PUBLICATION NO. 7 fOJyi/M ' v "■ ' <■■■ (J WHAT SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES AN OUTLINE BY MARGARET F. BYINGTON ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION AUTHOR OF " HOMESTEAD, THE HOUSEHOLDS OF A MILL TOWN " RS .p. SECOND EDITION Revised and Enlarged CHARITY ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION Room 613, 105 East Twenty-second Street new york city iyi2 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 3731 298 WHAT SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES AN OUTLINE By Margaret f. Byington ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION AUTHOR OF " HOMESTEAD, THE HOUSEHOLDS OF A MILL TOWN " RS •F- SECOND EDITION Revised and Enlarged CHARITY ORGANIZATION DEPARTMENT OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION Room 613, 105 East Twenty-second Street new york city 1912 CONTENTS GL/3f,3 6/ PAGE INTRODUCTION .' 3 I— THE CITY 7 II— COMMUNITY PROBLEMS 8 A. Housing 9 B. Health 1 1 C. Recreation 14 D. Industrial Problems 17 E. The Immigrant 21 F. Children 22 1 . Child Labor 22 2. Schools 24 3. Juvenile Delinquents 26 G. Adult Delinquents 28 III— AGENCIES FOR RELIEF AND FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS : . 30 H. Agencies not Primarily Philanthropic 31 Women's Clubs, Churches, Settlements, etc 31 I. Philanthropic Agencies 33 1. Public Outdoor Relief 33 2. Care of Homeless Men 34 3. Private Relief 35 4. The Organization of Charity 35 5. Child Caring 38 6. Care of the Sick • 39 7. Defectives 4.0 8. The Aged 4 i INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO SECOND EDITION That the first edition of ten thousand of .this pamphlet has been exhausted in less than a year indicates that it has met a definite need. While the major part of the edition was distributed free, many orders in quantities were also received from colleges, schools of philanthropy, Men and Religion social service committees, social workers' clubs, Young Men's Christian Associations, women's clubs, libraries, charity organi- zation societies and central councils. That so many different types of organization have found it worth while, instead of being satisfied with superficial generalizations, to search out the answers to these detailed questions, means that the country is beginning to realize the need of concrete social facts. Some of the uses made of the pamphlet may be suggestive. Candi- dates for civil service positions under the Board of Public Welfare in Kansas City have used it in preparing for the examinations. The social service conference in St. Louis has compiled the information called for, and- placed it at the disposal of any social worker in the city, with the suggestion that each agency copy for its own office the sections relating to its special work. In Baltimore, some of the main facts for the city have been filed in the central office of the Federated Charities, while volunteer district committees are taking up the more detailed study of certain sections which seem to have a special bearing on their own tasks. Two instances may be given more in detail. Stamford, Connecticut, with a population of 25,000 and a charity organization society two years old, had little knowledge of its community problems. At the end of the society's first winter's work, a number of volunteers under the guidance of its secretary undertook to secure the information suggested in this outline. For each topic a committee was appointed, most of them volun- teers who had served on the case committee, though they also utilized the services of some others— of young lawyers, for instance. Information 3 gathered was typewritten and filed. When, a year later, a new general secretary came to the society, she did not have to accumulate knowledge of state legislation or local agencies all over again, for here was much of it at hand. It may be suggested that the material compiled should be gone over from time to time, every summer perhaps, to make necessary changes. To one volunteer might be assigned the task of entering on the record all current alterations, such as new laws, new officials and new activities. An entirely different use of the outline was made by the Central Council of Charities in Nashville. A visit was to be made by Mr. Francis H. McLean (then Field Secretary of the Charity Organization Department) to diagnose their situation and make a plan for the develop- ment of the city's social activities. As a basis he asked them to secure for him before his arrival the data herein suggested. Thus he had ready to his hand enough information to enable him to judge what problems were most urgent and so in need of further investigation. In a town not ready for or not needing a formal social survey, this series of questions may serve to awaken interest and point the way for future activities. The first edition has been thoroughly revised, and a number of questions have been added, after consultation with the secretaries and field agents of the national associations that are often referred to in the text. New York, April, 191 2. WHAT SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES This is not a plan for a social survey; it suggests rather those facts about local conditions which are a necessary part of the equipment for service of the volunteer or of the regular in the social army. In ful- filling his task, whatever it may be, the worker must rely for help on other organized forces, on state laws and local ordinances, on city depart- ments and volunteer agencies. He will, moreover, find his problem so dovetailing with other problems that all must be worked out jointly if anything is to be achieved. The knowledge of these forces and agencies is of special importance to one who works among needy families, since he must utilize them constantly in the rehabilitation of individual families. Conversely, he should learn from the study of dependency in these families what reforms are most needed, and be able to focus the efforts of all agencies with a social program in order to secure the reforms thus made real to him. The subjects chosen for this Outline, therefore, though by no means referring solely to family problems, are here related to them, as giving the most practical and inclusive view-point. It may seem, in glancing through the pages of questions which follow that so many of the answers are already known, in a general way at least, that the study is not worth making. Even to busy people, however, it will probably repay the time spent on it. Specific facts are more valuable than general impressions, and information is useful in proportion as it is concrete and quickly available. Whatever information is secured, therefore, should be definite. For example, get the specific wording of law9 when this is possible, not merely the general scope. Separate reprints of recent bills can almost always be procured from the Secretary of State at the State Capitol. It should also be accurate. Simple, accurate statistics are better than elaborate, unreliable ones. "This law was violated twenty times last year" is much more convincing than "the law is often violated." If an estimate is the only possible answer to a question, so label it and give the basis of the estimate. When possible, compare the figures for a given city with those for other cities of the same size ; this will show their real significance. A plea may also be made for the more thoroughgoing use by social workers of the invaluable material contained in the United States Census. Even for smaller cities facts in regard to the number, age, nationality, literacy and occupations of the population are easily found in the volumes on Population and Occupations. All such facts should be secured at the beginning of this study and referred to frequently as it proceeds. For example, school attendance figures, the number of juvenile delinquents, and the number of children using parks and other recreation centers should be compared with the number of children under fourteen. The number of foreign-born illiterates may be an argument for evening classes in English. The annual report on mortality gives birth and death rates ; the annual summary of statistics about cities of over 30,000 gives the state and local systems of taxation, expenditures of the various city depart- ments, the amount of the city debt, area of parks and playgrounds, etc. There is as yet no statement published of the special data which the 19 10 Census will provide, but the Bureau has planned to make it of special value to social workers. It is therefore important to watch the bulletins as they come out and gather from them all the information they can give you about your own community. Many of these facts may be secured by correspondence or by personal inquiry of officials. Before calling on an official, however, do not fail to have secured and digested his printed report. Your questions will be more to the point and his willingness to answer them far greater if you have taken the trouble to acquire some knowledge in advance. Do not be discouraged if officials do not have the figures for which you ask. The request itself will make them realize that social workers consider such facts important. Moreover, officials often need the encouragement of knowing that the public follows their work with interest and can make good use of its results. To secure data based on personal observation is of course a slower task, but an important one. If each social worker kept a brief, systematic record of every violation of an important law and of every bad condition not met by legislation, valuable evidence would be available for securing enforcement and enactment. Such a record would also suggest which conditions demand more thorough investigation. Not merely to those actively enlisted in social work as a profession, but to those who wish to know their own communities as a first step in 6 good citizenship, the Outline should be useful. It might provide, for instance, the course of study for a volunteer training class. Again, several paid workers might prepare the answers jointly, each securing the facts about his special problem. Such a study brings out, inevitably, the close connection between the tasks of the different social agencies, showing the points at which their interests coincide, and the way in which they may supplement each other's work. This appreciation should result in a more careful division of work, in a greater concentration of effort and a more thorough exchange of information. The significant facts brought out should be presented to the general public, as a stimulus to enlightened interest in civic and social problems. In Chicago, the Woman's Club publishes in one of the daily papers every two or three days a law, either one which the citizen violates through ignorance, or one for his protection of which he may be uninformed. Knowledge on the part of the public, especially that portion of the public which has definitely undertaken to improve conditions, is certainly the basis of effective social action. I— THE CITY As a setting for the study which is to follow, every social worker should know his city as a whole. Its origin and the character of its early settlers affect the method of solving its present problems. Workers in certain Pennsylvania towns, for instance, still have to reckon with the thrift and conservatism of the Pennsylvania Dutch founders. By con- trast, the secretary of a charity organization society in a "boom" town finds that his chief function is to ensure a sanely slow development of its social activities. Even in New York City, with its long and complex development, light was thrown on the specific problems of a given district - — upon its industries, its housing, its racial mixtures — by a study of the successive stages of development through which farms upon the left bank of the Hudson had been replaced by crowded tenements. Therefore social workers, especially if newcomers in a town, should know about the early inhabitants and about the industries which formed its nucleus. Local history and biography may be printed and available; or the oldest inhabitant may throw more light than he perhaps realizes on the means which must be used to ensure a sound social development. Equally essential is it to have a bird's-eye view of the city govern- ment, to know specifically its form of organization and its powers, especially at points where its tasks and those of the social worker intersect ; 7 as is the case with the boards of health, education and charities, the police, etc. Expect no city to accomplish tasks for which it has neither the power nor the machinery; organize no private agencies to do work which can and should be done by city departments. i. Has your city a special charter, or is there a general charter for all cities of its class? Is this published? Have you a copy? 2. How large is the city council? How is it elected? 3. Are there city boards or commissioners in charge of education ; health; parks; police; charities? 4. How are they appointed?* 5. Do they have full power to appoint subordinates? Are the ap- pointments usually determined by politics? 6. What powers have they according to the city charter or orders of the city council? 7. What responsibility rests with the mayor? How long does he serve ? 8. Do the departments publish separate annual reports, even if in one volume? Secure the latest copy. 9. What positions in the city are under civil service? Has the number increased in the last five years? 10. Get from the city engineer an outline map of the sewer and water mains. The tax rate is also of intimate consequence, since many municipal activities strongly urged by social workers must go by default if the money raised by taxation is not adequate or is wasted. ii. What is the tax rate? 12. On what per cent, of the market value of real property are taxes assessed? 