers, and state depart-
ments of labor and factory inspection will furnish
data regarding rate of wages, types and regularity
of employment, industrial accidents, child labor,
and welfare work. Typical shops, factories, and
stores should be visited.

Three possible methods for securing data re-
garding the home life of the people may be sug-
gested:

1. A house-to-house canvass may be made and
a simple card schedule filled out, giving the most
essential data. If this plan is used, volunteers
who have been instructed and drilled in approach
to the family, and in the necessity for obtaining
complete replies to all questions on the schedule,
or trained workers, local or imported for the sur-
vey, may be used. The questions must be direct,
simple, and not too personal. Rarely is it advis-
able to attempt to learn the wage or salary, or
the value of property and whether or not it is
mortgaged.

2. The second plan is to fill out schedules for
families living in different parts of the community
and representing different types of homes. This
canvass of representative or typical homes is more
satisfactory than a block survey, which is apt to
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 95

bring into too great prominence a certain group
of families which may or may not be typical.
Sometimes a study is made of the families that
have been aided by the local charities the previous
year, or of families in which there is evident need
for some kind of social service. This study of a
special type of families is very helpful for limited
surveys.

3. The third method is possible only in small
communities in which the publicity campaign has
been sufficiently extensive to result in enlisting
the codperative support of all the citizens. It con-
sists in distributing family cards or questionnaires
to every family, to be filled in by the family and
returned to the central committee or to ward or
precinct chairman. This third plan is by far the
most effective method, but it necessitates an
elaborate system of education and a comprehen-
sive organization of all the citizens.

The outline of Section 3, dealing with social
welfare agencies, indicates the general method to
be followed in studying the various types of or-
ganizations. It is a wise plan to analyze the re-
ports covering at least the preceding five years of
the organization’s history to ascertain its growth
and to gain an idea of its influence in the com-
munity. Equipment, management, executive
force, finances, purpose, and membership or pa-
trons and patronage should be thoroughly investi-
gated, together with the working relationship that
exists between societies of related purposes. The
96 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

executive secretaries can give succinct evidence
of the spirit dominant among welfare agencies
and of their codperation or lack of it. They will
also give voice to their ideas of the social needs
of the community and the plan they consider
feasible for meeting them. The intelligent coop-
eration of the welfare agencies will do much to
make the social survey successful in the accom-
plishment of community organization.

All statistics should be as complete as possible,
and none should be used unless their accuracy is
vouched for by authorized agents. All facts must
be recorded, even if they should seem to the in-
vestigator to be unimportant or contradictory, and
no obstacle should be allowed to stand in the way
of securing data essential for interpreting the
local situation. In one city some difficulty was
encountered in obtaining access to the records of
poor relief. It was necessary to secure the con-
sent of the supervisors, and even to bring some
pressure from the business men’s organization
that was financing the survey, although the rec-
ords were public records. When the data were
finally secured, it was discovered that there was
no adequate system of records, data being kept
only by means of the stubs of the overseer of the
poor’s order books. In order to determine the
number of different families aided and the kind
and amount of aid given, it was necessary to
compile a card catalog on which to tabulate the
data obtained. Consequently the stubs of all or-
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 97

ders issued during a certain period were checked
through, and the information thus secured was
‘transcribed to the cards.

The surveyor should be careful to make notes
as he gathers the data, and should not trust to his
memory. Diagrams, maps, and pictures secured
during the course of the survey will be most help-
ful when he begins to assemble his data.

After all the data have been accumulated, they
must be organized, summed up, and analyzed. All
possible facts relating to any problem and to its
different phases must be considered and carefully
checked to avoid errors. When a surprising con-
dition is revealed, the surveyor must not jump at
conclusions as to causes, but must weigh all pos-
sible evidence that may have any bearing on it.
Unrelated data must not be compared, and partial
data must not be given equal consideration with
complete data.1® The analysis should reveal all
of the social problems; also the different types of
social welfare agencies, their interrelations,
their weaknesses and their strength. The survey
must present the life of the community as it is.

IMPORTANCE OF SCHEDULES

While there are certain fundamental principles
that always govern the conduct of a survey, the
specific method of procedure and organization
must conform to the local situation. <A similar
statement may be made regarding the type of

*% These suggestions represent recognized statistical principles.
98 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

schedule or blank by means of which the data may
be secured. Comparatively simple schedules must
be the rule when volunteers are the visitors.
Schedules used by professional or governmental
surveyors are elaborate, exhaustive, and some-
what complicated. In any instance, the same form
can seldom be used in two communities. The
purpose of the survey—that is, the kind of survey,
general, comprehensive, informal, unit, or con-
tinuous—and the type of community in which the
survey is to be made will determine the scope of
the schedule and suggest both its content and
form.

A few simple rules for guidance in preparing a
survey blank may be offered. If a card is used,
ruled and blocked in for answers, every item must
be definitely stated, so that there is no question
as to the way in which the answer should be indi-
cated. If there are abbreviations, a key to their
meaning should always be given. In case a reg-
ular questionnaire form is used, the questions
should be clear and if possible so phrased that a
number or ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no’’ can serve as the an-
swer. If it is not possible, then the questions
should call for very brief explanatory replies.
Before visitors are sent out with the schedules,
they must be made thoroughly conversant with
the questions and the type of answers desired.
It is a good plan to furnish each visitor with type-
written directions or instructions. The size of
the schedule will vary from eight by eleven to five
SURVEY METHODS AND DATA 99

by eight inches. It should, however, be of such
size and shape that it can be easily handled.

Volunteer visitors are always concerned about
how they shall gain admission to the house and
how they shall enlist the interest of the family
called upon, so that answers to all the questions
of the schedule may be obtained. If the publicity
campaign has been effective, the majority of the
people will understand the purpose of the survey
and the visitor will encounter few obstacles. If
the survey is not generally understood, it will
devolve upon the visitor to explain what she is
doing and why. Volunteer visitors are almost
always shy, self-conscious, and uncertain in their
approach to the family. They should be made to
appreciate the fact that a friendly, neighborly
attitude on their part, a courteous manner, and
tactful directness will secure a responsive interest.
The successful volunteer is invariably surprised
at the cooperative spirit manifested.?®

%In the appendix is given a series of schedule forms with a
brief explanation of each. These schedules are not presented as
absolute or ideal forms, but are offered simply as practical sug-
gestions for surveys of different kinds. The instructor in com-
munity organization will find an enlightening exercise in requiring
the student to prepare a trial survey outline and home ecard

which might be used in a town known to the student or one for
which the size and brief description of conditions are given.
CHAPTER IV
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION

TYPES OF SOCIAL WELFARE ACTIVITIES FOR THE
SMALLER TOWN AND CITY

For the purpose of outlining practical forms of
town organization, an arbitrary division has been
drawn. The village under 2500 will be included in
the chapter on rural organization. This chapter
deals primarily with the incorporated town of
from 2500 to 25,000, although the centralized form
of organization suggested has been adopted in
towns as large as 40,000 and is readily adaptable
to the town up to 100,000. As a matter of fact, the
plan of organization given merges into the county
welfare plan discussed in the chapter dealing with
the organization of the county.

It is not always possible at once to correlate
and coérdinate the community activities in a com-
mon plan. Several months or even years may be
spent in educating the citizens to recognize the
need for codperative and well directed community
effort. In the meantime, interest may be aroused
by carrying to completion some definite social
welfare project. Besides, it will be found that an

understanding of the different phases of the social
100
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 101

field will aid materially in approaching the often
difficult problem of effecting community or-
ganization.

The usual social welfare activities of the small
town include (1) civics or legalized service, 4.e.,
service guaranteed and established by statute or
ordinance, and civic improvement; (2) education;
(3) recreation; (4) public health and sanitation;
(5) moral and religious welfare; (6) economic wel-
fare; (7) family and (8) child welfare. It is diffi-
cult to separate the field into these groups, and
the classification is a purely tentative one. The
differentiation is made simply to indicate that
different communities may find it easier to start
at some one point and gradually extend their ac-
tivities over the entire field. It will be readily
appreciated that there is a very close relationship
and interplay among the divisions. For example,
recreation promotes education; the welfare of the
child and the family is dependent upon economic
sufficiency, which in turn largely depends on edu-
cation, health, and attainment of legal rights.
Social and industrial efficiency are in large meas-
ure determined by the way in which leisure time
is expended.

It is sometimes possible to arouse the interest
of the citizens in a community movement by a
series of lectures on social welfare subjects. Such
a program might well be considered a part of a
publicity campaign, in view of an often astonish-
ing ignorance of what constitutes social problems
102 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and of the most elementary methods of dealing
with them. The assistance of the Extension
Division of the State Agricultural College or State
University may be secured to help plan and con-
duct such a lecture or study course. In some
towns a civic movement has stimulated interest in
local conditions and led to a study of social laws
and institutions of the state and the community.
The civic effort may revolve about a plan to beau-
tify the city, to secure the adoption of a city plan
with a civic center, to promote garden club con-
tests and clean-up day campaigns, or may concern
itself simply with the selection of a committee to
patrol streets and alleys and notify owners to
clean them if they are cluttered up with rubbish
or with refuse. To provide recreation, the com-
munity may buy a park, establish playgrounds
with supervision and equipment, conduct com-
munity singing, band concerts, athletic contests,
promote pageants, dramatic clubs, Boy Scouts,
Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, and organize social
centers in the public schools, a community Christ-
mas tree, a Fourth-of-July celebration, an old
settlers’ picnic, a home-coming or a community-
day institute.

The town may need a library, a new school
building, or an addition to the present one or new
equipment. A lecture or lyceum course or summer
Chautauqua may be sponsored. With the codpera-
tion of citizens and theater managers, a superior
grade of motion pictures may be secured. Ameri-
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 103

canization and citizenship classes may be ar-
ranged. To conserve the health interests, a hos-
pital may be built, quarantine laws more strictly
enforced, a visiting nurse or community nurse
employed, baby and child welfare contests, dem-
onstrations, and exhibits held, a practical plan
for the disposition of garbage worked out, and a
municipal water plant or sewer system may be
secured.

Perhaps better housing should be advocated.
The establishment of comfort stations and rest-
rooms is possible even in the smaller towns. Sani-
tary conditions in grocery and meat markets
should be demanded and, if necessary, the help of
the state food and dairy commission solicited.
Child welfare interests may be promoted by utiliz-
ing the services of the juvenile court and the tru-
ancy department of the public school and insist-
ing upon modern methods of child-placing. The
welfare of the child, however, will be insured most
effectively through the development of high stand-
ards of home life and by protection against those
forces that tend to destroy moral stability. For
the care of the needy family there must be a
mutual understanding among the different agen-
cies giving relief, to avoid duplication of effort;
there must be tactful, confidential investigations
and constructive plans for the family’s future to
enable the family to become self-supporting, if
that is possible. An employment exchange, even
in very simple form, is most helpful. Besides, the
104 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

community is under obligation to enforce the child
labor law and to prevent dangerous or insanitary
working conditions for all workers.

In adopting any form of activity extreme care
must be taken to make sure that it is desirable
and meets an actual need. No plan should be im-
ported bodily just because it has proved a success
in some other city. It may not work in a different
community. For example, a town of 3000 people
had a very pretty little park lying at the farther
edge of the town limits. Some one conceived the
idea of establishing a playground there. A
wealthy citizen became interested and furnished
the money for various kinds of apparatus. The
idea was commendable, but because of its location
the playground was little used. The promoters of
the movement were much discouraged, and the
generous citizen was disinclined at a later date to
give money for what promised to be a compre-
hensive and practical community program because
the earlier social welfare venture had been a
failure.

FORMS OF ORGANIZATION FOR THE SMALL TOWN

There are two more or less generally used forms
of organization in the small town. The first is the
promotion and often the administration of a social
welfare activity affecting the entire community
by a small or select group; the second is the cen-
tralization of all existing agencies engaged in
social welfare work into a compact unit for the
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 105

consideration of local needs and the development
of those activities that best advance the general
welfare.

As an example of the first type may be cited
the work of women’s clubs, which have been very
active in civic affairs and which have in many of
the small towns organized improvement or civic
leagues or associations. Theoretically, member-
ship is open to every woman in the community.
As a matter of fact, only a small percentage of the
women usually belong. Various standing com-
mittees are appointed having to do with sanita-
tion, education, beautification, streets and alleys,
rest-rooms, tree culture, charity, membership, and
finance. Often many reforms are carried out and
a stronger community pride is developed.

The principal criticism of this form of organiza-
tion is that it is limited to women, or, if not limited
to women, is engineered and largely officered by
women. Membership in a community organization
should be open to every resident, and the officers
and executive board should be representative of
all local interests. As a town grows there is apt
to follow a separation of the citizens into small
units, with lines of division determined by birth,
social position, or wealth. There may be among
the groups a great deal of community feeling, but
unless it is organized it remains ineffective.

Sometimes it is possible to develop an existing
agency into a community organization by chang-
ing the conditions of membership so as to include
106 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

all residents of the community and by enlarging
the scope of its program. The original name may
be retained or a new one may be chosen in keeping
with the plan of reorganization. One serious diffi-
culty with this type of association is that its
earlier constitution and program remain in the
minds of the citizens. Consequently its effort to
become a community organization may be un-
successful.

The second plan, which is the centralization of
welfare effort, may involve an actual consolidation
of existing privately supported agencies into one
organization or the combination of public and
private social welfare agencies under a board rep-
resentative of both and financed by both. The
trained social worker employed as the executive
secretary by the joint board would carry on the
functions of both the private and public groups.
Opportunity for membership should be extended
to any citizen on payment of a nominal member-
ship fee. The directing board should be composed
of from twelve to twenty representative citizens
(both men and women) who are responsible for
the administration of the organization.

The following examples will illustrate methods
of centralization. In a town of 17,000, in which
there had been no centralized effort to consider the
social problems that were evident to the most
casual observer, a movement was started as the
result of the Christmas giving, which had stirred
every one concerned by its revelation of poverty,
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 107

neglected children, bad housing. and the unneces-
sary duplication of relief. A welfare association
was organized, with a board composed of repre-
sentatives of churches, lodges, commercial and
civic organizations, the Y. M. C. A. and the
Y. W. C. A., and of certain city and county
officials. A social survey was made, and outlined
what promised to be the most effective methods
of serving the community. A trained social
worker was employed, a modern system of rec-
ords was installed, and the administration of all
private relief was delegated to the new society.
The probation work of the juvenile courts and
the truancy work of the public schools were also
placed within the jurisdiction of the welfare
agency. The city provided office room in its beau-
tiful new city hall. Later a visiting nurse was
added to the staff and a day nursery was opened.
The work of the welfare association was not
limited to the administration of relief funds, but
included the promotion and direction of other
city activities: for example, the holding of a child
welfare week, with lectures, motion pictures, ex-
aminations, and exhibits.

In another community of 24,000 a social survey
was made at the request of the commercial club.
The most active welfare agency had failed because
of lack of funds and had been disbanded about a
year before, and as a result the social work of
the city was in a rather chaotic condition. The
data for the survey were gathered largely by vol-
108 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

unteers, many of whom for the first time in their
lives came in intimate contact with the individual
families who live at the margin of economic and
social life. Their interest in an attempt to solve
some of the problems and prevent their recurrence
helped greatly to promote a centralized agency.
No one wanted merely another society. There
were already a number of agencies in the city that
were collecting funds for social welfare but that
lacked the right leadership and policies to accom-
plish anything of permanent value.

As a result of the survey, of conferences with
the representatives of all organized groups of the
city, and a big mass-meeting, two of the oldest and
most influential societies voted themselves out of
existence and agreed to turn over their activities
and their funds to a new agency which should be
representative of all the phases of community life.
Accordingly, a social service league was formed
and a trained social worker employed as secretary.
The secretary was made truant officer, and in her
office and closely associated with her is the school
nurse. The visiting nurse is a member of the
staff and her salary is paid from the funds of the
league. The league has brought together, in a
working relationship hitherto unknown in this
community, the police department, the park de-
partment, the school board, the board of health,
the churches, the women’s clubs, and the business
and professional men.

Following a social survey in 1916, a city of
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 109

24,000 developed the Bureau of Community Serv-
ice, which absorbed three distinct agencies, the
Associated Charities, the Anti-Tuberculosis
League, and the General Survey Committee.
There is a board of managers, whose members are
in turn chairmen of special committees on
finance, better housing, fresh-air camp, family
service, recreation, Boy Scouts, health, commun-
ity house, and legal matters. The Bureau codper-
ates with the city and county authorities, the
school board, and all other governmental as well
as privately supported agencies. The one finan-
cial campaign that has resulted from the central-
ization of social effort has increased the amount
spent for social service from $3500 in 1916 to
$15,000 in 1920. One out of every fifteen citizens
is a contributor giving at least the dollar-a-year
membership fee. The activities include play-
grounds, fresh-air camp, free employment serv-
ice, relief, clinics, and nursing service; the latter
two projects are operated and financed in codpera-
tion with the state and the city.

METHODS OF EFFECTING ORGANIZATION

In effecting organization the survey is most
helpful. Some communities that have struggled
long in the effort to secure codrdination of their
social welfare activities have attained their goal
through a survey. Because the stability of an or-
ganization will depend upon the need for it, upon
the kind of directing board chosen, and upon the
110 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

support of the community, the method of present-
ing the plan is vital. As outlined in Chapter II,
the report of the survey should be presented at a
mass-meeting. The first problem relative to this
meeting that confronts the survey committee is
that of obtaining a large and representative at-
tendance. General publicity through newspapers,
posters, and announcements in churches, schools,
clubs, and lodges, as well as personal invitations
by letter and telephone, should be utilized. Then
follows the problem of conducting the open dis-
cussion and of securing final action.

The success of the community program will de-
pend largely upon the handling of the mass-meet-
ing. Considerable enthusiasm must be created,
and the method can not be left to the chance of
the moment. It is assumed that the survey com-
mittee is unanimous in its support of the plan.
In accordance with the community program
agreed upon, the committee should draft a tenta-
tive slate of members for the executive board.
Otherwise men and women who are present are
apt to be nominated from the floor simply be-
cause they are present, regardless of their quali-
fications for service as board members.

The details of the community plan and the con-
tent of the report should not be given out before
the mass-meeting. The chairman of the mass-
meeting may be the chairman of the survey com-
mittee, or he may be a popular citizen who is
known to make a good presiding officer. He
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 111

should by all means be a member of the committee,
or at least conversant with all the plans. After
the report has been read, a member of the com-
mittee or some one selected for the purpose should
make a motion that it is the sense of the meeting
that the report be accepted and that the plan for
organization be immediately put into effect. Re-
marks upon the motion are then in order, and the
plan may be freely discussed. The discussion
must not be permitted to drag. A vote should be
taken, and immediately the opportune moment
should be seized and another motion put that a
committee be appointed to nominate a suitable
board. A member of the survey committee should
be placed on the nominating committee, one who
knows the tentative list of board members agreed
upon.

Changes may seem advisable after the nominat-
ing committee meets, and further changes may
be necessary if other nominations are desired
from the floor. Care must be taken not to prevent
democratic action and not to conduct the meeting
in such fashion that the assembly feels that every-
thing is ‘‘cut and dried.’’ After the board is
elected the meeting may be adjourned. The board
usually elects its own officers from its member-
ship. The responsibility for financing the associa-
tion and securing the executive officer or worker
devolves upon the newly elected board.
112 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

FURTHER ASPECTS OF ORGANIZATION As

Since no organization can run itself, executive
responsibility must be fixed. The community pro-
gram should be centered in a federated or codper-
ative and representative centralized bureau, with
a trained social worker as the community secre-
tary. The plan of community organization may
not always effect an absolute combination of local
societies with similar or related purposes. In
the small community, actual combination is highly
desirable, but should never be attempted unless
there is unanimity of feeling and a hearty willing-
ness and desire to give up independent entity and
merge all effort and activity in the one centralized
agency. Sometimes federation will prove the
wiser course, the societies retaining their inde-
pendence, but electing representatives to the
board of the community association and sharing
the responsibility for the administration of the
community program. It may be possible that
there are organized groups that can not give up
their identity. Some of these may be purely local,
others, branches of state and national associa-
tions. These independent groups can act with a
federation, though they could not become a part of
a consolidation. Specifically, a federated plan is
representative of all local groups, and the pro-
gram adopted is carried out not by the federation
as a unit but by the constituent agencies. The
federation board and committees decide upon
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 113

policies, standards, and desirable activities, which
are then referred back for adoption and adminis-
tration to the different organizations. Federation
may precede actual consolidation or combination
-and serve as the preliminary step in that direc-
tion. However, no matter what the type of or-
ganization, a community secretary is necessary to
insure the actual carrying out of the program.

In some communities the employment of a
trained social worker, no matter how badly
needed or how generally that need was recognized,
has been an impossibility because of the difficulty
of raising money. The plan for a coordinated
social welfare agency makes the raising of one
definite yearly budget for all purposes feasible
and appeals strongly to the business men. Some-
times the school board, the city council, or the
county commissioners will make an appropriation
for services rendered in enforcing the school at-
tendance law, in acting as probation officer for the
juvenile court, or in investigating applicants for
public relief. The appointment of the social
worker as overseer of the poor is sometimes de-
sirable, as will be indicated in Chapter VI under
the heading, ‘‘the Iowa Plan.’’

In some communities it may be found that the
people are agitating the employment of a com-
munity nurse. In this event a community health
association may be possible, organized on the
broad basis of community participation and rep-
resentation, The public health nurse then be-
114 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

comes the executive or community secretary, just
as the social worker does when employed by a
community organization. In such a position the
public health nurse would face the questions of
organization of the entire community and the de-
velopment of the health association into an agency
that will include in its program recreation, family
and child welfare, which can not be separated from
any thorough effort to promote health.

The community secretary does not have an easy
task. In the large city the social worker is a
specialist; in the small community he must be a
‘general practitioner.’? His training must be of
the broadest kind; he must be able to mingle
freely with all kinds of people. He must be good-
natured but keen-witted. Energy and enthusiasm
are indispensable. He must be familiar with dif-
ferent types of communities, forms of organiza-
tion, and possible activities, and be able to esti-
mate the facilities at his disposal in his commun-
ity. One of the most frequent mistakes the social
worker makes is to assume entire responsibility
for the conduct of the organization. Such a
course may at first be commended by the board
members and the members of the association, but
ultimately it means the loss of their interest and
support and may even result in complete disor-
ganization. The best plan is to give as many
people as possible something to do and to throw
responsibility upon the controlling board.

In his relation to the people of the community,
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 115

the secretary must not show favoritism nor con-
fine his interest to any one group. The community
organization should never be allowed to degener-
ate into the organ of any one clique. No one in-
terest should dominate it or frame its policies.
The secretary must be prepared for some criti-
cism, and must be more or less oblivious to it,
though it may sometimes furnish important sug-
gestions for improvement in methods and there-
fore can not be utterly disregarded.

