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.
VIII
AGENCIES OF ADJUSTMENT
In the first six chapters an attempt has been made to set out certain difficulties with which foreign-born family groups are confronted on arrival. It has become clear that certain services skillfully rendered might prevent a great deal of needless suffering, discomfort, and waste, and also greatly facilitate the adjustment of the family to the new surroundings. The services that would be appropriate to the needs of all housewives might be classed under (1) the exercise of hospitality; (2) supplying information and opportunities for instruction; (3) assistance in the performance of household tasks. Suggestions that these services might prove useful are not based wholly on theory, and attention may at this point be directed to the work of certain agencies which have attempted to do these various things.