456 S8 UC-NRLF $B 7E5 bta State Conference On Kentucky Problems HELD AT University of Kentucky, Lexington March 4-5, 1919 Program and Addresses Kentucky Council of Defense State Conference On Kentucky Problems HELD AT University of Kentucky, Lexington March 4-5, 1919 Program and Addresses Kentucky Council of Defense X • • n* « T«B BTATH JOURNAL COMPANY Printer to the Commonwealth Frankfort, Kentucky. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Program of State Conference 5 Statement of Purpose of Conference 8 Addresses: Dr. Frank L. McVey: Some of the Problems Before the State Conference 9 Arthur W. Macmahon: National Problems and Commun- ity Organization 16 Miss Charl O. Williams: The Rural School and what To Do With It 20 Prof. J. Virgil Chapman: The Rural School and what To Do With It 28 Dr. Archibald Dixon: Care of Defectives 36 Professor George Baker: Educational Bills in Congress 46 James E. Rogers: Community Organization 51 Dr. Henry E- Jackson: The Practice of Citizenship 58 Professor R. P. Green: Elimination of Illiteracy by Com- munity Effort 65 Miss V. Lota Lorimer: Public Health Program of Ameri- can Red Cross 71 Dr. Arthur T. McCormack: The Kentucky Health Problem.... 75 Mrs. Helm Bruce: Woman's Committee 90 E. W. Burr: The Soldier on the Land 95 Rodman Wiley: Good Roads 101 Charles F. Huhlein: Commercial Organizations 106 Miss Elizabeth Breckinridge: The School as an Element of Community Organization 109 Professor C. S. Gardner: The Church as a Factor in Community Life 114 Persons Registered in Attendance 116 669914 PROGRAM STATEMENT OF PURPOSE. This conference is called by the Kentucky Council of Defense to consider various matters arising out of the War and Kentucky's rela- tion to them. No program can include all phases of the many prob- lems confronting any commonwealth. Some of them, however, have been selected for discussion and arranged for presentation by able speakers. * It is expected that» those who were associated with the Council of Defense as well as those connected with any phase of war work will attend. In addition there should be many others who would be interested in the program. To all these a welcome is extended and an urgent invitation given to be present. For information regarding program address Kentucky Council of Defense, Inter-Southern Building, Louisville, Ky. For details con- cerning local arrangements address Dr. Frank L. McVey, President of University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. I TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 10 A. M. Assembly Hall, Administration Building. The General Problem. 1. Call to order by Edward W. Hines. 2. Community Singing, led by Professor Lampert. 3. Statement of Purpose of Conference, Edward W. Hines, Chairman of the Kentucky Council of Defense. 4. The General Situation, (a) Some of the Problems, Frank L. McVey, President of University of Kentucky. (b) National Problems After the War, Arthur W. Macmahon, Asst. Chief of Federal Agencies Section, Council of National Defense. 5. Discussion. 6. The Soldier on the Land, Prof. Ellwo6d Mead, University of California and Adviser to Department of Interior (E. W. Burr, District Counsel, United States Reclamation Service, Denver, Colorado, took the place of Professor Mead, who was prevented by official duties in Washington from attending the Conference.) ,6 TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2:00 P. M. Assembly Hall, Administration Building. Som.e Educational Problems. Hon. V. O. Gilbert, State Superintendent of Public Instructions, Presiding. 1. Community Singing. 2. The Rural School and What to Do With It, Miss Charl O. Williams, County School Superintendent, • Memphis, Tennessee. Prof. J. Virgil Chapman, Supervisor of Rural Schools. 3. The Moonlight School, Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart, Chairman of the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission. (Hon. Edwin P. Morrow, Somer- set, Ky., took the place of Mrs, Stewart, who was pre- vented by illness from attending the Conference.) 4. Care of Defectives, Dr. Archibald Dixon, Henderson, Kentucky. 5. Educational Bills in Congress, Prof. George Baker, University of Kentucky. Ill TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 8:00 P. M. Assembly Hall, Administration Building. Community Organisation. Hon. James D. Black, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, Presiding. 1. Community Singing. 2. What Is Community Organization? James E. Rogers, Field Secretary of War Camp Community Service, New York City. 3. Examples of Community Organization, Dr. Henry E. Jackson, U. S. Bureau of Education. 4. What the Food Administration did in Community Organization, Fred M. Sackett, Federal Food Administrator for Kentucky. 5. Elimination of Illiteracy by Community Effort, Professor R. P. Green, Western Normal School, Bowling Green, Ky. IV WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 9:30 A. M. Assembly Hall, Administration Building. Community Organization (Continued). Hon. Mat S. Cohen, Commissioner of Agriculture, Labor and Statistics, Presiding. 1. Community Singing. 2. Rural Sanitation, Surgeon L. L. Lumsden, U. S. Public Health Service, Miss V. Lota Lorimer, Director of Lake Division, Red Cross Nursing. 3. Discussion. 4. The Kentucky Health Problems, Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, State Health Officer of Kentucky, Late Chief Health Officer of Panama Canal. 5. Discussion. 6. The Councils of Defense and Community Organization. Arthur W. Macmahon, Asst. Chief of Federal Agencies Section, Council of National Defense. Mrs, Helm Bruce, Chairman Kentucky Division, Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 2:00 P. M. Assembly Hall, Administration Building. Community Organization (Continued) Dr. Frank L. McVey, President, University of Kentucky, Presiding. 1. Community Singing. 2. The Elements in Community Organization, (a) Good Roads, Rodman Wiley, State Commissioner of Highways. (b) Women's Clubs, Mrs. Lafon Riker, President, State Federation of Women's Clubs. (c) Commercial Organizations, Charles P. IJuhlein, Louis- ville, Kentucky. (d) The School, Miss Elizabeth Breckinridge, Louisville Normal School. (e) The Church, Professor C. S. Gardner, Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, (f^ The Choral Society and Community Singing, Dr. A. J". Gantvoort, Cincinnati College of Music, (g) Play and Recreation, James E. Rogers, Field Secretary, War Camp Community Service. 3. Adjournment. TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1919. Morning Session. Edward W. Hines, Chairman of Kentucky Council of Defense, Presiding. Statement by Chairman of purpose of Conference : This Conference was called by the Kentucky Council of Defense upon the suggestion of President McVey, who indicated that it would give the University of Kentucky great pleasure to act as host to such a conference. The Councilof Defense was merely the instrument for calling the conference. Now that you are here the conference is yours. It seemed fitting that after the fighting in the Great War had ended in a military victory for America and her Allies, the patriotic men and women of Kentucky who at home had stood behind our fighting men and whose untiring work in so many forms had helped to make victory possible, should come together to take account of what remains to be done to make that victory effective and to make sure that our soldiers and sailors who have given their lives in the great struggle for democracy and justice shall not have died in vain. The Gre^t War has shown us many things in our American life which need to be changed if our democracy is to endure, and it has also shown us some of the instruments by which the needed changes may be wrought. Community organization and co-operation alone have made pos- sible the wonderful achievements of the various war agencies which have been such important factors in helping to win the war, and we must find the way to make effective that same spirit of community co-operation for the solution of our peace-time problems. During the war the men, women and children of Kentucky have been ready to make almost any sacrifice they were called upon to make for their country, and if we could have throughout this land of ours that same readiness to serve the public in times of peace, we would have an ideal democracy. And while that ideal state is not to be expected we must at least make an earnest effort to preserve for the solution of our peace-time problems as much as we can of that spirit of public service which has been developed by the war. We have asked you, therefore, to come here, that we may counsel togetlier for the purpose of finding the way to keep alive that spirit of public service and to make effective for the solution of the prob- lems which now confront us that spirit of community co-operation which has been such an important factor in the success of the various war activities which have been carried on by our civilian army at home. It is for that reason we have given community organization such a large place in the program. But an abstract discussion of community organization would be of little value, and so we have given an oppor- tunity to consider the various elements of community organization and some of the Kentucky problems in the solution of which com- munity organization and community co-operation may be important factors. Education in the broadest sense is the foundation of every true democracy, and no democracy can long endure unless its citizens are prepared for the duties of citizenship. To make the world safe for democracy does not give assurance that democracy will exist throughout the world. It is a noble thing in some great crisis to die for democracy, but it is a more difficult thing to live for democracy. Men may differ as to what democracy means, but I do not think any intelligent man or woman will deny that if the people are to rule they should be taught the principles and obligations of citizenship. And so the chief aim and end of our educational system should be to teach not only our boys and girls, but our men and women, to be good citizens. And the foundation principle of good citizenship is a due regard for the rights of others. It has been said that democracy is the application of the golden rule to politics. We have the problem of capital and labor because the employer and the laborer each is so intent upon his own rights that he cannot see the rights of the other. The employer with a col- lege education who is not willing to give up something of what he deems to be his own rights for the public good may be even more unfit for the duties of citizenship than the uneducated laborer who is equally insistent upon what he deems to be his rights. Education in good citizenship, therefore, is our greatest need, and one of the things upon which we hope to get light from this conference is how com- munity organization and community co-operation may help to solve this problem. In all our discussions we must not forget that it is only by hard work and patience that the things which we are hoping and longing for can be accomplished. Address by Dr. Frank L. McVey, President of Kentucky University. ^^k] Subject: ''Some of the Problems Before the State Confer- ence. ' ' In looking backward over periods of history, men are able to mark, very definitely, certain epochs in the progress of mankind. Curiously enough, most of these are indicated by wars, largely due to the fact that the historian has given his time and effort to a study of the doings of princes, potentates and sovereigns rather than of the com- mon people. 10 So it is that we consider the year 490 B. C, when the Battle of Marathon took place, as one of the great epochs and events in the history of Europe. A little band of Greeks were able to keep the Persians out of Europe and to hold for that continent the Grecian civilization with all that it meant. More than 800 years afterward at Adrianople, 378 A. D., the Huns defeated the Greeks and were able to make their way into Southern Europew Fortunately enough, how- ever, they were absorbed by the Southern European civilization and did not have the modifying effect that would have taken place if a more advanced people had won the contest. In Spain the Saracens had built up a considerable civilization. It was Moorish in character, and in their attempt to force the Francs into submission, they were defeated in 732 A. D., and once again Europe was saved for western civilization. Again, in 1066 the Normans won the Battle of Hastings, pressing upon England their mode of living, their architecture and customs. Then come other outstanding events such as the Magna Charta and periods like the Thirty Years' War, the Seventy Years' War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic War, our own Civil War, the Franco-Prussian contest, and now last of all the Great War. It may be expected, however, that men will see in this last event something more than a contest of arms. The periodical press is filled with discussions of the far-reaching consequences of this war. It is very clearly indicated that if out of it comes a great League of Nations, the contest will not have been in vain if there is even a possibility of a permanent peace. Men see in this change of view a great historical epoch. Many of them believe that a new church with a larger liberality of view, new energy of purpose and higher spiritual aim will be evolved. Others see visions of a wider democracy, in which education shall be adequate, effective and efficient. In fact, a new condition under which every citizen shall have larger opportunity, more leisure, and a higher viewpoint of life is bound to come to pass. Men are expecting that a better spirit will be brought into existence as a consequence of the many needs that have been shown by the agency of this war. The weathervane of opinion points to the need of better citizenship. Something more than an academic question is raised when it is asked whether these things are to be realized. It is true that we can fall back into the old rut, let the church go on as before, democracy blunder along as it has, and the government go about its business more or less ineffectively. But, if these things are possible, they are worth while trying to get, and the significance of this Conference lies In the fact that there is a feeling that these things can be brought to pass, If an earnest endeavor is made to get them. All of UB are anxious to see Kentucky in the vanguard, and it is possible to place her there even with the handicaps under which she labors. If we can see the needs of the Commonwealth for the next quarter of a century there is thus set up a very definite task, and, on the 11 whole, one that can be met, and the necessary steps taken to bring the results. This Conference has been called for the purpose of discussing Kentucky problems. Perhaps it is desirable at the beginning to ask, "What is a problem?" Then find out the specific things that stand before us here in Kentucky. A problem is something to be solved; it is an attempt to relate cause and effect, and to determine how the two are associated and con- nected. In a general way these problems which face us in Kentucky concern individuals, the community, and the State. The individual is concerned, in so far as the conditions of the heredity of his children are affected, and in the environment in which he lives, and in which they in the future will have to live. The two things re-act on each other. When we turn to the community, we find a group of individuals acting more or less together in the every day conduct of life. The tendency has been for these units to act aloiie and to act selfishly. When a community has grasped what it can do when its members act together, it will have taken a long step toward the accomplishment of many things. The State occupies a much larger area and is affected by a broader sweep of economic, sanitary and moral factors than in the instance of the individual. In the conduct of commerce and trade, transportation of the products of industry, economic laws affect and modify the situation. There are besides these sanitary, economic and moral conditions, those which apply in the conduct of the state's business and its affairs. In the final analysis, however, all of them are educational in character. It is suggested above that these problems are of a general char- after. They, however, may be more specifically discussed, and, while it is not possible to deal with all of them, it is possible to present for casual consideration matters relating to education, public health, in' dustry, efficient government, and community organization. It is pretty generally considered that everywhere, and particularly in our own commonwealth, we need a better school system. It is gradually dawning upon the citizenship of this State that more atten- tion must be paid to education. We find that our children are handi- capped when they come into competition with children from other commonwealths, and' that it is necessary to take hold of this matter not as a private question, but as a public one. There are in Ken- tucky about 500,000 children of school age, but to meet the needs of these children as they come on from the grades into the high schools there are but 250 high schools, public and private. Probably 2,200 sen- iors annually complete the high school course, and from this the State depends for its leadership. Instead of a number a little better than 2,000, there ought to be at least 7,000 to 8,000 seniors completing the high school course, and, in so far as they fail to do so, the State is affected in its larger intelligence, better government, and in its at- tempt to secure necessary leadership for better things. 