13. Is this basis of valuation seemingly in existence because of custom or tradition ? 14. Total amount of all revenue in last fiscal year. 15. Total expenditures; expenditures for each department. 16. Is the city borrowing money to pay current expenses? 17. What is the borrowing limit? Has it been reached? 18. How is the city budget made up? 19. Is there any public discussion of its items? 20. Has any study been made by social workers or public accountants of its system of accounting? What was the outcome? II— COMMUNITY PROBLEMS' • The first group of subjects to be considered includes those which affect the well-being of the whole community — housing, health, recrea- tion, industrial problems, child v/elfare, the courts. Bad conditions resulting from private interest, ignorance and indifference must be com- bated by community action working through legislation, through educa- tion, through increased efficiency in social work. The co-operation of all social agencies is needed if the fight is to be won. * If the city has a commission form of government, questions 2, 3 and 4 should be combined. A. HOUSING Housing conditions, for example, are an element in almost all social work; they affect all work for improving the health of the community, and all work with families in their homes; and, as conditions affecting the health and moral tone of family life, they are also related to work for children in connection with the schools, settlements, juvenile court, etc. To know therefore whether bad housing conditions exist and how to keep them from developing is a part of the social worker's equipment. First, facts about the city's actual housing conditions should be secured, not necessarily by a regular investigation, but by noting, as home visits are paid for whatever purpose, violations of city ordinances and unsanitary conditions not yet covered by ordinances. Each violation should be recorded on a five-by-eight card re-enforced where possible by a photograph showing the actual condition. Data should be gathered as to the number of dark rooms in old houses and new, the number of privy vaults, the overcrowding of rooms (especially by lodgers), number of cellar dwellings, high rents, unsanitary conditions, etc.* The every-day records of social agencies often contain much useful information. In the annual report for 1909 of the Associated Charities of Columbus, Ohio, an analysis, by size of family and number of rooms, of the 1037 families cared for in that year showed that 142 were living with two or more persons to the room, while in some instances there were six, seven, eight, and even nine persons per room. Such facts, made vivid by a description of what these conditions mean to individual families, will be a forceful argument for a city ordinance against over- crowding. In Louisville, a joint committee of the Associated Charities and of the Civics Committee of the Woman's Club gathered just such evidence as this, first from various agencies working in the tenements, and later by personal visits. With this as a basis, they were ready for the visit of an expert to diagnose the housing situation, and later secured an appropria- tion from the city council for a full investigation. It is necessary, secondly, to learn what laws and ordinances affecting the maintenance and construction of houses and tenementsf already exist, and how far they are being enforced. These may be part of a state law or may be city ordinances. It is easier to get city ordinances passed than * Sample schedule cards may be obtained on request from the National Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. t Note the legal definition of a tenement house. to enact a state law, but the former can be more easily amended by those opposed to good laws before the public realizes it. The following outline suggests the main points concerning which definite information should be had : I. State the requirements of the law concerning the following: (a) Percentage of lot which may be occupied by buildings. (b) Size of yards, courts; distance between detached houses. (c) Light and ventilation of rooms, public halls. (d) Size of rooms; room overcrowding. (e) Use of cellars or basements for living purposes. (f) Drainage of yard, courts, cellar; use of surface wells. (g) Provision of running water. Is a yard hydrant all that is required, or must there be running water in each house? In the case of two-family houses or tenements, must there be running water on each floor, in each apartment? (h) Sewer connection for water-closets; open plumbing. (i) New privies and school sinks for single-family houses, for tenements. (j) Removal of old privies and school sinks. How many were removed last year? (k) Substitution of indoor water-closets for privies and school sinks. (1) Care of privies. (m) Height of tenements; construction of tenements to reduce fire hazard. (n) Installation and character of fire escapes. (o) Keeping of animals on the premises. (p) Responsibility of owner for cleanliness and sanitation. ■z. Which of these requirements are embodied in a state housing law; the city charter; city ordinances? Are the charter and ordinances more stringent than the state law? The housing laws will be ineffective unless supplemented by ordi- nances providing for inspection and improvement. With our foreign colonies, ignorant of American standards and legal rights and not know- ing where and how to make complaint, it is not enough for the board of health to act on complaint ; it should make regular inspections. 3. What city department or departments have the duty of enforc- ing the housing ordinances? 4. How many inspectors are there for each department; for ex- ample, plumbing, new buildings, etc.? 5. Do they inspect on their own initiative and at stated intervals, or only on complaint? 6. Have they power to vacate unfit houses, and what is the pro- cedure in brief? Also learn from the board of health how many violations were re- ported last year and their nature, what action was taken, how many cases were brought to court, and what disposal was made of them. Some such summary should appear in the records and published reports of every board. As the report of the Baltimore Federated Charities says, in speaking of the reappointment of its Committee on Improved Housing after the completion of a new housing code, "It must not be assumed that the code will enforce itself or that the department will push its work to a finish without a governing pressure of public opinion." Nor may we blame health officials for the continuance of bad conditions when the citizens refuse to give them adequate appropriations. "In New York i£ per cent, of the city's annual expenditures is for health work, as compared with 5 per cent, for fire protection, 9 per cent, for the police, and 1 7 per cent, for education. And New York leads the country in its health expenditures and has more generous treatment in this regard than any other city in America. And yet, even in New York last year, where its efficient health commissioner certified that the welfare of the city required the expenditure of $4,076,578 for health work during the coming year, the financial authorities granted him but $2,823,499."* An admirable discussion of this whole question is found in "Housing Reform,""}" by Lawrence Veiller, and in the companion "Model Tene- ment House Law" will be found a definite standard by which local laws may be measured. For further advice and suggestion in adapting this to your local situation, write the National Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. B. HEALTH Another evil which directly conduces to dependency and to low standards of living is sickness; a cause which can and in many phases must be attacked by community action. In Pittsburgh from 1895 to 1907 inclusive there were on an average 130 deaths yearly from typhoid fever for every 100,000 of the popula- tion. This high rate, more than twice that in any other large city, was unquestionably due to the contaminated city water-supply. After a long fight a municipal filtration plant was opened in the spring of 1908, and while in October, 1907, there were 593 cases of typhoid, in October, 1908, there were only 96. A careful study was made, in the Pittsburgh * "Housing and Health," by Lawrence Veiller, page 24. Pamphlet published by the National Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. t Lawrence Veiller, "Housing Reform," and "A Model Tenement House Law,'' New York, Charities Publication Committee, 105 East 22d Street; see also "Hous- ing and Health," and series of articles on "Housing Awakening" in the Survey. The issue for September 2, 1911, gives the subjects and dates of the series. (The Survey is published by Charities Publication Committee, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. Single weekly numbers, 10 cents ; monthly magazine numbers, appear- ing in the first week of the month, 25 cents. Annual subscription, $2.) Survey,* of the economic loss occasioned in 338 cases of typhoid fever. With the actual cost in these cases as a basis, Mr. Wingf estimated that, including loss of wages, and cost of hospital and home care of the sick, Pittsburgh had spent $3,000,000 for typhoid fever in one year, while the filtration plant cost but $5,450,000. Here then is a case where suffering and often dependence were caused by community indifference, and rem- edied, after a long struggle, by community action. 1. What are the powers of the board of health? 2. Does it print separately for its own use or that of citizens state -statistics and city ordinances bearing on public health? An elementary test of the health of a community is its death-rate. It should be borne in mind, however, that death-rates are frequently mis- leading. Sometimes the records of the board of health are not complete ; and sometimes the population figures on which the ratios are based are not accurate, especially between census years, when the population estimate may be based on some optimist's idea of the way the town has grown. Many factors moreover affect the death-rate — sex, age, distribution of population, race, climate, diet, occupation, as well as general sanitary con- ditions in the town. Colorado cities have an excessive tuberculosis death- rate because of the very fact that the climate is supposed to cure the disease and that many patients flock there only to die. Caution must be exercised, therefore, in drawing any conclusions from the death-rate. Mortality figures are important, however, especially if considered in comparison with those of other cities of about the same size, location and industrial character. A new suburb is not justified in being satisfied if its infant mortality is no higher than that of New York City ; it should be far lower. Comparative figures can be secured from a special annual report on Mortality Statistics in the United States Census. More recent figures should be given in the records of the local board of health or of the bureau of vital statistics. These figures may sometimes be secured from the state board of health, if the local board does not publish them. It is very important, however, that the local board should feel that it is responsible for giving to the public a statement of health conditions of the city, and there should be a public demand that they do so. * The Pittsburgh Survey was an investigation of social and industrial conditions in this industrial center made under the auspices of the Charities Publication Committee. While the investigations were on too comprehensive a scale for small communities to imitate, the reports as published in the monthly magazine numbers of Charities and the Commons (now the Survey) for January, February and March, 1909, will suggest many interesting lines of inquiry con- cerning one's own city. Price, 25 cents each. t Frank E. Wing, "Thirty-five Years of Typhoid," Charities and the Com- mons, February 6, 1909. Price, 25 cents. The following figures should be secured : 3. Number of deaths per iooo of population. 4. Number of deaths of children under one and under five per 100,000 children of those ages. 5. Number of deaths per 100,000 population from tuberculosis, typhoid and intestinal diseases of children. Include the number of cases of each of these diseases also, if these are reported with- any accuracy. If certain diseases are unusually prevalent, effort should be made to learn the causes for it ; for this knowledge of what constitutes the chief physical disability of any city is merely a first step toward finding means for removing it. The most elementary way of decreasing sickness is by preventing the spread of contagious or infectious diseases through city ordinances or rules of the board of health. 6. What contagious diseases must be reported to the board of health? What action do they take in such cases? 7. Does a special order require that all cases of tuberculosis be reported; that houses be fumigated after the removal of tuberculosis patients ? 8. Is there an anti-spitting ordinance? 9. Does the board of health examine free of charge water, milk, sputum of tuberculosis patients, throat cultures, etc. ? These laws are frequently ignored. To get some idea of their enforce- ment, compare the number of cases of tuberculosis reported with the number of deaths from that disease. Tuberculosis experts state that on a conservative basis the ratio should be at least three to one. In one town there were more deaths than cases! If possible, learn from the board of health in how many instances last year, when death resulted from tuber- culosis, the case had not been previously reported. The co-operation of the local medical society may be secured in the campaign for enforcing regis- tration. For information as to how the tuberculosis death-rate might be lowered in a given community, consult the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. To safeguard the health of babies is one of the most important activities of the health department. 