-9 Why Community Service ? C. S. No. S Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/whycommunityservOOandr Why Community Service? H. G. ANDREWS ❖ Copyright 1019 By Community Service, Incorporate*! * Published bj> COMMUNITY SERVICE, Incorporated National Headquarters: 1 MADISON AVE., NEW YORK CITY WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? It is in their social rather than their personal phases that rest and unrest challenge attention. We say "social unrest," but the phrase "social rest" does not come as trippingly to the tongue. And yet rest must have its social phases. The cultivation of friendly social relations is neces- sarily a rest time occupation. In the old days when the village grocery store, or the village blacksmith shop was the forum where neighbor met neighbor, there were disagreements, but there was likewise un- derstanding of points of view. Social problems are problems of contact. What men think of each other is largely a result of contact. It is easy to believe anything of a man whose life has never touched yours. Touch a life in a helpful way and the result is an addition to the world's stock of good will. Rest and unrest are matters of concern. The con- cern is immediate. There may be many ways of ar- resting unrest, but most certainly one way is to oppose it by throwing a barrage of good will in its path. And good will requires COMMUNITY as well as individual expression. The man who makes no contribution to COM- MUNITY good will is not in a position to complain if he is made to suffer because of ill will. Unrest is a world problem, but all world problems have their local phases. Because, after all, rest and unrest are matters that concern FOLKS. * * * FOLKS — people — constitute the constant social factor. Institutions pass — being instruments that grow, serve, decay and die. But folks we have always with us. There is no phase of industry that is constant — no 4 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? political system that is not subject to change. But folks — people — remain. They constitute a river of life that bridges the eternities. And it is what folks — people — think of each other that determines the form of our institutions. What does the other fellow think of you? How does he rate you? What is the estimate he places upon your work — your worth? What do you think of the other fellow? What difference? Just the difference — ultimately — between civiliza- tion and chaos. Misunderstandings, distrust, hate can destroy fami- lies, wreck cities, ruin nations and crumble a world. Charles Lamb once expressed very forcibly his hate for a certain man, when one of his auditors said: "But I didn't know you knew So-and-so." To which Lamb replied: "Oh, of course, I don't know him. You can't hate a man when you know him." What people think of each other today, tomorrow, the day after, has become the most important thing in the world. The simple, commonplace, trite things are always important for they always affect all the people. The social problems we are worrying about seem complex, but so simple are they that if we were all of us neighbors, really truly neighbors, the complexities would largely vanish. This old world is afflicted with social problems, economic problems and a multitude of other problems largely because so many people are so very busy solv- ing their OWN problems that they have no time in which to interest themselves in the problems of the folks. 5 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? Social self interest — unrestrained — is social suicide. For this reason — The sort of interest you take in the other fellow tempers if it does not determine the sort of interest the other fellow takes in you. If your outlook is tinged with hostility there is no peace. Where there is no peace there is no security, and where there is no se- curity there is no progress. And that is true quite irrespective of material surface indications. Wherever the principles of the Sermon on the Mount are not practically applied, the Mosaic law is generally found in full sway. Wherever the "do unto others as you would be done by" rule does not hold, the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, blow for blow, hate for hate, contempt for contempt formula does. What you think of the other fellov and what the other fellow thinks of you is the most important thing in the whole world. ♦ * * WHY is it so important what you think of the other fellow and what the other fellow thinks of you? The reason is so simple and has been stated so conclusively that every man who is at all concerned about his social obligations should have a copy of the formula pasted in his hat : "Unless this country is made a good place for all of us to live in, it won't be a good place for any of us to live in." Doubtless even that statement needs amending. Why limit benefits to our own land? The whole world must be made a good place for all of us or it won't be a good place for any of us. WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? There is no longer any such thing as social, economic or political isolation for nations, communities or indi- viduals. There was a time when folks permitted themselves to believe they were not concerned about conditions in some other part of town, in some other state, or some other country. They know better now. It is vastly important what the other fellow thinks, how he feels. Because how he thinks and feels deter- mines WHAT HE DOES. * * * IF this world will not be a good place for any of us until it is a good place for all of us where, when or how is the problem to be attacked? Every movement — worth while or otherwise — is necessarily carried on by people who do a thing in a place at a particular time. Folks who cannot do anything to establish the SPIRIT OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD in their own community are not likely to contribute very largely to the task of quelling