=Recreation=: The modern city so far has made little provision for

the natural irresistible desire of youth for play.

This is all the more dangerous because young men and women are being

drawn in great numbers from the protection of the home, for work

in factories and shops. They have a freedom from restraint such as

they have never had before. They have money which they have earned;

they are eager for amusement. When they come to the end of a day of

exhausting work their love of pleasure will not be denied. If they

are not given the right kind of amusement, they will take the wrong

kind.

Instead of recognizing this natural instinct for play, and providing

safe channels for its expression, all provisions for recreation are

usually left to commercial interests, to be used for their own gain,

without supervision or control. Vice is often deliberately disguised

as pleasure, and the most normal and healthy impulses of young men

and women, that, properly directed, lead to happy married life, are

frequently used as a means to their downfall.

Loneliness also plays a part. Many a young man or girl comes to

the city to find work. Where can they find the social intercourse

and companionship necessary to normal life? The homeless boy often

stands around the edge of the dance-hall, vainly hoping to make

the acquaintance of some “nice girl.” The lonely girl, living in

a cheerless hall bedroom, turns to the dance-hall as a place to

find companionship. Proper provision for public recreation, well

supervised, would help to bring this boy and girl together in decent,

wholesome surroundings.

=The Dance=: In young girls, the social instinct, the desire to meet

and know other people, and especially those of the opposite sex,

becomes a dominant factor between the ages of fifteen and twenty.

The most natural expression of youthful spirits is the dance. To

allow it to become a snare to spoil the lives of young people is one

of the great deficiencies of city life. In every city dance-halls,

ranging from the back room of a saloon to the casino or “gin-palace,”

hold out temptations to young people.

In New York City there are over five hundred licensed dance-halls.

This means, at a moderate estimate, one-quarter of a million young

people every night in these public dance-halls, most of which are run

in connection with the liquor trade.

The obligation to regulate places of public amusement, and to provide

good amusement in place of bad, rests with the community.

The minute you begin to regulate the dance-hall you are interfering

with many kinds of business; first and foremost the liquor trade

and all the interests it involves; then, with the business of those

whose livelihood depends upon the vile trade that is stimulated by

the usual dance-hall; and behind these groups, an unknown number of

perfectly respectable businesses whose trade is increased by the

conditions which characterize a “wide open” town. All these manifold

interests are rooted deep in the fabric of the government of most of

our American cities, and, because their connections are in so many

instances seemingly innocent, are all the more difficult to defeat

and dislodge.

=Playgrounds=: The need of organized recreation facilities for

children has become pressing, as congestion of population has left

no place, not even the streets, in which they can play.

There are many blocks in New York City where the population is

greater than in any other place of like area in the world. Where can

the great throng of children go to find innocent amusement? Where

shall they go out of school hours?

In 1915 it was estimated that there were 734,000 children between

five and fourteen years of age who had to play away from home. To

provide for them, the city furnished school and park playgrounds for

from 100,000 to 185,000, leaving at least half a million children

with no provision of any kind for play, except the already crowded

city streets.

=Vacation Schools=: Keeping the schools and playgrounds open during

the summer months takes the children away from the hot, crowded

streets, at least part of the time. Like public playgrounds, the

number of vacation schools is always dependent on appropriations.

The makers of the city budget find a greater pressure exerted from

the multitude of business interests that want consideration, than

they do in support of appropriations for public health and comfort.

It will be necessary for women to be as alive in supporting such

measures, as men are in demanding that their interests shall be

considered. Also facts must be given to prove that the cost of such

appropriations is saved in the increased productive powers of a

healthier people. It has been stated that a healthy laborer increases

the wealth of the country by some $30,000 during a normal lifetime.

If this is true, it should be merely intelligent business on the part

of the commonwealth to expend a reasonable pro rata of this sum, when

necessary, to insure that a child when full grown is healthy.

=Recreation Centers= have been established in some of the Western

cities. Chicago has a series of small parks in various parts of the

city, with outdoor playgrounds, and in each one a large building

where there is a gymnasium, swimming-pool, and assembly-rooms, large

and small. On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, these places show many

happy pictures of thousands of families, with both the old and young

spending their leisure in a way that increases their own happiness,

and their value to the world.

=Municipal Dance-halls= have also been tried. In the recreation

centers of Chicago there are dance-halls under careful supervision.

But whether the city provides municipal dance-halls or not, public

dance-halls should be divorced from the liquor business, and there

should be careful policing and supervision of private halls, and for

this work women police officials are necessary.

=Municipal Bathing Beaches= are also possible for any community with

a water-front. They are one of the great attractions of Chicago,

where a large part of the lakefront draws hundreds of thousands

of men, women, and children, who may easily reach these public

beaches from any part of the city. The New York State law makes the

construction of free baths obligatory in cities of 50,000 or more

population.

=The “Movies”=: Millions of children attend moving-picture theaters

every day of the year. In New York City alone, the daily attendance

of children is estimated at 200,000. The pictures impress the minds

of children like scenes in real life. For good or for evil, moving

pictures are the great teachers of the youth of to-day.

Many of the lessons taught on the screen are not suitable for

children. They give intimate views of the underworld, of assault and

infidelity, and barroom brawls. They show fair heroines and gallant

heroes committing crimes, and being pardoned and living happily ever

after. They show picture after picture that tends to destroy moral

standards that home and school have tried to teach.

=Causes for Juvenile Crime=: The natural craving for excitement and

love of adventure, with no provision for its legitimate expression,

is responsible for much of the crime of our cities. Some years ago,

it was estimated that of the 15,000 young people under twenty years

of age who were arrested in Chicago during a year, most of them had

broken the law in their blundering efforts to find adventure. It is

said that the machinery of the grand juries and criminal courts is

maintained, in a large measure, for the benefit of youths between

the ages of thirteen and twenty-five. The so-called “gangs” of our

cities are an expression of the recklessness and bravado, common to

boys, which, well-directed, is of great service to the world, and,

misdirected, is responsible for much misery.

=The Use of School-buildings as Social Centers= meets a very real

problem. Halls for dancing and for entertainments, lectures and

debates, rooms for games, even gymnasiums, could easily be brought

within the reach of most of the people. Grown-ups, as well as young

people, would find them of value. This use of the schools, outside of

the regular school hours, has greatly increased in the West, and the

school plant has become an increased factor for good in the life of

the community.

=Rural Needs=: Some of our indifference in regard to proper

provisions for recreation may be due to the fact that we were so

long a rural nation. The boy who lived on a farm or in a village,

who had the swimming-hole in summer, the farm with its hay-loft,

and in winter sledding and skating, was able to satisfy his love of

adventure. To-day, even rural conditions have changed, and there

is as much need of decent and wholesome recreation in the country

and small villages as in cities. Churches are open only on Sunday,

schools are closed two days in the week, the only meeting-place is

the corner store, or the saloons, and the streets. The use of the

school-building and grounds when school is not in session and on

Saturdays and Sundays, would take many boys off the streets.

XVIII

THE CARE OF DEPENDENT AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN

=The State of New York has the largest actual number of dependent

children, and the largest number in proportion to population, of any

State in the Union.=

In the early days it was the women who cared for the neglected

children of a neighborhood, and children left homeless were usually

taken into some one’s home. This care has gradually gone into the

hands of the town, the county, or the State, and has become a

department of government.

There are two ways of caring for homeless children: one is to place

them in institutions, the other is to place them in private families.

In both cases the State usually has to pay for their support. If

the right kind of a home can be found for a child it seems to have

a much better chance for a healthy, happy childhood, and for a

useful future when placed with a family, than when placed in an

institution. The custom in New York State has been to place children

in institutions.

It is the business of each local official, town overseer of the

poor, county superintendent of the poor, and city commissioner of

charities, to provide for destitute children. In the early days he

used to provide for them by giving what was called “outdoor relief”

to the parent, if either parent was living; if the child was homeless

it was sent to the almshouse. For many years past, children between

the ages of three and sixteen have not been allowed in almshouses,

but have been committed to institutions.

Besides this public care, private charitable agencies began to

establish orphan asylums, and homes for friendless children. These

institutions often developed from small beginnings into large

establishments, and began to draw on the public funds for at least

a part of the maintenance of their inmates, and sometimes for their

entire support. It was argued that if the State did not pay for the

support of the children in the orphan asylum it would have to take

care of them elsewhere.

=No Definite Authority=: For many years the authority between State

and local governing boards has been divided. As a consequence,

inspection of children’s institutions has amounted to very little, or

has been, at least, ineffectual.

This inadequate inspection, in addition to divided authority,

encouraged neglect and abuse. The report of conditions in private

institutions in New York City, made in 1916 as the result of an

official investigation, showed that dirt, insufficient food, vermin,

disease, and lack of common sanitary precautions were common.

Education was so much below the standard of the public school, with

little or no vocational training, that children were discharged with

no preparation for earning a living. There was not only an utter

absence of home atmosphere, but methods and restrictions were used

like a prison or reformatory. So little care was given when the

children left the institution, that they often went out entirely

friendless, with no one to call upon for council or advice, and

utterly unprepared for independent life.

These conditions were allowed to exist, partly because of the divided

authority and responsibility, largely because those in authority

were not deeply interested. As the report said, “the committing

authorities have not looked upon the problem as of sufficient moment

to make it any part of their business to formulate and promulgate any

competent standard to govern the service maintained in children’s

institutions.”