The detailed work will revolve around the pro-
motion of those measures that will strengthen the
bulwarks of the normal family, including regular
and profitable employment, recreation for all the
family, sanitation and health, education, and
moral and spiritual welfare. It will naturally in-
clude the care of the needy family and the neg-
lected child. In this connection it may be well to
note that the latter problems present themselves
insistently even in the small town, though their
full significance is not always realized. For in-
stance, the social survey of a town of 5000 dis-
closed the fact that no fewer than one hundred
and two families, or in the neighborhood of five
hundred individuals, had received or were known
to need some kind of social service within the
preceding year. Of these one hundred and two
families, twenty-two were not charity cases, but
presented other problems such as child neglect,
incompetent homes, and bad management. Of
the eighty families receiving aid, nine had aid
116 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

only at Christmas-time, twenty had been aided
from private funds, and fifty-one had received
some form of aid from county funds. Some dup-
lication occurred: nineteen families received aid
from two sources; seven from three sources; three
from four; and one family from five sources. It
is not necessarily a bad thing for several organiza-
tions to be interested in one family, provided each
society or individual knows that the others are
interested and are not duplicating relief or effort.
On the contrary, unwise duplication results in
waste of money, time, and energy. The worst
feature, however, is the effect upon the family,
which may only too easily learn ease of begging
and become content to live at the expense of the
town. The situation is complicated in the small
unorganized community by the liberality of indi-
vidual citizens in answer to appeals for aid made
directly to them. It is almost impossible to secure
any adequate idea of the extent of the private
charity disbursed by individuals.

Another bad feature of charity administration
in the small town is the frequency with which
children are sent to make application for aid.
Children learn all too soon the hard lessons of
life and they easily develop into first-class beg-
gars. Besides, investigations are almost always
inadequate, and the father is often permitted to
shift responsibility for the support of his family
to his wife, to the charitably disposed citizens, or
to the public treasury. Another common practice
SMALL-TOWN ORGANIZATION 117

in the smaller towns is the ‘‘shipping on’’ of ap-
plicants from one railroad center to another. It
seems an easy way to get rid of dependents. How-
ever, the practice is an expensive one, since it
results in encouraging floaters, drifters, and shift-
less families. Various surveys in towns of from
5000 to 40,000 have clearly revealed this problem
of family welfare and relief administration.
Therefore it seems logical that the community
secretary should be trained to handle the care of
needy families.

The first undertaking should be a comparatively
simple one and one sure of accomplishment. The
program should develop consistently, each project
succeeding the other naturally and as the out-
growth of present needs. The board must always
keep in advance of the community and at work
on the formulation of new plans, so that as soon
as one venture is squarely on its feet another may
be ready to stimulate the interest and absorb the
energy of the community. No matter how the
community agency is organized in the beginning,
no matter what the primary purpose may be or
the kind of worker employed, the ideal must be
the eventual inclusion in the community program
of all the community needs.
CHAPTER V
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Untit very recently community organization
was largely confined within the corporate limits
of town or city. The country resident was little
considered. He was too often regarded by the
town resident as an alien. The little town was
desirous of being like the big city and eagerly
adopted city social welfare methods and pro-
grams, although they were not always suitable.
However, within the last few years the social
vision has broadened to include a recognition of
the needs and opportunities for social welfare in
the rural districts. The economics of food pro-
duction has helped to focus attention upon the
farmer. Besides, under the pressure of food
shortage the mutual dependence of the farmer
and the townsman has come to be acknowledged.
As a result a new conception of community has
developed. The community is no longer regarded
as confined within the set boundaries of an in-
corporated town or city, but has come to mean
both the townspeople and the country dwellers
who reside within a certain trade area. Hence it
has become necessary to devise some form of or-

ganization by means of which the two elements
118
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 119

of the community may be brought together. Prin-
ciples and methods hitherto developed and applied
in town and city have been freely drawn upon
and have been modified through the unique perti-
nencies of the situation.

The rural community almost invariably pos-
sesses some organizations. In some communities
there are many of them. It is not unusual to find
several churches each with its ladies’ aid and mis-
sionary societies, several social clubs, lodges, a
parent-teacher or mothers’ club, a child welfare
club, a civic improvement league, and a farmers’
society, as well as the authorized governmental
agencies. The task of community organization is
to perfect such an understanding of community
problems and to develop such a sense of responsi-
bility for improvement that all the people and
organized groups will join working forces to solve
their common problems. While rural problems
are varied and have to do with agriculture, the
home, education, public health, and recreation,
they are closely interwoven, and can not be satis-
factorily met unless the community adopts a plan
that embraces them all and that will deal with all
their phases in the course of a number of years.
In other words, the community program must in-
clude a long-term plan the continuous development
of which will depend upon the results actually
achieved. The plan must be businesslike, and
must be carried out by means of the machinery
the people themselves set up and man. Local
120 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

leaders supported by local community sentiment
are indispensable.

In the community there may be division of in-
terests or indifference and apathy. If this con-
dition should have been of many years’ standing,
it is very difficult to arouse the citizens to any
active effort. In some instances the citizens may
individually have desired some community move-
ment, but have either lacked the self-confidence
to go ahead or have not known just how to pro-
ceed. Before any steps can be taken there must
of necessity be a nucleus of interested, alert, and
aggressive individuals. They must be convinced
of the possibility of organizing the community to
meet its own problems, and must be imbued with
the desire to carry the message of community
unity to every friend and acquaintance.

The method to be used in initiating any com-
munity organization may be similar to that de-
veloped in the chapter dealing with the social
survey, especially the method of procedure.
There may be group meetings to arouse interest
and then a public mass-meeting to discuss the
project. A promotion committee may be selected
to enlist the codperation of every citizen and of
every organized group. If it is possible, a social
survey should be undertaken. It should include
an inventory of farm production, farm manage-
ment, transportation, roads, telephone service,
facilities for storage of farm products, types of
homes and their conveniences, the interests of
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 121

the people themselves, the provision made for the
welfare of boys and girls, recreational facilities
for children and adults, health conditions, educa-
tional resources and school equipment, civic and
governmental machinery and administration, and
agencies that make for and against public
morality.

The survey will give facts to be used as argu-
ments for a community program, and above all
will give a sound foundation for it. The plan for
rural community welfare may include plans for
improvement of actual farming operations, for
closer codperation between townsmen and farm-
ers, and also for improvement of general com-
munity and home conditions.

FORMS OF RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION

Sometimes in the rural community, as in the
small town, some one group or society will attempt
to serve as a community organization. For ex-
ample, parent-teacher associations or mothers’
clubs frequently promote the use of the schools
as social centers, plan the programs, endeavor to
bring the rural and town patrons together, and
conduct child welfare institutes lasting for sev-
eral days, together with baby contests, examina-
tions, and child welfare exhibits.

In Virginia the Codperative Education Asso-
ciation was organized in 1904, and since that
time has developed more than twelve hundred
community leagues throughout the state. The
122 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

school district is the unit of organization. The
purpose is ‘‘to make the public school in Virginia
a community center, where the citizens may unite
for the improvement of their education, and social,
moral, physical, civic, and economic interests.’’
The model constitution suggested provides for
committees on (1) education, (2) entertainment,
social and recreational life, (3) food production
and conservation, (4) roads and streets, (5) health
and sanitation, and (6) publicity, membership,
and citizenship. In its Community League Bul-
letin the Codperative Education Association of
Virginia has outlined a very comprehensive pro-
gram for each committee. The suggestions are
so pertinent that they are reproduced here with
the consent of George W. Guy, the executive sec-
retary.
EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

We here indicate a number of things that this committee
should attend to. Perhaps no one committee can or would
care to take up all of these items, but certain ones (very
naturally the most important for the specific community)
should be decided on and carried to completion, even though
it may take some time to do so.

1. If your school building is in bad condition, have it repaired
or go to work to secure a new one.

. Have the school building put in perfect order for the
opening of school each year, then have it kept in the
best condition.

3. Make and keep the school grounds and surroundings at-
tractive.

4. Secure a library for your school and community. If you

5

6

do

have one already, enlarge it each year.

. Secure complete enrolment and perfect attendance of school
children.

. Lengthen the school term if it is less than nine months.
13.
14,

RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 123

. If there is or can be created sufficient demand for a night
school, endeavor to provide one.

. Help secure the very best teachers, then keep them.

. Erect or purchase a teacherage or principal’s home.

. Provide employment for principal of school, that he may
remain in the community throughout the year.

. Install domestic science and manual arts equipment if it
has not already been done.

. If yours is a small one-room school, bring about consoli-

dation with some other school.
Hold a Special School Improvement Day celebration.
Hold an annual School and Community Fair.

SOCIAL, RECREATIONAL, AND ENTERTAINMENT

COMMITTEE
Select a number of the suggestions here given as your pro-

gram for the year, then make the program a success.

1.

9.

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Prepare a good social program for each regular League
meeting.

. Make the social features of the special school, health, high-

ways, and food meetings very attractive.

. Hold a May or Community Day celebration in connection

with the meeting of the League.

. Prepare a special Fourth-of-July or Independence Day

program.

. Arrange for a union Thanksgiving service.

Have a community Christmas tree.

. Arrange for contests between the young people of your

community and other communities.

. Endeavor to have each family or group of families put in
tennis or croquet courts, or something similar, so that
the entire family may play.

Hold a reception for the teachers each year, or for any
new ministers that may have come into the community.

Nore: Have contests in games and athletics on just as many

the special days as possible.)

CIVIC, MORAL, AND HOME IMPROVEMENT
COMMITTEE

These are only a few suggestions for this committee, and

each community will be able to decide on many other things
that will improve the civic, moral, and home life of the people.
124 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The committee, therefore, should carry out these suggestions
and others that it may decide on.
1, Arrange civic improvement contests.
2. Planting Day.
3. Vine-covered porches and out-houses.
4. Attractive stores.
5. Attractive railway station.
6. Improve county court-house and surroundings.
7. Attractive town and city parks, and vacant property.
8. Beautify the cemetery or graveyard.
9. Replace immoral by wholesome moral meeting-places.
10. Visit jails and almshouses.
11. Provide for the care of neglected and delinquent children.
12. Promote church and Sunday-school activities.
13. Regular chapel services in the school.
14. Observe a church improvement day.
15. Home life meeting.
16. Codperate with home demonstration agents.

COMMITTEE ON FOOD PRODUCTION AND
CONSERVATION

Perhaps no one community will be able to carry out all the
suggestions made below, but these are mentioned in order that
the committee may decide on a few definite things.

. Improve general farming.

. Arrange for codperative storage and selling.

. Develop interest in better stock-raising.

. Encourage home dairying.

. Interest young and old in poultry.

Stimulate fruit-raising in every community.

Have every family raise a garden.

. Interest boys and girls in club work.

. Codperate with Farmers’ Union and farm demonstration
agent.

. Secure bulletins on these subjects.

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>

COMMITTEE ON ROADS AND STREETS

Suggestions for the Committee on Roads and Streets, which
should be carried out to the fullest extent possible.
1. Make plans for the upkeep of each neighborhood road.
2. Hold a special good roads meeting.
3. Arrange a special day for actually working the roads.
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 125

4. Take care of the main highways.

5. Keep before the community the necessity for and the
value of good roads.

6. See that the town or city streets are kept clean and in good
condition.

7. Have good sidewalks in the town or city community.

HEALTH COMMITTEE

The work of this committee is exceedingly important at this
time, and if possible every suggestion here should be carried
out.

. Improve health conditions in the home.

. Secure the best of health conditions in the school.
. Provide medical inspection for school children.
Secure a visiting school nurse.

Handle contagious diseases vigorously.

. Correct physical defects of school children.

. Destroy the fly and its breeding-places.

. Hold special clean-up days each year.

. Observe a special health day program.

WONROAP WDE

COMMITTEE ON MEMBERSHIP, PUBLICITY, AND
CITIZENSHIP

1, Gather and publish social and League news.

2. Keep up a constant campaign for members.

3. Do not lose the old members.

4. See that every man of voting age qualifies himself to vote.

While no one plan of organization is ideal for
every rural community, there are two general
types that may be adapted as the local conditions
demand. These two forms may be called (1) the
community club plan and (2) the community
council plan.

1. The Community Club Plan

In some communities may be found a few or-
ganized groups such as church societies and
126 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

lodges, but no association whose purpose has to
do with the community as a whole. This situa-
tion makes possible the organization of a com-
munity club ?° to which every resident of the com-
munity over eighteen years of age may belong.
The objects should include the holding of public
meetings after the manner of public forums for
the free discussion of matters pertaining to the
welfare of the community, and the actual carry-
ing out of those projects that the members agree
are necessary for the promotion of the general
welfare.

The community club should have executive,
finance, program, and membership committees,
and two committees dealing with welfare meas-
ures—first, a committee on economic improve-
ment; and, second, a committee on social welfare.
The former should be charged with the promotion
of better methods of production and marketing,
the stimulation of systematic use of up-to-date ac-
counting, the development of better roads and
adequate telephone service. The committee on
social welfare should be charged with the improve-
ment of health and sanitation, the enlargement of
recreational facilities, and the extension of the
educational system of the community.

The community club should codperate with the

*Carver, T. N., ‘‘The Organization of a Rural Community,’’
Year Book United States Department of Agriculture, 1914, pp.
89-138.

Burr, Walter, ‘‘Community Welfare in Kansas,’’ Extension
Bulletin No. 4, The Kansas State Agricultural College, Division
of College Extension.
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 127

county farm bureau if there is one, or promote one
if there is none, arrange farmers’ institutes, agri-
cultural exhibits, contests and demonstrations.
Through the efforts of the committee on social
welfare the community club may find it advisable
to employ a community nurse or a recreation
leader or both. In many small communities the
school superintendent or principal may profitably
be retained for the full year of twelve months, and
act as recreation leader, using the school as the
social center.

The community club should carry on the two
functions of promotion of community enterprises
and the actual administration of those welfare
projects that are the mutual concern of both the
farmer and the townsman. The work may be left
in the hands of competent volunteer committees
or employed trained executives. Many times the
discussion of economic problems may lead to
specialized agencies eventually incorporated as
business enterprises. A diagram of the com-
munity club plan is given on page 129.

In the diagram various projects are suggested
for the committees on economic improvement and
social welfare. It must be understood that the
elub should not necessarily undertake all of these
projects. The list is submitted merely as sug-
gestive of different possible activities. Not all of
them should even be considered by the club. The
two committees in consultation with the executive
committee should decide on possible and prac-
128 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tical projects, which should then be discussed in
the public forum. If the club members should de-
cide that a certain project should be undertaken,
the responsibility for its initiation should be in-
trusted either to a special committee of the club
or to an independent organization formed for the
purpose of carrying on the definite activity. In
the latter case the club would act as a promotional
rather than an administrative agency, and would
turn its attention to the consideration of other
needs. Care should be taken to promote the kind
of project that can be carried on successfully,
since its success will give greater confidence and
insure a more enthusiastic response to the next
enterprise.

2. The Community Council Plan

The community council?! is a representative
form of organization. It can best be used when
there are a number of active societies in the com-
munity, each working in its own way, but with no
cooperative program and often duplicating one
another’s efforts. The executive board of the
community council should consist of one or more
representatives from each organized group and
from three to seven members selected at large.
The major committees should deal with the fol-

Morgan, E. L., ‘‘ Mobilizing the Rural Community,’’ Exten-
sion Bulletin No. 23, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Ex-
tension Service.

Burr, Walter, ‘‘Community Welfare in Kansas,’’ Extension
Bulletin No. 4, Kansas State Agricultural College, Division of
College Extension
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 129

THE COMMUNITY CLUB PLAN

Voluntary Churches Schools Public officials Interested oftizens
organized
groups

Promotion committce

Community Club
Membership—any citizen in community over eighteen years of age

Committees
Executive
Finance
Membership
Economie Improvement Social Welfare
Farm production Recreation Child Welfare
Better marketing facilities
Farm accounting Recreation leader Public health,
Projects Transportation nursing
J Communication Social center
Good roads- Relief
Farmers’ Institutes Parks
Demonstrations Household mans

Rest-rooms agement

Roys’ and Girls’ Water supply
Clubs,
Sewerage system
Lectures and en-
tertainments Garbage disposal

School and equip-
ment

 

 

Discussion

 

 

n
public forum

Community program

 
130 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

lowing subjects: farm production, farm business,
boys and girls, home life, community life, and
neighborhood codperation. The council should
endeavor to arrive at a clear understanding of the
purposes of each constituent organization, and on
this basis determine the field of effort to be cov-
ered by each. Responsibility for different kinds
of work should be so fixed that conflicts are
avoided and the energy of each group is conserved
for a distinct service.

The executive board should be responsible for
establishing policies and carrying on the business
of the council. In addition to the regular officers,
there should be appointed executive, finance, and
membership committees. The latter might serve
as the committee on neighborhood codperation,
charged with the duty of enlisting every rural
neighborhood in the area covered by the council
for actual participation in the program adopted.
From month to month the committees should pre-
sent reports of local needs as they appertain to
their respective fields. These reports should be
thoroughly discussed by all the board members.
The different projects of a community program,
which may be determined after a social survey
has been made, should be assigned to the associa-
tions whose representatives make up the executive
board of the council.

A community secretary may be employed as the
executive officer. He may also serve as secretary
of any constituent association and as recreation
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 131

leader. In some communities the superintendent
of schools is the community secretary. Open or
general meetings should be held every few months.
These should be in the nature of community meet-
ings and should consider problems of general in-
terest. Imported speakers should be secured, if
possible. All residents of the community should
be specially urged to attend the annual meeting,
when reports of progress and accomplishments
should be made and the work of the coming year
explained. A diagram of the community council
plan will be found on page 133.

In the last few years, especially since the war,
there has developed on the part of many occupa-
tional groups a group or class consciousness. The
development of this class feeling among the
farmers has grown at an astonishing rate, and
has been accompanied by a corresponding increase
in the number and kind of coéperative enterprises.
The individualism of the farmer has found ex-
pression in his class consciousness, but at the same
time has been modified to the extent of his many
successful codperative associations. It must be
noted, however, that the codperation is almost ex-
clusively limited in its participation to a one-
interest group and that the projects undertaken
are concerned with the economic life of the farmer.
In many communities the activity of the farmer
in taking over mills, elevators, and storage plants,
and in organizing his own buying and selling con-
cerns, has resulted in bitterness on the part of the
132 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

townsman, who hitherto served as the farmer’s
agent and business man, and has increased the
antagonism between the farmer and the towns-
man.

Therefore, in approaching the practical prob-
lem of organizing the rural community, the or-
ganizer must be on the alert to discover the degree
of codperativeness existing between the farmer
and the townsman, and the reasons for the ap-
parent harmony or antagonism of economic inter-
ests. The facts should determine the wisdom or
unwisdom of the inclusion of even the considera-
tion of economic projects by the community club
or council. Rarely will it be advisable to under-
take the administration of economic projects.
Ordinarily they can most effectively be carried on
by an independent association, which may, how-
ever, have been promoted by the club or council.
Successful organization is based upon likeness of
interests and the recognition of that likeness. No
matter how far apart economic groups may be,
nor how class-conscious they are, all members of
all groups have certain social interests in common,
such as education, sanitation, and a wholesome
moral environment. Common social welfare cuts
squarely across all economic divisions. When the
residents of the community have learned to know
each other through working out their common
social problems, a beginning has been made in
pointing the way to a broader and more compre-
hensive codperation.
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION = 133

THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL PLAN

County farm YMCA Women’s Farmers’ Civic Churches Schools Public Unaffiliated

nursing bureau clubs club Im- officials citizens

eesocia- provement
tion League

      
   
   

   

 

Representatives
forming
Executive Board
of the
Community Council

 

 

 

Officers and executive i finance committees
and
Committees on

Parm Productton Farm Boys and Home Community Neighborhood
Business Girls life life cotperation

 

Discussion

Community Program

Community Secretary

Projects to be assigned to constituent associations

Methods to~ Better roads Boys and Consolidated Community Supervised
improve Girls’ clubs school nursing play
production
134 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

RURAL COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

The adoption of some form of community or-
ganization to promote and perhaps carry on cer-
tain projects not only develops community spirit,
but at the same time provides machinery for the
exercise of that spirit. The fact that the entire
social field is canvassed and that the different
social needs are successfully provided for insures
an all-round development of the community. Suc-
cess in one venture opens the way for future
enterprises with a valid, businesslike basis.

The solution of rural social problems is more
hopefully anticipated because of two sets of facts:
first, the increasing degree of codperation mani-
fested among the rural population and evidenced
in the growth of codperative business enterprises
and the voluntary exchange of service, especially-
in time of harvest (the latter is due in part, at
least, to the difficulty of securing sufficient farm
laborers) ; and, second, the appropriation of fed-
eral and state funds for the creation of bureaus
devoted to the stimulation of interest in agricul-
ture, the improvement of farming and rural con-
ditions, and the extension of expert service to the
local rural communities.

The United States Department of Agriculture
is continually issuing valuable bulletins on dif-
ferent phases of agriculture and the use of vari-
ous kinds of crops. These bulletins may be had
on request without charge. Governmental experi-
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 185

ment stations are opening up new sources of in-
come and more intensive methods of cultivation.
Surveys of rural communities are offering first-
hand information as to rural living conditions.
The establishment of local county farm bureaus
has largely been made possible by government
appropriations. These farm bureaus, which are
sometimes called county improvement leagues,
are voluntary associations of farmers and of local
residents interested in farming. They are county-
wide in membership and interest. Some govern-
ment money is available for the employment of
the county agent, who serves as the executive of
the bureau and who is the expert adviser on farm-
ing. Any member of the bureau may secure the
advice and help of the county agent. In addition
to the money from the government, a certain
amount is also available from state funds, and
in some states the law also permits the county
board of supervisors or county commissioners to
grant money toward the support of the farm
bureau. As a rule, the organization of the farm
bureau is promoted by the extension divisions of
the state agricultural colleges, and the appropria-
tions, except those from the counties, are handled
by the colleges.

In addition to the county agent, some of the
farm bureaus employ a home demonstration agent,
a woman trained in domestic economy. Her salary
is provided from the membership fees of the
bureau and governmental appropriations. The
136 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

home demonstration agent holds classes in cook-
ing, canning, sewing, and other household arts.
She may conduct a child welfare campaign, and
either give talks herself or secure speakers on
the different phases of the care of the baby and
the training of the child.

The fundamental purpose of the farm bureau
is to develop economical methods of production
and distribution. In some instances it has pro-
moted the organization of codperative buying and
selling enterprises. While it is not primarily a
promotional agency from the point of view of
social welfare, it codperates in most helpful
fashion with the community welfare association
and gives valuable assistance in the development
of the local program.

The extension divisions of the state agricultural
colleges have on their staffs experts on soils, crop
production, animal husbandry, and community or-
ganization, as well as women specially trained in
domestic economy. Any of these experts are avail-
able for consultation on request of groups or com-
munities at the nominal cost of traveling ex-
penses.??, Most of these extension workers spend
all or the greater part of their time traveling from
one community to another, where they conduct
short courses and demonstrations of modern
methods as they are related to the farm and to
the farm home. Many of the agricultural colleges
publish bulletins of interest to the state, hold an

” Jn some states there is no expense,
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION = 137

annual rural life conference, and give short
courses on the college campus at convenient times,
so that the farmer may observe the great experi-
ment stations and the most up-to-date farm equip-
ment.

Some of the states have both an. agricultural
college and a state university, with extension di-
visions at each one. In this event, some line of
division is usually drawn between their activities.
Service relating to agriculture and domestic
economy may be rendered by the extension di-
vision of the agricultural college. Advice, lectures,
and actual organization of the community along
the lines of child welfare, social welfare, and busi-
ness administration, as well as correspondence
courses for college credit, may be provided by the
extension division of the state university.

In cooperation with the colleges of agriculture,
the States Relations Service of the United States
Department of Agriculture has developed through-
out the country boys’ and girls’ clubs which have
been a great boon to the farm children. The clubs
have various purposes and are named accordingly.
As a result, many communities have pig, canning,
corn, potato, and garment clubs. Their value lies
not only in the education in improved methods of
agriculture and home economics, but also in the
genuine interest developed in production and con-
servation and the stimulation of the social con-
sciousness of the child. The club gives excellent
training in an appreciation of social relationships
138 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and furnishes opportunity for happy social times.
It has a direct effect, too, upon the older residents
and helps to build up a better community spirit.