more distant storms. The first step in world service is COMMUNITY service. And community service starts with the in- dividual. Commonplace ! Certainly. When the world is rocking only the commonplace things count. * What people need now — what the country needs — is a whole lot of peace-time service on war-time lines. Individual responsibility is the formula of salvation in a democracy. America was in the way of forgetting that. Individual responsibility was dozing. It has awakened. The war emphasized a lot of things — none more 7 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? than the individual. When there was need of men the World War passed up and down the land tapping shoulders and saying: "You, I mean." And when the World War had made its rounds among us, allotting its duties here and there; thunder- ing its call to service, it followed back upon its track and coined a name for those who disregarded its summons. It called them SLACKERS. Never since time began was there such a TAG DAY as the World War inaugurated in this country Nor were men and women ever TAGGED to better purpose. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY was hung upon them all. And now there is no escaping it. Cast it aside and back it comes to dog and trail the steps of all those who were marked for service. Individual responsibility has become the familiar spirit of the millions and on its own account whispers: slacker" into the ears of those who would forget that PEACE-TIME SERVICE IS A * * • "I^ SS 3 law and fix **■" There was a time when |^that was the formula for reform. Laws can ^ curb, but it is impossible to create an era of good will simply by legislative fiat. The man "who sees red" is always a cause for con- cern. The first step in dealing with those "who see red is to make certain there is no red to see. For the ills that arise out of social injustice, social justice is the cure. Good will is greatly to be prized. It is something to work for. to plan for— even to sacrifice for. 8 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? But good will must exist in a Place at a TIME if it is to count for anything. It does not serve simply to talk about good will. No one is fed if agricultural fussers simply TALK about growing wheat. Good will — individual good will, community good will, national good will, international good will, can be cultivated. But without individual and community good will, what use is there of working in any other field? Any problem in such a country as ours can be solved if good will is brought to the council board. The place to cultivate good will is where it grows naturally — in the community, in the neighborhood, where folks meet as folks. Good will and ill will are not sentiments that trickle down from above. They come into existence at the foundation of the social fabric. The man who is satisfied in his community, whose community life makes for contentment, is a man who is generally of the belief there are no governmental ills that cannot be cured — and he is usually minded to use his best efforts in curing them. Enrich the community and you enrich the world. Community riches are counted in the coin of service. * * * COME, let us build a house, a treasure house, out of bricks — and no mortar. Why so foolish? The thing cannot be done. The treasure house would fall down. But you would build your community with no mor- tar with nothing to tie the structure together. How futile. If the community falls down you are caught in the fall. It does not matter who you are — laborer or loiterer — you are caught in the fall. 9 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? Mutual interest, mutual purposes, intelligent good will constitute the mortar that ties a community to- gether. We have come quite a way together. We have agreed, have we not, to this general purpose? Folks — people — constitute the constant social factor. What you think of the other fellow, and what the other fellow thinks of you, is vastly important. Unless this country is made a good place for all of us to live in, it won't be a good place for any of us to live in. All of us have been tagged with individual respon- sibility, and we cannot get the tag off. Good will is a universal solvent. Good will must have a home. If it cannot find an abiding place in the community it is without habitation. Community service promotes good will. Now another step: But what is Community Service? It is the medium through which the resi- dents of a community get together and really become members of that community with a consequent real interest in community welfare prosperity and stability. • * » WHEREVER found, the man who will not work or who is given no chance to work is a dis- turbing influence. In any line of endeavor, if half the force sits on the fence and throws monkey wrenches into the machinery, there will be trouble all the time. 10 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? Civic idleness is quite as much to be feared as any other sort. If all the members of a community are consciously enlisted in the work of community build- ing, the threat of civic idleness vanishes. Community builders become advocates and defend- ers of the community they are building. It is //<<■ man who is made to feel that he does not belong who is always a center of unrest. It is the civic idler rather than the worker who is the destructive knocker. Given work to do — constructive work — and many an objector becomes a partisan. If you were building a house or running a factory, how many idle hands would you want around? Idlers on the civic sidelines, without interest or stake in the results of civic endeavor, are not only a drag, but a menace. And that is equally true whether the civic idler is prince or pauper. If only it were possible to get everybody working in the cause of community building, which, after all, is nation building, as energetically as they will work in the cause of nation