LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. \ Class WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT WHETHER SHE VOTES OR NOT BY WILLIAM H. ALLEN Director, Bureau of Municipal Research and National Training School for the Study and Adminis- tration of Public Business Author of " Efficient Democracy," " Civics and Health," etc. NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1911 A* Copyright, 1911, 1 BY DODD, MEAt) & CO. Published, November, 1911 PREFACE ^WOMAN'S fundamental part in government is to do efficiently what her position requires of her as in- dividual member of society: mother, sister, wage- earner, wage-payer, purchaser. No woman has the right to be a problem or a problem creator, no matter how usefully occupied with other people's affairs. Of increasing importance is woman's second part in government, that of member of voluntary non- official organization or group : woman's club, social settlement, trade union, educational council, private charity. Women's organizations when inefficiently conducted may hamper government, just as efficient team work by women will always make efficient government easier. Woman's third part in government is that of di- rect, conscious influencer of public opinion and of- ficial action. Here her influence is limited by what she knows, sees, wants and talks about three hun- dred and sixty-five days in the year, whether she has the ballot or not. For this third part the most urgent need is for methods to insure straight-seeing, straight-thinking and straight-acting on public ques- tions between election times. Woman's obligation to serve is measured by her opportunity to serve. To suggest some definite next steps which women not voting or voting, alone or v 226670 vi PREFACE collectively must take in order to live up to their opportunities and obligations to serve, is the purpose of this book. Just because these steps are chiefly between- election steps, my first intention was to treat them in such a way that it would be impossible to tell whether the writer believed the ballot would or would not be given to women. But it soon became clear that in evading an issue which at the present moment stirs womankind in two continents, I was making the way harder for my suggestions. Therefore, I de- cided to state candidly my belief that the time is coming when women will not only be permitted but will be expected to vote, however irksome or disil- lusioning the duty and privilege may prove. Even if both political parties were convinced and remained convinced that woman's entrance into the political field as voter would be injurious to govern- ment and to woman's progress, party expediency would still bring woman suffrage. Whatever else political parties have before them their chief aim is to win. In balancing possible good against possible evil any uncertain evils of suf- frage are bound to seem relatively slight when com- pared with the certain benefits of winning next year's election and the next. Voting will prove to be no more a matter of sex than running a college or church or business of- fice. Any woman who can run a charity organiza- tion, a suburban home, a typewriter, a boarding house, a sales counter, a loom with one hundred PREFACE vii spindles or a class room with sixty children, will find voting so easy and so simple, and so transient in its satisfaction, that she will wonder at woman's anx- iety to do it. Because ninety-nine out of one hundred problems of government are sexless, the suggestions here made relate as well to men as to women. Yet because women are to-day idealizing the ballot as a means of improving government and accelerating social prog- ress, this book deals particularly with woman's three- fold relation to government between elections. It aims not to settle but to raise questions, to encourage self-analysis and study of local conditions, and to stimulate interest in methods and next steps for get- ting done what we all agree should be done to make democracy efficient. CONTENTS PREFACE I THE EXPANSION OF WOMAN'S PI/ACE PAGE Outside is inside the home to stay ..... 3 Are you a problem or problem creator? ... 4 Woman's place an economic question .... 6 How important is woman's work outside her home? ............. 7 The number not the type of new woman is new 8 Do women want the ballot? . 9 II SOME SIDETRACKING QUESTIONS Clearing the way for next steps 13 Are women moved by personal considerations? . 13 Are women reasonable? 14 Are women emotional? 15 Could women bear arms? 16 Will women abolish the political picnic? ... 17 In what are women superior to men? .... 18 Are women corruptible? 19 Is suffrage a success in Colorado, etc.? ... 20 III METHODS NOT PURPOSES IN CONTROVERSY Method not purpose divides women .... 25 Method not purpose is likewise the chief contro- versy in politics and statecraft 26 Carrie-nationing government: a dubious method 27 Government method has heretofore received less attention than government purpose .... 28 ix CONTENTS PAGE To interest women in methods and next steps is one of government's greatest needs .... 29 Numerous handbooks on next steps in govern- ment are needed by men and women alike . . 30 IV WOMAN'S FIRST VOTING The probable evolution of woman's interest . . 35 Being registered as eligible to vote 35 Woman's first primary 36 Woman's first ballot for candidates .... 38 Getting out the woman's vote 40 Protecting the vote 41 Interpreting the vote 42 The woman voter's first disappointment ... 44 The slip 'twixt voting for and getting .... 45 The slip 'twixt promising and doing .... 47 V TRYING SHORT CUTS TO EFFICIENT GOVERN- MENT Are there short cuts to efficient government? . . 53 Are there too many voters? 54 Should there be a higher minimum and a maxi- mum age limit? 55 Should there be a property qualification? ... 56 Should there be an educational qualification? , . 58 Should there be preferential voting? .... 61 Should there be compulsory voting? .... 62 Is the ballot too long? 63 Are nominations too indirect? 65 Will the referendum help? 68 Referendum's official handbook: Oregon ... 72 Will the initiative help? 73 Will the recall help? 74 Will government by commission help? .... 77 Are there too many elections? 79 Getting back to definite steps and needs ... 81 Some things the ballot cannot do .... 93 CONTENTS xi VI A METHOD OF STUDY WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL, PAGE The power of knowing 87 When does knowing become evidence? .... 88 Testing evidence: "desire to know" .... 90 Testing evidence: " unit of inquiry " and " count " 91 Testing evidence : " comparison " 93 Making " pin maps " 95 Testing evidence: "subtraction" and "percen- tage" 96 Testing evidence: "summary" 98 Testing evidence: "classification" 98 VII NEXT STEPS IN EFFECTIVE PUBLICITY Systematizing use of newspaper and magazine . 103 Volunteer voters' leagues 105 Making party platforms 106 When new laws are made 108 Women lobbying: watching legislation . . . .111 Municipal reference libraries 113 Is "Budget" a stranger to you? 114 The making of public budgets 114 Can women help make budgets? 115 Taxpayers' hearings 117 Oppose subterranean hearings 124 Budget-making by state legislatures .... 125 Who shall publish municipal facts? .... 126 Efficient citizenship bulletins 127 Are your official reports educational? . . . .128 VIII NEXT STEPS TOWARD 100% PHILANTHROPY Should voluntary civic bodies be efficient? . . 133 Are women under the Law of Trusteeship? . . 135 Talk programmes for women's club meetings . 138 Work programmes for women's clubs .... 140 x ii CONTENTS PAGE The city beautiful 142 Vagrancy in begging and in art 145 Does the public library belong to you? . . . 147 John Ernest: Librarian -. . . 148 Conservation of religious energy 150 How much community work should churches do? 151 Humanizing the churches 152 Summer lethargy in good work ...... 153 Loan friends vs. loan sharks 156 Are you proud of your public charities? . . . 157 Taxing everybody for private charities . . .160 Appealing for good causes ....... 163 Philanthropy's wastebasket .165 Efficient will-making and efficient giving . .. .166 What is municipal research? 170 IX HAS WOMAN APTITUDE FOR HEALTH WORK? Voluntary sanitary associations 177 Health dynamos: state secretaries of health . . 179 State health conferences . 181 Stamping out transmissible diseases .... 182 Insuring clean water 189 Insuring clean milk .... ... ..... 190 Minimum tests for milk ,. . 192 Interesting the grocer in clean milk .... 193 Teaching mothers how to keep milk clean . . 194 Score card the test of clean milk 195 State's responsibility for clean milk ..... 197 Keeping babies alive 197 Saving babies through official agencies . . . 201 Some tests of success in saving babies .... 203 Homes vs. hospitals as baby savers . . ... . 204 Caroline Rest School for expectant mothers . . 205 Insuring pure foods 206 Insuring pure drugs 207 The Great American Fraud: patent medicines . 208 Woman's responsibility for factory conditions . 212 Some tests for the woman purchaser . ' . 213 Some practical tests for factory women . . . 215 CONTENTS xiii PAGE Are you helping to stop child labor? .... 216 Housing evils 219 Fight housing evils at home 220 Causes of over-crowding and remedies .... 221 Are your streets clean? 222 Make it easy to keep streets clean .... . 223 Helping officials keep streets clean ..... 225 Where unclean streets are unforgivable . . . 226 Two street cleaning jingles . 226 Sanitary survey of streets ....... 227 The disposal of refuse . 228 Play in streets .... . . . . ,.- ... . 230 Play in parks r. . . . ,., : . ; . : . . . 231 The playground movement . ....... 233 Soul of play vs. supervision 233 Special claims of sex 234 A national children's bureau or nation-wide work for children by all bureaus? 237 Health jingles . . 239 X How WOMEN MAY HELP THEIR SCHOOLS, PUBLIC, PRIVATE OR PAROCHIAL What is the matter with the American public school? 243 Do the schools need outside help? 244 Reasons for outside cooperation with schools . 244 School health and philanthropy 247 What some Chicago mothers are asking . . . 249 What the Department of Patrons of the National Education Association is asking about school revenue v . , 249 What women's clubs in Oregon are asking . . 250 Compulsory health with compulsory education . 251 Watching school sanitation 251 Do rural schools need health supervision ? . . . 252 Reading the health index at school 253 Play at school 254 The school census 255 CONTENTS PACE Watching effective school attendance . . . .256 Watching non-promotion and " acceleration " . 257 School mortality 262 Self government by school children .... 262 The school course: 12 or 10 years? . . >. . . 264 The school curriculum 265 Choosing and promoting teachers ..... 266 " Scoring " teachers for efficiency 267 What should school boards know? .... . 267 Publicity of school facts 269 A symposium on school reports 270 Civic instruction through public schools . . . 271 State departments of education ...... 273 XI WHERE " POLICE GRAFT " LURKS OR FLAUNTS Tests of public decency 279 Are you ashamed of your public corrections? . 280 What is your part in public corrections? . . . 282 Does justice do injustice? ....... 283 Several kinds of probation 286 The children's court 289 Can women stop the social evil? 291 If segregation of the social evil is right, is it wrong to oppose it? 294 Will women abolish the saloon? 296 Police efficiency 299 A much needed study which women might finance 304 Agencies for enforcing the law which have never yet been adequately studied and never currently tested 305 A few indexes to police efficiency ..... 306 XII METHODS THAT MAKE " GOOD GOVERNMENT " EASY Is the balance sheet beyond woman's under- standing? 311 Outwit the grafter by accounting 314 CONTENTS xv PAGE Short weights and measures for women pur- chasers 315 The public as purchaser ......... 320 The public as auto owner 323 Inspection of public purchases and payrolls . . 324 Audit as a part of inspection 327 What $100 found out as to Montclair's method of doing business 329 When the public builds buildings ..... 330 Safeguarding construction of all buildings . . 332 When the public builds streets 334 Efficient fire protection 335 Assessing property 338 Watching city and state revenues 342 What can women do about franchises? .... 344 Merit tests for public service 346 A business doctor for Uncle Sam 351 Reasons for efficiency in national business . . 352 XIII TRAINING FOR THE STUDY AND ADMINIS- TRATION OF PUBLIC BUSINESS . . 357 1 THE EXPANSION OF WOMAN'S PLACE Outside is Inside the Home to Stay WOMAN'S interest in affairs outside her home or other place of employment and recreation has come to stay. Of no woman is this more true than of those who cherish the home as woman's particular sphere. Outside interests come to the home, whether home- keepers go outside or not. The church sends visitors and circulars ; the charity sends pictures of the slums; the school sends instructions to remove eye defects or adenoids; the health department sends its house-to-house visiting nurse; the art museum sends invitations and appeals. Horizon-wideners, such as the theater, sweat shop, drainage canal, customs re- forms, strikes against unsanitary conditions, come regularly with the monthly magazine, religious weekly and daily paper. Outside is inside to stay. Domestic servants exchange experiences at em- ployment agencies. Trade unions seek to make re- cruits of foreigners. In sermons, problems of the time displace Noah's ark and Jonah's whale. There is incessant demand for instruction in sex hygiene. Mail order houses go to the remotest farm. Ped- dlers and insurance agents seek out those who can- not read. Back of every fight against ignorance or crime soon springs some commercial motive, seeking to attract the interest of the inside woman and to make money by informing her about outside; anti- 4 WOMAN'S PA&T IN GOVERNMENT coffee cereals, anti-alcohol drugs, anti-tuberculosis farms, anti-fat, anti-ugly, anti-burglar, anti-fraud. The whole world is arrayed against the exclusive inside. It is as anti-social to battle against outside interest as against outside air. Woman's interest tends to run as far as her economic and social relations. Women themselves are organizing to make her wonder about the force and direction of the human currents upon which she looks and of which she is a part. Will she talk ac- curately or inaccurately, think intelligently or un- intelligently of outside affairs? Think and talk women must, and about outside. Outside is inside to stay. " Women everywhere are waking up, thinking, judging, longing 1 for activity." Wake they will. Shall their waking create or solve problems? Are You a Problem or Problem Creator? Whether woman votes or not she has no right to be a social problem or problem creator. Her credit should exceed her charge account. The result of her living should be to reduce not increase society's diffi- culties, to facilitate not hinder social progress. It is not enough for a woman to wish to avoid being a problem. To find out whether or not she is a problem, or is creating problems, is a duty in- dependent of the ballot, which confronts the " home " woman as well as those who are active outside. It is no small thing to keep out of the class of problem creator. It cannot be done by mere general ARE YOU A PROBLEM? 5 intelligence, by devotion to home or by contempla- tion of "the paradise that lies at the feet of the mother." It requires study and information about other people's work and needs. Good intention when uninformed and inefficiently directed creates social problems as April showers bring May flowers. Woman is a problem creator if she: Does not know how to keep her baby from having summer complaint Does not know what her child is doing at school, or whether the school is efficient Sleeps, lives or works in a badly ventilated room Gives money or food to street beggars Thinks that flies or mosquitoes or transmissible dis- eases are dispensations of Providence, rather than evidence of neglect Lowers her efficiency as worker and mother by dis- obeying health laws Thinks her daughter should be satisfied with idle- ness at home until marriage Lies or permits her agent to lie about her taxes Does penance for withholding taxes by small gifts to uplift work Concentrates her attention on small fractions of her duty and opportunity as citizen Thinks she has a right to be supported by some man without giving value for all she costs Spends without serving Trifles with her problems Notes and quotes public men inaccurately Thinks reform is a question of voting, rather than of getting specific things done Fails to see that the intelligence needed by de- mocracy is intelligence as to government, official 6 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT acts, and community needs not met, rather than intelligence as to ethics, history, art or fiction Fails to see that " either her public spirit will grow or her private character will decline " Woman's Place an Economic Question Of what woman of your acquaintance can it be truly said that her place is " home " ? Of her time what proportion is spent within her home on work or thought having to do solely with her home ? Is she able to be about? Of what do her guests and children talk? What papers, magazines and books does she read? Woman's place shifts with her age and with her economic and marital status. Over seven million American women are now placed by circumstances, or place themselves, in four hundred gainful occupa- tions. In 1910 a public dinner was given in London to fifty women engaged as contributors or editors upon the new Encyclopedia Britannica. It is seriously proposed to establish in France an Academy of Science for Women. The business and professional woman has de- veloped as naturally as the great merchant class de- veloped in the Middle Ages or the world-wide in- dustrial classes of the nineteenth century. In which of the following list of places for woman is she so obviously out of place that you would ex- clude or withdraw her? WHERE WOMEN ARE Home as mistress Others' home as employe Lecture platform School as teacher School as scrubwoman Opera box Opera chorus Beauty parlor Resort as boarder Resort as cook Farm Cafe as spender Cafe as waitress Steamer as smuggler Steamer as stewardess Magazine as writer Magazine as subject Sales counter buying Sales counter selling Factory Charity as benefactor Charity as beneficiary Charity as collector Slum as social worker Slum as resident Court as lawyer Court as juror Court as probation officer Court as defendant Court as visitor How Important is Woman's Work Outside Her Home? Important enough to put the machinery of the world out of business if women should go on a strike to-morrow. What church do you know that would continue to open its doors if women stopped going? What Sunday school do you know that would con- tinue if women stopped teaching and attending? What uplift work do you know that would be worth describing in annual reports if women stopped working and giving? What department store could last twenty-four hours if women stopped buying? What theaters would pay dividends if 85% of the audience stopped going? 8 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The Number Not the Type of New Woman is New The newness of the new woman is in her number and ubiquity, not in her work or her talk. Novels, like history and biography, teem with evi- dence that in all times woman's sphere has included men and world events outside her home. Pericles, Caesar, Washington, Jefferson, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, and Shakespeare had wives or women friends who could talk knowingly about the world's ways. Roman ladies from time to time organized to ob- tain legislation. Mary and Martha were wide awake sympathizers with the apostles and with the world awakening which they furthered. Good Queen Bess and stern Catherine of Russia, like the women of the Renaissance, were shapers and leaders of public thought. It is not the new woman who is new, but the world in which she lives and about which she reads, hears, asks questions, thinks, talks and writes. Othello has infinitely more competitors now and Desdemona in- finitely more sources of interesting narrative. The advanced woman of other days concealed her interest behind a pretense of ignorance or went into a convent. To find scope for organization, diplo- macy and leadership it is no longer necessary to be- come an abbess. Skilled indirectness is beginning to give place to skilled directness in women's ways as well as in international diplomacy. * NEW WOMAN IS NOT NEW 9 When we say that all great men were made by their mothers, who has in mind women who were un- able to sympathize with their sons or to look with their sons' eyes on places outside their home? The chief difference between the new woman and her predecessors is that the former finds it harder to be sure of eternal truths without knowing more mundane facts than her ancient prototype. Even for making small talk eternal truths are somewhat threadbare, and need concrete, up-to-date illustra- tions. Do Women Want the Ballot? Not yet. The majority have not yet thought enough about it. In fact, there is such fear that the majority of women do not yet wish the ballot that the suffrage leaders oppose a referendum for testing woman's wishes. Governor Hughes, Senator Root and many other prominent leaders have said that women may have the ballot as soon as they want it. President Taft said to a national conference of women at Washington in 1910: "Your task is not in convincing man, but in convincing your own class." But whether the majority of women want to vote is not the question which demands answer, however important it may be in theory. The handful of women who are active in demanding the ballot as a matter of abstract right and public expediency are so managing the handful of men who are responsible 10 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT for party decisions that the vote will soon be given to women. It is not worth while discussing now what fraction of women want to vote. Our task is as rapidly as possible to make all women capable of us- ing the vote when they get it. HAVE WE ENOUGH SOME LIBRARIES DARK ROOMS HOSPITAL BEOS ROTTEN HOSE PLAYGROUNDS VAGRANTS SCHOOL BURS SCHOOL SINKS POLICEMEN BURGLARS MILK INSPECTORS INFANT MORTALITY ATTENDANCE OFFICERS TRUANTS STREET SPRINKLERS TUBERCULOSIS CHILDREN* UBRAKCS TAGWS Whether She Votes Or Not n SOME SIDE-TRACKING QUESTIONS Clearing the Way for Next Steps IT is to be regretted that far-sighted educators have not so prepared women to discuss the suffrage and their threefold relation to government that by this time we might contemplate the civic problems con- fronting women without being compelled to discuss certain questions now in controversy regarding woman's attributes. For this book I prepared a digest of the arguments for and against suffrage as culled from the literature on this subject catalogued at the Astor Library > from propagandist reports and leaflets, and from the Debater's Hand- Book on woman suffrage. I am finally omitting them because so many of them are inconclusive and beside the point. For the purpose of clearing the way for a presenta- tion of certain next steps to which women in the home or out of the home, suffragist or anti-suffra- gist are certain to give increasing attention, a number of minor questions of sufficient im- portance, however, to have side-tracked much dis- cussion of woman's part in government are taken up here at the outset. Are Women Moved by Personal Considerations? Interesting as this question is it has no special relevance to woman's suffrage more than to woman's employment. Saleswomen, like salesmen, are certain 13 U WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT to discriminate between customers on personal grounds; customers retaliate in kind. One does not stop liking or disliking people when one votes any more than when one teaches school. Refuse to discuss this question with any person who starts with the assumption that men are not moved by personal considerations. So notoriously suscepti- ble to such appeals are men that on them depend political parties, platforms, campaign heroes and candidates. The way for society, as for the individual, to secure protection against personal considerations is to locate them and learn to look at each purchase, each official act or each party program so as to separate the personal from the impersonal considera- tions. Are Women Reasonable? Most men are not. Many women are. Being reasonable is a habit not a gift of sex. It is one of the constant surprises of suffrage de- bate that it seems worth while to prove that women are or are not inferior to poor man in reasoning from cause to effect in matters of government. No more irrational human being could exist than, any one of the ten men voters you first think of. What man do you know that is less ^treasonable than Jane Addams or Ida Tarbell? Being reasonable as a voter is quite different from being imitative, undecided, stupid or orthodox. FACTS DISCIPLINE EMOTION 15 Neither men nor women can be reasonable without trying; neither can they fail to be reasonable if they remember accurately what they see and what happens after election to their preelection hopes and fears. Are Women Emotional? Yes, if they are worth while. So are successful men statesmen, editors, preachers. So are all successful leaders and all faithful fol- lowers. Few people are more emotional than those who have themselves under control and enjoy checking their emotions before they " emote." Controlled emotions, such as usually characterized Washington and Lincoln, are the most enjoyable kind just as a furnace which consumes its own smoke gives the most heat from its coal. Control over emotions is a habit. The sex that gave us Bernhardt and Terry can acquire this habit in voting as it can acquire any other habit. Election and post-election disappointments are splendid training for the emotions, as are election and post-election successes. Friends and opponents combine in large numbers to remind us of faith mis- placed or justified. Women heretofore mildly emotional or even hys- terical will go through a calming process when they find themselves debited or credited with their last election debauch and forecasts. Emotional or not, 16 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT we all want to be thought good prophets and fairly consistent. What could be more emotional in the weak sense than the average man's voting? So emotional and inflammable have been men voters, especially in crises, that expert campaigners have almost as many methods of blinding the vision of men voters as there are drugs for stimulating or quieting the nerves. Rum, Romanism and Rebellion defeated James G. Elaine for the presidency. The German vote, the Irish vote, the colored vote, the Italian vote, the Catholic vote, all have their emo- tional open sesame. Both conservatism and radical- ism are so emotional that a few simple stock phrases will stir each to a white heat of enthusiasm or in- dignation. There is no more important lesson for the voters of this country to learn than that public discussion of government has been on an emotional basis al- most all of the time for a hundred years. Women can get it off that basis by improving upon, not by emulating, man's example. Could Women Bear Arms? Why not? I do not see how anybody could ask that question after once seeing woman's success in getting into one of New York City's subway or Brooklyn Bridge cars during the rush hours. Men now leave the most unpleasant tasks to women ; women nurses work harder than men doctors ; WOMEN ARE " GOOD MIXERS " 17 the most disagreeable, hardest jobs in most offices are done by women. The bravest man that ever lived would run away from a woman, whether she had arms or not, rather than face an open conflict. It is surprising that so much time is spent on discussing so hypothetical a situation as that this country should be so pressed for soldiers as to wish women to bear arms. Anyway, most men would rather go to war than be left be- hind to do the hard work that women must do when taking the place of arms bearers. This is a good question to refuse to discuss until after one hundred other things have been threshed out. Will Women Abolish the Political Picnic? At first, in spite of woman's reputation for so- cial aptitude, it takes a little wrench of the imagina- tion to picture a woman's political picnic. But picnics and turkeys and ward heelers and profes- sional good friends will last as long as there is ap- preciation of them. Women will unquestionably throw themselves into competition for personal standing in their districts. The way is already paved by head workers of social settlements and district nurses who have developed " mixing " to a high degree of efficiency. There is every reason to believe that the social functions connected with politics will increase rather than decrease with woman's vote. In this field the partially settled districts that have heretofore tried 18 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT woman suffrage can contribute little. Experi- ence, however, with woman's electioneering in Eng- land demonstrates not only her success as a mixer, but her enjoyment in a kind of social work that may have fewer drawbacks and more attractions than the settlement work and church club service to which women have previously given so much attention. In What Are Women Superior to Men? As a side-track this question is potent. For many ages women have found it pleasing, as men have found it successful, to have extravagant things said about woman's moral superiority. So it is taken for granted in almost all talks about woman's suffrage that woman will, of course, either look at government questions from a higher moral altitude or else lose what Senator Root calls " the sweet and noble influence of her character." When you think how small a chance moral su- periority has to show itself in voting, what's the use of challenging either extreme? " Pretty is, as pretty does " applies to the prac- tical use of moral superiority as well as to children's looks. If you must be side-tracked, the following ques- tions may be of help: When you compare the sexes, how many of either sex are you talking about? Do you know of any bad women ? Do women ever drink alcoholic beverages ? Do women ever tempt men to drink? Do women ever smuggle? LIGHT HELPS MORALS 19 Do " good " women ever like " bad " men? Do women ever have any part in the social evil? Do women ever profit from promoting that evil? Do women ever swear off taxes justly due? Do women ever waste their incomes ? Do women ever neglect babies ? Do women ever throw rubbish on the street? Are women ever selfish? Are women ever unjust in competition? Are women ever vulgar or fond of vulgar books? Do women ever go to questionable plays? Do women ever gossip? Do women ever deceive? Are women ever uninformed? Do women ever misplace confidence? Are Women Corruptible? Rarely when people are looking. People can arrange to be looking most of the time. Whether women are more or less corrupt than men is irrelevant so far as government is concerned, for " good " governors will look for efficient, sound policy and adequate results and not for corruption. If some women are more successful than most men in defending acts that are partly or wholly wrong, this idiosyncrasy is offset by a somewhat keener de- sire to seem to be entirely in the right. It is, however, only fair to themselves for women voters to recall that indirect bribes are even among men more frequent and more insidious than direct bribes. 20 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT To condone incompetence because the incompetent has a perfectly splendid manner or sings divinely or helps raise money for my charity or belongs to my church may easily do more harm than flagrant graft. When contemplating woman's incorruptibility and the inestimable service she will render when voting, try to use smuggling as an equilibrator. When you hear of smuggling, do you think of a man or a woman? Do you know any women who ever re- turned from Europe without smuggling? Is it in- conceivable that you yourself would put a bit of lace, a pair of mittens or a note in a newspaper carried for one cent through the United States mail with the understanding that there shall be no enclosures? Any harm ignorant and vicious women may do with the ballot will probably prove useful in calling attention to the absurdity of letting ignorant and vicious men vote or, for that matter, letting intelli- gent and virtuous men vote ignorantly and viciously. Is Suffrage a Success in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Australia? Who cares? Who knows? Who dares to question it? That the great majority in suffrage states pro- claim its success may be significant or may mean only that men with public or social ambition are filled with that gratitude (and caution) which has been defined as a " lively sense of favors (or disfavors) to come." The negative may quote Judge Ben B. Lindsey: THE RIGHT TO MAKE MISTAKES 21 " Woman suffrage has not done any more for re- form than manhood suffrage and it will not do it in the future." The affirmative may quote Judge Ben B. Lindsey: " In a case where it is a clear moral issue, woman's vote is always on the side of morality, justice and decency." If woman suffrage had sent Wyoming and Colo- rado to the eternal bow-wows, such testimony would be swept aside by the suffragists of Massachusetts and New York, who would nonchalantly reply : " Whether Colorado or any other of the equal suffrage states has been injured is not the point," or with equal ef- fectiveness, " It simply goes to show that the men and women of Wyoming or Colorado have not suf- ficiently used their opportunities." Had suffrage been an unqualified fulfillment of its promises, the anti-suffragist would say : " These partially settled states are by no means typical." If, after a test of fifty years, universal votes for women should show a net loss, the simple question would be : " Haven't we women the right to make .mistakes? " To have intelligent women is more important than to have good government. Women do have the right to make mistakes, follow will-o'-the-wisps, make heroes of foolish or bad men, look for panaceas in bad policies, change their minds, to learn, as the normal mind must learn, by experience, by compar- ing results with effort and by relating effect to cause. I WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The vital, immediate questions arer How can the suffrage be best used? How can its dangers be minimized? How can women get ready for it? How can they learn from their mistakes ? THE REMEDY INFORMED TAXPAYERS INFORMED ABOUT WHAT? GOVERNMENT ACTS COMMUNITY NEEDS HOW? BY ADEQUATE RECORDS WHEN? ALL THE TIME A Budget Exhibit Sign in METHODS NOT PURPOSES IN CONTRO- VERSY Method Not Purpose Divides Women WOMAN'S mind is divided on the suffrage question only because opinions differ about the way to get what all women want. Do you know any woman who does not think that woman's influence should be constantly exercised for the right? Do you know any woman who would say that it is enough for women to be happy without en- couraging happiness in others, or to be orna- mental without promoting beauty for others? Do you know any woman who thinks that women ought to have nothing to do with making the world better, with training citizens, creating wholesome public sentiment, and promoting the fights against corruption and unsound princi- ples? If we observe the suffragist, anti-suffragist, and indifferent of our day, we see more likenesses than differences. They extol the same virtues and hate the same faults in government. They all want justice. They all wish to preserve the normal superiority of woman and her keener sensibilities. They all want woman released from the bondage of ignorance and believe in her power to become in- formed. They agree upon the country, but disagree upon the road to travel. They all want to escape Egypt and enter Palestine. Some demur to the Red Sea, 25 26 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT the manna diet and forty years in the wilderness. They disagree as to methods of exercising their beneficent influence, and as to the effect of woman's vote upon man's vote, upon government standards and upon the home. Method Not Purpose is Likewise the Chief Con- troversy in Politics and Statecraft Do you know anybody who does not think that there should be equal opportunity before the law? Who favors private monopoly if it can be helped? Who thinks preventable diseases should be un- checked in schools, public graft licensed, court verdicts sold, or police departments allied with vice ? Who denies government's duty to promote " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " ? Did the corrupt politicians of your city ever admit that their candidate was corrupt or ask the voters to authorize obvious graft? Did you ever have an election where a " moral " step was opposed on any other ground than that it was not really moral or that it " would not work"? The capitalist's objection to socialism is not so much that abolishing or equalizing capital would be undesirable, as that it " can't be done " or " won't work." In national, as well as in state and local elec- tions, the difference between great parties is almost always one of method, not of purpose. Political platforms sound very much alike. The METHOD NOT PURPOSE DIVIDES 7 one made last may succeed in getting in a few extras that the other overlooked, but seldom does one clearly favor an end that another clearly opposes. How much and what humanity should do, and how much of that government should do, are ques- tions of method that make some of us oppose while others propose definite next steps. Carrie-Nationing Government a Dubious Method " Advertise " the suffrage cause by encouraging pretty girls to do what they particularly enjoy doing if other people think it is improper ; " ad- vertise " by teaching lovely and susceptible girls to appeal to questionable if not positively low motives in strange men who are glad to buy cake for The Cause if they may joke about its sweet purveyor ; " advertise " The Cause, by distributing literature marked " for young men only " or promote the sale of books by similar suggestions. What's the difference? Go to prison for disorderly conduct and surpass in martyrdom and freakishness for sake of the ballot, or later for sake of one of the ends the ballot is supposed to serve! What's the difference? Shooting up a town is disorder whether the shooter-up is male or female, drunk with suffrage or with alcohol. What illegal, immoral, sensual or freakish act is justifiable before suffrage that will not be equally justifiable after the ballot is possessed? Hanging 28 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT "with one arm to a lamp post with one arm and two legs in the air" is as good an argument for tariff revision downward as for woman suffrage. Will not men and women converted to the suffrage cause by such methods expect similar shock and drugging to interest them in using the suffrage? The Carrie-Nationing method is so unimaginative! Government Method Has Heretofore Received Less Attention than Government Purpose Do you see how a woman who refuses to be inter- ested in government methods as distinct from government purposes may exercise a harmful influence on her husband's or brother's thought about government, whether she votes or not? Suffragists and anti-suffragists alike have dis- cussed men and purposes more than methods ; general doctrines more than the details from which those doctrines are made; high elevations rather than the steps by which those high elevations may be reached. As to which benefits shall be sought and which evils attacked, there is not enough difference to be inter- esting. There is little more to be said of lawyers' books, men's literature on government, men's efforts to secure " good government." To this concentra- tion upon aim and purpose with its accompanying disregard of method and next steps, is due the past success of charlatan and grafter in American poli- tics. There is no reason why it should be harder for women to be intelligent about method in govern- METHOD IS INTERESTING 29 ment than about method in housekeeping or " good breeding." To Interest Women in Methods and Next Steps is One of Government's Greatest Needs When women plan a dinner they break up their general picture into its component parts indi- vidual guests, their congeniality with each other, their tastes, table decorations, plates, entrees, roast, salad, character of service, etc. Government, like dinners, is not just a great big " good thing," a desire or a puzzle, but a large number of definite little things which need to be properly arranged definite steps which need to be taken each in its own time and properly adapted to those that need to go before and after. To govern, women must be more interested in the sequence of acts than in the sequence of men, in government steps than in parties and promises. Balloting has to do with men and methods only once in two (one day in 730) or four years (one in 1440 days), and has then very little to do with methods or steps. It is obstructive of good government for large numbers of governed or governing to believe things possible that cannot be done, or to think things hard that are easy, or to mispraise and miscondemn official conduct. Women, like men, are certain to mispraise and miscondemn unless they know methods and watch next steps. 30 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Numerous Hand Books on Next Steps in Govern- ment are Needed by Men and Women Alike From all parts of the country comes evidence that our wanting and our seeing have gone far beyond our getting and our knowledge of steps for getting. This book can serve best if it illustrates the need for hand books on method in government, and if it prompts their preparation from a number of points of view and for a number of different purposes. Methods of work for better government cannot be successfully standardized, or imparted by college instruction, without a new kind of literature which combines the two ideas of (1) report of facts and (2) hand book of instruction in getting things done. Men who vote for the same president, same gov- ernor, same mayor, should be able to think in the same way of the same methods, as well as of the same problems and same goal. If you wanted to organize a municipal league or bureau of municipal research, how could you find out how to go about it, where to begin, and what to do next? If you were appointed president of a board of edu- cation, where could you look for a list of definite steps to be taken? When public speakers tell you how to make the city beautiful, how to save babies, or increase public interest in schools, do they tell you where you can find booklets and literature showing you how to use their advice? Do you know how to organize a suffrage society or anti-suffrage society? HAND BOOKS ARE NEEDED 31 Does there exist in your city or state any hand book of advice to those who want to increase the efficiency of chambers of commerce, political parties, reform agencies, uplift societies, etc.? WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT "MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE" Hose a 4:3 As To Preventable Crime Preventable Ignorance Preventable Tuberculosis Preventable Infant Mortality Preventable Housing Evils Preventable School Absences Preventable Waste Preventable Corruption "MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE- Concerning School Needs Not Met Playground Needs Not Met Hospital Needs Not Met Police Needs Not Met Probation Needs Not Met Actual Conditions Available Remedies THERE NEED BE No LACK OF KNOWLEDGE THIS YEAR ROBERT L. STEVENS FUND for Municipal Research in Hoboken, N. J. Efficiency Citizenship, 18 The Budget Exhibit and Budget Conference Method of Making Woman's Influence Felt IV WOMAN'S FIRST VOTING The Probable Evolution of Woman's Interest ASSUMING that woman will have suffrage thrust upon her whether she achieves it or not, I have tried to suggest in the following pages the probable evolu- tion of her voting, her experiments with " short cuts," her inevitable demand for help in taking definite next steps between election times. Being Registered as Eligible to Vote Wherever proof of residence and of age is not recorded In writing before election day ballot box frauds, bribing and disorder prevail. In most places voters must now signify their in- tention to vote, or at least must claim their right to vote, in a particular voting precinct on one of several days set from one to four weeks before election. This is called personal registration, which dates in New York City from 1840, and in the state from 1859. Those registering tell their full name, residence, place and date of birth, where they voted last, how long they have lived in the voting precinct, how long in the city, how long in the state. These facts are open to public inspection. Where no such re- strictions exist women can get them established, whether they have the vote or not. No one who has not registered in advance is per- 35 36 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT mitted to vote. Too frequently from 10% to 40% register who do not vote. The best method of preventing one woman's regis- tering in another's name is to require that every person registering sign her name, and that if later challenged when voting, she sign her name again. To prevent confusion and quarreling " chal- lengers " or " watchers " properly certified by parties or factions which they represent are permitted to be near the booth on both registration and election days. Each party is allowed but one watcher at each precinct at one time. The theory is that each party's watcher will, of course, protect his party against obvious fraud. It has been found that watchers give little protection if they are either un ob- serving or timid-hearted, or willing to betray their party and wink at violations of the law. In New York City women have watched and challenged at recent registrations although themselves without the vote. Woman's First Primary In the fight for suffrage there is the appeal to emotion plus the demand for military discipline and sacrifice which makes for heroism and partisanship. Once having won there will come a reaction and for every woman who will be anxious to use the ballot one hundred will be " glad it's all over." But within a few months after receiving the ballot the woman voter will be compelled to think about her first primary. WOMAN'S FIRST PRIMARY 37 Who shall be named as candidates by the leading parties ? What kind of officers does she think they will prove to be if elected? How shall she choose between men who make the same promises, if she knows neither? Besides voting for men has she in mind the meas- ures for which these men stand? What seems so easy now when she has not the ballot will become confusing. Candidates will all talk alike. Moral issues will be as thick as bacteria in bad milk. It will be most annoying to have calls at all hours of the day, to receive letters in every mail, to be buttonholed on the street, in church or at club meet- ings, and to be forced again to go through the turmoil that characterized the campaign for the bal- lot. It will be futile to protest indifference, and im- possible to know that a very nicely addressed en- velope contains an appeal to vote for John or Mary Doe. If you do not go into the convention (so long as it lasts) you have little or no influence. If you do go in you must go to participate, which means, as in women's clubs for example, to scheme, to maneuver and to fight. Once in the convention the chaos, dis- order and uncertainty will make it almost impossible to reach an unbiased decision unless you have al- ready decided which leader to follow. Several prac- tical questions will arise: 38 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Shall the primary be at the same place for both men and women? Should women arrange to participate in the pre- convention gatherings that make up slates for practically all conventions, or shall they organ- ize to break slates as they did at the National Education Association in Boston when Superin- tendent Ella Flagg Young was elected president in 1910? How far shall your interest in work promised in- fluence your choice of men ? Have you ever known a candidate so bad in the eyes of opponents that some women did not earnestly support him? Did you ever go to hear a " popular menace " where you did not find other women? Did you ever know a fallen hero in politics whom large numbers of women did not enthusiastically support ? Will you vote for a candidate in spite of or be- cause of his political affiliations ? What are you going to do when confronted with a dilemma such as faced the women of Colo- rado in 1910; i. e., to oppose the saloon they must vote for the beast in the jungle; to oppose the beast in the jungle they must vote for the saloon. Woman's First Ballot for Candidates The first ballot among the recently enfranchised women in the State of Washington was cast by the women of Seattle for or against the recall of a mayor. The issue was the " alleged toleration by the mayor of vicious resorts and his appointment of a notoriously unfit chief of police." WOMAN'S FIRST BALLOT 39 In few instances, however, will woman's first ballot concern an issue so clearly "moral" and 'so simple. On the contrary most first votes will be for or against a long list of candidates for offices which at the time of their first vote the great majority of women will not understand or care about. Getting ready for this first ballot deserves more detailed attention than has been given in the past to newly enfranchised voters. Balloting by women will be expensive and must be justified by results. Doubling the number of votes will mean nearly doubling the present election costs. Direct and measurable benefits should result if we divert a million dollars a year from wages and income for the sole purpose of giving women the ballot. Fortunately the results of woman's voting are testable. Women must learn how to apply these tests. Their problem is not to do as well as men have been in the habit of doing, but to live up as nearly as possible to 100% of their own opportunity. Efficient use of woman's first ballot means organi- zation in advance, training in advance and continu- ous educational work with each eligible voter. It means, moreover, visits for the purpose of persuad- ing women to register, registering, counting, inter- preting the vote and learning lessons from it. To take each of these steps will be more important at woman's first ballot than to vote right on the men and issues presented. 