Some of the concrete results of the Tuskegee experiment in
reconstructing the interior of the Negro rural home, were told in THE
SURVEY of August 30. Paine College, Augusta, Ga., a school for Negroes,
supported for thirty years by southern white people, who feel that
the Negro question can only be solved when the white descendants of
slave owners set their hearts and heads to the task, is endeavoring to
experiment on the reconstruction of the Negro city home by change of
material environment If a $50,000 endowment can be raised the college
will put into effect a plan of housing designed to prove it profitable,
not only morally but financially, to provide the Negro an exterior
environment which shall make the task of educating him for life easier.
The scheme and the demand for better housing on which it is based is
described by Mrs. John D. Hammond, wife of and co-worker with the white
president of Paine College.
The whole plan is based upon the belief that the Negro is himself
eagerly striving for a decent living. The Negroes’ own fight,
individually, for better homes is said to be little short of heroic.
All through the South, in city and country, Negro-owned homes witness
to the increasing prosperity of a large class, and to the effort and
self-denial of thousands more, whose income would seem to many of us,
to put house-owning utterly out of the question.
But most Negroes belong to that economic class which, the world over,
pays the heaviest rent in proportion to its income and yields the
landlord the largest return on his investment, yet which receives in
return little which is compatible with health or decency.
This is the tragedy of the Negro slum. Nobody is trying to abolish it,
because nobody believes it can be done. We believe the Negro breeds
the slum--instead of the slum breeding many of the Negro’s defects.
Everywhere else people are re-creating the slum-dweller by abolishing
the slum. We make no effort, partly because, as yet, few of us know of
the widespread struggle for better housing the Negro is himself making.
What is needed, Mrs. Hammond believes, is an experiment station in
Negro housing in the South. When it is proven, as it surely can be,
that Negro day laborers and washerwomen can be decently housed at a
fair profit to the landlord, southern money will be invested in houses
of the right kind. But somebody must prove it, and advertise the proof
far and wide.
The plan by which Paine College hopes to prove it is, in brief, to buy
a city block of about six acres in Augusta, Ga., and build on four
acres little three-roomed houses, such as day-laborers and washerwomen
rent. The houses are to have a sink in every kitchen (water in the
house is to this class a luxury unknown), and a toilet, ample window
space, closets, and the porch so necessary to family comfort in a warm
climate. By building double houses, and four acres full of them at a
time, they can be put up for $850 per double house.[1] The rent would
be two dollars the room per month, the current rent for that district.
The lot for each family would be 20 x 105, which would afford a little
garden-space in the rear--a privilege highly esteemed by many of the
poorer Negroes, and one which, under the plan proposed, would be a
powerful aid in the upbuilding of home and family life.
Four acres of the six-acre block would give room for forty double
houses. The other two acres Mrs. Hammond designs to use as a playground
for the children, and a site for a community house. This house should
contain a kindergarten room and a room for boys’ clubs which could
be thrown together at night and used for the recreation and the
instruction of the grown people. It should have a room for cooking
classes, one for sewing classes, a few free baths for men and women;
and a small laundry and drying room, like those in the East End of
London, a small weekly payment for the use of which would relieve
the mothers from the heaviest of their drudgery, and set free much
of their time for home-making. It would also make possible a war of
extermination against the accumulations of trash about the ordinary
Negro home, where so many abominations are claimed to be necessary for
the sake of the pot and fire in the yard “to boil de clo’es.”
Rent would be collected on the Octavia Hill plan, with its concomitant
thrift clubs, mothers’, men’s, children’s, and home-improvement clubs,
and these clubs would do for the tenants just what it does elsewhere
for slum-dwellers of other races. They would, Mrs. Hammond believes,
be built up in character, the houses would be saved from the usual
degeneration of property rented to this economic class, a good return
would be realized on the investment, and the children ultimately turned
over to the community as self-respecting and law-abiding instead of
furnishing, as is inevitable under present conditions, their full quota
of paupers and criminals, to be carried by the taxpayers of the city.
Three rooms would be reserved for the Negro worker, who would not only
keep them as a model home, but would use them to train the girls in
housework. This would leave seventy-nine three-roomed homes for rent,
at six dollars each monthly, a yearly total of $5,688.00. This sum
would pay the salary of the social worker, who is a necessity to the
success of the plan, and yet yield 10 per cent gross on the investment,
though two acres of the land and the settlement house, representing
one-fifth of the sum invested would he unproductive from a commercial
point of view. This is on the basis of an expense of $9,000 for land,
$34,000 for forty double houses and $7,500 for the settlement house, a
total investment of $50,500.
