VITA

Bornat Hammond River, Province of New Brunswick, Canada. Son of Samuel I. and Mary E. Perkins Prince. Graduate of St. John (N. B.) High School, the University of Toronto, Wycliffe College (Tor.). Taught at Ridley College, St. Catharines, Ont. Appointed to staff of St. Paul's Halifax N. S. Studied for doctorate at Columbia University. Subject of primary interest, Sociology; of secondary interest, Statistics and Social Legislation. Graduate courses with Professors, Giddings, Tenney, Chaddock, Lindsay, Andrews, Montague, McCrea. President of the British Empire Club of the University.

[1]“Within a score of years disasters ... have cost thousands of lives, have affected by personal injury, or destruction of property no fewer than a million and a half persons and have laid waste property valued at over a billion dollars ... the expectation based on past experience is that each year no less than half a dozen such catastrophies will occur.” (Deacon J. Byron,Disasters, N. Y., 1918, p. 7.) This quotation refers to the United States alone.[2]Catastrophies are those unforeseen events which the Wells-Fargo express receipts used to call quaintly “Acts of God, Indians and other public enemies of the government.”[3]If nature abhors a vacuum, she also abhors stagnation. Is there not reason behind all this action and reaction, these cycles and short-time changes which her observers note? May it not well be that the ever-swinging pendulum has a stir-up function to perform and that the miniature daily catastrophies of life are the things which keep it wholesome and sweet?“The old order changeth yielding place to the new.And God fulfils Himself in many waysLest one good custom should corrupt the world.”—Tennyson, Alfred,The Passing of Arthur.[4]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905), ch. viii, p. 189.[5]Ross,op. cit., p. 198.[6]Jeune, Sir Francis, a celebrated judge in divorce cases.[7]Mathews, Shailer,The Church in the Changing Order(N. Y., 1907), ch. i, p. 1.[8]Thomas, William I.,Source Book of Social Origins(Chicago, 1909), Introduction, p. 17.[9]Giddings, Franklin H., “Pluralistic Behaviour,”American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxv, no. 4 (Jan., 1920), p. 401.[10]The phrases “The world in a welter,” “nations in the melting pot,” “life in the smelting oven,” are commonly heard and suggest a solution stage prior to the hardening process, or antecedent to crystallization.[11]Following the French Revolution Wordsworth wrote:I lostAll feeling of conviction and in fineSick, wearied out with contrarietiesYielded up moral questions in despair.—Prelude, bk. xi.[12]Ross,op. cit., p. 200.[13]To this cause of immobility may be added others, such as: (1) Narrow experience and few interests. (2) Large percentage of population owning property. (3) Oriental pride in permanence. (4) Fatalistic philosophies. (5) Over-emphasis of government.[14]Thomas,op. cit., pp. 20, 21.[15]Thomas,op. cit., p. 18.[16]“It has one of the finest, if not the finest, ports in North America. In 1900 a great tidal wave swept over the city, causing enormous damage and loss of life. While the city has had a certain growth since that time, it has been far outstripped by Houston, Dallas, and other Texas cities.”—Kirby Page, formerly of Texas, in a letter to the author.[17]Another principle is suggested for study by the following sentence in Ross'Foundations of Sociology(p. 206):“Brusk revolution in the conditions of life or thought produces not sudden, but gradual changes in society.” This might easily be elaborated.[18]The relationship of poetry and disaster is of interest. In a recent article on Disaster and Poetry a writer asks “whether often, if not always, suffering, disease and disaster do not bring to him [the poet] the will to create.”—Marks, Jeanette, “Disaster and Poetry,”North American Review, vol. 212, no. 1 (July, 1920), p. 93.[19]Thomas,op. cit., p. 23.[20]In this storm a ship from Madagascar was driven into a South Carolina port. In gratitude the Captain gave the Governor a sack of seed.[21]It is perhaps due to the reader to say that while this volume treats specifically of Halifax, the writer has studied the records of many disasters and these have been kept in mind in drawing his conclusions. He participated in the rescue and relief work at Halifax in 1917, and at the time of the Titanic disaster accompanied one of the expeditions to the scene. He was in New York when the Wall Street explosion occurred, and made a first hand study of its effects.[22]During the month of December, 1915, alone, 30,000 tons of munitions passed over the railroad piers of Halifax.[23]TheMont Blanc, St. Nazaire, Captain Lemedec, Pilot Francis Mackay, owners La Compagnie General Transatlantique 3,121 tons gross, 2252 net register, steel, single screw, 330 ft. long, 40 ft. beam, speed 7½ to 8 knots, inward bound, from New York to await convoy. Cargo 450,000 lbs. trinitrotoluol, 2300 tons picric acid, 35 tons benzol, employed in carrying munitions to France.[24]TheImo, Christiania, Captain Fron, Pilot William Hayes, owners Southern Pacific Whaling Company, 5,041 tons gross, 3161 tons register, steel, single screw, 430 ft. long, 45 ft. beam, speed 11 to 12 knots, outward bound to New York, in ballast, employed in carrying food to Belgium.[25]The greatest previous explosion was when 500,000 pounds of dynamite blew up in Baltimore Harbor.[26]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).[27]McGlashen, Rev. J. A.,The Patriot(Dartmouth, N. S.).[28]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. ii, p. 158.[29]“The effect of the vast, sudden interference with the air was practically the same as if an earthquake had shaken Halifax to the ground.” (MacMechan, Archibald, “Halifax in Ruins,”The Canadian Courier, vol. xxiii, no. 4, p. 6.)[30]The tracings on the seismograph show three distinct shocks at the hours 9.05, 9.10 and 10.05.[31]Pliny,Letters(London, 1915), vol. i, bk. vi, p. 495.[32]Smith, Stanley K.,The Halifax Horror(Halifax, 1918), ch. ii, p. 24.[33]Bell, McKelvie,A Romance of the Halifax Disaster(Halifax, 1918), p. 57.[34]Spencer, Herbert,The Principles of Sociology(N. Y., 1908), pt. ii, p. 499et seq.[35]Lytton, Lord,The Last Days of Pompeii(London, 1896), p. 405.[36]Johnstone,op. cit.[37]Ratshesky, A. C., “Report of Halifax Relief Expedition,”The State(Boston, 1918), p. 11.[38]Keller, A. G., “Sociology and Science,”The Nation(N. Y., May 4, 1916), vol. 102, no. 2653, p. 275.