defending, what is there that could not be done? We have learned how important it is that every- one do his bit of war work. If we will of our own accord come to an understanding of how important it is that every one do his bit of peace work we may yet escape learning our lesson in a school that is far too stern. War work, though, we must remember, called for doing a thing in a place at a time. Zero hours and the stretches of No Man's Land may pass from memory as they pass from the current vocabulary. But fate unfolds an unending succession of zero hours. Every movement has them. Every day brings them. We have the present with its problems. The past —the immediate past— is still too much with us. We 11 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? cannot gather its lesson. The future, what of it? This much we know. A worth while present is the hostage we must give to fate if we would deserve well of the future. If Community Service can be made to mean any- thing to this generation, NOW IS ITS ZERO HOUR. The Community Service idea must either go OVER or GO UNDER. . To go over effectively it must go over nationally. Centers of discontent are centers of contagion. C om- munity work everywhere is of interest to all of those concerned about community work anywhere. Community Service now is a symptom of a desire for better things. That desire should not be expressed in terms of symptoms. It should be epidemic. Why, indeed, should not good will and helpful endeavor be catching? * * * COMMUNITY Service is a movement, not an institution. It purposes to utilize for peace- time purposes the qualities and the agencies that, in the last analysis, made America in- vincible in war. We have seen how the war discovered the indi- vidual to himself. It tagged him with his responsi- bilities. But the war likewise discovered the com- munity to itself and tagged it with ITS responsibility. It was the organized community that made the draft a success, that sold Liberty Bonds by the bil- lion, that financed war relief agencies, that held trea- son, sedition and rebellion in check. It was the or- ganized community that made food and fuel conser- vation facts instead of an official fiction. It was the organized community — working as War Camp Community Service — that made every town a home town and a safe town for the soldier and the sailor; that made hospitality perform a ministry that 12 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? heartened and strengthened the warriors of the nation. The organized war-time community taught the value of team work; it crushed caste and, above all, it ini- tiated all of the members of the community into the Fellowship of Those Who Serve. * The war-time community founded its judgments on the basis of present performance. Men were stripped of all the insignia of the old order. All the members of the community met face to face and eye to eye. And meeting face to face and eye to eye, people be- came folks. And the folks found out they were neighbors. * * * LET them deny as they may, in every worth while man or woman there survives the spirit of the spelling bee, the straw ride, the barn dance, the husking bee, the neighboorhood basket picnic, an old home week in the old home town. Take all that and add to it a spirit of fairness, a spirit of helpfulness, a spirit of understanding, and a pity that is too wise to express itself only in charity — and you have the constituent elements of Community Service. Community Service provides the opportunity for people to meet as folks—as neighbors representing no one but themselves — and the ideas they cherish most. You can't kill the neighborhood idea. You can either use or misuse it. You can harness it to a load or permit it to run light. During recent years a great many cities have cried out stridently to the world, "watch us grow." Growth requires more than watch- ing. A field that is simply watched grows grain 13 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? amid the weeds — more weeds than grain. There are weeds that cities grow. Do you know the Who Cares weed? Danny Deever faced Sergeant Mulvane. "You're drunk," said the sergeant. "Who cares?" said Danny. "You're a dirty bum," accused the sergeant. "Who cares?" said Danny. "You're a disgrace to the mother that bore you," roared the sergeant. "She's dead. What the hell. Who cares "Nobody," said Danny. "You're a blasted liar. I care," said the sergeant. Danny looked at the sergeant; the sergeant looked at Danny. Their eyes held level. "I'll get a job," said Danny. "Staring at the likes of you is hard on sore eyes; or 'tis a speck I have in my eye." "And 'tis tears I have in my heart for the likes of you," said the sergeant. Sergeant Mulvane was "folks" to Danny Deever. * * • SO much for Community Service in general. What in particular? War Camp Community Service operates in 604 American Communities. A bit of help now and those 604 American communities place their organizations on a permanent, self-sustain- ing basis. Given expert leadership, competent direc- tion and those communities pass in a brief period beyond the stage where they need assistance from a national budget. In fifty industrial centers Community Service is now a stabilizing force. Community Service is not a theory; it is a fact. It has become a positive factor in reconstruction. 