9'93 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University HN 80.B44B95 ""'"*"">"■"•"'>' limiiw ''* *'"^'^' survey. Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014542546 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY A STUDY OF SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN BELLEVILLE, KANSAS, MADE FOR THE PURPOSE OF BASING A" PLAN FOR COMMUNITY WELFARE UPON A KNOWLEDGE OF COMMUN- ITY PROBLEMS. Under the direction of the "department of sociology ^university of kansas. ORGANIZATION OF THE SURVEY F. W. BLACKMAR, Director. Dr. S. J. CRUMBINE, 1 C. C. YOUNG I Advisory Directors. W. L. O'BRIEN, \ E. W. BURGESS, Social Surveyor. Dr. J. J. SIPPY, Health Surveyor. LINNA E. BRESETTE, Industrial Surveyor. F. R. HESSER, Sanitary Surveyor. BELLEVILLE WELFARE SOCIETY F. L. WINELAND, Pres. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR THE SURVEY. Mary Ward, Chairman Guy .T. Gebhardt Lillian Carstensen COMMITTEES OF INVESTIGATION. I. CIVIC AND INDUSTRIAL COMMITTEE. E. S. Nelson . Lloyd Johnson II. CONSTRUCTIVE AGENCIES COMMITTEE. Lillian Carstensen. 1. Schools. 2. Churches. Mrs. Effle Chappius N. J. Ward Mrs. William Kamp S. H. Rogers J". C. Gurnea 3. Recreation. Dr. J. C. Henson Miss Gerna Stoddard Dr. E. A. Moore Mrs. R. M. Brigham III. REMEDIAL AND CORRECTIVE AGENCIES COMMITTEE. Guy T. Gebhardt 1. Dependency 2. Delinquency Mrs. R. T. Jellison H. H. Van Natta M. L. Hill IV. PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION COMMITTEE. Dr. J. C. Decker Dr. William Kamp Dr. H. D. Thomas KANSAS SOCIAL SURVEY SERIES NO. ONE — Belleville Social Survey, first complete survey of a rural town community. NO. TWO — Lawrence Social Survey, now in Press. PRICE, EACH, PER COPY 25c. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence INTRODUCTION. The Belleville Social Survey represents a new development in the social study of community life. It brought about a new type of co-operation between the state university and the community. The university provided the expert direction. The community con- tributed the organized force of workers for the detailed study. The demand for the survey came from the community. The response for the university came from the Sociology Department, University of Kansas. The writer, as director of the survey, selected Assist- ant Professor E. W. Burgess as social surveyor. ' He also secured the co-operation of Dr. S. J. Crumbine, Secretary of the State Board of Health, who detailed Dr. J. J. Sippy, epidemologist of the State Board of Health, as the active field worker in the public health and sanitation division of the survey. The State Commissioner of Labor, Wm. L. O'Brien, lent his assistance and directed Miss Linna E. Bresette to study working conditions and wages of working wo- men and girls. In the Health Survey, the State Water Survey at Lawrence and fhe Bacteriological Laboratory at Manhattan gave valuable assistance. In the community the local Welfare Society placed itself square- ly behind the survey. A committee from this society had active charge of the survey, and organized a staff of twenty workers for investigation. Fifty or more volunteer workers were readily secured for the house-to-house canvass. The superintendent of schools, the teachers, the school board, the ministers, the physicians and the city and county officials gave liberally of their time and effort in the special fields of the survey. This fine spirit of community co- operation and the efficient, faithful service of the workers is signifi- cant for community advance. It is hoped that the publication of this report will call the at- tention of communities and of colleges and universities to this new type of survey. The expert supervision insures accuracy and at the same time the training of the local workers. The development of community spirit which accompanies the survey and the special train- ing secured by the active workers in the survey are all important if the recommendations are to have a practical value for commun- ity progress. In the following pages the report presents an analysis of condi- tions and recommendations for future progress. The complete value of the survey can only be achieved if this study of the situation with its constructive suggestions is utilized in community building. P. W. BLACKMAR, Director of the Survey. THE TOWN j[_Belleville, the county seat of Republic County, Kansas, is a town of 2,367 inhabitants, according to the 1913 assessor's returns. Geo- graphically, it is located not many miles from the center of the United States^ For practical purposes, it is situated at the "Cross- roads of America." North and "south through her boundaries runs the Meridian National Road from Winnipeg to Galveston. Meeting this thoroughfare within her borders is the Pike's Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway, already practicable for automobile tourists from New York to San Francisco. Sociologically, Belleville is not a geographical location, but a group of people, members of a co-operative concern for the purpose of living. The object of a social survey was to take stock of the human resources of the community and to construct a program for progressive community well-being. POPULATION: The first chief asset of the community is not the soil, nor the industries, but the men, women and children who constitute it. The population of Belleville in 1910, according to the census reports, was 2,247. In April, 1913, the assessor's re- turns gave 2,367 inhabitants, or an increase of five per cent in three years. (The Belleville human stock is native-born; only ten per cent of the grown-up people, according to the hoiise to house can- vass, were of foreign birth. A fact, not altogether unexpected, is that those born in other states exceed the native-born Kansans!jThe immigrants outnumber the natives in the proportion of five to four for the adult population. This evidence tends to indicate that Kan- sas is "a state of mind" rather than a geographical location. A fundamental element in community life is stability of popula- tion. A study of nine hundred fifty-six adults indicated that 10.1 percent had resided at Belleville only one year; 9.7 percent only two years; 22.6 percent from three to five years; 15.5 from six to ten years; 14.6 percent from eleven to twenty years; and 27.5 percent over twenty years. iThe permanent nucleus in Belleville is, there- fore, the 'old timers', the 27.5 percent of the people who have been there over twenty years. The fluctuating element is represented by the twenty per cent of the adults who have resided in the community less than two and one-half yearsTj The existing proportion of these two population elements in Belleville doubtless combines the advan- tages of both. The stable element stands for the permanent inter- BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY ests of the community; the fluctuating element makes for change and variety. A fact of vital intere^st to the students of the small town is the decreasing size of the family. The average size of four hun- dred thirty-two families studied in Belleville is just three and one- half members. Children under fourteen are scarcely more than one for a family. Of course, the drift to the cities and the number of aged couples whose children have married are in part responsible. But a careful study of the records shows that the small size of the family is largely due to the smaller number of children in the family. EDUCATION AND MATERIAL PROSPERITY. Before turn- ing to the definite divisions of the survey, it is desirable to obtain a concrete idea of the culture and material prosperity of hte popula- tion groups in the community. For this purpose we have selected two criteria. We shall use formal education and size of the fam- ily library as indicative of culture and the possession of musical in- struments as sign of material prosperity. As win be seen from the chart on this page, Belleville is divid ed into three wards. These ward divisions roughly correspond to three groups in the community. In ward I live the families of most of the railroad men. The people in this ward are fairly well-to-do; they comprise the middle group in the population. Ward II in- cludes the residence districts where the majority of the business anrf professional men live. Ward III, north of the Rock Island tracks, is settled largely by the less well-to-do people in th« community. The difference in culture and material prosperity of these groups and sec- tions of the community comes out clearly in the study of formal edu- cation of the adults, and in the possession of families of musical in- struments. ^Educational Advantages of 981 Adults] (•"Belleville h Ward I yWard II fWard III A study of this table shows that Belleville has an unusually large proportion of adults who have attended high school and college. A comparative study of wards, however, indicates the unequal distri- bution of high school and college gradutes. More significant, however, thani the grouping by education ad vantage is the classification by number of books in the family li- brary. Common High School College •■70.8 *18.5 •■^10.7 73.2 20.1 6.7 55.9 24.4 19.7 80.3 12.7 7.0 WaF^D DiVlSIOMS OF StLULVILLt, BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY ^70 Families Grouped by Number of Books in Library/ (Upon percentage basis.) None Under 25 25-49 50-99 100-199 200-499 Over 500 ^Belleville ^30.0 >13.8 >13.0 >16.7 '13.8 »9.5 '3.5 Ward I 22.7 16.0 16.0 22.1 12.2 8.6 2.4 ^30.0 >13.8 22.7 16.0 25.5 3.2 60.3 16.2 Ward II 25.5 3.2 8.5 18.6 22.5 5.5 6.2 Ward III 60.3 16.2 16.1 3.0 2.9 1.5 0.0 Txhe most astounding revelation of the book census is the extra- ordinary number of families without books or with practically no books. Thirty per cent of all families in Belleville report no books, sixty per cent of the families in the third ward fail to report any books. Only one-fourth of the families in the community report ovfer one hundred books in the libraryfj Can there be any gainsaying the fact that this census of family libraries is a conclusive argu- ment for the establishment of a public library? tWhile obviously the possession of musical instruments is indica- tive of taste, the presence of the piano, the organ and phonograph in the home denote financial ability to procure them. Aside from the automobile there could be no surer evidence of material prosperity than the possession of the piano. ^ [.Nearly forty per cent of the families in Belleville own pianos. This fact speaks well for the culture and prosperily of the commun- ity. Jit is significant, however, that while only one in six of the fam- ilies in the third ward and one in three of the families in the first ward possess pianos, over one-half the familiss in Ward II own this first of musical instruments. The larger proportion of families in Wards I and III possessing organs points to the same conclusion, namely, that the possession of musical instruments indicates the economic status of the owners. The most surprising feature of the census of musical instruments was the small number of phonographs. The era of the phonograph in the small community has just begun. This instrument opens the way to musical enjoyment to the family of small means. With this composite description of the Belleville populationn in mind, we turn to a detailed study of social conditions and social agen- cies. In what way as a community is Belleville utilizing her different resources: geographical, industrial, social and human? Community Planning The first town plot was made December 3, 1873. Since that time twenty-one additions have been plotted. Outside of topography, the most important physical influence upon town development has, undoubtedly, been the railroads. The Rock Island running east and west cuts off North Belleville from the main body of the community. The political result of this geographical situation appears in the fact BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 9 that this section of the city constitutes one of the three wards. The Union Pacific railroad running southeast-northwest does nofhave so much of a sectionalizing tendency. However, the presence of the rail- road west of the business square was an important factor in making the east side of the town the residence section. The influence of the- railroad, therefore, even as a physical factor, has been to accentuate group-making tendencies. If the railroads represent sectional tendencies, the courthouse square symbolizes the unifying factors in community life. Around the two square blocks of the courthouse park, the business houses are located. This square is not only an industrial center; it is a civic center as well. Here union religous services are held. Here outdoor political speakers discuss the issues of the day. Fourteen band concerts were given here in the past year. Here the annual May- pole Festival is held . Provision is made for seating three hundred persons. As many as eight hundred men, women, and children have gathered here for a community event.. To a stranger visiting Belleville, the courthouse square is its most attractive characteristic. A program of civic improvement should attempt to enhance the value of this asset. The streets sur- rounding the square should be paved. The row of shacks on the south side of the square is an eyesore. The tumble-down structures should not be allowed to destroy the favorable impressions made by the buildings on the other three sides of the square. The city square is the city's 'fr^nt-room' and no improvement is too -good-for it. If the city square is the 'parlor' of the town, the railroad station is the 'front door.' No town can be too careful in safeguarding the first impressions of strangers and newcomers. The Rock Island and I the Union Pacific railroads have been negligent. The community should insisit upon the beautification of its entrance. The Rock Is- , land, it is true, has made some attempt at beautification by means of a small park. The Union Pacific has made none at all. Both build- ings are frame, and have no aesthetic value at all. More important than the paving of the city square is the question of the sewer system. The report of the wells shows the menace to health by reason of the. lack qf. sewers. No better evidence of a progressive town spirit can be shown than by the introduction of a sewer system. The founders of _ Belleville planned wisely and well when they , provided for the future; their sons and daughters must not be negli- gent. The town at the "Cross roads of America" must not be content with talk about the paving of the square or the introduction of the sewer system. COURT HOUSE SQUARE, A CIVIC CENTER ROCK ISLAND DEPOT Entrance to city, where she receives her guests. BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 1 1 Municipal . Administration Belleville is a city of the second class with a mayor and six councilmen, two from each of the three wards. At the present time the community is fortunate in the type of men holding public positions. The mayor, the councilmen and the city ofUcials, although serving without pay or for nominal salaries, are from her leading citizens. The high grade of the men in office doubtless accounts for the success- ful discharge of city affairs through a system which the local officials realize is defective in certain points and susceptible of improvement. THE WARD