In the first six chapters an attempt has been made to set out certain difficulties with which foreign-born family groups are confronted on arrival. It has become clear that certain services skillfully rendered might prevent a great deal of needless suffering, discomfort, and waste, and also greatly facilitate the adjustment of the family to the new surroundings. The services that would be appropriate to the needs of all housewives might be classed under (1) the exercise of hospitality; (2) supplying information and opportunities for instruction; (3) assistance in the performance of household tasks. Suggestions that these services might prove useful are not based wholly on theory, and attention may at this point be directed to the work of certain agencies which have attempted to do these various things.

The suggestion has been frequently made that the immigrant should be the object of certain protective care during the journey across the ocean and on arrival.[53] The proposal here is that the community would gain enormously through the creation of devices for the exercise of a community hospitality. This should include the receiving and distributing of new arrivals in such a way as to assure their being put into touch, not only with their relatives and friends, but with the community resources which could be of special service as well.

Attention has been called to the efforts put forth by organizations among the foreign-speaking groups. The possibility of their more efficient and wider activity should be always kept in mind. But the work of the Immigrants' Protective League of Chicago, in behalf of unaccompanied women and girls, illustrates both the nature of the task and the way in which the development of such services requires a familiarity with the governmental organizations and a capacity for utilizing official agencies not to be found among the groups most needing help.

IMMIGRANTS' PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

The work of this society has been referred to a number of times, and its methods and special objects should perhaps be briefly summarized. Its organization in 1907 grew out of a desire to assist the immigrant girls coming into Chicago, with special reference to their industrial relations. The objects described in the charter of incorporation are, however, much wider than this. They were:

... to apply the civic, social, and philanthropic resources of the city to the needs of foreigners in Chicago, to protect them from exploitation, to co-operate with the Federal, state, and local authorities, and with similar organizations in other localities, and to protect the right of asylum in all proper cases. (By-Laws, Art. II.)

The services of the organization have been taken advantage of by members of all the national groups in Chicago, and these services have included meeting immigrant trains and distributing arriving immigrants to their destination in the city, prosecuting the agencies from which the immigrant suffered especial exploitation, visiting immigrant girls, securing appropriate legislation, and in general making known to the community the special needs of the newly arrived immigrants.

The League has from the beginning made use of the services of foreign-speaking visitors, and the volume and success of its work has varied with the number of these visitors, the extent to which they represented groups in need of special aid, and their skill as social workers. At the time of the publication of the last report, the following languages besides English were spoken by these visitors: German, Bohemian, Italian, Lettish, Lithuanian, Magyar, Polish, Russian, Slovak, and Yiddish. Many aspects of its work do not bear on this discussion, but the following brief passages from the annual reports indicate the way in which the work in behalf of unaccompanied girls developed.

During the past year and a half the League has received from the various ports of arrival the names and addresses of the girls and women destined for Chicago. All of these newly arrived girls and women have been visited by representatives of the League able to speak the language of the immigrant. Four, and part of the time five, women speaking the Slavic languages—German, French, Italian, and Greek—have been employed for this work. In these visits information has been accumulated in regard to the journey to Chicago, the depot situation, the past industrial experience of the girls, their occupation in Chicago, wages, hours of work, their living conditions, the price they pay for board, and whether they are contributing to the support of some one at home. On this basis the League's work for girls has been planned. (Annual Report, 1909-10, p. 13.)

In these visits many girls needing assistance are found. The most difficult ones to help are those for whom the visitor sees a danger which the girl is unable to anticipate. Often a girl is a pioneer, who comes in advance of her family, and the friend or acquaintance whom she knows in Chicago undertakes to help her in finding her first job and a place to live, and then leaves her to solve the future for herself. If she should be out of work or in trouble she has no one whom she can ask for advice or help. In cases of this sort all that the visitor can do is to establish a connection which will make the girl feel that she has some one she can turn to in case of trouble or unemployment. (Annual Report, 1909-10, p. 15.)

Sometimes the League's visitor can do little more than offer the encouragement which the girl so much needs during the first few years in America. Usually she tries to persuade the girl to attend the nearest night school; sometimes she helps her in finding work, or a proper boarding place; sometimes, when the immigrant is educated, she has to quite sternly insist that any kind of work must be accepted until English has been learned. Some girls are discovered only after it is too late to prevent a tragedy. In the cases of two girls, one Polish and the other Bohemian, who had been betrayed by the uncles who had brought them to this country, the results were especially discouraging because the efforts to punish the men failed and one of the girls who had suffered so much from the uncle whom she thought she could trust was deported. (Annual Report for the Year Ending January 1, 1914, p. 11.)

It is clear that such a plan involved the distribution of information from the ports of entry to the places of destination,[54] and the development of instrumentalities through which the immigrant on arrival at his destination can be placed in contact with those from whom help of the kind needed could be expected. A nation-wide network of agencies for such hospitality, with headquarters at the ports of entry, is seen to be necessary from the descriptions of the services to be rendered. The development of such machinery by the Federal Immigration Service, as at present organized, may be unthinkable; but with a change in personnel and with a wider understanding of the nature of the problem, the apparently impossible might be realized.

In the meantime, the service need not wholly wait on this remote possibility. There are agencies, both public and private, which with enlarged resources might undertake a considerable portion of this task and develop more completely both the methods of approach and a body of persons skilled in this particular kind of service. Such work as that done on a small scale by the Immigrants' Protective League is especially instructive. The resources of that organization for all its tasks have been limited, so that visitors have been only to a slight extent specialized, except in the matter of language. But with enlarged resources, so that a larger number and better trained visitors might be employed, this gracious and important hospitality might be widely exercised.

A NATIONAL RECEPTION COMMITTEE

As this visiting developed among the different groups, several results could be anticipated. Just as the needs of the unaccompanied girls have been learned in this way, the needs of the families in the different groups could become more exactly understood, and devices for meeting those needs more efficiently worked out. It would perhaps be possible to urge the woman to learn English when she is first confronted with the strangeness of her situation, and before she slips into the makeshifts by which she later is apparently able to get on without learning English. Instruction in English might be made to appear the path of least resistance, if it were made attractive and available to the immigrant housewife at a sufficiently early moment.

These visitors might preferably be English-speaking members of the foreign-speaking groups. If there were a sufficient staff, they might also render many similar services to other women in the foreign-born groups. They could persuade those who have not yet learned English to come into English classes; they could organize groups for instruction in cooking, child care, house and neighborhood sanitation; and gradually accumulate both additional knowledge as to the need and experience in meeting it.

A point to be emphasized in connection with this service is that it is not related in any way to the problem of dependency, but is directed wholly toward meeting the difficulties growing out of the strangeness of the newcomer to the immediate situation. By developing a method for lessening the difficulties connected with the migration of any group from one section to another differing in industrial or social organization, light would be thrown on analogous problems such as the movements among the negroes from the South to the North during the war, or of the mountain people to the cotton-mill villages at an earlier date.

