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(a) [§291] Social Preparedness.

BY EDWARD T. DEVINE.

SOCIAL NEEDS.

This nation is not ready either for war or for the competitions and strains of peace. But how shall we prepare? Precisely by pushing forward with ever-increasing vigor the very measures which are included in the demand for social and industrial justice. They are not unfamiliar subjects of discussion here: infant and child protection, a reduction of the death-rate; a longer and more efficient working life, safety from industrial accidents and occupational disease, provision for the economic burdens of sickness by social insurance or otherwise; rigid food inspection; the segregation and humane care of the mentally defective; prison administration on humane and reformative lines; town planning and abolition of overcrowding, of dangerous privies and cess pools, of insanitary alleys and dark tenements; constant repressive action against commercialized vice; a campaign against alcoholism; and, above all, educational reform in the light of our new knowledge as to the conditions of successful agriculture, industry and commerce.

The program of social work was formerly timid, apologetic, pretending at best to urge a liberal investment of surplus revenues for its humanitarian ends. We listened respectfully while philanthropists and appropriation committees measured out the doles which they could afford to give away for what they considered luxuries.

CONTINUOUS ACTION.

The social welfare departments of the modern city or state or nation, and the voluntary agency for the prevention of poverty or disease or crime, can take no such attitude. They are engaged in serious undertakings. They have assumed definite responsibilities. They adopt carefully considered budgets. They require ample resources. Their expenditures are investments. Their returns are in terms of life, vigor, efficiency, power of creation, and capacity for enjoyment.

It is no fanciful analogy that education, hygiene, industrial justice, improved standards of living, belong conspicuously in any program of national preparedness. The national idea is a part of patriotism. The social idea is another, and equally essential part. The good citizen is one in whose mind the two ideas are joined in an inseparable union.

In America, above all other nations, there is a continuing necessity for this reconciliation of the social and the national ideals. Our distances are great. Our people are of mingled races, languages and customs. The task of social integration is imperative. To hold up a national ideal in terms of salutes to the flag is an empty performance unless it is reinforced by evidence of social ideals cherished by all who own allegiance to the flag.

COMMON HUMANITY.

All Europe has moved strangely nearer to us as we have looked with ever-increasing fascination on her agonizing strug

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gles-not yet knowing whether it may not be literally a death struggle for the life from which our life has been drawn. It will not be so-not for long will the nations hate and kill and destroy what they have built. A better England, a more civilized Germany, a fairer France, a greater Russia, will rise from devastated Europe. Where the boundaries will lie, what political systems will prevail, cannot be told; but humanity itself, enriched by the peculiar gifts of the nations we have known, must survive. It is of deep concern to us that it should be so.

There can be neutrality still, a red-blooded, virile American neutrality, not for commercial profit, nor from craven fear of war, but patriotic, persistently seeking the kindred aspects of each people, remembering our friendships, reasoning patiently if firmly about our wrongs if we have them, yielding no particle of the responsibility which we hold, with other neutrals, in trust for the future of mankind.

In the name of this neutrality, for the sake of humanity itself, we must put our house in order. There is no national policy, worthy the name of America, which does not embrace the most progressive, enlightened, sane, and radical social policy. There is no preparedness worthy of consideration which does not embrace social and industrial justice.

(The Survey, XXXV, 732-734; March 18, 1916.)

(b) [8292] Save the Children During the War.

BY

CHILD LABOR.

Immediately after our declaration of war the newspapers were filled with schemes for increasing our labor supply, most of which involved the use of children. Someone in Pennsylvania wanted the places of miners who enlist taken by fourteen-yearold boys. Someone in New Jersey suggested that the schools close for two months to allow the children to be sent to work on farms. In the New York Legislature there is a bill, which is receiving serious consideration, to suspend all restrictions on the hours of labor of women and minors during the war. Probably all these suggestions are made in good faith. Probably a good many people believe that to hurry our children into factories, mines and fields in this emergency and work them unlimited hours would be to give them the privilege of performing a great patriotic service. Indeed those who, like the National Child Labor Committee, have the temerity to suggest that children ought not to be so misused, are too often met with the indignant reply, "Why shouldn't the children help? In war everyone must do his part!" True-everyone must do his part, But what is the children's part?

CHANGES IN LABOR CONDITIONS.

If the war were guaranteed to end in three months, we might possibly be justified in flinging every man, woman and child recklessly into service to hurry the finish. But we have no such guaranty. Some of us feel the Allies' spring offensive is encouraging; some of us believe there may be a revolution in Ger

many any day; and some of us feel simply that "something is going to happen." Unfortunately we have been feeling for three years that something is going to happen and nothing has happened. If we are wise we shall settle ourselves for a long fight. And since the war is likely to be more industrial than military, so far as we are concerned, one of the first things we do must be to adapt our labor force to war conditions and assure ourselves of an inexhaustible supply of labor for the years to come. Is overworking and neglecting our children now, assuring ourselves of that labor supply? If we adopt sane, selective recruiting and intelligently fill the places of enlisted men with women and older boys and girls, we shall face no immediate labor shortage.

PREPAREDNESS IN CHILDREN.

As for the younger children, we should conserve and develop them just as carefully as Mr. Hoover is going to conserve and develop our food supply. If we are wise and farsighted we shall enforce child labor laws and school laws more rigidly than ever just now. We shall scrutinize and regulate every single use of children in industry, for there must be nothing headless, in this emergency, about our use of human resources. More than that, we shall stimulate educational activity, especially in industrial training, and support as never before public and private child welfare agencies, if we are going to make the most of the material we have in hand. In short, we must protect, train and develop children now for the simple reason that for the future, both remote and immediate, we need a more intelligent and able-bodied set of people than ever. "The nation is under special obligation to secure that the rising generation grows up strong and hardy both in body and character," is solemn warning of England, which has been at war for three years, to America on the threshold of war.

