CHILD WELFARE IN KENTUCKY An Inquiry by The National Child Labor Comraittee for the Kentucky Child Labor Association and the State Board of Health Under the Direction of Edward N. Clapper, Ph. D. Nattotial Chilb ffiabot (HDinmiUec INCORPORATED 105 EAST 22ND ST. NEW YORK CITY PRICE, $1.25 (T) H V 74 HV 742.K4nT""'"™'"""-"'"^ 3 1924 013 745 942 ?tatE (!}oUeg0 of JVgncuUure At QJornelt IniUEraitB StJfaca. N. 1- ffiibrarg The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013745942 C. T. BEARING PRINTING CO. Louisville, Ky. \\ ^f<.^ 5 o Z) z LJJ CHILD WELFARE IN KENTUCKY An Inquiry by The National Child Labor Committee for the Kentucky Child Labor Association and the State Board of Health Under the Direction of Edward N. Clapper, Ph. D. National Chili 2Iabor Committee INCORPORATED 105 EAST 22ND ST. NEW YORK CITY Copyright, 1919 HV74 2. COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR FRANKFORT April 7, 1919. National Child Labor Committee, 105 E. 22nd Street, New York. Gentlemen: I take pleasure in extending to this Committee and to the efficient and expert officers whom you have been good enough to send to the State of Kentucky a most cordial welcome on the part of the people of this Commonwealth. I cannot too heartily commend this great and philanthropic enterprise. They who have given so cheerfully of their time and their treasures to alleviate the sufferings of childhood in this and other states deserve the commendation and gratitude of all mankind. With every good wish for your success in this noble work, I am. Very truly yours, (Sgd.) A. O. STANLEY. AOS/LMR. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION Edward N. Clapper, PhJ). 7 HEALTH H. H. Mitchell, MM. 12 The rights of children; the state's health machinery; con- ditions — preventable diseases and child hygiene; local efforts to remedy conditions; summary; recommendations for a state program. SCHOOLS Mrs. Elizabeth Bliss Newhall 4T Introduction; laws and administration; rural schools; city schools; negro schools; parochial schools; normal schools; recommendations. RECREATION Raymond O. Fuller 89 The recreational problem; related problems; school and municipal playgrounds; commercial amusements; recrea- tional resources; the local community, the county and the state in a program of recreational advancement. RURAL LIFE Charles E. Gibbons 143 Mountain, Blue Grass, and western sections; develop- mental agencies; College of Agriculture; Experiment Station; Division of Extension; Department of Agricul- ture, Labor and Statistics; county agents' work; County Board of Agriculture; Fiscal Court; Community Clubs; boys' club work; girls' club work; roads; marketing; summary. CHILD LABOR Mrs. Loraine B. Bush 168 Factories and mills; messenger service; street trades; administration; labor inspectors; funds; work permits; mines; attitude of courts and officials toward enforce- ment; workmen's compensation law; farm work; stand- ards for our children. JUVENILE COURTS ^ Mabel Brown ElUs 200 Standard of juvenile court work; history of Kentucky juvenile court law; jurisdiction; violations of jurisdiction; right to waive jurisdiction; procedure in Kentucky juvenile courts; probation service; physical and mental examinations; disposition of children; disposition of adults within juvenile court jurisdiction; advisory coun- cils; co-operating agencies; the Louisville situation; state supervision; recommendations. 6 Child Welfare in Kentucky liAW AND ADMINISTRATION W. H. Swift 257 A Summary of Recommendations and General Discussion. PART I: Marriage; husband and wife; prenatal care and care of children at birth; parent and child; guardians; divorce; illegitimacy: civil law; criminal law. PART II: Department of Health; Department of Educa- tion; Department of Labor; Department of Public Welfare. INTRODUCTION Edward N. Cloppee Kentucky neglects her children. The several chapters of this volume offer no escape from this conclusion. Measures for health, care, protection, schooling and play are inadequate and laws are not properly observed. Individual instances of the finest types of child welfare work exist in the leading cities and in many of the smaller communities, indicating the possibilities for the whole state when once a unified and co-ordinated plan is developed. There are in the state about 1,200,000 boys and girls under 20 years of age, of whom 20 per cent, live in urban homes and 80 per cent, in rural districts. The welfare of children, therefore, is chiefly a matter of dealing with rural conditions, and yet in spite of this fact the children of cities and their environment have so far had the lion's share of thought and effort; this preferential treatment must give way to a fairer policy by which the needs of all receive proper con- sideration. With a small appropriation for public health work and with very few full-time health officers it is no wonder that epidemics are frequent; that the death rates for such diseases as tuberculosis, typhoid fever, diphtheria, measles and whooping cough, while appre- ciably lowered in the past 10 years, are high; that trachoma is common among children in the mountain section and is said to be increasing in spite of efforts to check it; that smallpox is still prevalent in parts of the state; and that pellagra is widespread in the southeastern counties. But it is encouraging that the death rate for malaria is decreasing and that hookworm, of which children especially are the victims, has been largely brought under control. Instruction in hygiene as given in the schools, and especially in the rural schools, is primitive and ineffectual. Medical school inspection and school nursing service are provided for in but few places. Sanitation in many rural homes is rudimentary or wholly absent. State and county administration of public schools is subject to the uncertainties of politics. The offices of state superintendent of pub- lic instruction and of county superintendent of schools are gained only through political activity and campaigns for support at the polls. The salary of a county superintendent of schools is so limited by law that competent persons ordinarily will not consider the position, although cities are not restricted either by a system of political pre- ferment in selecting superintendents or by the fiat of law in fixing their pay. Local taxes are too low for the development of good schools, and because state funds alone are sufficient to keep poor 8 Child Welfare in Kentucky schools open for six months, many districts are content to make shift with such provision and lull to sleep all sense of their own re- sponsibility. This indifference to duty and to the rights of children will prevail until the people are obliged to comply with a higher standard of local taxation. Rural elementary schools are held in archaic buildings, poorly equipped, with poorly paid teachers, using poor methods. Owing to the lack of good roads there has been but little consolidation. The cities have better schools, but because of the low salaries there is difficulty in getting and holding the teachers. Compulsory attendance is spasmodic in the smaller cities, and weak in both law and enforcement in rural districts. Boys and girls are absent from school principally because of work, illness and indiffer- ence. Opportunity to attend high school is frequently denied to country children. More than 6,500 children over 10 years of age are illiterate. In the mountains the whole family must work hard to maintain even a low standard of living, and primitive homes, polluted water, disease, poor schools and loss of land ownership are common. The present development of the rich natural resources of this section by outside capital is accompanied in a few instances by constructive social service that will undoubtedly have a marked beneficial effect, and the settlements, special schools and other agencies that have been at work here for years have contributed in no small degree to the improvement of conditions within their areas of influence, but the task of raising the standard of life in this great region is beyond the reach of such limited individual undertakings. In the Blue Grass region farm tenancy is on the increase and the children of the tenants bear an unduly large share of the burden this condition imposes, while others more fortunately situated enjoy unusual advantages. Even in this favored region there is indifference to the development of rural schools. In parts of the western section, isolation and the consequent absence of community spirit hold back the growth of good schools, roads, housing, water supply, health and land ownership; on the other hand, the encouragement of co-operative marketing and community clubs by county farm agents is hopeful because the farmer's progress, and therefore the welfare of most of Kentucky's children, depends upon organisation. The juvenile court law is generally disregarded in rural districts. In some places, police courts sentence children. At times, children are kept in jail, some awaiting trial, others serving sentences. Some county judges do not distinguish between children and adults in their methods of trial. Circuit courts have been found trying chil- dren whose cases are not of record in any juvenile court. Means of detention suitable for unfortunate boys and girls is a great need Introduction 9 nearly everywhere, as is likewise probation service — the backbone of the juvenile court. The manifold duties of county judges interfere with their giving due attention to juvenile court matters. Apprenticing and binding out children under obsolete conditions are still practiced to some extent and the laws permitting such pro- cedure should be repealed. The child labor law is one of the best in the country, but it is enforced in only a few places because there is no real department of labor, and for all the industries over the whole state there are only a half dozen inspectors, one of whom is engaged in private business. Girls 12 years of age and boys 14 years of age are permitted to marry with the consent of their parents; and applicants for marriage licenses are not obliged to appear before the official who issues them. Save for the granting of an appropriation to a private society devoted to their care, the state neglects dependent children; while those whose condition of dependency is aggravated by disease, deformity, or ille- gitimacy are officially ignored. Unregulated commercial amusements largely dominate the great field of recreation; that provided by public authorities and by private civic and philanthropic societies falls far short of meeting the need, while much of that afforded by commercial agencies is inferior in quality and unfortunate in eflfect. This is not a pleasing picture. It would be wholly depressing if there were no spirit of protest alive to encourage the hope for better things. Fortunately there is such a spirit and it is gradually becoming stronger and stronger. Indeed, there are not wanting examples of what can be accomplished through pricking the con- science and stimulating the effort of a community, as in Mason County; the trouble is that the energising spirit of discontent is not yet abroad in the land and the old order still prevails. Attachment to the methods of days gone by and scorn of modern ways still hold many in thraldom. The state's treatment of children is out of joint with the times. This is not a fault-finding report in the sense that it is adversely critical of administrative policies, methods or personnel. It is, how- ever, an indictment of the people. They have been too complacent, too much satisfied with things as they are, and too unwilling to give the children of the state the advantage either of their own under- takings or of experience gained elsewhere. Here and there, thor- oughly good work is being done, but the general attitude is that of indifference. The people have no better provisions for the health, care, protection, schooling and play of their children than they them- selves have demanded, and the conditions are no worse than they have been content with. Whatever the shortcomings of the state may be in all these fields, they are chargeable to the people and to the people alone. It is this popular inertia that must be overcome 10 Child Welfare in Kentucky before any real advance can be made, and it is cheering to know that it is already by way of being overcome, for manifestations of an awakened spirit are now distinctly perceptible. The authors of this volume, as they went about the state, found the people nearly every- where in a receptive mood and ready to respond to capable leader- ship. Action in so vital a matter should not be precipitate nor ill-con- sidered, and it is believed that the wisest course is to devote some time to a study of the situation so as to awaken public interest and insure the use of measures adapted to the conditions peculiar to this state. It is not a good plan to pass laws and make changes simply because other states have passed the same laws and made the same changes; all steps taken must be on sure ground, and this can be determined only through careful thought and study. To this end it is suggested that the Governor be authorized to appoint several qualified persons, to serve without pay, as a temporary commission charged with submitting to the General Assembly at its next session a report upon the standardising, simplifying and co-ordinating of all the state laws concerning children and upon suitable means for their administration. A small appropriation should be granted to the commission for expenses. Such a report is what is known in this country as a "Children's Code," but as a matter of fact the laws on child welfare are not codified by such commissions in the sense of being brought together to form one body — they are left in their respective places on the statute books, the health provisions in the general health laws, the labor provisions in the general labor laws, and so with the other provisions — but are so modified and supple- mented as to form a well-articulated whole, in accord with modern thought and practise when considered as to their standards and their bearing upon one another. Instead of "Children's Code Commission," the purposes of such a temporary body would be more clearly indi- cated if given the name of "Commission for the Standardising of Child Welfare Laws," but the former has the advantage of being the shorter term and is, therefore, preferred in popular usage. Perhaps in place of a temporary commission it would be well to instruct the Co-operative Council to prepare and submit such a report; this council was recently organized to act as a clearing house and planning board for all agencies engaged in statewide social service. The Kentucky Child Labor Association, the Louisville Welfare League, the State Board of Health, the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs and other agencies, invited the National Child Labor Committee in the early spring of 1919 to study conditions affecting children and to prepare a report of the findings. The State Board of Health, and the Kentucky Child Labor Association through the Louisville Welfare League, partly financed the study, the Nationa' Introduction 1 1 Child Labor Committee meeting the balance of the expenses. Accord- ingly eight agents of the Committee's staff spent several months in the state, visiting typical counties in the sections known as the Mountains, Blue Grass, Beargrass, Pennyrile and Purchase, as well as in the western mining district, along the Ohio river and in the isolated region in the south-central division. All the chief fields of work are covered in the following chapters with the exception of institutional care and child placing, which are the subject of a report recently published by the Russell Sage Foundation, and the control of feeblemindedness, which was studied by a state commission whose report has been primarily responsible for the amendment of the "pauper idiot" law and for other salutary changes. In submitting this report we set forth our gratitude to the many public officials and officers of private societies who have given us help and encourage- ment in the collecting of data and the preparing of recommendations, and express our earnest hope that its contents may be worthy of some consideration in the struggle to make childhood in Kentucky a larger and a richer realm. HEALTH H. H. Mitchell, M. D. Every child should start life with a healthy, sound body and should be taught how to keep healthy. Although all Kentucky en- dorses this proposition, few know what the conditions are and few hold that the state, county and local community can afford to buy the public health service necessary to make the conditions what they should be. It has been the aim of this study to obtain a statewide picture of the conditions affecting the health of Kentucky children and to suggest the methods and the channels by means of which the state, counties and local communities may most economically purchase im- proved conditions and disease-prevention service. To start life with a healthy, sound body demands, first, healthy parents. This means that healthy persons shall bear children and that unhealthy persons shall not. Such eugenic standards will prevail only through more extended teaching of the laws of heredity, raising of ideals and wider appreciation of individual responsibilities. When the responsibility of insuring a healthy, sound body to every child is accepted as a moral principle by every parent in the same way as he now feels the responsibility of giving food, clothing and shelter at all times and special care in time of sickness, then we shall really progress along eugenic lines. With this enlarged moral consciousness, the bear- ing of children by unhealthy parents will be regarded as a crime as heinous as desertion is today. Steps in the direction of providing healthy parents have so far been confined to the passage of a few marriage laws which can only very slightly influence the situation. The health of every expectant mother should be especially safe- guarded. She should have a general physical examination by a phy- sician, and supervision of her health during pregnancy. Every mother should have expert aseptic obstetrical service in order to avoid the many possible accidents and injuries incident to childbirth. She should have expert supervision of her health following childbirth if she is to maintain her health and give proper care to her children. Present knowledge shows us that most infant deaths are pre- ventable, and how they can be prevented. Such knowledge is easily acquired, but, like all knowledge, in order to be of use, it must be given to the people and the people must be told about it before they will want it. Lectures, exhibits, moving pictures, mothers' clubs, pub- lic health nurses who go into the home and demonstrate, and clinics where medical examination and special advice can be given for the benefit of the mother who cannot afford to pay a private physician, are Health 13 all part of the necessary machinery of government and community activity. Laws and trained officials are necessary also to insure pure food, milk and water, and to prevent environmental conditions that favor the spread of disease and retard growth. As our child survives the dangerous period of infancy, he should still have the benefit of our present knowledge to keep him healthy, and to this end his parents should have continued expert advice as to his care. He must be protected against communicable diseases. He must go to school, but the school should guard his health, further his physical development, help him to form habits of hygienic living and teach him the facts he needs to know to care for his body and thereby maintain his greatest efficiency. Such a school must have clean build- ings with proper ventilation and lighting. Our child must not sit at seats and desks that cause deformities. There must be no possibility of his. contracting disease through the drinking water, the toilets, or any other condition about the school building. Both doctors and nurses are necessary to protect him from communicable diseases in the classroom. He should be examined by the physician at intervals in order that any correctable physical defect may have prompt atten- tion. He should be taught how to care for his teeth, and special clean- ings will be necessary to prevent decay; every cavity should be promptly filled by a dentist and a school dentist should advise as to dental deformities. Each physically or mentally handicapped child should have such care and treatment adapted to his individual needs as will provide a maximum of opportunity and thus result in a minimum of dependency in the future. Co-ordinate with the mental training the school should provide physical training, and the same expert supervision should be given to a child's physical development as to his mental growth. The physi- cally defective child should have special exercises, care, and expert advice. Activity is essential to the growing child and he should have the benefit of all our present knowledge as to games, sports, exercises, and outdoor life that will contribute to his bodily development, strength, endurance, and grace. This can be accomplished through having qualified physical training teachers for the school exercise periods, and expert supervision of the activities of kindergartens, play- grounds, boy and girl scout troops and all similar health-giving activities. Health habits must be emphasized and practiced at all times. Teachers must be given special instruction and supervision to promote training in health habits. The use of adequate school facili- ties for body cleanliness, particularly hand washing and proper habits in eating fostered through the supervised school lunch, will bring large returns. 14 Child Welfare in Kentucky Our present knowledge as to personal hygiene may not be com- plete and yet its use in the care of the body and the prevention of communicable diseases would undoubtedly prevent most of the com- municable diseases, save many lives, and enormously increase the efficiency of every individual. There are no secrets in the science of personal hygiene and the school should give every American child the facts so essential to his happiness. Along with the instruction in per- sonal hygiene the child should be told of the responsibility of the state, county and community for health protection and disease pre- vention and also of his own responsibility to these larger groups. If the administrative agencies are to function with the highest efficiency, correlation of the various parts of the whole program of child welfare must be achieved. Every agency in the state which deals with children is concerned with their health, hence there must be ways and means of correlating the general health program with all other activities on behalf of children. When the extent of suffering from disease is known and when the people understand that more effort for public health must be put forth, they will want to know in what way the present efforts have failed and what should be done instead. The United States Census re- ports show that Kentucky has repeatedly had the second highest tuber- culosis death rate of the whole United States registration area. Its typhoid fever death rate last year was nearly twice that of the average of the United States registration area in 1916, although it has been reduced more than 50 per cent, in the past nine years. Trachoma is threatening blindness to over 33,000 of its citizens. The infant death rate is increasing. From 28 to 33 per cent, of the men from Kentucky examined in the recent draft showed physical defects causing rejection from compulsory military service, and yet most Kentucky communi- ties are taking no effective measures to prevent disease or to improve the physical condition of the children. From these few facts it is readily seen that there is an emergency which calls for better care of the health of Kentucky children, and neither the state nor any individual can afford to pass this condition by. The wealth and power of the state tomorrow is absolutely de- pendent upon the health of her children today. THE STATE'S HEALTH MACHINERY The State Board of Health has undoubtedly been the largest single contributor toward improving health conditions in the state, and for this reason it should have first consideration in our study. The board is "composed of seven physicians appointed by the Governor from lists furnished by the state societies of the several schools of practice, each society submitting three names for each Health 15 vacancy. Thereby, one member is a homeopathic, one an eclectic and one an osteopathic physician, and the four other members are allo- pathic physicians. These seven physicians elect an eighth member, who is the secretary and executive officer. Each member of the board holds office for six years. As their terms expire at intervals and as the Governor's term of office is four years, political changes in the state administration do not affect the Board of Health. Dr. J. N. McCormack was its secretary continuously for 29 years, and his son. Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, has held the office for the succeeding seven years. This fact alone suffices to show that the board is free from partisan politics. In view of the close connection of the State Medical Association with the State Board of Health we should look into its organization if we are fairly to consider the State Board of Health. The Kentucky State Medical Association was organized in Octo- ber, 1851. In 1918 it had a membership of 1,860, and 602 other mem- bers were in the army service. It is composed of members of the county medical societies, all of whom are eligible to take part in the proceedings of the scientific and general meetings. The legislative and administrative body is composed of the House of Delegates and the officers of the association. The House of Delegates is an elected organization composed of one delegate for every 25 members of each component medical society and one for each major fraction thereof. The House of Delegates prepares the list of names from which the four allopathic members of the State Board of Health are chosen by the Governor; these four members constitute a majority of the board and can decide upon the executive officer. It can readily be seen from this plan that the medical profession of the state is responsible for the personnel of the State Board of Health. The House of Delegates holds its elections on the last day of the general session of the State Medical Association. The officers are a president and three vice-presidents, each elected for a term of one year; a treasurer, a secretary and eleven councilors for terms of five years each, the councilors being divided into classes so that two are elected each year. The secretary is the executive officer of the asso- ciation and editor of the Medical Journal. He is paid a salary of $1,500 per year — or such amount as may be decided upon by the House of Delegates. The councilors act as a Board of Censors of the asso- ciation, handle questions of an ethical nature brought before the House of Delegates or the general meeting, and superintend the pub- lications. Each councilor is an organizer, peacemaker, and censor for his district, and it is his duty to promote the work of the county so- cieties and report their condition to the House of Delegates. This type of state organization has been adopted by the American Medical Association. 16 Child Welfare in Kentucky Dr. A. T. McCormack, the executive officer of the State Board of Health, has been the secretary of the State Medical Association since 1907. The State Board of Health was made the State Board of Medi- cal Registration in 1892, so there is naturally a close relation between the state medical registration and the state and county medical socie- ties. Through this relation a close supervision over the local situation in regard to quackery and unethical practice is possible, with the re- sult that Kentucky ranks high in respect of eliminating such abuses. This organization should correlate the activities of the whole medical profession with those of the State Board of Health. Co- operation has long been recognized as the secret of success in all pub- lic welfare work. Occasionally this type of organization is criticized on the ground that it is used as a political machine to hold the present executives in office and that it is not successful in the public health work of the state. The only real health machinery in Kentucky at the present time is the State Board of Health, for no money is being invested in any other body for public health except small amounts by a few scat- ,tered and as yet inefficient private societies, which are really charity institutions. A state must have public health machinery and must develop it. Disregard of such need can lead only to disaster. That the present machine is not successful in preventing disease and comes far from doing the work the people need is frankly ad- mitted by the present health executives themselves, but with the meager resources at their command no other result could be expected. Kentucky appropriated $2,500 per year for her health work for 36 years until 1910, when it was raised to $30,000 per year. Not until 1918 was there money enough appropriated ($75,000) to have a health depart- ment in more than name. Even now a large proportion of the county and small town health departments are spending no money whatever. It is clearly impossible for a state health organization, however effectively organized, to carry the lessons of health to all the people everywhere unless these lessons are interpreted for each locality by a local health department, which is paid to, and does, devote all the time of its personnel to its important duties. It was ridiculous to ex- pect any one man with an appropriation of $2,500 a year, as formerly granted, to accomplish much for public health in a state the size of Kentucky, nor to do more than was done from 1910 to 1918 with $30,000 per year. It must, of course, be remembered that during these years sani- tation has developed from the senseless ''shotgun" quarantine against pestilences to the position of a more or less exact science. The progress made in Kentucky, and indeed in most states, has been Health 17 achieved through the devotion of the rank and file of the medical profession. These physicians, earning from the treatment of those al- ready sick an income often too meager for the support of themselves and their families, have served without pay on local and state boards of health in order to protect the people from disease. When strict enforcement of the law has been necessary in times of epidemic stress the health officer, as a result of faithfulness to his trust, has fre- quently lost a practice which had taken a lifetime to build up. Al- though it is clearly impossible for a part-time health officer to give effective public service, nevertheless the spirit of the efforts put forth by these men during all these constructive years should be remem- bered gratefully by Kentucky. Indeed, these health officers have been first to realize the utter inefficiency of the old system. The act of 1918 places the State Board of Health upon an entirely new basis, and it is now ready to begin preventive work. The new law gives sufficient money to organize some of the bureaus of a state health department, and they should be able to place public health upon the market for the local communities to buy. More money will be needed to develop several special bureaus and particularly the School for Health Officers and Health Nurses, which has been devel- oped in co-operation with the University of Louisville. Our American democratic prSiciples of government place upon the smaller unit the responsibility for the carrying out of measures, while the state should provide expert advice and demonstration as to method. as well as surveys or pioneer educational work to arouse the com- munity to its needs. Under the old law with a $30,000 appropriation there were only three bureaus in the department aside from the executive work of the secretary, his clerk and cashier. The work of the Bureau of Vital Statistics had brought Kentucky into the registration area of the United States Census Bureau for both deaths and births. The Bureau of Bacteriology offered the usual service of state laboratories and was aided by the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission. The Bureau of Sani- tation was headed by Dr. J. N. McCormack, formerly executive officer of the board and the father of public health in Kentucky, who was assisted by a sanitary engineer and a combined clerk and analyst. THE NEW ORGANIZATION The act of 1918 appropriates $75,000 annually, and under the direction of the executive officer there will be four separate bureaus and a Division of Sanitation with eight bureaus. The first four bureaus are as follows: 1. "A Bureau of Vital Statistics, that the causes of sickness and 18 Child Welfare in KentucJcy mortality and records of births may be promptly reported, utilized and permanently recorded." 2. "A Bureau of Food and Drugs, to protect the people from adulterations, substitutions, misbranding, and dangers from these products." 3. "A Bureau of Epidemiology and Bacteriology, to aid in the study, early diagnosis, location and prevention of epidemics and com- municable sickness.'' 4. "A Bureau of Hotel Inspection, for the inspection of hotels and restaurants of this Commonwealth to determine their sanitary con- dition, and make such reports and take such action as may be neces- sary to protect the health and lives of the public under the laws of this Commonwealth and the rules and regulations of the state and local boards of health." The Division of Sanitation, according to the law, is "for the practical utilization of health knowledge in preventing and restricting the spread of communicable diseases and in abating and minimizing the causes of sickness, including venereal diseases, and for the study and control of insanitary housing, hotel and rooming conditions, and for the protection of the rivers, creeks, water sheds,, springs, wells and the regulation of sewers, household waste and other matters re- lating to the sources of purity of the water supplies in every section, and the board is empowered in its rules and regulations to provide for the protection and purification of the same." Under this division are the following bureaus: 1. Bureau of Tuberculosis, for the study, prevention and treatment of that disease. 2. Bureau of Sanitary Engineering, for the study and improve- ment of the water supplies and methods of sewage and waste disposal. The laboratory work for this bureau will be done at the State Health Laboratory at Lexington, except such work as is done in the field with a traveling laboratory outfit. 3. Bureau of Conservation of Vision, for the study, prevention, and treatment of the preventable causes of blindness, with particular reference to trachoma. This work will be continued as in the past, and at no cost to the state, by the staff and with the equipment of the United States Public Health Service, under the direction of Dr. John McMullen, Surgeon, United States Public Health Service. It is or- ganized as a bureau under the State Board of Health in order that the work may be done under the Kentucky laws, which make it pos- sible to order any person, refusing treatment, to appear at the Tra- choma Hospital. 4. The Bureau of Venereal Disease, for the study, prevention and treatment of these maladies. Most of the work of this bureau has Health 19 been done, up to the present writing, in the extra-cantonment zones of the two army camps. A volunteer Louisville physician has been appointed director of the bureau with an associate all-time paid medi- cal executive. The work will be conducted under the State Board of Health but with the assistance of special funds from the United States Public Health Service. 5. The Bureau of Public Health Nursing v^ill be conducted in conjunction with the Tuberculosis Bureau, the American Red Cross and the State Tuberculosis Association. The director of the bureau will also hold the positions of Director of Nursing for both the State Tuberculosis Association and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany. Her assistant will be paid by the State Board of Health, and she will have authority under the Kentucky statutes as an employe of the State Board of Health. 6. The Bureau of Rural Sanitation has two medical field directors and two public health nurses, and plans are under way to double this staff and add a director and four sanitary inspectors capable of direct- ing the construction of Kentucky sanitary privies. Preparations are under way for special malarial work in Fulton County on the Missis- sippi River in the western part of the state, and for work in the oil fields in Eastern Kentucky. This bureau will attempt to promote rural sanitation along the lines already under way in Mason County. 7. The Bureau of Housing has been organized with a part-time director who is an architect with experience in city planning, and it is intended to provide him with a full-time secretary and executive. The state branches of the National Council of Defense, the American Fed- eration of Labor, the National Manufacturers' Association, and the American Red Cross have given their support. Through the execu- tives of these organizations it appears that a housing program can be made effective. Their support should aid greatly in the necessary publicity propaganda. It is planned to issue a series of bulletins; and under the State Board of Health's rules and regulations, all plans for houses to be built by employers of labor, such as mine owners and manufacturers, must be submitted for approval to this bureau, which will be prepared to offer suitable suggestions with regard to them. The existing insanitary housing conditions are to be left to the loca! health officers or state officials to be handled under the nuisance regu- lations. Legislation should be enacted to supplement the housing law, which now applies only to tenements. 8. The Bureau of Child Hygiene will have as director on part- time the superintendent of the Kentucky Children's Home Society.. The immediate outlook for the development of this bureau appears to. be through the present Red Cross organization and the public health, nursing service. An all-time executive will eventually be needed tco 20 Child Welfare in Kentucky prevent infant mortality and promote the health and physical develop- ment of children from infancy through the pre-school and school period. CONDITIONS— (a) Preventable Diseases Although the control of communicable diseases is the original func- tion of a board of health, actual scientific epidemic prevention and control in Kentucky by either the State Board of Health or by local boards amounts to so little that we might even say that many dis- eases spread uncontrolled. This must not be interpreted as meaning that the State Board of Health has made no scientific effort at disease prevention and control, but that because of lack of funds its efforts have necessarily been of a character so preparatory and educational that the actual epidemiological machinery has not yet been estab- lished. Tuberculosis More money from state funds has been spent upon tuberculosis prevention than any other disease, and yet the ground has only been stirred in a few places. The real harvest of lives saved, as shown by the death rates, is all for the future. Tuberculosis lays its blight upon thousands of Kentucky children every year. Not all the deaths it causes are among children, but a great many of its victims in all probability were infected while still children. So many undernourished, overworked and suppressed chil- dren result from the vicious circle of tuberculous parents, sickness and poverty, that the dependency, suffering and economic waste are stu- pendous. How rare it is that the child in a tuberculous family has even the ghost of a chance! The death rate for tuberculosis in Kentucky was 194.4* in 1916 per 100,000 inhabitants, 186.7 in 1917, and 193.5 in 1918. These figures, compared with a rate of 229.3 for 1911, the first year of the registra- tion, indicate a change for the better, but the rate has continuously been much above that of the entire United States registration area, which in 1916 was 141.6 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 1914-15 and 1916 Kentucky still had the unenviable distinction of having the second highest tuberculosis rate of the United States registration area, al- though, of course, there are many other southern states which might show a much higher rate if they were in the registration area. The negro population, which ranges from about 31.4 per cent, in Lexington and 19.1 per cent, in Louisville to less than 2 per cent, in Covington, has a great influence upon the tuberculosis rate. In 1916 the rate for whites was 153.5 against 394.9 for colored. Kentucky cannot, however, place all the blame upon the negro population. The actual tuberculosis prevention work being done now is necessarily •United States Census Bureau figures. Health 21 spread over such a wide area because of the limited resources of the agencies engaged in it, that little or no impression is made in any one place, although the lines along which the work is directed should pro- duce certain results. Volunteer efforts exclusively can never give satisfactory results. Rank foci of infection that are spreading the disease can be found among both whites and colored so that pre- ventive measures must be directed toward these foci in both races. Economic conditions of the negro will undoubtedly be a serious pre- disposing factor favoring tuberculosis in that race on a far more ex- tensive scale than among the whites for a long period yet to come; nevertheless, all our history of tuberculosis prevention by the methods already started in Kentucky has been far from discouraging in spite of predisposing economic factors. The county tuberculosis death rates point to foci of tubercular infection where little or no preventive work has been done. In many such communities the same sort of living conditions prevail among the whites as are such large factors in keeping up the high rate among the negroes. A high prevalence of tuberculosis is the product of so many social, economic and sanitary factors that great care must, of course, be exercised in pointing to specific causes. However, there are certain high points in various communities visited by the writer that demand attention. Tuberculosis is a communicable disease, and the widespread intermingling of careless persons having open tuber- cular lesions, most of whom are unrecognized, with healthy persons, rapidly scatters the seed upon such fertile soil as the textile mill workers and houseboat people in Paducah, other industrial workers in Mayfield, Hopkinsville, Henderson and Owensboro, and those who live under bad housing conditions in Lexington and Louisville. The crowding of large families into one or two-room houses demands at- tention and emphasizes the particular need for sanatorium or hospital care. One tuberculosis case very frequently infects and kills an en- tire family required to live in close contact with the patient, a catas- trophe that could have been prevented by proper care. Paducah has a tuberculosis sanatorium which contained only two patients at the time of the visit of the investigator, although there was a capacity for 25 to 30 patients. Apparently it is unpopular be- cause of its location near the county poorhouse. The tuberculosis rates for McCracken County, of which Paducah is the county seat and largest town, was greater in 1916, 1917 and 1918 than the average for the five-year period from 1911 to 1915 inclusive. The rate for Pa- ducah of 272 in 1916 and 324 in 1918 is considerably greater than that for the entire county, and indicates, of course, the seriousness of the tuberculosis situation. The floating population, poor wages, the hot, humid, dusty atmosphere and general insanitary conditions of the 22 Child Welfare in Kentucky cotton mills, undoubtedly leave their impress upon the tuberculosis rate, although no figures on particular classes are available for this city. At Mayfield, in Graves County, a public health nurse was found struggling with the problem of poverty-stricken, advanced tuberculosis cases living in one-room houses, with large families of children. Some of these patients were even doing home-work on pants for the woolen mill. Hopkinsville and Christian County are particularly in need of a tuberculosis sanatorium or hospital, and a vigorous campaign against the plague. The death rate for tuberculosis in Christian County was 337.5 per 100,000 inhabitants for 1916, 330.9 for 1918, and still higher for the five-year period preceding. Tuberculosis caused over 21 oer cent, of the deaths from all causes in Hopkinsville in 1916. The County Health and Welfare League succeeded in establishing a sanatorium district for that county, by popular vote, but the fiscal court did not provide the funds for construction of the building. The work of the public health nurse had been abandoned at the time of the investi- gator's visit, and there appeared to be great need for educational prop- aganda to stir the community to the seriousness of their problem. The only immediate hope for such communities lies in intensive work by the State Board of Health, initiating the proper modus operandi, organizing the individuals who understand the problem and directing their work until trained officials can take the movement in hand. The tuberculosis death rate in Henderson was 213. -f per 100,000 in 1916, and 195. -|- in 1918. This city, like Paducah, must stir com- munity interest to make full use of the county sanatorium. The same group of citizens who were able to build the sanatorium through popu- lar vote should be able to popularize it. Its use is as necessary as its construction. The tuberculosis death rate for Ashland was approximately 280 per 100,000 of the population in 1918, although only one-seventh of the total were among negroes. A sanatorium in this section should re- ceive state aid and should serve the eastern part of the state, where so many of the "pauper counties" are. The tuberculosis rate for Lexington was approximately 395 per 100,000 of the population in 1918. The high percentage of colored population in this city undoubtedly raises the rate; they are about 30 per cent, of the total, and were responsible for 40 per cent, of the deaths from tuberculosis in 1918 and for 60 per cent, in 1916. The average tuberculosis death rate in Fayette County during the last eight years is 307.7 per 100,000 of the population. This rate has varied from 283.2 in 1911 to 371.1 in 1914 and to 362.S in 1918. These figures are indicative of the bad housing in Lexington and of the lack of Bealth 23 disease prevention in this rich Blue Grass county. The work of the Public Health Nursing Association, the County Tuberculosis Sana- torium and the tuberculosis clinic deserves the highest praise, but the problem is so tremendous in this tuberculosis plague spot that their efforts merely skim the surface. An efficient county health depart- ment, with a trained all-time health officer, is the only sane solution of Lexington's problem. Such a health department, with an increased number of public health nurses and increased tuberculosis clinic facili- ties, together with the advantage of the Tuberculosis Sanatorium, could certainly bring real results. The coal-mining counties of both Eastern and Western Kentucky have had low tuberculosis death rates since the first vital statistics in 1911, but within the last three or four years several of the largest coal-producing counties in the east have shown a marked rise in the rates. It is not unlikely that tuberculosis may