The Survey, Volume 30, Number 5, May 3, 1913

Path-finder Surveying

Two kinds of field work in surveys have been undertaken—“pathfinder’s surveys” and preliminary surveys. The former are quick diagnoses of local conditions pointing to the need of the longer and more intensive survey. They gather enough local facts to indicate the main lines of investigation which should be taken up later, the probable length of time necessary for the survey, and the probable cost.

Courtesy of the Scranton Tribune-Republican. ]

At the invitation of the Topeka (Kans.) Federation of Churches given through its president, Rev. Roy B. Guild, such a pathfinder’s survey of Topeka was made in December. As a result, a local survey committee composed of representative citizens was formed, and a campaign started to raise the funds estimated as necessary. Twelve hundred dollars in cash was contributed within a few weeks after the campaign was started. The Chairman, Judge T. F. Garver and Secretary, H. T. Chase have been supported by a strong favorable public opinion among leading citizens.

Similarly, as a result of the sanitary survey of Springfield, Ill., made by Dr. George T. Palmer, local citizens wished such other investigations made as would in the end mean a general survey of the city. At their invitation a “pathfinder’s” survey of Springfield was made by the department, and a local survey committee headed by Senator Logan Hay and with A. L. Bowen, secretary of the State Board of Charities, as secretary, was organized. The appointment of a finance committee has been authorized, and work toward raising the necessary funds is soon to begin.

Another quick diagnosis of city conditions was made by the department recently for Scranton, Pa. The project was urged by the Civic Improvement Committee of the Scranton Century Club, of which Gertrude Lovell is chairman. The Century Club became interested and through its president, Mrs. Ronald P. Gleason, the Department of Surveys and Exhibits was invited to make the preliminary examination. The report presented to an open meeting of the club covered public health and sanitation, taxation and public finance, community assets, civic improvement, education, charity and other betterment agencies, recreation, delinquency, work conditions and relations. The findings and recommendations of this quick diagnosis were given wide circulation in the city by the newspapers.

Among the larger efforts of the department is a preliminary survey of Newburgh. N. Y., which was started March 15. The department’s field director, Zenas L. Potter, is being assisted by Franz Schneider, Jr., also of the department’s staff, in the investigation of public health; Margaret F. Byington of the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation has investigated public and private charity work; D. O. Decker is covering public finance and municipal efficiency; E. F. Brown of the National Child Labor Committee is assisting in the studies of labor conditions; and Franklin Zeiger is studying housing. The New York Consumers League expects also to send a field worker to co-operate for a fortnight. Amy Woods, secretary of the Newburgh Associated Charities, started the movement toward the Newburgh survey. The project has had the support of citizens representing the business-men’s associations, labor unions, churches, charity and other social organizations, city administration and women’s organizations. The findings of this survey are soon to be ready for publication.

The preliminary surveys are designed to attain three kinds of results. First, they aim to reveal sufficient local facts to permit the planning of an intelligent program for community advance, say for a period of five years. Not only liabilities but community assets—the forces to build on and to build with—as well as what to build will be.

Second, the preliminary survey aims to be the means of enlisting public support for measures which champion human welfare. The public official with a vision of what he might accomplish toward social well being needs the support of public opinion. His and other work for city progress are as often hampered by public indifference as by the selfish interests of an active few. Public indifference in matters of its own vital concern disappears quickly when the public is intelligently informed. City self-knowledge is a chief effort of the survey.

Third, the preliminary survey is to collect sufficient data to point out the problems which need more thorough or continuous investigation.

PROSTITUTION BANISHED IN ONE NEW YORK TOWN

It is an innovation for the physicians of any community to protest in a body against prostitution solely on the ground that it is a menace to public health. Yet this has happened in Norwich, a village of 8,000 people in Chenango County, New York.

Several months ago, Dr. Paul B. Brooks of Norwich, at a meeting of a district branch of The New York State Medical Society presented a paper on the Relation of the General Practitioner to the Prevalence of Veneral Diseases. In it he declared that the medical profession possessed information which, if frankly revealed, would bring about widespread reforms. Through their inactivity, he said, doctors are more responsible than any other class of citizens for the prevalence of veneral diseases. He asserted that a large percentage of infections of this class could be traced, directly or indirectly, to the public prostitute; that prostitution is, in no sense, a “necessary evil,” and that if “the people demand it,” then the moral sense of “the people” is open to criticism. He believed that the police of any community, large or small, if given power to drive out prostitutes, would be able to protect virtuous women.

Shortly after this some eight or ten physicians, assembled for a meeting of the Physician’s Club of Norwich, fell to comparing notes on the prevalence of veneral diseases in the community. The result was startling. Six or seven houses of prostitution, running openly and apparently without restriction, were turning out dozens of men, and even boys of school age, prepared to spread the scourge among innocent women, and through them, to generations unborn. A large number of the inmates of establishments were known to be actually infected.

The situation impressed these physicians as being so serious that they determined to call a special meeting of the club and to invite the town and village authorities to confer with them. In the meantime they considered the various possibilities, including intervention by the Board of Health, medical inspection, etc. In the end they decided that there was but one feasible plan—to attempt the elimination of public prostitution or at least all but such as was clandestinely practised.

They regarded it as their duty to advise, and demand, if necessary, the removal of the obvious breeding grounds for disease.

When the local authorities met these physicians, some were skeptical as to the results which would follow from such an attempt, though nearly all agreed that the situation was serious enough to demand vigorous action. The village attorney, who had openly opposed public prostitution for many years, after hearing the evidence, declared: “If the fathers of this town were to hear the evidence put before us by these physicians they would mob these place, and discredit every one of us!” Some of the establishments had been in operation for twenty years, and were regarded as fixtures. It was said that they “made business”—certain it was that many physicians had found the inmates regular and remunerative clients, and that all had shared in the income from treatment of the diseases which they bred. Some officials feared that public sentiment would not support radical action and that the morals of innocent boys and girls would be injured by having their attention called to conditions which perhaps had escaped their notice. On the other hand they found themselves in an unusual position—they were confronted by practically all the local physicians, standing shoulder to shoulder in a demand for drastic action.

Finally, these physicians brought the officials to their way of thinking. They voted unanimously to clean out the “red light” district, and proceeded at once and vigorously. In a month they had closed up every known establishment, and had rid the town of a number of street walkers. Greatly to their surprise, they found that public sentiment strongly approved of their action. Since then there has been a reduction of at least 75 per cent in number of the new cases of venereal infection.