SYSTEM:— A study of the ward divisions in Belle- ■ville brought out the fact of the unequal distribution of population and of voters . The following table shows the result of the following natural physical boundaries in making ward division: Population 1910 Number Voting 1912 Ass'd. Val. Ward I 1033 229 Ward II 800 228 $1,834,021.00 Ward III 391 85 279,935.00 All Belleville 2224 542 $2,113,956.00 A study of these figures shows that the third ward with 33 1-3 per cent of the councilmen has only 17% per cent of the population, not quite 16 per cent of the voters and barely 13 per cent of the total assessed valuation. A councilman from Ward III represents only 195 residents, while a councilman in Ward I represents 516 re- sidents. It is unfair that a vote in the third ward should count for the same as two and one-half votes in the first ward. The ward bound- aries should be changed so as not to follow a railroad track, but to include approximately equal groups of population. This unequal ward division which is found in so many Kansas towns and cities is one of the chief arguments for the commission plan of goverment, where the commissionners are elected, not by wards but by the whole community. SUFFRAGE. Although woman has had municipal suffrage in Kansas for thirty years, and the right to vote in school elections for a still longer time, no woman has ever been elected to the city council, or, for that matter, to the local school board in Belleville. It would seem only right that at least one memeber of the city council should be a woman. Many city matters concern women especially. A woman's point of view in questions of public health and community beautification and child welfare would be invaluable to the other councilmen. TAXATION. The total assessed valuation of, Belleville for 1913 was $2,113,956.00. According to records of sale kept by the county clerk and by the county assessor it was found, wherever comparison was possible, that the assessed valuation was sixty per cent of the 12 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY market value. In Kansas the assessed valuation is supposed to be the same as the market value but local studies revealed that this is not the case in Belleville. Belleville shares with other communities the evils' vyhich follow the existence of a discrepancy between the assessed and the actual valuation. If everyone paid taxes on sixty per cent of the market value of his property, the evil would be slight. What actually occurs is that one man pays taxes on about the actual value of his' property, while another man pays taxes on half the actual value of his property. What is particularly vicious is that, on the one hand, the large property holder pays taxes on an assessed valuation far lower than the actual value, and, on the other hand, the small pro- perty owner is taxed on nearly the full market value of his property. This means that oftentifties the owner of a fine residence is paying- taxes at one half the actual rate of the owner of the small, cheaply constructed house. This system which is more or less general through- out Kansas and not peculiar to Belleville, ought to be changed. The local tax rate has shown an increiase in the last five years. In 1909 the tax rate was 12.55 mills; in 1911, 13.4 mills; in 1912, IS mills; and in 1913, 17.4 mills. While the Belleville citizens regard! this rate as high, comparison with other communities is difficult, be- cause of the difference between the assessed and the actual valuation. PUBLIC UTILITIES. Belleville owns both its water works and its electric lights. In this report they will be considered together, al- though the city government is attempting to make a separate ac- counting for each. So far as could be learned, there was little com- plaint in regard to service, but a general feeling that the light rates and especially the water rates were too high. A special study was therefore made of the revenue and expenditures of the water and light system. The following table gives a statement of the receipts and expenditures for 19J.4 of the water and light system: Waiter and Light Receipts Expenditures. Water rates $6,890.67 Salary and Labor $4,484.18 Light rates 11,429.52 Operation and Repairs 4,877.31 Payment of Time Warrants....5,666.00 Total 18,320.19 ' Total 15,027.49 Excess of receipts over expenditures $3,282.70 This statement of receipts and expenditures shows that the municipal water and light plant has had a prosperous year. Not only is there a balance of over $3,000 in the fund, but $5,666 was tak- en from the Jjrofits of this flourishing public utility to recall the time warrants that were issued to meet the cost of installing the new en- gine. Within two years Belleville has practically paid from the BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 13 water and light income, the entire amount of the $20,000 thus ex- pended. With the present high water and light rates, it seems both feasible snd desirable to extend the time of payment of permanent improvements and to reduce the rates. Indeed, a considerable re- duction in the rates would doubtlessly raise the number of consumers. Moreover, it must be remembered that during the present year no charge has been made against the general fu^id for the light and water service to the city. At a most conservative estimate Mayor Kamp states that $3,000 annually should so be credited the water and light funds. This method of accounting would give the water and light utili- ties a profit of approximately $12,000 for 1914. A considerable reduc- tion of rates at the present time would not endanger the efficiency of the service, would lighten the burden now carried by the consumer, rnd, test of all, extend the service to many now denied its benefits. The administrations of the past four years are to be congratulated upon placing the public utilities of the city upon a sound financial basis, which now makes feasible a reductionn in the rates. FORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT: We have already seen that governir.ent by commission would solve the problem of the unequal distribution of population by wards. The problem of the etaoinnshr ties, such as the water and electric light plant, strongly suggests the, need of a city manager. There is a growing conviction that effici- ency and economy in city government requires the employment of the expert. In the past, a high grade of public service has been secured from men who devoted part of their time without compensation to public service In the future, because of the undertaking by the city of public utility enterprises, the full time services of a well-paid expert are required. It is no paradox to suggest that lower water and light rates in Belleville would be secured by employing as City Manager an engineer at a salary of $2,000 to $3,000 a year. A private enterprise carrying on a business of $30,000 a year would re- alize that efficient management was a first condition for success. The committee recommends that careful consideration be given to the experience of Abilene, Kansas, with th« city manager. TRADE AND INDUSTRY Community life is closely related to industrial life. The wealth of the community is the foundation for the prosperity and happiness of the community, just as a living wage is the precondition for in- dividual welfare. What is the economic significance of Belleville? In the first place, Belleville, and here it is typical of the majority of Kansas county-seat towns, is largely dependent for her prosperity upon the surrounding agricultural district. Large crops for the farmer mean good business for the merchant. In recognition of this fact the committee on trade and industry prep.ared a trade map locating the families trading in Belleville. This map plots out the territory which the Belleville business man should cultivate. The prosperity of this region is his prosperity. An increase of one-half bushel of corn to the acre in this district would be reflected in the in- crease of trade in Belleville. From the business point of view alone it would make for town prosperity if the merchant would co-operate in promoting scientific agriculture and in securing a county farm agent. The local commercial club could give no finer expression of its interest in the larger Belleville district than by taking active steps to promote scientific agriculture in this territory. Finally, all plans for making the town the recreational, educa- tional and religious center of the trade district is certain to have important trade consequences favorable to town development. BELLEVILLE INDUSTRIES. Owing to the kindness of Com- missioner O'Brien of the State Department of Labor and Industry, the statistical reports from manufacturing concerns in Belleville for the fiscal year July 1, 1912 to June 30, 1913, are made available for the survey. The twelve establishments reporting include one alfalfa mill, one bakery, two woodworking shops, one cement block plant, one cigar factory, one creamery, one fiour and cereal mill, one marble and granite works, two printing plants, and one electric light and water plant. The total ainount of capital invested in these concerns was $130,600.00. The total value of products and work performed during the year was $148,797.37; the total cost of materials, supplies and fuel used during the year $104,237.49; the total amount paid in salaries to ofiicials and clerks, $6,304.13; and the total amount paid out in wages to wage-earners was $17,234. These industries, though small, are important in town development. Twenty-eight wage-earn- ers and nine salaried officials and clerks are employed. If the expect- ed shift from city to country in industry comes, these small industrial beginnings of the present time have an added significance. 16 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY OCCUPATIONS. ■ Three factors are dominant in determining the grouping of population in Belleville; namely: the railroad, busi- ness and agriculture. The location of the division point of the Rock Island at Belleville is a fact_of prime significance in the stu^y of the economic and social life. Ifully one-third of the men over twenty years of age in the community gain their living directly from the railroads. Another third of the population is made up of business men and their employees and professional men. The largest propor- tion of the last third of the male adults is composed of retired farm- ers with their conservative attitude toward projects of community improvement involving increased taxationTj The following table gives a summary in percentages of the occupation as given by 371 men and 354 women: MEN Per cent WOMEN Per Cent Transportiation 25 Housewifes 86 Clerks and Employees 14 Professional 4% Professional 12 Domestic Service 3% Busmess Men - 11 Klerks etc., 3 Farmers (Retired) 19 personal Sei;vice 2 Personal Service 7 nt^har- ■ 1 Mechanical : 6 "'^"^ Public Service 4 100 Manufacturing 2 100 It is significant to note that only fourteen per cent of the women reporting were gainfully employed. WAGES AND INCOMES . Two methods were employed in arriving at wages and incomes. One way was to ask the family; the other, to inquire of the employer. Two hundred and seventy cards were returned in the house-to-house canvass with statements of family income. The following distribution of incomes is shown: A— Under $10 a week, 29 per cent of families; $10 to $12, 16 per cent. B— $13 to $17, 9y2 per cent; $18 to $22, 12% per cent; $23 to $27, 11 per cent; $28 to $40, 12 per cent; over $40, 10 per cent. A — 45 per cent below or on edge of comfortable standard of living. B — 55 per cent above mere comfortable standard. To translate these statistics into terms of human welfare, it is necessary to discover the minimum standard of a comfortable existence for a workingman's family in a town community. In Belle- ville from a study of a number of family budgets and from conversa- tions with a number of workingmen the lowest income compatible with a comfortable existence for a family of five appeared to be between $55 to $60 a month or about $650 to $700 a year. Accord- ing to this standard, then, we find that in a typical Kansas community forty-five per cent of the families responding to the inquiry are in BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 17 possession of an income below the margin of well-being, that twenty- eight per cent of the families recording their income are receiving less than $10 per week. The second method of arriving at incomes is by inquiry of the employer, and from records of the State Department of Labor and Industry. In this manner, information was obtained concerning two hundred eighty-nine men. One hundred ninety-three of these were employed by the Rock Island and the Union Pacific and the ninety- six remaining by the merchants and factory owners. The classifica- tion of incomes is given in the follovdng table: Weekly Wages oE.Men as Reported By Employers Employed by Merchants By Railroads Total 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 4 2 2 4 21 25 5 4 9 16 9 24 16 38 54 20 18 38 19 39 58 8 64 72 $ 3 and over but under $ 4 $ 4 and over but under $ 5 2; H o CM g o a o w 2: o I £ H t3 O O Ph '.,+ - : |i*. tfPi -J BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 21 ards of living t9es of the County Y. M. C. A. is to be commended. It is to be regretted that the school grounrf for the new high school is a fraction of a block instead of a whole block. If possible, plans should at once be made to secure control of the vacant lots at the west of the school building. PLAY EQUIPMENT. Games like hide-and-go-seek and tag can be played without play equipment. But baseball, basket ball and tennis require play equipment. A sand pile, swings, teeters, and parallel bars are big inducements to play. The children like things to play with. The parent should provide the play equipment for the yard, and the schools and the community should furnish play ap- paratus for the playgrounds and the school grounds. But it is not sufficient to have space for play and play equipment. Organization and supervision are needed also. ORGANIZATION. The reports of Belleville children for a two day's period show that one-fourth of boys and one half of the girls made no mention of outdoor play. Without question, these statistics show that plans should be made to organize the play of children. This need is being recognized in cities and tov\Tis all over the United States Fifty Kansas cities and towns, many of them no larger than Belleville, are maintaining summer playgrounds with a supervisor in charge. Lyons, with a population of 2071 in 1910, has made supervised play a regular part of its school system. In the morning the regular recess period is abolished and instead fifty minutes are given to supervised recreation. On the Lyons teachifJ^ force is a man who is director of recreation and two young women who are his assistants. Either by lightening the class work of the teacher or by extra compensation for the additional work of play supervision, the Belleville public schools might readily provide instruction in supervised play. Belleville has the further advantage of being the headquarters of the County Y. M. C. A. whose secretary is an expert in recreation and supervised play. Tlie recommendation is made that the school board secure his "BELLEVILLE SOCIAL STJUVEY ^7 assistance