increase with the de- velopment of mining. It is suggested that many of the tuberculous miners die outside of this section, for there appears to be no extreme of sickness or poverty in the mining camps. Most of our investigators repeatedly heard the remark, "He got too sick to work and they jes' moved out down the hollow." The cost of dependency and sickness in mining camps should be met jointly by employer and employe through insurance. The pres- ent system of flate rate pay for physicians does not insure adequate service because of lack of medical organization. Such service in a large business like mining can be given only through scientific or- ganization, whether it be in the management of the mines or in the care of the health of the miner and his family. Hookworm The extent of the hookworm scourge can only be guessed at, in view of the fact that it causes not deaths, which can be counted, but weakness, suffering, and inefficiency, which cannot be measured. Children are among the greatest sufferers from this disease, as they are usually infected when barefooted. The work of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, in conjunction with the State Board of Health, in studying and treating this disease has been monumental. If the state health officials had done nothing else but bring into the state the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the work on hookworm, and the United States Public Health Service for its work on trachoma, the actual value of such service to the people of Kentucky would be greater than the sum of all the appropriations given to the State Board of Health through all its history. Hookworm was not recognized as a disease by the medical pro- fession in Kentucky prior to the survey made in 1911 in Owsley and 24 Child Welfare in Kentucky Larue Counties by Dr. L. H. South, the state bacteriologist. People suffered ignorantly from the disease with no treatment. Through the combined efforts of the State Board of Health and the Rockefeller Commission 450,000 people were examined, and one-third of them were found to be infected with hookworm, and 34 per cent, of these with ascaris or round-worm. In practically every community into which the investigator went the health officer and the members of the medical profession stated that the hookworm morbidity had been slight since the special campaign against the disease from 1911 to 1915. A second survey, using the same methods as in the first, would be particularly interesting at this time, for it would determine the permanent value of such work as that of the Rockefeller Commission. It is difficult to say whether the opinion so often expressed by phy- sicians, that hookworm is practically a thing of the past, is the result of failure to come in contact with the condition, a wrong diagnosis, or a correct observation. The educational effect upon the profession undoubtedly resulted in a great increase in the treatments, cures and control of the disease, but the unsuspicious character of this infection leads one to believe that effort must still be expended in searching for and treating this disease as well as in enforcing sanitary measures for the disposal of human excreta. In any event, another compre- hensive survey should be made to determine the present status of the disease. Trachoma Trachoma is the cause of another serious Kentucky problem, for it very likely afflicts as many as 8 per cent, of the children in the 35 mountain counties. The slow torture of this plague cannot be appre- ciated by those who have never seen its pathetic victims. There are still many homes in eastern Kentucky with all or part of a large family of small children so afflicted and many are shut up in darkened rooms to avoid the excruciating pain caused by ordinary daylight. Such children must remain away from the light for months, all the time with their eyes continually smarting, burning, aching, and the sight gradually failing. Later the disease may become sufficiently quiescent to permit them to see enough light so as to travel about. It may last a lifetime with deformity of the eyes until blindness results. A few years ago 45 per cent, of the inmates of the Kentucky Institution for the Blind were there because of trachoma. It not only falls heavily upon the state in respect of the cost of caring for the blind in state institutions, but probably between SO per cent, to 75 per cent, of these victims become dependent upon relatives or the community. How many Kentucky cities have blind beggars who needlessly lost their sight through trachoma! Of 3,844 school children examined in Lex- Health 25 ington 3.8 per cent, had trachoma, and of the pupils in one school room in this city 3 per cent, were afflicted as late as 1919. Upon routine examination of school children with well-to-do parents and good homes in the Blue Grass, 2% per cent, were found to be suffering from it, and in some sections of the mountains as many as 75 per cent, of the families were found infected. Dr. McMullen, of the United States Public Health Service, es- timates that there are probably not fewer than 33,000 cases of trachoma in 30 mountain counties of eastern Kentucky; and declares that there is abundant evidence that the disease is spreading. Among the school children of Jefferson County in 1913-14, 805 cases were found. The disease has been prevalent in Muhlenberg and Butler Counties in the western part of the state. Of the school children examined in Greenville (Muhlenberg County) 10 per cent, had trachoma in September, 1918. Surgeon McMullen gives the warning: "Should history again repeat itself, every condition is present for a repetition of the fearful epidemics of this disease experienced in Europe in the nineteenth century.'' Further reports to the State Board of Health show that foci of infection are largely scattered throughout the state beyond the regions mentioned. Such foci certainly mean more cases unless prompt and effective care is given. The United States Public Health Service has demonstrated that the trachoma hospital plan will deal effectively with the disease. This work has marked a signal advance in preventive medicine. It only remains for the people of Kentucky to realize that they cannot afford to permit this disease to continue its ravages and pay the big expense of caring for the blind and near-blind dependents it entails rather than the small cost of more extensive hospitals, clinics and school examinations. Unchecked, this disease will certainly affect the mining industry in a way that will cost the operators much more than the expenditure for prevention. The work of the United States Public Health Service, of Dr. J. A. Stucky, and of Miss Linda Neville, of Lexington, in demonstrating the prevalence of this disease as well as the means of its prevention, deserves the highest praise. The co-operation of the State Board of Health has further assisted through bringing the attention of the med- ical profession to the diagnosis and treatment. The relation of the State Medical Association to the State Board of Health undoubtedly supplies many channels for promoting such distinctly medical phases of public health work as the diagnosis and treatment of trachoma and hookworm. Typhoid Fever Typhoid infection stands out from among the causes of sickness and death because of its prevalence in spite of the certainty with which 26 Child Welfare in Kentucky it can be controlled by the newer public health methods. Cholera is transmitted in the same way, and yet cholera is a rare disease because the people respect it as a dangerous enemy. While the death rate for the total registration area of the United States has been reduced to about one-third that of 20 years ago, Kentucky still maintains a high annual rate. This is not surprising in view of the potential ty- phoid conditions found by the writer throughout the state. Kentucky has held the second highest typhoid rate of the United States regis- tration area for the years 1911 to 1916 inclusive,* although it has been reduced one-half in 10 years. Many physicians and even local health officers are not only unconcerned, but in many cases ignorant of the large amount of typhoid in their counties, where the yearly cost to the people from this disease alone would pay for a trained all-time health officer and a public health nurse, who could quickly reduce the rate one-third. In most cases it could be reduced to as low as or lower than that of Massachusetts and New York, where the rate is between four and six per 100,000 of the population, rather than 26 to 30 per 100,000 as in Kentucky. The two regions of the state with distinctively high typhoid prev- alence are the limestone cave region around Mammoth Cave and the eastern coal fields. In most of the counties near Mammoth Cave the ground water flows in subterranean channels in the limestone rock so that natural filtration is absent and of course sewage entering the ground pollutes this water at many points. An all-time health officer is particularly needed in every such region to instruct the people how to obtain a safe water supply. In the coal fields of eastern Kentucky typhoid is costly to the miner and operator alike. Although medical men are hired on a full- time basis for the miners, in no place did we find any preventive effort being made. The situation is not hopeless, it only bespeaks ignorance or negligence. With such a record of typhoid prevention as that of the army, achieved under far more difficult conditions, the death rate of 143 for Harlan County and SO. 7 for Letcher County in 1918** show by comparison that this deadly scourge is spreading uncontrolled. At Hazard, the largest town in Perry County, the city water supply is pumped directly from the filthy, sewage-polluted river, with no attempt at purification. In large mining camps of Harlan County the uncertain water supply, filthy fly-breeding surroundings, unscreened houses and insanitary privies, all contribute to the spreading of typhoid as well as numerous other diseases. Such conditions are not only uncivilized and show cheap regard for human lives, but are ridiculously bad business. The attitude of those who claim that they •See 1916 United States Census Report. ••See State Board of Health Statistical Report for 1918. Health 27 do not have typhoid and pay physicians a salary for caring for them only when they are sick would be ludicrous were it not so tragic. Universal typhoid inoculation could undoubtedly be arranged for jointly by the labor unions and the Mine Operators' Association. The ignorance in these counties with regard to the needless suffering from the disease, and of how the company physicians might be used for preventing sickness and inefficiency in the mines speaks loudly fo: the need of a trained all-time county health officer and a county healtl department. It is thoroughly impracticable for the State Board oi Health to spread its activities so as to demonstrate to the miners and mine operators what might be done along these lines, and, even if it did succeed in convincing them that the company physicians might be used for preventive work, it could not supervise that work and make it effective. On the other hand, a trained county health depart- ment could direct such work in a way that would undoubtedly show an economic saving to both the miner and the operator. The Miners' Union and the Mine Operators' Association should provide excellent channels for collective education and effort along health lines. Under the new health law the State Board of Health has been able through its larger appropriation to begin some valuable work in improving municipal water supplies. A sanitary engineer of the United States Public Health Service has been loaned to it and he has studied various water supply problems throughout the state, giving much valuable advice. A great deal more of such work must be done by the State Board of Health. Under the act of 1918 the board has the power, through its rules and regulations, to provide for the pro- tection and purification of water supplies. This power should be used to require municipalities to supply pure water, and should result in at least a reduction of 40 per cent, in their typhoid rate. Many of the Ohio River cities need such enforcement. It frequently occurs that local politics enters so largely into the water supply situation that if state authority is not used the people suffer tremendously from typhoid and other diarrheal diseases. A test case should be tried in the immediate future to determine the exact power of the State Board of Health in this connection, for this seems to be the simplest way to get action in this very important phase of sanitation in municipali- ties. Diarrhea and Dysentery Diarrhea and dysentery are the result of exactly the same lact of sanitation as causes typhoid fever. Kentucky had a death rat< of 32.8 per 100,000 of the population for these diseases in 1918, while the rate in the United States registration area in 1916 was 18.7 pel 100,000. The Kentucky death rate has shown a marked increase dur- 28 Child Welfare in Kentucky ing the last two years as the typhoid rate has lowered, hence we may be sure that the need of improving water supplies and methods of sewage disposal is still urgent. Pellagra Pellagra is unduly prevalent in two foci in Kentucky. The greater prevalence appears in the primitive mountain section in the south- eastern part of the state including Knox, Bell, Harlan, Whitley, Mc- Creary, Laurel and Pulaski Counties. In the west the disease appears more scattered, but is found in backward areas in Allen, Christian, Hopkins and Graves Counties. Of course we find the disease quite frequently in Louisville and Lexington, but this might be expected in such centers, and most of their cases are very likely imported. It is interesting that a great number of the medical profession regard the disease as communicable, although they take no steps to prevent its spreading. In view of the studies of Goldberger and others of the United States Public Health Service, it seems likely that its control will come largely through education. At the present time it appears where schools are very poor. It is believed that proper diet will prevent pellagra. At any rate, the appearance of the children in these communities suggests that their food is seriously lacking in elements that should be supplied to growing children. Supervised school lunches and home economic courses in the schools, as well as the work of Home Demonstration Agents, will accomplish a great deal toward improving the diet of the people in these sections. Malaria Although considered a southern state, Kentucky probably has not as much malarial territory as many of the others. Nevertheless, it ranks among the five states with rates well above that of the re- mainder of the registration area. The encouraging feature is the drop in the malarial death rate for the last eight years from 10.3 per 100,000 of the population in 1911 to 4.5 in 1918. The two large army camps in Kentucky recently made an excellent demonstration of drainage and malaria control, but much of the ter- ritory in the west along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers needs similar treatment. The new drainage law passed in 1918 should result in a great deal of new territory being drained, with a resulting diminution of malaria. The State Board of Health hopes to have the State Sani- tary Engineer advise as to the operation of this law so as to promote such drainage as will control the breeding of the Anopheles or malaria mosquito. Health 29 Other Acute Communicable Diseases Diphtheria Kentucky had the highest diphtheria death rate of the total regis- tration area in 1915, the second highest in 1912, the third highest in 1911, and above the average for the five years from 1911 to 1916. While still too high, the 1918 rate was but one-third of that of 1911. A high death rate should be expected under the present plan of local health administration. The control of diphtheria demands scientific epidemiological methods, and these cannot be expected from health oiKcers whose first interest is in private practice. In only a very few cities of the first and second classes and in Maysville are cultures taken for release from diphtheria quarantine. This lax, unscientific method of course means that a great number of diphtheria carriers continue to spread the infection for some time after recovery from the disease. It appears that only upon rare occasions in some of the larger cities has a search been made for carriers in the schools. In 1914, 378 diphtheria cultures were examined in the state laboratory and 498 deaths resulted from diphtheria in that year. Of course with- out the use of scientific preventive procedure, diphtheria spreads un- checked and the prompt use of antitoxin is the only hope of saving the victims. It is very likely that the increased use of diphtheria antitoxin has been the cause of a reduction in the death rate during the last two years. The State Board of Health has very wisely taken official action to increase the use of antitoxin and to make it easily accessible. Ar- rangements are made with a manufacturer through competitive bids to supply the board with fresh antitoxin at about one-half the com- mercial price. It is distributed through various stations throughout the state, and the bill sent by the manufacturer for all indigent cases is paid by the county board of health. Under the act of 1918 it be- comes the duty of the health officer or his assistant to administer the antitoxin. This provision is excellent in view of the great difficulties usually experienced in bringing about the adequate use of this sovereign specific remedy. Measles and Whooping Cough These are disregarded and spread practically unchecked every- where in spite of their heavy death toll among little children. Ken- tucky had the highest whooping cough death rate of the registration area for 1916, the second highest in 1911, markedly above the average of the registration area for the five years 1911 to 1916, and in 1918 higher than in any previous registration year. These diseases are undoubtedly expensive in respect of the time lost to the schools; even though the schools are not closed on account of them, the many 30 Child Welfare in Kentucky days missed by the children represent a waste of thousands of dollars annually. So far as the writer was able to determine, scientific epidemiological methods in the control of these diseases of childhood are all but unknown in Kentucky, except in Maysville, although the State Board of Health published in the bulletin of October, 1915, ex- cellent up-to-date instructions. Prevention is out of the question with- out full-time health officers. Scarlet Fever Scarlet fever is a serious disease, particularly because of the com- plications, which so frequently produce lasting effects. This disease appears occasionally in epidemic form and also interferes with school work. The death rate has been lower during each of the last three years than the average for the five-year period previous, so we may consider that it is becoming much less important as a cause of death. Smallpox Smallpox is still prevalent in many sections in spite of the excel- lent vaccination law. In Harlan County $1,074 was expended for guarding smallpox quarantine during 1918, and $401.55 for hospital services rendered by the Harlan Hospital Association. Of course such expense is unwarranted, particularly when there is such an un- usually good vaccination law. A trained all-time health officer would undoubtedly have enforced the law and used the mine physicians to vaccinate every person in the county. Through the efforts of the State Board of Health and a few unselfish and public-spirited local physicians, smallpox has repeatedly been stamped out in nearly every county, but it is still prevalent in many sections and causes heavy expense to the communities afflicted. (b) Child Hygiene Prevention of Infant Mortality The infant mortality rate has gradually increased from 74 per 1,000 living births in 1915 to 101 in 1918. The 1918 rate is the highest since the beginning of registration in Kentucky. It is not unlikely that this increase may continue with the growth of cities and particularly if a shortage in the milk supply should in- crease. The infants in the mining camps suffer particularly from a lack of cow's milk. The writer observed such a shortage in the mining camps of Harlan and Bell Counties, where the county infant mortality rates were respectively 140 and 124 per 1,000 living births. Although it has been thoroughly demonstrated that the number of infant deaths can be promptly and certainly reduced through educa- tional methods, public health nurses, baby welfare clinics, consulta- tions, milk stations and hospitals, this work has not yet been at- tempted in Kentucky except by a few philanthropic organizations in Health 31 the larger cities. These organizations have held baby contests at fairs and more rarely have promoted exhibits, lectures, clinics, and the dis- tribution of literature with the co-operation of the State Board of Health. A special appropriation should be given to the state board to pro- vide exhibits, literature and other educational material to be used by local organizations, and a special personnel who could devote full time to promoting such educational propaganda and directing the efiforts of local workers. Such traveling propaganda methods as were used in New York state several years ago would stimulate local in- terest, popularize child hygiene among the women's clubs and other organizations, and further the work of public health nurses tre- mendously. Midwives According to the law, midwives are registered by the local regis- trar. Ordinarily in Kentucky this registration does not take place until a birth is reported. The State Board of Health pays 25 cents each to the registrar and the physician or midwife who reports the birth and this tends to bring the midwife into touch with the registrar, thereby affording opportunity for her own registration. This plan, although it registers the midwife, does not mean that the standards of obstetrical technique are raised in any way. Most health officers with whom the writer talked did not know whether there was any control of midwives or not. The high percentage of preventable infant deaths due to poor obstetrics and earliest care, as shown by studies outside of Kentucky, indicate the need of not only registering midwives, but licensing, supervising, and instructing them. Blindness in the New Born The Kentucky law requires that all cases of ophthalmia neona- torum shall be reported to the health officer, and that the county boards of health in co-operation with the county medical society and the State Board of Health shall arrange an annual course of instruc- tion or school for physicians, midwives and nurses of such county to teach the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of ophthalmia and trachoma. The law is an excellent idea, provided it is properly enforced, but its value depends upon the attendance and interest aroused in the course. Silver solution is distributed to physicians and midwives by the State Board of Health, and its use is required by rules. The State Medical Association by resolution declared it to be malpractice to fail to use the silver solution. Three hundred and eighty-one new packages of silver solution were distributed in 1918, and it is likely that many of these packages are refilled by the local druggists. Of 32 Child Welfare in Kentucky course this work acts in an educational way upon physicians and mid- wives, makes the prophylactic more readily available to a few, and undoubtedly results in some increased use and some prevention of blindness, but necessarily these scattered efforts are in no way effi- cient; gonorrheal ophthalmia continues and the state pays the cost in its care of the blind at institutions, or the blind are uneducated and suffer through their helpless lives, dependent upon relatives or friends. Hygiene of the Pre-School Period For this stage of childhood no direct efforts are being put forth in health supervision. Literature should be made available for the instruction of mothers in the care of their children during this period. Physical examinations and expert advice should be given by physicians in connection with the infant welfare clinics, and instruction in the care of children in their homes should be given by the public health nurses. All such work should be under the supervision of the local health department. SCHOOL HYGIENE Compulsory education places the responsibility for the care of the child's health upon the state and community as certainly as the re- sponsibility for teaching reading, and writing. Mind education with- out the care of health and the promotion of physical development is only the grossest waste of public money, for physical health is the first essential in the development of intellectual power. Physical health and strength do not happen, nor are they controlled by our Maker without regard to our own efforts and habits, and yet considera- ation for the health and physical development of the Kentucky school child is practically disregarded by the state educational program and by most of the schools themselves. Not even the cities of the second class have regular supervision of physical training except in a very limited way. In most of the cities of the third and fourth classes the only exercise that the child gets in connection with the school program is in occasional periods of from five to IS minutes conducted by the teacher and limited to simple breathing exercises, and arm and leg movements such as the teacher may happen to have knowledge of through general reading or through meager training in normal school. Fortunately, more atten- tion is now being given in the normal schools to training for such ex- ercise periods of the child, but it is altogether too slight to enable the grade or high school teacher to conduct such classes without expert supervision. One principal of a rural type of school in a county seat said he had no physical exercises in his school because he didn't believe that Health 33 the country children needed it, and yet judging by the many pale, flat-chested children in this school there was undoubtedly the gravest sort of need for toning of the muscles and strengthening of the or- ganic functions through proper exercise and supervised play. Long hours at a desk in the schoolroom violate the very nature of a child, which demands constant activity, and such repression as may be nec- essary must be offset by active exercise at frequent intervals. Of course physical exercise is most beneficial to children or adults when taken in a form that holds their interest and enthusiasm, and still more so if it is in the form of amusing play. Hence our under- standing of physical exercise includes much more than calisthenics, embracing properly supervised active games, sports and athletics that afford enjoyment and recreation. Instruction in personal hygiene is a fairly old subject and should be a thoroughly established course in every public school, and yet in the Kentucky schools it is so limited in scope, so unscientific, and so much of it is even contrary to known facts, that under the present regime, progress in improving health and preventing disease must nec- essarily be considerebly hampered. A humorous story was told by one of our investigators following a visit to a rural school where she had attended a hygiene lesson on the care of the hair. After the recitation on the textbook material, the teacher decided to give her pupils the benefit of the experience of one of her friends, who, she said, "had a beautiful suit of hair that reached clear to her knees." She stated that this friend had not washed her hair in 28 years, and asked the children whether any of them could tell her how she had managed to keep it so lovely. Not a pupil ventured a guess, so the teacher an- swered her own question: "Why, every morning she combed her hair with a large comb which she had dipped in Danderine.'' Clearly, this teacher was in no way interested in this patent commercial product, but offered this atrocious theory to her pupils with full faith in its value. Similar ignorance with regard to hygiene naturally pre- vails among all persons who have not had more instruction than is given in most of the public schools of Kentucky. Superstition in mat- ters relating to health is rampant throughout the state. Most of us with university training have some pet superstitions regarding health that frequently result in bodily injury and hamper our physical health and development, and in a state where 12.1 per cent, of the population is reported as illiterate there are certain to be superstitions that inter- fere extensively with proper safeguards for the health of children. The Kentucky Tuberculosis Association, under the direction of its educational secretary, has undertaken an excellent piece of work in the promotion of the Junior Red Cross Health Crusade. This plan is one of the best for promoting health habits through the schools and will 34 Child Welfare in Kentucky undoubtedly result in great advance toward the giving of the sort of training to every school child that the public school system should supply. This is exactly the kind of pioneer work that must be done to prepare the way for the program that Kentucky needs. During 1918 the schools of nine cities had this plan in operation and the Tuber- culosis Association's program will increase the number rapidly. Fut- ther opportunity for preparation of teachers to give instruction in hygiene could be afforded by the State Department of Education through institutes, extension courses,* traveling libraries, lectures and extra supervision. Such efforts should be directed by a director of physical education of the state department or in very close co-opera- tion with the State Board of Health. Along with the teaching of hygiene should go training in health habits. Habits of proper physical exercise and love of outdoor life should be cultivated in the child as part of the school program, through extra-school activities directed and promoted by the school. Regular periods for active games and sports are necessary. The organizing in Louisville of the Public School Athletic League is a step in the right direction, and there is need for more supervised physical activi- ties in the school program itself in connection with Boy and Girl Scouts or other similar societies. Weighing scales and height and weight charts as recommended by the United States Bureau of Education and the Child Health Organization (1S6 Fifth Avenue, New York City) should be used throughout Kentucky. Only two or three of these charts and no scales were seen by the investigator in the many schools visited. Together with the observation of weight records, advice should be given as to diet. Malnutrition is n. problem in every school. It is being met in New York and Boston by special nutrition clinics. Ken- tucky must also seek its solution. The publications of the Child Health Organization and of the United States Bureau of Education should be used in every school. Instruction as to proper diet is an important part of any scientific program for physical development and should be given to children in a positive, attractive way. The school lunch offers the best opportunity for teaching the value of different foods and correct habits of eating. School lunches have been established in a surprisingly large number of the schools of the first, second and third class cities, and a few in cities of the fourth and fifth classes. The foods provided are well chosen and wholesome and in most cases also cheap, the lunch costing as a rule only from five to 12 cents. Every school principal where such lunches were served was enthusiastic and claimed that he had noted marked improvements in the nutrition of the children since real food had been *A precedent in extension courses has been set by the Louisville Normal School for the benefit of Louisville teachers. Eealth 35 substituted in place of the pickle-candy-sodawater combination for- merly so popular. In most cases these lunches have been started by small groups, such as Parent-Teacher Associations or other women's clubs interested in the welfare of children. They show what can bs done by such private organizations, and are an earnest per- haps of what will be done by these agencies in other phases of school hygiene, such as medical inspection, school nurses, special extra- school recreational activities and improved buildings and facilities. Whatever work of this kind is undertaken by private societies should be turned over to the proper public agencies as soon as its value has been demonstrated, and in this way the energies of the private sui- cieties will be released so that they can be devoted to other pioneer tasks. Opportunities for such pioneering should be sought, for it is the function of the private society to experiment and demonstrate, as well as to support the public agencies in the fulfillment of their duties. The teaching of correct habits of hygienic living in the schools can never be more than a fantastic theory so long as the buildings are badly lighted and ill-ventilated, the water supply is lacking or pol- luted, the common drinking cup is used, no washstands are provided, and the only toilet accommodations are filthy privies. No school was found with adequate hand-washing facilities. A few had sinks or wash bowls, and occasionally a piece of soap and more rarely paper towels were seen, but never the combination of paper or individual towels with liquid or other sanitary soap prepara- tion. In most cases school lunches were served to children with dirty hands. If hand-washing is ever mentioned in the hygiene classes, it is difficult to see how any impression can be made upon the child as to its importance in protecting him from communicable diseases, so long as there is no place in the school to wash his hands. And yet there is no one thing that will do more to prevent the spread of com- municable diseases than thorough hand-washing both before meals and after handling things touched by other persons. Most epidemiolo- gists are thoroughly agreed as to the importance of this simple, decent habit in communicable disease control, and it is a form of self-protec- tion that should be cultivated in every child. In the rural schools of Mason County, which has an all-time health officer, excellent work has been done in training children in this habit. In some of its schools where running water is not available, soap, wash-basins and individual towels are in use as a result of the. work of the public health nurse. As a rule the school buildings of Kentucky have a bad influence upon the health and development of children. The state law provides, that their construction shall be supervised by the State Department of Education, but many of the more recently constructed buildings 36 Child Welfare in Kentucky show as little regard for modern standards of lighting and health pro- tection as most of those put up forty years ago. Their most striking and universal defect is the cross lighting, which seriously affects the eyes. Of the rejections by local boards among men called in the draft from February 10 to November 1, 1918, 11.6 per cent, were because of diseases of the eye; an examination of 661 children in the rural schools of Mason County in 1917 and 1918 showed that 10 per cent, had defects of vision; while 2,693 examina- tions of children in the city schools of Newport showed that 5.4 per cent, had such eye defects as "errors of refraction, weak eyes, eye strain, defective sight, strabismus, and astigmatism," and 10 per cent, more had blepharitis or conjunctivitis, which would be aggravated by the strain resulting from bad lighting. In one group of 54 rural schools visited, all but three had cross lighting; in another group of 28 schools, 21 per cent, were arranged so that the children faced the light, and one of these buildings had been constructed only a year ago. It can safely be said that the conditions throughout the state are similar. A lack of curtains or shades in rooms with southern exposure contributes to eye strain because of the glare upon the white paper or in the faces of the chil- dren. In 25 rural schools seven had shades, while 18 or 72 per cent, had none. The rural schools are badly heated and ventilated, almost without exception. Of course there is still a great deal of controversy as to what is meant by adequate ventilation of a schoolroom in winter weather. Proper humidity, temperature and circulation of the air undoubtedly play a large part in the maintenance of healthful condi- tions, but they require special apparatus. Obviously better arrange- ments can be made than to permit the schools to continue with stoves in the center, where the heat is so stifling it is positively weakening, and where the unfortunate child in the rear seat or the little girl in the corner shivers and snuffles throughout the winter. In 44 rural schools observed only five had jacketed stoves; the others had one stove in the center of the room, or, as in the case of four schools, in one end or corner of the room. Most of the teachers consulted stated that they had difficulty in keeping the room warm during the winter. Thermometers were only rarely seen. In most of the schools in the second and third class cities and in a large proportion of those in cities of the fourth class, steam or hot water heat is used, but many instances were noted where the radiation was insufficient for severe weather. Only a few of these buildings are equipped with vents for evacuating the foul air, none were seen with humidifiers of any sort, nor many with fresh-air intakes or deflectors to be used under the lower sash to supply fresh air without a direct draft upon the pupils near the window. Only a very few schools Health 37 •were found with hot-air furnaces, and these had no scheme for humidi- fying the hot, arid atmosphere created by this system. The large auditorium of a school in Richmond has no outside openings for ventilation except five small windows near the ceiling, and yet audi- toriums are usually overcrowded more frequently than any other room in the school building. The anti-tuberculosis campaigns of the last decade have done much to popularize fresh air, and its value is partially recognized by all communities except the more backward, but the present method of leaving the whole responsibility to the teacher in a badly constructed, and in many cases dilapidated building, brings exactly the sort of bad ventilation with excessively dry air, extremes of heat or cold, and chilly drafts that should be expected. Kentucky's high tuberculosis death rate and the probability of tubercular infection occurring during childhood being lighted up in the later productive years of life place an added responsibility upon the state in this matter. At least it should provide well constructed buildings with walls that will in some measure hold the heat or keep out the cold, and with such heating iacilities as will allow an even distribution of air and fresh inflow by means of proper vents or fans, together with moisture regulation through pans of water or sprays. A great improvement could be effected in the one-room country schools if they were properly ceiled, and one or more jacketed stoves with an outdoor intake furnished, the air being moistened by pans of water heated by the stove. Consolida- tion of schools holds out the most hope for such improvements, for a larger school building can certainly be equipped with at least steam heat, window ventilators and water-pan humidifiers. In any case there is serious need of some plan for extension edu- cation and state supervision that will instruct every county and city school superintendent, every principal, and every teacher in the im- portance of ventilation, proper temperature, humidity and air circula- tion, and how to make the best use of the facilities at hand in main- taining suitable conditions. Even in cities where the more elaborate heating and ventilating systems have been installed there is invariably need of expert advice to the janitor, and also to the superintendent in order that he may know what he should expect from his janitor. There are a few open-air schoolrooms in the state. It is likely that the development of the school health program will reveal con- siderable need of such schoolrooms as well as of opportunity classes for weak, under-nourished and pre-tubercular children. Private initia- tive has provided such an opportunity class in a Lexington school. Unquestionably a dusty schoolroom is a menace to the delicate lung tissues of the school child, as well as a source of danger from infection, and yet many schools were found with dust lying thick upon the floor. In IS rural schools visited in one section 10 had floors 38 Child Welfare in Kentucky which probably had never been oiled, and five had floors which had been oiled often enough to be of value. The usual method of dry- sweeping raises dust in the school room, and leaves a dusty atmos- phere for the children to breathe next day, even when it is done after school hours. Of 10 schools in another section, including cities of the second, third and fourth classes, nine were swept with nothing to keep down the dust, while one used "dust-down" or wet sawdust only part of the time. A desk or seat which keeps a child in a cramped or unnatural position from four to six hours a day frequently causes not only cramping and congestion of the vital organs with their many ill ef- fects, but often aggravates and even causes deformities and malforma- tion of the chest because of the soft and flexible condition of the bones in the growing child. Adjustable seats or desks are the only kind which can be made to fit every child in the schoolroom, and these are indeed rare in Kentucky. A small number of adjustable seats are scattered through the schools of Louisville and some second-class cities. They are also found in a few model schools, but except for these isolated instances the child who finds a seat and desk which he can sit in naturally and with comfort is fortunate. In 16 graded schools visited in one section 75 per cent, of the rooms had desks and seats for small children in the primary grades of the same size as for the older children in the sixth and eighth grades. The figures may not hold good for graded schools throughout the state, but in the rural schools little or no attempt is made to fit the seats and desks to the children. Water should be supplied to growing children in liberal quantities, and above all should be pure. Except in cities that have a safe munici- pal supply, the water of Kentucky schools is often either polluted or in serious danger of becoming so. Many rural schools have open wells or cisterns unprotected from surface pollution and frequently within a few yards of filthy privy vaults. Such conditions only require the presence of a convalescent typhoid patient or a typhoid carrier to cause a serious typhoid epidemic among the school children. At only a very few schools was it found that the water from wells, springs, or cisterns had been analyzed, and then only on one or two occasions. Wells, cisterns and springs where buckets are used to dip out the water are always a potential source of disease. In 29 rural schools visited 13, or nearly half, had no water supply whatsoever; in some cases it was carried in a pail from some house at a distance. One teacher when asked about the drinking water said: "I git it from a spring. It warn't healthy, but I gives it to 'em to make 'em shet up." In 23 rural schools visited all but three had common drinking cups, although it is against the law for a common public drinking cup to be used anywhere in the state. Schools in cities of the first three classes, and most of those of Health 39 the fourth class, are supplied with drinking fountains, but probably over half of them are insanitary in that the pupils must place their lips upon the fountain in order to obtain water. As mentioned under the subject of typhoid fever, the proper dis- posal of human excreta is still one of the great health problems of Kentucky. Typhoid fever, hookworm, dysentery, diarrhea of infants, and other intestinal diseases stalk through the state, exacting a dis- tressing toll of preventable sickness, suffering and early death, and the experience of other states indicates that Kentucky will never make any advance in the control of these diseases while the schools have disgustingly insanitary toilets. Dr. McCormack, Secretary of the State Board of Health, estimates that at least one-third of the schools have no toilet or privy at all. Where a building has been constructed for the sake of some decency, the floor and seats were frequently found filthy with excreta and mud and unfit for use. Of 41 schools visited in rural districts and cities of the fifth class, only six, or 14.6 per cent, were found with sanitary privies; in seven others the toilets were insanitary and a menace to health, but in a fair state of repair and insuring privacy; in the remainder they were filthy, many with excreta running out upon the ground exposed to flies and small animals. Some had large holes and cracks in the floors, in others the doors were broken off and dilapidated. Every school in Mason County has been provided with two Ken- tucky sanitary privies or flush toilets; and such facilities have also been installed in a large proportion of the schools of Jefferson County. These two counties are the only ones in Kentucky with all-time health officers. Like school lunches, medical inspection and nursing service have been started through the efforts of philanthropic individuals, women's clubs or Parent-Teacher Associations, but not on so extensive a scale. From 28 to 33 per cent, of the men from Kentucky examined in the recent draft were rejected because of physical defects. A very large part of these were remediable and should have been cared for during the school age. It is an economic principle that "education is wasted upon chil- dren who are not in a condition to receive it," and it is wasted as well, upon children who have received it, if they are not in a condition to use it. Among 661 school children examined by the all-time county health officer in Mason County only 39, or six per cent., were found with no apparent physical defects. As many as one-third of those examined were in need of prompt medical attention. This number did not include 411 children with dental defects, which are certainly of serious import to a child's general physical condition. Among 4,001 school children examined by the county health officer of Jefferson 40 Child Welfare in Kentucky County, over 27 per cent, were found physically defective. Among 2,693 children examined in the schools of Newport, 977, or 36 per cent., were found who needed medical treatment; of 2,004 children examined in the schools of Henderson, 38J/^ per cent, had serious physical defects. According to the report of the Louisville Board of Education for 1918, 38.7 per cent, of the absences from the schools were due to sick- ness, and during the last six years 45 per cent, of them have been caused by sickness. In the Lexington schools 40 per cent, of the ab- sences during the year 1917-18 and in Maysville 39.7 per cent, for the same year were due to this cause. These figures represent many days of school lost and large sums wasted, and yet we know that at least 40 per cent, to 50 per cent, of such sickness is preventable. Most schools make no effort to control measles or whooping cough unless a serious epidemic occurs, and then the schools are usually closed — in most cases a useless and unscientific procedure. Some school principals make an attempt to have the local health officer report to the school when there are children attending from a home with contagious diseases, and in a few cities absentees because of sickness are examined by a physician before returning to school. Such methods only catch an occasional case which would spread in- fection and are in no way a substitute for scientific epidemiological procedure. Louisville has six part-time medical inspectors and six full-time nurses in the schools. The medical inspectors are expected to spend four hours per day in this work, for which they receive $100 per month. With three times this number of inspectors, and 36 instead of six nurses, under a competent full-time director, Louisville would be able to begin effective work in the control of communicable diseases and correction of physical defects. An additional staff of assistants for supervision of instruction in hygiene and physical training, and several recreation specialists all under the same director, would make possible a real health program in the schools with proper correlation among all its parts. LOCAL HEALTH ADMINISTRATION 1. About one-sixth of the population is in towns of over 20,000 inhabitants, hence only a fraction of Kentucky's health problem can be worked out on the usual plan of a city health department. It is mainly a problem of health administration in the small town and county. In most communities there is no idea of an intelligent healtii policy, and only when a severe epidemic strikes the community is a health officer or board of health thought of, and yet every community has intelligent citizens and leaders in other forms of community Health 41 progress. The pressing need is the continued leadership that may be had from public health experts. A state board so enlarged and organized as to be able to reach and lead all the small communities would be uneconomical and un- democratic, and would tend to become unwieldy and institutionalized. Home rule with state advice and supervision is the logical and Ameri- can alternative. This in theory is the basis of the present system of public health work in Kentucky, but it is defeated by the inadequacy of local machinery. 