New York City has tried the experiment of “boarding out” all

dependent children between two and seven years of age, taking care to

place Catholic children in Catholic homes, Jewish children in Jewish

homes, and so forth. In some respects, this is a better method than

committing children to institutions, but it is only successful if

the child is carefully placed, and its welfare watched by appointed

visitors.

In New York State, 1900-1913, the average infant mortality-rate

of children under two years of age was 86.4 per 1,000, while the

death-rate in eleven large infant asylums was 422.5 per 1,000. That

is, under the care of the mother, even including the ignorant mother,

only one-fifth as many babies died as when the children were cared

for by the State.

Experience shows that children are not only safer and healthier

with their own mothers than in institutions, but that they have a

better chance with foster mothers than in asylums. In 1914, the New

York City Health Department, as an experiment, placed seventy-five

infants to board with foster mothers, with the result that the infant

death-rate dropped forty-eight per cent.

=Boards of Child Welfare=: In 1915, the Legislature authorized

the appointment of boards of child welfare in each county. These

boards were to investigate needy cases and had the power to grant an

allowance to a destitute mother for the care of her children.[6] This

work is dependent on the appropriations granted by the county. County

authorities are slow to act in matters that require appropriations.

At the end of the first year, fifty-seven counties had organized

boards, but only thirty-four had made appropriations; 6,014 children

had been kept from asylums and 1,969 homes had been saved from being

broken up. In New York City, the number of children in institutions

has decreased 3,000 since the Child Welfare Board began its work. In

1917 New York City appropriated $1,250,000 for widowed mothers. The

_average monthly allowance_, the first year of the Welfare Board’s

work, for each child under sixteen, was _$7.99_, which is _$3 less_

than it would have cost to keep the child in an institution.

It is now admitted that everything possible should be done to

prevent a home from being broken up by poverty; that if the mother

is living, and is a fit person to bring up her children, it should

be made possible for her to keep them. That the mother is usually a

fit person to bring up her child, is proved by the experience of the

Board of Child Welfare of New York City, which examined four thousand

cases of mothers who applied for pensions, and found only in fourteen

cases that the mother was not to be so trusted.

In many of the Western States the widowed mothers’ compensation, or

pension laws, have been extended to cover children of delinquent,

injured, or crippled fathers, and sometimes even of fathers

imprisoned in penal institutions.

Some States also have other provisions which reduce the number of

dependent children. In Washington a man who deserts his family is

put to work and his wages are paid to his wife and children. This

seems more sensible than the law which imprisons the man, and lets

the State support him, while his wife has to support herself and

children. In Kansas, the wages of a prisoner are given to his

family. In California and Illinois, the father must help support the

illegitimate child.

The care of dependent children is work for which women are especially

fitted by both training and inclination. In Colorado, the State Home

for Dependent Children must have two women on its board of five

members. In the State Industrial Home for Girls, three of the five

members of the board must be women.

=The Problem of the Delinquent Child= is one that needs the greatest

care and expert attention. If the dependent child is an appealing

figure, the delinquent child is an indictment of a community. He

is usually the product of neglect, of overcrowding, of bad living

conditions, and of defects in the educational system.

To treat the child offender as if he were grown up and responsible,

and to punish him in the same way as an adult, is to make a criminal

of him. The manner in which his first offense against the law is

handled, often determines the future of such a child.

=Children’s Courts=: It used to be common for children of all ages to

be detained with older, hardened criminals indiscriminately, exposed

to contamination and disease, and to try them in an open court-room

with all other cases. The modern policy is to try all cases against

children, with the exception of murder, in special courts.

The entire policy of a children’s court is based on prevention

instead of punishment, to make friends with a delinquent child, to

show him the danger ahead of him, to watch over him like an older,

wiser friend, and to help him to keep straight. The terror and

disgrace of an open court-room are replaced by a quiet, friendly talk

in the judge’s room.

A large number of all children who are arrested are ungovernable

or disorderly, children who have run away from home, or who are

associating with dissolute or vicious persons. Another large class

comes into the courts because of improper guardianship; neglected

children, or those exposed to physical or moral danger. These cases

are not classed technically as delinquents, but are tried by what are

known as special proceedings.

The total number of children arraigned in the children’s courts of

New York City in 1916 for delinquency was: boys, 5,929; girls, 150;

in special proceedings, boys, 3,893; girls, 2,972, a total of 12,944.

The largest percentage of cases for any offense for boys was petty

larceny, and for girls was sex offenses and incorrigibility.

In 1916 the Police Department of New York City made in its report

an analysis of juvenile arrests, showing the nature of the offense,

the age, sex, nativity, occupation, and employment of the child.

The largest number of arrests were for offenses against property.

Practically half of all the delinquents were native-born children of

foreign-born parents.

The attitude of the police force of New York City during the last

few years has been helpful in handling the problem of juvenile

delinquency. The police are now instructed to try to prevent small

infringements of the law by children, and many trivial offenses are

adjusted out of court.

A considerable proportion of the children who come repeatedly into

the children’s courts are feeble-minded. During 1917, the children’s

court of New York City, for the first time, had a clinic attached

to the court, where children suspected of being mentally deficient

could be examined. There is still, however, no place where they can

be committed temporarily for observation, and there is great need of

a graded institution that will provide for the treatment and care of

the different classes of mentally deficient children.

The system of probation for child offenders is of the greatest

possible assistance in reclaiming the child; it also decreases the

number of children who are committed to institutions, thus saving the

State money. To make probation effective, children must be visited

frequently in their homes, and be kept on probation long enough to

make probable a complete reformation. Women, and not men, should be

appointed as probation officers for delinquent girls, but, as the

appointments are often political, men are given the preference, and

are even put in charge of girls.

The present Children’s Court in Greater New York dates from 1915, and

under the presiding justice of the court has been brought to a high

state of intelligent and sympathetic handling. The city of Buffalo

also makes special provision for delinquent children. In most of the

cities of the State, the judges of the court of special sessions set

certain days for children’s cases.

Among the improvements needed in the New York State law is a

provision to give the children’s court jurisdiction over children

of sixteen and seventeen years of age. This is especially needed

in cases of wayward girls. In Colorado the juvenile court handles

cases of offenders under eighteen. Also, it is a criminal offense

in Colorado to contribute to the delinquency of a child, and the

children’s court has jurisdiction over adults contributing to such

delinquency. This is a provision needed in the New York State law.

Colorado also has a law prohibiting the publication of the name or

picture of a girl under eighteen in a case of delinquency. This is

important, as procurers and other men who have been the cause of a

girl’s delinquency often go free, because the girl and her family

wish to avoid publicity.

The children’s courts in New York State should also have the power to

appoint legal guardians for children in case of need.

To be a judge of a juvenile court requires exceptional

qualifications: quick sympathy, and intelligent understanding of the

many causes which contribute to child delinquency.

A large part of the problem comes back to the environment of the

child, to crowded living conditions, deficient education, lack of

vocational training, and absence of opportunities for recreation.

The pitiful striving of children for pleasure and play, and the

inadequate provisions of our cities to meet this need, are often

responsible for the first delinquent step. Many improvements in this

direction, as well as improvements in the law, are needed to bring

the protection that New York State gives its children up to the level

of the best found in other States.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Unfortunately, the law expressly excludes in its provisions for

relief families with alien fathers.

XIX

CHILD WAGE-EARNERS

=Children are the most important assets of a nation.=

While every one, individually, would admit this statement, it is not

easy to persuade the government that the protection and development

of child life cannot be left safely to private initiative, any more

than can animal or plant life; that, in addition to the protection

of the individual family, children need the fostering care of the

organized government. For many years, the government, both State and

National, has dealt generously with the agricultural interests of the

country. When disease has broken out among either animals or plants,

it has had its experts ready to send out at a moment’s notice to any

part of the country. It has spent vast sums of money to investigate

and eradicate boll-weevil in cotton, and hoof-and-mouth disease among

cattle, and to develop a better strain in many animals and plants,

but it is only very recently that it has been willing to investigate

the needs of the children of the nation.

The appropriations of the Federal government for animal life, in

1915, were over $5,000,000; for child life, $164,000. In 1917, an

additional appropriation of $150,000 was made for the enforcement of

the Federal Child Labor Law.

=Federal Child Labor Law=: For fourteen years, the National Child

Labor Committee has tried to get laws passed which would limit the

hours of work for children, the kind of work they might do, and the

age at which they might be put to work. Discouraged by the State by

State method, the committee inaugurated a campaign for a Federal

child labor law, and after three years of effort succeeded in getting

it passed.

Men have an eight-hour day in many States. Women have an eight-hour

day in a few States. Until the Federal bill was passed, children of

tender years in a number of States could be employed almost unlimited

hours and all night.

At the time the bill was passed three States permitted children

under fourteen to work ten and eleven hours a day, and two States

permitted them to work at night. Nineteen mining States permitted

children under sixteen to work in mines.

Nine States permitted children under sixteen to do night work. In

three Southern States, one-fifth of all the cotton-mill workers, in

1913, were children less than sixteen years of age.

The Federal Child Labor Bill, which went into effect September 1,

1917, was declared unconstitutional by a United States District

Court in North Carolina, and is now before the Supreme Court of the

United States. This law prohibits the interstate commerce of articles

which children have helped to make. It does not control the labor

of children in local occupations. Street trades, messenger service,

agricultural work, and housework are not touched by it. This law is a

great step in advance for the protection of children, but there are

still 1,859,000 children, from ten to sixteen years old, at work in

the United States whom the Federal law does not touch.

=New York State Laws=: For many years New York State has been

building up a code of protection for the children of the State.