in outlining a program for directed play in the public schools and in training certain of the teachers for supervisors. ADULT RECREATION, ^he cards from the house-to-house •canvass showed that the grownups of Belleville were lor the most part without active recreation. The favorite recreation of the ma- jority, both of men and women, was readiag. More than one man ■gave 'work' as Wb favorite recreation and a large number of women mentioned church-going and se-wing. These replies show that the majority of grown-ups do not realize the real value of recreation. Too many think that play and recreation are childish and foolish for the grown-up man and womanfj tjln Belleville there is a strong tendency to provide for adult re- creation. There is a Volley Ball Club with a membership of four- Iteen, meeting once a week. There are four tennis courts utilized by about thirty grown-ups. Indoor baseball has been successfully car- ried on. 7 This development in adult recreation is to be strongly com- mended. The recommendation is made that the movement be fur- ther extended to include more persons. The city should plan for a permanent city park outside the city limits large enough for pic- nics and for social recreation or gatherings. « 1 9 \ CfHJrch Secio^s ^i&tits J COMMERCIAL RECREATION. Under the head 'commercial recreation', the moving-picture show, the pool halls, and the public dance were studied. THE MOVING PICTURE. There is one moving-picture thea- tre with a seating capacity of 278. f^s. study of the age groups in the audience showed that 2 per cent were under five years of age, 28 per cent were between six and fifteen years of age, 30 percent were be- tween sixteen and twenty-five years of age, and 40 per cent were over twenty-five years of age. If 30 per cent of the moving picture goers are under sixteen and 70 per cent or more than two-third are over sixteen years, we must recognize that the moving-picture show is primarily for adults and only secondarily for children. J There- fore, the moving picture proprietor, from the commercial standpoint, 28 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY cannot afford to adapt the character of his films to the needs of childhood. Community action is necessary to meet the situation. LThe moving-picture show has become the chief form of family recreation. In Belleville a careful estimate shows that the aggre- gate attendance for the year was over 100,000. At the same time a study of the films by the local committees plainly showed that the grade of films was '(ieap' and often the pictures presented un- desirable incidents which might better have been eliminated. , Not only the character of the films but the sanitation and safety of the building received the attention of the committee-^ The darkness in. the room was to some extent responsible for the occasional disorder among the. children in front. The ventilation of the building could have been improved. It is not enough to have electric fans in th^. building, but they should be in motion in winter time as much as in summer. Miss Bresette, Factor Inspector for the State Board of Health, discovered that the fire exit sign over the door was mis- leading and led to what might have been a fire trap in the basement. The a<;tual exit was unmarked and was discovered to be locked. The committee makes the following suggestions: 1. It heartily commends Mrs. William Kamp for her public spirit in securing the production of 'Macbeth' and 'The Lady of the Lake' in the local moving-picture theater, and recommends that this beginning become a custom. 2. Belleville should unite with the other five towns on the moving-picture circuit to secure a higher grade of films. . 3. An adequate state censorship of moving-picture films is in- dorsed. THE POOL HALLS. /jhere are four pool halls in Belleville with a total of nineteen pool and billiard tables^ This is a large number for a community the size of Belleville and their total li- cense fees of $375 a year are an item in the municipal receipts. Conditions are relatively good in these halls. Many of the bad features that led to the anti-pool hall crusade in other Kansas communities are absent from Belleville. The high standard of order maintained may te inferred from the fact that in one of them the wife of the proprietor is regularly in the hall. The proprietors are showing a willingness to co-operate with the city officials. The lat- ter in their turn are vigilant in their attempt to safeguard the com- munity from the influences that tend to become associated with these places. The pool hall owners admit the difficulties in dealing with loafers and with those who wish to drink on the premises. i[The fact that three hundred men avail themselves of the pool hall every day, or an aggregate of ninety thousand for the year, in- dicates that the pool hall is a kind of social center for the men. The BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY ^ " 29 committee reports that forty per cent of those observed in the pool rooms were from eighteen to twenty-five and that fifty-five per cent* were over twenty-five years of age, leaving five per cent under eigh- teen. The order maintained was good and the character of the con-, versation was the same as that in any mixed crowd of menj While pool hall conditions in Belleville are fair, still there should be more definite supervision. The ultimate aim should be to estab- lish a community recreation hall. THE PUBLIC DANCE HALL. [in a year two thousand three hundred people attend dances in Belleville. Over half of ;these at- tend the public dance. _]7 One night at the public dance showed con- ditions on the whole to te good. There were almost no loafers in the hall or the cloakroom. The order was good. The last daince closed at 11:30. Seventy-five percent of the dancing was entirely proper. With this general high standard it is regrettable that there were several features not creditable to the public dance. On the pro- /gram were two 'moonlight' dances which are never permitted in cities with the supervised dancing hall. Twenty-five percent of the dancing was somewhat questionable, that is, the dancing was too 'close.' In the case of one couple, however, the dancing was plainly 'objectionable'. There were four small boys from twelve to fifteen years of age in the hall till half past eleven. It would also be de- sirable to have a separate or at least an exclusive .cloakroom for the women. Taking everything into consideration, the public dance hall con- ditions -are quite good. For that reason now is the right time to introduce community supervision. The 'new dances' have just reached Belleville. Wise supervision will protect the community against certain undesirable tendencies that otherwise are liable to accompany their introduction. EDUCATION. There is no institution in the community in which the parent is more interested than in the school. Americans believe in education. The father and mother are willing to sacri- fice in order that the boy and girl may have a better education than they have had. A large part of the community's expenditures is for the public school. Towns are proud when their schools rank high and they may well be, for an investment in the child is the best kind of an investment. In making the report for Belleville's schools we may divide it as follows: First, grounds and building; second, financial rapport; third, re- tardation ' and acceleration; fourth, elimination; fifth high school graduates; sixth, the social center. HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING— COMMUNITY SOCIAL CENTER — Photo by Reed THE BELLEVILLE GRADE SCHOOLS BELLEVILBE SOCIAL SURVEY 31 GROUNDS AND BUILDING. In Belleville there are two school grounds. One of these, the old grounds, is the site for the three grade buildings. It contains sixty thousand square feet available for play. If we take 145 square feet per child as the minimum amount of space necessary for Circle games we find that this school ground falls be- low the standard. In the year 1912-13, before the high- school students went to the new building, there was only 105 square feet per child. Even substracting the high school students of last year, there would remain only 132 square feet per child, which is less than the minimum requirement. And this minimum standard of 145 square feet per child makes no provision for games requiring the amount of space which base-ball and basket-ball demand. The old school ground is practically ungraded, and its clay sur- face often becomes too muddy for play. The ground should be graded and be provided with a gravel or cinder surface so as to dry quickly after a rain. The portion of the ground alloted to the primary child- ren runs along the railroad track. It is imperative that a fence be erected to protect the little tots from danger. It is criminal negli- gence to allow this risk to remain. Of the three buildings on the old grounds, one was a frame build- ing of two rooms used by the primary. The second was the building used by the grades, and the third was occupied by the high school. A study was made of the ventilation, lighting, and possible over- crowding in the different roofs. The buildings are heated by steam heat. There is no system of ventilation; the doors and windows are used as a substitute. In three grades, the second, the seventh, and the eighth, the air space is below minimum of two hundred cubic feet per child enrolled, required by experts of public health. In other rooms the cubic feet of air space is considerably above this amount. In the matter of lighting, the Belleville schools should be graded as fair. In the Southwest it is recognized that the ratio of one square foot of window space to six square feet of floor space is the minimum standard. In the grade building all but the primary have at least one square foot of window space to six square feet of floor space. The situation in the old high school building no room comes up to the standard. We have already touched on overcrowding in referring to ventila- tion. It is certain however that fifty-seven children in the seventh grade and sixty-three in the eighth grade are not only too many for the limited air space, but also more than the maximum number that one teacher should direct. Many defects in the old building have been avoided in the new. The lighting, conforms with the standard requirement. There is no cross lighting to be corrected as in the eighth grade of the old build- ing by means of prism glass and careful use of curtains. The system 32 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY of heating and ventilation is good. But in the matter of playground, the high school building shows little advance. It should have had an entire block instead of a quarter of a block for a school ground. The provision made for a gymnasium in the sub-basement of the building cannot be too' highly commended. But yet provision for indoor gymnastics will never take the place of outdoor organized play. Although the old school buildings were provided with seats of assorted sizes, there are no adjustable seats. With a small additional expense the school board should not hesitate to promote the comfort of the children and at the same time guard against possible injurious physical effects by furnishing the new high school building with adjustible seats. These* considerations of physical well-being are primary and should be given thoughtful attention. FINANCIAL SUPPORT. According to the clerk of the school board, there was expended for school purposes in the year 1912-13 a total of $12,721.11. Of this amount $8,621.41 were paid in teachers' salaries. $2,925.82 went for repairs and fuel, and $1,173.88 were paid out for other purposes. This is an expenditure for public schools of over $5.00 for every man, woman and child in Belleville. But is this sufficient support? How does Belleville compare with other towns in the amount of support given the school system ? The f ollovidng table is taken from information provded by State Superintendent of Public Instruction W. D. Ross. Town Population Levy Cost per pupil per month 1910 1913 1913 enrollment 1911 enrollment Grades High School Grades High Sch Belleville 2224 3.6M $1.30 $3.00 $1.05 $4.44 Beloit 3082 6.5 1.95 4.17 1.50 2.50 Clay Center 3438 4.0 2.09 Co. H. S. 1.82 Co. H S Concordia 4415 4.6 1.76 4.38 1.82 6.52 These statistics show that Belleville is not spending as much in proportion to the number of children enrolled as are the nearby county seat towns of Beloit, Clay Center and Concordia. If she is not putting as much money into her school system, she should not expect to get as high returns as other communities. The objection may be made that these three neighboring towns do not furnish a valid basis for comparison. A study was therefore made for the purpose of comparing Belleville with all the other Kan- sas towns that are grouped together as cities of the second class. The comparative study of the seVenty-two towns and cities between two thousand and fifteen thousand population indicate conclusively that Belleville is lagging behind other Kansas communities with re- pect to the financial support of her public schools. The eighteenth biennial report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction shows that BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 33 for the year 1912, although Belleville was fortieth in taxable valua- tion of her property, she was fifty-fifth in the amount per month paid for teacher's wages and but sixty-fourth in the average cost per pupil per month in the grades and sixty-sixth in average cost per pupil per month in the high school. Low wages to teachers and too many students to a teacher <:annot make for the highest efficiency of the service. Nor is it fair or generous to pay teachers whose homes are in the community less amount than they could command elsewhere. One encouraging indication of a change of attitude should be mentioned. A bond issue for a new high school building was carried after having been defeated in an earlier election. When the issue is clearly presented between the dollar and the child fathers and mothers will decide in favor of education. Belleville cannot afford to fall be- hind other communities in the amount expended upon the education of her future citizens. "An investment in childhood pays.' RETARDATION AND ACCELERATION. By the co-operation of Superintendent Poundstone and the School Board a study of re- tardation and acceleration was made in all the grades of the city schools. The proportion of retarded children, or children behind their grade for their age, was practically that found in similar studies undertaken elsewhere in the United States. Nearly one-fourth of the children were behind their grade for their age. One-twelfth of the children were ahead of their grade for their age. The method used in ascertaining the number of retarded and accelerated children is as follows. If children enter school at six and one-half years of age, and are regularly promoted every year, their ages in the grades will be in accordance with the following table: First grade 6 to 8 years Seventh grade 12 to 14 years Second grade 7 to 9 years Eighth grade 13 to 15 years Third grade 8 to 10 years Ninth grade 14 to 16 years Fourth grade 9 to 11 years Tenth grade 15 to 17 years Fifth grade 10 to 12 years Eleventh grade....l6 to 18 years Sixth grade 11 to 13 years Twelfth grade..'