40 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Getting Out the Woman's Vote While election day, or so much of it as is re- quired for voting, is a legal holiday, there are always scores of other attractions. If the sun shines it is a good day for rowing, golfing or house parties ; if it rains the polls seem too far away, and there are always reasons for believing that your vote is not needed. Getting out the full woman's vote will be no small problem. Many will be timid, others obstinate and others sincerely indifferent. The stay-at-home vote will be very large at woman's first ballot unless some unusually exciting issue is presented, such as free silver or some police scandal, or unless some central organization works efficiently for weeks in advance from house to house, through newspapers, billboards and public meetings to make it more uncomfortable for any woman to stay at home than to vote. That staying at home on election day is not a feminine trait should be kept constantly in mind. Even in Boston in January, 1911, at an important election for school trustees, 52,452 out of 110,223 registered male voters stayed at home. In the very common indifference of voters is rooted the practice of paying men to vote which has recently been shown to thrive among the American born population in Adams County, Ohio, in Uncle Joe Cannon's county in Illinois, in rural districts of Delaware and Connecticut, etc. PREVENTING BALLOT FRAUDS 41 Protecting the Vote Getting truth out of the vote is as important as getting the vote out of qualified electors. There are many devices for confusing voters at the last moment. Campaign lies are sprung one or two days before election which raise enough doubts so that many voters decide not to vote while others vote against their better judgment. Constant vigi- lance, therefore, is needed. In the days of the sticker or paster, when each party printed its own ballot and before a single, authorized ballot was printed, many voters found that they had unwittingly been trapped into voting the wrong ticket under a false name. When the voter cannot read, the law in many states permits him to ask for help. Two parties often conspire to trap an ignorant man into voting for the man and party he wants to defeat instead of for his own candidate and party. It should be remembered that thousands upon thousands of votes for Mayor McClellan, Governor Hughes and Presi- dent Roosevelt, as well as for Tammany Hall and other corrupt machines, were of this kind. Votes may be lost by marking the ballots wrong, by inaccurateness in counting, by misinterpretation of the rules regarding the ballots or by actual theft of ballots. Carelessness, inaccuracy and misinter- pretation can be prevented, but not by the ballot or by deploring evil tendencies. Care, accuracy and right interpretation require study, courage, persist- 42 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ence all of which are in the line of greatest re- sistance. It is unpleasant to remind election officers of mis- takes. I was once a watcher in the famous John Powers district in Chicago, and when my count dif- fered from the official count by over two hundred votes they were very indignant with me because I refused to " split the difference " so as to save their time in recounting. Do you know any woman who would rather " split the difference " than correct a mistake by re- counting? Who would hesitate to suspect an- other of wishing to vote illegally? Who would miss her appointment with the polling booth? Who would be certain to have good reasons for not voting? Has anybody but the two chief political parties a complete list, house by house, of the eligible voters in your city ? Interpreting the Vote If after-election explanations of defeat resemble "whistling through the graveyard," it is usually because the facts have not been candidly stated. One trouble has been that explanations of failure do not make news. Newspapers cannot afford to spend time and money trying to make the public see the facts. Those who win are perfectly satisfied to have their winning attributed to their all round superiority. When those who lose are machine politicians, they accept their losses in a sportsmanlike way and wait INTERPRETING THE VOTE 43 for the wheel of fortune to turn. When those who lose are earnest " good men," they do not wish to incur ridicule and criticism for not being good losers. When those who lose are reform, independ- ent, or fusion parties, they are usually without the money necessary even to analyze the vote, to say nothing of conducting an educational campaign that will force the whole community to see what the vote really did mean. For example, if a majority of women in any state should vote against the suffrage, it would by no means prove that the majority of women did not desire to vote. On the contrary it might mean merely an enormous stay-at-home vote. Large numbers really desiring to vote might stay at home, forget to register, be sick or out of town or timid, or might not see the opportunity early enough or not understand what they were to do. Likewise a vote for suffrage might easily mean a desire to please some advocate of suffrage, loyalty to some particular leader or desire to avoid censure from one's friends among the suffragists. Interpreting the vote means studying the vote, which means study in detail of voters and forces be- hind the vote and an outlay of time and money such as has never yet been given to municipal, state or even national elections. There is no reason why we should wait one hundred years to learn the real meaning of the vote against Bryan in 1906, against Parker in 1904, and for Taft in 1908. Here is a field for some philanthropist, male or female, able to 44 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT see the importance of interpreting election results for male and female voters and to provide the funds. The Woman Voter's First Disappointment Woman's first ballot is certain to be disappoint- ing for a large number of woman voters. Many will be tempted to be discouraged or cynical. Yet the right of the majority must be recognized. The vote makes right until the next election whatever wrong seems to be involved in the program of those candidates who are elected by a majority or plurality vote. It frequently happens that minorities elect candi- dates opposed by the majority. More men voted against Governor Dix than for him in 1908; more men voted against Governor Hughes than for him. In almost all close elections the winning candidate receives less than half of all votes cast, e. g., Presi- dents Polk, Taylor, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland and Harrison. As in clubs and debating societies it is customary to fol- low even a hardly-contested election by a motion " to make the vote unanimous," as a means of ex- pressing the good will of the defeated faction and its acquiescence in the will of the plurality, so in gov- ernment all citizens are expected to support loyally the successful candidates. If the disappointed voter can give any reasons for believing that any of the votes cast were illegal or that an improper count was made, she can secure a recount. If there is no evidence of fraud, women KEEP ELECTION FIRES ALIVE 45 must wait for another election no matter how erroneous they consider the judgment of the win- ners. We must cultivate that capacity for rapid adjustment which enables those who live under monarchial forms of government to say, " The King (the party or principles you approve) is dead; long live the King (the successful party and principles)." But being a good loser does not require renuncia- tion. If no attempt is made to correct evils while election bitterness and disappointment are still keen, evils will continue. A new organization is needed in every com- munity which shall begin the day after election to make educational use of all lessons from the last election, tell the truth about pledges kept or broken and work done or left undone, until four weeks be- fore the next election when it can safely rest and leave the case in the hands of various parties to elec- tion excitement. Does the average woman lose or gain courage under disappointment? Do most men or women rebound from a defeat and build at once upon its lessons for the next year's work ? Is it possible to secure in your city a non-par- tisan, unprejudiced analysis of election results and their causes? The Slip 'Twixt Voting For and Getting One of the most pathetic things about popular suffrage has been the number of times that pre- 46 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT election pledges were broken. One of the most pathetic things that will follow suffrage for women will be the yawning gaps between what they will vote for and what they will get. No majority ever voted for dishonesty, for in- trigue, or for wasteful government. Yet dishon- esty, intrigue and waste have characterized our government for one hundred years. No majority ever voted for saloons which believed that prohibition would actually stop drunkenness. No elector ever voted for broken pledges to him. In 1908 7,678,908 men voted for Mr. Taft for president, the vast majority of them in the belief that they were voting for the downward re- vision of the tariff. They got revision upward for many of the articles on which they particularly wanted the tariff lowered. The curious thing about it all is the facility with which candidates try to persuade electors that election promises have been kept. Disappointed as President Taft was with the failure of the Re- publican congress to revise the tariff downward, he did his best to make the voters believe that the tariff actually voted after election was the tariff promised before election. Tammany Hall has never admitted that a vote for its candidates was a vote for gambling, for prostitution or for a wide open town. A great majority of its followers have always believed that voting for Tammany Hall was voting for enforce- VOTING FOR VS. GETTING 47 merit of the law, for cleanliness and for a square deal. Very few of the serious faults against which we now complain have ever been openly defended by legislatures or by officials. There is generally an unimpeachable Edward M. Shepard to match an unimpeachable Seth Low in order to make it dif- ficult for a voter to believe that any party stands for disorder, vice or injustice and to confuse the voter's memory as to the last slip 'twixt voting for and getting. The Slip 'Twixt Promising and Doing The gap between what a woman might do as a citizen without the ballot and what she does is often greater than the gap between official duty and offi- cial achievement. The " baddest " men are the best promisers. You never heard of a great politician who confessed alli- ance with evil or who failed to claim that he stood for the purity of the home and for decency. If he favored regulation of vice, it was only because he wanted to give better protection to decency. Because moral issues are surprisingly few, and fewer still the men willing to stand in open opposi- tion to the moral side of an argument, all men claim that their particular party or program is in line with individual and public morals. Promises satisfy the public so well that platform makers vie with one another to see which can most 48 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT eloquently and continuously promise the greater benefits. Because government consists of innumerable acts of different kinds a part of the plausible story told by those who try to harmonize their acts with their promises is pretty sure to be true. For example, hundreds of thousands of partisan voters in 1910 saw their bitterness against the Payne- Aldrich tariff gradually weaken and disappear before ex-Presi- dent Roosevelt's argument that it was the best tariff the country ever had and was laying the basis for a fundamental, equitable and scientific revision. Rainbows of promise, disappointment and con- fusion chase each other so quickly that many voters resign themselves and adopt a cynical attitude to- ward government and politics. The wise wink their eyes, the innocent shrug their shoulders, the ma- jority shake their fists and fume and forget. We try voting one party in and the other out, in the hope that a rotation of parties will bring the same results that the farmer gets from rotating his crops. When voting time comes round again the leaders' picnics have wiped away much of the resentment and the old party line-up seems the wisest thing. For years to come the great majority will still go this way. The woman voter will never learn to " size up " candidates so as to protect herself against the slip 'twixt voting for and getting or the other slip 'twixt promising and doing. She can, however, equip herself to recognize the gap between promising PROMISING VS. DOING 49 and doing, if efficient methods are used by her leaders to compare after-election work with before- election promises and to provide against being mis- led a second time by the same man, or same woman. Masses are very much influenced by what is current talk for 365 days in the year. Someone should obtain and make universally known proof about official acts throughout the year, as repeatedly sug- gested in later paragraphs. But while learning to do this, women voters will jump from frying pan into fire, and believe one fairy tale after another about short cuts warranted to insure predigested good government. 50 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT JJriuat* mailing Olarfc "That tdiooU hB be progfestivel better. reA cleaner, recreation more a lovable and health rate* tod civic idea pfogreMively higher" ROBERT U STEVENS FUND FOR MUNICIPAL RESEARCH IN HOBOKEN Hodtto Trurt Buildia* PETTY GRAFTING FOUND IN HOBOKCN '"Observer" Dclar,d te He*. Charged City Fancy Prices for ll> Supplies Ncn-ark Slat SCATHES OF JUSTICE Pnu He.dline lor April. 1911 Bill To Stop False Weights Now a Law /rwy Jovial CANNOT HAVE FALSE MEASURES Possession Constitutes E TOLD THE TRUTH STEVENS FUND Misdemeanor under New a the following column* of THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE STAMPEDE THE EXHIBIT Anxious to Know How Money Is Spent WHAT DOES IT AW. MEAJT f I HAVJB YOU SEEN THE V 7&AOB AT THE Infonrdng the Public Between Election Times TRYING SHORT CUTS TO EFFICIENT GOV- ERNMENT Are There Short Cuts to Efficient Government? THE human mind, like the animal mind, is so con- stituted that after a few disappointments it seeks escape by trying to find bars out of cages, holes in fences or short cuts through conventions and habits. On this instinct the quacks of medicine, politics and religion have thrived since the beginning of time. To this instinct women voters will yield as inevitably as our grandfathers and grandmothers took measles, diptheria, scarlet fever and other children's dis- eases. We must go through a period of " catch- ing diseases " in woman's experiments with panaceas and short cuts to " good government." The quicker they are exposed the less harm can be done, unless educational processes can be put in action that will enable women, voting or not voting, to see the dif- ference between the real and the apparent causes of government weaknesses. The first disappointment women voters will attrib- ute to candidates, the next to parties and hence on to various other mechanical and human restraints which they will try to correct by experimenting with at- tractively advertised bargains or short cuts. It does not at all detract from the merit of vari- ous proposals hereafter considered to remind the woman voter, and the man voter as well, that no scheme will be invented which will prevent uninformed 53 54 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT or misinformed men and women from being exploited and injured by misgovernment. 9 Are There Too Many Voters? What every twenty-one-year-old may have is not treasurable. Instead of doubling the voters or mak- ing it compulsory to vote, as in Austria or Belgium, perhaps we would get a better result if fewer people voted. When one sees all the people who vote now, one wonders whether the vote is not already made too cheap. How many people of your acquaintance can you think of who really ought not to be permitted to vote ? Are there many women in this number? Are some people too easily influenced to be trusted as voters? Shall we exclude spinsters over forty or wives who are not mothers? Shall we advance the minimum age to twenty-five and shorten the maximum to fifty? Shall we rule out all who cannot write their own names? Shall we exclude all who cannot pass a civil service examination? Shall we disfranchise men who cannot work or who are not married? Shall we disfranchise all who have been convicted in criminal courts whether they serve sentences, pay fines or escape with reprimand? Shall we disfranchise those who fail to vote as we now disfranchise those convicted of selling their votes? SHORT CUTS AND BLIND ALLEYS 55 Shall There be Higher Minimum and Lower Maxi- mum Age Limits? Since rights always impose duties and since it might simplify elections to have fewer voters, per- haps it would be wise to have a " Well done, thou good and faithful servant " for voters as well as for army and teaching veterans. As the obligation to vote becomes more generally recognized, we shall arouse sympathy for those veterans who find voting arduous not only because of the excitement and responsibility, but also because of the actual physical drain of going to inconvenient, unpleasant places. In these days twenty-one is pretty young even for women; younger relatively than Athens' voting age eighteen. The so-called higher type of citizen is not through college at this time or is not quali- fied as lawyer, doctor, dentist, minister or teacher. Shall the old age limit be drawn at eighty, seventy- five, sixty-five or sixty? How many voters would be dropped from the rolls of your state or city at each age limit above given ? Would those above the maximum age be listened to more attentively if without the vote, as likely to be more free from partisan influence? As you know voters and issues, would your com- munity lose if no one under twenty-five were permitted to vote? Would you rather spare those between twenty-one and twenty-five or those over sixty? 56 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Should There be a Property Qualification? It is often irritating to the man who pays the bills to see the town loafer count for as much at the polls as himself; hence, the growing sentiment in favor of permitting no one to vote, at least on matters of di- rect taxation, who is not a direct taxpayer. Yet the distinction between the direct and indirect taxpayer is growing more unsatisfactory and indefi- nite every year. Fifty thousand dollars is a " tidy sum " even in New York ; forty dollars a week, two thousand a year, equals the income on fifty thousand dollars. Is the non-earner who owns fifty thousand dollars more fit to vote than the non-owner who earns two thousand dollars a year? Wives earn when they keep house how much it is hard to prove. Ministers earn on an average less than seven hundred dollars a year and own little, if any, property. There are lawyers and doctors and college professors who are not-yet-earners and more still who are not-yet-owners. There are old men who used to be earners and now neither earn nor own. If all these were to be excluded from voting we should take the ballot from many who are compe- tent to understand its meaning, and at the same time are most directly affected by the way taxes are spent. There is no relation between understanding public needs and possessing property. Time and again owners of property have shown that in their so-called miscalled conservatism they often fail to see not only what is best for the public, but what is best for PROPERTY OWNING SHORT CUT 57 their own property. So the very poor repeatedly vote for men and policies that lower their earning power and deprive their children of opportunity. Women have not been satisfied with the limited suffrage granted to property owning women in New York State, but demand womanhood suffrage. If women vote, shall only those vote who have property ? Shall those be excluded who are spenders and neither toil nor spin? Shall those be excluded who work at home without specified compensation ? Shall servants be permitted to vote contrary to the interests of their employers? Why is selling one's vote heinous? Next to the proverbial " stealing sheep," no meaner form of dishonesty is recognized than selling one's vote. It is thought to be even worse than buying votes. In Adams County, Ohio (which is unique among rural districts chiefly in having been found out), it has developed that even ministers, Sunday- school superintendents and owners of farms have been selling their votes. In fact, almost the only man in that county whom nobody suspects of having sold his vote in the 1910 election is a man who had gotten so avaricious and held his vote so high that both sides agreed not to do business with him. But why does nobody consider it dishonest or mean if the owner of forests in Mississippi votes for a congressman pledged to vote in return for the tariff on lumber? 58 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Our pharisaical horror at selling votes seems to for- get that the purpose of voting was not originally, and is not to-day, to express the opinion of citizens with regard to what would be best in some vague " long run " for the greatest number, but to express truth- fully each voter's economic interest. Women frankly ask for the ballot to further their industrial interest. If it makes no difference to you how an election goes, why should you not sell your vote to the high- est bidder? The real trouble has been that thousands of rich and poor alike have failed to see the -slightest dif- ference between a Republican and a Democratic ad- ministration. Instead of thinking too much of our personal interests in elections, we have thought too little. The way out is not to work up mawkish senti- ment in favor of voting for the interest of one's neighbor, but to develop more definite personal inter- est. The farmer and the working man would have come to ethical voting much earlier if they had not been misled into forgetting their direct, personal interest by insincere twaddle about the country's good. Should There be an Educational Qualification? There is nothing more reasonable on its face than the demand for some kind of educational qualifica- tion for voters. Obviously, idiots and feeble-minded persons who cannot possibly know what the candidates stand for or what they are should not be permitted to vote EDUCATION SHORT CUT 59 for men or policies. Is it less obvious, however, that nobody else has any better right than idiots or feeble- minded persons to vote, if she knows nothing about the particular men or particular policies at issue? Intelligence that is not used, as well as lack of in- telligence, may serve to confuse issues. While we all agree, therefore, that some test of the voter's knowledge should be applied, it is not so easy to decide just what the voter ought to know. I have never seen a proposal for an educational quali- fication that had the slightest bearing upon the in- telligence of the voter with respect to the particular matters for or against which he must vote. If there is any one thing that in ninety-nine elec- tions out of one hundred it is not important for the voter to know, it is the constitution or the history of the United States. Equally futile in deciding whether a man or woman is qualified to cast a ballot, is knowing when Hannibal crossed the Alps; how Napoleon came back from St. Elba; the number of cubic inches in a gallon; the distribution of powers in a municipality or the theory of its organization; or whether Theodore Roosevelt was the thirteenth or twenty-seventh president of the United States. Furthermore it does not follow because a man of twenty-one can prove education enough to entitle him to vote that he will keep sufficiently informed so that at the age of forty he will be equally intelligent about public problems. Many a doctor passes an examination at twenty-five who is utterly unfit to treat sick people at fifty. Many a lawyer qualifies at 60 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT twenty-five who, by thirty, has only useless and damaging information. The only kind of education that is of any real use to voters, except for drawing artificial lines be- tween different classes in a community, is education regarding each particular issue at stake in each par- ticular election. Ideally, therefore, an educational qualification should be applied at each registration time. For example, nobody should be allowed to vote on public ownership of subways who has no bet- ter reason for voting for or against than that it looks socialistic. Nobody should be permitted to vote against Tammany Hall just because Lincoln freed the slaves in 1863. Nobody should be allowed to vote against a Republican candidate because the United States Bank had a row with Andrew Jackson. Nor should anybody be allowed to vote for or against a candidate for president out of reverence or hatred for Uncle Tom's Cabin. Practically I see the futility of urging a worth- while educational qualification. Years after we are used to government by commission, we may come to the time when five or ten or one hundred men will be selected by lot on the main street of your town and compelled, as jurors are now compelled, to gain evi- dence for and against particular policies so as to test the public pulse, examine the public mind and, on the basis of such evidence, to render 'a verdict. In the meanwhile there are a few educational tests that ought to be seriously considered for all persons who wish hereafter to be admitted to the ballot. AN EDUCATIONAL TEST 61 What is the total appropriation for the city's (county's, state's, nation's) current expenses this year? What different kinds of work are being done? What is the city's sickness rate and death rate? How many children ought to be in school? How many are in school? How many never go beyond the fifth grade? Are causes of nonpromotion studied? How many are without sittings? If subways are to be voted for, what will they cost? Where will they go? How will they re- lieve congestion? Are citizen complaints promptly attended to? What are the principal community need's not yet met? Sometime a community that sees the necessity for applying a fitness test to scrubwomen, firemen, school teachers, clerks, etc., will also see the advantage of im- posing a proper fitness test upon all persons who wish to help determine what a community shall under- take to do through its government, by what means and through what men. Such tests are foreshadowed by tests now suggested for naturalization papers, which emphasize the citizen's rights to protection against fire, extortion, disease, etc., and the agencies and methods for insuring protection. Should There be Preferential Voting? Cambridge, Mass., will vote in 1911 whether or not to install preferential voting i. e., expressing first, second, third choice, etc. As in debate rankings, 62 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT baseball batting records, horse show or county fair awards, etc., a steady second best will often rank higher than an erratic first choice. But picking one's first choice is so hard and com- plicated that except in small " neighborly " places, preferential voting will probably not be either pop- ular or satisfactory. Should There be Compulsory Voting? Except where there is unusual excitement a large fraction of qualified voters fail to register and a large fraction who register fail to vote. Oftentimes the most important elections are those which are quietest and arouse the least interest. If the number of voters is doubled, the possible evil of the not yet interested voter is certain to in- crease. If a man steals sheep he is indefinitely disfranchised (if he is caught and put in prison). Yet not-voting can do much more harm than stealing sheep. To disfranchise a man for an election when he par- ticularly wants to vote, because he failed to vote at a preceding election, is perfectly fair if we look at suffrage as a right. Any man who fails to exercise a right cannot complain if the right is taken away from him. But to disfranchise a man for neglecting his duty makes that man incapable of doing that duty next time. Shall the public punish itself for the sake of rebuking the not-voter? Disfranchising would be difficult to enforce be- COMPULSORY VOTING SHORT CUT 63 cause there are so many acceptable excuses for stay- ing away from the polls, such as sickness easily certi- fied to by a physician, or urgent business out of the city. Unless innumerable excuses were recognized, fines or disfranchisement for not voting would, in many cases, work injustice. There are other difficulties, too. The poor day laborer, too tired to go to the polls, ought not to be taxed the same amount as a millionaire who would rather pay one hundred fines than take the trouble to go around the corner to the barber shop or cigar store among people he does not want to know, to cast his ballot for people he does not know. There is little promise in compulsory voting. Is the Ballot Too Long? Obviously, it will not take as much thought to learn about four or five men as about thirty or thir- teen. For a time many of us will be carried away with the promises that the short ballot will solve all our difficulties, or as ex-President Eliot says, "is absolutely the gist of all constructive reform the only way to get rid of bosses and reforms." If we look around, however, we shall see that in many an election where practically no candidate but the mayor received public attention the worst dis- graces were later found to be in the mayor's own de- partments. When Mr. Seth Low was elected mayor of New York, public attention was concentrated on two or three men. Yet in the departments immediately sub- 64 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ordinate to Mayor Low administrative evils were left unchanged, such as inadequate accounting, improper control over supplies, padded payrolls, ineffective commissioners of accounts and inspectors of weights and measures. Hence incompetence and waste at the bottom continued to foster corruption. As one political leader said who was known to be in politics for his pocket not his health : " I never made so much money in my life as under ' reform ' ; then I dealt with the little fellows at the bottom instead of dividing with the big ones at the top." In few cities where the long ballot (up and down for many offices) is used are the evils greater in the departments presided over by the lesser candidates unknown to the public, than in the other departments for which the lime-lighted mayor, comptroller and prosecuting officer are personally responsible. Experience with men who are the center of election discussion will start a reaction against the short bal- lot and will cause the public to say : " If we had only been given a chance to vote on his appointees, he would never have dared to name such obvious in- competents or unworthies." One weakness of the short ballot remedy is the claim that when we all look at a man before or after election we make him responsible for his actions. We must learn that officials, no matter how much we look at them or talk about them, will feel responsible only for what we know of their official acts. If we want accountability for acts the public must know the acts themselves. When looking at the actor, Mayor SHORT BALLOT SHORT CUTS 65 McClellan, the now governor of New Jersey, Wood- row Wilson then president of Princeton University said he was the best mayor the city ever had. Analysis of his acts made Mayor McClellan's admin- istration a symbol of inefficient organization and ex- travagant management, as shown. by later savings of millions of dollars and later correction of innumerable evils that fostered graft and waste. For the strongest arguments in support of the short ballot and current discussion of its progress, address The Short Ballot Association, New York City. Are Nominations Too Indirect? As the demand grows for a shorter ballot from top to bottom we find another demand for a longer bal- lot from left to right. Fewer offices to vote on is flanked by more candidates for each office. Thus the direct nomination of candidates will tend to nullify the advantages of the short ballot. The convention or indirect method of selecting candidates means ordinarily that a handful of per- sons decide upon the candidates. Factions within a party try to settle differences before the party votes ; that is, they try to " wash their family linen in pri- vate." There is so much work in conducting an elec- tion that team work is required. It is easier for a party than for factions within it to raise election funds and to conduct a campaign. But bossism thrives on party solidarity. Irre- sponsibility to the public thrives on bossism. To get 66 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT rid of bossism it is proposed to permit any voter to express his preference for a candidate at primaries without let or hindrance by party or faction. (So far as the voter knows, the man whom he nominates will be unwilling to run.) Many believe that this method will smash the ma- chine and encourage a higher type of man to seek or to accept public office. The successful candidate will be independent of bosses because bosses did not name him, and loyal to the people because they did name him. Oregon has gone as far as to require that all candidates for the legislature must pledge them- selves to give their votes in the legislature to that candidate for United States senator for whom the people in the primaries have expressed a preference. In 1912 the people of Oregon (and four other states already) will express their preference for president and vice-president of the United States, thus bind- ing their delegates to national conventions. According to one late boss ostensible power to nominate is by no means real power. He said : " This method is equivalent merely to asking the bosses to make their moves one point earlier in the game." In addition to making up his own mind the boss, under the direct nomination system, must make up the minds of a large number of voters before the primary ; he must do his educational work or wire pulling or " accelerating " in advance of the primary so that the independent voter will want the particular man that he as a boss knows will make good as a running candidate. DIRECT NOMINATIONS CUT 67 The direct nomination has already brought disap- pointment in many cities. In Boston and Des Moines, for example, it gave a plurality of the total vote to men against whom the reform was particu- larly directed. Just as the independent voter hopes to divide the boss's power by naming independent candidates, so the boss can easily succeed in dividing the forces of reform by putting an extra reform can- didate or two in the field to lessen the leading candi- date's support. Thus " popular vote " may be made a scapegoat and party bosses be relieved of odium while retaining power to name candidates. Like the short ballot, the direct primary may be but need not be an effective aid. Both are certain to be productive of disappointment. What advantage have you ever taken of the " direct nomination " in women's clubs? How has the privilege of direct nomination worked on the school boards that you happen to know? Are you sure enough that we do not need political parties to justify an experiment which assumes that parties are unmixed evils? In the long run can we expect better results and more direct accountability from enthusiasm for individual candidates rather than for parties? For the strongest arguments in support of direct nominations, address The Massachusetts Direct Legis- lation League, and The Legislative Reference Li- brary, Madison, Wis. 68 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Will the Referendum Help? Yes, but only some. In 1910 twenty-three state platforms declared for the referendum; that is, submitting important laws proposed by legislature to the public for veto or ap- proval before they become laws. Curiously, the referendum finds its staunchest sup- port among advocates of the short ballot, although the referendum means a frightfully long ballot when important legislative questions are added to impor- tant candidates. Twenty-one questions plus thirty candidates were submitted to Denver voters in 1910 while Oregon's referendum in that year concerned thirty-two pro- posed laws plus candidates for state, city and county officers. That the wholesale referendum in Oregon has been a success everybody admits. In 1910, 117,690 votes were cast for candidates for state offices, and an average of 85,042 were cast on initiative and refer- endum measures, of which the prohibition law re- ceived the highest vote 104,100 and the ques- tion of county division the lowest vote 68,326. On the average, since 1902, initiative and referen- dum measures in Oregon have received three-fourths as many votes as candidates for office. The chief results of Oregon's 1910 referendum were summarized as follows by La Follette's Maga- zine. In reading them consider how many of these questions justified wholesale referendum and your REFERENDUM SHORT CUTS 69 own probable interest in similar issues for your state. What the People Did: Passed an amendment giving each county the right to say how it shall be taxed Gave municipalities " home rule " on the liquor question Enacted a good employer's liability bill Ordered a new insane asylum built Abolished what was practically a private fishing monopoly on a public stream, Made good roads possible by amendment freeing counties from constitutional tax limitation in matter and giving county referendum on bonds for this purpose Extended the primary law to include choice of delegates to presidential nominations, and choice of rank and file of each party for Presi- dent of the United States Made important reforms in judiciary procedure, by allowing a three-fourths jury verdict in civic cases, instructing the higher courts not to reverse just judgments of lower courts on mere technical errors Ended bitter fight of long standing between three normal schools by taxing themselves for support of the best school and turning down the others What the People Refused to Do: Establish " classified property " system of taxa- tion Adopt state wide prohibition amendment and a search and seizure bill putting it into effect 70 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Establish woman's suffrage Select a " commission to inquire into the em- ployer's liability question and report to the legislature " Order an election for delegates to a convention to revise the constitution Establish separate legislative districts for each member of the general assembly Increase the salary of a judge Inaugurate a system of proportional representa- tion Order printed a bi-monthy State Official Gazette, and sent free to the voters, containing news of the state government, etc. Create eight new counties Permit state to engage in building railroads The limited referendum in the eastern states upon various constitutional provisions has not succeeded in interesting a large fraction of voters, although for the most part beneficial results are reported. There are three weaknesses inherent in the refer- endum and the initiative: 1. It will always be difficult to take as much in- terest in proposed laws as in candidates for law making. 2. People would generally let a bad law break down through the weight of its own defects rather than do all over again the work for which they elect legisla- tors ; most of us do not want to face a number of crises each year. 3. Popular excitement is apt not to express either public interest or public conviction. SOME REFERENDUM TESTS 71 There is so much machinery about election which can be put out of order that bosses can quite con- ceivably, by clever manipulation, get through the referendum an ostensible moral support which they never could get for bills subject to critical scrutiny in the legislature. Unquestionably, however, the ranker obvious out- rages against public sentiment will be more difficult to perpetrate when a considerable minority has the power to require a state wide ballot. But people cannot make use of the referendum beyond their own knowledge of what is needed and what is right. Thus we come back as always to between-election seeing and thinking. Are conditions in Oregon sufficiently like those in your state to make it likely that Oregon's suc- cess with the referendum will be duplicated in your state? Is there danger that people will become tired of having to act upon laws as well as upon men? If we are to have both the referendum and the initiative, what is the use of having a legislature and why not have postal card votes or newspaper votes or count the noses at mass meetings and on street corners? For the facts regarding initiative and referendum, address Bulletin 21, Legislative Reference Depart- ment, Madison, Wisconsin. To keep in touch with these topics, address Massachusetts Direct Legisla- tion League, Boston, for arguments and for its two bulletins, Initiative and Referendum, an Effective 72 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Ally of Representative Government by Louis Jerome Johnson, and The Initiative and Referendum in State Legislation by C. H. Talbot. Ask your sena- tor or congressman to send you Senator Bourne's speech, Senate No. 524, 1910, for Oregon's expe- rience and Senate documents 516 and 529 for Sen- ator Owen's pleas for a national advisory initiative and referendum. Referendum's Official Hand Book: Oregon To protect voters against one sided arguments or questions referred to them (by the legislative assem- bly, by petition of the people or by initiative petition ) Oregon prints and distributes to voters' addresses one hand book of pros and cons. This indexed hand book in 1910 contained 208 pages. The order of presentation is (1) statement of the measure submitted; (2) the way proposals appear on the official ballot; (3) argument for; (4) argument against. The first measure in the pamphlet for 1910 was the woman suffrage amendment which was later de- feated. For sample copy send to Secretary of State, Salem, Oregon. If your state or city does not yet issue a hand book of pros and cons, why should not the woman's club offer to print a volume in which each side may put forward its " best foot " its strongest argu- ment? THE INITIATIVE SHORT CUT 73 Will the Initiative Help? Yes, but again only some. Like the referendum, the direct nomination and the recall and woman suffrage it is bound to be tried. Not because it is a panacea, but because there is no conclusive reason in logic or in practice for not having it. It will be disappointing, con- fusing and expensive. But, like many other things which we want badly when we want them, the possi- bilities of the initiative in an emergency, when issues are clearly drawn between the interest of the few and the interest of the many, will make it a " very present help in time of trouble." Just as soon as bosses, party managers and lob- byists are unable " to deliver the goods," that is, unable to keep promises, it becomes unprofitable to employ them. What is the use of spending a lot of money to elect men pledged to stand pat on railroad legislation if the initiative and referendum may force remedial legislation in spite of the legis- lator's pledges to his employers? For the same reasons that corrupt interests will hesitate to try to jam through the legislature dishonest and anti- social measures which may be later vetoed by popu- lar vote, they will see that it is no longer necessary to pay anybody to protect them against unjust legis- lation introduced solely for the purpose of forcing them to pay " blood money." , If too many bills are initiated by petition the 74 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT public will be bored and will not act favorably upon them. The chief danger from the initiative and referen- dum is that people will not see their limitations. This danger is greater even than that great mis- takes will be made and rash legislation passed. People have a right to make mistakes if only they will learn from them. But as the initiative and referendum come, it will be increasingly important for the civic agencies which endeavor to inform and direct public sentiment to reduce to a minimum the diversion of energy from the real work of govern- ment to constant voting for and against measures submitted by a minority of interested citizens. Citizens, whether voters or not, should remember that any citizen can now initiate a law if he or she can persuade one legislator to introduce it. To this initiative much of our best lawmaking and much of the worst is due. For current information as to the progress of the initiative, address Massachusetts Direct Legislation League, Boston, Mass. Will the Recall Help? Yes, a great deal if not applied to judges, no matter how many mistakes are made in learning how to use it efficiently. Why should not the voters who elect a mayor unelect him if he violates his pledges or proves him- self incompetent? What possible excuse is there for tying our hands for two years or four years THE RECALL SHORT CUT 75 simply because a plurality in the midst of election excitement votes for what it thinks is the best of several candidates for a job? A great impetus has recently been given to the recall by the Seattle election mentioned on page 38 when the newly enfranchised women recalled a mayor who stood for " an open town." In Boston, where a mayor is elected every four years, the new charter provides that automatically at the end of two years the public shall be asked whether or not it wishes to have another election for mayor. A second kind of recall was illustrated in New York City when Governor Hughes removed two borough presidents for incompetence " albeit no evidence of personal dishonesty was shown." This is the recall by judicial investigation and executive removal. It may be brought about by less than %0%, in fact by only one citizen and without any election excite- ment or confusion. All that is needed to be proved is that an official has been incompetent or dishonest. This proof can be given by one man, by a small group of men or by a civic organization. This recall, however, necessary as it should be regarded in every state, can never take the place of recall by ballot because it depends too much upon the efficiency, courage and integrity of the gov- ernor. There has been many a governor of New York who would have refused to remove any elective official for gross incompetence unless or even if personal dishonesty was proved. 76 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT If the recall by ballot is frequently tried, party lines will be drawn as in the election and conditions must seem hopeless before the public will be willing to go through the excitement of a second election. The advocates of the recall must be prepared for a great many mistakes. Washington, Lincoln and Cleveland would have been recalled if denied time to vindicate their policies by results. It is more than likely that Governor Hughes could have been re- called several times, notably after his veto of the bill which would have reduced railroad fares to two cents a mile. Within twelve months after Mayor Gaynor of New York was the object of almost uni- versal acclaim throughout the country, there were at least two times in 1910 when it is probable he would have been recalled had a popular vote been taken. I refer to police troubles in August and September and to subway delays in October and November. Yet the threat of a new election would have contributed no light on these situations, for properly settling which information was lacking. In proportion as evidence is furnished currently about the acts of officials may either kind of recall be exercised without serious injury. The recall to be just and effective must take it for granted that the public is not going to recall an officer who has been efficient. This means that the public must take steps to know whether or not, and with respect to what particular duties, an officer has been efficient or inefficient. Because the public for generations to come will not have the time or the COMMISSION GOVERNMENT CUTS 77 ability to inform itself with respect to the law and the facts involved! in discontent with judicial rulings, recall of judges will be fraught with danger. The recall is surely coming. For its first ap- pearance see the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. For direct testimony write to the officers of Los Angeles and Berkeley, Calif., Des Moines and Bur- lington, la., Haverhill and Gloucester, Mass., Colo- rado Springs and Grand Junction, Colo., and Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. For samples of state laws write to the secretaries of state of South Dakota, Oregon, Montana, Okla- homa, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas and Arizona. Will Government by Commission Help? For a while, yes. When we substitute a com- mission of five or seven men for a mayor and comp- troller plus a council plus a board of aldermen, we give the public a higher order of tools with which to work. At the same time we give the " machine " a higher order of tools with which to misgovern. To paraphrase and contradict a recent summary of the " achievement of commission government " : 1. It will not abolish party politics from local affairs. (It reaUy simplifies the task of party politics.) 2. It will not eliminate the boss, the grafter and the political machine. (Write to Memphis for illustration. ) 3. It does not necessarily view a municipality as a great business enterprise and provide accord- 78 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ingly for its effective management. (Even in Des Moines commissioners are elected without specification of duties in advance and so far as the public knows the engineer will be made comptroller and the financial expert put in charge of public works because the commission itself places its own members.) 4. It does not of itself recognize the failure of representative government and substitute there- fore a system of democracy. 5. It does not of itself establish direct responsi- bility for every public act. (Direct responsi- bility there cannot be unless the public knows about the acts. Most commission cities have not yet provided means of informing either the com- mission or the public regarding official acts.) 6. It need not be swift, efficient, economic, how- ever well adapted to a rational community in the twentieth century. (The misgovernment in New York, which Mayor Gaynor was elected to correct, was due to a commission government. The delays in dealing with the subway question are again due solely to New York's commission government. When reading the extravagant, almost fulsome eulogies to the commission form of government in Galveston, Des Moines, Mem- phis and fourscore other cities in the United States, please do not forget that for ninety-nine out of one hundred conditions in New York City the board of estimate and apportionment is solely responsible and is nothing more nor less than commission government. To abolish the present board of aldermen would add nothing to the competence and little to the freedom of the board of estimate and apportionment.) 7. It need not abolish a raft of useless offices, sine- FIELD TESTS OF COMMISSIONS 79 cures, jobs and political rewards while substi- tuting for them organization in method and work. There will soon be a great reaction against it because its advocates have talked too much of the tool and too little of the work which the tool should facilitate. Nothing can save an uninformed public from being exploited by its officials and those be- hind its officials. For the strongest statement in support of the commission form of government see The Dethrone- ment of the City Boss by John H. Hamilton. For arguments pro and con and for clippings, address the H. W. Wilson Company, Minneapolis, and the Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wis. In August, 1911, former Comptroller Herman A. Metz of New York City, asked the Bureau of Mu- nicipal Research to make, at his expense, a field study of several commission cities. Henry Bruere, director, and William Shepherdson, C. E., C. P. A., are mak- ing the study, which promises to be of service to the whole country, because devoted to methods and re- sults as well as to the aims of this recently emphasized form of government. Are There Too Many Elections? At the very time when we are hearing most about referendum, initiative and recall, with their possi- bilities of new elections every few months, we also hear much about the advantage of fewer elections. 