10. Is the law enforced which requires doctors and midwives to report all births? 11. Are midwives licensed to practice? 13. Is ophthalmia neonatorum reportable as an infectious disease? 13. How many cases were reported last year? 14. Is the local health officer empowered or obliged to secure hos- pital or dispensary care for this disease? This disease is the cause of most infantile blindness, and can be pre- vented and cured if immediate and adequate treatment be given. The Committee on the Prevention of Blindness, 105 East 22d Street, New 13 York City, will be glad to furnish information on methods of preventing blindness.* Even what might be called the city '9 housekeeping must be properly supervised, since pure water and milk and a really clean city mean a reduced death and morbidity rate from germ diseases. 15. What is the source of the water-supply; is it owned by the municipality or by a private company? 16. What laws regulate the milk-supply, and the inspection of food and markets? What is the administration of these laws? 17. Who removes the garbage, rubbish and filth; how often; on what terms? 18. Are the streets kept clean; is dry sweeping allowed? Educational campaigns are a most important factor in decreasing disease. The co-operation of the public must be secured to enforce the laws, and more than that, individuals must be educated to observe the rules of hygiene. Does the board of health carry on campaigns of health education ? Are other organizations doing this work in regard to tuber- culosis, care of babies, etc. ? Such work is often most successfully under- taken by a charity organization society, in co-operation with the board of health and private physicians. Chicago had an appalling infant death- rate. In August, 1908, 719 babies under two died of diarrheal diseases. The United Charities realized that this fact, serious as it was in itself, indicated also the tragic number of children who lived but who started life handicapped by the results of such diseases. "You cannot make an efficient citizen out of a blighted baby." With this slogan and with the co-operation of the board of health and many social agencies they carried out, in the summer of 1909, a comprehensive campaign to decrease sick- ness among babies by instructing mothers, providing pure milk, etc. At least in a large part as a result of this work, the infant death-rate in 1909 was eighteen per cent, lower than the average of the ten preceding years. C. RECREATION. With the loss of facilities for outdoor fun and neighborly festivity that follows the growth of cities, formal provision of recreation for both adults and children has become a necessity. For the children it is not enough to provide space to play; the play itself must be so supervised that it will develop the character of the chil- dren as well as give an outlet for their physical exuberance. Mr. George E. Johnson, Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Playground Association, tells the story of little Tim who appeared in the Juvenile Court for * See "Children Who Need Not Have Been Blind," and other literature published by the committee. 14 stealing apples. "The probation officer took the boy aside and said, 'Now, Tim, tell me honest why do you steal these apples ? Do you get so hungry for them you just can't help it?' The boy looked a little surprised, hung his head a moment and then said, 'Why, I don't care much about eating 'em, but it is such fun to have old Smudge chase me.' " Properly directed play would have provided an outlet for this boyish impulse and have saved him from the court. Supervised playgrounds are thus desirable even in towns where there is still open space for play. For information on the need for and the methods of maintaining playgrounds, write to the Playground and Recreation Association of America, i Madison Avenue, New York City. i. How many supervised playgrounds are there in the city? Are they open in the evening? On holidays? All the year round? Are they in the centers of population? Under whose auspices are they main- tained? 2. Parks; area, distance from congested quarters. Are they ade- quately policed? Are there band concerts? What amusements are offered? Are they of good character? Can children play on the grass? 3. Estimated number of children who use the parks; the play- grounds. 4.. What use is made of streets as play spaces for ball-playing, coasting, roller-skating? Do the police permit or encourage this use? 5. What is the character of the excursion steamboats? Aje the decks properly lighted ? Is liquor sold ? Are staterooms rented for short periods of time? 6. Is there unimproved land in the city which should be acquired for recreational purposes, either for children not now provided for, or in view of the probable growth of the city in certain directions? The dangers attending recreation on a commercial basis are more obvious in certain of the indoor amusements, such as cheap theatres, mov- ing picture shows, dance-halls, roller-skating rinks. Appealing as they do to the normal desire of young people for a good time, they are nevertheless often offered under circumstances which endanger the morals of our boys and girls. Even when not directly conducive to immorality cheap shows have a demoralizing influence because of the low standards of language, of manners, and of conduct which they make attractive. A careful study of conditions in them is therefore desirable.* 7. What forms of entertainment are offered? Where are they located? What is the price of admission? 8. Have you attended any of the moving picture shows? Are any of the pictures shown likely to have a bad effect on children or young people? Are the halls properly lighted? Are children under sixteen, unaccompanied by parents, excluded in the evening? 9. How many dance-halls are there? Below what age are girls excluded? Are they connected with saloons or is liquor sold to minors? Is there proper provision of separate toilets? * See Reports of Committee on Amusement Resources of Working Girls, 119 East 19th Street, New York City. 15 Those who recognize the dangers in commercialized recreation are 'making efforts to regulate it by law. An instance is the censorship of moving pictures by which, through the co-operation of the manufacturers, all films are passed upon by a national board of censors before they are exhibited. These evils are further offset by the provision of non-commercial recreation. Perhaps the most hopeful plan is to conduct recreation centers in the public schools, thus utilizing these valuable plants in the evening as well as during school hours. This saves the cost of new and expensive buildings and also removes any feeling on the part of those who use them that the undertaking is philanthropic. An evening exhibition by the pupils in one of the centres on the lower East Side in New York City was most illuminating. The folk dances, music by the band, the one-act play, and the reproduction of a meeting of the New York City Board of Estimate and Apportionment seemed to be equally enjoyed by the young people who participated and by the parents and friends who packed the assembly room to overflowing. In many smaller communities that do not need "settlements" and cannot afford big boys' club buildings, this simple method can be adopted to provide recreation and instruction. For information as to the best methods of developing this plan, write to the Department of Child Hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation, i Madison Avenue, New York City.* Such work is already being done in many cities by boys' clubs or Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. In some cities where both these agencies exist the poorer boys tend to join the boys' club, while the Young Men's Christian Association attracts those who can afford to pay its membership fee. The feeling of caste that goes deeper than we are sometimes ready to admit makes it almost impossible to combine the two groups. If, therefore, there is a well-equipped Young Men's Christian Association, though it does splendid work, do not forget that some other recreation should be offered to the unskilled worker. The Boys' Club of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, offers in a finely equipped building many kinds of educational and industrial work, com- mercial, manual, musical and physical. Many of the classes are taught by boys who have graduated from the club and have since received special training. * See "Wider Use of the School Plant," Clarence Arthur Perry, Charities Publication Committee, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. One chapter, "Public Lectures in School Buildings," is published in pamphlet form by the Department of Child Hygiene of the Russell Sage Foundation. Price, 5 cents. x6 The programs of the Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations show a steadily increasing emphasis on the social aspects of their tasks. Secretaries are being specifically trained for work among immigrants, Young Women's Christian Associations are being opened up in remote industrial centers where many girls are employed; all the secretaries are being urged to co-operate more fully in the general social activities o'f their towns. If opportunities for such social-religious work appear, write to the International Committee of Young Men's Christian Associations, 124 East 28th Street, New York City, and to the National Committee of the Young Women's Christian Associations, 125 East 27th Street, New York City. 10. Boys' and girls' clubs.* (a) Number, membership, average attendance. (b) Under what auspices are they conducted? (c) Is the club work adequately supervised? (d) What is the character of the education or amusement offered ? n. Young Men's and Young Women's Christian Associations. (a) Number of educational classes, subjects, attendance. (b) Is there a gymnasium? (c) What other amusements? (d) What is the membership fee? Class fees, if any? (e) Are the classes limited to members? (f) What groups of young men most frequently join? Is mem- bership restricted? How? D. INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS More basic than these factors of health, housing or recreation are the conditions under which men work. Does their work lessen vitality and so induce disease? Are the hours -so long that there is no leisure for pleasure or home life? Are wages too low to provide food enough, a decent tenement, a margin for recreation, all the elements that we recog- nize as needful to maintain a normal standard of living? The conditions which industries create intimately concern the well- being of almost every family, but over them the public has comparatively little control. Social workers frequently have little or no specific infor- mation as to wages, hours and conditions of work; yet a prominent charity organization worker said recently that one of the most important tasks of his society should be to secure data about each industry, and to make them available for other social workers. There are two reasons for undertaking this study: ( 1 ) It creates a background for the study of individual dependent * See page 32 for a discussion of the work of social settlements. 17 families. What standards of living does the pay of the average wage- earner make possible; do wages and conditions in the industry directly or indirectly increase dependency ? In one district in Boston many of the men are longshoremen, whose work is highly paid but irregular, days of absolute idleness alternating with periods of intense physical labor. As a result of these conditions many of the men are intemperate, and the women find it hard to plan household expenditures on this uncertain income. The union, though it pays no out-of-work benefit, gives liberal benefits to men who are ill or injured, both frequent occurrences because of work conditions. Knowledge of these facts is absolutely essential for intelligent treatment of the families applying for relief. (2) It furnishes a basis for intelligent advice to children and young people who seek employment. How can such advice be of value unless we know which occupations offer training or a possibility of ad- vancement; in which the employment is regular; and which are health- ful? Facts are needed wherewith to combat the tendency of boys and girls to drift into dead-end occupations, into candy factories, the messen- ger service, etc. The Associated Charities of Boston in 1906 made a special study of the children fourteen to eighteen years old in families under its care. Of the 700 children fourteen years old, only 64 had started work at skilled or semi-skilled occupations. One district reported that a group of ten girls of eighteen had, in the four years, had their average wage increased from $2.25 to $4.30, but that only one had advanced to a task involving a greater degree of skill. Too often an immediate wage of three dollars a week outweighs the fact that the wage will never be larger, and that the occupation offers no training. For each of the main industries, therefore, it is well to secure such facts as these : 1. Estimated number of men, women, children employed. 2. Estimate so far as possible the proportion of skilled workers in each occupation.