[39]For a full discussion of nervous disorders induced by an explosion at short range,videRoussy and Llermette,The Psychoneuroses of War(London, 1918), ch. x.[40]Brown, W. Langden, Presidential address to Hunterian Society, London.[41]Crile, George W.,The Origin and Nature of the Emotions(Phila., 1915), p. 163.[42]Hart, Bernard,The Psychology of Insanity(Cambridge, 1916), ch. iii, p. 30.[43]“Sohypochondriacfancies representShips, armies, battles in the firmamentTill steady eyes the exhalations solveAnd all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.”—Defoe,Journal of the Plague Year.[44]Hart,op. cit., ch. iii, p. 31.[45]For parallel cases of erroneous recognition of the dead,videLe Bon, Gustave,The Crowd, a Study of the Popular Mind(London), bk. i, ch. i, p. 51.[46]Ibid., p. 51.[47]Thorndike, Edward L.,The Original Nature of Man(N. Y., 1913), ch. v, p. 43et seq.[48]McDougall, William,An Introduction to Social Psychology(Boston, 1917), ch. iii, p. 49et seq.[49]Sheldon, J.,The Busy East(Sackville, N. B. Can.), March, 1918.[50]The judgment of the court of enquiry ran as follows: “The master and pilot of the Mont Blanc are guilty of neglect of public safety in not taking proper steps to warn the inhabitants of the city of a probable explosion.” (Drysdale Commission,Judgment of, sec. viii.)[51]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. vi, p. 151.[52]Le Bon,op. cit., p. 26.[53]Trotter, William,Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War(London, 1919), p. 31.[54]Sidis, Boris,The Psychology of Suggestion(N. Y., 1919), ch. vi, p. 56et seq.[55]Giddings, Franklin H.,Principles of Sociology(N. Y., 1916), bk. ii, ch. ii, p. 136.[56]Stephens, Henry M.,A History of the French Revolution(N. Y., 1886), vol. i, p. 179.[57]Wells, H. G.,In the Days of the Comet(N. Y., 1906).[58]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).[59]St. John Globe, Correspondence, Dec., 1917.[60]McDougall,op. cit., p. 46.[61]Woodworth, Robert S.,Dynamic Psychology(N. Y., 1918), ch. iii, p. 54.[62]“Anger, zeal, determination, willing, are closely allied, and probably identical in part. Certainly they are aroused by the same stimulus, namely, by obstruction, encountered in the pursuit of some end.” (Ibid., p. 149.)[63]Thorndike,op. cit., p. 101.[64]“To go for attractive objects, to grab them when within reach, to hold them against competitors, to fight the one who tries to take them away. To go for, grab and hold them all the more if another is trying to do so, these lines of conduct are the roots ofgreed.”(Ibid., p. 102.)[65]M. Dide, a French psychologist, regards “the hypnosis produced by emotional shock—and this occurs not only in war but in other great catastrophies as well—as genetically a defence reaction, like natural sleep whose function according to him is primarily prophylactic against exhaustion and fatigue, ... it is comparable to the so-called death-shamming of animals.” (Dide, M.,Les émotions et la guerre(Paris, 1918), Review of,Psychological Bulletin, vol. xv, no. 12, Dec., 1918, p. 441.)[66]Wallas, Graham,The Great Society(N. Y., 1917), p. 136.[67]Ibid., p. 440.[68]Classed by William James as an emotion, but considered by McDougall a pseudo-instinct.[69]McDougall,op. cit., p. 152.[70]O'Connor, Chas. J.,San Francisco Relief Survey(N. Y., 1913), pt. i, p. 6.[71]“The cutting edge of all our usual misfortunes comes from their character of loneliness.”—(James, William,Memories and Studies, N. Y., 1911, p. 224.)[72]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 58.[73]Ross, Edward A.,Social Psychology(N. Y., 1918), ch. iv, p. 66.[74]A list compiled by the author from suggestions in Deacon's discussion of disasters. All were to be observed at Halifax.[75]It has been said that were the period of man's residence on earth considered as having covered an hundred thousand years, that of civilization would be represented by the last ten minutes.[76]Stewart, George,The Story of the Great Fire in St. John(Toronto, 1877), p. 35.[77]Johnstone,op. cit.[78]James, William,The Energies of Men(N. Y., 1920), p. 11.[79]Cannon, Walter B.,Bodily changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage, ch. xi, p. 184,et seq.[80]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 147.[81]Will is indeed the supreme faculty, the whole mind in action, the internal stimulus which may call forth all the capacities and powers. (Conklin, Edwin G.,Heredity and Environment in the Development of Man[Princeton], ch. vi, p. 47.)[82]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 149.[83]Sano, F., “Documenti della guerra: Osservazioni psicologiche notate durante il bombardamento di Anversa,”Rivista di psichologia, anno xi, pp. 119–128.[84]Smith, Stanley K.,The Halifax Horror(Halifax, 1918), ch. iv, p. 44.[85]Kropotkin, Prince,Mutual Aid(N. Y., 1919), ch. i, p. 14.[86]Johnstone,op. cit.[87]There is no better evidence of the response of the public heart to a great tragedy than the fact that at Halifax upwards of a thousand offers were received for the adoption of the orphaned children.[88]Bicknell, Ernest P., “In the Thick of the Relief Work at San Francisco,”Charities and the Commons, vol. xvi (June, 1906), p. 299.[89]What has been said of soldiers is of course equally true of sailors.[90]Giddings, Franklin H., “Pluralistic Behaviour,”American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxv, no. 4 (Jan., 1920), p. 539.[91]Tenney, Alvan A., Unpublished lectures on Social Organization.[92]Bell, McKelvie,A Romance of the Halifax Disaster(Halifax, 1918).[93]Tarde, Gabriel,Les lois de l'imitation(N. Y., 1903), translation by E. C. Parsons, ch. i, p. 14.[94]Giddings,op. cit., p. 396.[95]Bagehot, Walter,Physics and Politics(N. Y., 1884), p. 159,et seq.[96]Giddings,op. cit., p. 390.[97]From information kindly supplied by D. L. Hutchinson, director of the St. John (N. B.) observatory, and F. B. Ronnan, Halifax Station.[98]Semple, Ellen,Influences of Geographic Environment(N. Y., 1911), p. 607,et seq.[99]Giddings,op. cit., p. 389.[100]For a period of two weeks meals for 15,000 people were distributed every day.[101]Other sociological factors might also be illustrated, namely, (a) the biological, including, besides the density of population, the heredity and the physical and mental health of the inhabitants. (b) the equipmental factor, including available economic resources, general enlightenment, social surplus and institutional facilities for re-education,etc.(Videch. vii.)