80 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT National elections should be separate from state elections because no matter how many officers are on the ticket attention focuses on the presidential candidates and national issues. With issues, as with men, they seem bigger as their area grows. So state elections should be separate from local elec- tions in order to keep local needs clearly distin- guished. Unquestionably it has helped some to have biennial instead of annual elections, then elections every four years. But reducing the number of elections may easily mean increasing the helplessness of the public. A comparison of mayors in cities that have substi- tuted quadriennial for annual elections does not in- dicate that a higher type of man seeks or accepts the office than formerly. An examination of re- sults, whether in cities, church clubs or business or- ganizations, fails to show that the mere increase in the length of term has any certain effect upon the character of work done. Longer terms do, however, tend to give permanent employes under civil service a better chance to be- come efficient. Can you remember when you first heard serious talk of a life presidency? Do you sympathize with the demand for a term of six or eight years ? In your city is it the politicians or reformers who say we cannot expect men to accept public posts when they must give up their business or their life work for a short tenure of public office ? GETTING BACK TO NEXT STEPS 81 Which officials whom you know seem to be keeping their eyes on reelection when their terms are short? Have your bosses been less or more arrogant and less or more successful as the number of elec- tions has decreased? Getting Back to Definite Steps and Needs While all these short cuts are being tested, a larger and larger number of voters will come to see that there is remarkably little difference between the days before and the days after the various changes have been effected. People will* vote wrong on the referendum. They will make the initiative and recall public nuisances. The short ballot and com- mission government will prove to be great simplifiers for the politician and corruptionist as well as for the good citizen. Each short cut, even woman suf- frage itself, will bring most of its promises un- fulfilled back to haunt its proposers. But it takes less time than formerly to see the failure or limitation of experiments. As the same definite needs figure in the argument for each short cut, people are going to see that more direct means than election and lawmaking must be found for meeting these needs. After the referendumites, recallites, short ballot- ites, suffrageites, and others, have all cited unclean streets, the social evil, or public extravagance as reasons for trying their short cuts, the public will begin to ask whether we shall always have with us 82 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT the social evil, public waste, unclean streets, etc. The definite evils will gradually come to be regarded as more important than the short cuts, for the pub- lic will not go on being deceived contrary to evidence constantly before it. The stratagem of partisan- ship, and likewise public impatience, will gradually emphasize individual steps whatever the form of government or length of ballot necessary to correct evils. The sooner the voter begins to think of the next steps, entirely apart from short cuts, the sooner will she become an important factor in getting good government. The hardest man for politicians to handle is the man who makes up his own mind about definite next steps. People who watch the high and low water marks do not need expert advice about the tides. When men and women stop talking about the ballot, legislation, and short cuts to good govern- ment, and begin to talk about next steps that can be taken to-morrow, they will marvel at the emphasis heretofore given to voting. They will see that election day is a snare and a delusion, that the ballot may be the badge of disfranchisement, election privi- leges but a dunce's cap to flatter the simple-minded, and uninformed good intention capable of doing more harm than stalking corruption. The thing which makes officials perform right acts is what the public knows, and not the ballot. That is the real reason for such superiority as foreign governments possess over ours. If the money now SUFFRAGE SHORT CUTS 83 spent on primaries and elections could be used for four years in focusing the attention of American cities on next steps, democracy would become a reality and would find its highest expression where now its greatest failures are noted, the American city. What ten next steps are most needed by your com- munity ? Of these, how many require legislation? Of those that require legislation, how many are looked at in the same way by the whole com- munity ? Of those next steps that do not require legislation, how many are looked at in the same way by the whole community ? Some Things the Ballot Cannot Do The ballot has serious limitations which time will aggravate, not diminish. The ballot cannot work 365 days in the year. Government must. The ballot cannot make the selection of political officers the chief business of citizenship, nor can it prevent the practical disfranchisement of those voters, no matter how good or how erudite, who are uninformed as to official acts and community needs. The ballot cannot administer justice, detect the padding in payrolls, disclose waste of millions in supplies, give every child a seat in school, remove dark rooms and school sinks, or study conditions that foster misgovernment. 84 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The ballot cannot inspect goods and asphalt, audit payrolls, discharge inefficient employes, sub- stitute modern for obsolete methods, watch the acts or change the habits of 1,000 or 85,000 city em- ployes. Nor can it tell the difference between two platforms and two candidates that promise the same benefits. Because it deals with men not acts, it cannot furnish a basis upon which a whole com- munity can speak with one voice. The ballot cannot make guesses equal facts, or desire to do equal ability to do. It can never re- flect a goodness that the voter does not possess, express an opinion not held by the voter, protest against evils of which the voter is ignorant or de- mand benefits not pictured by the voter. The ballot cannot learn or tell whether it has missed its mark. VI A METHOD OF STUDY WITHIN THE REACH OF ALL The Power of Knowing MISGOVERNMENT and inefficiency have been due not to man's lower nature but to the public's ignorance of what was happening when it happened. Official love of applause is stronger than greed or fear of being turned out. There is no hope for represen- tative government unless citizens, male and female, stop "big Injun" talk of punishing offenders and displace the tomahawk with a searchlight. Public officers are not always thinking of the next election any more than are Methodist ministers. Officials have acted nearer to their moral light than has the public. Almost always a public officer is clever enough to see some better way out of a dif- ficulty than the one which the public agrees upon as inefficient. Those of our representatives who have committed illegal and anti-social acts are not so much afraid of jail as of being "found out" by those whom they meet every day. Democracy's power depends upon and is limited to democracy's knowing. Therefore the importance of publishing campaign contributions and before not after election. A southern woman once wrote me that she did not see how knowing would help her church society oust the superintendent of an almshouse, who was said to be a debased and debasing creature. I wrote her 87 88 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT a rather general letter, enclosing some municipal re- search pamphlets about " open public eye " vs. " aroused public conscience," and received a reply that she still couldn't see how that affected the almshouse situation because everybody knew this su- perintendent was a terrible man who swore and drank, etc., etc. It was obvious that unless the searchlight remedy could help a country almshouse we could not be sure that it would help great cities. I then suggested that swearing and drinking were not regarded as dis- qualifications for office even south of Mason and Dixon's line, and asked her: What ought the farm to produce? How much did he report ? What ought the food to cost? What did he make it cost? What care should be given the sick? Did he give that care ? The superintendent was permitted to resign. When Does Knowing Become Evidence? The knowing that I mean is not mere feeling sure. Knowing becomes evidence when it is able to prove ihe truth to those who do not know and who do not want to know. A man's signature is evidence. So is a thumb print, or marked money. An empty coal bin is evidence of lack of coal; it is not evidence that coal has been stolen. A written record over some responsible man's signature EVIDENCE DEFINED 89 showing how much coal was paid for, could not be used as evidence to prove waste until a conclusive record was found showing: 1. The amount of coal remaining. 2. Difference between amount paid for and amount remaining. 3. Minimum amount that need have been burned to heat properly rooms of a given size. Evidence is called for more to-day than it was ten years ago or even five years ago. With the possible exception of the city chamberlain of New York, who recently got lost for seven weeks while a legislative investigating committee wanted him as a witness on legislative bribery, it would be al- most impossible to find in the United States the jocose assumption which characterized the public official of 1871, that of course ihe public would not look for evidence. New York's mayor at that time replied to charges against him and his associates in office by reference to frauds in the federal gov- ernment, but oftener by facetious jests such as, "These warm yet occasionally breezy days, with charmingly cool mornings and evenings, are an in- dication that we are likely to have what befell Adam, an early fall." Thanks to evidence his boss, Mr. Tweed, got a tardy but effective fall. Thanks to evidence Mr. Meyers' History of Tammany Hatt is more thrilling than fiction. Voters have been misled so often by claims of rival candidates, and have found later that there was evidence which might have been obtained to 90 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT prevent a miscarriage of justice or misrepresentation, that more and more of them are asking what is the evidence, what is the record? This was particularly true in the elections of 1910. Never before did there seem so big a gap between calling names and evidence, and between demand for confidence in a party and proof that a party had earned the con- fidence. Testing Evidence : " Desire to Know " In securing evidence there are eight steps, eight simple ingredients, which will be briefly treated here. For detailed description see Efficient Democracy. These eight ingredients are: 1. Desire to know. 8. Unit of inquiry. 3. Counting. 4. Comparing. 5. Subtraction. 6. Percentages. 7. Summary. 8. Classification. In the summer of 1910 the acting mayor of New York stated that open gambling and flagrant vice existed; the mayor said there was no foundation in fact for this statement. I asked a business man what he thought of the situation. He replied, " How can a man believe the acting mayor without disbelieving the mayor? " The alternative of dis- believing either was unwelcome to this business man who said he would waive judgment until he could get the evidence. This evidence came later in well sup- ported official statements, press announcements, a number of indictments, the resignation of the police TESTS OF EVIDENCE 91 commissioner, and the reorganization from top to bottom of the police department. Have you ever believed a charge that you after- wards found to be untrue? Have you ever been misled by statements in a news- paper ? Can you recall any campaign lies? Have you ever known a disagreement in a woman's club or church to be settled after evidence had been substituted for rumor? Are you conscious of an unwillingness to believe damaging statements about an official, or a min- ister or another woman, until you have seen conclusive evidence? Are you conscious of a temptation to shun evidence and to take sides for or against parties and indi- viduals without reference to the facts ? Do you see that people wishing your support will vary their conduct according to your use of evidence in hand and your method of trying to get evidence? Testing Evidence: "Unit of Inquiry" and "Count" A great deal of time is sure to be lost in discus- sion if people are not talking of the same unit of inquiry. Acquire the serviceable habit of begin- ning the consideration of each public matter with two questions: Of what are we talking? Of how many units of that thing are tew talking? Dr. F. A. Cleveland, one of the directors of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and 92 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT chairman of President Taft's " Efficiency Commis- sion," is very effective when under fire from people who are careless about their unit of inquiry and their counting. At a certain committee meeting he and the method of municipal accounting outlined by him for New York City were bitterly attacked. When an eloquent and persuasive gentleman fin- ished a sweeping, general indictment of Dr. Cleve- land and his accounting proposals, the latter said: " I should be the last to deny these sweeping charges. It is more than likely that they are all true. But will the gentleman please state to what particular defects he is referring? " In October, 1910, social workers desiring to pro- test against the curtailment of a school board budget heard a convincing speech about the harm done by large classes. The group of sentiment shapers were aroused to indignation by the mere thought of teachers having sixty or even seventy children in one class. Of course, the school board should have every dollar of the seven million dollar increase requested in its estimate! When asked how much of the seven million dollar increase requested would be used for reducing the size of classes, the official representative of the board of education re- plied, " Not one cent." It was worth while, you see, sticking to the unit of inquiry. By confusing the unit of inquiry, enemies of pro- hibition have recently shown that prohibitory laws " really tend to increase the consumption of alco- holic beverages, especially the stronger spirits." In TESTS OF EVIDENCE 93 support of this claim is the evidence that more intoxi- cating liquor by twenty-three million gallons was consumed in the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1910, than during the preceding twelve months. When, however, the unit of inquiry is narrowed down to the increase or decrease in each state, it appears that the prohibition states, Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Tennessee show a decrease of 739,000 gallons of dis- tilled liquors consumed, or over 50% decrease; while in other prohibition states only the Maine, Ver- mont and New Hampshire districts show any in- crease and that but 597 gallons. In contrast with these decreases New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois show an increase of nearly 4,000,000 gallons. Stick to the unit of inquiry and compel a count. Testing Evidence : " Comparison " The " deadly parallel " is an effective method of making public men see themselves as "ithers see them." To the citizen it is useful as a means of showing whether facts justify impression. Women use double columns in laundry slips and whist scores. Men use them in baseball and football scores. Of increasing prominence is the parallel column in reports of charitable and public institu- tions which wish to advertise this year's growth over last year's. When a president of the United States calls some 94 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT man or woman a liar the new member of the Ananias Club begs permission of the newspaper to set side by side the president's statement and some " Maria letter " or previous official utterance. When Mayor Gaynor of New York City rebuked the newspapers for their scandalmongering and for traducing their city's fair name, they found it serviceable to print in three parallel columns three statements by Mr. Gaynor : Mayor Gaynor, Octo- ber 5, 1910. ' ' Let me hope that this city, as orderly a city as there is in the world, will never be held up by persons or newspapers as a mere refuge or home of unfortunate wom- en and gamblers." Mayor Gaynor, De- cember 22, 1910. 1 ' When we look about and see the dishonesty and graft which exists now, we cannot wish to add thereto by put- ting the operation of our railroads in offi- cial hands." Judge Gaynor, New Rochelle, February 1. 1910. ' ' Do you think the government of the city of New York was ever so base, vulgar and cor- rupt as for a part of the time under its present charter 1 . . . Those put in rulership over the city . . . and those whose mere puppets they were in office were all the time in it up to their very armpits." When people talk of advantages, progress, going backward, etc., ask always for parallel columns. Be satisfied with no reports of work done which lack the " deadly parallel." When describing what votes for women will do for government, stop to compare what votes for women in private hospitals, charities and the home have done. By counting treatments given without compar- ing them with results of treatment it has been pos- sible to treat patients too hurriedly and too perfunc- torily; to advise them to do the impossible; to send MAPPING EVIDENCE 95 them back to conditions certain to break down their health; to fail to instruct them in self care; to treat them over and over again for the same undis- covered social causes. For a study in comparison write to the Boston Dispensary for the first report of its Social Service Department. Making Pin Maps There is a tradition that women and pins are con- genial. I hope it is true, because one of the best next steps for women, whether they vote or not, is to make " pin maps " to describe graphically the social work in which they are most interested. What is a pin map? At New York City's budget exhibit in 1910 was a large map with a lot of red and blue and white pins on it. Red pins marked the house for every baby death from diarrheal diseases; blue pins marked baby deaths from diarrheal dis- eases at institutions like hospitals or infant asylums ; white pins located dispensaries and milk stations. A glance at this map showed where babies were dying, which means where mothers were least informed and where nurses and physicians ought to be busy with their educational work. Try making pin maps to show where the truant officer visits ; where the hospital patients come from ; where the hospital welfare nurse visits ; where the vis- iting teacher goes; where scarlet fever or typhoid runs its course ; where tuberculous patients live ; where streets are cleaned too seldom ; where there are holes in the asphalt ; where moving pictures are. 96 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Pin maps will not only help you compare what you are trying to do with what you get done, but will make it easier to secure funds for your work from philanthropists and taxpayers. Testing Evidence : " Subtraction " and " Percentages " Serviceable as the parallel column is most of us are too indolent to subtract column one from column two to see what the difference is. The only common language with which to describe difference is percentage that gives us always the same denominator, 100. It also trains us t think always of the whole of our problem, 100%. It is just as practical for reckoning growth of at- tendance at school as for studying interest on money. When public officials or private citizens want tax- payers to vote more money, the plausible reason is given (when it is true and oftentimes when it is not), is " Our city is growing." If the chief reason for spending more money on a health department this year than last year is that the city is growing, surely the additional amount of money ought to be in some proportion to the addi- tion to the size of the city. To bring out the rela- tive increase in population, in the total budget and in various departmental expenses, the Bureau of Municipal Research published in 1910 a table show- ing ten years' growth as follows : City's population . . . 89%' Total budget , 80% VALUE OF PERCENTAGES 97 Property valuation ......... Health department budget ............. 160% Law department budget ............... 111% Charities department budget ........... 102% Finance department budget ............ 100% Education department budget. . ........ 96% Park department (all) budget .......... 84% Brooklyn and Queens budget ......... 109% The Bronx budget ................. 89% Manhattan and Richmond budget ..... 71% Fire department budget ............... 68% Correction department budget .......... 67% Street cleaning department budget ...... , 50% Tax and assessment department budget. . 48% Police department budget What more helpful course could be given to women wishing to fit themselves for efficient study of public questions than a course in rapid computa- tion of percentages applied to current public ques- tions, such as each candidate's share of total votes, each taxpayer's proportion of taxes paid, propor- tion of not-promoted children in overcrowded classes, etc.? As soon as women begin to think of government and civic affairs in terms of percentages, there will be less talk of throwing percentage out of school courses in arithmetic. It is surprising how few men just out of college can compute percentage. I recently had at work on health and budget figures a star graduate from a woman's college and a highly commended student from a man's college. When I asked them to com- pute certain percentages both looked as amazed as 98 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT if I had asked them to jump out of our nine-story window. Testing Evidence : " Summary " " The story in a nut shell " should always pre- cede the details. One reason why reports by pub- lic officials and by charitable agencies have not had greater influence is that the writers themselves have failed to get the " meat " out of their story. The women's clubs of your city can be of great service if they will see that all official reports give at the very beginning a summary of their year's work, based upon and supported by proper count, comparison and percentages. No matter what the problem is, there are always some half-dozen crucial tests of progress that can be briefly stated in sum- mary form. Efficient private organizations have come to see this, notably business enterprises in re- porting to their stockholders. Instead of long rambling talks with one detail after another, people who want to prove things about candidates or about public business or private philan- thropy ought first to get all their facts ; then set them up clearly so that any one who reads can be sure what they mean; and then introduce them with a sum- mary as if to say : This is what I am going to prove; these are the facts that prove it. Testing Evidence : " Classification " When facts regarding different problems or dif- ferent men are all mixed up with one another, the CLASSIFYING feVJD,] pE } : ( : \ go/ best of summaries will tell only a confusing story no matter how carefully percentages are worked out. Therefore, every person wishing to ask intelli- gent questions and to reach intelligent conclusions should acquire the habit of insisting upon classifi- cation of facts. Cases of tuberculosis ought not to be mixed up with deaths from tuberculosis, for it is important always to contrast cases and deaths. Infant deaths ought not to be mixed up with adult deaths because no lesson can be learned from death statistics which fail to indicate the problem involved in the deaths reported and the next steps which should be taken. When deaths from diarrheal diseases among infants of one year of age are reported by themselves, the health department or the women's clubs or any mother can get an idea of the amount of work necessary to stop young infants from dying becausft of preventable diseases. Do not let people mix up in one statement a man's domestic virtues, business inefficiency, good looks and church affiliations. Insist upon having his public acts put off by themselves. It will help in asking questions and in reading evidence to have always in mind the eight ingredients of proof, namely: desire to know, unit of inquiry, count, comparison, subtraction, percentages, sum- mary, classification. VS. GETTING PORTRAIT OF PERSON WHO HAS FOLLOWED COURSE OF CHARTER New York World, Sept. 27, 1911 (Front: One of 50 charter bulletins sent to legislators, edi- tors, taxpayers ) Bureau of Municipal Research 261 Broadway, New York Efficient Citizenship, 504 CHARTER EVIDENCE DEFEATED CHARTER DANGERS VII NEXT STEPS IN EFFECTIVE PUBLICITY Systematizing Use of Newspaper and Magazine OF all our inconsistencies none is less pardonable than our talk against newspapers, "yellow journalism," " scandal-mongering editors," etc. Who of us, if compelled to choose, would exchange the information and training which we receive from newspaper and magazine for the information and training received at college? Who of us, if compelled to choose, could not afford to give up the benefits received from Sunday sermons rather than the benefits from newspaper and maga- zine? Even if an individual were sure that she was not profiting when reading newspapers or magazines, she could not afford to ignore them as sources of power for any public cause which she wished to further. Equally potential for evil as for good is their in- fluence in her community. News is a great educator. No good cause can af- ford to avoid being news. If your newspapers have special reporters for describing any cause which is of general public concern you cannot make a better in- vestment than to furnish them news while it is still news. It is not fair to newspapers or to readers whom you wish to reach through newspapers to con- fine your public statements to appeals for funds. A college graduate interested in women's work in New York City has recently persuaded a number of 103 104 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT men and women to join in writing letters to news- papers about school questions. For example, they say to Dr. ABC, " There is danger of a reduction in the number of teachers of physical training. Will you write to the morning Times protesting against such reduction and emphasize particularly the im- portance of physical training in the fight against tuberculosis ? " There is a certain definite thing which Dr. ABC can do and he gladly does it. Nothing can stop a reiterated idea from exerting influence. Quack medicine vendors appreciate this. In a current comedy a distinguished-looking man is greeted by men and women in all walks of life with the question, " Where have I met you before? " He promptly takes the pose which billboards and gum drop boxes have made familiar and announces proudly " I am the Gum Drop King! " You can write a protest. It is quite as important to write praise. You can write questions; you can state the purpose of an organization ; you can give the results of experiments; you can harness a news- paper to your educational program. Editors will recognize your desire for anonymity and if you re- quest (but sign your name and address) will call you Pro Bono Publico or Amicus. Many times they will preserve your anonymity by failing to print your letters ; even then you influence the editors. Letting newspapers know how you feel may easily be a more important gift to your community than your contributions to charity. Any cause which is too refined or too exclusive to PACTS ABOUT CANDIDATES 105 benefit from an understanding of it by newspapers and newspaper readers will, as a rule, not deserve general support. Volunteer Voters' Leagues Ballots do not describe candidates. There will never be a time when candidates for of- fice may be chosen exclusively from men and women well known and favorably known to all voters. Unknown men must be nominated, and will seek nomination as one means of becoming known. Known and unknown candidates are equally sub- ject to misrepresentation. The party or faction that backs a candidate natu- rally minimizes his weak points and exaggerates his strong points ; his opponents naturally minimize his strong points and exaggerate his weak points. Both sides aim to confuse issues and facts about candidates. Hence the independent non-partisan voters' league, which tells who and what candidates are, a con- tirwwg memory and reporter for the people. Wherever public education through voters' leagues has been tried, it has been found that voters will read answers to important questions: What has he done? What and who are his business associates? What are his political affiliations? How did he vote as alderman or assemblyman ? What did he get done as mayor or police com- missioner? 106 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Where such record publishing has been tried over a period of years, it has become increasingly difficult for obviously unfit men to secure nomination. The only safe secret is the one which nobody knows. If one hundred men in a large city have damaging information regarding a candidate and he knows it, he is afraid these facts will jump out at him at every meeting he addresses, and every time he asks a voter for his vote. The voters' league becomes a sort of umpire and forces the whole community to use its information. The mere prospect of unfavorable notice strengthens opposition to a candidate within his own party be- fore his nomination. Actual unfavorable notice weakens his mixing power as candidate and strength- ens his opponent. Much of this work breaks down because voters' leagues frequently do not begin to work until just before election time. They fail to follow the records of individual candidates after election time by watch- ing the routine work of council meetings and legisla- tures and the administration by executive officers. It should be recognized that those who lead must keep currently informed, or else they cannot, how- ever wise, tell the truth about the record of candi- dates or parties. Making Party Platforms Ballots do not make platforms. Party platforms have too often been made with a desire to throw dust in voters' eyes. FACTS ABOUT PLATFORMS 107 An illustration of platform evasion is the National Republican platform in 1908, which everybody thought promised revision of tariff downward. After election time, the public was told that scientific re- vision of the tariff meant leveling up as well as down, up anyway, down if there were facts and time. As the way to begin educating a child is to start with his grandfather, so the way to begin to in- fluence a party platform is to get sentiment for a project " in the air " long before the platform is written. In doing this woman can help individually and collectively. For the platform that will be finally presented in October, women should have a tentative draft of those portions in which they are interested at least two months earlier, and through the press should force public discussion of these provisions. If women are to remain non-partisan, or if they are to be intelligently partisan, they must learn to describe platforms, to compare them with each other, to com- pare platform statements with candidates' pledges, with obvious public needs, and with obvious next steps. Have you ever read a party platform through? Do you ordinarily read more than one party plat- form? Have you compared platform utterances with later official acts? Have you thought that knowing a platform was essential to intelligent voting? 108 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The Governors' Conference, 172 West Eighty-first St., New York City, issued in November, 1910, its bulletin No. 2. entitled, Party Platforms for 1910 Condensed Under Subjects. The sub-title reads : Vital questions before the states of the Union to-day as expressed in the platforms of the two great political parties , classified under one hun- dred headings. This presentation of principles, policies, ideals, trends and tendencies gives the principal details on all the important subjects relating to government reform in the different states. A similar title and sub-title could be given to a statement of the various platforms in your next mu- nicipal and state elections. When New Laws Are Made Ballots do not study proposed new laws. Thirty thousand new laws were proposed in the United States congress in the first three weeks of December, 1910. Yet it is one of the arguments for woman suffrage that women will make a lot of new laws! Of making new laws there has been no end. We are law-ridden. As an officer of an insurance com- pany recently said at a legislative inquiry, " We need a law to stop the making of laws." If women want to participate effectively in legis- lation, they would do well first to appoint committees and engage experts to make a complete list of the laws that ought to be repealed. TO AFFECT LEGISLATION 109 As each new law is proposed questions like these should be asked: Is it based upon obvious need or upon desire to enforce some existing law? Would the same public opinion which will pass it also pass a more comprehensive measure for allied needs? (For example, do not agitate a whole state to abolish the common drinking cup when with the same wave of public interest you can secure medical examination and treatment of school children plus the abolition of the of- fensive and dangerous common cup.) To be a real force in legislation women must not only see the need for laws but Must organize a lobby to educate legislators and voters Secure the insertion of news items and editorials explaining and supporting right measures Secure at state headquarters a reference library where copies of correct existing legislation on each subject may be obtained Secure in every city either reference libraries on reference divisions of other libraries from which those interested can learn all about each law pro- posed See that the same wave which gets the law is made to follow up the law until it is put in effective operation Keep track of its enforcement by asking direct questions of newspapers and officers What happens when laws are passed without fol- low-up work on their enforcement is illustrated by: 110 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT New York City's ordinance reducing the number of push carts and increasing the fee for each push cart. As the number of push cart competitors de- creased, of course the value of each license increased so that it shortly became worth $25.00 a year to own a push cart license. The difference between $2.50, the legal fee, and $25.00, the market value of the license, did not go to the city but to the city's in- spectors, aldermen and political go-betweens. Thus legislation intended to correct one evil was used to manufacture other evils much worse and to debauch public officers and push cart peddlers. In like man- ner practically every law designed to correct evils be- comes an active manufacturer of evil unless those who have it passed see that it is enforced in good faith and not used as a means of blackmail. Women will find as soon as they j oin the " fourth estate " and go to legislative halls to secure the pas- sage of new laws that they are being accelerated. This term was used by a famous New York lobbyist, Lemuel E. Quigg, to describe bogus mass meetings of good citizens and the long petitions and innumerable letters which he was able to secure in support of cer- tain street railway interests. He did not like to call it bribing or hoodwinking or misrepresenting public opinion but pretended that the opinion existed, and that he was merely making easy its expression ; that is, accelerating it. A good example of acceleration was the general de- mand of New York City in 1906 for the acquisition of a seaside park. Educators, lawyers, philan- BEING " ACCELERATED " 111 thropists, social workers and business men wrote let- ters to their representatives at Albany and to the newspapers urging the passage of a bill that would permit New York City to buy a strip of land on the Atlantic Ocean either at Rockaway Beach or at Long Beach. Later it was discovered that while we were laboring so earnestly with obstreperous legislators, those particular legislators were in the pay of the people who wished to sell the land to the city and wanted the bill passed. Thus accelerating public opinion gave the legislators an appearance of yield- ing to an honest interest in a seaside hospital and playground. Those desiring to learn how to get together in sup- port of legislation, how to draft laws and to study what laws now exist, should get in touch with the Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wisconsin, the American Association for Improving Labor Legis- lation, 1 Madison Avenue, New York City, and the National Child Labor Committee, 105 E. Twenty- second St., New York City. Woman Lobbying: Watching Legislation Ballots do not watch legislation. In 1907-08 the newspapers and magazines of the country were full of statements by and about The People's Lobby. This was an organization whose purpose was to throw a searchlight upon bills intro- duced into congress. It was prophesied that the people's lobby would lead the way to the people's intelligence and to the WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT prevention of evil practices in congress. The lobby was discontinued in 1908 not because the idea under- lying it was not sound, but because, (1) too much was attempted for the money available, and, (2) not enough was attempted to do what the projectors had in mind. Every town board, city council, county board of supervisors and legislature should be under the scrutiny of a people's lobby. No private body will ever be strong enough or rich enough to spend the money needed to get the truth out of confused legislative sessions or out of con- fused records. Hence, we must make sure that public officials are themselves by official reports, carrying a searchlight with respect to themselves and their as- sociates in public office. Secondly, we must read the story of results of legislation not merely at election time or when legislative bodies are in session, but throughout the year. Only by continuous light can the public have continuing memory. The best representative at legislative meetings is the newspaper. Newspapers live by selling news. They cater to the wishes of their readers so far as they can ascertain them. Any considerable number of citizens who are dissatisfied with the reports given by their newspapers of legislative meetings can easily obtain the right kind of report if they will make their wishes known to editors. MAKING FACTS ACCESSIBLE 113 Municipal Reference Libraries Ballots do not systematize knowledge. A few years ago the Legislative Reference Library was started by Charles McCarthy, in Madison, Wis- consin. It is connected both with the university and the legislature. In fact, it has become a part of practically every agency in the state of Wisconsin. The story of the service rendered by that library is a veritable romance which you may obtain by writing for it. Legislators in a comparatively short time have seen the superiority of definite information over guess work. Before drafting bills they want to study other similar bills. Before voting they want to know the experience of other states with similar measures. The legislative and administrative reference idea was quickly applied to municipalities. The proceedings of the Buffalo (1910) meeting of the National Municipal League (North American Building, Philadelphia) will contain a report by the committee on municipal reference libraries which made several important recommendations applicable to you: 1. That every community have a center responsible for collecting and digesting information that bears upon its municipal service 2. That this center be as near as possible to the city officials who should be encouraged to use it and who will use it if access is made easy 3. That except possibly in a few large cities this library be under the supervision of the public 114 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT library partly for the purpose of strengthening the reference work and partly to keep the public library in touch with the current problems of its community Is " Budget " a Stranger to You? Do you know what budget means? When did you first hear the term ? Do you know when your city's budget is passed? Did your minister ever mention the city budget in a sermon? Has it been suggested that you have a budget ex- hibit? Are you more interested in private preventive work than in the preventive work that your city ought to do through its budget? Would you go to a taxpayers' budget hearing? Do your women's clubs ever discuss city expenses? Are these discussions in time to influence money voted in the budget? The Making of Public Budgets Unused as many citizens are to think about pa- triotism, honesty and efficiency in terms of public budgets, budgets is one word that every citizen must learn to feel for. The only time in the year when any governmental body tries to picture to itself 100% of its task, 100%' of the community's need, 100% of the government's opportunity, is when it is making up its mind how much it will spend the next twelve months, that is, what its annual budget will be. Three years ago Frederick Trevor Hill, the Lin- BUDGET MAKING 115 coin historian, wrote me that it was useless to try to interest the press and the public in budget making because it was a subject for experts. Yet that same fall 75,000 persons visited the first budget exhibit given by the Bureau of Municipal Research and the Allied Real Estate Interests in co- operation with a number of other civic organizations and city departments. The next year 200 ministers recognized Budget Sunday in New York City early in June, while two budget committees, one of social workers and one of ministers lengthened New York City's budget season from a few days to six months. Two years later 800,000 visits were paid to New York City's budget exhibit given by the board of estimate and apportionment during the month of October. From three to five addresses were made at this exhibit each day while, almost daily, taxpayers' hearings were held at the board of estimate and ap- portionment. For the story of budget-making in New York City and for practically the only hand books on budget- making ever published, write to the Bureau of Munici- pal Research, 261 Broadway. Can Woman Help Make Budgets'? Ballots do not make budgets. A company of men and women social workers met last fall to consider a health department budget. A subcommittee reported that three methods of pro- cedure were open to social workers: (1) they might endorse without question the budget estimates sub- 116 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT mitted by the commissioner of health; (2) they might be influenced against some of these requests by the Bureau of Municipal Research; (3) they might get their own facts and make up their own minds. Ob- viously time was too short for them to get their own facts and to make up their own minds. There- fore, the best thing seemed to be to endorse the esti- mates of the health commissioner. When I reported the above alternatives to Homer Folks, he replied : " They have omitted one possi- bility ; they can keep out." Within a month it was demonstrated that the de- partment of health's inspection of food supplies was ineffective and that rotten eggs were freely sold for the making of angel food and lady fingers. Later it was announced that tuberculous meat was be- ing sold in Brooklyn's slaughter-houses under the eye if not by the permission of the department of health. Other conditions have convinced the department it- self that its chief need is for greater efficiency in the use of its present funds rather than for the re- quested increase of 50% in funds. At a taxpayers' budget hearing a woman unquali- fiedly endorsed a certain department's estimate not for herself, but as the spokeswoman for 100,000 women. One question brought out the fact that she did not have the abc of information about that department's needs and was merely reciting a speech given her by the commissioner. A candidate for president of the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs announced in Novem- TAXPAYERS' HEARINGS 117 ber, 1910, as apart of her platform that women should be invited by the board of estimate and apportion- ment to participate in budget making. I reminded her by letter that not only have women been invited for years to participate but have actually partici- pated every year since 1904. Their relative inef- fectiveness has been due to lack of information, not to lack of opportunity. It is fair to say also that their ineffectiveness has been equaled if not exceeded by the ineffectiveness of men voters equally lacking in information. Budget awakening in American cities is one of the surest evidences that people are getting on the right track. Mayor Gaynor's last official action before starting for the trip to Europe which an assassin's bullet interrupted, was to give an interview regard- ing the budget exhibit in which he asked the City Hall reporters to help make "the budget kinder- garten " a success. Taxpayers' Hearings Ballots do not attend hearings. Do you know men and women who are " crazy " for the referendum? Did you ever see one of them at a taxpayers' hearing? It is a curious thing that not one of the leading New York advocates of the referendum or the initia- tive has ever availed himself of the greatest referen- dum and the greatest initiative offered, namely, the official taxpayers' budget hearing before the board of estimate and apportionment. 