Rentals from Negro property now yield a larger gross return than
this, as do rentals from similar property elsewhere; but the houses
deteriorate so rapidly from misuse that the landlord feels that only
an extraordinary profit while they last can insure him against actual
loss. A gross return of 10 per cent where the buildings suffered only
the depreciation caused by rational use would be as attractive to the
ordinary business man here as elsewhere.
Mrs. Hammond’s scheme would be considered part of the educational
system of Paine College. Good housing and good living as taught in the
settlement and practically applied in the model housing plan would
become a part of the school curriculum. The raising of the endowment
fund is the present problem of Paine College. The peculiarity of this,
as of all other Negro schools, is that the more students it has the
poorer it is. Few of the pupils can pay the full amount asked of them,
which is itself less than the actual cost of their board and tuition.
Some work is furnished them--in kitchen, laundry and household for
the girls, in grounds and garden for the boys--by which they partly
pay their way. The plan is to have the income from the model housing
endowment used to pay poor students for work done and so provide with
an education many whom the college is forced now to turn away.
The homes, playground and settlement would furnish a practical field
where young Negro women could be trained as social workers in order to
meet the growing demand from white people in several southern states
for trained Negroes to work among the poor of their own race.
[1] The houses would be of wood, as local conditions make
the expense of brick or cement prohibitive.
=BOYS’ “PETITION FOR INDEPENDENCE”=
A “Petition for Independence,” signed by representatives of the
boys and girls of Ithaca, expresses the principles of the Junior
Municipality organized in that city the latter part of June by William
R. George, director of the National Association of Junior Republics.
The object of the “municipality” is the practical training of younger
citizens in their rights and responsibilities by the formation of a
government of junior officials who shall act in matters of the public
welfare in co-operation with the city officials. Already the mayors of
Cortland, N. Y., and Jersey City have asked Mr. George to start like
organizations.
“We, the undersigned, being the youth of Ithaca, N. Y.,
between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, do respectfully
call to the attention of our elders that, although not of
age, we nevertheless feel we have reached the point where
we could and should actively participate in the government
of our city.
“We regard as merely a legal fiction the assumption that we
are infants in all matters relating to the government of
the community.
“We respectfully call attention to the fact that in time
of war boys between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one
are sent to the front to fight for their country and are
frequently as officers placed in positions of peculiar
responsibility and danger. Is it not self-evident that if
youths can thus honorably acquit themselves in time of war,
they could and should assume the less dangerous and onerous
responsibilities of peace?
“We find in the annals of history that from time immemorial
youths of our age have, when placed in positions of
trust, acquitted themselves creditably. Before the age of
twenty-one Alexander the Great was not only the ruler of
Macedon, but the dominant power in all Greece; Charles
James Fox became a member of the British Parliament before
he was of age, and the younger Pitt became Prime Minister
of Great Britain when he had scarcely passed his majority.
In short, there is abundant evidence both in the past and
the present that youth can and will rise to responsibility
when it is placed upon them.
“Such being the case, we do hereby resolve to accept
the suggestion of William R. George, the founder of the
Junior Republics, and the invitations of Mayor Reamer and
the Common Council and organize ourselves into a Junior
Municipality in order that we may at once actively serve
our city as junior citizens and thereby prepare ourselves
for more efficient citizenship as adults.
“We hereby pledge ourselves to assist in the enforcement of
all the laws and ordinances of the city, particularly those
directly relating to boys and girls and their interests.
“We further pledge ourselves that when elected to any
office in the Junior Municipality we will give our full
and faithful co-operation to the adult official holding
the corresponding office in the city government and will
discharge our duties solely with reference to the welfare
of the whole city.”
[Illustration: Spare the Slum and Spoil the Child.
+----------------------------------------+
| The doctrine of |
| |
| INFANT |
| DAMNATION |
| is thoroughly modern |
| |
| Go look at the children who need |
| playgrounds and you’ll believe it. |
| |
| How long will Cleveland, |
| sixth city, keep this article |
| in her city creed? |
+----------------------------------------+
Give them Playgrounds Instead!