[102]Durkheim, Émile,De la division du travail social(Paris, 1893).[103]In the great Baltimore fire of 1904 theBaltimore Sun, by remarkable enterprise was gotten out at Washington, 45 miles distant, and did not miss a single issue.[104]On the first Sunday, December ninth at eleven o'clock Archdeacon Armitage conducted Divine service in St. Paul's Church, and the same afternoon this edifice was used by the congregation of All Saints Cathedral.[105]Quinn, J. P.,Report of Board of School Commissioners for City ofHalifax, 1918.[106]Hanrahan, F.,Report of Chief of Police, Halifax, 1918.[107]Saunders, E. A.,Report of Halifax Board of Trade, 1918.[108]Thomas, William I.,Source Book of Social Origins(Chicago, 1909), Introduction, p. 18.[109]J. H. Falk, an expert in charge of the social welfare work in Winnipeg; Miss Rathburn of Toronto, Mrs. Burrington of the Y. W. C. A., Toronto. Christopher Lanz, under whose guidance the rehabilitation work after the Salem fire was brought to a successful conclusion; Katherine McMahon, Head worker of the Social Service Department of the Boston Dispensary, Lucy Wright, formerly Superintendent for the Mass. Commission for the Blind; Elizabeth Richards Day, Organizer and for many years Head Worker of the Social Service Department of the Boston Dispensary; E. E. Allen, Superintendent of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, C. C. Carstens, Superintendent of the Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; John F. Moors, president of the Associated Charities of Boston, who was in charge of the Red Cross relief following the Salem and Chelsea fires; William H. Pear, Agent of the Boston Provident Association; J. Prentice Murphy, General Secretary of the Boston Children's Aid Society; A. C. Ratshesky, Vice-chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the State of Massachusetts.[110]Carstens, C. C., “From the Ashes of Halifax,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 13 (Dec. 28, 1917), p. 361.[111]With Mr. Ratshesky were Mr. John F. Moors, and Major Giddings.[112]The Public Safety Committee of Massachusetts and the Boston Unit of the American Red Cross.[113]The scheme as finally decided upon consisted of a small managing committee with sub-committees in control of food, clothing, shelter, fuel, burial, medical relief, transportation, information, finance and rebuilding.[114]“During the emergency stage of relief the people are dealt with in large groups with little attention to the special needs of individuals ... in the rehabilitation stage the family or the individual becomes the unit of consideration.”—(Bicknell, E. P., “Disaster Relief and its Problems,”National Conference of Charities and Corrections, sess. xxxvi, 1909, p. 12.)[115]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. v, p. 137.[116]The town of Dartmouth on the Eastern side of Halifax harbor also suffered very seriously in the explosion. It had its own relief organization under the very capable chairmanship of ex-mayor A. C. Johnstone. The nature of the relief work there did not differ essentially from that in Halifax.[117]Davis, Michael M., Jr., “Medical Social Service in a Disaster,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 25 (March 23, 1918), p. 675.[118]Blois, Ernest H.,Report of Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children(Halifax, 1918), p. 110.[119]Fraser, Sir Frederick,Report of.[120]The reader may contrast with this the early days of the relief at the Johnstown flood “where two windows were set apart from which clothing and boots were being thrown over the heads of the crowd, and those having the longest arms and the stoutest backs seemed to be getting the most of it”; and where almoners passed through the streets handing “ten dollar bills to everyone whom they met.”[121]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).[122]There was however no definite organization of the dissatisfied as actually took place at the Slocum Disaster.[123]Johnstone,op. cit.[124]Both in Chicago and Johnstown many families were placed in a position practically as good as that which they had occupied before. Carnegie once completely reimbursed the sufferers from a bank failure.[125]Devine, Edward T.,Principles of Relief(N. Y., 1904), pt. iv, p. 462.[126]Moors, John F., Book Review,Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 17 (Jan. 26, 1918), p. 472.[127]The courts of small claims devoted ten minutes to each case. The amount awarded was paid on the day the case was heard.[128]The policy to be pursued in disaster relief cannot yet be finally stated. It may ultimately be found necessary to distinguish between the loss of property socially owned, and that of private ownership.[129]Thomas,op. cit., p. 19.[130]The author regrets that it has been necessary to omit special mention of the many institutions, societies and voluntary agencies, which were actively engaged in the relief work, and to confine the chapter to the principles employed by those mainly responsible for relief and administration.[131]Lindsay, Samuel M., Unpublished Lectures on Social Legislation.[132]Giddings, Franklin H.,The Responsible State(N. Y., 1918), ch. iv, p. 81.[133]Reference has already been made to the good work of the Government railroad officials in the quick restoration of service.[134]Cooley, Charles H.,Social Organization(N. Y., 1912), ch. xxxv, p. 403.[135]This is not to be considered as without exception in catastrophies. A special Citizens' Committee led the operations at the Paterson fire and flood, but at the Chicago fire the City government took immediate and responsible action. This was also the case at Baltimore when the Mayor was the “key to the situation.” It should however be added that both at Halifax and Dartmouth the chairmen of the Citizens' Committees were ex-mayors.[136]An Act to Incorporate the Halifax Relief Commission, Halifax, 1918.[137]Parkinson, Thomas I., “Problems growing out of the Titanic Disaster,”Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, vol. vi, no. 1.[138]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905), ch. viii, p. 254.[139]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), p. 43.[140]Ross,op. cit., p. 253.[141]Regulations for the Loading and Handling of Explosives in the Harbors of Canada(Ottawa, June, 1919).[142]In a letter to the author.[143]Mill, John Stuart,Principles of Political Economy(London, 1917), ch. v, p. 74.[144]Tenney, Alvan A., “Individual and Social Surplus,”Popular Science Monthly, vol. lxxxii (Dec., 1912), p. 552.