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diff --git a/43625-0.txt b/43625-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2632e47 --- /dev/null +++ b/43625-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4465 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43625 *** + +THE SURVEY + +Volume XXX, Number 1, Apr 5, 1913 + + + + +THE COMMON WELFARE + + +RESPONSE TO FLOOD CALLS + +For the first time in the history of our great disasters, the country's +machinery for relief has been found ready to move with that precision +and efficiency which only careful previous organization could make +possible. In the flood and tornado stricken regions of the Mississippi +valley the Red Cross has given splendid evidence of the effectiveness of +its scheme of organization and of its methods as worked out on the basis +of experience at San Francisco, and as tested by the Minnesota and +Michigan forest fires, the Cherry mine disaster, and the Mississippi +Floods of last year. + +Utilizing the largest and ablest charity organization societies which +serve as "institutional members," a force of executives and trained +workers was instantly deployed. With foreknowledge of just what to do +and how to do it, and without friction, these men and women have +reinforced the spontaneous response to emergency of citizens and +officials in the stricken communities. + +Omaha's tornado had scarcely died down when Eugene T. Lies of the +Chicago United Charities was on his way to the city. Ernest P. Bicknell, +director of the National Red Cross, had reached Chicago, en route to +Omaha, when news of the Ohio floods turned him back. The same news +summoned Edward T. Devine from New York. It was Mr. Devine who organized +the Red Cross relief work at San Francisco, following the earthquake and +fire of 1908. Mr. Bicknell established headquarters at Columbus, itself +badly in the grip of the waters. At Dayton Mr. Devine, C. M. Hubbard of +the St. Louis Provident Association and T. J. Edmonds of the Cincinnati +Associated Charities concentrated their services. + +When Cincinnati and its vicinity needed help, Mr. Edmonds returned to +his home city. The Omaha situation by this time could spare Mr. Lies for +Dayton. To Piqua, Sidney and other Ohio and Indiana flood points went +James F. Jackson of the Cleveland Associated Charities and other workers +from various organizations. The news from the Ohio and other floods +almost swamped that of an isolated disaster in Alabama where a tornado +devastated the town of Lower Peachtree. To handle the relief at this +point the Red Cross dispatched William M. McGrath of the Birmingham +Associated Charities, who had seen service a year ago in the Mississippi +floods. + +To work under the direction of these executives, agents have been +drafted from the staffs of charitable organizations scattered throughout +the entire middle West, and even as far east as New York. Close +co-operation was at once established between this force, hastily +organized local committees and various branches of federal and state +government service. In Ohio the resources, equipment and staffs of the +army, the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, the life-saving +service, the militia, the naval militia, and state departments of public +health, have all been applied promptly to the problem of emergency +relief. Governor Cox of Ohio, as ex-officio chairman of the Ohio Red +Cross State Commission, did much to assure this early co-operation. + +Following the first work of rescue and relief, sanitation looms up as +one of the gravest problems of the Indiana and Ohio valleys. Immediately +upon the arrival of the secretary of war at Dayton a sanitary officer +was appointed, who divided the city into sixteen districts, each in +charge of a district sanitary officer. Each of these selected his own +staff from among local physicians and volunteer physicians from other +cities. Red Cross nurses in considerable numbers were early supplied. +Instructions in brief form have been sent broadcast over the city giving +definite directions to the inhabitants for the safeguarding of health. +The sewer and water systems are being reopened as rapidly as possible. + +Early this week the expectation was that, although the dead in the city +would not total 200, it would be necessary to feed many thousands of +people for a week and several thousand for several weeks. The Dayton +situation, though more severe, was typical of what was to be found in +other stricken towns. + +The extent of the Omaha disaster is already reported in statistics which +are said to be complete and accurate. The summary includes: 115 lives +lost; 322 seriously injured; at least 1,000 slightly injured; 822 houses +destroyed: 2,100 houses partially wrecked; property loss estimated at +$7,500,000; 733 families being fed in relief stations (March 30); 59 +dead; 150 injured and $1,000,000 property loss in surrounding towns. +Efforts are being made by the real estate exchange to prevent the +raising of rents. The plans suggested for rebuilding include a county +bond issue of $1,000,000 and the securing of other money from the +packing and railroad companies to be loaned without interest. + +President Wilson's call to the nation for relief, and the quick action +of governors and mayors in rallying their states and cities, started +emergency supplies and funds for supplementing the tents, blankets and +rations which the army and militia had rushed into the field. The +National Cash Register Company, whose undamaged factories in Dayton were +of great value in providing shelter and space for relief administration, +secured through its officers in other cities supplies and money which +were promptly forwarded. The company officials did much to systematize +the local relief, and department heads assumed charge of different +divisions of the work. Organization charts and diagrams were printed at +the factory so that the people of the city could act intelligently. + +Early this week the relief funds were reported to have reached $408,000 +in New York, $300,000 in Chicago, $105,000 in Boston, and varying sums +in other cities. Most of the money was contributed through the Red +Cross. Contributions received at its Washington headquarters totalled +$816,000, with New York first, Massachusetts second and Illinois third +in size of contributions. + +Some small gifts were as significant as the larger ones. A young man who +appeared to be a poorly paid clerk came to the Red Cross office in New +York at the noon hour last Friday and pulled from his pocket a five +dollar and a one dollar bill. The person in charge asked him if he was +not giving more than his share, and suggested that he keep the one +dollar hill. "No," said he, "I've kept some small change for carfare and +lunch, and tomorrow's pay day." One letter accompanying a small +contribution read: + + "Just one short year ago, when the ill-fated Titanic deprived me of + mine all, the Red Cross Society lost not a moment in coming to my + aid. Through you I now wish to give my 'widow's mite' to help the + stricken ones in the West, and I only wish I could make it a + thousand times as much." + +Emergency supplies and funds have been prompt and abundant, but the +extensive work ahead of lifting household and community life out of +desolation justifies and requires a very large fund. For, as Mr. Devine, +with the San Francisco catastrophe in the background of his experience, +telegraphed after reaching Dayton: "The disaster is appalling even if +the loss of life is less than it was feared." + +Spontaneous contributions through a variety of channels are usually +sufficient for immediate needs, and the Red Cross is following its +customary policy of reserving as much of its funds as possible for +permanent rehabilitation. When a disaster comes in any part of the +country the nearest "institutional members" of the Red Cross at once +dispatch trained members of their staffs to the scene. Each organization +has an "emergency box" containing, convenient for carrying, an equipment +including detailed printed instructions, record cards, Red Cross flag, +expense sheets, vouchers, etc. The use of this equipment, especially the +uniform record cards, which have been carefully prepared on the basis of +the San Francisco experience, means that help is not lost or wasted, but +gets to the people who need it most. Even more important, it means that +help is given not merely to keep victims of the disaster from starvation +and exposure during the weeks immediately following, but to afford a +reasonable lift on the road to the recovery of the standard of living +maintained before the disaster. + + +A RELIEF SURVEY BY THE SAGE FOUNDATION + +This emphasis on rehabilitation is the message of a report[1] which, by +a coincidence, was on the press for the Russell Sage Foundation when +news of tornado and flood came from the middle West. It is the first +comprehensive review of emergent relief work following great disasters. +It is based on the San Francisco experience and put forth as a "book of +ready reference for use on occasions of special emergency." + +[1] San Francisco Relief Survey. By Charles J. O'Connor. Francis H. +McLean and others. Survey Associates, Inc., for the Russell Sage +Foundation. To be published April 18, the seventh anniversary of the San +Francisco earthquake. Price postpaid $3.50. Orders for delivery on +publication day may be sent to THE SURVEY. + +The volume presents a study of the organization and methods of relief +following the San Francisco earthquake and fire, made for the Foundation +by a group of people who held responsible positions in connection with +the relief work. It is to appear on April 18, the seventh anniversary of +the disaster. + +For the assistance of those in the middle West upon whom heavy +responsibilities came so suddenly, the Sage Foundation sent out post +haste advance copies of the first two sections of the report as a +practical handbook to charity organizations in and near the stricken +regions. + +The Relief Survey is divided into six parts: Organization and Emergency +Period; Rehabilitation: Business Rehabilitation; Housing Rehabilitation; +After Care; The Aged and Infirm. Some of the prime points emphasized for +the "Organization and Emergency Period" are the following: + + 1. The recognition of the American National Red Cross, with its + permanent organization, its governmental status, and its direct + accountability to Congress for all expenditures, as the proper + national agency through which relief funds for great disasters + should be collected and administered; thus securing unity of + effort, certainty of policy, and a center about which all local + relief agencies may rally. + + 2. The importance of postponing the appointment of sub-committees + until a strong central committee has been able to determine general + policies and methods of procedure. The hasty organization of + sub-committees at San Francisco resulted in much unnecessary + overlapping effort and some friction when committees got in each + other's way. The relief forces were not united until a whole week + after the disaster, and after unfortunate difficulty and + bitterness. + + 3. The desirability of contributions, especially those in kind, + being sent without restrictions, as only the local organization is + able to measure relative needs at different periods of the work. At + San Francisco much pitifully needless restrictions imposed by those + who sent funds or supplies from distant states. The delays in + securing authority for the wise use of these contributions were + well-nigh intolerable. The only safe course lies in placing + implicit trust in an efficient and recognized director of relief + such as the Red Cross is in a position to furnish. + + 4. The value of utilizing for emergency administration a body so + highly organized and so efficient as the United States Army, to + take charge of camps, and to bring to points of distribution the + supplies required for those in need of food and clothing. + + 5. The wisdom of reducing the bread line and the camp population as + quickly as possible after the disaster so that the relief resources + may be conserved to meet the primary need of rehabilitation. The + care used in emergency expenditures means much in husbanding + resources so that permanent rehabilitation may be efficient and + thorough. + + 6. The need of establishing a central bureau of information to + serve from the beginning of the relief work as a clearing house, to + prevent confusion and waste through duplication of effort. + + 7. The necessity of utilizing the centers of emergency distribution + for the later rehabilitation work of district communities and corps + of visitors. + + 8. The necessity of incorporation for any relief organization that + has to deal with so large a disaster. + + 9. The possibility of a strict audit of all relief in cash sent to + a relief organization. The impossibility of an equally strict + accounting for relief in kind, because of the many leaks and the + difficulties attendant upon hurried distribution. Care in this + direction is assured if the Red Cross is fully utilized. + +Nothing can take the place, the editors of the Relief Survey testify, of +the spirit and devotion of the local committees. At San Francisco the +citizens showed splendid self-reliance and faith in the future, which +enabled them to rebound from fortune's sudden blow, and show what +sustained and co-operative effort can achieve. But the most important +factor, especially for permanent rehabilitation, in so great and complex +a relief problem is a trained staff. This the American Red Cross, +through the co-operation of charity organization societies throughout +the country, is constantly prepared to bring together on short notice. +Mr. Bicknell represented the Red Cross at San Francisco after Mr. +Devine's departure, and was thus unusually well equipped to plan the +methods which the Red Cross has devised for emergency use. + + +SOCIAL LEGISLATION AND THE EXTRA SESSION + +An open letter was sent to President Wilson this week with over +forty-five signatures, urging the importance of a group of social +measures which were neither voted down nor passed at the last session of +Congress. In the opinion of the signers, among whom are included some of +the Democratic leaders who have been foremost in social reform, this +overhanging social legislation should be definitely acted upon at the +extra session. The movement to this end was encouraged by the positions +taken by President Wilson in his inaugural address. + +The letter is the outgrowth of a meeting of men and women interested in +social legislation held last week in New York at the call of Edward T. +Devine as associate editor of The Survey. The signatures to the document +are those of individuals solely. The particular measures will be urged +at the forthcoming Congress by such national organizations as the +American Association for Labor Legislation, National Consumers League, +National Committee for Mental Hygiene, National Child Labor Committee, +the American Prison Labor Association and the Gloucester Fisherman's +Institute. While each organization is committed only to the measures in +its own field, all of them have a common interest in seeing that the +extra session takes up social legislation in addition to the tariff and +currency. The letter follows: + + +THE PRESIDENT, +The White House, +Washington. D. C. + +_Dear Mr. President:_-- + + On the eve of the convening of the Sixty-Third Congress in special + session, the undersigned desire to bring to your attention certain + bills of importance which have received the favorable consideration + of the last Congress, but which, owing to various reasons, failed + of affirmative action. + + Nothing could set more vividly before the country the urgency of + such measures than the words of your inaugural address, in which + you pointed out the need for perfecting the means by which the + government may be put at the service of humanity in safeguarding + the health of the nation, the health of its men and its women and + its children, as well as their rights in the struggle for + existence. The country has been stirred by your declaration: + + "This is no sentimental duty. The firm basis of government is + justice, not pity. These are matters of justice. There can be no + equality of opportunity, the first essential of justice in the + body politic, if men and women and children be not shielded in + their lives, their very vitality, from the consequences of great + industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, + control, or singly cope with. Society must see to it that it + does not itself crush or weaken or damage its own constituent + parts." + + The undersigned are aware that the time and energy of Congress will + be largely expended upon the revision of the revenue and currency + statutes. Without in any way meaning to minimize the importance of + these subjects, we wish to lay emphasis upon what we believe to be + the necessity for the passage of certain other measures directly + affecting the health and happiness of hundreds of thousands of + citizens. The legislative proposals which we present to you are not + new; several of them have met with little open opposition; some + have been passed by one house of Congress; others by both; all have + been prepared by experts and are based upon tried principles + already embodied either in the federal laws, in the laws of the + various states, or in the laws of other nations. An example is the + bill which aims to compensate workingmen employed in interstate + commerce for accidents to life and limb. Another is the eight-hour + bill for women in the District of Columbia, which was lost through + an accident in the closing hours of the last Congress. + + The measures which had not passed when Congress adjourned and which + are herewith advocated are as follows. It is the principles + underlying these several bills rather than the specific provisions + of any measure that we wish to be understood as urging upon the + attention of the President and Congress: + + Providing compensation for federal employees suffering injury or + occupational diseases in the course of their employment. + + Providing compensation for employees in interstate commerce + suffering injury in the course of their employment. + + Harmonizing conflicting court decisions in different states by + giving the state itself the right of appeal to the Supreme Court + of the United States. + + Establishing the eight-hour day for women employed in certain + occupations in the District of Columbia. + + Co-ordinating the federal health activities and strengthening + the public health service. + + Providing in the immigration act for mental examination of + immigrants by alienists; safeguarding the welfare of immigrants + at sea by detailing American medical officers and matrons to + immigrant-carrying ships. + + Providing a hospital ship for American deep-sea fishermen. + + Providing for the betterment of the conditions of American + seamen. + + Establishing a commission to investigate jails and the + correction of first offenders. + + Abolishing the contract convict labor system by restricting + interstate commerce in prison-made goods. + + Legislation giving effect to the principles underlying such + proposals as these would constitute, we believe, an important step + in the accomplishment of the forward-looking purposes which you + have placed before the American people. + +Caroline B. Alexander +Frederic Almy +Louise de Koven Bowen +Louis D. Brandeis +Howard S. Braucher +Allen T. Burns +Charles C. Burlingham +Richard C. Cabot +Richard S. Childs +John R. Commons +Charles R. Crane +Edward T. Devine +Abram J. Elkus +H. D. W. English +Livingston Farrand +Homer Folks +Ernst Freund +John M. Glenn +Josephine Goldmark +T. J. Keenan +Florence Kelley +Howard A. Kelly +Arthur P. Kellogg +Paul U. Kellogg +John A. Kingsbury +Constance D. Leupp +Samuel McCune Lindsay +Charles S. Macfarland +W. N. McNair +Charles E. Merriam +Adelbert Moot +Henry Morgenthau +Frances Perkins +Charles R. Richards +Margaret Drier Robins +W. L. Russell +Thomas W. Salmon +Henry R. Seager +Thomas A. Storey +Graham Taylor +Graham Romeyn Taylor +Lillian D. Wald +James R. West +W. F. Willoughby +Stephen S. Wise +Robert A. Woods + + +COMPULSORY MINIMUM WAGE LAW IN OREGON + +Oregon's minimum wage law,[2] which was recently signed by Governor +West, is the first one in America to have a compulsory clause. Failure +to pay the rate of wages fixed and in the method provided by the law is +punishable by fine or imprisonment or both. In Massachusetts, the first +state to establish minimum wage boards, the only penalty is the +publication of the names of offending employers in four newspapers in +the county where their industries are located. + +[2] See Minimum Wage Legislation by Florence Kelley, on page 9 of this +issue. + +The Oregon law applies only to women and children. It prohibits their +employment in any occupation in which the sanitary or other conditions +are detrimental to health or morals, or for wages "which are inadequate +to supply the necessary cost of living and maintain them in health." It +likewise forbids the employment of minors "for unreasonable low wages." +An Industrial Welfare Commission is created to determine minimum wages, +maximum hours and standard conditions of labor. + +The commission is authorized to call a conference of representatives of +the employers, the employees and the general public to investigate and +make recommendations as to the minimum wage to be paid in a given +industry. If the commission approves these recommendations they become +obligatory. The powers of the Oregon commission to determine hours and +conditions of health and morals are more extensive than those delegated +to an industrial commission by the legislature of any other state. The +members of the commission are to be appointed by the governor. + +The successful campaign for this law and the drafting of the bill itself +was based upon an extensive investigation conducted by the Social Survey +Committee of the Oregon Consumers' League. Wages, work conditions, and +cost of living were studied in Portland and elsewhere throughout the +state. The inquiry was directed by a trained investigator, Caroline J. +Gleason of Minneapolis, formerly a student of the Chicago School of +Civics and Philanthropy. The work was started in August 1912 and the +information covered 7603 women wage earners in Portland and 1133 +throughout the rest of the state. Wage statistics were tabulated for +4523, and are particularly valuable in the cast of the department stores +which placed their pay rolls at the disposal of the survey committee. +Generous co-operation from committees in twenty-five counties of the +state was secured. + +In the drafting of the bill the experience of the Massachusetts Minimum +Wage Board was studied. Legal advice was secured and the +constitutionality of the measure is upheld in an opinion by the attorney +general of the state. + +Social workers from Washington and California have been in touch with +the investigation and the preparation of the bill. They have arranged to +have bills drawn up on the same lines introduced as soon as the +legislatures of their own states convene. The passage of the same +measure by the three coast states is regarded by the social workers in +each as a desirable and important piece of uniform legislation for an +area in which industrial conditions and problems are similar. + +The Social Survey Committee in its report gives the principles and facts +which form the basis of the demand for the legislation as follows: + + 1. Each industry should provide for the livelihood of the workers + employed in it. An industry which does not do so is parasitic. The + well-being of society demands that wage-earning women shall not be + required to subsidize from their earnings the industry in which + they are employed. + + 2. Owing to the lack of organisation among women workers and the + secrecy with which their wage schedules are guarded, there are + absolutely no standards of wages among them. Their wages are + determined for the most part by the will of the employer without + reference to efficiency or length of service on the part of the + worker. This condition is radically unjust. + + 3. The wages paid to women workers in most occupations are + miserably inadequate to meet the cost of living at the lowest + standards consistent with the maintenance of the health and morals + of the workers. Nearly three-fifths of the women employed in + industries in Portland receive less than $10 a week, which is the + minimum weekly wage that ought to be offered to any self-supporting + woman wage-earner in this city. + + 4. The present conditions of labor for women in many industries are + shown by this report to be gravely detrimental to their health; and + since most women wage earners are potential mothers, the future + health of the race is menaced by these unsanitary conditions. + + +A NEW FEDERAL AGENCY FOR SETTLING STRIKES + +An important power vested in Secretary Wilson of the new federal +Department of Labor, which has hitherto practically escaped attention, +gives to him the right assumed by President Roosevelt, when he initiated +the machinery for settling the coal strike of 1902. The provision +referred to in the law creating the department reads as follows: + + "That the secretary of labor shall have power to act as mediator + and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes + whenever in his judgment the interests of industrial peace may + require it to be done." + +Speaking of this section Secretary Wilson gave this interview to the +_Washington Post_: + + "The secretary of labor, by the terms of the act creating the new + department, is empowered to act as mediator in disputes between + labor and employers. The policy to which I shall adhere during my + administration will be to do all I can to bring labor and capital + together in mutual conferences, so that they may settle their own + differences." + +It has been pointed out that this power can be invoked at the will of +the secretary. In this way he can bring public attention to bear upon +any labor dispute which he believes warrants his official notice. Mr. +Wilson has as yet given no indication as to how frequently he expects to +use this power. Attention has also been called to the fact that this +section may have an important effect upon the Erdman Act for settling +transportation strikes. + + + + +FINGER PRINTS + + +TEN CENTS + +KATHARINE ANTHONY + +It was in a small restaurant in the downtown business district. The girl +who came in and sat down opposite me at the "table for ladies" was +clearly "office help." She could not have been more than sixteen, and in +the boyish-looking brown velvet hat that she wore she appeared scarcely +that. Her manner had little of the self-assertiveness so commonly seen +in the young girl wage-earner. + +"How much is the veg'tubble soup?" she asked the waiter in a confiding +tone. + +"Ten cents," he said. + +The price appeared satisfactory and the waiter went away with his very +brief order. While the young girl waited, she caught my eye. + +"It's cold today," she remarked, with a winning smile and an air of +taking me into her confidence as she had done with the waiter. + +"A bit chilly, yes." + +"He don't let me down to dinner till so late," she continued, "sometimes +half-past one. You get hungry, and then you get over being hungry, and +then you don't want nothing when you do go down. You know?" + +Yes, I recognized the experience. + +"The office where I used to work, we went out to dinner right at twelve +every day." + +"What keeps you so late now?" + +"I guess he just forgets to let me down. He forgets to go out himself, I +think." + +The waiter brought the soup, a watery looking fluid in which floated a +tomato and an onion in partial dissolution. He placed beside the plate a +dingy blue check which bore in large print 10c. + +"When I'm there a month, I'm going to ask him to let me down every day +at a regular hour," she went on. "I'm only there a week now, so I +wouldn't ask him yet." + +She tasted the soup, but it was apparently not to her liking, or else, +as she had said, her appetite had gone when the first feeling of hunger +had passed. She glanced at the dirty blue check which committed her to +her choice for better or worse, and then tried another spoonful of soup. + +"I used to take a cup of coffee and a Charlotte 'roosh' every day, but +my mother said I'd starve. She told me I'd got to have soup, it was more +stren'thening." + +"She was quite right, of course." + +"But what's the use of ordering it if you can't eat it after all?" + +She regarded the plate disconsolately. A little rallying induced her to +make another effort. Then she gave it up entirely. + +"I wonder what my mother would say if she could see me now!" + +"I wonder!" + +Taking two nickels from her small rusty bag, she rose, leaving the plate +of cold soup almost untouched. She said good-by with her peculiarly +friendly little smile, deposited the blue check and the two nickels at +the cash counter, and went back to her afternoon's work. + + +WILLIAM, A MODERN DRAMA[3] + +[3] Drawn from the records of the Juvenile Protective Association, +Chicago. + +The curtain is about to fall upon a human drama as full of complicating +agencies and dramatic ironies as the most exacting either of Greeks or +of moderns could require. + +The dramatis personae are: a colored youth of twenty-two years; his aged +mother (the father disappeared while the youth was still a child in +Kansas); a friend who failed him and then too late repented; a partner; +a dishonest clerk; a lawyer of similar type; and a judge according to +the letter of the law. The acts are only three and brief. + +Act I shows William at work for a large firm in Missouri at $9 a week. +He manages to live on $3, sending $6 to his mother. He could not write; +she could not read. But the weekly money order became the tryst of +mother and son, and by it she knew that all was well with him. Among his +fellow workmen was one, also a William, who seemed friendly and like +William I, anxious to live economically. The two Williams shared a room, +and all went well for about three months. + +One pay day, William II borrowed from William I the $6 that should go to +the mother, but only for a day or so, to be returned surely before the +end of the week. But the man disappeared, and with him vanished the +money. Then William I went to the little clothes press, and not having a +suit of his own, took one of William II's, and pawned it for $6, and +sent the money to his mother according to his word. That night, +repentant but penniless, William II returned. He expressed himself as +well pleased with what had been done with his suit, satisfied to have +the money raised by any means possible. So the two, reconciled, slept. +But William II rising early in the morning, went for an officer, and +charging his room-mate with theft, had him arrested. + +"He slep' with me all night there, and in the mawnin he don' have me +arrested!"