118 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT At the 1910 budget hearing on the requests of the tenement and health departments, only three women were present. Yet for the preceding two years no- tice had been given months in advance that women's questions and information would be welcome on cer- tain specified days. In fact, a good part of the time at the 1910 hearing on the board of education budget was taken by women speakers. Taxpayers' hearings have been a far more im- portant element in recent progress than most people seem to understand. In their possibilities they are vastly more important than are mass meetings of protest. Yet few communities have acquired the habit of holding such hearings although few mayors and few councilmen or governors will refuse to hear what citizens wish to say regarding any important public matter. To ask for a hearing is to get it. In New York City taxpayers' hearings have taken on new significance of late since members of the board of estimate and apportionment have themselves been better informed and have given taxpayers un- limited opportunity to present or to discuss facts. The beginning of this was with Mayor McClellan who granted additional hearings on the budgets for 1909 and 1910 and announced months in advance that tax- payers might have all the time they wanted so long as they stuck to facts and did not try to indulge in " disquisitions on the state of the Union." A representative of one taxpayers' organization telephoned me in consternation and asked if it was true that nobody would be allowed to talk on the FACTS AT BUDGET HEARINGS 119 budget who did not address himself to some definite item or items. When I said I certainly hoped so, he then asked, " But what in the world can we do? " What they did do was to request certain members either to absent themselves from the taxpayers' hear- ings or at least to refrain from talking, because sad experience had proved that they were certain to talk volubly and violently about the Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence. They also ap- pointed representatives who set about ascertaining certain definite facts which they presented with dignity. Mayor McClellan at his last budget hearing (in the midst of the Gaynor-Bannard-Hearst mayoralty campaign ) made no little capital by putting one emi- nent taxpayer after another on record with regard to alleged waste during his administration ( due, prin- cipally, to obsolete and chaotic business methods). As different citizens came forward to urge more money for the fight against tuberculosis, etc., he asked each " Do you believe that millions of dollars could be saved by the next administration?" So anxious were speakers not to offend the mayor and to secure acquiescence in their definite requests, and so unprepared to give definite facts in support of their convictions, that only one citizen answered what unquestionably all felt: Millions could and should .be saved by the next administration. When asked to show when and how, the noted banker- philanthropist, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, replied by quoting sworn testimony of Mayor McClellan and 120 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Comptroller Metz, which you will find in Efficient Citizenship No. 346, published by the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. Millions saved in 1910 and 1911 have supported Mr. Schiff ! If taxpayers' hearings in your city are either un- heard of or are a farce, the chances are ten to one that it is because the taxpayers themselves do not come forward with definite statements of fact. One taxpayer armed with evidence will cause a whole city administration to get busy obtaining facts and changing such facts as are unfavorable. It is a reflection on the citizens' irresponsible attitude toward public affairs when taxpayers' hearings are regaled by such dialogue between two city officials as follows : " But I want to do something for Brook- lyn." " Then why in hell don't you resign ! " If your city is not accustomed to public hearings, I suggest that you begin by asking the mayor or council to grant three hearings on the next annual "budget" or "appropriation bill": the first for officials themselves to explain the needs for which they are asking money; the second for taxpayers to favor or oppose estimates given by the officials; and the third for taxpayers to favor or oppose the tenta- tive budget which officials have decided to vote unless taxpayers change their minds. At the first public hairing on official estimates the various officers who are asking for money ought to explain to the body which votes the money why each amount is requested, what additional work it is proposed to do for increases requested, why addi- SUPPORTING BUDGET ESTIMATES tional workers are needed, or why salary increases for the existing workers are proposed. The mayor or chairman of the finance committee of councils may not at first be interested in such hearings and may not have the desire to know or any of the other elements of the statistical method. Whether they vote or not women can individually or through committees see that questions are asked of the health officer or school superintendent which will explain clearly how much better work could be done for health and schools if the requested in- creases were voted. In 1910 the president of New York City's board of education stated that he was very glad to have intelligent and searching questions asked because it gave him a better opportunity to bring out school needs. In small communities and wherever possible, tax- payers and officers should be heard on the same day ; that is, the taxpayer should be given a chance to ask questions when the department head is present to answer them, and the department head m turn should be given a chance to remove any misunder- standings by replying to protests or questions of taxpayers. But in large cities it will be for some time rather difficult to persuade a fiscal body to hear officers and taxpayers on the same day. So at the j second hearing, after officers have explained their requests, taxpayers should be given a chance to favor or oppose particular requests before the voting body has made up its mind. The third hearing, and perhaps the most im- WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT portant, is after the voting body has made up its mind but while there is still time to change its deci- sion if satisfactory reasons are given by the public. This is the hearing on the tentative budget, called tentative because it is supposedly all open for dis- cussion. At the first public hearing the burden of proof is on the department head. At the second the burden of proof is on the taxpayer. At the third the burden of proof is on the voting body. Obviously each of these hearings will be a farce 1. Unless the estimates are so clearly stated that the taxpayer who tries can understand the pur- pose for which money is requested, and for just which purpose more or less is requested than for the preceding year 2. Unless similarly the tentative budget shows the purpose for which money is actually about to be voted unless the voting body changes its mind 3. Unless the estimates are printed long enough before the public hearings for taxpayers to in- form themselves 4. Unless ample time is given at hearings to bring out the facts 5. Unless the voting body listens to and under- stands department heads and taxpayers and weighs their arguments when preparing the ten- tative budget 6. Unless the tentative budget is printed long enough before the hearing on it (say, five days or three at least) to permit taxpayers to under- stand it; wherever it is more or less than last year's budget plus special appropriation in- NEWSPAPERS AND BUDGETS 123 creases or decreases should be shown by item in parallel columns 7. Unless the after-budget use of the money con- forms to before-budget reasons For information regarding taxpayers' hearings on budgets, address the Bureau of Municipal Research, 261 Broadway, New York City, which has a fund given by ex-Comptroller Herman A. Metz to help communities wishing to improve their budget mak- ing, public hearings and reports. Taxpayers' hearings on other public issues should be conducted with the same demands for evidence as hearings on the budget. There should be advance notice, definite information, time to study pros and cons. Newspapers will report all taxpayers' hearings if taxpayers present facts. Yet one interested citi- zen can greatly improve the nature of these reports by informing editors and reporters in advance as to the more important issues at stake and by submitting in typewritten form the essential facts on questions which will bring out these facts. Are there public hearings of taxpayers in your city ? On what issues? Do your newspapers report these hearings? Did you ever attend one? Are taxpayers courteously treated? Do officials ask questions necessary to bring out the case, or do they just look bored and let people talk? WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Do civic agencies prepare in advance for these hearings ? Do your " best citizens " ever attend? Do the referendumites ever attend? Could women attend and speak ? Do they? Does your state legislature give public hearings on its appropriation bill? Can you ever hope for the democratic administra- tion of state funds if the public does not de- mand and utilize taxpayers' hearings on requests and proposed allowances for state departments? Oppose Subterranean Hearings The Federation of Women's Clubs in Oregon is trying to interest women in taxpayers' hearings and in a recent circular asks the chairman of each local school committee: " Do your members as a rule attend the taxpayers' meeting in December? " How many of your committee attended the an- nual school meeting last June? " Do you as chairman remind them of the impor- tance of these meetings and urge upon them the necessity of attending? " At present women's clubs, like men's clubs and like individual men and women, too often want to get subterranean access to mayor or comptroller or governor or dominant alderman. Hence, instead of working through taxpayers' hearings and through the press, they invite officials to dinner or to tea, call at their offices and bring pressure through per- DEFECTS OF STATE BUDGETS 125 sonal friends and political allies. They little think in adopting this method how they are perpetuating it, and how much better equipped than they are the evil forces in their community to make use of this method. The cure for illegitimate deals is open public discussion where everybody knows reasons for and against each project. Budget-Making by State Legislatures Ballots do not watch state budgets. The pathetic efforts of the general public hereto- fore to participate in budget making is a phrase that Governor Hughes might just as well have ap- plied to any state or to any other government unit as to the budget making of New York's legislature. What did he mean? Our (your) legislature 1. Cannot ascertain the proper total to be allowed 2. Cannot apportion that total justly 3. Obtains no adequate advance knowledge of departmental budgets and proposals 4. Receives no reports based upon preliminary investigation 5. Is unable to make comparative examination 6. Submits its recommendations ($38,500,00 in 1909) to the governor, who must approve or veto without knowledge necessary to mte. gent or just action In terms of experience these conditions mean: 1. State budget-making is now largely gam- bling, because all parties must work without light 126 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT 2. Legislatures as bodies cannot and do not participate 3. The public and the press cannot and do not intelligently participate 4. Sub-committees must act arbitrarily with re- spect to numerous items inTolving millions 5. " Log rolling " is encouraged 6. Extravagance is encouraged 7. Control of the purse-strings by the public is impossible 8. Comprehensive planning for state develop- ment is impossible 9. Desirable and necessary activities are placed at a disadvantage in competition for funols with undesirable and unnecessary activities backed by greater or more skillful influence 10. A governor wishing to deal justly can be only partially successful, because lacking the information necessary to compare relative needs and to distinguish efficiency from inefficiency, waste from economy, desirable from undesirable Who Should Publish Municipal Facts? Ballots do not give up-to-date facts. If any special publication is needed beyond your newspapers see if you can get your city officers to start a paper like the Denver Municipal Facts issued weekly by Denver's city government. Similar organs arc issued by state and city depart- ments of health and education. Write to your state librarian for information as to your own and other states. If possible, resist the temptation to start a bulle- tin for your own organization. Do not lose your ONE IDEA AT A TIME chance to talk to all the people in your town through newspapers by starting a rival publication which must be issued regularly whether you have anything to say or not. Efficient Citizenship Bulletins Instead of starting a publication of its own, the New York Bureau of Municipal Research has issued since 1907 five hundred postal cards and slips with heads like those on pages 50 and 308. With the title Citizens 9 Business the Philadelphia Bureau of Munici- pal Research is issuing a series. The Robert L. Stevens Fund for Municipal Research in Hoboken has in the same way defeated the efforts of the local daily to keep news from the public. Twice this method of publicity has been challenged and the Bureau's trustees have investigated, once shortly after the experiment started and again in July, 1910. Both times the method of telling but one short story at a time on a postal card has been approved because of results shown in correspondence from other cities, newspaper comment, gifts, etc. Twelve Wall Street bankers and lawyers were asked their opinion of our Efficient Citizenship cards. Twelve answered that they doubted if the results would justify the expense because nobody would read them. But twelve answered that they themselves did read these cards ! 128 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Are Your Official Reports Educational? Ballots do not write official reports. No unofficial citizen can ever be as interesting to a community as a citizen official. When the presi- dent of a private university speaks his message goes directly to that limited portion of the public which subscribes to his college yell. When, however, the president of the state university speaks, or the sec- retary of the state board of health, every person in the state involuntarily feels that he himself is speak- ing. Mayor Gaynor asked why the Bureau of Munici- pal Research did not give the budget exhibit in 1910. My answer: Because for every person inter- ested in an exhibit given by private individuals 100 will be interested in an exhibit given by their own representatives, was proved by 800,000 visits to the city's exhibit. Nothing which citizen organizations or individual citizens can do these next few years will pay such large dividends to society as success in securing proper official reports. Reports well done bring financial support. It is doubtful if there is a city in the country where Red Cross stamps important as they are have raised as much money or done as much good as could slight improvements in the reports of local and state health authorities which would tell the truth about the presence of tuberculosis and the need for extending the fight against it. DO OFFICIAL REPORTS HELP? I am writing at the beginning of the 1910 sale of Red Cross stamps in New York City. A few thousand dollars will be raised to be spent through one private organization. Yet less than six weeks ago the board of estimate asked taxpayers interested in tuberculosis to tell what they knew about it and what the city should do to check it. Not one single word was uttered at the hearings or through the press by any one responsible for the sale of Red Cross stamps. Where official reports fail to try to make the whole truth interesting to the public, almost without ex- ception they are telling mis-truths and in too many instances are attempting to conceal. Official reports well done are better than the refer- endum and the initiative because they suggest ways in which you can help between election times with- out regard to voting. It is possible for a woman single handed to get vast improvements in reporting. Begin with the reports of the health departments, the schools, parks, and juvenile courts. If they show you community needs not met some of you can begin at once to cooperate with the department heads in having the needs met. If they do not state where the school work or health work or probation work needs strengthening there is something wrong with the report and with the work. This same re- mark, by the way, applies to church reports and women's club reports also. To recommend adequate and uniform reports the 130 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT National Education Association has a special com- mittee the results of whose work you may secure upon application to the United States bureau of educa- tion. If you will send a copy of your own school report or health report to your respective state secretaries they will probably be glad to tell you where certain facts are lacking or how these reports might show more effectively where your local work needs strengthening. The only agency that can now be appealed to from all parts of the country for help in analyzing reports is the Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City. There are a few essentials not usually found in reports which are mentioned in different parts of this book and which I summarize here. Every report should state 1. 100% of the work which an official ought to undertake 2. 100% of what is actually undertaken 3. With what result the work undertaken is done 4. 100% of the facts, as above, for each kind of work undertaken and done 5. Facts for not less than two years 6. Decrease or increase of problems or of work done for the periods contrasted 7. Changes and relations should be stated by per- centages as well as by totals 8. Kinds of work and results should be carefully classified 9. Significant facts should be summarized 10. Facts should be interpreted 11. There should be recommendations based upon these facts for work to be done next year VIII NEXT STEPS TOWARDS 100% PHILAN- THROPY Should Voluntary Civic Bodies be Efficient? In New York City with its 5,000,000 inhabitants the list of civic organizations, churches, etc., in- dexed in the Charities Directory numbers over 8,000. It takes 700 pages to describe briefly their purposes. In the city of Hoboken with 70,000, where you would be told that there is very little uplift work, there are 100 organizations. Because ballots serve but once in four years or two years or possibly once a year, balloting does not offer opportunity for continuous service or continu- ous educational work. Therefore, the need for large numbers of private societies to organize the team work of citizen interest. Inefficient organization of these societies will re- flect itself in inefficient attention to government agencies. Women who waste time in self culture clubs will waste time in work for government Women who think crookedly as charitable trustees will think crookedly as voters. The various tests of efficiency in government work which are suggested in this book need to be applied quite as rigorously and in much the same manner to voluntary civic organizations. Several efficient voluntary bodies have been men- tioned. Women's clubs would do well to make^ a survey of the agencies in their communities, in- 133 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT eluding themselves, in answer to questions somewhat as follows: In what field is Society A interested? What part of that field does it undertake to cover? What part of it does it cover? How much of the field is left uncovered? Does the community fully understand the differ- ence between what is needed and what this society does ? Is that difference due to lack of funds, lack of members or lack of efficiency? In most communities such a survey would dis- close the fact that few agencies hold themselves re- sponsible for covering 100% of the field which they claim as theirs. There is an almost irresistible temptation, whatever the purpose of private civic organization, to try to concentrate attention on itsi-lf rather than on the field it aims to cultivate. This temptation is due in large part to the necessity for raising funds. That necessity is greater because the work is broken up into so many parts with so many complications that both rich and poor alike are con- fused and are unable to see 100% of community needs. However narrow the field of any civic organization it cannot fail to increase its efficiency if it relates its own programme to that of both other civic organi- zations and city government. It is hard to think of less than 100% of a com- munity's children with a programme constantly con- fronting workers and contributors such as the Chil- WOMAN'S TRUSTEESHIP 135 dren's Protective Union of Memphis prints on its subscription blank : 1. Community Interest in Child Welfare; %. Civic Responsibility for the safety and well-being of all the city's children but es- pecially Dependents and Delinquents; 3. Adequate Legislation for Child Welfare, and zealous enforcement of Child Helping Laws; 4. Personal Service through Children's Aid Committee, to the poor, the afflicted, the way- ward to the end of bringing them within reach of existing remedies. Are Women Under the Law of Trusteeship? Sentiment and law have given the words trustee and trusteeship a well merited halo. No greater compliment can be paid to any woman than that she is trustworthy, can be trusted, discharges a trust, recognizes her trusteeship. No words express more delicately the distinction between mine and thine. You give me something in trust; I keep it until you demand its return. If I use it or give it away or sell it I betray the trust, an act of dishonesty which is regarded as more serious than to take something from you when you are not looking. The law of trusteeship which has been worked out after centuries of disagreement and litigation holds a trustee responsible not only for the return of that which was given him in trust, but for its return in good condition with such increment as its rightful, 136 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT efficient use makes possible. For example, the steward who was given three talents was expected to return not only the original three talents but also three talents by way of interest. He who was given one talent was condemned for having buried it instead of making it produce an additional talent. Under this law of trusteeship two heirs of Horace Greeley are now suing another heir for several thou- sand dollars. A trustee who deposited funds for 2% when he could have invested at 5% was made to pay the difference. A trustee who spent money on improving land which could not benefit his ward was made to pay this money back to his ward. Applying this law to our trusteeship as citizens it means we are to use to its utmost our capacity. It means not merely that we must vote right. It means we must think right before we vote, and so think and so act after we vote that our pre-ballot and post- ballot use of our trusteeship will be as intelligent and as sincere as our placing the ballot. This obligation is independent of the ballot. Christ did not say to the man with one talent, " You are free from responsibility for earning an- other talent because you have only one talent while your colleagues have two and three." How many women who are to-day urging the bal- lot have accepted in good faith their trusteeship and are doing before ballot time and after ballot time what they are easily able to do to influence public sentiment and official action and to influence the BETWEEN ELECTION TRUSTEES 137 placing of ballots by those already eligible? Too many of them say, " Without the ballot we have no obligation to society. We shall not help the schools or the board of health at budget time. We shall sit by and watch things get worse and worse in order to further suffrage." One society in New York City goes so far as to pledge its members to make no gifts to uplift work until suffrage is won. Similarly many leading socialists neglect their trusteeship for the practical socialism which is al- ready embodied in our government, such as public schools, parks, docks, and street cleaning on the ground that things cannot get better until they get worse. Any citizen taxpayer, whether suffragist or social- ist, plain ordinary voter or disfranchised woman, has the right to examine public records in New York City. If he or she finds wasteful expenditures, steps may be taken without any regard to the ballot to have the offending officer removed. Furthermore, funds may be recovered that have been wasted. The law of trusteeship is treated in an opinion submitted to the Bureau of Municipal Research by Mr. William J. Curtis,' a New York lawyer. You would do well to possess yourself of this opinion and to have the law of your state clearly recognize the common law principle that mayors and comptrollers and aldermen are trustees in honor bound and in law bound to be efficient to prevent waste and to act for the public welfare. One suit vindicating this prin- 138 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ciple would do more for your state than five years of woman's voting. Talk Programmes for Women's Club Meetings " Show us our selfishness in seeking culture for ourselves when we ought to be seeking opportunity to help others." The trouble with the search for culture is not that it is selfish, but that too often it fails to get the cul- ture. The law of trusteeship makes it just as in- cumbent upon us to be sure that search for culture results in culture as that our trade investments pay dividends commensurate with outlay. Cultural clubs cannot afford to leave life out, least of all the life of their own surroundings. Instead of being extraneous to culture, social problems are fundamental to literature, art and music. Only a superficial contact with culture is possible to those who have no interest in their fellow men. Women's clubs are a tempting source of power. That is why so many people tap the reservoir. It pays. So we find their programmes crowded with speakers and topics. If the printed programme does not contain more than one subject there is almost certain to be some resolution or appeal and surely a number of announcements. Thus even the enter- tainment product is confused and blurred by the time the meeting is over. For a woman's club meeting four different speak- ers had already consented to talk for five to seven minutes each when I was asked to be the fifth. I TO MAKE MEETINGS COUNT 139 declined not on the ground that I could not afford to travel two hours for a seven-minute talk, but because it was unfair to the other speakers to take of their meager time. The combined salaries of these four speakers totaled $40,000 a year. Yet this rich woman's club generously consented to listen from twenty to twenty-eight minutes to descriptions of four different nation-wide activities. After announcing for a university talk the topic, " A Lesson in Civics from Pippa Passes," the chair- man wrote that everybody was curious to know how I was connecting civics and Pippa Passes. Yet she printed the title, " A Lesson in Civics," and fright- ened away most of the belectured clientele. It is possible to plan a year's programme so as te get a cumulative effect and to interest women in ask- ing questions and in bringing out each speaker's case. No case needs bringing out more than that of cul- ture subjects. Whatever the purpose of a woman's club and how- ever small a community, a balanced programme should provide each year for some distinct reference to needs-not-yet-met of health work, public schools, town cleanliness, town beauty and government effi ciency. , In planning either the talk programme or ' programme for your club a good source of sugge* tion is the president of your state federation. ter still is the list of things not done that ought done for your neighborhood. Have you tried writing to each member < 140 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT club asking for suggestions, and sending back the compilation of suggestions for a preferential vote? This will give women training in initiative and refer- endum and will probably show how few wish direct representation and how many feel with Mr. Carnegie that efficiency requires the " divine art of delegation." For a scientific and interesting outline of topics on " what my town is doing for its citizens " secure the programme of the Philadelphia City Club for 1910- 11. The Voter's League of Cleveland published in one of its 1911 bulletins a suggestive list of topics on community work. Work Programmes for Women's Clubs The list of things done by women's clubs includes practically everything which any community has undertaken for the past ten 3 r ears. Femince nih'il atienum est! For 1910 the Concord, N. H., Woman's Club give to its civics committee seven meetings : one on " Ideals of Good Citizenship"; three on "The City's Health"; and three on "The City Beautiful." The Civic League of Newport, R. I., reports for 1910 " Work Accomplished and Measures Fur- thered," as follows: Four School Gardens established and maintained (A number more needed.) Two Playgrounds instituted and maintained until turned over to the Playground Association formed in 1908. ONE CLUB'S WORK PROGRAMME 141 League for Good Citizenship organized in the public schools to awaken civic pride and sense of responsibility in the children. Mothers 9 Meetings held in the schoolhouses to arouse parents' interest and give assistance in their home training. Movement for a Building Law initiated and, with the cooperation of eight other societies, brought to successful issue. Efforts made since its pas- sage (in 1908) to have a Buildmg Inspector ap- pointed, which has now been effected. In cooperation with the Tuberculosis Society, cards and leaflets distributed to dealers and customers in regard to the Milk Supply. Request to the Representative Council for new Street Signs, resulting in their installation to the number of 2,000. Preservation of the fine old Elm Trees in Dear- born Street. Rubbish Barrels placed in different parts of the city. At the request of the League, additional barrels and signs placed in the public parks by the Park Commission. Unceasing agitation for the removal of obnoxious Billboards, and the suppression of Slot Machines, Improper Shows, Plays, Postal Cards and other harmful agencies. Constant cooperation with the city officials as to condition of Streets and Sidewalks, proper collec- tion of Ashes and Garbage and observance of City Ordinances. Recommendation to the city Council (in 1 a woman representative be retained on the School Board. Lectures free to the public delivered by Professor Cummings of Harvard, Professor Zueblin, Mrs. U2 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT L. A. Mead, Mrs. Owen Wister and other well- known authorities, on subjects of general inter- est. Monthly Bulletin issued, of which The Survey says, u This little paper, which is admirably written, keeps all to whom it goes in touch with local civic matters, emergencies, opportunities and duties. And it is very readable." The report of the biennial session of the Federa- tion of Women's Clubs for 1910 tells what hundreds of clubs have done, or done at. Why not print in your Talk Programme for 191112, a summary show- ing for five years : What your club set out to do? What it got done? What it only talked about? What it can get done next year? What it can start next year? The City Beautiful Which shall come first: beautiful homes or beau- tiful cities, beautiful public buildings or beautiful residences? Shall we urge municipal art because it is beautiful; because it is expensive; because it is a substantial asset for a community ; or for all three reasons ? The next decade will see a veritable revolution in municipal art because architects, business men and women's clubs are combining to keep the fires of art burning in all parts of the land. Every community should have its group or its MUNICIPAL ART IN PRACTICE 143 informed individual interested in urging standards of beauty and protesting against everything that is ugly. Street trees are beautiful. So are clean streets. Better have no parks than " unbeautiful " parks. Sometimes those who possess beautiful paintings or statuary or tapestries loan their collections to public libraries or volunteer committees. Several cities have loan collections of pictures for school children to take home and circulate like books. In New York City there is a municipal art com- mission which has power to prevent the erection of any structure from public funds which shall not be beautiful to look upon. As a rule architects and builders are persuaded that the substitute proposed by this municipal commission, because more artistic, will reflect greater credit on themselves. Start your municipal art movement with the public school. If it is already started somewhere else, ex- pand it to include the public school. Next in im- portance are other public meeting places. To teach art in a hideous school building is just as effective as to teach fresh air gospel in unventilated school rooms. The practice of art is essential to the teach- ing of art. Women's clubs can do much to practice and teach art by making beautiful the buildings and streets for which the city government is re- sponsible. Presents to school children who grow the prettiest plants or bring in the prettiest flowers or keep the best back yards and front yards will do much to 144 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT cultivate a sense of the beautiful. So will clean win- dows, clean floors, clean air. With art, seeing is believing. Few people can cultivate distaste or indifference to the beautiful. One of the most unpromising boys once came into my school room during recess time ostensibly on an errand. When I asked why he was violating the rule that kept children out in the air during recess, he re- plied that he came in just to see the flowers, one bouquet on each desk. A tenement mother given a fresh air outing at Sea Breeze, Coney Island, looked out upon the ocean through the trees which are called the " scenery " by those more familiar with east side theaters than with groves, then began to stumble and look as if she were about to faint. When the su- perintendent supported her and asked if she were sick, she said : " No, only I didn't know it could be so beautiful!" The best information regarding efforts to beautify cities may be had by addressing The Secretary, Municipal Art Commission, City Hall, New York City; The American Civic Association, Washington, D. C. ; The National City Planning Association, New York City ; and The Survey, New York City. Before writing for information ask yourself if you really do want a city beautiful. Do you love beauty or the idea of loving beauty? Do you have beautiful things in your working room and sleeping room or do you reserve them for company? BEGGING IS UNBEAUTIFUL 145 Do you find it intolerable to have your own front yard " unbeautif ill ? " Is the street in front of your residence clean and beautiful? What are you doing to preserve street trees? How does your city home look in the summer time " when everybody's away " and you are at the seashore or in the mountains? Would you favor a law compelling rich people to make and keep their yards and houses beautiful to look upon until their return? Vagrancy in Begging and in Art No programme for a city beautiful is complete that does not provide for keeping beggars off the street. The shortest cure for vagrancy is to abolish va- grant giving just as the shortest cure for a city ugly is to produce a race of men and women who love and think beautiful things. If we can ever get rid of the man or woman who wants $10 worth of satisfac- tion for five cents, it will be easy to get rid of the man or woman who wants five cents or $5 for a hard luck story. If an aged woman is in need of hospital treatment, it is cruel to force her to beg from man to man to get that treatment. Any able bodied man or woman ought to be ashamed to contribute five cents toward that treatment when he or she could be the means of sending the needy person to a hospital or charitable agency that can give her what she needs. When your policeman winks at street begging 146 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT please do not give him credit for a kind heart. The probability is he is being bribed to help that beggar violate the law. If there is no law in your com- munity against street begging, take steps at once to secure such a law, out of kindness to the beggar as well as regard for public decency. Nobody is really kind to the beggar who does not make it unnecessary and hence wrong for him to beg. Merchants will pay to keep beggars from standing in front of their business; householders will pay to keep beggars from coming to their front or back door; church goers will pay to keep from being forced to give alms to people who advertise their un- worthiness by mendicant attitude or marks of dis- sipation. Yet people will continue to give where they know they ought not to give unless there is some place or some person constantly at hand or within telephone reach to assure housekeepers and merchants that in sending beggars away from their premises they are sending them toward adequate relief. In New York City there is a National Association for the Prevention of Imposture and Mendicancy. It publishes reports and tells of innumerable ways of doing away with vagrancy by giving vagrants bet- ter things to do. If not convinced that begging can be stopped where police departments really want to stop it, write to that society. For general informa- tion on constructive relief work write to The Survey. SOCIALIZING LIBRARIES 147 Does the Public Library Belong to You? At New York City's budget exhibit in 1910 a pin map and photographs showed where 814 traveling libraries of fifty volumes each were located in depart- ment stores, theaters, workshops, office buildings. In pins of another color were shown home libraries sent to distant homes or to invalids unable to go to li- braries. Similar traveling libraries are now sent out by several states, sometimes by the department of education and sometimes by state public libraries. In many libraries public exhibits of art, school work and budgets are given. Others prepare briefs for school children, women's clubs, etc. No other agency can be of such prompt and varied assistance to women's clubs and to others interested in govern- ment. In return for the library's help you can help it get the funds it needs to be of service to you and to others during the next year. There is a temptation to organize special libraries in civic and women's clubs, but in the long run the greatest good will be rendered by making your public library the clearing house for facts, reading matter and suggestion. Ask your local librarian for the report of the last state meeting of librarians. See that the next public library building in your city contains plenty of room for exhibits and for popular assemblies, and^ also a children's room or a period when special attention will be given to children. 148 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT When Dr. Cook returns from the North Pole does your librarian put out all the books about polar expeditions and the world's great story tellers? Do your newspapers print interesting stories about your library and its helpfulness? Is it easy for the library to obtain funds? Does the library help your schools? Is your librarian a public character whose coopera- tion is enlisted for all good causes ? Do your librarians wait on you or help you? Does the library provide the local papers with a classified list of leading magazine articles? Has your library the publications mentioned in this book? John Ernest: Village Librarian In a western village of 1,000 inhabitants plus a rich farming clientele lived a young man known to old and young as John Ernest. From half past one to four o'clock in the afternoon he was always in a wheel chair in front of the village postoffice. A care- ful observer would notice quite a rivalry to see who should bring John Ernest's mail and thus have the best chance to talk with him. I was one of his beneficiaries. To him I owe the only memory I have of Frank and Jesse James. No gratitude which I have ever felt surpasses my ap- preciation of the forbidden literature which, at an early stage in John Ernest's career, he kept at a candy store on a shelf low enough for small boys to use. Yellow backs outlawed by my mother and by other good mothers of our community, and story books that told of war and burglary and detectives ! ONE VILLAGE EDUCATOR 149 It was a real joy going after the mail on the way home from school in those days when stealing a few minutes in John Ernest's store gave us pictures of heroism which respectable literature rarely affords. This indulgence was brief because in the fight for survival the fittest literature soon replaced the less fit on John Ernest's shelves. Moreover a malady which would now be known as spinal tuberculosis made it impossible for him to conduct the store and John Ernest became a semi-recluse. He organized a Chautauqua circle where a new kind of literature came into vogue. Callers at his house would find some new books and ask the price. At first he would loan a book or try to give it away. Later he sold at cost and finally at a profit. The business thrived until he conducted quite a book business for he was the one in our town who knew most of both new books and the classics. Confined to the house except for short excursions in a wheel chair pushed by others, John Ernest dis- covered every man, woman and child within ten miles who ever read a book. How he discovered none of us ever knew. But it was apparently just as easy for the person who abhorred history to get on a common ground with John Ernest as to science and fiction, as it was for the historian to compare notes on Boswell's Johnson or Carlyle's History of the French Revolu- tion. John Ernest village educator should be a vil- lage institution, an indispensable adjunct and inspi- rational influence in every public library. 150 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Conservation of Religious Energy Conservation of religious energy is quite as im- portant as conservation of forests and health. Re- ligious leaders who stand still or go backward as citi- zens can do untold harm to religious work. Since women are the chief followers in church work they may determine what they shall follow. Votes for women will seriously modify church work. They cannot follow blindly in church work and keep their eyes open in politics, nor can they keep their eyes open in church work and follow blindly in politics. Since they are bound to have their eyes opened by the results of their vote, it be- hooves leaders in church work to furnish women ef- ficient ways of doing worth while service. The two men in small towns best fitted by training and by position for leadership are usually the minister and the school principal. In larger communities the minister and school man often yield their leadership in community matters to the physician, lawyer and business man. But in small communities the time will never come when progress will not depend largely on the minister and the schoolmaster, the two men who are held up as standards and the two who must be forever conscious of their responsibility for leader- ship. These two men must be given a social programme and harnessed to the work for efficient government. Any minister who is a leading citizen will have a message that people will wish to hear. CIVIC RELIGION 151 Is your church in touch with your town? Does the preacher use 20th century illustrations? Is he a leader in town affairs ? Does he know about town needs or does he ask outsiders to tell you? Is he away all summer? Does he see that participation in government does not require going into politics? Is he glad to accept favors or other contributions from men known to be profiting from misgovern- ment ? How Much Community Work Should Churches Do? The New York philanthropist who founded the Bureau of Municipal Research, Mr. R. Fulton Cut- ting, has now under way a study of practical com- munity work done by churches. He is especially interested to learn of ministers who are leaders in ef- ficient citizenship in its many phases of obligation and opportunity. He is asking for example: Should the church maintain a free kindergarten for a few children or get free kindergartens in the public schools for all children? Should a church maintain a few shower baths for a few children or see that through adequate build- ing laws and proper public baths a shower bath is put within reach of all children and all adults? Should a church attack community morals by starting a boys' club or by getting the schools used for social centers and by preventing gov- ernment itself, the courts, police departments, etc., from promoting anti-moral conditions? 152 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT, Humanizing the Churches In no profession probably is there to-day the whole- some discontent that is to be found among ministers. They admit candidly that the efficiency of church and Sunday school work is not what it ought to be. Yet church work has been peculiarly woman's prov- ince for generations. What can women do to cure and to lead church unrest? Stop trying to stop it Stop scolding it Determine to guide it Understand church unrest by first understanding the social needs in your community To understand social needs understand govern- ment See that your government keeps a legible record of its work and its programme Urge your philanthropists to think first of com- munity needs rather than of church institutions " Ministers can stop letting others earn their salaries," is what one prominent clergyman says. Instead of asking outsiders to come in and tell their churches about social and municipal conditions they can learn for themselves and tell their congregations, and then have their congregations tell outsiders and officials. Instead of trying to unite on services ministers and churches can unite on community work. There is no step that has been suggested in this book for women wishing to influence government and to discharge their obligations of citizenship which can- SUMMER LETHARGY 153 not, with equal force, be urged upon ministers and church leaders. Because practically no community is so small as not to have its church organization and repeated church appeal, the humanizing of the church is an important essential in christianizing government. Church clubs can be given real things to do. When churches stimulate their members to purify milk supplies, check infant mortality, and organize citizen movements for public decency and enlighten- ment, it will not be necessary for churches in all parts of the United States to send begging letters to New York City to pay for carpets or organs. It is a rule in many cities that a saloon may not be run within 100 feet of a church. Why should not churches make it a rule that gambling houses, Raines law hotels, houses of prostitution, unclean milk shops and unclean streets or sidewalks shall not be tolerated within half a mile of a church? Get your church clubs for men and women to im- pose upon themselves three conditions for their meet- ings: 1. Treat one general subject at one meeting 2. Leave time for questions and answers 3. Do something with the information and inspi- ration they may receive Summer Lethargy in Good Work How long a vacation does your minister take? When does he leave? What happens while he is gone? 154 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT When does he come back? When does he get really to work again? How many days of effective service does he give your community each year? Do you see any reason why a minister should leave his city simply because his leading parishioners can afford to take long vacations? Would it be well for your church and for your city if the ministers were to spend at least a part of their long vacations studying the community needs to which they must minister the coming year? If the minister himself can get inspiration only from climbing the Alps or visiting European art galleries, is there any reason why his assistant should not keep the church work going at full blast and thus make sure that community evils are not breeding in the very shadow of your church ? When " everybody's away " and " nobody's in town " is the very season when the breakdown of government is at its height; when offenses against public decency are most flagrant; and when com- munity needs are out on the street where they can be easily seen and studied. Summer and everyone's out of town, Fled far from the withering heat That the sun all day sends sullenly down On sweltering alley and street ; The shutters are up in the Avenue And the houses, so grim and brown, Are empty except for a servant or two For everyone's out of town. WHEN EVERYBODY'S AWAY 155 Each hour or two, on the parched East side, In a beautiful coach of glass, Some baby is taking its first grand ride Toward the trees and the velvet grass ; Far out, where the skies are a softer blue, And the sun looks more kindly down, The wan little fellows are traveling, too, Like everyone out of town. From the Cosmopolitan Montague. Oh ye that pleasure with laughter light Care ye not, will ye not see That the waste is yours of the harvest white And yours must the reckoning be? Had ye guarded your trust in the public hall The blight had not fallen down On the wan little fellows each and all, Who are traveling out of town. Application by Agnes de Lima. In most cities summer is the time of year when plans for the succeeding calendar year are being made by city officials. The need for good government is no more urgent in American cities than the need for a new standard of summer work on the part of churches and other uplift agencies. Can you not plan as a part of your contribution to government to have a representative at work for you in the city next summer and to make sure that vivid descriptions of summer conditions will be avail- able when your churches and charitable agencies re- convene in the fall? If by any accident the leaders of good work could be compelled to stay in their cities during the four 156 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT sultriest, hottest, most dangerous weeks of the sum- mer months, inefficient government would receive a greater blow than from many years of uplift work in the winter time when evils are more difficult to dis- cover and uplift work less inconvenient. Loan Friends vs. Loan Sharks A woman of sixty once asked me to rescue her and her sons from loan sharks. She was the daughter of a former governor. Her two sons had borrowed $100 to give her hospital care. They had since paid $450 and still owed $200. The sons were in constant terror lest their cor- poration employers be notified. To get money to pay the next instalment they went deeper in debt with the same or other loan sharks. Thousands of similar cases have never come to light. The hardship caused in large cities by loan sharks would outweigh in dollars the total annual gifts for relieving distress. Is anybody in your town ready to loan on salary security or personal character without deposit of jewels or other property? Can the poor borrow on their furniture without be- ing robbed? For the story of model pawnshops and for model laws against loan sharks write to the Provident Loan Association of New York City, which has several branches and loans about $10,000,000 yearly. T PUBLIC CHARITIES AN INDEX 157 learn how to start such loans on a self-supporting basis write to the Russel Sage Foundation, New York City. Are You Proud of Your Public Charities? Although the greatest philanthropist is govern- ment, the attention of those most interested in phi- lanthropy has heretofore been largely diverted from philanthropy through government, to private charity work. It has been assumed that public almshouses and hospitals must, of course, be in the hands of politi- cians and must of course be badly managed. Un- sound distinctions have been permitted to grow up between public and private charities. For genera- tions philanthropists have given liberally to private organizations what they have refused to give through public taxes. In our great cities thousands of peo- ple are willing to accept gifts of bread or rent or hospital care from private agencies who would feel disgraced by going to a public hospital or almshouse. This false distinction has been encouraged by private philanthropy. Two of the most interesting experiences I ever had in relief work were with a young woman and a young man, both needing hospital treatment, but both pre- ferring to die rather than go to New York City's free hospital on Blackwell's Island. I made little headway by telling them that Homer Folks had made this institution a hospital rather than an almshouse. I did succeed in interesting both in the social harm 158 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT that comes from the false distinction between help from private funds and help from public funds. Each finally decided to go into the hospital to be of service, to be cheerful and happy, and to help change the atmosphere for both worker and inmate. To get rid of false distinctions between adequate public relief and adequate private relief is one of woman's civic opportunities. Anyone reading, as I have read in the past fVw months, 4,000 appeals from all sections of the country would realize that public relief and hospital treatment will never be on a proper basis until we give up our present fear of what is called " outdoor relief," that is, payment from public funds to needy persons in their homes. In only a few of the largest cities is private philanthropy equipped to take care 6f all the needy. Yet the theory which leaves outdoor relief to private charity and indoor relief to public charity has, thanks to the efficiency of charity organization experts in large cities, been forced upon small communities and rural districts where private philanthropy will never be able and never should be able to do the neighborly service that an efficient government should do. Nobody believes the United States postoffice would ever have developed as it has if private companies could start rival carriers wherever they pleased with the privilege of stopping wherever they pleased. Radical as the suggestion is to prohibit private re- lief and hospital work, it is worth your while to con- sider whether relief work and hospital work and the PUBLIC CHARITIES NEED HELP 159 general government of your community would not be vastly better if your so-called " best people " were giving to government philanthropy the time and thought now given to private charity. If you have in your township, county or state any public institution whose conduct shocks you, or if there is any whose atmosphere is repulsive, there is a definite work for you to do. The highest standard of private cooperation with public charitable institutions has been set by the New York and New Jersey State Charities Aid Associa- tions which have volunteer visiting committees in each county. In Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, etc., similar duties are discharged by volunteer committees having semi-official positions and appointed by the state board of charities. If you have not yet realized that the management of your almshouses, public hospitals, etc., is a barometer of the problems and decency of your com- munity, write to State Charities Aid Association, New York City, to The Survey, same address, and to the secretary of your state board of charities and ask for information regarding women's work in con- nection with public charities. If you were sick would you be unwilling to go to a public hospital? Would you rather die than spend your last five years in a public almshouse or hospital for the aged ? Is the trouble with you or with the hospital? Do you see any reason why a public hospital should be regarded as a pest house? 