....17 to 19 years If for any reason, such as physical or mental defect or poor in- struction, a child fails to pass and remains a second year in the same grade, that child is said to be retarded because he would then be be- hind his grade for his age. In like manner a child who 'skipped' a grade would be enumerated as ahead of his grade for his age, or as accelerated. Using this table as a guide, the following chart was prepared exhibiting the facts of acceleration and retardation in the Belleville schools. 34 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY Retardation and Acceleration Chart Age Grade Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 6 31 10 41 7 23 23 2 48 8 6 18 25 11 60 9 1 4 13 25 4 47 10 1 6 5 16 13 8 49 n 1 2 5 11 24 3 46 12 3 9 6 25 1 44 13 1 1 9 6 21 16 1 1 56 14 1 2 6 3 19 10 4 45 15 1 2 1 4 16 17 6 2 49 16 2 8 2 16 5 1 34 17 2 4 5 6 8 25 18 2 4 7 13 19 1 1 7 9 20 2 1 3 Total 62 62 49 62 50 51 58 62 34 35 20 24 Retarded, i. e., above normal age 8 11 9 10 22 13 9 26 6 8 7 8 137 Percent retarded 12.9 17.7 28.4 16.1 44.0 25.5 15.5 41.8 17.6 22.9 35.0 33.3 24.1 Accelerated, i. e., below normal age 10 2 11 4 8 3 1 1 5 2 1 48 Percent accelerated 0.0 16.0 4.1 17.7 8.0 15.7 5.2 1.6 _3^ 14.3 10.0 4.2 8.4 This alarming proportion of retardation reveals a condition that demands thoughtful study. The situation, however, is not peculiar to Belleville but common to the whole country. Retardation is a symptom that shows us that something is wrong vsdth our school system. Every year that a child is behind means a year's loss of time to the child and an additional cost to the taxpayer of another year's schooling for the child. Teachers and parents should give this problem careful atten- tion. It does not seem fair to the child who fails in one subject that he be compelled to cover again the entire work of the grade. The "two-teacher" plan of the Batavia system with one teacher for re- citation and the other for study has eliminated failure to make grades. The Gary plan by its enriched curriculum, by its utilization of play impulse and by its appeal to interest has practically solved the problem of retardation. The education committee recom- mends that the teachers, parents and school officials carefully study the experien.ie of other communities. ELIMINATION. A comparison of the school enumeration of children Letween the ages of 5 and 20 ■mth the school enrollment made manifest the efficient working of the compulsory school attend- ance law. The total number of children in school from six to sixteen BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 35 years was practically identical with the total number of boys and girls of those same age groups in the community. Sixteen years old marks the turning point. In the five year age groups between sixteen and twenty inclusive nearly half the boys and half the girls are not in school or have not graduated from the high school. In Belleville, therefore the problem of elimination is a high school problem rather than an eighth grade problem. What are the factors which side-track our young people from the acceptance of high school opportunity? A study of the statistics will throw some light on the problem. In the first place, there are more young women than young men in the five years age-group from sixteen up to and including twenty. There are one hundred twenty-five girls to eighty-six boys in this age group. This must mean that young men of these ages leave the town for opportunities elsewhere, a few to the farm, the many to the larger communities. The boy of sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen does not see the economic advantage of the four years in high school. We should realize that possibly the boy is right. In the second place, the statistics show us that half the girls or sixty-two of them have not taken advantage of the high school course. The courses in the high school must be adapted to the in- terests of the girl as well as to those of the boy. In view of this situation careful consideration should be given to the question of the revision of the high school curriculum to meet the demands of modern industrial life. Practical manual training, sound business courses, work in domestic science, all these are first steps if our high schools are to give even the rudiments of vocational training. High School Graduates The function of the public schools is to fit for life: to prepare so far as possible the oncoming generation for work in life, for citizenship and for 'the more abundant life" While it may be difficult to determine statistically, how adequate a preparation the high school graduate has received for civic and social life, it is comparatively simple to determine how effectively he has been trained for vocation- al life. The student who 'drops out' in the grades or the first year of high school goes out armed at least with the "Three R's,' weapons which of course the high school graduate also possesses. How ef- fective is the rest of the armour with which the high school equips the student for the battle of life? How much of the armor is ob- solete and practically worthless in this twentieth century struggle? Both parent and child have a right to a plain answer to these ques- tions, because in practically every case a sacrifice of time or money or both is involved. The answer to this question may be reached by asking others: 36 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY What use do the graduates make of the knowledge acquired in the high school? How many go to institutions of higher education? Into what occupation do the graduates enter? One-half of the graduates of the high school continue their education. Fifty-nine per cent of the boys and forty^-four per cent of the girls attend institutions of higher learning. In Belleville the boy, therefore, has a greater opportunity for higher education than the girl. The boy and girl who live in the town have a better oppor- tunity for highe r education than their country .cousins. Of the graduates of the Belleville High School sixty-three per cent of the boys who live in town, and only forty per cent of those who live in the county went to college and university; forty-seven per cent of the town girls and only thirty-six per cent of the farm girls went away to college. At any rate, the large proportion of graduates attending college is a justification for a strong university preparatory course in the high school. * * Note. Table showing institutions attended. Institution Boys Girls Total University of Kansas 36 18 54 State Agricultural College 3 4 7 State Normals 16 7 Kansas Denominational Colleges 4 10 14 Out-of-state Institutions 10 16 26 Girls schools and Business Colleges 1 13 14 TOTAL 55 67 122 Duplicates 18 9 Net Total 54 59 113 Of the men at the University of Kansas eight were in the College, nine in the Law School, four in the School of Medicine, four in the School of Pharmacy, ten in the School of Engineering, and one in the School of Pine Arts. Of the girls, eight were in the College, nine in the School of Fine Arts and one was in the Law School. The fact that one-half the graduates of the high school go to college is a justification for a collegiate preparatory course, but it is not a sufficient argument why this (Tourse should dominate the high school course of study. One-half of the graduates of the Bell?\tille High School never enter the portal of the college. But this doesTiot reveal the whole situation. Our study of elimination showed that over half the young people in the community never finish the high school. Here is the silent but eloquent protest against a high school curriculum prescribed by the entrance requirement system of our collges and universities. BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 37 But leaving out of consideration the fifty per cent of the young people of Belleville who failed to receive a high school education, let us confine our attention to the question, -yyhat occupation did the high school graduate follow and how far was his training in the , high school of advantage to him? The following table gives a simple classification of the present occupations of the 225 graduates of the Belleville High School: MEN WOMEN Professional 20 Teachers _ 48 Business j. 16 Housewives '. 41 FarmeSss .— 12 Business _ 15 Engineers 6 At home 10 Civil service 5 Student 16 Transportation 4 Other „ _ 3 Student 15 Other 14 133 92 Three facts stand out in studying these statistics. First, the college preparatory course and the normal training course are justi- fied because of the large number of men in the professions and of girls teaching. Second, the number of men who have gone into busi- ness and farming suggest a consideration of commercial and agri- cultural courses to prepare those who remain and especially those who drop out otherwise for these occupations. Third, the forty-one housewives and the ten girls 'at home' plead for a practical and adequate course in domestic science. The new ideal for the high school is that expressed in the phrase "the people's college." In an agricultural state like Kansas, in a home-loving community, in a thriving county-seat town, those in charge of the educational policies of the public school should consider the feasibility of introducing those courses of study that will prepare the young people for the work of life and the full enjoyment of living.. THE SCHOOL AS A SOCIAL CENTER. What is the need of a social center? How may the school become the social center? These two questions are presenting themselves to the students of community problems. j First of all, the social center is necessary to keep alive and to develop community consciousness and community sociability. The Belleville community spirit will not wax strong unless there is a common meeting place for the individuals who make up the town. Then, too, the social center is necessary as a forum for the discus- sion of plans for community betterment. Community beautification, sanitation, recreation, and education need the co-operation of all in- 38 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY terested persons. The social center provides this common meeting ground. ■"} Hovirmay the public school at Belleville become a social center? Already the school is a potential social center with its control of half the waking time of the child five days in the week, vdth its recreation, largely unorganized, it is true, and with the interest of the communi- ty focused here as to no other center of community life. A beginning has been made. There has been organized a Parent- Teachers' Association with monthly meetings in the school building. At one of the early meetings of this association the president of the school board stated that the school plant belonged to the people to be utilize^ as they saw fit. This progressive policy of the school board should be a challenge to the idealism of the citizens of Belleville. With the fine assembly hall in the new high school building, no effort should be spared to develop the community center idea. No petty question of pay for fuel or for janitor service should impede the use of the buildings for public purposes. When once the principle is re- cognized that the High School is the "People's College' and that the expenditure by the school board of a few hundred dollars for the wider use of the school-plant is as legitimate a financial outlay as the money for the superintendent's salary, a new day will have dawn- ed in community progress. PopulaVion 2300 Seating Cjpacit'i^ i33G Church Membership 969 Sunday Morning A\\en dance 59T Vrauar Meefint? ["1 \0l ^ U WHY DOLD THL AI^ROW qO DOWN? CHURCH AND RELIGION The church situation in Belleville is similar to that of many Kan- sas towns of the same size. In the first place there are too many churches. There are nine church organizations of which six have church buildings and five are with regular church services. In this day of the business man, we are applying to the church the tests of efficiency and service. We ask not only what the community has put into the church, but also what dividends the church pays to the com- munity. In Belleville the community has invested in the six church plants $38,316. It is paying in salaries to its ministers a total of $5040. Expenses of maintenance and benevolences will bring the total current expenses to $9,932. for the year 1913. With an outlay of about $40,000. in buildings and grounds and with a total expendi- ture of $10,000. a year, Belleville has invested generously in the church and has a right to expect good returns from the investment. CHURCH MEMBERSHIP AND ATTENDANCE. The simplest method of estimating the hold of the church upon the community is by finding out the total membership and attendance of the churches. A comparison of population of the town (1) with the seating capacity of the churches, (2) with the church membership , (3) with the average Sunday morning attendance, and (4) with the attendance ac prayer meeting, as shown by the chart, indicates the large number of people who are outside the church. A total of the statistics for the nine Belleyille churches gives the following result: Population of Belleville 2,300) Total seal^g capacity of churches 1,396. Total resident membership 969 Average Sunday morning attendance 597 Average- prayer meeting attendance 102 A study of these figures leads to several significant conclusions: 1. If by any chance, every one in Belleville should go to church on a certain Sunday morning, nearly one-half of them would be compelled to stand up. The eight organizations with church buildings or hired halls have seating capacity for but little more than one-half the people within the town limits of Belleville. 2. As an actual matter of fact, on an average Sunday morning more than one-half the seats are empty. 3. If all the resident church members living in Belleville should attend, the church would be three-quarters full. Statistics ^BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 41 show that the attendance is forty per cent less than the membership. When we take into account both the number attending who are not church members and the church attendance from t"he country, we are forced to the conclusion that far less than one-half of the church membership are regular church attendants. What is tliv? matter with the church members? Why is there this large proporton of stay- at-home members? 