* (a) In factory work, are the establishments large, with ex- treme subdivision of the work; or are they so small that each worker is familiar with the whole process? (b) What method of training or apprenticeship is there? How long a period does it cover? (c) What is the maximum wage, and the minimum, in each occupation? What proportion of the workers reach this maximum? * It is of course impossible to draw a hard and fast line between skilled and unskilled occupations. The sub-headings indicate some tests which show the degree of skill involved in different industries. 18 3- Is the labor casual or seasonal? In which months is the work steady? In which dull? 4. Are there trade unions; if so, what benefits do they give to the sick or unemployed? Approximate proportion of employes who belong. 5. Are there other pension systems connected with any establish- ments in the industry? 6. Are conditions of work sanitary and healthful? Are there special dangers such as unguarded machinery, dust or dampness? Do workers, especially women, have to work in a trying posture? 7. How many state factory inspectors are there; what are their powers ? Some of these facts can be secured from employers; some from the board of trade or chamber of commerce. State departments of labor wherever they exist should be consulted for such data as they are per- mitted to make public. The figures from these sources, however, must be checked up and supplemented by data secured from individual workers. There is comparatively little legislation on general industrial ques- tions. A number of states have recently passed laws determining the employer's liability in cases of accident, the terms of which social workers should know because of their direct bearing on individual accident cases. Some other bills of national import, now before Congress, social agencies may further by bringing pressure to bear on their Congressional represen- tatives. For information on this and kindred subjects, write to the Ameri- can Association for Labor Legislation, 1 Madison Avenue, New York City. The hour9 and conditions of women's work have been the subject of special legislation. The United States Supreme Court has recently rendered a decision that the Oregon law limiting the hours of work for women in laundries is constitutional. This authoritative sanction of the argument that, for the good of the community, women a9 well as children must be protected from industrial exploitation, will doubtless encourage similar legislation in other states. 8. What industries employ women ? 9. For the main industries, classify women employed by age and nationality. What proportion do employed women form of total number of women of corresponding age in the population? 10. Consider the facts in Question 2 especially for women. 11. Give the state law governing (a) The number of hours a week women may be employed in factories; in stores. (b) The hours that women may work at night. (c) Industries in which women may not be employed. 12. What industries give out work to be done in the home? What are the usual weekly earnings in each such occupation ; under what con- ditions is the work done? 13. What proportion of women wage-earners board? What does a working girl have to pay for board? 19 It is easier to realize the problems which result when women enter industrial pursuits in towns where large numbers of women are em- ployed. If they get high pay, the families come to depend on the double earnings; while children are often neglected and women become ex- hausted by the double responsibilities of work and home. In other towns, hundreds of girls gather from the surrounding country, to live under abnormal conditions with total lack of wholesome amusement. In one such town visited recently, the only agency interested in the problem was found to be providing cheap lodging for twenty girls. There were hun- dreds with no home life and no entertainment. Those who are interested in working girls often feel that since wages are so low they should start boarding houses where girls can live at less than commercial rates. There is necessity for caution, however, in planning such homes, lest by subsidizing wages they should lower the already low rate of wages for working girls. Recognizing the need for fundamental reform, the Legislature in Massachusetts last year appointed a commission to study the plan of minimum wage boards which should compel employers to pay a living wage.* In the meantime employment agencies might profitably be started in those communities where industries are diversified and seasonal, to help find work for girls who are tem- porarily out of employment in an occupation with a different busy season. Incidentally, such an employment bureau could gradually accumulate data about wages and conditions of work and could have some influence in persuading employers to adopt better standards. Moreover, actual conditions must be the basis for determining what private agencies should be started, whether a local consumers' league, working girls' club, etc. For these activities must strike at the root of the problem. In one city in a fruit-growing region, a day nursery was established near a canning factory to care for the children of women employed. f The women worked sometimes fifteen hours a day during the rush season, but no one had considered the need of legislation limiting the hours that a woman might work. In their desire to develop a spirit of independence, charitable societies should not encourage women to work at home at "sweated trades," or to do exhausting work outside the home, to the detriment of their health and the well-being of the children. The need for recreation is referred to on page 14. For other information and advice, consult the National Consumers' League, 106 East 19th Street, New York City; and, for information about clubs, the * See Survey, February 3, 1912, for notice of its report. t See special volume of the 1900 Census, Statistics of Women at Work. National League of Women Workers, Miss Jean Hamilton, Secretary, Oswego, N. Y. E. THE IMMIGRANT The type of worker which the dominant industry calls to the town has a marked effect on its social development. A striking instance of this is the influx of Slavs, with their low standards of living, to do the unskilled work in the steel mills and coal mines of Pennsylvania. Even in small manufacturing towns, a proportionately large group of foreign- ers often gather before anyone in the town realizes their number or the problems they create. Hence the need \o make a racial analysis of the population as given by the United States Census : i. Number of each nationality. 2. Length of residence. 3 . Literacy. These figures, if secured for several decades, will show whether the number of immigrants in the town is increasing, and whether, therefore, work for them must be included in plans for future activities. Even when charitable agencies do not yet have foreigners among their beneficiaries, work should be begun to prevent the development of bad conditions. For example, in Homestead, one of the Pittsburgh steel towns, where other than neighborly charity is not needed, a study of con- ditions in the homes of the Slavic laborers showed appalling sanitary con- ditions.* Legislative action alone could make these peasants realize that different standards from those of village life are necessary in overcrowded alleys in the shadow of the mill. School attendance laws must also be enforced, that the foreigners may appreciate our American insistence on education for all. To get some background for an understanding of the racial types with which you have to deal, read such a book as "The Immigrant Tide," by Edward A. Steiner.f which, with its glimpses of life in the old home and of the racial ideals, will create a new sympathy for these aliens. It also helps to get into touch, where possible, with the more intelli- gent members of each race — with the doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, land- lords, etc., who know the needs of their people and how they can be met. In one city where many Poles live, the charity organization society has a district committee which includes educated and intelligent members of * See "Homestead, the Households of a Mill Town," Margaret F. Byington, Charities Publication Committee, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. f Edward A. Steiner, "The Immigrant Tide: Its Ebb and Flow," Fleming H. Revell Company. See also articles on Pittsburgh conditions, magazine Survey numbers of January, February and March, 1909. Price, 25 cents each. the Polish community. The society has thus been able to relate the various social activities of the city to the needs of these people, and to bridge the gap which so often exists between us and this isolated, non- English-speaking group. For even in smaller cities the foreigners often live in complete isolation from the rest of the town and have no part in those common social activities, the school, the church, the political party, which we assume will bring about their amalgamation. Consider with care, therefore, the extent to which these forces are effecting their Ameri- canization. 4. Do the immigrants live'in a separate section of the town? 5. How does this compare in type of house and in sanitation with the homes of the other working people? 6. Is there a separate church for each nationality? 7. Are there parochial schools connected with the churches? Is a foreign language used in them? 8. What part do they take in town politics? Are they organized in groups under leaders of their own race who dictate their political action ? 9. In what industries are they employed? Do they belong to the same trade union locals as the English-speaking workers? F. CHILDREN I. CHILD LABOR Questions concerning the welfare of children are so interwoven that no agency dealing with the child at home, at school, . at play, at work, as dependent or delinquent, can afford to be ignorant of any of the condi- tions affecting child life. The universal recognition of the rights of childhood has found expression in special legislation and many social activities. Probably the most vital legislation is that restricting child labor,* which determines the age below which no child may work, and restricts the work of children till they are sixteen. The second point is of great importance. In Pennsylvania, for example, while a child may not go to work at all till he is fourteen, boys of fourteen and fifteen still work all night in glass factories at occupations seriously detrimental to health. Messenger boys also work at night under demoralizing conditions, and recently several states, led by New York and Ohio, have passed laws for- bidding the employment of boys under either twenty-one or eighteen as night messengers. 1. Below what age are children forbidden to work in factories, mercantile establishments, messenger service, etc.? Does this prohibition apply after school hours, on Saturdays and during vacations? * "The Child in Industry,'' by Owen R. Lovejoy, and other literature on the subject may be secured from the National Child Labor Committee, 105 East 32d Street, New York City. 2. What are the laws regulating the hours of labor for children under sixteen in factories and stores? 3. In what occupations is the labor of children under sixteen for- bidden? 4. What restriction is there of the work of children from fourteen to sixteen as to hours per day and as to night work? 5. What are the laws regulating the sale of newspapers and the night messenger service? The value of these laws is obviously dependent on their enforcement. Mr. Fred S. Hall, formerly of the Pennsylvania Child Labor Associa- tion, quotes figures showing that, in 1900, in Pennsylvania "7064, or nearly six per cent, of all twelve-year-old children, were illegally at work in factories, stores, offices, mines or breakers." In a number of states, before an employment certificate is issued, a child is now required to furnish documentary proof of his age instead of relying, as formerly, on the affidavit of his parents. In New York City, only two per cent, of 22,423 applicants in a recent year were unable to bring satisfactory evi- dence of age. 6. Are employment certificates required in your state? 7. What authority issues them? 8. What proof of age is demanded? 9. Number of certificates issued last year. 'Is this number increas- ing? 10. Number of cases last year in which exceptions to the rules were made. Reasons. n. Number of prosecutions for violation of child labor law in your city last year; number of convictions.* 12. Are records kept and reports made to state departments? These regulations, which should be secured in legal form since details are of the utmost importance, can be had from the state factory inspector, or, if there is none, from the state superintendent of schools. Data concerning violations of the state laws are more difficult to obtain. Deputy inspectors sometimes fail to report, and often the reports do not show the. number of violations in a given locality. The factory inspector should be able to provide them, but if he cannot they can be learned only by keeping newspaper clippings, by searching court records, and by recording any known violations of the law. Someone in each community should be responsible for knowing to what extent these laws are being enforced. Each worker should also know where his state stands in relation to others in its progress in child labor legislation. To secure these facts, if there is no state child labor committee, write to the National Child Labor Committee, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. * If the factory inspector's district does not coincide with the city's area, take the figures for his district. 