Another point to be emphasized is that while the method of approach and of immediate service can be developed independently, and while the amount of discomfort and genuine distress that can be prevented is very great—as is shown in the experience of families whom such organizations as now attempt work along this line have aided—the opportunity for swift and efficient adjustment will be dependent on the development of a body of educational technique.

It has been made clear that there are certain kinds of information that should be given to the newcomers, with reference, for example, to the change in the legal relationships within the family group, the new responsibilities of the husband and father, and the rights of wife and children to support. Attention has been called to the need of giving instruction regarding sanitary and hygienic practices, with reference to the new money values, and to the new conditions under which articles of household use are to be obtained, to the requirements in food and clothing, particularly for the children, in the new locality as compared with that from which the family comes. And, as has been suggested, above all there is always the question of teaching English.

Sometimes the necessary facts can be conveyed briefly and immediately. Sometimes patient individual instruction will be necessary. Sometimes group or class instruction will be the proper device. It is highly important, then, that these various forms of instruction be developed into a technique. Courses of instruction to be given according to these different methods to those for whom a particular method is appropriate must be organized, and a body of teachers developed.

The question then arises as to the extent to which this task has been undertaken and the agencies that have undertaken it. As to the first great body of material, it may be said to have been ignored. Only when one is summoned to the Juvenile Court of Domestic Relations, or when one learns of another's being summoned, is the body of family law called to the attention of the group. In English, in cooking, and child care, some agencies have attempted instruction. They are the public school, organizations like the Immigrants' Protective League, the State Immigration Commission, the social settlement, recreation centers of various kinds, the Young Women's Christian Association in its International Institutes. The possibilities in the work of these agencies are numerous.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL

The public school touches the foreign-born family at two points: First, in the compulsory education of the children, and second, in the opportunities that it offers to the adult members of the family to learn English, to fit themselves for citizenship, and to adjust their lives to the new community.

The adaptation of the public schools to these tasks belongs properly to another section of this study.[55] In so far, however, as the school contributes through its attitude toward the parent to a breakdown in family discipline, and in so far as it tries or does not try to instruct the foreign-born housewife in the art of housekeeping, it is concerned with problems that are primarily family problems. It may be of interest, then, to cite certain evidence obtained from foreign-born leaders and typical foreign-born families as to the relationship existing between the schools and foreign-born parents, the methods used by the schools in the education of foreign-born women, and their apparent success or failure.

Reference has already been made to the place that the school sometimes plays in the breakdown of family discipline, because of ignorance on the part of the teachers concerning the social and domestic attitudes prevailing among the foreign-born groups.

The school has, in fact, been able to take so little account of the mother that so long as things run fairly smoothly she is usually unable to realize that she has any place at all in the scheme. Again and again, to the question as to whether she visits the school where her children go, comes the answer, "Oh no, my children never have any trouble in school." As long as they are not in trouble she is not called into consultation. She may even be made to feel quite unwelcome if she is bold enough to visit the schoolroom, so she very soon comes to the conclusion that the education of her children is really none of her business.

Sometimes the teacher thoughtlessly contributes to the belittling of the parent in the eyes of the child. An Italian man tells the story of a woman he knew who whipped her boy for truancy and then went to consult the teacher. But instead of a serious and sympathetic talk, the teacher in the child's presence upbraided the mother for punishing the child. The child of foreign-born parents, as well as the native-born child, often learns in the public school to despise what is other than American in dress, customs, language, and political institutions, and both are thus influenced to despise the foreign-born parent who continues in the old way.

There is, of course, often a failure on the part of the teacher to uphold the dignity and authority of the parents in the native-born group, and the need of bridging the gap between school authorities and parents has been recognized by the organization of the Parent-Teachers' organization as well as of the Patrons' Department of the National Education Association. It may be that at a later date, when certain general fundamental questions of co-operation have been dealt with, devices for meeting the difficulties of special groups of parents will be developed.

On the subject of courses of instruction attention has been called to the many points at which the foreign-born housewife needs instruction and assistance in familiarizing herself with the new conditions under which she lives. When there exists such a universal and widely felt need which could be filled by giving instruction in a field in which the material is organized and available, the opportunity of the school is apparent. Not only courses in English, in the art of cooking, in the principles of selection and preservation of food, but those describing the peculiarities of the modern industrial urban community as contrasted with the simple rural community, could be planned, methods of instruction could be developed, and regular curricula could be organized.

There are, to be sure, certain inherent difficulties to be met in the instruction of housewives. The old saying, "Man's work is from sun to sun, but woman's work is never done," has been so long accepted as the expression of the inevitable that it is difficult to persuade anyone, most of all the housewife herself, that she can manage to give an hour or two a day to learning something new. Her time seems never her own, with tasks morning, afternoon, and night.

Nor is it only a question of overwork. Undoubtedly careful planning is uncommon, and the tradition that woman's place is in the home has its effect. In fact, there is a vicious circle; she cannot study because her housekeeping is too arduous, but it is so partly because she does not take time to learn better ways of doing her work.

There is, moreover, among most housewives, whether native or foreign born, a certain complacency about housekeeping and bringing up children. Housekeeping is supposed to come by nature, and few women of any station in life are trained to be homemakers and mothers. If they take any training it is generally designed to fit them to earn a living only until they are married. They do not realize how useful certain orderly instruction might be.

Moreover, instruction for foreign-born housewives must include the subjects needed for homemaking as well as English. Having survived the first hard adjustments it is difficult to persuade the foreign-born mother that she has any need for speaking English when housekeeping is all that is expected of her. The situation is often complicated, too, by her age at immigration and her lack of education in the old country, which make her particularly ill-fitted for ordinary classroom instruction.

Besides these difficulties there are certain prejudices to be met. The middle-aged woman does not wish to study English in classes with her children of working age or others of their age. She dreads the implication of this association. Many of the foreign-born mothers also have a hesitancy about going into classes with men, as they feel a mental inferiority, and many prefer not to be in classes with students from other national groups.

The most frequent criticism by immigrant leaders interviewed is the inelasticity of the public-school methods. The classes are usually held three or four nights a week, and no housewife should be expected to leave home as often as that. The groups are composed of both men and women and of all nationalities, disregarding well-known prejudices that have already been mentioned.

A more fundamental criticism than these has reference to the failure to adopt or devise new methods of instruction for persons who cannot read or write in their own language, and who have arrived at a period in their lives when learning is extremely difficult. The classes are often conducted in English by day-school teachers, who are accustomed to teaching children and who are entirely unfamiliar with the background of the immigrant woman and her special problems.