14 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? The towering advantage of Community Service is belon* ^ movement to which everybody can The community is the composite man, the com- posite woman, the composite child. Community Service, while manifold in its details is simplicity itself as far as principle is concerned. This is the formula: Define the normal social needs of the individual. Having done that, you have the normal social needs of the community. Or, to state it the other way around. All of the duties the community owes to the individual the in- dividual owes to the community. Education is an individual need. Education is a community need in order that the community may find itself, may come to know itself. Education of the individual, among other things, de- velops the sense of individual responsibility. Communities have their responsibilities as commu- nities. The individual has need of recreation. And so has the community. Recreation may be a part of the life of every individual without its being a part of the life of the community. Just as the Nation and the State have a real exist- ence, so the Community has a real existence with a soul and personality of its own. The individual has need of employment in order that he may consciously serve his own interests. The community needs something to do as a com- munity — it must have material interests and promote them if it is to be healthy and normal. Last of all, the individual has need of altruistic en- deavor. He must have more than a selfish interest if he is to be of real use to himself or anyone else. The same rule applies in the case of the community. 15 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? The selfish community, the wholly self-seeking com- munity, scores a flat failure. More than that, it is a menace. • * • BUT what meaning has this for the worker, for the employer; for the man with money and for the man without a cent; for the man who has been swept off his feet, and for the man who has gained a firm toehold? The more people there are who enjoy educational advantages throughout their lives; who have con- genial employment; who have opportunities for recrea- tion; who are eager to help the other fellow; who rec- ognize their social obligations and are home building and home loving, the better it is for the world in general. The more communities there are that enjoy educa- tional advantages, that have homes, that have oppor- tunities for recreation, that are engaged in congenial employment, that recognize their social obligations, the better it is for the world in general. The first step in Community Service is likewise the first step in Citizenship. It is Americanization. Through the home and the school we Americanize the children born in real American homes. The raw material in an American baby is not a great deal dif- ferent from the raw material in the baby born in any other land — whatever American parents may hold to the contrary. Boy and girl babies become American patriots only as a result of an intensive training over quite a period of years. Because this training is so largely uncon- scious upon the part of the instructors, its value is frequently overlooked. It does not matter in the least how a potential 16 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? citizen gets into this country, the first job on hand is to make him — or her — an American. Community Service promotes Americanization, first of all, by making it possible for the alien to cease being alien. He can BELONG. How long would the American boy remain an American if he were treated as a STRANGER — if every one took it for granted that he did not belong — did not even want to belong. Community Service, being essentially an American movement, recognizes the value of the HOME. It builds one for itself — establishing the COMMUNITY CENTER. * With a COMMUNITY HOME established, mem- bers of the community automatically become members of the COMMUNITY FAMILY. Folks have a place in which they can meet as folks. In the community center — the community household — it is very easy for men and women to cease being employers and em- ployes and become folks. At the community center there is, first of all, the Americanizing influence of the entire household. It comes naturally about that classes can be established under conditions that minister to interest. All the members of the household become anxious to qualify. Community Service, once established in a com- munity home, could not if it tried confine its teaching activities to the "Three R's." It of necessity teaches the art of living. Community Service, however, would differ in no material respect from a night school for adults if it stopped with formal classes. Community Service compels the community to study itself. Consciously and unconsciously the elements in the community study each other, and even though they do not adopt the other's view, they come more and more to understand that view. And, quite as 17 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? the most natural thing in the world, they become more and more anxious to deserve the other's respect. The publicity of the Community Center may not be exactly pitiless. But there are few men bold enough to attempt to use Community Service as a means of advancing petty selfish aims. Community Service puts men and women upon their honor as far as their com- munity relations are concerned. And Community Service in America must neces- sarily be American. It follows that in many commu- nities the immigrant himself voluntarily solves his own Americanization problem. Community Service is essentially American. It opens up educational advantages to the individual as an individual and to the community as a community. So much for education. There will be many pon- derous books written in this connection. It was a begrimed coal digging Pennsylvania miner who stated the case for education. A Slav, this miner, ignorant of learning. He had money — three thousand dollars in the bank, and he took counsel with his wife regarding the future of their son. "The money," said the father, "I put it in his hand and he lose it, maybe. Put it in his head, he got it. eh? Stanie goes to school." * * * MEN are products of their leisure time. Your jv/l leisure time makes or breaks you," one social I W 1 philosopher has observed. A half truth, for leisure time never broke anyone who hadn 't any. The by-products of fatigue, superinduced by labor unrelieved by recreation, are hate, lawlessness and despair. The by-products of recreation