Your vote and how to use it

by Gertrude Foster Brown

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Under a provision of a recent Federal law, a certain sum of money is available for use in any State for the teaching of home economics, industrial training, or for any vocational work, provided that the State appropriates an equal amount for the purpose, which New York State has done.

XVII
HEALTH AND RECREATION

The great majority of men and women, and even many children, have to work for a living. To keep healthy they need time and opportunity for wholesome recreation.

Recreation is as much a necessary part of normal life as food or drink; a fact that has been partially lost sight of in this economic age, but throughout the world’s history there have been frequent examples of governments which made careful provision to supply necessary amusements for their citizens. In Greece great stadiums were erected for games and contests; in medieval times the knights held tournaments, even the churches celebrated their saints’ days with gay street processions.

The need for recreation is particularly great to-day because the congestion of population of our cities has left few open spaces for leisure time, and crowded living and small, dark rooms where all the work of the household must be done, preclude any social life in the homes of many families. Many young girls who crave companionship and social intercourse with friends have to go outside their homes to find it.

Crowded tenements without light or air, dirty streets with no provision for wholesome recreation, are proofs of poor government and inefficient democracy, no matter how prosperous and contented a city may look in its richer quarters.

People who are obliged to live in the crowded districts have a lowered vitality and a lessened value to the world; and the same natural impulses which, rightly directed, lead to an orderly, useful, contented life, may be the causes of delinquency if stunted or misdirected. The slum is an economic crime, condoned by a public which pays the penalty in contamination and contagion thrust back upon itself.

Housing: Air and sunshine are the first requisites of healthy life. The government recognizes a certain responsibility in insuring these necessities, and prescribes by law regulations for the construction and inspection of living accommodations. Many families cannot choose their homes, but are obliged to live in the kind of buildings that are to be found near their work. Inside rooms without windows, rooms into which a ray of sunshine has never penetrated, are common in every city in the State. The law prohibits, in cities of the first class, the building of new tenements with inside rooms without windows, but many old ones are in existence, and two-family houses may still be built with inside rooms. In other cities there are practically no restrictions, except by occasional ineffectual city ordinances. Sanitary arrangements, and the water-supply in many tenement-houses, are insufficient for health or even decency.

Tenement-house inspection is a part of city government in which women are particularly fitted to serve. In New York City, there are 103,688 tenement-houses and 193 inspectors. Only eight of these are women.

The war has greatly intensified the housing problem. With the tremendous increase in certain industries which has brought thousands of people to work in new factories, there is a corresponding demand for living accommodations near their work. These factories may not be permanent, and so private capital hesitates to build houses near them. The result is a terrible crowding of people in unsanitary and unfit buildings. The consequences of such overcrowding is seen in the increase of child delinquency, immorality and disease, an increased death-rate, and the inevitable unrest from such unhappiness which results in strikes and labor troubles.

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.