33 When a child labor bill is before the Legislature it is important to prevent the incorporation of exceptions to the general rule. The attempt is often made to lower standards by making poverty a reason for letting young children go to work.* Charitable societies may help by seeing that no children in their families are at work illegally, and by standing ready to provide relief when, in exceptional cases, real hardship would otherwise be caused by strict enforcement. A district of the Baltimore Federated Charities appointed in 1906 a special- child labor committee to deal with such cases. In the case of an Italian family which had a tendency to beg they secured the co-operation of the Italian societies in keeping the children in school. In six cases they gave special scholarships to keep children in school. The following story is typical of their work: "Marie offered a South Baltimore con- ductor a three-cent fare on her way to the factory one morning. The conductor refused the fare because, he said, 'You can't work in a factory if you are under twelve, and you can't ride for three cents if you are over twelve.' The fact was disclosed to an agent of the Federated Charities that her mother, who needed the child's earnings, had falsified the age so as to get a work permit. Marie was got back to school, and the scholar- ship contributed by the pupils of one of our large private schools made good to the family the loss of her earnings. She is a frail child, and was therefore sent when school closed to the country to be with relatives. She will continue at school this winter." 2. SCHOOLS This story brings out the close relation between child labor and school attendance laws. To find out during what years school attendance is compulsory and where a given state stands in comparison with others, get from the United States Bureau of Education, Washington, the latest report of the United States Commissioner of Education, which gives a summary of child labor and compulsory education laws for all the states. But are the children actually as well as nominally in school during these years? Important as is the answer to this question it is sometimes difficult to find. The board of education should take a school census. If one is taken, summarize its findings to show the total number of chil- dren of each age, the number in public schools, the number in private or parochial schools, and the number not in school at all. Get these figures separately for the children of each age during the compulsory * See pamphlet, "Poverty and Child Labor," published by the National Child Labor Committee. 24 school period. Dr. Ayres' figures on school attendance indicate that in most cities children are steadily losing real education because of irregular attendance. He found* that of every iooo children enrolled the average daily attendance in Baltimore wa9 only 662, in Philadelphia 695, in New York 751, in Chicago 823. In the town of Springfield, Ohio, school "keeps" for 184 days, yet of 6537 pupils, 892 or nearly fourteen per cent, were in school less than 100 days out of the year (page 208). This condition is of course due in part to an indifferent school board or an inefficient truancy department. Absences even of a day or two should be at once investigated. Such thorough work is, however, impossible if the truant officer has too many cases. Dr. Ayres quotes the city superin- tendent of schools in Milwaukee as reporting, in 1907, that there were nearly 50,000 children in the city between seven and fourteen. There were three attendance officers to watch them all. It was, therefore, not surprising that four or five thousand of the children were not in school. 13. How many truant officers are there? 14. Do these officers receive daily reports from each school? 15. Does the central office of the school department maintain a card index of all children who have been enrolled in all schools, public and private (parochial), in order to trace unexplained non-appearances of children at the beginning of each school year? 16. How many cases were investigated last year? 17. How many cases were taken to court? 18. How many boys were sent to the truant school? 19. What other disposition was made of confirmed truants? 20. How many parents were prosecuted and how many fined or put in jail last year? 21. Does the officer visit the parochial schools, and has he power to take their cases into court? Unquestionably the slow progress of many pupils is the result of failure to keep them in school regularly. In a family recently applying for relief to one of the New York Charity Organization Society offices, a boy of twelve, apparently normal, had reached only the second grade ! To learn what amount of education the children really get, find out in what grades the children of thirteen are and compare this with the grade in which a child of thirteen would be who had entered at the average age and been promoted every year. This figure can usually be secured and gives a fair basis for judging whether the pupils are making normal progress. Some of these facts are given in published reports of local school boards and of the state board of education. Otherwise, information must * Leonard P. Ayres, "Laggards in Our Schools," page 133. New York, Charities Publication Committee. 25 be secured from superintendents of schools, school principals, truant officers, and teachers. Schools used to devote themselves to teaching the three R's. More and more are they emphasizing the idea that their function is to develop an all-round child, to care for the child physically as well as mentally. This broadening of our school system should be stimulated by all social workers, on whom devolves the task of interpreting to the school board and the taxpayers the educational needs of that part of the community which is least able to make its wants known. For the development of this work depends on a spirit of progress in the board itself, and on a public opinion educated to demand an increased use of the schools even if it involves additional expenditure of city funds. 22. Are text-books free? 23. How many free kindergartens in the public schools? How many under private auspices? 24. Are there classes for backward children? 25. Are there manual training and domestic science? If so, what subjects in what grades? 26. Is there medical inspection? How often are physical exam- inations made ? What points are covered in the examination ? How often are hearing and vision tests made? Number of school nurses. 27. Are there school visitors? 28. Are there vacation schools? 29. Are there evening schools? How long are they open each year? What courses do they offer? What recreational features are there? How extensively are they advertised? Do foreigners use them? Another means of education is the public library. 30. How many free libraries are there? 31. How many children took out books last year? How many adults ? 32. Does the library encourage its use by publicity work, by refer- ence lists on current topics, etc.? Does it have hooks in the language of your immigrant population ? 33. Is there a reading room for children, and a children's librarian? 34. Are there branch libraries in schools, homes and shops? 35. Is there an auditorium in the library? How often was it used last year for neighborhood gatherings, club meetings, free concerts, etc.? Home libraries and other special work for children have been exten- sively developed by the Pittsburgh Public Library.* 3. JUVENILE DELINQUENTS Not only must the new attitude of the school toward the child be utilized for the betterment of children in our community, but also the new attitude of the court. Does a city's court still consider the delin- quent child a criminal to be punished, or merely a wayward child whom * See "The Public Library, a Social Force in Pittsburgh," by Frances Jenkins Olcott, Survey, March 5, 1910. Price 25 cents. 26 it must protect and help? In all stages of its proceedings, one attitude or the other must be evident. 36. Is there a. juvenile court? 37. Are all cases affecting children under sixteen brought before it? Does it deal not only with delinquents, but also with dependent, neglected and truant children, and with child labor cases ? 38. Are any cases of delinquent children finally transferred to regular criminal courts of record, such as superior courts; and if so, for what reasons? 39. Is there a separate detention home, or is the child kept in the jail with older offenders? 40. Is a complete investigation made of the conditions of the child's life before and as a basis for the judicial decision? Who makes it? 41. Are full records kept? 42. Is the court a separate one or part of a police, municipal or other court? 43. Where are the cases heard? 44. What differences are made from the ordinary procedure? 45. Are reporters allowed in the court? Keep a record for a month of the number of juvenile offenders whose names and stories are given in the newspapers. In some so-called juvenile courts, the judge still sits on the bench, the police officer brings in the offender, and the case is tried much as with adults. This is not the real spirit of the juvenile court. The judge's power is in the close personal relation that he establishes with each boy brought before him, which, with preliminary knowledge of the conditions of the boy's life, makes possible intelligent and successful treatment. For the juvenile court does not aim to punish the child for the offense committed, but to decide what, in view of all the circum- stances surrounding his life, it is best to do for him. 46. Are there probation officers? How many? 47. Are they paid from public or private funds, or are they vol- unteers? 48. How many cases of delinquent children and how many of dependent were before the court last year? 49. How many of these were fined, put on probation, placed in institutions, or dismissed? 50. Is there a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, or Humane Society (dealing with children) ? Has it a paid agent? What territory does he cover? 51. What is its relation to the court? What constitutes "cruelty"; what "neglect" ? 52. For what reasons does the community sanction the removal of children from their parents? Often the parents because of immorality and neglect are really responsible for the child's delinquency. Does the state recognize this in a law permitting prosecution of parents for contributing to the child's delin- quency? How many cases were tried last year? The answers to these questions can easily be found in places having 27 a well-organized juvenile court. In places that have not, it is, if any- thing, more important to study the situation so that data may be ready when it is time to work for a court; it is equally important, if there is a so-called juvenile court that is not doing good work. As a preliminary step to creating a juvenile court, the judge may set aside one day in the week for children's cases and hear the cases in a room separate from the court room. To demonstrate the value of probation, it is sometimes possible to get the judge to suspend sentence in hopeful cases, putting the child in the care of some social worker known to the judge who acts as an unofficial probation officer. In some cities, women's clubs or other organizations have paid the salary of a probation officer until the value of the work has been demonstrated and the city been willing to assume the responsibility for it.* By careful studies of the circumstances out of which delinquency arises, we shall get light on conditions which must be remedied for the benefit of all the children in the community ; on the need of more amuse- ments, the unwisdom of forcing widowed mothers to go out to work and neglect their children, the need of better child labor and school enforce- ment laws. G. ADULT DELINQUENTS The juvenile court has led in pointing out the need of a new point of view in dealing with offenders against our laws. This same spirit is gradually being extended to those courts which deal with adult delin- quents. We are recognizing that the treatment of them cannot be uni- form, that it must be based on knowledge of the individual. It is there- fore of the utmost importance that the judge should have a social point of view. Are the courts acting intelligently so as to cure the delinquency which exists and prevent its increase, or are they, by their methods of dealing with petty offenders, tending to confirm them in their career? i. Are judges or magistrates, appointed or elected? How long do they serve? What are their qualifications? 2. What courts have jurisdiction over cases of intoxication, pros- titution, disorderly conduct, non-support and vagrancy? 3. What powers and what options has a magistrate in dealing with cases arraigned on such charges? 4. How many cases of each class were there in the court last year? What disposition was made of these cases? 5. Is there adult probation for men? For women? Number of probation officers. Number of cases on probation. 6. What is the state law in regard to the treatment of non-sup- porting or deserting husbands? * In the Survey for February 5, 1910 (price 25 cents), is a full and sug- gestive discussion of methods in juvenile court work. 28 j. Has a deserter ever been brought back to your state by ex- tradition ?* 8. How many men in the last year have paid toward the support of their families upon non-support orders through the courts? How much? 9. To what extent is the summons used instead of arrest? 10. How long are prisoners detained at the police station before being brought to court ? ii. Does the arrangement of detention rooms and jails permit proper separation of sexes and of new from hardened offenders? 