There are reports also of the unwillingness of the school authorities to relax formal requirements, with reference to the minimum number for whom a class will be organized. Often it is necessary to "nurse the class." In Chicago sixteen women have in the past been deprived of a class because the Board of Education refused at the time to open the schools to groups of less than twenty.

THE HOME TEACHER

The home teacher in California is an interesting educational device, of which much is to be expected. The Home Teacher Act, passed by the state legislature April 10, 1915,[56] permits boards of school trustees or city boards of education to employ one "home teacher" for every five hundred or more units of average daily attendance. The home teacher is

to work in the homes of the pupils, instructing children and adults in matters relating to school attendance and preparation therefor, also in sanitation, in the English language, in household duties, such as purchase, preparation, and use of food and clothing, and in the fundamental principles of the American system of government and the rights and duties of citizenship. She is required to possess the following qualifications:

1. A regular teacher's certificate under the State Education Law.

2. Experience in teaching and in social work.

3. Good health.

4. Ability to speak the language of the largest group in the district.

5. Complete loyalty to the principal of the school.

6. Tact and patience for a delicate task.

7. Ingenuity in adapting all circumstances to the main purpose.

8. An incapacity for discouragement.

9. Comprehension of the reasons and objects of the work.

10. Finally, above all and through all, a sympathetic attitude toward the people, which involves some knowledge of the countries and conditions from which they came, and what "America" has meant to them.[57]

Her salary is paid from the city or from district special school funds.

The law authorizing the use of home teachers was enacted largely through the efforts of the State Commission of Immigration and Housing, and was from the first intended to be used for the benefit of foreign-born families. The first experiments were financed by the Commission of Immigration and Housing and by private organizations, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Council of Jewish Women, and the Young Women's Christian Association. According to the latest report[58] there are twenty official home teachers at work in eight cities of the state. The Commission says of the purpose of this plan:

The interpretation of the need in California departs from that conceived elsewhere. There have been so-called home teachers in a dozen cities, of several Eastern states, for a number of years, but their purpose is to do follow-up work for absent, irregular, subnormal, or incorrigible children, and they are more properly visiting teachers. The home teacher, as we conceive her purpose, seeks not primarily the special child—though that will often open the door to her and afford her a quick opportunity for friendly help—but the home as such, and especially the mother who makes it. This discrimination as to aim and purpose cannot be too much emphasized, or too consistently maintained, for the care of abnormal children, important as it is, can by no means take the place of the endeavor to Americanize the families of the community.[59]

SETTLEMENT CLASSES

The social settlements are in many cases situated in congested city districts, and they have always dealt very directly with the family groups in their neighborhood. Settlements have, in fact, probably more than any other social agency, tried to become acquainted with the Old-World background of their neighbors in order to establish friendly relationships. The settlement ideal has included the preservation of the dignity and self-esteem of the immigrant, while attempting to modify his habits when necessary and giving him some preparation for citizenship.

Classes in English and Civics, mothers' clubs, and housekeeping classes have been part of the contribution of the settlement to the adjustment of family life. Seventeen settlements in Chicago, for example, have conducted during the last year 36 clubs and classes of this kind for non-English-speaking women. Among these there are 9 English classes, 8 sewing classes, 10 cooking classes, and 9 mothers' clubs, with varied programs.

These classes have been conducted with a flexibility that is often lacking in the public-school classes. They are usually held in the daytime at the hour most convenient for the group concerned, and by combining social features with instruction the interest of the women is maintained longer than would otherwise be possible.

Sometimes the classes are conducted in a foreign language, but they are generally taught in English, occasionally with the assistance of an interpreter. The classes are usually small, so that considerable personal attention is possible. The season during which it seems possible to hold such classes lasts from September or October until June, and it seems necessary to expend considerable effort each year in order to reorganize them.

Trained domestic-science teachers are used for most of the cooking and sewing classes. The English teachers and mothers' club leaders are, however, usually residents in the settlement or other volunteers with little training or experience in teaching adults. They often find it quite difficult to hold the group together. Very valuable work is done, however, especially in the cooking classes. Many such classes were organized to teach conservation cooking; for instance, in an Italian class, the women were taught the use of substitutes for wheat that could be used in macaroni; in another the cooking teacher took Italian recipes and tried to reproduce their flavors with American products which are cheaper and more available than the Italian articles.

What is gained in flexibility may, of course, be counterbalanced by a loss of unity. The settlement teaching lacks, on the whole, a unity and organization that the public school should be better able to provide.

CO-OPERATION OF AGENCIES

Sometimes co-operation among several agencies may be advantageous in meeting the various difficulties presented by the task of teaching adult foreign-born women. Such co-operation was developed between the Immigrants' Protective League of Chicago, the public schools, the Chicago Woman's Club and the Women's Division of the Illinois Council of Defense.

The Board of Education of Chicago, in 1917, passed a resolution to the effect that whenever twenty or more adults desired instruction in any subject which would increase their value in citizenship, the school would be opened and a trained teacher provided. The Immigrants' Protective League then undertook to organize groups who would take advantage of this opportunity and to keep the groups interested after they had been organized.

The Chicago Woman's Club and the Council of National Defense undertook to supply kindergarten teachers to care for the children whose mothers were in the class, and the Visiting Nurse Association supplied nurses to examine the children, to advise mothers with reference to their care, and to make home visits when the condition of the children rendered this necessary.

The League visitors made very definite efforts to organize campaigns for acquainting the housewives of various neighborhoods with the opportunity thus provided, and for persuading the women to "come out." The services of the foreign-born visitors have been particularly valuable in the work of organization. These visitors certainly put forth valiant efforts in behalf of the plan. The Lithuanian and Italian visitors, for example, made in three instances 40, 96, and 125 calls before a class was organized, and even then less than twenty enrolled for each class. They have found it necessary to make visits in the homes of women whom they hoped to draw out, and have also used posters, printed invitations, and advertisements in foreign-language newspapers. Nor have their efforts ceased when the class was organized. Often misunderstandings occur, the attendance begins to dwindle, and great efforts must be made to discover the cause and to bring back the members.

The classes organized in this way have usually been small, composed of housewives of a single national group. Considerable individual attention is given the members of the class, and the foreign-speaking visitors attend the classes so that they may interpret when necessary.

The plan has been carried out, of course, on an extremely restricted stage. The efforts have been limited almost entirely to English and cooking classes, and instruction in other phases of household management has been quite incidental.

The teachers supplied by the Board of Education have not, of course, always possessed social experience and training. The classes are sometimes short lived. In the case of a Lithuanian cooking class, to which the teacher came too late to give the lesson, or too weary to give the lesson, it was necessary to reorganize the group. Where the teachers change, the group will dwindle, and the efforts of the visitor will have been substantially wasted.