--thus William I mourned his false friend. + +So Act I closes with our hero in the penitentiary, locked in for two +years. But William II's repentance bore a late fruit. During the two +years, he sent out of his own money each week the $6 to the mother of +his friend, that she might never know the truth. + + * * * * * + +Act II shows William working in different places, and for short times, +as is the fate of "jail-birds." At last in company with George he opens +a restaurant, and prospers, and is popular. Then his evil fate overtakes +him. Invited to be door-keeper at a dance one night, he left George in +charge of the restaurant. George apparently went out on business of his +own, and presently the clerk followed his example, donning for the time +a coat of William's. But the clerk needed money; there was none in the +pockets of the coat; and so, at a convenient corner, he waylaid a +Chinese, relieved him of has funds, and left William's coat by way of +compensation. Easily identified by the coat and papers in its pockets, +William was as easily arrested--and as easily sentenced. The trial was a +farce. A lawyer was appointed by the court. This lawyer took his +client's indictment papers, ignored his client, called no witnesses, +heard the sentence, and drew his fee. + +William appealed to the Pardon Board. But at the time of this appeal, +neither George nor the other door-keeper at that dance could be found to +prove an alibi for William. The board asked: "have you ever been in +prison before?" Alas for William! He could not say no; the board would +not listen to his version and investigate the facts. His own +truthfulness condemned him, and he was sent up on a five years' +sentence. + + * * * * * + +The setting of Act III is the penitentiary. Falsely accused, without +opportunity to prove his innocence, neglected by the lawyer paid to +defend him, William, being only a Negro, toiled faithfully in a stone +quarry, accumulating a reputation undesirable in the eyes of the world +and the law. One day his foot was injured by the crusher. Then after +months of stone dust, his lungs became infected. But at last word of his +case reached the Juvenile Protective Association, and presently +successful proof of his innocence of all connection with the attack on +the Chinese was secured, and William was paroled from prison. + +How far he may recover from the injuries received during this +imprisonment remains to be seen. How much of opportunity to work and +support himself and the aged mother society will offer an injured Negro +with two prison records is a grave question. But the matter may be +settled by the quiet falling of the curtain upon the sad little drama of +the life of William.--S. + + + + +EDITORIAL GRIST + + +JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN 1837-1913 + +Mr. Morgan was for seventeen years treasurer of the Charity Organization +Society of the City of New York which founded THE SURVEY and under which +it was published until the fall of 1912. When, in 1907, the parent +society launched Charities Publication Committee in order "to give +national scope and breadth" to the magazine, Mr. Morgan was one of +fifteen guarantors who gave $1,000 each the initial year to promote its +educational work. Last summer he gave $250, the sum asked from him, +toward the clearance of an overhanging deficit, in advance of the +institution of the Survey Associates as an independent and co-operative +under-taking. + +The public's chief concern in Mr. Morgan's great activities has been the +play of his powerful individuality in the rapid reconstruction of the +"mass of wrecked corporations which blocked the path of American +finance" following the panic of 1893, and in "heading the forces of +conservatism in the great business emergency" of 1907; his part as the +"immense constructive genius" throughout the period of expansion in +America's "large creative activities." + +The "economic necessity or value of the enormous industrial +combinations" shaped at his hands will, in the words of the New York +_Evening Post_, "be the crux of later historical controversy over the +great career now ended"; and the same is true of the ultimate effects on +the working life of the people of his instrumentality in extending the +country's railroads, in improving its banking, and in projecting its +facilities for the manufacture of large staples. + +Said Major Henry L. Higginson, New England's foremost philanthropist and +financier, in commenting on Mr. Morgan's death: "To make a great fortune +is little; to be a great citizen is much." THE SURVEY will, in an early +issue, publish an appreciation of other phases of Mr. Morgan's trenchant +personality by an associate in the fields of art and philanthropy. + +Here, one circumstance which concerns this magazine closely may be set +down. The Pittsburgh Survey was made at a period of restlessness and +irritation in many high quarters, following a succession of +investigations and exposures. The period was also one of sensitiveness +among every day people lest the organs of publicity might be controlled +by invisible influences. _Charities and the Commons_ (as THE SURVEY was +then called) bore Mr. Morgan's name as treasurer on its contents page +while its staff was delving into the Pittsburgh district. The Pittsburgh +Survey was conceived not for the purpose of internal counsel and report, +but for the purpose of spreading before the public the facts as to life +and labor in the region, where the two greatest individual fortunes in +history had been made by Mr. Morgan's contemporaries, where he had in +turn become the dominant factor, and where social tendencies observable +everywhere had "actually, because of the high industrial development and +the great industrial activity, had the opportunity to give tangible +proof of their real character and their inevitable goal." + +It must remain for Mr. Morgan's business associates to say how much +affirmative concern he had given or came to give to the working +conditions in those industries in which he controlled vast holdings, or +to such far-reaching reforms as the safety campaign. But the staff of +the Pittsburgh Survey can bear witness that no word of admonition ever +reached them, no trace of pressure to minimize or gloss over or reserve +for private consumption the human outcroppings of a thousand million +dollar corporation. The situation did not change after our first +strictures as to the seven-day week, the twelve-hour day, work accidents +and the like had been spread broadcast. If they reached Mr. Morgan's +ears, he was willing to let this left hand of philanthropic inquiry take +the exact social measure of what had been done or left undone in the +fiscal and industrial enterprises in which he was the master +entrepreneur. + + +MR. WEST'S ARTICLE[4] PROTESTED + +[4] See Civil War in the West Virginia Coal Mines on page 37 of this +issue. + +NIGHT LETTER + + +CHARLESTON, W. VA., +March 30, 1912. + + "Owing to delayed trains, did not reach home nor receive your + telegram of Friday until last night. West manuscript received and + read this morning. Am directed to renew protest against its + publication as contrary to facts in most important particulars and + most unfair in attitude and spirit. An article published in your + journal on a matter so important should be prepared by one of your + own staff from facts gathered by your own investigator. Am + authorized to place in your hands immediately five hundred dollars, + being amount estimated by you as necessary to cover expense of + special examination and article, and urge you in justice and + fairness to accept and use it for the purpose. It is impossible to + prepare an answer to the West article and have it in your hands + tomorrow, nor is one-fifth the space given West article sufficient + for an adequate reply thereto. If you decline to make your own + investigation and report, it is submitted that justice requires + that time be given so that West article and reply may appear in + same issue and space equal to article be given for reply. If you + refuse this I respectfully ask the publication of this protest with + Mr. West's paper." + +[Signed] NEIL ROBINSON. + +[Secretary West Virginia Mining Association.] + + + + + * * * * * + +In line with the general practice of THE SURVEY when an article makes +major charges against an institution or industry--a copy of Mr. West's +manuscript was sent on March 20 to the secretary of the West Virginia +Mining Association, with a request that he indicate any points which +"seem to you in error." + +On March 26 THE SURVEY received a letter from Mr. Robinson, who called +in person the day following to protest against the publication of the +article as unfair, and not of the calibre expected of THE SURVEY by the +public. He also offered us every facility if we would make an +independent staff investigation. We stated that such a staff inquiry in +the West Virginia field was beyond our means, that we had exercised due +care in selecting Mr. West as a non-combatant observer, and that the +manuscript had stood the test of criticism in various quarters. Further, +we stated that if Mr. Robinson could there and then dislodge the major +statements of fact in the article, we would surely not publish it; +otherwise, we would hold two pages of the same issue of THE SURVEY open +until Monday of this week for a statement in rebuttal. + +In the interval a galley proof of the article was sent Mr. Robinson +containing revisions to cover minor points of criticism made by him and +other critics. Later issues of THE SURVEY are open to the West Virginia +operators for a full reply; and the findings of a federal inquiry which +would resourcefully and dispassionately cover the ground would, of +course, be handled at length. + + +Y. M. C. A. GROWTH + +The Young Men's Christian Association began in 1851, sixty-two years +ago. The property value in plant and equipment, increased in the first +ten years of the twentieth century more than in all the previous fifty +years; the membership doubled, a tremendous growth. + + Y. M. C. A. 1900 1910 + + Associations 1,439 2,017 + Buildings 359 700 + Property value $20,000,000 $70,000,000 + Membership 252,000 500,000 + Annual current outlay $2,900,000 $7,163,000 + +Will the next decade show a like growth for organized charity with +proper effort? + + +THE TOWN CONSTABLE + +J. J. KELSO + +The town constable is one of the most important links in the chain of +social service, and yet he is seldom taken into consideration by the +active workers for social betterment. + +A town constable was recently held up to public censure at a church +meeting for failure to wipe out certain well-known evils. When asked +about it the next day his reply was: "The law is being enforced in this +town just as far as the people will stand for." His idea, you see, was +that observance of law was a matter of education, of moral backing, and +without this strong, sustaining support, one man, even with a badge and +a club, could not go beyond a certain point. + +The idea got into another constable's head once that his duty was to +carry out the law, no matter what people thought about it, and to his +great surprise it was not long before his resignation was insisted upon. +He did splendid service and really frightened law-breakers, so much so +that they got busy in bringing about his downfall. Where were the good +people? Entirely missing. Here and there a man under his breath would +give the official a word of faint praise, but in the council church +members allowed themselves to be made the tools for his destruction. +"Well meaning, but lacking in judgment" was the decision; "rash, hasty, +ill-advised," and so he had to go in disgrace, while the law-breakers +smiled quietly and continued on in the old way. Public meetings in that +town still continue to denounce the well-known evils, indifferent to the +fate of the officer who thought he had all the forces of good at his +back. + +Still another constable, whom I know well, told me privately that he +started out in the same way, but got a hint that he could not hold his +situation and, having a young family to support, he concluded it would +be the part of wisdom to let well enough alone, especially as the men +who counselled him were church leaders, who ought to know the sentiment +of the town on moral questions. + +Some towns have a high moral tone largely because of the good influence +of the head of the police department. Others are on a low plane of moral +observance because the constable is indifferent, if not indeed hostile, +to advance measures. Lack of encouragement and appreciation is often the +secret of this indifference. + +Visiting a town on one occasion to take part in a meeting on social +reform, I asked the constable who happened to be at the station if he +knew Rev. S. Thomas Strother. "No." + +"Well, do you know Rev. Milton Smoot?" + +Receiving another negative, I enquired in surprise, "Why surely you are +acquainted with the preachers of your town?" + +"No," he said, in a surly tone, "they have no use for the likes of me." +Here was a man, specially appointed guardian of the town and invested +with the high dignity of safeguarding the lives, morals and property of +the community, whose mental attitude toward the better element was +evidently one of hostility. The explanation given me later was that he +was a recent appointee, only there a month, and there was not sufficient +time to get acquainted. "Well," I replied, "if I had been you people I +would have gotten up a banquet and given him such a welcome as would +hearten him in his great work for years to come." It is all in the way +you look at these things. + +At a large church gathering on social welfare I took occasion to exalt +the office of constable and to praise the man who held that office. He +was at the back of the hall and I could see was greatly surprised at +this recognition. He came to me afterwards and earnestly expressed his +thanks. "No one has given me that much encouragement before," he said, +"and it will help me a great deal, especially as I want the young +fellows of the town to know I am their friend and not their enemy." + +Social and church workers, let the town constable know that he is +appreciated, let him feel that good work is recognized, that if he is +attacked because of fearless discharge of his duty, he will have behind +him an unflinching body of men who will make his trouble theirs and +fight for a righteous cause as well as talk at church meetings. + + +MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION + +FLORENCE KELLEY +Secretary National Consumers' League + +Governor West of Oregon has signed a bill creating a Minimum Wage +Commission. Oregon thus follows Massachusetts in this new field of +industrial legislation. Minimum wage bills have been introduced in the +legislatures of California, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. +The New York Factory Investigating Commission will doubtless be +continued and empowered to investigate wages. + +The Oregon law and all the pending bills have one characteristic in +common: they are alarmingly undemocratic. They fail to afford to +American employees in underpaid industries those democratic safeguards +which characterize English and Australian legislation. They apply to +women, oblivious of the fact that wives and daughters work because their +man breadwinner does not earn enough to support the family. These laws +and bills ignore the youth and shifting nature of the working force in +the underpaid industries which is so largely made up of young girls. +They need the moral support of their men fellow-workers in negotiating +about wages. + +In America the governor appoints the commission, and the commission +selects the wage board. The board determines the lowest wage and the +women and girls take what they get. The recipients of the wages are not +allowed to elect representatives to the boards. They are, in fact, not +represented at all. The Kansas bill was killed by the legislature. It +substituted "an adjuster" for commission and boards. + +If these other ill-considered bills become laws, it will be the work of +years to remodel them on more democratic lines, and on wise and just +principles in the light of the experience of Australia and England. + + +"THE HAND OF THE POTTER TREMBLES" + +SOLON DE LEON + +To lead poisoning among lead smelters, white lead workers and painters, +we have grown accustomed. Now comes the revelation of wide-spread +plumbism, or "potters' palsy," among workers in the potteries. + +Trenton, New Jersey, the third largest pottery center in the country, +has recently been the scene of a brief study conducted by the American +Association for Labor Legislation. Brief as was the study it revealed +many cases of this disease. + +One case was that of a fifteen-year-old orphan, as dipper's helper in a +pottery. He handles cups and saucers after they have received their coat +of glaze and before they are taken to the kiln. He gets his hands +covered with glaze. There are no washing facilities at the plant where +he works. When visited at home he had spots of white lead over the front +of his shirt. After nine months as dipper's helper he began to complain +of general ill health, with pains in the stomach. He worked +interruptedly for another month, and finally came down with an attack of +acute and excruciatingly painful poisoning which required a week's +hospital treatment. + +A young girl, now married and a mother, worked in a tile plant for six +years, the last three of which she was a dipper. Within three months +after starting the latter work she suffered a typical violent lead colic +attack, accompanied by nausea and digestive derangements. The attack +lasted a week, and was followed by three more at intervals of several +months. + +A former glost kiln-man of forty-five had worked in the Trenton +potteries continuously for upwards of twenty years. Five years ago he +was stricken with complete double wrist-drop and for two years was +totally incapacitated. + +Another practically useless pair of hands belongs to a workman +forty-nine years old. Lead poisoning crippled him and deprived him of +his trade at the age of thirty-three. He used to be a "ground layer." +That is, he rubbed lead colors with a short brush into the surfaces to +be decorated. In the course of fifteen years he had eight or ten severe +attacks. In the last one, sixteen years ago, both arms were paralyzed. +For two years he had to be clothed and fed. Now his arms have recovered +their flexibility, but his hands still hang shrivelled and powerless to +open or straighten themselves. For a livelihood he has been forced to +take up an unskilled job requiring no manual work, but seven days' labor +a week. + +A color mixer in a tile works began after ten years to suffer from +cramps in the stomach, nausea and biliousness. A number of physicians +told him it was lead colic. He grew steadily worse, and four years later +he died. The death certificate gives pulmonary tuberculosis as the +cause, but the physicians on the case agreed in stating that lead formed +at least a considerable complication. + +So run the records of a few of the cases. + +There are about 21,000 potters, the makers and enamelers of iron +sanitary ware in the United States. Of these, 2,500 or over 10 per cent +are declared by Dr. Alice Hamilton in her report to the United States +government to be exposed in the regular course of their work to the risk +of lead poisoning. Within two years 510 cases of poisoning were found. + +It is now generally accepted that the one word "cleanliness" sums up the +requirements for the abolition of such occurrences. Yet the workshops in +the pottery and allied industries are at present almost without +exception run with utter disregard of this fundamental consideration. +They are as a rule dusty, ill-ventilated and poorly lighted. Washing +facilities are almost unknown. + +In New Jersey and in seven other states the legislatures have now +pending before them the aptly christened "cleanliness bill," drafted by +the Association for Labor Legislation after careful study to counteract +just these conditions. The proposed measure establishes strict sanitary +provisions in potteries and all works making or handling lead salts. It +takes a leaf from successful English and German legislation by +establishing "duties of employees" as well as "duties of employers," and +by fixing a fine for failure to comply. The bill has passed the lower +house in Missouri, and has been reported favorably by the lower house +committee to which it was referred in Ohio and in New Jersey. A similar +law has been in force in Illinois for two years with excellent results. +Many progressive manufacturers admit the wisdom of these regulations and +will not oppose them. Others are actively in favor. + + + + +[Illustration: WHY IS THE PAUPER] + +SUGGESTIVE FACTS AS TO CAUSES AND PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION REVEALED BY +A STUDY OF A MID-WESTERN ALMSHOUSE[5] + +[5] In taking the rather exhaustive social histories of the 200 inmates +of the Sangamon County Poor Farm, I was assisted by Mary Humphrey and +Mary Johnson, without whose intelligent and enthusiastic co-operation +this preliminary study could not have been made. + +GEORGE THOMAS PALMER, M. D. + +SUPERINTENDENT HEALTH DEPARTMENT, SPRINGFIELD, ILL. + +Drawings by Alfred S. Harkness + + +Poorhouse it was, this mid-western abode of unfortunates, regardless of +the resolution of the Conference of Charities and Correction +recommending that it and its host of fellows be known as "county homes." + +[Illustration] + +This particular poorhouse was comfortably perched upon a hill, +surrounded by elms and oaks and walnuts, overlooking a land of plenty--a +"prosperous-looking" poorhouse it was with well-bred Holstein cows +wading knee-deep in clover on land worth $250 an acre. The verdant +pastures, the fields of grain, the white fences, the silo and the barns, +the splendid old brick house, might have belonged to a delightful +country estate so apparently did they bespeak good farm management. Good +order and spick-and-spanness also characterized broad veranda and hall, +the living rooms of the superintendent, and almost might the same terms +have been applied to the dwelling place of the inmates. + +This, seemingly, was no place to come for the ugly story of +destitution--for the revolting facts which force us, almost against our +wills, to paint our picture in glaring yellow. But the destitution was +there. You could see it in the expression, the gait and the posture of +the inmates; you could smell it in the unmistakable smell of poverty and +you could feel it in the indefinable something which grips you and +oppresses you in an institution of this kind. + +It was a poorhouse and nothing but a poorhouse--a good poorhouse, if +there is such a thing, but a poorhouse none the less. Like thousands of +similar institutions, it stood ready to receive the individual when he +strikes the very bottom of the toboggan slide of life, to house him and +to feed him humanely enough, but with the saving of dimes and nickels +regarded as the cardinal virtue of efficient management. It was an +"asylum of poverty"--no more what such an institution might be than the +lunatic asylum of twenty years ago is like the hospital for the insane +of the present day. Like thousands of others, it was one of those places +where we receive the unfortunate; where we label him a pauper; where we +tolerate his presence until death reduces the county expense or until he +goes out into the world again not a whit better off, physically, +mentally or morally, on account of his association with us. + +We had come to the place for the purpose of ascertaining to what extent +tuberculosis prevailed among the two hundred inmates and to ascertain +the degree of protection afforded these unfortunates against infection +from the disease. As our work progressed this question came to me more +and more insistently: "Why are these men and women dependents? What, if +anything, could be learned if they were permitted to tell their own +stories of misfortune?" + +[Illustration] + +Social history blanks were prepared, and two intelligent young women +were set at the task of supplementing physical examinations with a +series of questions relative to the past lives of the inmates. Due +allowance was made for natural exaggeration when a person told of the +glories of his past, and like allowance was made for the faulty memory +which had lost its record of personal faults, vices and dissipations. As +far as possible the reliability of the story was determined by checking +up with certain definite and obtainable facts. + +At the outset of the work, a wave of fear spread over the place born of +the belief that we were cataloging the inmates to send them to an +"asylum"; but when this was quieted, the history taking was uneventful. + +Eliminating those who were mentally incapable of being interviewed, we +were able to prepare 137 quite complete records. Of those interviewed, +32 were women and 105 men. Practically all the women, incidentally, were +there on account of insanity, drug addiction or actual illness. There +were 131 white inmates, 5 Negroes and one who claimed to be an Indian. +Sixty-nine were single, that is 60 per cent of the males and but 27 per +cent of the females. Nineteen had living husbands or wives and 47 were +widowed. Of those who had married, 42 had married once only; 13 stated +that they had married twice and 4 that they had married three times or +more. + +[Illustration] + +To the penny-wise county official it is of practical interest to note +that 34 of the inmates, or about 25 per cent, had living children and +that even casual inquiry showed many instances in which the children +were financially able to take care of these unfortunates, as the laws of +Illinois provide that they shall do. + +Thirty of the inmates were born in Illinois; 36 in the United States +outside of Illinois; while Ireland and Germany came next with 21 +representatives each. There was no Jew in the almshouse. + +Three of the inmates admitted that their parents had been dependent upon +public charity; 24 admitted alcoholism or drug addiction on the part of +their parents; 4 were the children of the insane and one was the +daughter of a criminal. The fathers of 106 came from laboring and +agricultural classes, while the fathers of 6 were professional men. + +[Illustration] + +Nineteen of the inmates had had no education whatever; 12 claimed to be +able to read and write but had never gone to school; 4 had attended +school less than one year; 15 had attended less than five years; 71 +claimed a complete "common school" education and 7 had gone to high +school or college. Four had been compelled to earn a living under ten +years of age; 12 from ten to twelve years; 41 from twelve to fifteen +years and 31 had begun work between the ages of fifteen and twenty-one +years. + +With this showing, the question naturally arises: Is there any +connection between lack of education, child labor and the poorhouse? + +One of the male inmates had been a pharmacist, one a civil engineer; 28 +had learned trades and 53 were laborers. Of the females, 17 were house +servants and one a teacher. + +To ascertain something of the past financial condition, we inquired as +to the highest wage each had made, the amount he had inherited and the +greatest amount he had ever accumulated. Six had never made more than +$10 to $20 per month; 21 had made from $20 to $50 per month and 28 +claimed to have made over $100 per month. Fourteen had inherited +property worth less than $500; 11 had inherited from $500 to $1,000; 5 +from $1,000 to $5,000, and one had inherited from $5,000 to $10,000. +Thirty-five of the inmates had never accumulated as much as $500 at any +one time; 22 had possessed from $500 to $1,000; 20 had owned from $1,000 +to $5,000; 7 from $5,000 to $10,000, and four had had over $10,000. + +[Illustration] + +As to their habits, vices and dependence, 88 were users of alcohol and +35 of these had been heavy drinkers. Four females and one male were +addicted to drugs. Thirty-nine had been arrested once, and four