undirected, unregulated and furtive are vice, degeneration and helplessness. If the individual does not have opportunities for 18 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? recreation at hand, he creates them, nor is he always particular in the selection of his materials. Recreation has come to stay. It is going to be an established factor in the lives of an ever increasing number of our people. Therefore recreation must be universally accorded social sanction and made a part of Community Service. Recreation would have been at home among the crew that raised the tower of Babel because it can talk in any language. It therefore deserves a place as chief of staff in the Americanization forces. In order to get the recreation phase of Community Service by the tail and swing it, it is necessary to dig back in memory — if you were fortunate enough to have lived in the country at some time or other — and summon up the spirit of the departed spelling schools, literary societies, straw rides, husking bees, neighbor- hood basket picnics and old home weeks. If you cannot do that — or something like it — go your way. You don't like folks and folks don't like you. The man who does not love to see children at play and who does not understand, sympathize with and JOIN the grown-ups in their rest time recreations, is a menace to himself and a disturbing influence in the industrial world. Even grasping greedy selfishness — if it has a gleam of intelligence — recognizes the value of play time. "See the lamb skip," said the boy to the farmer. "That's all right, sonny," said the farmer, "if the lamb did no skipping it would grow no wool." * Recreation is frequently interpreted in terms of apparatus. Apparatus is opportunity. But the spirit, when it is present, will find its apparatus. It is pos- sible to dance upon the street if the police — the Com- munity — will but rope it off. But concerted move- ment is required. People must meet in a place at a 19 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? time if they arc to meet at all. One must likewise rest in a place at a time if one rests. Recreation must have its definite phases. War Camp Community Service did not talk recreation to the enlisted men in general terms. It handed them a list of clubs that were OPEN and equipped. The soldiers used the clubs. They acquired the club habit. The social facilities enjoyed by the few were opened up to the many. And it all paid — paid rich dividends in morale. Community Service does not represent an attempt to abolish the private club. But it does hope to make the instinct that makes the private club a possibility, a community asset. Community Service jolts people out of their little private grooves, and sets them rolling upon new courses that multiply their contacts. * Community Service comes into being automatically in times of stress. Start an epidemic, let loose a flood, launch a war or burn up the town and every one sud- denly finds out that all the people they never knew and never cared to know were neighbors — folks with homes, and babies, with hearts and flaming souls, folks who could weep with you, stand back to back with you and fight to the death. Place a girl you never knew and never heard of on the top floor of a burning building for just five minutes, and a city will hold its breath, men will cry out and women will weep. Singe that girl with the slow smouldering fires of loneliness burning through the years, wreck her and ruin her by a life time of social neglect, and who cares. Do you? u There is more to life than keeping a tryst with death when duty calls. The zero hours of service never end. 20 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? "They shan't get you — they shan't get you," shrilled the boy in the Argonne, as he stood at bay over the fallen and wounded body of his buddy, fighting like a maniac the advance of a detachment of the foe that was bayoneting the dying. And the angels at the Portals, as they opened wide the doors, smiled. Roll back the years and they were foes, those two — em- ployer and employe. Send them to keep a tryst with death and people are glorious, glorious. It is life that is so hard to live. There is many a man, vastly interested in a League of Nations, who would hesitate to stage one in his home town. Chester did not hesitate. It did not have to. That Pennsylvania town knows what it means to give Community Service a home — to do a thing — in a place at a time. Representatives of nine different peo- ples took part in Chester's League of Nations pageant. Community Service organized the ceremony. The representatives of the nations gathered in their halls or churches and marched to the rallying place. On the stage stood "Chester." At her right stood Governor Sproul, at her left Chester's mayor. One by one the nations gathered. One by one they pledged loyalty. And then the governor of Penn- sylvania, using the pledges as his text, talked of Americanism. A thing in a place at a time. Chester has that lesson well. Dramatics appeal to the foreign groups in that city. Given a meeting place — given the op- portunity and the nec.essary machinery, and the Ital- ians of that city have organized a dramatic club that is a contribution to community life. At one entertainment a little girl sang a song, "I Am the Only Little Girl That Chester Doesn't Know." That was not so. She wasn't ; but suppose she was. 21 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? Chester is finding out it is true that the interest you take in the other fellow tempers, if it does not determine, the interest the other fellow takes in you Chester is getting acquainted with the representatives of the 34 nationalities that are within its gates. Ches- ter is getting very much interested in itself as a com- munity that can RENDER SERVICE. * * * EDUCATION, recreation, employment that serves a proper self interest; altruistic endeavor. That formula comes very near stating