12. What are the correctional institutions in your city and state? 13. How is the head of each institution appointed? How long does he serve? What has been his previous experience? 14. What medical attention is given the prisoners? Is work pro- vided for them? 15. Does any association visit institutions, getting in touch with prisoners before their discharge ? What effort is made to. help them on their discharge? 16. Is any competent group of people in your community striving to eradicate, minimize or even just study the social evil? One group of delinquents which creates special tasks for the social worker is that of the men who refuse to support their families. An inter- esting attempt to deal with this class has been made in Washington, D. C. The man is usually put on probation and has to pay weekly a certain proportion of his wages to his family through a sergeant of police. Con- firmed offenders are sent to the workhouse, where they really have to work, and fifty cents a day from the proceeds of their labor is paid to their families. In one year there were 899 non-support cases, 608 of these were placed on probation and paid through the police $38,319.65 to their families, while the payments to families for the labor of men in the workhouse amounted to $234.0. f More complex even is the problem of treating cases of inebriety. The repeated short term arrest has proved totally ineffective. Mr. Bailey B. Burritt of the New York State Charities Aid Association tells of one man sixty-one years of age who had been in the workhouse sixty- two separate times, spending 3165 days there at a cost to the community for maintenance of $1858.53. This treatment had not served to reform or strengthen his character. Adult probation, indeterminate sentences, farm colonies, medical treatment, etc., are all elements in a new and better treatment of these cases. In New York a Board of Inebriety has recently been appointed * By a requisition issued by your governor upon the governor of the state to which he went. t See "Family Desertion and Non-Support," Judge William H. DeLacy, Survey, February 5, 1910. Price, 25 cents. Also "The Present Status of Family Desertion and Non-Support Laws," William H. Baldwin; address, 14.15 First Street, Washington, D. C. 29 to whose care inebriates are committed. The Board, who will have under their control probation officers and a farm colony, will consider what treatment is needed in a given case and be able to work it out consistently. In dealing with this as with many another evil, intelligent treatment of individual cases is essential, even while general campaigns against the liquor traffic are under way. 17. What is the state law governing the sale of liquor in your town ? 18. Is it a license or no-license town ? Number of licensed saloons. 19. Terms on which licenses are granted and procedure in re- voking. 20. Are saloons forbidden within a given distance from school or church ? 21. What regulations are there as to the sale of liquor to minors or women; as to Sunday and night closing? 22. What active temperance propaganda is there? Ill— AGENCIES FOR RELIEF AND FOR THE IMPROVE- MENT OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS We have been considering the factors which enter into community well-being — sanitation, education, industry, recreation, delinquency. This discussion should have made it evident that wholesome conditions do not develop spontaneously, that those who care for their own cities must learn what evils exist and must organize to make their demands for improvement effective. Agencies so organized employ different means to this end, working for better state or local legislation, or for increased activity of city or state departments, or undertaking certain tasks them- selves. Most of all, they must arouse a force of public opinion to back their efforts. Among these agencies may be included child labor, tuberculosis, tenement house, juvenile court and playground committees, consumers' leagues, settlements, etc. Every social worker should know specifically the general aims and the plans for immediate action of each of these. If such societies have not been organized in your community, learn of the work they are doing elsewhere, especially through correspondence with the national organization. Before deciding what new activities should be undertaken, a careful study of local conditions should be made in order to demonstrate which are most urgently needed. No city can support an indefinite number of social activities. It is desirable, therefore, to concentrate interest on those most essential, leaving for a future time others less important though still desirable. Be sure also before you start a new agency, that there is none existing able or willing to do the work. One small city has a tuberculosis 30 relief society with a paid worker on half-time who dealt in a year with thirty-seven cases of tuberculosis. It has no housing committee, and no ordinance compels sewer connection for the houses, though more cases of typhoid fever than of tuberculosis are reported to the board of health each year. There is an associated charities in this place which should handle both tasks through special committees ; it confines itself at present to elementary relief work. As a matter of fact, this outline will be of special service in analyz- ing the community's social needs. A brief compilation of the facts called for will help to show which subjects demand immediate concern. H. AGENCIES NOT PRIMARILY PHILANTHROPIC Agencies not primarily philanthropic are most helpful allies — - churches, business associations, fraternal orders, settlements, clubs, etc. Many social activities have been developed by an active woman's club, and many improvements in civic conditions forwarded most effectively by busi- ness men's organizations. A woman's club in Texas, for instance, secured the appointment of a police matron, agreeing to pay her salary. At the end of six months she was put on the city pay-roll. Then a probation officer was paid by the club, and later became a county employe. Now they have a first-class playground director and hope that within a year the city will pay his salary also, leaving them free to demonstrate further possible lines of advance. Every worker should know, therefore, the personnel of this group of agencies which are only secondarily philanthropic and should be informed upon their attitude toward social problems, their special committees on social topics, etc. He can then utilize their interest and influence in his own task. A card catalogue of such agencies should be kept; taken at first from the directory, it should be supplemented by newspaper clippings telling of their activities, and especially by facts as to their methods and interests drawn from the worker's personal experi- ence with them. 1. Fraternal orders. Number. What charitable work do they do aside from sick and death benefits to members? 2. Women's clubs. Membership; objects. What committees have they on social matters? What active work have they done? 3. Business men's associations. What committees have they to deal with social problems? Have they co-operated in movements for better housing, better police administration, etc.? 4. Are there any local civic improvement associations? How are they organized? What work have they done in the last year? 5. Churches. (a) Number in each denomination. 3i (b) Location of churches. Is there a serious overlapping of territory ? (c) Number of members in each. (d) What churches have paid visitors? (e) What relief organizations have they? Are there St. Vin- cent de Paul conferences in the Roman Catholic churches? Do they work outside the membership of their own church ? (f) What social features are there, sewing schools, clubs for men or children? (g) Is there a ministerial association? Does it discuss or take an active part in the improvement of social conditions? 6. Settlements. (a) Number. (b) Location. (c) Number of residents; number of non-resident volunteers. (d) Organizations with which they are affiliated. (e) Present program of educational classes, social clubs for men, women and children, other forms of recreation, civic activities, etc. The settlement has special value as interpreter and as initiator of reforms in many communities. It is a primary, source of information on a neglected neighborhood and its residents can give invaluable aid in making social betterment programs effective. It is perhaps unnecessary to emphasize the importance of close co- operation with the churches in order to draw upon their strength and enthusiasm. The ministerial association might be urged to discuss this Outline, since the churches sometimes are uninterested simply because they do not know conditions. In Buffalo for two years a seminar was conducted twice a month by a number of churches jointly. Each meet- ing, under the direction of a separate committee, was devoted to a discus- sion of some phase of the local situation, such as industrial conditions, provisions for education and amusement, the cost of living, etc. They also made "a systematic study of what the city government is doing for the social welfare of Buffalo, to stimulate interest in the development of its efficiency in this direction." Any group that had made so careful a study would control a powerful lever for social betterment. Especially should the social worker secure help from the recent Men and Religion Forward Movement. Many of the questions in this Outline have been included in their Social Service survey blank, and their co-operation in working out the answers may therefore be relied on. Here is a group of men, some of whom have never had any special knowl- edge of social work before, on whose minds has been impressed the church's obligation to its own community. The agencies already organ- ized should stand ready to foster this enthusiasm and to give opportunity for its practical expression in connection with their own work. 33 I. PHILANTHROPIC AGENCIES So far we have discussed activities which tend to raise or lower the social efficiency of the whole community. We are now to consider agencies which aim to improve the condition of individuals or families who have fallen below the general level and have become partially or wholly dependent. These two subjects are closely related. If wages are low, if disease, unwholesome tenements or overwork decrease vitality, dependency will increase. This inter-relation between the well-being of the community and that of the individual becomes very clear to one who works for needy families in their homes. It is in such work that many movements for social betterment have had their birth, for the home is the point where social activities center and at which their failure is most apparent. Moreover, the skilful treatment of individuals with a view to rendering them as soon as possible normal and independent helps to ensure steadier and surer development for every other form of social endeavor. This detailed work is, in fact, both the source of social energy and its conservator. Provision for the dependent is a public responsibility. Certain classes who need institutional care — the destitute, the aged, the insane and other groups of defectives — are usually provided for by the state. Where such care is provided by private charity the state should exercise some supervision, especially in the case of dependent children. i. Have you a state board of charity? How appointed? What are its powers? 2. Has it the right to inspect all private institutions in the state? 3. Does it compile facts about them and about the outdoor and in- door relief furnished by the cities? I. PUBLIC OUTDOOR RELIEF Much discussion has centered about the question whether public outdoor relief should be extended by giving relief to needy families in their homes. There is the danger that it will get tied up with politics. There is the more serious danger that its administration will become cut and dried, that relief will be given with little or no effort to do construc- tive work with dependent families. Public outdoor relief is still, how- ever, a part of the charitable provision of most small cities, and, in towns, is often the only provision. The officials in charge of it should realize the importance of adopting intelligent standards of work and of co-opera- ting with those private agencies that could help to improve the condition of the families. 33 4. Is there public outdoor relief, i.e., relief to families from the public treasury? 5. How is the overseer appointed? 6. Has he other duties? Salary. 7. What is the annual appropriation for outdoor relief, made by whom, on what basis? How much is given by the city, how much by the county? 8. Number of different cases aided last year. 9. Is an investigation made of each case in the home of the appli- cant? By whom? What records are kept? 10. What references outside of the family are seen ? 11. Among the families aided, what proportion were families of (a) sick breadwinners ; (b) unemployed; (c) able-bodied men, who were drunken or lazy; (d) deserted wives with children; (e) widows with children; (f) how many were aged couples? (g) how many were aged single men or women? 12. What is the maximum amount per month given to any one family ? 13. Does the overseer exchange information and willingly confer about families with the agencies referred to in sections 3 and 4 following ? 