skillful in the performance of some single process without teaching them to comprehend the interrelations of social phenomena or the significance of economic developments. Our training schools for social workers must fit individuals for the routine of their daily work, but unless such workers are grounded in the principles of social and community welfare, the work is of little value. Of far greater importance than successful case work is the power to inspire and the capacity to develop community action for the promotion of the common good. Again we must place increasing reliance on public action. Reform proceeds slowly, but as interest in our social problems grows, progress becomes rapid and cumulative. The public mind must be convinced of the need of fundamental measures of reform; democratic ideas must take root and the area of interest in social welfare expand to the fullest extent; and reformers must learn the necessity of gaining the support of the public. Social reform depends on the limitation of individual rights and the subordination of the individual to the group or the community. More public action is needed to interest our citizens in the problems of social welfare and their relations to the individual and to society. Furthermore, it is necessary to teach the lesson that the interests of all are greater than the selfish interests of the few. Gradually then the community will realize that low wages mean a lifelong handicap; that careless milking means dying babies; that one immoral life may contaminate a whole family, and it will insist that the higher interests of all shall be conserved. Meanwhile we find a small group contending that child labor is an evil, yet child labor bills fail; that bad housing harvests tuberculosis, yet good tenement house legislation cannot be passed; that lack of factory inspection yields accident and disease, yet the states refuse to act. Not the small group but the entire thinking public must be made ready for projects of reform, otherwise legislation is largely nugatory. The older principle of individual work carried on by a few willing workers is obsolete, and in its place we have the aspiration of the masses who through public action establish minimum standards for all, and insist that all refractory individuals square themselves with the adopted standards or suffer repression. The state cannot through law make men moral nor give them high ideals, but it can maintain standards which when they are accepted by the community pave the way for the establishment of new and better standards. Meanwhile private enterprise through the church and other moral and social agencies arouses the few to nobler ideals, which then slowly spread through the community and are finally crystallized into law. Thus the state permits no backward step, but conserves that which is good and steadily takes advantage of the opportunity to establish new planes of conduct. The time has also come when we must relegate to the rear our older methods of individual work and begin to apply the new. Private charity is often narrow and individualistic and concerns itself only with binding up the wounds of the distressed. In fact, the work of private philanthropy has been so urgent that most of the time has been given to the task of rearranging the numberless detailed results of the social order without much inquiry into the principles of the social system. It has failed to observe the forest because of the many trees. Remedial work, to be sure, is frequently accompanied by preventive methods, especially as they apply to the individual, but the larger task of improving general conditions, of raising each new generation to a higher level and of performing constructive work for the entire community- this task has received but scant attention. More and more, however, these new duties are pressing forward, and men of vision are eagerly grasping them with the hope that they may receive the support which work of a permanent value merits. The Child Welfare Exhibits that are being held in many cities are developing a better public opinion and the frequent conferences of social workers are also helpful, while societies organized for special purposes are constantly engaged in propaganda work. Until recently the social workers of the United States organized in the National Conference of Charities and Correction omitted all discussion and almost all mention of such funda mental questions as the labor problem, tax reform, and other underlying conditions of our social system. They spent their time largely in discussing the details of our philanthropic machinery, but they have now begun to inquire into the reasons for the existence of this machinery and into the methods of lessening the need. Unless they do this their work is largely for naught. The success of efforts for reform is certain and our stalwart individualism is slowly giving way to a recognition of the superior claims of public welfare. Business men are beginning to recognize that their private business has aspects that involve the public and is therefore not wholly private; that pay rolls are not a purely private matter; that the cost of goods is a question of public concern; and that dividends involve the public. Employees are learning that the old individualism is no longer sufficient and that mutual rights and duties must be recognized. Charitable agencies have seen the necessity of making a public account of their work, and of submitting it to investigation if necessary. Gradually the solidarity of the interests of a community is being recognized, and with this change comes the willing subordination of the individual to the social welfare. The result is greater rights and opportunities for all. By beginning with the child we may hope to build up and perfect the coming man. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY The following list of books, articles, and reports is intended to guide the reader to the best and most important literature on a subject, but is not an exhaustive bibliography. Abbreviations used: Ann. of Amer. Acad., for Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science. N.C.C.C., for Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and Correction. Nat. Educ. Assn., for Proceedings of National Education Association. R.S.F., for Russell Sage Foundation. GENERAL BRECKINRIDGE, SOPHONISBA. (Editor.) Child in the City. Chicago. 1912. BURBANK, LUTHER. Training of the Human Plant. New York. 1907. HAYCRAFT, J. B. 1911. Dependents, Defectives, Delinquents. Boston. 1901. KEY, ELLEN. The Century of the Child. New York. 1909. 1909. OPPENHEIM, NATHAN. The Development of the Child. New York. 1902. Child, The. Chicago. Child, The. London. New York. 1906. Child Welfare Exhibits, Handbooks of, especially for New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Kansas City, Providence, Montreal, etc. National Conference of Charities and Correction. Proceedings. Bulletin No. 63. January, 1914. (Contains index of proceedings of various state conferences of charities, 1910-1913.) National Education Association. Addresses and Proceedings. Southern Sociological Congress. Proceedings. Survey, The. (The various phases of child welfare are covered by frequent articles and addresses in the above-named magazines and conference reports.) BIRTH RATES BAILEY, W. B. Modern Social Conditions. New York. BLISS, W. D. P. New Encyclopedia of Social Reform. ELLIS, HAVELOCK. The Problem of Race Regeneration. The Task of Social Hygiene. Boston. 1912. ELLWOOD, C. A. Sociology and Social Problems. New York. 1913. (Re vised.) NEWSHOLME, ARTHUR. The Declining Birth Rate. New York. 1911. BROWNELL, J. L. "The Significance of a Decreasing Birth Rate." Ann. of Amer. Acad., Vol. V, p. 48, July, 1894. BUSHEE, F. A. "The Declining Birth Rate." Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 63, August, 1903. COGHLAN, T. A. A Statistical Account of the Seven Colonies of Australasia, 1901-1902. Sidney. 1902. England and Wales. Reports of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Annual. FISHBERG, MAURICE. "The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment." Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 69, p. 412, November, 1906. KUCZYNSKI, R. R. "The Fecundity of the Native and the Foreign Born Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census. Vital Statistics. 1900. Vol. 28. Fecundity of Foreign Born Women. WEBB, SIDNEY. "Physical Degeneration or Race Suicide." Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 69, p. 512, December, 1906. INFANT AND CHILD MORTALITY BAILEY, W. B. Modern Social Conditions. New York. 1906. FARR, WILLIAM. Vital Statistics. London. 1885. HEATH, LLEWELLYN. The Infant, the Parent, the State. London. 1907. KELYNACK, T. N. Infancy. London. 1910. NEWMAN, GEORGE. Infant Mortality. New York. NEWSHOLME, Arthur. Vital Statistics. London. 1907. 1899. |