[145]Patten, Simon N.,Theory of the Social Forces(Phil., 1896), p. 75.[146]At San Francisco “after the fire, the proportion of families in the lower income groups was somewhat larger, and the proportion in the higher income groups somewhat smaller than before the fire.” (Motley, James M.,San Francisco Relief Survey, New York, 1913, pt. iv, p. 228.)[147]Seager, Henry R.,Economics, Briefer Course(N. Y., 1909), ch. xiii, p. 210.[148]At the time of the tragic Martinique disaster the New York committee received $80,000 more than it could disburse. (Devine, Edward T.,The Principles of Relief, N. Y., 1904, pt. iv, ch. vii, p. 468.)[149]Le Bon, Gustave,The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind(London), ch. iii, p. 79.[150]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. v, p. 120.[151]Blackmar and Gillin,Outlines of Sociology(N. Y., 1915), pt. iv, ch. v, p. 402.[152]Halifax is the wealthiest city per capita in the Dominion of Canada.[153]For years real estate was marketed “quietly.” In fact, real property was in the hands of one or two specialists only.[154]The Acadian Recorder, C. C. Blackadar, editor.[155]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905),ch.viii, p. 197.[156]There are other causes of conservatism. A comparative freedom from disasters in the past is one. Halifax has suffered few in her entire history. Indeed the cholera epidemic is the only one of any consequence. She remained one of the last large wooden cities. Her sister city, St. John, was stricken by a disastrous fire and stands to-day safer, more substantial, more progressive in every way.Again communities are generally conservative in character when a large percentage are property-holding people. It was one of the surprises of the Halifax catastrophe that so large a number of citizens were found to own at least in part the homes they lived in.There are other questions which the sociologist would ask if it were possible to carry the investigation further. Is the community loath to disturb the existing relations or to resort to extreme means to achieve desired ends? Or is it eager to sweep away the old, to indulge in radical experiment and to try any means that give promise of success? He would study too the distribution of people relative to their interests. Is there a majority of those whose experiences are narrow and whose interests are few? Or is there a majority of those who have long enjoyed varied experiences and cultivated manifold interests, that yet remain harmonious? He studies the character of the choices, decisions, selections in a people's industry, law-making, educational and religious undertakings. It is thus that he proceeds in diagnosing a population as to the degree of conservatism and to discover what the ideal community should be.—Giddings, Franklin H.,Inductive Sociology(N. Y., 1909), p. 178,et seq.[157]Halifax has now one of the best equipped tramway systems to be found anywhere. There has recently been appropriated the sum of $200,000 for sewers, $150,000 for water, $300,000 for street paving.[158]Halifax long felt herself to have been commercially a martyr to Confederation.[159]Chaddock, Robert E., Unpublished Material.[160]The reader will of course remember the general inflation of currency.[161]Hoffman, Frederick L.,Insurance, Science and Economics(N. Y., 1911), ch. ix, p. 337.[162]In the Texas flood of 1900 there were lost 5,000 lives, but they cannot be said to have been all associated with a single community.[163]Figures kindly supplied by Mr. John H. Barnstead, Registrar, Halifax.[164]The Directory of 1920 estimates the present population to be 85,000.[165]HalifaxMorning Chronicle, April 29, 1920.[166]The earliest city-planning was mediaeval. Halifax was laid out by military engineers with narrow streets—the “ideal was a fortified enclosure designed to accommodate the maximum number of inhabitants with the minimum of space.” In 1813 a town-planning scheme was set on foot for the purpose of straightening streets, the removal of projections and banks of earth and stones which at that time existed in the center of streets. Considerable betterment resulted but unfortunately many fine trees were cut down.[167]MacMechan, Archibald, “Changing Halifax,”Canadian Magazine, vol. xli, no. 4, pp. 328, 329.[168]Crowell, H. C.,The Busy East, vol. x, no. 7, p. 12.[169]A model housing development of 346 houses in the new north end has followed the disaster. “It is reasonable to assume,” writes an observer, “that the standard of living will ascend. Already the influence of these new houses is showing itself in the homes that are springing up all over the city.”[170]London's is 14.6, New York's 13.6.[171]New York's is 90, New Zealand's 60.[172]These funds are from the munificent gift of Massachusetts. A Massachusetts-Halifax Health Commission has been formed—Dr. B. Franklin Royer is the executive officer.[173]Dalhousie University has recently graduated the first class of nurses in Canada to receive the Diploma of Public Health.[174]It should be stated that the supervised playground movement had been developing in Halifax for a period of fourteen years, first under the Women's Council, afterwards under a regularly incorporated association with which the Women's Council merged.[175]In view of the explosion and the resulting housing conditions, an increase in juvenile delinquency might have been expected, but the “playgrounds which were established immediately after the disaster, and which adjoined both of the large temporary housing projects, are, it is felt, responsible for the excellent conditions which exist. The records of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children show that there was an actual decrease in the number of juvenile arrests in 1918 over 1917.”—(Leland, Arthur, “Recreation as a Part of the City Plan for Halifax, N. S., Canada,”Playground, vol. xiii, no. 10, p. 493.)[176]HalifaxEvening Mail, March 22, 1918.[177]Carstens, C. C., “From the Ashes of Halifax,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 13, p. 61.[178]The two additional propositions suggested intheIntroduction, namely, that the degree of fluidity seems to vary directly as the shock of the catastrophe, and that brusk revolution in the conditions of life accomplish not sudden, but gradual changes in society, require a study of comparative catastrophic phenomena for verification or rejection.[179]MacMechan,op. cit., p. 336.