12 We have discovered too, that the program of the schools should be modified. Modern life requires accuracy of thought, and the re- sults that are now being obtained do not seem to secure the ends that are desired. More emphasis should be placed upon the sciences, and the application of the arts to practical things should be steadily main- tained in school courses. It is true that the Federal Government is attempting to do this in the new legislation that is being provided under the direction of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, but this is merely a start, and programs everywhere ought to take into effect the necessity of impressing upon students the accuracy of thought, so that when they are charged with the responsibility of carrying on the affairs of the commonwealth, they will do it in a clear-headed way instead of in a mushy and sentimental way. We know too, that the making of citizens is a great deal more difficult process than we supposed. The war brought to us more clearly the fact that a great many people living in Ameiica are not quite as good citizens as we supposed. Too many ol them had no knowledge of our government or of our history, and, consequently, went astray when problems of great importance arose. The schools probably have been as defective in this as in anything, and new emphasis should be placed upon the making of real citizens. In addition to these problems of education, there is still another that looms large in America. When the facts have been made known, it appears that the average school child does not attend school in the United States much beyond the sixth grade, and there are still others who are unable to read and write. Thus the percentage of illiteracy in this country is said to be 7.77 per cent, while in our own State it reaches the disturbing figure of 11 per cent. It makes no difference what the reasons are for this illiteracy, it nevertheless con- stitutes a dangerous thing. Such a condition makes possible appeals to a large part of the adult population through superstitution and ignorance because they can not inform themselves in other ways. Hence, one of the things which our commonwealth must face is the elimination of illiteracy, and every effort should be made to bring it about at an early date. This means better schools, better teachers, more money for the support of education and the insistence upon the enforcement of the compulsory educational law. The publication of the facts relating to the personnel of the army brought forth an amazing number of important matters. In the first place, It was found that a high proportion of the number of men called to the colors were physically unfit. The older the community, the larger the percentage, and for the whole country, it indicated that practicN-illy forty men out of every hundred could not qualify under the standards established by the War Department. Such short- comings in the physical qualities of the manhood of the country is rather alarming and must be corrected. We have gone on the sup- 13 position that the number of unfit would not be very large, but now we know that we must undertake the correction of this defect. It is also noted in the publications of the army that venereal diseases had reached an alarming percentage. For our own State the quota was 3.77 per cent. However, this was about the average of all the states. Still it is too high, and the War Department has clearly indicated that something can be done to check it by actually giving widespread information and instruction as to the dangers of the situation. The removal of the saloons by national prohibition both in scope and purpose will materially affect this condition, and ought to help in the gradual removal of such diseases. But it cannot be done if we simply stand aside and allow the problem to remain an individual matter. It must become a public question, accepted by the State as such, and carried out with all the vigor which the com- monwealth could bring to bear upon such a problem. During the recent influenza epidemic it was discovered that we were by no means prepared for such a wide-sweeping disaster. All of us have read with interest and care the effect of the black death in the Fifteenth Century, but devastating as that was, it did not begin to carry off as many citizens as the recent influenza epidemic in the year of our Lord, 1918. The experience with this epidemic indicated that some very effective program for sanitation and better and more extended educational facilities for the enlarged training of nurses are necessary. The American Red Cross now has in mind the estab- lishment of a Home Service that will attempt to meet the situation in some degree, but the American Red Cross is unable to do this alone. It must have the co-operation of the State government, of the local governing bodies, and of the school. With all of these com- bined, it is possible to make provision for future difficulties and to set up a larger organization to take care of public health. But this is not sufficient. We must go further, and establish in our states adequate public health organizations, which shall establish adequate facilities for the care of disease. The basis of any commonwealth's development is, of course, its industry. Out of the ground, men must take wealth, and from nature they must find the materials and the means for supporting and main- taining life. The earliest of these industries associated with the soil is agriculture, and we have now reached a stage in the development of population where greater measures of c'onservation of the earth's surface must be undertaken. Agriculture has been pursued for thou- sands of years, but a new agriculture is now coming, which is capable of greater production. If we are to have an independent people within the borders of Kentucky, there must be constant renewal of the soil, and any type of agriculture, which tends to reduce its fertility, simply points to the fact that we are riding for a fall. Probably more prog- ress has been made in the field of agriculture than any other industry, but much remains to be done not only in securing better methods of 14 cultivation, but in marketing the product and in securing the dis- tribution of the wealth, which comes from nature, in an adequate and satisfactory manner. Our mining, lumbering, and oil industries need encouragement by the right kind of legislation. In legislation the State could hardly make grants in the form of money or exemption of taxation, but in better transportation facilities, better roads, in lower rates for the movement of freight, and in the finding of adequate and satisfactory markets. Beyond these important matters is another that calls for still greater emphasis. I have reference to the relation of capital and labor. In our system of society capital is derived from all ranks and is conducted in corporate form, while labor tends to be more and more organized as units for the purpose of securing its rights. Left alone, conflict between these two great factors is bound to arise, and, unless understanding between them is brought about, disaster is pretty sure to result. It is necessary that labor shall have acceptable conditions to work under and a livable wage — a wage that will give leisure and opportunity for better living. On the other hand capital must be assured of existence — an opportunity to work without inter- ruption. These are the conditions, and it is possible to work out a cooperative relationship between the two that wlil remove many of the difficulties that now exist. One of the great problems before a conference of this kind as well as before representatives of capital and labor, is the establishment of a working plan by which both can conduct industry and still do so to the best interests of the people of the commonwealth. The history of the centuries has shown, again and again, that in- effective, despotic government places a heavy burden upon industry and brings disaster after disaster to the attempts of the people to make progress in their civilization. Applied more specifically, we must learn that local, state, and national government must be effective. In order to be so, it is essential that it should be free from graft, and that the men who conduct it shall be farsighted and possess some vision as to the future. We are reaching a stage where the conduct of government by men, who are conducting it for their own purposes, must be set aside, and in its place substitute a new type of govern- ment officer, who will have before him the ideals of service. The state can be helpful to the local government in insisting on the same point of view. By careful systems of taxation, well organized and developed on right principles, it can encourage rather than discourage the de- velopment of industry. And by its oversight, education, and care of defectives, it can insist upon the enlargement of leadership, and, at the same time, prevent the development of parasitic groups that are likely to be a burden upon the people. With all of these plans for the future must go, as already indicated, an adequate system of taxa- tion. When once viewed from this way of looking at the matter. State 15 government becomes something more than a contest between parties. It becomes a matter of vast importance to the commonwealth as a whole, and certainly the commonwealth must see sooner or later that the kind of government which it has, is a help or a burden to its citizenship. Behind all of these problems is the great question of organiza- tion*. What is nobody's job is never accomplished. No one individual is going to take upon himself the correction of these difficulties. It is only by organization beginning in the communities that we can get better results and a higher type of community. The war has shown that in every community is an ardent patriotic spirit that can be called upon when aroused to do the necessary things. Times of war bring this spirit to the front, but when the ordinary routine of peace comes, this spirit of patriotism drops back and the consequences are that the community continues to move along in the old rut. There is a new responsibility, in view of all of the' things that have been thus pointed out, falling upon every community, and that responsibility must be recognized and accepted by the leaders in the different com- munities. It is not within the scope of my discussion to point out how this organization can be accomplished. It is necessary that it must be brought to pass at an early date, if we are to accomplish the results hoped for. Certain it is that these conditions indicate a new and larger re- sponsibility of citizenship. It is a commonplace saying that democracy rests upon her citizenship; but, if we go no further than that and make no effort to produce a better type of citizen then democracy is bound to fail. When it has been tried and failed, the analysis of the situation points to the lack of vision. The old Biblical prophet put it, "For lack of vision, the people perish." We have had our imagina- tions aroused by this great war, and every man in the street sees that a new turning-point has come in the history of the world. So vividly does he see it that in some countries he has come to the point of saying that the old regime cannot last, that there is no good in it. So, he has turned to a dreamy, irresponsible type of democracy that fails to understand the practical problems of government. It is essen- tial that we in this Commonwealth of Kentucky shall not only recog- nize the turning-point in the history of the world and grasp some idea of the great awakening that has taken place, but that we should also take steps to carry out some of the things hoped for, and, from the point of view of our own future and our own necessities, take upon ourselves the responsibilities that the new type of citizenship calls for. 16 Address by Arthur W. Macmahon, Assistant Chief of Federal Agencies Section, Field Division, Council of National Defense. Subject: ''National Problems and Community Organiza- tion." Mr. Macmahon said in part: During the war the energies of the country were being gathered up in its tens of thousands of remote localities and, having been brought to a focus in the national government, were pressing out toward the distant battlefield. After the armistice the tide turned and began to set back upon the communities. Even in war-time, na- tional problems could not be met unless the smallest and most dis- tant neighborhoods were reached. It was natural tha^t the Council of National Defense, in its recommendations to the war organizations in the states, should have put increasing emphasis upon the integra- tion of the ultimate communities. After-war problems call in even greater degree for community initiative. It is natural that the key- note (51 the Council's present message to the defense bodies with which it has co-operated should be the earnest suggestion that they build now toward permanent community organization. We have entered upon a difficult period of readjustment which we call "reconstruction." It grows out of the extraordinary conditions of the war, on the one hand, and merges, on the other side, into per- manent problems of American life. Those who have worked in war organizations are not discharged until the more critical at least of the phases of this period have been passed. In attacking its problems they can happily build, not for a day, but for the future. Reconstruc- tion, at least under American conditions, means primarily the recur- rence of old and standing issues. Unemployment, friction regarding the wage-scale between employers and employees and between skilled and unskilled and between men and women employees, the assimila- tion of alien elements, the final abolition of illiteracy, the removal of the conditions which made unfit 38% of the young men called under the Selective Service Act — all these and many other problems asso- ciated with reconstruction are not new problems in the United States. The war, however, has done at least three things to old prob- lems. In the first place, it has made certain of them exceedingly acute. Such center chiefly around the unemployment which has fol- lowed the demobilization of our armies and the cessation or curtail- ment of our so-called war industries and around the adjustment of the price levels of basic commodities to a point where the energies of business, temporarily stagnated, can again resume a normal rate of flow. In the second place, the war has heightened all our old prob- lems by arousing expectations iu the minds of our people. Nations 17 cannot hold, as the Allied Nations have done in waging the war, that there are wrongs in the redress of which no price is too high, without thereby engendering the demand that something of the same indigna- tion, high courage, and organized attack shall be brought to bear upon many crying abuses in our national life. You are here today, I take it, because the war has awakened such expectations in Kentucky and has made all the standing problems of your State seem more serious than ever before. In the third place, not only has the war sharpened some of our problems and lifted all of them, but it has given us as a people a new skill in the technique of organization and an eagerness to try upon the problems of peace the tools which were so effective in coping with the necessities of war-time. Although it is wholesome to remember that the w^ar was fought because of international wrongs and on behalf of international remedies, it has yielded remarkable by- products along domestic lines. It would be criminally wasteful and an invitation to discontent not to make the most of these by-products now in the previous moment when the iron is still hot. Some of our after-war problems, as price readjustments, rail- roads, shipping, are national in the sense that by their their nature they must be met primarily by agencies of the national government. Others, like the many exceedingly urgent problems involved in the reception, re-employment, and reacclimatization to civil life of re- turning soldiers and war-workers, are and cannot help being primarily questions which the men's own communities must meet. Nearly all, however, are at once national and community problems. They are national in the sense that they involve the foundations of American life and that their neglect in any one part of the country cannot re- main a matter of indifference to the rest. They are community prob- lems, even when agencies of the national government are at work upon them, in the sense that the attempted remedies act upon the air and are in the end sterile unless they are made effective through the organization of the life of minute localities. It is easy to multiply examples of national activities which rest ultimately upon community organization. We are profoundly disturbed by the growth of farm- tenancy and propose that some how or other still easier credit than obtains at present shall be made available to the dwellers on the soil; no plan can be suggested which will not involve the voluntary asso- ciation of groups of neighbors. We talk of the cost of living and in- voke the aid of national agencies, at present of the Post Office De- partment especially, to bridge the gap between producers and con- sumers; their assistance is futile until co-operation has been effected in both country and city. The United States Department of Agricul- ture, in colaboration with the land-grant colleges in the states, has built up one of the most remarkable educational organizations in the world; it nevertheless must rely in large part upon the voluntary asso- ciations which rise up in communities to meet its agents to make its work actually effective. These random illustrations indicate that the 18 instrumentalities of government, both national and state, are de- pending more rather than less upon what we call community organiza- tion. We mean by community organization, obviously, an organization which is public in the sense that its purposes and its membership em- brace all residents in the community, but which is non-governmental in the sense that it is voluntary, personal and informal in character. It is thus separate from the local government proper, although it is closely allied to it and is constantly tending to enrich and strengthen it. Community organization is flexible and capable of experimenta- tion; it can run ahead of governmental agencies and, when it has demonstrated the success of some enterprise for the general good, can transfer it to the hands of the regular government. In addition it can carry on permanently the many activities which are essentially public in nature but which are possible only when people are banded together personally and voluntarily. Community organization insists upon the comradeship of all residents in the same locality who, simply because they are people and live near together, have in com- mon certain great interests which must never be obscured by other differences. At the same time, community organization recognizes the existence of many special local problems which call for special organization. In the sense in which it is understood and advocated by the Council of National Defense, the organization of a community does not block the way to such special forms. Rather it facilitates their formation when they are necessary and allows them to preserve the special connections which their work makes necessary, as the connection of a Farm Bureau with the Department of Agriculture; without abolishing diversity, it preserves the ultimate unity of all community endeavor. What shall be the basis of community organization, when we build it in these challenging days of reconstruction to last into the future? The Council of National Defense is acutely conscious that community organization is wholesome only when it is accommodated, both in area and in structure, to the peculiarities of each locality. The Council does not attempt to suggest more than general principles. It believes now, as it has urged throughout the war, in advocating Com- munity Councils of Defense, that it is desirable and possible to com- bine two principles of organizati^i which are sometimes represented as antagonistic. The first of these insists that the community organi- zation shall include all of the residents of the community, but as in- dividuals and only as individuals. It concedes the need of special committees, to be sure, but luushes aside all existing bodies of a special character— granges. (Imiclies, clubs, chapters and the rest — and attempts to organize the whole community