rendered. Six Oregon ranches demonstrated, in 1924, a health and recreation service including day nursery for the harvesters' children, first aid for minor injuries, camp sanitation, and opportunity for personal hygiene and wholesome evening entertainments. The largest of these ranches held 1,000 workers to the end of harvest, in contrast with the drop from 1,000 to 300 within the first ten days in previous years, and reduced the harvest period by eight days, with a consequent saving of thousands of dollars in overhead. On three of the six ranches the organization was effected by the Council of Women for Home Missions, a national organization of twenty church groups. Applications for jobs are pouring into the ranches having the personal service. The ranch managers state that they can now select their group instead of accepting the first "floaters" who appear, but they deplore that they cannot offer to find jobs for their workers at the close of their own harvests. Alien labor.-The present lack of mobilization of labor for the fruit, beets, and other agricultural demands has led to the introduction of large groups from Mexico by contractors. Up to a few years ago these contract-labor groups were brought into the States through the immigration offices, and by legal requirement were returned to their residence at the close of their employment. Certain contractors now use the method of sending representatives only as far as the border states. It is easy for them to send an inconspicuous-looking, Spanishspeaking girl across the border and pass the word along that there is a chance for a certain number of Mexicans to get jobs if they cross the line at a distance from immigration inspectors and appear at a certain railroad station. Mrs. Anna G. Williams, of the Denver Social Service Bureau, tells of the Mexicans left stranded after the beet and cotton harvests. She tells of many who are dazzled by the great white lights of the city and become unwilling to work again in the isolated fields; that they are not fitted to obtain work in the cities, and so become objects of charity. Minnesota reports five hundred Mexicans left stranded there after harvest. It is true that the Mexican laborers do types of work which the white man has come to scorn, but there is no evidence that there is a shortage of Mexican laborers now living in the United States, fitted for the work and ready to do it if properly mobilized. The process of adding to the Mexican population of the United States without due admission needs checking by immigration officials. The proposed registration of aliens would be a step in the right direction. The Canadian border is not free from an influx of migratory workers who claim the Canadian's right of admission but who are not citizens of Canada. Witness the number who entered from Canada in 1923, following the advertisement of the Canadian National Railroad for 10,000 wheat harvesters, which brought 32,000 from the British Isles and the European continent. The Denver Post of last Sunday, June 14, carried the following communication from Arthur W. Crawford: "The National Manufacturers' Association, has announced its intention of renewing its advocacy of an amendment to the law to give it greater flexibility when there is a labor shortage, and a consequent demand for a larger flow of immigration than is possible under the quota system. Agricultural groups will support a plan for flexible arrangement to apply to farm labor." Students of employment remember that the United States is estimated to have one and three-quarters to two and a half millions of unemployed, even in reasonably prosperous times, and they wish to see effective mobilization of all employable labor now within the United States before any further lowering of immigration bars. The report of the American Association for Organizing Family Social Work, issued April 27, 1925, indicates that there is far from being a shortage of unskilled labor in the United States this year. The three millions of transient farm laborers enumerated by Mr. Frederick A. King, of the Russell Sage Foundation, are capable of being mobilized for other types of jobs requiring no skill.1 Need to ascertain facts.—Mr. Francis I. Jones, director-general for the United States Employment Service, writes, "I regret that I have not the information to supply you as to the number of migratory workers in the United States. I hope the day will come when an adequate appropriation will be made in order that we can gather such information intelligently." Mr. Edward D. Foster, Colorado commissioner of immigration, says, "The frequent shifting of labor in large numbers cannot be reached by any local remedy. Any plan to avoid economic disturbance must be broad enough to take in districts where climatic conditions and natural industries offset each other in the matter of seasons." The feasibility of extending the Farm Labor Division of the United States Employment Service receives testimony from its director, Mr. George E. Tucker: Agriculture is the largest employer of labor in the nation, employing annually about eleven millions (3,000,000 of them transients]. Seasonal labor is the most difficult class to handle because it is almost invariably emergency labor, and we must see to it that the right number of men are recruited and arrive at the right places at the exact time they are needed. It is the hardest to supply because the calls come on short notice and for short employment periods. When this Farm Labor Division is given the fund to extend its work, covering all of the seasonal farm labor of the country, I believe that the migratory labor and the normally unemployed labor and, in times of depression, that class which is forced from employment, will practically all be absorbed. An expert speaks.—Mr. Quince Record, United States employment director for the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Coast states, says: I have a dream of dovetailing jobs so that every able-bodied, industrious, ambitious man or woman shall have a chance to make connections with jobs providing livelihood. I have found, in my study of federal connections with public and private local employment offices, that the best results come from non-fee-charging offices administered by civic agencies, such as that for men under the Denver community chest, and that for women under the Denver Young Women's Christian Association. Another dream of mine is that the state, broadly interpreted as meaning city, state, and nation, shall face its responsibility for providing winter work required for the livelihood of migratory workers whose summer and fall work in harvests is essential to our • Public Employment Offices, p. 528. 室 country's welfare. Such winter work will include construction of public utilities in mild climates, and certain types of manufactures. The plan for anticipating the winter peak of unemployment may be a long way in the future, but this other matter of intelligent recruiting and distributing of labor during the peak of demand cannot fail to commend itself soon to our Congress, after some fact-finding body devotes time and effort to ascertaining the exact needs of each state. The federal service would still continue to act as the connecting link in collecting monthly reports from reliable contacts and publishing them in monthly bulletins, but should give increased service to all communities through a small, highly specialized staff of field representatives cooperating with state and local non-fee-charging employment agencies in recruiting and distributing labor. The United States Employment Service maintained ninety-six offices in 1917, 773 in 1918, and decreased after the war until there were only 197 in 1923. The 1925 directory names thirty-four states and the District of Columbia as having official representatives, and 217 local offices cooperating. The Russel Sage studies compiled in Public Employment Offices include this statement: "If we wish to look still further into the future we may sometime see public bureau representatives referring gangs of workers about to be discharged to new employment, by giving them the necessary information 'on the job,' before they are actually disbanded, saving the time and effort of workers and of service to industry.' What can we do?