[2]Catastrophies are those unforeseen events which the Wells-Fargo express receipts used to call quaintly “Acts of God, Indians and other public enemies of the government.”

[3]If nature abhors a vacuum, she also abhors stagnation. Is there not reason behind all this action and reaction, these cycles and short-time changes which her observers note? May it not well be that the ever-swinging pendulum has a stir-up function to perform and that the miniature daily catastrophies of life are the things which keep it wholesome and sweet?“The old order changeth yielding place to the new.And God fulfils Himself in many waysLest one good custom should corrupt the world.”—Tennyson, Alfred,The Passing of Arthur.

“The old order changeth yielding place to the new.And God fulfils Himself in many waysLest one good custom should corrupt the world.”—Tennyson, Alfred,The Passing of Arthur.

“The old order changeth yielding place to the new.

And God fulfils Himself in many ways

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”

—Tennyson, Alfred,The Passing of Arthur.

[4]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905), ch. viii, p. 189.

[5]Ross,op. cit., p. 198.

[6]Jeune, Sir Francis, a celebrated judge in divorce cases.

[7]Mathews, Shailer,The Church in the Changing Order(N. Y., 1907), ch. i, p. 1.

[8]Thomas, William I.,Source Book of Social Origins(Chicago, 1909), Introduction, p. 17.

[9]Giddings, Franklin H., “Pluralistic Behaviour,”American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxv, no. 4 (Jan., 1920), p. 401.

[10]The phrases “The world in a welter,” “nations in the melting pot,” “life in the smelting oven,” are commonly heard and suggest a solution stage prior to the hardening process, or antecedent to crystallization.

[11]Following the French Revolution Wordsworth wrote:I lostAll feeling of conviction and in fineSick, wearied out with contrarietiesYielded up moral questions in despair.—Prelude, bk. xi.

[11]Following the French Revolution Wordsworth wrote:

I lostAll feeling of conviction and in fineSick, wearied out with contrarietiesYielded up moral questions in despair.—Prelude, bk. xi.

I lost

All feeling of conviction and in fine

Sick, wearied out with contrarieties

Yielded up moral questions in despair.

—Prelude, bk. xi.

[12]Ross,op. cit., p. 200.

[13]To this cause of immobility may be added others, such as: (1) Narrow experience and few interests. (2) Large percentage of population owning property. (3) Oriental pride in permanence. (4) Fatalistic philosophies. (5) Over-emphasis of government.

[14]Thomas,op. cit., pp. 20, 21.

[15]Thomas,op. cit., p. 18.

[16]“It has one of the finest, if not the finest, ports in North America. In 1900 a great tidal wave swept over the city, causing enormous damage and loss of life. While the city has had a certain growth since that time, it has been far outstripped by Houston, Dallas, and other Texas cities.”—Kirby Page, formerly of Texas, in a letter to the author.

[17]Another principle is suggested for study by the following sentence in Ross'Foundations of Sociology(p. 206):“Brusk revolution in the conditions of life or thought produces not sudden, but gradual changes in society.” This might easily be elaborated.

[18]The relationship of poetry and disaster is of interest. In a recent article on Disaster and Poetry a writer asks “whether often, if not always, suffering, disease and disaster do not bring to him [the poet] the will to create.”—Marks, Jeanette, “Disaster and Poetry,”North American Review, vol. 212, no. 1 (July, 1920), p. 93.

[19]Thomas,op. cit., p. 23.

[20]In this storm a ship from Madagascar was driven into a South Carolina port. In gratitude the Captain gave the Governor a sack of seed.

[21]It is perhaps due to the reader to say that while this volume treats specifically of Halifax, the writer has studied the records of many disasters and these have been kept in mind in drawing his conclusions. He participated in the rescue and relief work at Halifax in 1917, and at the time of the Titanic disaster accompanied one of the expeditions to the scene. He was in New York when the Wall Street explosion occurred, and made a first hand study of its effects.

[22]During the month of December, 1915, alone, 30,000 tons of munitions passed over the railroad piers of Halifax.

[23]TheMont Blanc, St. Nazaire, Captain Lemedec, Pilot Francis Mackay, owners La Compagnie General Transatlantique 3,121 tons gross, 2252 net register, steel, single screw, 330 ft. long, 40 ft. beam, speed 7½ to 8 knots, inward bound, from New York to await convoy. Cargo 450,000 lbs. trinitrotoluol, 2300 tons picric acid, 35 tons benzol, employed in carrying munitions to France.

[24]TheImo, Christiania, Captain Fron, Pilot William Hayes, owners Southern Pacific Whaling Company, 5,041 tons gross, 3161 tons register, steel, single screw, 430 ft. long, 45 ft. beam, speed 11 to 12 knots, outward bound to New York, in ballast, employed in carrying food to Belgium.

[25]The greatest previous explosion was when 500,000 pounds of dynamite blew up in Baltimore Harbor.

[26]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).

[27]McGlashen, Rev. J. A.,The Patriot(Dartmouth, N. S.).

[28]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. ii, p. 158.

[29]“The effect of the vast, sudden interference with the air was practically the same as if an earthquake had shaken Halifax to the ground.” (MacMechan, Archibald, “Halifax in Ruins,”The Canadian Courier, vol. xxiii, no. 4, p. 6.)

[30]The tracings on the seismograph show three distinct shocks at the hours 9.05, 9.10 and 10.05.

[31]Pliny,Letters(London, 1915), vol. i, bk. vi, p. 495.

[32]Smith, Stanley K.,The Halifax Horror(Halifax, 1918), ch. ii, p. 24.

[33]Bell, McKelvie,A Romance of the Halifax Disaster(Halifax, 1918), p. 57.

[34]Spencer, Herbert,The Principles of Sociology(N. Y., 1908), pt. ii, p. 499et seq.

[35]Lytton, Lord,The Last Days of Pompeii(London, 1896), p. 405.

[36]Johnstone,op. cit.

[37]Ratshesky, A. C., “Report of Halifax Relief Expedition,”The State(Boston, 1918), p. 11.

[38]Keller, A. G., “Sociology and Science,”The Nation(N. Y., May 4, 1916), vol. 102, no. 2653, p. 275.

[39]For a full discussion of nervous disorders induced by an explosion at short range,videRoussy and Llermette,The Psychoneuroses of War(London, 1918), ch. x.

[40]Brown, W. Langden, Presidential address to Hunterian Society, London.

[41]Crile, George W.,The Origin and Nature of the Emotions(Phila., 1915), p. 163.

[42]Hart, Bernard,The Psychology of Insanity(Cambridge, 1916), ch. iii, p. 30.

[43]“Sohypochondriacfancies representShips, armies, battles in the firmamentTill steady eyes the exhalations solveAnd all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.”—Defoe,Journal of the Plague Year.

[43]

“Sohypochondriacfancies representShips, armies, battles in the firmamentTill steady eyes the exhalations solveAnd all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.”—Defoe,Journal of the Plague Year.

“Sohypochondriacfancies represent

Ships, armies, battles in the firmament

Till steady eyes the exhalations solve

And all to its first matter, cloud, resolve.”

—Defoe,Journal of the Plague Year.