Children under sixteen years of age are not permitted to work unless

they have a special permit, and they must have completed the sixth

grade in school. A physical examination of the child is required to

see that he is able to stand the strain of the industry in which he

is about to engage, and proof of age is required. To sell newspapers,

boys from twelve to fourteen must have a permit and a badge. Boys

of fourteen and fifteen are required to have badges if they have a

prescribed route for the delivery of newspapers, but not if they are

selling for themselves. Children under sixteen are not allowed to

work more than eight hours a day. To enforce these laws adequately,

many inspectors are needed and unceasing vigilance on the part of the

public. While the provisions of the law concerning newsboys are very

clear, and are generally obeyed in New York City, they are seldom

enforced elsewhere in the State.

To allow children to enter the industrial world at an early age,

without preparation, and with no guidance as to the sort of work

for which they are best fitted, is unfair to them. The boy or girl

who gets a job at fourteen, without any vocational training, is apt

to remain an unskilled worker all his or her life. The range of

occupations open to such children is small. The largest number of

boys who go to work at an early age become delivery boys, errand

or wagon boys, or newsboys. There is little chance among these

employments for real training or for any future advancement.

A careful study, by the National Child Labor Committee, of certain

cases brought into the Children’s Court, has established the fact

that a large proportion of the boys and girls who come into the

court come from the ranks of child workers. This investigation has

also proved the need of adequate vocational guidance. The present

school course gives little help in this direction to children who

are leaving school at fourteen or fifteen, and parents are often as

ignorant of industrial conditions as the children. After a few years

in an occupation that offers no opportunity for development, the boy

or girl who went to work so young is often left stranded, not only

untrained, but demoralized.

There is need also of making parents understand that better

opportunities are open to children who have had education beyond the

elementary grades.

=Street Trades= of all kinds are regarded by social experts as unsafe

for children. Some authorities recommend the absolute prohibition of

all street trading for boys under seventeen. These trades, including

selling newspapers, appeal to boys because they like the excitement

of street life, and the spending-money which they give them.

A judge of the Detroit Juvenile Court says, “At least fifty per cent.

of the boys brought into the juvenile court are newsboys.” An old

newsboy, when asked what night work on the streets had done for him,

said: “When I was a kid, it wasn’t like it is now. They didn’t have

no midnight edition—I always had to be home by eight o’clock. When I

got to selling at night I started in high school, but when it came

time for the first examination, I said, ‘Oh, I’ll just quit. I’d

rather be out on the streets, anyway.’” In Baltimore it is estimated

that 45 per cent. of all the children in the near-by reform school

have been street workers.

Investigations have proved the theory is false that a child is

usually put to work “to support a widowed mother.” More often the

child in a street trade is found to come from a home where there is

no need of his work, and in these trades the earnings of children are

very small. In a recent investigation, in Seattle, the earnings of

newsboys were found in 46 per cent. of the cases of the elementary

school paper-sellers to be less than $5 a month.

The night messenger service is known to be a demoralizing occupation,

unfit for any small boy, and in New York it is prohibited to all boys

under twenty-one. The same protection of the law is now needed for

girls.

Many parents do not realize the serious results of letting their

children go to work too young, or the bad effects of over-work

on them. The tendency of over-fatigue is to break down the moral

resistance. The release from supervision which is brought about by

their wage-earning, and the danger of their having money of their own

to spend, added to the interruption of their education, cannot help

but have a demoralizing effect on them.

=Rural Child Workers= are quite as common as city workers, but they

are not so often wage-earners. Their labor is usually taken by

parents as a matter of course, and they are not paid. Farming and

housework are two occupations which engage many children, and there

is almost a complete absence of laws regulating them.

A distinction should be made between the farmer lad who does

“chores” night and morning, and the boy who is kept out of school

most of the year to be a farm-hand; and between the girl who helps

her mother out of school hours, and the girl who is kept at work

in a canning-factory, and goes from one to another as fruits and

vegetables ripen; but neither the chores nor the housework should be

allowed to interfere with the regularity of school attendance. The

boy who is kept at farm labor, without education, and the girl who is

kept at work in the canning industry at the expense of her schooling,

are as much in the ranks of child laborers as the cotton-mill

workers, and they suffer in the same way from lack of training for a

useful future.

Experiments have been made in combining the work that the boy does

night and morning on the farm, with the school work. Under proper

guidance, the chores that the boy has to do at home can be made a

means of education. For example: a pupil who assists at home in the

milking might be required to keep a daily record of each cow, with

the fluctuations in the yield of milk, due to weather and food. This

combining of the necessary home work with the instruction of the

school has been made a success in some of the Western States, where

county superintendents supervise the home-school work and make it of

the greatest possible educational value.

Rural school terms are usually shorter than city terms, and irregular

attendance is more frequent. Only 68 per cent. of the pupils enrolled

in rural schools attend daily, while in cities the percentage is 80.

The absences of girls are caused largely by housework.

The results of child labor in the country are seen in the high

percentage of rejections from military service on account of physical

defects in men from rural districts, and the larger percentage of

illiteracy in country communities compared with that in cities.

Better and more adequate education for the thousands of children on

the farms of the State is one of our immediate needs.

It is the right of every child to be given enough education to give

him a good start in life. The child-labor problem is largely a school

problem. Keep the children in school, and there will be no child

labor.

=War and Children=: The war has brought a new demand for the labor

of children, and new evidence of the serious consequences of using

this labor. In England and France, juvenile delinquency due to the

breaking down of educational facilities, and the exploitation of

children in shops and factories, has increased to a point where both

nations are aroused by a new national danger. To meet the sudden

great need for munitions, and the speeding up of all industry,

children of all ages, and women of all classes, went into the

factories. In England, it is estimated that 200,000 children from

eleven to thirteen years of age left school to go to work. Abnormally

high wages were paid them. With fathers at the front and mothers away

from home in munition factories, these children roamed the streets

after their work was done, with pockets filled with money to spend,

and no one to exercise a restraining hand.

Streets are unlighted, the police force has been decreased, churches,

schools, and settlement work are interrupted. Is it any wonder that

since the war began juvenile delinquency has increased 46 per cent.

in Edinburgh, 56 per cent. in Manchester, and thefts 50 per cent.?

The same demand for child labor has begun to be manifest in this

country. The United States is being called on to feed the world, and

to make supplies of all kinds for our allies, besides the tremendous

need of supplies for our own armies. Millions of men are being drawn

from the ranks of producers, and have become consumers. The world is

consuming and destroying on a scale never known before in history.

The demand for more and more labor is becoming ever more insistent.

In spite of the warnings which have come to us from England and

France, of the necessity of guarding against the exploitation of our

children during the war, New York State was one of the first to try

to break down the restrictions built up during many years of the past

with such infinite labor.

The Brown bills, which passed the Legislature last winter, were

a frank attempt to utilize the labor of children. They made it

possible, at the discretion of the State Labor Commission, to

abrogate every law that has been passed in New York State to

safeguard its children. One bill would have made it possible to

utilize the labor of children unlimited hours, seven days in the

week, including night labor. This was vetoed by the Governor.

The other, which makes possible the suspension of the compulsory

education law, in order that children may work on the farms, has

become a law. Other attempts will undoubtedly be made to exploit

children.

It will require unceasing vigilance on the part of the people of

the State to see that measures detrimental to children shall not be

successful. Attempts are being made to remove the limit of hours, and

to abolish the requirement that children between fourteen and sixteen

shall have working papers. Such measures mean that the physical

examination now required would not be made, and that the necessity

of furnishing proof of the age of the applicant would be eliminated.

The first would permit weak, sickly children to go to work in the

factories, and the second would encourage the employment of children

under fourteen.

The need for increased labor is a real one, and as long as the war

lasts it will continue to grow. But the nation that exploits its

children while at war is bleeding at both ends. It is the province of

women to watch over and guard all children. Now that they have the

vote, the responsibility has been put directly on them, and they have

the power to meet it.

Because of the tremendous cost of war in human life itself, it

becomes doubly important to safeguard human life at its source, and

that is our job.

NOTE.—The material used in this chapter is largely taken from

publications of the National Child Labor Committee.

XX

PUBLIC CHARITIES

The public institutions of the State are grouped under three heads:

the State Commission in Lunacy, the Prison Commission, and the State

Board of Charities.

=The State Board of Charities=, which has general supervision of the

charitable institutions of the State, consists of twelve members, of

whom nine must be appointed as commissioners from the nine judicial

districts of the State, and three from New York City. The law

prescribes otherwise no qualifications for membership on this board.

(A recent innovation has been made in the appointment of a woman on

the board.) The commissioners serve without salary, but each one is

paid his expenses and $10 for each day’s attendance at meetings, not

to exceed $500 a year.

=Partly State, Partly Private=: Some charitable institutions in the

State are wholly controlled by the State or one of its subdivisions;

others are controlled by private corporations, but are maintained

either wholly, or in part, by State funds. There are over six hundred

and forty charitable institutions which receive money from the State.

There are still other institutions which are entirely supported by

private funds. The State Board of Charities has not the authority

at present to inspect organized charities which do not receive

public money, so there are many institutions which are without the

protection of State inspection, and the total amount of dependency in

the State is not known officially.

=Duties of the Board=: Besides its duties of inspection and general

supervision of charitable institutions, the board has the control of

the incorporation of charitable institutions, and must approve of

an application for a certificate of incorporation before it can be

granted. It also issues licenses for medical dispensaries, and makes

rules and regulations under which they must work.