afresh upon the democratic foundation of universal individual membership. The sec- ond principle, on the other hand, recognizes that there are a variety of local interests and that in most communities people are already 19 grouped together in churches, Red Cross auxiliaries, agricultural clubs, commercial organizations and the like. This principle retains such bodies and forms the community organization by federating them. The Council of National Defense thinks that each of these principles of organization is, by itself, incomplete and inadequate and that the best forms of community organization are secured by blending them. It has accordingly always recommended that the community organiza- tion shall be built upon the membership of all the residents in the locality and that, at the same time, the leaders of all special bodies which touch public problems shall be brought together and associated with the management of the community organization. In the stress of war, when speed was all important, relatively more emphasis was necessarily placed upon building Community Councils out of the bodies already existing. Even then, however, the Council urged that Community Councils, as the ultimate links in the chain of defense, should be inherently popular and not merely tight little groups of leaders. Now that the time has come to build perm.anently, less emphasis must be given to the federation of existing agencies and more to the element of a broad and inclusive membership as the basis and source of control of every community organization. Not only that, but the community organizations which have grown up in war-time must now be overhauled, to make sure that they rest upon this element and are in fact organizations of whole communities. How shall the impulse toward thoroughgoing community organi- zation be kept alive and carried from place to place, until every locality has been covered? During the war, and, the Council of Na- tional Defense hopes, during the continuance of the present period of readjustment also, the State Councils of Defense and State Divisions of the Woman's Committee of the Council of National Defense to- gether have acted and will act as centers of leadership for community organization. The Council of National Defense, under the act of Aug- ust 29, 1916, which established it before our entrance into the war, is itself a permanent body and will undoubtedly continue, even after the period of reconstruction has passed, to study quietly the problems of industrial mobilization. Above all, speaking from its experience in the war, the Council hopes that permanent centers of leadership for community organization will be established in the states. The Council suggests that the essential advisory leadership to communi- ties can be most effectively rendered by a state bureau which will represent jointly the various branches of the state government which have to do with the organization of community groups as a neces- sary incident to the discharge of their duties. Women should be asso- ciated with such a bureau; in view of the large role which they actually play in all community undertakings, it is only fair and wise that they should be very directly in touch with the source from which suggestions will emanate. An example of the general type of bureau which the Council of National Defense has in mind is afforded in the 20 - so-called State Bureau of Community Service of North Carolina, which represents jointly the State Departments of Education, Agri- culture and Health, the State College of Agriculture and Engineering, the State Normal and Industrial College, and the State Farmers' Union. The Council of National Defense is not prepared to say whether in its details this is the best form even for North Carolina; certainly it recognizes that the type of bureau in which leadership for community organization can be most effectively embodied, is con- ditioned by circumstances which vary from state to state. It hopes that, in the interval which is now conveniently afforded before the next session of your state legislature, you will study how this problem can best be met in Kentucky. The Council is confident that the establishment of a permanent 'agency which can, by correspondence and field workers, quicken and sustain the already widely spread impetus to effect community organization, which will be a clearing house for the experience of organized communities, and which will be a channel through which the departments of the national and state governments can reach these communities, is a necessary step in keeping for all time one of the finest fruits of the war. In an empire it used to be said that all roads lead to Rome. If a democracy is real, all roads leal home. We mean by "home" the ultimate and intimate communities in which people are born and live and die and in which their life is made either rich and varied or meager and monotonous. We do not ask for insularity or a small outlook when we say that all roads should lead home. Rather we ask that the whole world shall come to each countryside and that the resources of the whole government shall be effective in each block. This is not possible when there is merely apathetic reliance upon distant centers of government. It becomes possible only when com- munities themselves are organized to express their innate initiative and to receive the many services which the governments of state and nation stand ready to put at their disposal. TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. Hon. V. 0. Gilbert, Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, Presiding. Addresses by Miss Charl 0. Williams, County School Super- intendent, Memphis, Tennessee; and Professor J. Virgil Chapman, Supervisor of Rural Schools for Kentucky. Subject: '^Tlie Rural School and What to Do With It." Miss Williams : The subject of the rural school in the South never seemed so attractive to me nor so full of possibilities as it does today when 21 I have just come from Chicago, that Mecca for hundreds of thousands of Hungarians, Sicilians, Poles, Russians, Germans. The crowded, noisy, dirty, poverty stricken districts of the city with all of its boasted advantages, suffer in comparison with the fresh air and the open fields of the small town or country, and the pure Anglo-Saxon one hundred per cent American population of the South is an asset too great to be estimated. To my mind the so-called negro problem of our section pales into insignificance and becomes no problem at all compared with the large, foreign, non-English speaking population that infests other sections. The negro is first of all an American, and he loves the Flag that freed him, while it may take many generations to make Americans out of the conglomerate mass of people of Bolshevist tendencies., We are not sure of results even then. At least our experience thus far has not been a pronounced success. For ten years, according to my observation, the rural school has occupied a prominent and generous space on every program of every State or National Meeting on Education, and yet the nation-wide prog- ress does not seem to have been made that one might expect in this field of endeavor. The "Back to the Country Movement" will end in a miserable failure, and the agitators may plead in vain unless some real education is substituted for the hopeless makeshift now offered to our country population. Ambitious, enterprising people are not going to send their children to the average one and two-room school today and not one of us could honestly advise it. The needs of the rural school of today are definite and immediate, and the changes in some sections must be sweeping and radical before anything worth while can be said to have been accomplished. The needs of this much talked of institution sound simple — a building, teachers, children. No mean type of building will satisfy the people we are trying to coax back to our farms today. This temple of childhood should be beautiful — good to look upon— and should set the standard for archi- tecture throughout the whole community. The essentials of heating, lighting and ventilation should be overlooked by one skilled in the business. The modern school in the country should provide for suffi- cient class-room space to prevent overcrowding, for play-rooms, rest- rooms, hot-lunch room, laboratories for physics, chemistry, agricul- ture, home economics and manual training, library, community-room and auditorium. The authorities who construct such a building may confidently look forward to the time when it will be the real center of all community activities. The equipment should be of the best' type and in keeping with the building. Not less than five acres — ten would be better — will suf- fice for a school of this kind. A principal's home and a janitor's house on the school campus should be a part of the school plant. The school grounds should be made beautiful with trees and shrubs and suitable 22 portions equipped with playground apparatus for the little children and other portions laid off for basketball for boys and girls, base-ball, and tennis for the teachers. A gymnasium will make it possible to keep these sports going in inclement weather and in the winter time and even at night. We must prepare for a great scheme of physical education for it is sure to follow this war. The interior of this building must be attractive and in such good taste that it will set the standard for good housekeeping and house- furnishing in the entire community. The country children should have the best in literature, music and art brought to them through good books and magazines, victrolas and pictures. Such a school will be a failure in the beginning should the man- agement of it be attempted by the teacher of the average one and two- room type. The minimum training for a task like this should be a good high school education followed by a two-year course at a Normal School. These teachers should from time to time as the work de- velops take special training at summer schools at the expense of the State. No better investment than this on the part of the State can be made. Salaries sufficient to allow study one summer and travel the next would bring in returns, the value of which can not be com- puted. The teachers in this school should love country life and see the possibilities in it, should love the out-of-doors and take joy in teaching children the beauty of their native surroundings. Above all, these teachers must love people with all of their faults, and be able to reckon with the frailties of human nature, and believe in the final triumph of the good that is in us alh Teachers of this type are a genuine asset to any community and they should be so cared for in good homes that they will want to spend their week-ends in the com- munity and come back year after year to the same school to teach. It is barely possible for a one-room school to succeed, but the teacher of it would have to be a versatile genius. In order to furnish better teachers and better environment in every sense of the word, it has been found advisable to consolidate a group of small schools into one large school. In the average one and two-room schools there are not enough students in the classes to make the work interesting for teacher or pupils, which alone would be sufficient inducement to consolidate. The one-room school must go, wherever possible, and give place to a better school, if the type of education given to our children is to materially improve. Where road conditions permit, the children can be transported to the central school in motor trucks: when the climate is not too cold or the routes too long horse-drawn wagons are very satisfactory. When a school is discontinued a much better substitute must be pro- vided, else people may rightfully ask, "Why must we go so much fur- ther for the same thing we were getting at home?" If comfortable •wagons and competent drivers are provided and the consolidated 23 school is of the type it should be, the children themselves will never give it up. Adequate supervision must he provided to keep a system of rural schools functioning properly. No Superintendent, man or woman, no matter how trained, efficient or active he may be, can do all that is required of a County Superintendent of Schools. The question of supervision of City Schools, highly organized as they are, is no longer a debatable one. Why is it expected that County Superintend- ents can do more? The salaries paid County Superintendents are shamefully low; they are not securing the trained superintendents the schools should have and they never will. The salaries that are paid all employees throughout the school systems must be materially increased, else we shall take a backward movement at this period that will require a quarter of a century to overcome. The South especially is not doing its full duty in the question of support for its schools. After four years of experience with tax levy- ing bodies and the public at large, I have found that bonds and taxes are most unpopular. So strenuously do people object to paying taxes and so assiduously do they avoid them when possible that I have come to believe that the only revenue in the public treasury consists in the taxes the people could not escape paying. Such a viewpoint is en- tirely wrong. Some wholesome tax education is necessary if the schools continue to grow. The coming generations must be taught the cost of the education they want, and they must pay for what they get. Our people have not yet fully realized that education is an asset and not a charity. It has been calculated by competent authorities that the per capita wealth of any State or Nation is in direct ratio to the per capita cost of education. The richest and most powerful nations in the world are those that have established good school sys- tems, and they have not established good school systems because they are rich and powerful but they are rich and powerful because they have established good school systems. We have only to compare Russia and Mexico with England, France and America to note the truth of this statement. The recent draft brought to light among much valuable informa- tion the fact that this country with all its boasted advantages has an alarming percentage of illiteracy. This is particularly true of the South with its large negro population. The chain is just as strong as its weakest link, so if this Nation is to successfully meet the issues it must inevitably face in the years to come, this Government of the People, and for the People must be administered by a People whose bodies are strong and vigorous, whose minds are keen and active, and whose spirit is noble and uftdefiled. Such a people can be pro- duced only by an efficient system of nation-wide education. You may be interested in what has been done with the rural schools of my county, Shelby County, the largest in Tennessee, the 24 county seat of which is Memphis, and is situated in the extreme south- western part of the State. A good system of roads penetrates to the farthest corners and the lowlands are easily crossed even in high water by a system of levees and bridges. Shelby county's present school system dates back about twelve years, when si state law was passed abolishing the district unit and establishing the county unit of administration. All of the good things that have come to us in education may be traced back to the wise men who valiantly fought for this measure. The system is administered by a High School Board of Education of six members — the County Superintendent being ex-officio member — elected by the County Court for a term of three years, two being elected every January; a County Board of Education elected by the people for a term of six years, five elected from the five school dis- tricts respectively and two from the county at large; and a Superin- tendent elected by the County Court for a term of four years. The Supferintendent is given a very free hand in the administration of school interests and is paid a salary of $3,350 per year, $350 of which is paid by the State. An automobile, a Ford Sedan, with chauffeur for twelve months in the year, day or night, is at the disposal of the Superintendent, the entire expense being paid by the Board of Educa- tion. The Board believes that the Superintendent should be in close touch with State and National movements in education, so she is sent to the Tennessee Public School Officers' Association, which meets every January at the State Capitol, to the Department of Superintend- ence of the National Education Association, which meets in February and to the National Educational Association in July, her expenses being paid by the Board. She is assisted in the discharge of her duties by specially trained supervisors, ^one for primary education and one for home economics and science. These two women use the Superintendent's car on Mon- days, Wednesdays and Fridays in visiting the schools; Tuesdays and Thursdays are kept for office days when reports are made to the Superintendent and lesson plans are worked out; Saturdays are gen- eral conference days when many teachers come into the office for a friendly visit or for counsel and aid. These supervisors receive $1,800 and are employed for the entire year. Their worth to the County Schools can not be estimated; they are loyally supported by the teachers and in turn are loyal to the Superintendent and Board of Education. It is their duty to pass on the qualifications of every teacher before he is employed; then to see that these teachers are placed in the schools where a maximum service can be secured from them ; to see that the course of study is kept up to modern needs and that it is intelligently carried out ifi the schools; and to keep a gen- eral oversight over the school and community activities. A Supervisor of Agriculture is employed at a salary of $2,040 per year. He has charge of all the club work for boys and visits the school 25 in his own automobile. A secretary to the Superintendent and the Board is employed at a salary of $1,500 per year. She is chief clerk of the office and looks after the clerical duties of the Superintendent. The fact that she has ten years of teaching experience in the Shelby County Rural and Suburban Schools makes her services invaluable. A stenographer is employed at $960.00 per year, a bookkeeper who can also do stenographic work is employed at $1,200 per year. Accu- rate reports are made quarterly to the County Court and annually to the State Superintendent. All the finances of the County Schools are handled in the Superintendent's office and every warrant is signed jointly by the Superintendent and Chairman. The Chairman of both Boards spends as much time as is necessary in the discharge o| his duties and receives $900 per year. The members of the Board re- ceive $240 per year. A suite of offices is provided for the school forces in our beautiful million dollar court house, a building of pure Greek architecture that is the pride of the entire South. The imposing entrance, the marble stairways and corridors and the mahogany woodwork and furnishings give a beauty and dignity to the surroundings that are a genuine in- spiration. Not many State Departments of Education in the entire country are so wonderfully situated as is the County Department of Education of Shelby County. For work in the negro schools, three women supervisors are em- ployed, $25.00 per month being contributed to their salaries from the Jeannes Fund and they report weekly to the Superintendent. We re- gard this as a minimum force that can successfully supervise a school system as large and as highly organized as our own. The consoHdation of schools is practically completed in Shelby County; the movement has been going on steadily and quietly since 1907 when there were between ninety and one hundred one and two- room schools in the county. Today there are thirty-six white schools, twenty-two of which may be called consolidated schools with forty- three wagonettes and eighteen motor trucks, two hundred twenty-five white teachers and a scholastic population of ei'ght thousand white children. In the past seven years Shelby County has added cew buildings amounting to $525,000.00 exclusive of equipment, $400,000.00 of which is a bonded indebtedness. A bill is now before the legislature ask- ing for $300,000.00 for additional buildings, and I have the promise of the Shelby Delegation that it will be passed this week. These school houses have been built by architects who understood, in the main, the business of building schools. They have steam heat, elec- tric lights, water works, slate boards, cloak-rooms, play-rooms, labora- tories for physics, chemistry, cooking, sewing and agriculture, hot- lunch rooms, libraries, community rooms and auditoriums that seat from two hundred fifty to one thousand people. 