[44]Hart,op. cit., ch. iii, p. 31.

[45]For parallel cases of erroneous recognition of the dead,videLe Bon, Gustave,The Crowd, a Study of the Popular Mind(London), bk. i, ch. i, p. 51.

[46]Ibid., p. 51.

[47]Thorndike, Edward L.,The Original Nature of Man(N. Y., 1913), ch. v, p. 43et seq.

[48]McDougall, William,An Introduction to Social Psychology(Boston, 1917), ch. iii, p. 49et seq.

[49]Sheldon, J.,The Busy East(Sackville, N. B. Can.), March, 1918.

[50]The judgment of the court of enquiry ran as follows: “The master and pilot of the Mont Blanc are guilty of neglect of public safety in not taking proper steps to warn the inhabitants of the city of a probable explosion.” (Drysdale Commission,Judgment of, sec. viii.)

[51]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. vi, p. 151.

[52]Le Bon,op. cit., p. 26.

[53]Trotter, William,Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War(London, 1919), p. 31.

[54]Sidis, Boris,The Psychology of Suggestion(N. Y., 1919), ch. vi, p. 56et seq.

[55]Giddings, Franklin H.,Principles of Sociology(N. Y., 1916), bk. ii, ch. ii, p. 136.

[56]Stephens, Henry M.,A History of the French Revolution(N. Y., 1886), vol. i, p. 179.

[57]Wells, H. G.,In the Days of the Comet(N. Y., 1906).

[58]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).

[59]St. John Globe, Correspondence, Dec., 1917.

[60]McDougall,op. cit., p. 46.

[61]Woodworth, Robert S.,Dynamic Psychology(N. Y., 1918), ch. iii, p. 54.

[62]“Anger, zeal, determination, willing, are closely allied, and probably identical in part. Certainly they are aroused by the same stimulus, namely, by obstruction, encountered in the pursuit of some end.” (Ibid., p. 149.)

[63]Thorndike,op. cit., p. 101.

[64]“To go for attractive objects, to grab them when within reach, to hold them against competitors, to fight the one who tries to take them away. To go for, grab and hold them all the more if another is trying to do so, these lines of conduct are the roots ofgreed.”(Ibid., p. 102.)

[65]M. Dide, a French psychologist, regards “the hypnosis produced by emotional shock—and this occurs not only in war but in other great catastrophies as well—as genetically a defence reaction, like natural sleep whose function according to him is primarily prophylactic against exhaustion and fatigue, ... it is comparable to the so-called death-shamming of animals.” (Dide, M.,Les émotions et la guerre(Paris, 1918), Review of,Psychological Bulletin, vol. xv, no. 12, Dec., 1918, p. 441.)

[66]Wallas, Graham,The Great Society(N. Y., 1917), p. 136.

[67]Ibid., p. 440.

[68]Classed by William James as an emotion, but considered by McDougall a pseudo-instinct.

[69]McDougall,op. cit., p. 152.

[70]O'Connor, Chas. J.,San Francisco Relief Survey(N. Y., 1913), pt. i, p. 6.

[71]“The cutting edge of all our usual misfortunes comes from their character of loneliness.”—(James, William,Memories and Studies, N. Y., 1911, p. 224.)

[72]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 58.

[73]Ross, Edward A.,Social Psychology(N. Y., 1918), ch. iv, p. 66.

[74]A list compiled by the author from suggestions in Deacon's discussion of disasters. All were to be observed at Halifax.

[75]It has been said that were the period of man's residence on earth considered as having covered an hundred thousand years, that of civilization would be represented by the last ten minutes.

[76]Stewart, George,The Story of the Great Fire in St. John(Toronto, 1877), p. 35.

[77]Johnstone,op. cit.

[78]James, William,The Energies of Men(N. Y., 1920), p. 11.

[79]Cannon, Walter B.,Bodily changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage, ch. xi, p. 184,et seq.

[80]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 147.

[81]Will is indeed the supreme faculty, the whole mind in action, the internal stimulus which may call forth all the capacities and powers. (Conklin, Edwin G.,Heredity and Environment in the Development of Man[Princeton], ch. vi, p. 47.)

[82]Woodworth,op. cit., p. 149.

[83]Sano, F., “Documenti della guerra: Osservazioni psicologiche notate durante il bombardamento di Anversa,”Rivista di psichologia, anno xi, pp. 119–128.

[84]Smith, Stanley K.,The Halifax Horror(Halifax, 1918), ch. iv, p. 44.

[85]Kropotkin, Prince,Mutual Aid(N. Y., 1919), ch. i, p. 14.

[86]Johnstone,op. cit.

[87]There is no better evidence of the response of the public heart to a great tragedy than the fact that at Halifax upwards of a thousand offers were received for the adoption of the orphaned children.

[88]Bicknell, Ernest P., “In the Thick of the Relief Work at San Francisco,”Charities and the Commons, vol. xvi (June, 1906), p. 299.

[89]What has been said of soldiers is of course equally true of sailors.

[90]Giddings, Franklin H., “Pluralistic Behaviour,”American Journal of Sociology, vol. xxv, no. 4 (Jan., 1920), p. 539.

[91]Tenney, Alvan A., Unpublished lectures on Social Organization.

[92]Bell, McKelvie,A Romance of the Halifax Disaster(Halifax, 1918).

[93]Tarde, Gabriel,Les lois de l'imitation(N. Y., 1903), translation by E. C. Parsons, ch. i, p. 14.

[94]Giddings,op. cit., p. 396.

[95]Bagehot, Walter,Physics and Politics(N. Y., 1884), p. 159,et seq.

[96]Giddings,op. cit., p. 390.

[97]From information kindly supplied by D. L. Hutchinson, director of the St. John (N. B.) observatory, and F. B. Ronnan, Halifax Station.

[98]Semple, Ellen,Influences of Geographic Environment(N. Y., 1911), p. 607,et seq.

[99]Giddings,op. cit., p. 389.

[100]For a period of two weeks meals for 15,000 people were distributed every day.

[101]Other sociological factors might also be illustrated, namely, (a) the biological, including, besides the density of population, the heredity and the physical and mental health of the inhabitants. (b) the equipmental factor, including available economic resources, general enlightenment, social surplus and institutional facilities for re-education,etc.(Videch. vii.)

[102]Durkheim, Émile,De la division du travail social(Paris, 1893).

