[Continued from page 126] The decision of the attorney-general makes it possible for the committee to proceed at once to start centers for the giving of instruction as to birth control, patterned after those of Holland, where physicians hold clinics and advise those who come to them for help. The general principles of this movement will be explained and advocated in public meetings, but instruction will always be privately and individually given. There will be no general distribution of printed instructions, for the committee believes that when advice of this kind is given out indiscriminately and without conference there is great danger that those who need it most, the very ignorant, may through lack of understanding, use it in such a way as to produce disastrous results; if the movement is to be kept on a high plane it is essential that the teaching be carefully given to each individual and by a physician. Above all, the committee holds it is necessary to teach not only the people seeking advice, but the general public that there is the greatest difference between the prevention of conception and the production of abortion, for the latter is a crime, unless it is done for the sake of saving the mother's life; there seems to be much confusion on this point even among educated people, perhaps because state laws commonly treat the two procedures as if they were equally criminal. A movement conducted according to these plans is not expected to progress rapidly, but it is believed that it will go on without setbacks and that the avoidance of harmful results to the patients and of confusion and undeserved condemnation on the part of the public will more than make up for the lack of widespread propaganda and publicity. Just recently the committee sent to the papers a statement of the principles signed not only by the members of the committee, but by a large number of well-known citizens, including seventeen prominent physicians, lawyers, ministers, journalists and social workers. The statement begins with the following paragraph. We believe that the privilege of having children carries with it the responsibility for the happiness and welfare of each child. We contend, however, that it is inconsistent to preach the importance of healthy, well-developed families to parents who are denied the knowledge whereby they can determine the size of the family for which they are to care. All too frequently, as a result of parental ignorance or helplessness, undesired children are born to ill-health and misery or are destroyed before birth by parents who feel themselves driven in desperation to this terrible recourse. Owing to fear of legal restrictions, real or fancied, and The Growth of a Creed to general misunderstanding as well, the knowledge which might remedy these evils is withheld from great numbers in the community. An anti-theistic pamphlet by ELIZABETH PATTEN, ENGLEWOOD, COLO. Price, prepaid, 10c Among those who signed the statement are: Dr. Isaac A. Abt, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Dummer, Dr. John Favill, Prof. and Mrs. James N. Field, Mrs. Walter L. Fisher, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Mrs. Charles Henrotin, Max Loeb, Judge and Mrs. Julian W. Mack, Prof. and Mrs. George H. Mead, Allen B. Pond, Mrs. Julius Rosenwald, Prof. Graham Taylor, Dr. Rachelle Yarros and Prof. and Mrs. Frank R. Lillie. The Chicago committee does not intend to court publicity, but hopes for a gradual change in the attitude of the public toward this long-forbidden subject. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES OF THE CITY OF MOSCOW THE HE idea of Moscow as a city of semi-Asiatic lethargy is much exaggerated to say the least, to judge from reports just received in this country of its present activities for the social welfare. The city is planning for this year a campaign of advance in work for children. A special committee has been appointed to organize a central home for dependent children, two smaller homes, a residential industrial school, a bureau for the boarding out and supervision of children placed with private families, and a bureau for the tracing of parents and restoration of children to them. The latter has been necessitated by the influx of refugees. The city established a public employment bureau in 1914, in a large building next door to one of several municipal lodging houses. During 1915, the bureau's first complete year, 77,855 persons applied for work and 56,813, 76 per cent, were placed. During the first six months of 1916, 36,686 persons applied, and 29,304, 74 per cent, were placed. In addition, the municipality operates a separate public employment bureau for skilled labor, which maintains five branches. In this department, 42,685 applied for positions, and 28,447 were provided with work. Plans have been completed for a large model tenement, to be built by the city, at a cost of about $342,000, on a site valued at $380,000, given by private philanthropy. This is the first municipal housing enterprise in Russia; it is actually. under construction, but its completion has been delayed by the war. It is to contain 551 rooms, exclusive of kitchens, and to be equipped with library and nurseries. Other similar houses are being built, partly from private and partly from public funds, including one nearing completion begun by a gift of Mme. M. G. Mikhailova. The city also participates in the administration of the Solodnikoff tenements, model houses erected some time ago from a fund given by G. G. Solodnikoff to provide dwellings at low rents. Owing to the patriarchal spirit