-The Division on Industrial and Economic Problems, of the National Conference of Social Work, seems to me to have opportunities for service in solving the problem of the migratory workers; first, by emergency methods in treating the symptom until the removal of the cause through raising standards among employers regarding camp sanitation, and through recreation and health service, day nurseries, and schools at the joint expense of the workers and of the employers or the general community benefited by the farm industry; second, by cooperation with chambers of commerce, railroads, and other advertising bodies in devising a slogan which will not take the punch from the advertisement, but which will suggest the need for capital or the assurance of a job to those considering a change in residence; third, by a nation-wide campaign of informing public opinion through motion pictures, cartoons, fiction, and the personal effort of social workers, about the folly of leaving home without definite destination, capital, or the assurance of a job; fourth, by a campaign of education among private citizens about the harm they do to the beneficiary and the community by giving gasoline or other aid to a supposed migratory worker without investigation by an authorized agency; fifth, by investigating the seasonal work situation in our own communities, and, if there should be an opportunity, by reporting back to this Division in the 1926 Conference; sixth, by enlisting the interest of some fact-finding organization in determining the exact status of the seasonal employment situation in the United States, especially as it relates to agriculture, according to the suggestions by Mr. Quince Record. This effort will not be altogether altruistic, for whoever may help stabilize and give direction to the present army of wanderers will reduce the load for his own community. VI. NEIGHBORHOOD AND COMMUNITY LIFE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE COMMUNITY THAT DE- Professor John L. Gillin, University of Wisconsin, Madison History of democratic organization.-Community organization of one kind or another has existed a long time. In Tacitus we read of the tribal assembly before which all important matters concerning the tribe were discussed. The Greek city state provided for the discussion of matters of common interest. A similar situation existed in Rome. The community center, as we conceive it today, goes back to the settlement. While the groups making up political units found expression on political matters in the town meeting of some of our early colonies, with the development of other than political interests we find private organizations struggling to organize those interested in them for their special purposes. Robert Woods, in 1893, suggested the use of the school buildings as social centers. In the meantime the settlements themselves had provided a forum in which neighborhood matters could be discussed. About the beginning of the present century Clarence Perry and E. J. Ward backed the agitation which led to the realization of that dream of Woods. The early attempt of Ward and others stimulated experiments which did not last in many places because people were not ready to put the time and effort into the work necessary for permanence. Moreover, leaders had to be selected and trained and the public trained to see the importance of some of the problems. Recent developments in this work are more permanent because the people have been educated up to them and because leadership has been recognized and a larger number of people have become interested in community organization. Increasingly it has been impressed upon our people that if democracy is to mean anything there must be more face-to-face meeting of people of various classes. Furthermore, it has been recognized that recreation must be stimulated and directed. The young and the old have used their spare time too frequently apart from each other. Commercial recreation, it has been discovered, cannot be relied upon for the direction of spare time activities. Furthermore, it has been found that spare time can be used as a means of educating the citizenship, both young and old. Too frequently the child or youth leaves school at a time when his socialization is quite incomplete. Classes, clubs, discussion groups, lecture 5 courses, and forums can experiment in after-school education. As in most matters, private organizations can best conduct these experiments. Once the demonstration has been made, some of these activities can then be assumed by public bodies. As a result of the experiments of the last quarter of a century, recent experiments in community organization have broadened in interest and diversified their activities. Beginning as urban efforts to stimulate democratic organization, the experiments have extended out into rural communities and small towns. It has come to be seen that neighborhood organization may concern itself with all the varied aspects of community life. In certain places economic problems have been attacked, as well as social and political. At the present time there is a tendency to coordinate the various community organizations in different parts of a large city. This tendency is well represented by the attempt of federations of the various organizations in New York City. It was reported in 1922 that representatives of agencies organizing community associations, and also of the larger and older social agencies in New York City, held a series of conferences and meetings to bring about such coordination. Out of these conferences grew the New York City Council of Community Organizing Agencies. This movement grew out of the necessity of assigning to each agency the territory in which it should attempt to organize the community; to search out and make assignments of uncovered territory; to make available to all the agencies the talent and results of experiments carried on elsewhere; to reduce the overhead organization by pooling experiences and methods; to plan and stimulate cooperative civic action, and to develop a city-wide congress of delegates to consider the problems of the whole city.1 Growing out of the experience of the last twenty-five years has come also a movement to standardization. Mr. John J. Tigert, of the federal bureau of education, was made chairman of the Council of Citizenship Training created by the President by executive order January 12, 1923. This Council prepared a community score card, the purpose of which is to call attention to important factors hitherto neglected in community life and to set standards in both organization and work." New problems in the development which now challenge attention.—The community organization movement has now gone so far that the leaders are directing their attention to problems which have risen as the result of this experience. While there are many of these problems, four of them may be cited at the present time: first, what activities shall they undertake? Second, how shall they be supported? Third, how shall the work be made more definite, and the results more tangible? Fourth, how handle the increasing cost? So far as the development has gone up to date, the community organizaBowman, "Coordination of Community Organizing Agencies in the Metropolis," The Community Center, Vol. IV, No. 1, p. 51. The Community Center, Vol. VI, No. 1, p. 9. |