=The Powers of the Board Are Limited=, as the carrying out of its

recommendations often depends on action by the State Legislature,

and especially on the amount of the appropriations granted for the

work. The powers originally given the board have also been greatly

impaired by the action of the Legislature from time to time in

creating other agencies, which have resulted in a duplication of

work and an overlapping of authority. There is much complaint of

institutions being overrun by official visitors, and inspectors with

conflicting authority, who are said to interfere with the work of the

institutions without accomplishing adequate results.

The powers of the board have been especially curtailed since the

office of _Fiscal Supervisor of State Charities_ was created in 1902.

When decisions are to be made concerning appropriations for State

charities, in making up the legislative budget, the Fiscal Supervisor

is consulted to the exclusion of the State Board. In reality the

Fiscal Supervisor has far greater powers than the State Board of

Charities, as no appropriations can be made unless approved by him.

His effort is to keep down appropriations wherever possible, and he

does not come in direct personal touch with the needs of the work.

The power to fix salaries and establish positions has been given to

the _Salary Classification Commission_, and to locate new buildings

to the _Commission on Sites, Grounds, and Buildings_.

The general dissatisfaction with the confused and conflicting

authority, which had come with different legislative enactments, led

to the appointment in 1916, of a commissioner to investigate State

charities and to report to the Governor, with recommendations of

changes he deemed advisable.

Among the changes recommended were:

(1) That instead of an unpaid board of twelve members, appointed from

the judicial districts, there should be a board of nine, of whom

one should be a woman; three members should be paid and should give

all their time to the work, one of the three to be president of the

board, one the chairman of a bureau for mental deficiency, and the

third, chairman of a bureau for dependent children; the six unpaid

members were to be specialists in the special classes of work which

is supervised by the board.

The present State Board of Charities objects to this change on the

ground that a board so organized would become political. They also

feel that the appointments should continue to be made from the

judicial districts, in order that every part of the State should have

a resident member of the State Board.

The report further recommended: (2) Prompt provision for defective

delinquents; (3) a careful revision of the State charities and

poor law; (4) that power should be given the State Board to

inspect private charitable institutions; (5) the creation of a new

bureau for dependent children; (6) the abolition of the office

of Fiscal Supervisor of Charities, in order that recommendations

for appropriations should come directly from the State Board of

Charities; (7) the abolition of other conflicting authorities, and

restoring the authority of the State Board.

None of these recommendations have been acted upon as yet.

The State institutions that are under the State are the following:

State Agricultural and Industrial School, Industry; Syracuse State

Institution for Feeble-minded Children, Syracuse; New York State

School for the Blind, Batavia; Thomas Indian School, Iroquois; State

Custodial Asylum for Feeble-minded Women, Newark; New York State

Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home, Bath; New York State Training School

for Girls, Hudson; Western House of Refuge for Women, Albion; New

York State Reformatory for Women, Bedford Hills; Rome Custodial State

Asylum, Rome; Craig Colony for Epileptics, Sonyea; New York State

Woman’s Relief Corps Home, Oxford; New York State Hospital for the

Care of Crippled and Deformed Children, West Haverstraw; New York

State Hospital for the Treatment of Incipient Pulmonary Tuberculosis,

Raybrook; New York State Training School for Boys, established by

law in 1904, not yet ready to receive inmates; Letchworth Village

for Feeble-minded, Rockland County; and authorized in 1911-12, but

not yet open: The State Industrial Farm Colony, Green Haven; and the

State Reformatory for Misdemeanants.

Private institutions supported mainly by State appropriations are:

New York Institution for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb; New York

Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents in the City

of New York; New York Institute for the Education of the Blind;

Institutions for Deaf Mutes in New York City, Buffalo, Westchester,

Rome, Rochester; Malone and Albany Home Schools for the Oral

Instruction of the Deaf.

=County and City Institutions=: County and city almshouses are

under the supervision of the State Board of Charities, and also the

recently established county sanatoria for tuberculosis, of which

there are about thirty. The small number of patients in these county

hospitals for tuberculosis makes it impossible for some of them to

give as expert and efficient care as a larger and better equipped

hospital might offer.[7]

=The Department of State and Alien Poor=, of the State Board of

Charities, has the supervision of the State poor, and of alien and

Indian dependents. It also has the power to transfer aliens, or

non-residents, who have become public charges, to their home county

or State, or, in co-operation with the United States Immigration

authorities, to return them to their home countries. This department

has saved the State large sums of money.

In 1916, 810 persons were returned to their homes in other States or

countries, by this department, of whom 250 were alien poor.

=Local Boards of Managers=: Each State charitable and reformatory

institution is administered and controlled by a board of local

managers, appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.

These boards usually consist of seven persons who serve without pay,

for their expenses only. There are some women on these local boards,

but not nearly as many as there might be, considering the number of

institutions which have women in their charge.

The superintendents of State institutions are all carefully selected

from the civil service lists.

The employees of these institutions form a difficult problem. The old

conception of an attendant for a public institution was exceedingly

low; the standard is still far from good. The salaries paid are

insufficient to attract intelligent service.

=The Department of Inspection=: There are over six hundred

institutions in the State which come under the Department of

Inspection. To handle them there are eight inspectors, and one

superintendent of inspection.

=Almshouses= are inspected and graded in three classes. Of the

counties that were reported in 1917 as first class in both

administration and plant are: Allegany, Chautauqua, Genesee,

Jefferson, Lewis, Monroe, Niagara, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Wayne

counties. Those second class in both administration and plant

were: Dutchess, Herkimer, Madison, Rockland, Schoharie, and Ulster

counties. The only one third class in both plant and administration

was in Sullivan County.

=Provision for the Feeble-minded= is the greatest present need of the

charities of the State. Mental defectives are at large all over the

State, and they are found in all institutions. They are a source of

trouble in the public schools, and are a constant danger to the State.

It is estimated that there are not less than 30,000 of these

unfortunates. The State institutions have room for about 5,700, but

they are actually caring for 6,700. For years efforts have been

made to get the Legislature to make adequate provision for their

segregation. The report of one institution for feeble-minded women

says, “nine of the women admitted were married and had given birth

to thirty-seven children; twenty-six of those admitted had borne

forty-three illegitimate children; making a total of eighty children

born to those unfortunate women.”

Letchworth Village, in Rockland County, a plot of 2,000 acres,

was planned to provide for 2,500 to 3,000 feeble-minded. It was

established in 1907, and in 1916 still had a capacity of only 330.

The failure of the State to complete a project it had undertaken is

shown also in the New York State Training School for Boys at Yorktown

Heights. This was planned to be a reformatory of the modern cottage

type to take the place of the very old one on Randall’s Island, and

was greatly needed for delinquent boys. After twelve years of delay,

and after $800,000 had been appropriated by the State and most of it

expended, this project has been abandoned. The reason given for the

final decision to abandon the site, was the possible contamination

of the Croton water supply by the institution. With modern methods

of sewage disposal it seems as if it would have been possible to

guard against this danger. It would have been easier to insure proper

treatment of the sewage from such an institution than from the towns

and villages which exist in the Croton watershed. The State Board of

Charities recommends now an appropriation of $150,000 for a new site

and plans.

=Recommendations of the State Board=: Intelligent handling of the

problem of dependency must deal with causes. Probably the major part

could be done away with if the State would adopt adequate preventive

measures. The board recommends as an aid to this end: (1) Industrial

insurance; (2) better housing, including the destruction of the worst

congested areas in cities, and the prevention of further congestion;

(3) vocational training for children; (4) improved labor laws,

restricting the hours of labor, and compensation for accidents to

employees; (5) adequate pensions to widowed mothers.

They also recommend: That further provision be made for tuberculosis,

which the records of the State Health Department show is increasing;

that the office of County Superintendent of the Poor should be

appointive and be included in the Civil Service. The frequent

changing of poor-law officials, and their lack of knowledge of the

subject, are drawbacks in the discharge of their duties.

=The State Commission in Lunacy= has charge of the hospitals for the

insane. All the insane come under the direct charge of the State.

This is a salaried commission consisting of three members. There are

local boards of managers for these insane asylums as for the other

charitable institutions, and a majority of the members of these local

boards are required to visit the hospitals at least once a month for

inspection.[8]

=The State Prison Commission=, like the State Board of Charities,

is an unpaid board, but the Superintendent of Prisons is a State

official with a salary.

There has been for years a provision of the State law which gives one

scale of salaries for men employed in these institutions and a lower

one for women.

Pay of Stenographers (male) $70-80 a month

” ” (female) 50-68 ”

Chief Supervisors (male) 55-68 ”

” ” (female) 50-62 ”

Since women have been given the vote, it is probable that this law

will be changed and equal pay given for equal work.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] It is hoped that when the Boards of Managers for these county

tuberculosis hospitals are appointed, local women will be placed on

them.

[8] The number of insane in the State is increasing far more rapidly

than the provision which is being made for them. The last report of

the State Hospital Commission shows that in hospitals for the insane,

planned to accommodate 27,890 patients, there were in June, 1916,

33,873 patients, an overcrowding of 21.5 per cent. The State Hospital

Commission urgently requests a bond issue to provide immediately for

the construction of new buildings.

XXI

THE PROTECTION OF WORKING-WOMEN

The war has brought a revolution in woman’s work.

