JOTTINGS

Representative Gardner of Massachusetts has re-introduced his bill for the creation of a hospital ship for the Gloucester fishermen. This bill reached only the hearing stage in the House of Representatives during the last session. All the witnesses who appeared before the house Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries spoke for it.

President Wilson has assured Andrew Furuseth, president of the International Seamen’s Union, that the so-called involuntary servitude bill will be enacted at the present session of Congress. No hearings will probably be had, as Congress already has information on the subject from various angles. This bill passed the House of Representatives at the last session, but was so much altered by the Senate that the President vetoed it. This measure is one of the list of fifteen measures of social legislation the support of which was urged upon President Wilson by a number of social workers.

A campaign has been inaugurated by the American Museum of Safety in co-operation with the New York Board of Education to inculcate habits of caution in school children. The basis of the campaign is daily class room talks on safety by lecturers from the Museum of Safety and the distribution of pamphlets containing “safety fairy tales.” A safety league has been organized among the children, membership in which is indicated by the wearing of a button. While the object of the league is mostly to insure street safety the children are taught what to do in case of fire. Some of the fundamental rules for the children are as follows:

Neverfail to look both ways for automobiles, trucks and trolley cars before crossing a street. Keep eyes to the left until the middle of the street is reached, then eyes to the right until the curb is reached.

Neverplay any kind of a game in street where automobiles and heavy trucks are constantly passing or in streets where trolley cars are operating.

Neverhitch on behind a trolley car, automobile or motor truck as you may lose your footing and be thrown under the wheels.

Neverrun pushmobile races in the streets. A pushmobile is hard to stop and may run in the way of an automobile, heavy truck or trolley car coming in the opposite direction.

Neverstep from behind a trolley car without hesitating and looking as another car may be coming from the other direction.

Nevertake chances.

Because Congress failed to appropriate the necessary amount of funds, President Wilson by an executive order has suspended the operation of the workmen’s compensation scheme for federal employes in the Canal Zone. This measure was put into effect on March 1 by President Taft. Pending action by Congress, the employes in the Canal Zone are protected only by the Federal Liability Act.

Many advocates of the workmen’s compensation plan believe that President Wilson before suspending its operation should first have asked Congress for funds. They argue that in this way public attention could have been called to the situation by means of a special message instead of through the medium of an order which received practically no publicity.

The Canal Compensation Law is in the form of an executive order signed by President Taft in the closing days of his administration. It was drafted by officials of the government in co-operation with the Legislative Drafting Fund of New York. Secretary of War Stimson, said of it: “This measure for the first time brings the federal government abreast of the most advanced thought and experience at a time when they and their families are most in need of justice; namely, when they suffer the hardships of injury or death inevitable in the course of modern industrial undertakings.”

The lack of centralization and co-operation between charitable agencies in Vienna is responsible for much duplication of effort and much charitable imposture. The situation is not improved by the many entertainments given ostensibly to help the poor but in reality often costing more than they take in. A movement is said to be on foot to remedy this by the foundation of a charity organization society along English and American lines.

Although it scarcely hopes to succeed at the present session of Congress, the American Federation of Labor has determined to start efforts for the passage of restrictive immigration legislation, to “start the ball rolling” so that at the next session the immigration problem will be thoroughly discussed. Meanwhile the federation has sent out to over half a million immigrant workers a circular signed by Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation and Frank Morrison the secretary, concerning the advantages of belonging to the union. The letter concludes with this sentence:

“In writing to your friends in your native country advise them to remain there until you, together with your fellow countrymen here, have organized unions that will protect yourself and them against low wages and long hours.”

This circular printed in twenty-one languages has gone to laborers in the industrial districts of the East.

CORN CLUBS AND IDLE BOYS

A woman of keen observation writes of her hill town that what is needed there is not more amusements, games, socials, but something to encourage boys to become thorough and honest workmen; that the best workmen in the village are foreign born; that the native-born boys and girls are seekers after pleasure and ease, shunning work and giving scant heed to the serious interests of life.