2. The present plan of appointing as health officers for part- time service, physicians dependent upon their practice for a living, not only provides insuflicient service, but in many cases where a salary is paid it is positively a waste of public money. The writer conferred with the health officers of 26 counties, and also with health officers of towns in these counties, and in every case, except where all-time health officers were serving, it was revealed that the health officer felt he couldn't afford to spend the time on the work the position de- manded. If this is true under ordinary conditions, is it any wonder that with the added number of patients to care for in an epidemic, the health officer with a private practice can devote no time to its control? One health officer stated that he had "closed a school for whoop- ing cough last week," but admitted that he had not been in the town where this school was located and did not even know how many cases there were. Many of the health officers interviewed knew practically nothing about the character of their municipal water supply, although, of course, the control of this important carrier of disease is one of the first duties in disease prevention. One in a city of the fourth class did not know whether the city water supply was treated or not; a few weeks later an investigation by the Sanitary Engineer of the State Board of Health showed that it was badly polluted and needed prompt attention. Some counties and many towns are unable to persuade any phy- sician to take the position of health officer and so "drift along" with an inactive board of health. One city of the third class refused to pay a health officer, and all the physicians had declined the office, al- though $7,980 per year is being paid in salaries to police and firemen and monthly contributions are made to the Salvation Army for poor relief. This city is not without public-spirited citizens, but there is need of leadership to place the matter squarely before the people. The health officer in a city of the fourth class told the writer of a public health lecturer who had shown the "pellagra germs" under a microscope! Another (who also had evidently done his studying be- fore the days of bacteriology) said there was no use in having the water examined by the State Board of Health, because he had "heard 42 Child Welfare in Kentucky them tell at a health officers' meeting that they couldn't find the typhoid germs in the water anyway." These instances are in no way to be understood as a general condemnation of the health officers of Kentucky, for they deserve the highest praise. Whatever service has been rendered, the physicians have given in a truly altruistic spirit and in some cases at consideral-'le personal sacrifice. But the facts do indicate a need for paid and trained public health specialists. 3. Louisville and the other cities, of course, have made far greater efforts to improve health conditions than the rural sections. Each of the cities has made some distinct advance along special lines. During the war the force of the Louisville Health Department was trebled through the pressure put upon the city by the army and the United States Public Health Service because of the proximity of Camp Zachary Taylor. Louisville's organization is still lacking in a trained full-time personnel, and with the small force employed for public health work it is out of all proportion to have fourteen full-time men for the inspection of meat. The city is particularly to be commended for its work in the control of venereal diseases; the clinic was in- creased from about 300 patients to 2.S70 patients per month, and the "red light district" was closed. Its psychological clinic in the school system furnishes diagnostic facilities for determining mental defect, facilities which should be supplied throughout the state as a necessary preliminary in the control of this menace. Lexington has a good tuberculosis sanatorium, with a trained full- time superintendent who is conducting a tuberculosis clinic. Newport has school physicians who have examined the school children for physical defects and have lectured to the teachers. But only a few steps have so far been taken in the direction of properly caring for children's health. Real results will come only when these cities have modern health departments with trained full- time officials. It is hoped that Louisville may eventually point the way and show what can be done with a modern city health program. A further illustration of the need of full-time public health service in all parts of the state is found in the new law concerning the care of the feeble-minded which provides that health officers and public health nurses shall institute proceedings to secure the segregation of feeble-minded persons who are likely to propagate their kind. With- out such trained service the enforcement of this law is left to the un- certainty of private effort. SUMMARY The State Board of Health is the public health leader in Kentucky, and the State Medical Association is its sponsor. On account of Health 43 failure to realize local responsibility and to organize full-time county health departments, every one of the preventable diseases mentioned, with the possible exception of scarlet fever and smallpox, is daily lay- ing its blight upon children in spite of the fact that it is preventable by known methods of public health science. The prevention of infant mortality and blindness of the newborn has been neglected here as elsewhere and immediate attention to these matters is a crying need. The school system is backward and as a consequence, every phase of school hygiene suffers, for it is the custom of both local and state health departments in the United States to allow school officials to tak» the initiative in physical education and health protection of the school child. Hookworm, trachoma, tuberculosis, and typhoid fever have rightly demanded first consideration among Kentucky's problems. Their control is probably the more dramatic, and the methods used are thoroughly proved and demonstrated, but a physical education program is also urgently needed for the children, and health and school officials must unite for its development. We have discussed local health administration because, however effective the state machine may be, it cannot accomplish its purpose without the active and constant help of efficient local departments. The greatest need to be supplied before Kentucky can make substan- tial progress is modern local health departments with trained all-time staffs. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STATE PROGRAM I. A state should lay broad plans for such growth of the public service as will protect the health and develop the capacities of her children. This program will demand expert leadership and a compre- hensive organization with the State Board of Health at its head. 1. Already twelve bureaus of the board have been organized or planned for, and this development is heartily commended. 2. Extra appropriation is needed for the Bureau of Child Hygiene. The duties of such a bureau should be: (a) To promote the establishment of prenatal centers for physical examination and supervision of expectant mothers; to aid and advise such centers; to extend the services of public health nurses, especially in home visiting; and to provide for instruction in the hygiene of maternity and care of infants. (b) To provide for the instruction, examination, and licens- ing of all midwives through the local health department. (c) To promote the establishment of maternity hospitals or of maternity wards in general hospitals to the end that all necessitous and complicated cases may receive proper ob- stetrical care. 44 Child Welfare in Kentucky (d) To assist the Bureau of Vital Statistics in enforcing the law regarding birth registration. (e) To promote the establishment of children's health cen- ters for physical examination and for instruction in the care and feeding of infants and children of pre-school age. (f) To prepare literature and other educational material for the general public regarding the prevention of infant mortality and conservation of child health. (g) A special section of this bureau should be devoted to school hygiene, as it relates to physical examination and cor- rection of physical defects, control of communicable diseases, and sanitation of school buildings; and to advising of the State Department of Education and assisting it in developing a state program for playgrounds, recreation, physical training and the instruction of the school child in health essentials. (h) An expert should approve all plans and specifications for schoolhouses and also their location and equipment, as they relate to the health of children, according to rules and regula- tions of the State Board of Health, and in co-operation with the State Department of Education. 3. The children should be insured against a shortage of milk. To this end the establishment of more dairy farms should be en- couraged and the number of dairy inspectors of the Bureau of Food and Drugs of the State Board of Health should be increased to at least seven so that the purity and the pasteurization of milk supplies may be furthered. 4. A special appropriation should be made to match the subsidy offered by the Federal Government so that the Bureau of Venereal Disease of the State Board of Health may continue the campaign started during the war against venereal diseases. 5. Trachoma prevention should be extended through state aid for the present work being done by the United States Public Health Service. 6. Every child applying for a work permit should be required to show the certificate of a health department physician or a school physician that he has good health, normal development, and is physi- cally fit for the work at which he is to be employed. While at work under a permit each child should receive the medical examinations and supervision of the school health service. 7. A special bureau of publicity and public health education should be created under the State Board of Health to use all channels for reaching the people, or else the State Board of Health should push all phases of health education through its own director in co-operation with a publicity clearing house in charge of a publicity engineer under the Kentucky Co-operative Council. II. A school for health officers and public health nurses has been established in connection with the University of Louisville and the State Board of Health. This school is needed to train Kentucky men Eealth 45 and women for health work. It is planned that the directors of the several bureaus of the State Board of Health shall be the instructors of the school according to their specialties. The strength of the state's public health machinery will depend upon the personnel direct- ing these bureaus of the State Board of Health since they will in turn train most of the local health executives. This plan emphasizes the need of sufficient state funds to provide salaries that will insure the continued services of experts. III. Physical education and health protection of children should be further developed through a Bureau of Physical Education in the State Department of Education. The various lines of health work in the schools can best be correlated through central administration. As soon as trained all-time health officers are provided, the Director of Physical Education should direct school medical work through the county and district health departments, and standardize the teaching of hygiene, health habits and physical training through the school superintendents and physical training directors. Legislation such as is recommended by the United States Bureau of Education and the National Committee on Physical Education should be enacted in Kentucky for the development of a school health program that will correlate the prevention of communicable diseases, the correction of physical defects, and the sanitation of school build- ings, with instruction in personal hygiene and health habits, positive health and strength development through nourishing school lunches and dietetic instruction, and a broad program of exercise, athletics, and outdoor and indoor healthful recreation. Such a program will require expert directors of hygiene in the educational system to work co- ordinately and in co-operation with the health departments. IV. All this state machinery will require trained personnel for the local health departments in order to reach every citizen. Funds should be provided so that state aid may be given to each county or group of counties that will establish a health department with stand- ards conforming to the rules of the State Board of Health. Such a department should have a trained full-time health officer, public health nurses and as many trained assistants as the size of the county 01* district demands. V. Education of the public is necessary before the people will pay for health work. Channels through which the state agencies can reach the individuals of the various communities are necessary for such education and must be provided through local community organi- zation. Present groups and societies in the community should be federated in order to intensify and broaden the scope of community organization and foster the growth of community spirit. A community center or an organization like the Community Councils of National 46 Child Welfare in Kentucky Defense or the Cincinnati Social Unit Plan may serve as the channel through which the public health and other welfare publicity may operate. VI. In Kentucky the degree of co-operation secured from the State Federation of Women's Clubs, the Kentucky Tuberculosis As- sociation, the State Farmers' Institute, the State Federation of Labor, the Kentucky Educational Association, and other societies, has made it possible to secure the advances made, and the continued co-operation of these organizations and particularly that of the American Red Cross as it has been re-organized, will greatly assist in arousing public senti- ment. Heretofore the state has looked to the medical profession for leadership in public health. The problem is now too broad for it to be left to any one group. The medical profession has its particular prob- lem of state health work in providing curative medical service to all its citizens. Public health also depends upon prompt diagnosis and treat- ment of persons in ill health in order that more serious conditions may be prevented. The improvement of scientific medical practice through post-graduate medical instruction and study, traveling clinics, lectures for the medical societies, extension of laboratory facilities, more hospitals, and eventually group diagnosis and pay clinics, should mark the growth of a health program. This medical development should make possible the establishment of health clinics for early diagnosis, prompt treatment and advice for the prevention of tubercu- losis; prevention of infant mortality and venereal disease; and also the establishment of other special clinics for physical examination, for consultation as to care of children of pre-school age, for special treat- ment of children with surgical and orthopedic conditions, for prenatal examinations and care, for psychiatric and psychological examinations, for dental prophylaxis and care, and for the various medical specialties ol a modern hospital and dispensary. SCHOOLS Elizabeth Bliss Newhall* In order to test the adequacy of a public school system it is nec- essary to attempt a definition of a state's duty in the matter of public education. For the purpose of this inquiry it is held to be the state's duty to see that every child between the ages of seven and eighteen years, regardless of race, family condition or place of residence, re- ceives an education which will so develop his individual powers as to prepare him for such active and intelligent citizenship as he may be capable of, not only in his own community and state, but in the nation. Citizenship is here understood not in its narrow political sense, but as a participation of the individual in the activities of the group. Wherever a child is so handicapped either physically or men- tally as to be unable to secure such education through the channels of schools for normal children, it is the duty of the state to make special provision for such child, and to take such action as will reduce to a minimum the number of children so handicapped. Does Kentucky provide for its children an education which en- ables them to develop into useful citizens? Typical counties located in different sections of the state were chosen for this study. These counties were intensively investigated. The county superintendent and teachers were interviewed, and both rural and city schools visited. In addition to this, a careful study was made of state administration. Such problems as the qualification and certification of teachers, the course of study, in special reference to vocational work, and the methods of enforcing the compulsory edu- cation law, were investigated in detail. The sanitation of school buildings was taken up by the special investigator of public health and the findings are given in detail in this report. In the same way the effect of child labor upon the school attendance will be found in the child labor report. It was difficult to determine to what extent non-attendance was the result of the influenza epidemic in 1918 and 1919. However, effort was made to go back to records previous to the outbreak, in order that a fair judgment might be formed. Laws and Administration The State Board of Education in Kentucky consists of the super- intendent of public instruction, the secretary of state and the attor- ney general. Its duties are to attend to all matters pertaining to the government of the common schools, to provide a course of study, to *Assisted by Miss Alexina Booth of Louisville. 48 Child Welfare in Kentucky establish qualifications for the teachers employed. As can be seen, it is not by any means a professional board nor is it necessarily com- posed of persons particularly interested in educational affairs. In fact, for all ordinary purposes the board consists mainly of the super- intendent alone. The state superintendent is chosen by popular vote, and is not eligible for re-election. His salary is $2,500 a year with an addition of $1,500 for his work as chief inspector and member of the board of examiners. The lack of permanence in the position weakens his in- fluence; he no sooner learns the best methods for conducting the work of his office than his four years' term is over and a new man has to be broken in. It is quite obvious that this office should be removed from politics at once. There are three special supervisors, one of high schools, who is a member of the faculty of the State University of Kentucky and is partly paid by that institution to do this special work: one of rural white schools, and the other of colored schools, who are paid agents of the General Education Board. 1. — There is no reason why these supervisors should be paid by a private organization and the state should assume this responsibility. Valuable work is done by these men, but they are greatly in need of assistants to do more intensive supervising, leaving them free to direct policies. The State Board of Examiners consists of the superintendent of education and two professional educators appointed by him. Its duty is to examine all applicants personally applying to them for certificates of qualification as county superintendents or for state diplomas or state certificates. This board also prepares the series of questions for the examination of candidates for county certificates. For the purposes of the administration and supervision of the county school system, the county is divided into four, six or eight educational divisions, each one composed of a certain number of school districts. There is a division board made up of the trustees of these school districts and the county board of education is com- posed of the chairmen of the division boards. 2. — There is one strong feature about this county board. Its members represent different school districts and undoubtedly know the local situation. However there is danger of having men serving who have little knowledge of educational matters and who are unable to represent their districts intelligently. The present qualification for the office of sub-district trustee is the ability to read and write; if this standard could be raised the county board would be strength- ened. Schools 49 The county superintendent is elected by the people, and is there- fore dependent upon political favor for his office: There shall be a County Superintendent of common schools in each county of the state, who shall be possessed of good moral character and ability to manage the common school in- terests of the county efficiently. He shall possess a good English education and shall be competent to examine the teach- ers who shall apply to teach the common schools in the county. He shall be twenty-four years old at the time of qualifying, a citizen of Kentucky * * * No person shall be eligible to the office of County Superintendent, unless he shall hold from the State Board of Examiners a state diploma or a state certificate; or a diploma granting the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Education, or an advanced certificate issued by the State Normal School. * * * In the county embracing any city of the first or second class and maintaining a system of public schools separate and distinct from the common schools of the county, no person shall be eligible to the office of county superintendent other than a resident of such county outside of such city or town. As can be seen by the above law, a high Standard is not set for this important office. The last clause quoted makes it impossible to select a man who resides in a city no matter how efficiently he might fill the position. The salary is too low to attract the type of man best fitted for this work, the law providing that the salary shall not be less than $600 nor more than $2,500 per annum, and to secure properly trained men for this office, it would be necessary to make the maximum salary the minimum. There are six different classes of cities, as determined by the population, and in all of them schools are managed by independent boards of education elected by the people. The city superintendent is appointed by the city board and as a usual thing the standards are reasonably high. The board is not restricted by territorial limits in the choice of a man for this office and in some cases, especially in cities of the first and second classes, superintendents from outside the state are secured. School Finance For the support of the public schools the following sums of money are appropriated by the state: — 1. The interest on the bond of the commonwealth for $1,327,000 in aid of common schools at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum. 2. The dividends on 798 shares of the capital stock of the Bank of Kentucky representing a par value of $79,800 owned by the state. 60 Child Welfare in Kentucky 3. The surplus, $381,986.08, now due the several counties and remaining a perpetual obligation against the commonwealth for the benefit of said respective counties for which the com- monwealth shall execute its bond, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum. 4. The interest at 6 per cent, per annum on $606,641.03 received from the United States under an act approved March 2, 1891. 5. The annual tax of 18 cents on each $100 of value of all real and pe-rsonal estate and corporate franchises directed to be assessed for taxation. 6. Such portions of fines, forfeitures and licenses which may be realized by the state as the amount of taxes for common school purposes bear on the whole state tax other than for the benefit of the Agricultural and Mechanical College. This money constitutes the school fund of Kentucky and is dis- tributed on a, per capita basis among the counties, to be used for the payment of salaries only, unless otherwise specified. The amount per capita last year was $5.65. It is the duty of the county board to estimate and lay before the fiscal court the educational needs of the county, and the county shall levy a tax for school purposes not to exceed 30 cents on each $100 of assessed valuation of property in the county as well as a capitation tax not exceeding $1.00. The money so raised shall be expended in the building, improvement and equipment of schoolhouses, in the pur- chase of real estate, in the payment of teachers and in the extension of the school term. In 1918 only 13 counties levied the whole 30 cents on the $100; four levied 25 cents; 60, 20 cents; eight, between 16 cents and 20 cents; 16, IS cents; two between 10 cents and 15 cents, and four 10 cents only. No record was secured for sixteen counties. That the local tax is inadequate is evident. There is a surprising lack of any feeling of obligation on the part of the local unit. When the assessed valuation of property was increased many of the coun- ties deliberately cut down their appropriation for school funds, be- cause they could still raise a sufficient amount of money to run a school similar to that which they had had in former years and yet decrease the amount levied. The usual reason given for the low tax is poverty. This, however, is not wholly true. One county cut down its levy because of the poverty of the farmers, and on investigation it was discovered that the average individual tax for all purposes was only $7.50 per year. The school fund could be tripled without any great hardship devolving on the farmers. The sUb-district also may levy a tax for school purposes. Upon petition of ten legal voters, the division must submit to the voters the question of whether or not a tax shall be levied upon tax- able property of the sub-districts for local school taxes. Such tax is Schools 51 not to exceed 25 cents on each $100 of taxable property, but it is rarely levied. One of the main reasons for the lack of local interest in sclioot problems and for the absence of almost all sense of local responsibil- ity for financing the schools is that the state gives just enough money to the counties to make possible the existence of poor schools f«>r six months. When the federal government gives money to the state to be used for school purposes, as for instance under the Smith- Hughes Act, the state is required to raise an equal amount of money. In the same way the state should fix a standard and require the county to meet it directly. Certification of Teachers There are two kinds of certificates issued by the state board. The first is the state diploma, issued by the State Board of Examiners to any person not less than 24 years of age who has taught at least two years in the state. The candidate must pass all subjects in the com- mon school course of study, also science of teaching, psychology, English literature, higher mathematics, physics and elementary Latin. Personal examination is held at the state capitol. The candidate must attain an average of 90 per cent., no subject less than 70 per cent. Any person holding this certificate may teach in any school in the state and is also eligible to the office of county superintendent. The state board also issues a state certificate to any person at least 21 years of age and who has taught for two years. The candi- date must have received an average of 90 per cent, and not below 70 per cent, in any one subject, the examination including all subjects in the common school course of study plus English literature, elemen- tary algebra, higher arithmetic and the art of teaching. This is valid in any school in the state for a period of eight years. The county also issues two kinds of certificates. A certificate of the first class is issued by the county board of examiners to all can- didates who have reached the age of 18 and have passed the county examination with an average grade of 85 per cent, in all subjects of the common school plus science and the art of teaching, and not less than 65 per cent, in any one subject. The certificate is valid in the schools in the county in which it is issued. There is also a second class certificate issued by the county board of examiners to all candidates of 18 years and over who have passed an examination in all subjects of the common school plus the art of teaching, with an average grade of 75 per cent., no subject below 60 per cent. A person holding a second class certificate may teach in the county schools where there are not more than 75 pupil children. S2 Child Welfare in Kentucky The normal schools and the University of Kentucky also issue teachers' certificates. The main weakness in this system of certification is the lack of uniformity. Each county issues its own certificates which are valid in other counties only in case of a temporary emergency. It would «eem wise to keep the control of the issuance of teachers' certificates in the hands of the state department, which should standardize all tertificates issued to teachers in the county schools. RURAL SCHOOLS For this investigation rural schools in the following counties were visited: Graves, Livingston, Christian, Daviess, Muhlenberg, Warren, Edmonson, Barren, Larue, Jefferson, Bourbon, Madison, Estill, Lee, Bell, Harlan, Mason, Boyd, Monroe. These counties are situated in different parts of the state, and have different economic conditions and therefore it is believed that they are representative of the rural situation. Rural School Buildings The usual type is a one-room frame house lighted from both sides. According to the report of the state superintendent of educa- tion in 1917, out of 8,115 houses, 7,025 were one-room buildings of which 123 were located in ordinary log cabins. Many are situated far from the road and in most inaccessible spots. The grounds are barren of trees and grass. The houses themselves are in poor repair with broken windows, torn shades, and often broken benches, and there is a general sordidness about them. The following illustrations are unfortunately typical of many of the buildings in the state. A certain schoolhouse in Muhlenberg County is situated at a crossroad, the only building near it being a church which has not been in use for the last few years. The nearest farmhouse is one and a half miles away. The roads are in very bad condition. During pleasant weather in April, the investigator found them almost impassable, and in winter they are closed to all traffic for months. It is a one-room schoolhouse, without cloak rooms. The windows are broken and stuffed with rags. There are no shades. The inside of the building is painted dark green. Benches which accommodate three or four children are broken and the teacher's desk is minus one leg. Books with their cov- ers torn off were on the floor and on the desks. There are no blackboards; one side of the wall is painted black and used for this purpose. Potato sacking is stuffed in a hole in the wall. In Graves County the investigator visited a schoolhouse situated about a mile frorn the main road on an almost impass- able lane. At the time this road was dry; but the only way to reach it was on foot or horseback because of the terrible ruts from the spring rains. The house itself is in a swampy hollow. Schools 53 This is a one-room building without cloak rooms, with cross lighting and heated by an old broken stove (red with rust) in the center of the room. Window panes are broken and stuffed with rags. The stairs leading to the building are broken down. The school of a certain town in Barren County is situated out- side the town limits. For this reason many parents objected to send- ing the younger children and a subscription school was opened in an abandoned shed formerly used for a store. The only light in the room comes from the big store window at the back and from the door at the front. There are wide cracks between the clapboards through which in bad weather the rain comes. Practically all the equipment is homemade. The children use tables made from soap boxes. One small blackboard about three feet square in size was the only one found available for all the children. As a general rule the buildings in the graded districts are some- what better than those in the purely rural sections. They are, how- ever, not built according to any scientific plan, but according to the whim of the individual architect. In almost all cases the lighting and heating are incorrect, and there is practically no provision for voca- tional work of any kind. In Madison County, through the efforts of the normal school de- partment of Berea College, a model school building known as the Scaffold Cane School has been erected. In addition to the main schoolroom, there are two excellent cloak rooms, one of which can be used as lunch and play room on rainy days, and three small rooms, one used for manual training, one for cooking, and one for library and office. The building is situated on an attractive plot of land on a main road near crossroads. The children have helped improve the place by making gardens and by keeping the grounds cleared. In ad- dition to the regular required work, efficient work is done here along vocational lines, owing largely to the fact that the building affords opportunity for such activities. The type of schoolhouse has necessarily considerable influence on the work accomplished. It is impossible to expect a teacher to keep up her enthusiasm and her interest when she is working under almost intolerable conditions. Children are far less likely to come regularly to an old, dilapidated, unattractive schoolhouse than to an attractive, modern one, and the surroundings help to determine the discipline of a school. Even the course of study is greatly affected by the building, as it is impossible to introduce any kind of work in sewing or cooking or manual training or agriculture without a proper place in which to carry on these studies. Lastly, the whole community is influenced by the kind of school building, as adequate social center work is impossible in the usual building found in this state. 54 Child Welfare in Kentucky Rural School Equipment In the school laws can be found this provision: The County Board of Education shall furnish each school- house with at least the following articles of furniture and appa- ratus: teacher's desk and chair, a seat, patent or otherwise, with back, for each child, the height of the seat and its back to suit the age of the child; no desk or bench to be made to accommo- date more than two children; writing desk for all pupils; black- board space of at least fifty square feet; water stand. Even these few articles are missing in many of the schools. In only two schools visited were adjustable seats found. In five others there were seats of varying size, but in all the rest benches were of one size and unfitted for many of the children. In place of ordinary blackboards, one side of a room is painted black and used for writing purposes. Often there is no desk for the teacher, who is compelled to use one of the desks provided for the children. In many schools three children are accommodated on the same seat. A district school in Bourbon County has an insufficient number of blackboards. On one side of the room the wall is painted black instead of dark gray like the other walls, and this space serves as a blackboard. In many places the paint is en- tirely worn oil. There is no teacher's desk. A small school in Muhlenberg County has no blackboards. One end of the woodwork is painted. Non-adjustable seats, ac- commodating three children. No maps. No charts. No globe. No pictures. In almost every case the teacher has to work with little addi-- tional equipment beyond one set of charts on various subjects and occasionally a globe. There is a great lack of any materials for sup- plementary work, very few maps and no pictures of any kind beyond food posters distributed during the war. Here and there one finds an organ or piano, but this is usually in the larger schools; only in a very few instances are they found in one-room schoolhouses. There are in certain schools, libraries consisting of from ten to thirty vol- umes, most of which were bought with money raised by a "'pie supper." Often the books are not suitable. There is a lack of all vocational equipment. Even if a teacher is ambitious and wishes to teach cooking, she will find it almost impossible to secure a stove and the necessary utensils, should she find a place to do this work. An exception to this general condition is found in a model school in Jefferson County, the Ballard School, which was built as a memo- rial. Here in a separate building, is excellent equipment for shop- work for the boys, and cooking, sewing and canning for the girls. In Schools 55 the school building itself are a fine endowed library, a good piano, and collections of Indian relics. There also are pictures on the wall, plenty of blackboard space and adjustable seats than can be moved to any part of the building. The Rural School Teacher Too often the rural school teacher in Kentucky is poorly edu- cated. In every county a large number hold second-class certificates; as these are issued to any person over the age of 18, who has passed an examination in all the subjects of the common school with an average grade of 75, many teachers have no education beyond that of the eighth grade. Indeed, teachers have been appointed who did not even complete the common school, but were able to pass the re- quired examination. In Harlan County 24 out of 87 teachers have not gone be- yond the eighth grade. Of this number eight have not completed the common school. In Bell County 70 out of 101 have had a common school education only. The investigator visited a subscription school in Livingston County where six teachers had returned after a year of teaching to be drilled in the work of the eighth grade which they had never had. Everywhere there is a lack of high school graduates. A great many teachers have taken some work in the normal school, frequently for not more than one or two terms. As a whole, the rural school teacher is without any adequate preparation for the work she has undertaken. The following figures illustrate this: Out of ISO teachers interviewed and from whom full infor- mation was obtained, 48 have common school education only, 15 are graduates of the common school with one term at normal school, 17 have two terms normal and 15 three terms normal. Only nine are graduates of the normal school. One teacher has had one year of high school, 24 have had two years high school and eight two years of high school with one term at normal; ten are high school graduates and have finished at some private college. The average rural school teacher lacks experience as well as training. With the exception of some old teachers who have been a long time in the system and who too often have been unable to keep in touch with the modern educational methods, most of the teachers found are just beginning to teach. There are very few with from five to ten years of experience. It seems quite evident that numbers have given up the profession to seek more remunerative work. This is one of the greatest weaknesses in the county school. Children are 56 Child Welfare in Kentucky under the care of men and women who have had neither proper training nor sufficient experience, who have but meagre vision of their work and who have had but little opportunity to secure the necessary technical knowledge. There is also a constant changing of teachers from school to school, often in the midst of a school year. In Bourbon County one girl taught in three different schools last year. A man in Edmonson County has a record of 13 years of teaching with never two terms in the same school. In 1916 a survey was made of Warren County; out of 99 teachers in this county only four had been in the same school for four years, nine had two schools in four years, 17 three schools in four years, and 69 had changed every year. There are several reasons for this condition. The most common is the desire of the teacher to "better myself." Another district will offer more money or more opportunity for social intercourse and naturally such an oflfer is accepted. Sometimes it is because the trustee desires a change of teachers or wishes to give the school to the daughter of a friend or neighbor. Some county superintendents recognize the disadvantages and oiler a bonus to a teacher for re- maining more than one year in the same school. Teachers' Salaries A study of salaries reveals one of the chief reasons for the gen- eral inefficiency of the rural school teacher. They are so inadequate, in almost no instance a living wage, that one wonders how even poor teachers are procurable. Although the state law sets as a minimum salary $45 a month, salaries range from $35 to $70 a month, the greatest number of teachers receiving from $46 to $57. As the school term lasts only six months, the annual salary is quite insufficient. No wonder the county superintendent and the trustees complain thai they cannot secure enough teachers and that in many places schools have been closed because of this lack. The superintendent in one county told the investigator that 60 per cent, of his schools for the coming year were still without teachers and even without candidates. The following table is based on a study of the salaries of 100 teach- ers chosen at random from IS counties. As these included the prin- cipals of two- and three-room schools the scale is slightly higher than that of the typical one-room school teacher. As it is only just to assume that a teacher's salary should be sufficient to make her self- supporting, the daily wages given in this table are based on the number of working days in the year, not on school days alone. Schools 57 TABLE I. SALARIES OF 100 RURAL SCHOOL 1 PEACHERS No. Monthly Annual Daily Teachers Salary Salary Salary 8 $35—40 $210—240 $ .67— .76 12 41^tS 246—270 .78— .86 18 46—50 276—300 .88— .96 23 51—55 306—330 .97—1.05 22 56-60 336—360 1.07—1.12 7 61—65 366—390 1.17—1.24 10 66—70 396-^20 1.26—1.34 After studying these figures, one asks, "But how do they live?" Obviously, they do not depend upon their salaries for full support. Many live at home and do not pay for their board. In fact, many teachers are selected for this very reason. As one trustee said, "She doesn't need any more money. Her father keeps her.'' When a teacher does not live at home, she pays from $16 to $20 a month for board, and spends the six months when she is not teaching either with her family or at some other occupation. In many cases, teachers cannot get board for any amount they are able to pay and this is especially true in counties where there has been an oil boom. In Lee County, one school was closed all last winter because the teacher could not find a place to board; every family who had an extra room, rented it to an oil man for from $60 to $80 a month, and would, there- fore, not consider taking a school teacher for the small amount she could afiford to pay. Considering these low salaries, it is not surprising that only the most ambitious and the most courageous attempt to meet the addi- tional expense of a summer term at normal school. One teacher in Muhlenberg County who, in spite of a low salary, a difficult school and an unsympathetic trustee, had still ambition enough to enroll in the spring session of the Western Kentucky Normal School, shared with another girl a small room which contained no furniture but a bed and two chairs. This girl could not afford to board even at the dor- mitory where the board is extremely reasonable, but did light house- keeping, cooking over a small alcohol stove and using her trunk for a table. She was underfed, of course, but she was eager for an edu- cation that would enable her to leave the rural schools where she was underpaid and secure a living wage in a city. It is going to take her a long time to get that much-desired education, for she can afiford only one term each year. It will be surprising if she has the courage or the strength to see it through. To supplement salaries, small increases are given for special work done. The following schedule is typical of the majority of counties: 58 Child Welfare in Kentucky TABLE II. SALARY SCHEDULE OF LARUE COUNTY 1918-1919 School Certificate Minimum Emergency Second $35.00 Emergency First 38.00 Second Class Second 45.00 Second Class First 46.00 First Class Principalship . . . First 56.00 First Class Assistant First 50.00 ADDITIOKAl One dollar per month for each year's experience. One dollar per month for high school diploma. One dollar per month for four terms normal, if teacher holds county certificate. Normal certificates are ranked as first-class certificates. Fifty cents per month for each 5 per cent in attendance over and above 40 per cent of census. This is to be calculated ou attendance for full term. In addition to the inadequacy of her salary, a teacher is further embarrassed by the irregularity of payments. Often she is forced to work three or four months before she receives any money at all, and almost without exception she must wait two months for the first payment. Many teachers report that when a school term is over, they must wait until after their vacation before receiving their full salary for the previous year. This is a considerable hardship. Teach- ers borrow of their parents or of the bank and can never be certain of the exact date when the money due them will be paid. The main reason for the insufficient salaries found throughout Kentucky is the lack of responsibility felt by the community. Only a very small proportion of money spent for salaries is raised by local taxation, this item in the budget being paid almost wholly from the state fund. Quality of Instruction Considering the low standard for teachers and the totally inade- quate salaries, it is not surprising that one finds the quality of instruc- tion in these schools exceedingly poor. The most noticeable feature is the purely textbook recitation. Questions are asked directly from the book and the only answers accepted are those given in it. In Christian County a fifth grade history class was reciting. The teacher asked the question: "How did Abraham Lincoln spend his early years?" There was an immediate interest shown and hands waved in the air. The teacher called on a small boy who volunteered, "He spent his early years a-readin.' Some- times he'd read all night." The teacher was visibly annoyed. Schools 59 "No, that's wrong. Does anyone know the answer?" This time only a few hands responded, but one little girl timidly suggested that "he spent his early years working hard and studying all night by the firelight." At this the teacher closed her book, de- livered a sharp lecture on their lack of preparation and gave the correct answer: "Abraham Lincoln spent his early years in hardship." Many classes in spelling were visited by the investigator and in numerous cases almost obsolete words were being given. In one school, children were spelling such words as "wolverine," "ocelot," and "zebu." In a Jefferson County school children in the fifth grade were learning to spell "asterisk," "astral," "astrology," and in the seventh grade "embryo," "jocund" and "nascent." In view of the present interest in civics, special attention was given to the teaching of this subject. As a general rule the children learned the lesson word by word from the textbook and recited it as though it were a, memory exercise. In one school children recited in chorus the constitution of the United States, being prompted by the teacher, who did not know it herself, but who would look it up on a chart when the class needed help. In another school the teacher asked a question to which the answer was to be "electors." When no immediate answer came, she said, "Yes, you know it. It begins with an 'e'." Often there is a decided absence of enthusiasm and interest on the part of the teacher, and discipline is of the formal type and quite xinsuccessful. In one of the Beargrass Counties there is a small, one-room school, presided over by a woman of about SO years, who has had no education beyond that of the common school. Her school is in perpetual disorder, papers and remains of lunches strewn on the floor, the blackboards covered with old work and profusely illustrated with comic pictures by the children. The shades at the window are torn. Altogether it is a hopeless place. The children call across the room while classes are reciting, they openly prompt each other, and there is not the slightest evidence of any studying being done by those in their seats. The teacher carries a switch in her hand while teaching, but as a usual thing she doesn't seem even to notice what the children are doing. When visited, a fourth grade spelling class was reciting. The words "cayenne" and "curtail" were given, but the children did not know the meaning of either word. 