the terms of a rounded life for the individual. We agreed, did we not, that the more nearly the formula for the individual and the community coincided the better it was for both? Education for the community and recreation for the community — upon which books could be written and upon which books will be written — have been consid- ered in principle. What of employment as a community problem? To start with the obvious, it is the business of the com- munity to combat unemployment. Community Serv- ice is a natural employment clearing house. Com- munity Service can minister to individual needs. But that is only part of the field. Community Service is a virile force because the mere fact of its existence in a community compels self study. Communities in which the paved street is the exception, in which there are multitudes of dirty alleys, in which the shack rather than the home is the rule — communities in which the DYING CONDI- TIONS are simply magnificent, but the LIVING CONDITIONS past expression, cannot long conceal those facts from themselves once they begin con- sciously to study their own problems. 22 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? As soon as a community begins to get the com- munity idea, somebody starts to clean up. Just as the individual — once he gets started right — begins fixing the fence around his home, tidying up the yard, paint- ing the house, growing a few flowers, so the com- munity, once it is started right, begins adding paved streets, parks, play-places — all the modern conveni- ences and necessities. If all the municipalities in the United States were to begin setting their municipal houses in order, if they were all to begin practicing good municipal housekeeping there would be employment enough for this generation. While it is a by-product, the Community Urge To- ward Better Things attends upon the footsteps of Community Service. It is impossible to get people talking about themselves and interested critically in their own affairs without promoting progress. The community that gets it in its head to clean up, reaches the individual, while the individual who gets it in his head to clean up reaches the community. Community Service, whether consciously designed toward that end or not, promotes material prosperity. * There remains for consideration the value and place in the life of the individual and the life of the com- munity of altruistic endeavor. Books could be writ- ten about that and undoubtedly will be written. Why not concede the point? 9 • • irs-iHE men, women or children who are made to feel the community has no concern about them have M little concern about the community. In order to build a community, to maintain it, there must be some bond of mutual interest. There is no insti- 23 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? tution that can fill the gap because there is no insti- tution that is all-inclusive as far as the community is concerned. Community Service means community interest. The demand for community service did not come into being with the war. Nor did the war create the need. The war served to emphasize the weak spot in our organization scheme — the community; with the result that the organized community became a fact. Community Service is already established on a per- manent basis in many localities. But Community Service, to be effective as a reconstruction force, must be national in its scope. Once again we recur to the opening formula: "Unless this country is made a good place for all of us to live in, it won't be a good place for any of us to live in." Community Service is not an agency designed to direct local affairs. Its part is to stimulate and lead — to give a national sweep to the community organiza- tion movement. Much valuable time and much money will be saved if the communities of this nation receive assistance in organizing along right lines. Experienced organizers working under national di- rection are available. A comparatively small fund used nationally will provide the direction and the foun- dation for hundreds of funds used locally. Community Service must not be casual if it is to be effective. It cannot flourish long simply as an experiment. If the movement is to carry, if it is to have sweep, community must touch shoulder with community. Community Service is not designed as a substitute for any legitimate need of any portion of any com- 24 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? munity. It takes nothing from the few, while it opens up to the many opportunities for a richer, more com- plete life. // capitalizes the community neighborly spirit. It is the cement that binds every form of Com- munity Service into a solid foundation upon which to build better places in which to live and work. IF Community Service were to disappear, what would take its place? Several million rather energetic young Americans have become accustomed to it The enlisted man found himself at home wherever he went. He will miss that sort of thing even when he is months back in the civilian establishment. During the war, the enlisted man was not the only stranger in strange places. There was many a civilian who saw the home welcome for the soldier and who wished that there were such a welcome for him And there should be. There are strangers who need hos- pitality in every city all the time. And the cities should be organized to give it. Then, too, there were the war workers. There was Community Service for them. There were centers of hospitality, clubs, clean entertainment made to order for them. They would miss that sort of thing. The Federal Government understands that, because when the war ended— or rather when the armistice was declared— the War Labor Policies Board of the United States Department of Labor suggested that War Camp Community Service continue as War Workers Community Service in fifty industrial cen- ters. In one single State— Pennsylvania— War Work- ers were asked