Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

Social Centers

It is not by spasmodic effort that full provision can be made for the gratification of the common instinct for recreation under wholesome social conditions. Social centers in abundance and embracing a multitude of recreational features are therefore an essential in modern cities. They have not been easy to secure, however, except by private philanthropy. Indeed we still have to have social center conferences and carry on a publicity campaign, to demonstrate and argue in order to gain the general consent for the use of school buildings and other public property as evening social centers for neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the movement does have real vitality now and most of the larger cities have taken definite steps to make greater use of their schools and other plants, like libraries.

In describing its entrance into the field of activity for social centers, the Women’s Municipal League of Boston, through its Social Center Chairman, Mary B. Follett, says:

Because it is our endeavor to make our city a true home for the people, it is not enough that we should merely make it a house, though it be clean and healthful to live in; for even health, though essential, is not all-sufficient. We must also insure that there shall be within it recreation, enjoyment and happiness for all. In our great house—the city—a great need exists and it is to supply this that our Committee for Social Centers was formed.

In Boston there are 56,000 young people between the ages of 14 and 18 who are earning their living, working all day, craving amusement in the evening, and with no home to provide it. Our committee organized, as an experiment, this winter, a social center in the East Boston High School, by permission of the Boston School Committee, which allowed us the use of the building in the evenings. Our aim was to offer educational recreation, and at the same time to provide for the working young people an environment which should help to prepare them for their future life.

The League engaged a skilled director and his wife to organize this work. They settled in the district three months before the social center was opened, making friends of their neighbors, young and old, and when October came they were thus enabled to begin work with 14 clubs already organized. These clubs have continued with a constantly increasing membership; there were 300 young people enrolled at the beginning, and now, after six months, there are 500 members. The clubs are called the East Boston Opportunity Clubs and are self-governing. The membership consists almost entirely of young wage-earners, but one club, the Games Club, is made up of high school pupils at the request of their teachers, in order to suggest to the girls some other occupation than stenography; they are being taught kindergarten work for use in vacation schools or with their own future children.

The list of clubs includes two dramatic and two glee clubs, two orchestras, a drum corps, two athletic associations, two sewing classes, a folk dancing class, and a junior city council. The clubs for boys and girls are kept separate, but on one occasion the Folk Dancing Club of girls gave a dance, and the members invited their men friends. The clubs often provide the program for the fortnightly entertainment given at the Social Center for young and old people. The Social Center encourages thrift, for each member of a club must pay weekly dues, and in addition many of the boys of the orchestras are saving money to buy their own instruments. One young man surprised us by saying that he had saved money by attending the Social Center, as otherwise he would have spent his time in the saloons and poolrooms. The sewing clubs have held a sale, and with the proceeds will give themselves a day’s outing.

The greatest difficulty we have encountered has been the intense racial prejudice existing between the different nationalities; but the tact and fine judgment of our director have overcome this, and today all members of the Social Center recognize the broadening influence that comes from being Americans together; in fact, one young man tells us that the Social Center is the only place since leaving school where he has met the right kind of friends.

The East Boston Social Center has proved so successful in filling a genuine need that the Boston School Committee has decided, not only to take over this Center next year, but to start three others in different districts, and has engaged our director, Mr. Hawley, to organize the work. Our Committee is now occupied in formulating plans for a large social center movement throughout Boston, and is enlisting the help and coöperation of each neighborhood for its own center, because no social center can be established on a permanent basis unless the neighborhood community realizes its own responsibility in helping to make the plan a success.

There are not enough settlements and other social agencies to provide for more than a small number of our young people. There are thousands of young men who have no place to go nights. There are thousands of girls who used to stay at home in the country but who have been brought by our changed industrial conditions to the cities to work in shops and factories. Many of these will be in the streets nights unless we provide some decent recreation for them. Thus on the one hand there is this urgent need; on the other there are all those empty buildings upon which we have spent literally millions and millions of our money. Such a waste of capital seems bad business management on our part.