The following interesting newspaper clipping
sums up some of the features of these clubs:

Until quite recently the title “pig club” might have suggested
something in the nature of consumption rather than produc-
tion; but such is not at all the case with the pig clubs of
Georgia, started by the school-boys in 1914. They raise pigs,
and last year added about $500,000 to the wealth of the
state. The clubs are numerous. In addition, many of the
schools where the children come with lunch-boxes now keep a
pig. All told, in less than five years the movement has in-
creased this industry in Georgia by nearly one third, has inter-
ested a great many youngsters in a useful employment, and
has taught them ideas of thrift and industry that will make
them better citizens when they grow up.”

Many states are making conscientious effort to
aid in the solution of the recreation problem. In
North Carolina, for instance, the Bureau of Com-
munity Service, under the direction of the State
Department of Education and with the codpera-
tion of the departments of agriculture and health,
has organized (June, 1920) twenty county units
which are served with motion-picture films. In
each county ten centers are selected and furnished
twice a month with a different program of films.
At each meeting there are discussions of local
problems and a rallying of all the citizens. The
state owns the films and pays one third of the
local county’s expenses, which amount to $3200 a

*Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts, January
31, 1919.
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 189

year—$1500, salary of the county director, $1200,
salary of mechanic, and $500, expense of opera-
tion. In order to raise the necessary two thirds
for which the county is responsible, a charge of
ten cents admission is made for each person over
six years of age. Since the object is to get the
people together, the success of the venture is meas-
ured by the number attending. If the admission
fees do not equal the expense that the community
must assume, the service is discontinued.

Many states have traveling libraries, which fur-
nish upon request and for the nominal expense of
express charges, books, clippings, collections of
various kinds, and pictures.

Rural schools have sometimes formed moving-
picture circuits, so that the better films are made
available. The Grange and different fraternal
and secret societies found in some measure in the
majority of communities provide opportunity for
recreation and for good fellowship. The Y. M.
C. A. has established ‘‘rural life engineers’’ (sec-
retaries in rural communities) in many of the
states, and the Y. W. C. A. has also organized
societies in rural districts. The Boy Scouts, Girl
Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Chautuaquas, and fairs
contribute to the recreational resources. During
the world war the Council of National Defense
and the American Red Cross brought the people
together in frequent community meetings. The
closer personal contact helped to develop a com-
munity consciousness which should be utilized and
140 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

not permitted to die, since it is the only satisfac-
tory basis of any permanent community organiza-
tion.

Community organization in the rural districts
may result concretely in the organization of a
farm, live-stock, and dairy improvement associa-
tion. Codperative buying and selling agencies
may be established. Conservation of products
may be stimulated. A new school-house may be
erected or new equipment purchased for the old
building. A library may be built or library facili-
ties arranged for. Boys’ and girls’ clubs may be
organized and various contests arranged. A social
center may be developed. A plan for beautifying
the community center and the roads and bridge
approaches may be adopted. Community cel-
ebrations, pageants, field days, dramatics, or-
ganized athletics, and supervised play may be
promoted.

The employment of a public health nurse, ade-
quate care of needy families, and the protection
of neglected, handicapped, and delinquent children
may be secured as a result of the stirring up of
the citizens through their community association.
It does not matter what problems confront the
community, their solution can be reached only by
the concerted effort of the people who make up
the community.

In a rural community the conditions of the
town or village center and the conditions of
the farm and of the farm home are both the
RURAL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION 141

vital concern of every citizen. The influences
of the center will affect the development of the
farm boys and girls, whose well-being or social
neglect will react upon the development of the
boys and girls living in the town. The members
of the rural community can not escape the
mutuality of their interests.
CHAPTER VI
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COUNTY

Wirutn the last twenty years two very decided
developments in social work have occurred. One
is the recognition of the importance of the county
as an administrative unit, and the other is the
demand for organization for social welfare in
rural districts. The tendency toward organiza-
tion on a county basis was given great impetus
during the war through the county unit plan of
the Council of National Defense and of the Ameri-
can Red Cross. The movement tends to be perma-
nent; witness the peace-time programs of the dif-
ferent national associations and the proposed laws
for county welfare boards.

In the United States the county is, as a rule, the
taxing agent and also the administrator of the
county funds. The county is usually subdivided
into townships, which elect township trustees, who
serve in a minor executive capacity under the
supervision and largely under the control of the
county commissioners. In addition, in every
county will be found cities, towns, and villages,

each with its local government, its independent
142
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 143

taxing power, and its administrative functions.
Besides, each county and town bears a certain rela-
tion to the state that they help to support, and the
state has certain functions it performs either in
the minor political divisions or for them. Then,
too, in every community, as has already been
noted, are many and varied private and voluntary
agencies.

In any given community the chief problem may
be described as ‘‘social adjustment.’’ By social
adjustment is meant the securing of a harmonious
working relationship of all social agencies, or-
ganized groups both public and private, and the
citizens generally. To effect the social adjustment
of a community is not a simple task, since the prob-
lem is the result of duplication of social effort and
of ignorance of local social resources as well as
of possible social programs. The problem is thus
one of organization and administration rather
than the creation of additional social machinery.
To solve it the local situation must be studied in
relation to local resources and to the legal ma-
chinery provided by state statutes.

THE IOWA PLAN

What has become known as the Iowa Plan is a
distinct effort to codrdinate private and public
welfare resources into a codperative and repre-
sentative agency. The initial experiment was
made at Grinnell in 1912. Grinnell is a college
town of about 5000. Its citizens had never consid-
144 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ered that a poverty problem existed in their com-
fortable and beautiful little community. The pub-
lication of the financial proceedings of the County
Board of Supervisors revealed the startling facts
that during 1912 the county had expended in Grin-
nell from the county poor funds for the relief of
the poor in their homes not less than $8000, while
the rest of the county—three times the population
of Grinnell—had expended something like $2000.
The county supervisors, upon the suggestion of
some of Grinnell’s citizens, employed a trained
social worker to make a study of the county work
in Grinnell. It was discovered that investigations
of applicants had been practically nil, follow-up
and rehabilitation work were almost unheard of,
inadequate records were kept, and there was little
cooperation between the overseer of the poor and
the citizens, churches, schools, and private agen-
cies. Relief had largely been given to families
on the strength of uninvestigated appeals. Some
families had received aid for years and had come
to look upon it as a regular source of income. To
meet the situation a plan was advocated that in-
cluded the employment of a trained social worker
who should act in the double capacity of overseer
of the poor and of secretary of the local Charity
Organization Society, the salary being paid
jointly. This plan was adopted at a meeting of
the supervisors and the directors of the Charity
Organization Society.

The society was later reorganized under the
THE COUNTY PLAN: OF ORGANIZATION 145

name of the Social Service League, with a repre-
sentative board and three ex-officio members, the
mayor, the superintendent of schools, and the resi-
dent county supervisor. The first year’s work
showed a decrease in county expenditures for poor
relief in Grinnell of about forty per cent. The
expenses of the organization were divided, county
funds providing for relief and administration and
private funds taking care of special needs, such
as medical care of school children, hospital care
for otherwise self-supporting citizens and for a
loan fund. Further codrdination and centraliza-
tion of functions and administration were secured
by reason of the secretary’s appointment as truant
officer and official investigator of all applications
for widows’ pensions, which are granted by the
juvenile court but paid by the county supervisors.

The Social Service League became in reality a
‘“‘bureau for community service.’’? It promoted
clean-up days, playgrounds, a garden club, a
health survey, school nursing, the organization of
Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, and mothers’ clubs
or parent-teacher associations, the protection and
care of dependent, neglected, and delinquent chil-
dren (largely assuming this responsibility), co-
operation of all charitable agencies during the
year and at Christmas, and a cooperative plan
of the League and the city for the care of home-
less men.

Oskaloosa, Ottumwa, Fort Dodge, Cedar Rapids,
Iowa City and Charles City also have combina-
146 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tion plans very similar in general features to that
of Grinnell. The financial and administrative de-
tails vary. Sometimes the salary of the secretary
is divided between the supervisors and the citi-
zens’ board, each paying half; sometimes the
supervisors assume all of it. In any event public
and private moneys are kept entirely distinct and
are separately accounted for. The pioneer in
adopting a combination plan was the city of
Waterloo. The plan was begun in 1905; in 1915 a
trained worker was employed; but in 1920 the
plan was discontinued.

The Extension Division of the State University
of Iowa has played a considerable part in the
development and initiation of this form of organi-
zation through local surveys and advice and sug-
gestions to the various cities. It has made sur-
veys in other Iowa cities, which have in most in-
stances resulted in improved methods of social
service. Definite coordination of social welfare
activities has not always meant the combination
of public and private relief, either because the
county supervisors were not convinced of its wis-
dom or because they feared they would lose some
of their power and influence. As a matter of fact,
the combination plan as carried out in Iowa has
in no wise interfered with the authority of the
supervisors, since the plan is purely voluntary,
is dependent upon the good-will of the super-
visors, and has absolutely no legal status of its
own.
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 147

There are certain dangers in the plan. It con-
trols the social welfare situation, and therefore
may become autocratic and dictatorial. It may
consequently become mechanical. The saving of
money instead of the welfare of the families may
be made the dominant motive. There is virtually
no check on the work of the association, and the
secretary may disregard both the board of the
central agency and the supervisors, with a re-
sultant loss of interest and support and the dis-
integration of the entire organization. Its suc-
cess depends almost entirely upon the personality
of the worker employed, but this fact is true of
almost any social welfare effort.

The Iowa Plan represents a form of community
organization largely untrammeled by precedents
or administrative conventionalities. It has
achieved some significant results. It has secured
trained service for the administration of both pub-
lic and private funds and the consequent effort to
rebuild family life. It has saved money because
it has removed from support by the county those
families that can and should provide for them-
selves. It has resulted in the installation of
charity organization methods in the administra-
tion of public relief. It has made possible a more
effective execution of the juvenile court and
widows’ pension laws. Perhaps its greatest con-
tribution has been the stimulation of the commu-
nity to a consideration of other problems and the
development of needed social resources, such as
148 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

dental, children’s, and tuberculosis clinics, larger
recreational facilities, and school and public
health nursing.

Community organization in accordance with the
Towa Plan presents four difficulties: (1) The plan
is not being systematically promoted by any
agency, and as a consequence there are only seven
cities in which it has been adopted. Seven cities
represent a very small percentage of the incorpo-
rated towns and cities of the state. (2) In each of
the seven cities the local board has attempted to
work out policies of administration independently.
There is no general state supervisory board or
agency, and consequently no centralized state au-
thority that will promote uniformity of standards
and of administrative policies or that may be
called upon for consultation and advice. (3) The
plan is purely voluntary. It depends upon the co-
operation of local citizens and the county super-
visors. A change in the personnel of the board
of supervisors may result in the withdrawal of
county support and the abandonment of the plan.
(4) While the organization is largely financed by
the county, the relief work can not be legally ex-
tended beyond the city limits.

Although it is readily granted that local self-
government of cities and local determination of
policies are desirable and that local autonomy
must be safeguarded, on the other hand it is main-
tained that the principles of autonomy and self-
government are not inconsistent with general state
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 149

supervision. The situation in Iowa seems to de-
mand an authoritative central state supervisory
board. For example, while the cities using the
Iowa Plan have undertaken new activities as. the
needs were recognized, the war brought additional
problems. A state board would be of inestimable
value in helping to solve them.

The societies operating under the Iowa Plan
have had a consistent growth and have made them-
selves community welfare associations, but they
must meet the demand for greater democratic con-
trol and a more complete organization of neigh-
borhoods as well as of the community. They must
enter the fields of recreation and Americanization
if they wish to maintain their place in the social
scheme of their respective communities. If they
do not, other organizations will be formed, and
the multiplication of agencies will defeat one of
the principal objects of the Iowa Plan, which is
to eliminate duplication in social welfare endeavor.

It may be necessary to revise the plan of organi-
zation. Cedar Rapids has definitely faced this
problem, and has deemed it wise to adopt a plan
of bureau development that is already under way,
with family welfare, recreation, public health,
and dental bureaus. A children’s bureau is con-
templated to correlate the work of the juvenile
court and that of the Welfare League. Eaeh
bureau is in charge of trained workers under the
direction of a special committee responsible to the
central board. Through the recreation bureau it
150 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

is hoped to develop social centers and playgrounds
in codperation with the school board, and to co-
operate with the city in the supervision of com-
mercial recreation such as dance-halls, bowling-
alleys, skating-rinks, pool and billiard halls.

However, even with a voluntary reorganization
under the Iowa Plan, the law of Iowa remains un-
changed and will continue to handicap county or-
ganization, since the function of overseer of the
poor is limited to the city and the township trus-
tees serve as overseers in the rural districts.
While the public health work supported by the
American Red Cross, by private or by county
funds may be county-wide, the family welfare work
under the care of trained social workers is limited
to the city, except as the supervisors and the town-
‘ship trustees request the social worker to visit
families or make special investigations. Again,
the granting of widows’ pensions and the entire
management of the work of the juvenile court,
though financed by the county, are virtually sepa-
rated from the work of the central agency except
as some voluntary plan of cooperation is adopted.
In Iowa at the present time, as in various other
states, social welfare functions are delegated to
the county, to the city, and to the local school
board. In addition, the state has certain local
responsibilities, and in every city are to be found
some privately supported agencies. In attempt-
ing to organize the community, the interested citi-
zen must take into account these five administra-
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 151

tive groups. The functions are distributed in the
manner shown in table on page 152.

When this outline of functions is studied, it is
at once apparent that for the county without large
cities a county board is the logical solution for
the conduct of welfare activities. If attempt is
made to organize city boards of welfare, it might
easily be possible to have as many as ten separate
boards in a county. In the event that a city board
is organized, one of two things is likely to hap-
pen: either there will be two agencies, a county
and a city bureau, or the county will delegate its
social welfare functions to the city board with a
division of expense. It would seem much simpler
to have a county board representative of the en-
tire county, with the trained social workers under
the county board and with each separate com-
munity in the county organized under a local com-
mittee with representation on the county board.
Such a plan would make possible well defined poli-
cies of social welfare throughout the county and
a consistent plan of work. Besides, the county
through the tax levy has funds available for use
of the entire county.

If a county social welfare board were created,
cooperation with the city authorities would be
feasible. Certain administrative duties might be
delegated to the county board, with the expense
divided between the county and the city. For ex-
ample, the county board might very well conduct
dispensaries or clinics in codperation with the
ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

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city, and it might very logically carry on the child
or infant welfare work, since public health nurses
are now being employed independently or by the
county for county-wide work. If a recreation de-
partment were established within the county
board, the supervision of dance-halls and other
places of commercialized recreation might be
given over to the county board. This recreation
department might also promote the establishment
of playgrounds and the opening of social centers.
Already in a number of cities the welfare bureau,
representing the county and largely financed by
the county, takes care of the truancy work for the
local school board. The work of private agencies
is easily transferred to a county board.

If a law were passed in Iowa creating county
boards of public welfare, a provision should be
included making the employees of the county
board eligible for city work as policewomen, as
truancy or school attendance officers for the school
board, and as probation officers for the juvenile
court.

With reference to the small city, it would seem
that the problem of administration of social wel-
fare functions might be solved by a proper or-
ganization of the city government, especially
under the commission form of government, rather
than by the creation of a new city department or
acity welfare bureau. Undoubtedly the city would
wish to maintain and should maintain its separate
board of health to take care of quarantine, sani-
154 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tary and housing inspection, and emergency calls
for physician and hospital care. The police de-
partment and public safety department are, of
course, regular activities of the city administra-
tion, but parole and probation work for police
cases might be carried on by workers of the county
board who are already dealing with a variety of
family problems. A department of parks and
recreation seems a logical part of the city govern-
ment, especially since the city has the power to
purchase grounds for parks and boulevards, and
to improve and maintain them. This department
might, however, to the advantage of all concerned,
work in close codperation with the recreation
bureau of the county welfare board.

To make the work of the county boards effective
should their organization be made possible by law,
there should also be created a state board of pub-
lic or social welfare. Such a board would co-
operate with the state board of control and relieve
that board of certain duties. The state welfare
board could take over the supervision of all pri-
vately supported children’s institutions and of all
child-placing, whether done through the courts
or by private agencies; the visitation of county
homes, jails, and hospitals; and supervision of
all county boards of welfare, requiring from them
complete reports, so that the entire state might
learn the social status and social welfare of ‘all
communities, large or small.

The experiment in Iowa has been valuable not
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 155

only in the actual results as obtained in the seven
cities in which the Iowa Plan has been in force,
but also in its demonstration of the needs and
possibilities of the state as a whole.

Voluntary combination plans have been initiated
in other states—Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Usually, as in Iowa, they have been built around
the administration of relief and have branched
out into other fields as the work with needy fami-
lies revealed them.

ORGANIZATION IN CALIFORNIA

California has been developing a form of or-
ganization that goes a step farther than the Iowa
Plan. The county in California is charged with
financing and managing county charitable, correc-
tional, and health institutions and activities, in-
cluding county outdoor relief, the almshouse, the
jail, the detention home, and the hospital, and
with employing the county physician and health
officer. California also has a county system of
public schools and courts. The State Board of
Charities and Corrections is empowered to in-
vestigate and standardize not only the conduct
of county institutions, but also the methods for
the disbursement of public funds for the care of
the poor in their own homes. The law of 1917
requires county supervisors to investigate and
supervise families aided from poor funds and to
keep records on forms prescribed by the state
board. This law opened the way for the state
156 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

board to conduct local surveys, which would not
only give a basis for local organization, but would
also serve to educate the community to local needs
and ways of meeting them. The state board’s
policy may be summed up as the effort ‘‘to so-
cialize public relief.’’ It is believed that this is
possible, since public aid has an advantage over
private agencies ‘‘in the possibilities of wider
outlook and ability better to correlate the com-
munity needs with the community resources.”’

The plan evolved is the creation of an unpaid
county welfare department, whose work is ad-
ministered by paid trained social welfare workers.
The fundamental purpose is always the same—
“‘so to administer the county relief funds that de-
pendents shall be restored eventually to self-sup-
port, or in the case of the permanently disabled,
given proper care. The key-note is prevention
of dependency, disease, and delinquency.’’

After consulting with the Board of Charities and Correc-
tions and with the local citizens who are interested in social
work, the county board of supervisors appoints the members
of the department. A typical welfare department consists of
two supervisors and five representative men and women. To
this department as a county center are referred all social ques-
tions involving the employment, health, recreation, and moral
welfare of citizens, as well as the material relief of the poor.
It has been found a very useful piece of social machinery.
The members should represent the entire county with its sev-
eral viewpoints of nationality, religion, and locality. The
department usually begins its work with one paid trained
worker, who acts as executive secretary, makes investigations
and supervisory visits, develops plans for social rehabilitation,
and keeps complete records of such work. In larger counties
a child welfare worker (preferably a trained nurse) is em-
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 157

ployed in addition to the executive secretary. Other workers
are added if conditions demand.

Some of the duties and powers of the county welfare de-
partment include (1) investigation, determination and super-
vision of county aid given to persons applying for the same,
and the devising of ways and means of restoring them to
self-support where possible; (2) codperation with the juvenile
court, probation officers, and probation committees, and service
as a coordinating agency for all relief and welfare societies
in the county which may care to avail themselves of it; (3)
investigation and supervision of family homes where children
are boarded away from their parents, standards of such in-
vestigation and supervision to be in accordance with those
required by the Board of Charities and Corrections; (4) main-
tenance of a modern system of social records of the county
dependents, such records to be used as a confidential exchange
by workers (in counties where there is no other “confidential
exchange” maintained) ; (5) codperation with the other county
departments for care of dependents, sick, or aged; (6) co-
operation with the social agencies provided by the state.

The state board advocates this plan of county organization
as being a modern democratic means of bringing together the
county officers and the citizens for the betterment of local
conditions; the plan provides for sharing the responsibility
of caring for the unfortunate. It keeps the responsibility for
county funds where it belongs—with the board of supervisors
—but it draws to the supervisors the personal support of the
unpaid group of citizens forming the department, the thought,
the strength, the best judgment of the whole community.”

COUNTY CHILD WELFARE BOARDS IN MINNESOTA

In Minnesota the law provides for county
boards, but they are limited to a consideration
of the problems of child welfare and are called
County Child Welfare Boards.”> According to
the population of the county, these boards consist

* De Turbeville, Esther, ‘‘2 x 5 County Relief,’’? Survey, July

19, 1919, pp. 604-605.
%See State Board of Control, Report of Children’s Bureau,

1918.
158 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

of three or five members appointed by the State
Board of Control. The county superintendent of
schools and a member of the Board of County
Commissioners serve ex officio.

The County Child Welfare Board is an official
agency of the county and its functions are the
following:

1. The codrdination of the work of all private
agencies, the supplementing of inadequate efforts
or the providing of additional efforts.

2. The enforcement of all laws affecting the
welfare of children, such as those having to do
with the juvenile courts, children born out of wed-
lock, and crimes committed by and against chil-
dren.

3. Supervision, in codperation with the State
Board of Control, of maternity hospitals, infants’
homes, child-helping and child-placing agencies.

4, Codperation with the juvenile court and pro-
bate judges, county attorneys, and other public
officials, especially in the investigation of county
allowances.

5. Investigation of foster homes for children
for the Children’s Bureau of the State Board of
Control.

The employment of a trained agent by each
board is recommended. About forty boards had
been established in 1918, and the results of their
work are reported as being ‘‘very encouraging.’’
The criticism seems valid that they are too limited
in scope, since the problem of the child is only one
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 159

of the problems of the home. Social work can be
adequately done only as it revolves around the
home and considers all problems in that relation-
ship.

COUNTY WELFARE BOARDS IN NORTH CAROLINA

The legislature of North Carolina passed some
noteworthy legislation in 1917 and 1919 in the
creation of a State Board of Charities and Public
Welfare, with power of investigation and super-
vision of the entire state system of charitable and
penal institutions. The state board is empowered
to study non-employment, poverty, vagrancy,
housing conditions, crime, public amusement, care
and treatment of prisoners, divorce and wife de-
sertion, the social evil and kindred subjects, to-
gether with their causes, treatment, and preven-
tion.

The board is also charged with the duty of
studying and promoting the welfare of the de-
pendent and delinquent child, and empowered to
provide directly or through a bureau of its own
creation for placing and supervising dependent,
delinquent, and defective children. No person, in-
stitution, or organization can care for or place
children without a license from the state board,
and a license once granted may be revoked for
good reason. The law also provides for a trained
investigator of social service problems to serve as
a state commissioner of public welfare. The state
board is expected to encourage counties to employ
160 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

a county superintendent of public welfare, and is
required 2* to appoint in each county a County
Board of Charities and Public Welfare, consisting
of three members, who serve without pay. The
county board is to advise with and assist the state
board in work in the county and to make such
visitations and reports as are requested. It will
also act in a general advisory capacity to the
county and municipal authorities in dealing with
dependency and delinquency, distribution of poor
funds, and social conditions generally. The
county commissioners and the county board of
education are jointly to appoint the county super-
intendent of public welfare, whose salary shall be
fixed and paid jointly by the said boards.