2. CARE OF HOMELESS MEN One person for whom the city should if possible make provision is the homeless man. Too often the treatment accorded him is help from the householder's back door, a night on the floor of the police station, and free transportation to the next town in the morning. While the tramp problem is more pressing in large cities, it still merits careful consideration in smaller places. In a few instances, such as Evansville, Indiana, and Sherborn, Massachusetts — one a small city, the other merely a town — officials have found it a real economy to main- tain municipal lodging-houses on a small scale. Especially do small rail- road centers need an intelligent system for dealing with these transients. As a first step toward convincing town officials of the possibility of adequate treatment, try to get them to sign the Transportation Agree- ment. This agreement, now signed by over four hundred charitable agencies and public officials, is a promise to provide charitable transportation only after an investigation which proves that the applicant will be better off at his destination, and then to send him the entire distance. This method proves in the long run kinder and more economi- cal than the "passing on" system now too often used.* Such a study of individual cases will show the need of care and opportunity for the honest searcher for work, and of deterrents, such as * See "Passing On," a pamphlet on this subject published by the Russell Sage Foundation, sent free upon application to Room 613, 105 East 22d Street New York City. The Foundation secures signatures to the Agreement. 3+ a bath and a wood-pile, for the tramp. New York now has a farm colony to which the confirmed vagrant may be sent. 14. Is there a municipal lodging-house, or a lodging-house with an adequate work-test for the homeless supported by private charity? 15. Or is the police station still used as a lodging place? 16. If there is a municipal or private shelter, what attempt if any is made to get work for the men ? 17. Estimate the number of cheap lodging-houses. What are the police or sanitary regulations concerning them? 18. Does the city or any public or private agency give transpor- tation without investigation? Are all who grant charity transportation signers of the Transportation Agreement? 19. Is there a farm colony to which confirmed vagrants may be sent?* 20. Is there a city ordinance forbidding street begging? What are its provisions ? Is it enforced ? 3. PRIVATE RELIEF With homeless men as with many other dependents, the treatment of the individual may directly affect the family as a whole, and it is the family that we must chiefly consider. The first provision for the care of needy families is usually made by churches or other agencies not specifically organized for this purpose. They often have little consciousness of the fact that their every charitable, act is affecting for better or worse the efforts of others, and so continue to do work which must be superficial because it is unrelated. 2t. What agencies give relief in the home? 22. How many of these are independent organizations? 23. How many have paid workers? 24. In those that have none, how do volunteers divide the work? 25. To what classes is the relief given ? 26. On what principles of decision is it given or withheld ? 27. Number of families relieved last year. Total amount in relief. 28. What records are kept? 29. Is there any formal or informal exchange of information among the agencies? 4. THE ORGANIZATION OF CHARITY In places where a study of social conditions shows that the activities of social agencies lack co-ordination, leaving gaps at some points and overlapping at others, the next step is to create some central agency, such as a charity organization society or associated charities.")" This society will make a careful study of each family that becomes dependent, devising on the basis of this knowledge a plan for its rehabilitation. It will use, * See "Concerning Vagrancy," O. F. Lewis, Survey, September 5, 1908 (25 cents) ; January 23, 1909 (10 cents) ; September 4, 1909 (25 cents). t See "What is Organized Charity," a booklet published by the Charity Organ- ization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation, Room 613, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. Sent free on application. 35 in working out this plan, the help of all the existing agencies, co-ordi- nating not superseding their efforts. It will save that duplication of relief by which a family sometimes loses its independence, but its methods will assure far more adequate relief where relief is needed, and will combine with this relief the personal service needed to prevent a recur- rence of distress.* That, in its work, it also makes use of the unorganized social spirit of the community is shown in the following story quoted from a recent report of the Associated Charities of Atlanta, Georgia : How a crippled man became a shoemaker illustrates an agent's services and the organization of helpfulness. On the first day of December, 1909, as this man walked along the street upon his crutch, a gentleman, noting his crippled condition, stopped long enough to tell him to go to the Associated Charities. "The gentleman said they might help him" was as definite as he could make his appeal. A kindly interview brought out the facts that he was thirty years old, and had a wife and three small children. Until a year previous he had worked on a farm, when he lost his leg by an accidental gun-shot wound. Coming into town, for he could no longer support his family in the country, they were all living in one small room, rented from the wife's sister, herself a poor dress- maker. The wife worked in a factory and was earning $4.50 a week. The husband took care of the children. "Why couldn't your wife stay at home with the children, do sewing, and let you find some light work?" he was asked. "She can't see to sew, and it makes her eyes hurt," was his reply. Let us set down the rest of the story step by step, just as an agent of the Associated Charities brought it about: An oculist examined the wife's eyes. An optician gave her the glasses. An institution supplied temporary employment to the man at which he proved his willingness to work. Relatives cared for the children while both parents worked. A shoemaker agreed to take the man in his shop and teach him the trade. A Sunday-School class provided money equivalent to the wife's earnings so that she might care for the children while the man served his apprenticeship in the shoemaker's shop. A public hospital treated both husband and wife during temporary sickness. The same Sunday-School class guaranteed the cost of a shoemaker's outfit for the man and paid rent while he was building up a business. Numbers of individuals were found to give him work. The result has been that this man paid for his outfit and is now making three times as much as his wife formerly earned. The oldest child is in school, and has done so well that he has been advanced in his grade. In short, a hovel has been made into a prosperous home. When in its work for individual families a charity organization society becomes aware of certain causes of poverty, it attempts, either through special committees of its own or by stimulating the formation of new agencies, to remove these causes. How such work is inaugurated is shown in the report of the Associated Charities of Washington, D. C, *See "The Good Neighbor," Mary E. Richmond. Sold by Charities Pub- lication Committee, 105 East 2zd Street, New York City. 36 for 1909, which reviews fifteen years of work. Recognizing the evil effects of bad housing on family life, the society formed in 1902 a Com- mittee on the Improvement of Housing Conditions, which in 1905 made an investigation of conditions in 248 houses. Two years later the work was taken up by the President's Homes Commission, appointed by Presi- dent Roosevelt to consider housing and general social conditions in Washington. At the same time, to cite another instance, the society through its knowledge of individual families was brought face to face with the appalling death-rate from tuberculosis. A Committee on the Prevention of Consumption was appointed in 1903 and began a campaign of education and prevention. This committee was later succeeded by the Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, which has continued and increased this work. In 1895, the death-rate from tuberculosis was 283.8 per 100,000 of population; in 1908 it was 209.5. These two campaigns illustrate the fact that a society is most effec- tively aroused to public action for the good of the whole community through direct contact with the lives of poor people. The records of many smaller societies show equally fine attempts to use the knowledge thus gained to bring about improved living conditions. It is perhaps unnecessary to add that this work, which includes the rehabilitation of individual needy families and efforts to lessen the social causes of poverty, demands skill and experience. For its successful carrying out trained workers are needed. 30. Is there an associated charities or charity organization society? 31. How many paid workers has it? 32. Have they received special training? Do they know how to make good investigations, leading to constructive plans for the benefit of families? 33. Are careful records kept? 34. Does the society maintain a confidential exchange in which the other agencies index' or register their cases? 35. By how many other agencies is this registry regularly con- sulted ?* 36. Is relief given from the society's own funds? Or is it procured for each case from citizens or agencies whom the society interests in a plan of help? 37. To what extent does it win the co-operation of such natural resources as relatives, friends, former employers, fellow church-members, etc. ?t 38. How does it classify its various forms of family treatment in its last annual report, or what specific problem does it discuss there? * See articles on the confidential exchange by Miss Mary E. Richmond and Mrs. Anna B. Fox in the Survey for March 18, 1911. Price, 10 cents. t See "Relief," by Frederic Almy, and "Treatment," by Porter R. Lee, booklets published by the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation, Room 613, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. Single copies sent free on application. 37 39- Has it a corps of volunteer workers, some of whom are doing personal work in families? 40. What active committees on improving social conditions has it? 41. Name any special branches of work that it undertakes. If there is need of such an organization in any community consult the National Association of Societies for Organizing Charity, Room 508, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. If one already in existence seeks advice either about case work standards or about the further co-ordina- tion of the social activities of the city, write to the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation, Room 613, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. 5. CHILD CARING Our earlier discussion of child welfare referred to children who are part of normal homes. For another group of children, those who have no real homes because of the death or evil character of their parents, and those delinquents who the court has decided need institutional care, some special provision must be made. 42. What investigation is made before children are taken from their homes ? 43. Who determines when a child shall become a public charge, the court or the superintendent of the poor? 44. Who determines the length of time the child shall stay in an institution or foster home, and the conditions under which he shall be discharged? 45. What oversight is maintained after discharge? 46. Which institutions are supported wholly by private subscription ; by public funds; by private subscription and public funds? Cost of each institution to the community. If they receive a public appropriation, what is the amount? Is it given as a lump sum or on a per capita basis? 47. Are the institutions or child placing agencies governed by private boards or by public officials? If the latter, how appointed? 48. What is the general character of the institutions? Cottage or congregate? What industrial training is given? What education is given ? Is school maintained in the institution ; or do the children go to public school ? 49. In placing out agencies, what investigation is made of the homes before a child is placed? How often are the homes visited? By whom ? We must consider not only whether the provision for the care of children is adequate but also whether it is sufficiently safeguarded. Some institutions which receive a per capita state subsidy are over-willing to receive children, and take those who should be cared for by parents, relatives, etc. Again, city departments are not always well equipped to determine when children should be taken. Interesting facts about the type of families whose children are being 3* cared for have been brought out in a study of children's institutions in Pittsburgh by the Russell Sage Foundation. It was discovered that in half of the families studied, the parents were American-born; that in a third of the cases both parents were still living ; that over 60 per cent, of the parents were between twenty and forty when their children became de- pendent; that there were only two, three or four children in the majority of the families; and that so far as could be discovered few of the families had been applicants for charity before applying to the institutions. These facts — coupled with the significant one that more than half of the chil- dren when admitted were between the ages of five and ten, a period when they are particularly susceptible to home influences and individual care — revealed the need for a closer scrutiny of any and all grounds which were considered sufficient warrant for such a radical upheaval of natural relationship as was involved in transferring these children from home surroundings to institutions. Before children are discharged, the society responsible for them should investigate the homes to which they are to go, to make sure that they will receive proper care and education. The advice of an expert in child caring work is needed to determine whether the supervision of placed-out children is adequate, or whether the children in an institu- tion are being cared for on modern lines. Such a book as Reeder's "How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn,"* with its suggestions of how an institution on the cottage plan may give normal environment, is helpful to all workers for children. If questions arise as to the care being given children in your city or state, write to the Department of Child-Helping of the Russell Sage Foundation, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. 