Because of the increased demand for labor, trades and all kinds of

employment that have been considered exclusively the province of

men, have been opened to women. The universal verdict is that they

have everywhere made good. Work that demands the greatest exactness

and care, specialized technical operations that have been supposed

to require a man’s brain, have been done by them quite as well as by

men. But their employment in many of the new industries has brought

new industrial problems, and they have gone into many new occupations

which are not included in the protection extended by existing labor

laws.

Even before the war New York State was the greatest industrial State

in the Union. More women were at work here than in any other State,

and more women were at work in New York City than in any entire State

except Pennsylvania.

There were 248 separate manufacturing industries in this State, and

women worked in all trades in which over 1,000 workers were employed,

except in the manufacture of bricks, tiles, fertilizers, and ice.

They were doing everything, from making cores in foundries, sausages

in packing-houses, pickles and candies, to working in human hair,

chemicals, and rags.

Women have always done their share of the world’s work, but in the

past their labor was in the home. During the early years of our

nation there were very few women who did not work or supervise work,

but they did this in their homes for their homes, and they were not

paid in money.

When the cotton-gin was invented and the use of steam was discovered,

it was the dream of the inventors that their machines should be

really labor-saving, and that people would have leisure for the

development of the wider and deeper things of life. This became true

for some people, and to-day there are many women of comparative

leisure who can do as they please with their time. But on the other

hand, undreamed-of evils and dangers have come to women who toil,

and necessity compels women by the millions to seek work in the

industrial world. In spite of the fact that the wages of women have

been appallingly low, the woman who must earn money in order to live

has had to find work outside of her own home.

=Number of Women Wage-earners=: In 1910, according to the census,

there were in New York State 3,291,714 women over fifteen years of

age; only 1,793,558 were married, and 1,498,156 were unmarried or

widowed; 983,686 of these had to work in order to live, or to support

some members of their families. This number did not include the great

mass of women who work in their homes.

=Clothing Manufacturers=: Before the United States entered the war,

184,691 women were working in New York State making every conceivable

garment for people to wear. The work is subdivided so that one worker

does one thing all day long. There are sixty-five operations in

the making of trousers. Twenty to sixty different operations take

place in the making of men’s shirts. Women tuck or hem materials for

women’s wear hour by hour, driven by the juggernaut electric machine

which knows no fatigue and needs no rest.

=Laundries=: Ten thousand women worked in laundries in this State,

where the washing and ironing are done usually by machines. They

stand and push down a treadle of the ironing-machine with their feet,

making as many as sixty-three to eighty-one foot pressures a minute.

In this action a bad twist of the body is necessary, which may

result in permanent injury. Clouds of steam rise from the mangles,

and when no exhaust hoods are used, the room is filled with steam.

Tuberculosis is a common disease among laundry workers. Unprotected

machinery is a constant danger.

=Restaurant Workers=: There were fifteen thousand restaurant workers,

waitresses, cooks, kitchen girls, and pantry hands. Until 1917,

they were without any protection by law. They worked any number of

hours, and seven days a week. They now come under the fifty-four-hour

law, in first and second class cities, but the law is difficult to

enforce. They often walk five miles a day carrying heavy trays; and

varicose veins, flat feet, and pelvic disorders are common.

=Textile Operators=: In New York State 35,168 women worked in

textile-mills making silks, woolens, cottons, carpets, knit

underwear, etc. The din of machinery is deafening in many of these

factories, and often the machinery is so closely placed that there is

difficulty in passing without danger of skirts catching.

The whole development of machinery in industry has been worked out

for the purpose of extending trade and output, without consideration

of the human factor involved. Machines have been watched so they did

not wear out or break, and they have been carefully repaired. Girls

and women, the human factor, have been discarded if they wore out;

they are of less worth to the employer and can be easily replaced

without cost to him. But the cost to the State has been heavy in

the toll of hospitals, insane asylums, and homes for destitutes and

delinquents.

There is hardly a trade which has not some elements of danger or

unhealthfulness in it. Women working in meat-packing plants in

sausage-making rooms stand all day at their work on water- and

slime-soaked floors. Women work in industries where industrial

poisons are used or where they are generated in the process of

manufacturing. The pressure of piece-work, the monotony of one single

operation, are nerve-racking and nerve-exhausting.

The health of women who spend hours a day in factories depends

largely upon factory laws and sanitary codes. Light, air, sanitation,

overcrowding in factories, mills, and shops, all vitally affect the

health of the workers. No one can measure the cost of industry in

the life of women. The strength and vitality taken from them will

show in the lowered vitality of their children. A low birth-rate, a

high death-rate, and an impaired second generation are the inevitable

results. Infant mortality where the mothers work in factories is

notoriously high.[9]

=War and Woman’s Work=: With the insistent demand for increased

production occasioned by the war, women have been brought into

many new positions formerly held only by men. They have gone

into the steel-mills; they are employed in large numbers in the

munition-factories; they are working on the railroads, in railroad

yards, and inspecting tracks, as well as in the ticket-offices and

baggage-rooms. The Pennsylvania Railroad has 2,300 women employed as

car-cleaners, track-walkers, upholsterers, locomotive despatchers,

and machine-hands. Some are operating trains. They are engaged as

conductors on street-cars and subways, and as elevator operators.

These new industries are not included in the provisions for women of

the State labor laws.

New York State has a nine-hour day for women working in factories

and mercantile occupations, and night work is prohibited in

these industries; but this protection does not extend into other

occupations.

An eight-hour working-day has been given to men in many States and

in many occupations, but in only a few of the Western States has it

been given to women. After three or four years in most industries,

young women begin to wear out, the speeding up and the strain put

on their youth begin to tell, their capacity lessens, and their

output diminishes. Although the effect of long hours and monotonous

occupation is harder on them than it is on men, the protection of

the law has been extended to them to a far less extent. In these

new industries there is none. Women may work in them twelve hours a

day and all night. The demand of some of the street railways is for

a twelve-hour night for women conductors (with two hours off for

supper). Elevator operators work twelve hours a day, in day and

night shifts, and girls employed all night are subject to insult if

not actual danger.

Since boys have been difficult to get, girls, including some under

sixteen, have been delivering letters and packages in messenger

service. The State law prohibits boys under twenty-one being employed

as messengers at night, because of the dangers of contamination from

the night life of a city. Under present conditions a girl employed

as messenger has no protection, and may even be sent to houses of

doubtful character.

The new industries for women also include manual work that has

heretofore been considered too heavy for them. The high wages paid

them, while lower than would have to be paid now to men for the same

work, are still high enough to attract women from other occupations

where wages have not had the same advance.

While there is an increasing demand that women shall be paid the

same wages as a man would be paid for exactly the same work, the

idea still prevails that it is only fair to pay men more than women

because they have families to support, while women support only

themselves. =This is not true.= On the backs of many women rests the

sole support of aged parents, or of younger brothers and sisters. A

large proportion of them give up all their earnings to the family

needs.

It is no longer a question of the ability of women to do many kinds

of work formerly held to be the exclusive province of men; but of the

effect of her so doing on the future health and welfare of the race.

Women, like men, must work in order to live, but society and the

State owe it to themselves, as a vital matter of self-protection, to

safeguard that work, so that future generations shall not suffer from

its effects.

The whir of machinery, the noise, the constant standing or the

close bending over work, the meager wages, have been the conditions

woman has had to meet for years in her struggle for a livelihood;

to them are now added the dangers and excessive hours of these new

occupations, with their further call on her strength and endurance.

These new industries for women should be included in the laws

regulating the hours and condition of women’s work. Public messenger

service is too dangerous for young girls to be employed in it.

If the eight-hour working-day is right for men, it is even more

needed by women. Laws regulating factory conditions are of little

value unless there is sufficient inspection to enforce them, and the

number of inspectors employed is always inadequate. Women inspectors

are needed for factories in which women are employed; but there are

only four women factory inspectors in the entire State.

Several years ago the New York State Factory Investigating Commission

made an exhaustive investigation of women’s wages, and found that

women and girls were so underpaid as to endanger their health

and productiveness. Since then the cost of living has advanced

prodigiously, with no corresponding increase in wages, especially

among young unorganized women.

A minimum wage bill, similar to the one in force in Oregon, which has

been declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court, is

now before the Legislature, drawn on the recommendation of the State

Factory Investigating Commission.

If the war continues, the demand, not for more protection, but

for the suspension of existing labor laws, will become more

insistent. The needs of the country for increased production will be

irresistible and will not be satisfied for many years.

The test which the government should insist shall be applied to every

occupation in which women engage is this: What effect will it have on

the one business in life which is especially theirs, the production

and conservation of human life? How can it be safeguarded so it shall

not exact too great a toll from their health and vitality?

Every consideration that individuals and the State can give must be

engaged in the study of this question. With the vote in her hands,

the woman in industry will be able to protect herself better than

before, but the responsibility for her welfare rests not on herself

alone, but on other women, especially on those who are free from

the grinding struggle themselves, and can do as they choose with

their time. It is part of their responsibility to see that the most

conscientious and careful consideration be given to this question.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Thanks are due Miss Mary Dreier, a member of the recent New York

State Factory Investigating Commission, for this picture of the work

which women are doing.

XXII

AMERICANIZATION

The United States is still a medley of foreign nationalities,

representing all the races of the world, with their social

characteristics, customs, prejudices, and even language unchanged.

No one need be disconcerted by this fact, for the people who came

over in the _Mayflower_ were foreign-born, the founders of the city

of New York were of foreign birth, and so were the first families of

Virginia.