The county superintendent of public welfare
shall act as school attendance and probation offi-
cer of the county. He shall also, under control of
the county commissioners, administer the poor
funds. .The county superintendent of public wel-
fare is the agent of the state board within the
county, and, under the direction of the state board,
is required to supervise persons discharged from
hospitals for the insane or from other state insti-
tutions, as well as prisoners paroled from peni-
tentiaries and reformatories. He is also charged
with the promotion of wholesome recreation in
the county and with the regulation of commercial

* The law was amended in 1921 so that the appointment of the
county board is made optional in a few of the sparsely populated
counties. ‘
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 161

amusement. In counties of less than 25,000 the
county superintendent of public instruction may
be appointed superintendent of public welfare, but
no person shall be appointed who does not have
a certificate of qualification from the state board.

In counties where there are cities already hav-
ing a local board or other social agencies or wish-
ing to establish such, the governing bodies of such
cities may make arrangements with the county
commissioners to consolidate the work under the
authority and supervision of the County Board
of Charities and Public Welfare as may be
mutually agreed upon, with such division of ex-
penses as may be equitable. The governing bodies
of such cities and the county commissioners are
authorized to make such provision for the expense
of carrying on the work as they may deem advis-
able, and may delegate to the County Board of
Charities and Public Welfare the necessary
power.

The foregoing explanation of the North Caro-
lina law has been taken from the law and follows
its wording very carefully, much of it exactly.

The North Carolina Plan has attracted much
attention. It is the culmination of the movement
to put social work on a county basis. It gives
definite legal status to a board of citizens serving
without pay, and provides by law for a combina-
tion plan such as in Iowa is purely voluntary.
The legal establishment of the board with its defi-
nite powers insures greater stability. The law
162 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

also provides for a definite relationship between
the county and the state boards. The Bulletin of
the state board has expressed the ideal toward
which the plan tends:

The county boards should seek to unify, correlate, and de-
velop all the local agencies and mobilize the whole community
in the work of providing wholesome living, working, and re-
creational environments. The churches, the schools, the organ-
izations of all kinds, should be encouraged to lend a helpful
and codperating hand in the work of making over our com-
munities. Local pride is a worthy feeling. The time has
come when it should be given a new impulse, one which seeks
to call out the best in both the business and social side of life—
a better mobilization and direction and expression of the
social, moral, physical, and spiritual forces of the community,
which too much lie dormant. Suppress the bad by drawing out
and developing the good.”

THE MISSOURI PLAN

North Carolina has set a high goal in actual
legislation for county boards of public welfare,
but Missouri outlined in her proposed Children’s
Code of 1918 what seems to be the most nearly
ideal plan for county boards yet articulated. The
excellence of the Missouri Plan is due to (1) its
logical development out of the present legal back-
ground; (2) its provision for all three functions,
administrative, supervisory, and promotional;
(3) its correlation of local work not only with the
state board of charities but with all the different
state departments; (4) its insistence upon trained
service and the extension of this service into rural
communities; and (5) its adaptability and flexi-

7 Bulletin, State Board of Charities and Public Welfare, Vol,
2, No. 1, 1919.
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 163

bility to conform to local conditions. The last
item is most important. Ordinarily laws provide
for the general and not the exceptional cases. It
is always most difficult to devise a law that shall
be uniform for the state and at the same time
permit of a degree of variability.

Missouri has a State Board of Charities and
Corrections. The state industrial home for white
girls and the one for negro girls, the reformatory,
and the state penitentiary are under a state de-
partment that controls these institutions and that
also passes on pardons and paroles granted by
the governor. The eleemosynary institutions,
which are the hospitals for the insane, the colony
for feeble-minded and epileptic, and the state
sanatorium for tuberculosis, were by the law of
1921 placed under the charge of a board of
managers. However, all these institutions are
under the supervision of the State Board of
Charities and Corrections.

In the county the charitable and correctional
work is administered by the county court, com-
posed of three judges elected by the people. The
county court in Missouri is not a judicial body,
but corresponds to what in other states is called
the county board of supervisors or commissioners.
The county court is the administrative county au-
thority. Within limits, it determines the tax levy
and expends the tax money. It dispenses county
funds and grants mothers’ pensions and relief to
persons in their own homes. It is also responsible
164 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

for the conduct of county institutions. The Mis-
souri law does not provide for an executive officer
to serve under the county court, which is its own
administrator. The court, together with the
county health officer whom the county judges ap-
point, act as the county board of health. The
circuit court may act as a juvenile court; and must
appoint a probation officer, so that every child
who becomes the ward of the court may be under
the care of a probation officer. Any one may be
appointed.

The present law provides that the circuit court
may, and upon petition of fifteen reputable per-
sons shall, appoint a county board of visitors,
consisting of six members who serve without pay.
This board has supervisory powers only. It has
power to inspect county institutions and recom-
mend improvements. It may also inquire into the
conditions obtaining in the administration of out-
door relief. The county board of visitors makes
a regular yearly report to the State Board of
Charities and Corrections regarding local condi-
tions, and may enlist its cooperation in effecting
needed changes.

In presenting the law for county boards of pub-
lic welfare, The Missouri Children’s Code Com-
mission pointed out that there were three sepa-
rate sets of officials dealing with the problems sur-
rounding children and the home, each working in-
dependently: (1) the superintendent of schools,
who employs his own truant officer; (2) the juve-
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 165

nile court with its probation officers; and (3) the
county court, which deals with family relief and
mothers’ pensions, and so does most positively
influence the child’s life.

This analysis of the legal background for social
community effort in Missouri reveals the great
need of codrdination. The Children’s Code bill
was designed to meet this need. It recommended
the appointment of a county superintendent of
public welfare by the county court from a list of
eligibles submitted by the State Board of Chari-
ties and Corrections. This superintendent was
to act as the executive agent of the county court,
working under its immediate supervision as well
as under the supervision of the State Board of
Charities and Corrections. The appointment was
made optional and not compulsory, which is- very
wise, since it insures the adoption of the plan as
a result of the development of local public opinion
and does not force the issue before the community
is ready for it.

The duties of the county superintendent of pub-
lic welfare were outlined as follows:

1. To administer relief funds and allowances
to mothers.

2. To discover neglected, dependent, defective,
and delinquent children, and obtain for them the
benefits the law guarantees.

3. To act as agent for the state board in finding
foster homes for children and supervising them
after they are placed.
166 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

4. To give oversight to patients discharged or
paroled from hospitals for the insane.

5. To act as agent for the prison board, espe-
cially as parole agent.

6. To assist the state free employment bureau
in finding work for the unemployed.

7. To act as agent of the factory inspection de-
partment in enforcing the child labor laws.

8. To act as truant or school attendance officer.

9. To act as probation officer upon appointment
by the judge of the juvenile court.

10. To investigate causes for distress and make
recommendations for the improvement of condi-
tions.

The Children’s Code bill finally proposed to
change the name of the County Board of Visitors
to County Board of Public Welfare, and to make
the superintendent of public welfare secretary of
the board. These provisions were the ones that
gave the Missouri Plan its preéminence. It pro-
posed to retain the administrative body, the
county court, to give it a trained executive, and
at the same time to provide for an independent
body to supervise the county work. Then, by a
masterly device, it would make the trained execu-
tive of the county court the secretary of the super-
visory board, thus to a large degree insuring the
carrying out of needed reforms of administration.
The County Board of Public Welfare was to be
independent of both the state board and the
county court as far as the appointment of its
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 167

members was concerned, since it was created by
the circuit court. At the same time it would work
with both, since it would report conditions to the
state board and also to the county court. The
plan, once put into operation, would tend to put
both the county court and the county board of
public welfare on their mettle to make the county
administration as efficient as possible.

The proposed law also provided for city boards
of public welfare which might make codperative
arrangements with the county. City boards could
be created and receive appropriations from the
county for the administration of the county work
within the city limits. City boards of public wel-
fare could receive and disburse private funds. In
this way the plan virtually provided for a com-
bination of public and private agencies within the
city. Its chief weakness was that, while it stipu-
lated that the county court should fix and pay
salaries of county superintendents within certain
specified limits dependent upon the size of the
county, it did not state that a certain definite ap-
propriation or tax levy should be made for the
work carried on by the superintendent. Such a
provision, if incorporated in both the laws pro-
viding for county superintendents of public wel-
fare and for city boards, would prevent the handi-
capping of activities through the possible nig-
gardliness of a county court or of a city council.

Although the proposed law was presented at
three successive general assemblies, each time it
168 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

failed. However, the legislature of 1921 passed
a law providing for county superintendents of
public welfare to be appointed by the county
courts at their discretion. The duties are the
same as outlined by the Children’s Code bill,
but the provisions for a list of eligibles deter-
mined by the State Board of Charities and Cor-
rections was eliminated. The legislature also
failed to pass the bill that would make the County
Board of Visitors the County Board of Public
Welfare, and the county superintendent of public
welfare the secretary of this board. The law, as
passed, falls short of the ideal given expression
by the Children’s Code Commission, but marks a
distinct step forward.

WELFARE BOARDS IN KANSAS CITY AND
ST. JOSEPH, MISSOURI

The first board of public welfare in the United
States was established by city ordinance in 1910
in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1908 the common
council established a board of pardons and
paroles, which consisted of three members ap-
pointed by the mayor. A year later the adminis-
tration of the workhouse was intrusted to it, and
in 1910 the number of the board was increased to
five and its powers were enlarged. This larger
board was the Board of Public Welfare and was
empowered ‘‘to devise and execute plans to fulfil
the duties of the city toward all the poor, the de-
linquent, the unemployed, the deserted, and un-
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 169

fortunate in the community, and to supervise the
private agencies which solicit from the public for
these purposes.’’

The Kansas City Board of Public Welfare con-
ducts a municipal farm for men delinquents, a
women’s reformatory, a parole department for
the supervision of discharged and paroled pris-
oners, a free legal aid bureau, factory inspection,
a department of censorship and recreation which
studies and supervises commercial recreation, a
loan agency, and a department for homeless and
unemployed, including the municipal rock quarry.
It does not handle outdoor relief, nor is it or-
ganically connected with the police department
or the juvenile court. The care of the sick poor
is in the hands of the city health department. A
privately supported agency, the Kansas City
Provident Association, with a staff of trained
social workers, makes all investigations of appli-
cants for relief and provides whatever is needed.

The powers of the Kansas City board have re-
mained virtually the same, but reductions in ap-
propriations have materially lessened its activi-
ties. While politics have not prompted the ap-
pointment of the members of the board or influ-
enced its administrative policies, they have
affected the appropriations and eventually the
personnel of the administrative staff. The activi-
ties that have been discontinued include housing
investigations, an employment bureau, a confiden-
tial registration bureau, a social service depart-
170 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ment, vacant-lot gardening (later taken over by
the board of education), and the promotion of
social center meetings.

Perhaps the fact that the Kansas City board
was created by city ordinance and that its mem-
bers are appointed by the mayor renders its sit-
uation rather precarious, since it is entirely de-
pendent upon the city administration.

The Social Welfare Board of the city of St.
Joseph was created by act of the state legislature
in 1913 and is financed by city and county appro-
priations. ‘‘The cardinal principle of the law
is the centralization of work for dependents in
one board for the specific purpose of constructive
philanthropy as opposed to temporary relief, the
restitution of individuals and families to self-sup-
port and productive citizenship as opposed to de-
pendency and pauperism.’’ The board adminis-
ters all relief work formerly in the hands of the
county court and the Charity Board, a city board
for the relief of the poor. It also provides for
the relief of the sick poor, formerly cared for by
the city board of health. The latter continues its
inspection and care of infectious or contagious
diseases. The Social Welfare Board may and
does receive and disburse private relief funds.

To carry out the purposes of the law, the Social
Welfare Board has an investigation bureau which
inquires into the causes of poverty as well as the
needs of all applicants for aid, and through its
relief bureau not only extends prompt and ade-
THE COUNTY PLAN OF ORGANIZATION 171

quate assistance but seeks to uncover or develop
such resources as will enable the families to be-
come permanently self-supporting, if that is pos-
sible. A registration bureau is maintained for the
use of citizens and social workers. Within ten
months after its organization, 4307 individuals,
5.3 per cent. of the entire population, were regis-
tered either as being in need of some kind of social
service or as having received it.

The employment bureau has been a practical
and efficient agency through the codperation of
citizens and employers. Through the legal aid
bureau free legal advice has been given to those
unable to pay for it. ‘‘Litigation has been fore-
stalled and family troubles settled by consultation
with the advisers of the department. The main
idea, as in all other departments, is the prevention
of poverty by timely aid and service.’’ The cloth-
ing department collects and distributes clothing
and shoes without cost. The research bureau has
made some valuable studies, including one dealing
with the causes of poverty and another one con-
cerning the homeless man. Through the volun-
teer service department citizens may give of their
time and interest in visiting families and serving
as friendly visitors. The board is charged with
providing for the burial of the poor whose rela-
tives can not be located and whose bodies must
be interred by the public. For the sick poor the
board maintains a dispensary and provides a
physician for calls in the homes, free medicines,
172 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and if necessary hospital care. In addition, the
hospital social service department secures for the
patient ready to leave the hospital convalescent
care, medical aid, employment, or transportation
to his relatives, as the occasion arises. The Visit-
ing Nurse Association codperates generously with
the board and furnishes free nursing care in their
homes to patients cared for by the medical service
department of the board.
CHAPTER VII

PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS
AND
OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS

1. Home Service Sections

Soon after the United States entered the war
and men in great numbers were inducted into the
army, virtually every community found itself with
a variety of family problems demanding solution.
The increased cost of living, the departure of the
bread-winner or of one who contributed mate-
rially to the family income, the pressure of added
responsibility laid upon the wife and mother, the
confusion of family plans, and the natural be-
wilderment resultant from the war experiences
necessitated some kind of action on the part of
the citizens in order that normal living standards
might be maintained. The problems of rent, cloth-
ing, employment, control of children, and health
of the family were intensified by discouragement,
fear, and sorrow growing out of the entrance of
a loved one into active service.

When the government made provision for allot-
ments and allowances to the families of men in

173
174 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

service and for a low rate of insurance and for
compensation for disabilities or death in service,
some plan had to be initiated that would take the
information direct to the family and offer aid in
filling out the necessary papers. The American
Red Cross established the Home Service Depart-
ment, a branch of the Civilian Relief Department,
to meet the emergency, and mapped out a com-
prehensive plan of organization. This plan pro-
vided for a Committee on Civilian Relief in each
chapter. All work for and with the civilian popu-
lation belonged to the Committee on Civilian Re-
lief. When fully organized, it embraced two sec-
tions—one dealing with disaster relief, and the
other with home service. The work of the home
service section was originally confined to the care
of the families of men in any branch of service
in the United States Army, of the families of men
and women in hospital units, of families of Allied
forces living in this country, and the families of
civilians wounded or killed as the direct result of
war activities. The aid rendered included grants
of money, loans, medical aid, help in securing em-
ployment, advice and counsel.

In many Red Cross chapters the Committee on
Civilian Relief and the home service section were
identical in their membership. In this case the
committee was known as the Home Service Sec-
tion. If the home service section was a sub-com-
mittee, the executive committee of the larger
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 175

civilian relief committee served in the same capac-
ity for the home service section and formed the
nucleus of its membership.

The general instructions sent out from Red
Cross headquarters suggested that the home serv-
ice section should have a membership representa-
tive of the various business, professional, and
social work interests. Field representatives from
the different division offices were sent to the chap-
ters, which were somewhat tardy in organizing
their home service sections, to urge organization
and to suggest methods. Very often these chap-
ters were in the smaller towns and the rural dis-
tricts, and until the visit of the field representa-
tive had not appreciated the existing need for
home service.

Usually the sections as organized were made
up of from five to nine members, and included a
physician, an attorney, if possible a man ac-
quainted with military and naval affairs, a busi-
ness man, a public-spirited woman, and sometimes
a minister and the school superintendent. If there
were a trained social worker in the community, he
was also asked to serve. Some communities had
a small home service section of from three to five
members which transacted the business of the
section, and in addition a consultation committee
of people engaged in various kinds of social work.
All problems of family treatment were referred
to this committee for its advice as to the wisest
176 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

procedure. The consultation committee also en-
deavored to promote codperation among the social
welfare agencies of the town or city.

Home service has noteworthy accomplishments
to its credit. To a large degree it carried out the
principle of adequate relief; it demonstrated the
availability and practicability of volunteer service
and the possibilities of a nation-wide scheme of
social service advertising. Through the latter it
spread the preachments of organized charity and
of scientific social service to the remotest village
and rural community by a business-like method
of education through letters, newspaper articles,
bulletins, chapter courses, and institutes for the
training of home service workers, and visits of,
and conferences with, field supervisors.

However, as a matter of fact, the original pro-
gram of home service was regarded with more or
less skepticism by many trained social workers,
and the whole scheme as something ‘‘socially
heretical.’’ Its undeniable success raised many
questions as to its future. What use could be and
would be made of such a nation-wide social wel-
fare movement? Would it be ‘‘scrapped’’ at the
close of the war? Would the social enthusiasm
it had engendered be dissipated? Would the les-
sons it had learned for its own improvement and
those it had taught be speedily forgotten? After
the armistice was signed a committee was ap-
pointed to report on the future of home service.
This report was presented at a meeting of division
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 177

directors in Washington in the spring of 1919,
and, after a thorough discussion of all its features,
adopted as the peace-time program of the home
service department.

This program divides itself into four parts:
(1) the continuation of its initial work—the con-
structive care of the families of soldiers and
sailors; (2) help for the returned soldier; (3) the
extension of this care to other families in com-
munities where there is no other organization to
provide for them, and consequently the conversion
of the home service section into a community
agency for the care of all disadvantaged families
as well as for such other codperative community
enterprises as baby or child welfare campaigns;
and (4) disaster relief.

Immediately upon the publication of the report
of the committee, a storm of protest and criticism
arose. Many people felt that the Red Cross had
stepped outside its proper field and that its en-
trance into community organization would result
in confusion and failure. No one denied, however,
that the home service of the Red Cross had opened
the eyes of many people to social problems which,
they had been surprised to find, were the same
kind of family problems that they had refused
to see in their communities and which, they were
forced to realize, had existed for many years. As
a result, the people themselves had demanded
that certain standards should be maintained in
the administration of home service work in order
178 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

to extend effective help. As a logical consequence,
they began to measure local social conditions and
social service agencies against the newly discov-
ered standards. Inevitably changes in the organi-
zation of local social resources resulted and will
continue to result. The American Red Cross has
been at the very center of this community awaken-
ing, and has been keenly aware of the great need
for community organization, and also of the ab-
sence of any national agency equipped to under-
take the task; hence the peace-time program.

In a book on community organization it would
seem wise to include an analysis of this new and
very important policy of the Red Cross. As the
program is considered, two questions present
themselves: (1) What does the plan offer and
mean to the community? and (2) How is the Red
Cross carrying out the scheme? In reality both
of these questions revolve around the problem
of administration and constitute two phases of it,
one dealing with administration from the point
of view of the community, the other with admin-
istration on the part of the Red Cross.

When the division officers undertook to organize
home service sections in all of the chapters, they
sent their field representatives to meet with the
boards of the local chapters. At this meeting the
Red Cross representative presented the home
service program and, in the words of the travel-
ing salesman, endeavored ‘‘to sell’’ the idea.
True, the community needed the ‘‘commodity,’’
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 179

and the home service committee as organized was
representative of the community; nevertheless,
the program was more or less imported, and the
plan as adopted was largely of one pattern. It
is a commonplace that communities differ in many
of their social aspects, and it necessarily follows
that any community program must be adapted to
the local needs. Therefore, if the chapter through
its home service section should desire to extend
the scope of its work and become a centralized
community agency for social welfare, its plan of
operation must be based upon local needs and de-
signed specifically to cover them. Otherwise, the
extension of home service to embrace community
welfare projects can have no lasting place.

The community program can not be run into a
prescribed mold. It must be flexible, elastic, and
as varied as the communities. It must be dynamic
and have within itself possibilities for future de-
velopment, or it will become fixed, static, and
eventually cease to operate. Besides, the plan
must have the support not alone of the Red Cross
chapter officials but of all the citizens, and it must
come as a result of the community’s own interest.
This rock foundation is absolutely essential if the
superstructure is to stand. However, it must be
kept in mind that the local chapter continues only
as long as the people demonstrate their wish to
have it by the payment of the yearly dollar mem-
bership fee or contributions; that membership is
not limited, but open to every one in the com-
180 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

munity; and that the plan of organization pro-
vides for the election of officers and board by the
members.

As outlined, the peace-time program provides
that home service will not be made a community
venture unless the local chapter expresses such a
desire. However, almost unconsciously and in-
evitably the moral force of the Red Cross program
tends to swing the chapter in that direction. This
possibility is not necessarily to be censured, since
undoubtedly the need for community organization
is the most pressing of all social needs. The
American Red Cross has the prestige, the money,
and the cooperation of the people to enable it to
carry out the program, provided suitable workers
can be secured. The directors of the Red Cross
realized that to do so effectively there must be
available a staff of community organizers to un-
dertake local social studies, to map out community
programs, to conduct educational campaigns, and
to arouse the community to support its own or-
ganization. To meet this need there was estab-
lished in each division under service organization
a department of community study service. Since
twenty-eight hundred of the thirty-six hundred
chapters are in counties having no towns of more
than 8000 population, and since more than sev-
enty-seven per cent. of Red Cross work is in agri-
cultural territory, the communities that will ask
for organization service will be small cities, towns,
and rural districts. To work with these localities
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 181

effectively requires an acquaintance with the
problems, needs, and resources of rural or nearly
rural districts.

The adoption by the Red Cross of a peace-time
program of rural community organization is par-
ticularly significant. In the first place, it is a na-
tional body and can therefore develop and put into
operation more or less uniform and standardized
methods; it stands back of the community with
its corps of field workers, and is always avail-
able for advice and positive assistance in emer-
gencies of organization or service.

One other feature of the peace-time program
must be considered. Will the home service sec-
tion, expanded into a community agency for social
welfare, remain an integral part of the Red Cross?
The prospectus outlining the peace-time program
indicates that local initiative and responsibility
should be developed; that the home service sec-
tion as enlarged should ultimately become autono-
mous and free from Red Cross connection, if such
is the desire of the community, since it is recog-
nized that the fullest measure of local autonomy
is both necessary and desirable. This policy is
the only one consistent with the spirit of modern
community organization, which is primarily demo-
cratic and which is based upon the principle of
self-government. The primary task of the Red
Cross is to demonstrate to the community the
possibility of codperative and organized service.
Until the different states have established state
182 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and county boards of public welfare, there is a ery-
ing need for some agency, preferably a national
one, to initiate organization and promote plans
for community and social welfare.

2. Community Nursing

Not only has provision been made for a home
service section in each chapter of the Red Cross,
but the plan of organization has also provided
for a section on nursing service, formerly called
the Town and Country Nursing Service. It has
three objects: the promotion of public health
nursing; the establishment of classes in home
hygiene and care of the sick; and the encourage-
ment of girls to take training as nurses. The
nursing service department has also issued a
peace-time program whose purpose is to put a Red
Cross nurse in every county for public health edu-
cation and supervision. Nurses are recruited by
the Red Cross, and only those nurses who have
both the regular nursing and social service or
public health nursing training are eligible.

The expenses for the nurse’s salary and for any
other items of administration are met by the funds
of the local Red Cross chapter until the demon-
stration of the need for the nurse and the value
of her work makes possible the appropriation of
local public funds or the organization of an inde-
pendent local public health nursing association.