The subject matter is often poorly adapted to the needs and desires of the foreign housewife. A new domestic-science teacher, for instance, gave to a group of Lithuanian women seven consecutive lessons on pies, cakes, and cookies, in spite of the organizer's request for lessons on "plain cooking." At times, as has been pointed out, the teacher is wholly ignorant as to the habits and tastes of the immigrant. There is, sometimes, an ill-advised attempt to substitute American dishes for foreign dishes instead of modifying or supplementing the well-established and perfectly sound dietetic practices of the foreign-born group.

The Lithuanian visitor of the Immigrants' Protective League, in speaking of the difficulties she had encountered in keeping together the classes she organized for the public school, says she has often been able to get together a group of women who want lessons in English and in cooking. The plan has been to give cooking lessons in English. The women have come, perhaps, three or four times. The first lesson would teach the making of biscuits; perhaps the second dumplings; the third sweet rolls. The teacher would be very busy with her cooking and talk very little. Then the women would not come back. They did not want to learn to make biscuits, about which they cared nothing; they were busy women and were aware that they were not getting what they wanted or needed.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTES

Another specialized agency for work with the foreign-born groups is the International Institute of the Young Women's Christian Association. This association has attempted in a short period of time to develop over a wide area this form of service, so that between the spring of 1913 and March, 1919, there had been established 31 of these organizations, most of them in industrial centers in different parts of the United States. In general, their work, as outlined in the After-War Program of the association, includes (1) a foreign-language information office, (2) home visiting for newly arrived women and girls, (3) case work in connection with legal difficulties, sickness, and emergencies, and (4) work with groups, including organized classes and informal gatherings. The last are to be especially designed for women and girls unable or unwilling to attend night schools, and there is to be a persistent urging upon the public school of the importance of socialized methods in work for women.

The use of foreign-language visitors is considered to be one of the most important features of these undertakings. Although few of the institutes have been able to secure enough workers to reach all the language groups in the community, provision can usually be made for the most numerous groups. Among the 18 replies to questionnaires sent to these institutes only 4 show less than 3 languages spoken by visitors, 10 have as many as 4 or more, and 4 have 8 or 9 languages.

These 18 institutes employ 76 foreign-language visitors. Forty-six of these are themselves foreign born. These visitors represent a great variety in training and experience, but the institute secretaries think that on the whole they are more valuable than native-born visitors would be even if these native-born visitors were more highly trained. The training of these particular visitors, while varied and often apparently inadequate, is on the whole surprisingly good. Fifteen of the 46 have had some college training; 3 have had kindergarten training, and 4 nurses' training. Eight have had previous case-work experience; 4 have lived in settlements. Eight have taken training courses given by the association, varying from a few weeks to several months at the national headquarters. A number have had religious training of one kind or another, 2 in a school for deaconesses, 12 as prospective missionaries, and 1 in a theological seminary.

The 18 International Institutes report the establishment of 134 clubs or classes in which married women are members, having an enrollment of 894 foreign-born married women. The subject most generally taught is English. Among 134 clubs and classes, 101 are organized exclusively for the teaching of English, and 7 others combine English with cooking or sewing.

Some attempt is made to teach housekeeping in classes. Ten of these are organized for cooking or sewing, 7 for English and cooking or sewing, and there are 13 mothers' clubs with subjects of such general interest as health, the care of children, and home nursing. In addition to the organized clubs and classes, most of the institutes have given lectures in foreign languages to larger groups of women subjects such as "Women and the War," "Liberty Bonds," "Thrift," "Food Conservation," "Personal and Social Hygiene," "The Buying of Materials," and "What the English Language Can Do for You."

Most classes are composed of a single national group, but classes are reported in which there are Polish and Ruthenian, Slovak and Polish, Greek and Lithuanian, Armenian and French, and Portuguese, Magyar and Slovak, and "mixed" nationalities. English is used in practically all classes which are primarily for the teaching of English. Fourteen of the institutes, however, have foreign-speaking workers to interpret whenever the women do not understand the teacher. In answer to the question as to the success of the institute in connecting married women with classes in public evening schools, three reply that they have had no success because the public schools do not use foreign-speaking workers and the women cannot understand the teachers who speak only English.

The institutes conduct vigorous campaigns to acquaint the mothers with their work, using posters, printed invitations, announcements at schools, notices in foreign papers, and particularly home visits by foreign-speaking workers.

With regard to home visiting it appears that there has not yet been time to work out a program for the teaching of improved standards of housekeeping, personal hygiene, and proper diet. The institutes, however, lend their foreign-speaking visitors as interpreters to other agencies organized for particular phases of work in the home, such as Visiting Nurse associations, Infant Welfare societies, Anti-Tuberculosis societies, and Charity Organization societies.

A very real effort is often made to reconcile foreign-born mothers and Americanized daughters. Those responsible for some of the institutes realize very keenly the significance of the problem, and impress upon the children they meet their great interest in the Old-World background of the parents, their appreciation of the mother's being able to speak another language besides English, their pleasure in old-country dances, costumes, and songs. They try in every way possible to maintain the respect of the daughter for her foreign-born mother. In home visits they try also to explain to the mother the freedom granted to American girls, the purpose of the clubs for girls, and the need for learning English themselves to lessen their dependence upon the children.

TRAINING FOR SERVICE

It is obvious that the efficiency of the work of these various organizations can rise no higher than the level of efficiency and training of the workers available for such service. It is, therefore, most important that the materials necessary for the rendering of these services be made available at the earliest possible moment. Such materials include compilations of data with reference to the different groups, courses of study developed so as to meet the needs and educational possibilities of the women, devices such as pictures, slides, charts, films, for getting and holding attention of persons unused to study, often weary and overstrained and lacking confidence in their own power to learn.

It is also clear from the experiences of these various agencies that, while giving this instruction is essentially an educational problem, it is for the time so intimately connected with the whole question of understanding the needs of the housewife in the different foreign-born groups, of developing a method of approach and of organization, and of trying out methods of instruction as well as experimenting with different bodies of material, that for some time to come experimentation and research should be fostered at many points.

There should, for example, be accumulated a much larger body of knowledge than is now available with reference to the agencies existing among the foreign-born groups in the various communities from whom co-operation could be expected; there should be a much more exact body of fact as to the needs of the various groups of women; at the earliest possible moment the material available with reference to these household problems, child care, hygiene and sanitation, distribution of family income, should be put into form available for use by the home teacher, the class teacher, the extension workers, and the woman's club organization. In the Appendix are some menus of four immigrant groups, which illustrate the kind of material which would be useful.

By stipends and scholarships promising younger members from among the foreign-born groups should be encouraged to qualify as home teachers and as classroom and extension instructors in these fields. This would often mean giving opportunity for further general education as preliminary to the professional training, for many young persons admirably adapted to the work come from families too poor to afford the necessary time at school. Scholarships providing for an adequate preparation available to members of the larger groups in any community, would give a very great incentive to interest in the problem and to further understanding of its importance on the part of the whole group.