more +than once. The causes of arrest were drunkenness and disorderly conduct +22; vagrancy 10; theft 1; assault 4 and participation in a strike 1. Two +of the inmates had been in other almshouses; 7 had occupied beds in +charity hospitals; 2 had grown up from orphan asylums and 4 had been +helped by lodges and unions. Many had received county orders before +coming to the almshouse. + +What light such data as the foregoing, if collected in large numbers of +similar institutions, would throw upon the underlying causes of +destitution, is, of course, speculative. It seems to me, however, that +they might give us a more intelligent idea of the connection between +pauperism and the marriage of the unfit; lack of education; child labor; +lack of trade or definite vocation; poor mentality; lack of religious +influence; divorce or failure to marry; alcohol and drugs; vice and +preventable disease. + +If these remote influences lie beyond the imaginative possibilities of +the average almshouse superintendent and county official, there were +certain other facts brought out in this study which should appeal to the +most practical and hard-headed. These facts seem to point the way to the +rehabilitation of the unfortunate; the way of placing him on his feet +again. They also point directly to the reduction in the almshouse +population and the consequent decrease in public expense. + +Getting at the direct causes of dependence, it was found that old age +was the chief factor, 47 of the inmates being over 70 years of age. This +number of dependents, incidentally, could be materially reduced by +tracing out near relatives legally responsible for their care. + +[Illustration] + +Drugs and alcohol were responsible for 25 dependencies--a less +encouraging group until we have intelligent public treatment for these +cases. Twenty-five of the inmates were crippled while 18 were there on +account of general illness. Doubtless many of these cases would be +amenable to treatment if properly studied and diagnosed. + +Six were victims of advanced tuberculosis, and it may be assumed that +the nature of the illness was unrecognized as the patients were housed +in dormitories with the uninfected. There were unquestionably other +tuberculosis cases undiagnosed who were not only losing their chance of +cure; but were exposing and infecting others. I am impressed, +incidentally, that almshouses, with their armies of transients going to +the crowded, unventilated quarters of the poor, are very considerable +spreaders of tuberculosis. + +The insane, feeble-minded and epileptic aggregated perhaps 50--an +almshouse population which should be and must be decreased by more +adequate state provision for these afflicted. + +Syphilis was responsible for 3 dependencies, and probably many more +would respond to the Wassermann test and could be restored to health by +specific treatment. + +The 4 blind and aged inmates might be made to see by simple cataract +operations. + +Many of the inmates expressed the wish that they might be restored to +health that they could go out into the world again upon their own +resources. But 58 replied, when asked what they wanted to do in the +future, that they wanted to stay where they were, under the friendly +roof of the poorhouse. + +This does not imply hopeless pauperism, however. Sick, neglected, weak +and despondent--of course, they want to stay in some place, even in the +poorhouse, where they are not eternally ordered to move on by the +police; viewed with suspicion or fear by self-respecting citizens or in +constant danger of arrest for vagrancy. Such forlorn men not +infrequently commit petty crimes to guarantee their being housed in jail +during a cold winter. + +I am optimistic enough to believe that if the physical conditions of +each inmate were studied; if his ills were cured and he was made +stronger in body, he would be given courage, more ambition and more +purpose in life. To this extent pauperism is directly curable. + +True, there are among the destitute those who are hopelessly +marked--branded by heredity; cursed by environment; wrecked by disease; +deficient in body and in mind, with little or nothing to work upon. By +the same token there are those in other branches of medicine who are +hopelessly sick--those who are beyond the reach of the surgeon's knife +or the physician's prescription. There are those among the insane who +give no ray of hope to the most enthusiastic alienist. + +But when we progress to the point of classifying our paupers; of +studying intelligently the various causes of destitution; of endeavoring +to make our almshouses places of cure rather than mere asylums for the +victims of poverty, our percentage of "recoveries" will be surprisingly +high. + +[Illustration] + +The difference in methods between the modern insane hospital and the +almshouse is striking. A man is admitted to an institution for the +insane in a thoroughly irrational and excitable condition. His case is +studied and it is found that he has cerebral syphilis. Proper treatment +is instituted and, in all probability, the patient is returned to his +family cured and a useful member of society. + +In another case, syphilis has rendered a man physically inefficient, +dissipated and despondent. He drifts to the poorhouse where he is +catalogued simply as a "pauper." The chances are that the cause of his +pauperism is not detected. If he announces it himself, he may receive +the hurried, occasional visit of a contract doctor. Even the drugs that +are given him may be crude and impure, bought by contract from the +lowest bidder. Little or no provision is made for his intelligent and +systematic treatment. He may be drugged with mercury until he is +salivated; he may be neglected until his open sores cause him to be +housed in the basement away from the other inmates. He is merely a +syphilitic pauper and the rough fare of the poorhouse is looked upon as +better than he deserves. + +As a matter of fact, he is a sick man; sick of a curable disease and his +cure may restore him to useful citizenship and remove him from the +county expense. + +Or again, there comes to the almshouse a man who is tired--a man who +will not work. Perhaps he is losing a little weight and he is known to +have been drinking more whiskey than he did when he worked harder. You +are tempted to compel him to work; to drive him to earn his meager board +and bed. The superintendent has no time to note that he has a little +fever at night or to see that he clears his throat from time to time. +Without physical examination, we have no way of knowing that we are +dealing with an incipient consumptive. The average superintendent knows +nothing of the deadly weariness of this disease; the weariness that +invades every muscle of the body; which makes work impossible; which +prompts men of higher moral fiber to drink whiskey or seek other +stimulation. + +This "lazy devil" is begrudged our poorhouse food, when, as a matter of +fact, he ought to have, and at public expense, better food than we have +ever thought of giving him. With fresh air, milk, eggs, nourishing food, +intelligent treatment and perfect rest, this man can get well and resume +a place in the world. With ordinary almshouse care and almshouse fare, +we are signing his death warrant while we are guaranteeing his prolonged +dependence upon public charity. + +We receive old men who have worked hard and who have made an honest +living before their eyesight failed and they became almost blind. We +label these men as paupers and do not stop to question if a simple +operation for cataract would not restore them to useful occupation. + +The spirit of the average almshouse is illustrated in this--one Illinois +county has a contract with a dentist to pull the teeth of poor farm +inmates. There is no provision for saving teeth. If the inmate is +writhing with toothache, he must take his choice; lose a good tooth on +contract, or grin and bear the pain. The supervisors can see no reason +why a pauper should want to save his teeth or why he should be permitted +to do so. And yet a cheap filling would cost little more than the +primitive and mutilating operation of extraction. + +These are mere instances of the obvious curative possibilities in the +almshouse--instances where the county's duties are so apparent, in which +the right and humane way is so clearly the cheap and economical way that +the matter should require no discussion. It is the line of direct cure +which the county, as a matter of sound administration, should make it +possible to carry out. It means first the careful physical examination +of every inmate of every almshouse, not by the medical man who bids +lowest to get the contract, but by the most capable diagnostician +available. + +[Illustration] + +But this is only the beginning. The big possibility is what the +almshouses of the nation can do to ascertain the more remote causes of +poverty and destitution, for, as in the case of the insane, when we know +the causes of destitution, we can carry out our most effective work +before the pauper becomes a pauper--before he comes slinking, wretched +and despondent, to the door of the county farm. + +Tuberculosis will never be eradicated by merely treating the sick; +yellow fever could not have been stamped out by simply caring for the +afflicted; pauperism will never be materially affected by what we do +when the pauper has reached his last ditch. We must fight tuberculosis +by striking at its causes; we have already eliminated yellow fever by +the same sane process. We would have gone further in our battle against +pauperism, perhaps, were it not that pauperism is the only disease that +has never invaded the home of the rich. No multi-millionaire has ever +endowed a research laboratory for the study of destitution in memory of +a petted child struck dead by its poisonous fangs. + +But every almshouse has its clinic in poverty and I am convinced that if +every inmate in every poorhouse throughout the nation could be made to +tell the story of how he came to be there; if every one could be +examined for physical and mental causes, and if all these data could be +gathered together in systematic form, a great stride would have been +made in formulating an intelligent campaign against dependence. + + + + +COMPENSATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES + +JOHN B. ANDREWS + +SECRETARY AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEGISLATION + + +The introduction in Congress of a bill which extends the workmen's +compensation principle to embrace occupational diseases places before +the American people an entirely new range of problems in the field of +social insurance. + +The federal government since 1908, and fifteen states during the past +two years, have recognized the wisdom and justice of the compensation +principle in dealing with the victims of industrial accidents. Now comes +the demand that the American people, through Congress, adopt exactly the +same principle in dealing with federal employees who are incapacitated +for work by occupational diseases. + +What is the present situation? + + "The government gives no compensation for lead poisoning because, + technically, it is not an accident, which is true, for under the + circumstances it is a dead certainty." + +--This quotation from the report of an investigator for the New York +State Factory Investigating Commission is neither a playful nor an +exaggerated statement. On the contrary, we now have complete +confirmation of its truth in the official report and in the sober legal +phrase of the solicitor for the Department of Commerce and Labor.[6] + +[6] Opinions of the Solicitor for the Department of Commerce and Labor +dealing with Workmen's Compensation. 1912. + +It all came about in this way. A man named Schroeder went to work in the +federal navy yard at Brooklyn. One of our big war ships, the Ohio, came +to the dock and Schroeder was sent down into the water-tight +compartments called "coffer-dams" to burn off the old coat of paint in +preparation for a new. As a result of breathing the fumes of the lead +paint, Schroeder was incapacitated for work by acute lead poisoning. He +lost thirty-seven days on this account, and he applied to the government +for the payment of compensation equal to the wages he had lost. + +This statement was made by the attorney for the United States +government: + + "The question in this case is whether acute lead poisoning + contracted in the course of employment is an injury within the + meaning of the compensation act. If the inhalation of noxious gases + is a necessary incident to the workman's employment, there can be + nothing accidental in the injury resulting therefrom. This latter + consideration disposes of the present case.... + + "It cannot be said that these fumes were inhaled by accident. The + fumes were necessarily produced by the work he was engaged upon. + The inhalation of such fumes was to have been expected and probably + could not have been avoided. Lead poisoning, under the + circumstances, was the natural, if not the inevitable, result." + +Schroeder got not one penny. + +Aside from the fact that lead poisoning in this case was really +preventable; aside from the fact that several enlightened nations have +absolutely prohibited the use of poisonous lead paints for the interior +of their war ships, and aside from the fact that there was no one to +warn Schroeder of the dangerous nature of his occupation, there is one +big final reason why this decision of Uncle Sam's Attorney was even more +unfortunate than it was necessary. The financial cost of this +unnecessary case of acute lead poisoning, in addition to the personal +suffering, fell upon poor Schroeder. Most men will agree that such +financial losses should fall upon the employer. In this case the +employer was the nation, which means all of us, you and me. + +We owe Schroeder something more than an apology. While the federal +government is publishing excellent reports on lead poisoning in the +factories of private employers and is translating and distributing in +fat volumes the workmen's compensation laws of European countries, can +the United States afford to do less than make provision for reasonably +safe work places in the government service? And can this country afford +to ignore the good example of these European laws which provide +compensation for such victims of occupational diseases? + +A few months after the unfortunate Schroeder case a man named Hill was +employed at placing floor plates in the engine room of the war ship St. +Louis in the Puget Sound Navy Yard. Meantime, red and white lead paint +was being applied in the bilges of the vessel. + + "As a result of this exposure to lead fumes, a sufficient amount of + lead was taken into claimant's system to produce 'toxic amblyopia, + both eyes,'" + +which means + + "disease of vision from imperfect sensation of the retina, without + organic lesion of the eye." + +This disease incapacitated Hill on the thirteenth day after his first +exposure to the poison. The exposure lasted only seven days. Said the +solicitor: + + "It is accordingly possible to refer the claimant's injury to an + event capable of being fixed in point of time. In the second place, + the injury to the claimant's eyes was neither reasonably to be + expected, nor the natural or inevitable consequence of the work he + personally was engaged upon. The injury must therefore be ascribed + to accident. The claimant's particular work had nothing to do with + the painting operations going on about him. His work as a ship + fitter related to the laying of places in the boiler room; the + painting was being done by others." + +And this claim was approved. + +But if, instead of Hill, one of the painters had been poisoned and +incapacitated by the fumes of lead paint, a similar claim would not have +been allowed by the solicitor. This is made perfectly clear by his +decision in the John Freiman case. + +John was a laborer in the Boston Navy Yard, and it was his duty to scale +off lead-painted compartments on ships. He became incapacitated by "lead +poisoning contracted in the course of his employment," and his superior +officer certified that the injury was not due to negligence or +misconduct. After John had suffered several weeks as a result of +"painter's colic" and chronic lead poisoning, his claim was submitted. +It was necessary to decide whether the law applies to disease due to the +occupation. The solicitor declared: + + "There is no such special provision made, and I can find nothing + which would, in my judgment, justify its application to a case of + lead poisoning or 'painter's colic.'" + +The difficulties involved in legal technicalities become apparent. The +following story, verbatim from the government report (page 201), about +William Murray, who suffered with compressed air illness, strikingly +illustrates the point: + + "The claimant in this case is a laborer employed by the Reclamation + Service, at Arizona shaft, Colorado River siphon. The claimant's + duties required him to work in compressed air. In consequence, he + was attacked with 'a severe case of bends,' which 'settled in + nearly all parts of the body.' When originally presented the claim + was disallowed on the ground that the bends is a disease, and + diseases contracted in the course of employment as distinguished + from injuries of an accidental nature are not within the operation + of the compensation act. A reconsideration of this action 'with a + view to the allowance of the claim, if the same is deemed to come + within the letter of the statute as it seems to come within its + spirit,' is now requested by the secretary of the interior, who + writes that a refusal to approve this claim may cause a number of + men to leave the work, as, on account of the bends, it is generally + regarded as very hazardous." + +And the former decision was reversed! + +The solicitor has passed upon other cases of occupational disease, with +some decidedly interesting results. + +Mary A. Crellin was a folder of heavy paper at the Government Printing +Office. Continuous strain upon her fingers and wrist caused a +degeneration of the tendon sheath. A tumor or cystic growth developed. +Mary was obliged to have it surgically removed. Then she thought the +government, and not she, ought to stand the loss of wages due to her +incapacity. This attracted attention. Said the medical officer of the +Government Printing Office: + + "This is the first case that I ever observed or noticed among + folders, until I examined a number of skilled female laborers + employed in this office upon the same vocation--that of folding + sheets of paper--of which five presented a similar condition, but + of such size as not to interfere with the manipulation of the + hand." + +The solicitor decided that in this tendon degeneration there was "no +accidental element." It was "not due to injury." It was "due to +excessive use" in the service of Uncle Sam. Mary's claim was denied. + +Another case--a plate printer, J. B. Irving, who was on the night force +in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. In the course of a night he +printed 900 sheets, and as he handled each sheet he looked for a few +seconds at a bright engraved plate which reflected into his eyes. One +night last March the bureau tried out some new electric lights, and +their use was continued three successive nights. Irving thereupon +stopped work, and the doctor diagnosed his case as "Retinitis +conjunctivitis, both eyes." He was unable to keep his eyes open in a +bright light. After investigation, the solicitor decided that in this +case compensation should be granted on the ground that the injury was +not anticipated, nor was it the result of any slow accumulation of +trifling injuries. + +Sunstroke, which is known as a disease, is compensated under the act. +The straining of the ligaments about the wrist, known as "synovitis of +the wrist" and scheduled as a disease under the British act, has been +compensated. "Vaccinia" from vaccination is compensated. A long-standing +case of flat-foot was compensated, even though the use of a simple wedge +made the injured one better than before. + +John Sheeran, who contracted pneumonia due to exposure at the Soo Canal, +was denied compensation. But J. B. Atkinson, who fell from a ladder and +continued to work 181 days thereafter, until typhoid fever took him off +within a week, "died by reason of his injury," because the fall "lowered +his vitality, ... which rendered him peculiarly susceptible to typhoid +infection, ... which resulted in his death." + +The question may fairly be raised as to whether it is not a bit unfair +to an administrative official to place him under the embarrassment of +interpreting a statute so as to cover, for example, some but not all +cases of industrial lead poisoning. Would it not be much better plainly +to include occupational diseases in the law? + +After more than four years of experience under the present law the +government recently published the first official report upon its +operation. Sixty-six closely printed pages of this report are devoted to +embarrassing questions which have arisen because of claims arising out +of occupational diseases. The administration in its awards has been as +liberal as could be expected under the unfortunate legislative +restrictions. The solicitor for the department has taken a keen interest +in its operation. He has been faithful and alert. One of his most urgent +recommendations for a change in the law is that it be extended to +embrace occupational diseases. + +The present federal law is known as the Workmen's Compensation Act of +May 30, 1908, and is America's pioneer compensation law. It was a step +forward, but only a step. Fortunately, state legislatures have not +copied its main provisions, for they are totally inadequate. This +federal law applies to only about one-third of our 350,000 civilian +employees. It grants no relief for incapacity lasting less than fifteen +days, it makes no provision for medical treatment, and one year's wages +is the maximum benefit even for total blindness or death. In fact, the +present law is so deficient that its original sponsors now waste no +words in its defense, but frankly apologize for its shortcomings. "Not a +revision," says one in a position to know, "but a new law is needed." + +The draft of a new law, prepared after months of careful investigation +of experience of this and all other compensation acts, and drafted with +infinite care at the instigation of the Association for Labor +Legislation, has been introduced in Congress by Senator Kern. Surely the +United States should now provide for its own government employees +incapacitated by industrial accidents and occupational diseases a system +of safety and sanitation coupled with compensation at least equivalent +to that furnished by the most progressive nations of the world. The bill +now before Congress offers this immediate opportunity. + +Nor can the state legislatures longer ignore the injustice of this +arbitrary distinction between accidents and diseases due to the peculiar +conditions of employment. + +In a pamphlet on Industrial Diseases and Occupational Standards, +published in May, 1910, the writer urged immediate consideration of this +problem, and said: + + "No intelligent person can go far in the study of compensation for + industrial accidents without realizing that a logical consideration + of the facts must lead likewise to compensation for industrial + diseases." + +Since then three momentous years have passed. One state after another is +preparing to meet this problem, which becomes steadily more pressing. +One of the three great national political parties now pledges itself to +work unceasingly in state and nation for trade disease compensation. +Wisconsin has the promise of relief in the political platform of the +present administration; Ohio, by recent constitutional amendment, is +prepared for action; Pennsylvania is following this example; several +states, including Massachusetts and Michigan, by a liberal +interpretation of present laws, are coquetting with the issue; New +Hampshire has boldly introduced specific legislation on the subject.[7] + +[7] In 1912 the Association for Labor Legislation prepared, in +co-operation with the United States Bureau of Labor and the Library of +Congress, a critical bibliography on industrial diseases. Fifty printed +pages of titles were thus made available on this important subject. +European countries have published volumes on compensation for industrial +diseases, but, as far as can be learned, this is the first American +article under this title. + +Leading countries of Europe have already taken this step. Great Britain +in her Workmen's Compensation Act of 1906, in addition to accidents, +included in the first schedule six diseases of occupation. That schedule +has been extended until it now includes no less than twenty-four +distinct maladies due to peculiar conditions of employment. Germany, as +a result of the experience of a quarter of a century, in her new +imperial code expressly has declared for similar action. Switzerland, in +her system accepted by referendum vote in February, 1912, makes like +provision for insurance against occupational diseases. The government of +Holland, in November, 1912, laid before Parliament a bill to regulate +the insurance of workmen against industrial diseases in connection with +the proposed sickness insurance. + +[Illustration: DOUBLE WRIST-DROP + +Hands of workman paralyzed for sixteen years as result of lead +poisoning. Five of his fellow workmen were killed by lead poisoning +before they were forty. Victims of lead poisoning are not compensated +under American laws because technically an occupational disease is "not +an injury."] + +The arguments used so effectively by advocates of compensation for +accidents, and now so generally accepted by all men, apply with even +greater force in the consideration of relief for the victims of +occupational diseases. No one will doubt, for example, that placing the +financial cost of lead poisoning upon the lead industry will promote +greater cleanliness in the lead trades. It will pay to clean up. A +considerable part of the money now paid to employers' liability +companies and to ambulance chasers could, under a just system of +compensation, go where it belongs--to the injured workman or his family. +Expensive, annoying, and unsatisfactory litigation could be reduced to a +minimum. Information concerning special danger points in industry would +be automatically pointed out to the factory inspectors in a manner both +prompt and sure. Unnecessary occupational diseases would then be +prevented, and that is the real problem. + +The principle is admitted that workmen should be compensated for +injuries by accident arising out of their employment. It is only +consistent that incapacity caused by diseases due to the employment +should also be included. Some diseases are, in the ordinary use of the +term, accidental. But many people work where trade diseases of an +insidious nature are contracted and where there is constant risk of +illness on that account. These diseases are as serious as accidents. +There is no social justification for drawing an arbitrary line of +distinction--the principle of compensation is no longer in an +experimental stage. A compensation law should include, says Sir Thomas +Oliver, the leading English authority on the subject, "industrial +diseases, the consequences of which may be immediate or remote, and +which are often more severe than accidents." + +It must be admitted that even our discredited system of employers' +liability has afforded occasional relief to the victims of accidents. +But even this uncertain and irregular protection, poor as it is, has in +most instances been denied to workers exposed to the creeping horror of +industrial disease. The exact occupational cause of the affliction is, +of course, more difficult to prove. The employee is thus placed at still +greater disadvantage in dealing with his employer. American judges, +basing their opinions on outgrown decisions of the British House of +Lords, have declared that "industrial injuries" include only those +afflictions of an accidental nature whose cause can be ascribed to a +definite point of time, and have thus almost universally barred even +from the occasional and expensive relief of employers' liability the +victims of such typical maladies as the match maker's "phossy jaw," the +lead worker's "wrist-drop" and painter's colic, the boiler maker's +deafness, the glass worker's cataract, the potter's palsy, the hatter's +shakes, and the compressed air worker's bends. + +The public has not yet forgotten pitiful cases where match +manufacturers, through the work of their attorneys, were able to deny +all financial relief to their victims of "phossy jaw." And there are +cases now pending in the courts where men totally blinded by the fumes +of wood alcohol have year after year sued in vain for some financial +relief from brewery companies which employed them to varnish the inside +of beer vats. + +Occasionally, however, large awards have been made. But they, as in the +case of damage suits arising out of accidents, encourage further +expensive litigation. One case of wood alcohol poisoning in Ohio (Joseph +Frank _vs._ The Herancourt Brewing Co., 82 O. S., 424) is now a matter +of record. The Supreme Court compelled the employer to pay $12,500, with +interest and costs, aggregating over $15,000. + + "After five years of litigation, six hearings in three different + courts, including two trips to the Supreme Court, printing of + several thousand pages of record testimony