Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1919 — VILLAGE LIFE FOR CITY DWELLERS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VILLAGE LIFE FOR CITY DWELLERS

“Social Unit" Experiment in Cincin- i nati Has Been So Successful That It Mau Be Generallu Adopted. I

fAN THE advantages of vidngr life Be irestoretFln the city*' 1 Can city dwellers have the friendly nnd~ neighborly feeling which marks the relations between men and women In the small town, where no QQe_ can bo ill. or out of work, without receiving ‘ neighborly assistance? Can we find for the cities something to take the pb-ice u| llie town meeting, where all the population gathers together ro discuss common problems and government is interpret»-d 1n 1 erms of eoni munit y service, instead of being housed in.-some remote - city hall? The “Social Unit," newest experiment in applied democracy. believes that these advantages can be restored to cites, and In a section ot Cincinnati is attempting to prove that they can. So successful has this experiment been, in the few months during which it has been tried, that people all over the country are "i;rid tii talk about it. and intiuential men and women are even saying -that the “Sochi| Unit" has the biggest reconstruction program .to offer Atnerica which has yr! been formulated. The little Cincinnati district, which is trying to reestablish the sort of neighborliness whieh exists in small towns, has the most distinguished of visitors, men on reconstruction missions from the European countries, fnelHcal organizers and social service workers. For instance. Dr. Rene Sand of the University of Brussels was recently sent to this country to study methods for rehabilitating and reorganizing Belgium. He visited Cincinnati and said of the Social Unit: “I shall carry back to my people no more construc-

tive suggestions than those which I have gotten from the Social Unit” _ This Social Unit district of Cincinnati, has acquired fame because the people are trying to be helpful each to the other and have gone to work to effect an organization T which .would make it I>ossible for every one to be of service. Neighborliness in the Village. In the small village it is impossible for any-, one to be sick or bereaved or out of employment without the folks of the village knowing about it and wanting to do something about it. A death or a contagious disease affects the entire vil-

lage and the only, people who go unbefriended are those who rebuff kindliness or who wear it out. But in the crowded city people get away from this neighborliness, and seem to care nothing about the folks around them. Babies die because the mothers do not know how to care for them. Many people who have consumption and other diseases live with small children around them, exposing them to sickness. Many invalids spend months at home, alone and unbefriended. All this is not because- the-people of the city are not as kind hearted and as willing to be helpfuL _ ” but because the city is too large fur jevery one to know every one else, and many people live near _each other for years without knowing even each other's names. The Social Unit organization has divided the district of 15.000 people in which it is working into thirty-one small blocks of about 500 people each. The plan is to make each of these blocks a tiny village where folks will, come to know one another and to be interested in having their neighbors happy and contented. In a country village there is usually some one woman who-ts-TUsort of village mother to whom folks go in times of trouble, who knows every one and is always busy getting people to help those in need. Taking her as an example, the Social Unit organization has found in each tiny block village a woman who serves as a “block worker.” who knows When anyone needs help of any kind and sees that help is given by the right agency. This worker is chosen by the people of her block and is paid enough So that she wiH be enabled to employ someone to do part of her housework during the times that she is “mothering” her block. > The thirty-one block workers, together, form what is called the Citizens' Council. The work of this Citizens’ Council is to learn what the needs of every part of the district are and to see that plans are worked out for meeting these needs. In doing this it uses the knowledge of the different skilled groups in the community. Use People With Expert Knowledge. In every community there are certain groups. each of which knows more about one particular thing than any other group. For example, the doctors know more about the prevention of disease than anyone else, the teachers know more about educating" children, the plumbers about plumbing, the business men about business, and . so on. ■ ,„i ■ The Social Unit has organized people with special skill for the good pf the community as a whole. The doctors are the board of health of the district; the employers • &nd trade unionists are the Industrial experts; the social workers are the department of public welfare: the teachers the board of education, and so on. When the Citizens’ Council, or the , "block represents fives” discover a health need in the district it puts tße problem up,to the doctor group. From that tine on the doctors are responsible for findr ing a solution for the problem and for submitting the plan they devise to the Citizens’ Council.’ If

the block workers in the Citizens' Council should rind that there ar£ many men out of work in the various blocks, the business and labor groups would be held responsible for the working out of some plan to' meet the problem. In this way, everyone in the Social Unit district is enabled to work for the whole community itt the same time that he is working for himself. Everyone is a part of the big force for good in the community. Slowly, one by one. each occupation is being or--and -will—have- -aa- -executive -iu—charge. - Thecommittee made un of the executives of all Hie occupational groups is called the Occupational Council of the Social Unit. The Council and the Citizens’ Council acting together are the means by which the community governs itself. Children Given Medical Attention. When the doctors and nurses of the Social Unit district were organized they found that there were many babies dying every year quite unnecessarily, either because little diseases which they contracted were not taken in tifne, or becajtse their mothers were not properly educated in caring for them. The doctors asked the Citizens’ Council to go into their blocks and find out how many children under six years of age there were. tljat there were 1,179. The doctors decided to give each of these children a complete medical examination, and the “block work-

ers" bm-l, to their blocks and told the mothers ami fathers that the district physicians would examine their children and tell them if there was anything wrong and how it could be remedied. One thousand and forty-three of the children were brought to the district health station. Hundreds of defects- were discovered and remedied. Classes ,wer«r- organized—fort he lumbers; - tire district nurses went into the homes to follow up the children who had been examined and ne'e that the ents were giving thvni the right care. When the epidemic of influenza broke out. everyone knew that somewhere in his or her block, within calling distance, was a woman who would exert the qtihost effort to see that those who were ill got help. The doctors ftnd nurses were mobi lized through the district headquarters, so that cases could be cared for in the shortest possible time. There was hardly a case in the district which was not reported, gnd when the epidemic was over it was found that the death rate in this

district had been a third lower that in the rest of the city. Census Is Taken. A little while ago the people of this district decided that they could not work out their problems as they should unless they knew more about each other, so they decided to take a census of themselves . and .find out who they were and where they lived and what countries they came from, how many rooms they lived in and what they did for a living. “Uplift” organizations bave taken census of this kind before, hut probably never before has a district voted through its block representatives and its skilled groups to make a study of its own life and present that study to the world. The peo-

pie were willing to make it. because they were doing it themselves, and because they knew that if they found housing conditions bad they at an organization which could remedy them. If thev found children and'young people without opportunities for healthful, happy play they could see that such a condition did not continue. Secret of a Successful Community. The men and women who are backing the Social Unit experiment—for the Cincinnati district is .really a - .laboratoryfor -social - experimentation and Hundreds of men and women of vision are interested in it—believe that the secret of a successful community organization lies in making everyone feel that he is Important. It is hard to feel that you are important, and that what you do counts for good or ill, in a city of half a million or more. But in a city block, which is really a little village* with its Own council, its own. “block worker.” its own program of health, recreation and civic endeavor, every man, woman and child is important. If they fail to do thqir part they can see immediately the effect upon the life -orThHUTTttierteptnronßnyu^nTtrey^wcrK^in - ffie interests of their little community they can see the good effects as well. And this, after all. is the advantage which the village has over the city. People don't get lost in the village as they do in th? city. And no one can “get lost” in .the Social Unit.