This has a familiar ring to it; but that there are appeals to arouse and enlist the energy of country boys, witness the annual visit to Washington of the champion corn growers recently. Thirty-five boys, winners among 75,000 boys who raised corn on a single acre of land last summer, and one little girl, leader among the girls’ canning clubs of the country, were the guests of the government for a week, and bore witness to the industry of the army of sturdy children who stayed at home. The best record of the boy visitors was 207 bushels of corn to the acre, or about eight times the average yield for the country. The girl had raised a succession of tomatoes, beans, and turnips on her tenth of an acre, sold some of it fresh and canned the rest, realizing $53.

A bureau of information has been opened at the New York Academy of Medicine, under the direction of the Society for the Advancement of Clinical Study in New York. The object of this bureau is to furnish visitors in New York and the local profession information on medical subjects, so as to make use of the large clinical opportunities which heretofore have not been readily obtainable.

The North American Civic League for Immigrants is arranging a public conference on the Education of the Immigrant which is to be held at the City College, New York, on May 16–17. President Finley of the college is the chairman of the Committee on Arrangements and Clarence M. Abbott the secretary. On Friday morning, May 16, Domestic Education for Immigrants, the Immigrant in Labor Camps and Isolated Communities will be the subjects for discussion. In the afternoon of the same day the Education of the Immigrant Child will be the topic.

A large public meeting in the Great Hall of the college is scheduled for the evening of May 16, at which addresses upon various subjects connected with the education of the immigrant will be made by speakers of national importance.

The final meeting on Saturday morning is to be on the Education of the Immigrant Adult. District Superintendent Albert Shields will also lead a symposium for principals and teachers upon the organization of evening schools.

Those who are to serve as chairmen of the various meetings are Mrs. John M. Glenn, Frances A. Kellor, William H. Maxwell and John H. Finley.

During the six years ending June 30, 1912, willful desertion was the most common ground for divorce in California. Extreme cruelty was a close second. These facts are taken from a report submitted by State Labor Commissioner McLaughlin to Governor Johnson. The average percentage of divorces to marriages for these six years was 12.9. About 50 per cent of the couples divorced were childless.

The large centers of population showed a much higher divorce rate than did the state as a whole.

Governor Foss of Massachusetts on April 21 signed the bill recently passed by the state legislature, providing for the appointment of a commission of five persons, one of whom will be a woman, for the investigation of commercialized vice in Massachusetts. Witnesses, papers and documents may be summoned, and oaths given. The bill creating this commission was the first measure reported out by the Committee on Social Welfare.

Massachusetts is believed to be the first state to institute a formal state-wide investigation by commission of prostitution in all its phases.

Two methods of teaching sex hygiene, the biological and the physiological, and their adaptation to the needs of different groups, will be the subject of three conferences to be held by the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, at Hobart Hall, 416 Lafayette street, New York city on the evenings of May 12, 19 and 26 at 8:15 P. M.

Dr. Mary Sutton Macy will present the physiological and Nellie M. Smith the biological aspect. The third talk on the adaptability of these two methods to different social groups, will be given by Harriet McD. Daniels.

The establishment of four work farms for the prisoners now confined in the county jails of California is urged upon the legislature by the report of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, just issued. These jails, it is suggested, could then be used for holding persons awaiting trial. As at present run they have correctly been called primary schools in crime, says the report. They are declared to be seriously overcrowded in winter, poorly ventilated and unclean. “The meals,” says the report, “are served as one would feed his dog, and in some of them the quality is not much better.” The prisoners herd together, it is asserted, with nothing to do but study and plot crime.

If each of the four farms were large enough to furnish food and labor for 500 prisoners, the report says, they would empty the jails. They would be self-supporting, as well as much better for the prisoners, declares the board.