and briefs, taking + voluminous depositions in different parts of the country involving + great expense, during which the injured workman--in this instance + rendered blind--was totally unable to support his wife and family, + the wife being obliged to work at nights in downtown cafes, + scrubbing floors after midnight, in order to provide scant food for + herself and babies while the latter slept." + +This verdict is of peculiar interest, according to the well-known +Cincinnati law firm which prosecuted the case, because it is the first +instance so far as they have been able to ascertain in which there has +been a recovery from injuries resulting from the poisonous influence of +wood alcohol. + +But do not be misled by this rare case. And do not hastily conclude that +the new state insurance law in Ohio has rendered justice in such cases +more certain, for the contrary is true. A victim of industrial lead +poisoning appealed to the state board under that law, and the attorney +general, on October 26, 1912, ruled that disability due to lead +poisoning was an occupational disease and "not an injury" under the act. +Similar decisions have been made by the Washington State Insurance +Department. + +In fact, with the exception of occasional instances in two or three +states, where claims have been paid by employers without protest, the +victims of occupational diseases in America are still practically +without relief. + + + + +THE SOCIAL AIM IN GOVERNMENT + +SAMUEL McCUNE LINDSAY + +PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL LEGISLATION, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + + "This not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. Here muster, + not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity. Men's hearts + wait upon us; men's lives hang in the balance; men's hopes call + upon us to say what we will do. Who shall live up to the great + trust? Who dares fail to try? I summon all honest men, all + patriotic, all forward-looking men to my side. God helping me, I + will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me!" + +--Thus spoke the President of the United States in his inaugural +address. Legislation in nation and state, giving expression to the will +of the people and often to their aspirations, is supposed, in theory at +least, to emanate from the representatives of the people. In European +governments there is usually a privileged initiative on the part of the +executive branch of the government or the administrative officers who +represent the electoral majority, that is, "the government of the day." +Thus the government bills in the British Parliament are the only ones +sure of full consideration. In American legislatures a somewhat similar +role is played by the President and the governors of the states in their +legislative programs as outlined in the messages they send in accordance +with constitutional prerogative or command. As party leaders they voice +the dominant wishes of the voters and interpret public opinion; as chief +executives they exercise great power over the legislatures in compelling +compliance with the people's mandates. + +A comparison and study of the subject-matter of President Wilson's +inaugural and the inaugurals or messages of thirty-five governors +opening legislative sessions since January 1 of this year, shows the +great influence of the progressive forces of the nation which were +victorious in all parties and in all of the states at the polls in +November. A more confident note, new in most cases, is struck in all +these pronouncements. It is the social spirit and the social conscience +in every community that seeks and demands a new adjustment of law and +government to human needs, and for the people, a new freedom. + +President Wilson voices this new feeling best. + + "Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which government + may be put at the service of humanity, in safeguarding the health + of the nation, the health of its men and its women and its + children, as well as their rights in the struggle for existence. + This no sentimental duty. The firm basis of government is justice, + not pity. These are matters of justice. There can be no equality of + opportunity, the first essential of justice in the body politic, if + men and women and children be not shielded in their lives, their + very vitality, from the consequences of great industrial and social + processes which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with. + Society must see to it that it does not itself crush or weaken or + damage its own constituent parts. The first duty of law is to keep + sound the society it serves. Sanitary laws, pure food laws, and + laws determining conditions of labor which individuals are + powerless to determine for themselves are intimate parts of the + very business of justice and legal efficiency. + + "These are some of the things we ought to do, and not leave the + others undone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neglected, + fundamental safeguarding of property and of individual right. This + is the high enterprise of the new day; to lift everything that + concerns our life as a nation to the light that shines from the + hearth-fire of every man's conscience and vision of the right. It + is inconceivable that we should do this as partisans; it is + inconceivable that we should do it in ignorance of the facts as + they are or in blind haste. We shall restore, not destroy. We shall + deal with our economic system as it is and as it may be modified, + not as it might be if we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; + and step by step we shall make it what it should be, in the spirit + of those who question their own wisdom and seek counsel and + knowledge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excitement of + excursions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and only justice, + shall always be our motto. + + "And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The nation has + been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the + knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of government too often + debauched and made an instrument of evil. The feelings with which + we face this new age of right and opportunity sweep across our + heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice + and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one. We + know our task to be no mere task of politics, but a task which + shall search us through and through, whether we be able to + understand our time and the need of our people, whether we be + indeed their spokesmen and interpreters, whether we have the pure + heart to comprehend and the rectified will to choose our high + course of action." + +Governor Cox of Ohio, speaking for a state that had just made many +fundamental changes in its organic law by adopting the recommendations, +almost in their entirety, of a constitutional convention, says: + + "Progressive government, so called, which means in its correct + understanding, constructive work, along the lines pointed out by + the lamps of experience and the higher moral vision of advanced + civilization, is now on trial in our state. Every constitutional + facility has been provided for an upward step and Ohio, because of + the useful part it has played in the affairs of the country, is at + this hour in the eye of the nation. + + "The state has the resources, human and material, to make a + thorough test of the principle of an enlarged social justice, + through government, and the results of our labors will extend + beyond state borders. A thorough appreciation, therefore, of the + stupendous responsibility before you, and full recognition of the + probable insidious resistance to be encountered, will add + immeasurably to your equipment to meet the emergency. If I sense + with any degree of accuracy the state of public mind, I am correct + in the belief that a vast preponderance of the people of all + classes have faith both in the wisdom and the certain results of a + constructive progressive program of government. Let us in full + understanding of the consequences of our acts maintain this measure + of public confidence and encourage the faith of those who are + honestly skeptical because of the apprehension generated in their + minds by a third class, which may be unconsciously prompted by + sordid impulses developed by unbroken preferences of government. + + "No fair-minded person will dispute the logic nor question the + equity of any plan which contemplates legislative action entirely + within the limitations of suffrage endorsement. If the legislature, + in the passage of a single law, runs counter to public desire or + interest, the people through the referendum have the means to undo + it. No greater safeguard can be devised by the genius of man, and + to question either the moral or practical phase of this + arrangement, is to admit unsoundness in the theory of a republic. + In other days changes in government such as are made necessary + everywhere by our industrial and social conditions, would have been + wrought by riot and revolution. Now they are accomplished through + peaceful evolution. He must be indeed a man of unfortunate + temperamental qualities who does not find in this a circumstance + that thrills every patriotic fiber in his being." + +Governor Sulzer of New York, in similar vein, says, speaking of the +proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States, providing +for the popular election of senators: + + "I favor this change in the federal constitution, as I shall every + other change that will restore the government to the control of the + people. I want the people, in fact as well as in theory, to rule + this great republic and the government at all times to be + responsive to their just demands." + +Again, in speaking of the value of human life and its conservation, +Governor Sulzer says: + + "If Americans would excel other nations in commerce, in + manufacture, in science, in intellectual growth, and in all other + humane attainments, we must first possess a people physically and + mentally sound. Any achievement that is purchased at the continued + sacrifice of human life does not advance our material resources, + but detracts from the wealth of the state. The leaders of our + civilization now realize these fundamental truths, and the + statesmen, the scientists, and the humanitarians are endeavoring + more and more to protect human life and to secure to each + individual not only the right to life, but the right to decent + standards of living. + + "We have had to change old customs and repeal antiquated laws. We + must now convince employers that any industry that saps the + vitality and destroys the initiative of the workers is detrimental + to the interests of the state and menaces the general welfare of + the government. We must try to work out practical legislation that + will apply our social ideals and our views of industrial progress + to secure for our men, women and children the greatest possible + reserve of physical and mental force. + + "I hold it to be self-evident that no industry has the right to + sacrifice human life for its profit, but that just as each industry + must reckon in its cost of production the material waste, so it + should also count as a part of the cost of production the human + waste which it employs.... No business has an inalienable right to + child labor. No industry has a right to rob the state of that which + constitutes its greatest wealth. No commerce that depends on child + labor for its success has a right to exist. Let us do what we can + to protect the children of the state and preserve their fundamental + rights.... Human life is infinitely more valuable than the profit + of material things. The state for its own preservation has the + right to demand the use of safer and more hygienic methods, even if + at greater cost of production to the employer. Occupational + diseases should be studied, and the results of careful + investigation embodied in laws to safeguard the health and lives of + the workers." + +Governor Craig of North Carolina, another Democrat, but from the more +conservative southland, strikes the same note, when he says: + + "We have not realized the moral benefits that should have resulted + from modern progress. Avarice has been stimulated; hope and + opportunity have been denied; antagonism and resentment have been + generated. All classes have suffered. We realize the conditions; + the injustice has been uncovered. It cannot stand in the clear, + calm and resolute gaze of the American people. They are determined + that our law shall be based upon a higher conception of social + obligation and that our civilization shall mean a higher social + life. They have put their hands to the plow and will not look + back." + +Let me quote from one more Democratic governor, this time a voice from +the far West. Governor Hunt of Arizona says: + + "Recent political events of national magnitude and world-wide + importance clearly prove the people's awakening to their + necessities, their duties and responsibilities. The overwhelming + triumph of militant progressive democracy and the simultaneous + springing into prominent existence of another great party founded + upon and professing the championship of those cardinal principles + of popular government which have long been synonymous with + progressive democracy, discloses a miraculous growth of progressive + conviction, a well-nigh unanimous determination on the part of the + people to assume full control of the government which, while over + them, is rightfully of and for them, marks a leading epoch in the + history of the world's advancement." + +The National Progressive Party could scarcely have hoped to accomplish +more than to bring such sentiments and these high aims to the fore, in +the officially announced purposes of their late antagonists who were the +victors in the recent elections. When we remember, however, the +initiative and responsibility in legislation which the chief executive +in nation and state has come to have in our system, the fact that the +above quoted passages are typical of all the governors' messages is +doubly significant. It warrants us in believing that the hour has struck +when the things for which the social workers of the country have striven +will become vital in the organization of American society. + +More detailed examination of the recommendations of the governors shows +some interesting tendencies. If the advice of the governors is followed +some system of workmen's compensation will supplement or supersede our +antiquated and unsocial system of employers' liability. This is the +subject upon which public opinion seems to have most definitely +crystallized. No less than twenty-one governors make definite favorable +recommendations, and in three cases (Arizona, California and Oregon) a +state system of insurance is advocated. If all of these states were +added to those that already have passed adequate compensation laws, the +system of workmen's compensation would be extended practically over all +of the industrial area of the United States. This result seems +inevitable, although the work may not be completed in this legislative +year. + +Next to workmen's compensation in point of popularity seems to be the +necessity for a public utilities law, or a public service commission, or +the extension of the powers of state supervisory authorities over public +service corporations. This is a subject of positive recommendation on +the part of fourteen governors. In an equal number of states the pending +amendment to the United States constitution providing for the popular or +direct election of Senators receives a favorable recommendation, while +in the other states the governors transmit the amendment without comment +for appropriate action by the legislature. The Kentucky Blue Sky Law, or +some similar provision for state supervision of investment proposals and +securities offered for public subscription, is the subject of comment +and positive recommendation in eleven states. + +In an equal number of commonwealths important recommendations are made +with respect to increasing the powers of their labor departments, +including factory inspection and other provisions for the enforcement of +the labor laws. Several governors express a desire for a much more +serious recognition of the state's duties in its relations to labor, +especially that of women and children. In some instances--notably Ohio, +where an industrial commission is proposed, Wisconsin, whose industrial +commission, already the model for several other states, is to have +increased powers, and New York, for which an industrial commission is +also proposed--such recommendations are far-reaching and would mean a +practical reorganization of this department of state activity. The +governor of Rhode Island recommends the adoption of a fifty-four hour +law to harmonize with recent legislation in New York and Massachusetts. +In North Carolina a stronger child labor law is urged, and in Wyoming +the prohibition of the employment of boys under sixteen in mines. This +would bring Wyoming up to the standard already adopted in the leading +mining states. + +Popular government still has need of better agencies for expression, and +numerous reforms in the organization of state governments are proposed. +Restlessness under antiquated constitutional limitations is manifest +everywhere. President Wilson in his last message as governor of New +Jersey, voiced this feeling in strong language. He said: + + "I urge upon you very earnestly indeed the need and demand for a + Constitutional Convention. The powers of corrupt control have a + numerous and abiding advantage under our constitutional + arrangements as they stand. We shall not be free from them until we + get a different system of representation and a different system of + official responsibility. I hope that this question will be taken up + by the legislature at once and a constitutional convention arranged + for without delay, in which the new forces of our day may speak and + may have a chance to establish their ascendancy over the rule of + machines and bosses." + +Similarly a constitutional convention is urged or numerous +constitutional amendments are proposed in six other states. The short +ballot is advocated in six; the initiative, referendum and recall as a +means of extending the control of the people over their legislation is +recommended in nine states, in most of which a constitutional amendment +would be necessary; and the adoption of rules to carry out a +constitutional amendment already passed is recommended in Idaho. A +larger measure of home rule for cities is urged by the governors of six +states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and +Missouri). The United States constitutional amendment providing for the +income tax is urged for favorable adoption in three states. An amendment +to the state constitution providing for woman suffrage is favorably +recommended in five states (New York, Pennsylvania, Montana, Nevada and +Iowa), and the immediate extension of suffrage to women in municipal +affairs by the governor of Connecticut. Direct Primaries are still an +issue in two states (New York and Tennessee). The need for stronger +corrupt practices acts is presented in three states. Three governors +also declare for a direct presidential preference primary (Iowa, +Minnesota and Wyoming), while ballot reform is advocated in three states +(Maine, Michigan and Wyoming). + +Better legislative methods and the establishment of a legislative +reference, research and drafting bureau are proposed in four states +(Arizona, Minnesota, Ohio and Oklahoma). The governor of Arizona asks +for an anti-lobbying statute. The fiscal policy of the state is a matter +of some comment in practically every message, and in five states +measures for taxation reform are proposed. In five states, including one +of the previous group, the governors recommend an increase of +inheritance taxes or the establishment of an inheritance tax where it +does not already exist. + +Constructive and far-reaching measures are suggested pertaining to +public health. A decided awakening is noticeable in this field. Eight +governors recommend more or less definite reorganization of the public +health service and an extension of the powers of the public health +authorities, state and local. In one additional state (New York) the +governor has appointed an important commission. The results of its +labors will probably be enacted into law at this session of the +legislature. Pure food legislation and better protection of weights and +measures receive attention in two states each, as does the greater +restriction of the liquor traffic in two states. Special provision for +the care of tuberculous persons is mentioned in five states. + +Another important and popular subject of recommendation, in which the +results of the last annual conference of governors are noticeable, +concerns the better care of prisoners--their employment in outdoor work +and opportunities for earning wages, part of which shall go to reimburse +the state for the cost of their maintenance and part to the support of +their dependent families. These matters are subjects of favorable +recommendation in nine states. The general reform of the criminal law, +especially the shortening of legal processes and the restriction of the +right to appeal, is urged in four states, including Iowa, in which the +governor recommends the abolition of grand juries. + +A direct tax in support of higher education is urged in three states, +and provision for the wider use of school buildings as social centers in +the same number. Even more significant, the governors of two states +(North Carolina and Tennessee) urge state-wide compulsory education. In +four commonwealths co-operation with other states is proposed in +accordance with the recent recommendation of President Taft addressed to +the governors of several states. This urged an extension of rural +credits and the provision of some plan similar to the land banks in +foreign countries, to help the farmer get the necessary capital for a +better system of agriculture. Minimum wage laws are proposed in five +states. In two of these and one additional state public aid to dependent +widows and mothers with children is recommended. + +Curiously enough, the reform of marriage laws and of those providing a +remedy for desertion and non-support, a subject reported upon by the +Uniform Law Commissioners, does not figure so largely in the governors' +recommendations as would be supposed. The uniform law commissioners have +proposed an excellent and very carefully worked out statute for uniform +marriage and marriage license laws. This receives only partial +endorsement at the hands of three governors, while stricter desertion +and non-support laws also have the endorsement of three governors. + +Guarantee of bank deposits is proposed in three states and three of the +western states (Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee) have recommendations +for an extension of state authority, or the establishment of a state +department, to induce immigrants to settle within their borders. A +better regulation of prize-fighting is being agitated in Nevada. Its +prohibition, along with that of gambling, is strongly urged by the +governors of New Mexico and Oklahoma. The governor of Arizona asks for a +statute prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons, while the +governor of South Carolina asks the legislature to repeal the present +statute on this subject in that state. + +Non-partisan election of judges is recommended in Idaho and +Pennsylvania, and the Kansas legislature is asked to petition for an +amendment to the constitution of the United States to provide for the +election of federal judges. + +Better care of juvenile delinquents, state-wide supervision of moving +picture shows, stricter regulation of loan sharks, better inspection of +mines, and compulsory arbitration of labor disputes are each recommended +in at least one state. + +Thirty-nine legislatures have already met this year, and some of them +have completed their legislative sessions. Two more will convene within +the next three months, making forty-one in all which will play a part +this year in the formulation of the statute law of the country. Our +statute law is already increasing in volume at a rate that has caused +some alarm. It is sorely in need of revision in many important +particulars. Statesmen and reformers alike desire earnestly that it be +undertaken with greater care and more painstaking labor in order that +our state laws may give better expression to the present standards of +conduct and to the needs of our own times. + + + + +THE SAND BED + +CHARLES W. JEROME + + + I have a sand bed, and I play + There in the sand for half the day. + + And mother comes, and sits by me; + And little sister likes to see + + The many things I make of sand. + But she's too young to understand + + About the houses and the hills + The mines and stores and flouring mills + + And then I make believe, and say + My sand bed is the sunny bay; + + These blocks are boats, and far away + They sail all night and sail all day, + + And carry iron. When they return + They bring us coal that we may burn. + + And now my sand bed is a farm. + This is the barn. Here, safe from harm, + + My horses and my cows I keep. + These sheds are for the wooly sheep. + + And there you see my piggies's pens. + This yard holds in the lively hens. + + This is the garden, where I hoe + My plants; and here the flowers grow. + + These sticks are pines, so straight, so tall + And dark. But these aren't half of all + + The things I make each pleasant day + Out in the sand bed where I play. + +[Illustration: MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA, IN 1842 + +A view of the town as it was before the "Gringo" came. Four years later +during the Mexican War Commodore Stockton captured Monterey and left +Walter Colton, a naval chaplain, in charge as Alcalde.] + + + + +A JUDGE LINDSEY OF THE "IDLE FORTIES" + +LAURA B. EVERETT + + +Under the colorless title Three Years in California was published in +1850 the diary of Walter Colton, elected Alcalde of Monterey in 1846, +who, during his term of office presented what was, for that day, a +singular spectacle of tolerance, humanity and purity of administration. +He can, indeed, be reasonably compared with Judge Lindsey in the courage +and originality displayed in his dealings with the criminal cases +brought before him. + +Colton's work in Monterey succeeded a period spent as editor of the +Philadelphia _North American_, and he established later _The +Californian_, the first newspaper published in California. + +The office of the Alcalde combined administrative and judicial functions +and, not seldom, even legislative ones. Colton was oppressed by his +power and its responsibility. "Such absolute disposal of questions +affecting property and personal liberty," he observes, "never ought to +be confided to one man. There is not a judge on any bench in England or +the United States whose power is so absolute as that of the Alcalde of +Monterey." But he brought to his work in all its details an unflagging +zeal and constant personal attention which made his administration +unique in the history of the time. + +In minor matters, where, as he says, "the Alcalde is himself the law," +Colton devised methods of appealing to the better instincts of the +wrongdoer. "There is a string in every man's breast," he writes, "which, +if you can rightly touch, will 'discourse music.'" Colton, we see from +his diary, put a sensitive finger on this string in many a heart. + +His ideas of punishment belong to the present. "It is difficult," he +says, "to discriminate between offences which flow from moral hardihood +and those which result in a measure from untoward circumstances. There +is a wide difference between the two; and an Alcalde under the Mexican +law has a large scope in which to exercise his sense of moral justice. +Better to err a furlong with mercy than a fathom with cruelty. Unmerited +punishment never yet reformed its subject; to suppose it is a libel on +the human soul." + +The following extracts from his account of cases brought before him are +representative: + + "A lad of fourteen years was brought before me today charged with + stealing a horse. The evidence of the larceny was conclusive, but + what punishment to inflict was the question. We have no house of + correction, and to sentence him to the ball and chain on the public + works, among hardened culprits, was to cut off all hope of + amendment and inflict an indelible stigma on the youth; so I sent + for the father, who had no good reputation himself, and placing a + riata in his hand, directed him to inflict twenty-four lashes on + his thieving boy. He proceeded as far as twelve, when I stopped + him; they were enough. They seemed inflicted by one attempting to + atone in this form for his own transgressions. 