It furnishes expert advice for solving local problems to employers of every kind, to workingmen, to municipal officers, to teachers and ministers, to writers, students, and others.
Through its many foreign collaborators, the institute receives
reports, and is in close touch with social movements abroad.
The institute also arranges for addresses and lectures, with or
without lantern slides, on many important subjects, such as: The
Child Problem, History of Labor, Food, Tenements and Improved
Housing, Industrial Betterment, Substitutes for the Saloon, The
Newer Charity, Municipal Problems, Institutional Churches,
Public Baths and Wash Houses, The Better New York.
Its publications are: Social Service, an illustrated monthly
magazine; The Better New York, monographs, and leaflets.
It has a specialized and growing library, with many foreign books and pamphlets, 3,000 lantern slides, and 4,000 photographs, showing social and industrial conditions throughout the world.
Results.—Plans for new factories have been modified for comfort and health. Result: Better workers and better work.
Facilities for warm lunches, baths, and recreation at noon have
been provided. Result: Hold of the saloon weakened.
Social secretaries have been appointed in factories and
department stores. Result: Employees and employers in harmony.
Ministers, lecturers, and writers have been aided in presenting moral questions with force and persuasiveness. Result: Public conscience aroused.
The attention of societies and clubs has been turned to vital civic questions. Result: Energies given practical value.