_From the Cleveland Humane Society Bulletin_]
=WHAT ONE SMALL TOWN IS DOING=
Zona Gale in a pamphlet, Civic Improvement in the Little Towns, tells
how first the women and then the men and women of one small community
inaugurated an unusually successful campaign in the field of public
social service. This town is described as one of 6,000 inhabitants,
probably Portage, Wis., where Miss Gale lives.
In her opinion the civic problem of the small town is threefold: first
to get into touch with the current of new understanding that the
conservation of physical and moral life is largely economic; second, to
find practical ways of applying this understanding to the present and
future of the town; and third, to do all this with exceedingly little
money.
The Women’s Club called a meeting at the City Hall of all women
interested in town development. At this meeting the constitution of the
Wichita, Kan., Improvement Association was adopted and work mapped out
for five committees: sanitary, educational, art, children’s auxiliary,
and streets and alleys.
Among the concrete results obtained through the work of these
committees were the inauguration of a system of garbage disposal;
the grading and planting of a small park at the end of a bridge at
the turn in a river; the establishment of a rest room in the town
for farmers’ wives from the surrounding country, although owing to a
misunderstanding permission to use a small committee room in the City
Hall was revoked by the Town Council; the establishment of a charity
co-ordination committee; a town lecture course; public bath houses; a
sane Fourth, and medical and dental inspection of school children.
=PERSONALS=
The recent action of Congress and President Wilson, under the specific
encouragement of both railroad managers and employes, in placing
industrial mediation and arbitration on a wider and stronger basis, is
a long step toward the realization of a definite ideal which has been
cradled in the mind of Charles P. Neill, the former commissioner of
labor.
[Illustration: CHARLES P. NEILL]
Former President Roosevelt discovered Mr. Neill. Mr. Neill discovered
the Erdman Act, which platted a narrow pathway through the industrial
jungle in the United States. Congress put the Erdman Act on the statute
books, but Charles P. Neill placed it definitely in the imagination
of the American people and focused upon it the hope of the nation
for industrial peace. It is to Mr. Neill’s credit that he found and
took advantage of the possibilities of the Erdman Act in spite of its
limitations.
From 1898, when the Erdman Act was passed, to 1906, only a single
attempt was made to utilize its provisions in industrial warfare. That
attempt, which was in June, 1899, failed. Mr. Neill became commissioner
of labor in 1905. Within the five years, December, 1906, to January,
1912, the provisions of the law were invoked in nearly 60 interstate
commerce disputes. Between 1908 and 1912 there was but one period
as long as three months during which mediation was not sought in a
railroad dispute. The threatened strikes which were averted during
these five years involved over half a million miles of railroad and
163,000 railroad employes. These figures include duplicates since the
same railroad was sometimes involved more than once.
In all this work as mediator Mr. Neill enjoyed the unlimited confidence
of railroad managers, and employes alike. Whatever the bitterness, the
differences in codes of industrial ethics, and the misunderstandings
of fact which separated into bitter opposition the railroad managers
and their employes, there was no time when both parties failed to
give absolute confidence to Commissioner Neill and to rely with
unquestioning trust on his judgment, on his personal character, and
the practical wisdom of his suggestion. This extraordinary tribute
to him was primarily a tribute to his character, but it was earned
in part by the marvelous accuracy with which his imagination seized
situations and all their parts, and enabled him to talk the minutely
technical language of railroad operation. The rare assemblage of mental
and moral gifts which characterize Mr. Neill was fully recognized and
nothing clouded that recognition during his term of service. These
extraordinary features of his career will offer but little consolation
to the few lonely critics whose voices were recently heard in high
circles.
Mr. Neill was made commissioner of labor in 1905. He was re-appointed
in 1909. His third nomination was sent to the Senate by President Taft
in January, 1913. Confirmation was withheld because of the Democratic
policy toward President Taft’s nominations in general. Mr. Neill’s
name was sent back to the Senate by President Wilson but it was not
acted upon at the short session. It was again sent to the Senate at
its extraordinary session. Meantime Mr. Neill’s term of office had
expired, and on February 1 he surrendered his office. Confirmation was
delayed, apparently because certain southern Senators seemed to have
views of the humanities of industry which were not in accord with those
of Commissioner Neill. His appointment, however, was finally confirmed
and Mr. Neill resumed his office. After a few weeks of service he
resigned to take the position of director of welfare with the American
Smelting and Refining Company. He has taken charge of the welfare of
approximately 20,000 laboring men in the employ of this corporation.