In addition to scholarships enabling young persons to take courses of considerable length, there might be stipends enabling older women of judgment and experience to qualify for certain forms of service by shorter courses. Those who can speak enough English could take advantage of certain short courses already offered by the schools of social work. Others who do not speak English could be enabled to learn enough English and at the same time to learn to carry on certain forms of service under direction.

As has been suggested, lack of resources in face of an enormous volume of educational work is one factor in this lack of teachers trained to meet the needs of women in the foreign-born groups and of material adapted to their class or home instruction. The question, then, has been raised as to whether the supply both of teachers and of material could be increased and whether, if these resources were available, they would be utilized by the great national administrative agencies to which reference has been made.

The following plan has been approved as thoroughly practicable by leading officers and members of the American Home Economics Association, including several heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, by other educators interested in the field of home economics, as well as by representatives of the States Relations Service, the Bureau of Home Economics Department in the United States Department of Agriculture, the Federal Board of Vocational Education, and the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education. The unanimous judgment of those consulted is that if such a plan could be carried out for the space of three years, the Federal service would be vivified and enriched and the educational institutions enabled to develop training methods from which a continuous supply of teachers and teaching material could be expected.

OUTLINE OF PLAN

I. Creation of committee composed of officers of American Home Economics Association, representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Home Economics, the States Relations Service, the Home Economics Division of the United States Bureau of Education, the heads of departments of home economics in the state colleges, the technical schools and teacher-training schools, Federal Board for Vocational Education.

II. Increasing supply of teachers and teaching material.

1. Provision for assembling material in food, household management, including expenditures, and child care, particularly, and adapting this material to the needs of the members of the different foreign-born groups, by supplying salaries for two persons experienced in teaching, who would devote themselves to the preparation of classroom material, leaflets, charts, etc.—$2,400

$4,800 2. The granting of stipends to graduate students who would work at institutions approved by the committee and who would do practice teaching with such groups. In the assignment both of the stipends and of the institutional patronage, the interests of both urban and rural women would be taken into account by supplying scholarships for ten graduate students to teach under supervision and to assemble material under direction, these to be awarded by the committee with due regard to needs of rural and urban women—$750

$7,500

3. Securing the services of several highly skilled home-economics teachers, under whose supervision the practice teaching, and the preparation of these students would be carried on, and developing through advice teaching centers for the use of such material wherever possible, by supplying salaries for four persons to supervise and direct teaching—$4,000

$16,000

4. Securing teachers who are experienced housewives, who with short courses might assume certain teaching functions, supplying stipends, $75 a month for four months ($300) for fifty women who, selected under rules drawn up by the committee, would take short training courses, to be organized under the direction of individuals or departments or institutions approved by the committee

$15,000

III. There would, of course, be necessary a director of the work, who could be either one of the salaried teachers chosen as leader or an executive secretary. In any case clerical expenses and the costs of certain items incident to the instruction would be required.

The experiment should be assured for a term of three years.

The problem can be dealt with adequately only by state-wide and nation-wide agencies, and should as soon as possible be taken over by nonsectarian educational agencies. But the public-school system is at present wholly without the equipment necessary for the performance of these functions. It is not only not national; it is in many states not even state-wide in its supervision and standards. In Illinois, for example, the school district is the unit, and until a board was created in 1919 to deal with the problems of vocational training, the control exercised by the state was negligible.

The situation in an Illinois mining town illustrates the waste resulting from treating these questions as local questions. The town referred to is a mining town, lying partly in one and partly in another county. The only public school available is in one county, and it is said to be overcrowded. The road from a settlement in the other county to the school is said to be impassable all winter or in bad weather. It leads over a mine switch that is dangerous as well.

The parents complained that the small children could not go so far, that there were no play facilities, that the location was secluded, so that it was dangerous for girls, that the term was too short, and that the attendance of the children seems unimportant to the school authorities. As the community was almost altogether Italian, the parents would have preferred a woman teacher for the girls over ten or twelve years of age. A more intelligent and a more incisive indictment of an educational situation than this criticism expressed by the Italian families in this remote mining community could hardly have been drawn.

It is inevitable that similar dark spots should continue, so long as no central agency is responsible for the maintenance of a minimum opportunity everywhere. Of course it is not to be expected that those jurisdictions that so neglect the children will care for the adult. Many states have the central agency that could take over the work. And there exist Federal agencies able with enlarged resources to adapt their work to meet many of these needs. The United States Children's Bureau has published bulletins in simple form containing such information as every woman should have concerning the care of mothers and young children. Only the lack of resources has kept that bureau from undertaking to bring these facts to the knowledge of all mothers, including the foreign born.[60]

HOME ECONOMICS WORK

In the so-called States Relations Service of the Department of Agriculture, established under the Smith-Lever Act,[61] and in the Federal Board for Vocational Education, there are agencies which, if developed, can establish national standards in these fields and do work of national scope. These acts constitute, in fact, so important a step in the direction of nationalization of these problems that items in the statutes creating them may be of interest here.

The first of these Acts provides for co-operative effort on the part of the United States Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural colleges. There is an agency provided to "diffuse among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics, and to encourage the application of the same." This Act refers especially to the needs of the rural population, and the work done under it consists of instruction and practical demonstration in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending or resident in the agricultural colleges.

The methods should be such as are agreed on by the Secretary of Agriculture and the officials of the state colleges benefiting under the earlier Act of 1862.[62] To carry out this co-operative effort, an appropriation was provided, beginning at $480,000—$10,000 for each state—and increasing first by $60,000 and then by $500,000 annually, until after seven years a total of $4,500,000 was reached, the increase to be distributed among the states in proportion to their rural population.

By the Smith-Hughes Act of February 22, 1917, both teachers and supervisors, as well as training for teachers and supervisors in the fields of agriculture, home economics, industrial and trade subjects, were provided.[63] The Federal Board for Vocational Education consisted of the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor, the United States Commissioner of Education, and three citizens appointed for terms of three years, at $5,000 a year. One of these three is to represent the agricultural interests, one the manufacturing interests, and one labor.

The board was given power to make studies, among other subjects, of home management and domestic science. While instruction under the first of these Acts may be given by means of home demonstrations, it is limited under the second Act to such as can be given in schools and classes.

This Act provides for co-operative effort between the Federal government and the states. The large sum of $200,000 for the support of the board, and considerable sums for certain minimum contingencies, were appropriated. Major appropriations were provided for, beginning with $500,000 for paying salaries for teachers and supervisors in agriculture, and increasing by $250,000 until the sum of $3,000,000 was reached, to be distributed in proportion to rural population among the states on condition that the states take appropriate action consenting to the Act and appropriating dollar for dollar (Section 2).