In New York State only 35 per cent. of the population is of native

birth and descent. Almost one-third is foreign-born; one-third of the

children born here have one or both parents of foreign birth. Even

with all the resources at our command it would have been a giant task

to have assimilated such huge numbers of such divergent races.

The United States was established as a nation where justice, freedom,

and opportunity were to be assured to all the people. For over a

century it has been a refuge for men and women of foreign lands, who

have been oppressed and have longed for freedom, and who have sought

wider opportunity for themselves and their children.

Native-born Americans have accepted their privileges as a matter of

course, and without feeling the obligations they imply. They have

demanded justice and opportunity for themselves, but they have not

felt the responsibility of seeing that it was extended in equal

measure to those who come to our shores. They have not realized

that it is the obligation of every one enjoying the privileges and

benefits of a democracy to see that these are shared and safeguarded

by all the people.

The war has brought home to the nation the stern necessity of a

united country. For the safety of the nation our ideals of freedom,

justice, and opportunity must be put into practice for all the people

of the nation. The “square deal” that we stand for must be given

at home, the opportunity for better living and the development of

character must not be denied any of our people. Only in this way

shall we have loyal American citizens who value their allegiance and

who feel the obligation to uphold our national ideals.

=The Immigrant Is a Great National Asset=: The country has been

built up largely by his work. The railroads, the mines, the great

buildings, the subways, waterworks, steel-mills, sugar-refining,

clothes, cigars, furniture, most of the products of our factories,

are made by immigrants. The great industries of the country would

stop without the millions of hands that they supply.

The immigrant often comes here with high hopes of improving his

condition, and he finds himself looked down on with contempt by the

native American, exploited at every turn, and every advantage taken

of his ignorance. After an alien is once admitted, there has been

relatively little attempt made to protect him, to see that he is

helped to settle where his skill can best be utilized, or even to aid

him in learning our language and customs.

Many foreigners were skilled farmers before they came to this

country, but although there is great need for such labor on the farms

here, little provision is made to use their skill in that way. The

immigrant often has to pay to get a chance to earn his living. When

he gets a job his labor is exploited; he has to accept lower wages

than an American would take; the living-quarters provided for him may

not be fit for human habitation.

Here is a recent picture of a suburb of New York City, a community of

16,000 foreign-born workers: The married workman pays from fifteen to

twenty dollars a month rent for a three- or four-room flat, the rooms

about ten feet square, with no light but kerosene-lamps. The average

family has four children, and each family takes from two to six

boarders to help pay the rent. The only running water is on the first

floor, and there is one out-of-door toilet. Is it any wonder that the

children, the younger generation, are both sickly and lawless?

The factory buildings are large and well lighted, but in many

communities of foreign-born unskilled workmen the housing provisions

allow for no privacy and are a detriment to family life and morality.

Such conditions are particularly bad for the immigrant woman whose

work confines her indoors.

It is natural that the foreigner should settle with others of his

own nationality, so almost every city and village in the State has

a colony “across the track.” In the native section there will be

police protection, paved streets, running water, sewage and garbage

disposal, but this protection often does not extend “across the

track.” There, disorder and filth abound and the death-rate is much

higher.

=Every injustice to the immigrant reacts on us as a people.= He must

be given a square deal before he can be made into a loyal American.

A common language is the first essential of a united nation. There

are solid blocks in New York and other cities where not a word of

English is spoken or understood. It is hopeless to try to make

Americans of persons who do not understand our language. Speaking

English is the first step in citizenship, and the public schools are

the logical centers in which to make loyal Americans of our alien

population.

=Night Schools= are sometimes provided, but there are many localities

still without them; and, after all, it is difficult for a man who

has been at manual labor all day to study at night. They are most

successful when they are made interesting with stories and games.

Experiments have been made with classes held from five to seven

o’clock in the afternoon in the factory buildings, and employers

often welcome them.

=Neighborhood Classes for Women= are being held in the afternoon in

some localities. In this case the babies must be included. Provision

is made for them in a separate room with a nurse or kindergartner

to take charge of them. The best lessons for the mothers are not

found in books, but are based on the interests connected with their

daily lives and their domestic duties. Paper patterns and a lesson

in how to make garments for her baby will chain her attention, and

the English names of articles used will be learned unconsciously.

“Playing store” with the articles she depends on to feed her family

will fascinate her and teach her more practical English.

The immigrant woman is often keen to learn American ways and customs.

She is eager to know how to take better care of her family. When the

public schools of New York City give away pamphlets about economical

cooking, the call for them from the mothers of the pupils is so great

that the supply is soon exhausted.

The need for some special help for the foreign woman was never

as great as it is to-day. There are about four hundred thousand

of them in New York State who have become citizens because their

husbands are citizens. They are going to vote. Many of them cannot

speak English. In the course of time the law providing that a woman

shall take the citizenship of her husband without qualifying for it

herself, may be changed, but meanwhile these women are voters. They

need help and education, and for the protection of the State the

community must give it to them.

=Home Teaching= of women in the tenements as part of the regular

school system is being tried in California. Teachers are sent into

the homes to show by practical demonstration economical cooking, how

to improve sanitary conditions, and to teach the mother how to care

for her children.

=Naturalization= would do more to arouse a sense of responsibility

in the alien if it were conferred with a ceremony which would appeal

to the imagination. Many of the people who come to our shores come

from countries where beauty and ceremonial are part of the national

life. The process of naturalization, as conducted in many courts, is

usually perfunctory and often sordid. If the courts are crowded, an

applicant may have to come six or eight times with his witnesses,

losing not only time, but being in danger of losing his job. He is

often ignorant of the whole subject of government; he may know

nothing of the questions involved in an election, but there is

rarely an effort made to teach him anything of American ideals. The

political club that wants his vote is the only thing connected with

government that pays any attention to him, or offers him help. Often

he finds that his vote has a market value. So the ballot, the symbol

of freedom and self-government, becomes to him only a bit of graft.

Definite standards of citizenship that apply to all alike, better

tests of their knowledge of English and of our government, would help

to impress on aliens the meaning of the oath of allegiance.

=Uniform Naturalization Laws=: In New York State an alien has to wait

five years to become a citizen with a vote. In Nebraska, a Turk or a

Greek or an Armenian who landed six months before, if he has taken

out his citizenship papers, is permitted to vote, although he may

have no educational qualifications of any kind, and know no English

nor anything about our government. In seven other States a man can

vote simply by declaring his intention of becoming a citizen.

=Ignorance of Laws=: Besides the lack of provision for learning the

duties of citizenship, there is little opportunity for the immigrant

either to become familiar with our laws or to learn respect for

the law. He gets his knowledge of the vote from the ward boss, and

he learns contempt for the law when he sees the curtains of the

saloons pulled down in front, and the back door open. As he sees the

constant disregard for law all around him, liberty becomes license in

his mind. Then as he prospers and grows well-to-do, building laws,

factory inspection, fire protection, and other attempts at government

regulations, often seem to him restrictions which are to be evaded as

much as possible.

Sweatshops and the padrone system are to his mind part of the

American system for getting rich. In taking advantage of them for

his own profit he feels that he is only following the custom of the

country. A contempt for law and opposition to any attempt of the

law to interfere with what he considers his rights are the natural

results.

The study of civics[10] in the public schools should begin not in

the high schools and colleges, but in the lower grades. A majority

of children leave school before they reach the grammar school. A

practical course in government may be made simple and interesting

even for them.

The idea has been seriously advanced that the oath of allegiance,

accompanied by a dignified and beautiful ceremony, might be

administered to groups of boys and girls as they reach twenty-one

years of age, in a manner to impress on the public mind the value of

citizenship. The “citizen receptions” which have been given monthly

in Cleveland and Los Angeles, to the new citizens of that period,

have done this. After a patriotic program, with the judge of the

court presiding, each successful applicant is very proud when he

receives his naturalization papers like a diploma, awarded before

his family and friends. Such a ceremonial cannot fail to carry home

the conviction of the value of the citizenship so conferred, and the

importance of living up to the responsibility imposed by it.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] The study of citizenship in the public schools may be made a

vigorous aid to Americanization. Many foreign parents depend on their

children for their knowledge of the customs of the new country. What

the children learn in the public schools has its influence on the

life of the family at home. If the children are taught orderliness,

consideration for others, and respect for authority, they carry those

qualities home. If they are undisciplined, they take home disregard

for parental authority, and a lack of consideration for the rights of

others, that will stand in the way of their comprehending the first

principles of good citizenship.

XXIII

PATRIOTISM AND CITIZENSHIP

From the beginning of history there have always been individuals who

have chosen death rather than slavery. As intelligence has grown and

has displaced ignorance, their number has increased, but it is only

within the last century and a half that people have demanded liberty

in sufficient numbers to make it the fundamental principle in the

forming of great nations.

We, in the United States, are the inheritors of the most courageous

and forward thinking of the men and women of all nations who cared

enough for human liberty to break all ties of home and country

in order that they might “establish justice, insure domestic

tranquillity, provide for the common defense, and secure the

blessings of liberty” for themselves and for us.

These phrases from the Constitution of the United States have

usually been only words to us. We have been safe, our homes have

been secure, our loved ones have been protected. Most of us have not

personally been conscious of any overwhelming injustices, and those

that we have heard of have been far enough away not to be disturbing.

We have come and gone as we chose; we have thought and spoken as we

pleased; we have worshiped as we would; our property has been safe;

we have damned the government or any man in any public office without

thought of danger to ourselves; we have feared no man. Why should we

have talked about liberty or human freedom—it has been secure enough.