The delay of the confirmation of Mr. Neill’s appointment brought forth
from the labor press generally, from the railroad managers of the
United States and from the American press generally, tributes to his
character, to his power, and to his achievements which have been rarely
equaled and more rarely exceeded in the industrial history of the
nation.
In addition to the annual reports and bulletins issued by the Bureau
while Mr. Neill was commissioner of labor, which publications
form a very valuable contribution to the literature dealing with
labor conditions, the bureau made a number of important special
investigations at the direction of Congress, the results of which are
embodied in various reports, notable among them are the Report of the
Condition of Women and Child Wage-Earners in the United States (in
19 volumes), the Report on the Conditions of Employment in the Iron
and Steel Industry, and the Reports on the Strike at Bethlehem and
the Strike at Lawrence, Mass. Acting as special commissioner under
Roosevelt Mr. Neill investigated the packing house industry and the
Goldfield strike. In spite of the handicap under which he was placed
by his mediation work, Mr. Neill gave most careful supervision to the
planning and the executing of the work of the Bureau of Labor, and in
many cases tested the accuracy and completeness of work of his agents
by personally inspecting the fields in which they labored.
Mr. Neill was born in Rock Island, Illinois, in 1865. His college
education was obtained at Notre Dame University, at the University of
Texas, at Georgetown, and at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
where he took his Ph.D. in 1897. He served as an instructor at Notre
Dame University from 1891 to 1894. He was professor of political
economy at the Catholic University from 1898 to 1905. While occupying
this position he prepared and installed an exhibit of the Catholic
charities of the United States at the St. Louis Exposition. He was
United States commissioner of labor from 1905 to 1913, vice-president
of the Board of Charities of the District of Columbia, 1900 to 1908;
assistant recorder of the Anthracite Strike Commission in 1902;
recorder of the Arbitration Board for the Birmingham strike in 1903;
member of the U. S. Immigration Commission, 1907 to 1910. As member of
the International Institute of Statistics, he has actively furthered
plans for the adoption of international standards for the compilation
of industrial statistics and has been active in working toward
international conventions to promote that end.
Nature, grace and environment conspired to prepare Mr. Neill for his
work. Ideals governed him from his early boyhood and gave him the
courage to overcome a typical range of obstacles in working them
out. Everything taught Mr. Neill. He had the rare capacity and the
temperament to profit by experience. His ideals of social service and
his Christian sympathies have been so powerful that nothing frightened
him and nothing side-tracked him from his path. There is no way of
knowing fully the pressure that was brought to bear upon him, or the
dust that was stirred up to obscure the practical ideals that governed
him in his work as an investigator of the industrial battlefield.
Whether in a congressional hearing where a none too kindly spirit
sometimes cropped out, or in protecting the accuracy and good faith of
his bureau reports, some of which aroused fierce antagonisms and were
subject to bitter attack, Mr. Neill displayed the same intelligent
fearlessness, the same restrained idealism and the same self reliance
which his friends have always noted and admired in him. He has had
severe academic training, yet he has remained a thoroughly practical
man. He is a brave and honest fighter, without any love of fighting for
its own sake.
A personal feature of Mr. Neill’s career remains to be noted. Under
the law he, as commissioner of labor, was associated with Judge Martin
A. Knapp in adjusting railway disputes. Originally Judge Knapp acted
in his capacity as chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
When he was transferred to the Court of Commerce a change in the
law was made, permitting the President to select as second mediator
any member of the Interstate Commerce Commission or of the Commerce
Court. In this manner it was possible to continue Judge Knapp in the
mediation work. Fortunately he remains to carry into the newer epoch
just entered upon, the splendid traditions of the work as developed
by himself and Mr. Neill. These two men worked together in a spirit
of mutual understanding and trust which made their mediation work a
happy experience for themselves, no less than for the railroads and
the employes. It is impossible to separate them in attributing credit
for the great results which have been achieved. Each has been most
gratified when the public honored the other. Both will be associated
in the discriminating memory of the nation as precursors of the era of
industrial peace for which the nation’s heart is longing.