'The general gigglings which followed the spelling of "curtail" indicated that their understanding of the word was the tail of a dog. It is safe to say that they gained very little knowledge except in ways of lawlessness. In Muhlenberg County a little 8-year-old girl brought a bunch of wild flowers as a gift to the teacher, who upon receiv- ing it said to her, "Throw out that trash before you come inside this building." It was not a surprise to find that school dis- orderly. The teacher was continually threatening to "paddle you." 60 Child Welfare in Kentucky There is everywhere a lack of correlation. Only in rare instances is there any relationship between the lessons and the life of the chil- dren. Arithmetic consists of long sums in addition, subtraction and so forth, generally done at the board. Often, in order to keep the older boys still, they are given long numbers to add. Nature study and agriculture are taught as separate subjects, and there is appar- ently no connection between history and geography. The lack of any knowledge of current history is everywhere obvious. In one school a class of 20 boys between the ages of 10 and 14 were unable to an- swer intelligently even the simplest questions concerning the war. Few teachers have any knowledge of seat work; the children who are not reciting are told to study and are left alone so long as they are reasonably quiet. There is no hand work of any description. Of course, there are exceptions to these conditions. Among the younger teachers, especially among those who are graduates of the high school, there is often an earnest effort to meet these problems intelligently. Unfortunately, such teachers are still too rare. This^ however, is not the fault of the teachers. They are poorly trained and hopelessly underpaid, they have an unadaptable course of study and no proper equipment, their program is heavy and there is no opportunity for departmental work, and finally there is a lack of any kind of supervision. The Course of Study An extensive course of study has been prepared by the State Board of Education, which provides for the teaching of all required subjects and also additional subjects, such as domestic science and agriculture. After July, 1919, agriculture becomes compulsory. This curriculum also outlines supplementary books and suggests ways of enriching the course. The main criticisms are, first, the lack of any vocational work and the need of hand and seat work; secondly, it should be adapted to meet the conditions of rural life; and, thirdly, more space should be given to suggestions in ways of correlation. Kentucky is just beginning to profit by the Smith-Hughes Act, which appropriates to each state federal money for the teaching of agri- culture, home economics, and trades and industries, provided that the state, county or city raise an equal amount of money. During the year of 1918-19 the following schools benefited by this law: Teacher Training University of Kentucky, Lexington. Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute, Frankfort (Colored). Schools 61 Vocational Training Mason County, Mayslick High School. Daviess County, County High School, Owensboro. Daviess County, Utica High School. Ballard County, LaCenter High School. Muhlenberg County, Greenville High Sc«.ool. Mercer County, Harrodsburg High School. Boone County, Burlington High School. Marshall County, Benton High School. Colored Fayette County, Maddoxtown High School, Lexington. Bourbon County, Little Rock Training School, Paris. Some Economics and the Trades Paducah High School, Paducah, Home Economics. Harrodsburg High School, Harrodsburg, Home Economics. Somerset High School, Somerset, Home Economics, Printing and general industrial classes. Owensboro High School, Ovirensboro, Home Economics. Pembroke Training School (Colored), Pembroke, Home Eco- nomics. Georgetown High School (Colored), Georgetown, Home Eco- nomics. Louisville, Girls' High School, Home Economics. Louisville, Vocational School. Louisville, Continuation School. Louisville, Night School for Working Men. Louisville, Colored High School. Radio and Buzzer Classes Frankfort High School, Frankfort. Louisville Vocational School, Louisville. University of Kentucky, Lexington. Certain difficulties have arisen in the state in the administration of this law. In the first place there was a great demand for Smith- Hughes classes in home economics. According to the federal law a specific sum of money is appropriated to each state for work in trades and industries, 20 per cent, of which may be used for classes in home economics. As the demand was greater than the supply of money, Kentucky found that she could pay for instruction in home economics only 60 cents on a dollar and next year only SO cents on a dollar out 62 Child Welfare in Kentucky of the money apportioned to her, while the other 80 per cent, of the money set aside for trades and industries was practically unused because of little demand. The only solution for this condition is an amendment of the federal act. Another difficulty has been in securing sufficient teachers to con- form to the standard set by the federal board. One reason for this is the low standards previously accepted by the state and it will be necessary for normal schools and colleges to raise them in order to meet this new demand. The Smith-Hughes Act, however, has a tremendous influence on high school education in the counties. Wherever classes in agri- culture have been started they have proved most popular, and without doubt numbers of boys and girls who otherwise would have left school have remained in order to take this work. In Daviess County the county high school at Utica is almost entirely vocational, both boys and girls taking agriculture according to the federal requirements. There is a constant demand in other counties for the establishment of these classes and this will without doubt have appreciable effect ■upon the new courses of study about to be issued by the state. Extension of School Term The state law reads: The school term shall not be less than six months (120 days) and may by the superintendent of public instruction be extended to seven months or eight months, when the resources of the school fund or contribution by the local taxation or dona- tions shall justify such extension. Unfortunately this extension of the school term is very rare. 'Last year when so many weeks were lost because of the epidemic of influ- enza, only in a very few places was any effort made to extend the term and make up the work. In one district in Harlan County, the school term has been open only two months in the last two years. The Scotch mother of one of the boys attending this school said that she was hoping they could go back to Scotland, where she could get a proper education for her boy; that even when she was a girl she had had greater opportunity than her boy was having in America. In length of school term as well as many other matters, the child living in the country is at a great disadvantage compared with the child in the city or small town. The average rural school is open six months in the year; the average graded school in the city of the fifth and the sixth classes, seven and one-half to eight and one-half months, while the child in cities of the first four classes has from nine to ten months schooling. Another disadvantage in these rural schools is that as a usual thing they open either in July or August and close in January or February, and because of this, many children do not Schools 63 go to school for more than three months. They will not start in the summer mainly because that is the one time when they are most needed by their parents to work in the fields. So far it has been im- possible to compel attendance at schools that are open during the months when child labor is most needed on the farm. County High Schools The law provides for the immediate establishment of one or more county high schools in each county, unless such a high school is already in existence and arrangements can be made to provide pupils completing the rural school course with free tuition. In spite of this law, there is a lack of sufficient number of high schools. What schools there are, are generally inaccessible, and only a small percentage of children are enrolled. The usual arrangement is a contract between the county board of education and the board in the largest city in the county, whereby the county board pays the tuition of any child who desires to attend the city school. As a usual thing, the child must go into the city and board for at least five days in the week, and therefore he does not receive his high school education without cost as does the city child. In 1917 there was an enrollment in the elementary schools in the counties of 464,146 and in the high schools in the county of 12,226, which is only 2.7 per cent, of the total. In the city at the same time there were enrolled 69,829 in the elementary schools and 9,284 in the high schools, making 13.2 per cent. This shows the lack of equal high school opportunities for the city and the country child. Where county high schools have been established, the course is very often unadapted to the needs. For example, one will almost invariably find but one course given — the classical, which provides for entrance to college, although an inappreciable percentage of these children ever enter college. There is very little public interest in the high school movement in the country districts. In one county a man was elected for the state legislature largely on a platform of complete abolition of high schools in his county. However, the new life put into the schools by the Smith-Hughes classes and the very excellent work being done by the state supervisor of high schools are helping to counteract this tendency. Consolidation of Schools Perhaps the one thing needed more than anything else to raise the standard of rural schools is the consolidation of the small district schools into a larger unit. This movement has become immensely pop- ular in many states, but its growth in Kentucky has been slow. In 1917 there were only 79 consolidated schools in the entire state and 64 Child Welfare in Kentucky very few have been added since that time. In many counties, effort has been made to bring together certain districts into one school, but this has been very generally defeated. The reasons for opposition are, first of all, the very bad roads. There is no doubt that in many of the counties consolidation is entirely impossible until some meas- ures are taken to provide better roads; in many places it is impossible to get from district to district during the months when there is bad weather. The second reason is that "transportation is too expensive." In many places where schools have been consolidated, no transporta- tion has been provided, the children having to get to school as best they can. The greatest movement for the consolidation of schools has been found in Mason County, where it has been developed suc- cessfully. Graded Schools As a rule the buildings, the equipments and the requirements de- manded of teachers are higher in these schools than in the ordinary rural schools. Owing to the fact that they are generally held in build- ings containing at least five rooms, it is possible to have some form of departmental work with the older children. They are compelled by the law to have some high school work. These schools are under the direct supervision of five trustees, and practically the only con- tract they have with the county superintendent is when it is necessary for him to pay them the money from the school fund. This lack of any supervision is their worst feature. The Subscription Schools In order to supplement the work of the regular school, occa- sionally the parents in a school district hire the teacher to continue her work for two or three months, paying her as a usual thing $2 per month for each child enrolled. If by any chance a child leaves school, he is not forced to pay the money for his tuition. Many times upon visiting these schools, the investigator was impressed by the fact that they are conducted better than the ordinary common school. The reason for this, however, is obvious. Parents generally choose the best teacher in the vicinity for this work, and the children are from homes where there is some interest in school activities. One great weakness in these schools is that the law does not establish any necessary qualifications for the teachers. The Compulsory Education Law and the Rural School The compulsory education law reads as follows: Every parent or guardian or other person having the cus- tody, control or supervision of any child or children between the ages of seven and 12 years inclusive, shall cause such child or Schools 6S; children to be enrolled in and attend some public or private or parochial school regularly for the full common school or graded common school term in each year in the common school district of the county in which such child or children may live in this Commonwealth. There is, however, a different law for the child living in the city, who must attend school between the ages of seven and 16 inclusive, unless he is between the age of 14 and 16 and is working under a permit. An entire year may be wasted by the child in the rural com- munity, because the child labor law will not grant a work permit to any child under the age of 14; therefore, the country child may leave school at the beginning of his thirteenth year, but cannot start work until he has reached his fourteenth birthday. There is no reason why this law should not be changed and the standard for the country child be raised to at least that of the city child. According to the state law the enforcement of this compulsory attendance act is in the hands of the sub-district trustee. This trus- tee naturally dislikes to prosecute his neighbors and friends and so is very slow about enforcing it. Very often he is not convinced that it is particularly important for a child to attend school regularly and so refuses to co-operate with the teacher in keeping up the attend- ance. The county superintendent recognizes this weakness. In Daviess County the superintendent states that there is a great deal of truancy in suburban districts and complains that it is utterly impossible to enforce the law as it is written. The superintendent of Henderson County says, "It is not enforced, because it is nobody's job." Next year he hopes to have two truancy officers working in separate parts of the county. These officers to be paid $65 a month. In Edmonson County the superintendent says, "As I can see it, there are three reasons for the lack of attendance in our schools; first, the lack of interest of parents; second, lack of interest of teachers; and third, lack of co-operation between superintendent, trustees, teacher and patrons." The School Census The law relating to the taking of the school census reads: The trustee of each school sub-district shall in the month of April biennially, make and return to the county superintendent a complete census of the children of school age residing in his district and for the performance of all his duties he shall be al- lowed and paid the sum of five cents for each pupil child re- corded in such census. Another section of the law contemplates an annual census. There are several weak points in this law; the census should be taken annually instead of biennially, and some provision should be made for securing information concerning the number of deaf, blind 66 Child Welfare in Kentucky and otherwise defective children in the county. At present the census- taker is told to omit all such children. Everywhere there is proof of the inaccuracy of the census. In Livingston County the superintendent says, "It is fairly accurate but they usually miss five or six names in every dis- trict." Another superintendent reports, "It is never accurate. I know at least 12 districts where it is all wrong." Another county superintendent reports that the census is taken by "a teacher or daughter of almost anybody and is never accurate." No use is made of the school census except as a basis for dis- tributing the state fund. Almost never is any comparison made be- tween it and the enrollment for the purpose of enforcing the attend- ance law. Unfortunately, the ages of the children taken in the census are not grouped in such a way as to show the number of compulsory school age residing in the county; this should be done in order that the state may see the results it is getting from the standards it fixes. According to the report of the state superintendent of public instruc- tion for the year of 1917, the percentage of attendance based on the census in the 107 counties that reported was 49. The percentage based on the enrollment was 60. The main reasons given for non-attendance are work, sickness, and indifference. It must be remembered that no matter how well a child labor law is drawn or enforced, it will be quite impossible to secure a high attendance rate if the schools are conducted in unat- tractive buildings with inefficient teachers, and if the course of study is not adapted to the needs of pupils in rural communities. The rela- tionship between attendance and the efficiency of the school system is far closer than is often recognized. It' is absurd to think that mere machinery can satisfactorily solve this problem. At the same time that the standard of a compulsory education law is raised, the school itself must be brought to a higher state of efficiency. One fact stands out in studying the attendance in the rural schools. According to the report of the state superintendent for 1917, there were at that time 6,532 children over the age of 10 who could neither read nor write. When we remember the startling examples of illiteracy revealed by the draft, and then study this situation, we get some clue to the cause of that condition. Supervision of Rural Schools One of the greatest needs in the country school system is proper supervision. With untrained teachers teaching all the subjects of the common school in all eight grades, living in isolated communities where there is no opportunity for observation or for study in educa- tional methods, the only possible solution is to have adequate and BchooU 67 intelligent supervision. At present all such supervision devolves on the county superintendent. This superintendent is chosen by vote of the people and is not necessarily highly trained in educational matters. In addition to this, the business and administrative end of the work must necessarily take a great part of his time. The reports from 110 counties in 1917 show that the total number of days spent in office work by the county superintendent was 20,986, while only 7,713 days were given to supervision. Most of the schools, especially in the most isolated sections of the county, are visited but once a year, and in almost no cases are three visits to the same school re- ported. The teacher can expect but little help from such supervision. One of the first things that should be done is to appoint trained men and women in each county to supervise the schools and to help the teacher in her individual problems. As it might be difficult to provide these at once, it is suggested that the normal schools of the state and possibly the State University consider this as part of their extension work. If even one carefully chosen and properly trained worker could be sent into a county during the months when the schools are in session to visit and supervise carefully the work of the individual teachers, the effect on the school system would be marked. Such a supervisor could conduct model classes, could show the teach- ers how to make the most of their inadequate equipment, could give lessons in seat work and could help to awaken the interest of the community in the school as a social center. This would necessarily arouse the enthusiasm of the teacher and would give her a vision of her opportunity which, under present conditions, is almost impossible.- During the vacation months, this same supervisor could conduct summer school work for such teachers as are unable to attend the session at the normal school. Surely this would be of far greater benefit to the teachers than the county institutes, helpful though they may be. SCHOOLS IN INDEPENDENT CITIES Cities of the First Class According to the school laws, all cities with a population of more than 100,000 shall be designated as cities of the first class. Louisville is the only city of this size in the state, and with its population of over 250,000 presents problems not by any means typical of general conditions. A detailed study of this city's schools was not attempted as it is not necessary for the purposes of this inquiry. Many of the schools were visited, the superintendent, the truancy officers, and teachers were interviewed, and an investigation made of special feat- ures of interest. There is no doubt but that Louisville has an excellent school system. 68 Child Welfare in Kentuohy In addition to the superintendent of schools, there are a number of supervisors in special subjects, and careful attention is given to the supervision of all the schools. Many schools are in modern build- ings planned by architects with knowledge of the needs of a school. Where it has been necessary to continue schools in old buildings, effort has been made to keep them in good repair and to make them light and as sanitary as possible. There is, of course, a great deal of overcrowding and the old excuse is given of insufficient funds for new buildings. The teachers in the Louisville schools are for the most part good. One reason for this is that the majority of the graded teachers have been trained in the Louisville Normal School and have been espe- cially prepared for service in the city system. The fact that there is a good deal of departmental work, even in the grades, makes it possible to secure teachers especially trained and prepared to teach definite subjects, instead of expecting one teacher to be able to teach all subjects. No teacher is appointed who has not graduated from an accredited high school and had two years at Normal School. In the high school, teachers are required to have degrees from accredited colleges. The salaries of the teachers are very low. In the grades they start at $SSO and there is an increase of $50 per year until $700 is reached. After the $700 salary has been attained, there is an increase of five dollars per month to $900. In the high school, the teachers usually start at $70 or $75 per month with an increase of $100 a year up to $1,000; then the increase is $50 per year up to $1,300. During the past year, it has been exceedingly difficult to secure a sufficient number of teachers. With all the opportunities for other work, teach- ers have refused to remain for the small salaries that Louisville could afford to pay. The Louisville Normal School is a successful institution. Only students who have graduated from a high school and were among the upper two-thirds of their class are permitted to enter the school. Courses are given to prepare these girls to become efficient teachers along whatever lines they choose. Careful supervision of their work is given, and special attention is paid to correlation. The work in the kindergarten and in the primary grades was by far the best that the investigator saw in the state and better than in many similar schools in other states. One of the best features is the extension work; on Saturday mornings and on certain afternoons after school hours, classes in special subjects are held for teachers in the school system. These classes are popular and are having a great influence. The Louisville High Schools Separate high schools are established for boys and girls. The Schools 69 girls' high school is an old building badly overcrowded, but some excellent work is being done here. Four regular courses are offered, the academic, the commercial, the home economics, and the two-year commercial course. An unusual situation has arisen with the intro- duction of the Smith-Hughes course in home economics; the principal found it impossible to interest a sufficient number of girls in taking this to make it worth while, so it has become the custom to advise girls who have failed in other courses to transfer to this department. This is of course contrary to the purpose of the federal act, but it is a condition found in many of the larger cities. A course in home economics differs from one in stenography or salesmanship in that it does not train the student for a profession for which there is a large demand. Girls who must earn their own living as early as possible select commercial courses, while those not needing a vocational course choose the classical subjects. The opportunities for laboratory work are not sufficient, owing to the crowded condition, but the standards of the school are high. The boys' high school is situated in a new building with a fine auditorium, good vocational equipment, and laboratories of all kinds. An interesting innovation in the course of study has recently been introduced; instead of graduating when they have secured a definite number of credits, pupils are now graduating after they have com- pleted a definite course. As a result of this, electives are reduced to types, rather than individual subjects. Under this plan, a student selects a definite course and knows exactly from the beginning what subjects are included. Six courses are offered, the classical and scien- tific courses, which prepare for college; the general course, designed for pupils not going to college and not desiring to prepare for any special work; the four-year commercial course, which includes such subjects as salesmanship and advertising; the two-year commercial course; and the technical course, which fits a pupil for work in the manufacturing plants of a city. Louisville Vocational School This school was organized as an experiment five years ago. The Consumers' League realized that they had demanded great things of employers, without giving them any material advantages. The pur- pose of the school was to prepare students for work in the different vocations offered in the industrial life of Louisville. During the first year the Consumers' League paid the director of the shop, while the board of education paid for the academic teacher and the equipment. The work started in a cottage with only 32 pupils. Now there is a faculty of 13, six shop courses, a Smith-Hughes school of trades and industries and a continuation school.* The enrollment this year is 256. *There are four additional teachers for continuation work. 70 Child Welfare in Kentucky The school is entirely supported by the board of education, with the exception of a small portion of the salary of the director, which is still paid by the Consumers' League. To enter the school a child must be over 14 years of age, and must have completed the sixth grade. There is continuation work in sewing, stenography, typewriting, bookkeeping, English and arithmetic. Students who attend these classes are excused for two hours twice a week by the employers. This is voluntary on the part of the employers, but there is strong public opinion in favor of a law to demand attendance at continuation schools as a requirement for a work permit. Another interesting experiment has been started the past year. This is a co-operative scheme between retail stores and the school. Two of the largest stores in Louisville allow their juvenile help to come to school; each sending the children one and one-half hours daily. These pupils take courses in pre-vocational salesmanship. In the vocational school there is a bindery, where the books used in the city schools are rebound; also a print shop, which turns out blank forms for the board of education as well as work necessary for the school itself; and there is a line electrical school. For the girls, in addition, there is a sewing department, and trade is solicited from interested persons in the city. There are no classes in cooking, be- cause the profession of cooking is not on the same economic basis as the other trades, and there is not sufficient demand for trained work- ers in lunch rooms, cafeterias, etc., to warrant the establishment of such a class in a vocational school. Effort is made to place all children who complete the two years' course, and each child is followed up at least once a year. There is also an attempt to place children on a half-day basis, one-half of the time being devoted to academic work in the schools. Special Features in Louisville Interesting opportunity classes have been established in the city schools. In these classes children are enrolled who are able to carry more advanced work than that of the grade to which they would naturally be assigned. The children who enter these two classes are omitted after psychological tests, indicating intelligence quotients ranging from 120.8 to 162.1. These tests are taken under the super- vision of the director of the psychological laboratory. Special schools have been established for retarded children. Pupils are sent to these classes after psychological tests have been given. In one class feeble-minded children are enrolled, the main pur- pose being to keep these children off the streets and away from their undesirable homes, until such time as they can be admitted to the institution for the feeble-minded. The other classes, however, have children who are slow in development, but who with proper instruc- Schools 71 tion may be able to resume the work of a normal grade at a later date. In all these classes special attention is paid to handwork. There are also open-air classes for children who are not strong or who have any tendency toward affection of lungs. These classes are held on the upper floor of a school building, and all windows are open at all times. A special lunch is provided and rest hours are re- quired. At the end of the school year, a child is examined; if he is found well enough to take his place with normal children at the be- ginning of the next school term, a record to that effect is made and he is again examined in the fall to make certain that he is still up to the required standard. The Compulsory Education Law in Louisville Effort is made to enforce the compulsory attendance law in the city of Louisville. The one great difficulty encountered is the at- tendance of children in the parochial schools. There is very little co-operation between these schools and the attendance bureau. While the law places the enforcement in the hands of the city board of edu- cation, no attempt is made to follow up cases in parochial schools, except at the request of the schools themselves. The chief truancy officer is very much interested in his work and is doing all in his power to enforce the law. He has several assistants, including one worker who devotes her time to the colored schools. No special qualifications are demanded of these officers. There is generally good co-operation with the judge of the juvenile court, and at all times the bureau of attendance works in harmony with the local charities. One interesting phase of this work is found in the classes for incorrigible boys, two of which have been established; one for younger boys and one for older, where children who have been spe- cial problems in their own school may be sent, and where habitual truants may go. These classes have been very successful. Both of the teachers told the investigator that they rarely had any trouble at all with their pupils, and that many of them had gone into the high school and made good. Cities of the Second Class All cities with a population between 20,000 and 100,000 are consid- ered cities of the second class. There are four such cities in the state — Lexington, Paducah, Covington and Newport. Their school systems are all unique and cannot be classed together. In Lexington the Uni- versity of Kentucky exerts a certain influence. Paducah is isolated from other cities and has developed its own system with little outside influence. In Covington and Newport there is a great lack of any school or civic spirit; the reason for this is obvious; they are both 72 Child Welfare in Kentucky situated just across the river from Cincinnati, and many of the in- habitants go daily to business in the larger city, having, therefore, little interest in the problems of their own city. Compulsory Law Enforcement There is one failing which all these cities have in common, and that is the poor enforcement of the compulsory attendance law. The best enforcement is found in Paducah, but there the lack of any co- operation on the part of the county judge makes it almost impossible for the truancy officer to accomplish what she desires. The following illustration serves to show the difficulties of trying to enforce the law in the city: The truancy officer was anxious to secure the conviction of certain persons and decided to make a test case. It took her seven weeks to get this case to court, and in the end it was nec- essary for her to hire a personal lawyer who conducted a bluff trial. She first took four cases to the county judge and asked for a summons. She was then referred to the county attorney and went seven times before she was able to see him. Before any action was taken, the county attorney went out of office, and the cases had to be referred to his successor. They were then taken by him to the county judge who declared they did not come within his jurisdiction. The county attorney then made out warrants and took them to a magistrate, who said: "This is not my business at all. It belongs to the probation officer." How- ever he finally agreed to do it. But no notification was made. The truant officer again went to the county attorney, who sent her to the magistrate, who said that the sheriff had returned the warrants, because it was not his business. The judge added: "I don't think I should do this. I live near those people." In despair the truancy officer then hired a personal lawyer who found that the county judge refused to act, as did also the magistrate. He then went to another magistrate for a single summons to bring the families into the county court. This magistrate claimed: "It's all wrong for me to try this case. I believe in it. But it's not up to me." When the county judge refused to try the case, it was brought into this magistrate's court for a mock trial. The parents were threatened, but of course it was impossible to fine them, as there was no one in the court who had the authority to levy a fine. With difficulties like this the truancy officer in Paducah finds it impossible successfully to enforce the compulsory attendance law. However, the school authorities should receive credit for a real it- tempt to keep a high standard in school attendance. In Lexington there is a truancy officer for white children, and another for the colored children. The law, however, is not very well enforced. A study was made of 939 cases of absence reported by the white truancy officer; out of this number no reason at all was given for Schools 73 341 absences, and the reason for 156 was totally inadequate. Many children of compulsory school age were found on the streets while the schools were in session. In Covington the situation is very bad. Although there is a full- time truancy officer, there are everywhere signs of violation of the compulsory attendance law; 19 children of compulsory school age were found out of school without valid reason during one hour, while the investigator walked about four blocks and at no great distance from the office of the superintendent and truancy officer. The follow- ing are typical cases: Boy of 11 years old, in the second grade. Hasn't been to school for two months. Was found looking at the posters in front of a moving picture house. Could not read or write. Boy, 10, says he goes to second district school, but doesn't know what grade he is in. Doesn't know the teacher's name. Gave as an excuse, "Ma'am told me to stay home." Girl, eight, has never gone to school, because she won't be vaccinated. Boy, 11, can't write his own name. Claims he goes to second district school, but does not know grade or teacher. The boys with him claim he doesn't go to school at all. Boy, 13, fifth grade. Gave as reason for absence from school, "I went over the river to buy pants." In addition to these cases there were found many children of compulsory school age, during this same period, working either full- time or part-time without the necessary permits. In Newport, a truancy officer is engaged who is paid $60 per month for 10 months of the year. The main difficulty in this city is the lack of co-operation with the parochial schools. Also there is no support on the part of the juvenile judge. Course of Study The course of study usually found in these cities of the second class is similar to that prescribed by the state, with additional vo- cational work. In all these cities manual training and home economics are offered in the high school and also in the seventh and eighth grades. The work in the high school is elective. There are no normal courses given, but in all the high schools there are special classes in bookkeeping, typewriting, and stenography. No agriculture is taught. In Paducah there is a Smith-Hughes class in home economics. Qualifications and Salaries of Teachers Requirements for teaching in the schools of these cities vary some- what, but, as a usual thing, a high school graduate with some normal training or a normal school graduate is demanded in the grades; and in 74 Child Welfare in Kentucky the high schools, a degree from an accredited college. While these teachers are superior to the average rural school teacher, there are still many who cling to antiquated methods of instruction and who are slaves to the textbook. The following first grade geography lesson was observed: Teacher: Now we will talk about rivers. What has a river? Child: A river has a bank. Teacher: Yes, children, a river has a left bank and a right bank. Repeat it after me. Children: A river has a left bank and a right bank. Teacher: Now, what else do you know about rivers? (Silence). Teacher: Every river has a beginning and an ending. Repeat it after me. Children: Every river has a beginning and an ending. The recitation then continued on other questions in the textbook. No further explanation of rivers was given. The salaries in these schools are very low. In Paducah salaries range from $45 to $65 per month. Girls and boys who have graduated from the commercial department have secured positions and are re- ceiving more pay than the teachers they had the preceding year. In Newport the scale is somewhat higher; the minimum salary being $50 and the maximum $86.25. The following table is a summary of the salaries of all grade teachers in Newport for the past year: TABLE III. SALARIES OF GRADE TEACHERS, NEWPORT. Elementary Teachers Salary 8 $50.00 4 52.50 1 57.50 1 60.00 2 65.00 1 70.00 2 75.00 6 77.65 62 86.25 As might be expected, all these cities are having difficulty in se- curing a sufficient number of teachers to meet their needs. Special Features In Covington there is a class for retarded children. The teacher in charge has had some experience in schools for the feeble-minded, and by temperament is peculiarly adapted for this difficult work. There are about 30 children in the class, chosen because of difficulties Schools 75 they had in their class rooms. There is no medical examination and no psychological tests, except such as the teacher herself makes. Al- though there is little of the necessary equipment, a great deal of hand work is introduced into the curriculum. In fact, this part of the work is so emphasized that the children in the normal grades wish that they could be admitted into this special class, in order that they, too, might have a chance to do hand work. As all types of retarded chil- dren are enrolled, it is difficult for the teacher to accomplish much of permanent value. Until she can have the assistance of a medical in- spector and some method of dividing her groups into those who are feeble-minded and those who are retarded because of slow develop- ment, she will have great difficulty. Another similar class has recently teen organized. Lexington has two opportunity classes. These are experiments, initiated by the principal of ward school. For the additional salary of $10 a month a teacher devotes her afternoons to the children who need special assistance, and the work of her own grade is con- densed into the morning hours. These classes give a great oppor- tunity to children who have been retarded because of absence from school on account of illness or because of difficulties in any special subject. There are, too, children of a low grade of mentality. Again, there is no medical inspection and there are no psychological tests, except such as the teacher is able to give. Newport has some exceptional vocational equipment. The su- perintendent of schools in this city is very much alive to the needs of his system and fortunately is in touch with the best modern move- mients. Even the schools held in old buildings appear attractive and the children seem interested. There is a marked difference between the condition in this city and in the sister city of Covington. Cities of Third and Fourth Classes For this investigation the following cities of the third class were visited: Bowling Green, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Frankfort, Ash- land, Middlesboro, Owensboro; and cities of the fourth class: Central City, Elizabethtown, Mayfield, Paris, Pineville, Princeton, Richmond, Versailles, Harlan and Catlettsburg. Conditions in cities of the third class are similar to those of the second class. In fact, in some cases they are better. This, however, is not true of the cities of the fourth class, in which as a general thing the schools are not much better than small town schools. 76 Child Welfare in Kentucky Compulsory Attendance The enforcement of the law is as lax in these cities as in other parts of the state. In certain cities truancy officers have been ap- pointed, but in all cases they are paid inadequate salaries and are not chosen because of any particular qualifications for the work. One superintendent stated that his board of education paid $60 a month for a truancy officer and that they had chosen "a pretty good fellow," but admitted that this same officer could not have earned $60 a month at any other occupation. These officers are further hampered by the lack of public sentiment in favor of a rigid enforcement of the law. In Owensboro the attendance law is well enforced. In ad- dition to the regular truancy officer, a woman has been ap- pointed by the board of education to do special work on at- tendance cases. There is also a probation officer, a woman in this city; and there is splendid co-operation between these two officers. The judge of the juvenile court is ready to help in all necessary prosecutions, and the Associated Charities assist wher- ever the reason for non-attendance is financial difficulties in the home. The investigator visited a Saturday morning session of the juvenile court, where six cases of non-attendance were tried. In every case an intelligent verdict was given. In this same city the census is taken by the principals of the various ward build- ings. The first year this method was introduced a great many names of children were secured that had never appeared upon the records. The census is taken yearly. Middlesboro has a new city superintendent. Formerly there was no enforcement of the law, but this superintendent is interested and anxious to enforce both the education and the child labor laws. He has, therefore, constituted himself the truancy officer and has enlisted the co-operation of the police court judge. The chief of police has one special man who at- tends ito all school complaints and is sent out after the children when the superintendent requests it. The superintendent has found the parents indifferent and even hostile to the law; many of them did not know it existed. From January 1, 1918, to May 1, 1919, seven cases of non-attendance appear on the order book of the county court; of these three were committed to the House of Refuge, and in the other four cases the parents were fined one dollar and costs. In Paris a woman has been appointed truancy officer by the board of education, and follows up cases for both white and colored children. The superintendent reports that there is a high per cent of attendance in the schools of the city; he is, however, opposed to having a truancy officer, as he believes that all follow-up work should be done by individual teachers. Princeton and Mayfield do practically nothing to compel attendance in their schools. When these cities were visited a great many children were found on the streets while the schools were in session, and many of themhad not been attending school any part of the term. In both cities the only effort to secure attendance is made by the teachers. Schools 77 One superintendent said: "We are too crowded to enforce the law. We're glad enough to have them stay away." Central City makes no effort to compel its children to attend school. During one-half hour in two city blocks eight children were found who had not attended school that day, although the schools were in session at the time. The cases follow: 1. Boy, aged 12, Sth grade. Had not been in school for two months. 