[103]In the great Baltimore fire of 1904 theBaltimore Sun, by remarkable enterprise was gotten out at Washington, 45 miles distant, and did not miss a single issue.

[104]On the first Sunday, December ninth at eleven o'clock Archdeacon Armitage conducted Divine service in St. Paul's Church, and the same afternoon this edifice was used by the congregation of All Saints Cathedral.

[105]Quinn, J. P.,Report of Board of School Commissioners for City ofHalifax, 1918.

[106]Hanrahan, F.,Report of Chief of Police, Halifax, 1918.

[107]Saunders, E. A.,Report of Halifax Board of Trade, 1918.

[108]Thomas, William I.,Source Book of Social Origins(Chicago, 1909), Introduction, p. 18.

[109]J. H. Falk, an expert in charge of the social welfare work in Winnipeg; Miss Rathburn of Toronto, Mrs. Burrington of the Y. W. C. A., Toronto. Christopher Lanz, under whose guidance the rehabilitation work after the Salem fire was brought to a successful conclusion; Katherine McMahon, Head worker of the Social Service Department of the Boston Dispensary, Lucy Wright, formerly Superintendent for the Mass. Commission for the Blind; Elizabeth Richards Day, Organizer and for many years Head Worker of the Social Service Department of the Boston Dispensary; E. E. Allen, Superintendent of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, C. C. Carstens, Superintendent of the Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; John F. Moors, president of the Associated Charities of Boston, who was in charge of the Red Cross relief following the Salem and Chelsea fires; William H. Pear, Agent of the Boston Provident Association; J. Prentice Murphy, General Secretary of the Boston Children's Aid Society; A. C. Ratshesky, Vice-chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the State of Massachusetts.

[110]Carstens, C. C., “From the Ashes of Halifax,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 13 (Dec. 28, 1917), p. 361.

[111]With Mr. Ratshesky were Mr. John F. Moors, and Major Giddings.

[112]The Public Safety Committee of Massachusetts and the Boston Unit of the American Red Cross.

[113]The scheme as finally decided upon consisted of a small managing committee with sub-committees in control of food, clothing, shelter, fuel, burial, medical relief, transportation, information, finance and rebuilding.

[114]“During the emergency stage of relief the people are dealt with in large groups with little attention to the special needs of individuals ... in the rehabilitation stage the family or the individual becomes the unit of consideration.”—(Bicknell, E. P., “Disaster Relief and its Problems,”National Conference of Charities and Corrections, sess. xxxvi, 1909, p. 12.)

[115]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. v, p. 137.

[116]The town of Dartmouth on the Eastern side of Halifax harbor also suffered very seriously in the explosion. It had its own relief organization under the very capable chairmanship of ex-mayor A. C. Johnstone. The nature of the relief work there did not differ essentially from that in Halifax.

[117]Davis, Michael M., Jr., “Medical Social Service in a Disaster,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 25 (March 23, 1918), p. 675.

[118]Blois, Ernest H.,Report of Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children(Halifax, 1918), p. 110.

[119]Fraser, Sir Frederick,Report of.

[120]The reader may contrast with this the early days of the relief at the Johnstown flood “where two windows were set apart from which clothing and boots were being thrown over the heads of the crowd, and those having the longest arms and the stoutest backs seemed to be getting the most of it”; and where almoners passed through the streets handing “ten dollar bills to everyone whom they met.”

[121]Johnstone, Dwight,The Tragedy of Halifax(in MS.).

[122]There was however no definite organization of the dissatisfied as actually took place at the Slocum Disaster.

[123]Johnstone,op. cit.

[124]Both in Chicago and Johnstown many families were placed in a position practically as good as that which they had occupied before. Carnegie once completely reimbursed the sufferers from a bank failure.

[125]Devine, Edward T.,Principles of Relief(N. Y., 1904), pt. iv, p. 462.

[126]Moors, John F., Book Review,Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 17 (Jan. 26, 1918), p. 472.

[127]The courts of small claims devoted ten minutes to each case. The amount awarded was paid on the day the case was heard.

[128]The policy to be pursued in disaster relief cannot yet be finally stated. It may ultimately be found necessary to distinguish between the loss of property socially owned, and that of private ownership.

[129]Thomas,op. cit., p. 19.

[130]The author regrets that it has been necessary to omit special mention of the many institutions, societies and voluntary agencies, which were actively engaged in the relief work, and to confine the chapter to the principles employed by those mainly responsible for relief and administration.

[131]Lindsay, Samuel M., Unpublished Lectures on Social Legislation.

[132]Giddings, Franklin H.,The Responsible State(N. Y., 1918), ch. iv, p. 81.

[133]Reference has already been made to the good work of the Government railroad officials in the quick restoration of service.

[134]Cooley, Charles H.,Social Organization(N. Y., 1912), ch. xxxv, p. 403.

[135]This is not to be considered as without exception in catastrophies. A special Citizens' Committee led the operations at the Paterson fire and flood, but at the Chicago fire the City government took immediate and responsible action. This was also the case at Baltimore when the Mayor was the “key to the situation.” It should however be added that both at Halifax and Dartmouth the chairmen of the Citizens' Committees were ex-mayors.

[136]An Act to Incorporate the Halifax Relief Commission, Halifax, 1918.

[137]Parkinson, Thomas I., “Problems growing out of the Titanic Disaster,”Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, vol. vi, no. 1.

[138]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905), ch. viii, p. 254.

[139]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), p. 43.

[140]Ross,op. cit., p. 253.

[141]Regulations for the Loading and Handling of Explosives in the Harbors of Canada(Ottawa, June, 1919).

[142]In a letter to the author.

[143]Mill, John Stuart,Principles of Political Economy(London, 1917), ch. v, p. 74.

[144]Tenney, Alvan A., “Individual and Social Surplus,”Popular Science Monthly, vol. lxxxii (Dec., 1912), p. 552.

[145]Patten, Simon N.,Theory of the Social Forces(Phil., 1896), p. 75.

[146]At San Francisco “after the fire, the proportion of families in the lower income groups was somewhat larger, and the proportion in the higher income groups somewhat smaller than before the fire.” (Motley, James M.,San Francisco Relief Survey, New York, 1913, pt. iv, p. 228.)

[147]Seager, Henry R.,Economics, Briefer Course(N. Y., 1909), ch. xiii, p. 210.