So the call to defend liberty to some has fallen on dull ears,

and the demand for an awakened patriotism in some places has gone

unheeded. As a people, we have forgotten about the long centuries of

fighting for freedom, the tremendous cost that has been paid, and the

blood that has been shed.

Think what those words, “safety, defense, tranquillity, justice,”

must have meant throughout the centuries when no man’s life was safe,

when not only his welfare, but that of his family, was subject to the

whim of the government, when he could be thrown into prison without

knowing the reason why, when the honor of his wife or daughter could

be taken without his being able to protest. Read your history again,

of the middle ages, of England in the seventeenth century, of France

before the Revolution, of Germany in the eighteenth century. Then

read of the early struggles in America. It was nature and the Indians

that man was fighting then. For personal safety he fought to make

war and raiding unprofitable; he had to meet brute force with brute

force, to prove his mastery over nature and savagery, and to gain

peace and safety for himself and his home.

It is the untold sacrifices of countless men and women that have made

liberty possible. That it shall be maintained, and that the world

shall not be allowed to slip back, is a debt that every man and woman

owes to the past.

Those who inherit the fruits of this age-long struggle must be ready

to pay their part, for themselves and for the sake of those they

love, for the sake of those who won it for them, and for those who

shall come after them. The duty which rests on them is as great as

the duty that was on the men of the Revolution, and on those who won

the Magna Charta. If they do not, they are weakening the forces of

civilization.

For liberty is not yet complete. There may be as great a struggle

ahead of the world as lies in the past. Before the tremendous

upheaval of the war, we took it for granted that the liberties we

possess were common, more or less, in most of the civilized world.

Since then the horrors, the unbelievable human suffering, the

suspension of all human rights, in the region of the great struggle,

we have laid to the war, and have not realized that in many parts of

civilized Europe, before the war, human freedom as we know it did

not exist, and that the denial of certain rights which we claim as

fundamental, was common.

At the foundation of our national existence has been that belief

in the principles of liberty, justice, and opportunity which the

Constitution expresses. The rights given us by the founders of our

nation have been the ideals which other democratic governments have

sought to follow. They have been sufficiently elastic to meet the

growth of the world’s belief in democracy, and to provide for all

new developments in the ideals of human liberty. If these ideals

have been denied to any of our people, it has been the fault of us

as citizens. The degree in which they are maintained depends on us.

Instead of denying the liberties that we actually enjoy, would we

not do better to advance them and add to them? In place of tearing

down the great structure already erected, is it not wiser to help to

correct its imperfections and to continue to build on it?

There is an intelligent part of the public that desires good

government and will help to maintain our ideals of justice, but they

are in the minority. There is also a part that sees in government

only their own selfish profit, but they are also a minority. The

great mass of people are indifferent until something arouses them.

They would rather be left alone by bad government than be bothered

by good government. That is the great problem of democracy—to arouse

all the people to a realization of the necessity of their active

interest in and support of that democracy, to increase their sense

of individual responsibility; and that is the reason for universal

suffrage—to put yeast into a people and to ferment their dormant

interest. Democracy is not static. It exists only as it is upheld.

We hear about the denials of justice and the failures of democracy

more than we do about its blessings. Our sense of perspective is

often wrong. We talk about an act of lawlessness in the United

States, even if it is being prosecuted with energy by the government,

and class it with a deliberate attempt by a government to crush a

people. We make no distinction between a State with deficient labor

laws and a country where the laboring classes have no right to make

themselves heard. We see no difference between a suppression of

disloyal utterances in time of war and a people that is never allowed

to speak freely, or a censoring of papers in war-time and a press

that never prints anything but what it is told to print.

We are apt to magnify the evils of democracy at home, and to forget

the magnificent heritage of liberty that belongs to us.

What are the special privileges which we enjoy?

_First._—_Personal Security_, the right to live our daily lives

without fear of personal danger, the right of being secure from

unwarrantable seizure of person. This right has been ours so long

that we do not know how precious a right it is. It is difficult even

to conjure up in imagination an idea of what it would mean to be in

daily fear of one’s safety.

_Second._—_Personal Liberty: Freedom of Thought and Speech._ Life

would be unthinkable to us without this liberty. To stifle one’s

thought, to be afraid to let a suspicion of it leak out would mean to

make life unbearable. _Freedom of the Press_ is a right that we enjoy

more than any other nation. _Freedom of Worship_ has so long been

unquestioned that we forget that it has been little more than a short

century since it was established. _Freedom of Assembly_ is a right

which we accept without question.

_The Right of Petition_ was won by a bitter struggle. We can scarcely

imagine that there was ever a time when it was denied.

_Third._—_Equality before the Law_ is a right that is guaranteed by

the Constitution of the United States, the right to a fair trial by

jury, of habeas corpus, and due process of the law.

_Fourth._—_Security of Property_ is guaranteed by our Constitution.

Private property may not be taken even by the government without a

fair price being paid for it.

_Fifth._—_Political Rights_ are guaranteed to our people, universal

suffrage, complete political liberty. This is the most valuable

of all rights, because it is the right that secures all other

rights.[11]

These rights are not absolute; they are dependent on public opinion

as well as on the law. They are imperfectly administered. To the

extent that they are denied, we must each one of us accept part

of the blame, because liberty of action is ours. In time of war

public safety may demand their suspension, and the people may give

permission that this may be done temporarily.

The privilege of citizenship brings with it the obligation to defend

the government of which that citizenship is a part. The right to

vote is a right which might well be dependent on the loyalty of the

citizen, and on his willingness to defend and maintain his country.

Men say even to-day that the vote has no value, that they do not care

about it. Let them live for a time in a country where they would not

be allowed to vote, where the people are governed by an autocratic

power, and how long before they would be willing to sacrifice

anything, even life itself, for political liberty?

The citizen of a democracy has not only the duty to defend his

country, but is bound to transmit to future generations something

better than he inherited from the past. As it is his part in time of

war to defend the liberties that he enjoys, so it is his duty in time

of peace to do his best to develop and strengthen liberty and justice.

That is a task even more difficult than to fight in time of war. The

discouragements, the disappointments, are many.

Women are bound to meet these disappointments. The vote for which

they have worked so hard and so long will not accomplish what they

wish. Often it will seem to accomplish very little. The machinery of

democracy is cumbersome and very imperfect. It is often heartbreaking

to try to move it. It does not easily register the popular will.

But in spite of the imperfections, and the discouragements, and

the downright corruption, the foundation on which it is built is

the best that the world has yet found. There are many labor-saving

devices still to be invented for the bettering of the machinery

of government—protective measures to be found against political

corruption and to safeguard the interests of the people.

Side by side with the improvement in the mechanism of government must

come a quickening of the public conscience. The yeast of universal

suffrage is already working toward that end. The golden rule as the

standard of action in government will make few mistakes. The prospect

for an improved democracy in New York State is bright. The war has

swept away many prejudices and has clarified many problems. Men and

women are working together as never before, whole-heartedly, for

the benefit of the State. To adapt the words of President Wilson,

“the climax of the culminating and final war for human liberty has

come, and we must be ready to put our own strength, our own highest

purpose, our own integrity and devotion to the test,” and we must do

this not only now in time of war, but also after peace has come, in

the dedication of ourselves to the service of justice, freedom, and

opportunity for all in our nation.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] Universal suffrage has meant in the past only manhood suffrage.

With the ratification of the woman suffrage amendment to the National

Constitution, universal suffrage will become for the first time a

fact.

APPENDIX

SOME DEFINITIONS

=Habeas Corpus=: Both the Federal and State constitutions guarantee

to the people the right to the writ of habeas corpus, “unless where

in cases of rebellion or invasion, public safety may require its

suspension.” This is an order that may be obtained from a certain

judge commanding that a prisoner shall be brought into court without

delay. This writ secures to any person imprisoned for any cause the

right to be heard immediately, in order that the purpose of his

detention may be made known, the facts be examined, and the prisoner

either released or remanded for trial. This is one of our most highly

prized rights, and is based on a promise contained in the Magna

Charta.

=The Initiative and Referendum= give to the voters the power to

initiate legislation, and the right to compel a referendum on any

legislative act.

=The Initiative= enables the people to enact some measure that they

may desire, when it has been ignored, or defeated, or amended out

of shape by the Legislature. The initiative may be used to pass a

new law, or to amend or repeal existing laws. If a group of citizens

can get a certain percentage of the voters to sign the requisite

petition to a measure, it then goes to the Legislature, and if it is

not adopted by that body, the measure must be given to the people for

their decision by popular vote. If a majority of the voters indorse

the measure it becomes a law without waiting for action by the

Legislature. In Oregon, initiative measures go directly to the people

without being submitted to the Legislature.

=The Referendum= provides that a certain percentage of voters may

demand that any statute passed by the Legislature must be submitted

to the voters, and approved by them before it becomes a law.

The existence of a provision for the initiative and referendum

is said to reduce the need of interference with the work of the

Legislature, and the actual number of measures coming to a popular

vote is very small.

=The Recall= provides that the voters who put an official into office

may vote to remove him before his term of office is over. If people

are dissatisfied with the conduct of a public official, on petition

of a certain number of voters, he may be compelled to submit to a new

election so that the voters may pass judgment on his conduct of his

office.