'Inflict the rest, + Soto, on your own evil example; if you had been upright yourself, + you might expect truth and honesty in your boy. You are more + responsible than this lad for his crime; you can never chastise him + into the right path, and continue yourself to travel in the + wrong.'" + + "Today I remitted the sentence of my prison cook. He is a Mulatto, + a native of San Domingo; had drifted into California, was attached + in a subordinate capacity to Colonel Fremont's battalion; and while + the troops were quartered in town had robbed the drawer of a liquor + shop of two hundred dollars. For this offence I had sentenced him + to two years on the public works. Discovering early some reliable + traits about the fellow, ... I soon made him cook to the rest of + the prisoners, and allowed him the privilege of the town, so far as + his duties in that capacity were required.... I have trusted him + with money to purchase provisions, and he has faithfully accounted + for every shilling. He has always been kind and attentive to the + sick. For these faithful services I have remitted the remainder of + his sentence, which would have confined him nine months longer, and + have put him on a pay of thirty dollars per month as cook." + +The Alcalde settled family difficulties of all varieties, from the case +of the grown son who struck his mother to that of the man who wanted a +divorce because of suspicions he entertained of his wife's conduct +during his absence in Mexico. The judge questioned the plaintiff +severely as to his own behavior during the stay in Mexico, and convinced +him that the wife, though indiscreet, was too good for him. + +[Illustration: From "_Sea and Shore_" + +WALTER COLTON + +Alcalde of Monterey in 1846. The position combined administrative, +judicial and even legislative duties.] + +After nearly six months as Alcalde, Colton writes: + + "Of the women I have had to deal with here the washerwomen are the + most unmanageable. Two of them entered my office today as full of + fight as the feline antagonists of Kilkenny. It seems they had been + washing in one of the pools created by the recent showers, when one + had taken that part of the margin previously occupied by the other. + War offensive and defensive immediately commenced. One drew a knife + which had a blade two mortal inches in length, and the other a + sharp ivory bodkin. But what their weapons wanted in terror, their + ungentle anger supplied. + + "At last one cried out: 'The Alcalde'; the other echoed it, and + both rushed to the office to have their difficulties settled. Their + stories ran together like two conflicting rivulets forced into the + same channel. When the tumult and bubble had a little subsided, I + began cautiously to angle for the truth--a difficult trout to catch + in such waters. But one darter after another was captured, till I + had enough to form some opinion of those that had escaped. These we + discussed till bitter feeling, like biting hunger, became appeased. + Both went away declaring either margin of the pool good enough, and + each urging on the other the first choice." + +One deficiency which Colton had to supply was the absence of a +penitentiary system. To quote: + + "There are no workhouses here, no buildings adapted to the purpose, + no tools and no trades. The custom has been to fine Spaniards and + whip Indians. The discrimination is unjust, and the punishment + ill-suited to the ends proposed. I have substituted labor, and now + have eight Indians, three Californians, and one Englishman at work + making adobes [sun-dried bricks]. They have all been sentenced for + stealing horses or bullocks. I have given them their task; each is + to make fifty adobes a day, and for all over this they are paid. + They make seventy-five, and for the additional twenty-five each one + gets as many cents. This is paid to them every Saturday night, and + they are allowed to get with it anything but rum. They are + comfortably lodged and fed by the government. I have appointed one + of their number captain. They work in the field; require no other + guard; not one of them has attempted to run away." + +Later, Colton had to deal with runaways; two Mexicans each telling him +that the devil incited their flight, while one fellow who stayed behind +in a jail delivery explained that he would not be seen running from +Tophet in such company. + +Of a convict who escaped and was brought back Colton says: + + "If he will only stop stealing he may run to earth's utmost verge. + He is rather a hardened character, but if he has a good vein in him + I will try to find it. I always like to see a fellow get out of + trouble, and sometimes I half forget his crimes in his misfortunes. + This is not right, perhaps, in one situated as I am; but I cannot + help it." + +[Illustration: THE FIRST PAPER PUBLISHED IN CALIFORNIA + +It measured only about 8x12 inches. The paper was established by Walter +Colton who had had journalistic experience as editor of the Philadelphia +_North American_. This issue was published scarcely a month after the +American occupation.] + +Colton decided that a new school house was necessary--"to be sixty feet +by thirty, two stories, with a handsome portico. The labor of the +convicts, the taxes on rum, and the banks of the gamblers must put it +up," he writes. "Some think my project impracticable; we shall +see,"--and he gives the following account of how some gamblers were made +to contribute to this enterprise: + + "A nest of gamblers arrived in town yesterday, and last evening, + opened a Monte at the hotel." + +After stationing a file of soldiers at the outer doors, Colton entered +to find no one, "save one Sonoranian, composedly smoking his cigarito. I +desired the honor of an introduction to his companions. At this moment a +feigned snore broke on my ear from a bed in the corner of the +apartment." + + "'Ha! Dutre, is that you? Come, tumble up, and aid me in stirring + out the rest.' He pointed under the bed, where I discovered a + multitude of feet and legs radiating as from a common center." + + "'Hallo there, friends--turn out.'... Their plight and discovery + threw them into a laugh at each other." He and his secretary found + others "in every imaginable position--some in the beds, some under + them, several in the closets, two in a hogshead, and one up a + chimney. Mr. R---- from Missouri--known here as the + 'prairie-wolf'--I found between two bed-ticks, half smothered with + the feathers. He was the ringleader, and raises a Monte table + wherever he goes, as regularly as a whale comes to the surface to + blow. All shouted as he tumbled out from his ticks. Among the rest + I found the Alcalde of San Francisco, a gentleman of education and + refinement, who never plays himself, but who, on this occasion, had + come to witness the excitement. I gathered them all, some fifty in + number, into the large saloon, and told them the only speech I had + to make was in the shape of a fine of twenty dollars each. The more + astute began to demur on the plea of not guilty, as no cards and no + money had been discovered, and as for beds, a man had as good a + right to sleep under one as in it. I told them that was a matter of + taste, misfortune often made strange bedfellows, and the only way + to get out of the scrape was to pay up. Dr. W---- was the first to + plank down. + + "'Come, my good fellows,' said the doctor, 'pay up, and no + grumbling: this money goes to build a school house, where I hope + our children will be taught better principles than they gather from + the examples of their fathers.'" + +Of how the labor of the prisoners united with the money of gamblers to +build the needed school, he writes: + + "One of the prisoners, an Englishman, ventured a criticism of the + stonework of another prisoner, which revealed the fact of his being + a stonecutter himself. I immediately set him at work at his old + trade. But he feigned utter ignorance of it, and spoiled several + blocks in making his feint good. I then ordered him into a deep + well where the water had given out, to drill and blast rocks.... + Finding that the well was to be sunk some twenty feet deeper, ... + he requested that he might be permitted to try his chisel again. + Permission was given, and he is now shaping stones fit to be laid + in the walls of a cathedral. He was taken up for disorderly + conduct, and he is now at work on a school house, where the + principles of good order are the first things to be taught." + +Colton gives an instance of trust justified on an occasion when, pressed +for funds, he created a "trusty." + + "The most faithful and reliable guard that I have ever had over the + prisoners is himself a prisoner. He had been a lieutenant in the + Mexican army, and was sentenced, for a flagrant breach of the + peace, to the public works for one year. I determined to make an + experiment with this lieutenant; had him brought before me; ordered + the ball and chain to be taken from his leg, and placed a + double-barrelled gun, loaded and primed, in his hands. + + "'Take that musket and proceed with the prisoners to the stone + quarry; return them to their cells before sunset, and report to + me.' + + "'Your order, Señor Alcalde, shall be faithfully obeyed.' + + "A constable reconnoitered and found all well. At sunset the + lieutenant entered the office, and reported the prisoners in their + cells, and all safe. + + "'Very well, José, now make yourself safe, and that will do.' He + accordingly returned to his prison, and from that day to this has + been my most faithful and reliable guard." + + "If there is anything on earth besides religion for which I would + die," Colton declares, "it is the right of trial by jury." And he + impanelled the first jury ever summoned in California. One-third + were Mexicans, one-third Californians, and the other third + Americans. The plaintiff spoke in English, the defendant in French, + the jury, save the Americans, Spanish--"and the witnesses all the + languages known to California." + + "The inhabitants said it was what they liked--that there could be + no bribery in it--that the opinion of twelve honest men should set + the case forever at rest. And so it did, though neither party + completely triumphed." He gives the credit for the satisfactory + termination of this polyglot case to "the tact of Mr. Hartnell, the + interpreter, and the absence of young lawyers." + +When Colton Hall, the first state capitol and the pride to this hour of +Old Monterey, was completed, Colton writes: + + "The town hall on which I have been at work for more than a year is + at last finished. It is built of a white stone"--now a beautiful + deep cream--"quarried from a neighboring hill, and easily shaped. + The lower apartments are for schools, the hall over them--seventy + feet by thirty--is for public assemblies. It is not an edifice that + would attract any attention among public buildings in the United + States; but in California it is without a rival. It has been + erected out of the slender proceeds of town lots, the labor of + convicts, taxes on liquor shops, and fines on gamblers. The scheme + was regarded with incredulity by many; but the building is + finished, and the citizens have assembled in it and christened it + with my name, which will go down to posterity with the odor of + gamblers, convicts and tipplers. I leave it as an humble evidence + of what may be accomplished by rigidly adhering to one purpose, and + shrinking from no personal efforts necessary to its achievements. A + prison has also been built, and mainly through the labor of + convicts. Many a joke the rogues have cracked while constructing + their own cage; but have worked so diligently I shall feel + constrained to pardon out the less incorrigible." + +[Illustration: COLTON HALL + +The Capitol of California in 1849.] + +[Illustration: THE RIVER ROAD, KEENE VALLEY, NEW YORK] + + + + +NEIGHBORLINESS AND A COUNTRY COMMUNITY + +SARAH LOWRIE + + +With the growth of large cities in our country and the desertion of the +farms for the town, there has been a less observable but quite as +remarkable desertion of the city in favor of the country. + +One would suppose that these two migrations would so balance each other +that neither the town nor the country would suffer by the exchange of +citizens. It would be reasonable to hope that going to the country would +bring just the right impetus needed by the stay-at-homes of each +community to brace them into new life. + +But the thing has not worked out that way. + +However much the shops and offices of the cities may have benefited by +the advent of the farmers' sons and daughters, and however much the real +estate agents and provision merchants of the country may have benefited +by the advent of the well-to-do towns-folk, the morale of the country +town, the ideals of the country people and the amalgamation of the +native men with their new neighbors into a better citizenship have not +prospered. Nor have the city institutions been able to replace the men +of affairs who, having ceased to use the city except as a means for +carrying on their business, have transferred their family and their +leisure interests into the country. + +The city churches, the city philanthropies, and the civic improvement +organizations all tell the same tale: the rich men, the special +executive men, the professional men, once their actual business +engagements are over, turn their backs on the city with a sigh of relief +and depart country-wards for rest and enjoyment for the night, for the +week-end, and for the summer vacation. The city loses them, and they +gain the country. But it must not be supposed that the country in any +vital sense gains them. A man who has professedly moved from the town to +the country for rest and pleasure, and who observably needs both, feels +as free as a debutante to enjoy what is set before him in the way of +diversion, with no moral obligation toward his neighbors but that of +paying with a wry grin the outrageous prices levied upon all outsiders +by the genial natives. + +Without quite meaning to, without indeed quite realizing it, the richer +men and women of this country, especially in our eastern states, have so +shifted the obligation of neighborliness that they have the air of being +transients everywhere and neighbors nowhere. Even their country places +are not theirs year in and year out for as long as a single generation. +We Americans like to change our minds and there is no telling what kind +of scenery or what style of architecture we may fancy next. + +One hears a great deal about the unfaithfulness of the Irish cook who +may "up and leave" any day that she hears of a chance of "bettering +herself" elsewhere; but the mistress's unrest is nothing to the plight +of the farmer when one considers the lottery of the city folks. The +gamble of his crops and the weather is nothing to this other gamble. For +the farmer knows that no power under heaven can keep the city man +satisfied with his site, his house with five bathrooms, his fancy +chicken run, and his concrete garage if the whim should take his wife +that the environment was no longer a suitable one for the children. +There is no romance, therefore, to the farmer about either his potato +crop or his city neighbor. He knows it is not philanthropy that led the +city man to buy five acres of poor farm land at the highest notch price, +and that no desire for his company has urged the new comer to plant his +house on the other side of the back pasture. Being a sensible farmer he +makes what profit he can out of his potatoes and his city neighbor +before either crop has time to depreciate in value. + +[Illustration: QUARTERS OF VISITING NURSE] + +"What are you city people for, but to be skinned?" was the frank remark +of one of my nearest country neighbors one day, apropos of an outrageous +bit of sharp dealing on his part as property appraiser for that +district. It was not a flattering summing up of a relationship, nor did +its grim humor hide any more indulgent version of our economic value as +neighbors. In fact we were not, nor ever had been accepted by him and +his kind as neighbors. We were a crop. A crop more lucrative than his +potatoes, but from our arbitrary and unexpected demands, and the +shortness of our seasons, and the variation of our types a much more +"pernickery" crop to deal with. Perhaps I should have been flattered by +his frankness, but I was not! For the moment indeed, I even resolved to +deal no more with him or his, but on second thought I concluded that, +although he would be the loser of some $200, I would be out a +wash-woman, a chore boy, many dozens of fresh eggs, many quarts of milk, +a care-taker for the house during the winter, and an immunity from his +cows in my garden in the summer. In fact, I stood to lose double as much +as he, if peace of mind and leisure to enjoy my home could be computed +in hard cash. I concluded therefore that it would not pay to get mad. + +But the remark rankled and in the end set this and that motive to work +in my mind until my brain and heart became fallow ground for the +cultivation of another sort of relationship than that of city folk and +native, buyer and seller, employer and employed, or even giver and +receiver. In the end we learned to be neighbors--he and I--not because +his ground adjoined mine, but because we both began to feel a common +civic interest in the same village and in the same country side, and +because in a very particular and picturesque sense we both shared in an +enterprise from which we both derived comfort and pleasure. The change +in me was greater than the change in him for he had always been +interested in the village life apart from his property, and apart from +his comfort, and during all the year. The bond that brought us together +was not the church, nor the library, nor the base-ball field--all +donations in times past of the summer people to the natives, but it was +the Neighborhood House, a donation from the country people and the +summer people alike, not to any particular class but to all the dwellers +in that mountain valley. + +Of course, I realize that the particular Neighborhood House, which fits +so well the need of our valley, might not do for just any valley. For +instance, our valley in the Adirondacks has a scattered population of +nearly a thousand people with two villages about five miles apart, and +several little settlements here and there among the hills. In the larger +village there are perhaps one hundred children in the school. The +nearest hospital lies twenty-four miles across a mountain road, and +several hours by boat across Lake Champlain at Burlington, Vt. An +infirmary that could be used by the natives for long illnesses, and by +the city cottagers for emergency operations was vitally needed; so our +Neighborhood House has a sunny airy infirmary and a perfectly equipped +little operating room. + +Our village and the country people and the lumber camps back in the +mountains can only depend on the services of two physicians, one of them +an old and feeble man. To supplement their visits and for emergency +calls for the summer visitors a district nurse was needed, so a +bed-room, bath-room, and pleasant sitting-room for such a nurse were +planned in the Neighborhood house to connect with the infirmary. To +supplement the somewhat limited primary grades in the village schools +and to provide occupation for restless little city children, a summer +kindergarten had been established and proved most successful, so on the +lower floor of the Neighborhood House a large, many-windowed room was +set apart to be used, not only for this purpose, but for adult classes +in domestic science, sewing, embroidery and dancing. There was no proper +room in the village for fairs, church suppers, glee clubs, rehearsals, +informal village meetings, etc. There was added, therefore, to this +large room a kitchen to be used in connection with it for such +entertainments and for cooking classes. There had been a successful +men's club in the village for years, but the women and girls had no +common meeting place and indeed no real center of interest outside their +homes. A woman's club room therefore was made an important part of our +Neighborhood House. It has an open fireplace, a store closet and +cupboards, a writing table, tea and game tables, comfortable chairs, and +a pretty color scheme, with prints and water colors on the wall, +oriental rugs on the hardwood floors, pleasant chintzes, books, and +flower bowls. + +[Illustration: CORNER OF WOMEN'S CLUB] + +Though the village women had been long accustomed to make extra +pin-money by selling eggs, maple sugar, balsam pillows, bread and cake, +and rag-carpet rugs, there has been no store where these things could be +ordered. We set apart one room in our Neighborhood House, therefore, for +a Village Exchange, which was open for three months in the summer. +During the winter months this pleasant little room was used by the boys +for a game room. There was no hotel or even boarding house in the +village for transient guests, which remained open throughout the winter; +so two guest rooms were set aside in our Neighborhood House to be used +by the strangers, lecturers, clergymen, visiting surgeons, and city +visitors who might pass that way during the late autumn and the winter +months. + +Neither the village people nor the summer cottagers were well supplied +with sick room appliances, and among the poorer citizens of the valley +there was even a lack of necessary articles for confinement cases, while +crutches, invalid chairs, and wheel chairs were difficult to procure in +an emergency by rich and poor alike. So an emergency closet, stocked +with such things was set aside for general use in the Neighborhood +House. The rooms in the rest of the house were the house dining-room and +kitchen, the pantry, cool room, linen and store closet, the stewardess's +bed-room, and an up-stairs sleeping porch for the infirmary, and a +splendid attic. Outside the house were the wood shed, earth closet, tool +shed and ice house, an ample vegetable and fruit garden, a lawn space +for croquet and tether ball, a small flower and shrub garden, and wide +verandas. + +The house was originally a boarding house, and the only additions which +had to be made to the original structure were the cellar, summer kitchen +and the sleeping porch. The total cost of these additions and of the +equipment and alterations including all gifts came to about $3,000. The +original purchase price of the property was $2500. The cost of +maintaining the house including the salary of the visiting nurse, the +wages of the stewardess, and all household expenses, as well as the +expenses of the summer school, extra service, etc., amount to about +$2,500 yearly. The income derived from patients in the infirmary, +transients boarding in the house, and out-patients' fees, exchange dues, +etc., amount to about $700 a year. + +I suppose in different localities expenses of such an enterprise as the +Neighborhood House would be dealt with in a variety of ways. In our +valley a number of men and women bought the property and made the +fundamental improvements. An association was then formed comprising as +many of the citizens of the valley as cared to join. The annual dues for +each associate member were fixed at one dollar. To this association the +owners of the property leased the house and grounds for a period of +several years. The duties of the association were to pay the taxes and +maintain the property in good condition, and their privileges were to +use the property for the benefit of the members of the association and, +as they saw fit, for the general good of the community. + +There were three kinds of memberships in the association: + + Active members $ 1 + Contributing members 10 + Sustaining members 50 + +Through this means the annual income of the Neighborhood House +Association amounts to about $1,800, irrespective of the income derived +from the fees, etc., mentioned above. Without any great strain on any +one's purse, therefore, the house has been maintained by the association +without a deficit. + +[Illustration: A HOMELIKE CORNER] + +[Illustration: LOOKING INTO THE SCHOOL ROOM] + +Towards the equipment of the house gifts were received to the amount of +$2,635.82. But besides these gifts of money, the village people +themselves donated both labor and building materials and furniture and +rugs. The summer kitchen, so far as labor was concerned, was the gift of +the village carpenters. The infirmary was furnished principally by the +women and the girls of the village who raised the money among +themselves. The farmers of the neighborhood donated wood, potatoes, +apples, etc., to the store closet. One man donated his weekly Sunday +paper, another the vines for the porches. One New York physician, whose +child had profited by the care of the visiting nurse, gave the sleeping +porch, three or four of the other physicians who had summer cottages +gave the surgical instruments for the operating room, the children of +the village brought plants for the garden, one old lady knitted +washcloths for the bath-room, the village house painter helped hang all +the pictures and the bracket-lamps, and the village artist helped raise +the money for the emergency closet by painting the scenery for the +benefit play. There was really a chance for every one to give to that +house, and with but few exceptions, every one did give, not only +willingly and generously, but eagerly and joyfully. + +And because each in his or her way had had a share in making that house +a Neighborhood House, the valley people, natives and cottagers alike, +promptly and without any self-consciousness turned heartily in and used +the house. It had never occurred to most of us that the village had +needed such a house, indeed the woman whose beautiful thought it was, +had died a year before the Neighborhood House Association was so much as +spoken of; but once it stood there, warm and glowing with its happy life +that winter night of its opening, there was no question as to its +usefulness all day long, summer and winter, in most of our minds. + +During the past year the visiting nurse has been occupied in and out of +the House over 2,600 hours and has treated fifty-four cases; the +infirmary has had seven patients with 160 hospital days; from the +emergency cupboard 300 loans have been made. The Women's Club has +eighty-two members and has met weekly for lectures and socials. The +Girls' Club with twenty-seven members has met once and sometimes twice +weekly. The Glee Club has held many rehearsals and gave a concert in +May. The sales from the exchange, open only in the summer, in two years +have amounted to about $900.00. The Village Improvement Committee has +held two farmers' institutes, has made progress in securing good side +walks, has planned for improved roads and tree planting, and has +arranged for a prize essay and oratorical contest by pupils of the +public school. During the past year there were about 5400 visits to the +house; the largest number of visits in one month was 1064 in December. + +The question may well be asked, however: Who guides these clubs and +classes, who arranges for these parties, who welcomes these guests, who +sees to it that the house is clean and orderly, that the meals are +properly served, that the patients are well looked after, that the +stewardess is up to her work? Who is the hostess, and who, at the close +of the house's festivities, speeds the parting guest? It would have to +be a woman of tact and gentle blood, for the village people would not +brook so much power lodged in any one who was less or even quite one of +themselves. It would have to be a person who lived in the valley both +winter and summer and who thus understood the conditions of both the +summer and winter life. It would also require one who understood the +care of an infirmary, as well as the care of the house, who could devise +sick room diet, as well as substantial meals for transient guests. +Fortunately for our Neighborhood House we found such a woman in our +visiting nurse and after some experimenting on other lines, she was made +the head of the house. She is a social worker when she is not required +in the infirmary or for out-patients, and when these last demand all or +more than all of one nurse's time, an emergency nurse is procured who +works under the head of the house. + +The fact that this head is a nurse has made our social worker the +confidant of many families to which another outsider would find but a +coolly polite welcome. The fact that she is a social worker makes her +interest in her cases widen to their families and remain after her +professional duties are no longer needed. Being the head of the house, +she can dictate as to the time of meals and the activities of the house +for the good of the infirmary patients, yet being the social worker, the +interest of the clubs and classes in the house are not needlessly +sacrificed to the whims of her patients. Her training as a nurse and her +experience has made her more executive than the ordinary young social +worker, but her authority as head of a house of so many interests and as +executive for so active and powerful an association, gives her prestige, +and with that prestige a power for self-development which utilizes the +best qualities she possesses. Moreover, in a country district such as +our valley, where sickness is the exception, a nurse who was confined to +her profession would have much idle time on her hands, and a social +worker who was solely a social worker might be discouraged as to the +slowness of the growth of her ideals in the minds of those about her. +For where people live twenty-five miles from the railroad, tomorrow is +always as good as today for beginning a new work. The women are, to say +the least, conservative, and the girls are shy about showing enthusiasm +for a new idea. The audiences for lectures arrive with sublime +dilatoriness, and the boys stay outside until they are quite sure that +what is going on inside is a roaring success. + +Of course, the head of the house has a comprehending executive committee +behind her. Of course, too, each department of the Neighborhood House, +infirmary, summer school, exchange, clubs, etc., has