2. Boy, aged 14, 4th grade. Had not been in school for three months. 3. Boy, aged 12, 3rd grade. Had not been in school for four months. 4. Boy, aged IS, 3rd grade. Had not been in school for a year and a half. The clerk in the drug store informed the investi- gator that he was a notoriously bad boy, largely because he had been allowed to run the streets instead of being forced to attend school. 5. Boy, 12 years, 4th grade. Had not been in school for three months. 6. Boy, 11 years, 2nd grade. Had not been in school for five weeks. 7. Girl, 13 years, 4th grade. Had not attended school for four months. 8. Boy, 14 years, Sth grade. Had not been in school for three weeks. These illustrations clearly show that there is no definite policy for enforcing the compulsory attendance law. Unfortunately the above cases are typical of most of the cities of these classes. Course of Study In the cities of the third class, in addition to the prescribed sub- jects, a considerable amount of time is devoted to vocational work. In both Owensboro and Henderson fine work is done in home eco- nomics. Good vocational work is also found in Hopkinsville, Ash- land, and Bowling Green. However, it is largely confined to the high school, little opportunity being given to the grade student to take up home economics or manual training. No agriculture is taught, be- cause of the lack of any demand. The smaller cities have courses of study based almost exclusively upon the state course. Very little vocational work is offered, and where it is given, there is inadequate equipment. In these smaller cities there might easily be introduced work in vocational agriculture, as the children attending these schools live in small communities where agriculture is the chief industry. Qualifications a/nd Salaries of Teachers The cities of the third class require that their teachers shall have had some normal training, and that the high school teachers shall 78 Child Welfare in Kentucky have degrees from accredited colleges. The standard in fourth class cities is not so high. Very often teachers are found who have had only a few terms in normal school, or who have done two years' high school work and then gone directly into the profession of teaching. Many of the teachers found in these cities are excellent, but, again, there is but little knowledge of modern educational methods. Cor- relation is often an unknown term. A teacher depends on the text- book and has little resource herself for supplementary work. Salaries are, of course, low. In Owensboro there are three classes of certificates. Teachers in Class C receive from $405 to $477 per year; in Class B from $540 to $612 per year; and in Class A from $639 to $675 a year. In Hopkinsville the average annual salary is $540. The superin- tendent made an investigation in that city and found that negro women who were stripping tobacco in a factory were earning more money per day than the grade teachers. This, of course, is based on working days in the year, not school days. In this city the only way for a teacher to secure more pay is to get a position somewhere else and threaten to leave. As a result there is constant change of personnel. Henderson pays its grade teachers on the average of $55 or $56 per month. In this same city policemen are earning $80 a month, while the firemen receive $84.50. The minimum salary in Mayfield is $45; the maximum $55. This year there was a teachers' strike; and all high school teachers, except two, left. The highest salary paid to a grade teacher in another town is $550. The superintendent said: "We didn't want to, but we had to give her that, because she wouldn't teach for less." Fortunately, there are everywhere signs that salaries will be raised in the coming year. Until the increase is made it is going to be impossible to secure even inefficient teachers, for the women in Kentucky are beginning to awaken to the realization that they do not have to teach to earn their living, as there are other forms of labor now open to them. Cities of Fifth and Sixth Classes The following cities were visited for this survey: Beattyville, Berea, Drakesboro, Grand Rivers, Greenville, Hawesville, Irvine, Louisa, Tompkinsville. Most of their schools are not unlike consoli- dated schools in rural districts. The buildings usually contain four or five rooms, and are often in bad repair. Most of them are over- crowded. Little attempt is made to beautify the buildings or the grounds, and they present a sordid, drab appearance. The compulsory attendance law is rarely enforced. Schools 79 In Drakesboro no boys over 16 were found in the school at all, and very few between the ages of 12 and 16. The enrollment in the high school was five; the average attendance three. In the grades, out of a census of 271 and of an enrollment of 238, there is an average attendance of 130. No effort of any kind is made to bring the absent children to school; the principal says: "If all the children who should come to school, came, we couldn't seat them. We run two primary sessions as it is." Greenville has fair attendance in her schools; but this is largely because there is a certain amount of public opinion in favor of it. No machinery is provided for enforcement, and several violations were discovered one morning. No attempt is made in Tompkinsville to secure a high average of attendance, and very little interest in the schools is shown even by the school officials. The general attitude is that if the children come they will be taken care of; but if they don't want to come, that is their own affair. In these cities the state course of study, with very few variations, is the one usually found. The high school offers one course, the aca- demic, which prepares for college, but as practically none of the chil- dren go to college, this is the most useless course they could offei. No vocational work is offered, either in the grades or in the high school. Teachers' salaries are low, as also are the qualifications demanded. In the grades, teachers are found with only a common school educa- tion, and with not more than two terms at a state normal. Many are graduates of high schools that give two years' work only. The salaries range from $40 to $55 per month for the grades; and $60 to $65 for the high school. In one of these schools a teacher has been earning $40 a month for a period of five years. Naturally, the quality of in- struction is consistently poor. NEGRO SCHOOLS IN KENTUCKY According to the law, separate schools must be provided for chil- dren of the colored race, and offer the same opportunities as schools for white children. This law is enforced insofar as the establishment of separate schools is concerned, but in many respects there is great inequality between the opportunities given to white children and those given to negroes. Most of the buildings used by the colored race are old and in very bad condition. It is quite evident that funds for build- ing purposes are not equitably distributed. There is also a decided difference in the equipment, except for home economics; in many cities there is better opportunity for the colored children to learn cooking than for the white children and the reason is obvious — it is generally believed that the colored children need this instruction as they go into domestic service. 80 ChAld Welfare in Kentucky Colored High Schools There are only 29 high schools for negroes in the state, and this, of course, means that in many counties no provision is made for in- struction beyond that of the grade school. The law requires that a county high school or its equivalent be provided for every county. In some counties a colored teacher is appointed in the grade school to do high school work, but no high school students are enrolled. No effort is made to interest colored students in going on with their work after they have completed the eighth grade. An exception to these statements is found in Louisville, and also in one or two other large cities, where good schools for colored children are provided. They are true, however, of cities of the fourth, fifth and sixth classes. Course of Study The course of study usually offered is that prescribed by the state, and in addition industrial work is sometimes given. At Little Rock school, in Bourbon County, exceptionally good vocational work is done. Here money is secured not only from the state, but from the John Fox Slater Fund for colored rural schools. This fund provides $600. Five hundred dollars to be used for teachers and $100 for equipment. In addition, one- third of the principal's salary is paid from the Smith-Hughes fund, because the principal gives two-thirds of his time to the teaching of agriculture. The following lines of activity are carried on: (1) Practical agriculture, according to the Smith-Hughes standard. (2) Home economics taught by a graduate of the Hampton Institute, which includes some fine work in canning. (3) Manual training. (4) A broom factory, boys in the 7th and 8th grades making brooms which are sold, one-third of the profit covering necessary expenses. (5) A blacksmith shop is to be opened this year. All the teachers in this school are earnest workers and very much interested in the problems of their race. Their salaries are very low; the principal receives $75 a month, the grade teachers $50 and $55. In the high schools the only course offered in the smaller cities and in the country is the regular academic college preparatory course. In the cities, this is somewhat modified by the introduction of voca- tional work. Qualifications and Salaries of Teachers Most of the teachers found in the colored schools had received their training either in the Frankfort Normal School or in institutions for colored students in other states. A higher standard is demanded Schools 81 of applicants lor positions in colored rural schools than in white rural schools. The teachers are often intelligently interested in school problems and eager to give as much chance as possible to the colored children under their care, feeling deeply the inequality of opportunity and realizing that they are greatly handicapped because of over- crowded buildings and poor equipment. The salaries of teachers in the colored schools are even lower than of white teachers in schools of corresponding grade. In the rural districts salaries range from $35 to $55, and in the smaller cities rarely go over $60 except when the teacher is acting principal of the school. Many men teach and report that they have a hard time supporting their families on the salaries they receive. Most of them work at some other occupation during the months when school is not in session, or after school hours. Payments are very irregular, which adds to the difficulties they are forced to meet. Separate Colored School Systems In three cities, Mayfield, Hopkinsville and Princeton, an unusual situation has arisen. In each there is a separate board of education for the colored schools, and a separate fund consisting of money raised from the taxation of negro property for their support. Of course, this means that schools so supported are of poorer grade than the white schools, as all valuable property is owned by white persons. A test case was made in Mayfield, where the negroes sued for their share of corporation taxes, the court handing down the opinion that the colored school had a right to a share in all corporation taxes, even though it was a white corporation. In Hopkinsville the colored board of education is demanding five j'ears' back pay, because of this decision. There the white schools are run under a special charter issued in 1872, while the colored schools are run under the laws governing a city of the third class. There is constant friction between the white and colored boards, but as the colored population exceeds the white school population, the white board of education refuses to do away with the separate system, on the ground that the colored voters would otherwise dictate the policies of all the schools. Under this separate system, Princeton last year received $300 on taxable negro property, including the poll tax, and $500 from corpora- tion taxes. This, plus the $5.65 per capita granted by the state, is all the money available for conducting the colored schools. Frankfort Normal School This school trains men and women to teach in the colored schools of the state. Courses similar to those given in the white normal school 82 Child Welfare in Kentucky are offered, but as a whole the school is not very much alive and i: not fulfilling its function. PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS Parochial schools are not widely distributed but are concentrated largely in Louisville, Covington and Newport. In the two last-named cities they serve about 60 per cent, of the school population. As a rule, the parochial schools wish to keep the enforcement of the com- pulsory attendance law so far as it affects their pupils in their own hands and are opposed to any interference on the part of the city school organization. Consequently the superintendent and truancy officers dislike to take steps in the matter and rarely prosecute any case where the child is attending a church school. A greater number of children leave school in the sixth grade or as soon as they reach the fourteenth year than is the case in the city schools; and little effort is made to keep them longer in the system. The teachers in the parochial schools are all sisters in some Cath- olic order, and are not required to hold state, county or city certifi- cates. The state has no way of ascertaining what quality of instruc- tion is given to the children in attendance. It is quite evident that some supervision of this work should be undertaken by the state. The course of study is similar to that prescribed by the state, but a considerable portion of time is devoted to religious instruction. Very little attention is paid to industrial work. NORMAL SCHOOLS Kentucky has established two normal schools, one in the western section and one in the eastern. The state appropriates money for their support, tuition is free to all students, and board is furnished at a reasonable rate. One of their greatest weaknesses is the low standards required for admission. A great many of the students entering have finishe"d only the eighth grade, and as a result the greater part of the work offered is of high school grade. This not only lowers the standard of work, but indirectly affects the whole high school situation. In many counties when girls who would naturally attend high school find that they can enter the normal school without this additional training they go directly there, thinking that they can more quickly prepare for teaching in this way. Consequently there is less demand for high school work in the counties and the high schools organized are neces- sarily of a lower standard. A normal school should be distinctly professional. When a great part of the time has to be devoted to drilling students in the Schools 83 elementary and secondary branches, less attention can be given to the science of teaching, and to the essential work of observation and practice teaching. Normal school work properly begins after gradua- tion from a four-year high school, but as organized at present these schools are themselves more nearly high schools, offering excellent courses in normal training. The course of study is similar to that provided for secondary schools, only greatly enriched by the practical courses in education and by vocational subjects. The work is divided according to the needs and ambitions of the individual students. Special courses are offered to those desiring to become rural, grade, primary and high school teachers. Practice work is provided in model schools under the direction of the trustees and the faculty of the institutions. Some effort is made to interest applicants for teachers' certificates in rural problems, but with little success; interesting courses in rural sociology and community work are more often elected as supple- mentary work than as direct preparation for teaching in rural dis- tricts. The reason is all too evident; no girl with any ambition is eager to prepare herself for a profession which promises only an inadequate salary, unattractive environment and no future. Those who do intend to devote themselves to this branch of teaching do so in a missionary spirit. An instructor in one of the state normal schools told the investigator that in the last 12 years he had known of but three girls who adopted this field as a life work; of these one had since taken a government position, one had married, and the third had had nervous prostration and was now a clerk in a drug store at a higher salary than she had ever received while teaching. Excellent vocational work in home economics is given in these schools. With the introduction of Smith-Hughes classes in the secondary schools of the state, a new situation has arisen. The federal government requires that all teachers in these schools shall have the degree of A. B. or its equivalent as well as a certain specified amount of training in the vocational subjects. The normal schools meet this latter requirement but do not pre- tend to offer the academic work necessary for a degree. Therefore girls electing the home economics professional course cannot secure positions in schools meeting the federal requirements. The result will be undoubtedly that few students will be enrolled in this branch. An important phase of the work is the practice teaching. At the Eastern Kentucky Normal there is a model high school, a model grade school and a rural school. In the school for the western counties there i.i a model school offering work in the eight grades. The pupils in these schools are residents of the city in which the normal school is located, with the exception of those in the model rural school wno are brought in daily from the surrounding country. Critic teachers are 84 Child Welfare in Kentucky in charge, and opportunity for observation and practice teaching i« given to the students. As a usual thing this practice teaching comes in the senior year when the student devotes an hour daily to it, and while good results are secured, it would seem wiser to concentrate il and have the student give four days a week to it for a limited period of time. The model rural school at the Eastern Kentucky Normal is an exceedingly interesting experiment. A good teacher is in charge, a woman who had been very successful in her county school teaching. There are two great weaknesses, however. In the first place, it is a rural school situated in a city; children come in from the country, and the natural relationship between the school and the community is there- fore quite impossible. In the second place, only senior students are allowed to practice, and they are those who upon graduation go into city schools. Thus there is little advantage gained either by the stu- dents or the rural school system. If this school could be established in the country, great good would result. More extension work should be done by the normal schools. As has already been suggested elsewhere in this report, the appointment and support of proper supervisors in each county would be a legitimate and valuable undertaking. Summer model schools and traveling schools for the teaching oi special subjects might well be added to the normal school program. RECOMMENDATIONS Administratilon : Supervision: Laws 1. The creation of a State Board of Education of seven members appointed by the Governor, each for a term of six years, two mem- bers, including the normal school principal, retiring every year, to consist of the following: (a) President of the State University. (b) Three members recommended by the Kentucky Educational Association, one of them a city superintendent and one a county superintendent. (c) Two members appointed by the Governor. (d) One of the principals of the two state normal schools, the two principals alternating annually. The board should direct the educational policies of the school system of the state, and assume the duties now assigned to the State Text Book Commission and the State Board of Examiners. 2. The superintendent of public instruction should be appointed b3' the State Board of Education to serve for a period of four years Schools 85 and should be eligible for reappointment. There should be no politi- cal or territorial limits set in choosing a man for this office. The salary should be not less than $S,000 per year. 3. The state superintendent of public instruction should be pro- vided with a sufficient number of assistants to make possible adequate supervision of all the schools of the state. 4. The county superintendent should be appointed by the county board of education to serve for a period of four years, and should be eligible for reappointment. His powers should be increased so as to include the recommendation for appointment of all teachers in the county schools. 5. The state constitution should be amended so as to prov'de for the distribution of state school funds upon the basis of local effort and need instead of upon a per capita basis as at present. What is needed more than anything else in Kentucky's school system is a stimulus to local effort, and the method of apportioning the state funds can best be made to serve as this stimulus. It would be far better, for example, to grant the aid according to the aggregate daily attendance and number of teachers employed than according to the mere number of children in a district regardless of whether or not these children even enroll, much less attend. 6. The state school funds should be held sacred to educational purposes. 7. At least one supervisor should be appointed by the county board to give full time to the work of supervision and to act as as- sistant to the county superintendent. 8. The county board of public welfare (if such a board be created) should select a joint probation and truancy officer who should: (a) Supervise the taking of the school census. (b) Issue work permits. (c) Have charge of all probation work. (d) Enforce school attendance. Women should be eligible to this office. 9. The compulsory attendance law should be the same for both city and the county schools. It should be amended so as to read as follows: Every parent, guardian, or other person having the custody, control or supervision of any child or children over the age of eight and under the age of 18 years shall cause such child to be enrolled in and to attend some public, private or parochial school regularly each school year for a full term_ or period of said school, provided that such private or parochial term shall not be for a shorter period during each year than the term of the public schools in the place of the child's residence . . . provided further, That this act shall not apply to any child between 14 and 18 years of age to whom an employment cer- 86 Child Welfare in Kentucky tificate may have been issued in accordance with the provisions of the child labor law, and who is lawfully and steadily em- ployed. 10. The enforcement of the compulsory attendance law should be placed in the hands of the Bureau of Attendance in the cities where such a bureau is established and in all other cities and in the rural communities in the hands of the truancy officer. 11. The State Board of Education should be given power to super- vise the work of county and city truancy officers and to remove such officers from office upon proof of failure to enforce the compulsory attendance law. 12. The names of all deaf, blind, seriously crippled, incurably diseased, and feeble-minded children should be included in the school census and reported by the county or city truancy officer to the state board of education. The truancy officer should be held responsible for following up these cases to make certain of their satisfactory disposition. 11. All teachers' certificates should be issued by the State Board of Education. 12. Free textbooks should be provided for all children in all public schools. Rural Schools 1. The minimum educational qualification required of a teacher in the rural schools should be the completion of a normal school course. At the present time there are not enough teachers available with such qualifications, and this standard would have to be gradually ap- proached. Temporary certificates might be issued to teachers who have completed one year of normal work, such certificate to be valid for a period of two years, and thereafter teachers should have com- pleted the two-year course. 2. The minimum salary of a rural school teacher should be $600 per year. 3. Wherever possible the immediate consolidation of all district schools is recommended. Free transportation should be provided for all pupils living two miles or more from schools. 4. A free high school education should be made available for every child in the country communities. Wherever necessary, transporta- tion expenses should be paid. 5. The rural school term should not be less than eight months. It should be continuous and begin not earlier in the year than Sep- tember. 6. As rapidly as possible, Smith-Hughes classes in agriculture and home economics should be established in the county high schools. Schools 87 7. Vocational work should be introduced into the rural schools. Agriculture should be taught by laboratory methods. 8. Teacherages should be erected. City Schools 1. A bureau of attendance should be organized in every city of £,000 or more inhabitants, with a truancy officer who should receive a salary sufficiently large to attract a competent man. Definite stand- ards based on educational experience and peculiar fitness for this kind of work should be established. The duties of this bureau would be: 1. To enforce the compulsory attendance law. 2. To issue work permits. 3. To supervise the taking of the census. 4. To maintain some form of placement bureau where the chil- dren leaving school can secure positions and from which fol- low-up work of all children in industry can be administered. In cities with a population of 20,000 or over, more than one officer will be necessary. In cities under 5,000 this work may be done by one person giving part time. 2. In all cities where children are employed in industry, continu- ation classes should be established. Children between the ages of 14 and 18 who are regularly employed, should be required to attend not less than five hours a week between the hours of 8 a. m. and 6 p. m. during the full term the schools are in session, but not on Saturday afternoons. 3. Special classes for retarded children under the direction of teachers with psychological training, should be established in all cities with a population of 10,000 or over. In all other cities one teachci- with special training should devote part-time to this work. Children should undergo a careful medical as well as mental examination before admission to such classes. These classes should be carefully graded. 4. Opportunity classes for the brighter children should be estab- lished in all cities. 5. The minimum salary paid to city teachers should be $600 per year. Some arrangement should be made for regular increase in salary for a certain period of time on proof of satisfactory work. Teachers should be paid according to their education, experience and general fitness. Thus a third grade teacher could receive as high a salary as a high school teacher if as well prepared. 6. Vocational work should be introduced as early as the fifth grade and some form of hand work should be in every grade. The course of study should be arranged to allow more correlation of sub- jects. Community civics should be everywhere taught. 88 Child Welfare in Kentucky Negro Schools 1. All opportunities for education offered to white children should be given to the colored children. This means equally good buildings and equipment. 2. The curriculum should be changed so as to offer a greater amount of vocational work. Definite trade training should be included. The Latin college preparatory course in the high school should not be the only one offered. 3. Special classes for retarded children should be established in cities. 4. The compulsory education law should be everywhere as strictly enforced as it is for the white children. 5. Separate boards of education for colored schools should be abolished. 6. All school funds should be proportionally distributed. Parochial Schools 1. All teachers in parochial and private schools having enrolled children of compulsory school attendance age should be required to have certificates issued by the State Board of Education. 2. Local truancy officers should be held accountable for enforce- ments of the compulsory attendance law in these schools. Normal Schools 1. As soon as possible all work of high school grade should be removed from the normal schools and the time given to preparing the graduates of accredited high schools for the profession of teaching. This cannot be done in one year. It is therefore suggested that for the first two years the school accept students who have completed two years of high school work; for the two years following that it accept students with three years of secondary training; and after that insist upon graduation. 2. The system of practice teaching should be changed from one hour a day to four days a week for a period of at least eight weeks. Wherever possible, rural school practice teaching should take place in model schools established in the country and students should live in or near the community during this practice period. 3. Greater emphasis should be placed on the training of rural school teachers. 4. The extension work of these schools should be greatly increased. As has been suggested in the text of this report, the providing of super- visors for the counties might well be undertaken by these schools. Travelling schools on special subjects might be organized. EECRBATION Raymond G. Fuller Recreational conditions and possibilities constitute one of the im- portant problems of any community, however large or small the com- munity may be — and it may be as large as the state or the nation. The value to individuals and to society from the provision of oppor- tunities and facilities of recreation, and from the safeguarding of recreation against personal mistake and commercial exploitation, was recognized and utilized in America during the recent war. The word "recreation" and recreation itself attained a new and widerspread popu- larity. But it is possible to conceive of recreation in narrow terms, as if it consisted almost wholly in physical activity or in activity characteristic of the playground and athletic field; the agencies charged by the federal government with providing and safeguarding recreation for the American soldier regarded it as having a far broader range of meaning. Theatres were established in the camps; libraries were formed and reading rooms were opened. Organization of local communities was promoted as an aid to the provision and control of recreation. Social provision and control of recreation were striking features of the wartime achievement. What in general was done for the American soldier in time of war should be and can be done for both sexes and all ages in time of peace; to do it wisely and well for the children, youth and adults of Kentucky is the task and duty of Kentucky as a large community and of the smaller communities within the state. The present report will deal in Section I with "Play and Play- grounds"; in Section II, with the movies and other "Commercial Amusements"; in Section III, with "Recreational Resources," in the discussion of which incidental mention will be made of forms of recreation in which sociable meeting and mixing are the especially noteworthy marks of their recreational character. Thus the arrange- ment of material will conform roughly to the classic division of the forms of recreation into three main classes: "Active," "passive," and "social." But these adjectives are neither accurate nor complete de- scriptions of the classes to which they generally apply. In passive recreation, interest must be active or it is not recreation. Mental and social elements are involved in the pleasure and profit of those forms ill which physical activity is conspicuous. In Section IV of the report brief reference will be made to organization of the local community. The community approach to the recreational problem on its theoretical side is no more important than the community method of attacking 90 Child Welfare in Kentucky the problem on its practical side. The same section will contain sug- gestions for a state recreational program, so far as a program on a state basis seems desirable and feasible. The term "recreation" will be used in a comprehensive way, with- out ignoring but without strictly adhering to its etymology. For the sake of convenience it will be so employed as to include the play of children, notwithstanding certain distinctions that might be drawn between children's play and the recreation of adults. With children, play is life's most serious business; with adults, recreation is usually a relief or escape from serious affairs or from workaday routine. If recreation be defined in terms of the use of leisure time, it might be objected that, in the adult sense, children have no leisure; however, they have spare time, or ought to have it, and for present purposes of defining recreation that amounts to the same thing. Further, if the re-creative (or recuperative) value of recreation among adults depends largely on the elements of diversion and relaxation, then something apropos might be said about the play of school children during recess periods or the play of farm children who work much or most of the time when they are not at school. And be it not forgotten that the playful impulses and tendencies of childhood are never quite out- grown, and that even the labor of grown-ups, at its best, is accom- panied by all the interest and exhilaration and satisfaction of chil- dren's play, ceasing to be mere labor and becoming an expression of the joyousness of life. Primarily the report is concerned with the recreation of children, rather than that of adults, but for obvious reasons the subject of adult recreation cannot be excluded from a report on children's recreation. The places of recreation are often the same for both children and adults; the agencies providing recreation may be the same; the in- strumentalities of regulation and control may be the same. In local and larger communities the amount and wholesomeness of the recreational life of children varies directly with the amount and wholesomeness of the recreational life of adults; recreation for chil- dren, quantitatively, depends very largely on the general community attitude toward recreation, and this attitude depends, in considerable part, on the amount of recreation enjoyed by the adults of the com- munity when they were children. Beside that social law may be placed this social principle: it is good for adults and children, now and then, to play together — good for the community, comprising young and old, to play together, thus helping discover the community to itself; the true community transcends not only creed and class and sex, but dif- ferences in age. It is not the aim in this report to show that Kentucky is worse off, or better off, recreationally, than other states; much less, to prove Recreation 91 statistically that there is little or no recreation within its boundaries. Certain forms and facilities of recreation may be uncommon, but as everywhere else here is a good deal of recreation invisible to the naked eye or at least not measurable with a yardstick. For recreation is not wholly a matter of externals or of material equipment and ap- paratus. The paucity of public playground all through Kentucky and the rarity of social gatherings in some parts of the state are, indeed, signs of recreational poverty, but these signs are objective, whereas recreation is subjective. Cracking jokes may be one man's recreation; cutting coupons, another man's. Not everybody goes a-fishing, or cares to, and the same is true of golf, yet both fishing and golfiing are rec- reational. And when it comes to fishing, there is a vast difiference between a minimum and a maximum of apparatus, but not so much in the size of the catch and maybe none at all in the day's enjoyment. The village post-office is often a recreational and social center — a place of sociability and an informal community forum. At the country railway station people gather at train-time, greeting one another by their first names, exchanging the news and gossip of all the roads that lead to town, watching the larger world come and go. In East- ern Kentucky people ride on "the cars" for recreation — down the line on one train, back again on the next. Though people in Louisville may occasionally go trolley-riding with the same purpose, rural recreation and urban are two different matters, and rural recreation cannot be weighed in urban scales. "Tater Day" in Western Kentucky is as valid, recreationally, as Louisville's park and playground system. Family visiting in rural Central and Eastern Kentucky is as valid as theatre-going in the cities. But while recreation is a relative term, and absence of recreation is not to be hastily predicated, it should not escape attention that the desire and quest for recreation is a mighty fact in Kentucky, as elsewhere, and that often it remains un- satisfied or only partially satisfied, and frequently leads to acceptance of inferior substitutes for the best recreation. A larger, freer, truer recreational life for the people of Kentucky — more and better means of recreational self-expression — is their own unspoken desire and unorganized quest. The play life of the children needs more safe- guarding and needs enrichment. Related Problems The problem of recreation is related in numerous and significant ways to other social and political problems. A few of its relations to some of the child-welfare problems which are the subject of this volume will be briefly indicated. 92 Child Welfare in Kentucky Child Labor Society's permission of the employment of children as wage- workers is an offense against the very nature of childhood. A normal childhood implies an abundance of play, and a normal childhood is absolutely essential to the attainment of a fully efficient, well-rounded adulthood. By depriving children of their rightful play life, child labor robs its grown-up victims of energy, ambition, personality, even the capacity for social intercourse and for co-operation. But child labor is sometimes defended as better for the child than idleness, and i'l many Kentucky communities parents see nothing for their children to do except go to work or loaf on the streets. Now a child is seldom quite idle, he usually can find something to do, and in Muhlenberg County boys who are not at work or at school (and school claims but a small part of their time during the year) resort to the dubious pastime of "jumping" coal trains. The tracks are their playground, the trains are their apparatus. One father took his young son into the mines and put him to work in order to prevent him from "jumping" trains. A mine inspector expressed approval of the action and its motive. The attempted justification of child labor on the ground that it is better for the child to be at work than running at large or playing in ways physically or morally dangerous is common in Kentucky and deserves consideration, but the community which sees and furnishes no choice but the choice between the two evils of condemning children to child labor and allowing them to go to the devil through idleness or improper play is missing a great opportunity and neglecting its duty. There is a way out; and that is the road of recreation, recreation safe and wholesome and sufficient, from Sunday School picnics to public supervised playgrounds. Let there be no compromise with the labor of children. The objection is to child labor, not children's work. Work that is not too severe, too prolonged, too monotonous; work that does not deprive children of opportunity to play, that does not keep them out of school or interfere with their progress in school, work that is devel- opmental and educative, is all right; child labor is all wrong. Children have work instincts as well as play instincts, and these should be allowed expression, particularly in the home and in the school. To a large extent the work instincts and the play instincts are mutually inclusive. Creativeness figures in both work and play. The doctrine of all work and no play and the doctrine of all play and no work are equally pernicious. But the wage-earning function of the family of the community does not belong to children. The business of children is to be children and to grow up into healthy, intelligent, moral and efficient men and women. Society should not permit children to be Recreation 93 penalized for the poverty of their parents, but in some way should make it possible for poor children to go to school and thus be helped out of poverty. A normal childhood — in terms of health, schooling and play — should be guaranteed to all the children; this is democracy. Juvenile Delinquency The "bad boy" is very largely the product of play energies gone w^rong — either through their restriction or their lack of guidance. His delinquencies are often due to his effort to make full and interesting use of his spare time. If "jumping" coal trains in Muhlenberg County be regarded as a mild form of delinquency — and children have been put in jail for less — we have an illustration of what happens when better ways of spending spare time are not available — better ways from the "bad boy's" own standpoint! Recently a boy whose serious offense had several connections with the recreational problem of Louis- ville was brought into the juvenile court in that city. He was charged with stealing money from his parents — between $400 and $500. Of this sum, the larger portion was squandered at a street carnival, with its tempting array of gambling devices. He won 12 pounds of bacon and 11 chickens, which he dutifully gave to his mother, saying he was working in the stock yards; but he lost oftener than he won. He bet on the Derby Day races and lost. He lost about $100 shooting craps. Pool rooms got some of his money. The trouble with this boy — part of the trouble, at any rate — was that recreational work in Louisville had not reached him and protected him. The boy was not so bad as his play life. It has been said that a social settlement or a playground is as good as half a dozen policemen. Better, far better, because the settlement and the playground yield positive and constructive values, while the policeman represents only negation and prohibition. Syrian women come to the director of Neighborhood House in Louisville and say, "Please take my boy and make him good." If immigrant Syrian women know so well the effect of good recreation on "bad" boys, shall not the whole people come in due time to an appreciation adequate enough for adequate action? A word about adult delinquency and the saloon. The saloon has gone, and good riddance; but though iniquitous it was a center of sociability, open day and night, and with the welcome sign always out. Men went there to get drink, sometimes to get drunk, but they went also because they were sociable, clubbable men, and because they found fellowship and relaxation. The relaxation, alas, was in part alcoholically induced. It may be a perversion of language to speak of "substitutes" for the saloon, but social centers better than the saloon meet a real need of human nature not less than of civic advancement. 