160 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Does an " almshouse odor " reflect discredit on the mothers of your community ? Do you see how your public almshouse, hospital, etc., help bring up your child? Do you know the men and women who are trying to improve government philanthropy in your community? Do visitors to public charities see the real needs and fundamental defects or merely the senti- mental and morbid aspects? Do you find yourself more interested in almshouse questions than in public school questions? Does private charity work with or apart from public charity in your community? Taxing Everybody for Private Charities Wherever public funds are given to private agencies the leaders in these publicly supported or subsidized private agencies with very few exceptions wink at misgovernment and mis-governors. Corrupt politicians and efficient party managers have learned that one way to " spike the guns " of a reform movement is to buy off its leaders with gifts to hospitals, orphan asylums, fresh air work, houses of refuge, colleges, industrial institutions, etc. A college trustee once said to his colleagues that if they would vote him $20,000 and ask no questions he could get $90,000 of state money for their col- lege. He was voted the money. No questions were asked. He got $90,000 and a great deal more. Another college professor came late to a dinner and, throwing himself in a chair, said he had just finished " the dirtiest day's work of my life." Yet SEMI-PRIVATE CHARITIES 161 he had merely helped several other professors and trustees get a lot of legislators sufficiently intoxi- cated to be in a proper frame of mind to understand the educational needs of his university. The president of a hospital voted to return a man to the legislature whom he believed to be a dis- honest, disreputable scoundrel. With chagrin he told his son that he had to do it because his hospital's requests for state funds had always been supported by that legislator. There are other dangers inherent in this method of supporting entirely or in part private charitable work: (1) It encourages the directors and contributors of these agencies to take credit which really be- longs to taxpayers; ) It gives taxpayers, in spite of their contri- butions, wrong distinctions between public and private actions; (3) It encourages leading citizens to concentrate their attention upon small fractions of the health problem, for example, or the child caring prob- lem when they should be dealing with 100 % of these problems. The dividing line between public and private phi- lanthropy is hard to draw. Those who favor public subsidy of private charity say that for the same money taxpayers can get much more extensive and more efficient service because their gifts are supple- mented by private gifts. Secondly, it is maintained that the public supplementing of private gifts stimu- 162 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT lates private giving, that is to say, it keeps alive and active the humane spirit in a community which is apt to be chilled and conventionalized, if not deadened, where giving is entirely delegated to public officials. Men who are equally informed will differ radi- cally on this subject. Some believe that public sub- sidy dries up the sources of private philanthropy. Whatever you may think at first you will find it in- teresting and worth while to learn the facts about your own town, county and state. Is public money given to privately managed insti- tutions? Does the public get its money's worth? Does it try to find out if it is getting its money's worth? Does it draw any line between inefficiently managed institutions and those which are efficiently managed? Does it make gifts, or pay for service rendered? Does it seem to be drying up sources of private charity or stimulating them? Are the best people of your community kept from protesting against government evils? Are the best people more interested in private hospitals than public hospitals? In nursing than in preventing cases of transmissible dis- eases? In infant asylums than in the health de- partment? What bids fair to be the most important study of this subject ever made in the United States is now in progress upon resolution of New York City's board of estimate and apportionment, which instructed the AN EPOCH-MAKING STUDY 163 city comptroller to find out all about the relation of the city to the hundred odd organizations which get $5,000,000 a year for schools, hospitals, placing out children, rescuing girls, fresh air work, etc. (Ad- dress The Comptroller, New York City, 280 Broad- way.) I say it promises to be the most helpful study ever made because it will include facts as to Catholic and Protestant institutions never available heretofore because based upon analysis of money spent and work done never made heretofore. Appealing for Good Causes Well-to-do persons in all communities receive " charitable " appeals. It is very inefficient for any appealing agency to overlook a well-to-do person. Women do a great part of the work for which ap- peals are made. When women have suffrage the number of private uplift agencies will not decrease, although it is to be hoped that their interest in government will increase. Efficiency in stating the truth regarding any " good work " undertaken will be an important element in doing woman's part in government. Efficiency in appealing has heretofore received too little attention. Orlando F. Lewis of the Prison Association of New York suggests the following tests : 1. Honest; i. e., not intentionally misleading or out of balance; 2. Instructive; 3. Sympathetic; 4. Clear; 5. Brief; 6. Varied; 7. Neat and clean. 164 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Three other tests ought to be squarely met by any appealing agency : 1. That the work which the agency exists to do needs to be done 2. That the particular way of going at that work which the agency represents is up to date 3. That the work would not be done by any exist- ing agency if the appealing agency were not in the field The vagrant thinker about charity is a greater evil than the vagrant beggar for charity. Good motive in charity work does not mean good product. We have no right to try to interest 100% of the public in a \% job. Yet that is the aim of most appeals. To ask money of a person for a cause with which that person has absolutely no connection is just as much begging as to ask for money on the street. Evasion and exaggeration are just as serious evils in private philanthropy as in government. Do you remember " Little Joe's Smile,'* the ad- vertisement for Sea Breeze Hospital which was pub- lished in all the magazines in 1906-07? For an in- stitution which never existed one bogus collector raised more money than was obtained to treat forty crippled children like Little Joe, suffering from bone tuberculosis. One man gave her $3,500 simply be- cause he liked the way she talked about children and uplift work. This old man would have preferred to give his money so that it would help children instead of grafters. He made the mistake of believing that MEETING 100% OF NEEDS 165 he could test the cause by the pretensions of the col- lector. In most cities the sums raised for charities that do not exist or for charities that do more harm than good or for individuals who misuse their gifts total more than would endow the national cam- paigns against tuberculosis, child labor and inef- ficient government. For the latest plan to tell the public 100% of the story about those who give and those who appeal write to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Philanthropy's Wastebasket One New York philanthropist, Mrs. E. H. Harri- man, is having all letters carefully read and analyzed to see what lessons, if any, they contain for givers and appealers. This study was entrusted to the Bureau of Munici- pal Research because of its interest in promoting ef- ficient health and school work, hospital service, parks, playgrounds and " opportunity for everyone to be efficient." Writers of the appeals analyzed received letters stating the purpose of the study, the number of let- ters read, the total amounts requested, plus sugges- tions as to work that might be done by their fellow taxpayers to give hospital treatment, schooling, etc. The story of these letters and their evidence of local breakdowns in government and in philanthropy will be told at some future time. For information as to method write to the Bureau. 166 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The point I want to make here is, that it is worth while studying how people appeal, how they give and where needs are neglected. Efficient giving will sel- dom be found where efficient thinking is not found. Women can help those who appeal and those who give, to think efficiently. Could you believe that of 4,000 appeals for $106,- 000,000 very few asked for enough to do the work outlined, while still fewer indicated that the writers had done the work which they should have done to secure local support? Efficient Will Making and Efficient Giving Who is your city's greatest educator? Its city government. Who is your city's greatest philanthropist? Its city government. Who is your city's greatest social worker? Its city government. Who is your city's greatest hospital manager? Its city government. Comptroller William A. Prendergast to the Monday Club of Social Workers, Annual Dinner, 1910, New York City. There will never come a time when the most direct means of promoting health, education and oppor- tunity will not be through government. Yet obvious as this truth should be, it has not yet been grasped by the nation's greatest private givers or by those who advise givers. People feel they have a perfect right to give away EFFICIENT GIVING 167 their own money as they please. Even my secretary asks, " Why shouldn't they? " One reason why they should not is that no person should so give away his money as to defeat the purpose of his giving. Yet a great part of the giving is of this kind, where the donor is buying certain disappointment. A second reason is that no man has a right in his giving to make life harder for his neighbors and to delay social progress. Yet a pathetically large part of public giving has this unfortunate result. If givers wish self advertisement, it is fairer to let them advertise themselves in a way which will not advertise their lack of intelligence or inefficiency in giving. No man would really prefer to help thirty children after seeing that his gift, differently di- rected, could help 3,000 children. To an extent which at first they would hesitate to admit, women are responsible for the inefficiency of public giving. Because of their personal rela- tions with rich men and their personal interest in " good causes," they are directing gifts which, ia many instances, means diverting gifts from right to wrong directions. Favoritism in giving, personal loyalty to institu- tions, personal preferences for boards of managers, sentiment because of personal experiences, etc*., will continue to influence giving. More benefits and less harm will certainly be done if it is a matter of com- mon knowledge in your community what kinds^ of work are already surfeited with money and what kinds of work are not yet begun or are inadequately sup- 168 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ported. Every town should so advertise its unmet needs that givers cannot help seeing a list of com- munity needs not met, of opportunities for helping which by their attractiveness and their insistence would influence men and women making up their minds about giving. No one wants to give $2,000,000 to a children's home after he thoroughly understands that so-called homes are no longer a fit place for bringing up chil- dren and that for every homeless child there are in the country two childless homes. No one would pre- fer to build model tenements if convinced that one- tenth the money would bring all tenements up to the minimum essential to health, comfort and decency. No one wants to start a vocational training school for fifty boys after once seeing that his money spent in a different way would give proper vocational train- ing to 50,000 boys through public schools. When women become interested in government, and relatively less interested in the fractional problems treated by charities and churches, they will spend the energy on community-wide needs which they now often misspend on their favorite special interests. It is a result and not an accident that in the origi- nal request for a charter for the Rockefeller Foun- dation not one word appears to suggest that there is anything for you and me to do in cooperation with this Foundation or that there is anything which the Foundation can do to interest itself in 100% of any problems of health or education dealt with by govern- ment. EFFICIENT WILL MAKING 169 If you make clear what your community needs that it is not getting, it still remains possible for donors and will makers to give their money to favorite in- stitutions while directing their expenditures to pur- poses which need them instead of other purposes so well known and so fashionable that they do not need the money. One instance in my own experience shows how anx- ious donors are to do something that needs to be done. A retired merchant asked me to talk with him about his will. In helping a large number of institu- tions he planned to give $75,000 each to four insti- tutions. He asked me if I would do that. I said, " No." He asked me why not and I said, " Because your giving that money will not make a particle of difference in the work which those four institutions will do." He took them up one after another as fol- lows: Is " A " Society a good society? Yes. Does it do efficient work? Yes. Would you give it $75,000 ? No. Why not? Because last year it set aside from its income a surplus of $50,000. Is " B " Society doing good work? Yes. Necessary ? Yes. Ought to be supported? Yes. Would you give it this money ? No. Why not? Because it received last year $b8,Ul more than it spent, has the richest constituency in this city and does not even have to ask foi money. Is " C " Society doing good work? 170 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Deserve to be supported ? Yes. Would you give it this money? No. Why not? Because giving it money is m ef- fect giving money to a multimillionaire who con- siders it his child and is known to step into every gap. He gave his money to establish Caroline Rest En- dowment Fund for instruction of mothers approach- ing and convalescing from childbirth. (See page 205.) How prospective gifts are now " angled for " is illustrated by another experience. A lawyer tele- phoned for me and greeted me with this statement: " I want to see a man from your society just to see how he looks. I wrote to twenty different societies stating my desire to give a certain amount of money and asking what was needed in town for children, and the only one that gave me any information ex- cept that it needed the money was the letter from your Mrs. Ingram." What is Municipal Research? A method not a remedy. It takes its name from a privately supported body known as the Bureau of Municipal Research which was started in New York in 1906 by Mr. R. Fulton Cutting whose effort to strengthen church work is mentioned on page 151. By emphasizing method, act and result as the best test of official and of policy, the Bureau of Municipal Research has in six years accomplished noteworthy MUNICIPAL RESEARCH METHODS 171 results by prosecuting the programme defined in its charter as follows: To promote efficient and economical govern- ment; to promote the adoption of scientific methods of accounting and of reporting the de- tails of municipal business, with a view to facili- tating the work of public officials ; to secure con- structive publicity in matters pertaining to mu- nicipal problems; to collect; to classify; to analyze; to correlate; to interpret; to publish facts as to the administration of municipal gov- ernment. The Bureau's method of investigation may be ap- plied to any activity in your city or state: Ascertain how the powers and duties (and other materials of research) are distributed Avail itself of the citizen's right to examine public records Abstract and analyze such information as is con- tained in the records Supplement examination of records by collateral inquiry where the records are defective as to work and as to conditions to be remedied Compare function with accomplishment and ex- penditure as to each responsible officer, each class of employe, each bureau or division ^ ^ Confer with the official responsible for the munici- pal department or social conditions studied ,. Secure promise of cooperation, and instructi that direct subordinates to cooperate with t Bureau's representatives Verify reports by usual accounting and researc 172 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT methods and by conferences with department and bureau heads Supervise work in progress Hold frequent conferences with supervisors and directors as to method of investigation and as to significance of facts disclosed Cooperate with municipal officials in devising reme- dies so far as these can be effected through changes of system Make no recommendations as to personnel further than to present facts throwing light on the ef- ficiency or inefficiency of employe or officer Submit in printed form suggestions not easily understood when orally given and not readily conveyed by typewritten statements Prepare formal report (after conference among trustees and after editing by committee on re- ports) to department heads, city executive of- ficers and general public Support press publicity by illustrations, materials for special articles, suggestions to editors, to city officials, and to reporters Follow up educational work until something definite is done to improve methods and to correct evils disclosed Supply freely verifiable data to agencies organ- ized for propaganda and for legislative, agita- tive or " punitive " work Try to secure from other departments of the same municipality and from other municipalities the recognition and adoption of principles and methods proved by experience to promote ef- ficiency For a list of results and their cost in detail, write to the Bureau of Municipal Research, 261 Broadway. MUNICIPAL RESEARCH REPORTS 173 In addition to 500 Efficient Citizenship bulletins and hundreds of items through the newspapers which have been sent to city and state superintendents of schools, mayors, comptrollers, editors and a mailing list of business men and social workers, the Bureau has published the following formal reports: Some phases of the work of the department of street cleaning City owned houses Salary Increases not provided -for in budget Inefficiency of inspection of combustibles The City of New York, the street railroad com- panies and a million and a half dollars How Manhattan is governed New York City's department of finance Bureau of child hygiene A department of municipal audit and examination Making a municipal budget; functional accounts and records for the department of health The park question; Part I, critical study and con- structive suggestions pertaining to administror tive and accounting methods of the department of parks: Manhattan and Richmond The park question; Part II, critical study and con- structive suggestions pertaining to revenue and deposits of the department of parks: Manhat- tan and Richmond Memorandum of matters relating to New City's debt that suggests the necessity either for judicial ruling or for legislation New York City's debt: facts and law relating to the constitutional limitation of New York s t debtedness . , , Collecting water revenues: methods employed 174 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT the bureau, of water register, Manliattan, with suggestions for reorganization. What should New York's next mayor do- School progress and school facts Tenement house administration What should New York's next comptroller do Business methods of New York City's police de- partment How should public budgets be made School stories: a topical guide to education hfre and now Municipal reform through revision of business methods MUNICIPAL RESEARCH issues A PAMPHLET.'- Even Newspaper Jokes Help IX HAS WOMAN APTITUDE FOR HEALTH WORK? Volunteer Sanitary Associations IN spite of the powerful appeal in all health work there are surprisingly few strong associations having to do with the sanitary side of community life. When conditions get to the public nuisance stage, some organization is apt to come forward to demand their correction. Generally speaking, however, it takes us twenty-five years to accomplish what could be accomplished in five years if the various organi- zations now touching sanitary work were to picture to themselves and to their communities 100% of their public health problem. In the past such organizations have worked at but fractions of the health problem a small fraction of the time with too little money and with volunteer part time service. Too often they have tried to get health departments to help them instead of being of service to health departments. It would take several books to describe women's work in connection with public health. Almost every woman becomes interested at one time or another in some local question concerning health, street clean- ing, diet kitchens, model dairies, milk stations, school lunches and what not. Health work has too many phases to be taken care of best in any one organization even with a number of subcommittees. There should, however, be in all communities some one central body watching health 177 178 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT needs and attempting to secure sustained attention to different phases of health problems by committees of other organizations, chambers of commerce, public education associations, relief societies, etc. No sub- ject is foreign to health; even art and music permit of treatment from the angle of health and its beauty. There are several next health steps in American communities requiring organization and sustained educational effort: physical education of school children ; education of mothers in the care of children, particularly in the care of infants ; reduction of transmissible diseases; ventilation of public assem- bly halls; keeping school rooms clean; cleaning streets and public buildings ; removal of refuse ; coop- eration among hospitals; abatement of smoke nui- sance. Do not wait for doctors to lead. It is better to have them organize among themselves than to have sanitary work depend upon their " conservative " leadership. Unfortunately, it is still true that many of those who know most about the human body and its needs know least about public health. It is par- ticularly important that all charitable agencies see that the line of easiest approach to public interest in every one of their problems is through the health aspects of that problem. Do not make the mistake of believing that women are per se better health inspectors than men. Some of the least efficient, and least honest health work is done by women employes, just as much health work is made necessary by woman's neglect at home. STATE HEALTH STANDARDS 179 Health Dynamos: State Secretaries of Health What do you know about your state department of health? Who is its secretary or executive officer? Have you any reason to be grateful for his exist- ence ? How have you felt his influence on your com- munity ? If your state veterinarian is better known than the secretary of the state board of health, it is because the man who cares for cattle, horses and pigs has made it a little clearer that he is worth while than the man who cares for the health of babies, workmen and all other human users of milk, water and air. It is likely that your state veterinarian has in the past been more direct in his methods, more helpful in his recommendations, more exacting in his demands and more efficient in his educational work. There are enough exceptions to the rule now among state departments of health so that you can find " live wires " to talk about in case your own state secretary needs a larger programme or a larger appropriation. In Maryland and Wisconsin, for ex- ample, traveling exhibits and traveling schools are showing the most remote districts how to keep hu- man animals alive and well. In Pennsylvania an enormous fund of $1,500,000 was voted for a state wide fight against tuberculosis which was infinitely more intelligent than to give some private agency power to do retail educational work. For admirable health buUetins write to the Michi- 180 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT gan Board of Health, Lansing, Mich., and ask for samples of its " healthgrams," brief news items in attractive form and appeals for public coopera- tion. For the same reason that your newspapers are eager for news about New York, every newspaper in your state will be glad to publish news from your state board of health. Big numbers are more inter- esting than little numbers because they make a more vivid impression. Statements comparing your town with other towns of approximately the same size near it will always stimulate interest and rivalry. Ask your state secretary to rank his cities according to population, number of births, total number of deaths, number of deaths from preventable diseases, number of infant deaths, particularly infant deaths from diarrheal diseases, number of deaths from other preventable diseases, such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, typhoid, and the number of cases of preventa- ble diseases notified by the various health officers to the state department. Ask him in his next annual report to tell par- ticularly whether it is still possible in any part of the state for people to die and be buried without formal notice of the fact being registered or for babies to be born without the fact being known at state headquarters. Have the State Federation of Women's Clubs re- port at your next general session answers to the fol- lowing questions : STATE HEALTH OFFICERS 181 Is your state secretary of health an educator? Is he regarded as efficient by sanitary experts? Has he an adequate staff? Is he trying to do enough for your state? Could his reports be more interesting and instruc- | S tiver Are his reports copied in the newspapers? Will he examine samples of sputum from any part of the state, or diphtheria cultures or dairies and milk shops (as is done in New Jersey for ex- ample ) ? Do his tables rank cities according to different tests of efficient health administration, starting with arrangement according to size rather than alphabet? Perhaps your state officers would attend your county and state meetings and explain how women can help raise the standard of health administration throughout your state. State Health Conferences The sanitary officers of many states have annual meetings which are growing in importance. If your state is not in line, secure a copy of the report for New York's tenth annual (Buffalo) conference, 1910, where physicans, dentists, nurses, mayors and alder- men discussed the following subjects: 1. Public health and the school: (a) As an aid to public health work (6) Follow-up work (c) School hygiene and school disease (d) From standpoint of educationalist 182 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT 2. Public health and the dental profession S. Public health and the medical profession (a) The difficulties of health officers as seen by the physician (b) The spirit of mutual helpfulness 4. Public health and the press (a) From the health officer's standpoint (b) From the newspaper man's standpoint 5. Public health and municipal authorities (a) What a health department expects from municipal authorities ( b ) From the standpoint of the municipal of- ficer 6. public health and the conservation movement 7. Public health and the public purse 8. Garbage disposal 9. City sanitation 10. Milk and foods 11. Rural hygiene 12. The laboratory as an aid to diagnosis IS. Reporting communicable diseases 14. Quarantine, isolation and disinfection 15. The control of typhoid fever 16. Unattacked communicable diseases 17. Epidemic anterior poliomyelitis 18. The tuberculosis campaign as conducted by the state department Stamping Out Transmissible Diseases Ballots do not stop contagion. " Catching diseases " are less terrifying than when they used to be considered messengers of an indig- nant providence. But they still cost this country two billion dollars a year. Nor have they grown less annoying. It is no special consolation to a mother WHY CATCHING DISEASES CATCH 183 when her baby is tossing with diphtheria that only one in ten dies from that disease. We cannot be overproud when 1,500,000 hospital beds are un- necessarily in constant use. Over 630,000 people die every year in this country from causes that are easily preventable. That means 630,000 scandals, 630,000 disgraces, 630,000 out- rages against intelligence, 630,000 reasons why women should understand that transmissible diseases cannot be abolished by the ballot. No mother can be sure that she is protecting her own children from transmissible diseases unless she sees to it that other children are equally protected. A school teacher guiding the hand of a six year old Hoboken child noticed that it was rough. She immediately sent the child home where the school nurse discovered three children with scarlet fever. The mother had not told anybody because she had just come to this country and was frightened and did not know what to do. An academic friend of mine was once making a " scientific survey of living conditions " in Chicago. A Polish family permitted him to measure all rooms but one. This they obstinately refused to open. Finally h displayed a policeman's badge and forced his way into a close, dark room where he found a man in bed. The reluctant family admitted that he was only an uncle. He had just been sick for sev- eral days. In fact he had the smallpox! In such concealed cases of contagion lies a menace to the public and the explanation of the fact that in 1910 184 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT there were 24,000 inexcusable cases of smallpox in the United States. Individuals cannot stop transmissible diseases. They must work with other individuals through effi- cient local and state departments of health which see the importance of the following steps : 1. Notification of danger when it is first recog- nized . Registration at a central office of facts as to each dangerous thing or person 8. Examination of the seat of danger to discover its extent, its cost and new seats of danger created by it 4. Isolation of the dangerous thing or person 5. Constant attention to prevent extension to other persons or things 6. Destruction or removal of disease germs or other causes of danger 7. Analysis and record, for future use, of lessons learned by experience 8. Education of the public to understand its re- lation to danger checked or removed, its respon- sibility for preventing a recurrence of the same danger, and the importance of promptly recog- nizing and checking similar danger elsewhere You can tell which of these steps are not being taken properly by your department of health. Quite generally now we have come to recognize that when children get scarlet fever or diphtheria or measles they should stay away from school. Quite as generally, however, we are still careless of children who are excluded from school because of transmissi- STOP WHOOPING COUGH 185 ble diseases and permit them to mingle with other children on the street and in homes. Recently a child came down with whooping cough in Southampton, Long Island. To protect his brothers and sisters this little boy was sent to his grandparents at Amagansett. As a consequence over forty children in Amagansett indulged them- selves in whooping cough throughout last summer. Maine's board of health says our present careless- ness with regard to whooping cough is criminal. That disease generally thought to be harmless causes more deaths in most communities than measles or scar- let fever and in 1910 caused 65 times as many deaths as smallpox. "As 95% of the deaths from whoop- ing cough occur before the fifth year, we could save nearly all of the children from dying from it if we could keep them away from direct infection." The preventable diseases that are most costly in lives and in days of sickness are simple to prevent if individuals will follow certain well-defined rules of health. We know how to prevent and cure tuberculosis. We know how to prevent sex diseases, although some of them are practically incurable. We know how to prevent and cure pneumonia. Yet these three sets of transmissible diseases are responsi- ble for 47% of the deaths from preventable causes. Every woman's club should have a committee on "health department efficiency," to begin as follows: Take one skeleton map of the city for each catching disease Go over the records of cases notified and stick a red 186 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT pin at the proper point in the map for every case reported Go over the death record and stick a black pin in the right place for every death reported Show these maps to the health officers and persuade them to start making a similar map from cases and deaths currently reported. After noting that pins cluster in certain sections of the city, find out what steps the health department is taking to prevent the recurrence of similar clus- ters next year If the cause is inefficiency, make over the incompe- tents or dismiss them. If the cause is lack of funds, help the department get adequate funds to employ enough efficient inspectors and physi- cians No child should be compelled to go to school if that means compelling him to have one " catching disease " after another during his school life. Hence the need for a school physician to detect and exclude transmissible diseases, to say when the child may safely be returned to school, to see that when out of school the child is not spreading contagion and to detect and treat physical conditions that foster transmissible diseases. Other people die besides babies and children. While not relaxing one iota your interest in child saving work, do not forget your chief reason for being interested in the child is that you shall pro- duce a man or a woman. Dr. Wm. H. Guilfoy, statistician of the New York department of health recently said : COST OF CATCHING DISEASES 187 The rungs at the bottom of the ladder of life are being carefully looked after, those at the mid- dle of the ladder have been neglected ; the physi- cal welfare of the man has been lost sight of in the multitudes of attempts at prolongation and treatment of the physical properties of the child. To find what " catching diseases " are costing your city or state for lives lost alone, get from your de- partment of health the number of deaths by ages. Allow $1500 for infants; $2500 for school children; $7000 for those between 25 and 40. To this total add the cost of burials computed from the average cost in your community. To these two sums add at least $10 per case for the total number of cases of preventable diseases. Large as the combined total will be, it will be an underestimate of what transmissible diseases are costing your community, for it will not take ac- count of loss in wages, loss in working efficiency of those who are sick and those who care for them, loss in teacher's services on account of children excluded from school and of time lost from school. Do not try to learn all about " catching diseases," but learn enough to know whether your physician knows about them. When you want to begin to do something, work through your local and state health departments. Ask them for information and keep asking until you get it. Learn how you can help them to be more efficient. Support them when they are asking for funds. Insist upon their telling week 188 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT by week the truth about cases of preventable " catch- ing diseases." Do your physicians feel that " catching diseases " are their best friends? Do they try to strengthen or weaken the health board ? Do they obey the rule about notifying cases of transmissible diseases, such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhoid? Does anybody look to the milk supply for the cause of typhoid, scarlet fever or diphtheria? Does your drinking water come from almost the same part of the river or lake as that which re- ceives your sewage? Does your health department welcome questions and support? Have you been taking it for granted that children must have the " catching diseases," the earlier the better? Are your school children regularly inspected for signs of transmissible diseases, including trans- missible skin and eye diseases? Do you know that cats and dogs can carry around with them the germs of diphtheria and other transmissible diseases? Does your family doctor wear a " conspicuous mi- crobe trap " on his face, i. e., " a preposterous, fuzzy bunch of whiskers inhabited by millions of microbes ? " To learn how a national bureau of health would help reduce transmissible diseases and increase the efficiency of health departments wherever the stars and stripes fly, ask your senator or congressman to NATIONAL HEALTH BUREAU 189 get you a copy of Senator Owen's speech of March 24th, 1910. Insuring Clean Water Ballots do not discover disease-bearing water. The strongest reason against polluted water is not that it encourages typhoid fever, but that it is polluted. It ought to be intolerable to any well bred person that drinking water or oysters are taken from rivers or bays or wells into which sewage pours. The mosquito is proving to be almost as good an enemy of polluted water as typhoid. Fortunately, most people hate mosquitoes enough to be willing to take steps against stagnant pools, unclean cisterns, unclean swamps and yards. Whether water sources are clean or foul is not a matter of voting or law making, but a matter of fact to be determined by the appearance and analysis of the water. Whether anybody is making the analy- sis can easily be found upon inquiry. Nowhere is greater disregard shown for the foul- ness of water sources than in country districts where man lives close to nature. Country wells are dis- gustingly near barnyards and privies. Country rivers receive every kind of disgusting filth. Public and private libraries should have such books as Typhoid Fever by George C. Whipple, and Prin- ciples of Sanitary Science and the Public Health by William T. Sedgwick, and the reports of your state board of health or state commissions of water sup- plies. 190 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT There is now a National Association for Prevent- ing the Pollution of Rivers and Waterways, New York City, which will tell you about work done in all parts of the country about filtration plants, how to compel factories to purify their waste water and sewage, how to prevent one city from defiling com- mon streams, how to patrol water sheds and how to administer clean water supplies. Insuring Clean Milk Voting will not insure clean milk. Long after model laws have been passed, model dairies established and model men put in charge, milk will be unclean unless day by day routine ad- ministration of the health department is efficient. There is almost no limit to the barnyard filth that a baby can safely consume with its milk if it gets the milk within an hour after milking. The reason for this is that the injurious germs that go with filth into milk have not the time to develop before the baby is asked to digest them. On the other hand no degree of cleanliness in trans- porting milk uniced, or in caring for it uniced at the milk shop and in the home, will undo the harm done by neglect when milking, if a period of thirty hours or more has intervened between milking the cow and feeding raw milk to the baby. It takes whole books to tell what one ought to know about clean milk. More of these books will be written within the next twelve months than during the twelve preceding years because the whole country INSURING CLEAN MILK 191 is now alive to the dangers of unclean milk. Those who want exhaustive information should write to the United States Surgeon General and secure a book called Milk and Its Relation to Public Health. To find what different cities are doing to keep their milk clean write to The Survey, New York City. The New York Milk Committee has proceedings of two conferences on milk, one in 1906 and one in December, 1910. At the second conference men of national and international reputation discussed the following topics : Why Facts Should Accompany Requests for Funds; The Future of the Milk Supply from the Producer's Standpoint; The Transportation and Care of Milk by Railroad Companies; Some Essentials for the Solution of the City Milk Problem not Sufficiently Considered; The Milk Problem in America To-day; The Relation of the Purity of Milk Products to the Public Health; The Bearing of Communicable Diseases on the Control of Public Milk Supplies; Bacterial Contamination of Milk as a Cause of Disease; The Real Need for Pasteurization; Milk Supplies of Villages. The Present Method of Sanitary Control of New York's Milk Supply With Suggested Plan for Improve- ment; Usefulness of Milk Standards and Limita- tions; The Sanitary Side of the Milk Question; The Utility of Laboratory Milk Standards; The Milk Supply of Connecticut; Standards of Milk Utensils; Milk Standards and How to Enforce Them; State Regulation of Milk Prices; The Pres- ent System of Milk Control; The Necessity of a Congress for the Improvement of the National Milk Supply. 192 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Minimum Tests for Milk A few simple points need to be remembered by those who cannot go into the subject scientifically. 1. A nursing baby may get unclean milk if the baby's mouth is not kept clean and if the mother's breast is not kept clean 2. No amount of cleanliness at the dairy, creamery or milk shop can make milk safe if the home utensils, the bottle or nipples are not clean 3. It is impossible to keep milk clean when sold in bulk and opened frequently in a store, dipped out by a dripping hand just taken from the prune box, unclean coat, shaking hands, etc. 4. No milk should be sold for babies except in bottles marked Baby Milk 5. It should be unlawful to have milk for sale at a temperature above fifty degrees 6. Creameries where milk is mixed and shops where milk is sold should be clean 7. Every dairy in every state should have its in- dividual score card as should other places that sell milk 8. The scoring of these places where milk is pro- duced and sold should be published so that every one may know how safe his milk supply is, as is done in Montclair, N. J. 9. Frequent chemical tests should be made of milk to see whether it is unclean or clean 10. Frequent bacteriological tests should be made of milk to see whether it has disease germs; no milk is safe even for pasteurization which has more than 100,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter before or more than 10,000 after pasteurization 11. Unless reports of milk inspectors are carefully MINIMUM TESTS FOR MILK 193 scrutinized by their superior officers and are studied by the public, inspection itself will be careless and unclean milk tolerated 12. Laws regarding clean milk will not be enforced if courts fail to punish those violating the milk law 13. Wholesalers generally pay the fines of retailers arrested for selling unclean or adulterated milk 14. Claims that clean milk cost fifteen or twenty cents a quart should not be believed until better evidence is given than is usually given by those who wish to charge these prices and to oppose milk laws 15. Skimmed milk is not necessarily less clean or less nourishing because it has been skimmed, but skimmed milk should never be sold without a label clearly stating that it is skimmed milk 16. Pasteurization is being " accelerated " by in- terests wishing to sell both pasteurizers and milk otherwise unfit for consumption 17. Pasteurization does not protect against un- cleanliness and infection after pasteurizing 18. For information as to how compulsory pas- teurization works and how much it costs, how it can be done on a small scale and how safely done on a large scale, the best present source of in- formation is the Chicago department of health Interesting the Grocer in Clean Milk There are few ways in which the individual citizen can be of greater service to her neighbor than in making sure that the community milk supply is clean. Our grocers are our neighbors and cannot refuse to have the facts known regarding precau- tions taken to protect the lives of their neighbors' 194 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT babies. Nor will they refuse to cooperate with those who may wish to interest them in the crusade for clean milk. Teaching Mothers How to Keep Milk Clean The most comprehensive tests of instruction of mothers at milk stations and by house to house visiting by nurses and physicians will be made in the summer of 1911 by New York City's department of health cooperating with the New York Milk Com- mittee, the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society and other agencies having milk stations and diet kitchens. Careful statistical record will be kept with regard to keeping milk clean and to saving babies. Never before was so much undertaken. In addition to $40,000 spent by the city on fifteen new milk stations the New York Milk Committee has tried to raise $150,000 to make sure that every single district in Manhattan shall have the benefit of the latest method of insuring clean milk and informing mothers. Do you know what a lactometer is for testing pres- ence of water in milk? Have you ever used one? Have you ever had samples of milk bought for your own house analyzed by a chemist to see that it had no less than \Z% of solids with 3.25% of fats? Have you ever had bacteriological tests to discover the presence of diseased germs, and to reject all milk with over 100,000 bacteria per cubic centi- meter? MILK SCORES " 195 Is it anybody's business in your city to keep watch over the purity of the milk supply? Is your state board of health shifting all responsi- bility for clean milk to city departments of health? Can tuberculous cattle be used in your state? Are tests made of all dairies ? What proportion of your children have the bene- fit of so-called certified milk, known to be pro- duced under sanitary conditions? How far is your baby from your milk supply ? Can you see how breast-fed babies may get unclean milk ? Do people in your community take it for granted that pasteurized milk will stay clean even if ex- posed to unclean air or poured into unclean bot- tles? Have your women's clubs ever helped the depart- ment of health secure funds in its budget for in- specting milkshops or for instructing mothers in the care of milk? Do your courts consider the sale of unclean milk a minor offense? Has anybody ever made a statement showing for the whole year how violations of the milk law are treated by your courts? Score Card the Test of Clean Milk If you want to make the kind of test of your local dairies that is being made by Montclair, N. J., Cleve- land, Ohio, New York City and others, write to the United States Bureau of Animal Industry for "milk score cards." You can easily interest your health officers in scoring all dairies that supply your city. If you live in a small town or in the country 196 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT you can easily score nearby dairies or your own farm or milk shop. This score card is important as a means of giving defects their proper proportion. It shows 66 different elements that ought to be kept in mind at the dairy: 30 relating to stable, two to cow-yard, nine to cows, 10 to milkers and milking, four to utensils, seven to milk house and four to water supply. There is a similar division for milk shops. Reports of milk inspections should be so specific as to tell how serious defective conditions were and where. It does no good to have the report for the summer of 1909 published sometime in 1911 as will be the case in New York. Every town ought to know specifically just which dairies will particularly need inspection during the hot summer days. The reports of work done by the department should show not merely how many dairies had conditions contrary to law (such as ice boxes badly drained, ice boxes unclean, stores unclean, utensils unclean, milk not properly cooled), but action taken such as destruc- tion of milk, the notices issued to dealers to drain and clean their ice boxes, to clean stores, etc., notices complied with, criminal actions begun against the dealers for selling adulterated milk or for selling without permit, etc., plus the result of such actions. Having milk inspectors does not mean milk inspec- tion and will not mean protection of milk supply unless the public compares work needed with work done. STATES SHOULD INSPECT DAIRIES 197 State's Responsibility for Clean Milk States, through their departments of health and divisions of dairy inspection, should see to it that no matter how far from a city a dairy may be, it must be kept clean. It is not fair to the small cities in a state for one or two large cities to assume a fractional part of the responsibility for inspecting dairies, thus encouraging the state to evade its re- sponsibility for inspecting all dairies. Keeping Babies Alive Voting will not keep babies alive. Few duties of government are so inefficiently dis- charged as woman's duty to give babies good health and to keep them in good health. One baby out of six or seven in poorer districts will die. In the districts able to pay for pure milk, trained nurses and efficient medical care practically all babies 14 %5o will survive to the second year. No better index will ever be found of a community's intelligence and its conscience than its success in keeping its babies alive. In the civilized world, ex- cluding China, 3,500,000 children will die this year under one year of age; 76 per 1,000 births in New Zealand, 153 in Japan, 161 in Italy, 165 in the United States, 197 in the German Empire, 263 in Russia, 326 in Chili. A mother's first duty is to learn how to keep her own baby alive and her second duty is to see that 198 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT other mothers in her community learn how to keep their babies alive. How many babies are born in your city or state each year? How many die before reaching the first birthday? Did you know that the critical time is the first three months? Who is paying any attention to this subject in your city? Are they working with the board of health? Are they working all the year around? Have you ever contributed to this work? When do you hear most about it; in the winter time when they are raising money or in the sum- mer time when babies are dying? What does it cost to bury a baby? What does it cost to save a baby? Is anybody besides the undertaker, i. e., the milk man or the owner of unsanitary tenements, mak- ing money out of infant mortality in your city or conditions encouraging it? Could you, without further instruction, care for a sick baby? Is milk sold in bulk or in bottles? Is your milk delivered at a temperature above fifty degrees ? Is there a law in your state compelling milk to be kept below fifty degrees? Is it practical for the poor of your neighborhood to have ice? Are mid-wives supervised in your community? Do you know what chance a baby has to live if placed in an orphan or foundling asylum? Is anybody trying to persuade mothers to nurse KEEPING BABIES ALIVE 199 their babies instead of feeding them from the bottle? Do you know that breast-fed babies are far less apt to be sick or die? Is the placing out of infants in homes properly supervised by your state board of health? Do you see the futility of trying to keep babies alive if mothers themselves are under-nourished and too weak to care? Are baby farms permitted or prohibited in your state? If experience has proved anything, it is that there is no way known to man by which unintelligent care will keep babies alive, excepting the one baby in three which apparently will live in spite of the worst neglect that ignorance seems capable of. Un- clean milk will poison, unclean milk receptacles will poison, unclean bodies will poison, unclean air will poison. Any remedy for infant mortality which tries to make uncleanliness safe is certain to fail. You cannot vote air clean. You cannot vote mothers intelligent. You cannot compel mothers to become intelligent. But you can conduct an educa- tional campaign that will make it hard for mothers to be unintelligent and gradually make it easy for everybody to know what saves babies and what de- stroys them. You can even put the pacifier out of business by showing mothers that it causes more crime and trouble than it prevents. Learn and pass on to others " The Aggravating Pacifier ": 200 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Baby cries, Nurse unwise Rubber nipple pacifies. No more riot Baby quiet Quite content with rubber diet Hearts like lead News is spread Baby pacified and dead ! Fractional interest in a fraction of the babies a fraction of the time is a disease to run away from, but it generally comes with the summer exodus of life savers so at the very time when need is most urgent " everybody is away." Babies cannot be saved by parlor talks, club meet- ings and conferences on baby saving. Again there is a wide belief that it is better for babies of the very poor to die than to live. I have heard it expressed by men and women who give their best thought to private philanthropy. There are three answers to this pessimistic philosophy: 1. They do not know the happiness of the so-called poor mother or the wretchedness that a death brings ; 2. " You cannot run the world that way " ; 3. Only by working and fighting for the apparently hopeless can we do our duty by the seemingly hopeful. "The trail of the little white hearse" should be marked out for every city on a pin map showing each house where an infant died. This is a short cut to a clear story of unsanitary conditions, unin- formed or ignorant mothers, and ill-adjusted eco- nomic