The sections on home service and nursing serv-
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 183

ice cooperate in carrying on their respective pro-
grams. There is no conflict of interests. If the
community can support only one of the two proj-
ects, a social service worker or a public health
nurse, the local chapter, with the advice of the
division office, decides which is the most vital at
the time.

With its machinery in motion, the Red Cross
chapter has a decided advantage in organizing,
financing, and carrying forward different types
of community activities which may later be taken
over by local independent agencies organized for
the purpose, or which may be continued by the
chapter with its assumption of greater freedom
in initiating its own policies and with a larger
measure of local autonomy.

3. Organization of the Chapter

The methods of the American Red Cross in
organizing a chapter furnish valuable suggestions
for any community organizer. It is the general
policy to organize the chapter as a county unit.
Subsidiary units are known as branches. Each
branch has jurisdiction over a population center,
usually embracing one or more townships. This
plan insures organization of the entire county.
The governing body of the chapter is the execu-
tive committee, geographically representative of
the chapter jurisdiction. Various sub-committees
are charged with the administration of the various
184 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

projects. The branch duplicates the chapter form
of organization, with an executive committee and
sub-committees.

Chapter activities may include public health
nursing, classes in home hygiene and care of the
sick, in dietetics, and in first aid; home service for
former soldiers and their families, the extension
of this service to civilian families; the organiza-
tion of auxiliary or volunteer service; junior
auxiliaries of Red Cross in the schools; and the
development of a community welfare program in
cooperation with the other social agencies in the
county. It is the policy of the Red Cross to en-
courage local chapters to undertake various forms
of community service. Accordingly chapters have
undertaken such projects as health centers, clinics,
rest-rooms, salvage stores, recreation and play-
ground activities, hot lunches in the schools, med-
ical inspection and health crusades for school chil-
dren, Americanization classes, baby camps, and
community centers.

Before the chapter undertakes a community
program the division office must be consulted. The
field representative is called upon to make at least
a superficial study of the community in order that
the chapter may be advised intelligently. The
Red Cross does not wish to duplicate effort or
to initiate a project simply because it is popular.
In some instances the Red Cross has made a com-
munity study resulting in a codperative and com-
prehensive community plan. Such a community
PLANS OF THE AMERICAN RED CROSS 185

study has led to the organization of a community
council of which the Red Cross chapter has served
as a constituent member.

To carry on a peace-time program, the chapter
is urged to secure a trained executive secretary.
This worker is a trained case worker, but also
must act as a community organizer, since upon
him or her will devolve two tasks—the organiza-
tion of the branches within the chapter’s juris-
diction, and the organization of the chapter itself
as a whole for effective service. There is a third
task, which is the development of definite plans
of cooperation with other agencies.

Some noteworthy results have been attained in
the organization of rural communities. While
social problems are largely the same whether in
the city or the country, the methods and the ap-
proach to the community vary somewhat. In the
country or rural districts social work with families
and individuals must be more or less informal in
method. Relationships are closer than those in
the city, so that unusual care must be taken not to
give occasion for gossip. Investigations require
the greatest tact and delicacy. In country dis-
tricts family problems involving inadequate in-
come often center around the lack of credit or
the lack of skill in agriculture.

The outstanding problem of the rural district
is the almost total absence of a community spirit
and of aggressive and active leadership in bring-
ing the community together both for good times
186 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and for the discussion of mutual interests. There-
fore it has come about that a large part of the
rural worker’s time must be devoted to the de-
velopment of local community associations or
clubs modeled after one of the plans already out-
lined as the community club and community coun-
cil forms of organization.

The rural service department of the Red Cross,
national headquarters, published in August, 1920,
a bulletin entitled ‘‘Rural Work Stories.’? The
following excerpt is made to show the method of
organization, the type of activities carried on, and
the personnel:

CLARK COUNTY (OHIO) CHAPTER

Springfield, Ohio, a city of 60,840, is the chapter head-
quarters for Clark County Chapter (population, outside of
Springfield, 19,888). This chapter has jurisdiction over the
entire county.

The home service chairman in Clark County says that “the
need for rural organization was brought to the attention of
those who were active in campaigns for war-chest and Liberty
loans.” They realized that the small communities had no all-
inclusive organizations through which these committees could
work. A chapter conference early in 1919 may have added
the conviction of the need of recreation in these communities,
for the chapter began a search for a recreational leader. The
man whom they employed, Mr. Royal Clyde Agne, came in
October, 1919, as a “rural community organizer” (because
that capacity would give to the work a broader basis than
recreation alone).

At present he has eighteen communities organized. The
organization is community-wide, and membership includes
practically everybody—with privilege of voting restricted
usually to those over a certain age. Constitutions are elastic
and are not even adopted until the club starts. In some clubs
there is a very low membership fee; other clubs “have not
come to that” and occasional collections pay expenses.
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 187

The clubs meet monthly in the most suitable community
building available—a hall, a school-house, or a church.

The procedure which the organizer followed involved the
following steps.

1. An informal path-finder survey to determine “the need
and spirit of the community” and the securing of a mail-
ing list.

2. Invitations to each family to:

3. A community rally with a planned program—free dis-
cussion and a vote on the advisability of holding similar
events in the future.

4. The nomination by the audience of a steering committee
with whom the organizer works.

5. Finally, election of officers and a constitution.

6. Regular meetings, including entertainment, discussion,
and plans in regard to popular community needs, as the
community determines.

The organizer emphasizes health in two ways. “Laugh and
be well,” he says.

There is something of an entertainment nature in each of
the club meetings. The programs have included, besides music
and pictures, readings, travelogues, lectures, plays, and mock
trials. The last two, as well as the community sings, are home
talent productions which make up the program once a month
or so. He has arranged entertainments at the county children’s
home, the county infirmary, and at the tuberculosis sanatorium.
He has secured outside talent from Springfield, the headquar-
ters city, and from outside the county. The clubs choose from
among the talent available. In the past year the entertainment
has been financed out of the Red Cross budget for the rural
work, but plans for next year include a group of entertain-
ments which each community shall share on a self-supporting
basis.

Committees on athletics have organized men’s baseball teams
in eleven communities. These teams are federated into a
County Athletic League, with a regular schedule of games. The
organizer, through the committee on boys’ activities, has helped
organize Boy Scout troops; in the same way girls’ clubs have
been organized. The organizer has secured the help of the
city Y. W. C. A. in leading these girls’ clubs.

Besides promoting enjoyable and healthful recreation, the
organizer has emphasized the importance of health by securing
a nurse to give classes in home nursing to eleven different
188 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

groups, organized by the nursing committees of the various
clubs.

Seven circulating libraries, secured from the state and city,
are passed from one community to another. Township bands
were organized last winter in several communities and supplied
with an itinerant instructor. The best of the players formed
a county band.

The business of the clubs is run by the officers and members,
the organizer supplying information and service, not control.

At first the business meetings were halting because the
people were reticent, but the entertainments and the habit
of getting together overcame their reserve, and business meet-
ings showed more and more initiative and tendency to co-
operate on community projects.

Street lights in villages, improved train schedule, provision
for avoiding dangerous railroad crossings, a summer vacation
school that happened to be a Bible school, a playground, a pic-
nic in which one community entertained neighboring communi-
ties—all show the individuality of the ways in which the newly
awakened community spirit has displayed itself.

Other organizations have been stimulated rather than hin-
dered. The Y. M. and Y. W., both hitherto exclusively city
organizations, have asked for something to do in the county.

Publicity, which from the first has been sane but consistent
on the part of the organizer, is becoming more and more spon-
taneous on the part of the people.

In the spring of 1920 the clubs federated. In August the
chapter “Board of Directors,” which had always been made
up of city people alone, was persuaded to add to its numbers
- group representing this Federation of Rural Community

lubs.

The rural work in this county has served as an inspiration
and prototype for counties in various parts of the division.

SUMMARY

Extension (rural)—October, 1919
Personnel :
Rural community organizer
Instructor nurse (four months)
Two band instructors (part time)
City staff
Home service secretary
Dietitian
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 189

Approach to rural communities, “community rallies”
Projects:

“Organization” of communities

Monthly meetings—entertainments, discussion, end business

Home nursing classes

Boy Scout organization and meetings

Girls’ clubs

Township and county bands

Baseball

Library extension

Picnics

Civic projects.”

As a result of the varied experiences in different
parts of the country, some general conclusions
have been reached with regard to organizing coun-
ties of different types. The premise is laid down
that organization should follow community lines;
that it should concern itself with that which natu-
rally constitutes a unit—the trade area. This
policy means that township lines and city limits
are more or less disregarded for the larger social
and economic unit of town and adjacent country.

Three types of counties will be considered.

Type I

A county of Type I has several towns of almost
equal size, such as A, B, D, and G. Usually in
such a case there exists a considerable degree of
town jealousy, which must be taken into considera-
tion by the organizer. There are comparatively
few counties of this type. Branch jurisdiction
and organization should follow community boun-
daries. Otherwise no organization should be at-

™See appendix for other reports.
190 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

tempted. The organization plan should endeavor
to make each town equally important. Care
should be taken that each is represented on the
executive committee, and that the headquarters
town should have a branch organization like the
others. Often in practice the branch officers of

 

   

County-seat
Headquarters x

Town

 

 

 

the headquarters town are identical with the of-
ficers of the chapter. Such a course should not
be followed in this case. Hach branch should
have its separate set of officers. It would be wise
to hold executive committee meetings in the vari-
ous places in turn, though for administrative pur-
poses the chapter officers should be located prefer-
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 191

ably in the headquarters town, which is usually
the county-seat. The plan of activities for each
small community should be determined only after
a study has been made of each population unit and
of the county as a whole.

 

    

10,000 Cou nty-seat
TO eee
25,000/ Headquarters
Town

Type II
In a county represented as Type II there is one
large city, which dominates the county. Clark
County, Ohio, whose organization has been de-
scribed, is a county of this type. The city is the
trade center for practically the entire county.
The few or numerous small towns have few lead-

 

 

 
192 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ers, not many or varied community interests, and
not a great deal of money available for a com-
munity program. The people of these small towns
and villages and of their surrounding country may
be organized into community clubs, which may or
may not be known as Red Cross community clubs.
Their interests are civic and recreational, and they
may institute classes in home hygiene and care of
the sick and in other subjects. Ordinarily, under
the Red Cross plan, the smaller unit contributes
some money to the funds of the county. The com-
munity organizer is employed by the chapter; he
organizes the smaller communities and supervises
their activities, giving advice and counsel and help
in securing talent for programs. The major part
of routine activities are centered in the city. The
separate communities take care of all actual ex-
penditures for their recreation or community
gatherings and contribute something to the work
of the chapter as a whole, thereby feeling a closer
affiliation with and participation in the work of
the county organization. All funds are kept in
chapter headquarters. All community clubs are
represented on the executive committee.

Type III

Type III represents a county with one larger
town, several smaller ones, and several villages.
A, B, C, D, E, F, and H will be able in all proba-
bility to support branch organizations. The vil-
lages G, M, and N would logically come under
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 193

the jurisdiction of the nearest branch, to which
they already belong in a community sense.
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county organization, when it is made to follow
community lines, is—what shall be done with a
group of families represented by X, whose trade
and social center is Q in an adjoining county.
The Red Cross has decided that by common agree-
194 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ment the membership and activities may be shifted
to the adjoining county. This plan should be fol-
lowed, however, only after a careful canvass of
the citizens in the X neighborhood and after con-
sultation with the executive committees of both
chapters. The decision should be reached on the
basis of what the people themselves want. The
final answer to the question should take into ac-
count the activities in B and those in Q. Organiza-
tion of X should be assigned to Q only after a
thorough study of the local situation and after
the division representative has given such advice.
It is more than likely that X may be brought closer
to B by proper study and careful planning. If it
is at all possible to achieve such a result, the effort
should be made and the county kept intact as a
unit.

A COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSOCIATION

Besides the American Red Cross, the National
Organization for Public Health Nursing, with
headquarters in New York City, state health, and
state anti-tuberculosis associations are promoting
the employment of trained visiting and public
health nurses and the organization of the com-
munity in the interest of public health. In some
states the state anti-tuberculosis society has
trained workers who may be secured to make a
local survey and give demonstrations of the value
of a school nurse or a community nurse.
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 195

Mass-meetings, conferences, lectures, and sur-
veys may precede the actual organization. The
executive board should be composed of representa-
tives from all organized groups. Membership
should be open to all citizens for a small fee.
Committees should be appointed on child welfare,
sanitation, education, and community health. The
committee on child welfare could codperate with
the United States Children’s Bureau in its differ-
ent baby-saving campaigns; organize classes for
the instruction of mothers in the care of their
babies, open milk and ice stations; and organize
simple and informal clinics for free medical and
dental service. The committee on sanitation
could develop a plan for the regular collection of
garbage at small cost; agitate the matter of a
sewerage system; in cooperation with the local
board of health and the state food and dairy com-
mission, inspect groceries and meat markets or
other places where food is sold, to insure compli-
ance with the state laws; and patrol streets and
alleys and enlist the property-owners in a con-
certed action to make and keep them clean. In
cooperation with the city school, the committee on
education could arrange for classes in home nurs-
ing and dietetics to be given in the school audi-
torium by local physicians, nurses, or the domestic
science teacher. It might also present plays or
pageants dealing with the subject of health. The
committee on community health could conduct
196 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

clean-up and anti-fly campaigns and codperate
with the local board of health in enforcing the
quarantine laws.

Until the public health nurse, who would be the
administrative agent of the association, is secured,
the administration might be left in the hands of
the executive board and the various committees.
After her arrival the nurse would carry out the
details of the educational health propaganda,
school nursing or home nursing as the policy of
the board dictated. The committees should be
retained, however; their volunteer work should
be continued, and the association should institute
other needed social reforms, such as the organiza-
tion of a social service bureau, better sanitation,
better housing, and possibly even a summer camp
for recreation purposes for all the people of the
district.

A COMMUNITY RECREATION ASSOCIATION

The same general plan of organization as
already discussed for the community health as-
sociation should be followed for a community
recreation association. The board should be rep-
resentative and membership unrestricted. The
income from membership fees may be augmented
by individual voluntary contributions and appro-
priations from the school board, city council, and
county commissioners. If the board decides to un-
dertake the erection of a community house, a cam-
paign for funds will be necessary. The building
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 197

should be carefully planned, but no plan should be
adopted until all the organizations have expressed
themselves as to their support of the project and
their possible use of the building. In some small
towns a new city hall is so designed that it will
serve as a community center. In other communi-
ties memorials to the soldiers who served in the
world war are taking the form of community
houses. The building should provide for a gym-
nasium, which could be used by the school if the
school has none; club-rooms; auditorium; library;
offices for the farm bureau, Y. M. C. A.. Y. W.
C. A. and public health nurse; dining-room and
kitchen. Not only must the budget provide for
the building and its furnishings and equipment,
but it must also provide for a caretaker and with-
out fail for an executive secretary, who should be a
trained recreation leader, preferably aman. The
effective use of the building will largely depend
upon the secretary. The building may be used for
institutes, lodge and club meetings, parties, con-
certs, lectures, and various other community af-
fairs. In some rural communities the community
house is so constructed that the basement may be
used for live-stock sales and shows and farm ex-
hibits.

If it is not possible to secure the necessary
amount for a building, or if local facilities are
adequate either in the schools or other buildings,
the recreation association through its member-
ship might raise a budget to secure a recreation
198 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

leader who should devote all of his time to pro-
moting and conducting community gatherings,
clubs, classes, institutes, and parties. The em-
ployment of a community recreation leader makes
possible provision for boys and girls who have
dropped out of school, especially those from four-
teen to twenty-one years of age, and for all those
people who have few or no social connections
through church, club, or lodge. Besides conduct-
ing recreational and educational work for boys,
girls, men, and women, the association might pro-
mote a library, community nursing, a consolidated
school, or a hospital, according as the need pre-
sented itself.?®

A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PLAN

The Chamber of Commerce of St. Louis, Mis-
souri, has undertaken a most significant piece of
work through its bureau of production—the or-
ganization of chambers of commerce or commer-
cial clubs in small cities and towns within its
trade area, southern Illinois, Missouri, northern
Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma and Kansas.

* Community Service Incorporated, 1 Madison Avenue, New
York City, grew out of War Camp Community Service, organized
for the promotion of recreation programs in war-camp cities.
The Playground and Recreation Association of America is in
reality responsible for both developments. Community Service
Ineorporated has its offices and employees in various sections of
the country, and on request makes recreational surveys, plans and
organizes recreation associations and recreation programs to be
financed by city or school district, conducts institutes or short
courses for recreation and playground leaders, and demonstrates
the possibilities of different kinds of recreational activities,
PLANS OF OTHER SPECIALIZED AGENCIES 199

Organization of the community follows trade-area
lines, and brings together in one organization busi-
ness men of the town, farmers, and public-spirited
women. Membership is acquired on payment of
an annual fee, which varies with the community,
but which is rarely under ten dollars.

A local steering or organizing committee can-
vasses the community to arouse interest. A com-
munity banquet is planned, and at this meeting
formal organization takes place. The desired
budget is from $4000 to $5000. Young business
men of St. Louis, members of the Junior Chamber
of Commerce, are being trained for local com-
munity service, and receive an initial salary of
from $1800 to $2400.

The organizers from St. Louis keep in touch
with the local association and consult the exec-
utive board as to its program. The board of di-
rectors is composed of both men and women rep-
resentative of the community. Five committees
are suggested: (1) civics, (2) production of raw
material, (3) promotion of industries, (4) trans-
portation, and (5) commerce, which has to do
especially with credit facilities.

The erection of a community house is one of
the possible projects presented to the board. The
law in Missouri makes possible the grant of $1000
from state funds to any county undertaking to
build a community house as a memorial to the
soldiers who served in the late war. The remain-
der necessary may be raised by a county bond
200 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

issue or by public subscription. One small town
of 1100 people in northwest Missouri, in which a
Chamber of Commerce has been organized, has
decided to build an $85,000 community center
which will furnish office room for the county agent
and the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce,
an assembly-room or auditorium, and a room in
the basement for live-stock sales, shows, institutes,
and farm demonstrations.
CHAPTER VIII
SUMMARY
THE APPROACH TO THE COMMUNITY

Unprer whatever organization he serves, the
community secretary will undoubtedly approach
his community with many ideals, dreams, and—
doubts. He* is confronted by some very prac-
tical questions: What shall he do first when he
gets off the train? What shall be his method of
approach to his board and to the community, step
by step, until he has arrived with his board at a
definite program? These questions are serious
matters and early mistakes are not always easily
remedied.

Granted that no hard-or-fast lines can be laid
down, it is certainly true that suggestions of pro-
cedure, which may be modified and adapted, are
often helpful. In the first place, before going
there the secretary should endeavor to acquire as
much information as possible about the com-
munity: its exact location, population, geography,
history, its relation to other near-by communities
and the type of community it represents. In ad-

Tn this discussion the masculine pronoun is used, although in
the majority of cases the community organizer will be a woman.

201
202 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

dition, if possible, he should learn what publicity,
if any, has preceded his coming. Above all, he
must start out with no preconceived notions as to
exactly what he will find or what he will do.
After acceptance of the position and when the
‘date set for his assumption of duties is near, he
should write a note to the chairman or secretary
of the executive board, stating the time of his
arrival. He will probably be met at the station
and assistance will be given him in finding living
quarters. <A time should be set for an informal
conference with the chairman. At this interview
the chairman should be encouraged to do most of
the talking and so give the newcomer some ideas
of the plans of the board, the place the organiza-
tion occupies in the community, and the general
spirit of the community. He should then suggest
that the chairman take him for an informal call
on the different board members, so that he may
meet them before the board meeting, which should
take place within four or five days or a week.
During this interim he should endeavor to learn
what active work has been done by any committee,
and should talk with the committee chairman
about the kind of work, its volume and method.
In case an office has been open and any of the
workers have been retained, a visit should be made
to get acquainted with the worker, his methods, his
ideas, his mistakes, the details of the organization
machinery, and the personnel of board and com-
mittees. At the same time the new secretary can
SUMMARY 203

observe the office arrangement and equipment and
go over the records.

As much time as possible should be devoted to a
brief study of the community: first, a ride over as
much territory as possible, to get the general con-
tour of the community and its good and bad super-
ficial aspects; second, interviews with the county
agent, commercial club secretary, community
social service worker, community nurse, presi-
dents of local clubs, town and county officials; and
third, visits to as many different parts of the
community and to their respective leaders as pos-
sible (especially necessary for county work).
This brief study will give a general idea of or-
ganizations and of the points of view of various
community leaders as to the needs and possi-
bilities.

The first board meeting should be as informal
as possible. Sometimes it is advisable to have it
in a private home, oftener at the office if there is
one. The occasion should serve as a ‘‘get ac-
quainted’’ meeting. The new secretary will be
asked his impressions. He should avoid being too
definite and should endeavor to postpone his talk
until he has secured from the board members their
plans for the organization and has learned from
them the degree of organization or unorganization
that exists in the community and county. He
should then speak briefly of the need for, and pos-
sibilities of, community organization, taking care
to give to the board three ideas: first, that he is
204 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

not to be an office man but a community organizer ;
second, that he can do nothing except as the board
and the community whole-heartedly support him;
and third, that he would not presume to advise as
to a local program until he knows more about the
community. Later he should ask the board to help
him in making a more complete study of the com-
munity and suggest another board meeting in
from two weeks to a month.

A simple announcement of the secretary’s ar-
rival should be given to the newspaper, but care
should be taken that no hasty or premature state-
ment is made concerning the future activities of
the organization.

At the second meeting of the board the secretary
should be able to report, at least briefly, on each
part of his territory and on the community as a
whole, and to map out what he considers the best
plan of organization and activities.

Often the secretary must carry on some form
of daily work while he is making the community
study and determining his method of procedure.
Usually it will consist of the routine matters of
the office or of some type of welfare activity. If
the secretary is a social worker employed by a
county welfare bureau or by the Red Cross, the
daily task will include giving information, advice,
and actual aid in solving family and child prob-
lems; the conduct of clubs and classes; perhaps
talks to different women’s and professional as-
sociations. If the secretary is a public health
SUMMARY 205

nurse, it is possible that arrangements have been
made for her to conduct school inspections and
examinations of school children or to do home
nursing on call.

THE OFFICE EQUIPMENT OF A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

The office of a community organizer for a county
association should be near the center of the town
that serves as headquarters for the county.
It should have at least two rooms, in order that a
private interviewing-room may be available. Be-
sides the desk, table, and chairs, there should be a
couch, and while the rooms should be businesslike
in appearance they should be made as inviting
as possible. The office furniture should be of good
quality and substantial, and should not be simply
discarded relics from attic and barn. Various
files will be necessary. Always there will need
to be accurate financial records, letter files, and a
card-catalog membership file giving name, exact
address, telephone number, and the name of the
community in which membership is held. In ad-
dition the office must have a confidential file of
the records of the individuals and families to
whom some information or social service has been
extended. Sometimes the agency may maintain,
for the confidential use of all local social agencies,
a simple card catalog of all families who receive
any kind of social service. Hach card should con-
tain the name and address of a family, the num-
ber of children with each one’s name, sex, and age,
206 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

and perhaps some additional family information,
together with the name of the social agency inter-
ested. Such a file is known as a confidential ex-
change. It is successful in its promotion of codp-
eration only as all agencies dealing with families
or children regularly submit reports and in turn
are notified whether or not other agencies are also
interested. This very simple but practical ex-
change of information will prevent much needless
and expensive duplication of time and money.

