Attitude of Settlements
At the Inter-city Conference of Settlement Workers in Boston last year it became very clear that some of the leaders were anxious to make their work among foreigners count for more. Dr. Jane Robbins took the position that assimilation would be expedited and rendered more stable by means of the training of young foreigners, Italians and the like, as social workers in order that they might contribute their own enthusiasm and knowledge of the traditions and prejudices of their people to the task of Americanization. Miss Lillian Wald, the president of the National Federation of Settlements, maintained that the best assimilative work of all could be done through the settlement which she called “The House of the Interpreter.” The inculcation of the neighborhood spirit, she added, stimulates a wholesome rivalry and promotes better housing and social standards than can be secured by other means. Vida Scudder insisted upon the vital necessity of rescuing settlement work from philanthropic tendencies. She suggested that truer democracy and helpfulness in the work of assimilation of all elements of the national life could be brought about by greater attention on the part of settlements to all the forward movements of the working class for whom settlements exist. Miss Scudder argued that settlement workers ought to perfect the technique of the settlement organization in such a way that they would be free in times of crises to assist in all working class movements which have as their aim the improvement of the conditions of life and labor. In this position, Miss Scudder would sympathize with and encourage work along lines similar to that pursued by Miss Cross in her Rochester work, to which we have referred.