4. Churches used to measure their hold upon the community by their membership. According to this standard, organized re- ligion is strong in Belleville. It has forty per cent of the men, Tvomen and children in the community in its membership. At the present time church statisticians are convinced that the church at- tendance rather than church membership indicates the power of the church in the community. According to this criterion, the Belle- ville record is not so good with but twenty-five per cent of its in- habitants attending church services on a normal Sunday morning. These statistics indicate conditions that are not peculiar to Belle- ville, but common to all Kansas towns of the same size. If they in- dicate anything, the figures show that the hold of the churches in the community is rather above the average. A more detailed study was made to find out the proportion of adults in Belleville who were identified by membership with the local churches. (Recording to the assessor's report and the census of the school enumerator it was discovered that there were 650 men and boys over eighteen and 689 women and girls above the same age in the community. Of the 1339 adults, 41 per cent were church members. Of the 650 men and boys, eighteen and over, 32% per cent were church members. Of the women and girls, eighteen and over, 49 per cent were church mem- bers. These statistics show the problem of the church. Over one-half the women and over two thirds of the men in Belleville are not iden- tified by membership with the churches of the community^ This un- won field is a challenge to the Belleville churches. The churches fighting single-handed, as free lances, will not win. In church work, today, as in all lines of endeavor, strength is found in union. It is not the number of churches that indicates the depth and breadth of the religious life of a community. The highest proof of vital religion is the spirit of co-operation among the churches and church people which manifests itself in working together for service to the com- munity. To se.;ure this end the following proposals are made: 1. The ministers and Sunday School superintendents should form an association to devise a plan of co-operation to meet the entire religious needs of the community. 2. Even more important than the association of the ministers and Sunday School superintendents is a federation of men's organized rsjiiXjijiL V j.i-iijjcj o^_»oi.rt.ij ourtvuii classes to develop the spirit of Christian unity and to promote evan- gelism and the 'Go to Church' movement. 3. All the churches should co-operate in making an annual re- ligious census of the community. 4, Organized co-operation of ministers, Sunday schools, and organized classes should have as its aim, (a) to reach every family in the community, (b) to bring every boy and girl into the Sunday school, and (c) to promote community morality and welfare. THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS, {statistics were" obtained from the five Sunday Schools in the community. These report an aggregate enrollment of over one thousand, 681 of which were children above the primary grade. The average attendance at Sunday School of 570 is scarcely above one-half the total enrollment. The Reverend Brown in his census found that 351 or forty per cent of the 856 children did not attend Sunday school at all. These figures show how large a propor- tion of the children are unreached. They also prove that the large proportion of those enrolled in the Sunday school are irregular in their attendance.J What can the Sunday school do to improve the situation ? THE CHURCH BUILDING AND THE SUNDAY SCHOOL. A study of five churches having regular Sunday School show that all, with the possible exception of one, had an inadequate provision for Sunday School classes. The ideal which must be striven for is a separate room for every class. AGE AND SEX. Sunday School statistics and the childrens' diaries indicate the influence of age and sex upon Sunday School and church attendance. In the fourth grade on a particular Sunday out of twenty-five boys writing all but five went to Sunday School. In the eighth grade out of twenty-five boys vwiting only twelve attended Sunday School. It is in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades that the Sunday School begins to lose its hold upon the boy. In the grades above the second 49.6 per cent of the boys and 65.5 per cent of the girls reported that they attended Church or Sunday School on tho Sunday in question. The Sunday School enrollment above the pri- mary grade shows that the men and boys comprise but 40 per cent of the enrollment and the women and girls the remaining 60 per cent. These statistics show that the Sunday School must make strenuous efforts to reach the boy. Even in the High School a little over one- half the boys and girls attended Sunday School. THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON PROBLEM. A study of the diaries of the school children show the existence of the Sunday after- noon problem. The activity of the children was grouped under four heads: normal, directed, repressed, and undesirable play. By 'direct- ed' was meant the activity of the child which was supervised by the BELLT^VILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 43 parents, such as walking with father or mother, or older brother or sister. Under 'repressed' was included the activity of the child which was unnautral and evidently enforced because it was Sunday. By •'undesirable' was meant loafing and mischief. One boy, for example, wrote that on Sunday he "waited around town all afternoon." An older boy of eighteen "got up Sunday at 9 :30 and loafed around until 10:00 Sunday night". Others speak of 'fighting', of 'playing jail and robber', of 'tripping up' other boys, and of 'teasing' the girls. The fol- lowing table shows the percentages of the hoys and girls mentioning the different kinds of activity: (On a percentage basis) Boys:- Normal play Directed Eepressed Undesirable Girls :- Normal play Directed Eepressed Undesirable These figures show that the problem is acute with the boys in the seventh and eighth grades. In these grades twenty per cent of the boys wrote or repressed activity, thirty-two per cent spoke of loafing and mischief, and only five per cent of their papers gave evidence of the direction of the activity of the boy by the parent. This problem of what the child should do on Sunday is one for the home and the Sunday School. Sunday afternoon should not be the time of all times - for the development of those habits which undermi'ie character. The superintendent and teachers in the Sunday School should plan with the parents for directing the activity of the child. If the Sunday School is to regain its lost hold upon the boy it must plan not for one hour of the day but for the afternoon hours as well. An hour for story-telling, walks out into the country, quite games are certainly more desirable than afternoon idleness, loafing, and mischief. Has the Sunday School done all it could for the fifteen- year-old high school boy who wrote, "Went to Sunday School, after that I loafed all day?" THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE CHURCH. The primary work of the Church is and always will be the work of inspiring its members and all who come under its influence with the spirit of Christianity. But the spirit of Christianity is expressed, not only in the salvation of Grades Grades High School IV. V. VI. VII. VIII 66 2-3 43 BO 6 5 8 12 1-3 20 . 8 15 32 24 68 52 51 14% 18 15 UVz • 26 30 -8 4 4 U BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY the individual, but in social service for the community. Whenever there is an opportunity for service, there the Church has a mission. pjast year four churches in Belleville through their different or- ganizations' provided 101 recreation events with a total attendance of 8,696. 72 of these recreation events or nearly three-fourths of the' total number were soicials. 15 were suppers, and 7 were picnics. The remaining 7 were given to a festival week in the Methodjsli^piscopal Church, an important and praise-worthy annual gathering^ Of the 101 recreation events 86 were free and 15 were paid for by the at- tendants. The great majority of those with a charge were suppers. These statistics indicate that the charge of commercialism cannot be made against church recreation in Belleville. At the same time the statistics from the different churches show that certain churches are not making adequate provisions for recreation. I.. While two churches have 41 and 37, the other two have only 14 and 9 recreation events; respectively. jFhe church should recognize the importance of recreat- ion in the lives of young people. These social events should be care- fully' planned for; they are worth all the time and effort that can be given them. DEPENDENCY AND DELINQUENCY. Seven of the .churches have been liberal in providing, for the destitute and dependent of the community. During the year 1913 these churches aided fifteen fami- lies with a total expenditure of $245. To make this work more effic- ient, as recommended in the Charity Survey, it is necessary to have the co-operation of all the churches vnth the Welfare Society and the County Poor Commissioner. The Methodist Episcopal Church is to be commended for its zeal in holding religious services at the County Poor Farm. This is a Work in which all the churches in the community should participate. The conditions described elsewhere in this report cannot be remedied as they should be without the co-operation of all the organized relig- ious forces. Although the county and city jail are often for weeks without prisoners, the churches should unite upon an arrangement that would afford the prisoners the benefit of religious help. These are the three groups unto which the church should never neglect to minister: the sick, the poor, and those in prison. DfPL.»CATIO« _ on4 Omission DE.\JiSyiU£. SHOOU) HAVE A CtNTRAU RtVAEF BURtAV CHARITY $1458.41 was spent last year to relieve the unfortunate and pro- vide for the destitute of Belleville. This amount was expended upon those helped by the county, and by the different churches and in the maintenance of the inmates from Belleville at the County Poor Farm This fifteen hundred dollars, or an amount equaling over sixty-three cents for every man, woman, and child in the community, does, not in- clude the large an\ount of the assistance given by lodges and by in- dividuals. The following table classifies the expenditure for relief by the institutions furnishing it: Institution No. Families Aided In what way Total am't of aid Republic County Poor Commissioner 7 Rent, food, etc., $513.26 County Poor Commissioner 3 Pensions, 225.00 County Poor Farm 4* Indoor Relief 475.15 Churches 15 Clothing, etc 245.00 29 (3 duplicates) $1458.41 *Individuals. Since four of the twelve inmates of the County Poor Farm are from Belleville, the cost of their support was found by tak- ing one-third of the total maintenance aside from rent and repairs. All students of dependency realize that statistics tell but a small part of the story. For obvious reasons, no case studies of families can be here given showing how even in the rural community, depend- ency and shiftlessness are closely associa:ted with feeble-mindedness, immorality and bad housing. Besides, in the small tovm the difficulty in the way to improvement of conditions is not the lack of intimate personal knowledge, of individual cases, but the inability to deal ef- fectively vsdth the causes of destitution.. The fact that Belleville has twenty-two families and four indiv- iduals receiving help to the amount of nearly $1,500 a year from the county and the community means that the charity situation requires serious attention. Is this amount of money being wisely expended? Do the families receiving help actually deserve assistance ? Are there a number of deserving families who have been overlooked? Has there been duplication in the charity work? Have cases apparently needing relief been carefully investigated before relief was given? Have efforts been made to find employment for men out of work? BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 47 At the present day we are demanding economy and efficiency in our charity work as well as in business. HOW THE MONEY WAS EXPENDED. Of the $1458.41 spent for poor relief in Belleville, one-third of it, or $475.15, was expanded in maintaining four former Belleville residents at the county poor farm. The $245. contributed by the churches took the form of cloth- ing and some other assistance. Of the $738 expended by the county in outdoor relief, $225 was in the form of pensions, $201.46 was for provisions, $118 was for rent, leaving over $193 for miscellaneous ex- penditure, such as death and burial, medicine and medical care, etc. The maximum amount given to any one family for a month is a pen- sion of $12 monthly to a particular family. The average amount expended for the support of each individual at the poor farm is over $100 each; but the average amount expended for the twenty-three families aided in their own homes is less than $45. These figures seem to indicate that it is generally more economical as well as more humane to aid the family in the home rather than to place the adults in the county farm and the children in an orphans' home and in private families. The policy of granting pensions is to be com- mended if proper care is taken in the supervision of the expenditure of the money.. DUPLICATION OF EFFORT. A study of the families helped, made by Mr. Guy T. Gebhardt, Secretary of the Republic County Y. M. C. A., showed *ji extraordinary situation. In a community of 2,500, "where everyone knows each other," there was an astonishing overlapping of the work of different organizations giving relief to- gether with the inevitable duplication of the relief given. The follow- ing table gives an idea of the situation. There were: 1 family aided by 6 churches and by the county. 1 family aided by 4 churches and by the county. 2 families aided by 3 churches and one of these by the county also 4 families aided by 2 churches and one of these by the county 1 family aided by 1 church and by the county. We find in case of nine families, or nearly one-half of the twenty- two aided, that there are fifteen cases of overlapping and duplication. This is a situation which ought not to exist. Overlapping means waste. Duplication results in the pauperization of those receiving re- lief. What is needed is the co-operation of all organizations giving relief. Plans should be made for organization to that end. The fol- lowing proposals are, therefore, made: 1. There should be a department in the Welfare Society in charge of a committee on remedial and constructive agencies which should be a central relief bureau. 2. Individuals, churches, and lodges should, as far as feasible, give relief through this committee. 48 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 3. This committee should co-operate with the city overseer of the poor in investigating cases needing relief and in the supervision of the relief granted. 