A folder for each town or community within the
county should be kept, and should contain clip-
pings from the local papers, lists of activities,
dates of meetings and events, records of local
plans and enterprises, and the names of the elected
officers of the local board. It is important that
the secretary should not trust to his memory for
the names of people who have contributed special
services; therefore a personnel file will be most
helpful, and should contain the name, address,
and particular talent of the individual, and also
of available speakers, singers, song-leaders, in-
strumentalists, band-leaders, game, club, and
physical directors, parliamentarians, and teachers
of special subjects such as manual training, do-
mestic economy, English. Another file that will
be found useful from the point of view of com-
munity organization will be a card catalog of all
organizations, county-wide or local, with the
names of officers and data regarding activities
and interests. There should also be in the office
SUMMARY 207

map of the county with roads, towns, school-
houses, churches, and other items of social inter-
est indicated by symbols, colored tacks, or other
graphic method. A bulletin-board in the central
office, duplicated if deemed best in the auxiliary
offices, for clippings and notices, will be found
very useful. Charts and exhibit material, pic
tures, and slides should be kept ready for cir-
culation throughout the county.

Regular office hours should be scrupulously
kept, and posters indicating where the office is
located should be placed in the depots, post-office,
court-house, city hall, library, and other public
places. Whether or not there is an office in each
section of the county, there should be an active
executive committee, together with a secretary
whose business shall be to keep the activities alive.
The name of the local secretary and his or her
address should be posted in prominent fashion,
so that any one needing advice or help will know
where to go. The county secretary should visit
each town as often as possible, and should keep in
close touch with it, stimulating, advising, and en-
couraging all local effort. Hach subdivision must
be made to feel the heartfelt interest of the secre-
tary and his appreciation of all the projects car-
ried on.

As many people as possible should be kept busy.
Volunteers may be used in both the central and
the sectional offices. They should be given the
kind of tasks that dovetail with their individual
208 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

interests. Occasional conferences of volunteers
from all parts of the county will help to bring
communities together and stimulate county feel-
ing. County workers should come together both
for work and for play through rallies, community
picnics, athletic contests, and community sings.
The test of the success of community organization
is the degree of consistent, not spasmodic, activity
that results, and the codperative spirit manifested.

SUMMARY OF PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATION

(1) The principles of community organization
grow out of the basic fact that, to accomplish the
task of creating strong community spirit and of
fostering genuine codperation for a common aim,
the community itself must see its needs and work
out the solution of its problems. The community
secretary or organizer should aid and direct, but
not control.

(2) The executive board must help to work out
a program and must assume responsibility for it.
The secretary must keep his board solidly back
of him from day to day, and should undertake no
venture until the board has signified its indorse-
ment of the plan. The board should stand sponsor
for the secretary, and should introduce him to
the ‘‘key’’ people of the headquarters town, and
should also through its members help him as he
undertakes the organization of each section of the
county or territory under his jurisdiction.
SUMMARY 209

(3) The executive board must be thoroughly
representative of the whole community, be it town,
city, or county. It must be democratic in compo-
sition and not the engine of any one clique. It
should have a goodly representation of business
men. It is a mistake to permit a community or-
ganization to become known as a ‘‘woman’s or-
ganization.’’

(4) The plan of organization and the program
of activities must be adapted to the local situation
and must supplement the work of existing agen-
cies instead of attempting to supplant them. A
new separate organization should not be promoted
if the work it is designed to carry on is already
being done or if there exists an agency that is
capable of expanding its work to include the
needed activity.

(5) In determining the program the needs and
interests of all parts of the community must be
considered.

(6) All parts of the organization’s jurisdiction
—neighborhoods, rural districts, lesser towns and
villages and cities—must be assiduously cultivated
both for active effort of their own and for par-
ticipation in the work of the larger unit.

(7) Not too much should be attempted at once.
A simple project should be undertaken and put
through to gain confidence, to demonstrate suc-
cess, and to give a foundation for a larger and
possibly more pretentious effort.

(8) As many people as possible should share in
210 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

the actual work. The secretary must not attempt
to carry the whole load, even though he thinks
he might handle any particular job more efficiently
than the person to whom it is assigned.

(9) Any effort at organization should make use
of clubs and agencies already formed, and the or-
ganizer must never forget to manifest apprecia-
tion for all local enterprises.

(10) Publicity must be systematically promoted.
Papers in all parts of the community should be
utilized. People need education in regard to social
programs, and, more than that, they want to know
what is being done. Besides, a community organ-
ization belongs to the people and they have a
right to know about it. Informal sociability will
help much in the extension of publicity and of the
influence of the organization. It is imperative that
the association be established in the minds of the
people.

(11) A centralization of community effort
through a community council or other joint scheme
should come only as a result of a natural closer
drawing together of agencies. It should never be
forced. Neither should any one agency attempt
to absorb other associations. An actual disband-
ing of agencies and their absorption by an exist-
ing society should come about only through an
earnest conviction that the one agency can do
its work so well that it logically should assume
the combined task.

(12) Finally, the organization must be demo-
SUMMARY 211

cratic in membership, in election of executive
board, in control of policies, in the nature of its
activities, and in the conduct of its program.

THE TREND OF ORGANIZATION

Back of all the varied experiments in com-
munity organization is a rather vague philosophy,
which is slowly crystallizing as first one and then
another pioneer organizer carries out an experi-
ment. There has been much futility in social work,
largely because of the inability to strike the vital
spot in a given problem of social organization.
This situation has been due in part to a lack of
the right kind of training. A new type of training
must prepare social workers to appreciate the
social field as a whole, and to correlate all types
of work so that they operate as smoothly as parts
of one machine. There has been too much compe-
tition among societies in a given community for
funds, for confidence, for influence, and for power.
In one community of about 800,000 population, for
example, are between forty and fifty agencies that
are dealing primarily with the individual or the
family, that are classified as ‘‘case-work’’ agen-
cies, and that do not include those organizations
whose first concern is the conduct of an institu-
tion.

One of the more recent forms of community
organization, developed first in the big city and
copied by smaller ones, has been the financial fed-
eration growing out of the recognized need for
212 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

codperation rather than competition, and perhaps
also out of the givers’ feeling of irritation and be-
wilderment at the vast number of appeals for
funds for philanthropic purposes. By means of
this plan the budgets of all participating agencies
are submitted voluntarily to the scrutiny of a
central representative committee. The estimated
amounts for the coming year are then passed upon,
being reduced or increased as the exigency de-
mands. The amounts agreed upon are pooled and
a campaign inaugurated to raise the combined
sum. The result has often been an increase in
funds available and also in the actual number of
contributors. The very natural sequence of the
financial federation has been the welfare federa-
tion, through which social service agencies are
linked together for the purpose of codperatively
meeting the city’s needs, of standardizing meth-
ods of work, and of educating the citizenship to
appreciate and support the program of the con-
stituent organizations.

As a result of actual and varied experiences a
new technique of community organization is being
slowly developed. It applics the principles of
social diagnosis used in individual case work to a
given community. It studies the community just
as the individual case is studied. The worker
using this new technique first analyzes the com-
munity, and from the analysis constructs a logical
plan of treatment. He will make use of his imag-
ination just as does the skilled surgeon who has
SUMMARY 213

thought out every possible complication before
he makes the incision, who is then prepared for
any emergency, and is quick to adapt his plan of
operation and to make an instant adjustment to
conditions as they are revealed. Social workers
have too often decided upon a plan of organiza-
tion or a policy of administration because it has
succeeded in a certain instance, forgetting what
the surgeon constantly remembers—that every
case is unique.

We may develop the parallel between family
social work and community organization in posi-
tive fashion, since the community, after all, exists
only by virtue of the fact that it is made up of
individuals, and of those individuals in families,
and of those families bound together by a common
environment. The approach to the family must be
made with sympathetic interest, and will be suc-
cessful only as the family’s point of view is under-
stood. The approach to the community must be
made in an appreciative spirit, and must result
in an understanding of the community’s point of
view, its temper, orits spirit. A satisfactory solu-
tion of the family’s problems is possible only on
the basis of an investigation into the family’s
needs and resources. In the case of the com-
munity this investigation is called a survey or
study. A family plan of rehabilitation involves
the enlistment of the family’s interest, initiative,
and positive self-assertion, the utilization of
known resources, the development of unsuspected
214 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

resources, and the application of these forces to
the solution of the particular problem. A plan of
community organization must be based upon the
interest, initiative, and positive self-assertion of
the community as a unit, the intelligent use of
known resources, the development of others, and
the definite application of these assembled re-
sources to eliminate the community inadequacies.

The analysis of the subject of community or-
ganization has revealed certain pressing needs
and certain well defined tendencies that seem to
prophesy a decidedly revolutionary type of or-
ganization for the future, and that may be tab-
ulated as follows:

1. The need for some machinery through
which community spirit when once aroused may
express itself.

2. The need for rural work—the extension and
adaptation of modern social methods to solve
rural social problems.

3. The more democratic participation of the
people in welfare activities.

4. The organization of readily accessible
groups of people either by blocks or neighbor-
hoods and eventually of the community as a whole.

5. Acloser relationship between the people and
the experts in various social fields.

6. Codrdination and combination of welfare
activities, both in financial and administrative
operations.

7, Flexibility of organization to meet local
SUMMARY 215

present needs and to provide for those of the
future.

8. Centralization, so that the problems of
health, of relief, of recreation, of child welfare,
of housing, may be correlated into one all-inclusive
and continually expanding program.

9. The demand for the public’s assumption of
responsibility for social problems, and the crea-
tion of a legal or governmental agency for the ad-
ministration of welfare projects that shall be
representative of the people and that shall be
financed by taxes and not by the generosity of the
few.

One fact of fundamental significance must in
large measure fashion the plan of organization—
the necessity for the employment of professional
social workers. In small communities some one
citizen or group of citizens will often voluntarily
assume leadership and give almost unlimited time
in voluntary service. In the large city or a county
including many miles of territory and many thou-
sands of people, volunteer service may be found
and should be utilized; but the extent of the
problems and the large amount of detail make it
imperative to employ trained executives. The
smaller city and the rural community are also
recognizing the possibilities of the trained social
worker and are working out plans that make fea-
sible his employment.

As has already been stated, because different
people have different reactions to the local social
216 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

situation, a variety of agencies results. In the
big cities, with hundreds of organizations, many
interested in much the same type of problems,
families may be visited by a probation officer, a
truant officer, a representative of the board of
children’s guardians or of a children’s aid society,
by the overseer of the poor, the district visitor
of the charity organization society, a friendly
visitor from a charitable association, a representa-
tive of the big brother or big sister agency, a
settlement worker, a visiting, a tuberculosis, a
baby welfare or public health nurse, a state agent
from any one of a dozen state institutions, a state-
parole agent, or a probation officer from the city
or district courts.

The importance of the family from a sociological
standpoint, the necessity for its preservation, and
an appreciation of its unity, have apparently not
been consciously considered in relation to com-
munity organization. The problems of poverty,
of neglected childhood, of ill health, of economic
maladjustment, of crime, of recreation, are
focused in the family. The problem of the child
can not be solved without an understanding of
the family. The ill health of any member of the
family can be understood only in relation to the
home and the family circumstances. It is diffi-
cult to understand why social workers have so
long been blind to the fact that social problems
are in reality one—the adjustment of individuals
living together in society. The unit is the home,
SUMMARY 217

and the adjustment must establish the home and
the family so well that the individual is master of
his own destiny. The far-seeing executives of
public health nursing associations have realized
the complications from over-specialization, and
are beginning to advocate generalized public
health nursing in which the public health nurse
performs for any family in her district any or all
of the services of the former bedside or visiting,
tuberculosis, and child welfare nurses. The social
worker, too, must visualize the possibility of a
more generalized service.

Besides the great number of agencies whose in-
terest centers in the family are many organiza-
tions with similar purposes but no mutual under-
standing of fields and policies, so that duplication
or a waste of effort is not uncommon; for example,
agencies to promote recreation, special kinds of
education, health, legislation, civic improvement.
Social workers have divided the social field into a
variety of constituent parts. Sometimes the di-
vision seems almost too minute. The policy has
resulted in divorcing vital elements that must be
brought together again in a normal social scheme.

Social workers have up to the present largely
failed to understand the importance of utilizing
volunteer service. Many of them frankly say that
it is too uncertain, too difficult to train, and too
troublesome to waste time over. Such a policy is
extremely short-sighted, anti-social, and undemo-
cratic. As a matter of fact, social work as or-
218 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ganized at the present time is neither democratic
nor to any marked degree preventive. On the
contrary, it is largely aristocratic, paternalistic,
and palliative. Social problems will not be solved
until the social conscience of the people is so
thoroughly stirred that social justice will replace
philanthropy. How can that ideal be realized?
People may be aroused to excitement and tears
over the recital of social inequalities and suffer-
ing, but they will be aroused to action much more
quickly when they see suffering and distress and
misery, when they come in actual contact with
social conditions as reflected in the individual
case. Volunteer service provides the opportunity.
Social workers should use every possible device to
enlist all the volunteers possible and to keep them
at work. An extensive and intensive volunteer
service in all fields of social welfare, under the
direction of trained workers, would serve to bring
citizens and experts closer together and give
wider participation to the public.

The ideal of social work has sometimes been Ge-
fined as social justice, which is only another way
of expressing true democracy. It means economic
and social opportunity for all men. Since social
justice is still only a dream, the social worker is
seeking by various plans of social service to help
the individual attain a better social position by
removing the obstacles that society has not re-
moved and that the individual can not remove.
In order to make social service democratic the
SUMMARY 219

people must organize, control, and finance it. The
form of organization should have a legal status
and constitute a part of the governmental ma-
chinery that the people themselves have set up for
the use of every one. It should be supported by
tax money. The form should be flexible enough
to adapt its program to any given locality, but
similar enough to plans in operation in other
communities of the same state to conform to gen-
eral state-wide standards of administration. It
should combine within the purview of its activities
all social service functions and should be adminis-
tered by trained social workers. Finally, it
should have, in addition to its elected board, an
advisory board composed of citizens selected by a
representative but disinterested agency, such as
a judicial body or court.

Such a plan should fit into the present general
scheme of government, and is none other than the
county board of public welfare—established by
law but voluntary by adoption. Itis the provision
through legal means of a combination plan adapt-
able to any community. It represents a form of
federation and unification, the utilization of all
local forces, the consolidation of agencies with re-
lated functions, and the centralization of welfare
activities in such fashion that duplication is
avoided and social energy conserved for the initia-
tion of preventive reforms. It does not destroy
individual initiative, but sets it free for the real-
ization of enlarged visions. It gives trained serv-
220 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ice for the handling of all problems in city or
country and is representative of the people. It is
supported by tax funds and answerable to the
people for all expenditures.

The importance of organization of the smaller
units within a given territory to support and carry
through community projects must be recognized.
In larger cities the utilization of some form of
block or neighborhood organization is necessary to
bring into the city the more complete social codp-
eration possible in the village and smaller town.
In counties or rural districts, also, the neighbor-
hood must be organized and related to the larger
community unit. The people should come together
in some more or less definite organization to dis-
cuss their common problems and devise methods
for improvement. Such a group may study, under-
stand, and promote the activities of local institu-
tions and agencies; it may take a proprietary in-
terest in a board of public welfare and it may
promote civic programs for its own immediate
neighborhood. When, however, the question of
dealing with individuals and families arises, the
group should yield place to the trained social
workers and their volunteers.

On the other hand, it must be conceded that the
organization of the small neighborhood and com-
munity clubs or units will be successful in large
measure only as there is constant stimulation,
which must be supplied through a central agency
if it is to effect any concerted community-wide
SUMMARY 221

program. A welfare board should by all means
make use of neighborhood and community units.
In order to be permanently successful a county
welfare board must develop local codperative
groups in all the centers of population within the
county, which should sustain some definite rela-
tion to the central or executive board.

One somewhat revolutionary suggestion seems
pertinent—the legal grant to boards of public
welfare of functions, such as enforcement of
school attendance laws; probation and parole work
for juvenile, police, and district courts; adminis-
tration of poor relief ; promotion, supervision, and
conduct of recreational facilities. Such a policy
would dispense with the provisions for a variety
of officials, and would make it possible to divide a
given community into small units in charge of an
employee of the board authorized to fulfil any
function demanded. Under the voluntary com-
bination plan and even under the county welfare
board laws, one individual may be appointed to
several different positions. Usually, however, the
appointments are made by difflerent officials or
official boards, and may or may not be made. If
because of some personal prejudice or antagonism
an appointment is withheld from the trained so-
cial worker, the duties of that particular office
may be inadequately performed or neglected.
Under the plan suggested the social field would be
unified, the social worker brought closer to the
families within her district, and much duplication
222 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

avoided. It would then be easily possible to or-
ganize the people of the neighborhood or com-
munity with representation on the central board.
Altogether such a plan would in no uncertain way
speed the community on toward the realization of
its ultimate goal—the welfare of every man,
woman, and child within its boundaries.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it may be said that citizens will
find that the simplest plan and the one that most
nearly meets the needs of their own community
will have the elements of permanency. Any plan
of organization should be based on a survey of
actual conditions and should be adopted only as it
carries the support of all the citizens. Any legis-
lative program for county boards of public wel-
fare should likewise be adapted to local state con-
ditions and legal background. Always it must be
kept in mind that the welfare of the people who
make up the community is the only raison d’étre
for any plan of organization. The democratic
consideration, promotion, and support of social
welfare projects are always desirable, even if the
detailed administration of those activities affect-
ing the family most intimately must be delegated
to trained executives. Any welfare agency is
the creature of the community, and can exist only
as long as it represents the people and retains
their sympathetic support. It should be always
the servant and never the master.
APPENDIX

TYPES OF SURVEY SCHEDULES
SYMBOLS FOR NEIGHBORHOOD SURVEY
EXTRACTS, ‘““RURAL WORK STORIES ’’—
AMERICAN RED CROSS (RURAL SERVICE)
TYPES OF SURVEY SCHEDULES

Form 1 (see page 227) was used in a town of about
8000 people in making a church census. The survey
was planned and directed by the community Y. M. C. A.
Volunteer visitors collected the data. The schedule was
not confined to questions regarding church affiliation,
but included those relating to social or marital state;
number in family including husband, wife, children at
home and others in the home; occupation, education,
and nationality of each member of the household; num-
ber of rooms in the house; number of rooms for rent;
size of lot; out-buildings on premises; water supply and
sewer connection. By means of this simple blank a
census of the town was made giving church connections,
type of family, pertinent data concerning occupation,
education, nationality, and the more important sanitary
conditions of the house and yard. The schedule is in-
teresting because of its simplicity. The questions are
clear and the card is well planned.

In his book, ‘‘Technique of Social Surveys,’’ Pro-
fessor Elmer gives Form 2 (see page 228) as the type
of home card used in the survey of Lawrence, Kansas,
a city of about 14,000. The schedule may be roughly
divided into five sections: (1) composition of family;
(2) membership in church; (3) recreational facilities
in home; (4) description of house and its sanitary con-
veniences; and (5) number of animals kept on premises.
A question is also asked in the last section concerning
the possession of an automobile. The visitor is required
to make notations relative to the condition of the house,
yard, and interior of the house.

Form 3 (see page 229) is suggested as a skeleton form
for the survey of a town under 10,000, to be modified,
of course, as occasion demands. It is divided into three

225
226 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

sections. The first covers the most important social
data of the family; the second, the house and its sur-
roundings; and the third, the recreation of each mem-
ber of the family. By using both sides, a card five by
eight inches might be used to good advantage.
Schedules used for rural surveys necessarily differ
considerably from those used in urban districts. The
problems found in the city—the needs for education and
technical training, health, better housing and sanitation,
and adequate recreation—are found also in the rural
district, together with those of making the farm pay,
of securing farm labor, and of making farming inter-
esting and satisfying to the farm boy and girl. The
farmer as well as the city dweller faces the problem of
developing community spirit to carry on a community
program for furthering general well-being. However, the
problem is intensified for the farmer by the difficulties of
distance and the frequent lack of codperative spirit.
The Extension Division of the State University of
Iowa prepared Form 4 (opposite page 234) to be used in
making a rural survey in a county in which the people
wished to collect the information themselves. For this
reason the card is very simple. It asks for nationality,
occupation, education, and health of father and mother;
a list of all children, living or dead; the names of chil-
dren living at home or elsewhere, with occupation of
those out of school and the age and grade when they
left school; and the names of those in school, with name
of school and grade. Inquiry is made concerning seri-
ous illness of all children and their present health. Con-
siderable space is given to the questions about recrea-
tion both in the home and outside the home. The peo-
ple of this community were particularly interested in
the possibility of obtaining a consolidated school, and
for this reason questions were added to learn the sani-
tary conditions of the schools that the children attended.
Form 5 (opposite page 238) is especially interesting. It
was prepared by a post-graduate student ** of the State
University of Iowa and used by him in making a sur-

= J. H. Krenmyre, North English, Iowa.
APPENDIX 227

FORM 1
Date. ws cee cvsesccee se 1D. ee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family name Address Ward Phone
. Church Occu-| Edu.
Given name | Age | Res.| N.R. Pref. None] §. 8. pation| Rd. Wt. Nat’l| Notes
HusBanD
Dead
Divorced
Gone
WIFE
Dead
Divorced
Gone
CHILDREN (At Home)
Sex | Age eo ee Pref.| None] S. 8. | School | Grade
OtHERs (In Home)
Sex | Age oa een Pref.| None| S.S. | School | Grade
. ENVIRONMENT

rrr rrrrrrr rr rrr errr rrr rer rere reer eee ee ee

No. of rooms........ Water used ......-.- Remarks .......seseeee-
No. rooms for rent... Out-buildings ....... alaree Gtaimiaiarw aieeisueye eremeeler 4's

    

Using city sewer..... Size of lot.....sceeee ais
Res. — Resident member. S. S. — Sunday-school.
N. R. — Non-resident member. Rd. — Read.

Pref. — Preference. Wt. — Write.
228 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY
FORM 2

HOME CARD USED IN LAWRENCE, KANSAS, SURVEY

(From ‘‘Technique of Social Surveys,’’ by Manuel

C. Elmer)

1. Location: Street address.... Ward.... Add....
Block....

2. Family: Number.... Adults (over 14).... Chil-
dren (under 14)....

3. Roomers: Number.... K. U. Students; Men....
Women.... Others; Men.... Women....

4. Native State: Husband.... Wife.... How long
in city: Husband.... Wife....

5. Membership in what local church: Husband....
Wife....; Membership in church elsewhere:

Husband.... Wife....; Church preference....
6. Number Papers: Daily.... Local.... Others....

Number magazines.... Number books in li-
brary....