94 ChUd Wclfai-e in Kentucky Puilic Health Public provision of recreation is a public-iiealth measure. This is seen most clearly in reference to children's play, which strengthens and develops the bodily tissues, increases the vaso-motor reactions, stimulates the vital processes — digestion, respiration, circulation — to healthy activity, and rids the body of accumulated toxins. Active play fortifies against disease, giving povi^er of resistance. If properly di- rected, the play of growing children will, more than any other agency, prepare the child for the struggle against tuberculosis. Although the greatest prevalence of tuberculosis is during adult life the time for preparation against the disease is during childhood; and it is during childhood that the infection is usually received. Development of the appropriate organs is a splendid asset for the individual both in child- hood and in later life; and while active play may not be advisable for the weakly, sub-normal group, it helps prevent children from becom- ing weakly and sub-normal. Again, properly directed play is not to be despised as an aid in the fight against social immorality and its consequent diseases. Physically, play conduces to sex normality. Mentally, through wise supervision, it is potent in rationalizing the attitude of the sexes toward each other; it conduces to sex sanity. Hookworm, in the medical sense, play and recreation will not cure, but will go far toward conquering the disease of laziness by promoting in early life bodily vitality and good health and establishing habits of physical activity. Games and the play motive have recognition in the fields of school hygiene and physical education. To some extent in the schools of Louisville, Lexington, Covington and a few other Ken- tucky cities, the work in physical education involves the employment of organized play, both indoors and outdoors, as a method. The selective draft discovered a host of men physically unfit for military service, but equally startling was the discovery of that other host of the mentally unhealthy — men handicapped by psycho-patho- logical ailments and deficiencies of various sorts. Throughout the land people so afflicted, both men and women, form a considerable part of the population and a heavy drag on social efficiency and eco- nomic productiveness, though they and their neighbors may often be quite unaware of anything wrong. Edmund C. Sanford, a distinguished student of the mind, writes in a letter that in his opinion a normal childhood would have reduced the percentage of neurasthenic and neurotic conditions uncovered by the draft and that "in such normal childhood properly developed play is an important point." Dr. Pearce Bailey, Chief of the Section of Neurology and Psychiatry, Surgeon- General's Office, writing of functional nervous disease and appropriate therapeusis, says, "Non-medical agencies, such as boys' clubs, boy and Recreation 95 girl scouts, settlement agencies, playgrounds, promise most in the line of prevention." The Schools "Education," said Plato, ''should begin with the right direction of children's sports." Not only begin, but continue, say modern thinkers, who assert that play, and especially supervised play, is an important concern of the schools through all the grades, even into the college and university. So positively educative are the values of play that the teaching of games for playground and home-yard is being widely urged as a definite part of the school curriculum. Indeed, there is utterance in favor of employing play motives and methods rather ex- tensively in teaching such subjects of the curriculum as arithmetic and geography. Consideration of play entered but recently into the making of American schools, as regards laws, administrative systems, physical equipment, curricula, training of teachers. The subject of play and playgrounds in connection with the schools is receiving some attention in Kentucky, very earnest attention in a few cities and coun- ties, and good results are already following the increase of public interest. The question of the "wider use of the school plant" — par- ticularly its use as a social center for adults as well as children — is likewise engaging fruitful attention. The question whether school funds should be expended in the maintenance of social-center activi- ties still remains, in Kentucky, purely academic. Under the present method of raising school funds, most boards find themselves without money enough, apparently, and so they say, for playgrounds or play apparatus or play supervision; hence other expenditure for recreational purposes is impossible. Recreation in connection with the schools in- volves not only the school financial problem, but also the problem of school administration. The State Department of Education must be divorced from politics and reorganized before it can be expected to possess or make effective a real recreational policy and program for the schools of Kentucky. Education- Education is often given a definition confined to the idea of school- ing. Recreation is related not only to the school problem, but in many ways has to do with the whole educational problem. A great many activities and experiences that are recreational are also educational and vice versa. "Scouting"' furnishes both values. Reading may be educational and recreational at the same time; a good book may broaden the mental horizon and simultaneously afford entertainment, both cultivating the mind and refreshing the spirit. Travel often has the same double effect. There are numerous activities and experi- 96 Child Welfare in Kentucky ences which by the very fact that they do enlarge the mental horizon, or cause a change of the mental scene, produce that cathartic and re- vitalizing emotional result that is called subjectively recreation. Some forms of recreation are in much greater degree educational than others. Pitching horseshoes, hunting, playing marbles — these pastimes give a certain amount of pleasure and serve to train the eye and the muscles and to sharpen the wits, yet they do not educate the individual in the habit and art of social co-operation to the same extent as baseball and community drama. And what is education? Education, in not unfamiliar phrase, is preparation for life, particularly a life of service. It involves education of body, mind and spirit. The benefit is not received by the individual alone, but accrues to the community, local, state and national. It re- veals itself in enhanced community man-power. It helps fit for all the vocations, and the greatest vocation of all is life. Children's recreation, well guided and guarded, is educational in this broad sense of prepara- tion for life and service through training and development of body, mind and spirit. It develops individuality and sociality, and helps fit for all vocations, the greatest of which is useful living in a world of men, women and children. I. PLAY AND PLAYGROUNDS There is one phase or aspect of the subject of recreation that de- serves first thought on the part of the local or larger community — one that the community cannot neglect without clear shortcoming. We refer to children's play and to the responsibility of the community in practical matters related thereto. Play and Human Nature Children's play is rooted and grounded in instinct, and instinct is fundamental in all mental and social life. The instinctive tendencies and impulses of play are a racial inheritance, making play as natural as human nature itself, out of which it springs. They are irradicable and only in limited degree repressable, but they are subject to training and direction, and indeed are highly utilizable in cultivating the full flower of personality. Their repression and restriction have the effect of hindering and even of perverting the development of personality, and sometimes lead to anti-social outbreaks in childhood and youth, and unsociability and crabbedness in adult life. "Nature would have chil- dren be children before they are men," writes John Dewey; and Charles W. Waddle states the same physiological and psycho- logical truth, the same scientific fact, when he says, more emphatically, "The child must play or he cannot become a man." Recreation 97 But the child will and does play, under conditions, it may be, physically dangerous or morally harmful. Even the child laborer plays. Last year 255 children 16 years of age and under were victims of industrial accident in Kentucky. The injuries in a considerable num- ber of these cases, no doubt, were due to the play impulses; for in the midst of rapidly moving machinery, and in defiance of warnings, chil- dren iDill play. In the country at large, three times as many children as adults, in proportion to the number employed, are hurt in industry. Play-Places and Supervision of Play Just as certainly as children will play, they will seek and find play-places. There are several reasons why the local community should provide special play-places for children. One is that otherwise the children may resort to unsuitable places, as pool rooms or the streets. Boys may find their most accessible ball field, as they do in a section of Paducah, in a small triangle formed by railroad tracks, where a good hit sends the fielders in front of moving trains. Another reason is that a provided playground offers opportunity for directed play. The playground should be equipped in order to attract and hold the children and in order to aid the supervisor in getting desired results; but the supervisor, especially the trained supervisor, is much more important than any amount of apparatus, a fact which, in a number of Kentucky communities, was learned too late. In nearly a score of instances that came to the attention of ths writer, well intentioned efforts came to grief because it was errone' ously thought that apparatus was enough for a playground. In Pa- ducah a few years ago a playground was abandoned and the apparatus removed because "bad boys" took possession of the place, filled the neighborhood with noise, and broke up some of the equipment. A mine superintendent in Harlan County built a merry-go-round for the children at the camp, but the result was riot and debris; the superin- tendent gave up in disgust and accused the children of failure to ap- preciate his kindness. A school board in a small city issued orders that no children should be allowed on the schoolhouse grounds, on which a small amount of apparatus had been set up, at any time after school hours, or on Saturdays, or during vacations; the reason was very much the same as in the other instances cited. In a larger city, where the school grounds at several buildings are equipped with apparatus, their use by the children, except at recesses and during a short period after school dismissal, is deliberately discouraged. And so it goes. It should be borne in mind that play on a playground, or else- where, no adult director being present, is often not undirected after all — it is directed by youngsters from the neighborhood who have the 98 Child Welfare in Kentucky qualities of leadership or of domination. "It has been found," write Colvin and Bagley, "that unsupervised playgrounds in our large cities are veritable hotbeds of vice, and the same may be true of unsuper- vised recesses and noon intermissions in the school. Where large numbers of children congregate, the vv^elfare of society demands that an adult be present, with full authority to check, in the bud, the first expression of a dangerous tendency." It was on the playgrounds of rural schools in Kentucky, and not on playgrounds in the cities, that the writer saw most evidence of unfortunate conditions arising from lack of supervision. But the function and purpose of playground supervision is not merely to keep order and prevent mischief and evil; it is rather to furnish that intelligent direction of play which takes account of age differences and sex differences, which sees that all the playground population and not merely a part is both occupied and interested, and that the play of the children yields them its full posi- tive, educative and recreative values. Then it is real supervision. The competent director or supervisor of the playground does not organize the spontaneity out of its activities. The supervised playground is a school of democracy, of citizen- ship, of social ethics, while the unsupervised playground is psycho- logically and morally unsafe; but in both cases the same original nature of childhood is involved. There is doubtless no single specific play instinct, but there are many instincts that lead to the activities called play — and lead they may to the kind of behavior that is called juvenile delinquency. As G. T. W. Patrick says, "To throw some- thing at something is almost as natural for a boy as to breathe.'' Shall old racial experience eventuate in a game of baseball or in the breaking of windows? That is the question. That is the question for many communities in Kentucky. Shall the pugnacious and competitive impulses and tendencies of boys run riot in quarrels and fights, or find expression and catharsis in football and pom-pom- pullaway? The roots of play reach far down into the past, and their names — just a few of them — are pugnacity, rivalry, love of adventure and of exploration, a propensity to climb and to run and to hide and to seek; and play is a plant that needs tending, a part of nature that requires nurture. In some sort, right play is a civilized weed; wrong play — a weed! Says Waddle, speaking of socially valuable play: "There is scarcely a virtue that is not born and reared to sturdy strength through suitable and timely play. Self-control, self-reliance, self-subordination, co-operation, loyalty, self-assertion, self-direction, capacity to lead and willingness to follow, are necessary virtues learned nowhere so readily and so surely. Justice, honesty, respect for the rights of others, the necessity for and the binding nature of law, and all those principles recognition of which complex social and Recreation 99 industrial life demands, come as by-products of rightly conducted play." Provision of public playgrounds — equipped and supervised — sex"ves not only to keep children from playing in the wrong places or from playing vifrongly in the right places, but also to make them play enough. The sight of children "hanging around" in the streets, loafing in country stores, or playing by twos or threes instead of deriving the benefits of playing in groups, suggests what is needed. Contrary to widely held belief, children need to be taught how to play. The school is the logical play-center for children. Its geographi- cal location indicates this, and it is here that the children actually do congregate- — here they are found. Moreover, the school is pre-emi- nently the children's own public institution, and should serve more of their needs than it usually does. If all schoolhovises contained suf- ficient room and facilities for indoor play, and if all school yards were sufficiently large and well equipped, public provision of children's play-places would have to go no farther; the rest could be left to parents and the home-yard. But such is not the case in Kentucky or in any other state. How large should the school playground be? In an outline for a playground law, Henry S. Curtis would have "no city or town school built on less than one block of ground or on less than three acres unless a block shall have approximately this area, nor any high school on less than two blocks or six acres of ground, nor any rural school on less than three acres without special permission from the State Commissioner of Play and Physical Training as hereafter created in this bill." The laws of North Dakota set a minimum of two acres for the site of a schoolhouse. In Pennsylvania the school code requires that "no school building shall be erected without a proper playground being provided therefor. At least 30 square feet per pupil shall be provided in other than rural districts. Not less than one acre shall be provided in rural communities." The long and short of the matter is that "city children need a good sized school yard" — to quote Curtis — "because there is no other place to play," while "country children need a large yard because there is no one to play with except at school." Space, it should be noted in view of the general conditions, can be conserved through supervision and the introduction of space-conserv- ing games — ^volley ball and tether ball as compared with baseball and football. The yards should be supervised (in the true sense) during recess, should be open and supervised after school until 5 or 6 o'clock, and should be open and supervised during the summer. Indoors, for use in inclement weather, there should be a gymnasium or playroom. An auditorium and a gymnasium or playroom might be combined. In a one-room country school, movable seats would be a solution of the 100 Child Welfare in Kentucky indoor play problem and would permit the room to be used, like the auditorium, for various social-center activities for young and old. What now are the facts about play facilities at Kentucky schools? Play Facilities at Kentucky Schools Surprisingly few school buildings in Kentucky contain either gym- nasium or playroom. If what is true of 46 high school buildings out- side the five cities of the first and second classes be true of all the high school buildings outside these cities, the percentage of such buildings containing gymnasiums is 13. School buildings containing basement playrooms or basement rooms suitable for play are rarely found. For lack of any good indoor play-place, children play in the toilet rooms on rainy or wintry days and sometimes on pleasant days. Or they play in the narrow halls or among the rows of seats in the school room — if the teacher permits. An auditorium, or a school room with movable seats, is seldom available. Out of 125 schools in nine cities of all classes, only 18 admit of indoor play except under the most crowded and confused conditions. Observation and inquiry also revealed to the writer that out of 911 county schools only 31 afford suitable opportunity for indoor play. Of course there are inarching and line games which could be utilized by teachers in the aisles and halls, but the majority of teachers are not so resourceful — or they have no time. The playgrounds out of doors are more often inadequate than adequate in size, measured by the test of actual rather than ideal uses. On data obtained by personal observation and interviews with super- intendents, only 48 out of 143 schools in 18 cities have grounds large enough not to be congested. Of 911 schools in 12 county systems, only 414 have grounds that are not congested at recess or that do not send the children out into the road to play. Data at hand indicate that not more than 30 per cent, of the one-room schools stand on half an acre of ground and not more than five per cent, stand on an acre or more. A few years back, a Kentucky schoolhouse was erected on a plot of land exactly the same size as the building. Most of the rural schools were built when it was not the fashion to provide a play- ground. A small plot of land good for nothing else, but good enough for the site of a schoolhouse, was bought by the trustees or donated by some citizen; frequently the location was unsightly, and still re- mains unsightly; sometimes the ground was a rough knoll or hillside, where the rains are washing new gullies. However, county boards and superintendents are generally showing increased recognition, or showing recognition where there was none before, of the need of sizable playgrounds, and though fixed minimum standards are absent in most counties and numerous exceptions to a progressive policy are Recreation 101 found, the sites of many new buildings are such that they may ap- propriately be called "modern sites." Around the consolidated schools in particular, the yards are of considerable size, though often unde- veloped. In Louisville, in recent years, "the block standard" in regard to school sites has been followed; each new building occupies an area at least the extent of a city block, or approximately 400 by 400 feet. As for equipment, S4 out of 151 school yards in 20 cities are equipped with apparatus, a percentage of 34; while 124 out of 881 county schools have yard equipment, a percentage of 14. It should be understood that this equipment in many cases is very meagre, often consisting of a swing or two. Not always was the apparatus well chosen as regards appearance and durability. Further, swings, see- saws and slides are for individual rather than communal use; and be- cause individual play predominates over communal away from the school, a special effort should be made on the school ground to de- velop the latter form. In the great majority of instances, the school board contributed nothing whatever to the purchase or erection of the apparatus; in several, the funds were provided by individual donors; in more, they were raised by Parent-Teacher Associations, women's clubs or similar organizations, or by pupils on the initiative of a prin- cipal or teacher. Not infrequently it was secured from the proceeds of entertainments given by the school children, and thus an excellent form of recreation — the school entertainment that brings out the adults — was invoked in aid of another. In Paris, during the influenza epidemic last year, the teachers at the white school went to work with saws, hammers and nails, and made playground apparatus with their own hands. Out of a group of 82 equipped school playgrounds in cities, towns and villages, only 13 are supervised in summer. (Louisville and Lex- ington schools are not included in this group). Doubtless it is true of the state as a whole that few of the not over-numerous school playgrounds are supervised in summer. Supervision after school hours and on Saturdays is still rarer. Play at Kentucky Schools The undefined question, "Do children in school yards really play?" was put by the writer to four professors in Kentucky normal schools It was indicated that the question referred particularly to the rural schools. The answer was unanimously "No." It was slightly quali- fied in further conversation, but these men who have intimate knowK edge of the rural schools declared that it held good as a general rule. It was meant that such conditions as the following prevail: Boys scuffling and striking each other instead of engaging in games and sports; girls walking around in pairs or small groups, or driven by 102 Child Welfare in Kentucky the boys' games to a far corner of the grounds for "drop-the-handker- chief"; the older boys and girls playing, while the smaller and younger children are doing next to nothing; conditions, in short, under which too few of the children of the school — perhaps but a very few — are interestedly and earnestly occupied in play. The testirnony of these wideawake professors was corroborated by observation and further inquiry. The writer discovered a half dozen school yards on which, though they are large and level, the boys seldom play even baseball; lacking sufficient initiative or organizing ability among themselves, they indulge in lazy play, and their teachers make no attempt to start things going. And here is the crux of this matter of play in the coun- try schools, and in most of the city schools, too. Size and apparatus do not make a school playground; the teacher makes it. What are the qualifications of Kentucky teachers in this regard? In ability to teach games and organize play, they are, as a body, de- ficient. The judgment of 12 county superintendents on teachers in their respective counties, runs as follows: "Ability better since they have been taking that sort of work at the Normal"; "Ability poor"; "Ability excellent"; "Ability poor"; "Teachers not trained"; "Ability very good"; "Only a few teachers able to teach games or organize play"; "A few teachers with ability in this line"; "Not efficient"; "Never played themselves and don't know how"; "Ability very poor"; "They don't try." Many teachers are doing good work in the way of livening, strengthening and bettering the play life of the school, and some are doing excellent work. Hundreds are finding by experience that such attention as they give to directing and developing playground activi- ties lightens the tasks for which they are paid; not least of all through its contribution to a school discipline which is positive not negative in method, and active not passive in its manifestations. But out of 1,200 teachers who attended a recent institute, according to the insti- tute instructor, only a dozen had ever done anything with games or or- ganized play in any form. Unfortunate is the teacher whose concep- tion of playground supervision is the keeping of order, the perform- ance of police duty, and whose practice conforms to the conception. Often the performance of police duty is specially and solely enjoined upon them in official instructions from principals and superintendents. A number of county superintendents are urging their teachers to get out on the school ground and enter into the games and sports of the children. Two or three are making it a requirement. Ten super- intendents expressed to the writer unanimous belief that the normal schools of Kentucky ought to do more to prepare their graduates for playground responsibilities. Most of them were emphatic on this point. The normal schools (those at Bowling Green, Richmond and Berea are here considered) have taken cognizance of the need and are Recreation 103 making some slight eflfort to meet it. In general, however, the training given has but an incidental and subordinate place in the curriculum and makes but little impression on the student as a practical and im- portant tool in future w^ork. The teaching of games and organizing of play is neglected in the practice teaching required of normal stu- dents; though there is some supervision of school yards, it is usually nominal supervision. A good repertory of games and plays for the rural school and the rural community should be the possession of every normal school graduate, and experience in its employment should have been afforded in the curriculum. Men responsibly con- nected with the normal schools so declare. One .of them told the writer of graduates who come back from their rural schools saying that the boys and girls had begged to be taught new games and plays, and had begged in vain, because the teachers themselves had not been taught. Of course the normal schools cannot — and they need not — at- tempt to train professional playground supervisors, and they would be unwise to overcrowd and overload the curriculum; but when they get farther out of their originally exclusive devotion to technical peda- gogics, and seek more definitely and earnestly to solve the actual edu- cational problems of Kentucky so far as can be done through the training of teachers, there will be better times for the schoolhouse yard and more profitable times on it for. the children. The county institutes afford a splendid opportunity for play and recreation propaganda and for instruction in playground practice and the technique of games. Sometimes special attention has been given these matters at institutes, according as the person in charge has been interested. This year the State Y. M. C. A. has lent to several insti- tutes the services of experienced play and recreation instructors, who have taught and directed group games suitable for the teachers to take back to their schools and communities. The teachers of Ken- tucky have received very little practical assistance from the State Department of Education. The few paragraphs on "The Educative Value of Play" in the latest available "State Course of Study" (edition of 1916) are excellent, but they do not yield the teacher any informa- tion on what to do and how to do it. The Louisville Board of Educa- tion publishes a "Handbook of Physical Training and Games" for the use of teachers in the schools of that city. Berea Normal School publishes a serviceable handbook of "Games for Rural Schools." A highly commendable bulletin put out by the State Department of Education is "School Architecture," by J. Virgil Chapman and Mrs. V. O. Gilbert, of that department. This bulletin, which is pro- fusely illustrated with photographs and diagrams, emphasizes the importance of abundant yard space and of buildings planned with reference to social-center (including recreational) uses. It should 104 Child Welfare in Kentucky exert a strong influence in behalf of play and recreation upon the public-school authorities to whom it is addressed. Summer Playgroimds Considerably developed municipal playground systems are to be found in only two Kentucky cities, — Louisville and Lexington. As distinguished from a summer playground system, an all-year, com- prehensive recreation system, under municipal administration, or under any single or centralized administration, is non-existent. It should be mentioned, however, that the Civic League of Lexington, which administers the summer playgrounds of that city jointly with the Board of Public Works, and which actually directs and super- vises the playground activities, conducts broadly recreational work throughout the year, notably at the Lincoln School. In Louisville the Board of Park Commissioners conducts summer recreational work in connection with the parks and playgrounds, but hibernates, recreationally, early in the fall; supervised winter recreation of con- siderable scope, under park board auspices, would be entirely feasible if the financial problems of the board could be solved. At present supervised winter recreation, mostly indoors, is provided by the War Camp Community Service and by other civic and philanthropic or- ganizations, like the social settlements, all of these agencies function- ing 12 months in the year. Everywhere in Kentucky municipal ad- ministration and municipal support of public recreational work are confined to summer playgrounds; and even in this department (except in Louisville) the burden of the work, including its financial support, falls very largely and often wholly on public-spirited individuals and private organizations. Louisville The Board of Park Commissioners, existing and operating by special charter, has under its control 30 parks with a total area of 1,365 acres. The area has been augmented during the past year and extensions are in prospect. Public use and appreciation of the parks is increasing very fast. Recreational equipment includes a municipal golf links, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, playground apparatus, two swimming pools and a number of shelter houses, field houses and refectories. Records show that 647,827 persons used the recreational facilities of the parks during the summer of 1918; these figures are incomplete. Of the recorded attendance, 474,198 is the attendance of boys and girls at the supervised playgrounds, including the playgrounds bor- rowed by the park board for the season. Besides nine playgrounds owned by the park commissioners, the supervisor of recreation (who Recreation 105 is employed by the board during the summer season) utilized in his work with children nine school playgrounds and three playgrounds on privately owned property. Of the whole 22, three were for col- ored children. The attendance at all these playgrounds was 595,422. Among the playground activities were sand-play and story-telling for the youngest children. More than 500 girls participated in the folk- dancing classes. In recognition of the need for properly qualified playground workers an "Institute for New Instructors'' was estab- lished. The park board operated the same number of playgrounds this year. The supervised playgrounds in Louisville are insufficient both in number and in area for the playground needs of the city's 35,000 school children of school age, to say nothing of older and younger groups. Probably not half of the children live within easy walking distance of the existing supervised grounds. There should be at least twice as many supervised playgrounds as there are now. Large sections of the city are entirely lacking in playground facilities; as, the "Lower Point" section, the section north of Broadway and west of Preston, the lower Highland section northeast of Shelby Park, and the region of which the junction of Sixteenth and Oak is the approximate center. Additional parks and playgrounds for negroes are greatly needed. The statement of a park commissioner that none of the parks or playgrounds is barred to negroes begs the question. The only negro playground owned by the park board is at Baxter Square, where a color line separates that portion of the park set aside for the use of negroes from the portion reserved to the white population. This park should be given over entirely to the use of whites, and Western Cemetery developed into a recreation park for negroes. Playgrounds should be provided for the negro communities lying in the vicinity of the Douglass School and of the Phyllis Wheatley School; also for the community lying northwest of Shelby Park. Not only should Louis- ville's playground facilities be extended geographically, but play- ground supervision should be extended in length of time. The play- ground season is too short. The main operating season in 1918 was 11 weeks, nine playgrounds being operated for a longer period. All- year playground work is desirable, if not immediately practicable. Lighted playgrounds for evening use are also desirable. In the last two seasons advantage has been taken of daylight saving and some of the playgrounds have been in operation 12 hours a day. A complete description and criticism of the present system is neither possible nor appropriate in this report. The writer believes, however, that Louisville is only at the beginning of a public play- ground system approaching adequacy. Lack of funds seems to be an obstacle. Eventually, if the people of the city shall acquire a suffi- ciently strong desire for children's playgrounds and playground work, 106 Child Welfare in Kentucky that obstacle will be overcome. A citizens' committee on recreation, of which leading recreational workers of the city should be members, could undoubtedly do much to arouse and mobilize public sentiment. Such a committee could also take the important step of making, or causing to be made, a thorough and comprehensive study of recreational conditions and problems in Louisville, and of formulat- ing, in the light of that survey, a definite, yet flexible, long-term recreational program. The survey should take into consideration, not only children's playgrounds, but desirable recreational activities of all kinds for all seasons of the year, including the use of school build- ings and other public properties as social centers, and including also the subject of commercial amusements. The survey should be pub- lished and the people of Louisville made thoroughly acquainted with its findings and its practical implications. Such a committee as is here suggested should be permanent, co-operating with the municipal government, the park board, the school board, the library board, the water board — in short with the various scattered public and private agencies that are engaged in recreational work in Louisville. There is much lack of co-ordination of recreational properties and their uses at present. The committee, unofficially or semi-officially, should seek to effect greater economy in the expenditure of money and effort for recreational purposes. Through a sub-committee, functions in con- nection with the control and supervision of commercial amusements might be assumed. A recreation committee of the Louisville Com- munity Council has lately been formed and is now laying plans for action. Neither to the park board nor to the school board can Louisville look for the immediately required development of public recreational service. The former is now spending on parks and playgrounds, mostly on parks, the maximum amount of money legally available from taxa- tion; the board doubtless does not intend to slight recreational work (as distinguished from park and parkway development), but the rec- reational work which it finds itself able to support is of small amount compared with the work that ought to be done summer, fall, winter and spring. A charter amendment, a municipal bond issue and a public subscription of funds are possible methods of securing in whole or in part the necessary income. Some help toward the main- tenance of playground and social-center work is doubtless obtainable through charging fees for certain recreational privileges, as the use of swimming pools, but the practice of charging for public recreation, though justifiable as a mode of regulation, is indefensible as a revenue- raising policy, and therefore cannot be carried very far. The park board, with its legal and financial handicaps, is the principal public agency concerned with recreation in Louisville. The school board, as a recreational agency, is also handicapped Recreation 107 legally and financially. There is no specific prohibition which legally prevents the board from employing public playground supervisors or from conducting social-center activities, but under the \a.vf the funds of the board can be used only for educational purposes, and these funds do not admit of expenditure beyond a rather strict interpreta- tion of "educational purposes." The board has, however, equipped some of its own playgrounds, and it allows the use of its grounds by the park board in summer or at any time on request. It employs no playground supervisors, but has a supervisor of physical instruc- tion and two assistants for the grade schools and a physical director for each of the three high schools. As these workers give considerable attention to games for the younger children and athletic sports for the older boys and girls, it may be said that the school board provides some amount of supervised play, both indoors and outdoors. The board grants the uses of school buildings to the War Camp Com- munity Service for social-center activities. Nevertheless the school board as a recreational agency does not cut an important figure. As for its properties, only a third of the schools have playgrounds suit- able for inclusion in a city playground system, while a smaller num- ber are equipped with apparatus; and only a fifth of the buildings are adapted to indoor recreational uses. Louisville is face to face with the fact that its recreational problem and its needed program are of wide scope and great urgency, and that there is no public agency in the city likely to formulate a coinprehensive program or financially able to carry it out. It is worth considering, whether the need of correlated, co-ordinated procedure in the achievement of an all-year public recreational system for Louis- ville does not warrant the establishment in the city government of a recreation commission. The day will come when every progressive city and state in America will have a recreation commission. For the recreational function of government is logically a single func- tion and should be performed by a single agency, thus insuring efficiency as regards results and economy as regards getting the re- sults. In Louisville a scattered plant under a recreation commission would be inevitable; but a scattered recreation plant is the case at the present time. Scattered functions, however, and scattered effort, would be done away with in large measure. As for expense, a com- mission would not increase it; if more public recreation is to be pro- vided, it must be paid for by the people; money paid for recreation is an investment for any community; money for recreation will be bet- ter spent by a recreation commission than by a half-dozen or dozen different agencies, none of which makes the study and provision of plentiful wholesome recreation its special business. Supervision of moving picture shows, dance halls, pool rooms and other commercial 108 Child Welfare in Kentucky amusements, and enforcement of ordinances and statutes pertaining thereto, would, perhaps, devolve on such a commission. Other Cities Supervised summer recreation is conducted on four playgrounds in Lexington. Three of these playgrounds are in three parks owned by the Board of Public Works. The fourth, at the Lincoln School, was purchased by the Civic League and donated to the Board of Edu- cation. The work is supported by the funds of the Civic League and an annual appropriation by the city government, and is in charge of the Recreation Committee of the Civic League. One of the play- grounds is for colored children. The Civic League conducts summer recreational work for children at the Blue Grass Sanatorium, the Or- phans' Home and the Children's Home. In Covington interesting work is conducted by the Art League in a playground of 13 acres. Equipment, including swimming pools, was provided by the Board of Park Commissioners. Supervision is paid for out of municipal and private funds. Kindergarten play and sewing classes are features of the extensive work carried on. It was a member of the Covington Park Board who said to the writer that public playgrounds are an economic asset to any city, adding that they helped greatly to make a city a desirable place in which to live and bring up a family. Five school yards are equipped with play appar- atus, but are not supervised in summer. Garden and playground work in combination was carried on in Owensboro this year under supervision of a school principal, who had nine assistants for the work at six white schools, two colored schools and one parochial school. Nine playgrounds were in operation at the beginning of the season, but three were discontinued. The garden and playground work was supported by the city commissioners, the Board of Education, the Rotary Club, the Women's Club and Associated Charities. A marked decrease in juvenile delinquency is reported as a direct result of this work. Last summer only one playground was operated in Owensboro. One of Owensboro's two public parks is equipped with swings and slides. Hopkinsville, by the will of the late W. A. Wilgus, has recently come into possession of three equipped playgrounds. There is also playground equipment in Virginia Park; none in Peace Park. The playground area totals seven acres. No provision has been made for playground supervision. At each park and playground a man is em- ployed by the city "to keep order and clean up." School yards are open in summer but play is not supervised. Negro children are with- out any equipped municipal or school playground, though Hopkins- ville has a very large colored population. Recreation 109 In Newport, the local government contributes $100 a year toward supervision of play in Maple Grove, a park near the city. The work here is conducted by the Women's Civic League. In the city proper there is no summer supervision of play. The city has placed apparatus in one of its parks, and two of the school yards contain equipment. At Kolb Park, in Paducah, playground work was carried on dur- ing the summer of 1918 by the local organization of the Women's Council of National Defense. This year there was no supervised play in the city. All of the school yards, some of which are very small, contain apparatus. Club women in Paris raise funds for summer supervision of the playground of the white school. In Berea, a community playground on the college premises is largely supported by club and church women. The Y. M. C. A. was instrumental in establishing playground work in Versailles. The Public Ledger of Maysville recently contained this editorial: "January Park in the east end of the city is again this summer no more than an unsightly vacant lot. This prop- erty was deeded to the city of Maysville as a public park. Why can't the city or some of our organizations turn this park into a public play- ground for the poorer children of the city? Maysville needs a public playground as bad as any city in the country." Henderson, Ashland, Bowling Green, Pineville, Harlan, Middlesboro, Georgetown and Richmond are among the cities in which no summer playground work is conducted.* The small playground of the Wilkinson Street School, Frankfort, is equipped with swings, but is not supervised in summer. The grounds belonging to the other schools are small and contain no equipment. The city owns no parks or playgrounds. Says the mayor: "I have just taken up this matter of parks and playgrounds for chil- dren and hope within a short time to be able to say that we have a park or public playground in Frankfort where children can play without being on the street." Frankfort affords an example of what comes of a city's failure to plan ahead of its own development and see that park and playground space is not all pre-empted for other purposes. Available data indicate that fewer than 20 per cent of the cities of the first, second, third and fourth classes have any summer play- ground work at all. In no city is there a sufficient number of equipped municipal and school playgrounds to meet the need of such work. In the larger cities, extensive areas are without any playground at all. In the smaller communities, in many of which the development of the grounds about the school houses would solve the problem of ♦According to statements by mayors, city clerks, and school superintendents. 