6. CARE OF THE SICK The causes of sickness and the steps which may be taken to prevent it were discussed in earlier section. f. The social worker must also be familiar with institutions or agencies for the care of the sick, with the classes of cases they provide for and the terms of admission. 50. Hospitals. (a) Sources of support. Amount of state or city subsidy; endowment; subscriptions last year. (b) Number of free beds; of pay beds. Are these adequate for the city's needs? (c) Classes of cases admitted. * Rudolph R. Reeder, "How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn," New York, Charities Publication Committee. f See section B, page 11. 39 (d) Is there a separate hospital for contagious diseases? If not, what provision is made for them? (e) Is there satisfactory ambulance service? 51. Dispensaries. (a) Number. (b) Diseases treated (if special). (c) Number of patients treated in each during the last year. (d) Have they "social service" departments? (e) Are there special classes for the instruction of mothers in the care of their infants? 52. What provision is there for tuberculosis cases? (a) Special clinics. (b) Sanatoria for incipient cases. (c) Sanatoria for advanced cases. (d) Are there fresh-air schools or day camps? 53. What provision is there for convalescents? For incurables? 54. Are there any diseases for which no provision is made? 55. Is there a visiting nurse association? How many nurses has it on full time? 56. What other agencies have visiting nurses on their staffs? 7. DEFECTIVES For defectives, for the crippled, deaf, blind, epileptic, feeble-minded and insane, there is often state as well as local institutional provision. Marked improvements in their care and education have been introduced in recent years, and it is important to learn if possible whether the agencies in your state measure up to the best standards. Is permanent custodial care provided for those feeble-minded who, if at large, are a menace to the community? Are the deaf, the blind, and the crippled given such training as shall enable them to leave the institution and enter the industrial world, thus minimizing their isolation from normal people? The New York Charity Organization Society, through an employment bureau for the handicapped, is making a special study of defectives and trying to find work for people whom ordinary employ- ment agencies cannot place. For example, a girl with only one arm was secured a position as telephone operator at the switchboard of a private office. Similar efforts to deal with individuals can be made by any charitable agency. Efforts are also being made to secure early treatment for those who, if their disease is neglected, become defectives ; such as the provision for re- porting ophthalmia neonatorum mentioned on page 13, by which infantile blindness may be prevented. Again, to prevent insanity special clinics for nervous and mental disorders are being started. The terror that accompanies the word insanity has hindered people from securing the careful treatment that might prevent purely nervous and curable dis- orders from developing into serious, often incurable, insanity. 40 57- What care for deaf, blind, epileptic, feeble-minded, insane?* Educational institutions for adults; for children. Custodial institutions for adults; for children. 58. Are they state or private? 59. How many inmates have they? 60. Is their capacity adequate for local needs? 61. Are there special non-institutional agencies to enable defectives to become self-supporting? Trade classes? Employment bureaus for the handicapped; the aged? 62. Is there a special clinic and a hospital pavilion for the exam- ination and early treatment of mental and nervous disease? 63. Does any agency undertake the after-care of patients discharged as recovered from hospitals for the insane? 8. THE AGED Dependent aged people appeal instantly to our sympathy, yet for them provision is often most inadequate. Many social workers know little of conditions in the almshouse, and yet complain that needy old people will not go there. A volunteer committee under the New York State Charities Aid Association has done a kindly service to some resi- dents of the New York almshouse. One of the chief hardships to many formerly active people is the enforced idleness. This committee provides material out of which the old people manufacture salable things — rugs, raffia baskets and other household articles. They have sales at Christmas time, and the proceeds go to the makers for tobacco or other luxuries. Moreover, really respectable old people, for whom there is no provision in private homes, should not have to mingle with the frequently disrepu- table transients, the "ins and outs," of the almshouse. New York and Boston have city homes for the aged, separate from the rest of the alms- house, to which only people of proved respectability are admitted, and where aged couples are allowed to live together. It is worth while to consider the real conditions in the local almshouse. Is the city asking respectable aged people to live in impossible surroundings? Have all possible efforts been made to better these surroundings ?f 64. How many inmates had the almshouse last year? Cost of maintenance.^ 65. Are there restrictions as to admission or discharge? 66. Is any record kept of the number of repeaters? 67. Are there feeble-minded or insane inmates? 68. Are children admitted ? 69. Is there a hospital ward for chronic cases? 70. Are there any volunteer committees who visit the inmates ? 71. Are there private homes for the aged? Number of inmates in each. Terms of admission. * Special report of the United States Census, The Insane and Feeble-Minded. t See "The Almshouse," Alexander Johnson, Charities Publication Com- mittee, 105 East 22d Street, New York City. t See special report of the United States Census, Paupers in Almshouses. 41 It may seem an anti-climax to close this Outline with the subject of the aged, when so much of our social work is with the young, but there should be no conflict of interests between these two groups, and there is none in a normal society. We do youth an ill turn whenever we set it the example of disrespect to age. The last word of all, however, belongs to the children. Are conditions in your city such as to create a whole- some environment for childhood? This is at once the simplest and the most searching test of the social well-being of any community. +2 PUBLICATIONS OF THE Charity Organization Department OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION MISS M. E. RICHMOND, Director FRED S. HALL, Asso. Director MISS M. F. BYINGTON, Asso. Director A. ' SERIES B LEAFLETS i. What is Organized Charity? 2 3 4 5 No, Relief — A Primer Frederic Almy Treatment — (Family Rehabilitation) Porter R. Lee On Being a Director Alexander Johnson Passing On as a Method of Charitable Relief , 6o cents a hundred. No. 3, 50 cents a hundred. Nos. 2 and 5, $1.00 a hundred B. MISCELLANEOUS PAMPHLETS 6. The Formation of Charity Organization Societies in Smaller Cities Francis H. McLean $6.00 per hundred 7. What Social Workers Should Know About Their Own Communities Margaret F. Byington 5 cents each; $2.50 per hundred ,8. The Inter-relation of Social Movements, with information about sixty- seven national organizations. $1.50 per hundred 9. The Dominant Note of Modern Philanthropy Edward T. Devine 40 cents per hundred 10. Organization in Smaller Cities Alexander Johnson 40 cents per hundred 11. A Modern St. George Jacob A. Riis Reprinted by permission from Scribner's Magazine, $1.40 per hundred 12. Efficient Philanthropy Rev. George Hodges, D.D. $1.00 per hundred C. FORMS, BLANKS, ETC. 13. Telegraphic Code and Transportation Agreement, 15 cents each 14. Model Record Form (blue), 60 cents per hundred 15. Model Record Form (yellow), 60 cents per hundred 16. Homeless Man Record Form, 50 cents per hundred 1 7. Diagnosis and Treatment Record for Families, 50 cents per hundred 18. Inquiry Blanks, 20 cents per pad of hundred 19. Inquiry Reply Blanks, 20 cents per pad of hundred Sample copies of all of the above, except the Transportation Agreement, will be sent free upon request, or in quantities at the prices named, plus postage or expressage. Address Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation Room 613, 105 East 22d Street, New York City RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION PUBLICATIONS THE PITTSBURGH SURVEY. Find- ings in six volumes, edited by Paul U. Kellogg. 8vo. Profusely illustrated with photos by Hine and drawings in tint by Joseph Stella, maps, charts and tables. Price per set, $9 net, postpaid, $10; per volume, $1.50 net. Women and the Trades. By Elizabeth Beardsley Butler. Second edition. Price, postpaid, $1.72. Work-Accidents and the Law. By Crystal East- man. Price, postpaid, $1.72. The Steel Workers. By John A. Fitch, New York Dept. of Labor. Price, postpaid, $1.73. Homestead : The Households of a Mill Town. By Margaret F. Byington. Price, postpaid, $1.70. The Pittsburgh District. Symposium by John R. Commons, Robert A. Woods, Florence Kelley, Charles Mulford Robinson and others. (In press.) Pittsburgh : The Gist of the Survey. By Paul U. Kellogg. (In preparation.) CORRECTION AND PREVENTION. Four volumes prepared for the Eighth International Prison Congress. Edited by Charles Richmond Henderson, Ph.D. 8vo. Price per set, express pre- paid, $10; per volume, $3.50 net. Prison Reform. By Chas. R. Henderson, F. B. Sanborn, F. H. Wines and others. And Criminal Law in the United States, By Eugene Smith. Illustrated. 320 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.67. Penal and Reformatory Institutions. By Sixteen Leading Authorities. Illustrated. 346 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.70. Preventive Agencies and Methods. By Charles Richmond Henderson, Ph.D. 440 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.68. Preventive Treatment of Neglected Chil- dren. By Hastings H. Hart. LL.D. With special papers by leading authorities. Illustrated. 420 pages. Price, postpaid, $2.70. TWO PRACTICAL BOOKS ON HOUS- ING. Housing Reform. A Handbook for Use in American Cities. By Lawrence Veiller. 12mo. 220 pages. 5 schedules. Second edition. Price, postpaid, $1.25. A Model Tenement House Law. Giving such a law section by section, with comment. By Lawrence Veiller. 130 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.25. Also, a Working Edition, printed on one side of the paper, unbound but wire-stitched. Price, postpaid, $1.25. WORKINGMEN'S INSURANCE IN EUROPE. By Lee K. Frankel and Miles M. Dawson, with the co-opera- tion of Louis I. Dublin. 450 pages. 145 tables. Bibliography. Second edi- tion. Price, postpaid, $3.70. FOUR BOOKS ON SOCIALIZED SCHOOLS. Wider Use of the School Plant. By Clarence Arthur Perry. Illustrated. 12mo. 404 pages. Second edition. Price, postpaid, $1.25. Among School Gardens. By M. Louise Greene, M.Pd., Ph.D. Illustrated. 12mo. 380 pages. Second edition. Price, postpaid, $1.25. Laggards in Our Schools. A study of Retard- ation and Elimination. By Leonard P. Ayres, Ph.D. 8vo. 252 pages. Third edition. Price, postpaid, $1.50. Medical Inspection of Schools. By Luther Halsey Gulick, M.D., and Leonard P. Ayres. 8vo. 286 pages. Third edition. Price, postpaid, $1.00. THE STANDARD OF LIVING AMONG WORKINGMEN'S FAMI- LIES IN NEW YORK CITY. By Robert Coit Chapin, Ph.D. 8vo. 388 pages. 131 tables. 16 diagrams. Price, postpaid, $2.00. ONE THOUSAND HOMELESS MEN. A study of original records. By Alice WlLLARD SOLENBERGER. 121110. 398 pages. 50 tables. Price, postpaid, $1.23. THE ALMSHOUSE: Construction and Management. By Alexander Johnson. Illustrated. i2mo. 274 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.25. HANDBOOK OF SETTLEMENTS. Edited by Robert A. Woods and Albert J. Kennedy. 8vo. 342 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.50. JUVENILE COURT LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES: SUMMARIZED. Edited by Hastings H. Hart, LL.D. 8vo. 160 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.60. CIVIC BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR GREAT- ER NEW YORK. Edited by James Bronson Reynolds, for the New York Research Council. 8vo. 312 pages. Price, postpaid, $1.50. SALESWOMEN IN MERCANTILE STORES. BALTIMORE, 1909. By Elizabeth Beardsley Butler. Illu- strated. i2mo. 234 pages. Price, post- paid, cloth, $1.08; paper, $0.75. IN PRESS FATIGUE AND EFFICIENCY. By Josephine Goldmark. Together with the substance of four Briefs submitted by Louis D. Brandeis and Josephine Goldmark before the Supreme Court of the United States (1908), the Supreme Court of Illinois (1909), the Supreme Court of Ohio (1911), and again before the Supreme Court of Illinois (1912). Publication date, May *, 1912. CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE Publishers for the| Russell Sage Foundation 105 EAST 22d STREET, NEW YORK