conditions. OFFICIAL BABY SAVING 201 The mother who does not worry when her baby is sick because she has had eighteen, as we found last summer in Hoboken, is not heartless and does not fail to miss her baby. She simply has a wrong conception of Providence. Saving Babies Through Official Agencies While scores of books have been written about keeping babies alive it has received too little atten- tion from government. Private charities cannot do the work. The only agency that can do all that needs to be done is the department of health. How much it knows and whether it acts up to its knowl- edge is of the utmost importance to learn at first. Do not be contented with what private charity de- mands or with educational meetings. Be sure the best arrangements have been made for the best work by your community to be done at the time of greatest danger during the summer months. Make private effort supplement, not supplant government effort. "Won't you move a little faster?" said the baby to the state, *' I keep right on a-dying, and it's getting pretty late ; All sorts of folks are working hard to give me half a chance But their work is worse than wasted until you join the dance. Will you, won't you, won't you, will you, will you join th? dance ? Won't you, will you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance? " For a hundred folks are working, each one shouting his own praise, And they overlap and underlap a hundred different ways, They need some organizing, you can see that at a glance; And you're the one to do it, so why don't you join the dance Will you, won't -you, won't you, will you, will you join the dance? WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Won't you, will you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance? " An inefficient government can make more babies ill Than all the private charities can cure or ever will; YOU'RE the only one can keep them well from cradle up to pants, It's up to you ! you'd do it too, if you'd only join the dance. Will you, won't you, won't you, will you, will you join the dance? Won't you, will you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance? " Health departments should instruct not only by pamphlets, but by word of mouth from mother to mother, house to house visits by nurses, by stories told through the press. Two years ago a story appeared in the New York newspapers, " What is the Matter with Brooklyn?" pointing out that more babies were dying in proportion to the population in Brooklyn than Manhattan. A Brooklyn paper printed an attack " upon those who would slander Brooklyn." The next morning the college girl who wrote the story for the Manhattan paper came to my office and said I must give her more facts about baby deaths in Brooklyn. I asked why and she said : " I went home last night and asked father who wrote that editorial in the Brooklyn paper. He said he had written it." She had then told him, " You will have to take it back because I wrote that Manhattan story and it is true." As the outcome of this domestic competition the father was compelled by facts to yield and began writing editorials to interest the peo- ple of Brooklyn in doing their own part and in get- PUBLICITY SAVES BABIES 203 ting the health department to do its part in saving its babies. In the summer of 1910 New York City's death rate jumped up early in June. By the end of June newspapers day after day were announcing heavy mortality and prophesying continued mortality be- cause of continued torrid weather. " Everybody was away." Even the supervisors of the health de- partment were away. But the newspapers were not away and there was no reason why the community should have been led to believe that of course babies must die because it was hot. When the newspapers changed, the public changed and fewer babies died. For example, one story told that in the baby clinic at The Nurses' Settlement not one baby had died from intestinal diseases among eighty-five very sick, undersized, near-to-death babies. The newspapers with largest circulation The Evening World and Evening 1 Journal 'printed special stories each day, several of them over the signatures of the commissioner of health and leading baby specialists. The public came to see that not only could babies be saved, but it was a disgrace to have them dying at the rate which obtained late in June. Some Tests of Success in Saving Babies Get in touch with the head of your local health department and see whether he knows where the babies are, what the milk conditions are and what 204 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT he is doing to see that there are clean milk, clean babies and informed mothers. Because he is spending money it need not follow that he is saving babies. Do not let him claim credit for reducing mortality when weather conditions are favorable and then blame the weather when deaths increase. Do not forget either that the test of efficiency in, health work is reduction in sickness, not merely re- duction in mortality. To keep a baby alive but so weak as later to be easy prey to measles or scarlet fever is not much better than to let it die. Write to the secretary of your state board of health, who is sure to know the latest experiments and practices in saving babies. You do not need to know his name, and he always has headquarters at the state capitol. Ask the United States Bureau of Census at Wash- ington for a pamphlet of fifteen pages dealing with the causes of infant mortality and prepared for the American Association for the Prevention of Infant Mortality. (Headquarters, Baltimore, Md.) Homes vs. Hospitals as Baby Savers At New York City's budget exhibit there was a large pin map, already referred to, showing just where babies had died during the summer. Large patches of blue pins showed deaths in hospitals and foundling asylums. Babies die in hospitals partly because they go there too late and partly because babies cannot be saved on the congregate plan. HELPING EXPECTANT MOTHERS 205 Write to The Survey, New York City, for informa- tion about the Speedwell Society which puts babies in country or suburban homes instead of in hos- pitals, having itinerant nurses and physicians who both tend to the baby and instruct an ever-increas- ing number of mothers and housewives how to save other mother's babies. Write to the State Charities Aid Association, New York City, for the story of institution babies saved by placing them in properly supervised homes, thus reducing the number of deaths from 96% to less than 12%, or to that point where to-day a foundling or deserted baby in New York City stands a better chance of living to its second year than a tenement baby born into a loving home. Caroline Rest School for Expectant Mothers One of the most interesting efforts to teach mothers how to save their own babies is Caroline Rest at Hartsdale, N. Y. It was founded and endowed in memory of his mother by a retired merchant and bachelor. It takes about eighty mothers just after leaving maternity wards of hospitals or while con- valescing at home and gives them two weeks or more of country air and beautiful surroundings, plus in- struction to give them strength for home duties and the necessary skill in saving their own babies. In addition, nurses are sent to expectant mothers so that the training begins in time to affect the mother's strength and the first days of the baby's life. Beau- 206 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT tifully illustrated pamphlets of educational character can be obtained by writing to Caroline Rest, Harts- dale, N. Y. Insuring Pure Foods Voting will not detect impure foods. It is good for public morals to reflect that the only foods in which New York City's rotten eggs could be profitably used were angel food and lady fingers. After laws have prohibited the sale of impure foods traffic in impurities will thrive unless there is effi- cient and continuous inspection. Baking powder will be adulterated with ground rock ; vinegar will be com- pounded of dilute acetic acid colored with burnt sugar; pure maple syrup from Canada sap will have only ten per cent, of maple ; coffee will be made from wheat middlings; and castor oil pills without any castor oil. The advertisement of foods in public papers and magazines and on billboards can be studied and com- pared with the articles actually sold. State health de- partments and the national bureau of food and drug inspection will inspect and report whether foods are honestly advertised. Laws should be secured and en- forced which prohibit the telling of untruths in con- nection with foods or medicines. Where condemned foods go is also important. Ob- viously it does no good to have vegetables or fruits condemned on the north side of a dock and then, in exchange for a bribe, admitted on the south side as safe. PURE FOODS AND DRUGS 207 Is there regular inspection of food by your state or by your city health department? Do you know how many inspectors there arc in your city or state? Are there any women inspectors? Have the inspectors other work to do? Do the courts inflict heavy penalties or merely rep- rimands for violating food laws? Are quarterly reports made to the public? Do the newspapers print these reports? Do the reports show how many violations were dis- covered, where, in whose shops, and what was done about them? What interest have the women of your city taken in food inspection? Is your milk supply better inspected than other foods ? Insuring Pure Drugs Voting will not detect impure drugs. Can you think of a more criminal act than manu- facturing adulterated and impure drugs? The campaign against impure drugs in New York was started after Dr. Herman M. Biggs discovered (in time) that a drug given to a private patient as a last hope to save the patient's life was without power and a fraud. Almost worse than making impotent drugs is put- ting vicious drugs like cocaine and morphine into sup- posedly harmless and helpful cures for headache, in- digestion, insomnia, etc. Regret as we may the large amounts ignorantly spent on drugs, and hope as we may for a time when 208 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT, fresh air, clean water, natural living, rest and exer- cise will drive most drugs out of existence, we must be fair minded enough to admit that if we buy drugs we are entitled to protection against impurity and fraud. A good place to start in your community is with the drugs given babies and children. Your health of- ficer has authority to test these and other drugs. If he does not make regular inspections, write to the state board of health and ask it to make inspections. Is there inspection of drugs in your town? Do you know patent medicine fiends? Do you know total abstainers from alcoholic bever- ages who are addicted to patent medicines con- taining alcohol or morphine? Are your drug stores permitted to sell cocaine snuff to children or adults? Are there physicians who, for twenty-five cents, will sign prescriptions enabling drug fiends to secure drugs? Do you know mothers or nurses who pacify the baby with drug frauds? The Great American Fraud: Patent Medicines Voting will not expose patent medicine wrongs. Ethics forbids a reputable physician or dentist from doing educational work through paid advertisements. To this fact is largely due the success of " The Great American Fraud." After reading the Carnegie Foundation's report on the large number of medical colleges that ought to be abandoned and the low standard of training in other colleges that are worth INEFFICIENT MEDICAL PRACTICE 209 saving, one suspects that patent medicines ought to be called not the but another great American fraud. The fight against patent medicine frauds has been hampered by inefficient medical practice. What pri- vate medicine fraud could disillusion the layman more than these two experiences? A professional man had a sore on the bottom of his foot. Two well-known physicians ad- vised him to go to an orthopedic specialist. For eight weeks the specialist bandaged his foot first daily and then three times a week so as to raise the sore from contact with the shoe, until the bandage hurt worse than the sore. Finally a woman hospital superintendent said, " I wish you would go to a good old-fashioned corn doc- tor." He went to a chiropodist. In one week the wart (which had been steadily growing from self infection for nearly three months) was en- tirely removed. A woman suffered for three years from " sciatic rheumatism," " gas on the stomach " and " nervous prostration." Her trouble was almost anything that famous specialists could pronounce. Each remedy was less effective than the last. She was put on a diet, advised to lie in bed mornings and avoid evening parties and particularly to avoid work. After three years of constantly losing ground a wholesome, prac- tical nurse said: " If you won't tell the doctor I believe I can do something for you which will help you." She employed an ancient remedy irrigation only making it effective instead of futile, and the problem which had defied medical skill disappeared. 210 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The way out is not to discourage advertising by frauds, but to compel advertising by health depart- ments, hospitals, etc., of the proper treatment of dis- eases, location of dispensaries, right methods of living, etc. The truth should be made better known than frauds. Compare the money spent in advertising patent medicines in your town for curing tuberculosis, cancer, asthma, dyspepsia, eye troubles and sex dis- eases with the money spent for dispensary or other philanthropic care of these same ailments. In addi- tion to the obvious advertising matter look for read- ing notices, i. e. advertising matter so worded as to give the impression of a news item or editorial com- ment, but as a concession to ethics branded as a biased, partisan, paid-for statement by some mark like adv. or .*. You must look hard for these brands for they will be as small as possible. Cut out for a period of a month all these adver- tisements. You can learn from the newspapers the cost of advertising per inch. At the end of the month count the number of inches for each cure; multiply the cost per inch by the total number of inches, thus getting the total outlay by those who ad- vertise. While this will be but a small part of the money spent by the poor on these remedies you will probably find that the cost of advertising alone greatly exceeds the amounts given by private phi- lanthropists to cure these same diseases. If you carry the test on for a year you will have " GREAT AMERICAN FRAUD a story certain to prove interesting to some news- paper or magazine in your state. A crusade against frauds under the heading of this chapter was conducted in Collier's Weekly which be glad to send you information. The United States bureau of food inspection and your local health department will give you the truth about the contents of different remedies. To fight the proposed national bureau of health, frauds of various kinds, combining with some well- meaning people who feared that a strong national bureau would injure Christian Science, osteopathy, etc., spent nearly $1,000,000 in 1910. The value of publicity to frauds and misdemeanants is further illustrated by the fact that when the New York Herald was prosecuted and fined $25,000 by the United States Government for printing indecent notices, it was estimated that the annual loss to that one paper alone was $200,000. Do not be surprised to find that some patent medi- cine frauds have relations with your health depart- ment by which they secure addresses of people known to have tuberculosis or of mothers of young babies. This relation you can stop. If a number of women will work together you can also persuade your newspapers to stop spreading dis- ease and encouraging dishonesty by printing fraudu- lent notices. Similarly you can persuade your drug- gists to flaunt truths instead of frauds in their win- dows. Most important of all, however, substitute for patent medicine advertisements, advertising through WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT health remedies, through the proper teaching and practice of hygiene in the public schools and through an efficient department of health. Woman's Responsibility for Factory Conditions Ballots do not note factory conditions. No woman has a right to be happy or comfortable unless she has positive evidence that the conditions in the stores and workshops and factories which sup- ply her with necessities, comforts and luxuries are decent, comfortable, sanitary, and from the stand- point of factory workers compatible with " life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." This does not mean that every single purchaser must herself visit all the stores and factories with which she is indirectly in contact. It does mean, how- ever, that she should answer for herself the follow- ing questions asked in a recent appeal by the New York State Consumers' League: Are you interested to help make industrial condi- tions better for the great army of women and children who work in factories and stores? Are you interested in shorter hours, better air, seats for tired workers, Saturday half-holidays and a summer vacation for all employes? Are you interested to put a stop to overtime work for women and girls with its physical and moral risks? Are you interested to help abolish the Sweating System in manufacture? Are you interested to help enforce laws that pre- vent the corruption of children in night trades? FACTORY EVILS AND TESTS 213 Are you interested in wise legislation for the fu- ture of our working girls and women? It means further that she can be the means of making available to all of her neighbors through public and school libraries the literature published by the National Consumers' League, the Women's Wel- fare Auxiliary of the National Civic Federation, and the official reports showing the efficiency or inef- ficiency of the inspection service by the city and state forces which are responsible for sanitary conditions of workshops. Some Tests for the Woman Purchaser The only way the individual can protect herself is to see that the whole of society is protecting each worker through the only agencies which represent all and each, state, city and' national governments. Try the following steps: 1. See whether there is a special division or de- partment whose business it is to know and to report the truth about all factory conditions and to correct unsanitary or unsafe conditions in your community 2. Learn from its reports whether it seems to be business-like and interested or perfunctory 3. Through a committee see for yourself typical factory conditions and thus test the official in- spection 4. Get from the National Consumers' League (New York City), the cards with which you may " score " the principal shops and factories in your own city. Only an exceptional business- WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT man or manufacturer can afford to refuse to permit an intelligent, earnest committee of women to make an inspection of his store or fac- tory or dairy. Public sentiment will, howi\vr, support a refusal to have busy-bodies, without a programme, come into a man's business, ask irrelevant questions and make inaccurate reports The Consumers' League card calls for yes and no answers to questions such as these: Are children under sixteen employed? Are goods taken from the factory at any stage for work? At what hours does the work start and end, morn- ings, afternoons and Saturdays? To what hour is night work continued? What is the supper period ? Is the factory properly lighted? Is it clean ? Are seats provided with backs? Are the hours posted? Is machinery properly guarded? Are there fire escapes according to law? Is the ventilation good or bad? Are there separate toilets for women? Are these clean, dirty, in working order? Are there separate dressing rooms for women? Are these clean or dirty? Find out whether the courts help or block the en- forcement of the law regarding sanitary conditions in factories. Then tell the truth about the action of magistrates and the public through the news- papers. Public sentiment will compel enforcement of the law if the truth is generally known. Magis- DO COURTS BEFRIEND EVILS? 215 trates are very sensitive to criticism by the people they know best, therefore make their acts known to those who suffer* as well as to your city's " best peo- ple." How many violations were reported? How many violators were held for trial? How prompt was the trial? How many violators were dismissed without trial? How many were fined? How much? Did trial result in correction of conditions? Few investments of women's energy have brought such large results as those which have been given to telling definite facts about the working conditions in shops and factories. A good way to begin is with the establishments maintained by the public, such as schools and other public buildings. Take next churches and theaters. Once having learned to score the physical conditions of such buildings, it will be easy to step over into private industries for similar definite tests. For working material and information address the President of the State Federation of Women's Clubs ; the National Consumer's League, New York City, which is now preparing a hand book of instructions for its members ; the Woman's Welfare Auxiliary of the National Civic Federation, New York City; Miss Frances Kellor, bureau of industry, 40 E. 29th St., New York City ; Mrs. John K. Ottley, Atlanta, Ga. 216 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Some Practical Tests for Factory Women Do not try to be ultra-scientific and get all the facts there are, but look for symptoms of greatest danger, such as are suggested in the following set of questions which the Woman's Trade Union League, New York City, asked all women workers in New York's factories to answer just after the Newark fire in which a number of working girls perished: Name of your factory. Number and street of your factory. What is your trade? How many floors in your building? On which floor do you work? How many people in your room? How many windows in your room? Are windows barred or nailed down? Are doors locked during working hours? Do doors open in or out? How many fire escapes are there? Are they in rear or front? How many staircases? Are they in rear or front? Are staircases wood, iron or stone? Is the way to fire escape clear or obstructed? Are halls dark or lighted? Are You Helping to Stop Child Labor? Voting cannot stop child labor. An educator said to the Illinois State Teachers' Association in December, 1910, that for children from twelve to fifteen years of age in American schools the greatest need is for an eight-hour day CHILD LABOR EVILS 217 twelve months in the year, twenty-five hundred school hours a year for each child. And this after a crusade against work for children under sixteen! The advantage of being altruistic by way of in- fluencing government has never been more clearly shown than in the work of the national and state child labor committees. Women enthusiastically re- mind us of the admirable work done by women in securing the passage of child labor laws in many states. But the real secret of the success of this anti-child-labor crusade is in a small nucleus ever active, always well informed, always definite in its suggestions, always working through existing agencies and upon government, known as the National Child Labor Committee, New York City. If women have responded to the picture of a higher age limit for workers, it was also a woman who said that it was high time children were set to work so as to take them off the street and out of peoples' way. If women promoted the first laws prohibiting child labor, women also evaded the laws for return- ing truants to school while other women spent for- tunes earned by employing and exploiting child labor. The condition of the child, not his place of em- ployment, nor his age, should be women's chief in- terest. Many a factory is more sanitary than the nearest school. Being a grocer's errand boy is safer from the standpoint of health than being a school child in almost any school in this country. Being 218 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT an errand boy is also often a shorter road to educa- tion than attending the nearest school. Wherever the child labor law is enforced and every state should have the standard law promul- gated by the national committee its advocates soon come to see that we must know the teaching and living conditions in our public schools before we can feel justified in compelling a child to go to school at family expense instead of adding to the family income by work. Work is no more incompatible with play than is any other form of confinement. We are beginning to see that confinement in school is of itself no more wholesome than confinement in a workshop and that home work may do as much damage as factory work. Has your state a law preventing child labor under sixteen ? Is it enforced? How many inspectors are there ? Do your school records show how many children there are of the ages twelve, thirteen, fourteen and fifteen and how many of each age are in school and out of school? Do you see that you cannot hope to enforce the child labor laws if your schools are without a proper school census and efficient attendance officers ? Are your attendance officers efficient? Do they reach parochial and private school chil- dren ? Must children of whatever age take physical ex- aminations before being given working papers? Are parents told of physical defects and dangers CONGESTION A CROWD OF GERMS of their children to prevent undue child labor even when permitted by law ? Have your public and school libraries the literature and laws of child labor? Has your woman's club a committee following the enforcement of the law? Housing Evils Voting will not locate housing evils. Wherever man is there is the possibility of hous- ing evils. The worst form of congestion is a crowd of germs, not a crowd of people. A tenement bedroom without a window is no worse than a mansion bedroom with heavy draperies be- fore the window. The last conference on housing evils which I heard was in a room overlooking a college campus. Every sort of remedy was suggested for congestion in big cities. Yet the air in that room was worse than could be found in the average tenement house or sweat shop in the worst congested portions of New York. No house for living, sleeping, working should be built in country or city that does not pro- vide light, and moving clean air. This means build- ing departments that inspect plans before houses or stores or factories are erected; plans for school houses should be subject to such inspection by a central state board. For information as to housing evils in this country and abroad, tenement house construction, building 220 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT laws, methods of inspection, etc., address the National Housing Association, and the Committee on Congestion, New York City. The former adver- tises its willingness to help you. Do not permit your local enthusiast on housing evils to deflect your interest in public affairs from such questions as budgets, building inspection, public schools, health management, and supervision of dwell- ings to the erection of a handful of model tenements. As a part of a general social programme model houses are very important. As a substitute for a general programme they are utterly inadequate. Fight Housing Evils at Home The best cure for housing evils is knowledge and practice in breathing fresh air, plus earning capacity. Few philanthropists will try seriously to stop housing evils who cover their own heads with blankets or who shut their own windows to keep out the night air. It is folly to try to get up public excitement about bad air in working districts when churches and theaters and sick rooms are filthy with unclean air. The way to fight bad air is to call it dirty air. While it will take years to readjust industrial con- ditions, it need take but weeks or months to secure adequate ventilation of public assembly rooms, school buildings, churches and one's own residence, work room and sleeping room. A wealthy woman once told me she was a " fresh air fiend." She was tremendously interested in the REMEDIES FOR OVERCROWDING housing question. Business sent me to a home that was back to back with this woman's home. Her own bedroom looked out upon an open yard with one or two trees. At night her maid or herself would open a window about six inches, then close the wooden shut- ters on the inside and then draw the curtain down to the bottom of the shutter. Verily, she was a " fresh air fiend." When I cited this case to a college friend, she said she had recently gone into the country with another " fresh air fiend " to spend the night. A flood of cold air was let into the room and the windows left wide open. Although my friend nearly froze to death she was glad she was counted as a fresh air enthusiast. When early in the morning she woke up she found that the propagandist in the next bed had her head entirely covered with woolen blankets. An- other " fresh air fiend " ! Causes of Overcrowding and Remedies New York City's congestion committee persuaded Mayor Gaynor to appoint a city commission on con- gestion of population. After working about a year this commission reported with respect to congestion and room overcrowding under five headings: (1) conditions; (2) effects; (3) causes; (4) methods adopted by American and foreign cities to prevent; (5) recommendations for relieving the present and future congestion and room overcrowding. You will do well to secure a copy of this report. It will suggest a number of evils to avoid in your 222 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT own community if it is a growing city. Adding to it information which the National Housing Association will send you, you should be in a position to make a survey of the housing conditions of your own community and of its housing laws and methods of administration that in a short time would furnish the basis for preventive and constructive work if such is needed. Suburban communities will be interested in the proposals to limit the height of tenement houses in outlying districts, ( 1 ) "to the width of the widest street upon which it stands," and (2) to three stories no matter what the width of the widest street. Are Your Streets Clean? Ballots cannot clean streets. Better than almost anything else do streets illus- trate how far we have come from the time when hav- ing one's own home scrupulously clean discharged one's duty as a citizen. Even small towns and country districts are no longer safe in relying upon individual cleanliness. Self government by children in schools, or chil- dren's street cleaning brigades by whatever names, will do much to train children in proper standards of cleanliness for streets. There is no more useful motive than the desire to look neat and prosperous. This aesthetic motive is strengthened by the knowledge that dirt and litter will foster disease. THERE ARE CLEAN STREETS Make It Easy to Keep Streets Clean When is a street clean? Does cleanliness of street affect self-respect? Do you agree with Professor S. N. Patten, the economist, that the quickest way to get clean streets in the uncleanest districts of a city would be to give every girl and woman in those dis- tricts a beautiful white dress which she will want to keep clean? Have you wastebaskets on your street? Do you personally want clean streets for health reasons or beauty reasons ? What is your own share of the cost of street clean- ing? Would you be willing to pay more? Have you tried to stimulate pride of efficiency in your steet cleaners by giving medals or other forms of " bouquets " or rewards ? Do travelers returning to your city contrast its unclean streets with the cleaner streets of nearby or urban cities? Is there any reason why Englishmen or Germans should be cleaner in Birmingham and Berlin than in Boston and Buffalo? But it must be made easy to keep streets and al- leys clean. A woman, who more than any other in- terested a certain great city in clean streets, for years succeeded in preventing the placing of cans on the street for receiving newspaper wrappings, ba- nana peels and other waste matter. Why? On the ground that people must be taught to take such things home. WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The trouble with this puritan philosophy is that people do not want to carry things around with them all day out of a love for civic order. Just as policemen make order easy by being around as reminders, so wastebaskets inhibit a de- sire to throw on the walks and in the streets those things which can be easily placed in a receptacle. Fortunately commerce caters to this need and has for sale numerous receptacles within the reach of any neighborhood. Sprinkling and flushing the streets at common cost, removing the garbage at common cost, cleaning out- houses at common cost, and building streets of material that make them easy to clean are all impor- tant steps. Many cities and towns neglect street cleaning in the winter or when snow is on the ground ; hence, con- ditions that would be intolerable if they could be more easily seen are permitted to grow worse and worse, until, as Paul West says : We have to slop and slush Through oceans of miasmic mush And dirt and slime and sticking mud That breeds bacteria for our blood, And gives us grip and shiv'ring chills And all the other human ills, And makes us madly rage and roar: "Say, what do we have street-cleaners for?" The preventable and transmissible diseases due to unclean streets may easily cost a community more than cleaning streets. HELP OFFICIALS CLEAN STREETS 225 Helping Officials Keep Streets Clean Some cities have an annual cleaning day, which is unquestionably a splendid thing. But after all, an annual cleaning day for any city where there is a woman's club or where women are able to get around is too much like the monthly bath of the man who " takes one every month whether he needs it or not." A woman's club can be sure that the local public or school library has the latest information on street cleaning and subscribes to one or two journals that give new information. Journals are better than books because they tell of new experiments like the flushing of streets in New York City, which is said to be better and cheaper than sweeping. Besides, the editors of journals, such as The Municipal Jour- not and Engineering News or The Survey, New York City, make it a point to keep in touch with the latest evidence and experience and are glad to answer technical as well as general questions. For the story of women's cooperation in street cleaning address Woman's Municipal League, New York City, or Woman's Municipal League, Boston. Social work with street cleaners will be a good investment. In proportion as they respect their calling will they enjoy it and perform its duties well. A committee can do a great deal whose business it is to make not only an annual tour but a monthly tour of the city streets most apt to be neglected and of 226 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT the alleys, suburbs and ravines where people love to dump the city's waste. Try making pin maps of clean and unclean streets. Where Unclean Streets Are Unforgivable Certain it is that in no community is there the slightest excuse for uncleanliness and lack of order about the buildings owned by the whole community city hall, hospital, board of education building, etc. nor is there any excuse for neglect immedi- ately in front of the door or on the street crossing of a prominent club woman. Some of the uncleanest front yards, back yards, alleys and gutters I ever saw were within a stone's throw of one of the best- known social settlements in the United States. Some of the uncleanest buildings and grounds I ever saw were state houses and city halls, none of which had the excuse of a certain boys' republic, waiting for the citizens to evolve standards of cleanliness. Two Street Cleaning Jingles Utilize the newspaper. Dirt makes news. Pro- tests against dirt make news. Ways of preventing dirt make news. If your water department refuses to allow flushing of streets, try this : Mother, may I go clean the streets? Yes, my darling daughter, Go out and clean with all your might, But don't use any water ! Utilize your schools. Interest children in the many ways in which dirt murders. Work out healthgrams A STREET SURVEY such as are being spread broadcast through Michigan by the state board of health and give prizes, or get your newspapers to offer prizes for health jingles like this: Whenever you spit, whenever you sneeze, Whenever your rugs you beat, When you scatter dust with a feather broom And shake it out in the street, When rubbish you pile upon the road, When ash barrels have no top, You're poisoning the air for somebody's lungs, And it's time that you should stop. Sanitary Survey of Streets Are the streets in front of your house clean? Are the streets in front of your business place clean ? Are the streets in your crowded districts cleaned daily? Are the streets in your crowded districts cleaned weekly ? Do you know why? Are there holes in your streets? Have you surface drainage? Have you receptacles on the streets for waste paper and other refuse? Are your streets cleaned in the day-time ? or Are your streets cleaned at night? Are the street sweepings put in covered wagons ? er Are the street sweepings put in open wagons and blown out again into people's eyes? Do street cleaners respect their work themselves ? Do you use water for flushing the streets? Do you use sprinklers? Do you see how lighting streets well at night will make it easier to keep them clean? Is there an organized interest among your school 228 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT children like the Waring Brigades for keeping streets clean? Is there any committee or society of women whose special interest is keeping streets clean? Do you see that children would take less interest in keeping streets clean if they are constantly told that streets are unfit places for play? The Disposal of Refuse Voting will not dispose of refuse. The best way to dispose of refuse is not to have any. It is more economical to use up meats and vegetables than to put them in the garbage can. Have you never realized that garbage is one of the chief causes of the higher cost of living? Where open fires are used or furnaces there is every reason for burning waste paper, garbage and other house refuse. Unfortunately we cannot burn ashes, and more and more of us are living where we use gas and electricity and cannot burn our own garbage in the kind of ranges provided. Even here, however, the commercial motive is busy inventing, making and marketing for from $70 to $180 " sani- tary disposal of garbage and refuse where it origi- nates " in home, hospital, school, etc. There can be no city beautiful until there is a city clean. There can be no city clean where it is not made easy to bathe the body, to clean streets and to remove garbage and other waste incident to living and working together. Garbage disposal in cities should be a source of DISPOSING OF REFUSE 229 profit to taxpayers but of not enough profit to be a nuisance. For latest facts address the Municipal Journal and Engineering News, New York City. It is a great mistake to think that the disposing of waste is not a problem in small towns and country districts. Horrible conditions exist in many a back yard, on isolated farms and in country towns, which are apt to be overlooked until some nearby urban dis- trict has typhoid or scarlet fever. Waterworks and running sewers hidden from the eye can do much. Surface sewers should be aban- doned wherever practical. Cesspools should be com- pelled in the country, as in England. Outhouses should be regularly inspected in the country as well as in small towns, as in rural England. Fire is a great cleanser and is practical everywhere. What happens to garbage in your city? Is it permitted to be a nuisance? Is your duty over when your own garbage leaves your premises? Is waste land filled in with garbage permitted with- out disinfection or plowing under? What books on garbage disposal have your city officers or your library? Are the facts about garbage disposal in your city understood by business men and women's clubs? If there is not yet any systematic collection, is the time ripe for a cooperative enterprise? If the subject is one of general complaint, cannot you get the simpler remedies applied at once? 230 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Play in Streets ' The street as a playground has been very much maligned. The wonders and opportunities not the evils of city streets should be emphasized. Children within half a block of playgrounds and parks prefer to play in their own streets a great part of the time. There is a reason. Instead of driving children off the streets because the streets are not fit to play on, the thing to do in most cities is to make the streets fit to play on, keep them clean, reserve some of them from traffic, protect the play enough to prevent unnecessary arrests while securing amends for broken windows and preventing noise near hospitals and sick persons. Little can be accomplished by making a bug-a-boo of public streets. Much can be accomplished by making children proud of their streets, by making the streets some- thing to be proud of, and by recognizing their play possibilities. An examination would probably show that in no cities are streets used for play so much and so well as in those cities which have organized playgrounds and recreation centers. Playgrounds interest chil- dren in play and show them more ways to play. Just as public baths increase rather than decrease the fre- quency of home bathing, so playgrounds increase the number of children who want to play. Children who learn games that can be played in a ten-foot square on a playground under a supervisor can never be SAFE PLAY IN STREETS 231 taught to scorn a fifty-foot street without a super- visor wherever enough get together for those same games. Why not organize brigades for proper street play such as have been successfully organized for cleaning streets? Are you ashamed of your street? Did you ever play on the street? Did you ever enjoy any play more? Is it out of the question to prevent wagon traffic on certain streets after school hours? Did you ever see a more beautiful moon than you can see from a city street? Did the stars ever look bigger and clearer than when viewed from the telescope furnished by tall houses on a street? Can anything keep the outlines of city buildings from being beautiful if the pictures include the curves and colors of the sky ? If you started the gospel of beautiful streets and safe streets, would you do less for play than by protesting against your streets because they are unsafe and unclean? If children were taught that streets should be fit to play in, would they take a greater interest in keeping them clean and beautiful? Play in Parks " Shall sheep or people have the parks?" This question stared at all visitors to New York City's budget exhibit. If sheep use the park the lawns will be kept green and beautiful to look at. If people use the park, the grass will be worn out. The people who ride through parks in automobiles WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT would rather see green grass than bare ground. Most of them would rather see sheep than people. This issue between service and beauty, enjoyment by the few and enjoyment by the many, is one that will last as long as some people walk while others ride in automobiles, or at least until those who ride in automobiles can see more beauty in a family picnic on the green grass than in grazing sheep. In Chicago there is nothing incompatible between park beauty and popularization of parks through baseball, tennis, croquet, public baths and wading pools. Perhaps that is because the popular features have been put in the right place and given an orderly appearance. Compromise is possible everywhere. Every city needs its play space. Quite as much does every city need open spaces where people do not conduct ath- letic contests. It is just as much playing in the best sense of the term to sit on a park bench, rest, read or walk through a park path as to play football. Have plenty of play space outside your big parks so that there will be no temptation to cut up the central park or zoological garden into baseball grounds. Parks should be properly lighted at night to en- courage the right people to come in and the wrong people to stay out. It is easy to waste money on park sites and park expenses. Be sure your parks are costing no more than they should and that park payrolls are not overcrowded. If there is any place in the world where * THE SOUL OF PLAY " 233 laborers should appear to be earning their salaries it is in public parks and playgrounds. For two reports of things to avoid in managing public parks and playgrounds, send to the Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City for Park Ques- tion No. 1 Pertaining to Administration and Account- ing Methods and Park Question No. 2 Pertaining to Revenues and Deposits. The Playground Movement Unless you are very careful your playground movement will become a playground standstill and backward movement and we shall have several hun- dred cities with playground white elephants on their hands because of mismanagement. Few cities whose general government is inefficient will fail to be dis- appointed in the management of their playgrounds. Soul of Play vs. Supervision Do not stifle the soul of play with parallel bars, pe- riodic games, inflexible programmes and expert super- vision. Do not sacrifice the interest of hundreds of children to develop team work. Do not spend $108.00 on a bird house, as did New York's play supervisor last summer, when eight cents worth of material plus children's interest will build one just as good. No open space called a playground, no matter how it is fitted up, can be made into a playground unless children associate a good time with that space. When the National Playground Association was 234 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT started President Roosevelt advised against too much supervision. Observers have discovered the same tendency on the part of children to prefer an old vacant lot to the " organized playground " as to prefer an old rag doll to the modern contraptions that excel in cost, in finery, mechanical adjuncts and everything except in appeal to the child. For a list of 400 cities with playgrounds and their cost, address the National Playground Association, 1 Madison Avenue, New York City. Consult its monthly journal The Playground for advice as to starting a playground movement, what to do, what to avoid and how to get its expert organizer. Special Claims of Sex The same full tide of sex equality which demands the abolition of sex lines demands at the same time recognition of certain sex differences. Wherever women themselves undervalue these sex differences, society must step forward because the whole community bears the burden and pays the penalty for all neglect of these special claims im- posed by nature herself. Girls are going to be mothers. Their strength must be conserved. Girls are subject to tempta- tion ; hence special safeguards should be thrown around their employment with men. Girls should be instructed as to the special moan- ing of their special sex and its relation to the other sex. The age of consent should be raised to eighteen or twenty-one, some would say to fifty. SPECIAL CLAIMS OF SEX 235 Not only civil service but the law for private service should permit the approaching mother to drop her employment for at least two weeks prior to the birth of a child and for at least two weeks after the birth of a child, without loss of employment, and some would say without loss of compensation. Under the leadership of the National Consumer's League forty-one legislatures are being asked in the winter of 1911 to pass a uniform law restricting the hours of women which contains all the best pro- visions now enforced in any state : A working week of six days; not more than sixty hours, preferably fifty-six, fifty-four or forty-eight. Abolition of night work. A closing hour set at six p. M. in the textile industries and not later than ten P. M. in others, following the precedent of Massachusetts. A working day of ten hours, preferably not more than nine or eight. A short working day on Saturday, if pro- vided, should not depend upon longer hours on other working days. Working hours to be posted where the per- sons named in the notice actually do work, not in remote corners ; posted notice to show hours of beginning and hours of stopping for nooa hour; hours of beginning and stopping in the afternoon; presence on premises to constitute prima facie evidence of employment. The words " permitted or suffered to work ' are indispensable in addition to " required " in the prohibiting sections. 