110 Child Welfare in Kentucky space for supervised play, the shortage is equally obvious. Every- where there is woful neglect of play and recreation for negro children. Suggestions and Recommendations Progress of the play-center movement in Kentucky depends primarily upon public appreciation of the worth and importance of the objects of the movement. Granted that the people have the mone;' to spend, they must be willing to spend it. Publicity and propaganda are required; in other words, the education of the public. Right here a recreation committee or association or league of the local com- munity can perform a great service; and, on a state scale, some state organization of citizens, not necessarily one that confines itself to recreation. In has been shown in this report that playground work — the equip- ping and supervising of playgrounds — has usually been initiated, con- ducted and supported, not by municipalities or school boards, but by individual citizens or civic associations. To such private eflfort will be due most of the playground progress in the immediate future, and as demonstration work it is the most effective kind of propaganda for provision of recreational facilities and supervision out of municipal and school funds. The more demonstration work, the better. The State Department of Education should diligently preach the gospel of children's play and recreation in the schoolhouse and the school yard, and through literature disseminate information that would be of real assistance to teachers. It should also preach the use of the school plant and premises for adult recreation. One or more field agents should be employed to promote, by personal contact with teach- ers, school officials and the general public, the cause of recreation in connection with the schools and to help teachers and communities with information and advice and the organization of recreational work. The education department should have a definite, workable recre- ation policy, covering all feasible uses of the school plant evenings, Saturdays and during vacations. This policy should be entrusted for administration to a special bureau or officer in a reorganized department of education. (See report on Education.) The pro- paganda and field work above mentioned should be part of the work of this bureau or officer. Recreation and physical training might be placed under a single state bureau or supervisor; but recre- ation, in that case, should not be treated as subordinate to physical training. Broadly conceived, and with due recognition of its infinite variety of form, recreation is much more than a means of physical training; it is a means of training the mind, the imagination, the morals and the aesthetic sense. The Department of Education should be delivered from its pres- Recreation 111 ent impotence and clothed with such authority over all the schools of the state that it could, through its bureau or supervisor of recreation, approve or reject plans for all buildings which did or did not conform to minimum standards respecting space for play and recreation, in- doors and out; and such standards should be set up by law or by legally authorized ruling of the education board. The board should make play activities a correlated and compulsory part of the daily program of every school. This might well be done in connection with physical education requirements. As local school officials, apart from the question of adequate available funds, are dubious of their legal ability to spend money for recreational purposes, the school laws of the state should be amended and developed so as to put school purposes on a clear and modernly comprehensive legal basis. A recreation act, applying to school districts and municipalities and clothing them with ample and definite authority in the field of recreation, is suggested and recommended. An act similar to one recommended by the Playground and Recreation Association of America, and adopted in substance by the legislatures of five states, would provide, among other things, that "Any city, town, township, borough, village or public school district of this state may take land within its limits in fee or by gift, purchase or right of eminent domain, or lease the same; and may prepare, equip and maintain it, or any other land belonging to the municipality or district and suitable for the purpose, as a public playground, and may conduct and promote thereon, play and recreation activities; may equip and operate neigh- borhood recreation center buildings; may operate public baths and swimming pools; and may employ such play leaders, playground directors, supervisors, recreation center secretary or superintendent and other officials as it deems best." The act should authorize the establishment of a recreation commission without requiring it as the agency of administration. From questions of legal power and authorization to take land and spend money for recreational purposes, the problem returns to ques- tions of the availability of money, including questions of taxation, and comes back at last to public opinion. The development of public recreation in Kentucky is in the hands of the people. What the people want for themselves and their children they can get. Propaganda and demonstration work are prime requisites of progress in this direction. II. COMMERCIAL AMUSEMENTS Millions of dollars of private capital have been invested in busi- ness enterprises founded on the recreation demand — the recreation hunger — of the American people; hence our commercial amusements, 112 Child Welfare in Kentucky so called. On the other hand only a few dollars of public money have been invested in recreation for the people, though the dividends of such expenditure are enormous. The same disparity between private and public investment in recreation exists in the commonwealth of Kentucky. Its significance from the standpoint of the welfare of Ken- tucky children cannot well be overlooked or easily underestimated. General Considerations It is principally the commercial element in commercial amusements that renders them sometimes vicious and always a proper object of social surveillance. True, some of the best entertainment — the be?' of legitimate drama, for instance — is provided under commercif auspices. True, the moving pictures are not of necessity evij or harm ful by reason of the fact that they are shown for money. But no forn of recreation or amusement can safely be left to unrestrained, unregii lated commercialism. There are two methods of control: first, law and the enforcement of law; second, the direct application and pressure of public opinion. Public opinion is, of course, reflected in law and the enforcement of law, but is directly, if insufficiently, eflfective through the fact that operators of commercial-amusement places do defer to the apparent moral standards of the community; it is profitable and more respecta- ble. The latter method of control is not really a method at all until through civic organization the moral standards of the community have been made manifest. Both methods are strengthened by civic or- ganization, for both are weak according as public opinion is weak, and public opinion is weak if it be not informed and mobilized. There are two attitudes of approach to the problem of commercial amusements. In one view, no good whatever exists in commercial amusements or in the amusement forms which have lent themselves to commercialization; but in another view, these amusement forms are worth preserving and cultivating, while commercial amusements as such are deemed susceptible of control. One view leads to a policy of suppression and extermination; the other, to a policy of encourage- ment, development, regulation and socialization. A policy of socialization implies belief that commercial amuse- ments, if they are bad, can be converted (to speak in orthodox lan- guage) and can be enlisted in the service of God and man. If they are bad, then civic conscience and militant morality can fight them; and the voice of wisdom saith, "Fight them with their own weapons, as well as with ordinances and statutes, to the end that the bad in them may be overcome by the good in them.'' There is scriptural authority for the attempt to overcome evil with good. Provision of good amuse- ment and recreation, including forms that are commercialized, is in Recreation US excellent way of combating bad commercialized amusement. A policy of socialization calls for a program that goes beyond mere legal restriction and puts private and public agencies actively into the business of un-commercial amusement and recreation. A municipal amusement plant or a community house, containing facili- ties for picture shows, dances, pool, billiards, bowling, and so on, sug- gests what may come of such a policy and program. Doubtless a licensed commercial institution, a center providing for the conduct of these amusements under municipal or community auspices and direc- tion, could be made morally and civically useful. Civic Organization In Louisville, during the war, the character of commercial amuse- m.ents and of commercial-amusement places was raised to a point from' which there need be no retrogression and from which there will be none if the local community remains organized and public opinion mobilized. The advance was accomplished in the interest of soldiers in nearby camps. Military authorities, the police department of Louis- ville and the War Camp Community Service co-operated. In Louis- ville civic organization and political government were joined in social control of commercial amusements. In Kentucky at large civic organization as affecting commercial amusements is usually represented by a ministers' association or a women's club. On occasion of some gross offense, an impromptu pro- test is uttered; or some special condition of things is the cause of a special crusade. The protest or crusade may or may not issue in a permanent betterment of the general situation. Political Government Municipal legislation dealing with commercial amusements is very nearly non-existewt in Kentucky. Here and there may be found an ordinance forbidding dancing in apartments connected with saloons or an ordinance specifying the qualifications of the operator of a motion picture machine. That is about all, except for the few ordinances that repeat the requirements of state laws respecting safety and sanitation of buildings or the regulations of the State Fire Marshal and the State Board of Health. Essential to control of commercial amusements through political government are: (1) Definite standards, fixed by ordinance or statute,. or by executive order if not otherwise established, and covering mat- ters of safety, health, morality, opening and closing hours, the ages of those attending and the hours of children's attendance; (2) an officer or staff of officers especially assigned to the enforcement of laws, ordinances and regulations with regard to commercial amuse- 114 Child Welfare in Kentucky merits, and responsible for systematic and frequent inspection of amusement places; (3) a licensing policy that aims not at revenue only, but also at control, licenses being revocable and not again issuable within six months or a year; (4) centralization of authority and re- sponsibility in all matters pertaining to commercial amusements, this authority and responsibility to be lodged in a licensing bureau, pre- ferably under the mayor. No city in Kentucky conforms entirely to any of these require- ments, and indeed the general situation is quite different. Commonly the control and supervision of commercial amusements is left wholly to the police department, which concerns itself to the extent of pre- venting or stopping disorder in a dance hall or of prohibiting the presentation of a film like "The Birth of a Nation'' because of the danger of race riots. The original issuance of licenses is seldom so conducted as to serve as a means of control, revenue being the chief object. Moral dangers in commercial amusements seem to be practically ignored not only in the state laws but in the ordinances of most cities, while local legislation touching safety and sanitation in amusement places is far from adequate. Turning now to conditions respecting law enforcement, one finds them unsatisfactory. To illustrate: it is a violation of state law to keep picture houses open on Sunday, unless it be demonstrable before a court that so doing is a work of charity or necessity; but movie shows are given on Sunday in several cities. Again, in only three of thirteen Kentucky cities that have curfew ordinances is there any attempt at enforcement whatever; if they were old outworn "blue laws" there might be some passable excuse for this neglect, but they were all enacted within recent years and became dead letters almost over night. Motion Pictures The great popularity of the motion pictures among both children and adults is sufficient reason for giving serious attention to the regu- lation and control of this form of commercial amusement. As an edu- cational and moral force the movies have much to their credit. They drew patronage away from the saloons. They have attracted to the picture house boys and girls who might have gone to worse places. On the whole they have probably done more good than harm, but their record is not without flaws. They are coming into the little towns. Their patronage in the cities is increasing. Their influence therefore is growing day by day. So vast a power for good or ill can- not be left to the mercies of commercialism. The proprietor of a pic- ture house in western Kentucky declared to the writer that in running his business he cares for nothing but the box-office receipts. Recreation 115 Going to the pictures is like eating peanuts — it is hard to stop. An abnormal appetite for the movies is developed by going. This is pai"- ticularly true of children. Children's movie-going can easily become excessive — too expensive, even at the low prices; overstimulating and too constantly stimulating to the emotions. Less movie-going and more recreation in active forms on the school or municipal playground would be far better for the children of many of Kentucky's cities and towns. More drama, too, in which the children themselves take part. The movies may be educational and entertaining and all that, but they are a passive form of recreation and allow no self-expressive partici- pation. Also, they tend to bring children into the night life of the streets. Safety and Sanitation Physical conditions of movie theatres may be as harmful and dangerous to patrons as the pictures. Management is sometimes lax in matters pertaining to safety. Lexington proprietors were hailed before a grand jury last year and ordered to correct conditions as to crowding of aisles, stairways and lobbies, but there are proprietors in other cities who ought to be called to account. In a two months' period this year the State Board of Health closed more than a score of picture houses in various parts of the state because of poor ventila- tion. Out of 60 theatres inspected by the writer three were appar- ently without any ventilation at all. These lacked artificial means of ventilation, had no side doors or windows, and if there were rear doors or windows they were shut off by the screen; the entrance door, which seemed to be the only source of air supply, was kept closed most of the time during the performance. In fifteen other theatres the air was so heavy that it weighed like lead and evoked loud pro- testations from the babies in the audience. In perhaps a dozen the air was tolerably sweet and clean. Unfortunately a large number of people seem to expect picture houses to be ill ventilated. Foul-aired movie theatres are taken as a matter of course. Many of these are in old buildings which were never designed for the purpose and which could not be converted, except at prohibitive expense, so as to conform to good standards of sanitation and safety. That is the proprietor's excuse, but what excuse has the community? Inadequate lighting of theatres was noted in six instances. In one theatre, visited twice, per- sons within touch of the hand were indistinguishable after the eye had accommodated itself to the darkness. Municipal ordinances should require that stiflf requirements as to construction of building, location and width of entrances, exits, stairs, aisles, and fire escapes, signs over fire escapes, heating and lighting arrangements, ventilating devices, toilet facilities, and location and 116 Child Welfare in Kentucky construction of booth enclosing the moving-picture machine, be met before a license for the premises is issued, whether the building be new or old. The safety and health of the people is the same imperative public concern under all circumstances. attendance of Children Children form a large proportion of the average movie audience tlie country over — 20 to 25 per cent. A proprietor of three picture houses in a Kentucky city told the writer that 25 per cent of all tickets he sells are for children under 14. The superintendent of schools in the same city stated that 90 per cent, of the 2,000 pupils above the fourth grade attend the movies at least once a week and that 50 per cent, attend twice a week, while some go five times. The writer made acquaintance with a fifth-grade boy 14 years old whom he encountered at three different picture shows on a Saturday. The picture houses of this city are used by farmers and their wives, when they come to town to sell produce and to shop, as a place to deposit their children for the afternoon. In a number of cities and towns the writer attended shows where ■children formed SO to 75 per cent, of the patrons. This was usually on "serial night," when a thrilling "'episode'' full of daredeviltries and Tiorrors was presented. One proprietor said, "On Saturday nights I give a program for the rough-necks, the worst stuff I can get," and later in the conversation, "My patrons are mostly adults, but I have 30 to 50 per cent, children on Saturday nights.'' Though children at- tend the movies in great numbers, it is not for them that the pictures are selected. And if such were indeed the case, there might be errors in the choice of one Kentucky exhibitor, who, wlien asked his idea of an educational film especially suitable for children, replied, "Theda Bara in Cleopatra." Character and Influence of Pictures A few city superintendents of schools were asked to state their •opinion of the character and influence of the local picture shows, with special reference to the children. Their replies follow: "The movies are bad"; "They are not always what they should be"; "Their influence is not the best"; "Their influence is good"; "We have cleaner shows than most cities, but cowboy and vampire roles are too common still"; "Pictures are better than formerly, but the children boss their parents and go too often"; "The effect is not wholesome, we need a •censorship"; "The movies hurt rather than help so far as school work IS affected"; "They are punk, and every now and fhen a bunch of young brigands, after seeing brigands on the screen, breaks out and robs stores." A dozen superintendents, including some of those Recreation 117 quoted above, expressed a desire to introduce moving pictures into their schools, using them not only for educational but for entertain- ment purposes. Several said that they wanted to do this as counter action against the town's commercial movies and one declared that he would go down into his own pocket if the school board would not support the enterprise. Despite the fact that films rejected by censorship boards outside the state are dumped into Kentucky, the character of the pictures shown averages about as well as in most states. In mixed programs of vaudeville and pictures, the pictures were found by the writer to be invariably the cleaner and altogether the better part. A proprietor of a theatre regularly offering a mixed program said, "The vaudeville is usually so rotten, morally and every other way, that I won't go to my own theatre." But children go. Of salaciousness on the screen the writer saw little in viewing between 150 and 200 films, but saw much that was subversive of high ideals of sex relationship and family life. He saw problem plays, involving sex relationship, that might have been all right for adults but must certainly have been incomprehensible and misleading to children. Time and again a single picture spoiled an otherwise good program for children. The remedial problem, by the way, is not so much a matter of better pictures as it is of better programs. Not least unfortunate for children, partly because of their extreme popularity, are the dime novels, the shilling shockers, of the screen. These include the serials — riotous melodrama! Thrill upon thrill, and the crowd of boys in the front seats become overwrought with excite- ment, uttering hysterical cries. And next day it is all they can think about; next week or sooner they come back for more. These emo- tional orgies, with their aftermath of wandering wits and a craving for excitement, like a drunkard's craving for liquor, debauch the mental life of childhood. Children in this condition cannot apply themselves in school and are intractable at home. Teachers and mothers in Kentucky, as the writer knows from their own testimony, ascribe many of their tribulations and troubles to the picture shows. It was the unanimous testimony of juvenile court judges with whom the writer talked that the majority of delinquent boys are movie fiends. Sometimes a causal connection between the movies and the delinquency is traceable. For example, seven out of eight small boys who were brought into a court on a recent occasion had stolen to get money to go to the pictures. One judge told of a group of boys who had gone just outside the city and repeated, with some variations, the performance of a band of movie bandits. Much of the play of children is dramatic. Children are always and forever doing things in character because their dramatic 118 Child Welfare in Kentucky instinct is so strong.* Not always is it mere imitation of film drama that they attempt when the motion pictures seem to be the cause of their delinquency, but often it is their own creatively dramatic use of materials furnished them by their memories of the screen. It is im- portant that adults should attend carefully to the kind of materials presented to the minds of our juvenile dramatist-actors. Control of Attendcmee No ordinance restrictive of the attendance of children at picture shows or other commercial amusements was found in any city out of 35, unless curfew ordinances be regarded as coming within this cate- gory. A superintendent of schools, disapproving the principle of legal restriction of children's attendance at the pictures, has worked out a schedule of home study that allows for occasional movie-going. He reports that by thus taking the children into virtual partnership with himself and dealing with the question of movie-going on a positive rather than a negative basis he has obtained gratifying results. The writer is uninformed to what extent there is co-operation between the superintendent and the local proprietors in arranging for suitable children's programs on the occasions left open for the movies in the home-study schedule. Opportunities in this direction, under similar conditions, undoubtedly exist. A school superintendent or principal might enter with a theater proprietor into a beneficent conspiracy whereby the latter would furnish on certain dates programs suitable for children and the former would advertise at school the attractions given on these dates. Control of Pictures Censorship raises many questions. The countrywide discussion of the principle and practice of motion-picture censorship has had to do with freedom of "speech" on the screen, with dramatic liberty and license, and with political machination. The welfare of children, as a special phase of the problem, has not been prominently brought into the debate, though the general welfare has been at the bottom of the controversy. Of censorship it has been written: "Most states and most cities, when viewed from the standpoint of the censorship prob- lem, are practically as heterogeneous as is the entire country. No censorship, whether voluntary or legal, under existing fundamental laws and trade conditions, can direct the use or restrict the audience of any film after it is once approved." Now a film censorship that might protect adults might not protect children. Pictures that are suitable for grown men and women are not always suitable for imma- *G. Stanley Hall is high authority for employment of the term, "dramatic in- stinct." Recreation 119 ture boys and girls. Pictures that are suitable for children 12 to 16 years old are not always suitable for children under 12. Whatever the dangers and abuses of censorship may be, it obviously falls short as a measure of child protection. In Harlan, Kentucky, a censorship board was established last year by action of the city council. It is composed of five women. The ordinance provides that this board shall examine and pass on all picture films before public presentation and shall eliminate anything tending to be of an immoral or improper nature. The board does not now view the pictures before they are shown. Films arrive in Harlan only a few hours before they are to be exhibited. Rejection then would leave the proprietor in the position of having to pay for a picture for which he would be unable to secure a substitute; very likely he could not open his theater at all that evening. These conditions of film distribution may have helped determine the policy of the Harlan board. The policy adopted is to make it plain to the proprietors that they must themselves select and insist upon getting good pictures from the distributors. A Harlan pastor told the writer, "The mere fact that there is a board and that these women have access to the shows at any time keeps a fairly high standard of film showing." The mayor concurred in this opinion. What the board really amounts to— and this is said not in disparagement but in commendation — is an official body representing the civic sense and community conscience of Harlan and effecting its purposes largely through consultation and co-operation with the theatre proprietors. Its method is such as might be followed by a citizens' committee on recreation. In communities where the feasibility of co-operation between per- sons interested in better films and proprietors of movie theatres is doubted the chances are that the experiment has never been thorough- ly tried. It should hot be forgotten, as a practical consideration, that co-operative arrangements for the improvement of the movies can be made without ignoring the proprietor's financial self-interest. Recog- nition by the community, or any civic organization in the community, that supply follows demand in respect to the movies as well as other commodities will surely help it solve the motion-picture problem. A citizens' committee might institute Better Motion Picture Nights at the local theatres by getting the exhibitors to prepare special programs and taking an active part in bringing patronage, or it might examine the advance bookings and call public attention to certain days on which unusually good programs were to be shown. Announcements might be made through churches, schools, women's clubs, and so on; a white list of coming programs might be printed and circulated; and perhaps the proprietors could be allowed to use the committee's name in their newspaper advertisements. It would be necessary in this work to 120 Child Welfare in Kentucky recognize the distinction between good pictures and good programs. The distinction is important. If an exhibitor were forced by a censorship board or induced by a citizens' committee, official or un- official, to use only films that bore the approval of the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, the resultant programs might be suit- able for adults but not all of them suitable for children. But the National Committee for Better Films, affiliated with the National Board of Review, prepares and publishes lists of pictures suitable for different kinds of audience: — pictures for children under 12, for chil- dren 12 to 16, and for the family group. It also publishes descriptions sufficiently complete to permit the preparation of programs for special occasions, as a patriotic holiday. These lists and descriptions are at the disposal of all applicants and are being widely used by civic or- ganizations in their dealings with commercial proprietors and by churches, schools, settlements, clubs, in planning movie entertainments of their own. The Community Motion Picture Bureau of New York, with branches in other cities, is an exchange recently organized to select programs for schools, churches, clubs, etc., and to furnish the films. Religious, philanthropic, educational and civic institutions in Ken- tucky have had difficulty in securing satisfactory films. They have found the selection lists sent them by the regular distributors an uncer- tain and unsatisfactory guide and have had to pay for pictures which they could not use. In Kentucky there are not many institutions of the kind described that are showing motion pictures, but there are a few — a church or a school here and there, the Y. M. C. A. in several places, and a number of social settlements in the cities and among the mountains. They find the pictures of excellent value in their own work. Moreover, there results a certain amount of high-class com- petition, which, in sufficient amount, tends to affect commercial movies for the better. In some of the mining camps the Y. M. C. A. is given a monopoly in the conduct of picture shows. Municipal Legislation As part of a positive, constructive program of attack on the movie problem, municipal legislation is needed. A motion-picture ordinance should require a license for the premises used for entertain- ments, the license to be issued only after investigation and on terms making the license an instrument of control; impose standards and prescribe rules as to safety, sanitation and illumination of the theatre, provide definitely for some sort of censorship or method of control of the pictures; and prohibit the attendance of children during school hours and after a certain hour in the evening. Recreation 121 Public Dances In Louisville some of the dance halls are constantly in operation and licenses are issued for the year. In the numerous other cities visited by the writer, public dances for profit are held more or less regularly by clubs, fraternities or individuals in owned or rented halls, and licenses are customarily issued for each occasion. The issuance of licenses for these dances is in most cities a mere formality; they are usually granted for the asking and a fee fixed by ordinance. In one city the writer's inquiry of the city clerk concerning the dance situation served as a reminder in the following way. The official turned to an assistant and said: "Oh, by the way, George, I saw in the paper this morning that Blank is going to give a dance tonight. Has he got his license yet?" Obtaining a license was apparently a minor matter in arranging for public dances in that city, and could be left till the last minute— or even till next day, as the writer learned from the further conversation between the clerk and his assistant. Such supervision of dances as there is commonly takes the form of a casual visit from the policeman on the beat; or perhaps he is called in to remove a disturber of the peace. In three Kentucky cities, to the writer's knowledge, it is permitted that a policeman in uniform, either a substitute officer or a regular on the off shift, be employed by the proprietor to keep order while the dancing is in progress. A Com- missioner of Public Safety could see no impropriety in this practice. Police supervision does not extend to the character of the dancing, and indeed does not deserve the name of supervision. There is in Ken- tucky cities a large amount of uncontrolled and unsupervised dancing, much of it carried on under conditions which may be and sometimes are abused. At some of the dances attended by the writer, improper postures and movements were observed. Objectionable up-to-date styles o'' dancing like the "shimmy" were in vogue in most halls. Objectionable music made proper dancing more difficult. One place, frequented by dancers from all parts of town, was located within a block of the red-light district. At the majority of places visited, the patrons for the most part were just average young people — working people, workers in factories, stores, offices — seeking a good time, seeking not evil; not ascetic, not bad, only the common run of human- ity at the age of youth. Family groups were seen, also unaccompanied girls of 10 to 18 years. Mingling with the crowd, perhaps, were prosti- tutes and crafty men. The safest dancing places are the church, the school, the grange, the social center and the home. A large body of influential public opinion in Kentucky is unqualifiedly opposed to dancing and keeps it in places that are out of the sight of people who appreciate its dangers. 122 Child Welfare in Kentucky "Dancing is as old as humanity itself," says the Dean of Manchester, "as old as tears and laughter, the natural rhythmic expression of human emotion and of the joy of life." "Dancing was once a vehicle of social life," write Hanmer and Perry; "it is now tending to become an end in itself. By opening the schoolhouses for neighborhood dancing parties much can be done toward giving dancing its proper place in social life." By treating it with respect, dancing can be made respectable; that is, safe and wholesome. People who like to dance — the writer refers to people in all classes of society — do not like dancing because of any consciousness of its badness or of their own badness. The popularity of the new objectionable dances is not so much due to individual preference as it is to social psychology — dancers and dance- hall proprietors follow fads and fashions. Back in the Kentucky nmun- tains the old square dances still retain their hold. Settlements and schools can establish for themselves such dancing fashions as they choose, and where they have done so in Kentucky they have found no lack of patronage. When more of these and similar institutions in the state shall have taken the art and pastime of dancing unto themselves, they will be able to control to a considerable extent the dancing fashions of Kentucky. The teaching of folk dancing in settlements, schools and summer playgrounds is helping develop a taste that makes cheap and tawdry dances unattractive; folk dancing has great esthetic as well as recreational value. Community dances are held in school houses in Louisville, Lex- ington and Paris. The Churchmen's Federation of the Southwestern District of Louisville protested formally to the Louisville Board of Education against allowing the War Camp Community Service to conduct dances in the schools, but the board has not withdrawn its permission. Owensboro has a municipal dance hall but no municipal dances. The large auditorium in the city hall was intended partly as a place for dances under chaperonage, but owing to some mismanage- ment and to hostile sentiment (commercial dance-hall proprietors and the anti-dance forces were practically on the same side) the experiment was abandoned in its infancy. In Louisville, on the establishment of Camp Zachary Taylor nearby, civic organization resulted in a police order under which (1) no liquor could be sold in a public dance hall, (2) no boy or girl was allowed to dance who was not 16 years old, (3) no return checks were to be issued any one leaving the hall, (4) no girl could enter a dance hall after 10 o'clock without an escort, (5) no man could enter a dance hall after 11 unless accompanied by a girl, (6) all halls were obliged to close at 11:30, (7) the management was required to pay for a chaper- one and floor manager appointed by the supervisor of public dances. The system of supervision and enforcement has altered somewhat, but Recreation 123 at the time this is being written the above rules and regulations remain unchanged. The practice continues of requiring all girls to register on entering a dance hall and to keep a card of identiiication which must be presented at the registration desk. The whole is an achievement of civic organization in conjunction with political government. In framing municipal legislation with regard to dance halls, a license for the premises should be exacted and, in the case of occasional balls or dances in a public place, a permit required. Neither should be issuable without previous investigation. The ordinance should prohibit the granting of return checks, forbid the admission of persons under 16 (or 18) after 9 o'clock unless accompanied by parent or guardian, establish a reasonable closing hour, and set up adequate machinery of inspection and supervision. Immoral dancing and moon- light numbers should be forbidden. Minnesota has a state law on the subject of dances and dance halls. Street Carnivals • Kentucky is infested with traveling carnivals. If there is any difference among the majority of them, it is a difference of degree and not of character. As a class they are a menace to the community — more than a menace, an actual damage, in more ways than one. As a class they represent commercial amusements at their very worst, not merely because of cheapness and vulgarity but because of brazen defiance of civic virtue and moral decency. A typical carnival — note the quotation marks — is "a grand aggre- gation of high grade canvas and platform shows." There are also the gambling stalls. Thirty were counted with a single carnival. The gambling games and devices are many and various; some involve a bit of skill, as in throwing balls at dummies or pitching rings over jack- knives, but in general the element of skill is slight or supposititious. The wheels usually are gambling devices in the strictest technical inter- pretation of the term; no skill whatever is involved and the losers get nothing at all. The losses of a certain Louisville boy have already been mentioned. A man in Maysville is said to have lost $125 at the gambling stalls of a carnival; a man in Hopkinsville, $90. These are but instances. The losses of patrons are enormous in the total during the week's stay of a carnival in town and frequently fall in places where they cannot be well afforded. It is one of the heavy indictments against the street carnival that it takes away from the town, and from the people of the town, a large sum of money for which no value has been given in return, but something quite the contrary of value. The gambling concessions are not the only bad feature of the carnival in this regard. In a recent suit for non-support a woman declared that 124 Child Welfare in Kentucky her husband was spending all his money on carnival shows and carnival women. Three carnivals had visited the town within a period of a few weeks. In a carnival dance hall, visited only by men and boys, the writer saw the women of the place solicit partners in the most wanton man- ner and witnessed dancing that was about as bad as possible. With many carnivals there are side shows in which the chief or sole attrac- tion is posing and dancing by women from whose lexicon the word "shame" has been blotted out. The poses and dances are often sug- gestive in the extreme and sometimes reach the lowest depths of vile- ness and obscenity. Whoever enters here knows what to expect if he believes the proprietor's description of his wares; ''rich, rare and racy" they prove to be, and otherwise equal to the promise. "The clothes these girls will wear," ran one of the speeches, " could be put in an envelope and sent to San Francisco for a three-cent stamp." The enticing description may not be uttered before the women patrons of the carnival. The following method may be employed. In one of the large tents a showman conducts the men, women and children from exhibit to exhibit, finally announcing: "Women this way, men at that end." At "that end" of the tent a door leads to the dancing exhibition, and in front of the door the proprietor of the show beyond confi- dentially tell his male hearers all about it. Boys are in the group, boys of 12, 13, 14. On the occasion when the writer observed this method of invitation he did not see any boys of these ages pass through the door; but on other occasions he saw boys no older among the specta- tors at carnival side shows of the same lewd character. Some of the carnivals, because of the immorality connected with them, may be fitly described as traveling bawdy houses — unlicensed, unregulated, uncontrolled. Prostitutes who are either attracted to these carnivals or permitted to accompany them leave behind them a trail of physical as well as moral contamination. According to in- formants in whom the writer has confidence boys 12 to 15 years old in Kentucky cities and towns have contracted venereal disease from carnival women. In a mining camp the writer was told by the camp doctor and the mine superintendent that shortly after the arrival of a carnival last year a large number of men were incapacitated for work because of venereal disease. In another camp the same story. Evidence that carnivals carry immorality and disease around with them throughout Kentucky is plentiful. Besides the immoral women accompanying carnivals or attracted to the show grounds there are in many cases other disreputables of divers sorts — pickpockets and boot-leggers, for example. The car- nival grounds seem to be a natural rendezvous of these folk and the whole motley crew of roughs and rowdies. Once in a while a shoot- Recreation 125 ing affair takes place. The police chiefs of half a dozen cities de- clared to the writer that they hate to see a carnival coming. Their reasons are plain enough. The writer learned of young girls who had run away with car- nivals, and was credibly informed of an instance in which two young girls who had been riding on the merry-go-round until late at night were approached by one of the men operating the machine and in- vited to "come along and see the world." How often such things happen the writer cannot say, but from trustworthy sources in several towns and cities of Kentucky reports were received showing that such things do happen, if only now and then. The general character of the average carnival is ample corroboration. Attendance in the smaller and more remote communities is astonishingly large. People come from far and near. The carnival is a great event in the lives of hundreds whose opportunity for amuse- ment and recreation is otherwise meagre. Whole families attend every night. At one carnival the writer saw a child of five who had been brought by his parents five evenings that week; and twice the trio had stayed till midnight. School superintendents report an in- crease of truancy when a carnival is in town. At one carnival, in the afternoon, the writer found six boys who were confirmed truants. The carnival, it may be added, is one place where whites and negroes freely mingle. Carnival advertisements are replete with such phrases as "A Clean Performance," "Nothing to Shock the Most Fastidious," "Nothing the Most Perfect Lady Will Object To," "No Roughs Ad- mitted, Perfect Order Always Maintained," "Bright, Clean, Moral and Up-to-Date Amusements," "Ladies and Children May Attend With the Utmost Propriety." Here seems to be a case of too much pro- testing. Another sign of self-consciousness on the part of these im- peccable carnivals is seen in the fact that managers sometimes go to city officials and ask them to attend a special advance presentation of the dancing features. Whereby the said officials are to be convinced that everything is all right and the carnival entitled to a license. A number of Kentucky cities have enacted legislation designed to keep carnivals away. Some have raised their license fees to a pro- hibitive figure, but other cities put them up only as high as the traffic; will bear. Lexington and Newport are among the cities that directly prohibit carnivals from showing in the corporate limits. The prin- cipal objection to this form of restriction is that the carnival can set up its tents just outside the city limits and beyond the control and supervision of the police authorities. Berea, after placing the license fee at a point that kept carnivals out of the city and finding that they were showing just outside, passed an ordinance providing 126 Child Welfare in Kentucky — "That any firm, person or corporation who shall advertise, within the corporate limits of the city of Berea, Kentucky, with a parade, band, drum, horn, bell, posters, handbills, public speech or other manner, any show, theatre, play or performance, which is not given within the corporate limits of the city of Berea, shall pay a license fee of $S0 for each performance advertised." For some time no carnival has been shown in Berea or its environs. The ordinance quoted might not hold in court, but its message to carnival managers from the citizens and officials of Berea is unmistakable and is heeded. In some cities in which there are no ordinances directed against car- nivals, municipal officials refuse to grant licenses on the ground that public welfare commands a refusal. It is a common practice of car- nival managers to effect a business arrangement with some local lodge or club, so that the show is given under the auspices of the lodge, which presumably shares in the profits. Where there is hos- tility to carnivals on the part of the city government the lodge is fre- quently able to exert sufficient influence to obtain the necessary license, even after the city council has gone on record as opposed to letting carnivals come into town. It is doubtful if local efforts can successfully combat the menace and evil of street carnivals. Certainly they have had little effect on the prevalence of the evil through the state as a whole. The carnivals stay in a city, town or village only a short time, and then move on. This moving about is one of their protections. The evil is statewide and perhaps can best be attacked through state legislation. No doubt the existing criminal law of the state applies to the worst offenses of the carnivals against public health, morals and welfare, but the enactment of statutes dealing stringently with immoral danc- ing and with all forms of gambling is recommended. If the citizens of Kentucky can wage victorious war on the cigarette, they can fight the much more dangerous and harmful carnival to a good finish. Pool Rooms Pool and billiards are excellent games for young people, but the commercial pool room is by no means the best place in which they may be played. It is often a very unsuitable place. A state law of Kentucky provides that no minor shall be allowed in a pool room un- less the proprietor possesses written authorization from parent or guardian. A boy cannot work in a pool room before he is sixteen, but he can frequent the place, playing and loafing there, if parent or guardian gives consent. The law as to frequenting pool rooms is not well enforced. In many cities and towns the police make little at- tempt at enforcement except as action may be taken on receipt of complaints in particular cases. They do not ordinarily question the Recreation 127 right of a minor to be playing or loafing in a pool room. Thirty-five boys ranging in age from twelve to sixteen years were seen by the writer in twenty-one pool rooms; the number of boys and youths sixteen to twenty was much larger. It would undoubtedly conduce to better enforcement of the statute if the provision regarding written permission of parent or guardian were stricken out. Municipal legislation on commercial amusements should include an ordinance dealing with pool rooms and bowling alleys. As in the case of dance halls and picture theatres, a license should be exacted for the premises rather than the operator of the amusement, the license should be revocable, proper regulations as to ventilation and sanitation should be prescribed, and the admission of persons under a specified age should be forbidden. Suggestions and Recommendations (Summary) Organized dealing with the problem of commercial amusements is the community's best way, the most efficient and effective. Organ- ized dealing with the general problem of recreation is highly desira- ble, and, if the best and most complete results are to be obtained, in- dispensable. A plan and program for safe and sufficient recreation for all the people of the community requires that thought be given to the proper place of regulated commercial amusement in the total recreational scheme toward which the organized effort is directed. A citizen's committee on recreation, naturally, would deal with the commercial-amusement problem. Among its functions in this re- gard would be investigation of conditions and study of means and methods of improving conditions. Other functions would be publicity and propaganda. It would seek to understand the problem in all its details and relations and to impart to the community a true concep- tion. It would work for needed ordinances and administrative machinery and for the enforcement of ordinances. It would be vig- ilant in its watchfulness over amusement proprietors and over munici- pal officials. But it would co-operate with proprietors and encourage them in good works. It would co-operate also with municipal officials. The committee would see that commercial amusements had to meet high-class competition by promoting parks, playgrounds, and social centers. It would seek thus and in other ways to develop the community taste in recreation and amusement. What is meant by use of the term "citizen's committee on recreation'' is that there ought to be in the community some civic body, some organization or sub- organization, especially concerned with the recreational problem, the commercial-amusement problem included. The name and origin of this body are not so important as its functions. As no Kentucky municipality has careful and comprehensive 128 Child Welfare in Kentucky legislation on commercial amusements, ordinances should be enacted. In the city government there should be some officer, bureau or de- partment entrusted with the administration and enforcement of all ordinances dealing with commercial amusements. Issuance of licenses should be in the hands of this officer, bureau or department. State legislation directed against the carnival evil is recommended. III. RECREATIONAL RESOURCES The recreational problem of a community has to do with existing conditions and their improvement. The improvement of existing con- ditions may or may not demand the increase, in toto, of recreational facilities and activities. Multiplicity is not the goal. It is the rec- reational life of the community, or ideally, the community life in its recreational aspect, that is important — its invigoration, its reinvigora- tion; its direction, its redirection. A well balanced recreational life for the community comes pretty near meaning a well balanced rec- reational life for the members of the community. A city, recrea- tionally, may be overdeveloped on the side of commercial amuse- ments, particularly recreation in its passive forms. A countryside often is deficient in respect of social recreation. But every com- munity — let us assume that it thinks and acts as a self-conscious or- ganized unit — has abundant resources on which to draw for the im- provement and development of its recreational life. These resources will be considered after brief attention to certain phases of recrea- tional deficiency. Some Existing Conditions "All dressed up and nowhere to go." Such was the plight and plaint of "The Auctioneer" in David Warfield's play. Such is — per- haps not literally and precisely, but nevertheless truly — the situation of many people in Kentucky, young and old, whose natural and whole- some recreational desires are balked by lack of recreational oppor- tunities. Nowhere to go? That depends. Opportunities for recrea- tion are limited by personal preference, and in a sense, by their rel- ative worth from the social standpoint. Sometimes there is a general dearth of recreational facilities and activities in the community. An individual is not sufficient unto his own recreational needs. He cannot supply the means of their satisfaction by his own unaided effort. That is a social function too frequently left to exploitative commer- cialism. Commercial enterprise has provided the city people of Kentucky with commercial amusements. What of the country people? Con- trary to the common impression that the movies are nowadays found everywhere, there are whole counties in Kentucky in which there is Recreation 129 not a motion-picture machine and hardly ever a motion-picture show. But the movies, in moderation, are good as a factor in rural life. They are diversional, relaxational, horizon-broadening; they break monotony; they take one out of oneself and thus are mentally hygienic; they bring the fun and experience of the world to the country places. North Carolina recently adopted the policy of sub- sidizing community movies for the country. The legislature, a few years ago, directed the state superintendent of public instruction to provide movie entertainments wherever the people wanted them. County circuits were worked out. A unit consisting of one picture outfit complete, photo-plays, an operator, and everything necessary for one year's service, was found to cost approximately $3,000. One- third of the expense was shouldered by the state and two-thirds was left to be borne by the county. So far the average cost of a single performance has been about $12. It is part of the state's plan that the pictures shall take about an hour and a half, and that a half hour shall then be given to holding a community meeting and discussing community problems. The type of man chosen for operator is one who can organize community leagues in the different counties. The working out of the experiment will be watched with interest in other states. Then there are whole counties in Kentucky entirely without chil- dren's playgrounds, equipped or supervised. Farmers often say, "What good are they? Don't the children get enough exercise hoeing corn and driving the cows?" But playgrounds are needed in the c'buntry as much as in the city. Curtis says that "play is the life of the spirit, and the farrri boy needs play for its social and spiritual values far more than the city boy does." Especially does he need play in association with his fellows — group play, co-operative play. Charles Otis Gill, a sympathetic and profound student of country life, declares that one of the chief reasons why farmers will not or do not co-operate, is the fact that they did not play together enough when they were young. Associative play educates in the habit of co-operation, it educates too in the art of co- operation. "It is in play," someone has remarked, "that nature re- veals her anxious care to discover men to each other." For the gregarious, the social instinct of man requires exercise for its devel- opment and this exercise is furnished by children's play. Social recreation among adults also discovers men to each other. In the Scaffold Cane community, in Madison County, the farmers met and mixed in social recreation, got acquainted, became folksy, and finally began co-operative buying of feed and fertilizer. There is another aspect of this subject of rural recreation. Coun- try life needs development on its recreational side because, as 130 Child Welfare in Kentucky Theodore Roosevelt declared, "Our civilization rests at bottom on the wholesomeness, the attractiveness and the completeness as well as the prosperity, of life in the country." It is the recreational poverty of country life, rather than lack of economic opportunity, that drives young men and women to the city. They go, not to achieve fame and fortune, but to escape from the social unattractiveness and incom- pleteness of country life. And many a farmer, endowed with the highest qualities of personal and civic worth, retires from business by the process of turning over his acres to a tenant and emigrating to town; partly for greater ease and more enjoyment in his own remain- ing years, and partly for the sake of his children. And under the system of tenancy and absentee landlordism, the rural community deteriorates both economically and socially — less community interest, less money for community purposes, less hope of community progress. In the Kentucky town or village of a few hundred inhabitants, existing conditions as to the adequacy and wholesomeness of recrea- itonal life call for serious thought. Here, for instance, is one little town where lawlessness and hoodlumism among the boys explain the broken windows that one sees in house after house. The windows of the school buildings are protected by heavy wire screens. A resident declared, "The boys have nothing else to do but break windows." And over here is a little town where no church is found; for according to a resident, "there are so many denominations here, all fighting one another, that we can't have a church." A woman complained, "I hain't heered a kind word since I been here, I hain't seed a church house, and I hain't seed or heered of a preacher." The social and recreational poverty of a third little town drove a young teacher to a city position paying $5.00 less per week. "I just couldn't stand the deadness of that place any longer," she said. Where commercial amusements have reached the little town, they thrive largely on the recreation hunger of the country people roundabout. (This is true also of large cities — New York for ex- ample.) In a small Kentucky city where there are two motion picture houses side by side, it is no uncommon thing of an evening to see scores of automobiles lined up in front, their owners, who are farmers from a distance perhaps of eight or ten miles, having gone in with their families to see the show. Or it is the public dance or the street carnival that draws country people into the town or city, on foot, on horseback, by carriage or automobile. This is their social and rec- reational welcome to the town — commercial amusements. Though the town and the surrounding country are logically one community, their dealings are for the most part confined to buying and selling in the market place and at the ticket windows of commercial amuse- ments. It is a business relation. A closer social relation, a closer Recreation 131 recreational relation, is desirable. When, somehow, perhaps by the aid of social recreation, the town-and-country community shall dis- cover or re-discover itself and organize it will proceed to the study and solution of the problem that confronts it as a town-and-country community — what is called at the University of Wisconsin a rurban community. The rurban philosophy, as applied to recreation, must not be taken to mean a denial of the right and duty of country people to minister in an organized way to their own recreational needs.