7. Musical Instruments: Piano.... Organ....
Phonograph.... Others....

8. Games: Card Games.... Caroms.... Checkers
.... Dominoes.... Number toys....

9. Athletic Equipment: Swing.... Punching-bag
.... Football....  Baseball.... Tennis....
Other....

10. Value residence.... Owned by family.... If not,
amount rent per month....

11. Number stories.... Rooms.... Bedrooms....

12. City Water.... Well.... Cistern.... Cellar....
Bath and inside toilet....

18. Heating: Coal-stoves.... Furnaces.... Gas....
Steam or hot water....

14. Number Chickens.... Horses.... Cows....
Autos....

15. Pets (number): Cats.... Dogs.... Rabbits....
Others....

(To be filled by visitor) House.... Yard.... In-
terior....
APPENDIX 229

FORM 3

SUGGESTED FORM OF HOME CARD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surname /|Address | Ward Block How long in city? How long in this house?
Husband |Birth- |Occupation Wages Education |Age and j|Sickness during past
place grade left {year
school
Wife
Children School and
boy or girl grade or
Age occupation
Others in family: Roomers Boarders If husband is foreign-born, give date of natur-
Relatives—who? Men? No. Men? No. alization papers.
Women? No. |Women? No.
1st? 2nd?
House owned? No. Rooms No. Bed- No. Stories Type of house:
Value? rooms Single?
Rented? Duplex?
Rent paid? Apartment?
No. families?
Light house-
keeping?
No. families?
Size of lot? Any out- Outside Inside Flower-garden?
Size of yard? buildings? toilet? toilet and Vegetable-garden?
What? bath? :
Sewer connection? | Water Heating Lighting Condition
City? of yard?
Well? Repair of
Cistern? house?
Recreation Mem. of Attend dances Attend Other recreation
Husband clubs—kind ? how often? movies
Wife Mem. of By whom given? how often?
Children lodges—kind?
Papers taken: Magazines Musical {Games Athlétic Conveyances|Livestock :
Daily? taken? instru- Card equipment: |Auto? Horses
Weekly? Name ments games? Swing Carriage? |Cows
No. books Piano Caroms? Tennis Chickens
in Organ Checkers? |Baseball Dogs
home Phono- Dominoes? |Punching- Rabbits
graph No. toys bag Cats
Football

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remarks Date Visitor
230 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

vey of a rural district in which he was serving as pastor
of two rural churches. It makes special inquiry into
the attitude of the family toward the church and toward
community activities. Other questions relate to the
modern conveniences on the farm, the methods of farm-
ing, and the desire or lack of desire to keep abreast of
latest developments in agricultural science. Economic
condition is indicated in the items concerning ownership
and rental of farm and investment and income.

SYMBOLS FOR NEIGHBORHOOD SURVEY
(Missouri School of Social Economy)

I. Type of housing:

_

single house

. Tooming-houses

. lodging-house

. light housekeeping

. two-family houses

. tenements of three or more families
. Tear tenements

. sub-rear

. houses over stables

cRBReeep

. houses over and in rear of business

> £&

. basement or cellars occupied
FW 12. alley houses

13. percentage of lot covered by house
(in notes)
APPENDIX 231

II. Condition of houses and premises:

NER > <

—_
ee ee er ee ee

good repair (in notes)

fair repair (in notes)
tumble-down houses (in notes)
vaults connected with sewer
vaults not connected with sewer
privy—no vault

well

city water in yard

barns or stables

chicken-houses

. pig-pens

. pigeon-houses

. dog-houses

. ducks and duck-pond
. rabbit-hutches

. garbage-pail uncovered

garbage-pail covered

. ashes pits—wood

ashes pits—brick

. rubbish

yard grassed (notes)
yard paved (notes)
yard dirt (notes)
232 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

III. Condition of yard:
clean (in notes)
fair condition (in notes)
attractive—trees—shrubbery (in notes)

IV. Public Buildings:

fire station

post-office

public school (numbered)
negro school

8G

parochial school
Protestant church
Roman Catholic church
Greek Catholic church
Jewish church

library

hospitals (numbered)
clinics and dispensaries
T4]] rest-room or comfort station
TS]) Y.M.C. A.

Té]} Y. W.C.A.

[71] settlements

markets

home for aged
children’s homes
Salvation Army

jail

factories

Pablps+r0@0

Ease

2 [5
APPENDIX 233

V. Recreation:

fo
3
iy

AomeR DPD bp:

Gy
Oo
rm
an

wn
Bima

ee cceeey

aeeed

amusement-parks
moving-picture theater
theater

dance-hall

billiard and pool halls
bowling-alley

saloons

lodge rooms

clubs (numbered)
tennis court

golf links

baseball grounds
community center
skating-rinks

public parks
playgrounds

school playground
vacant lots or field
Turnverein
shooting-galleries
234 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY
VI. In notes:

Loafing-places

Congregating centers

Places where children are playing
Games children are playing
Conditions of streets: paved; dirt
Condition of alleys: clean; dirty
Blind alleys

Racial groups within district
Unprotected food supply

VII. Note
Lawyers Drug-stores
Doctors Dairies

Centers of employment
Midwives Factories, shops
BECREATION IN HOMB.

 

What magazines taken?

Newspapers? weeklies?

How many books in home?

Gamés, what kind {n home?

Peta?

Bicycle?

Musical Instruments?

How much use public Hbrary?

Use State Traveling Library?

 

 

RECREATION OUTSIDE HOME.

 

Attend lectures?

How often?

Attend dances?

By whom given?

Attend movies?

Do children go alone to movies?
 

Dailies?

Auto? Carriage?

 

 

 

What ones?

Who goes?

Where held?

How often? Who goes?

How often?” Who goes?

Evenings?
APPENDIX 235

RURAL WORK STORIES #

WINCHESTER AND FREDERICK COUNTY (VIRGINIA)
CHAPTER

Frederick County (population 18,650) illustrates all the con-
trasts of Virginia. Its county-seat, Winchester (about 6000) has
history, wealth, aristocracy, and talent. One section of the county
lies in the Shenandoah Valley, has easy access to outside ideas,
and is prosperous. As large a section is isolated by poor roads
and mountains and is extremely undeveloped.

Largely due to leadership at Winchester—which interested and
enlisted county people too—the chapter did a good piece of war
work.

A county Home-Coming Parade gave these branches a chance to
rally (in the first event of this kind ever tried) at a critical time
after the armistice. Junior Red Cross activities were a definite
part of the school curriculum in Winchester. It was the Winches-
ter Junior exhibit that won first place at the National Educational
Association meeting at Cleveland. Under the direction of the
teacher in charge of Junior activities, the Senior Civics class
studied their town with Miss Byington’s ‘‘Know Your Com-
munity Better’’ as an outline. The Winchester Juniors gave a
pad-and-pencil shower for a county school that had burned out.

An enthusiastic publicity committee kept the Red Cross in the
minds of the people by frequent exhibits in down-town windows.
The chapter extended to a peace-time program in October, 1919,
a county nurse started school inspection in the fall, and an execu-
tive secretary was employed for a period of four months.

The chapter chairman, with other influential citizens, signed
the letter requesting that one of the three surveys to be made in
December, 1919, in connection with the community study course at
Washington, be made in their county.

On the night the report was discussed with the local study
committee in February, 1920, a new executive secretary, a mature
woman with wide experience, was hired.

The secretary has divided the county into sixteen administra-
tion districts, choosing natural boundaries of school and magis-
terial district lines and recognizing the old branch centers.

She writes to a former branch representative in each district,
asking her to call a meeting of citizens interested in Red Cross
and the community. The secretary explains the work other parts
of the county are starting, and leaves them to organize a com-
mittee and send in names—this procedure because of strong an-
tagonism between Winchester and the county. In the more remote

™Bxtracts from reports of the American Red Cross, Rural
Service.
236 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

parts of the county meetings seem to be best attended after
church on Sunday.

The secretary advises the branches to have these informal meet-
ings approximately once in two weeks—she plans to attend meet-
ings herself about quarterly. Several communities are asking for
her more than that. Miss Haines stated that fourteen out of
sixteen communities had responded to her request to call this
meeting, and committees of from six to ten members are formed
and doing active work in these fourteen districts.

Five definite projects have been presented and started—usually
two or three in a community. These projects are as follows:

1. The completion of the war job—that is, following up
each ex-service man and rendering him all necessary
service.

2. The extension of home service to civilian families.

8. A short course in home nursing of from six to eight les-
sons, given by the Red Cross county nurse. In the
more remote parts of the county these have been given
one a day consecutively to avoid the transportation
difficulties.

4, A summer Junior Red Cross program, which includes the
rat and fly campaigns.

5. Plans for a series of lectures or entertainments in the
school-houses. This is the beginning of a recreational
program.

The secretary has a rough time limit for some of the present
projects. The nursing classes, for instance, were urged for the
summer, since the nurse was busy with the school work during the
school year.

The war job was presented as a this summer’s project or an
impossibility.

The Red Cross chapter has been able to get almost one hundred
per cent. record of all ex-service men by this means. The secre-
tary has a ecard file in her office, with different colored clips
indicating the men who were killed in service, the disabled men, the
men who have applied for compensation, the men receiving com-
pensation, and the men taking vocational training.

Feeble-minded problems have been prominent among the family
cases referred by the branch committees. The secretary is greatly
puzzled concerning the numerous feeble-minded problems that
have been brought to her attention through .these district com-
mittees. There is not sufficient institutional provision for such
cases in the state of Virginia, and like all other states no legisla-
tion compelling feeble-minded people to enter institutions. Madi-
son Heights, the only public institution providing care for epileptic
and feeble-minded persons, is now overcrowded.

She feels that the information home service secretaries give
concerning such eases should be referred to some agency that will
bring it to the attention of the state legislature, in order that con-
APPENDIX 237

sideration may be given this problem with a view to obtaining
more institutional provision and compulsory segregation for
feeble-minded cases.

The work of a very good nurse has been a large factor in the
whole county program. One case of smallpox was reported about
a week ago, but the house is not quarantined. In the meantime
another case has developed, which was probably contracted from
the first case. The first case was reported in Pluck’s Alley, the
small tenement district of Winchester.

The nurse accompanies the secretary to the Red Cross districts
when home service meetings are held at the school-houses, to give
illustrated talks on health.

The nurse is conducting a monthly children’s clinic. Last month
forty children were examined, and since that time five of this
number have had the operation recommended for tonsils and
adenoids. Local doctors volunteer their services for this work.

Projects in Winchester

The sanitary conditions in this part of the city (in Pluck’s
Alley) are appalling. There is no sewerage connection, and all
toilets are open and not adequately screened. A number of the
residents on this street keep pigs, rabbits, and other live stock.
The street is not paved, and the mud in rainy weather makes
the road almost impassable. The secretary is working with the
city council to improve conditions in this neighborhood. The Red
Cross nurse arranged to vaccinate all the people on this street
after the first smallpox case was reported.

A member of the executive committee of the Red Cross has
been working with the secretary to secure a playground for the
children of Pluck’s Alley. They were unsuccessful in securing
a lot in that neighborhood, the owner demanding such a high price
that they were unable to pay it. However, the secretary has
secured three girls who take the children from this neighborhood
two or three times a week to the Friends’ playground in the
upper part of Winchester.

Winchester boasts a very modern, up-to-date Boy Scout build-
ing. A very splendid swimming-pool is in the building. While
the Boy Scouts are in camp certain girls’ clubs are allowed the
use of this pool. These clubs represent the better class of girls,
and they asked the secretary to give them swimming lessons.
She has consented to do this work, feeling that it would be wise
to make this contribution to a better class, thus making the
publie realize that the Red Cross is there to serve all classes of
people.

The Ministerial Association has been talking over plans with
the secretary to federate the welfare work of Winchester and
give all relief through one channel under the supervision of a
trained worker. This plan has not been entirely worked out yet,
but the secretary feels that she will be able to come to a satis-
factory agreement with them.
238 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

The Community Study Committee expects to form a nucleus of a
permanent community council this fall, when it hopes to provide
for further community needs—among them the operation of a
juvenile court and probation system.

Summary
Extension—October, 1919
County study—December, 1919
Personnel:
Executive secretary, October, 1919
Public health nurse for county, September, 1919
Active Junior Red Cross leader is a high-school teacher
Projects:
War work
Family work
Home nursing
Junior rat and fly campaigns
Lecture-entertainments in rural communities
Swimming-classes
Play supervision for children in small tenement district
Vaceination

ATHENS (GEORGIA) CHAPTER

Athens Chapter has for its jurisdiction the whole of Clarke
County (population 26,111). Athens, the chapter headquarters,
is a city of 16,748.

After a survey of Clarke County conducted in February, 1920,
by the Southern Division in codperation with representative citi-
zens, the local Red Cross chapter decided to revive activities by
employing a public health nurse and a trained social secretary.

When the secretary arrived, March 1, the consensus of opinion
was that the work was to be confined to the 175 ex-service men
in training at the University of Georgia and the ex-service men
in Clarke and surrounding counties, 38 of whom had already
been served in February by the secretary pro tem. -No branch had
been established in the county, and, though county cases had
been handled during the war, the rural people felt that the Red
Cross meant very little to them. Since the executive committee
was not ready to extend home service to civilians, and there were
very few soldier cases in the county, the secretary began to in-
terest the county people through the Junior Red Cross. A county
teachers’ institute gave her the opportunity to present the need
of Red Cross service in rural districts, and the suggestion was
made to conduct a sanitation campaign in the thirteen county
schools for whites. Junior membership was to be obtained, not
through fee but through service in eradicating flies and cleaning
up the community, and the senior chapter offered $50 in prizes
to stimulate interest. The county Junior chairman, who is also
the home economies agent, with the codperation of the teachers,
APPENDIX 239

created a good deal of publie sentiment for sanitation through
this campaign. It was conducted in the month of April in codp-
eration with a program outlined by the Extension Department of
the State College of Agriculture, and the prizes awarded at the
county schools’ general meeting at the College, April 30. Especial
attention was attracted by the fly posters, the first attempt of
the rural schools at making posters.

As Winterville is the only trading center in the county besides
Athens, a community meeting was early requested there to con-
sider organizing a branch. Easter Sunday morning a mass-
meeting was held at one of the churches, and after the secretary
had outlined the peace program of the Red Cross (to the extent
of one hour and fifteen minutes) a branch was organized. The
chairman became automatically a member of the executive com-
mittee. A local Junior chairman had been appointed, and it was
resolved to support the sanitation campaign of the Juniors.

In order to permeate the county and yet not overlap or compete
with existing organizations, it was decided to work through the
schools and women’s community clubs, organized in each school
district by the Farm Bureau (extension work of the State College
of Agriculture). These clubs are federated in the County Farm
Women’s Bureau, which meets once a month in Athens, and also
with the Federation of Women’s Clubs. The Red Cross nurse
and secretary are members of the Farm Women’s Bureau and make
reports of their work at each meeting.

When the Red Cross nurse arrived there had been practically
no health work in the county except one dental examination under
the Farm Bureau. In codperation with this movement she began a
child health program in the schools. She inspected children, did
follow-up work in a good many cases, and assisted Dr. Haygood
of the State Board of Health in making a demonstration of school
children at Winterville. A Red Cross nursing committee was ap-
pointed at Winterville to support the work there. In other dis-
tricts she met with the community clubs, and at Oconee Heights,
Tuckston, and East Athens (industrial district) classes were
organized in home nursing. An especially interesting feature of
her work is the Little Mothers’ League at East Athens for
instructing the older girls in how to care for the little ones
while the parents are at work in the mill.

In codperation with the home economics agent, the nurse has
assisted in the conducting of nutrition clinics at the State Normal
School and at the county court-house. The doctor’s fee is paid by
the Red Cross chapter. These clinics are to be conducted until
all children enrolled become physically normal.

Since the community clubs were interested in child welfare, the
secretary secured their indorsement of an effort to begin a county-
wide playground movement. Throughout June and July she
conducted a story and play hour in Athens, which brought a
good deal of newspaper publicity, and the Winterville club con-
240 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

ducted a similar story hour. A playground secretary was furnished
by the Southern Division, July 20, for a month’s demonstration
in Athens, Tuckston school, where the playground movement was
indorsed and interest aroused in a county playground system.
In Athens a strong citizens’ committee succeeded in securing the
codperation of the Kiwanis Club, Rotary Club, Chamber of Com-
merce, and Women’s Club to support the movement. The Kiwanis
Club has pledged $600 to equip one playground, and the combined
representatives from all these organizations and the Red Cross
will launch a drive through the papers for $2000 for equipment
if the Board of Education will employ a supervisor of play as a
permanent member of the city faculty. This proposition is to
be presented to the Board of Education August 23, and Athens
expects to be sure of three playgrounds and a supervisor by
September. The movement will be continued in the city and
county, with a county playground system as the goal. The county
playground system has already become a part of the editorial
policy of one of the Athens papers.

In the meantime, the family welfare work has increased from
thirty-eight to a hundred and one cases per month (in June).
The executive committee has extended home service to civilians,
and the secretary is locating county cases through the codpera-
tion of the community clubs. The idea of family welfare work
is not clear to the rural people yet, but they have become in-
terested in the general child welfare movement, and family wel-
fare is being linked to that. Each school district will be asked
to appoint a civilian relief committee when school reopens in
September. Very little volunteer service has been secured so far,
although in Athens the secretary has a social service committee of
twenty-five representative women. Some of these women have re-
quested that the secretary give a chapter course in social work in
the fall, in order that they may do more effective volunteer work.
If possible, such a course will be given in Athens and in the
county community clubs to stimulate volunteer service. The
nurse has more cases in the county than in Athens and has gradu-
ally awakened the county to greater confidence in the Red Cross.

Miss Susiz G. Dawson, Executive Secretary
Miss Acnes CRAWFORD, Public Health Nurse

Summary
Survey—February, 1920
Personnel:
Temporary home service secretary during month of February,
1920

Social secretary arrived March 1, 1920
Public health nurse
County Junior chairman

Approach to rural districts through Junior work
APPENDIX 241

Projects:

Work through schools and women’s clubs organized in each
school district by the Farm Bureau—federated

Sanitation campaign in county schools

Child health program

Little Mothers’ League

Nutrition clinic

Classes in home nursing

Family welfare

County playground movement

Additional projects listed in division survey of chapter activi-
ties, July 1, 1920—two first-aid classes, seven Junior
auxiliaries, information.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list of books, pamphlets, and articles is in-
tended to serve as a partial but not as an exhaustive bibliog-

raphy.

Abbreviations used:

N.C.C.C., Proceedings of the National Conference of Chari-
ties and Correction.

N.C.8S.W., Proceedings of the National Conference of Social
Work.

Am. City (T. & C. Ed.), American City Magazine (Town and
Country Edition).

R. 8S. F., Russell Sage Foundation, New York City.

I. Booxs

Addams, Jane. The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets.
New York. 1910.

Andress, J. Mace. Health Education in Rural Schools. New
York. 1919.

Aronovici, Carol. The Social Survey. Philadelphia. 1916.

(Also see bibliography in this book.)

Bailey, L. H. The Country Life Movement in the United
States. New York. 1911.

What Is Democracy? Ithaca, N. Y. 1918.

Bancroft, Jessie H. Gamesifor the- Playground, Home, School,
and Gymnasium. New York. 1909.

Bashore, Harvey Brown. Overcrowding and Defective Hous-
ing in the Rural Districts. New York. 1915.

Bur, Walter. Rural Organization. New York. 1921.

Butterfield, Kenyon L. Chapters in Rural Progress. Chicago.
1908.

The Farmer and the New Day. New York. 1919.

Carver, Thomas Nixon. Principles of Rural Economics. Bos-
ton, 1911.

Selected Readings in Rural Economics. Boston. 1916.
Clarke, Ida Clyde. The Little Democracy. New York. 1918.
Cubberley, E.P. Rural Life and Education. New York. 1914.
Curtis, Henry S Education through Play. New York. 1915.

Play and Recreation for the Open Country. Boston. 1914.

The Play Movement and its Significance. New York. 1917.

The Practical Conduct of Play. New York. 1915.

245
246 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

Daniels, John. America via the Neighborhood. New York.
1920.
Department of Surveys and Exhibits. R.S.F. New York.

1. The Pittsburgh Survey.......... 6 volumes
2. The Springfield Survey........... 3 volumes
3. The Topeka Survey.............. 1 volume

Dewey, Evelyn. New Schools for Old. New York. 1919.
Diffendorfer, Ralph E. The Church and the Community. New
York. 1920.
Douglass, Harlan Paul. The Little Town. New York. 1919.
Earp, E. L, The Rural Church Serving the Community. New
York. 1916.
Ellwood, Charles A. The Social Problem. (Revised.) New
York. 1919.
Sociology and Modern Social Problems. (Revised.) New
York. 1919.
Elmer, Manuel C. Technique of Social Surveys. (Revised.)
Minneapolis. 1920.
Evans, F. N. Town Improvement. New York. 1919.
Farrington, Frank. Community Development. New York.
1915.
Farwell, P. T. Village Improvement. New York. 1913.
Ferris, Helen J. Girls’ Clubs. New York. 1918.
Fiske, George Walter. The Challenge of the Country. New
York. 1912.
Foght, Harold W. The Rural Teacher and His Work. New York.
1918.
Follett, M. P. The New State. New York. 1918.
Galpin, C. J. Rural Life. New York. 1918.
Gillette, J. M. Constructive Rural Sociology. (Revised.)
New York. 1916.
Gulick, L. H. A Philosophy of Play. New York. 1920.
Hanifan, L. J. The Community Center. New York. 1920.
Hart, Joseph K. Educational Resources of Village and Rural
Community. New York. 1913.
Community Organization. New York. 1920.
Hayes, Augustus W. Rural Community Organization. Chi-
cago. 1921.
Jackson, H. E. A Community Center. New York. 1918.
Lee, Joseph. Play in Education. New York. 1915.
Lindeman, EH. C.' The Community. New York. 1921.
Mangold, George B. Problems of Child Welfare. New York.
1914.
Perry, Clarence A. The Wider Use of the School Plant. R.S.F.
New York. 1910.
Community Center Activities. R.S.F. New York. 1916.
Proceedings of the First National Country Life Conference.
Geneva, N. Y. 1919.
Proceedings of the Third National Country Life Conference.
(Rural Organization.) Chicago. 1921.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 247

agri Mary E. Social Diagnosis. R.S.F. New York.

Ripley, G. S. Games for Boys. New York. 1920.

Routzahn, Evart G. and Mary B. The A. B. ©. of Exhibit
Planning. New York. 1918.

Shepherd, Robert Perry. Community Efficiency. Chicago.
1916.

Vogt, Paul L. Introduction to Rural Sociology. New York.
1917.

Ward, E. J. The Social Center. New York. 1913.

Waugh, Frank A. Rural Improvement. New York. 1914.

Wilson, Lucius E. Community Leadership. New York. 1919.

II. PAMPHLETS

Akron, Ohio. Promoting Public Efficiency through the Charity
Organization Society and the Department of Public Chari-
ties.

American Association for Organizing Family Social Work.
New York City. Financial Federations. 1918.

Burr, Walter. Community Welfare in Kansas. Kansas State
Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kansas.

Byington, Margaret F. What Social Workers Should Know
about Their Own Communities. 1917. New York.

Coéperative Education Association of Virginia (Richmond).
Annual Reports; Community League Bulletin.

Ourtis, Florence Rising. The Collection of Social Survey Mate-
rial. American Library Association Publishing Board,
Chicago. 1915.

Department of Church and Country Life. Board of Home Mis-
sions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. A. Reports
of Rural Surveys. New York.

Elmer, Manuel C. The Minneapolis (Kansas) Survey. Uni-
versity of Kansas, Lawrence.

Foght, H. W. Rural Education, Bulletin No. 7, 1919. U. 8.
Bureau of Education.

Gale, Zona. Civic Improvement in the Little Towns. American
Civic Association. Washington, D. C. 7
Galpin, ©. J. A Method of Making a Social Survey in a Rural

Community. University of Wisconsin Agricultural Ex-
periment Station. Bulletin 29, 1912.

Rural Relations of the Village and Small City. University
of Wisconsin. Bulletin 411.

The Social Anatomy of a Rural Community. University of
Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 34.

Handbook on Communty Organization, State Council of De-
fense. State Printing Office. Sacramento, California. 1918.