236 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT No industries should be exempted in the text bill. The title should state that the measure is to promote the public health (or the health of the employes designated) and must contain every subject mentioned in the text. (The statute of Nebraska is attacked because its title is de- fective. ) These special claims of sex will become more in- sistent with each forward step in abolishing sex lines. The problem is not what ought to be, but how lines may be drawn practically so that mother- hood, sisterhood, girlhood and femalehood may be recognized and protected without doing injustice to mothers and sisters and daughters by overtaxing the male's capacity to carry such portion of the burden as enlightened public sentiment may put on his shoulders. Should women be permitted to clean streets or tend bar or drive public hacks or act as brakemen, policemen, firemen? Should women be allowed to violate nature's laws if they want to? Should women have a lower maximum number of working hours per week than men ? Should all night employment of women away from their homes be prohibited? Should the law regulate the employment of women at home? Are women ever injured by their amusements? Should the law interfere with such amusements by prohibiting, for example, dancing after mid- 3% IS NOT GREATER THAN 100% 237 night or smoking of cigarettes by nervous women ? Should pregnancy or menstruation be made a legal excuse from jury service or from labor con- tracts ? A National Children's Bureau or Nation Wide Work for Children by All Bureaus? " Hypothetical history " is said to be profitless. Because this year is almost always better than last year we are fairly under compulsion to admit that the means used last year were better than other means which were proposed but rejected. " Every little helps a little " is a method we have been using. Why should we not, therefore, continue to use it? It stands to reason, we are told, that we cannot interest all or any considerable part of us in the same part of a problem or in all problems at the same time. By zigzagging, therefore, we are said to make most headway. When some new work is to be done we are asked to concentrate for a short spell on the new enthusiasm. Thus, as a means of helping the nation's children we are asked to demand a children's bureau. Belief in a children's bureau is made a test of our interest in children. Yet think what this proposition means ! We have a United States bureau of education in touch with 20,000,000 children through fifty state superintendents, thousands of city superintendents and 500,000 teachers. We are told we cannot hope 238 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT to help children through this national bureau of edu- cation. It has been inefficient. It has been unpopu- lar. President Roosevelt failed to discover it. Pres- ident Taft did not mention it in his annual message of 22,000 words. It has never had money enough to do enough work. Let us try, therefore, something new. We have various health bureaus which should deal with the welfare of the child before he goes to school and after he leaves. These have been divided, have been inefficient, have tried to do too little, have had too little money. Let us repudiate them and start a new agency. We have a United States bureau of census col- lecting information with regard to child welfare. It has not asked a number of questions which ought to be asked. The general public is not enthusiastic about it. Let us not try to work through this bureau but start an independent bureau. Instead of harnessing to a comprehensive pro- gramme for child welfare, these great national agen- cies and corresponding state and city agencies in all parts of the country, it is proposed that we concen- trate upon a central children's bureau with one-half dozen workers and one or two able investigators. Nothing more characteristic of social uplift work in the past can be found than this effort to do nation- wide service through a new small agency rather than through existing comprehensive agencies. The child is not more important than the parent. The child is not more important than the civilization of which he VITALIZE EXISTING BUREAUS is a part. We cannot afford to relieve the schools, the health bureaus and the census department of their responsibility. Sooner or later we must come to see that 100% is bigger than 2% and that the way to compensate for inefficiency in an agency which em- ploys 500,000 teachers is to make it efficient and not to start a new agency. The energy which has been put into the demand for a separate children's bureau might, if differently directed, have got done all the work planned for that bureau, plus untold other benefits, through existing bureaus that could have been vitalized and strength- ened. Health Jingles " The efficacy of rhymes in education has long been known. They may be used quite as effectively in emphasizing health hints to children. For ex- ample the Bureau of Municipal Research sends us: Mary had a little cold That started in her head, And everywhere that Mary went That cold was sure to spread. It followed her to school one day (There wasn't any rule) ; It made the children cough and sneeze To have that cold in school. The teacher tried to drive it out, She tried hard, but kerchoo ! It didn't do a bit of good. For teacher caught it too. " Now that is the old truth, that combining enter- tainment with instruction facilitates the latter. It 240 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT may not be too late even now, for our board of health to issue its warnings to the people in the form of rhymecfr parodies on well-known verses. Perhaps some of our readers may be able to supply a jingle with a taking lilt which will appeal to our citizens and appreciably influence a good many of them to follow the precautions necessary under present condi- tions. There are no prizes offered, but no doubt many of our readers will be happy to try their hands at a little diversion which may redound to the public good." Editorial, Erie, Pa., Dispatch. But why not offer prizes in your town? A BUDGET EXHIBIT SIGN, 1908 THE S 2,000,000 WHICH WAS WASTED ON BRONX SALARIES COULD RAVE IEEI USED FOR INDUSTRIAL TRAINING OR PLAYGROUNDS Health Needs Furnish Reasons for Efficient Government HOW WOMEN MAY HELP THEIR SCHOOLS, PUBLIC, PRIVATE AND PAROCHIAL What is the Matter with the American Public School? Overworked pupils Overtaxed teachers Overloaded curriculum Obsolete ideals Insufficient salaries Lack of concentration Lack of drill Lack of discipline Lack of symmetry Lack of thoroughness Too many classes Too many books Too many subjects Too many methods Too large classes Composition insufficient Drawing undeveloped Nature study worthless Arithmetic impractical Grammar neglected Culture artificial Moral " dry rot " Pupils indifferent Parents disgusted Multiplicity of studies No originality No system No flexibility No variety No critical faculty Too much undertaken Teaching tangled Teaching inefficient Teaching hurried Teaching perfunctory Confusion System distended Records unreliable Blind experimentalism Retardation unexplained Teachers untrained Too much " school man " Child study abnormal Education superficial Traditions dangerous Congestion of criticism Distraction and dissipation Emotional strain Loss of efficiency Letdown in serious work WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The above " matters " with the public school are not my opinion. They are taken from articles by leading educators of the United States, Germany and England in the Educational Review (published by Columbia University) from 1890-1910. Are similar complaints ever made against your local public schools? Do the Schools Need Outside Help? From three hundred and fifteen city superintend- ents of schools the Bureau of Municipal Research has learned of help given to the schools by citizens other than by service on board of education, by vot- ing and by paying taxes, as shown by the accom- panying diagram: For a detailed report, including answers from several hundred business men, women, dentists, physi- cians and ministers, write for the report on Civic Co- operation with Public Schools, made possible and conducted by a 1910 graduate of Bryn Mawr Col- lege, Miss Elsa Denison of Denver. Reasons for Outside Cooperation with Schools Do you know any city where voluntary interest in public schools is as well organized as inter- est in hospitals, orphan asylums or other private charities ? Should more women care about juvenile courts than about juvenile education? Is there any other field which offers to college women such wide opportunities for civic service as cooperation with public schools? OUTSIDE HELP FOR SCHOOLS 245 "3 a Ill IS >> O P4 rf ^q ff\ Q QQ ^ 1 w rt III 1 ! ^ * S? P 8 -S Ililliil S2 I"" iJ ll So K IH **" * ui ft K z 3 5 3 2| |% i to X H CL 1| | Ul Z Ul O CO *- CO "S. OS 5 ^m UJ z u _ G UJ P < U f to K ft O a. a u. Ul ~s ? = x a o i- a V CO ^^ z f^ ^ tol g o to. I f 6 ^ ^ o O z Z CO ^ i5 STEPS IN MEDICAL i X CO OOO CO^ 00 (MO CO Tit "" JOCO CM CMO O OOrH CO C* "V3 Tjl CNCO O C>T|I CO O Us i Hi s 13 s Oi"l> T-T i-Tctf C0~ ^TrH CO~ ^t- CO ION CO O>t- O rHO_ rH CO t- O 00 rH ^ O r|( Tjf O> 1OO Tjl -OTjIINCO COO COt-O o" ufc^oo ' t-b- eooj iOCM oo*eo ot- COrH t-rH o 00 y to due eceivabl ri a * 09 4> +3 00 fl ^i rM O fl ( to rt a> > w dl a^ !=. : |Ii &^ ' M 4) CD .2 ri :s ffg :S 2^:3 5..S *l| o s funds s liabili LIABILI Warrants payabl Amounts due to Funded debt Total liab Excess of assets 314. WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT established a National Fund for Promoting Efficient Municipal Accounting and Reporting. This fund is administered by the Bureau of Municipal Re- search, 261 Broadway, which will be glad to answer questions. For copies of official statements issued in New York City, blank books and records, write to the City Comptroller, 280 Broadway, New York City. Find out if your mayor and other public officers and boards of trade have been thinking of this sub- ject. Improper bookkeeping will outwork and out- wit the best intentions and efforts of women in gov- ernment. Outwit the Grafter by Accounting Ballots neither graft nor account. Because few men graft while others are looking, the grafter is not an animal to be overtaken, but a condition to be uncovered. Graft presumes the ability to conceal. The great- est of all graft concealers is inefficiency. Waste- graft does more harm than theft-graft. Less graft will be found when graft is looked for than when inefficiency is looked for. Ability to conceal the presence of graft presumes that grafters have accomplices. Sometimes the grafters are on the outside of government, and the accomplices on the inside. Sometimes grafters are on the inside, and the accomplices on the outside. Wherever any considerable amount of graft exists, the chief culprit, the steadiest, most trustworthy ac- OUTWITTING THE GRAFTER 315 complice is the chief victim of graft, namely, the general public. Among the means as yet discovered to keep the general public from being an accomplice in graft, the most effective is a system of records which af- fords current evidence as to the who, current evidence as to the what and current evidence as to the when of orders, contracts, certificates of delivery, inspec- tions, audits, stores on hand, labor rendered, time loafed, shortages concealed, overcharges, etc. Grafters know it is easier to beat the candidates who threaten to put them in jail than the officers who know what is being done with public money. An open public eye rather than an aroused public conscience is essential to the elimination of graft. Falsifying a payroll, if you can prove it, is not dissimilar to forging a bank check. In furnishing evidence, no accounting is adequate which does not account for work done as well as for money spent. Such accounting is just as necessary for counties and states, townships and national de- partments, as for cities. Short Weights and Measures for Women Purchasers When you are told what votes for women will do for government please do not forget that the high morals, good intentions and "housekeeping in- stincts " have not prevented annual short weight and measure losses by woman purchasers greater than their annual savings bank deposits. 316 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT These losses are not a city monopoly, for wherever weights and measures have been examined the same conditions have been found. So universal is the practice that nation-wide en- terprises have manufactured " fast " scales that lie ; measures with false bottoms ; light weights ; cans with false insides; spools of thread %8% short; milk and cream bottles from S% to 6% short. Other common phenomena are yard sticks from one-half to two inches short; counter tacks for measuring dry goods from one-half to two inches too near each other; gasoline pumps giving from 4% to 10% short measure; pound bread loaves weighing 14 ounces instead of 16; ice for charitable institutions and hospitals from 10% to 40% short; coal 10% short, etc. After a report by the Robert L. Stevens Fund for Municipal Research in Hoboken on weights and measures in eleven New Jersey cities, inspectors and officers in several cities not investigated promptly claimed that there were no such evils in their city. But in self-righteous Bayonne a man has just been fined $50 for delivering oil in a can marked five gallons which actually held but three gallons. For years purchasers have been defrauded by this man out of enough every week to pay this $50.00. Of weights, scales, measures and packages tested in Princeton 54% were incorrect. Only two of 19 stores were correct in all tests. Of 39 oil cans found in one inspection in Hoboken all were made of full measure, but the drivers had WOMEN AS PURCHASERS 317 dented in 29 of them so that they were short from six to forty cubic inches. When it was known that the inspectors were about, several drivers undented their cans but could not conceal evidence of intent to de- fraud. Some of them were cheating from $3 to $5 a day without the knowledge either of their em- ployers or their customers. Dealers claim that light weights, fast scales and short measures are invented and used not for the sake of giving the customer short measures, but to give her the impression by heaping up her measure that she is getting a little more than she pays for. So general is 'this bargain seeking instinct that even at ice-cream counters in many cities practically no dishes are found that are not short measure; a girl would rather have a heaped up short dish of ice cream than a level full dish. An ideal customer is one who knows values and tests quantities. But most of us are like the man who was told he could live ten years longer if he would drink buttermilk three times a day : " What's the use of living ten years more if I must drink but- termilk three times a day ! " We would rather lose three or five or ten per cent, on our purchases than go through life questioning the weight or measure of our purchases and suspecting our grocer and butcher. Therefore the need for someone who will be on the watch for all of us all of the time. In cities there should be enough inspectors of weights and measures to make it too risky for dealers to use short scales or false measures or to get false 318 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT results from true scales and measures. In every city some private agency should organize to make occasional tests of the work done by official sealers of weights and measures. This is one of the best fields for women's clubs. It takes but a little time and a few can act for the many. Start with the Sat- urday night and rush hour trading. Superintendent Reichmann of New York State's department of weights and measures, Albany the premier educator in this field has issued in- structions on weights and measures for officials relative to the testing of weights, measures and ap- paratus used in trade. How obvious some of the de- ficiencies are you can gather from one illustration taken from these instructions: Faulty Dry Measures Likely to "be Fownd Wooden measures cut down so as to reduce the depth False bottom, tilting bottom, raised bottom or removable bottom, to decrease the depth The bottom reduced in diameter and the sides relapped. This can be readily detected by the poor nailing Sides broken off Metal measures bent, broken or dented Measures falsely constructed, namely, of wrong capacity Bushel baskets containing only % or % bushel when stricken full. These are very common Six-quart measures. These are illegal and are used for peck or eight-quart measures Double-ended measures, that is those with a TESTING PURCHASES 319 bottom part of the way up, one side being used for one capacity, the other for another. For the New Jersey report illustrated and a copy of the bill embodying the best knowledge and stand- ards to date, address the Secretary of State, Trenton, N. J. Ask the Philadelphia Bureau of Municipal Research for its report on that city. All these docu- ments should be in your public library. If nothing has yet been done in your state, ask the United States bureau of standards, Washing- ton, D. C., what inspections it has made in your state, the character of your laws and your present needs. What is the use of contributing a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to your local charities if you allow the poor to be defrauded out of from S% to 5% of their purchases of groceries, meats, etc.? Did you know that the difference between a liquid measure gallon and a dry measure gallon is from 15% to 18%? The price for beans and peas is fixed on dry meas- ure; do you get yours in liquid measure? Have you any idea how big a bushel is? Do you buy strawberries by the box or by the quart ? When you buy meat do you pay for the wrapping paper and the trimmings? Do you wait for the scales to come to a balance or let the butcher overcharge you a pound or two with the force with which he places the meat on the scales? 320 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Do you pay for the wooden box in which your but- ter is weighed? Have you ever had a short weights and measures exhibit in your community? Do you know anybody who thinks that a yard should contain less than 36 inches, a pound less than 16 ounces, a gallon less than four quarts? The Public as Purchaser Ballots do not purchase for your city. At New York City's budget exhibit in 1910 per- haps the most interesting feature was the short weights and measures which had a sobering influence on both men and women who had heretofore taken pride in some supposed superiority over government purchasers. No informed person now believes that the loss to New York City's taxpayers from inefficient pur- chasing by city officials and employes is equal to the loss from their own inefficient purchasing. Wherever the public as purchaser has been inves- tigated it has been found to be wasteful. In one department of the United States government ten dif- ferent prices were paid for the same quality of ink by ten different divisions. $13,000,000 were spent in one year on railroad tickets yet mileage was not bought because " only 15% to 20% could be saved." Curiously enough the percentage of waste seems to grow as the size of the place shrinks. Nor does noble purpose protect hospitals or schools from wasteful purchasing: $800,000 saved in New York City's school supplies in 1911 as compared with TESTING PUBLIC PURCHASES 321 1904; $6,000 saved on Bellevue Hospital's milk in 1910 and 2% tons of ice saved a day by that same hospital; 500,000 record cards bought by the de- partment of health at the retail price bid for 500; $1.50 approved for a six cent valve wheel by the department of correction; $6,000 paid in West Hoboken for a $2,000 school site; New York City rejected 700,000 pounds of forage and 300,000 pounds of meat for its hospitals in 1910 ; by weighing and measuring provisions for a small private hospital a superintendent saved $3,000 in one season of sum- mer fresh air work, enough to give a day's outing to 12,000 mothers and children. You can learn what your city pays for different articles. You can compare the price paid with the proper price. You can discover whether proper steps are being taken every day in the year to see that purchases are correct. You can have a public exhibit in your library or in the school or on the main street which will show actual articles, their right price and the city's price. There should be a price list in the city auditor's or comptroller's office with which to compare prices charged. A very careful list is now being made up in the New York comptroller's office. The most detailed price list, probably, in the world is being worked out by President Taft's efficiency commis- sion, copies of which may be had by applying directly to the commission at the White House, or through your congressman or senator. Contracts should state clearly the quality and 322 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT quantity of goods to be bought. This description of goods is called the specification. New York City's new coal specifications, on which over $500,000 will be saved next year, were recently requested by a woman's club whose managers felt that their con- tract with the coal dealer was not being lived up to and wished to make their arrangements more spe- cific. A price list, a good bargain, a written contract, and careful specifications will not help unless goods are inspected upon delivery to see that they are the same as contracted for. Unless you specify that you will pay for the heat units in the coal rather than for its weight, coal dealers will try to make you believe that coal cannot be equally good all the time. Wherever cities pay 20%, 50% or 200% more for land than it is worth, whether by private sale or by condemnation proceedings, it means that somebody is being paid by the public to work against the public's interest 365 days a year. The same statement applies to other purchases where the pub- lic is the loser. Labor is purchased just as much as coal, vegetables and land. The public has been particularly careless in purchasing labor and has failed to specify in ad- vance exactly what work it wanted to have done and to make sure that the work paid for was that bargained for. It would be harder to exhibit facts about your city or county or state as purchaser of labor, but you may easily find, as did Illinois, that a man is WATCHING PUBLIC PURCHASES 3*3 paid a liberal salary for winding the state house clock once a week. By watching purchases five women in your city can do more to prevent corruption and misgovern- ment than 5,000 women can do by their votes with- out watching purchases. For detailed suggestions as to how to go about it and how to be sure that somebody is constantly checking purchases, write to the Herman A. Metz Fund, 261 Broadway, New York City. The Public as Auto Owner Governments as well as farmers and store keepers have felt the auto craze. There are many plausible reasons for substituting automobiles for horses. High priced public officials ought to spend their time at work instead of travel- ing. It is easy therefore to show by computation that a park commissioner earning $7,500 a year can save the city $100,000 if he can get around quickly by using an automobile. When such argu- ments are used ask a few questions. Is the automobile used to ride into or away from public business? Does the official's wife do her shopping in the city's automobile ? Do the officials, their families, relatives, or " best girls " take joy rides at night or in the summer time ? Does it cost $4,200 a year to repair a $900 auto- mobile ? WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Wherever an automobile is paid for by the public a record should be kept such as is now being kept in Porto Rico and in the commissioners of accounts' office, New York City (280 Broadway) telling just where the automobile goes, how much gasoline or electric current it uses, who runs it, who uses it and for what public purpose. These are called " time and service records." Wherever several automobiles are paid for by the public there should be a central garage to which officers must apply, as they make requisitions for lead pencils or coal. Central rooms for stenographers yield greater efficiency at less expense than giving to each person who dictates a monopoly over some special stenogra- pher who is idle except when the dictator happens to have something to say. In this same way one automobile may be used by a dozen officers when most needed by each and it becomes unnecessary to have drivers and machines standing around waiting for the public official to take a ride. For automobile substitute horses, and apply similar tests for use of city property and city time. Inspection of Public Purchases and Payrolls Ballots will not inspect anything. As Washington wrote repeatedly to his foreman: slave service was certain to be wasteful and incom- petent wherever task masters failed to inspect cur- rently the details of the work. This generalization INSPECTING PAYROLLS 335 General Washington made after receiving a report of the work done by women slaves at Mount Vernon during his absence in Cambridge. Any buyer who accepts her purchases without looking them over to see that they are according to her own understanding will surely receive a good proportion of short weights and inferior qualities. What else explains four prices for the same meat in four shops within two blocks ! A child three years old will take advantage of a nurse or a parent who fails to compare action with instruction. A modern highly trained nurse or nursemaid, for that matter the highest priced dressmakers and milli- ners, do much better service for mistress or customer who carefully inspects their work than for one who takes it for granted that she will get her money's worth or would " rather be overcharged than go through the world afraid of being cheated." By inspecting bills overcharges will be occasionally found. Those practiced in selling inferior qualities and quantities however, are less apt to overcharge than to underweigh, undermeasure or give inferior qualities. Therefore it is important to compare the actual goods with prices before they are consumed. To fail to inspect goods is to tempt the dealer and one's own representative. Lack of inspection made possible delivery of grade No. 4* oats not good enough for goats when the city was paying for grade No. 1 oats. Lack of inspection made possible pay- ing $2.21 to put a six cent hat hook in place. 326 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT With regard to coal, many school boards are now not only inspecting the coal, but have it weighed on their own premises and on their own scales just before delivery to their own bins, and then in addition have samples taken to test what a Chicago alderman called " their British terminal units " (thermal or heat units). A central purchasing agent who buys for all the city's departments can get better prices than 20 or 120 different agents buying in different quantities. Delivery to one central purchasing bureau makes in- spection vastly easier. By central purchasing our railroads are saving hundreds of thousands of dol- lars a year. A central purchasing agent is possible even where deliveries have to be separated. Throughout the west 10 or 20 or 50 binding twine dealers, for ex- ample, will pool their orders and let the combimd order to the lowest bidder. Yet the one seller makes delivery to each man according to his individual part of the total order. Similarly several private hospitals of New York have combined to pool or bunch their orders for hospital supplies, and while getting individual deliveries are also saving more money each year than the Saturday and Sunday Hospital Association raises from its thousands of donors. Any individual citizen can get a list of public in- stitutions of his city or county or state and can learn whether, how and when goods are inspected. Any group of women may, with little expense, AUDITING VS. VOTING 337 learn whether the knowledge gained by inspection is used to prevent fraud and overcharging. Audit as a Part of Inspection Voting never audits. It seems terribly unromantic to ask women who want to save their country to find out how public bills are audited. But the auditing of bills is a truer indication of the moral attitude of a community than is the plat- form of a suffrage or other political party. If bills are audited in a way that permits un- scrupulous tradesmen to exploit the government, it is absolutely certain that outside the city or state gov- ernment is an organized group on the job every day in the year attempting to corrupt, hoodwink or bully those who represent government, to mislead the pub- lic with regard to its own interest, and to prevent any substantial improvement in public morals. Inspection concerns itself with goods delivered and the comparison of goods delivered with goods speci- fied. Audit follows inspection and concerns itself with the payment for the goods. The auditor uses all the information gained by the inspector and sees that those who draw the warrant for the goods do not disregard the inspector's protests. The auditor must see that the department had authority to buy the goods, that there is money properly appropriated for that purpose, that the right officers certified to the order, to the receipt and to the warrant. Where there is proper audit every person who has 328 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT anything to do with ordering or receiving or in- specting goods should certify to the particular part with which he has to do. Quite generally auditing is weakest when it has to do with payrolls. Progressive cities are trying now to install time sheets on which each person cer- tifies as to the time he works, then each individual's time sheet is approved by the officer who is responsi- ble for his work. Finally the heads of divisions and heads of departments certify that time sheets are used and that proper steps have been taken within the department to prevent any man's drawing pay for more hours than he worked. An elaborate detailed description of each step in inspection and audit was published in New York in 1910 by Herman A. Metz, then comptroller, en- titled, Manual of Accounting and Business Procedure for tlie City of New York. Supplementary manuals of instruction are being issued by Comptroller Prendergast. New York City's department of finance and the President's efficiency commission at Washington, D. C., will furnish the best short cuts to a technical treatment of these steps, forms of certifi- cate, etc. The Herman A. Metz Fund will be pre- pared to answer questions and give help. Every step in inspection and audit every check against collusion, corruption and extortion be- comes a facile means of blackmailing those whom your city owes unless it is efficiently administered. Whether checks are used to blackmail is a question of fact to be answered not by an expression of public HOW A SURVEY HELPS 329 sentiment at the polls, but by an actual inspection of methods used by your city or county or state auditor. If no steps have been taken you can probably per- suade some business men and expert accountants to make an examination for you. For from $10 to $50 a day you can get skilled experts to make such an examination and report on the business methods of your city. What $100 Found Out as to Montclair's Methods of Doing Business Because audit, inspection, accounts and records are technical matters many citizens delay taking easy steps to help their communities. The town council of Montclair, N. J., with a population of about 20,000, recently asked the Bureau of Munici- pal Research to make a survey of its business methods and to report if a more extended study were needed. For $100 it was possible to tell the officers and citizens of Montclair the following significant facts, the mere presentation of which led to plans for im- proving the city's business methods: 1. With respect to disbursements, the records, reports and procedure employed by the town of Montclair fail to give to the mayor, council and taxpayers what is considered adequate financial or operative control. 2. With respect to receipts, our preliminary in- quiry (which we submit subject to modification that might be made necessary by a more detailed study) 330 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT indicates that the town of Montclair has adequate financial and operative control. 3. With respect to current reports, including the annual report and balance sheet, there are a number of improvements which could easily be effected with- out reference to any changes in present method and procedure, and still further improvements that will be necessary if present method and procedure arc modified. 4. There is nothing to prevent a department from exceeding its appropriation. 6. There is inadequate control over supplies. 6. The time at work is not shown. 7. Service records are lacking to compare time and money spent with service rendered. 8. A department may exceed its appropriation. 9. For want of proper records in liabilities in- curred stores and supplies are inadequately con- trolled. 10. The balance sheet is deficient. 11. Horses and wagons are hired upon verbal agreement. 12. The building department and town collector's office could be efficiently conducted for less money. When the Public Builds Buildings $27,000,000 for a city hall that was to have cost $7,000,000 ; no water on the second floor of a public bath because the water mains were made too small; an emergency order, without competitive bids, for repairing a police precinct, given to a contractor 16 PUBLIC AS BUILDER 331 miles away; $20,000 given for cleaning a city hall that could be kept as clean for $2,000; 15 employes dead from tuberculosis in one germ infested, dark, unclean room. What's the use of multiplying ex- amples ? Are the public buildings in your city clean? Is there ventilation in the work rooms? Is there adequate protection against fire? Is the appearance that of order or disorder? What of your county buildings? What of your state buildings ? There cannot be too many public buildings in your community for women's clubs to learn the sanitary conditions and the efficiency of their management. You can add a touch of beauty here and there, some window boxes, some palms or ferns in the public baths. No gift by Mrs. Russell Sage has been more keenly appreciated in New York City than the re- storing and beautifying of our venerable city hall. Your women can interest the building superin- tendents in proper discipline, cleanliness and ventila- tion. You can easily see that new buildings are properly constructed according to modern standards and within proper cost. In Newark, N. J., the same woman who organized a demand for a new pub- lic bath is now, with the aid of paid advisers, follow- ing every detail of planning and constructing that bath. This is a service with which voting has absolutely nothing to do. 332 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Is anybody watching your public buildings ? Have you a municipal art commission? Could you organize a voluntary art commission? Would you support architects who would try to make a city beautiful? What effort is made to improve the character of your municipal buildings and to influence your merchants and manufacturers to increase the beauty of the exterior and interior of their stores, offices and factories? Safeguarding Construction of All Buildings It is hard to realize that many men can look the world in the eye while building a tenement house, thea- ter, factory or office building with full knowledge that it is a fire trap or otherwise a menace to life. Nor is it the degenerate alone who does this, but men and women of culture and high moral standards. The explanation is that they feel sure that their building will prove an exception. The willingness of insur- ance companies to carry whatever risk there is helps to lull the conscience to sleep. What have the women of your community done to prevent the construction of unsafe buildings? To prevent the innocent occupant from careless- ness or viciousness on the part of builders willing to risk another's life for a slight saving in cost of con- struction, progressive cities have a building code. All plans for a building must be submitted to a cen- tral office for inspection. Only such and such ma- terials may be used. Only under certain specified conditions may buildings be made of non-fire-proof BUILDING INSPECTION 333 material. Certain minimum provisions as to ventila- tion, escape in case of fire, fire extinguishing ap- paratus, etc., are required. Has your community a building code? Is it up- to-date ? Wherever building codes exist it is found that many inspectors and many builders are willing to evade the law. Inspectors receive bribes for looking the other way; or for failing to see economies that endanger life or health. Another favorite graft is for inspectors to hold up, plans on plausible grounds and then, upon receipt of a present or free rent in some new building, to mark on the plans that the changes have been made; after the building is up no one can tell that the law was evaded. In England there is county supervision over the most remote farmhouses or barns. Gradually we are coming to see the need for similar protection in rural districts of the United States. When city or state legislative bodies set out to make their building codes, those who manufacture different articles try to " sneak in " provisions which will give them either monopoly or preference. In New York in 1910 there was a bitter fight running over two months between two political factions as to which of two rival manufacturing companies should be given a practical monopoly in the building code* Architects are interested in safe building. Every large community should have its voluntary committee 334. WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT of architects, disinterested and public spirited, who are willing to study existing and proposed building codes and to make periodic inspections of the public supervising bureaus. When the Bureau of Municipal Research investi- gated the Borough of Manhattan in 1906 numerous architects complained that it was necessary to bribe inspectors and officials, but not one was willing to give public testimony. One of the country's greatest re- form officials told me he found that his own agent for a number of buildings of which he was trustee wanted to include in the year's expense account bribe money for building inspectors. Another well-known ex- ponent of reform complains that he secured passage of his plans out of their turn because of supposed personal influence. You can learn whether such practices exist in your community. When the Public Builds Streets This is too big a subject to be dealt with in a few- words. The main points to be considered are these: Get wide streets; have trees planted along the sides or in the center ; have the water mains, gas mains and sewers put in when the street is first built ; have water enough to cleanse by flushing with frequent sewer holes so as to discourage the piling up of dirt and snow; see that somebody examines all contracts for street paving and repairs so that building of streets will be a matter of serious city planning and not an opportunity for grafting; use paving material that PUBLIC AS STREET BUILDER 335 will not grind up into fine dust and double the work of keeping your houses clean ; do away with the long term guaranty of private contractors, pay them and be done with it, but compel fulfillment of specifica- tions while the work is being done. The best up-to-date information on street building can be secured from Engineering News. It is now known exactly how much it should cost to lay one hundred square feet of asphalt or con- crete or wooden blocks or granite blocks and how much repaying would cost per cut one hundred feet square, and how much repairing should cost per quarter mile. It is known, too, that there is no more reason for having street-holes in winter because it is cold than for having baby deaths in summer because it is hot. For instances of gouging the public through pav- ing contracts, write to the Bureau of Municipal Re- search, Cincinnati; for repaving contracts write to the Bureau of Municipal Research, Philadelphia ; for the story of the celebrated " Ahearn Case," the city official removed by Governor Hughes largely on ac- count of his inefficiency in building and repairing streets, write to the Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City. Efficient Fire Protection Because fire insurance companies pay for losses due to fire, most of us have thought that fires did not cost any of us any money. Hence we have been tardy in trying to prevent fire-waste and we have 336 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT gone on losing at a rate five times as high as Ger- many's from preventable fires. Were you surprised to learn recently that in the United States we burn up $500 a minute from fires, most of which could be prevented by reasonable pre- cautions ? That prevention is largely a matter of education was strikingly recognized by one student of fire-waste, the publisher, Simon Brentano, who said that Chicago might better have lost once $250,000,000 (America's annual waste from fire) than to have lost its great fire chief Guerin in the stockyards fire of December, 1910. By preventing fire holes instead of repaving them after election celebrations, Borough President Mc- Aneny saved New York City, in 1910, about $50,- 000. From $3.50 per year per $100 on property in- sured, the New England Mills Company has reduced losses to six cents per $100 on property insured. This was done by educating the insured mill owners, first to build of proper materials with proper fire fighting appliances and then to keep watch upon their buildings so that fires would not be started. Automatic sprinklers should be used in all large open areas, such as department stores and factories. Wire-glass windows should be used wherever a building joins another or is near enough to be reached by flames. Fires creep in through windows rather than by walls, just as burglars do. While fire protection is infinitely more interesting FIRE PREVENTION 337 than most people think, women's clubs could hardly be expected to qualify as specialists in fire fighting. They may, however, learn whether the fire department is " out of politics " ; whether it finds out the reasons for fires and tells the public; whether too many men are employed ; whether civil service tests are required and applied; whether supplies are bought economic- ally or wastefully; whether fire horses cost 25% or even 50% too much, are kindly treated and promptly cared for; and whether the fire depart- ment is studying the problem of fire-waste as the health department should be studying the problems of health waste. They may know whether the fire alarm service is up-to-date and reliable ; whether there are fire drills in schools and factories ; whether school buildings are fire traps ; and whether the laws requir- ing fire-proof construction in congested districts and periodic inspection of fire risks in shops, theaters, etc., are lived up to. They may follow Mrs. Sage's ex- ample and see that all fire stations have libraries. Where there are volunteer fire companies, " public brigades," etc., women may see that children are taught not to throw matches in the garret, cellar or closet; not to play with matches and gasoline or kerosene at the same time ; not to be careless in light- ing the Christmas tree ; and not to believe the stories told in country towns, as well as cities, about spon- taneous combustion when explaining queer fires in homes, stores and stables. In fact, an annual lec- ture to school children about fire frauds or " fire flies," or the low standard of ethics which raises 338 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT money by setting fire to some insured building, would do a vast amount of good. For the romance of fire fighting write to the National Fire Protection Association. For a scien- tific statement as to methods of reducing fire-waste, including automatic sprinklers, wire glass, electric alarm service and efficient administration of fire de- partments and bureaus of fire prevention, write also to that Association, Boston or Chicago. For meth- ods of arousing and informing the public, address Committee of Safety, 165 Broadway, New York City. Assessing Property Do you pay taxes? Do you pay at the same rate as your neighbor? Do you and your neighbor pay at the same rate as those in other parts of your community? Do any of you pay as much as you ought to pay to support the work that ought to be done by your city? Is your property assessed at its full value or two- thirds or four-fifths its value? Is anybody constantly watching assessments to see that they are equal? The school teachers of Erie, Pa., became tired of being told that there was not money enough to in- crease their salaries. They began a study of assess- ment which was later taken up by the Allied Civic Organizations of Erie and is reported in one of the most readable and convincing discussions of equal assessment that you can find. Real estate experts ASSESSING PROPERTY 839 helped secure the right value of typical pieces of property. It was found that some were paying five times as much as others on property of the same value. Some typical questions from the final report are reprinted to illustrate its helpfulness : Do you know that the city assessors of Erie have no definite, scientific, mathematically cor- rect plan for assessing property for tax pur- poses ? Do you know that the city of Harrisburg (under an equalized assessment) is getting $64,000 every year more than the city of Erie for its public improvements and maintenance, and that their millage is five mills less than ours ? The records show property at Second and Plum assessed at 69% of market value; prop- erty at Eighth and Plum at 20%. Why the difference? We Americans certainly do hate to pay taxes. Most of us would rather pay $100 without realizing that it was taxes than to pay a $5 tax. Hence we protest against licenses, such as Mobile, Alabama, uses for almost every business except walking on the street: milliner, juggler, chiropodist, baker, paving, dealing in yeast, repairing shoes, etc. Most taxation in the United States is on land and buildings. Where other forms of wealth or income are taxed we have not as yet learned to tax in pro- portion to the ability to pay the tax. I recently overheard two rich men compare their European taxes with their New York taxes. They both agreed 340 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT that they paid much more in proportion to their wealth in Germany and in England than in New- York. Neither was sure why it was that the Germans and English succeeded in getting the truth about rich men's incomes when it seemed impossible to do so in this country. One explained that the European judges were relentless in prosecuting those found to misrepresent their income, and further that any tax official had the privilege of going to a man's private books to see whether he was declaring the truth. So notoriously do New Yorkers swear off their per- sonal taxes that even Lawson Purdy, one of the country's greatest tax experts, has advocated abolish- ing the personal tax. Women can universalize the belief that every man and woman should pay according to ability to pay and that it is dishonest, disreputable and unworthy to claim to be worth $100,000 when one spends $250,- 000 a year, or to value at $5,000 the furnishings for a house that cost $200,000. One of the best speeches Mark Twain ever made was on the swearing off of taxes and the demoraliz- ing effect on a whole community of the condition when rich men and women accept applause for phi- lanthropy and religious work while understating by 10% or 90% the property on which they pay taxes. We must abolish the spectacle of men and women holding back by dishonest practices what is legally due from them for the poor and for education and then giving lavishly through private charity for tne poor and for education. SWEARING OFF TAXES Women can make sure that they are paying their own share of taxes even if it is not customary in their community. They can be uncomfortable if their husbands are not paying their share of taxes. They can ask questions which would make their husbands prefer to pay the whole tax. At times it would do good to learn about other women's taxes. They can refuse to follow any woman prominent in philan- thropic circles who declares Paris as her residence in order to save the customs duty on her purchases abroad. They can make it unfashionable as well as a misdemeanor to declare falsely the amount of pur- chases abroad. They can refuse to applaud stories of successful smuggling. They can print compara- tive lists of the taxes paid by wealthy men and women. They can compare the principal private benefactions with the taxes that should be paid and are sworn off or otherwise evaded by leading phi- lanthropists. To equalize present methods is a better next step than to try to change the method of levying taxes in your city. To make vacant property pay taxes ac- cording to its real value now will help adjoining properties more than to labor for an ideal single tax. To enforce penalties for lying about personal prop- erty is a better next step than to give up, as hopeless, efforts to secure the truth as to income and property. 342 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT Watching City and State Revenues Private philanthropy and civic uplift can go lit- tle further in American cities without the discovery of additional sources of public revenue. In taxing the general public for uplift work it is no longer enough for women to urge more and more expenditures for social welfare. They must make sure (1) that the work is needed; (2) that there is enough money to pay not only for the entering wedge but for giving not to 10% but 100% of the needy the benefits of the new proposal; (3) that in raising the money from taxpayers' families they are not break- ing down the health and strength of larger numbers than they relieve. Altogether too little attention has heretofore been paid to public revenues. This is all the more curi- ous because in private affairs we have given more thought to income than to outgo. But except to protest against the tax rate or total amount of taxes, individual citizens have rarely asked questions about revenue. See what we find when we begin to ask about revenue: 1. An increase in one year of $12,000,000 in the customs revenues at New York City by merely forcing passengers to tell the truth and by discovering when they smuggled 2. A fruit stand under Brooklyn Bridge for- merly let at $600 a year at private bidding brought in $8,400 when let at public bidding 3. Park Commissioner Stover of New York WATCHING PUBLIC REVENUES 343 privately reduced to $900 a park permit that had brought $2,500 when let at public bidding 4s. Payments for stands in the city markets were made to aldermen or other politicians so that a few favored renters got the best positions 5. Over $1,500,000 increase resulted from changes in controlling New York City's water revenues in 1910 With revenues, as with expenditures, our first op- portunity is to make the most of what we have rather than to worry about new ones. In most communi- ties the revenues which ought to be collected that are not collected will exceed the total cost of doing the not-yet-begun uplift work that women are certain they want to have done. It is practicable to find out what different sources of revenue there are in your city, what it sells, what it rents, what it permits or licenses. By asking ques- tions, not by balloting, can women fill in the gap be- tween revenues due and revenues paid. Sometimes judges impose a fine of $5 when they should fine $25. Sometimes cities charge $500 for liquor licenses when, if they charge at all, they might just as well charge $1,000. Some favored citizens are permitted without making proper legal payments, to cut openings in the street, put vaults under the street or have dogs at large. Water meters are often left unread, or bottling establishments, breweries and livery stables are permitted to pay not for the water they use but for the number of feet front- age of their property. 