26 Most of the new schools have a small model dining-room, adjoin- ing the school kitchen, where the girls may have the opportunity to study house furnishing and serving of meals and other phases of the work that any home^iaker might be interested in. The entire furni- ture of this room, including china, linen and silver, is always bought by the community. Here the Superintendent, Supervisors and Board members are often entertained as well as parents and friends of the various classes. This ie counted as a regular feature of the course of study and it is regarded as a privilege by the class that is chosen to serve the meals. Not long ago I was invited out on Saturday evening to an eighth grade country school, four miles from a railroad to a dinner where a doctor just returned from France was a guest of honor. The five- course dinner was prepared and served by ten fifth and seventh grade girls, two little girls serving each course. The table was correctly laid with six pieces of silver at each place, which with the china and beautiful linen is the property of the school. I recall that it was Washington's Birthday and that the place cards were designed and colored by these children and that the bon-bons and the receptacles for them were also a part of their handi- work. The meal itself was delicious, such as might have been served in any well appointed home. At the close of the dinner the com- munity gathered at the school and listened to excellent singing by the students and to a thrilling recital of recent events of this great war by the doctor. These girls had a practical demonstration of true hospitality and they learned some of the privileges and responsibili- ties of home-makers. This building is not new or modern but it happens to have the most complete "Home Making E^partment" in the county, because the principal there has a vision and the courage to live up to it. A large two-story addition was placed there three years ago and the lower room not being immediately needed for class- room, she asked that a partition be built in lengthwise the room with double doors in the center and that the walls be painted a soft gray. In one of the rooms Ihere is ample space for the cooking and sewing departments, and in the other for the dining and living rooms, an imaginary line separating them. The furniture for the dining-room is of the William and Mary period, and the living-room furniture is in harmony with it, all purchased by the community. The brown rugs with the mulberry hangings and cream curtains at the windows and pretty pictures on the walls give a finish to the surroundings that may well make it the model for the entire neighborhood. There are twenty-two well equipped kitchens in Shelby County, presided over by twenty-two well trained teachers who meet once a month in a special meeting of their own with the Home Economics Supervisor, at which the heads of this department at the Normal School and the City High Schools are regular attendants. A separate 27 course of study has been made for this department to suit our needs and to meet modern demands. Home Economics has come to stay in Shelby County; every girl from the fifth grade through the High School is required to take it and they never question it. Each year at the Tri-State Fair in Memphis about two hundred girls with their teachers hold regular classes in cooking, sewing, canning, laundry and ironing. To do this is looked upon as a privilege, and the classes take great pride in demonstrating to the admiring public how their work should be done. The war gave great impetus to food production and today we have the most enthusiastic Pig, Poultry and Corn Clubs we have ever had, the boys and girls wanting pure bred stock for the most part this year A large silver loving cup is offered the school this year that scores the most points in the Poultry Contest. For several years a cup has been given to the corn clubs. In every community there is an active Parent Teachers' Associa- tion or some sort of community club which has for its prime object the betterment of school interests. These organizations stand ready at all times to assist the teachers in carrying out their plans. They contribute many things to the schools which the Board of Education could never afford to buy, such as pianos, victrolas, pictures, rest- room and community-room furniture, hot-lunch room equipment, play- ground apparatus, china, linen, silver, flags, service flags, etc. Two years ago just before we became engrossed in war activities we made a detailed report of these contributions. They totaled in value $16,500, which is the county's pro rata of a 4 cent tax levy. The enthusiasm of these people for their schools is an inspira- tion to those who have the system to control. It has been wonderfully demonstrated this winter when four schools have gathered once a week at the gymnasium of the Memphis Y. M. C. A. to play basket- ball. Supporters of the teams numbered nearly four hundred people and they brought the evening meal with them, and spread it picnic fashion in the banquet hall where the "Y" served coffee to the entire crowd. Community singing and a general, wholesome good time fol- lowed. County officials and city professional men whose homes are in the county stayed in town to help their teams win. This is but one example of the real community spirit that has grown up about each school. It would prolong this paper to an unreasonable extent to attempt to tell you of the many meetings and the many good times that are held in these auditoriums and community rooms. It is no uncommon thing and considered not a great undertaking to serve refreshments to one hundred and fifty people from the school kitchen. Being near a city, we often get splendid lecturers who are glad to go out in the county schools, and Memphis talent is heavily drawn upon by our am- bitious, energetic teaching force. • 28 The visits of one school to another through track meets, ora- torical contests, basket-ball games, Pig, Poultry and Corn Shows and their united effort at the Fair is going to make for a wide friend- ship and a fine spirit of cooperation, when these youngsters grow up and have the affairs of the county to manage. The greatest asset t)f our school system is the splendid teaching force of which we are justly proud. This year when many sections have not been able to open their schools for want of teachers, Shelby County has maintained the highest standard in its history. I have often said that the county schools are run on the minimum of funds and the maximum of spirit, for though we pay higher salaries than most counties in the State, these excellent teachers are not paid in proportion to the services they render. Teachers' meetings are held once each month in the court house and departmental meetings as often as possible. These teachers come from everywhere and they go exerywhere for training. They are an integral part of the com- munity and contribute the leadership so often lacking in small towns and rural sections. The same thing may be said of the fine spirit of our negro teach- ers of whom we have two hundred. There are seventy-three negro schools and a negro scholastic population of 16,000 children. This is a large school system in itself, and presents a huge problem that we are honestly, earnestly trying to solve. We have accomplished many things in education in Shelby County, but we know full well that we are only laying a foundation for a real system of schools. We feel that our big problem just now is to bring home to our people with telling force the difference be- tween good schools and poor ones, to impress deeply upon them the fact that they alone are responsible if inferior schools are allowed to exist, and that the small additional rate of taxation required to maintain good schools is trivial compared to the lasting benefits to their children. We believe the people can be educated along these lines and to that end we are now planning an educational campaign in our section of Tennessee. When this idea once begins to spread there will be a change in the attitude of taxpayers, and instead of begging for the funds that we are now given almost grudgingly and as though a favor were being bestowed we shall witness the miracle of the people de- manding that their schools be adequately supported and that they be taxed sufficiently to meet the educational needs of their children. Professor Chapman : The greatest problem that confronts Kentucky, or the Nation, to- day is the rural problem. The most intricate phase of this problem and at the same time the most potent factor in its solution is the 29 rural school. It seems useless to declare that, even in the new light of a new day, the rural school problem is still unsolved. The chief reason for this condition is that hitherto we have not been able to concentrate the best thought and wisdom and determined efforts of our citizens upon its solution. We are to be congratulated, therefore, that our State is finally being aroused, as a slumbering giantess, from her lethargy, and that she is to enjoy, through the Council of Defense and other organizations, the loyal support and consecrated service of a more intensely interested and zealous citizenry than ever before in the improvement of her rural conditions and the beautifying of her rural life. Practically all students of educational administration are Jiow agreed that in order to meet the demands of the times some form of reconstruction and reorganization is necessary. It is generally con- ceded that our school system must be broadened and strengthened, the courses of study enriched and vitalized, and particularly that the work of the school system must be made to articulate with the life of the community. As the rural school has been neglected more than any other factor in our educational systems, it is evident that the readjustment of conditions, the equalization of opportunities, and the improvement of facilities must begin in the country. Here is the vital and fundamental element that will count so much in our national growth toward efficiency and democracy. It is a source of gratification to me that in this assembly of pa- triotic men and women I am privileged to speak, though briefiy, in be- half of the rural schools of our State, With the intrepid spirit of freemen, we have assisted in winning a great war, to make the world safe for democracy. Our brave boys, with patriotic fervor and daunt- less nerve, have endured shot and shell, poisonous gas and liquid fire, to plant the banner of victory and democracy upon the ramparts of the most tyrannical and fiendish foe in all history, to check the on- slaught of the bloody beast against every form of human right and human happiness. Now, as crowned with the laurel leaves of victory and decorated for bravery on foreign fields, they return to the land they love and serve so well, shall they find that we in "keeping the home-fires burning" are making "democracy safe for the world?" I affirm that, until Kentucky secures to the boys and girls of the rural districts advantages equal to those offered to children in the towns and cities, she has no right to boast of her democracy. Every girl in Old Kentucky is a daughter of the Commonwealth; every boy in all this great natiort is a son of the Republic. The poorest child from the humblest home in the most obscure community in all the land is entitled to the very best instruction and the amplest opportunity to grow into the highest type of citizenship that the State can furnish. Until such inalienable right is secured and the country boy is given the same chance in the schoolroom as his city cousin, we should 30 cease to boast of our democracy and to talk about "a government of the people, by the people and for the people." In the rapidly changing conditions, marvelous progress has been made in almost every line of human activity. With wonderful de- velopments in all forms of industrial life, boys and girls have been deprived of much valuable home training in domestic arts formerly received in the home as a result of an economic necessity. . Statistics show furthermore that there has been for a number of years a gen- eral nation-wide drift from the country to the town — a drift which, if not promptly checked, will eventually engulf both rural and urban population in the maelstrom of agricultural and domestic inefficiency and economic and commercial confusion. Thousands of our most successful and enterprising farmers have left their farms in the hands of less successful and less enterprising men and have moved to town to educate their children. This is in- variably a bad thing for the country and not infrequently equally as bad for the town. One of the greatest calamities that can befall a rural community is for the prosperous, public-spirited citizen, be- cause the community is not progressive enough to maintain good schools and churches, to rent out his farm to a shiftless tenant, who cares nothing for the progress of the community, and move to the county seat to rear his children. It is often detrimental to the town because his sufficient accumulation of wealth to enable him virtually to retire from business is taken as evidence of capacity to serve on the city school board or the city council. His previous rural environ- ment and his false ideas of economy that prompted him to move in- stead of building up a good school where he was, really disqualify him for useful service in his new position. Thus an injury has been done to both town and county, not to mention the children. Rural communities thus deserted are usually known by their poor roads, poor schools, poor churches, abandoned farms, dilapidated houses, scrub stock, and other conditions that make rural life barren, uninteresting and unattractive. So many improvements have been made in recent years that such conditions are unnecessary and in- excusable. Farming is in many sections becoming more scientific and more profitable; rural routes, telephones, silos, windmills, auto- mobiles, better methods, better roads, better homes, better stock, better farms, more money — all to elevate, ennoble and inspire, make country life highly desirable. Indeed, the farm can be made a most desirable place to live and rear a family. But the tragedy of the situa- tion is the fact that the rural school has not kept pace with the marked progress along other lines. Strangely inconsistent is many an otherwise good citizen who avails himself of practically all modern improvements and inventions of an industrial or mechanical nature, who uses telephones and automo- biles, and is ever on the alert to improve the stock on his farm, and yet seems dead to every generous impulse sq far as the proper train- 31 ing of his child is concerned. So, while city schools have usually- proved themselves apt in the readjustment to changed conditions, have adopted modern methods, and have articulated their work with the home life of those they serve, the average rural community has made little improvement over the school of a generation past. This may appear to be a dark picture and may impress you as the reflection of a pessimistic nature. Far from it; not so much de- pends upon where we stand as in what direction we are faced. The facts are presented in an honest effort to look the situation squarely in the face. Too long already have "We "boasted of our blue blood and our blue grass and clung to the sweet delusion that we were real aristocrats whether our people could read and write or not. Too long already have we been deceived by the siren voices of self-satisfaction, false pride and a disregard of actual conditions. We are now learn- ing there is a vast difference between hot air and cold facts. For us the prayer of the Scotch bard has been answered, and we are begin- ning "to see oursel's as ithers see us." We should like to discuss the organization and administration of the rural school, as a vital element in the solution of the wider rural- life problem. Doubtless, we are all agreed that we need better rural schools, better roads, better farms, better homes, better churches, better society, better citizens. It is evident that a modern, well- organized, well-equipped, wel^-housed, well-taught, typical country life school is the most powerful factor in the accomplishment of these de- sired results. Now, as prerequisite to this type of school, we must have better school houses, larger grounds, better equipment, better teachers, longer terms, more regular attendance, longer tenure of office, richer and more practical courses of study, better supervision more sanitary conditions, healthier school and community spirit, higher ideals, better salaries for teachers and superintendents, less selfish attention to partisan politics and more consecration to ser- vice. The world today, just recovering from the shock of war and bap- tized in the blood of heroes, is turning its attention to the rural school as the hope of the country, the mainstay of agriculture, the conser- vator of democratic ideals, and the bulwark of liberty. This is indeed a practical age, and the world is beginning to realize that these ideal conditions, just enumerated, can not be dreamed into existence. We all agree that the finest houses and equipment, with the most elaborate course of study, will come to nought without the personality of a real teacher, specially equipped for her work, realizing the dignity of her calling, and imbued with the missionary spirit. But we would as well come to the point — teachers can't live on