[148]At the time of the tragic Martinique disaster the New York committee received $80,000 more than it could disburse. (Devine, Edward T.,The Principles of Relief, N. Y., 1904, pt. iv, ch. vii, p. 468.)

[149]Le Bon, Gustave,The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind(London), ch. iii, p. 79.

[150]Deacon, J. Byron,Disasters(N. Y., 1918), ch. v, p. 120.

[151]Blackmar and Gillin,Outlines of Sociology(N. Y., 1915), pt. iv, ch. v, p. 402.

[152]Halifax is the wealthiest city per capita in the Dominion of Canada.

[153]For years real estate was marketed “quietly.” In fact, real property was in the hands of one or two specialists only.

[154]The Acadian Recorder, C. C. Blackadar, editor.

[155]Ross, Edward A.,Foundations of Sociology(N. Y., 1905),ch.viii, p. 197.

[156]There are other causes of conservatism. A comparative freedom from disasters in the past is one. Halifax has suffered few in her entire history. Indeed the cholera epidemic is the only one of any consequence. She remained one of the last large wooden cities. Her sister city, St. John, was stricken by a disastrous fire and stands to-day safer, more substantial, more progressive in every way.Again communities are generally conservative in character when a large percentage are property-holding people. It was one of the surprises of the Halifax catastrophe that so large a number of citizens were found to own at least in part the homes they lived in.There are other questions which the sociologist would ask if it were possible to carry the investigation further. Is the community loath to disturb the existing relations or to resort to extreme means to achieve desired ends? Or is it eager to sweep away the old, to indulge in radical experiment and to try any means that give promise of success? He would study too the distribution of people relative to their interests. Is there a majority of those whose experiences are narrow and whose interests are few? Or is there a majority of those who have long enjoyed varied experiences and cultivated manifold interests, that yet remain harmonious? He studies the character of the choices, decisions, selections in a people's industry, law-making, educational and religious undertakings. It is thus that he proceeds in diagnosing a population as to the degree of conservatism and to discover what the ideal community should be.—Giddings, Franklin H.,Inductive Sociology(N. Y., 1909), p. 178,et seq.

Again communities are generally conservative in character when a large percentage are property-holding people. It was one of the surprises of the Halifax catastrophe that so large a number of citizens were found to own at least in part the homes they lived in.

There are other questions which the sociologist would ask if it were possible to carry the investigation further. Is the community loath to disturb the existing relations or to resort to extreme means to achieve desired ends? Or is it eager to sweep away the old, to indulge in radical experiment and to try any means that give promise of success? He would study too the distribution of people relative to their interests. Is there a majority of those whose experiences are narrow and whose interests are few? Or is there a majority of those who have long enjoyed varied experiences and cultivated manifold interests, that yet remain harmonious? He studies the character of the choices, decisions, selections in a people's industry, law-making, educational and religious undertakings. It is thus that he proceeds in diagnosing a population as to the degree of conservatism and to discover what the ideal community should be.—Giddings, Franklin H.,Inductive Sociology(N. Y., 1909), p. 178,et seq.

[157]Halifax has now one of the best equipped tramway systems to be found anywhere. There has recently been appropriated the sum of $200,000 for sewers, $150,000 for water, $300,000 for street paving.

[158]Halifax long felt herself to have been commercially a martyr to Confederation.

[159]Chaddock, Robert E., Unpublished Material.

[160]The reader will of course remember the general inflation of currency.

[161]Hoffman, Frederick L.,Insurance, Science and Economics(N. Y., 1911), ch. ix, p. 337.

[162]In the Texas flood of 1900 there were lost 5,000 lives, but they cannot be said to have been all associated with a single community.

[163]Figures kindly supplied by Mr. John H. Barnstead, Registrar, Halifax.

[164]The Directory of 1920 estimates the present population to be 85,000.

[165]HalifaxMorning Chronicle, April 29, 1920.

[166]The earliest city-planning was mediaeval. Halifax was laid out by military engineers with narrow streets—the “ideal was a fortified enclosure designed to accommodate the maximum number of inhabitants with the minimum of space.” In 1813 a town-planning scheme was set on foot for the purpose of straightening streets, the removal of projections and banks of earth and stones which at that time existed in the center of streets. Considerable betterment resulted but unfortunately many fine trees were cut down.

[167]MacMechan, Archibald, “Changing Halifax,”Canadian Magazine, vol. xli, no. 4, pp. 328, 329.

[168]Crowell, H. C.,The Busy East, vol. x, no. 7, p. 12.

[169]A model housing development of 346 houses in the new north end has followed the disaster. “It is reasonable to assume,” writes an observer, “that the standard of living will ascend. Already the influence of these new houses is showing itself in the homes that are springing up all over the city.”

[170]London's is 14.6, New York's 13.6.

[171]New York's is 90, New Zealand's 60.

[172]These funds are from the munificent gift of Massachusetts. A Massachusetts-Halifax Health Commission has been formed—Dr. B. Franklin Royer is the executive officer.

[173]Dalhousie University has recently graduated the first class of nurses in Canada to receive the Diploma of Public Health.

[174]It should be stated that the supervised playground movement had been developing in Halifax for a period of fourteen years, first under the Women's Council, afterwards under a regularly incorporated association with which the Women's Council merged.

[175]In view of the explosion and the resulting housing conditions, an increase in juvenile delinquency might have been expected, but the “playgrounds which were established immediately after the disaster, and which adjoined both of the large temporary housing projects, are, it is felt, responsible for the excellent conditions which exist. The records of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children show that there was an actual decrease in the number of juvenile arrests in 1918 over 1917.”—(Leland, Arthur, “Recreation as a Part of the City Plan for Halifax, N. S., Canada,”Playground, vol. xiii, no. 10, p. 493.)

[176]HalifaxEvening Mail, March 22, 1918.

[177]Carstens, C. C., “From the Ashes of Halifax,”Survey, vol. xxxix, no. 13, p. 61.

[178]The two additional propositions suggested intheIntroduction, namely, that the degree of fluidity seems to vary directly as the shock of the catastrophe, and that brusk revolution in the conditions of life accomplish not sudden, but gradual changes in society, require a study of comparative catastrophic phenomena for verification or rejection.

[179]MacMechan,op. cit., p. 336.

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