A similar appropriation was provided for the teaching of trade, home economics, and industrial subjects, beginning with $500,000, increasing by $250,000 annually, until the amount of $3,000,000 was reached, this to be appropriated in proportion to the urban population in the various states. Certain minima were prescribed, and it was laid down that not more than 20 per cent of the amount allotted for salaries should go to teachers of home economics (Section 3). No part of the appropriation is to pay for buildings or for work done in private institutions (Section 11).

In the same manner as in the earlier Act an initial appropriation of $500,000 was made toward meeting the cost of training teachers and supervisors in agricultural trade, home economics, and industrial subjects, these to increase by installments of $200,000 and then by $100,000, until $1,000,000 was reached, to be distributed among the states in proportion to population. Certain conditions were prescribed as to the action to be taken by the states, and the appropriation by the state of "dollar for dollar" toward the training of these persons was required.

Questionnaires regarding the application of their work to the needs of foreign-born groups were sent to the State Supervisors of Home Economics functioning under these Acts, but few replies were received. In general, the replies indicate that the work has in many cases not been extended to meet the needs of foreign-born housewives. A few replies, however, are illustrative of what might be done with increased resources and effective interest on the part of the state and of the local community. From Lake Village, Arkansas, came the following graphic account of the work of the home demonstration agent:

I was very much interested in having you write to me concerning the work with the Italian women in Chicot County. When I first came into the county I was entirely inexperienced as far as this kind of work goes, but in time I saw that the Italians needed help and I wanted to give them what they needed most.

I became acquainted with the Catholic priest, as he was an Italian and could help me in talking and becoming acquainted with the people. The priest proved to be a very interesting man and helped me very much. In a short time I learned to speak a few words of Italian, which pleased the people very much. They seemed to feel that I was their friend, and wherever I saw a dusky face in town or country I would greet them with the words, "Como stati," which is to say, "How goes it?" or, "How are you?" and I would be answered with an engulfing grin and a flow of jargon, not a word of which I could understand, but with smiles and nods I would go on, having won a friend.

The first work I did among the Italians was to go into their homes and look at their gardens, show them how to prune their tomato plants, dry their fruit and vegetables, can their tomatoes and beans, and bathe their babies. Not long after there were sewing and "cootie"-removing demonstrations, as well as removing head lice and care of heads and bodies taught with actual demonstrations.

All of my work has been taken with the most cordial attitude, and the methods have been adopted and used. This year I hope to have more work done among them than last, on the same line and others.

They now come to me when they are in trouble or in need of help, and this makes me feel that they consider this office is their friend, not a graft or money-making concern.

In Akron, Ohio, a home demonstration agent, under the Department of Agriculture and the Ohio State University Home Economics Department, has been definitely attached to a public school in Akron's most foreign-born district. Her special project is home demonstration work with foreign-born women, and each lesson is a lesson in English as well. The worker hopes to have an apartment equipped as a plain but attractive home, where all this work can be done.

The home supervisor in Massachusetts reports that the state-aided, evening practical arts classes have offered instruction to groups of foreign-born women in Fall River and in Lowell. In Fall River there were classes in cooking and canning for French women, and classes in home nursing for a Portuguese group. In Lowell there were classes in cooking for Polish women, and classes in cooking and dressmaking for Greek women. These classes were conducted by foreign-speaking teachers, with the help of interpreters.

The work of the Syracuse Home Bureau included four projects: (1) Garden project, (2) Nutrition project, (3) Clothing project, and (4) Publicity project. The outline of the work under (2) and (3) is given below:

Nutrition Project

1. Home Demonstration Work. In co-operation with the Associated Churches and Charities—United Jewish Charities and School Centers—the agent goes into the home, making herself a friend of the family, taking necessary supplies with her, but using whatever utensils the housewife may have. She demonstrates simple, nourishing, economical foods, teaches the proper feeding of children, etc. She also suggests food budgets and plans their use. The leader of the organizations reports that much is being accomplished with families which otherwise could not be reached. Help with clothing work is also given sometimes.

2. Group Demonstrations. In co-operation with the Americanization work and churches, where this seems desirable, to groups of women.

3. Class Work in Cookery. In co-operation with units from the Girls' Patriotic League, International Institute, and factories.

4. Education in Food Values. Talks have been given at various schools in regard to proper luncheons and menus submitted to assist in this work. Conferences have been held with Y. W. C. A. manager in regard to luncheon combinations. Menus for the week, with grocery order, have been submitted for the use of social workers. Aid is being given in planning the meals for undernourished children at a special school. Talks are to be given to the children.

5. Home Bureau Day. Friday afternoon is "at home" day for members and their friends at the Thrift Kitchen. Talks or demonstrations are given each week, and an exhibit in the window during the week corresponds with the subject.

6. Classes for Volunteer Aids. Classes for volunteer aids are being formed. These are to be two types. One class for experienced housewives, to deal particularly with the problem of presentation, and another class for college girls, to give them the simple principles of food values and preparation, taking up at the same time the method of presentation. It is hoped to use these aids particularly in the home demonstration work, which is already developing beyond the capacity of the trained workers.

7. General Use of the Thrift Kitchen. The kitchen is engaged by various church committees to do cooking in large quantities for church suppers. Various organizations use it to prepare special foods for institutions. We are encouraging the use of the kitchen by any individual or organization for any purpose. The only charge is for the gas used, besides a nominal charge of five cents for the use of the kitchen. The work is done under the supervision of one of the agents.

Clothing Project

1. Sewing Classes. In co-operation with units from the Girls' Patriotic League, International Institute, and factories. A sewing unit often follows a cooking unit with the same group.

2. Sewing Demonstrations. These are being given at some of the home demonstrations, as the need arises.

3. Millinery Classes. In co-operation with the Girls' Patriotic League, International Institute, and factories.

4. Millinery Demonstrations are being held for mothers' clubs connected with the church, and home demonstrations are given when needed.

The Rolling Prairie community mentioned above, too, benefited from a co-operative "County Project" work undertaken in 1913-14, under the supervision of Purdue University. A course given during the year in the rural schools was continued during the summer, open to all children over ten and required of graduates from the eighth grade. The County Superintendent of Schools, the County Agent under the university (States Relations Service) and County Board of Trustees (La Porte County) sent teachers into all parts of the county teaching the boys farming, stock raising, and gardening, and the girls canning, sewing, bread making, cooking vegetables, and laundry work, or if they preferred, gardening. The teacher gave an hour and a half every ten days at the home of each child.

At the end of the summer there were exhibits and prizes in the shape of visits to the state fair, to the university, to Washington, or to the stock show in Chicago. The Polish children who took prizes and who went to the university (some of them had never been on a train) became enthusiastic about going to high school and college, and some are going to high school. The fact that they took prizes interested the whole group, and the experiment affected the agricultural and domestic practices of the community. The sad ending to the story is that the township trustees have never been willing to assume again the expense of the teachers' salaries, but the possibilities in the co-operative method are evident.