(New Republic, XI, May 5, 1917.)

(c) [$293] The Duty of Parents.

BY GENERAL LEONARD WOOD.

Parents do not like to think of their sons becoming involved in actual armed conflict; but the possibility must be frankly admitted. The mother knows that, if the boy has inherited manly qualities, he will respond to the call of his country in time of national peril. The question for her to decide is whether or not, dreading war, she is going to ignore the possibility of it and permit the boy to grow up without proper training or instruction-lacking that information and training which are necessary to make him an efficient soldier, and which, in all probability, will give him a better chance to come through the armed conflict alive. The boy, if he is fit to be a citizen, is going to serve. It is the part of the parent to see that he is given the best possible preparation. The unfortunate creature who wrote the song, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier," has voiced a sentiment which, were it in any way general, would mean national collapse in case of trouble. None of us raise our boys specially to be soldiers, but we do raise them in the hope that

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they will meet the call of the nation for service, whether it be in war or in peace, and not expect to be protected by the boy who has been raised to discharge his full duty. We shall either do our own fighting and defend ourselves, or, as the subjects of another nation, receive our military training under their orders.

The best way to avoid war is to be thoroughly prepared for it. The strong man armed can be both just and tolerant, as can a strong nation armed and prepared; and in both instances the would-be aggressor is much less prone to attack. He will count the cost and realize the danger. The strongest influence in this country for war has been that of those who have prevented national preparedness, and, incidentally, they are the type last to respond in a moment of national peril. The effects of this training of youth are always beneficial: physically, from the better development of the body, correction of physical defects and general all-round improvement; economically, from the habits of promptness and thoroughness; and morally because of the discipline which teaches them to respect the laws and the rights of others. From the standpoint of citizenship, it builds up a spirit of national solidarity, which tends to national strength. (I. Wood, Universal Military Training. Collier's National Service Series, I, 77-79.)

(d) [§294] What For and How.

BY MABEL HILL (1917).

WHAT FOR? FOR THREE THINGS.

I. To know why we are at war.

II. To feel that it is right for us to be engaged in this war. III. To act wisely and well at the present moment, and to plan to act in the future so wisely and so well that a better and more intelligent and loyal citizenship shall be developed.

HOW CAN WE DO IT?

I. Form "Study Circles"-Whether we live in the city or at the seaside or in the country, we can "Get Together." Whether we live in private homes or in hotels, "Getting Together" is the first thing.

II. What Are We to Study?-Again we quote from Dr. Lewis: "A thorough understanding of the fundamental situation is needed more than anything else. The vastness of this country, its wide variation of climate, its diversity of agricultural enterprise, and the localization of interests as a result of state lines, have served to divide the United States."

We must therefore study what our American Federal Government stands for as a unifying force in both works and ideals. We must study American democracy-its institutions and problems. We must know.

Where Shall We Gain Our Information?-The city or town library, the state library, and the Federal bureaus will all contribute lists of books and data which will make this knowledge accessible.

III. Study Circles May Meet Afternoons for Regular Work— But sometimes the circles should get together in the evening, where martial music, the singing together of war songs, and the reading of the fine new poetry recently produced because of the war, are brought together to stimulate feeling-it is poetry and music which take us over into the realm of war spirit.

IV. Pageants-Once during the summer, the Study Circle should organize a pageant; not an intricate pageant which takes time and money, but a simple community pageant which takes in everyone, with a few rehearsals only, but with friendly cooperation and great good will.

V. Study Circles Should Unite in One Piece of Work Together-If various Study Circles are started in a large city, let one vacant room be chosen in the heart of the community, where information may be found for all classes of people. Charts should be prepared by members of the Circle-baby welfare charts, healthgrams, and all kinds of data which will help develop preparedness and good citizenship in the community.

Where Shall We Get This Data?—The Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor at Washington will give advice and send bulletins. The State and Federal Departments of Agriculture will assist. Bureaus of Naturalization are ready to help, and the Commission on the Consecration of Food is particularly ready to give advice. Ask Boards of Health, Boards of Charity. There is more data to be had than there are people willing to ask for it.

VI. Public School Children-Try to organize the children during the summer holidays. The Government is attending to the older boys and placing them on farms; but the children from twelve to fifteen years of age, if not organized and shown how they can help their country, may with their natural interests become marauders upon the new farming land outside of the cities. It is easy to organize children at this age into helpers, and it costs less than to develop the juvenile court.

First-Choose leaders who will take a pledge to carry out the plan of the Study Circle-twelve Boy Captains and twelve Girl Captains. In order to make these young captains feel their responsibility and carry out the plan of work, .arrange a morning drill of ten minutes for these squads of boys and girls. Unite the work with the police department and the health department. The plans for such work must of course be fitted to the particular community as to detail. But in every case the girls' work should refer to baby welfare and sanitation in the home, while the boys' work should co-operate in cleaning backyards and private alleys and the surroundings of markets, fruit stores, and the like. If possible, the school department should be urged to co-operate with this movement to organize children during the holidays. This campaign means healthier babies, healthier homes, healthier neighborhoods, healthier state, a better America.

VII. Immigrants-If the Study Circle is located near immigrant districts, the work must be intensified to fit the foreignspeaking people. Again, the libraries and the Bureau of Immigration are the ones who will help the most.

VIII. The Result-The above suggestions for better citizen

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