air! Though we must admit that thousands of them, driven by sheer necessity, have come very near to acquiring the ability to do so. My candid opinion is that future generations will regard it as the wonder of the age that in th6 enlightened period embracing the evening of the nineteenth and the 32 ' morning of the twentieth century, experienced and trained teachers were required to work for less salaries than those often received by the commonest unskilled laborers, white and colored. To talk about altruism, service and sacrifice may sound well; but the niggardly policy pursued by some of our Southern states, cele- brated in story and song for their chivalry, toward the noble women enduring the isolation, inconvenience, indignities and hardships of rural life will extinguish what little life is now left in thousands of our country schools. Bluntly, if we hope to obtain the desirable educa- tional conditions already mentioned, two things are necessary: Revised Code of School Laws, and More Money. These two requisites are more intimately related than might be suspected; for the most feasible and effective way of securing addi- tional appropriation, or more money, is by a more modern and equi- table system of raising and distributing funds. And this can be secured only by a revision of our school laws. Cubberly, in discussing the inadequacy of the rural school to perform its functions and of the average rural community to comprehend and assist it in so doing, recommends a reorganization along three lines: More Money, Better Organization and Better Supervision. More Money. As more money is the prime requisite we consider it first. In this, as well as in other matters, we may differ as to de- tail; but it is evident that we need additional funds. A study of the several state systems reveals two extremes in matters of taxation for schools. One depends almost wholly upon state tax, with little or no county or district tax; the other depends for maintenance of schools almost entirely upon county and local taxation, with little help from the State. Both these systems are wrong and both likewise usually fail to produce an adequate school system. It is a well-established principle, determined in this country after much agitation, that the State is responsible for the education of its children. It is not de- sirable, however, that the State apply all its school funds to the various counties or districts in direct proportion to its scholastic popu- lation or its wealth, or in fact by any other single standard. Exper- ience and a careful study of different State systems have convinced us of the wisdom of an especial fund being 'set apart for the purpose of stimulating county and district taxation. "To stimulate a com- munity to educational activity is much more important than merely decreasing its tax rate." Here the speaker discussed the position of Kentucky as ninth in the matter of State per capita and as thirty-ninth in the amount spent per pupil including county and local tax. He recommended an additional State appropriation to be used by the State Department of Education, the State Board of Education or some other delegated authority as the State Aid Fund to stimulate local taxation. If im- possible or impracticable to secure such appropriation from the Gen- 33 eral Assembly, lie favored amending Section 186 of our State Consti- tution which requires all State School Funds to be apportioned to the several counties in direct ratio to school population. This would set free some of the State Fund to be used as such stimulus. "Too many people look upon the per capita as a kind of pension and indeed it paralyzes local initiative, retards local taxation and disturbs local in- terest. I regard this proposed reform as fundamental: yea, as abso- lutely necessary to the life and progress of our local schools." He also favors raising the maximum county school tax from thirty cents to at least fifty cents, and contends that thirty cents shall really be the minimum rather than the maximum. "This," said he, "would greatly aid some timid superintendents who are afraid to ask for what they need to maintain their schools. With a State Aid Fund these details would be easily adjusted." Acting upon the broad democratic principle of today, we realize the responsibility of the more prosperous citizen for the education of his neighbor's children, likewise that of the rich community for the schools of the poorer coi^imunity, of the rich county for the poor county, of the city with its accumulation of wealth for the poor and sparsely settled rural district. We recognize also the fundamental American principle that the entire wealth of the State must be made available for educating the children of the State. The proper train- ing of the youth of the land, intellectually, morally, physically, indus- trially, and socially, is the most serious and important business in which we can engage; and no sane man today questions either the right or the duty of the State to exercise this function. But we are now catching a broader vision than this. Even as a child grows in his conception of his civic relationships — from the home to the community, then to the county, the State and the Na- tion, so have expanded our educational ideals as a people. Education was at first purely an individual matter, then one of town or com- munity, then a county function, then that of the State. In recent years there has been a trend toward broader responsibilities. There has been an awakening of the social and civic conscience. For a number of years, the National Government has made vast appro- priations for the promotion of agriculture in the several states. Fed- eral aid has been provided ..also in the building of roads. By the pro- visions of the Smith-Hughes law, the Federal government has fos- tered agricultural and vocational education throughout the country. In view of these facts, together with the recent introduction of the Smith-Towner bill in both houses of Congress providing for one hundred million dollars for public educational work in the United States, we now realize that four agencies are responsible for our schools, the Nation, the State, the county and the district. So we may cherish the hope that with the cooperation of all these agencies, educational funds and opportunities may soon be provided for all the children of all the people of all the States. 34 Ladies and gentlemen, there was a time when it would have seemed extremely mercenary, if not a gross violation of ethics, for a speaker to talk so plainly about teachers' salaries. Experience, even the past year, has taught us all, if we had not learned it before, that to have good schools, we must have good teachers, and that to have good teachers, we must pay them more money. Some one says, "Raise the standard, train better teachers; and the money will be forthcoming." It is impossible. No bank, or railroad or factory under the sun w^ould attempt to operate on that principle. While there are many suggestions I should like to make in regard to the improve- ment of our school system, especially with reference to the rural situa- tion, in which I am intensely interested, yet very few of these re- forms could be effected witliout more funds. At the great meeting of the N. E. A. in Chicago last w^eek, I was profoundly impressed with the unanimity of opinion^ as expressed by the various speakers upon the matter of school finance and the imperative demand of the times for more money. Many state legislatures are already heeding the cry and are providing for increases of from fifty to a hundred per cent in salaries of qualified teachers in th^ rural schools. In conclusion, we need in Kentucky today — additional funds, Fed- -eral (without Federal domination), State, county and district. Then, in answer to the question, "Wha,t to do with the rural school," we would say: First. Give it a decent place to live in. Many of our country school plants are the most unsanitary, unattractive, uninspiring, poorly heated, poorly lighted, poorly equipped, places in the entire community. (Of course, there are many notable exceptions to this statement. Indeed we have some that compare favorably with the splendid consolidated schools of Shelby County, Tennessee.) School buildings should be standardized, and no funds used for any but standard buildings. Second. Provide a live, efficient, well-trained, rural-minded teacher who is willing to live in the community where she teaches and is able to make herself a part of the community life and to in- spire higher literary, moral and social ideals. Third. Wherever practicable, that is, w^herever the roads and the topography of the country will permit, organize a typical country- life consolidated school, embracing several subdistricts. There should be a modern, well-lighted, heated, ventilated, and equipped building, with room for manual training, domestic science, etc. In agricultural communities, as most of them would be, there should be at least five or ten acres of land for athletics and agricultural demonstration. Of course, it should have a library and an assembly hall for school and community meetings, and should be the cejiter of the intellectual, social, industrial and civic life of the surrounding country. High school facilities should be provided, when the school is large enough to justify it. (We nro proud of the ones we have and are pleased to report a stronger sentiment for this type of sciiool today than ever before.) Fourth, Provide a comprehensive, liberal, vital course of study, with more or' less latitude left to the initiative of the individual teacher, who might thus articulate the work of the school with the home life of the district, with stress upon both the practical and the cultural. Fifth. Give rural teachers convenient, comfortable, home-like places to live. All larger schools should have teachers' cottages, such as are found in great numbers in many states and in several counties in Kentucky. Give them employment for at least nine months, and in many instances for twelve. Sixth. Special attention to health and sanitation. Also training for occupation and for citizenship. Enforce a stringent compulsory attendance law. Seventh. Organize every district into a community center or school improvement league. Cultivate the community idea and develop a spirit of democracy and mutual helpfulness. Our observation is that a properly organized league of this kind binds together the peo- ple of a community and lends material aid to the teacher in the exer- cise of her duties. The spirit of the community center idea is beau- tifully expressed by Edwin Markham: "He drew a circle which shut me out, Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout, But love and I had the wit to win,— We drew a circle that took him in." Finally, though perhaps it should come first in order, we would heartily recommend, as intimated before, such revision of our school laws and of the constitution as to effect a reorganization of our school system. The choosing of State and county superintendents should be removed from politics, and selections made without regard to party emblems. There should be a reorganization of State and county boards of education, who should have legislative functions with the power to select executives responsible for administration and super- vision. Standards and salaries should be raised, and every county superintendent should be provided with one or more supervisors and clerical help. I close with this quotation from a bulletin issued by the National Education Association: "In a democracy every cliil'l is ilie (omiiiunity's child, the State's child, the Nation's child . . . The !d to the medical profession of the State a statement of the then existing provisions for the mental defectives of the State as set forth in ?) ■■ yo])OTt of Dr. Thos. H. Haines. This statement read 37 before the Kentucky State Medical Association was in the nature of a revelation to most of the medical men present, few of whom had paid any attention whatever to the subject. They did not know that two per cent of the inhabitants of the State were mental defectives either feeble-minded or psychopathic or both, "which group keeps the other ninety-eight per cent busy looking after it, for its numbers make up the bulk of our dependents and delinquents. Nature's step- children and prison fodder." Furthermore, the entire history of criminality, as far back as we can go, points unmistakably to but one conclusion, and that is from time immemorial defectiveness and crime have been synonymous. There can be no doubt in the minds of those who have studied the subject that a large majority of youthful crim- inals not only in Kentucky, but in every other State, and especially in every large city, are feeble-minded, morons, by hypermorons, or the victims of dementia praecox, all with criminal inclinations. Mental defectiveness is hereditary and constitutional, and con- sequently not amenable to our preachings, asylums, reformatories, penitentiaries, etc. We must ever bear in mind that each year a new quota of defectives is born with statistical regularity. They pass through the hands of parents, then the pedagogues, the theologians, the physicians, the social workers, the employers, the courts, the prisons and back on society, each one in turn passing them on to the next and no one willing to acknowledge their impotency in the face of mental defectiveness. Dr. Haines set forth in his report that there were in Kentucky over three thousand feeble-minded persons who were costing the State a total sum of three hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars yearly; that many of these poor unfortunates were distributed in hos- pitals for the insane, where they do not belong; that many were in alms houses, where, in a majority of cases, they are not and cannot be adequately protected; that many were in institutions for children and in public schools; that a greater number than all the foregoing were at large in their communities free to propagate and perpetuate their kind. It is an established fact that feeble-mindedness is inherited, and to this fact is due at least two-thirds of our present feeble-minded population. It is a further fact that the feeble-minded mother is more prolific than the normal mother; that the feeble-minded are perennial children, lacking in judgment and resistance to evil in- fluences and are therefore unable to adjust themselves to normal life in the community. It is also a lamentable fact that the social evil is fed from the ranks of feeble-minded women. The piVolic and private organizations dealing with pauperism, inebriety, family desertion and illegitimacy find this same element of feeble-mindedness entering into and complicating their work in a larger degree perhaps than any other factor. In all our schools there are children thai, Kve call back- 38 ward or retarded, and while much of this lagging behind is undoubt- edly due to remedial causes, just as certainly a very considerable part of it is due to a mental deficit that is irremediable. We do not know how large this per cent is, but we do know that it is large enough to affect, and that it is affecting, our whole educational system. As a remedy for this I advocated the passage of a law permitting the sterilization of confirmed criminals, idiots and imbeciles, or in lieu of this colony care and segregation under State control. Sterili- zation is incomparably the better, and could such a law be enforced in the whole United States, less than four generations would eliminate nine-tenths of the crime, insanity and sickness of the present genera- tion in our land. Asylums, prisons and hospitals would decrease and the problems of the unemployed, the indigent old and the hopelessly degenerate would cease to trouble civilization. The great horde of defectives, once in the world, have the right to live and to enjoy as best they may whatever freedom compatible with the lives and free- dom of the other members of society. They have not the right to produce and reproduce their kind for a too generous and too blindly "charitable" society to contend against. The greater crime consists in allowing the hereditary criminal to be born. After all, to put the aspect of the matter upon a dollar basis, and that is apparently the only relation that, affects a good many people, why should the able and worthy and thrifty members of society be compelled to pay as they are, in Kentucky alone, over three hundred thousand dollars annually, to say nothing of the immense sums vol- untarily contributed toward "charitable" purposes for the support of the criminal and pauper defective classes who themselves contribute nothing of value and whose very existence is evidence of criminal disregard of the right of every individual to be well born, into a sane and healthy life? The only answer, if it be an answer, is, because the competent are willing to foot the bill. The provisions of the new law, if properly amended, enforced and carried out, will not only lessen the number of the mental de- fectives whom to permit to be born is a crime against society, but will also lessen the number of crimes. A high percentage of the women law-breakers of Kentucky are feeble-minded. It is within the bounds of reason to state that sixty per cent of the inmates of State reform and training schools for girls are mentally defective. Their offenses are violations of the moral code. Only uudci* the most careful and constant supervision can the feeble-minded girl be protected. Without this supervision she goes back to her original law violations. She becomes the inmate of the disoiderly resort, the street walker, the woman who comes again and again Into tih2 police and other courts. She bears feeble-minded and diset-^od chift^ren. She scatters venereal diseases through every community and if the moron girl is not recognized before puberty her fate will almost invariably be the life of the underworld; she may and usually does become criminal. In any event she almost cer- tainly becomes the mother of defectives. The moron man becomes the petty offender against social laws; he may marry, but married or not, he certainly becomes the father of other defectives. Both help to fill our police courts, jails, reformatories and prisons, costing the State a great deal of money that would be better expended in keeping them from harm on a colony farm where their employment would be of some value to themselves and others. Eighty per cent of alms house population in Kentucky are feeble- minded. The chief menace of the feeble-minded woman in the alms house is that she is the potential mother of the feeble-minded child. The child of the feeble-minded woman and the alms house man will be for its entire life a burden on public charity. There is in almost every com- munity in Kentucky a group of feeble-minded families. These families are dependent on public charity. TEey are also the law-breakers. The number of children in these families rapidly increases and the new generation is a degree lower in intelligence than the parents. These families lay upon the State one of the heaviest burdens which it has to bear. They know nothing of