which, Diversified Investments For Your Present Funds Successful, experienced investors agree that for utmost safety it is advisable to select investments secured by properties of varied character and location. We have an exceptionally broad list of diversified 52% and 6% securities in denominations of $100, $500 and $1,000 suitable to the most exacting requirements. We offer and recommend for your present funds four bond issues secured by these different classes of property: Established Industrial Property-Company's earnings largely in excess of principal and interest requirements. Farm Land-Well located and under profitable cultivation. Improved Chicago Real Estate-Large value, ample earnings and strong ownership. Natural Resources-Power plant in successful operation. Substantial cash investment behind the bonds. All these recommendations are based on long experience, complete investigation by our experts and outright purchase. Write for circular No. 9820A, giving details. Peabody, Houghteling & Co. until recently, has prevailed throughout Russia, private charity has been on a scale surpassing that of most other European countries. Yet the city council of Moscow last year spent nearly a million dollars in public charity, divided as follows: Workhouse, $280,000; almshouse, $215,000; outdoor relief, $144,000; children's home, $101,000; free tenements, $75,000; unclassified, $88,000. There is every likelihood that in the future public work for social betterment in Moscow will receive a further stimulus from increased participation of women in municipal work. According to a cable received by the Chicago Daily News, the Moscow League of Equal Rights for Women, in collaboration with representatives of working women and labor deputies, has issued a manifesto, in which other claims besides that for equal franchise stand out prominently. "Women must be promptly admitted to the ranks of factory inspectors, lawyers, notaries, and in general to all branches of the public service." They demand "the abolition of all discriminative laws concerning the social evil that degrades the human dignity of women" -a protest more especially, it would seem, directed against vice segregation and the "yellow ticket," the symbol of police registration. Equal pay for equal work, measures for the protection of child workers, equal peasant rights under all future agrarian reforms, the appointment of women commissioners, both in government and municipal departments affecting the interests of women, are other parts of the program. A TEN-YEAR PROGRAM FOR THE INSANE ELDOM has a state faced the prob York has just done in creating a Hospital Development Commission, which is to work out a comprehensive ten-year program and make a study of the proper care of the feebleminded. The commission is composed of the state engineer, the chairman of the State Hospital Commission, the state architect, the chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee, two members to be appointed by the governor, and one legislator who must be a minority member of a financial committee of the legislature and is to be named by the minority leaders of Senate and Assembly. The commission is to investigate the capacity of the present state hospital buildings; to consider the future policy of the state in the care of the insane, and whether advisable to make it part custodial and part hospital; to adopt a general plan of hospital development, taking into consideration proximity to centers of population, healthfulness and other matters; to devise and adopt a plan SOCIAL DIAGNOSIS By MARY E. RICHMOND For six years Miss Richmond has been studying and gathering material for this book. It represents not only the product of her long and varied experience in charity organization work but also the best thought and practice in every form of case work. It is an exposition of the technique of social work with families and individuals. The case method is largely used, 458 case illustrations and citations from the experience of social practitioners being included in its pages. Written primarily for persons who intend to make social work a profession, this textbook will also be indispensable to students of social conditionsteachers, judges, doctors, employment managers, clergymen, and all others who must make decisions affecting the welfare of individuals. Cloth; large octavo; 511 pp. Price, $2.00 net; postpaid, $2.10. Order from PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT, RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION not only for the normal increase of patients during the next ten years, but for a moderate surplusage of accommodations when the plan is completed. It is to estimate the probable cost of this plan in detail, considering each hospital site as an entity and submitting a plan for its development to a predetermined capacity. Each year it is to recommend to the legislature an expenditure equal to one-tenth of the cost of the entire plan. When investigating the proper care of the feebleminded "with the purpose of devising a plan for its solution," the personnel of the commission is slightly changed. Many facts concerning present overcrowding in hospitals for the insane, and the lack of a coordinated development of such hospitals, are already well. known. The commission will have, however, an important opportunity to determine more definitely general procedures and policies in relation to the type of buildings and the size to which various hospitals ought to be developed. Its recommendations, also, with regard to a definite program of expenditure, coming from a