4. This committee should become the clearing house for all re- lief granted. This work should be preventive as well as remedial. By co-operating with the Commercial Club, it should seek to secure employment for men out of work. THE POOR FARM. The public county poor farm is located two miles southwest of Belleville. Although the poor farm is a county, and not a city, institution, the biggest responsibility in connection with it lies upon Belleville. One-third of the present inmates are from Belleville. The farm itself is on the outskirts of the community. If improvements are to be made, Belleville citizens must take the iniative The provision made or the destitute at the poor farm does not speak well for so prosperous a county as Republic. The Poor House proper is a one-story annex to the farm house. It consists of a central hall which is a living room for the inmates with a number of bed- rooms off from it on each side. The central hall is dark and gloomy, the bedrooms are small and cheerless. A common basin serves for washing the face and hands of all and for bathing. A comb and brush is used in common. There are no individual towels. The inmates are provided with none of the accessory toilet articles, such as tooth- brushes.. The provision for bathing is totally inadequate. There is one bath-tub on the place in an outbuilding where one of the men stays, because oecassionally he desires 'to take a bath'. It is outragous to subject the poor and physically disabled of the county to such treat- ment. The unsanitary conditions and the lack of attention to person- al hygiene subject the healthy inmates to unavoidable dangers of in- fection from diseased inmates. The conditions described here are not peculiar to Republic County but are common to nearly all Kansas counties. Religious services every Sunday afternoon will not help the difficulty very much. The keeper of the poor farm cannot be held responsible for conditions. The blame is upon the county which is giving no attention to the poor farm and has sought to spend as little as possible for the support of the inmates. Before we have improvement, we must better under- stand the situation. What types of persons are the inmates at the poor farm ? How best may they be cared for ? THE INMATES. There were sixteen different inmates during the year 1913 in the Republic^ County poor farm. Of these, only six were born in the United States and none were born in Kansas. Of oreign countries Sweden, Bohemia and England contribute three each. Six of the inmates came from Belleville and the remainder from other towns and townships in the county; A study of the ages shows ^BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 49 that the poor farm is an old peoples' home. The youngest person there is forty-two. The oldest ninety-six. Six of the inmates are •over eighty. The average age is seventy and seven-tenths years, the scriptual "three score years and ten" of a long life. The poor farm is not only a home for the aged but also infirmary and an asylum for the feeble-minded and insane. Of t"h'e twelve who were in the poor farm at the time the survey was made, tliree were found to be blind, one of these was also a cripple, anotlier liad a •short leg, and still another was otherwise physically disabled. Onfe of the inmates was insane, twt) were feeble-minded, one had epileptic fits and another was in a state of senile insanity. Only two of the ■twelve inmates were declared by tlie keeper to be normal in mind and tody. It is high time that we recognize that the inmates at our poor larm are for or the most part old people who are in addition either physical wrecks or mentally deficient. Recommendations 1. Provision should at once be made to improve sanitary condi- tions, such as furnishing the inmates individual toilet conveniences and adequate facilities for bathing. 2. Recognizing that the county farm is no longer a place for the destitute, but rather for the indigent, aged, the physically disabled and the feeble minded, the county should make plans for radical im- provement. This means the abandonment of the present 'shack-like' structure, and the construction of a building with provision for the segregation of men and women, the sane and insane, and for simple hospital facilities. 3. In counties with a small population, it is highly desirable that existing legislation be utilized to work out a plan of co-operation whereby two or more counties would unite in maintaining a modern home for the counties' unfortunate. Delinquency In the six years from January 1, 1908 to January 1, 1914, the records of the city Police Court show that 162 cases were tried. Of this number, 152 were cases of men and 10 were cases of women. 162 arrests and trials a year means an annual average of 27 or a little more than 2 a month. This small annual average of 1.2 per cent of population apprehended for petty criminality sp6aks well for Belle- ville as a law-abiding community. A large proportion, just how large the figures do not indicate, of those arrested and tried in the city court were transients, and if excluded from the total number would bring down the percentage still further. Four men tried are entered on the record as "John Doe, name unknovim". A study of the seasons of the year in connection with the cases tried gives further proof that the Police Court in Belleville is largely 5a BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY for the purpose of protecting the community from the lawlessness of transients. The largest number of arrests and trials occur In June with the arrival of harvest hands. The four months, April, May, June, and July, or one-third of the year, supply 89 of the 162 cases brought before the Police Judge, or one-half the total number of cases. March and September are the low months of the year with only six cases tried each. The other months range from 9 to 11 cases, with the exception of February, which has 14. These figures show that a large proportion of petty crimes and of lawlessness is due tO' non-residents and to tramps and hoboes. CAUSES OF ARRESTS. The main causes for arrest in case of men are three: drunkenness, vagrancy, and assault and disturbing the . peace. These taken together make up 61.1 per cent of all arr sts. The ten trials in which women were defendants were all but one oases of immoral conduct, the exception being for drunkenness. A detailed tabulation of the cases is as follows. MEN MEN t)runk 39 Refusal to Pay Dog License 2 Vagrancy 35 Resisting Officer 2 Assault and Disturbing the Keeping Bawdy House 1 Peace 25 Indecent Clothes 1 Exceeding Speed Limit, Rid- No charge entered 10 ing Bicycle on sidewalk, etc 13 Total „ 152 Peddling without License 6 WOMEN Profane and Indecent Lang- Inmate Bawdy House 3 Uage 4 Illegal Cohabitation 4 Smoking Cigarettes 4 Keeping Bawdy House 1 Nuisance '. 5 Disturbing Peace 1 Destruction of Property 2 Drunk 1 Frequenting Bawdy House, etc '. 3 Total 10 REPEATERS AND RECIDIVISM. The 152 charges against men represented only 137 persons. This means that eleven men Were either repeaters or recidivists. A repeater is a man who is ar- rested more than once. A recidivist is a man who is arrested more than once for the same offence. The records show only eleven re- peaters in Belleville during the last six years. Of this number eight were tried twice, two had three trials and one came before the judge four times. Four of the eleven repeaters were also recidivists, in every case drunkenness was the cause which led to their second ap- pearance in the city court. The second experience seemed to be all that was necessary, for no further trials are recorded. These sta- tistics in regard to repeaters and recidivists prove that Belleville EELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 51 •does not suffer from the confirmed drunkard, the criminal degenerate, sind the professional criminal. DISPOSITION^ OF CASES. In all hut nine of the 152 cases involv- ing men, fines and costs were imposed showing that fining is the fa- vorite method of punishment. In the nine cases with no record of ■fines and costs, a cash bond was forfeited hy two. Of the seven re- maining cases, two were jail sentences; two were dismissed outright; one case was continued; and in the two remaining cases the record was defective. In twenty-six cases, the records show that the pris- oner served time in the city lock-up, either in addition to his fine or in place of it. Inference was drawn from the study of the rec- ords and confirmed by the police judge, that a larger Tiumber than recorded served out fines in the city jail. The total fines for the six year period amount to $739.50 and the total costs, to $726.25 for the men; and $80 in fines, $42,00 in costs for the women. This makes a grand total of $1587.15 presumably received by the city in fines and costs in the six years. This amount, however, is too large. The records do not always indicate whether the fine is paid in cash •or in days spent in the city lock-up. A PERNICIOUS SYSTEM. A system of fines is now recognis- ed as undesirable kind of punishment. In fact, it amounts to im- prisonment for poverty. The well-to-do man can pay a fine with slight or no inconvenience. The poor man must either serve time in jail or borrow money from friends. If he goes to jail, while the well-to-do man goes free, has liot the poor man a cause for com- plaint against the community? We think we have abolished im- prisonment for debt, but imprisonment in lieu of fine is as close to imprisonment for debt as peonage in the south is to slavery. If the poor man borrows money from his friends in order to go free, we may have even a more undesirable outcome. Experience elsewhere shows that the released prisoner in order to pay back the debt is often forced to contipiue in his criminal career. In this way a sys- tem of fines stimulates criminality. Nor does, the detention of petty offenders in the city lock-up lead to reformation. The Belleville records show that only three of the men in jail worked during their period of commitment. The time is spent in idleness, if not in worse. J. K. Codding, former warden of the Kansas State Penitentiary, in his study of county jails showed that they were 'schools for crime'. The city jail has an even more pernicious influence: sanitary conditions are not as good, and young petty offenders get their iniation into crime in the city jail by con- tact with older,: more hardened criminals. The first offender should never receive a jail sentence except as a last resort, or through his in- ability to furnish bail or pay a fine, be forced to pass a single night BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF SECTION OF BELLEVILLE IN 1885, TAKF,N FROM COURT HOUSE. DOME. SAME VIEW, IN 1914, TAKEN FROM SAME LOCATION BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 53 in the city lock-up. Some arrangement must be made whereby our jails and lockups are neither places of imprisonment for debt nor schools of crime. THE CITY AND THE COUNTY JAILS. As elsewhere in Kansas, the city jail is more or' less of a make-shift, designed for a lock-up rather than for the incarceration of an inmate over a con- siderable length of time. It is small, badly ventilated and insuffi- ciently lighted. Surely some arrangement might be made with the county for the common use of the county jail. The county jail is a substantial brick building two stories in height, located in the court house square. The front part of the building is the living quarters for the deputy sheriff, who is the jail warden. The jail proper consists of two cell rooms of like construc- tion, one on the first and one on the second floor. The area of the cell rooms is 1152 square feet each. The walls are low, that is, about nine feet. There are eight windows furnishing one hundred square feet of light space. While the ration of window space to floor space is one to eleven, or one-half of the standard requirement, the lighting compares favorably with that of county jails in Kansas. There are four cells in each cell room, two on each side of a central hall way. The walls of the cell room are constructed of lattice work with the accompanying advantages of ventilation and light. The floor is of cement and in good condition. The room is heated by a stove with four airy chambers providing ventilation. The cell room and cells are lighted by electricity. There is a tub in each cell block. This provision is good, but experience elsewhere has proved that the show- er bath is far superior to the tub and is indispensable in a modern prison. While the physical conditions are comparatively good, not so much can be said for further provision for the inmates. Although the inmates are allowed to read and play cards for recreation, the only reading matter provided is furnished by a private individual who has taken a personal interest in the matter. There is no organized plan for providing for the religious welfare of the men. Only two ministers have called in the past year and one of these was an out- side man. At the present time no work is provided for the men; they must spend their time in idleness. The experience of other communities indicates that even a town no larger than Belleville could utilize her prisoners in road-making or other public work. Recommendations 1 The fine system, at least as associated with imprisonment for poverty, should go. Never again should it be possible for any record like the following to appear on the books: "No. 38, John Doe name unknown, (no date entered). After this man had been arrested 54 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY and put in the city jail, the marshal secured three dollars from him, it being all the money he had, and turned him loose. Fine $1.00, costs $2.00". Wherever possible the offender should be paroled and placed under probation during the time he is paying his fine. 2. It is highly desirable that more complete records be kept. The records should show the following facts: Sex, age, occupation, residence, cause of arrest, number of offence, and disposition of case. 3. An arrangement should be made for the common use of the county jail by city and by county. This would result not only in better provision for the inmates, but in a saving to both city and county. In prohibition Kansas, the Republic county jail never is overcrowded and seldom has more than two or three inmates. Con- siderations both of welfare and of economy lead to the same con- clusion. 4. Provision should be made for out-door work for the men. Road-making and street-cleaning are feasible at the present time. The co-operation of several counties would make possible a district farm where prisoners would perform work which would train them for normal occupations after release. 5. The educational and religious needs of the prisoner should be provided for. Here is a field of endeavor for the organized re- ligious forces of the community. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. In the past two years two boys and no girls have been sent from Belleville to the industrial schools. This is a record that speaks for itself in regard to the wholesome- ness of the influences of community life. No summary can be giv- en of the total number of cases that have come before the Juvenile Court because no records have been kept except where commitments to institutions have been made. PUBLIC HEALTH AND SANITATION VITAL STATISTICS. While a study of vital statistics may be of some interest, it is to be borne in mind that in a community the size of the City of Belleville, conclusions cannot be drawn. Mor- tality averages are so variable from year to year, that the period of two years in which reliable statistics are to be had is too short to warrant deductions. The population of 2,367 as given by asses.sor's returns, April 1, 1913, has been assumed as a fair basis for computin;/ averages. The total number of deaths for 1912 was 17; for 1913, ::9. The death rate for 1912 was 7.18 per thousand as against lO.lfi per thousand for the state. The death rate for 1913 was 13.25 per thous- and as against 10.14 for the state. For the two years the death rate was 10.98 per thousand or slightly higher than for the state. The average age at death for 1912 was (excluding still births) 47 years, 9 months, 28 days; for 1913, 66 years, 5 months, 27 days, a very creditable showing. The number of births in 1912 was 46; for 1913, 44. This shows again in population number of births over deaths of 44. Infant mor- tality for 1912 (excluding still births) was 4.35 per cent; for 1;)13, nil. Deaths of children under one year (including still births for 1912 was 2; for l'jl3, 4; Under two years, includini< above, for 191 2, 3; for 1913, 4; children under school age, 1912, 3; 1913 4. Causes of Death. 