=The Red-light Injunction and Abatement Act= is recognized as the

most effective way yet found of minimizing the social evil. The

usual method of handling such offenses is to arrest the woman and

fine her. The injunction and abatement act puts the responsibility on

the owner of the property used for this business. If it can be proved

that it is used for immoral purposes, the house is closed, and the

owner fined and put under heavy bond to insure its not being used

again in this way. Property used for this purpose brings much higher

rent than when used for legitimate business, so that this procedure

strikes at one root of the evil. New York State has an abatement act,

but it is not well enforced. It is not easy in many cases to find the

owner of a piece of property.

=The Tin Plate Ordinance= puts the name of the owner of a building

on a plate outside the building, and thus prevents the concealment

of his or her identity. It was first put into operation in Portland,

Oregon.

=Prohibition=, =High License=, =Local Option=, and the =Guttenburg

System= are all ways of dealing with the liquor traffic.

=Prohibition= has been of many different degrees in various places in

the United States. A complete National prohibition measure has now

been passed by Congress, and is before the States for ratification.

=High License= is intended to decrease the number of places where

liquor is sold by placing a tax on them so large that it will be

impossible for many of them to pay it.

=Local Option=, which allows communities of various sizes to decide

for themselves whether the sale of liquor shall be licensed or not,

has been fought step by step by the liquor trade.

=The Scandinavian or Guttenburg System= of controlling the liquor

business, in general, provides for eliminating all private profit

from the business, but there are many variations of details in

different places in carrying out the system. The Scandinavian idea

is that if the money profit is done away with the business will

take care of itself. A few licenses are given for short periods to

companies formed for manufacturing wines and liquors, and 5 per

cent. interest is allowed on the capital invested. All remaining

profits go to the State. The government has the right to withdraw the

license without compensation. Retail shops are open only from eight

in the morning until seven-thirty in the evening; they are closed

on holidays, and from one on Saturday until eight A.M. on Monday.

Bartenders are under the civil service and are given bonuses for

selling soft drinks.

=The Single Tax= is a proposal to place the entire burden of taxation

on land alone, without regard for the value of its improvements.

Land which is not improved, and is entirely non-productive, often

increases in value with the growth of population and the improvements

made on neighboring property, without any effort on the part of the

owner, or any service rendered by him in return. Improvements on

property increase the taxes on that property, while the owner of

the unimproved property escapes the same increase as long as his

land remains unimproved. In other words, the improvements which add

to public prosperity are made to pay an increase which the stagnant

property escapes. The proposal of the single-taxers is that the

“unearned increment” on such land should go into the public treasury.

=The House of Governors= originated when President Roosevelt, in

1908, invited the Governors of all the States to meet in Washington

to confer over important matters. Several times since then this

“House of Governors” has met together to discuss questions of mutual

interest which are important to the welfare of the several States.

=Proportional Representation= would give representation in Congress

to each party, in proportion to its membership in the State. At

present the representation of each party is based on its comparative

strength in each congressional district. The division of the State

into congressional districts is made by the State Legislature. The

political party in control of the Legislature may divide the State

in such a way that it may be able to elect an unfair number of

representatives. It may put counties, or assembly districts which

have a large majority of voters belonging to the opposite party, in

one congressional district, and economize its own voting strength

by spreading it over as many congressional districts as possible,

where it can be sure of electing its candidates by small majorities.

This is known as “gerrymandering.” In New York State, instead of the

division of the State into congressional districts being based fairly

on population, districts have been created by the party in control

of the Legislature which contain more than twice as many voters as

some other districts.[12] It is said that proportional representation

would also tend to make Congressmen so elected work for the service

of the State as a whole instead of for one local district.

=Workmen’s Compensation Laws= are designed to provide for the

compensation of employees when they are injured at their work. More

working-men are injured in the industries of the United States, in

proportion to the number employed, than in any other country in the

world. To let the working-man and his family alone bear the burden of

injury or death is recognized as an injustice. For such an injured

person, or his family, to be obliged to sue through the courts is

usually a long and expensive process. Years may be consumed in such

litigation, and meanwhile the family may be without the support of

the breadwinner. Compensation laws require employers, regardless of

fault, to pay injured workmen certain amounts for injuries resulting

from accidents, without the workmen being obliged to go to court and

sue for damages.

The State Federation of Labor is working to have all compensation

insurance placed in the State fund, to eliminate direct settlement

of damages between the workers and the employer, and to have all

occupational diseases included in the provision of the law.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

Page 109: School taxes under the new Township law are collected by

Town authorities.

Page 142: In New York County the Grand Jury is composed of

thirty-six men.

Page 144: A bill to make women eligible for jury service is before

the Legislature of New York State.

Page 163: Efforts are being made to repeal the Township school law

and to go back to the School District system of 1795.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Also under our present system a large minority of voters may

be without representation. A third party in the State may have a

considerable membership, but its numbers may not be large enough in

any one district to elect a representative over either of the other

parties.

CHART OF OFFICIALS FOR WHOM YOU CAN VOTE

ELECTIONS WHEN HELD TERM SALARY

=School Elections.= School-meeting annually

first Tuesday in May.

Board of Education, ” ” 3 years.

3-5 in each town.

School directors, ” ” 5 ”

2 in each town.

=Village Elections.= Annually, usually in the

spring, the third

Tuesday in March.

President. ” ” 1 ”

Trustees (2 to 8). ” ” 2 ”

Clerk (sometimes 1 year. varies.

appointed).

Treasurer. ” ” 1 ” ”

Assessors. ” ” 1 ” ”

Collector. ” ” 1 ” percentage.

Police justice. ” ” 4 years. varies.

Special elections may be called to decide special questions.

=Town Elections.= Biennially, either in the

spring or at the

general election in

November.

Supervisor. ” ” 2 years. by the day

or salary.

Town clerk. ” ” 2 ” fees.

Assessors. ” ” 2 ” by the day.

Collector. ” ” 2 ” percentage.

Overseer of the Poor. ” ” 2 ” by the day.

Supt. of Highways. ” ” 2 ” ” ”

Constables. ” ” 2 ” fees.

Just. of the Peace. ” ” 4 ” ”

=County Elections.= At the general election

in November.

Sheriff. ” ” 3 ” fees or sal’y.

County clerk. ” ” 3 ” ” ”

Treasurer. ” ” 3 ” fixed by b’rd

of supervisors.

District attorney. At the general election 3 years. sal’y varies.

in November.

Supt. of the poor. ” ” 3 ” by the day

or salary.

County judge. ” ” 6 ” sal’y varies.

Surrogate. ” ” 6 ” ” ”

Coroners. ” ” 3 ” fees or sal’y.

=City Elections.=

Cities of the first and second class and usually those of the third

class hold elections biennially, in the odd-numbered years.

=New York City.=

Mayor. Elected every four years 4 years. $15,000

at the general election

in November. Next

mayor elected in 1921.

Comptroller. ” ” 4 ” 15,000

Borough presidents. Elected by the people of 4 ” 7,500

each borough. to 5,000

Aldermen. In odd-numbered years. 2 ” 2,000

Judges, City Courts. At any general election. 10 ” 12,000

Judges, Muni. Courts. ” ” 10 ” 7,000

to 8,000

=New York County.= At the general election.

Sheriff. 4 ” 12,000

District attorney. 4 ” 15,000

County clerk. 4 ” 15,000

Register. 2 ” 12,000

Judges of the Court of General Sessions. 14 ” 17,500

Surrogates (2). 14 ” 15,000

=Bronx County.= At the general election.

Sheriff. 4 ” 10,000

District attorney. 4 ” 10,000

County clerk. 4 ” 10,000

Register. 4 ” 10,000

County judge. 6 ” 10,000

Surrogate. 6 ” 10,000

=Kings County.= At the general election.

Sheriff. 2 ” 15,000

District attorney. 3 ” 10,000

County clerk. 4 ” 12,000

Register. 2 ” 12,000

County judges (5). 6 ” 12,500

Surrogate. 6 ” 15,000

=Queens County.= At the general election.

Sheriff. 3 ” 10,000

District attorney. 3 ” 8,000

County clerk. 3 ” 8,000

County judge. 6 ” 12,500

Surrogate. 6 ” 10,000

=Richmond County.= At the general election.

Sheriff. 3 years. 6,000

District attorney. 3 ” 5,000

County clerk. 3 ” 5,000

County judge and surrogate. 6 ” 10,000

=State Elections.= Biennially, at the general

election in even-numbered

years.

Governor. 2 ” 10,000

Lieutenant-Governor. 2 ” 5,000

Secretary of State. 2 ” 6,000

Comptroller. 2 ” 8,000

Treasurer. 2 ” 6,000

Attorney-General. 2 ” 10,000

State Engineer. 2 ” 8,000

State Senators. 2 ” 1,500

Assemblymen. 1 year. 1,500

Judges of the Court of Appeals. 14 years. 13,700

to 14,200

Judges of the Supreme Court. 14 ” 10,000

to 17,500

=National Elections.= At the general election.

President. Elected by presidential 4 ” 75,000

electors who are elected

by the people every

four years.

Vice-President. ” ” 4 ” 12,000

U. S. Senators. At different general elec. 6 ” 7,500

Representatives in Biennially, in even-numbered 2 ” 7,500

Congress. years.

THE END

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 204 Added space between: acanning-factory in: who is kept at work

in acanning-factory,

pg 259 Removed repeated word to from: workmen being obliged to to go

to court

pg 259 Changed A bill to make women elegible to: eligible

pg 262 Added period after: fees or sal’y - for Coroners line

pg 262 Added period after: City Elections

pg 262 Added period after: in the odd-numbered years

pg 262 Added period after: At any general election (2 locations)

Many hyphenated and non-hyphenated word combinations left as written.