It is clear, then, that highly organized societies established
primarily for mutual insurance often undertake educational and social
projects which tend to overshadow their original purpose as the
economic position of the members of the national group becomes more
stable. Leaders who are inaugurating national educational movements in
the less well-established groups are consciously using the benefit
feature because of its universal appeal, and employing the general
methods and machinery of the fraternal insurance organization.
Modification of the official machinery is the inevitable result of the
change in purpose. We find, for instance, that the local lodge,
originally only a meeting for the payment of dues, becomes a center
for discussion of problems of concern to the local community or to the
national group, and often the field in which the educational program
planned by the national society is carried out.
The official organ, designed to carry official communication and news,
tends to subordinate this function to the educational and cultural
features. To a certain extent it becomes a national educational
journal. It is to be noted that with the separation of men's and
women's lodges and the growth of the influence of women in the
national policy of the society, the section of the official organ
devoted to the interests of women is extended. The very real problem
of the immigrant woman in adjusting herself and the family life to the
new conditions here, is given greater consideration.
As these organizations have been so efficiently developed, and as the
leaders in the different groups hope for a united group where before
there has been a separate and segregated one, it seemed worth while to
consult the representatives of the different groups in some detail
with reference to the method of using educational material dealing
with family adjustment. The subject of child care seemed the most
obviously pertinent and interesting, and a section of the United
States Children's Bureau Study on the Pre-School Child was submitted
for their consideration with the question as to its adaptation to the
needs of the various groups.
All to whose attention it was called agreed that it was material of
the highest importance, and that if translated it would prove of
greatest interest. A translation was therefore presented to these
representatives for their consideration. Again, all agreed that the
only questions were the extent to which the material would have to be
explained in terms of foodstuffs and methods of care familiar to the
women in the different groups.
All agreed that the material should be given to the women in small
doses graphically presented. The installment plan should be the rule.
All agreed that illustrations would greatly add to the interest and
the ease with which the lesson would be understood. And all agreed
that a very effective way of arousing and maintaining interest would
be to call in to conference representatives of the different important
agencies, the Church, the school, the midwife, the doctor, to obtain
common consideration of the material with reference to its more exact
adaptation to the needs of the particular group.
Several editors agreed that much of the material could be used without
such conference if it were only skillfully translated--which is a
difficult and costly process. The Foreign Language Information
Service of the National Red Cross has begun this work, and finds a
hearty reception for its translations of such material. But the
editors likewise thought that such conferences as have been described
would have very great effect in securing co-operation in the use of
the material.
It is clear that the same general method could be applied to the use
of other similar material bearing on problems of family adjustment, or
on the other aspects of adjustment; but in the field of family
adjustment there is available a great body of information and
suggestion organized by the expert members of the various Federal
bureau staffs for the purpose of accomplishing just the end we have
under consideration. This is true not only of the work done by the
United States government, but by the state and city governments as
well.
The development and maintenance of an agency which could make
available to foreign-speaking groups through their own organizations
the material already awaiting use, would correspond with the hopes and
the intentions of leaders among the various groups, facilitate their
work, and make possible a fine and a fruitful co-operation among
elements that have in the past been separate, if not hostile.