to establish themselves in Bethlehem Bristol, Chester, Erie, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Har- nsburg, Scranton and the Pennsylvania coal fields 2S WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? Wherever there were government contracts pending, Community Service was desired. The Federal Government, by its official action, has given very direct recognition to the value of good will, the value — economic and social — of contentment. It is a curious fact that the average man of affairs is always greatly impressed with the ability of the aver- age malcontent to stir up a row — to create bad feeling. But that same man of affairs frequently discounts the ability of a lot of men to create a state of good feeling. Good will is as CONTAGIOUS as HATE if it has as reliable a foundation. But good will must have a foundation. Anyone who imagines that Community Service or anything else will serve as a blind or a cover for social or economic injustice is very gravely mistaken. Community Service really ministers to con- tentment by promoting justice — giving to all the members of a community the advantages of a normal community life. Community Service is primarily so- cial. It minimizes discontent by promoting normal and healthy social relations. But it cannot be made to serve as a barrage against the onslaught of senti- ment justly aroused as a result of deliberate and per- sistent economic injustice. The only client for whom Community Service holds a brief is Fair Play. * * » THE progress of Community Service at Bethlehem, Penn., is an example of what can be accomplished when the city as a municipality, and the people as an organized social force, co-operate. When the people began organizing for a broader develop- 26 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? ment of recreation, the city at once began acquiring park lands. The action of the municipality was nat- ural and inevitable. Community dances, community sings and concerts were a part of the initial Bethlehem program. One of the first steps taken by the people themselves was the opening of moving picture entertainments in halls maintained by foreign groups for the use of their own people. Already two community club houses have been re- modeled and furnished at Bethlehem. Six more are projected — provision being made for rest house* for girls and women. Particularly significant is the fact that the city government has employed a city plan- ning expert who is working out a comprehensive de- velopment plan for the city. Ample provision is to be made for parks and playgrounds in the scheme. A committee of thirty has been organized to take charge of girls and women's work. Hostesses are supplied for the community dances at Recreation Hall. Clubs for girls and women have been organized among the workers in the various industries. Recreation and education figure in the programs of these clubs. The clubs co-operate with the public health service and with the child welfare movement. Instruction in hygiene, gymnastics and summer outings have a place on the roster of activities. The educational program includes classes in French and English. In addition there are classes in domestic science, civics, citizen- ship, current history and for the training of volunteer workers. * Community Service has no rigid scheme for organi- zation. For example, Philadelphia is organizing for Community Service on the block plan, while other 27 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? places are organizing on other plans. Community Serv- ice has to do with people and their social needs, and must organize to meet local needs. Community Service is the stone that many build- ers have neglected. The orderly, contented, pro- gressive community, alive both to its needs and to its opportunities, can be made the cornerstone of the Temple of National Stability. a Long years ago a farmer in faraway India drove the single bullock that constituted the bulk of his wealth to a stream. While the beast was quenching its thirst there passed the caravan of a wealthy mer- chant. Last of all came the merchant and he paused to mock the farmer. "Your bullock will die and your wealth vanish," said the merchant, "while here in my wallet I carry the price of a thousand such." And he took from his wallet some shining stones. The farmer pleaded for but one, but still the mer- chant mocked him. "Little stones, each one worth more than the ran- som of a village," cried the farmer. "Whence came they?" "Far to the west, beside the great water," answered the merchant, and went on his way. And the farmer could not sleep and he could not eat, for thinking of the little stones, each one worth more than a thousand bullocks. And at last he fared forth, journeying ever toward the west. In the end, where the pillars of Hercules face the sea, he fell dying — empty handed. Years after, another, walking beside the stream, stopped at the place where the farmer once watered 28 WHY COMMUNITY SERVICE? his bullock and picked up a stone. And the merchants pronounced it of great price. Of such price it proved to be that when the tomb of the great Akbar needed one crowning resplendent feature the stone — the Kohi- noor — the Mountain of Light — the most famous jewel in all the world — was mounted upon a marble pedestal to flash forth its glory as a memorial. Such is the story the mothers of India tell to their sons who would seek afar the things that are to be found close at hand. In these times Community Service is a jewel of great price. The nation has but to pick it up. * * * THERE is no ritual for Community Service, just as there is no ritual for friendship. The technique of friendship cannot be set forth in cold formulas. But friendship is a fact — and most men and women have a talent for it. Community Service Organizes and develops that talent until it is made to render a world service by serving in a community organized FOR SERVICE. * * * * 29