Hanifan, L. J. Handbook containing suggestions and programs
for community social gatherings at rural school-houses.
Charleston, W. Va. 1918.
248 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

Harrison, Shelby M. A Brief Bibliography of General Social
Surveys: Purpose and Method. Department of Surveys
and Exhibits. R.S.F. New York. May, 1920.

Kansas City, Mo. Board of Public Welfare. Annual Re-
ports.

Kellogg, P. U., and others. The Social Survey. Department
of Surveys and Exhibits. R.S.F.

McClenahan, B. A. The Iowa Plan for the Combination of
Public and Private Charities, Monograph. State Uni-
versity of Iowa.

The Social Survey. Extension Division. Bulletin 26. State
University of Iowa.

McLean, Francis H. The Formation of Charity Organization
Societies in Smaller Cities. 1910. Charity Organization
Department. R.S.F.

The Central Council of Social Agencies. 130 E. 22nd St.
New York.

Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati. City Survey. Anno-
tated list of best available books.

Rural Survey. Annotated list of best available books.

Minnesota State Board of Control. Reports of the Children’s
Bureau.

Missouri Children’s Code Commission. St. Louis. 1918.

Monahan, A. C. Rural Child Labor Problem. National Child
Labor Committee. New York. 1917.

Morgan, E. I. Mobilizing the Rural Community. Massachusetts
Agricultural College Extension Service. Amherst.

North Carolina State Board of Charities and Public Welfare.
Bulletins.

Peirce, Paul S. Social Surveys of Three Rural Townships in
Iowa. State University of Iowa.

Playground and Recreation Association of America. New York.
Bulletins.

Potter, Z. L. Social Survey (a bibliography). Department
Surveys and Exhibits, R.S.F. (Revised to December,
1915.)

Rainwater, Clarence E. Community Organization (a syllabus).
University of Southern California.

St. Joseph, Mo. Social Welfare Board. Annual ‘Reports.

Thompson, Carl W., and Warber, C. P. Social and Economic
Survey of a Rural Township in Southern Minnesota. Uni-
versity of Minnesota. 1913.

United States Bureau of Education. List of References on
Play and Playgrounds.

Bulletin 23. Girl Scouts as an Educational Force.

Bulletin 24. Edueational Work of the Boy Scouts.

Teachers’ Leaflet 11. Rural School Playgrounds and Hquip-
ment.

United States Children’s Bureau. Publication 4. Child Wel-
fare Exhibits, Types and Preparation.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 249

Publication 33. Rural Children in Selected Counties of North
Carolina.

Von Tungeln, George H. A Rural Social Survey of Orange
Township, Blackhawk County, Iowa. Agricultural Experi-
ment Station. Iowa State College of Agriculture and
Mechanic Arts.

Ward, Florence E. The Farm Woman’s Problems. United
States Department of Agriculture. Department Circular
148.

War Camp Community Service Inc. New York City. Bulletin
3. The Planning, Managing, and Financing of Memorial
Community Houses.

TIT. Articles

Auerbach, Murray A. Community Organization in Small
Cities. N.C.S.W. 1920. p. 265.

Bartlett, Willard W. Building up Rural Communities. Am.
City (T. & C. Ed.). November, 1915.

Bizzell, W. B. Rural Housing and the Tenant Farmer.
Survey. April 3, 1920,

Blackum, R. M. and E. C. A Village that Graduated into the
Community Class. Am. City (T. & C. Ed.). August, 1915.

Bookman, C. M. Plan for a Standard Legal and Administra-
tive Organization for a Community Federation. N.C.S.W.
1919. p. 710.

Borst, Homer W. The County as a Unit in Social Work.
N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 245.

Rural Family Welfare Service in the Gulf Division, N.C.8.W.
1920. p. 281.

Buffington, Adaline A. Codrdinating as Done by Charity Or-
ganization Societies. N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 483.

Byington, Margaret F. Codrdination of Civic Effort in Small
Communities. N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 472.

Carstens, C. C. A Community Plan in Children’s Work.
N.C.C.C. 1915. p. 92.

Carver, T. N. The Organization of a Rural Community.
United States Department of Agriculture Year Book 1914,
pp. 89-138.

Collier, John. Community Councils, Democracy Every Day.
Survey. Vol. 40. p. 604, August 31, 1918; p. 689, Sep-
tember 21, 1918; p. 709, September 28, 1918.

Community Councils—What Have They Done and What Is
Their Future? N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 476.

Crossland, W. A. The Social Welfare Board of St. Joseph, Mo.
N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 404. ales
Culbert, Jane F. Visiting Teachers and their Activities.

N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 592.

Curry, H. Ida. The Status of Social Work in Rural Communi-

ties. N.C.S.W. 1918. p. 83.
250 ORGANIZING THE COMMUNITY

De Turbeville, Esther. 2x 5 County Relief. Survey. July 19,
1919.

Dinwiddie, Elizabeth McM. [Illustrations from the Annals of
the Gulf Division. N.C.S.W. 1920. p. 288.

Edlund, R. C. The Social Service of a Federation. N.C.S.W.
1919. p. 717.

Eliwood, Charles A. Social Facts and Scientific Social Work.
N.C.8.W. 1918. p. 686.

Ford, Jas. M. The Board of Public Welfare of Kansas City,
Mo. N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 400.

Ford, James. Can Education and Recreation Be Provided in
Self-Governing and Self-Supporting Community Houses?
N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 473.

Galpin, C. J. Signs of Rural Hope. N.C.S.W. 1920. p. 328.

Geraldine Goes to Church. Survey. October 29, 1920.

Glenn, John M. The Church and Social Work. N.C.C.C. 1913.
p. 138.

Halbert, L. A. Boards of Public Welfare; a System of Gov-
ernment Social Work. N.C.S.W. 1918. p. 220.

The Organization of Municipal Charities and Corrections.
N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 387.

Harger, Charles M. What Makes a Model Town? Indepen-
dent. Vol. 83. p. 3, June 12, 1915.

Harrison, Shelby M. Community Action through Surveys.
N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 52.

Development of Social Surveys. N.C.C.C. 1913. p. 345.
In Lincoln’s Home Town. Survey. February 3, 1917.

Hoyer, Raymond A. Coérdination of Civie Effort in Small
Communities. N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 487.

Knight, H. R. Organization of Games and Athletics in Rural
Communities. N.C.S.W. 1920. p. 326.

Lindeman, E. C. Organization and Technique for Rural Recrea-
tion. N.C.S.W. 1920. p. 318.

Organization of Rural Social Forces. N.C.S.W. 1921. p. 12.

McClenahan, B. A. County Organization of Welfare Agencies.
N.C.S.W. 1918. p. 595.

McFarland, J. H. What Makes a Town Good? Independent.
Vol. 91. p. 167. August 4, 1917.

Morgan, E. L. Mobilizing the Rural Communities for Results.
N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 550.

Organizing a County. N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 695.

Morse, H. N. The Underlying Factors of Rural Community
Development. N.C.S.W. 1919. p. 552.

Peixotto, Jessica. Community Councils as a Basis for an
Effective Recreational Program. Survey. December 7,
1919.

Perry, C. A. The School as a Factor in Neighborhood De-
velopment. N.C.C.C. 1914. p. 385.

Poe, Clarence. Present Aspects of the Movement for the Im-
provement of Rural Life. N.C.C.C. 1914. p. 83.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 251

Ritchie, Frank H. T. Building a Community through Its Resi-
dent Forces. Am. City (T. & C. Ed.). July, 1917.

Rural Social Problems. Part XI. N.C.C.C. 1917.

Sanderson, Dwight L. Rural Social Work. Survey. May 17,
1919.

Democracy and Community Organization—paper in Vol. XIV.
The Problem of Democracy, American Sociological Society.
Chicago. 1920.

The Farmer and Child Welfare Work. N.C.S.W. 1919.
p. 26.

Stewart, Helena R. Codrdinating as Done by the Public Health
Nurse. N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 480.

Tate, W. K. Rural Recreation. N.C.C.C. 1910. p. 65.

Taylor, Graham. The County. N.C.C.C. 1914. p. 1.

A Community Secretary. National Municipal Review. April,
1915.

Todd, A. J. The Scientific Spirit of Social Work. Survey.
February 2, 1918.

Vaile, Gertrude. Public Administration of Charity in Denver.
N.C.C.C. 1916. p. 415.

Vogt, Paul L. The Village as a Strategic Unit in Social Prog-
ress. N.C.S.W. 1918. p. 473.

Wilson, Warren H. Rural Centers of Community Activity.
N.C.S.W. 1918. p. 485.
INDEX
INDEX

Agencies which make surveys, 55

Agriculture, U. S. Dept. of, 133,
135, 137, 138

Aims in rural education, 29, 30

American Red Cross, commun-
ity nursing program of, 182,
183; home service sections of,
173-182; organization of the
ehapter by, 183-189; organi-
zation of county by, 189-
194; peace-time program of,
177-182; plans of, 173-194

Approach to community, 201-
205

Block organization, 220

Board meetings, 203, 204

Board of public welfare, Kan-
sas City, Mo., 168-170

Boys’ and girls’ clubs, 137, 138

Bureau of community service,
North Carolina, 138, 139

Butterfield, definition of rural
community by, 5, 6

California, county welfare dept.
in, 156; duties of county wel-
fare dept. in, 157

Centralization in small town,
104, 106-109, 112

Chamber of commerce plan, 198-
200

Charts, material for, 67, 68

Child welfare boards in Minne-
sota, 157-159

Child welfare in the small town,
20-22; program for, 103

Child welfare survey, Kansas, 64

Church, rural, 25-27, 35

City boards of public welfare,
in Kansas City, 168-170; in
Missouri, 167; in St. Joseph,
170-172

Civic effort in the small town,
102

Civilization, definition of, 37

Clark County (Ohio) Chapter,
Am. Red Cross, 186-189

Combination plan of community

organization, 155. See Iowa
plan
Community, agricultural, 9;

chief problem of, 143; defini-
tion of, 3, 4, 5; elements of
ideal, 41; rural, definition of,
5, 6, 7; the unit of organiza-
tion, 189

Community club plan, 125-128;
committees of, 126; executive
of, 127; functions of, 127;
object of, 126; projects of,
127, 128

Community council plan, 128-
131; committees of, 128,
130; executive board of, 128,
130; secretary of, 130, 131

Community health assoviation,
194-196

Community house, 196-200

Community institute, 56

Community league (Virginia),
121-125

Community nurse.
health nurse

Community nursing, Am. Red
Cross, 182, 183

Community organization, a rev-

See Public

olutionary suggestion for,
221; aim of, 42; and family
social work, 212-214; ap-

proach to community for, 201-
205; arguments for, 64, 65;
contribution of, to social
work, X; definition of, 39,
40, 70; diagram of, 71; ex-
ecutive board of, 109-111,

255
256

117; functions of a, 39, 70,
71; goal of survey, 42, 43;
Hart’s definition of, 39, 40;
ideal of, 117; ideal plan of,
218-222; in rural community,
118-141; in small town, 112-
117; methods of effecting,
110, 111; new technique of,
212-214; plan of, 43, 70-72;
principles of, 208-211, 218-
221; problem of, 5, 22, 23;
procedure for, 201-205; pro-
gram of Am. Red Cross for,
180-182; purpose of, 39-41,
70, 133, 222; relation of, to
survey, 41, 43, 44, 109, 120,
121, 222; Sanderson’s defini-
tion of, 40; task of, 39, 40,
119; trend of, 211-215; unit
of, 189

Community organizer, a trained
social worker, XII, 185; as
secretary of chapter of Am.
Red Cross, 185; characteris-
tics of, XII, XIII; office
equipment of, 205-207; office
hours of, 207; procedure of,
201-205

Community plan, 70-72

Community recreation associa-
tion, 196-198

Community secretary, a trained
social worker, 112, 113; ap-
proach to community by, 201-
205; executive of community
club, 127; executive of com-
munity council, 130, 131; re-
lation of, to board, 114, 208;
relation of, to community,
114, 115; task of, 114, 115;
training of, 114

Community service bureau of
North Carolina, 138, 139

Community spirit, 23, 35, 73,
132, 185 ;

Consolidated school, 28, 29

Counties, types of, 189-194

Country, definition of, 6

Country child, play and recrea-
tion of, 33, 34

INDEX

County, organization of. See
Organization of county

County, significance of, 142, 143

County agent, 135

County board of visitors in Mis-
souri, 164

County boards of public welfare
in North Carolina, 159-162

County superintendent of public
welfare, in Missouri, 165, 166,
168; in North Carolina, 160,
161

Crime in the small town, 19

Curtis, outline of symbols by,
68, 69

Data for social survey, 73-99

Democracy in social work, 218,
219

Department of
(U. 8.), 133, 137

Diagram plan of community or-
ganization, 71

Diagrams of plans for organi-
zation of survey, 57, 59

Diffendorfer, definition of com-
munity by, 4, 5

Agriculture

Education in rural districts, 27-

Ellwood, definition of civiliza-
tion by, 37; definition of so-
cial problems by, 36

Exhibit, following social survey,
43, 67, 68, 70

Expenses connected with survey,
54-56

Extension Division, State Uni-
versity of Iowa, activity of,
146

Extension service of agricultural
colleges and state universi-
ties, 136, 137

Family, importanee of, 216-217

Family social work, and com-
munity organization, 212-214;
and the community organizer,
117
INDEX

Family welfare, in the rural
community, 185; in the small
town, 18, 115-117

Farm bureau, 135, 136

Farm home, 30-32

Farmer, economic problems of,
23, 24; recreation for, 33; so-
cial attitude of, 24, 25; work-
ing day of, 32, 33

Farmer and townsman, relation
of, 23, 33, 118, 131, 132, 140,
141

Field of social work, 100, 101

Financial federation, 211, 212

Foght, quoted on rural educa-
tion and illiteracy, 28

Functions, grant of, to boards
of public welfare, 221; of a
community organization, 70,
72; of social welfare, in
Iowa, 150-152

Galpin, definition of community
by, 6; definition of country
by, 6

Guy, outline of committees for
community league by, 122-125

Hart, definition of community
organization by, 39-40

Health, community health asso-
ciation, 194-196. Also see Pub-
lic health nurse and nursing

Home demonstration agent, 135,
136

Home service sections, Am. Red
Cross, 173-182

House-to-house canvass in sur-
vey, 94, 95

Housing, in rural districts, 30-
32; in small town, 10

Ideal, of community organiza-
tion, 117; of social work, 218,
219

Ideal community, elements of, 41

Ideal plan of community organ-
ization, 218-222

Illiteracy in rural districts, 28

257

Iowa, Extension Division of
State University of, in rela-
tion to Iowa plan, 146; sug-
gestions for county board
law in, 151-155

Iowa plan, dangers of, 147; de-
scription of, 143-155; difficul-
ties of, 148; in Cedar Rapids,
149, 150; in Grinnell, 143-
145; results of, 147 ©

Iowa scheme of social welfare
administration, 150-152

Kansas, child welfare survey in,
64

Kansas City, Mo., board of pub-
lie welfare of, 168-170

Life in the rural community, 23-
35
Life in the small town, 8-23

Mangold, statement re social
reform by, 38

Maps, material and symbols for,
67, 68

Mass-meeting, 50, 66, 67, 68,
110, 111, 120

Methods of effecting commu-
nity organization, 110, 111

Minnesota, county child welfare
boards in, 157-159

Missouri plan, city boards of
public welfare under, 167;
county board of visitors un-
der, 164; county boards of
public welfare under, 166,
167; county superintendent
of public welfare under, 165,
166, 168; reasons for excel-
lence of, 162, 163

Neighborhood, definition of, 7,
&; organization of, 209, 214,
220, 221; relation of, to com-
munity, 7

North Carolina, bureau of com-
munity service in, 138, 139;
county superintendent of pub-
lic welfare in, 160, 161;
258

county welfare boards in,
159-162

Office equipment of a commu-
nity organizer, 205-207

Office hours of a community
organizer, 207

Officials in small town, 17

Organization, in town of 5,000,
143-145; in town of 17,000,
106, 107; in town of 24,000,
107-109; trend of, 211-215;
with community as unit, 189

Organization of a community.
See Community organization

Organization of chamber of
commerce, 198-200

Organization of chapter, by
Am. Red Cross, 183-189

Organization of community for
survey, complex form of, 56-
59; details of, 50-60; dia-
grams of plans for, 57, 59;
simple form of, 59, 60

Organization of communi
health association, 194-196

Organization of community rec-
reation association, 196-198

Organization of county, by Am.
Red Cross, 189-194; in Cali-
fornia, 155-157; in Minne-
sota, 157-159; in Missouri,
162-168; in North Carolina,
159-162

Organization of neighborhood,
209, 214, 220, 221

Organization of rural commu-
nity, by Am. Red Cross, 180-
182; community club plan for,
125-128; community council
plan for, 128-131; community
league plan for, in Virginia,
121-125; forms of, 121-132;
method of initiating, 120,
121; plan of, 119, 120; pro-
gram of, 119, 133-141; re-
lation of, to survey, 120, 121;
task of, 119

Organization of small town, cen-
tralization of, 104, 106-109,

INDEX

112; consolidation of welfare
agencies in, 108, 109, 112;
federation in, 112, 113 ; first
undertaking following, 117;
forms of, 105-109; methods
of effecting, 109-111; pro-
gram for, 101-104, 115, 117;
women’s clubs in, 105, 106
Organizations, kinds of, in rural
community, 119, 139, 140; in
small town, 14, 15
Outline for survey, social and
legal background, 78-83; so-
cial welfare agencies, 88-91;
the community, 84-87; the
homes of the people (living
conditions), 87, 88
Over-organization in small town,
. 14, 15

Pageant at conclusion of sur-
vey, 68

Peace-time program of Am.
Red Cross, 177-182

Philosophy of modern social
work, XI, XIT

Principles of community or-
ganization, 208-211, 218-221

Problems, social, definition of,
36, 38; in rural community,
23-35, 119, 185, 186; in the
small town, 10-23

Public health nurse, 103, 107,
108, 113, 114, 127, 140, 153,
182, 183, 194-196

Public health nursing, program
of, 217

Publicity re survey, 43, 48, 49,
63-67

Recreation, a community rec-
reation association, 196-198;
bureau of community ser-
vice (North Carolina) for,
138, 139; in rural districts,
33-35; in small town, 11-13;
leader for, 197, 198

Report of survey, 68, 70

Resources, social, definition of,
38, 39; of rural community,
INDEX

32, 133-140; of small town, 9,
10, 16, 105

Rural church, 25-27, 35

Rural community, church in, 25-
27; definition of, 5-7, 118;
education in, 27-30; housing
in, 30-32; illiteracy in, 28;
organization of, 118-141; or-
ganizations in, 119, 139, 140;
problems of, 23-35, 119, 185,
186; programs for, 119, 133-
141; recreation in, 33-35; re-
sources of, 32, 133-140; sani-
tation in, 31, 32; social cen-
ter in, 29, 35

Rural community organization
by Am. Red Cross, 180-182

Rural education, aims in, 29,
30; problem of, 27-30

Rural housing, 30-32

Rural organization. See Or-
ganization of rural commu-
nity

Rural school, as social center,
29, 35; consolidated, 28, 29;
one-room, 27, 28; problem of,
27-30

Rurban community, 6

St. Joseph, Mo., social welfare
board in, 170-172
Sanderson, definition of com-
munity organization by, 40
Sanitation, in rural districts,
- 31, 32; in small town, 10
Schedules for survey, 97-99
School, consolidated, 28,
rural, 27-30
‘‘Shipping-on,’’ in small town,
117

29 ;

Social adjustment, 143

Social attitude of farmer, 24, 25

Social justice, 218, 219

Social philosophy, a new, XI,
XII

Social problems, definition of,
36, 38; in rural community,
23-35, 119, 185, 186; in small
town, 10-23

Social resources, definition of,

259

38, 39; of rural community,
32, 133-140; of small town,
9, 10, 16, 105

Social standards of small town,
12, 18, 16, 17

Social survey, agencies which
make, 55; background for, 73-
78; cireular to arouse inter-
est for, 48, 49; committees
for, 54, 56-61, 66; data for,
73-99; definition of, 41, 73;
exhibit at close of, 43, 67,
68, 70; expenses of, 54-56;
goal of, 41-44, 60; house-to-
house canvass in, 94, 95;
mass-meeting in connection
with, 50, 66-68, 110, 111;
method of procedure for, 46-
54; methods and data for,
73-99; organization for, 47,
56-60; outline for, 78-91;
pageant in connection with,
68; publicity for, 43, 63-67;
relation of, to community or-
ganization, 41, 43, 44, 109,
120, 121, 222; report of, 68,
70; rules for, 53, 54, 61, 62;
schedules for, 97-99; sources
of information for, 91-97;
statistical principles to be
used for, 96, 97; steps of, 42-
44; time required for, 55, 56;
types of, 44-46; volunteers
for, 54-62, 98, 99

Social welfare activities in
small town, 18, 19, 99-104

Social welfare board of St.
Joseph, Mo., 170-172

Social work, an ideal, XI; and
democracy, XI, 218, 219;
conception of, in small town,
17, 18; duplication in, 216,
217; field of, 100, 101, 217;
the ideal of, 218, 219

Social worker, characteristics
of, XII, XIII

Social workers, importance of
trained, 215

Sources of information for sur-
vey, 91-97
260

State board of charities and
corrections, in California, 155-
157; in Missouri, 163-165, 168

State board of charities and
publie welfare in North Caro-
lina, 159

State board of control in Iowa,
154; in Minnesota, 158

State board of public welfare,
suggestion of, for Iowa, 154

States Relations Service, 137,
138

Statistical principles to be used
in connection with survey, 96,

Surveyor, rules for, 60-63

Symbols for maps, 67, 69

Teacherage, 29

Technique, new, of community
organization, 212-214

Town and country, problems of,
23, 33, 118, 131, 132, 140, 141

Town of 5,000, organization in,
143-145

Town of 17,000, organization in,
106, 107

Town of 24,000, organization in,
107-109

Town, small, child welfare in,
20-22; child welfare program
in, 103; civie effort in, 102;
conditions in, 10; crime in,
19; divisions in, 13, 14;
family welfare program in,
103; health program in, 103;
leadership in, 13; life in, 16,
17; officials in, 17; organiza-
tion of, 100-117; organiza-
tion of city government in,
158, 154; organizations in,
14, 15; over-organization in,
14, 15; playground in, 104;
problems of, 10-23; programs

INDEX

for, 101-104, 115, 117; recrea-
tion in, 11-13, 102; resources
of, 9, 10, 16, 105; sanitation
in 10; social standards of, 12,
13, 16, 17; social welfare ac-
tivities in, 18, 19, 99-104; so-
cial work in, 17, 18; social
worker in, 107, 108, 112, 113;
transient men in, 18, 19;
types of, 8; women’s clubs
in, 105, 106

Trade-zone, 6

Traveling libraries, 139

Trend of organization, 211-215

Unit of organization, the com-
munity, 189

U. 8. Dept. of Agriculture, ser-
vice of, 133, 135; States Re-
lations Service of, 137, 138

Virginia, community league in,
121-125; codperative educa-
tion association of, 121

Volunteers, conferences of, 208;
importance of, 217, 218; use
of, by community organizer,
206, 207; use of, in commu-
nity health association, 196;
use of, in survey, 54-62, 98,99

Welfare board, county, in North
Carolina, 159-162; county
ehild, in Minnesota, 157-159;
in Kansas City, Mo., 168-170;
in St. Joseph, Mo., 170-172;
plan for county, in Missouri,
166, 167

Welfare federation, 212

Women’s clubs in small town,
105, 106

Working day in rural districts,
32, 33
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