commission that includes. authoritative members of the legislature on financial matters, are expected to carry great weight. It is understood that the commission will report to the legislature early in the session of 1918, but apparently the bill introduced and pushed by Senator Henry M. Sage pro- - 130 East 22 Street, New York City FOR NATIONALIZING THE A for new construction at state hospitals For new construction at state insti- was given by John Collier, of New York, in sounding the opening note of the second National Community Center Conference held last week at Chicago. It re-echoed in the varied discussions which filled almost every hour of five days, excepting the intermissions planned to show the 300 delegates Chicago's great equipment for local community work. The 300 came from twenty-six states. They represented all forms of community centers and tributary agencies-schools, playground and recreation centers, settlements, boards of education, open forums and labor forums, many kinds of clubs, boy scouts and pioneers, and some churches, with many individual attendants-doctors, educators, ministers, social workers and public officials. Much of the spirit and many of the distinctive features of the community center work itself, including folk singing and dancing, characterized the program, the heading of which described it as "a gathering up of forces, a revaluation of national ideals, a vision of the future." Wide range was given to the topics discussed and the discussion of them. The changes rung on the dominant note of democracy varied as high ideals, fundamental principles, insistent standards and RECREATION EQUIPMENT Playground and social center directors and leaders, park commissioners and superintendents, civic improvement committees, managers and trustees of childrens' institutions, social settlement workers, and manufacturers interested in employees' welfare will find this directory convenient and helpful when planning and ordering recreation equipment. Medart Playground Apparatus MEDART MEDALS. As a means of elevating the standard of physical efficiency, more and more cities throughout the country are employing Medal Tests for Playground activities. Medart Medals, of gold, silver and bronze, are furnished free with Medart Playground Equipment. These medals are of intrinsic value and will be cherished by the children receiving them. The Medart Efficiency Tests have been carefully worked out and they can be adopted in whole or in part, as they may suit local conditions. WRITE FOR CATALOG "W". It explains the Medart Medal System, as well as being a recognized guide on Playground Equipment. Fred Medart Mfg. Co. ST. LOUIS, MO. Gymnasium Outfitters-Steel Lockers. Books on Physical Training and Games By WILLIAM A. STECHER, B. S. G. Director of Physical Education Public Schools of Philadelphia, Pa. The Theory and Practice of Educational Gymnastics 8vo, Cloth (6 x 9 in.), 194 Pages, with 174 Illustrations. Net $1.50 GAMES AND DANCES A selected co ection of Games, Song-Games and Dances suitable for Schools, Playgrounds, Gymnastic Associations, Boys' and Girls' Clubs, etc. 8vo, cloth. 2nd revised edition. Price net,'$1.50 A GUIDE TO TRACK and FIELD WORK, CONTESTS and KINDRED ACTIVITIES 8vo, 48 Pages, Illustrated, Paper Net 50 cents JOHN JOS. MCVEY, PUBLISHER, 1229 ARCH ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA. multifarious details were dealt with. Perhaps the publicly-supported, equipped and controlled center work, done under the auspices of school boards, park and playground commissions and public welfare boards, with the active cooperation of local organizations, was most in evidence. But the volunteer workers and private agencies, such as the social settlements, the Immigrants' Protective League, the Civic Music Association, the labor union officials, people's institutes, open forums and educational institutions furnished their full share. One practical result of the conference, suggested by Mary K. Simkhovitch, of New York, is a clearing-house jointcommittee for the exchange of information, suggestion and prompting in which it is hoped to bring into advisory relation with each other the officials of the Community Center Conference, the Playground and Recreation Association, the National Federation of Settlements and the Open Forum Council, whose spheres of activity have many points of common interest. 'The conference became a permanent organization, with a general council and departmental and regional divisions, to give national scope to the promotion and standardizing of community center work. The Open Forum Council held its fourth annual meeting in connection with the National Community Center Conference. Its separate sessions were largely devoted to giving national scope and organization to the open forum movement. Under the leadership of George W. Coleman, of Boston, out of whose Sagamore Sociological Convention the Open Forum Council grew, the Chicago meeting was representative both in its membership, which came from widely scattered cities and states, and in the diversity of the points of view freely expressed by those whose community of interests was the promotion and safeguarding of a free democracy. The program wasted no time in asserting the right to free thought and speech, but was planned to conserve the dynamics and illuminate the methods of the forum movement. Reports of the practical operation and valuable results of local open forums inspired all who heard them with the value of the movement. The next meeting will be held with the original forum at Cooper Union, New York city. |