law, order or moral and physical decency. The children are not only feeble-minded but are often blind, crippled, deaf and diseased. Those who are sent to school are a constant source of danger to other children. In Louisville, a short time ago, one hundred and twenty-six women, who were quarantined in the jail, were examined by Captain H. B. Cummings, Camp Psychologist at Camp Taylor. The examination of these women was made at the request of Surgeon F. D. Fricks, of the United States Public Health Service. Of the 126 examined, sixty- three were feeble-minded; thirty-three high grade morons, and twenty- eight were normal. The mental ages ranged from six years and three months to fourteen years and ten months. These women were all victims of venereal disease. The point of the situation is, said Doctor Fricks, these women are mentally children. They are not capable of taking care of themselves and if they are cured of their venereal infections they are released only to become diseased again and to continue an endless chain of misery for themselves and an expense for the county and city. But they are not only an expense, they are a danger to the community as they are constantly spreading disease. What they need is a suitable place of quarantine where they can be cared for properly as feeble-minded or high grade mo- rons are cared for. Segregation and permanent control by the State on the colony farm is the solution of the question. In addition to the examination made of the women in the county jail sixty cases were examined by Henrietta V. Race, Director of the 40 Psychological Lraboratory, administration building, of Leuisville Pub- lic Schools, with the following results: Normal intelligence 8 Inferior intelligence 8 High grade morons 9 Feeble-minded 35 All of these were brought to Miss Race by the Associated Chari- ties. Proper psychological examinations would realize the same de- plorable conditions in every community in the State. Many States in which training camps were established reported increased delinquency among women and girls, invasion by hordes of questionable characters from other States and the break down of the jail system, due mainly to the inability of local authorities to deal ade- quately with the venereally diseased prisoners. Congress has en- acted and put in force Federal legislation for protection of soldiers and sailors. Municipal and State authorities have co-operated with the Federal Government in meeting this situation. South Carolina and Michigan have followed Massachusetts in requiring that certain vene- really diseased persons shall be quarantined until cured. Minnesota, Masachusetts and California have been especially active in measures to control venereal disease, a movement that has taken on new life now that the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, and the Army and Navy Departments have de- clared that a life of continence is compatible with health. Kentucky is co-operating with the Federal Government. South Carolina's legis- lature of 1918 established an industrial school for girls and an lnsti« tution for the feeble-minded with appropriations of $40,000 and $60,000 respectively. The committee on protective work for girls secured $250,000 of Federal funds to be used in providing institutional facili- ties for dealing with prostitutes. Minnesota has enacted a law pro- viding for the commitment of the feeble-minded to State control, whether the alleged feeble-minded person or his relatives desire it or not. The measure is designed to protect the community and to provide wise and humane care for the mental defectives. The United States Public Health Service, in a pamphlet (War on Venereal Diseases) says: "Before the war most physicians and pub- lic health officers knew that gonorrhea was every year causing blind- ness among infants — Miss Linda Neville can tell you about the Ken- tucky cases — countless surgical operations on women, and sterility in men and women: that syphilis was being transmitted to offspring causing physical and mental defectives, that it is a prolific cause of locomotor ataxia, paralysis, paresis or softening of the brain, insanity, miscarriages, diseases of the heart, blood-vessels and vital organs. But generally people did not know these things and few remedial meas- ures were taken. The war opened our eyes. The reports of draft boards and camp surgeons revealed for the first time clearly the men 41 acing seriousness of the venereal problem and the failure of our pre- war attitude towards the whole question. Diseased prostitutes are the most dangerous carriers; they must be quarantined and the community safeguarded against their return as prostitutes, First, by means of permanent segregation of the fee- ble-minded, and second, by medical treatment and industrial educa- tion for the others. This is not a job for sentimentalists or fly-by-night enthusiasts. It is a task for hard-headed business and professional men and capa- ble women. It is a job for citizens who feel responsible for their community and their nation In times of peace as well as war. Present research has shown that feeble-mindedness Is so closely linked with the increasingly serious problems of vice, vagabondage, pauperism and crime, that some authorities are insisting that as high as fifty per cent of all criminals are feeble-minded. In Massachusetts Dr. A. Warren Stearns and other psycho-pathologists found evidence of feeble-mindedness in fifteen per cent of the inmates of the reform- atories for men, twenty-four pr cent of the unfortunates confined in the reformatory for women, twenty-three per cent of the criminals in the Charleston State prison and over fifty per cent of a large group of immoral women. About twenty-five per cent of a thousand delin- quent boys and girls in Ohio were found by Dr. Thomas H. Haines to be feeble-minded. Dr. Bernard Glueck, director of the psychiatric clinic at Sing Sing prison, in a mental survey of six hundred consecutive admissions to the prison discovered that no less than twenty-eight per cent, of the convicts examined had a mentality inferior to that of a twelve year old child. Dr. Henry H. Goddard, testing the mentality of one hundred children brought on various charges before the juvenile court of Newark, New Jersey, found sixty-six per cent, distinctly feeble-minded. The same investigator, studying the relationship between alcoholism and feeble-mindedness was led to the conclusion that at least twenty- five per cent, of drunkards are drunkards because they are feeble- minded and unable to control their appetites. Applying the standard mental tests to large groups of school children, in many states, mental deficiency was found so prevalent that the investigating scientists deemed it conservative to affirm that at least two per cent, of school children, or one in two hundred of the population are feeble-minded. This would give the United States a feeble-minded population of more than five hundred thousand. Since feeble-mindedness is inheritable, so that a feeble-minded person is likely to have a feeble-minded child, even when mated to a person of normal mentality— the gravity of the menace thus constituted to the future of the United States is obvious. Kentucky should follow the lead of Minnesota and enact a law providing for the commitment of all her feeble-minded to State con- trol "whether the alleged feeble-minded person or relatives desire it or 42 not." Only in this way can she prevent the increase, and lessen the number of her feeble-minded population. The United States Public Health Service is becoming thoroughly aroused in regard to the menace to the country, threatened by the na- tion wide spread of mental defectiveness. In the last Public Health Report, February 14th, Surgeon General Rupert Blue says: "With the increasing recognition by health authori- ties of the significance of mental diseases as a health problem, there is a growing demand for assistance in the formulation of a program of practicable control and preventive measures which can be inaugurated by health administrators. The United States Public Health Service plans to carry on as rapidly as funds become available for such purpose the following program of activities. Such a program should take into consideration: A. The most effective means by which the several Government agencies can cooperate in studies and investigations of mental hygiene B. The problems of better care and treatment of the insane, mental defective, and epileptic. C. Measures for the prevention of mental disorders. So far as these considerations are concerned the studies and in- vestigations already made by the Public Health Service indicate the following activities as desirable and practicable. A.— COOPERATION WITH OTHER GOVERNMENT AGENCIES 1. In a'^dition to the duties prescribed by law as related to the mental examination of arriving aliens, cooperation with the Depart- ment of Labor (a) to establish a school for the training of medical officers as mental hygienists, (b) to provide facilities for training nurses and assistants for duties in mental hygiene work and (c) to investigate the care and treatment of insane aliens confined under immigration laws in public and private institutions at Government expense. 2 Cooperation with other bureaus of the Treasury Department in the mental examination of coastwise pilots, locomotive engineers, and train dispatchers as a safeguard to the traveling public. 3. Cooperation with other departments or bureaus of the Gov- ernment to advise practical methods for the mental examination of civil employees of the Government with a view to determine their fitness for different occupations, 4. Cooperation with the Department of the Interior in the study and prevention of insanity and mental deficiency among the wards of the Government, such as Indians, Esquimaux, and other primitive races for which the Government is responsible. 5. Cooperation with the Bureau of Education in division of edu- cational methods from the standpoint of mental hygiene. 43 ' 6. Cooperation with the Bureau of Education in devising practi- cal plans for the establishment of special classes for the training oil feeble-minded and delinquent children. 7. Cooperation with the State department of justice and other agencies to secure (a) the adoption of a model law providing for the early treatment of mental disorders, (b) the enactment of a model commitment law, and (c) the establishment of psychiatric pavilions in general hospitals. 8. Cooperation with Federal and State departments of justice to secure. the establishment of psychiatric clinics in connection with the courts to determine the mental status of criminals, dependents, and delinquents appear'ng before the courts. B.— PREVENTION. 1. Cooperation with State and local agencies to secure the adop- tion of a law making certain types of mental disorders reportable to the health authorities. 2. Reviewing and publishing State laws of commitment of the in- sane and feeble-minded. 3. Cooperation with the State and other agencies to determine the prevalence of the insane, feeble-minded, alcoholics and epilep- tics. 4. Investigating the prevalence and the care and the treatment of the insane, epileptics, feeble-minded, criminal and dependent classes. 5. Compiling a national reference index of the literature on men- tal hygiene. 6. Investigating mental status in relation to certain constitution- al diseases and drug addiction. 7. Cooperation with the industrial hygiene unit of the United States Public Health Service in the studies and investigations of the mental status of workmen as related to output, f.tness for the job, protection from health and injury hazards, and permanence of em- i^loyment. 8. Cooperation with the child hygiene unit of the service in the study and investigation of insanity in children and of the personality of the potentially insane. 9. Cooperation with the Division of Venereal Diseases in studies and investigations of the mental status of prostitutes and of the relation of venereal diseases to mental disorder. LEGISLATION. If the Kentucky Division of the National Council of Defense and the Federated Clubs of the State will lend their aid and influence, I believe that the next General Assembly can be induced to amend 44 the New Feeble-minded Law so as to correct some errors of vital im- portance which will make it almost ideal. First of all and most important of all, the Legislature should be asked to take such action as will divorce our Charitable Institutions entirely and forever from political control. Unless this is done very- little, if any, progress can be made toward lessening the number or improving the condition of our mentally defective population. Every state eleemosynary institution in Kentucky is handicapped by the blight of political control. The Board of Control, which under the law is supposed to have the entire and supreme management of all these institutions, is itself hampered by the same political frost. Ostensi- bly it has supreme control of the affairs of the State Hospitals for the insane; of the Feeble-Minded Institute and institution; of the schools of reform, for the blind, for the deaf and of the penal insti- tutions of the State. It is supposed to select and appoint superintendents and assist- ant physicians; the steward, the receiver for all institutions for mental defectives, insane or feeble-minded. It is supposed to select the warden and the guards of the penitentiary at Eddyville and of the Reformatory at Frankfort. Hypothetically this is true but as a matter of fact the Board of Control has no such power or privilege. The Ad- ministration alone has the power to make these appointments and does make them; it also appoints the members of the Board of Con- trol. It is encouraging to know that two candidates for Governor and one for Lieutenant Governor, have announced in their platform, to use, if elected, their influence to have this wrong corrected. Mr. Edward W. Hines, Chairman of the Kentucky Council of De- fense, in a letter to me says, "I am ready to aid you in any way within my power in having our charitable institutions entirely and forever divorced from political control." I think the Federated Clubs will also aid. Civil service reform— if applied in the selection of the Medical Staff of these institutions — would perhaps go far toward accomplish- ing this divorce. COMMITMENTS. Proper examinations by competent psychologists and psychopa- thists for diagnosis and to determine consignment to proper institu- tions of all mental defectives coming before courts — also for criminal delinquents — should be imperative. The early recognition of mental disorders cannot be generally expected until medical schools give more attention to them. It is a generally accepted fact that the ma- jority of graduates from medical schools have very little, if any, knowledge of the nature of mental diseases, because they have had little or no opportunity to study this branch of medical science. 49 (Suggestion that psychology and psychopathy should be taught in the medical department of the University of Louisville should be made.) PROVISION FOR NEGRO FEEBLE-MINDED. J. L. Kesler, Dean, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, in speaking of "The Negro in Relation to our Public Agencies and Institutions," says: "The negro problem, public or private, industrial or institu- tional, is a human problem. Every injustice to the negro from public agency or private is an injury to the white man and imperils the best interests of the national life. If the Negro is to be a citizen, if he is to live among us, (and we of the South like him, would not be without him, and count ourselves his best friends), then we must give him a chance, and an equal chance with all others. There are men and women who have social sympathies and social interests and who take part in and support all agencies and institutions working for the welfare of the community life. It is true that we have not yet gone far in cooperative social work. The juvenile Negro criminal and delinquent girl (the majority of whom are feeble-minded), are not sufficiently provided for by either private or public institutions; nor is there sufficient provision for the juvenile offender of the white race. But the old way of making confirmed criminals out of this raw material is to yield to educational and preventive measures. It is true also that sanitary prison reforms, settlement work, and public welfare enterprises generally have too largely left the Negro out of count. Cooperative welfare agencies have made hopeful beginnings, however, in Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, Richmond, Virginia, and a few other places. We are beginning to wake up. We are moving toward a better day. We are beginning to see that the negro is an asset or peril as we help him to rise or let him alone." The Negro is well cared for in all our State Hospitals for the In- sane, but no provision is made for him in our Feeble-Minded Institu- tion. Is that fair? Is it right? OTHER AMENDMENTS THAT SHOULD BE MADE. Abolishment of committees and guardians and parole for the feeble-minded. To make it the duty of all health officers, district and county nurses to report all feeble-minded persons whom they dis- cover, to the proper county officials. Registration. Make a census as complete as possible, of feeble- minded in the State, obtaining all possible light on their family his- tories and surroundings. (This should be done by Fiscal Court). Registration and examination of all prostitutes — physical and mental. Dr. Paul E. Powers, who has been doing psychological and psy- chopathic work for the Federal Government in the army mobilizing 46 and training- camps, in his book the "Panvvns of Fate," says; "Chief Justice Kennington was the father ^of the idea that every court in the land should have attached to it a psychopathic labora- tory where the mentality of criminals is investigated, where, in truth, all the factors that plot against man for his downfall, are carefully studied. In the court over which he presided the facts of the viola- tion of the law were first carefully determined; then the report of the medical investigation was submitted to the judge after conviction and before sentence was pronounced. This information furnished the judge with the knowledge that would enable him to decide whetheT the individual should have a suspended sentence, be sent to prison, to a hospital for the insane or ip an institution for the feeble-minded. The courts of the big cities recognized the value and justice of this judicial reform and estal)lished such laboratories. The prisons heard the call. Great changes are being worked out in their administration. The political grafters, who had so long held sway, are being sent about their business and scientific men put in their places. The prisons became schools for the training of the hand, head and heart, they became hospitals also, where all remedial medical and surgical de- fects were taken care of; where prisoners were freed, if possible, of their mental and physical burdens; while those who were found to be incurably defective, no matter what their crimes might be, great or small, were kept in permanent custodial care for their own benefit, and the welfare of society." The fact that investigation, made by the Division of Psychology of the United States Army, directed by Major Robert M. Yerkes, has shown that approximately twenty per cent of the drafted and en- listed men that have been mobilized were so inferior mentally and physically as to be unfit for regular military service, together with the recognition of the wide prevalence of mental defect among con- firmed prostitutes — those, therefore most likely to be venerally dis- eased — is stimulating the Nation in the movement for provision for the feeble-minded. All prostitutes should be transferred to the colony farm for health and treatment as well as to prevent their spreading venereal diseases. Address by Professor George Baker, University of Ken- tucky. Subject: ''Educational Bills in Congress." One outstanding result o'l the war is an increased emphasis and activity on education both in this country and abroad. The new Eng- lish education law providing for compulsory attendance from five to fourteen years of age in the public elementary schools is an example of a national reawakening to the significancp of improved elementary 4T educational opportunities. Our 65th Congress lias displayed commend- able activity and a commendably broad viewpoint in the matter of remedial educational legislation. Many of the present educational emphases are obviously a direct outgrowth of the war. The outstanding emphases appear to be in the following directions : 1. Americanization. 