344 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT, Wherever city revenues are improperly charged or improperly recorded, many people have a money in- terest in extravagant expenditures, favoritism and corruption, because these conceal their undue advan- tage. To find whether your city's method of keeping track of revenues due and revenues paid, is adequate, address the Herman A. Metz Fund, 261 Broadway, New York City. What sources of revenue has your city apart from taxes ? How much was due last year? How much was paid in last year? What is done about the delinquencies? Can a collector, without detection, give a receipt for $500 and write $5 on the receipt stub? Can he give and renew a license without cost? Can he keep and use city funds for months with- out its being known? Are there women who receive special favors? Are valuable privileges let privately or to the high- est bidder? Is valuable public property such as the streets, river front and parks leased free or for a song to private parties? Is there any one officer who has a list of every amount due the city with date due plus the name of the man or premise owning it? Is this list used to compare what the collectors turn in with what they should turn in? What Can Women do About Franchises? Ballots do not draw franchises. A city official recently said to the directors of the WOMEN AND FRANCHISES 345 Bureau of Municipal Research: "Will you please tell me why it is that your Bureau is worrying so about non-promotion and the inspection of foods while leaving to others the largest and most impor- tant question subway franchises?" Two days later Mayor Gaynor expressed regret that people were trying to settle the subway question without " getting down on their knees to study the city map and alternative subway proposals." Franchises have been synonymous with corruption and misgovernment largely because individual voters and organizations have not taken the time to get down on their knees to study the details of great franchises. Yet why not? Innumerable elections have hinged on the terms of public franchises. Volumes have been written showing how franchise holders have corrupted and misled franchise grantors. As of any other question it is true of franchises, that one who has made up his mind to vote has not only the time but the obligation to discover why he is going to vote that way. The woman voter, whether a stockholder's wife or daughter, can refuse to share the pecuniary benefits from those franchises which on balloting day she de- clares to be a fraud against the public. She can refuse to be party to public clamor against corpora- tions for having done what public clamor invited them to do five or ten years earlier. Getting something for nothing, or getting a great deal for a little, applies not only to the corporations which have paid bribes, but to aldermen and mayors 346 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT who have accepted bribes. Sometimes corruption begins with the owner or would-be-owner of a fran- chise. Many times it begins with the official who has it in his power to take or withhold from the owners or would-be-owners rights or property to which they are entitled. It is profitless to speculate on the relative demerits of briber and bribee. One thing we can be sure of: people do not give or take bribes in the open. Therefore, all franchise transactions should be forced into the open, open outlining of plans, open dis- cussion of pros and cons, open bidding for the fran- chise. The greatest franchise fighter in the United States is the city of Chicago. For its exciting story, write to the Bureau of Public Efficiency, Chicago. For European experiences, model restrictions, etc., ad- dress Legislative Reference Library, Madison, Wis- consin. For New York City's fight against char- ter protection of franchise juggling write to City Club, 55 West 44th Street. Merit Tests for Public Service Voting may secure civil service laws, but it cannot discover merit or apply merit tests. To the victors belong the spoils was for decades an honored epigram in American politics. The cen- tral theme of the great moral campaigns from 1800 to 1894 was spoils of office and not tariff or national banks or acquisition of territory. We shall never know the relative importance of this desire for spoils, THE MERIT SYSTEM 347 which some may consider fortunate, because it would certainly be mortifying to discover how few patriots went to the polls with no other thought than their country's good. Of thousands who thought they were voting on public issues a great proportion were brought to the polls by a handful of politicians and other public employes who merely took advantage of public excitement over " paramount issues " to fight for public spoil. How far we have traveled away from this crude commercial idea of government is shown by the fact that at the present time 24-5,000 national employes are protected against removal from office except for inefficiency or for want of work; while in states, counties and cities there are possibly 500,000. (No one can now give the exact number.) Special laws declaring for the merit test rather than the party test of new employes have been passed in the fol- lowing states for almost all state offices: Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois. In addition, about 200 leading cities have in their charters or by special law provided for merit tests. For city, state and nation there are officers whose sole business it is to prepare questions for civil service examinations, to conduct these examinations, to list eligible employes and to guard the enforce- ment of the civil service or merit law. Voluntary associations in cities and states and for the nation watch the working of civil service laws. To learn which cities and states have civil service 348 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT reform associations, how these were organized and how the merit system is applied, write to the National Civil Service Reform Association, New York City. Civil service has progressed so far that few cor- rupt men dare to attack it. Everybody now con- cedes that to the victor should belong not the spoils but the opportunity to render public service and obligation to be efficient. Curiously the severest public complaints against civil service now come from " good men " officials. They complain that they cannot get rid of inefficient civil service employes if these are under civil ser\ and that if they do succeed in dismissing some man they secure from the civil service eligible list some one else who is no better. Four defects you will find in the administration of the civil service or merit system in your state or city : 1. The questions asked have not been caleiilah-d to discover the fitness of a man for a particular task; for example, instead of asking candidates for superintendency of public baths what is in- volved in running public baths and how the work should be done, we have asked such ques- tions as " How long would it take a tank 13 feet deep and 30 feet wide and 75 feet long to empty itself from a vent one inch in diame- ter? " 2. After-appointment-merit has not been discov- erable because public departments have failed to keep records of work done and other tests of efficiency that fairly reflect the merit of an em- ploye; most departments have even failed to DEFECTS OF CIVIL SERVICE 349 keep time sheets to show the presence or absence of employes. 3. Uncongeniality has not been recognized as a cause for transfer or removal. Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, the father of public lectures in pub- lic schools, frequently complains of this defect on the ground that an uncongenial office assist- ant may easily decrease the working efficiency of others in the office, including his supervisors, by 25%. He thinks a gaping dress, uncleanly or slovenly habits, bad temper, etc., should be sufficient reason for dismissal from public service if they are bad enough to be disagreeable to colleagues at work. 4. Too little freedom of exit has been permitted. The original idea of civil service reform was to apply merit tests for appointment, for promo- tion and for retention and not to build up an office holding class to feel that their country or city should take care of them for the rest of their lives. Many friends of the merit system believe that we would get a better result if we gave almost unlimited freedom to officers to dismiss employes so long as we keep from them the power to name new employes, and, secondly, so long as we hold them rigidly accountable for efficient management of their offices. Before civil service employes receive their pay it is usually necessary for some civil service commission to certify that men are doing the work for which they were appointed. Instead of making inquiries which they have the power to make, most of these commissions have gone on signing certificates in spite of padded payrolls, absence from service and innu- 350 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT merable other violations of the civil service laws. Hostlers have been given soft berths in offices as bookkeepers; civil engineers have been engaged as hospital superintendents; hospital helpers have acted as purchasing agents. For such violations there is absolutely no excuse. They nullify and discredit the merit system, but the explanation is we have thought too much of protecting men from political interfer- ence and too little of insuring efficient service. Making a fetish of " civil service " forms means giving respectability to many forms of misgovern- ment. The latest and most advanced proposition for ex- tending the merit and efficiency system is a bill sub- mitted to the 1911 Illinois Legislature by the Illinois Civil Service Reform Association, Chicago. Of par- ticular help will be its provision for " standardization. of employment in all included positions and efficiency records of individual employes and employes in groups." In New York City a committee of the board of estimate and apportionment is now conducting an inquiry into salaries and grades of 85,000 perma- nent employes and in the working of the civil service law. This study has in mind careful efficiency records. For its results, address the board of es- timate and apportionment. Dr. Elliot H. Good- win's summary of civil service to date will be found in the National Municipal League proceedings for 1910. TEST YOUR MERIT SYSTEM 351 Have you a state civil service association? Have you a local civil service association? Has your state a law providing for civil service for state offices? Has your state a law providing for civil service in cities ? Is civil service especially provided for in your city's charter? Is the law efficiently enforced? Are there individual efficiency records? Does the civil service commission approve payrolls without knowing whether men have been work- ing according to law? Does the civil service commission make an annual report? Have you ever seen one? Do the newspapers print it? Does it point out needed changes in the merit law or in method of enforcing it? Do officials claim that civil service stands in the way of efficiency? Are many civil service employes reinstated with back pay because officers do not comply with the law in dismissing them? Do your reformers after election to office complain against the civil service law? Would your woman's club be interested in learning whether civil service is a merit system or an ob- struction to efficient government? A Business Doctor for Uncle Sam Quietly but with results that promise to transcend any significant government reforms which have ever been effected, the President's Inquiry into Economy and Efficiency is being prosecuted at Washington. 352 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT The head of the efficiency commission is Dr. F. A. Cleveland, one of the directors and founders of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. Two thousand government employes and officials are supplying information and acquiring new habits which will profoundly affect the character of service in the smallest government unit in the land. Documents which should be in every public library and in the hands of every government official or civic leader wishing to substitute efficiency and light for darkness and chaos in public business will follow one another in swift succession for the next few years. These documents may be obtained by writing to the White House, Washington, and will serve both as text books and hand books. Reasons for Efficiency in National Business Long before President Taft secured his Bureau of Efficiency a movement was begun in 1910 to start a voluntary organization which should do for national business what various bureaus of municipal research are doing for municipal business; $250,000 a year for five years was tentatively guaranteed. Although this movement grew into President Taft's plan for a Congress-supported agency, the point of view of Mr. Charles A. Coffin who origi- nated and promoted it should be supported by women : The educational motive for applying sound busi- ness methods to government business as well as TESTING NATIONAL BUSINESS 353 to private business is appealed to constantly by the fact that government business is largely conducted in defiance of business laws and with too little intelligent comprehension on the part of the people The business motive is appealed to constantly by government acts and threatened acts tending to jeopardize the safety of investments in private business, because government agents are at- tempting to regulate the relations of private to public business in ignorance of the facts of both The proposed national fund of citizen inquiry and citizen cooperation with national officials should be, not a temporary means of correcting defects in government business, but a means of con- tinuously and progressively educating the peo- ple of the United States to sound and just prin- ciples and methods of conducting public busi- ness. 354 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT ENDOWED Civic RESEARCH An interesting step in the work of improving municipal administration through skilled study and research is announced in the city of Hoboken, where Mrs. Robert Livingston Stevens has given in memory of her late hus- bund a fund yielding an income of $4,000 a year, for this purpose, which is to be ad- ministered by the New York Bureau of Mu- nicipal Research. . . . We do not know that Hoboken needs such service either more or less than the average American city, but we are quite sure that if its need is merely an average one it is very great. In our complex social organism the work of municipal administration is one of the most important and the most difficult which have to be performed for the common good. Hitherto it has been developed much as most of our cities have been built, in a hit-or-miss fashion, and without a tithe of the scientific thought and application which are given to the organization and conduct of relatively insignificant corporations of other kinds. To provide upon a permanent basis for the careful study of municipal problems and pro- cesses and for expert supervision or scrutiny of their actual administration is a public bene- faction as great and practical as it is novel, and the City of Hoboken is to be congratulated upon being the recipient of such provision. We shall hope, because of actual results, to be able to add that its example is to be emulated by other municipalites. New York Tribune. Part of Efficient Citizenship No. 284 Bureau of Municipal Research 261 Broadway XIII WOMAN'S PART IN TRAINING MEN AND WOMEN TO PARTICIPATE IN GOVERNMENT IN the foregoing pages I have indicated my belief that women can train themselves to participate effi- ciently in government, whether they vote or not. Hardly a step has been suggested that some woman somewhere has not taken, either directly by personal service, or indirectly through others equipped to ren- der the service efficiently. If it be suggested that no one woman should be expected to be intelligently interested in all of the proposed tests please rejoin that neither should any one woman be all alone in the world, but, that on the contrary there are millions of fellow-women who may and must be enlisted. As woman's part in government is threefold so her part in setting new standards of training for par- ticipation in government is threefold: Training herself for an individual's part; training herself for efficiency in team work ; training others. For an example of self -training for one woman's part, I refer students to the work of Mrs. Caroline B. Alexander of New Jersey, which reflects in an un- usual degree the power to give and to do efficiently, and to get efficiently done, for her home, for her social circles, for the educational, charitable, correc- tional and civic interests of her city, county and state. For illustrations of young women now training 357 358 WOMAN'S PART IN GOVERNMENT themselves for leadership and professional service in civic fields, I refer to a number of workers, volunteer and paid, with the New York Bureau of Municipal Research and the three Schools of Philanthropy. For proof of the unlimited field for participation in government open to those women able and wishing to give money as well as interest and time, I refer to what I regard as the most significant forward step taken in the field of American philanthropy or gov- ernment in a generation, the founding by Mrs. E. H. Harriman and a group of business men whom she has first interested, then convinced and then in- spired with enthusiasm for the possibilities of efficient democracy, of a national fund for training in the study and management of public business. This training is to be through field work, i.e., do- ing work that needs to be done for government first in New York City, but gradually in other places as workers, funds and needs present themselves. By the time this book reaches the reader the National Training School will have been announced. For details as to the five-year experiment, write to the Bureau of Municipal Research, New York City. Its purpose, like the purpose of this book, is not to subordinate vision and motive to efficiency, but in Mrs. Harriman's words " to point out ways of working together so that everyone may have oppor- tunity to become efficient." INDEX INDEX 100% 300%, woman should see, 5; of opportunity in voting, 39; in testing evidence, 96; only common denominator, 96; shown only in budget, 114; in official reports, 130; of community needs, 134, 164; in Memphis child-wel- fare work, 135; view often lost in private charities, 161; appeals by Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, 165; of philanthropy by government, 166; of inter- est in 100% of babies, 200; of educational opportunity, 239; of child problem in school, 247; in giving, 248; of school health needs, 253; in civic instruction, 272; of police study, 300, 304; in taxation, 342. Academy of Science for Women, 6. " Acceleration," before direct primaries, 66; to sham pub- lic opinion, 110; of pas- teurization, 193; of pupils, 257. Addams, Miss Jane, 14. Adenoids, home must cor- rect, 3. 361 Advertising, for good causes, 164; unmet needs, 168; by patent medicines, 208; by health departments, 210. Ahearn, John F., recalled, 75, 335. Alexander, Mrs. Caroline B., 357. Allied Civic Organizations, 338. Allied Real Estate Interests, 115. American Ass'n for Improv- ing Labor Legislation, 111. American Ass'n for the Pre- vention of Infant Mortal- ity, 204. American Civic Ass'n, 144. American Soc. of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 296. Alcoholism, drugs to cure, 4; women's part in, 18; ref- erendum on, 69; unit of inquiry, 92; and patent medicines, 208 ; how prohibi- tion is made to fail, 297; local cost, 297; in Oregon, 299; study needed of excise, 305. Anti-suffrage hand books, 30. Appealing, see Giving. Architects, see Buildings. Art, comes to homes, 3; for schools by volunteers, 245; see Beauty making. 362 INDEX Assessing, woman's part in, 338-342; paying vs. swear- ing off, 340. Australia, woman's voting, 20. Averages mislead, 256. Audit, not done by ballot, 84; of charitable institutions, 163; report by Bureau of Municipal Research, 173; of police records, 302 ; evidence in public business, 315 ; con- tracts and specifications should be clear, 322; in in- spection, 327-329 ; every person's part recorded, 328; weakest oh payrolls, 328; may mean blackmail, 328 ; by Civil Service Commissions, 351; see Inspection. B Baby saving, women should understand, 5; woman's su- periority, 19; need for hand books, 30; pin maps show need, 95; baby deaths sep- arate, 99; leaflets for milk dealers, 141 ; breast-fed babies, 195; 23 questions, 198; home vs. hospital care, 199, 205; the pacifier men- ace, 199; tests of success, 203-204; sickness rate, 204; school for expectant moth- ers, 205; pacifying with drugs, 208 ; protecting mother in private service, 235; vs. fight on gambling, 279; interests fewer women than social evil, 292. Backward pupils, see School. Balance sheet, easy to under- stand, 811; indispensable, 312; Philadelphia's model, 313; one found deficient, 330. Ballots do not, describe candi- dates, 105; make platforms, 106; study proposed laws, 108; watch legislation, 111; make budgets, 115; attend hearings, 117; watch State budget, 125; give up-to-date facts, 126; write official re- ports, 128; offer opportunity for continuous service, 133; stop contagion, 182; dis- cover disease-bearing water, 189; make mothers intelli- gent, 199; detect impure food and drugs, 20(i note factory conditions, J 1 - ; stop child labor, 216; locate housing evils, 219; clean streets, 222; dispose of ref- use, 228; keep schools clean, 251; give children clean teeth, 254; stop ir- regular attendance, learn causes of non-promo- tion, 257; keep children at school, 262; choose efficient teachers, 266; write school stories, 269; give civic in- struction, 271; insure de- cency, 280; administer jus- tice, 283; supervise proba- tion, 286; manage children's courts, 289; patronize social evil, 291; account or graft, 314; purchase, 320; audit, 327; oversee building, 331; see that revenues are paid, 343; draw f ranch! -<. Sll; train for citizenship, 357; see Voting. Beauty making, reasons for municipal art, 142; supervi- sion, 142; seeing is believ- ing, 144; begins at home, 145; street begging hostile to, 145; and making clean, INDEX 863 228; in New York's City Hall, 331. Bellevue Hospital, 321. Benefactions, see Giving. Biggs, Herman A., 207. Bossism, thrives on party solidarity, 65; with direct nominations, 66; in commis- sion government, 77; under fewer elections, 81. Boston, direct nominations, 67; recall, 75. Boston Dispensary, report, 95. Bourne, Senator Jonathan, Jr., 72. Breast feeding, see Baby sav- ing. Brentano, Simon, 336. Bribery, see Graft. Bruere, Henry, 79. Brooklyn baby saving, 202. Brooklyn Children's Aid So- ciety, 194. Brooklyn Eagle, school col- umn, 269. Brown, Elmer E., 275. Bryan, William J., 43. Budget, social workers' pro- test, 92; exhibits, 95, 114, 204, 231, 320; use of per- centages, 96; making, 114- 117, 173, 174; sermons on, 115; hearings, 115, 117; a fkrce unless, 122; women have neglected, 118; Oregon woman helping, 124; oppose star chamber, 124; state, defects of, 125; tentative, 120, 122; more important than model houses, 220; in- creases for schools, volun- teer interest in, 245; tells 100% school needs, 272. Building department, should inspect plans, 219; rural supervision needed, 333. Bureau of Municipal Re- search, study of commission government, 79; accounting methods for New York City, 92; shows budget growth, 96; first budget exhibit, 115; for budget-making story, 115, 120, 123; health budget, 116; Efficient Citi- zenship bulletins, 127; urges official budget exhibit, 128; will analyze reports, 130; founded by R. Fulton Cut- ting, 151, 170; reads and analyzes appeals, 165 ; method of investigation, 170, 171; programme, 171; cost of results, 172; publica- tions, 173, 233; civic co- operation with schools, 244; knows about school inquiry, 247; Dorothy Whitney fund, 247; suggests health index, 253; on non-promotion, 258, 261; itinerant school testers, 268; plan of police study, 304; National Fund for Promoting Efficient Munic- ipal Accounting and Re- porting, 314; survey of Montclair, 329 ; discovered building bribes, 334; Phila- delphia and Cincinnati, 335 ; New York's Ahearn Case, 335; connection with U. S. efficiency commission, 352; training for government, 358; National Training Fund, 358. Bureau of Public Efficiency, 346. Cambridge, preferential vote, 61. Carnegie Foundation, 208, 274, 275. 364 INDEX Caroline Rest Endowment Fund, 170, 205. Carrie-Nationing, dubious, 27- 28. Catching, see Transmissible Diseases. Census, see School. Challengers, a registration, 36; women act as, 36. Chambers of Commerce, hand books, 31; Cleveland's (O.) plan for appealing, 165; and balance sheets, 314. Charge account, woman's, 4. Charities, see Giving. Charter making, see Topics. Chicago, popular parks, 232; mothers ask questions, 249. Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency, 346. Chicago Society of Social Hy- giene, 296. Child labor, and fraudulent appeals, 165; your part in stopping, 216-219; commit- tees, state and national, 217; condition, employment and age tests, 217; laws and school attendance, 218. Children's bureau, national, 237. Children's court, see Proba- tion. Church, comes to home, 3; faces modern problems, 3; women support, 7; one tries evidence, 87; budget Sun- day, 114, 115; and efficient government, 150; do or get done, 151; humanizing, 152; clubs need social pro- gramme, 153; plan for speakers, 153; ministers' vacations, 154; need venti- lation, 220; told about segregation, 294. Cincinnati Bureau of Munici- pal Research, on paving contracts, 335. City Beautiful, see Beauty making. City Club, New York City, 346. City debt, reports on, 173. Civic agencies, need efficiency tests, 133; directories of, 133; cooperation with pub- lic schools, 21 1 . Civics and Health, 253, 299. Civil service, see Merit sys- tem. Classification of evidence, 87- 100. Cleveland, Frederick A., 91, 352. Cleveland, O., milk score cards, 195; 100% appealing, 165. Clippings, see Press. Coffin, Charles A., 352. College women, opportunities for service through schools, 244. CoUicSs Weekly, 211. Colorado, woman's vote, 20, 21. Commission government, edu- cational tests, 60; short cut, 77-79; claims contradicted, 77; New York City's, 78; field study, 79; aid to poli- tician, 81. Commissioner of accounts, 324. Committee on Congestion. 221. Committee of Safety, 338. Comparison, in evidence, 87- 100; of milk tests needed with work done, 196. Competitive bidding, for con- tracts, 330; for concessions, 342. INDEX 365 Compulsory education and compulsory health, 251 ; and courts, 291. Congestion, see Overcrowding;. Contracts, see Audit. Convention, see Nominations. Cosmopolitan, The, 155. Cost of, investigations, 172; transmissible diseases, 187, 224; patent medicine adver- tising, 210; street cleaning, 223; living, 228; refuse dis- posal to taxpayer, 229; parks, 232, 233; supervised play, 233 ; understanding schools, 246; not examining children, 252; children who do not register, 255; non- promotions, 261 ; probation officers, 287 ; community drink bill, 297; new build- ings, 331. Corrections, public, your part in, 280-283; four general tests, 281; security for rich offenders, 283; maudlin in- terest in criminals, 284; in- spection badly needed, 285; not yet studied, 305. Corruption, see Graft. Counting, in evidence, 87-100. Courts, not ballots, administer justice, 83; should punish violations of milk law, 193, 195; should help control factory conditions, 214; on violations in factories, 215; and corrections, 281; super- vised probation, 287; ques- tions about probation, 289; special hours for children, 289; on probation, 298; should be studied, 305; "thrown" cases, 306. Credit account, woman's, 4. Crime and Social Progress, 287. Curtis, William J., 137. Cutting, R. Fulton, 151, 170. D Death rate, by ages, 99; from preventable diseases, 183; baby, jumps up in Sum- mer, 203; in hospitals and homes, 205; more indecent than gambling, 279. Decency, public, tests, 279. De Lima, Miss Agnes, 155. Denison, Miss Elsa, 244. Dental hygiene, see Schools. Denver Municipal Facts, 126. Department of School Pa- trons, 249. Department store, women support, 7; and social evil, 293. Desire to know, in evidence, 87-100; by fiscal officers, 121. Des Moines, direct nomina- tions, 67; commission, 78. Diet kitchens, saving babies, 194. Direct, see Nominations. Disposal of refuse, see Ref- use. District nurses, see Nurses. Dix, Governor John A., 44. Drugs, dangers, 207-208. E Editors, see Press. Educational tests for voters, 58. Educational Review, 50 crit- icisms, 244; non-promotion in 1891, 259. Education board, see Schools. Efficiency Commission, Presi- dent's, see National Busi- ness. 366 INDEX Efficient Citizenship, 120; bul- letins, 32, 50, 100, 276, 308, 354; Philadelphia Citi- zens' Business Series, 127; sent to superintendents and city officials, 173; on school health index, 253; on non- promotion, 261. Elections, see Voting. Eliot, Charles W., 63. Employer's liability in Ore- gon, 69, 70. Encyclopedia Britannica, woman's part, 6. Engineering News, 335. Erie assessment tests, 338. Estimate and apportionment, board of, New York City's commission, 78; budget ex- hibit, 115; invites women to participate, 117; charities inquiry, 162; school inquiry, 247; might study police efficiency, 307; standardiz- ing salaries and grades, 350. Ethics of fire fraud, 337. Evening Journal, The, 203. Evening World, The, 203. Evidence, of unsuccessful short-cuts, 82; controls pub- lic officials, 82; and know- ing, 88; record is the test, 90; eight ingredients, 90; parallel columns, 94; pin maps, 95; strengthens tax- payers' organizations, 120; needed in probation work, 286; testing police effi- ciency, 306; current, as to public business, 315. Eye-defects, home to correct, 3. Factory conditions, waste purified, 190; women should know, 212-216; 16 questions on, 214; references, ~'15; watched by factory women, 216; special provisions for women, 235. Filtration plants, reference, 190. Finance department, New York City, 174. Fire protection, in factories, 214; when efficient, 335; minimum precautions, 337; lectures on, 337; references, 338. Flies, not from Providence, 5. Folks, Homer, 116. Foods, impure, 206-207. Franchises, women can ques- tion, 344; in the open, 346; references, 346. Gambling, more decent than killing babies, 279; flour- ishes only with police help, 300. Garbage, in cost of living, 228; see Disposal. Gaynor, William J., 76, 78, 90, 94, 117, 128, 221, 304, 345. Germs, see Baby saving. Getting things done, vs. vot- ing, 5; need for hand book on, 30; vs. new plans, 239; see 100%. Giving, appeals come to homes, 3; withholding taxes, 5, 340; opportunity for, 43; inadequate private relief, 158; everybody taxed for private agencies, 160; ap- peals to rich, 163; 10 tests of appeals, 163-164; fraud- ulent collectors, 164; phi- lanthropy's wastebaskot, 165; efficient will making, INDEX 367 166; no right to injure others, 167; givers entitled to alternatives, 168; action on alternatives, 169; pri- vate should not supplant public, 201; interest in charities greater than in schools, 244, 247; benefiting 100%, 248; for removal of physical defects, 254; see Relief. Good intention, uninformed, 5. Goodwin, Elliot H., 350. Government, the greatest ben- efactor, 166; see Topics. Governor's Conference, plat- forms, 108. Graft, woman's part in, 19 20; woman's fight against, 25; never an open issue, 26; by waste, 64, 65; not neces- sary for recall, 75; in com- mission government, 77, 81; less harmful than ignorance, 82; in charitable appeals, 164; keeping -children from school, 255; police efficiency, 300; outwitted only by ac- counting, 315; holding up plans, 333; builders, 334; franchise, 345. Guilfoy, William H., 186. H Hall, Arthur Cleveland, 287. Hamilton, John A., 79. Hand Book, Debater's, on suffrage, 13; on next-steps needed, 30; referendum, 72. Harriman, Mrs. E. H., has appeals studied, 165; estab- lishes national training school, 268, 358. Health, Civics and, 253, 299. Health department, comes to homes, 3; should classify deaths, 99; budget estimate, 116; ineffective inspection of food, 116; permits tubercu- lous meat, 116; instructs mothers at milk stations, 194; voluntary associations, 177; next steps, 178; travel- ing exhibits, 179; health- grams, 180; cooperation in saving babies, 198; on pat- ent medicines, 211; inspects drugs, 208; jingles, 239; veterinarian's success, 247. Health Index of Children, 253. Healthgrams, 180. Health, state boards, travel- ing exhibits, 179; health- grams, 180; programme of conference, 181 ; dairy in- spection, 195, 197; reports late, 196; should supervise placing out of infants, 199; baby saving, 204; adver- tised foods, 206. Hearings, see Budget. High School of Commerce, 267. Hill, Frederick Trevor, 114. Hoag, Ernest Bryant, 253. Home care, see Baby saving. Hospitals, evolution of social programme, 95; care for babies, 199, 205; volunteer interest, 244; waste on sup- plies, 321; combine to buy, 326. Housing, seo Overcrowding. Hughes, Charles E., 9, 41, 75, 76, 125. Hutchinson, John H., 253. Hyatt, Edward, 275. Ice, for clean milk, 190, 198. Idaho, woman's vote, 20. INDEX Illinois Civil Service Reform Ass'n, 350. Immigrants, naturalization tests, 61; agencies to be studied, 305. Ingram, Mrs. Helene, 170. Initiative, as short cut, 73- 74; danger in, 74; more elections, 79; will disap- point, 81 ; advocates neglect taxpayers' hearings, 117; in women's clubs, 140. Inside, world is against, 4. Inspection, of goods, not done by ballot, 84; of food, 116; by women, 208; of build- ings, started by women, 141 ; for safeguards, 332; of dairies, 197; of drugs, 208; of goods on delivery, 322; lack of, causes waste, 325; see Audit. Interest, woman's, outside her home, 3; grows with eco- nomic relations, 4. "Jokers," see Legislation. Joyner, J. Y., 275. Judges, danger of recalling, 74, 77. Juvenile courts, see Probation. K Kellor, Miss Frances, 215. La Follette's Magazine, 68. Legislation, tests of new laws, 108-1 10 ; acceleration," 110; watching, 111; refer- ences, 111; building codes, 330. Legislative reference library, for information on referen- dum, 67, 71; on initiative, 74; on commission govern- ment, 79; on legislative processes, 111; history of starting, 113; on franchises, 346. Lewis, Orlando F., 163. Library, legislative, 67, 71, 74, 79 ; reference, for every city, 108, 113-114, 219; report of national committee, 113; traveling, 147 ; children's room, 147; John Ernest, 148. Liquor question, see Alcohol- ism. Lindsey, Ben. B., 20. Loan sharks, references, 156. Low, Seth, 47, 63. Manual of Accounting and Business Procedure. Man voter, when exploited, 53. Magazines, come to home, 3; systematizing use of, 103; sources of power, 103-105; discussed physical defects, 248. Magistrates, see Courts. Massachusetts Direct Legisla- tion League, 67, 71, 74. McAneny, George, 267, 336. McCarthy, Charles, 113. McClellan, George B., 41, 65, 118, 119. Medical colleges, 209. Memorials, see Giving. Memphis Children's Protec- tive Union, 135. Method, vs. purpose, 25; in national elections, 26; neg- lected in government, 28; in housekeeping, 29; training in, 358. INDEX 369 Merit system, under long term, 80; tests for public service, 346; national em- ploy 6s under, 847; 200 cities under, 347; four defects, 348-349; Illinois Ass'n, 350; appeal on discharge, 350; standardizing salaries and grades, 350; 16 questions, 351. Metz, Herman A., Fund, 79, 120, 123, 312, 314, 323, 328, 344. Meyers, Gustav, 89. Midwives, supervision, 198. Milk, clean, 190-197; low tem- perature, 190; relation to public health, 191 ; minimum tests for, 192; bacteria counts, 192; pasteurization, 192; the grocer, 193; teach- ing mothers how to keep clean, 194; score cards, 195; state responsible, 197; see also Baby saving. Milk and Its Relation to Pub- lic Health, 191. Mitchel, John Purroy, 90. Montclair, N. J., milk scores, 192, 195; business survey, 329. Moral Education Leaflets, 296. Moral issues, method vs. pur- pose in, 26; no opposition, 26; at woman's first ballot, 37, 39. Mosquitoes, not from Prov- idence, 5. Moving pictures, pin maps, 95. Municipal art commission, 144. Municipal Journal and En- gineering News, 225, 229. Municipal Research, see Bu- reau. N National Ass'n for the Pre- vention of Imposture and Mendicancy, 146. National Ass'n for Preventing the Pollution of Rivers and Waterways, 190. National bureau of health, and transmissible diseases, 188, 211, 238. National business, Efficiency Commission, 91, 92; pur- chasing supplies, 320, 328; citizen cooperation, 351. Nat'l Child Labor Committee, 111, 217. Nat'l children's bureau, 237. Nat'l City Planning Ass'n, 144. Nat'l Civil Service Reform Ass'n, 348. Nat'l Consumers' League, 213, 214, 215, 235. Nat'l Education Ass'n, 38, 130, 249, 272. Nat'l Fire Protection Ass'n, 338. Nat'l Fund for Promoting Ef- ficient Municipal Account- ing and Reporting, see Her- man A. Metz. Nat'l Housing Ass'n, 220, 222. Nat'l Municipal League, 113, 350. Nat'l Playground Ass'n, 233, 234. Nat'l Society for Promoting Pupil Self-government, 262. Naturalization, practical tests, 61. New England Mills Co., 336. New Jersey, State Charities Aid Ass'n, informs public opinion, 159. Newport Civic League, 140. Newspapers, see Press. 370 INDEX New woman, not new, 8. New York City, recall of bor- ough presidents, 75; would have recalled Mayor Gaynor, 76; Bureau of Municipal Research, 79; looks for evi- dence, 89; parallel column, 94; public records public, 137; municipal art commis- sion, 143, 144; baby saving campaign, 194; milk score cards, 195; school inquiry, 247; figures on non-promo- tion, 258; begins to study promotion, 260 ; children dropping from school, 262; short measures, 320; $500,- 000 saved on coal alone, 322; watches public autos, 324; city hall restored by Mrs. Sage, 331; standardiz- ing salaries and grades, 350 ; see Estimate and Topics. N. Y. City Federation of Women's Clubs, 116. 2V. Y. Evening Post, 269. New York Globe, school page, 269. New York Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, 264. New York Milk Committee, 191, 194. New York State Charities Aid Ass'n, 159. N. Y. State Comm. of Educa- tion, 264. New York State Consumers* League, 212. N. Y. State Federation of Women's Clubs, 215. Next steps, clearing way for, 13; results of method, 27; need for help in, 35 ; getting back to, 81; outweigh vot- ing, 82; in revising business methods, 174; in health mat- ters, 178; in training, 357. Nominations, woman's first, 36-38; convention for, 37; nine practical questions, 38; direct, 65; in Oregon, 66; in Boston and Des Moines, 67; references, 67, 71; bound to be tried, 73; ex- pensive, 83. Nurses, come to homes, 3; dis- trict, 17; social service, 95, x><)J; instructing mothers about milk, 194; for baby saving, 205. Nurses' Settlement, baby sav- ing, 203. Official agencies, see 100%. Official reports, as sra re-b- lights, 112; why so educa- tional, 128; more important than Red Cross Stainj)-. begin with social service de- partments, 129; N. E. A. committee for schools, 130; Bureau of Municipal Hr- search will analyze, 130; 11 essentials, 130; of health de- partments, 196; by civil service commission, 351 ; see School reports. Oregon, referendum in, 68; other states copy, 71 ; official voters' hand book, " - ; women at taxpayers' hear- ings, 124. Oregon Anti-Saloon League, 299. Oregon Home Rule Ass'n, 299. Orphan Asylums, 244; see 100%. Ottley, Mrs. John K., 215. Overcrowding, crowd of germs not people, 219; causes and remedies, 221- 222; tenement inspection studied, 174, 305. INDEX 371 Owen, Senator Robert L., 72, 189. Panders and Their White Slaves, 296. Parallel column, evidence, 94. Parker, Alton B., 43. Parks, rubbish barrels, 141; research reports, 173, 233; popularized, 232 ; padded payrolls, 232; see Play. Pasteurization, see Milk. Patent medicines, more short cuts, 53; reiterate, 104; great American fraud, 208- 212; money spent on, 210; fighting national health bu- reau, 211. Patten, Simon N., 223. Payroll, see Audit. People's Lobby, why it failed, 111. Percentages, ingredient of evi- dence, 90; illustrations, 97; courses needed, 97; see 100%. Personal property, lying about, 340, 341. Philadelphia Bureau of Mu- nicipal Research, Citizens' Business bulletins, 127; bal- ance sheet for city, 312; on short weights, 319; on pav- ing contracts, 335. Philadelphia City Club, 140. Philanthropy, schools of, 358. Pin maps, as evidence, 95; transmissible diseases, 95 ; traveling libraries, 147; baby deaths, 200, 204. Platform, political, sound alike, 26; ballots do not make, 106; summary for states, 106; 1910, by sub- jects, 108. Play, playgrounds, started by women, 140; in streets, maligned, 230; in parks, 231-233; needs efficient government, 233; soul vs. supervision, 233, 255; may women be injured by, 236; for schools, helped by vol- unteers, 245; at school, 254- 255; court's part, 291. Playground, The, 234. Pocantico Hills school, 253. Police efficiency, in N. Y. City, 1910, 90; department business methods studied, 174; eight questions, 299; factors involved, 301; infor- mation lacking, 302 ; testing, 302; "squeal book," 302; needs to be studied, 304; agencies not yet studied, 305; a few indexes, 306. Political picnic, women's, 17. Preferential voting, 61; in women's clubs, 140. Prendergast, William A., 166, 328. Press, comes to home, 3; parallel columns, 94; sys- tematizing use of, 103-105; sources of power, 103; to discuss platforms, 107; in watching legislation, 109, 112; at budget hearings, 122; helpless in making state budgets, 126; supple- ment by municipal organ, 126 ; Efficient Citizenship bulletins, 173; instructs mothers in baby welfare, 202; dirt makes news, 226; told facts about physical defects, 248; should have school stories, 272; discus- sions of crime, 282; on training for public work, 358. 372 INDEX Preventable, see Transmissible diseases. Price lists, see Purchase. Primary, 38 ; see Nominations. Principles of Sanitary Science and the Public Health, 189. Private charities, see Giving. Probation, needs supervision, 286-291; means of corrup- tion, 286; a school for crime, 288; facts before trial, 290. Problem creator, denned, 4; when woman is, 5. Programmes, for talks, 138; cumulative effect, 139; con- sult President of State Fed- eration, 139 ; preferential vote, initiative and referen- dum, 140; references, 140. Programmes, for work, con- sult President of State Fed- eration, 139 ; references, 140; summary needed, 142. Prohibition, see Alcoholism. Promises, vs. what happens 47. Provident Loan Ass'n, 156. Publicity, see Press and Evi- dence. Purchaser, public as, 320, 323 ; woman as, 315, 317, 325; price lists, 321; central, saves money, 326; see Weights and Audit. Purdy, Lawson, 340. Q Quigg, Lemuel E., 110. Recall, woman's first vote in Seattle, 38, 75; bound to be tried, 73; short cut, 74-77; applied to judges, 74, 77; Boston's plan, 75; removal on evidence, 75; if often tried will fail, 76; requires more elections, 79; a nui- sance, 81 ; of Ahearn, 335. Records, use in evidence, 90; citizen's right of access to, 137; see Audit. Reference, see Library. Referendum, short cut, 68-70; in Oregon, 68; weaknesses, 70; no substitute for knowl- edge, 71, 81; official hand book, 72; danger in, 71; means longer ballot, 79; ad- vocates neglect taxpayers' hearings, 117; in women's clubs, 140. Refuse disposal, women co- operate, 141, ^8; in keep- ing streets clean, 2^4; ref- erence, 229. Registration, of eligible vot- ers, 35-36; personal, 35; educational test, 60; of births and deaths, 180. Reichmann, Fritz, 318. Relief, for constructive policy, 157; unsound lines between public and private, 157-161; see Giving. Results, of voting testable, 39. Revenue, report on methods of collecting, 173; as result of probation, 289; balance sheet, 312-314; watching, 342; careless treatment sub- sidizes grafters, 344; tests for your town, 344. Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 296, 304. Rockefeller Foundation, 168. Roosevelt, Theodore, 41, 48, 234, 238. Root, Elihu, 9, 18. Rowe, Clifford G., 296. INDEX 373 Sage, Mrs. Russell, 331, 337. Saloon, see Alcoholism. Sanitary survey of factories, 214; of streets, 227; of schools, 246. Saturday and Sunday Hos- pital Ass'n, 326. Schiff, Jacob H., 119. School attendance, irregu- larity costs money, 253; child's rights to be found, 255; officers found grafting, 255; may be watched, 256; mortality in evening schools, 257; half-day absences, 257; attendance officers vs. courts, 291 ; see Child labor. School boards, need hand books, 30; women members, 141 ; what they should know, 267; questions by local, in N. Y. City, 268. School census, to find children, 255; continuous, in N. Y. City, 256. School, charitable, need com- pulsory health requirements, 251. School, city superintendents, asked questions about budget needs, 121; receives Efficient Citizenship bulle- tins, 173; wants outside in- telligent help, 246; told facts about physical defects, 248; can avoid four causes of non-promotion, 260; ef- fort to promote, testable, 261 ; have needed facts, 269 ; symposium on reports, 270; sent report on sex hygiene, 296. School, civic instruction, vol- unteer interest in, 245; by practice, 271; 14 next steps, 272. Schools, cooperation with, need hand books on, 30; Oregon women, 124; moth- ers' meetings, 141; studied, 244, 245 ; superintendents ask for, 250. School course, complaints, 243, 264. School curriculum, complaints, 243, 265; several inquiries, 266 ; college domination, 275. School dental clinics, 254; volunteer dentists, 245 ; needs obvious in faces, 253, 254. School gardens, 140. School health, adenoids or- dered corrected, 3; physical examination for work pa- pers, 218; and clean streets, 226; medical inspection for contagion, 245 ; nurse to fol- low up, 245, 248, 249; and philanthropy, 247; needs outside cooperation, 247 ; physical defects propagan- da, 249; ventilation needs watching, 247, 252-254; in parochial schools, 251; jan- itor's part, 252; in rural schools, 252; and non-pro- motion, 252, 260; reading health index, 253. School mortality, causes, 259; how to watch, 262. School non-promotion, and physical defects, 252; how to watch, 257-261; vs. ac- celeration, 258; Dr. White's study, 259; 13 reasons for, 260; 11 tests of effort to stop, 261. School reports, show oppor- tunities for cooperation, 246; on school mortality, 262; press will use, 269; a symposium, 270. 374 INDEX School revenue, 249; see Budget. School, state superintendents, greater than college heads, 237; told facts about phys- ical defects, 248; on shorter school course, 265; test teachers, 267; needs your support, 272; new era, 274; conferences on uniform re- ports, 274; bulletins, 275. School supplies, waste checked, 320. School teachers, need friendly visitor, 246 ; opportunities for cooperation, 246; effi- ciency watched, 247, 266; and non-promotion, 260; 30 tests, 267; interested in sex hygiene, 296; study assess- ments, 338. School, vacational training for 1% or 100%, 168; vol- unteer interest in, 245; 50 criticisms, 243. School principals study re- tardation, 260. School, private, need compul- sory health, 251. School population, figures use- less, 256. School Progress and School Facts, 174. Schools, pupil self-govern- ment, league for, 141; na- tional clearing house, 262; five reasons for, 263; in col- leges, 263; women's clubs may help, 264. Schools of Philanthropy, 358. Score cards, see Milk, T each- Seattle, recall of mayor, 38, 75. Sedgwick, William T., 189. Segregation, see Social evil. Sentiment, public, educated or miseducated by elections, 45; open eye needed, 88; will compel law enforce- ment, 214; judges claims of sex, 236; vs. saloon-dealt r, 298; to study police effi- ciency, 307. Settlements, workers good "mixers," 17. Sex, special claims, 234-237; see Social evil. Shepard, Edward M., 47. Shepherdson, William, 79. Sheppard, James J., 267. Short ballot, short cut, 63; na- tional ass'n, 65; need not be effective, 67; and referen- dum, 68; aid to politician, 81. Short Ballot Association, 65. Short cuts, women will expe- riment, 35; disappointing, 49, 67; to efficient govern- ment, 53-81; lead back to next steps, 81; helped by pin maps, 200. Sickness rate, see Baby sav- ing. Smuggling, women's part, 18; as an equilibrator, 20. Snedden, David S., 273, 274, 275. Social evil, demand for in- struction, 3; women's part in, 19; reason for trying short cuts, 81; near churches, 153; and patent medicines, 210; can women stop, 291-294; danger of being morbid, 292; poverty cause, 293; as sex hygiene will be taught, 293; segre- gation defended by a mayor, 294; studied in Chicago, 296; references, 296; fos- tered by police, 300; and employment agencies, 305. INDEX S75 Social service, see Nursing. Speedwell Society, 205. Specifications, see Audit. State Board of Charities, 159. State Charities Aid Ass'ns, 159, 205. State health, see Health. State Official Gazette, 70. Stevens, Mrs. Robert L., 248. Stevens, Rob't L., Fund for Municipal Research in Ho- boken, 12T, 248, 316. Street, unclean, reason for trying short cuts, 81; near churches, 153; requiring paving, 95; rubbish barrels, 141; children help clean, 222; clean or unclean, 222- 228 ; cleaners encouraged, 223; helping officials, 225; annual cleaning not enough, 225; monthly tour of in- spection, 225; where unfor- givable, 226; sanitary sur- vey, 227; Waring Brigades, 228; see Play. Street building tests, 334. Strikes, come to homes, 3. Subtraction, in evidence, 87- 100. Suffrage, society, how to or- ganize, 30; defeat in Ore- gon, 70, 72; to be tried, 73; will disappoint, 81 ; see Vot- ing and Ballot. Summary, of evidence, 87-100. Sunday school, women in, 7. Superintendent, see Schools. Superiority, of women, 18, 25 Survey, The, 142, 144, 146, 159, 191, 205, 225, 291. Sweat-shop, comes to homes, 3. T Taft, President, 9, 43, 46, 92, 238, 283, 321. Talbot, C. H., 72. Tammany Hall, fraudulent votes for, 41 ; living up to platform, 46; never openly defends wrong, 60; history of, 89. Tarbell, Miss Ida, 14. Tariff, evasion, 107. Taxes, withheld, 5, 19, 340; and voting, 56; see Budget and Audit. Taxpayers, direct and indi- rect, 56; hearings, on budget, 115; seldom used by advocates of referendum and initiative, 117; organ- izations more effective with facts, 118. Teachers, see Schools. Tentative, see Budget. Tenement, see Overcrowding. Tenure of office, 80. Tests, for bacteria in milk, 192, 194; of factory condi- tions, 213-216; of public decency, 279; of efficient purchasing, 321; of schools, effort to promote, 261; of teachers by state, 267; see Audit and Evidence. Theater, comes to homes, 3; women support, 7; block housing reform, 220. Time sheets, see Audit. Training, for participation in government, 357-358. Transmissible diseases, not from Providence, 5, 53; pin maps, 95; next steps, 178, 184; stamping out, 182- 189; individuals cannot stop, 184; exclusion from school, 184; carelessness in whooping cough, 185 ; women may watch, 186; cost in your town, 187; cats and whiskers, 188; and na- 376 INDEX tional bureau of health, 188 ; typhoid and polluted water, 189; references, 189; and unclean streets, 224 ; checked by medical inspection, 252; of sex, 292, 296. Trusteeship, law of, 135; not dependent on ballot, 136; binding effect on officers, 137; in search for culture, 138. Truancy and probation, 291. Typhoid, see Transmissible diseases. Typhoid Fever, 189. Tuberculosis, farms to cure, 4; pin maps, 95; deaths and cases classified, 99; in cat- tle permitted, 116; Red Cross stamps vs. official re- ports, 128; suffers from fraudulent appeals, 165; state wide fight, 179; and milk, 195 ; and patent medi- cines, 210. Tweed, Boss, 89. U Unit of inquiry, in Evidence, 87-100. U. S. Brewers' Ass'n, 299. U. S. bureau of animal in- dustry, 195. U. S. bureau of census, 204, 238. U. S. bureau of education, 130, 237, 259, 272, 275. U. S. bureau of food inspec- tion, 211. Uplift work, see Giving. tional effort to prevent, 146. Vice Commission of Chicago, 296. Visiting committees, 159. Vocational training, see Schools. Voluntary associations, see Topics. Voting, woman's duty inde- pendent of, 4; vs. getting things done, 5; do women want, 9; danger of ignorant, 20; result of woman's where tried, 20, 26; stay-at-home vote, 36, 40, 45, 62; cost of, 39; results testable, 39; get- ting out, 40; for pay, 40, 57; protected, 41-42; inter- preted, 42-44; disappoint- ments, 44-45; number of voters, 54; age limits, 55; property qualification, 56; as right demanded by women, 57; for industrial reasons, 58; personal inter- est, 58; educational qualifi- cation, 58; preferential, 61; compulsory, 62; fewer elec- tions, 79; national separate from state, 80; often dis- franchises, 82 ; overempha- sis on, 82; what it cannot do, 83; does not mean infor- mation, 84; need of evi- dence, 89; volunteer voters' leagues, 105; making plat- forms, 106; for new laws, 108 ; taxpayers' hearings, 117; see Ballot. Vagrancy, when women tol- erate, 5; in begging, 145; police often help, 146; na- W Waring, Geo. E., 228. Waste, do women ever, 19; no majority ever voted for, INDEX 377 46; graft, 64, 65; reason for trying short cuts, 81; not controlled by ballot, 83; en- couraged by state budget making, 126; in hospital supplies, 321; caused by lack of inspection, 325; typical, 331 ; typical losses in revenues, 342; see Audit. Watchers, women act as, 36. Water, insured clean, 189- 190. Weights and measures, short for women purchasers, 315; not confined to cities, 316; constant inspection needed, 317; some tests, 318; refer- ences, 319; in budget ex- hibit, 320. West, Paul, 224. Whipple, George C., 189. White, Emerson E., 259. White slave, see Social evil. Whitlock, Brand, 294. Whitney, Miss Dorothy, 247. Will making, see Giving. Wilson, H. W., Company, 79. Wilson, Woodrow, 65. Womans' Christian Temper- ance Union, 299. Women's clubs, educational committees, should write up school work done, 247; Na- tional Federation's work for schools, 247; in Oregon, 250; questions on school health, 253; see Programmes. Woman's interest, in method, 29; evolution of, 35-36. Woman's Municipal Leagues, 225. Woman's rights, to ballot, 9; to make mistakes, 21. Woman's Trade Union League, 216. Women's Welfare Auxiliary of Nat'l Civic Federation, 213, 215. Working papers, physical tests, 218. Wyoming, woman's vote, 20, 21. Young, Ella Flagg, 38. URN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 202 Main Library 642-3403 N PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405 mth loans may be recharged by bringing books to Circulation Desk enewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date DUE AS STAMPED BELOW SL CHfc FEB 1 5 '77 0V 14 1993 lrfh - "^ OLD /*> '- S3 cm I ON JLL ' U N 1 7 2004 ' C. BERKELEY A NO. 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