* Popular Resources The recreational resources of a community do not consist wholly of parks, playgrounds, theaters, school houses, material things, ex- ternals; they consist in part of the customs and traditions, the lore and the culture, of the people. The resources that reside in the people themselves, considered as individuals, can be deepened and extended by the public school, the church and other cultural agencies; that is to say, recreational taste and appreciation can be cultivated and recreational capacity increased. Then there are resources that reside in the people themselves considered in groups; there are "lost arts," forgotten or half-forgotten forms, of community recreation. Many can be restored or revived, or equivalent forms can be de- veloped out of community history and tradition, and out of human nature. Old-fashioned spelling bees have pretty nearly gone out. Quilt- ing parties are still held in parts of Warren County and in some of the eastern counties. Court Day, all over Kentucky, is an occasion that brings together on the opening day of county court a great crowd of people. It takes the place of the Muster Day of former years. In Western Kentucky the Court Day in April is also Tater Day. In Marshall County, which is noted for raising sweet potatoes of surpassing quality, people who have seed sweet potatoes to sell and people who want to buy potatoes to bed down, come together in Benton. Even from neighboring states people come, and sometimes there is a gathering of several thousand on Tater Day. Court Day in Webster County is sometimes called "Jockey Day." The streets of the county seat are filled with farmers, buying, selling and swapping *Enterprises that tend to bring townsfolk and country people closer together on a basis of acquaintance, understanding, friendship and good will are not lacking in Kentucky. The so-called "rural chautauquas" promoted by the State Development Committee of the Louisville Board of Trade have proved a help in this direction^ In Owensboro there is a Commercial Club made up of business and professional men of the city and farmers of Daviess County. Bankers and merchants of the county- seats act as hosts to the boys and girls of the agricultural clubs, arranging automobile tours and providing amusement programs. The Women's Club of Franklin hasi established a rest room for farmers' wives _ when they come to town, the county- home demonstration agent having an office in connection. A similar enterprise has been undertaken at Hartford. 132 Child Welfare in Kentucky horses. Attendance at circuit and county court trials is a favorite pastime in eastern Kentucky. The singing school that used to be a feature of country life (when there was relatively more country life than there is today) has been revived at the rural social center at Narrow Gap in Madison County. The "Old Southern Harmony Singing" survives at Benton and elsewhere. A resident of Benton describes the annual event as follows: "It is always held on the fourth Sunday in May and is for the old settlers, those who learned to and still do sing by the shape of the note as much as by its position on the staff, and whose leader \:ses the tuning fork for his guide to the starting note. Only a few of these yet remain, but there is always a large crowd, sometimes 5,000 visitors.'' The passing of old customs in another community was lamented by a resident with whom the writer talked. "There used to be Fourth of July barbecues," he said, "which helped to keep the community spirit strong. There were also community threshings, when the women would cook a big dinner. We don't have these things now. Many of the old people have died. The boys and girls have gone to the city as fast as they could. People don't know one another so well now." Rural Kentucky stands in need of a recreational revival — not a revival of obsolete recreational customs, but a reawakening of recre- ational life through old and new occasions for neighborly, sociable getting together. Barn-raisings are out of date under changed economic conditions, but May Day and the Fourth of July and Hallowe'en and Christmas come every year. The human nature of country people is the same as ever and man is still a gregarious animal. He has music in his soul. "The apostles of community music," says Harlan P. Douglass, "believe that it has immense social power. It harmonizes men as well as voices It is the art -which most directly realizes unity through harmonious co-operation. It is the only active exercise which the entire town can share at once. It is one of the finest of the little town's possibilities." 'Out in the open country, people can almost sing themselves into their own. Community music and community drama must have a large place in the new rural recreation. In the cities they will also have their place as recreation and as art and as a means of civic and ■social progress. The University of Kentucky is establishing a laboratory theater for the production of one-act plays written by Kentuckians and inter- preting Kentucky life and spirit. Through the Bureau of Information of the Department of Extension it is planned that assistance shall be given throughout the state in preparing community festivals and pageants, in organizing community theatres and in planning courses Recreation 133 of study. It is hoped in this way to make pageantry and drama a force for creating unity and preserving the traditions, ideals and civic spirit of Kentucky communities. Parris T. Farwell calls the pageant '"a splendid means of promoting the social life of a community, bringing together, as it may, a large part of the population; it provides oppor- tunity also for expression of the dramatic instinct which dwells, often unsuspected and unfed, in every life; and it is a fine, educational and interesting form of recreation." A community need not depend on commercial amusement or on imported professional talent to have plenty of musical and dramatic entertainment. It has resources of its own. Among them is home talent. Home-talent plays have been given by a number of Kentucky churches. Amateur theatricals in the schools have not always been handled by the teachers with due regard to the opportunities afforded for cultivating taste and imparting knowledge. As drama is vicarious experience, drama in which children take part should be of the highest quality. On the stage or in the audience children enjoy good drama. There is no excuse for giving them drama of inferior quality. A highly praiseworthy feature of the playground work in Louisville this year should be mentioned. This was the dramatization of fairy tales by the younger children. Imaginative recreation has appeal and value for both children and adults.* Among recreational resources must be included the play material that consists in the stock of games known to the people of a given community. Prof. John F. Smith of Berea College Academy has collected descriptions of more than 300 games with which the people of the Southern Highlands are acquainted. Among these are many singing games. The play material existing in a community may be insuflSciently utilized in actual play and recreation. The songs and ballads of the mountain people are worthy recreational material, and use can be made of it by the people of the plains. Kentucky is rich in history and tradition that lend themselves to local drama and pageantry an'd to anniversary celebrations. Instrumental Resources There are instrumental resources — individuals, organizations and institutions — on which the community can draw for recreational serv- ice. Following is a list of some of the various agencies now serving Kentucky communities in a recreational way. The accompanying commentary as to work being done in Kentucky is but cursory. It will be observed that most of the agencies listed are not primarily recreational. First, a word or two about individual leaders. •In imaginative recreation there is creation and re-creation. 134 Child Welfare in Kentucky Individual Leaders Recreation in Kentucky, especially rural recreation, lacks leader- ship. Somebody in the country community must say things, do things, start things, somebody with vision and initiative, somebody who con- ceives of recreation as a good in itself and as a moral and civic force. The clergymen as a rule are ill qualified for such leadership. The educated ministers have not been trained for rural or recreational service and the uneducated preach against chess, checkers, baseball, the piano and the "devil's music box." In one south-central county there are only two communities in which there are resident pastors, while in a western county not a single church has a pastor on more than one-quarter time. Under these conditions little is to be expected of ministers in the way of community leadership. The rural teachers, generally speaking, are not trained for or inclined toward rural com- munity work, and do not give recreational matters much thought. "Ninety-nine per cent, of the graduates of this institution," says a professor in one of the state normal schools, "want city jobs as soon HA they can get them. They do not want to go to the country." Better paid and a larger number of qualified ministers and teachers in country communities would be a great advantage to rural recreation. In both city and country, however, there is actual or potential rec- reational leadership in every Kentucky community, and indeed in most cases the results so far accomplished are primarily due to individuals, working, perhaps, through civic organizations. Civic Organisations Examples of civic organizations that initiate, promote, support or conduct recreational work in Kentucky communities are the Civic League of Lexington, the Welfare League of Louisville, and the Com- mercial Club of Owensboro and Daviess County. Parent-Teacher As- sociations, Community School Improvement Leagues, Community Clubs (described in the report on Rural Life) , Women's Clubs, Rotary Clubs, the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Knights of Colum- bus, and the Red Cross, not to extend the list, should be mentioned. Local Councils of National Defense carried on recreational work in wartime; it will be regrettable on many accounts if these organizations entirely break up and leave no successors to carry on. Municipal Governments Parks and playgrounds are municipal contributions to recreation. Louisville has lately appropriated a large sum for municipal music in the parks. Politics sometimes interferes with the recreational service that ought to be expected from municipal governments. Provision of evening social centers might well be a part of that service. Recreation 135 Corporations Welfare work on a large scale, with recreational features, is con- ducted by corporations in some of the mining camps of eastern Ken- tucky. In one of these camps it was found that the families of the ordinary laborers do not share in the recreational activities that are promoted, beyond going occasionally to the movies. They do not feel at home at the dances, which are attended mostly by the higher-paid and better-dressed classes of the camp population. Chautauquas Thorugh the medium of the chautauquas amusement and instruc- tion are brought to thousands of Kentucky people every year. Some of these chautauquas make a specialty of play and recreation propa- ganda. Some have story-tellers and play directors to amuse and instruct the children. Many of the chautauquas that visit Kentucky communities furnish programs of inferior or mediocre quality, and in many cases the business management is poor. An interesting and valuable piece of work done in Kentucky this summer was the conduct of "rural chautauquas" by a co-operative committee representing the Kentucky Bankers' Association, the Louisville Board of Trade, the University of Kentucky, various departments of the state government, and a number of other agencies. Community development on both its social and its economic side was the central theme of the three days' program, which included entertainment and brought people together in a sociable way. The plan was the outgrowth of an idea that had been put into effect on a county scale in Warren County ten years before and which had been adopted in several other counties. PubUc Libraries In Kentucky there are about 60 cities and towns with public libraries. These are educational institutions but for several reasons cannot be excluded from a list of recreational resources. The branch libraries of Louisville are meeting places for various organizations of the neighborhood, including Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. Some of the buildings contain basement playrooms and have playgrounds on the premises. Story-telling at the main and branch libraries is part of the work of the Children's Department. Public libraries, by their service to good reading, render a service to good recreation. Books bear a direct relation to the pleasurable and profitable use of leisure time. The State Library Commission sends books to the remotest hamlet where books are wanted. In connection with the subject of libraries it may be interesting to refer to Professor Patrick's conception of play as given in his "Psychology of Relaxation." "The term 'play,' " he says, "may be applied to all those human activities 136 Child Welfare in Kentucky which are free and spontaneous and which are pursued for their own sake alone. They are self-developing... Play will thus include... the enjoyment of music, painting, poetry, and other arts; the daily paper, the magazine, the short story, and the novel." Social Settlements Social settlements are found in Kentucky not only in cities but in mountain communities. Neighborhood House in Louisville has a playground, a playroom, and a gymnasium; and among its numerous social and recreational activities are community dances, folk-dancing classes, picture shows and outing parties. Churches and Sunday Schools Congregational singing is recreation. Church and Sunday school picnics are held in almost every Kentucky community. A Berea Sun- day school has a playground. At Harlan there is an "institutional church," with a gymnasium, a game room and a reading room in the church building. Of the 213 Boy Scout troops in Kentucky 73 are connected with churches. Of the 202 scout masters, 48 are clergymen. The Y. M. G. A. There are 27 Y. M. C. A. buildings in Kentucky. Organized recre- ational work is done at 36 points. Twelve associations have regularly organized boys' departments, with a membership of 2,183. The district secretaries are active in promoting play and recreation among young people and adults, much emphasis being placed on community recrea- tion. There is an interesting development in rural recreation in Woodford County, where the County Y. M. C. A., with headquarters at Versailles, is carrying the playground gospel into practical effect. Versailles has a playground with an attendance of over 100 a day. The equipment is almost entirely of home-made construction and cost about $75. It consists of two croquet sets, two swings, three seesaws, a shoot-the-chutes, a chinning bar, a tennis court, a basketball court and a volley ball court. It is planned to duplicate this equipment in several places in the county. The general program includes the presentation of plays this winter by the children of rural schools. It is planned next summer to have Community Play Days in which adults will participate. The Y. W. C. A. The Y. W. C. A. work is not so extensively organized in Kentucky as that of the Y. M. C. A. In both Louisville and Lexington it carries on a large amount of recreational work. The Louisville Association Recreation 137 has a summer camp for colored girls, which is, so far as the writer knows, the only one in the country conducted by a Y. W. C. A. Boy Scouts There are 4,402 Boy Scouts in Kentucky, 1,737 of them "under council." The number of troops is 78 "under council" and 137 not "under council." In 1918 the proportion of Scouts to total population was one in 520, Kentucky ranking 41st in the list of states. The county agricultural agent of Hart County has organized troops of Farm Scouts. Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Oirls The 35 Girl Scout troops have a membership of 519. There are 23 Camp Fires, with a total membership of 322. Agricultural Cluis The boys' and girls' clubs under the auspices of the state agricul- tural extension service are a potent factor in enriching the social life of the members. The meetings at the local school house and at the county seat build acquaintance and friendship. The club life, so to describe it, involves play as well as work, and there is entertainment as well as instruction. Ten thousand Kentucky boys and girls are members of the agricultural clubs. The Schools* Kentucky ranks second to Virginia in development of the county school fair, which is directed by the county superintendent of schools. Sometimes the school fair is held independently of the county agricul- tural fair. The school fair of Laurel County is one of the best. Two days are given over to lectures, exhibits of school and agricultural- club work, poultry show, athletic games and contests, band concerts, a grand parade, and so on. Eight thousand people attended the fair in 1917. There were 7,000 school children in the county and 5,000 of them came to the fair. Local fairs are held at each school in thf^ county prior to the county fair. The possibilities of the county school fair have not been exhausted anywhere. The customary parade might easily be developed into a pageant. Along the line of games and play lies the greatest opportunity, as the fair might serve to introduce into the schools all over the county the games that are most suitable for school use and for the country community. The schoolhouses of Kentucky are in disuse too much of the time. Their use for occasional meetings and entertainments does not make •See also Section II on "Play and Playgrounds.' 138 Child Welfwre in Kentucky them real social centers. In some cities and in some counties the schoolhouses are never used for meetings or entertainments. Social- center activities of considerable scope are conducted in a few schools, notably the Lincoln school in Lexington and the Prentice school in Louisville. Kentucky school boards do not financially support social- center work in the schools. The practice is to charge for heat, light and janitor service. The boards of Louisville and Lexington have adopted the policy of planning all new buildings with reference to social-center work. The rural school at Scafifold Cane (this has a teacherage and an all-year resident teacher) is a social center in the fullest sense — it is the center of community life. Sound though the argument for con- solidated schools is, the one-room schools will long remain numerous in rural Kentucky; and the argument for developing these as social centers is also sound. The teacher in the one-room school has the biggest opportunity and potentially the biggest job in Kentucky teacherdom. To vision should be added training. The State Department of Education Kentucky communities should be able to look to the State Depart- ment of Education for guidance and assistance in recreational work, particularly recreational work for children in connection with the schools. Indeed, the state department should assume leadership and take initiative along many recreational lines. It is no criticism of its present personnel to say that the department does not function recreationally to any large extent. The State University The State University belongs to the people of Kentucky, and service to the people of Kentucky is its aim and purpose. A Depart- ment of University Extension was created this summer, and definite plans for this department are being formulated regarding develop- ment of community centers and wider use of the school plant. The newly organized Department of Art and Music will participate in the community work of the University. Considerable attention will be given to community music and drama. The College of Agriculture deserves a share of credit for excellent work done along social and recreational lines by some of the county agents. General Discussion This section (on "Recreational Resources") began with pointing out the fact of recreational deficiency in many communities. Ample recreation is a desideratum; but ample, safe, wholesome recreation is not the whole of the problem. Recreation should be native, locality- Recreation 139 expressive as well as self-expressive, rather than exotic or artificial; hence attention was called to "Popular Resources." Under the head of "Instrumental Resources" mention was made of some of the agencies at work in the recreational field. The problem resolves it- self largely into a problem of utilization of resources, popular and instrumental. This means civic or, better, community organization, but not the displacement of existing agencies. The object, of course, is co-ordination and co-operation. The home, perhaps, should have been included in the list of instrumental resources. The home ought to be the "social center" of the family. Among the social-center activities of the family there should be many of a recreational character. Recreational features of home life not only afford enjoyment but help develop home loyalty and family solidarity, especially when all members of the group par- ticipate. They also keep children off the streets and away from questionable amusements down-town. As an "evening social center" for children (let the neighbors' children come in) the home in city or country can be a recreational institution of great value. It is not in the state of Kentucky alone that home attractions have failed to compete successfully with outside social and recreational attractions, including the attraction of commercial amusements. A community, in reckoning up its resources and planning for their utilization in a community program, should not forget the home as a place of amusement and recreation. The State Education Department and the State University, listed among recreational resources, must each be regarded from two stand- points. They should be prepared to respond in a variety of ways to the corresponding variety of calls that the local community may make upon them in trying to solve its own recreational problem. They should also be qualified, equipped, and organized to give stimulus to local communities and assume leadership in the recreational move- ment. They are properly concerned with recreation not merely be- cause recreation is educational, but because they are strategically situated for doing the statewide educational work that makes state- wide recreational progress possible. How divide recreational service between them? Let the state university specialize in community or- ganization and in community music and drama. Let the State Univer- sity and the State Department of Education co-operate in developing wider use of the school plant. Let the Department of Education concern itself energetically with children's play and recreation. There is plenty of recreational work for both institutions to do. IV. RECREATIONAL ADVANCEMENT The recreational problem of Kentucky, the problem of advance- ment in recreation and of advancement through recreation, presents 140 Child Welfare in Kentucky a splendid opportunity to a great people. It should be taken up not merely as a task and duty, but also as an opportunity. By what means, methods, processes shall the objective be attained? Partly by having an objective; that is, a well thought-out ideal of recreational life, safe, wholesome, rich, for all the people. To seek this objective is almost to find the way. But a program of procedure? Let it be a natural program, fitted to Kentucky circumstances and built upon Kentucky facts. Such a program must be formulated with reference to (a.) the utilization of recreational resources and (6) the removal or conquest of obstacles to recreational advancement. These obstacles — what are they? Some of them may be de- scribed as obstacles of attitude. There is the puritanism that looks on play, whether that of children or that of adults, as frivolous, almost sacrilegious; and then there is the conservatism that regards play- grounds and other recreation centers coldly because they are "new." These obstacles of attitude are due, of course, to lack of appreciation of the individual and social values of supervised play and organized recreation. Means of overcoming them are publicity, propaganda and, above all, demonstration work (actual recreational work) whereby innovations in time become old and familiar and respected and prized. Not to enumerate all the other obstacles, mention may be made of the money question. This has to do, first, with the economic condi- tion of the people; second, with methods of taxation and the allo- cation of public funds; third, with the unwillingness of school boards and taxpayers to spend money for public recreation; and fourth, with legal disabilities, real or imaginary. The first and second topics will not be discussed here. The unwillingness of officials and taxpayers to spend money for recreation comes under the head of "obstacles of attitude." Legal disabilities will be removed by the passage of a recreation act such as has been already outlined in this report. The program of advancement must take into account and employ three group divisions of population — the local community, the county, and the state — each of which must be considered from the standpoint of (o) the relation of civic organization to the recreational problem and (6) the relation of political government to the recreational problem. Among the aims sought should be equality of recreational opportunity. The smaller children should have as fair a show as the older children, the girls as fair a show as the boys, the poor as fair as the rich, the country folks as fair as the city folks. The Local Community The recreational problem comes closest home to the local com- munity. It is primarily a local-community problem. A community has many interests and may organize itself to serve them all. A Recreation 141 community organization may embrace an entire city, may follow the "social unit" plan, may be on the rurban or town-and-country basis, may comprise a village population, or may be developed in the open country. In any case, a community organization implies a com- munity program, and a community program implies a recreational program. Often it is through recreational activities that organization of the community is engineered and accomplished, often through recreational activities that community consciousness and spirit is aroused. The organized community naturally seeks a home, a com- munity house (it may be the schoolhouse or the grange hall), a headquarters and hearthstone, a meeting place not for business alone but for common recreation and sociable intercourse. The community organization will have a committee on recreation. One of the first things for this committee to do will be to make a recreational survey, which may be part of a comprehensive social survey of the community. The recreation committee will proceed to formulate and carry out a long-term program. It will not attempt, however, to supplant existing agencies in the recreational field, for these will be represented in its membership and the program will be their own plan for concert of action and division of labor. Should the community as a whole fail to organize itself for all community purposes, there will be no less need for a committee on recreation or some other body of citizens that will address itself to the local recreational problem. What its functions should be in gen- eral and may be in particular are best indicated, perhaps, by citing the definite objects of two or three existing organizations of this kind. The Recreational League of Springfield, 111., promotes — "Social cen- ters, the wider use of the school plant; parks, many of them, and where they are most needed; playgrounds, well equipped and suffi- cient; well ordered and safe dance halls; athletics for all the boys and girls; artistic recreation places; popular-priced concerts for all the people; municipal bathing beaches; summer camps for working boys; athletics for young men." The Community Recreation Association of Cambridge, Mass., has for its avowed objects: "To provide recrea- tion and physical development, the year round, for adults as well as for children; to provide community centers where people of all ages may meet for social and educational purposes; to provide our foreign- born citizens with opportunities for Americanization in the best and widest sense of the term; to co-ordinate all these activities under the control of a municipal recreation commission with an expert organ- izer in charge of the work." In Louisville there has been formed "a Community Council, which is a clearing house for the efforts and plans of all the agencies in any way concerned in the public welfare. The Recreation Committee of the Council will take up the question of 142 Child Welfare in Kentucky supervision of commercialized recreation; the social use of the school and the church plant; the development of parks and playgrounds; the promotion of community forums and community singing; and all other matters connected with the leisure time of the people." Rural communities, of course, should develop their own programs of recrea- tion without thought of imitating the cities. The County and the State How may the county figure? This question has been partially answered by several references to actual recreational work on a county scale or basis. The county agricultural agents are influencing country life on its social and recreational side as well as on its purely economic side. (See report on Rural Life.) The Community Clubs which they have organized among farmers are federated loosely on a county basis. The county looms large in the school system of Kentucky, and on this account will loom large in the record of recre- ational progress. Some of the county superintendents and county boards have already made contributions to this record. In the report on Education (see elsewhere, this volume) the appointment of a school supervisor in each county is recommended; among his duties should be assistance to the teachers in developing the recreational life of the schools and surrounding communities. At the county court house the county agricultural agent and the county school superin- tendent have their offices and it is suggested that the new buildings be planned to serve as county social centers and old buildings be re- modelled for that purpose if possible. County social and recreational gatherings already include the school fairs and the meetings of the boys' and girls' agricultural clubs. County play festivals for young and old are yet to come. And finally, how does the state come in? Certain legislation that is needed at Frankfort has been recommended in the section on "Play and Playgrounds'' and in that on "Commercial Amusements." A statewide civic agency to act as a clearing house of information on rec- reational matters and promote otherwise the cause of recreational advancement would be invaluable, and it seems likely that the Co- operative Council of Kentucky, through a special department of recreation in which existing agencies will be federated and their activities co-ordinated, will perform that function. The principal public agencies available for statewide service in the recreational ad- vancement of Kentucky are the Department of Education and the State University. The former must be emancipated. The latter is launching forth upon a great adventure in helping communities dis- cover and enjoy themselves. Communities that do this are the least likely to be unmindful or neglectful of children's rights in the matter of recreation. RURAL LIFE Charles E. Gibbons Kentucky is distinctly a rural state. Agriculture is today, as it always has been, her chief industry, and over one-half of her workers are directly dependent upon it for a living. Four-fifths of her chil- dren are growing up on farms or in communities classed as rural by the census. If numbers count, child welfare in Kentucky is primarily a problem of the country child. Yet the city child has thus far been the chief interest of both public and private effort. The child labor law forbids practically all forms of gainful employment to the city child under 14 years of age and limits the hours of work for children under 16 years; but the country boy may work on the farm from four in the morning until eight at night, irrespective of the effect upon his health and strength. He may legally leave school at 12 years, although his need for further training may be far greater than that of the city child who is required to study for two more years. The compulsory education law is rarely enforced in the country even for the short term of the rural school. There is an excellent juvenile court law but only the cities may have detention homes or probation officers. One-fifth of the children are getting nine-tenths of the state's attention. As a matter of fact, the organized welfare forces in Kentucky are only just beginning to see that there is a social problem concerning the children whose parents till the fields. Who has set forth in terms of citizenship the meagre achievements of the poorly taught, poorly attended country school? Who has told of the monotony and absence of wholesome recreation in many farm homes? Who has pictured the lack of modern conveniences and even of the simplest provisions for san-'tation? Does Kentucky realize how rapidly farm tenancy is on the increase within her borders? Does the state really know under what conditions, economic and social, four-fifths of her children are being prepared for citizenship? Before entering upon a discussion of conditions we shall set up a standard of living by which we can measure the average American rural community; and it is believed that the following should be the minimum requirements: First: A large majority of the farmers should be land owners. The system should be so organized that tenants can enter the land- owning class, and day laborers become tenants. Second: The system of farming should increase the fertility of the lands. In the main this will be accomplished by rotation of crops and intelligent use of fertilizers. 144 Child Welfare in Kentucky Third: There should be a vitalized rural school. The length of the term, the courses of study, the training of the teachers, the equip- ment of the plant and the requirements for attendance should all be adapted to the needs of the rural child. Fourth: Communication should be established by a system of good roads. Fifth: Labor-saving devices should be used to lighten the burdens of the family. Children should be relieved of all heavy, exhausting or prolonged work. Farm work should never be permitted to interfere with attendance at school. Sixth: Rural children should have some sort of health supervision. This can probably be best handled through the school and should in- clude at least one physical examination annually. Seventh: Every rural home should have at least the simplest sani- tary arrangements and conveniences. Eighth: Means of recreation suited to the needs of children and adults should be provided. Ninth: Every locality should have some form of community center to promote social intercourse. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS With the foregoing standards in mind, let us consider what the conditions are in Kentucky. Geographically the state falls into three main divisions, Mountain, Blue Grass and Western. Mountain This section consists of some 34 counties comprising about three- eighths of the total area of the state. It is, as the name implies, moun- tainous, and consequently, for the most part, too rough and steep for a high development of agriculture. The coves and hollows .are fertile and it is chiefly from these that the people have made their living; formerly they supplemented their income from the farm by cutting timber, which was sold for a mere trifle. It is said that farmers often gave their timber away so as to be hired to cut it. Much of the timber land has been cut over but there are still large tracts of the finest hardwoods, especially away from the railroads. Within the last two decades, due largely to the activity of coal- raining interests, the number of people in this section has increased much more rapidly than in either of the other sections, but still less than a fourth of the state's population is found in this area. The mountaineers are an isolated people. They have lived here long enough to have their own traditions. They are individualistic, have mixed with the outside world but little, and the outside world has bothered them less. Practically all are native born of native parents. Rural Life 145 They seldom leave the mountains and are little concerne'd with affairs outside their own immediate neighborhood. The children have had but a slender chance for schooling. The schoolhouses are far apart and oftentimes so poorly constructed as not to afford adequate protection during inclement weather. In the rainy season many of the roads are impassable and children are thereby kept from school. Attendance has never been looked upon as a matter for compul- sion. A large percentage of the parents are illiterate and consequently incapable of appreciating their children's educational needs, but they must not be too severely criticized, for there has been neither educa- tional leadership nor sentiment for the public school system. Many parents, and their number is increasing, send their children away to the privately supported mountain schools at no small cost and sacrifice to themselves. The indifference of others is largely due to the absence of educational opportunity, but its effect on child life is no less dis- astrous. There are practically no good roads, and eight of the counties have no railroads. In one county seat, away from the railroad, the writer was told there never had been an automobile thereabouts, and from the appearance of the roads it will be a long time before people will see one. They usually travel by horseback or on foot, more often the latter. There are no classes among the mountaineers. They have been independent, and as one man said, "We ain't asked nuthin' from no one." Whatever sorrow and suffering have come as a result of their poverty they have borne in patience, living their isolated lives as best they could. These people work hard and spend much of their time during the busy season in the fields. Since practically all of the work must be done by hand, the services of the entire family are needed to eke out a bare existence. Frequently it is necessary for the father to go to the mines in order to supply the necessaries that must be paid for in cash. However, he usually helps to put the crop in. In the early spring the children are found in the fields helping to prepare the ground for planting. Because of the ineffective cultivation during the previous year, shrubs and bushes have grown up so that much of the ground must be cleared annually before it can be planted; children are used for this and in picking up and burning roots and other trash. The ground is usually broken with one- or two-horse plows, although there are places where it is too steep to use horses. Shortly after the corn, beans, and potatoes have been planted, the work of cultivating starts. Modern cultivators cannot be extensively used, so it must be done by hand. Every child big enough to wield a hoe or pull weeds is pressed 146 Child Welfare in Kentucky into service. The hoe, however, is not as effective as a good plow in keeping down the weeds and affording the proper kind of cultivation for the growing crop, consequently more time and energy must be spent upon it, until it is ready to lay by in July. After one cultivating season is over there is a period of from six weeks to two months, when the children are more or less idle. As soon as the crops are ripe, be- ginning usually about September 1, the tedious process of gathering begins. The length of time required for this, of course, depends upon the size of the crop and the amount of labor the family can furnish. In the main the work is finished by late fall and there is nothing much that children can do until the next planting season. Farm work especially in the early spring and late fall does interfere with the children's school work. During the planting, cultivating, and harvesting seasons, the work is hard, the hours long, and undoubtedly many children do work be- yond their strength, yet the busy season is always followed by a slack season in which there is comparatively little to do. In some instances, no doubt, their health is affected by their labor, yet the possibility of permanent injury is not so great where the work is not continuous throughout the entire year. A far more serious factor is the poor and ill-balanced food they have to eat. Mothers have had practically no instruction in the preparation of foods. Many farms have no cows, so that milk and butter are not available. Considerable fruit is raised, but for the most part the women do not know how to preserve oi can it. Grocers report a tremendous increase in the use of canned goods, particularly during the season when fresh vegetables cannot be gotten from the gardens. Another factor that hinders the development of normal child life is the lack of recreational opportunities, especially for the younger children. Those above 16 years of age do not fare so badly for they can and do go to dances, "sings," parties, etc., and frequently they have baseball games or pitch horseshoes; but for the younger children there are no toys, no circus, no movies, nothing. Families living near small towns break their monotonous life by occasional visits to a carnival; and it is pathetic to see these recreationally starved people trying to enjoy the gambling devices and low order of amusements there offered. Their houses are of the traditional mountain type, usually built ol logs. Many have been weather-boarded and so present a fairly good outward appearance, but within comforts and conveniences are few. Most of the wells are open and unprotected, and the water is drawn in the traditional bucket, not always, however, of oak. A great many people use the water of springs or creeks. With the ever-increasing number of people living in this section, the water of the streams, wells, Rural Life 147 and springs is becoming more and more polluted. This is undoubtedly an important factor in the marked increase of typhoid fever. Hook- worm and smallpox are prevalent in this section. Hov\rever bad the conditions of housing, health, education and poverty may have been for the mountaineer in the past as a farmer, his condition is rapidly becoming worse. The cause is the develop- ment of the mining industry. A large portion, in fact the greater part of this section is underlaid with valuable coal deposits and enormous areas have been bought up by coal development companies which