its own committee +and chairman. Her responsibilities, also, are only those of a trusted +agent and all her reports are filed for the benefit of the Association, +so that while each department depends practically upon her, she in her +turn depends upon each committee and upon the executive committee and +above all upon the able president of that committee for her inspiration +and encouragement in carrying out her share of the usefulness of the +house. All these good things did not come the first night the house was +open. They are fruits of a happy growth. There have been many minor +difficulties and prejudices and some evils to overcome. The prejudices +died easiest, one of them, the fear that Neighborhood House provided for +needs that did not exist, went most quickly of all. + +Last summer when an army officer from West Point lay convalescing in one +room, sharing his nurse with a little blind pauper baby, there was no +doubt as to the need of an infirmary for rich and poor. When the +exchange, which sold impartially the rag rug made by a guide's wife, the +oil painting of an artist, and the home-made candy of a school child, +and turned in $500 profits to its members, there was no doubt as to the +democratic practicability of the exchange. When the women came from the +Adirondack Club, and from the summer cottages to debate with the women +of the village on domestic science, there was no question as to the +success of the Woman's Club. And when the women of the church sewing +society came to count their gains from the country supper, and the +village Glee Club met to rehearse for its great concert, and the boys +invited the girls to their birthday suppers and the girls invited the +boys to their dancing classes, and the young married people of the +village invited last year's debutantes of far away cities to teach them +new figures and steps, and the clergymen who supplied the village church +and the lecturers sent by the government to answer the farmers' +questions about agriculture, all shared the hospitality of the house, +there remained no doubt in any one's mind as to its great usefulness to +the entire community. + +As to whether it has made neighbors of us all in the spiritual sense--as +loving one another as we love ourselves--that has not become noticeable +to a degree which has affected the price of eggs! And yet I noticed with +a pleasant thrill at my heart last summer that when a woman, quite two +miles away from my cottage, came down from her porch with a loaf of +bread which she insisted upon my taking as a gift from her baking +because she knew the bakery was shut and that I was in a sudden stress, +she called me: "Neighbor!" "For goodness' sake!" said she. "Don't you +dare to pay me. You'd do the same for me, I just guess! Aren't we +neighbors?" + +Yes, surely we are neighbors--we city folk and country folk! But it took +the Neighborhood House to teach us as a community the beginnings of the +art of neighborliness. + +[Illustration: THE NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE IN WINTER] + + + + +A NEW MINISTER TO MINDS DISEASED + +MICHAEL M. DAVIS, Jr. + +DIRECTOR BOSTON DISPENSARY + +AND + +MABEL R. WILSON + +SOCIAL WORKER, MENTAL CLINIC, BOSTON DISPENSARY + + +Early last June Mrs. R., a rosy-cheeked, attractive Irish-American woman +of thirty years, came to the mental clinic of the Boston Dispensary in a +depressed and emotional condition. She was obsessed by the idea that +every one in the world had syphilis, and that she in particular was a +menace to her husband and their three young children. So firm was this +conviction that she had seriously contemplated suicide. + +Four years previously Mrs. R. had shown distinct manifestations of +syphilis, and had received medical treatment. The infection the +physicians believed was accidental, and the husband and children had +proved, upon examination, to be free from any symptoms. For over a year +in Mrs. R.'s case Wassermann tests had indicated that the disease had +been cured; but the doctor's assurances were of no avail. + +The blackness of this patient's depression had almost wrecked her home. +For months she had not prepared a single meal. The patience of her +relatives and friends and of the priest of her church--who considered +her what she looked, the picture of health--was entirely exhausted. + +Ordinarily the income of the family was sufficient for self-support. Mr. +R., a bright, clean-looking young bar-tender, who was well thought of by +his employers, earned $18 a week. He had been making a desperate effort +to meet the extra expenses due to his wife's illness. The strain was +beginning to tell upon him, however, and the health of the children was +also falling below normal. The family lived in a five-room tenement in a +congested and undesirable neighborhood. Mrs. R. for this reason worried +constantly about the possible bad influences upon her two elder +children, who were just beginning to go to school. + +Thus the mental clinic faced an acute situation. If it were not +effectively dealt with it would, at worst, terminate in suicide, and, at +best, in breaking up a promising family. + +The facts just recited were, of course, not secured at the physician's +first interview with Mrs. R., but were in part gained by the social +worker in the clinic and at the home. It was apparent that the home +situation must be considered as well as the medical problem. There was +clearly a joint task for the social worker and the mental specialist. +Consultation led to the conclusion that the home arrangements would have +to be changed until Mrs. R. was able to undertake housekeeping again. A +long month of explanation and persuasion passed before the family, +friends, and priest were converted to a plan which involved the +temporary dissolution of the home. Consent was finally obtained, and the +children were placed by a children's agency. Probably most important of +all, the earnest co-operation of the patient herself was won. For four +months she reported at the clinic two or three times a week. After the +many interviews held with her by doctor and social worker, her +depression gradually cleared up, and she became ready to take up the +battle of life again. + +As improvement grew more marked, the doctor advised that she should work +three hours each day outside her home. Three hours' work every day in a +good restaurant was secured. The benefit was so marked that after a +month the doctor suggested that the working time be doubled. + +Mrs. R. now reports weekly to the clinic, but her depression has +disappeared. She is cheerful, interested in life, and is looking forward +to the re-establishment of her home this spring. + +Recent conferences on mental hygiene have emphasized the fact that the +traditional conception of mental disease, raving insanity, is far behind +the times. We recognize today that there are in the community all +classes of mental disorders, from the maniac or imbecile to persons who +are "just a little queer," or who, like Mrs. R., have a definite and +curable obsession. + +The time has also gone by when we associated the treatment of mental +disease with the straight-jacket. The hopelessly defective and insane +must indeed be segregated in institutions. But it is public economy to +diagnose and treat the great mass of incipient and curable cases of +mental disorder, since these, if uncared for, mean the wrecking of +lives, the breaking up of families, and material loss to the community. +The psychopathic clinic, or clinic for mental diseases, is an agency the +importance of which is now recognized by all who have given attention to +this field. Such clinics have usually been conducted in hospitals or +institutions which specialized in mental disorders. They have rarely +been managed as adjuncts of general hospitals or dispensaries. There is +a distinct place for them in this connection, however, for in this way +they catch patients who do not know that their troubles are really +symptoms of mental disease. + +Mrs. R.'s case illustrates not only the service of such a mental clinic, +but also the two chief agents in achieving the service, the +physician--specialist in mental diseases--and his aide, the social +worker. Mrs. R.'s case belongs to one of three classes of mental disease +which such a clinic can benefit--the incipient type. The second class +comprises cases of mental defect which require diagnosis and +institutional care. + +For example. Mrs. B., a middle-aged Irish woman, came to the clinic much +excited, fancying that people were locking her into her rooms. Among +other delusions she feared that she might injure her two children. + + The doctor diagnosed her case as involutional insanity, and thought + that immediate arrangements were desirable for her entrance into an + insane hospital as a voluntary patient. Mrs. B. did not remember + her street number, and undoubtedly she would have been a "lost" + patient if the social worker had not taken her home. Arrangements + were made and carried out for a transfer to the insane hospital + that same afternoon, and a children's agency agreed to assume + supervision of the children during Mrs. B.'s absence. The help of a + friendly landlady was also enlisted. + + Within three months Mrs. B. was discharged from the insane hospital + in excellent condition, with the understanding that she should + report regularly at the clinic. Her improvement continues. She is + at present earning good wages as a housekeeper and looks forward in + the future to a little store and the re-establishment of a home for + her children. + + Another illustration of this type is Mr. D., a German forty-eight + years old, who has been in the United States twenty years. + + * * * * * + + Mr. D. became known at the dispensary through his wife, who had + been a patient. The man went on periodic "sprees" at this time, + apparently because his work as an order clerk had occasioned + considerable nervous strain. Temporary financial assistance and a + new job outside of Boston, seemed to put the man on his feet again; + and, with a happier home life, his wife's health improved. + + In a short time, however, distinct symptoms of mental disorder + began to manifest themselves. Mr. D. talked much to himself, and + was haunted by doubt in everything that he did. If he put on his + hat he was forced to step in front of the mirror several times to + be sure that the hat was really on his head. After completing a + piece of work, he returned many times to make sure that it was + really done. Occasionally he remained at home in bed, because his + fellow workmen, noting his peculiar actions, had laughed at him. + Upon this basis a fear of meeting people grew up, and he shunned + every one. Once or twice he approached his wife threateningly. The + superintendent feared to keep him at the factory any longer, and + discharged him. After a careful medical examination, the prognosis + for the patient was not very favorable. A possible outcome was an + active and incurable form of insanity. It seemed necessary, in + order to have a reasonable hope of cure, that a radical change of + life be made. + + Therefore, Mr. D. was induced to go as a volunteer patient to a + hospital for the insane. There he remained six months, during which + time, with the assistance of the Associated Charities, suitable + quarters and light work were found for his wife. Mr. D. was allowed + to visit her weekly, until she became ill with an attack of + Bright's disease, which, complicated by cardiac symptoms, + occasioned her death. This loss retarded Mr. D's. recovery; but, at + the end of six months the hospital considered him sufficiently + improved to be discharged to the dispensary for continued + observation. + + At present, six months after his discharge, the situation is very + encouraging. Mr. D. is working most satisfactorily as a porter for + a large department store. He has secured an excellent room with + some old friends, has given up drinking, and, from his twelve + dollars a week, is paying back the advances made by the Associated + Charities. His "insanity of doubt" seems to have vanished, and his + outlook upon life is once more interested and hopeful. + +Still another case is that of R., a boy of eleven years. He was born in +Russia, of Russian Jewish parentage and has been in the United States +six years:-- + + R.'s own story of his first visit to the mental clinic, was in a + manic condition and talked incoherently. A week before his + appearance at the dispensary the child had returned from school in + a much disturbed state. Since that day he had not been able to + sleep, and had manifested great nervous depression with + hallucinations and had attempted several times to jump from the + window. + + R.'s own story to the physician was broken and confused. He talked + much of having been forced by his teacher to go down on his knees, + and insisted that his hair was on fire. He appeared a sensitive and + intelligent child. + + Investigation revealed no history of mental disease throughout the + families of both father and mother. A home visit by the social + worker showed that the family of seven lived in a four room + tenement in a congested and noisy Jewish section. The father was a + tailor with an irregular income. + + The boy was immediately sent to the psychopathic ward of the Boston + State Hospital, where the diagnosis of acute insanity was confirmed + and a week later R. was committed to the Danvers State Hospital. A + co-operative connection was established between the social worker + and the hospital physicians at Danvers who were in charge of the + case. After he had sufficiently recovered, the plan was made that + R. was to be placed in the country under the supervision of one of + the children's societies for a period of at least six months. Dr. + Mitchell, superintendent of the Danvers State Hospital, wrote in + approval of this arrangement. + + The plan was carried out with most successful results. At the end + of six months he was released from the parole of Danvers State + Hospital and returned to his home to report once a month to the + mental clinic at the dispensary. + + The social work in this case was not confined entirely to + arrangements for the boy, but extended to the preparation of the + family for his return, which involved moving to a less congested + neighborhood in a Jewish section of a Boston suburb. It was also + necessary to arrange for his attendance in an open air class, win + his teacher's interest and co-operation, and educate the father to + a realization of the need of discipline, the value of regular hours + for eating and sleeping, the desirability that the boy should sleep + alone, and the danger of exciting recreations. + + R. has now been at his own home for twelve months. A recent entry + on the medical record states: "Patient in excellent physical and + mental condition." + +The third class includes patients who have been discharged from insane +hospitals as cured, or as so much improved that they should be able to +maintain themselves and take part in family life again. + +This work of after-care is extremely important. Many cases of mental +disease can be safely discharged from an insane hospital if there is +assurance that they will be properly followed up in their homes. Such +supervision requires the joint efforts of the physician and the social +worker. + +Miss C., for instance, a woman of thirty-three years, was sent to the +clinic for after-care, by arrangement with the superintendent of the +insane hospital to which she had twice been sent for maniac-depressive +insanity. Her mother had also been a patient for years in the same +hospital. During the first weeks of her treatment at the clinic, she was +still nervous, complained of gnawing sensations in the back of her head, +and dreaded to ride in the street cars. When sitting, she constantly +pulled and twitched different parts of her clothing, beat upon the floor +with one foot, and kept one hand on her head, using the other one alone. +She lived with a married sister who was in comfortable circumstances, +and worked for her brother in an unprofitable little plumber's shop, +which he apparently kept mainly to afford employment for Miss C. and a +younger brother. + +With this history it was plain that careful oversight and regular +clinical visits were necessary to prevent future attacks. Advice and +encouragement were given with the object of stimulating Miss C.'s normal +interests and of persuading her to return to wholesome companionship. +During the summer of 1912 it was decided to remove Miss C. entirely from +home associations, and a desirable position as housekeeper was secured +in the country. There she gained in weight and spirits, and acquired +valuable experience. She still comes regularly to the clinic, and the +medical and social prognosis seems favorable. + +The value of organized social service in connection with the clinic for +mental diseases has been strikingly shown since its recent establishment +at the Boston Dispensary. In the department for mental diseases in this +institution, which is a large and long-established dispensary taking all +classes of diseases, a trained social worker was set at work in January, +1912. At the expiration of a year an efficiency test was made, comparing +the clinic during 1911, when the medical staff had no social worker to +assist them, with 1912, when she was at their service. The following +table summarizes this test: + + Increase + 1911 1912 Per Cent + + New Patients 125 213 70 + Old Patients no record 100 -- + Visits by New Patients 388 909 134 + Visits by All Patients 516 1568 203 + Cured or Substantially + Improved 19% 22% 16 + Cases Pending at End of + Year[8] 2% 22% 1000 + Transferred to Other + Agencies 16% 49% 206 + Patients Lost 27% 5.6% 90[9] + Relative Efficiency 43% 94% 118 + +[8] The increase of "cases pending" is due to the organized medical and +social follow-up work, whereby the patients are held at the clinic until +the physician feels that they may safely be discharged. Without this +service the cases do not "pend" because they are lost. + +[9] Decrease. + +The gist of these statistics is that, with the aid of a trained social +worker, it is possible to treat certain forms of mental disease +effectively in an out-patient clinic. The physician becomes able to keep +a grip upon all patients that he wants to hold. There is practically a +closed circle, and the results of treatment bear favorable comparison +with private work. It is not too much to say that such a clinic, +provided with a staff of interested mental specialists and with trained +social workers, can perform an important function in treating mental +disease and preventing its spread in the community.[10] + +[10] The preventive work of the clinic takes place in two ways: first, by +diagnosing cases of mental defect that ought to have institutional care, +and in securing this care for them by placing them or inducing their +families to consent to place them in the proper Institution; second, by +the education of patients and their families in habits of life and +principles of mental hygiene which establish a home environment +favorable to the preservation of mental health. + +The social worker at the Boston Dispensary works actually in the clinic. +Here she meets each new patient and takes a careful social history, +usually before the patient sees the physician. Often she is present when +the doctor interviews the patient, and always, after this interview, the +physician consults with the social worker. Then a plan of treatment is +made which includes the social as well as the medical factors of the +case. In a certain proportion of cases, home visits are not necessary. +The efforts of the social worker in the clinic itself are sufficient to +secure adequate treatment. Thus there appears a very important +classification of the kinds of social work required: + + 1. Patients presenting acute family problems of poverty, ignorance, + or undesirable home conditions and associations. These patients + require home visits and intensive social work. In the mental clinic + of the dispensary they constituted 48 per cent of the 141 patients. + + 2. Patients requiring a home visit simply for the purpose of + insuring the patient's return to the clinic--that is, cases in + which there were no complex home problems but in which it was + necessary to go to the home once in order to persuade the patient + to come back for treatment. This class at the Dispensary + constituted 20 per cent. + + 3. Patients to whom it was possible to give effective treatment by + clinical interviews only, without home visits. This class + constituted 32 per cent. + +Inasmuch as the cost of the service per patient (estimating the time +taken by the social worker) is enormously greater in class one than it +is in class three, it is highly important to make this classification, +and to keep a close watch upon the proportion of the different types, so +that the cost of the work as a whole, with reference to its efficiency, +can be accurately estimated. + +An efficiency study from this standpoint during 1912 leads to the +conclusion that the average cost per patient (the complete treatment of +a case) in class three is sixty cents; in class two, a dollar; in class +one, four dollars. The medical service is given gratuitously by the +physician. More extended studies in this and in other mental clinics +should be made in order to work out the cost figures more accurately. + +There can be no doubt, however, that even if the cost of medical service +were added, it is cheaper to treat mental diseases in the early stages, +when patients can retain their places in the community, wholly or partly +self-supporting, than to let the disease reach a point where permanent +damage is done, and the insane hospital is the only resource. + +That out-patient clinics should fill an important place in the new +nation-wide campaign for mental hygiene, there can be no doubt in the +mind of any one who has given attention to the matter. That organized +social service is not only a desirable accompaniment of such clinics, +but an essential condition of their efficiency, is a demonstrable and +measurable fact. + + + + +CIVIL WAR IN THE WEST VIRGINIA COAL MINES + +HAROLD E. WEST + +[_The Survey has not had staff or means to send a special representative +to the West Virginia coal fields to make an intensive investigation of +the conditions in the strike area. That is the sort of social +interpretation we shall hope to perform with the growth of the slender +resources of the Survey Associates. We have done the next best +thing--viz., turned to the most promising newspaper source._ + +_It has been current gossip among journalists that the press of West +Virginia could not be relied upon to tell the truth about the situation +in the Kanawha Valley. Of the metropolitan newspapers which up to March +had had staff representatives in the field, the accounts of the +Baltimore Sun stood out. They did not mince matters in telling of the +brutal murder by the strikers of the mine guard Stringer; nor did they +hedge in publishing what was done by the Cabin Creek and Paint Creek +Colliery Companies. Mr. West was the representative the Sun had sent +into the field, and from him The Survey requested an article, only +stipulating that it be fair to both sides and tell not only the events +of the strike but the conditions back of them._ + +_"The article may seem unduly to favor the miners," wrote the Baltimore +Sun man in sending it in. "I went to West Virginia absolutely +unprejudiced, with the idea of telling the truth about the situation. I +found conditions I did not believe could exist in America, and I am no +novice in the newspaper game, having seen some pretty raw things in my +time. I told the truth about them, and am afraid I have gotten myself +disliked."_ + +_The fairness of the article is disputed by Neil Robinson, secretary of +the West Virginia Mining Association. His protest is published in the +forepart of the magazine._--Ed.] + + +For nearly a year a state of turmoil amounting in practical effects to a +civil war has existed in the coal fields of West Virginia. The situation +centers in the Kanawha Valley, hardly more than twenty miles from +Charleston, the capital of the state. + +The military power of the state has been used with only temporary +effect; martial law has been declared and continues in force; the +governor of the state has been defied and denounced from the state house +steps and within his hearing; men and women have been thrown into prison +and are still there for espousing the cause of the miners, and the grim +hillsides of the canons in which the mines are situated are dotted with +the graves of men who have been arrayed against one another in this +conflict between capital and labor. + +Of course, there have been errors and excesses on both sides. The men in +the mines are not angels by any means, and neither are the men for whose +profit they work. But there has been no profit on either side for the +last year and it looks as if there would be none for a long time to +come. The men of both sides are pretty good fellows away from the mines +and the subject of mining; on the matter of mining, they show the +obstinacy of men who look at a proposition from but one point of view, +who see no justification of the position of those who oppose them and +who seem to have lost absolutely the sense of proportion. + +If the efforts made by William B. Wilson, former Congressman from +Pennsylvania and former secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers +of America, to have a federal investigation of the situation early in +the struggle, had been successful, the whole matter might have been +settled long since. But his resolution calling for a congressional +investigation was buried at the last session of Congress and was never +resurrected. + +Wilson charged that a condition of peonage existed in the mines and that +men were held there by force and compelled to work against their will. +The coal operators denied this vehemently, at the same time fighting +bitterly a federal inquiry. Evidence I was able to gather on a trip of +investigation to the mines convinced me that a form of peonage does, or +did, exist; that the miners were oppressed; that the rights guaranteed +under the constitution were denied them; that the protection of the law +of the state was withheld from them and the law openly defied and +ignored by the coal operators. These things were done, apparently, not +because the operators were cruel, but--the old story of +dividends--because they thought it necessary that a balance be shown on +the right side of the ledger, and because competitive conditions in the +coal fields were such that more of this balance had to be produced from +the men themselves than from the bleak hills in which they toil. + +The investigation is bound to come. Wilson is a cabinet member in the +new administration, and could of his own volition carry it on under the +broad terms of the act creating the new federal Department of Labor. But +there is another agency which may look into the situation. When fellow +members of the lower house balked Congressman Wilson's proposal, he +interested Senator Borah of Idaho and the latter promised to introduce +into the Senate, at the coming special session, a resolution calling for +a full and complete investigation, by a committee of the Senate, of the +whole situation in the West Virginia coal mines, including the question +of peonage, the use of mine guards and other means of oppression. This +would be a Senate resolution, it would not have to be concurred in by +the House of Representatives, and it is understood that Secretary Wilson +has votes enough pledged to pass it. + +Even the close of the strike which has been rumored the past fortnight +would not make such a fundamental inquiry during the spring and summer +inopportune, but rather a measure of precaution in anticipation of +future labor conflicts in the region. The fact that such an inquiry has +been actively contemplated is not generally known; information about it +has not been published in the newspapers, but has been given me for use +in THE SURVEY. + + +_Backward View of the Trouble_ + +The Kanawha trouble dates back about ten years. At that time the miners' +condition was good, as things go for men in the coal fields, and the +miners along Cabin Creek were organized. An ill-advised strike was +called then, and it resulted in a disastrous defeat for the miners. This +strike was ordered by officials of the union against the desire of the +miners directly affected and it is charged by Cabin Creek miners that it +was declared in the interest of the Ohio operators who desired to +cripple their West Virginia competitors. Some of these operators have +since admitted that they helped finance the strike. As long as the +trouble lasted, operators in competitive fields could gobble the +business of operators whose plants were shut down. Of course, after the +men had been beaten and the strike broken and non-union conditions and +wage scales went into effect, the competition was more bitter than it +had been before, yet the pickings were good while they lasted. That, +however, is all ancient history. + +Ever since the strike of a decade ago the men on Cabin Creek have been +restless. Conditions were burdensome although they were not so bad on +Paint Creek which was organized. The operators were out after business +and they cut prices on coal to the limit in order to meet the +competition of Illinois, Ohio and western Pennsylvania operators and get +a share of the "lake trade." For the driving force behind this civil war +in the hills of West Virginia is to be found in the coal bins of 10,000 +factories of the Middle West and beyond whose managers and workmen know +little or nothing of the struggle. + +By "lake trade" is meant the coal that goes to ports on Lake Erie for +transportation by steamer and barge to Detroit and as far as Duluth and +Superior for distribution throughout the Northwest. All the trade that +passes over the lakes, no matter what its ultimate destination, is known +as the "lake trade." The Pittsburgh operators have held that the opening +of the West Virginia fields was an economic blunder, that the lake +demand was no greater than Pittsburgh and Ohio could supply, and that it +was a mistake for the West Virginia operators to enter that field. The +latter took the position that they had the coal, and did not propose to +let it remain undeveloped because it would interfere with the market of +the operators of other fields. They would mine their coal and would sell +it wherever they could, and if they could grab a big share of the lake +trade they proposed to do it. It has been a battle of millions. + +To strengthen their position the Pennsylvania operators have bought +large blocks of West Virginia coal lands. The Lackawanna Coal Company +has, for example, secured control of the principal operations on Paint +Creek. + +The operators in the Ohio, Illinois, and most of the Pennsylvania +fields, get out their coal under terms as to hours and wages imposed by +their agreements with the United Mine Workers. In order to be in a +position to meet the growing competition of the West Virginia fields on +an even footing in the matter of labor, it is an open secret, that they +have given aid and comfort to the union in the effort to organize the +West Virginia field. They have been fighting on the other hand for a +reduction in their own freight rates or an increase in those of their +West Virginia competitors, they did not care which, as the consumer +finally pays the bill. Until a comparatively recent time, the rate from +the Pittsburgh district to Ashtabula and Cleveland has been 88 cents a +ton, while to Toledo and Sandusky, the rates from the West Virginia +field have been 97 cents and $1.12 a ton. + +Something more than a year ago the pressure on the railroads became so +great that a meeting of the officers of the coal carrying roads and the +operators from the Pittsburgh and the West Virginia districts was held +in New York in an effort to settle the difficulty. No agreement could be +reached and the roads, unable to resist the pressure of the Pittsburgh +operators advanced the rate from the West Virginia fields 9-1/4 cents, +making the differential in favor of the Pittsburgh field 18-1/4 instead +of 9 cents. + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood and Underwood._ + +CONFISCATED ARMS AND AMMUNITION + +The revolvers and rifles were taken from both mine guards and strikers] + +The West Virginia operators appealed to the Interstate Commerce +Commission for an investigation, and an order suspending the rate was +granted. Then John W. Boilleau, a big operator in Pennsylvania, demanded +a reduction of 50 or 55 cents a ton from the Pittsburgh district, +further complicating the situation. Early last year, the Interstate +Commerce Commission handed down a decision reducing the rate from the +Pittsburgh district 10 cents and held that the Chesapeake and Ohio and +the Kanawha and Michigan rates should remain as they had been but that +the Norfolk and Western rate might be increased. This decision resulted +in increasing the differential in favor of Pittsburgh to 19 cents. + +With this handicap in freight rates, the operators on Paint and Cabin +creeks say that it is impossible for them to pay the union scale and +submit to union conditions and keep going. It is a fact that although +the average price of coal in West Virginia for 1911 was a cent above the +price in 1910, many coal companies failed. Some mines have been operated +by receivers while others have been closed down on the ground that coal +cannot be produced at the mouth of the mines and put on the cars at the +price it brings in the market. Others are just about coming out even +while some are making money. + + +_Profits from Mine or Men?