The States Relations Service and the work of the Federal Board for Vocational Education are based on the so-called principles of the "grant in aid," which gives promise of both developing and encouraging local initiative and of obtaining "national minima" of skill and efficiency. Certainly the lack of any national body and often the lack of any state machinery with power to encourage local action and with facilities for gathering and comparing data, reduced the rate at which progress is made. For example, the device of the home teacher planned by the California Commission on Immigration and Housing, was only slowly taken over by the education authorities of California.

GOVERNMENT GRANTS IN ENGLAND

The experience of the English Board of Education may be noticed in this connection. Owing to the interest in national vigor aroused by the rejection of recruits during the Boer War, England took steps to provide food for the underfed school children and medical supervision of the health of the school children. This resulted in the accumulation of a great body of evidence showing the need of improvement in the conditions and household management in the homes from which these children came. Both schools for mothers and infant classes have been recognized as appropriate extensions of the work of the education authority, and the national character of the problem has been embodied in provision for the grant in aid.[64]

The conditions on which grants to schools for mothers and infant classes are made, set a standard for those communities desiring help from the central authority, and furnish a basis of judgment as to the work of any local authority. Those conditions are stated as follows:

A school for mothers is primarily an educational institution, providing training and instruction for the mother in the care and management of infants and little children. The imparting of such instruction may include:

(a) Systematic classes.

(b) Home visiting.

(c) Infant consultations.

The provision of specific medical and surgical advice and treatment (if any) should be only incidental.

(d) The Board of Education will pay grants in respect of schools for mothers, as defined in Article II of their Regulations for the year 1914-15, subject to the following qualifications:

(I) That an institution will not be recognized as a school for mothers unless collective instruction by means of systematic classes forms an integral part of its work;

(II) That grant will only be paid in respect of "infant consultations," which are provided for women attending a school for mothers;

(III) That grant will only be paid in respect of expenditure on "home visiting" of children registered at a school for mothers if neither the sanitary authority nor County Council undertake to arrange for such visiting;

(IV) The fact that a school for mothers receives a grant or assistance from a sanitary authority (or a County Council) or its offices will not disqualify it from receiving a grant from the Board of Education.

Thus the institutions included under the title "schools for mothers" have for their main object the reduction of infant sickness and mortality by means of the education of the mothers. They train the mother to keep her baby in good health through a common-sense application of the ordinary laws of hygiene. The training may be given by means of personal advice from doctor or nurse to individual mothers, by home visiting, and by means of collective teaching and systematic classes.[65] It is necessary to distinguish these "schools for mothers," which were educational, from the maternity centers maintained by the Local Government Board, intended to provide prenatal care of expectant mothers.

During the year 1917-18, two hundred and eighty-six such schools for mothers received aid from the central authority. The work of representative schools, as described in the medical officer's report,[66] includes instruction in hygiene, principles of feeding, needlework, and boot repairing.

In the same way the infant classes or nursery schools are to be distinguished both from day nurseries which may, if they comply with stated conditions, receive grants, and from infant consultations.[67] It is interesting to note that these items in the educational program are closely related to the plan under which Mothercraft is taught to (1) the older girls in the public elementary schools, and (2) the girls between fourteen and eighteen in the secondary and continuation schools. Under the stimulus of the possible grant in aid from the central authority and of the supervision and advice of the central authority, this work is developed by the local authority. The day nursery or infant class is made to serve the purpose of training the older girl as well as of training and care of the young child.

The argument here is not affected by the fact that under the recent Act providing for a Ministry of Health, these functions are surrendered by the education authority to the New Ministry of Health, as are those of the Local Government Board. Certain functions remain educational, and must develop in accordance with educational principles. Others are sanitary and call for inspection and supervision.

THE LESSON FOR THE UNITED STATES

It is not suggested that the development in the United States be identical with that in England. It is true that there are two specialized agencies referred to under which such work could be developed. Should a United States Department of Education or of Health be created, conceivably such functions could be assumed by either; and it is most interesting to notice that, with reference to this very problem, the method is already recognized as important and embodied in the educational program of the state of Massachusetts. Under a statute enacted in 1919,[68] the State Board of Education is authorized to co-operate with cities and towns in promoting and providing for the education of persons over twenty-one years of age "unable to speak, read, and write the English language."

The subjects to be taught in the English language are the fundamental principles of government and such other subjects adapted to fit the scholars for American citizenship as receive the joint approval of the local school committee and the State Board of Education. The classes may be held not only in public-school buildings, but in industrial plants and other places approved by the local school committee and the board. In the words of the Supervisor of Americanization,[69] "this provides for ... day classes for women meeting at any place during any time in the day. The establishment of such classes is especially urged."

The development of the Federal agencies will probably be most efficiently stimulated if a considerable amount of such work is attempted by local authorities and such social agencies as have been described. If not only local educational bodies, but schools for social work, organizations like the Immigrants' Protective League and the Department of Home Economics, the State Immigration Commissions, and the Young Women's Christian Association, could train efficient visitors, prepare and try out lesson sheets on the essential topics, and develop teaching methods, the different branches of the Federal service would undoubtedly be able to avail themselves of such material and of such personnel as would be supplied in this way.[70] The plan outlined earlier in the chapter for educational work for foreign-born women would be a step in this direction.

MOTHERS' ASSISTANTS

Attention has been called to the fact that many housewives, either because the husband's income is inadequate or because their standard of family needs is relatively high, or because there is some special family object to be attained, become wage earners and are away from their home during the hours of the working day. The devices used by these mothers for the care of the family during their absence have been described. The previous discussion has also made clear the fact that for many women of limited income who do not attempt wage earning, the task of bearing children and of caring for the home is too heavy, especially during the time when the children are coming one after the other in fairly rapid succession.

The visiting nurse may help in time of illness; the midwife may come in for a few days immediately after the child is born; the man may be very handy and helpful; the older girl or boy may stay at home from school; but it is evident that some agency should be devised for rendering additional assistance to such mothers. The day nursery suggests itself, and its possibilities are easily understood; but it is an agency that has been developed in response to the demand of married women for the chance to supplement the husband's earnings, or of widows and deserted women to assume the place of breadwinner.

For the kind of assistance we have in mind, some such agency as the mother's helper, proposed by the English Women's Co-operative Guild, is suggested. This proposal was developed as an item in a program for adequate maternity care, but has been extended in its application so as to include all women who are attempting to carry the burden we have described. It expresses the widening recognition that the volume of tasks expected of the housewife as mother and caretaker is greater than one woman can be expected to perform. It rests also on the conviction that such assistance is professional in character and should be standardized in skill.

