The greatest factor in the clean-up movement is the children. Nothing that is done can be accomplished without their help. Of the hundreds of cities interested in clean-up campaigns very few can be found where the school children have not been actively identified with the work. No stone has been left unturned to encourage the teachers to give the children the clean-up spirit. One of the best means of reaching adults is through their children, and the education of the children themselves along these lines will contribute materially to their sense of proper community conditions when they become men and women. It is acknowledged that what is most needed in a boy nowadays is the right spirit, to insure him a clean life in talk, habits and associates; keeping the city’s streets clean is a certain responsibility that makes him more careful in his own habits.
Children are pressed into service in many ways,—through clubs composed of boys and girls, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, City Clubs, Junior League Clubs and Junior Civic Clubs. Cleveland, Chicago, New York, Spokane, Paterson, N. J.; Salt Lake City, Dallas, Texas; Toledo, Ohio; Denver, Colo.; Cincinnati, Pensacola, Fla.; Bay City, Oregon; Antlers, Okla.; Denison, Texas, are only a few of the cities where children have been active.
There are various ways of rewarding the children for their work. Some cities believe that money prizes appeal to children more than medals, badges, etc., and so have created special funds for that purpose, usually collected by some civic organization. Other cities give medals, buttons, puzzles, school equipment—stereopticon with lantern slides, maps, pictures, plans;—sporting equipment—baseball and football masks, balls and bats, cameras, free tickets to moving picture theaters.
In some instances the school children have become enthusiastic to the point of organizing magazines in the schools, devoted entirely to the Clean-Up Campaign. The children of the Clifton School in Cincinnati issued a magazine called The School Circle.
In some cities packets of flower and garden seeds are distributed among the children, and all vacant lots, back yards and stretches of ground not utilized are cleared of rubbish and dug up and seeded.
Under the direction of a Captain, school boys of Spokane, Washington, were organized into corps which cleaned up the residence section, then hauled the refuse away to the public dumps in wheelbarrows and express wagons.
Another method used to good advantage by Salt Lake City was to get the boys of each district bordering on dirty vacant lots to clean them up and prepare them for baseball grounds. After this had been done the Inspector of Public Health gave the boys baseball bats, balls and equipment.
At the suggestion of Mayor Cochran of Antlers, Oklahoma, the Progressive Club and the Ladies’ Civic Club combined in a program that was very successful. The boys of the city gathered up all the rubbish and placed it on the curbs, and the city wagons removed it. A committee appointed by the club solicited funds to reward the boys.
As a preliminary to the general clean-up movement in Bay City, Oregon, the Commercial Clubs, in conjunction with the Ladies’ Civic League, offered three prizes to the boys collecting the greatest number of sacks of rubbish by April 5.
One city in Ohio gave each child collecting one hundred tin cans a free ticket to a motion picture theater.