_ + +The strikers answer by charging that the losses and difficulties +incident to competition are many of them paper losses and paper +difficulties, that the mines would pay well under union conditions and +rates of pay if the mines were not working on an inflated capitalization +and were not endeavoring to earn money on a lot of watered stock. + +In one of the talks which I had with Neil Robinson, secretary of the +West Virginia Mining Association, he went into the cost of production +and told of the efforts of the Pittsburgh operators to shut the West +Virginia coals out of the lake trade. He produced the calculations of G. +W. Schleuderberg, general manager of the Pittsburgh Coal Company, which +were given in the lake rate cases before the Interstate Commerce +Commission, showing that the average cost of production in 52 mines, +including general office expenses, depreciation, royalty, fuel, +supplies, and labor, was 99.09 cents per ton of coal on cars. + +As against this, he showed a generalized statement, which he said was +based on actual working conditions in the Kanawha splint coal mines +indicating a cost of 99.11 cents on cars, a difference of two hundredths +of a cent in favor of the Pittsburgh operators. + +The Schleuderberg figures showed a total labor cost of 72.16 cents a +ton while Mr. Robinson's figures showed for the Kanawha fields a labor +cost of 65.66 cents a ton, a difference in favor of the Kanawha fields +of 6.5 cents, and if superintendence and certain other costs be +included, a cost of 63.78 cents, which is a per ton difference in favor +of the Kanawha fields of 3.38 cents. This would more than cover the +increase asked by the miners which is half of the Cleveland compromise +scale or approximately 2-1/2 cents a ton. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of the Coal Age_ + +ON GUARD + +A Cabin Creek rifle-woman before her tent.] + +Of course, there is the railroad differential in favor of Pittsburgh to +be considered. In spite of the differential of 9 cents against the West +Virginia field, which existed up to the time of the settlement of the +lake trade cases by the Interstate Commerce Commission, the West +Virginia operators shipped in 1910 to lake ports more than six million +tons of coal, a growth of over four million tons since 1906; or 125 per +cent and even with the differential spread to 19 cents, they are +shipping coal as rapidly as they can mine it. + +The explanation of the Kanawa Valley miners is that in their efforts to +capture the Lake Trade the West Virginia operators in competing with the +Pittsburgh district operators have been selling coal at less than cost +and making their profits out of their men. + +The miners told me that ever since the fight began their condition has +been becoming harder and harder to bear. One of the men, answering my +statement that the operators said they were barely meeting expenses +said: "Damn it, I know there is no money in coal at 80 cents at the +tipple; any fool knows that, but by God, they've got no right to take it +out of us." + +And that in my judgment is about the truth of the situation. Or, as Neil +Robinson explained to me in all seriousness: "Labor is simply a pawn in +the game." + +Yet the game has cost the state, the operators and the miners millions +of dollars and many lives, has caused untold hardship to women and their +children, has engendered a bitterness that a generation in time will not +heal and hatreds that will last a lifetime. + +In making that statement, I am convinced that Mr. Robinson did not know +how it would sound to one who puts the well-being of men, women and +children above the necessity of capital for dividends. He was simply +stating a business fact. I had several talks with him in the course of +my stay in the mine region and found him a cultivated, courteous man. I +think I got his point of view which coincides with that of the operators +generally. They seem to look upon labor as material, to be bought as +cheaply as possible and to be utilized in the manner which will be most +profitable to the mine investments. + +Whenever I went in to see him to discuss the situation he immediately +produced account books, and books of statistics and began giving me +figures. The whole case of the operators, he seemed to think, could be +shown by the books and the balance sheet. He told me of tonnage, cost of +production, railroad freight rates, yield on investment, the yield of +competitive fields and the cost of operation in those fields, +capitalization and rates of dividends. But of the human side, he had +substantially nothing to say. Of the outrages of the miners--and they +have been numerous--he spoke with bitterness, but of the outrages +committed upon them he was silent. + +Of course, figures such as Mr. Robinson produced are important but they +are not everything. The trouble is that the operators do not seem to be +able to see beyond them into those desolate little cabins under the +everlasting hills, to the rights of men, to the causes that make for +anarchy--that have made for anarchy, in this very region. + + +_The State at Stake_ + +It is hard to tell just how many men have been out in recent months. +Five thousand would be a fair estimate. And remarkable as it is, these +men have been able to hold out through a winter--and winters are severe +in those West Virginia mountains--and they enter the spring and the long +season, when cold does not fight them from the ranks of their opponents, +full of cheer and determined to continue the industrial war in which +they have engaged. + +It must be remembered that this fight is not simply one between miners +and operators on Paint and Cabin Creeks. It is localized there, but +every miner and every operator in the state is involved more or less +directly. It is really a fight for the unionizing of the entire coal +fields of West Virginia, now largely non union. + +If the operators stamp out the effort to restore unionism on Paint and +Cabin Creeks and prevent its going further than it has already gone on +Coal River it will mean the checkmating of unionism in the coal fields +of the state. Fights will be made, one after another, in places where +the United Mine Workers have organizations and they will be broken up as +they were broken up on Cabin Creek ten years ago. Once broken, they will +not be permitted to be formed again. + +If, on the other hand, the miners win, their organization will be pushed +first into one field, then into another, until the whole state shall +have been unionized. It will take them years to do this. This explains +the extreme bitterness of the present fight, each side practically +staking its all on this one throw. Of course, the operators do not admit +that they are battling to crush out unionism in the state and the +officials of the mine workers' organization do not talk much about +extending the fight to other fields if they win in this. That is their +purpose, nevertheless. + +The miners are receiving assistance from other operators in non-union +parts of the state. All the resources of the United Mine Workers of +America are being thrown behind the miners. As explained to me by +perhaps the most prominent man in the organization a few days ago, there +is now no big fight on hand anywhere else in the country, and there has +been none for a year. This has enabled the mine workers to collect a big +fund and they are still collecting. The organization's war chest is kept +in good shape by contributions from every mining district in the nation +and all this will be poured into the Kanawha field if necessary. In +addition to this, the miners again have the sympathy, if not the active +co-operation, of the operators in the Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio +fields where the union scale is paid. + +In fact, the operators in the fields which are organized look upon their +brothers who have been able to prevent the union getting a hold in their +operations very much as the union laborer looks upon the non-union +laborer, although the operator is not so frank in expressing his +opinion. He is perfectly willing to upset the labor conditions in his +competitors' operations and aid the laborers in making their fights. And +the operator in the unorganized field is perfectly willing to see his +competitors' fields organized to the limit. + +The country in which this war between the miners and the coal companies +is taking place is as wild as any that lies out of doors. Cabin Creek +Junction is sixteen miles east of Charleston and Paint Creek Junction is +seven miles further east. On Cabin Creek the railroad runs south along +the bed of the creek sixteen miles to Kayford while on Paint Creek the +road extends for twenty-two miles. These creeks are little streams, +ordinarily, which sometimes reach the proportions of torrents, flowing +along the bases of the mountains. The elevation of the creek beds above +tide ranges from 800 to 1,000 feet, while the tops of the hills which +rise abruptly on both sides of each creek are from 1,000 to 1,500 feet +higher. The sides of these hills are so steep that only an experienced +mountaineer can climb them, yet here and there near the creek beds the +miners have raised little patches of corn and vegetables. + +[Illustration: MOTHER JONES] + +The workable veins of coal lie high up on the sides of these hills, and +from each mine mouth a track leads to the coal tipple below from which +the coal is dumped from the mine cars to the cars of the railroad which +runs beneath the tipple. Here and there at the base of either of these +ravines is a narrow strip of flat land, and on these flats, the mining +villages are located. At places the bottom of the ravine is so narrow +that there is not room for the railroad track, the creek bed and the +county road, so the road runs along the bed of the creek and is +impassable at times of high water and oftentimes in the winter. + +It is estimated that before the strike began, there were approximately +10,000 men, women and children living along Cabin Creek and somewhat +more than half that number along Paint Creek. A train runs up each creek +in the morning and there is another in the afternoon and if you happen +to miss the afternoon train out there is no way out except to walk, and +walking is very difficult in that country. + +[Illustration: MINERS' HOMES LEASED FROM MINE OWNERS + +_Courtesy of the New York Sun_] + +For that reason little real news of the exact condition of affairs has +reached the outside world. Newspaper men are decidedly unwelcome along +the creeks; that is, their presence is distasteful to the mine owners. +Few strangers had been allowed to enter the creeks for a long time prior +to the entry of the militia last summer, without explaining their +business to some man, and usually a man with a gun. Ordinarily a +stranger would not get beyond the junction of the main line and the +branch road. If the explanation of his business did not happen to be +satisfactory, he was told to get out. If he demurred or showed a +disposition to argue he was frequently beaten up. If he got up the line, +his chances of getting beaten up were largely increased. One labor +organizer told me that a couple of years ago he was pulled off a train +and kicked into insensibility by the mine guards and when he recovered +was made to "walk the creek" in water up to his waist because he had +gone up Cabin Creek to see what the labor conditions were. + + +_The Mine Guards_ + +These mine guards are an institution all along the creeks in the +non-union sections of the state. They are as a rule supplied by the +Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency of Roanoke and Bluefield. It is said the +total number in the mining regions of West Virginia reaches well up to +2,500. Ordinarily they are recruited from the country towns of Virginia +and West Virginia, preferably the towns in the hill country, and +frequently have been the "bad men" of the towns from which they came. +And these towns have produced some pretty hard characters. The ruffian +of the West Virginia town would not take off his hat to the desperado of +the wildest town of the wildest west. + +These Baldwin guards who are engaged by the mining companies to do their +"rough work" take the place of the Pinkertons who formerly were used for +such work by the coal companies. Since the Homestead strike in the steel +mills years ago when the Pinkertons fired into the strikers and killed a +number of them, this class of business has gradually drifted away from +the Pinkertons and much of it has been acquired by the Baldwin-Felts +agency. + +In explanation of the employment of these guards, the operators say that +their property must be guarded, that the state does not give them +sufficient protection. Men who do service as mine guards cannot be +expected to be "ladylike." They deal with desperate characters and are +constantly in peril. The guards act on the principle that they must +strike first if they are to strike at all, and evidence shows that they +have not the slightest hesitancy about striking first. The operators +also say that it is necessary to require explanations of strangers in +order to keep out labor agitators and to prevent the miners from being +annoyed and threatened by them. + +No class of men on earth are more cordially hated by the miners than +these same mine guards who are engaged to "protect" them from annoyance +by outsiders. Before the state troops went into the region and took +their rifles away from them, the mine guards went about everywhere, gun +in hand, searching trains, halting strangers, ejecting undesirables, +turning miners out of their houses and doing whatever "rough work" the +companies felt they needed to have done. Stories of their brutality are +told on every hand along the creeks. Some are unquestionably +exaggerated, but the truth of many can be proved and has been proved. + +In spite of the work they do some of these Baldwin men seem to be decent +enough chaps to those who are not "undesirable," and they are, for the +most part, intelligent. But they are in the mines for a definite +purpose. They understand what that purpose is and they have no hesitancy +about "delivering the goods." They seem to have no illusions about their +work. It pays well and if brutality is required, why, brutality "goes." +Whenever possible they are clothed with some semblance of the authority +of the law, either by being sworn in as railroad detectives, as +constables or deputy sheriffs. + +But for all that a number have been indicted for offenses ranging from +common assault to murder. In every case, however, bail has been ready +and it is rare that charges against them have been brought to trial. +Some of the assault cases in which they have figured have been of great +brutality, yet rarely has any serious trouble resulted for the guards. +They go about their work in a purely impersonal way. If a worker becomes +too inquisitive, if he shows too much independence, or complains too +much about his condition, he is beaten up some night as he passes under +a coal tipple, but the man who does the beating has no feeling against +him personally; it is simply a matter of business to him. + +Just what the services of the guards cost the coal companies is +difficult to learn. The companies contract with the Baldwin-Felts agency +for them and the sum they pay is kept a secret. It is generally +understood that the guards get about $5 a day, or between $100 and $125 +a month. A man in the mines who knows one of them intimately told me he +"picked up his gun" for $105 a month. When a man joins the Baldwins he +"picks up his gun," and that stamps him forevermore with his former +associates if they were of the laboring class as an enemy and a man who +has turned his back on his class and his kind. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United Mine Workers' Journal_ + +A GROUP OF STRIKERS' CHILDREN] + +Unless the miners are beaten in this fight, and utterly and completely +beaten, there will never be a settlement of the difficulty here until +the mine guards are driven from the region. "The mine guards must go," +is the slogan of the striking miner everywhere. His going is of more +importance than an increase in pay. There will be no lasting peace in +the region until they are gone. All over the state when the situation in +the Kanawha valley comes up for discussion you are told that the mine +guards are at the bottom of the trouble. They are the Ishmaelites of the +coal regions for their hands are supposed to be against every miner, and +every miner's hand is raised against them. They go about in constant +peril--they are paid to face danger and they face it all the time. But +they are afraid, for they never know when they may get a charge of +buckshot or a bullet from an old Springfield army rifle that will make a +hole in a man's body big enough for you to put your fist in. A number of +guards have been killed since the trouble began, and it is generally +understood that some of these were buried by their fellows and nothing +said about it, there being a disposition down in the mines not to let +the other side know when either side scores and gets a man. + + +_Beginning of Hostilities_ + +Preparations for the warfare, which began in April of last year, had +been going on for months before the actual opening of hostilities. The +miners on Paint Creek began buying old Springfield rifles which the +government had discarded and which were offered in quantities by junk +dealers and department stores in Charleston. There had been rumors of +trouble, and the Paint Creek miners who were organized had received +intimations that Cabin Creek conditions would be established in their +operations. There had been no mine guards on Paint Creek for they are +seldom seen in union operations. The miners had received information +that the operators would not sign the scale for the new year but would +repudiate the union and bring in the guards. + +Their information proved correct. When the Kanawha Operators' +Association met to consider the scale, the Paint Creek operators +declined to sign it and withdrew from the association. The miners struck +and the guards appeared over night. A big fight took place at Mucklow +when the first blood was spilled in the trouble. It has been spilled in +quantities since with more or less regularity. + +The companies immediately prepared for a long fight. Miners were evicted +from their homes and many of them have since been living in tents +furnished by the United Mine Workers. Machine guns were imported and +mounted in concrete fortifications that were hurriedly built on the +roofs of the company stores and mounted in positions of vantage in the +hills. Whisky, cartridges, rifles and machine gun ammunition were +brought in in large quantities. + +The strike spread at once to Cabin Creek and from the beginning the +warfare has been more serious on Cabin Creek than it has been on Paint +Creek. More machine guns were established on Cabin Creek than had been +planted in Paint Creek. The situation grew so threatening that Governor +Glasscock ordered out the militia early last August at the solicitation +of the mine owners. By that time almost every man on Cabin Creek had his +rifle and ammunition, hidden but where he could get at it without +trouble. For the most part the arms were smuggled in over the hills. The +mine owners informed Governor Glasscock that the miners were armed and +were threatening to wipe out the mine guards, one of the guards, William +Stringer, having been slain in a most brutal manner. The miners did not +ask for protection, saying they could protect themselves. It is +generally believed that they were waiting for some particularly bad move +on the part of the guards, when they proposed to exterminate them if +possible. The mine owners expected that when the troops came they would +disarm the miners but allow the guards to retain their rifles, in other +words, and to put it very plainly, they expected that the militia would +be used as an additional force against the miners. But when the troops +began disarming the guards as well as the miners they protested most +vigorously. But for every rifle taken away from a guard in the early +days of the trouble, dozens of new ones were brought in. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of the United Mine Workers' Journal_ + +A TENT VILLAGE OF STRIKERS + +The deserted town is in the background] + + +_Martial Law_ + +Governor Glasscock's attitude pleased neither the operators nor the +strikers. The miners at the outset wanted him to proclaim martial law, +to search the whole place, run out the guards, take their arms away from +them and take the machine guns out of the improvised forts. They +received the soldiers with open arms--no set of soldiers ever went into +a strike region and received a heartier welcome. In the presence of the +troops, the guards had no terrors for the miners, and even the children +were unafraid. + +When martial law was really proclaimed, however, the strikers did not +like it. The law was enforced with vigor and a number of the strikers +were put in prison for violating the law against unlawful assemblages. +The shoe had begun to pinch and it pinched pretty hard before the +soldiers were withdrawn. It was a mistake to take away the troops before +the strike had been definitely settled. It would have cost the state a +good deal to have retained them after things quieted down, but if a +comparatively small force had been kept, it is hardly likely that the +recent trouble would have occurred, and it would not have been necessary +to send the soldiers back and proclaim martial law a second time. Then +many lives would have been saved. + +The trouble that followed the withdrawal of the troops could have been, +it seems, foreseen by almost any one. One of the miners said when I was +in the mines: + + "Hell is going to break loose here as soon as the troops are + recalled unless the mine guards go out at the same time. They have + it in for us and we have it in for them. As soon as the troops go + out, we fellows who have been working to unionize this region are + going to catch it. But when they start something the fun will + begin. + + "If you want to see some hot doings just wait around until the + troops go. Conditions such as prevail here are a disgrace. The like + of them does not prevail in any civilized country on the globe. And + we are not going to stand them any longer. I have never had to kill + a man and hope never to be compelled to kill one, but I would kill + a dozen of these guards as I would kill so many rats if they should + attempt to lord it over us as they have been accustomed to do. And + I would do it with a perfectly clear conscience." + +The man who made this statement was killed in one of the recent fights +in the valley. I saw his name in the list of the dead. + +One of the things that give the coal operators such complete control of +the men who work for them is the ownership of great tracts of land. +Everywhere you are confronted with a notice that you are on private +property. + + +_Landlordism_ + +Because the West Virginia mining villages are nearly all on private +property, the operators owning the highways as well as the houses of the +miners, they can control their going and coming and determine who may or +may not visit them and talk with them. It is idle to say that the men +can come and go as they please, as the operators claim. Each individual +among them has the right to go from his home to the mine and back again +and to travel on the county road, which is merely an excuse for a +highway. But he has not the _right_ to go from his own home to that of a +fellow workman nor has his wife and children. When they do so, it is by +the sufferance of the mine owner, unless they go by the county road and +then half the houses cannot be reached. It is idle to say that this +power is not exercised by the operators. It is. I have seen it +exercised, and this very fact contains a serious menace to the country. +I talked it over one day with Governor Glasscock in the early days of +the trouble. + +"How can it be remedied?" he asked. "The whole situation bristles with +problems like this. In this case you are up against a man's +constitutional right to control his property as he sees fit and to keep +trespassers off it." + +Such a situation offers a serious problem in government. Take Cabin +Creek alone, with its branches to Kayford and Decota. There are more +than twenty square miles of territory in which live ordinarily about +12,000 persons. In all that territory there is scarcely a place in which +a man may go without being under surveillance, and except at the little +"free" or incorporated town of Eskdale, hardly a house into which a +friend may be invited for a drink of water except by the grace of the +coal companies. + +The miners say that such a condition is un-American. They want it solved +and they do not care how it is to be solved. While this matter is not +put in the list of their demands, it is one of their serious grievances. +Here are the things they are demanding: + + Abolition of the mine guard system. + + A reform in the system of docking. + + The employment of check-weighmen on the tipples to represent the + miners and to be paid by the miners. The law provides for these + check-weighmen, but this law is ignored by the coal companies. + + Permission for the men to trade where they please without + discrimination against them for so doing. + + The payment of wages in cash every two weeks and not in script or + credit cards. + + Improved sanitary conditions, with the requirement that the + companies remove garbage and keep the houses in condition. + + Payment for mining coal on the basis of the short ton on which the + coal is sold and not on the basis of the long ton, on which it is + at present mined. + + Rentals of houses based on a fair return on their cost with + allowance for upkeep and electric lights on the same basis. + + The nine hour day--the men now work ten hours. + + Recognition of the union. This implies, in the bituminous districts + of the middle West, the check-off system by which the companies + deduct from the pay envelopes of individual miners not only the + charges for powder, rent, medical attention, store accounts, etc., + but also for union dues which are turned over to the union + treasuries direct. This method of recognizing the union has been + most vigorously opposed by the operators in the anthracite + district. + + An increase in pay. This last the miners regard as the least vital + of all their demands as a present issue. + + +_Charges as to Peonage_ + +It has been charged that a condition of peonage exists in some of the +mining districts of the state. This is a subject on which the operators +are very sensitive. They deny vehemently that such a thing is possible. + +Peonage, as it is usually understood, means compelling men to work under +duress until debts they may owe are paid. It is a violation of state and +federal laws. + +Men who come into the mines usually have little or no money. Sometimes +their transportation into the mines is paid and they are charged with +the cost of it on the books of the companies employing them. They are +given a cabin to live in and if they have no money when they start and +seem to want to go to work in good faith they are given credit for small +amounts at the company stores. Accordingly, unless the miner is an +unusually thrifty fellow, he is usually in debt at the start. + +Miners have told me that in the Cabin Creek region they are paid only +once a month, but when they start in, they are not paid any cash for +sixty days, the first month's pay being held back. In the meantime, +however, after they have earned sufficient money to pay the rent and +other charges in connection with their cabins, their school tax, burial +tax of twenty-five cents a month, their assessment for the maintenance +of the mine physician, and sometimes an item for "protection" which is +an assessment for the pay of the mine guards they will, "on +application" be given a "script card" entitling them to purchase from +the company store goods to the amount indicated on the card. On the +edges of the card are figures and the amounts purchased are punched out +very much as the waiters in a quick lunch restaurant punch out the +amount of a customers order on his check. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of the New York Sun_ + +SOLDIERS IN CAMP AT CABIN CREEK JUNCTION] + +These script cards will not, it is said, be given to a miner for the +total amount which stands to his credit on the books of the mine +company, but is usually for $2 or $3 if the man has that amount due him +after deductions are made for rent in advance and other charges. If a +man is very anxious however, to have some cash, a clerk in the store, +will, it is said, discount his script card, charging him 25 per cent. + +For the first two months, then, the miner, who starts out in debt, has +to get everything he needs from the company stores. The prices at these +stores are high, much higher than the miner would have to pay elsewhere +for exactly the same grade of stuff. For the most part, the grade of +goods sold at the company stores is much higher than is usually +purchased by laboring men and their wives when they buy where they +please. Here are some of the prices I found prevailing at stores along +Cabin Creek: + + Eggs 35 cents a dozen; "white bacon," pure fat and popularly known + as "sow belly" 18 cents a pound; smoked bacon 22 cents a pound; + white sugar 20 cents for a two pound bag; lard 15 cents a pound; + brown sugar 15 cents a pound; coffee 30 cents a pound; tomatoes 15 + cents a can; peas 15 cents a can; corn two cans for 25 cents; + cheese 30 cents a pound; bread 5 cents a loaf; flour $7 a barrel, + and salt 5 cents for a two pound bag. Salt is not sold in bulk. + +Compelled to buy at high prices, it can be readily seen that a man +cannot save much money, although it is a fact that a few of the very +thrifty ones have rather respectable bank accounts. So when the average +fellow starts out in debt, he usually stays in debt. His work is hard +and he eats heartily when he can. Then the miners' wives have never been +taught how to make much out of little or to conserve their resources, so +there is naturally much waste in cooking, much is spoiled and much is +poorly prepared. + +All this tends to keep the man in debt. At the end of his two month's +work he may have couple of dollars coming to him or he may be still in +debt and if he is in his house a day over the first of the month, rent +in advance is charged against the first money he earns even though he +and his family may be in need of food. Sometimes he does not get any +cash for months, and you have to have cash to get out of the mines for +the railroads will not permit the miners and their families to travel +without paying fare. + +Most of these people have no one outside on whom they may call for help +in leaving the district, and without money, they must stay in the mines +and work. Heretofore their best means of getting out was to develop +strong union tendencies and to talk about the necessity of organizing. +Then, if they were not beaten up, their fare was sometimes paid, and +their furniture and families moved to some other point. Once out, +however, it would be unpleasant for them to try to get back. + +A point is made by the operators that they have offered to pay the fares +of any of their men and of their families, including transportation +charges on their household goods, to Charleston or to fields operating +under union conditions. It is a fact that such offers have been made and +because the miners did not avail themselves of the offer, it is cited +against them as unreasonable, and that they did not care so much about +bettering their condition as about harassing the operators. + +As a matter of fact the men do not care to leave the region. They are +engaged in a fight to unionize it and are as anxious to succeed as are +the operators to prevent them from doing so. "Stay where you are and +unionize your district but do not crowd into organized operations," is +the advice given by the union organizers. That is why the unions in the +other districts are supporting the strikers and have been doing so for a +year. + + +_The Glasscock Commission_ + +Last summer after the mine companies refused point blank to be a party +to the appointment of a commission by the governor for the investigation +of the situation in the mines, Governor Glasscock appointed one anyway. +Bishop Donahue, the Catholic bishop of Wheeling, S. L. Walker, and Fred +O. Blue were appointed as commissioners. Extracts from the report of +this commission are interesting: + + "From the cloud of witnesses and mass of testimony figuring in the + hearings, there emerges clearly and unmistakably the fact that + these guards [the mine guards referred to heretofore] recklessly + and flagrantly violated in respect to the miners on Paint Creek and + Cabin Creek, the rights guaranteed by natural justice and the + constitution to every citizen howsoever lowly his condition and + state.... Many crimes and outrages laid to their charge were found + upon careful sifting to have no foundation in fact, but the denial + of the right of peaceable assembly and of freedom of speech, many + and grievous assaults on unarmed miners show that their main + purpose was to overawe the miners and their adherents and, if + necessary to beat and cudgel them into submission. We find that the + system employed was vicious, strife prompting and un-American. No + man, worthy of the name, likes to be guarded by others, armed with + black jacks, revolvers and Winchesters whilst he is endeavoring to + earn his daily bread.... We are unanimously of the opinion that the + guard system as at present constituted should be abolished + forthwith." + +The commission also found that the company stores overcharged the +miners, that the system of docking was unfair to the miner, and that a +system of blacklisting of miners prevailed. + +On the other hand the commission found that in a general way, the miners +in the Paint and Cabin Creek districts were fairly well off, that their +wages were above the average prevailing in the organized fields, that +their cabins were above the average, and that the rent, while "slightly +excessive" was not exorbitant, and that the sanitation was "as good as +can be expected." On the question of wages, the commission found that +the annual wage of miners in West Virginia for the years 1905-1911 was +$554.26 while the average annual wage of miners on Paint and Cabin +Creeks "is from $600 to $700." It will be noticed that in the first +instance a definite, fixed figure is given for the average. In the other +the statement is a general one "between $600 and $700." + +The statement is also made that "a minute examination of the pay rolls +discloses the fact that 16 or 17 days' work a month constitutes a high +average and that many engaged in the mines _decline_ (the italics are +mine) to labor more than 12 or 14 days." + +There are two sides to this. The "unwillingness" of the miners to work +more than a certain number of days a month is proved to the satisfaction +of the commission by an "examination of the pay roll." As a matter of +fact in most instances the reason the men do not work more days in a +month is due to the system of "crowding" which prevails all over the +non-union districts of West Virginia. This is one of the things the +miner complains about most bitterly. It is worked in this way: An +operation has, say a capacity of 200 men. On the pay roll of that +operation may be anywhere from 300 to 400 men. All these men cannot work +in the mine at one time, but the company always wants to have plenty of +men on hand. So the men are allowed to make but little more than half +time. The advantage to the operators is that the more men they have the +more cottages they will rent, the more mouths there will be to feed from +the company stores, and the more money collected for physicians' fees, +insurance and other things for which the miners have to pay. It is +absolutely true that the men do not work more than from 12 to 17 days a +month, but the pay roll will never tell you the real reason. The men +want to work, but they are not permitted to do so. + +As to the cabins being above the average--they may be. I went into some +of them. I would want a more comfortable stable for my horses. The +greater number of the cabins contain four rooms each and are absolutely +without any sanitary or other arrangements for the convenience of the +occupants. Some few are larger and some are smaller but the four room +cabin is the type. They are nearly all alike, built of rough lumber and +roofed with a composition roofing such as is bought by the roll. The +rental is on the basis of $1.50 per room per month. A four room cabin +costs $6 a month, a six room cabin costs $8 or $9. But take the average +four room cabin at $6, the yearly rate is $72. That is interest at 6 per +cent on $1,200. The labor cost on these houses was not more than $40 +each on the average. Including the land on which the houses stand they +did not cost the companies more than $300 each. Six per cent on $300 is +$18. + +Now, the houses are put up as much for the convenience of the companies +as for the miners. There would be no coal mined unless the miners had +houses in which to live, so a 6 per cent rate on the houses would seem +fair. But even allowing 10 per cent, the rate would be $30 instead of +$72. At the rentals charged these houses have paid for themselves over +and over again and everything the companies get out of them now is pure +"velvet." I would call the rental charges exorbitant rather than +"slightly excessive" as the commission finds. + +As a matter of fact, that Glasscock commission report will not bear +close analysis. It is a straddle, made so perhaps in order to protect +"the good name of the state." I do not believe that it is accurate in a +number of particulars. I do not believe that the average wage of the +miners on Paint and Cabin Creeks is between $600 and $700. A good miner +will average $2.50 to $3 a day for the days he works. The impression is +sought to be created that many of the miners have money in bank. Some of +them have, undoubtedly, but they form an exceedingly small percentage of +the whole number. I know that as soon as the strike was called the vast +majority of the miners and their families had to be supported by the +union. I saw wagon loads of provisions sent up to the head of Cabin +Creek to feed those who were hungry and who had nothing coming to them +according to the books of the companies and who could get nothing at the +stores. + +As a matter of fact the whole truth has never been told of the real +conditions existing in the mines of West Virginia. One of the most +illuminating pieces of testimony available to the non-partisan +investigator is that of former Governor W. M. O. Dawson. Governor Dawson +sent a special message--a rare document and hard to find now--to the +legislature of 1907. Three cases of peonage in lumber camps had been +called to his attention by Secretary of State Elihu Root at the request +of the Italian ambassador. In his message Governor Dawson declared +without equivocation that a system of peonage existed under the guard +system. One of these cases resulted in what he called a "wanton murder" +as a result of a controversy as to whether the murdered man owed $1.50 +for the railway fare of his son. The man was killed by a guard. The +governor goes on: + + "The use of guards in this state is not restricted to cases like + these under investigation. They are used at some of the collieries + to protect the property of owners, to prevent trespassing, and + especially to prevent labor agitators and organizers of the miners' + union from gaining access to the miners.... Many outrages have been + committed by these guards, many of whom appear to be vicious and + dare devil men who seem to aim to add to their viciousness by + bulldozing and terrorizing people. It is submitted in all candor + that it is not to the best interests of the owners of these + collieries to employ such lawless men or to justify the outrageous + acts committed by them. + + "In certain parts of the state miners are oppressed and wronged. + They are compelled to work in ill-ventilated and otherwise unfit + mines. They are cheated in the payment of the compensation for + their labor. They work on the condition that they receive so much + per ton for the coal mined by them, the coal is not weighed but is + calculated by the mine car. These cars, at least in some of the + collieries, are rated at a capacity of two and one half tons, + whereas they often have a capacity of four tons and in some cases + even up to six tons, but the miner is paid for only two and a half + tons, for all above that he mines, he gets no pay whatever. This is + robbery of the poor and oppression of the weak. At some of the + stores conducted by the collieries the miners are charged + extortionate prices for merchandise. This is likewise robbery of + the poor and oppression of the weak." + + +_Mother Jones_ + +The developments of the winter have been under the regime of a third +governor, who came to the state house at a season when part of the +commonwealth was under martial law. In March came the trials of a number +of the strikers and their sympathizers--approximately fifty--by a +military court on charges of inciting to riot, conspiracy to murder and +conspiracy to destroy property. Among those in prison is Mother Jones, +the "Stormy Petrel of Labor" who is always present in big labor +disturbances, especially those of the miners and the railroad men. She +has given the best part of her life to the cause of laboring men and +they adore her. + +This old woman, more than 80 years of age, was in the mines when I went +there and I got to know her well. She passed the word along to the men +that I was "all right" and reticent as they are to strangers, they told +me their side of the case without reservation. + +I have been with Mother Jones when she was compelled "to walk the +creek," having been forbidden to go upon the footpaths that happened to +be upon the property of the companies and denied even the privilege of +walking along the railroad track although hundreds of miners and others +were walking on it at the time. She was compelled to keep to the county +road although it was in the bed of the creek and the water was over her +ankles. I protested to the chief of the guards saying that no matter +what her attitude might be, no matter how much she might be hated, that +she was an old woman and common humanity would dictate that she be not +ill treated. I was told that she was an old "she-devil" and that she +would receive no "courtesies" there, that she was responsible for all +the trouble that had occurred and that she would receive no +consideration from the companies. + +I was with her when she was denied "the privilege" of going up the +foot-way to the house of one of the miners in order to get a cup of tea. +It was then afternoon, she had walked several miles and was faint, +having had nothing to eat since an early breakfast. But that did not +shut her mouth. She made the speech she had arranged to make to the men +who had gathered to hear her although they had to line up on each side +of the roadway to avoid "obstructing the highway," a highway that was +almost impassable to a wheeled vehicle and on which there was no travel. +And in that speech she counseled moderation, told the men to keep +strictly within the law and to protect the company's property instead of +doing anything to injure it. + +I had several long talks with her. When she speaks to the miners she +talks in their own vernacular and occasionally swears. She was a normal +school teacher in her early days, and in her talks with me in the home +of one of her friends in the "free town" of Eskdale, she used the +language of the cultured woman. And this is the old woman whom nearly +all the operators in the non-union fields fear, and whose coming among +their workers they dread more than the coming of a pestilence. They now +have her safely in jail. + +When I left the field[11] the conflict was still on. It seemed likely to +continue until one side or the other gave in. The presence of the +military could only bring about a peace that is temporary. Having held +out through the winter, the miners were preparing to hold out through +the spring and summer and autumn if necessary, and the United Mine +Workers of America were preparing to back them up with all the resources +of the national organization. + +[11] Since the writer left the district an unavailing effort was made to +secure from the civil courts an order restraining the military +commission from conducting the trials of those held on charges of +participation in various deeds of violence in connection with the +strike. Later, however, Governor Hatfield who, as head of the military +forces of the state, has the power to review the acts of the military +commission, discharged from custody a majority of those held. + +Recently negotiations have been carried on between the miners' union and +one of the large companies involved in the strike with the result that +there is a possibility of a settlement being effected in that quarter, +though the matter remains _in statu quo_ until the return from the +tropics of the president of the company. Recently some of the troops +have been withdrawn from the strike zone, though martial law is still in +force. + +[Illustration: _Courtesy of the Coal Age_ + +MILITIAMEN ESCORTING PRISONERS TO COURT MARTIAL] + + + + +SOCIAL FORCES + +By EDWARD T. DEVINE + + +CONSTRUCTIVE RELIGION + +Greed, selfishness, privilege, injustice, exploitation, ignorance, and +neglect are the seven deadly sins of modern civilization. These evils +are alike in this, that they all have their roots in defective or +abnormally developed character. Weakness and pathological strength are +their opposite but closely related and interdependent poles. + +Revolution will not exterminate them, except that revolution within the +soul of man which transforms weakness and moral disease into health and +normal vigor; which eats away the abnormal excrescence of harmful +qualities and transforms the monster into a sane and self-controlled +individual. + +Laws will not of themselves exterminate the least of the social evils, +save as they correspond to a previous clear recognition of their wisdom +and justice in the free minds of citizens. If graft and privilege +express the habitual manner of doing business, the natural mental +reaction of the average man of the community, then it will be true, as +an investigating committee has said, that there is no virtue in the +legislative printing press. + +Philanthropy is no cure for the evils which cause crime, poverty, +squalor, and degeneracy. It is a necessary means of dealing with certain +definite conditions, but those conditions are symptoms of ulterior +maladies which the charitable relation does not reach. Neither +alms-giving nor preventive measures touch the real sources of +regeneration and health. + +Education, in the specific sense of preparation for efficient work and +the development of the mental powers, such education as by mutual +consent we expect from our public schools, does not begin early enough, +or last long enough, or go far enough into the fields of personal +habits, ideals, and motives to guard even against ignorance, at least +that kind of wilful and appalling ignorance which prevents half the +world from knowing how the other half lives, even when the facts are +spread abroad equally in official reports and in popular literature; +that kind of ignorance which blinds the eyes of the more favored of +fortune and blasts the tender shoots of altruism which their hearts here +and there put forth. If education cannot prevent even ignorance of this +kind how much less can it be regarded as a remedy for deliberate +exploitation and conscienceless greed. + +If neither revolution nor laws nor yet formal education can cure these +root evils, is there no cure? There is one potent, wholly efficacious +cure, and that is such teaching and such an experience as will supplant +selfishness and greed by generosity and compassion, the desire for +privilege by the desire for equal opportunity, the instinct of injustice +by the passion for justice, the tendency to exploit by the tendency to +nobly serve, ignorance and neglect by a clear-eyed and persistent +determination to know and understand and to act on that knowledge and +understanding. This teaching, wherever it is carried on and in whatever +name, is essentially religious teaching, and this experience, seizing +upon the individual, is nothing else than a religious conversion. This +is not to distort words from their established and usual meaning but +only to apply them as they must be applied. + +No rich and educated Jew can justly claim a share in the glorious +traditions of his religious faith if he oppresses the poor and crushes +the needy; if, lying upon beds of ivory, inventing instruments of music, +drinking wine in bowls, and anointing himself with the chief ointments, +he is not grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, if he afflicts the +just, or takes a bribe, or turns aside the poor in the gate from their +right. The afflictions of Joseph are different in these days, the form +of bribery has changed, the rights of the poor from which they are +turned aside are not precisely those which the prophet Amos had in mind; +but the teachings remain, and the curse upon those who "rejoice in a +thing of nought" may not unprofitably ring in the ears of Jews and +Christians with all the old time authority and effect. + +But how about the position of the prosperous and influential Christians +professing a law of love, the son-ship of all men to a common Father, a +gospel of good will embracing justice and implying obligations +stretching in all directions infinitely beyond justice, but never +denying it in the least iota? If this profession is not arrant hypocrisy +or pure self-delusion, the faith which he holds will instantly expel +the very evils from which we suffer, and nothing else except such faith +will expel them. Religion goes to the very roots of character, cleansing +the evil nature, revealing new motives, illuminating the mind, +trans-valuing values, strengthening the will, lessening the power of +temptations, setting the feet on safe paths, giving a new meaning to +common experiences and a new zest to life. + +The question remains whether this kind of constructive religion, this +vital, living and vibrant faith, is to be found today in the churches +and synagogues, or whether it has departed from its ancient altars, +perhaps to reappear in strange disguises in the labor movement, in art +or poetry or philosophy, or among humble people who do not have the +means as yet of expressing the new impulses. + +It is a grave question--for the churches. One interesting indication +that it is to be answered in favor of the continued claim of the +existing religious bodies to represent the main current of flowing +religious faith, work, and thought is to be found in a new journal which +appeared on the news-stands in March with the captivating title _The +Constructive Quarterly_. Silas McBee, former editor of the _Churchman_, +is its editor, but it is to have no "editorial pronouncements." + +What is distinctive about this new periodical is that it is to work for +a better understanding among the various communions of Christendom, +building on what the churches are actually believing, doing, and +thinking. It is not seeking neutral territory where courtesy and +diplomacy would tend to avoid issues and round off the sharp edges of +truth and conviction, but rather common ground where loyalty to +conviction will be secure from the tendency to mere compromise and to +superficial and artificial comprehension. In the first number there is a +striking array of able articles from Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, +Evangelical Protestants, from Europeans and Americans, clergymen and +laymen. It will be difficult to maintain so high a standard; but the +idea is an inspiring one and deserves to succeed. + +The tragedy of ecclesiastical history in all ages is the spilling of +blood and treasure by the churches in warfare against other forms of +faith. It is true that the decay of religious controversy has usually +meant a decay of interest in religion. A writer in the _Quarterly_ +quotes Tennyson as having said, "You must choose in religion between +bigotry and flabbiness." What the present venture is in some measure to +test is the possibility of laying aside hostility while yet maintaining +_esprit de corps_, to act in the spirit of Von Moltke's dictum, "March +apart, strike together!" + +The success of the effort will depend on the clear perception of the +enemies against which the allied forces of religion are to strike, or +dropping the figure, on the concentration of effort on the positive +results which the forces of organized religion are to seek to secure in +the social order. These lie partly at least, avoiding dogmatic +exaggeration, in those social relations in which the evil tendencies to +which we have referred are so apparent. The religion which is +constructive is one which makes men unwilling to exploit the vices or +weaknesses of their fellow men, and at the same time makes the other men +unexploitable, which destroys privilege through just laws, impartially +enforced, and upheld by enlightened public opinion, which dispels +ignorance by full and exact knowledge bearing fruit in sound measures of +social reform, which protects the sub-normal and emancipates the +handicapped from their limitations, which permeates education, business, +politics, and eventually the entire social life. + +There may be other tests of true religion, but these are concrete, easy +to understand and to apply. They have ancient and sufficient sanction. +They are unsectarian and non-controversial. + + + + +STRANGE INCENSE + +CARY F. JACOB + + + _A tiny, tangled head bent down + Within a city's gutter-- + A laughing face of tan and brown + Amid the rubbish of the town._ + + _Mud-pies and broken glass all day + Bring fairyland from far away + To thee, sweet innocence, at play._ + + _But mud-pies blacken; glass gives pain, + And laughing eyes are turned to gain + 'Mid cold and hunger, snow and rain._ + + _God shield thee, tangled head bent down + Within a city's gutter! + Poor lily of the noisome town! + Strange incense, shed o'er stranger ground!_ + + * * * * * + + Transcriber's Notes: + + Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. + + Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant + preference was found in this work; otherwise they were not changed. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Survey, Volume XXX, Number 1, +April 5, 1913, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43625 *** |