BRUTALITY ALLEGED AT AUBURN

“Brutality, violation of the law, waste and general incompetency” have been found in the New York state prison at Auburn by a special investigator appointed by Governor Sulzer. The investigator, George W. Blake, urges that the warden, George F. Benham, be removed as quickly as possible. Equally serious are his accusations against the prison physician, Dr. John Gerin, whom he describes as an autocrat. “Abundance of evidence,” says the report, “shows that he is brutal in his treatment of the sick, neglectful of their needs, and that he flagrantly violates that section of the prison law which defines his duties.” Refractory prisoners, the report goes on to say, have only two gills of water every twenty-four hours. The doctor is said to have declared that this was sufficient to maintain life. The punishment cells are described as being perfectly dark and having four rows of iron rivet heads on the floor so that it is impossible to lie down.

When Joseph H. Scott, former superintendent of the state prison department, was recently removed under charges by Governor Sulzer, he asserted that his dismissal was in reality a piece of vengeance because he would not change the Auburn wardenship at the governor’s dictation. So frequent have been the charges and counter-charges in the administration of New York prisons recently, and so often is it asserted that politics lies at their bottom that social workers are more and more becoming loathe to pass judgment on the basis of one-man investigations.

An increase of 48 per cent in the number of delinquents placed on probation in New York state during the year ending September 30, 1912, is shown in the preliminary edition of the sixth annual report of the State Probation Commission recently transmitted to the legislature. Over 20,000 persons were under the oversight of probation officers during the year, and of this number 14,687 were new cases.

A review of the five years’ growth of the system since the state commission began in 1907 is contained in the report. During this period the number of publicly salaried probation officers has risen from thirty-five to 159 at the beginning of the present year. The number of cities employing the system has grown from sixteen to thirty-eight; the number of counties using it in felony cases from eleven to thirty-nine; and the number of counties using it in town and village courts from two to twenty-two. In spite of the marked extension of the system, however, a map published in the report indicates that in thirteen of the sixty-one counties in the state not a single person was placed on probation during the past year. This is because the adoption of the system and the appointment of probation officers is optional with the local authorities.

The report makes special mention of the use of probation as a means of collecting family support, restitution and instalment fines. While practically nothing was collected by probation officers for these purposes when the commission started its work five years ago, the aggregate amount paid for these purposes by probationers in compliance with court orders during the past year is estimated as in the neighborhood of $300,000. According to the report, the domestic relations courts of Buffalo, Manhattan and Brooklyn, the first courts of this character to be established, were largely an outgrowth of the probation system and depend to a great extent upon it for their efficiency.

The volume contains a number of carefully prepared tables and charts.

Governor Sulzer of New York on April 11 approved two bills to give the County Court of Ontario exclusive jurisdiction throughout the county over cases of neglected and delinquent children, and concurrent jurisdiction in certain offenses against children. The laws are almost identical with the Monroe County Children’s Court Act of 1910, and make Ontario County the second in the state to have a county children’s court using a civil instead of a criminal procedure. The bills were framed by the State Probation Commission at the request of County Judge Robert F. Thompson and of the Board of Supervisors. A civil service examination will be held in the near future for the purpose of securing a competent probation officer for the court.

Two Social ToursIN EUROPEThe pioneer party went last year. Its success will be increased this year.SAILINGSJune 26to CopenhagenJune 28to HamburgSeveral have already enrolled. Full informationDR. E. E. PRATT, 225 Fifth Ave., New York

Two Social ToursIN EUROPEThe pioneer party went last year. Its success will be increased this year.

Two Social Tours

IN EUROPE

The pioneer party went last year. Its success will be increased this year.

Several have already enrolled. Full informationDR. E. E. PRATT, 225 Fifth Ave., New York

Several have already enrolled. Full information

DR. E. E. PRATT, 225 Fifth Ave., New York

ARE YOU GOING TO BOSTON?

Ladies going to Boston without male escort find theFranklin Square Housea delightful place to stop. A home hotel in the heart of Boston for young women, with a transient department. Safe, comfortable, convenient of access; reasonable. For particulars and prices address MissCastine C. Swanson, Supt. 11 East Newton St., Boston.

SITUATIONS WANTED

KINDERGARTENER would appreciate Information regarding location for private kindergarten or day nursery. German and English taught. Address “Kindergartner,” c/oSurvey.

EXPERIENCED, high-class executive and financial secretary wishes to make change. National Organization preferred. Address 1112, Survey.

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