Experiments in this field might well be undertaken by the same agencies that attempt to receive and introduce the newly arrived groups, and as rapidly as the method becomes established the functions could be taken over by the appropriate specialized agency, whether public or private.[71] For example, the two following recommendations recently offered by official bodies in England illustrate the need to which we are calling attention. The first is taken from a memorandum prepared at the request and for the consideration of the Women's Employment Committee.

Home Helps

Closely linked with the problem of skilled midwifery, care of the working mother is the problem of arrangement for her domestic life during her disablement.

In the Home Helps Society a movement has been inaugurated which, if widely extended on the right lines for clearly subsidiary purposes, would prove of incalculable benefit to working mothers, and so to the general community. The scheme provides, on a contributory basis, the assistance of trained domestic helpers for women who are incapacitated, especially in illness or childbirth, from attending to the normal duties of the home. A Jewish society has been in existence for twenty years to meet the needs of poor Jewesses in the East End of London, but the general scheme came into existence under the Central Committee for Employment of Women to provide employment for women who have been thrown out of work owing to the war. Three months is considered an average period of training, but a shorter time is sanctioned in special cases. The women are trained under supervision in the homes of families and in certain approved institutions. In the Jewish society no special period of training is demanded. If a candidate is competent upon appointment she is sent out at once. In Birmingham similar help is afforded by what is known as the "nine days'" nursing scheme, and Sheffield has a provision for a municipal allowance to a mother needing such help in a special degree. North Islington Maternity Center has a local scheme for home helps, managed by a subcommittee. Encouragement has been given to these schemes by the sympathetic interest in them of the medical women acting for the London County Council as inspectors, under the Midwives' Act. Similar arrangements have been proposed in various parts of the country.

The second is from the Report of the Women's Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction on the Domestic Service Problem.

Subcommittee on Home Helps

After meeting several times this committee came to the conclusion that, in the light of the evidence that had been given before them, it was not advisable for them to proceed further without reference to the committee which was dealing with the question of subsidiary health and kindred services, as the question of the provision of Home Helps intimately affected that committee also.

The committee on Home Helps passed the following resolution:

That with a view to preventing sickness which is caused by the unavoidable neglect of children in their home, the Local Government Board should be asked to remove the restriction which at present confines the provision of Home Helps to maternity cases, and to extend the scope of the board's grant for the provision of such assistance in any home where, in the opinion of the local authority, it is necessary in the interests of the children that it should be given, and agreed that if the Subsidiary Health and Kindred Services Committee were prepared to adopt it in their report it would be undesirable to continue their own sittings.

The resolution was adopted by that committee, and the Home Helps' Committee was dissolved.

We are not unconscious of the great need that exists for further preventive measures in connection with health services, more especially as regards children, and we think that the question of Home Helps must first be explored in this connection. We are of the opinion, however, that as regards help with domestic work, the position of the wives of professional men with small incomes, and of the large army of men of moderate means who are engaged in commerce and industry is becoming critical, and that some form of municipal service might help to solve this most difficult problem.

RECREATIONAL AGENCIES

The public parks, playgrounds, and recreation centers, and the social settlements, constitute the main community provision for the social and recreational activities of immigrant groups living in the congested sections of industrial cities. Certain problems in the adaptation of the services and resources of such agencies to the needs of an immigrant neighborhood have been brought out in our consultation with representative men and women from various nationalities living in different sections of Chicago.

The history of Dvorak Park may serve to indicate the nature of some of these problems. Established when the population of the district it was designed to serve was almost exclusively Bohemian, this small park was given its distinctively Bohemian name, and the district chosen was Bohemian. It became at once a popular recreation center for the neighborhood, as the facilities provided in the playground and field house were admirably suited to the needs of the people. Representative men and women who have kept in touch with the later immigrants of their nationality speak with greatest enthusiasm of the value of the park to the Bohemian community. Its services in relieving the monotony of the lives of immigrant women, and especially of mothers of large families, is noteworthy.

For those to whom it is accessible it provides a type of entertainment which they really enjoy. It is said, in fact, that women who begin going to the park take a new interest in life. The moving pictures are especially popular. The director, a man thoroughly familiar with the lives of the families of the settlement, has sought to adapt the service of the park to their needs. Special entertainments for women with little children are given in the afternoon while older children are in school, and mothers are encouraged to bring the babies. Mothers who have begun going to the park themselves feel greater security in allowing the older boys and girls to go to the evening entertainments and dances because they learn that there is trustworthy supervision.

During the last few years, however, there has been a great change in the character of the neighborhood surrounding Dvorak Park. Bohemians have moved away, and their places have been taken by Serbo-Croatians. The newcomers have found churches, schools, and public halls established by the Bohemian people, and the impression has gone out that the public park also is a national recreation center for Bohemians. No criticism of the management of the park has been made by leaders among the Croatians, who believe the director has earnestly sought to meet the requirements of the two groups impartially, frequently asking the advice and co-operation of well-known Croatian men and women. They do feel that it is unfortunate that the popular idea that the place is intended for Bohemians only is too deep to be easily eradicated.

In Chicago some of the older immigrant groups have made provisions for their recreational needs by building national halls, auditoriums, and theaters; and in groups representing later immigration, funds are being raised for the same purpose. In many instances it is admitted that the public recreation centers in the immediate vicinity of the settlement afford adequate space and facilities for the requirements of the group. The reasons given for failure to take advantage of such opportunities or for duplicating such splendid community resources are varied. When analyzed, they are on the whole indicative of shortcomings in park management, which might be overcome if park supervision could be made a real community function.

In a Polish district, for instance, the people in the vicinity of one of the most completely equipped parks in the city have come to regard it with suspicion as the source of a type of Americanization propaganda too suggestive of the Prussians they have sought to escape. In a Lithuanian district, officers of societies which make use of clubrooms in the recreation centers say they prefer the rooms to any they can rent in the vicinity, but they often feel in the way and that their use of the building entails more work than attendants are willing to give. The Lithuanians, too, speak of feeling out of place in the parks. There has been little evidence that in any section of the city people of foreign birth feel that as community centers these parks are in a sense their own.

The social settlement, which shares with public recreation centers the functions of providing for the social life and recreation of immigrant communities, is confronted by many of the same problems, often rendered the more difficult from the fact that it is usually regarded as even more alien to the life of the group than the park, and its purposes are less understood. Members of Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, and Ukrainian groups, who have expressed their own appreciation of the aims of the social settlement, and the highest personal regard for settlement residents whom they have known, believe that the "American" settlement can never reach the masses of people most in need of the type of service it offers. Repression under autocratic government in Europe and exploitation in America have made them suspicious, and they are apt to avoid whatever they cannot understand.

It is believed that these types of service, undertaken with a more thorough knowledge of the point of view of the immigrant and with the indorsement and co-operation of recognized leaders of the groups to be served, would much more nearly meet the needs of the people least able to adjust themselves to the new situations.