1912 1913 Typhoid fever 1 Influenza 1 Erysipelas '. 1 Tuberculosis 2 Cancer 2 Diseases of Nervous System 5 2 Diseases of Circulatory System 2 6 Diseases of Respiratory System 1 3 Diseases of Digestive System 4 4 Nonvenereal diseases of Genito-Urinary System and Annexa 2 2 Diseases of Skin and Cellular Tissue 1 Malformations (congenital) 1 Diseases of Early Infancy 2 Diseases of Old Age 3 Affections produced by external causes ...- 2 Since no system of record has ever been maintained on morbodity reports, ho accurate statistics can be had relative to the prevalence of communicable diseases. This accentuates the need of a thorough system of municipal control, and local quarantine regulations. While the death rate from communicable diseases is small, yet the emer- gency for local control may occur at any time by reason of epidemic. BELLEVILLE'S MUNICIPAL WATER AND LIGHT PLANT LIGHT PLANT, WATER INSPECTION. A water survey of Belleville disclosed the existence of 75 wells and 245 cisterns. Forty-seven water sam- ples wer^ taken from the wells and the bacteriological analysis found the water from nine of these contaminated. This examination in- dicated, therefore, that 19.15 per cent of the wells studied were a menace to health. In as much as Belleville has for the most part deep wells, this accounts for the low percentage found contaminated. The large numbers of privy vaults and cesspools, and the absence of sewerage would otherwise produce a large amount of pollution. In most Kan- sas towns, the water supply is shallow, and sewage disposal is of the crudest and most primitive sort. The result is a soil saturated with dangerous polluting material and a high typhoid and other enteric disease rate. The shallow well and the privy vault may well be called "the unheavenly twins", and Belleville's good fortune lies in her deep wells. The water situation here, is, therefore, somewhat above the average of other Kansas towns. THE DAIRY CENSUS. The total number of cows supplying the city was found to be 204. The total number of distributors or owners was forty-seven. Twelve milk samples were taken and submitted to a bacteriological analysis with the following results: 1 Bacteria per cc, more than .—- 100,000 2 Bacteria per cc, .- 90,500 3 Bacteria per cc, * 1,082,000 4 - Bacteria per cc, 5,000 6 Bacteria per cc, 9,000 6 Bacteria per cc, 38,000 7 Bacteria per cc, 616,000,000 8 Bacteria per cc, 420,000,000 9 Bacteria per cc, 540,000 10 Bacteria per cc, 27,000 11 Bacteria per cc, 12,000 12 Bacteria per cc, 200,000 (On basis of 100,000 bacteria- per cc. as minimum for ordinary safe use, the number of samples reaching or exceeding this danger line is six, or fifty per cent. For infant feeding, count should not_ exceed 10,000 per cc.) ^ , The figures may be considered average conditions of a rural com- munity and emphasize need of more careful dairy supply supervision in these localities. gg BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY FOOD SUPPLY. The following report on the food supply in Belleville was prepared by Leon A. Congdon, Chief of the the Divis- ion of Food &nd Drugs, State Board of Health; "Belleville is dependent for her food supply locally upon six gro- ceries, two bakeries and two meat markets. Mr. Harry Bell, State Pood Inspector, assisted by Mrs. EfRe Chappius and Miss Mary Ward, visited these places of business February 23rd, 1914. I have summarized the reports sent to this division, by our in- spector, I will indicate these places by the letters of the alphabet: Grocery store (a) was found deficient as regards the sanitary dis- play pf food stuffs. No proper coverings were found for dried fruit or bakery products. The ventilation, light, walls, fixtures, floors and back room were found in a fairly good condition. Grocery stoce (b) also needed proper protection for bulk goods. Such as hominy, cakes and rice. The refrigerator at this place of business was found not to be in a very good condition. Grocery store (c) vetilation was deficient. Counters and food display were only in a fair cortdition. The cellar was in a very poor sanitary shape and the toilet would be classed as filthy. The butter at this place of business would not be considered as a fit article of food, in that it was improperly protected from dust, dirt, flies and Vermin. Grocery store (d) the floors were not as clean as they should be. The counters at this place could only be classed fair as regards sanita- tion, as they were covered with dust and dirt, which could have been readily cleansed with a little soap and water. Grocery store (e) was found in fairly good condition. Grocery store (f ) walls and fixtures could not be classed as san- itary. At this place of business no washing facilities were found, which is contrary to our State Sanitary Inspe"3tion Law." An examination by the inspector of the two bakeries and the two meat markets showed certain conditions that needed attention. "What is needed in Belleville, and in fact the whole of Repub- lic County, is a food inspector who can visit the food establishments at Belleville and Republic County at least once a month. This would necessitate a full time food and health officer for these places. The Kansas State Board of Health, with only five inspectors in the field to cover the whole state cannot be expected to come to Republic ev- ery month." PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. The old argument against the physical supervision of school children is the same as used by the anti-prqhibitionist, viz., infringement of personal liberty. The parent is prone to say, "My child is my own. I shall do as I please with it. If it has any defects I'll have them BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY £9 remedied or not, as I choose.,' Fallacious, as the argument is, it has stood in the road of progress, and much as we are prone to boast of efficiency of Kansas schools, we have yet to recognize that in this line we are a century behind the trend of present day civilization. The state has said that the child does not wholly belong to the parent and has usurped the right, which most people now admit to be proper, to insist that every child, as a part of the social body of the state, shall receive an education. And if it is not in the financial ability of the parent to give this education, the state provides edu- cational facilities and is yearly appropriating large sums of money for public schools. That this money is economically expended and that the great- est amount of efficiency for the dollars so spent is returned, would seem the further interest of the state and the community. And in this we are failing in our duty in Kansas. A child suffering frrfm a physical handicap is not an efficient machine. No engineer will run his engine where friction in some part prevents him from getting all the power out of it which is possible. Your city administration recently found that your old type of engines at the municipal water and light plant was costing you too much in fuel. It did not hesitate to do what was proper and what you as citizens approved of; viz., they installed, at a considerable first cost, new engines which would more than compensate in the saving of fuel. Your School Board has realized for some time, that which they should realize as vdde-awake, progressive business men, — the fact that you are not deriving the amount of efficiency which you should do- rive, from the sums you are spending on your community schools. You have too much friction somewhere — too much lost motion^ — and you are seeking to learn the cause. Part of it you will readily per- ceive in the charts I have prepared, and which are in brief a com- pilation of the facts learned by a routine examination of your school children. In explanation I will call your attention to the fact that this examination is not claimed .to have been thorough. It was done rath- er hurriedly and only those defects were noted which were most ob- vious. Errors are possible, and most probable. A more carefur examination may eliminate some of these defects, but what is more ■ probable, it will show that many have been overlooked and that these charts underestimate the true number of defects. To go into details in explanation of these charts is unnecessary. They show for themselves. Briefly, I may mention these main fea- Number of children in grades, 454; number submitting to exam- ination 367. Of this number, 56 had been vaccinated and 10 had had smallpox. go BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY ^he per cent immune to smallpox is only 18.01. In other words 82 children out of every hundred in. your schools, are fit subjects to the disease, and the opportunity for a wide spread epidemic is apparent?] There is little argument against vaccination — it is better to have one pock on the arm than hundreds on the body. Smallpox frequently kills, vaccination so rarely that when it does it is given wide spread circulation in the public press, and is really a sensation. Present day methods are eliminating the old sore arms. By all means, you should not wait for the epidemic to appear before beginning pre- ventive measures. Begin a campaign of education for vaccination End start now. / 19.07 per cent had defective nasal breathing (Adenoids or enlarged turbinates). 29. 43 per cent had enlarged tonsils. 3.10 per cent had defective palates. 31.06 per cent had enlarged cervical or neck glands. (In practically all of these cases these were found to be secondary to defective teeth, enlarged tonsils, or suppurating auditory canals.) 1.36 per cent had functional or organic heart lesions. .82 per cent had orthopedic defects. 1.36 per cent skin diseases, (mostly contagious). 14.44 per cent had defective eyesight and need corrective lens. 14.17 per cent had defective hearing. •? 1 57.77 per cent had defective teeth. J trhese percentages are not abnormal; in fact they are somewhat lower than those given by eastern states, which only proves what I previously stated, that our examination was superficial and many de- fects were overlooked.^ Two charts which I have had prepared and which may be of in- terest show the relative sizes of children of various ages, as compar- ed with Kopliks table on the averages American child. Let it be Said for Belleville's general standards of nutrition for her people, of fresh air, and the general good heredity of these children that they rank above Koplik's averages almost without exception. BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY 61 MEASUREMENTS OF BELLEVILLE SCHOOL BOYS Comparison With Koplik's Table Average American Boys. d-s .a .5? .5 ii 1- i< =i o> ■> ■3 M S > ■53 ^ ^v i'rM 6 II 21 > ^ si ^1 <1^ 49.18 44.64 26.05 24.85 48.72 45.01 7 18 48.97 46.13 25.72 25.19 49.33 48.07 8 22 51.11 47.95 26.23 25.94 56.00 51.76 9 18 53.36 49.79 26.70 26.55 59.17 56.17 10 15 54.17 51.63 27.03 27.18 62.13 61.43 11 16 57.15 53.24 28.81 27.98 76.86 66.40 12 15 58.27 55.17 29.07 28.74 78.07 73.19 13 19 61.95 56.71 30.79 29.39 90.39 79.94 14 18 62.72 58.99 31.11 30.60 98.71 88.48 15 12 65.75 61.82 33.06 31.63 127.06 99.83 16 2 67.00 64.11 33.75 33.12 116.55 114.28 Av. Boy 54.91 inches in height; 28.35 inches sitting height; weight 72.1 MEASUREMENTS Comparison With OP BELLEVILLE SCHOOL GIRLS Koplik's Table Average American Gi ris. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 •t3 o S si HE4 -M '^^ 4J .J3 .« J- bos 6*^^ bis ■^> ^^ ■3) •> W ® •^ ft as ^a ^« ^ ft 18 16 30 18 21 17 21 29 10 8 46.07 44.47 24.55 48.22 45.09 25.00 49.77 47.43 26.17 52.30 49.21 26.36 55.33 51.22 28.09 56.61 53.15 28.59 60.05 55.81 30.00 61.31 58.05 31.00 64.05 60.25 32.30 63.50 61.64 33.00 24|36 24.69 25.49 26.19 27.00 27.81 29.06 30.21 31.43 32.23 ■53 s J« 41.92 47.56 52.73 55.69 65.19 70.38 83.05 87.35 108.30 100.32 .Sf— - 'S »4 ^ ft . o 43.52 45.74 49.33 53.47 58.53 63.98 72.83 82.42 92.96 100.69 Av. Girl 55 inches in height; 28.1 inches sitting height; weight 68.2 It was uhfortunate that a series of tests in mental deficiencies were not conducted, but if was deemed inadvisable. Parents may recognize that their children are below the physical average, and ac- cept any comments in that line without resentment. But when told that their children are below the mental average of what they should be at the same ages, they feel humiliated and disgraced. Yet present day science has demonstrated that there are limits to the develop- ment of certain brains, and that any child may be a mental cripple as well as a physical cripple. A general mental deflciencv test to de- termine defects and to classify children by their brain power in- 62 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY stead of by ages and by physical size will be of great value. Not only will it show you why some of your children are not getting on in school work as they should, but it will enable your teachers and your school superintendent to revise your teaching methods and stan- dards, and so arrange your course of study for such defective pupils as to give them a fair show with pupils of greater brain power, and ensure them greater eflBciency and brain development. Study of the charts may show you why some of your money spent in school work is being wasted. No workman can build a good struc- ture with poor material. CNo teacher can turn out mental prodigies, or even pupils of average ability, from children who are stiuggling along upder physical handicaps. A child who completes a course of study in ten years, which he should complete in eight is increasing his cost of education 25 per cent. Time wasted by your teachers on backward children is costing you hundreds of dollars — dollars which might be saved by correcting the handicaps and physical defects un- der which these children are laboring, and which are deterrent to their efficiency. ^ Physical inspection at stated intervals by competent physicians and dentists may cost you some money, but the financial saving will prove economy. I say the inspection should be done under compet- ent physicians and dentists. If it is felt that this cannot be afford- ed, it is well to install a routine examination by the teachers under the directions of a competent health official. Teachers can be trained to detect the grosser defects or at least record their suspicions of de- fects, which may be checked up by a physician or dentist. The better system, however,- is the employment of a qualified tactful physician and dentist. Whether such inspection is carried on under the direction of the local health officer, or by a physician selected by the school board, matters little. The main thing is to install the system. In the examination of the children which has been made, the peo- ple of Belleville decidedly owe a vote of thanks to the physicians and dentists of their city who have given their children the benefit of their time and advice, which was given freely and willi^ly, and vdthout thought of compensation. Such public spirit is worthy of emula- tion by all classes. LEAFLET ON THE TEETH AND THEIR CARE To Parents :- You are reminded of the necessity for early care of children's teeth. With such care, the teeth may be preserved throughout life. .This will npt only save much inconvenience and discomfort in later ,life, but it may enable the child in the meantime to lire a more vigor- ous and hence a more successful life. The condition of the teeth has much to do with the general health. The following cautions, abbreviated from those issued to teach- ers and school physicians by the Massachusetts Board of Education, are commended to your attention. Unclean mouths promote the growth of disease germs, and cavities in the teeth are centers of infection. Irregularities of the teeth, especially those which make it im- possible to close the teeth properly, thus leading to faulty digestion and faulty breathing, should receive careful treatment. The first permanent molars are perhaps the most important teeth in the mouth. They come at about the sixth year immediately following the temporary teeth, and are the most frequently neglect- ed because they are often mistaken for temporary teeth. It should be known that decay of the teeth is caused primarily by the fermentation of starchy foods and sugars, and that the great- est factor in preventing disease of the teeth is the removal of food particles by frequent brushing. Children should be prevented from eating crackers and candy between meals, and when possible the teeth should be cleaned after eating. Inspection of the teeth by a den- tist should be made at least once or twice a year. Your attention is also called to the prevalence of maladies of the nose and throat. The health of a child and his ability to do his social work may be seriously impaired by the presence of adenoid grovjrths. When a child shows obstructions of the nose by mouth breathing, snoring, contin- ual discharge, or recurrent ear trouble, adenoids should be suspected. Enlarged tonsils, recurrent tonsillitis, and enlargement of the glands in the neck also constitute a serious handicap to the child. Either condition must be remedied before he can have a fair chance in the world, and the earlier the better. The family physician should be consulted and the child given such treatment as he may advise. PUBLIC HEALTH ORGANIZATION. Jurisdiction over public health is comparatively limited. Beyond the control provided by A PETITION HUMANITY MUST HEED BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY C5 state law, through the county health officer, and deputy county health oflfieers, acting under him there is practically no provision for the scientific control of contagious disease. In a way, it has perhaps been just as well that no obsolete regulations cover the ordinance book, as is the case with most cities. It is true that the mayor (Sec. 8 Ord. 4) "shall have jurisdiction as may be vested in him by law and ordinance, over all places within five miles of the corporate limits of the city for enforcement of health or quarantine, or regulation thereof." This may, under ordinary conditions, be sufficient, but the real point lies in the fact that a mayor may be an individual who has no strong convictions or scientific know- ledge of the control of disease, and much harm may result from his ignorance, or inactivity. It is believed that provision should be made for some scientific authority in change of all health and sanitary mat- ters. The following is a summary of ordinances covering public health and sanitation :- Nuisances Ord. 3. Sec. 2 Provides for the appointment by the mayor from the members of the council of a committee on Improvement, Streets and Alleys, Health and Hygiene. (Records fail to show that one has ever been appointed). Ord. 4, Sec. 5 Provides "Mayor shall recommend in writing such meas- ures as in his opinion shall tend to improve health of city." Ord. 4, Sec. 9 Provides "Mayor is authorized to regulate, remove or abate nuisances." Ord. 5, Sec. 6 Defines specific duties of Committee of Improvements; shall have supervision over streets, alleys, sewers, gutters, bridges and culverts. Cannot authorize the expenditure of moneys. Ord. 26, Relating to Nuisances is fairly comprehensive and is rein- forced by Ord. 88. Ord. 45. Provides all owners of land shall prevent weeds from going to seed on premises and shall remove the same whenever weeds shall hang over adjoining sidewalks or whenever they shall be large enough to look uncleanly or endanger buildings on account of fire. Ord. 88. Reinforces Ord. 26. Prohibits nuisances and accumulation of unwholesome matter and gives mayor power to regulate. Ord. 140. Prohibits hauling of offensive filth and oflfal from private vaults and offensive cess pools through the streets and alleys be- tween the hours of 5 A. M. and 10 P. M. Ord 179 Provides for storage and removal of garbage in cans in and 'around court house square, blocks 16, 17, 20,21,27,28. Must be removed weekly. C6 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY Private Water Supply Ord. 3, Sec. 9 Provides for the appointment by the mayor of a commit' tee on Water and Light, Amended by Committee on Water and . Lights. Ord. 6, Sec. 13. Ord. 145, Parts of which are repealed, regulates supply and consump' tion of vjrater obtained from City Water Works. Food and Drug Inspection Ord. 3. Sec. 8 Provides for Committee on Weights and Measures. Ord. 5, Sec. 12. Prescribes specific duties of Committee on Weights and Measures. "Shall have sui^ervision of all weights and meas- ures used in the city, and shall report from time to time by or- dinance or otherwise such measures as will secure just and law- ful weights of all articles bought and sold in city, and to pre- vent fraud." , Ord. 28, Provides "That if any person shall knowingly sell any dis- eased, corrupt, or unwholesome provisions without first informing the buyer of the character of such unwholesome provisions shall be fined not exceeding $100 and costs." Control of Communicable Diseases Ord. 3, Sec. 2. Provides for Committee on Improvements, Streets and Alleys, Health and Hygiene. Ord. 4, Sec. 5 Provides, "Mayor shall recommend in writing such meas- ures as in his opinion shall tend to improve health of city.' Ord. 4, Sec. 8. Above quoted. Gives mayor jurisdiction to regulate matters of health and quarantine. Ord. 18, Sec. 10. Amended by Ordinance 211, provides mayor may is- sue dog muzzling order where deemed necessary for control or prevention of spread of rabies. Care of the Poor Ord. 3, Sec. 10, Provides for Committee on Care of the Poor. Ord. 5, Sec. 14. Specifies Committee on Care of the Poor shall con- sist of one member who shall act as overseer of the poor the same as township trustees. (While this is primarily an economic mat- ter, it concerns public health in matter of quarantine or illness, especially illness from communicable disease.) HECOMMENDATIONS : Belleville is not only the largest city in the county, but it con- stitutes about one-seventh of the entire population of the county. Its location near the centre of the county also would make feasible a centraliZied health agency. Unfortunately Kansas laws do not in- sure one board of health control, and the municipalities are given power to provide local health agencies in which event they are re- lieved to a greater or less extent from the control of the county health agencies. (Paragraph 8033 Laws of 1909) An amendment of this law has been suggested, to provide that, where cities and counties wished to unite in the formation of one sanitary or health area, they be pri- vileged to employ in common a full time health officer, the expense to be prorated in accordance with time and service rendered, and popu- lation served. Such an arrangement would seem to be ideal as far as Kepublic County and Belleville are concerned, a qualified whole-time, full-time health officer and trained sanitarian, at an adequate com- pensation of not less than $2,000 per year, would find his time well employed, and the economic saving in sickness and funerals would amply repay the county and city the money thus spent. If such an amalgamation cannot be brought about, the City Coun- cil of Belleville and the County Board of Health might by mutual agreement agree upon some one man to fill both positions of City Health Officer and County Health Officer, whose duties, time and sal- ary might be proportioned. The county and city physician who at- tends to the medical and surgical needs of the indigent citizens, must not be confused with the county and city health officer who only su- perintends general sanitation and public health. These are two dis- tinct offices and should not be combined. The health officer should not practice medicine or surgery in any way, for it is only by refrain- ing from it, that he can receive the unbiassed support of both the pub- lic and the practitioners of the art of healing. He might well be employed as a physical examiner and director in the public schools, and the fact that he is not a practicing physician frees his recommend- ations from all inputation of financial or other ulterior motives. It is believed that such an arrangement between City and County could very easily be made. The report on milk and dairy supplies emphasizes the need of an adequate milk inspection ordinance, and the need of a well equipped milk, water and food laboratory which under the management of a (58 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY competent health and sanitary officer as above recommended, togeth- er with a part time associate veterinarian, would insure a very much improved milk supply and general standard of health of citizens. The report on condition of streets and alleys, sewage disposal and water supply, reader other suggestions as to where the services of such a sanitary officer could further be well employed. Summary of Recommendations 1. The employment of a qualified whole-time city and county health officer at an adequate salary. 2. The need of a system of school inspection under such an officer. 3. The need of an adequate milk inspection ordinance, and a food inspector. 4. The need of adequate inspection of streets, alleys, nuisances and insanitary conditions. THE WELFARE SOCIETY The Welfare Society was organized over a year ago, but it has already been a force in the life of the community. Its institution signified the co-operation of Belleville citizens in promoting the wel- fare of the community. By its support of the survey, the Welfare Society took the position that a program for progress should come after careful study of the needs and conditions of the community. It is therefore, part of the work of the survey to make suggestions in regard to the way in which the Welfare Society may be reorganized to promote the well-being of the community. The reorganization of the Welfare Society should provide for four general committees, namely, the business committee, the con- structive agencies committee, the remedial and corrective agencies committee, and a public health committee. The chairman of these committees with the president of the Welfare Society should form the executive committee of the organization. The business committee should co-operate with the commercial club and city government to promote the trade and industrial inter- ests of the community. Working with these other organizations, the business committee should do all in its power to develop and ex- tend the Belleville trade district. It should endeavor to secure clos- er co-operation between the farmer and the business man by showing their mutual interdependence. This committee should also, in co- operation with the employer, look after the welfare of employees. It should be active in securing employment for men out of virork, and should bring pressure to bear to induce the lazy man who is unwilling to work, to seek and keep employment. The constructive agencies committee should co-operate with school and church to promote wholesome recreation and the higher education- al and religious life of the community. It should co-operate with the city officials in supervision of commercialized recreation. It should arrange for high grade lecture courses, musical concerts and programs and special educational features. It should promote and encourage inter-church and community-wide religious activities. This committee should promote general community recreation. It should organize the movement for city beautifications and for the summer playground, and make plans for a city park. The remedical and corrective agencies committee should co-oper- ate with the city and county authorities and with private organiza- tions and persons for the purpose of preventing delinquency and de- 70 BELLEVILLE SOCIAL SURVEY pendency and of remedying their bad effects. It should be the duty of this committee to constitute itself a central bureau of relief. It should endeavor to systematize the giving of charity, to investigate individual cases applying for relief and to supervise the giving of aid. With the co-operation of the juvenile court and the superintendent of schools, it should supervise and care for juvenile delinquents and tru- ants. With the co-operation of the churches it should arrange for friendly visiting and religious meetings, and should take charge of the educational and the religious work among the inmates of the county poor farm and of the city and county jail. The committee on public health should co-operate vfith the coun- ty and city health oflBcers, with the local physicians, and with the pub- lic schools in promoting public health and sanitation. The aim of this committee should be to obtain permanent physical supervision of the children in the public schools. It should be its duty to make provision for health instruction by means of the press and public meetings. It should make a study of the question of sex hygiene and the feasibility of planning for the giving of sex instruction to chil- dren of either through the home, the school, or special groups of chil- dren. The committee should study the sanitary conditions of streets and alleys and the disposal of garbage with a view to ascertaining the most effective method of dealing with these problems. It should co- operate with city', county, and state health officers in making food and milk inspection at frequent intervals. These four committees together make up an effective agency for promoting the welfare of the community. Within each committee, sub-committees may be formed to promote particular objects. The Welfare Society as a whole should have regular monthly meetings to hear the report of the committees. The Welfare Society should es- tablish a Social Service Library with books dealing with the special problems of the different committees. This organization should con- serve the results of the survey by securing specialists for public lec- tures on child welfare, municipal improvement, public health, etc. The Welfare Society is to be the one unifying agency in the com- munity for the promotion of welfare. It is earnestly to be desired that Belleville and the towns and small cities of Kansas virill not fall into the vice of over-organization and thus fritter away their strength in the divided effort to keep the organizations going. CONTENTS Page Introduction „ 3 The Town 5-13 Community Planning 8- 9 Municipal Administfation 11-13 Trade and Industry 15-22 Recreation 23-39 Education ^ :. 29-37 Church and Religion 40-45 Charity , 46-54 Delinquency 49-50 Public Health and Sanitation 55-66 The Welfare Society ^^-'^^ Recommendations —— ' - ^ " .o*-«o