2. Illiteracy. 3. Vocational rehabilitation of soldiers, sailors and industrial workers. 4. Provision for industrial education especially along the line of engineering. 5. Military training in schools and colleges. 6. Provisions for an American academy of government and diplomacy. 7. Provisions relative to improvement of public health. 8. The creation of National Department of Education. ' 9. Provisions for state wide investigation of educational con- ditions, looking especially to improvement, of rural education. 10. Provisions for educational extension. It is apparent that at least eight or possibly nine of these ten emphases are directly the result of the war. The most important educational bills now pending in Congress are probably the following: The Towner Bill (H. R. 15400) to create a National Department of Education with an annual appropriation of $100,000,000 to be spent as follows: $ 7,500,000 for elimination of illiteracy. 7,500,000 for Americanization. 50,000,000 for public schools. 20,000,000 for physical and health education. 15,000,000 for preparation of teachers. The Smith Bill (S. 5464) and the Bankhead Bill (H. R. 154£)2) to remove illiteracy and promote Americanization. The Lever Bill (H. R. 14185) to promote the health of rural popu- lation of the United States. The Sears Bill (H. R. 6387) to promote the improvement of rural education. The Henderson Bill (S. 5416) to establish engineering experiment stations in the States and territories receiving benefits of the Act of 1862. The Swift Bill (H. R. 14292) to establish an American Academy of Government and Diplomacy. The Fess Bill (H. R. 7330) to create a National University at Washington, D. C. All of the above bills, with the possible exception of two, were introduced during January, 1919. 48 AMERICANIZATION The Americanization of our immigrant population has during the life of the 65th Congress received repeated attention. Developments incident to the war have opened our eyes to the uncomfortable fact that, contrary to Israel Zangwill, America has somehow failed to func- tion as an efficient "melting pot". As someone has said, our melting pot needs skimming. Our sympathies have run away with our common sense. We undoubtedly have in the United States among our 13,000,- 000 foreign born, some millions of people whose viewpoint is decidedly un-American, and who have relatively little appreciation of or sympathy for American problems. ^In the words of the King Bill of July, 1918, (S. 4792) such bills aim at arousing a higher regard for the privileges of American citizenship in the minds of all permanent residents of the United States. The two latest bills introduced, January, 1919, on the subject of Americanization are the Hoke Smith Bill in the Senate (S. 5464) and the Bankhead Bill in the House (H. R. 15402). The pre- amble of these bills is identical and in the following words: "To pro- mote the education of native illiterates, of persons unable to under- stand and use the English language, and of other resident persons of foreign birth; to provide for co-operation with the States in the educa- tion of such persons in the English language, the fundamental prin- ciples of government and citizenship, the elements of knowledge per- taining to self-support and home making, and in such other work as will assist in preparing such illiterates and foreign-born persons for successful living and intelligent American citizenship". These bills provide for an appropriation of $5,000,000 for 1919, and $12,500,000 until 1921. The Towner Bill introduced January 30, 1919 (H. R. 15400) carries an annual appropriation of $7,500,000 for Americanization. ILLITERACY The organization of the American army thru the first selective draft revealed the fact that an astonishing number of the men were Illiterate, namely 700,000 between the ages of twenty-one and thirty- one. The percentage of illiteracy in the first draft ran from fourteen per cent, in South Dakota to forty-six per cent, in Pennsylvania. The Kentucky percentage ran from thirty to thirty-five. The second draft would no doubt have revealed far greater numbers of illiterates. The Smith Bill of March, 1918 (S. 4185) aims at requiring the National Commissioner of Education to devise methods and promote plans for the elimination of adult illiteracy in the United States, providing an appropriation for the same. This bill is still pending. The Smith- Bankhead Bill previously outlined, aims at promoting the education of native illiterates as well as of foreign immigrants. The Towner Bill carries an annual appropriation of $7,500,000 for the elimination of illiteracy. The James Bill (S. 3704) aims to create a commission on illiteracy to be known as the American Illiteracy Commission. 49 VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION The most important bill relating to vocational rehabilitation was the Smith-Sears Act introduced in April, 1918, by Senator Hoke Smith. This bill passed the Senate on May 25th and the House on June 10th unanimously. The act delegates to the Federal Board for Vocational Education the duty of re-educating the disabled men in some useful employment of which they shall be deemed capable of following with profit. While the men are taking the special courses compensation will be allowed them and family allowances will be paid their families precisely as if the men were still in active service. At the conclusion of the course agencies will be ready for assistance in the placement of the re-educated men in civil life. In September, 1918, Mr. Bankhead introduced a bill (H. R. 12880) to provide for the promotion of voca- tional rehabilitation. This bill provided an appropriation of $500,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919; $750,000 for the year 1920 and annually thereafter the sum of $1,000,000; said sum shall be allotted to the States in the proportion which their population bears to the total population of the United States; the allotment funds to any state shall not be less than $5,000 for any fiscal year; the state shall raise an amount equal to the Federal appropriation. INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION Engineering appears to be receiving greater emphasis in the 65th Congress than any other line of industrial education. The Henderson Bill of January, 1919, (S. 5416) aims to establish engineering experi- ment stations for the purpose of further developing the college in each state and territories now receiving benefits of the Act of 1862, and for the purpose of developing the natural resources of the United States as a measure of industrial, military and naval preparedness. Outside of bills related to specific states, there seems to be no bill dealing with agricultural training. MILITARY TRAINING The Sears Bill of April, 1918 (H. R. 11189), aims to promote mili- tary training by providing scholarships for students enrolled in in- stitutions of higher learning. This bill was still pending last January. ACADEMY OF GOVERNMENT AND DIPLOMACY The Swift Bill of January, 1919, (H. R. 14292) seeks to establish the American Academy of Government and Diplomacy, to be located in the District of Columbia. The objects of this academy are to pro- mote the science of government and the knowledge of international law and diplomacy. The academy shall be under the immediate juris- diction of a Board of Governors composed of fifteen members, includ- ing the President and Vice President of the United States and the Sec- retary of State. PUBLIC HEALTH In January, 1919, the Lever Bill (H. R. 14185) was introduced to provide that the United States shall co-operate with the States in promoting the health of the rural population of the United States. For the purpose of this^act the term rural health work shall he con- strued -to include such methods and means as may he appropriate for the prevention, control, and mitigation of diseases. Liberal appro- priations are provided. The Towner Bill introduced January 30, 1919, (H. R. 15400.) carries an annual appropriation of $20,000,000 for physi- cal and health education. The need for public health work was brought home to the country at large by the fact that an alarming per cent, of the men examined in the draft were found to be physically unfit for service. NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION On January 30, 1919, Mr. Towner, of Iowa, introduced a bill (H. R. 15400) to create a National Department of Education, and to authorize appropriations for the conduct of said department. This bill is sub- stantially the same as that previously introduced by Senator Hoke Smith, of Georgia, and known as the Smith Bill or the N. E. A. Bill. This bill was introduced at the request of the American Federation of Labor, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. It appropriates $100,000,000 annually to be divided as follows: $ 7,500,000 for elimination of illiteracy. 7,500,000 for Americanization. 50,000,000 for public schools. 20,000,000 for physical and health education. 15,000,000 for preparation of teachers. The appropriation of $50,000,000 for public schools is to be used' for 'the.. partial payment of teachers' salaries, providing better instruc- tion, extending school terms and tor improving rural schools. The Secretary of Education, who is to be the Head of the Depart- ment; is to be appointed by the President with the advice of the Senate, and shall receive $12,000 per annum, and whose tenure of office shall be like that of the heads of other executive departments. This bill transfers the Bureau of Education to the Department of Education, thus giving education recognition in the President's cabinet on a par with-' the other executive departments. EDUCATIONAL INVESTIGATION In June, 1918, Mr. Husted introduced a joint resolution in the House, which is still pending, to provide for a commission to inquire into the condition of public education in the several States and to recommend such measures as it may deem advisable for the improve- ment of same. RURAL EDUCATION The Towner Bill (H. R. 15400) appropriates $50,000,000 to encour- age the States in the equalization of educational opportunities, espec- ially in the sparsely settled localities. The Sears Bill (H. R. 63S7) aims to promote the improvement of rural education. This bill appro- priates $275,000 annually to he used by the Bureau of Education for the study and improvement of rural education. TTTESDAY EVENING SESSION. Hon. J.\^rr:s; D. Rt.ack, Lieviteiiant Governor of Kcntiacky., Presiding. Address by James E. Rogers, Field Secretary of War Camp Community Service, New York City. Subject: '^Community Organization." The call for community organization and for community service has been answered throughout this country. To win the War, com- munities v/ere organized into community groups for community ser- vice; food, fuel and child conservation; Red Cross and United War Work campaigns; Liberty Loan and War Saving Stamps drives; War Camp Community Service; and the like. Perhaps the finest benefit that has come from the War has been the development of this national volunteer service -by the whole people of the communities. This war was in good part won not by armies but by nations; not by soldiers but by civilians. The huge* organized army of civilian volunteers that got back of the government mandates made the early winning of this war possible. If this war is to be worth while, we must conserve and continue this splendid development in our national and communal life — com- munity organization and community service. We must preserve this wonderful spirit of co-operation, sacrifice and patriotism. We must not lose this potential force for great good to meet the perplexing problems of the future. The need for patriotism in peace is greater than the need for patriotism in war. * There is a universal demand for community organization. Uni- versities and colleges are creating departments of community organi- zation; national, state and local governments are propaganding fojj its continuation; councils of defence and other agencies are asking for the creation of community councils; churches and other societies are talking in terms of community service; schools and social agencies are advocating the wider use of public facilities. Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade, Rotary Clubs, Women's Clubs, Labor Unions, Frater- nal Organizations, etc., are thinking in terms of community service. 52 Besides being organized for a specific purpose, all of these organiza- tions can be utilized for civic welfare and together they can do much in community organization to make our towns and cities decent places to live in as well as to work in. All of these organizations have a civic value that can be utilized in the common interest of the whole community. One of the finest "Win the War" agencies created by the Govern- ment is the War Camp Community Service — an agency, not an organ- ization, established by the War and Navy Departments to co-ordinate, mobilize and stimulate local communities — the people and organiza- tions — to surround the camps with hospitality and to create commun- ity team work so as to best serve the soldiers. This agency was to be the community itself, forming a clearing house whereby the in- dividuals and organizations would work together in an efficient, smooth and unified manner for the welfare of the camp and the com- munity. It was not a parallel war organization in the community but rather the coming together of the war work service into a common program to minister the total community goodwill to the camp and to the soldier. The achievements of this "war agency" is one of the illuminating pages in the war record of this country. The list of four hundred dif- ferent activities is a revelation in concrete achievement as to what communities have done and can do with a unified program and com- mon effort. Through community executive boards and central coun- cils, composed of leading key men and women, and operating through existing organizations, a well rounded program of community hos- pitality, education, information, recreation, and service was readily accomplished. Some of the impressions and experiences of this agency, operat- ing in about five hundred American communities, large and small, with a large staff of trained men and women skilled in community or- ganization service, might prove of value. In the first place, it was recognized that community organization must be democratic; that is, it must be "of, by and for the people." Secondly, it was realized that the community from one point of view was divided into three parts: — (1) the community organization as seen in the city government in the city hall; city government afj;er all is an example of community co- operation. (2) The organized civic groups doing community ser- vice for a specific purpose, such as. Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, Women's Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Civic Leagues, etc (3) The people themselves — the unorganized individuals to be gathered into volunteer groups at the school or the block party, etc. In community organization, the active participation of the de- partments of city government, such as School, Health, Recreation, etc., are essential to the successful completion of any community pro- gram. In fact, the Schools and Playgrounds, as neighborhood centers, offer one of the finest mediums to organize the great mass of unat- 53 tached volunteers. Any complete community program, therefore, will include an intensive development of the schoolhouse and the play- grounds as a community neighborhood center where the people may meet, organize, discuss and do community service. One is familiar v/ith the splendid work accomplished at Gary, Indiana; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and by the South Park Playground System, of Chicago, Illinois, The utilization of the school building for community organi- zation and community service is not a new thought. For the past decade we have some remarkable demonstrations along this line throughout the country. However, the development of the school house as a social center is an integral part of the complete com- munity program; it is a means to an end. It is a big part in a bigger program. Another community manifestation along efforts to de- velop the communal life among the people as a whole, is the inter- esting social unit system as established in thirty-one blocks in Cin- cinnati, Ohio. The block parties in Jersey and New York and the block neighborhood councils as established by W. C. C. S. in New York City are also efforts in this direction as are the community coun- cils now being established in a few citie's. These later efforts, how- ever, are all experimental and the final verdict is yet to be rendered. All these efforts are in recognition of the fact that any complete scheme of community organization must include the mass of the people and get down into the homes and the neighborhoods. However, it is easy to recognize that no community organization or service could be successful without including a recognition of the necessity of providing a clearing house whereby the organized civic organizations would get together on a common plan. In fact, the mass of the people are members of some one or more of these community civic groups, so by getting together they represent most of the peo- ple in the community. In a way a community has longitudinal and latitudinal lines. Longitudinal lines represent the organized community work being Gone by the different organizations. The latitudinal lines are the civic interests or subjects that these different organizations cover, such as commercial, religious, fraternal, athletic, women, etc. That is. the Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade is a community organization with a community purpose organized for a specific civic interest — commercial and business. This is its primary interest, but it touches the other community organizations, for it is interested m good schools, playgrounds, health, and morals. A Chamber of Commerce, however, is only one of the longitudinal lines in a com- munity. It does not represent the whole community in all its interests. The Federation of Churches is another civic organization with a com- munity program to unite the religious interests of the whole com- munity. However, it only represents the united religious community effort — it does not represent the commercial or business interests for the Chamber of Commerce takes care of this. Nor does the Chamber of Commerce represent the united community effort along religious lines. Women's Clubs represent a strong civic force. They do not represent the whole community, but they do represent the organized women power in that community for civic effort. Th'e fraternal orders represent the organized social life and fraternal life of a community, but this does rot represent the organized ..comm-unity life in those community efforts fostered by the Chamber, of Commerce, Women's Clubs. Athletic Associations. Y. M. and Y. W. C. A.'s, Civic Leagues, etc. Real community organization would ;be th'e pooling of these or- ganizations — general civic interests of these, organizations — into a com- iion community interest united in action and program. All these or- ganizations touch many common mutual interests, such as community singing, community hospitality, community pageants, community in- formation, community athletics, community goo4 will. They need a clearing house by which they can express a common esprit du corps in- the interest of these mutual problems. ' ' A community like an individual represents many motives;^ for instance, the city government does not represent' all, but it does the organized governmental civic effort. In this it follows the motive of self-preservation. We have a police force, fire, health, education and other governmental departments as a mutual protective society. However, all of us are more than merely taxpayers and, fortunately Dr unfortunately, little part of our daily lives is given to our 'city government. In fact, most of the time of most of the people is found in another, second great motive that actuates the individual as well as the community. The interests of an individual are cen- tered in hi^ job, his business, his home, his school, his fraternal order, his church, his board of trade, his labor councils. Here we find most of the time of most of the people. ^ This is the production or oc- cupational motive. It is a large one in the life of an individual and a community and any true cooperative community movement must rec- ognize the necessity of bringing into conlnion play this occupational motive and merge it into the interest of the Commonwealth. Then there is the other large motive that dominates the interest 1 1 individuals and communities — the motive f^r culture, self-improve- ment, public welfare. So we have civic organizations, as tor in- stance. Women's Clubs, Rotary Clubs, Fraternal Ordpr«, Philanthropic Societies that look after the community development of this third motive. As the city government takes care of the first motive of self-preservation and represents the clearing house in this, and as the Chamber of Commerce and I^abor Coimcin'take care of the second motive of production, so there is a need of a clearing house to co- ordinate and mobilize aU efforts of individuals and organizations that pertain to the third motive of community 'wrelfare. Such a clear- ing house should not be a parallel to existing civic organization but an agency composed of the whole community. It is not a superposed organization but a clearing house for all — not asking service but giving service. This point is important. It is not a round table organization to get together and centralize service, but to decen- tralize service. Service is the keynote and touchstone. Therefore, a community organization must include (1) the or- ganized city government efforts that touch the public welfare along lines of the third motive; (2) the organized community civic groups; (3) the mass of the people through the school, playground, neighbor- hood, etc., social unit groups, etc. This total effort is the community itself. It is of, for and by the community. Democracy, however; connotes leadership. Our whole government illustrates this. Demo, is this condition, this lack of public-mindedness, this lack of social sympathy and mutual understanding, which we have come to regard as a serious menace to our experiment in democracy and which will guarantee its failure if unchecked. Our present urgent task is to dis- cover some means of welding America into a community. For, as Prof. Giddings says, "The primary purpose of the state is to perfect social integration." Social integration can be achieved not by phys- ical but by spiritual means, for a nation is the will to be one people. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." So in the American Re- public. A nation is a state of mind. How shall this welding process be effected? That man has gone far towards finding a good answer to this ques- tion who discovers the true 'function which the public school is de- signed and equipped to perform in the unification and development of community life; when he discovers that it is the appropriate place for the untrammelled exercise of the sacred right of manhood suf- frage in a republic; that it furnishes th9 ideal platform for a com- munity forum, where citizens may go to school to one another and freely discuss all social and economic questions in order to fit them- selves for the practice of citizenship; that it is the logical center, and clearing house for all enterprises, which concern the common v/elfare, promoting organized cooperation and preventing needless waste of time and money thru burdensome overhead charges and dup- lication of social activities; when one discovers these community uses of the school house, he has made a discovery of incalculable value to the progress of American ideals. Address by Professor R. V. Grdeu, Western Normal School, Bowling Green, Ky. Subject: ''Elimination of Illiteracy by Community Effort." The war for freedom and democracy has been won. Liberty and humanity have been saved from tyranny and brutality. The valor of American manhood bled and died at Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel and Argonne for the preservation of the principle of self-government and for the ideals of America. The crusaders for liberty have set in 66 motion waves of influence which will be felt on the shores of eter- nity. This great achievement has been wroiight with undimmed glory for American arms and for the perpetuity of American institutions. Another task of vital importance to ourselves and our posterity is to safeguard and vouchsafe these treasures of representative gov- ernment to the new world of peace. All the issues of the future depend upon the accomplishment of this paramount task. All of our energies, all our prayers, all our lives must be sacrificed upon the altar of education. Without permanent loss or injury, we can practice economy in food, clothing and fuel; we may deprive ourselves of many luxuries; v/e may refrain from unnecessary travel; we may postpone business enterprises; we may suspend many activities not essential to health and happiness of the nation, but the support of our schools and other agencies of education cannot be withheld without the peril of permanent loss and irreparable injury. The importance of maintaining our schools at their highest pos- sible efficiency and giving every one the best possible opportunity for educational development has been made apparent to all who ob- serve and think. The welfare of our country and individual pros- perity depend upon high standards of work and the greatest possible attendance. The level of intelligence, skill and wisdom for the work of life and for the duties and responsibilities of citizenship rises for each age of increased achievement. The period of reconstruction after the world war will demand more and better trained men of scientific knowledge, technical skill and general culture. The world must be re- built and the trained people of the United States will play an im- portant role in the agricultural, manufacturing, commercial and cul- tural activities, for the trained men of Europe have paid the last full measure of devotion, so tlie schools of America will have to furnish the talent for industrial, educational and commercial rehabilitation of the old world. Americanization is of vital importance at the present time. Men and women who seek our shores for opportunity, liberty, must be given an opportunity to learn the English language. The last census showed more than thirteen million foreign-born people and more than t!iirty-two million of foreign birth or parentage, and it is estimated that fully 5,000,000 of these use a language other than English. We drafted into our army tens of thousands of men who could not under- stand a word of command, order, or make a memorandum. The first draft brought into the cantonments 40,000 whose confused tongues were learning to speak the language of the land they were summoned to defend. During those trying days when food was the crying need of the hour, the Secretary of Agriculture sent out many bulletins uring farmers to produce more wheat, more food, and told them how to do so; there were two and a half million of American farmers who 67 could not read a word and nearly twice as many read with such dif- ficulty as the bulletins were of little or no value. Hundreds of thousands of these emigrants know nothing of our country beyond the Palisades of the Hudson. Many of them know- nothing of the wheat and corn fields of the west or the cotton fields of the south. They know nothing of our mountains and valleys, hills and plains, fields and forests, rivers and waterfalls. They know little of our history, its growth, development or principles of government, or of the ideals of our national life. They must learn to know its spirit. "There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room but for one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here and that the English language, and we have room for but one soul loyalty and that loyalty to the American people." The fact is appalling, not necessarily disgraceful, but at least dis- creditable and uncomfortable to a great, free, liberty-loving civilized nation, that 5,516,162 persons above ten years of age in the United States are illiterate. This constitutes 7.7 per cent of all that part of our population. One-fourth of this number is native white or 1,534,272. 58 per cent of all are white. Worse still is the fact that 2,273,604 of these are adult males of voting age; enough to turn the scale of any national election ever held. It does seem startling that the balance of power is in the hands of the ignoi^nt voter, as the above figures Indicate. If these 5,516,163 were arranged im a double line three feet apart and marched at the rate of twenty-five miles per day, it would take two months for them to pass any given point. Their economic loss to the country at fifty cents loss per day per person amounts to $825,000,000.00 annually. The teacher can do and has done much to remove this stigma from our state's fiag, but the school cannot reach very readily a large num- ber of illiterates without the intelligent cooperation of the general public. The work of that energetic, patriotic, capable superintendent of Rowan county, now head of our Illiteracy Commission, who has a vision of the future state, who has sympathy for benighted human- ity and who loves her native heath, will bring joy and happiness to many a timid heart of our people. The curtain of darkness hangs over many of them like a pall. The eyes of these unlettered poor cannot penetrate the mysteries of life and pardon as revealed in the gospels unless some ministering angel in the form of a public-spirited teacher teach them. The crusade against ignorance in any form is truly righteous and holy. It means moral, material and intel- lectual improvement to the communities wherever the crusaders with their torches of intelligence enter. To shed light into dark corners and obscure places and to bring hope to the hearts and lives of humble homes to wliose inmates the door of opportunity has been closed 68 by their own negligence or society indifference or by a public opin- ion in state of lethargy, is the patriotic duty of every good citizen who is willing to emancipate them from the thraldom of illiteracy. It has been the tradition of our people that the schools of the country are the training stations of our standing army of peace; that the school houses are the fortifications that hold back the in- vasion of the hosts of ignorance, vice, anarchy and economic ineffi- ciency. In an organized social democracy, education is as important to the perpetuity of the republic as food, clothing and shelter and should claim the services of the intelligent public. If then a state fails in securing right training for its citizens by its regular organized institutions, other methods must be resorted to, or popular gov- ernment must give way to some form of society, and economic organ- ization less dependent upon intelligence, skill, virtue and good wiU 01 its citizens. It is bad to have illiterates in> a country, but very encouraging to know that processes and forces are at work that are conspicuously ai)d diligently efficient in diminishing those positively and relatively at an accelerated rate. Our record for reduction is probably un- equalled in the world. The processes and forces now in triumphant operation will soon bring a glorious consummation to pass, for this decline is co-extensive with the improvement and multiplication of edu- cational opportunities, such as moonlight schools, college and univer- sity extension work, trained teachers, high schools, consolidated schools for rural communities and improvement of the course of study and compulsory attendance laws. The effect of illiteracy on the productive industry is to dwarf the creative capacity and blight development of industry requiring skill and intelligence. The creative and productive power of a people is a fundamental educational problem. The creation of values, the pro- duction of wealth, the multiplication of human wants and development of the means to satisfy the wants are questions for all time. The more and better the commodities the wealthier the people or nation. To multiply wealth and prepare man to use it properly for himself and his fellows are essential to true progress. To make wealth abundant and to make it minister to the world's needs, means that we make wealth cheap and man dear. This recognizes man with intellect, skill and morality as the chief factor in the creation of wealth. The progress of civilization is measured by the ever growing skill, intel- lectual and moral equipment of race, the production of the skill that creates new wealth and conserves the already accumulated storehouse. These conclusions can be obtained by considering the figures. The foundation of imperial greatness rests upon the ability of the people to create wealth and character. Ignorance invites national decay and degeneracy and ruin. Witness Portugal witli 80 per cent of its people illiterate, Spain with 75 per cent, Italy 83 per cent, Cuba 69 79 per cent, Russia 77 per cent, Brazil 80 per cent, and Mexico 80 per cent. As each country expends money for education, it removes the illiteracy and increases the power for productive wealth. The ignorant savage stands before the river unable to follow his enemy, but getting some knowledge, he makes a canoe and follows; getting some more information, he cuts a forked stick for plow and feeds the tribe; growing wise as the ox, he makes him carry his burden. By knowledge of the tiller of the soil, v/ild rice becomes wheat; the forked stick becomes the steam gang plow; the flail becomes the header; the raft becomes the ocean steamer; the prarie schooner, the twentieth century limited. Ignorance wastes soils, forests, coal, water power, life; wisdom conserves and builds up the soils, preserves the forests, utilizes coal for industrial purposes and harnesses the falls for illumination and prolongs the span of life by sanitation. Ignorance is both death and sleep. Wisdom is myriad minded and alive for manifold acitivity. Ignorance wastes; wisdom conserves; ignorance paralyzes; knowledge quickens; ignorance makes poverty, wisdom makes riches; ignorance destroys; wisdom creates; ignorance degenerates; knowledge produces better specimens; knowledge gives power, but frailty is the gift of ignorance. The educated mind sees visions of forces and masters them, but ignorance is blind and cannot see. Wisdom unfolds the powers of the individual, but illiteracy swivels them. Training develops powers and reveals opportunities. Lack of it dwarfs powers and shuts the door to hope. It is, therefore, evident that the greatest factor for increasing the Avealth of a community is obviously the intellect, and the largest waste to a state or nation is ignorance. The heaviest tax is the tax of ignorance. Lack of development, failure to develop resources, wastes in industry, erosion of soils, wastes in the forests, exhaustion of agricultural resources, are through ignorance. Failure is lack of knowledge. Success is knowing how. Wealth is not so much in things of iron, wood, stone and soil, but in the creative power of the citizenship. Wealth is in knowing how to smelt the iron, to carve the wood, to chisel the stone, to till the soil. Knowledge opens the tlinnel; spans the gorge; crosses the deep; develops industry. Ignorance breaks machinery in the factory; spoils the raw material; burns out the boilers; lets the coal lie idle under his feet and allows the soil of untold wealth to flow to the sea. It leaves the plow to, rust in the fields and the mowers and reapers to become the victims of the summer's sun and winter's snow. The economic wastes of illiteracy can be felt in all fields of in- dustry and reflects itself profoundly in the use and abuse of our natural resources. Intensive farming on all the farms of Kentucky would quadruple the farm output of nearly all crops. Our illiterate population developed into intelligent skilled citizenship would utilize our wonderful water power resources, propel the machinery of in- 70 dustry with hydro-electric power; support a population of 12,000,000. Kontucky'fl coal area could he made to employ a vast population in the manufacture of artlclea of high grade to be sent to other parts of thfl nation and the world in return for its intelligence In the form of skilled labor. Kentucky's coal area is as great as that of England, Germany and France combined, yet England alone mines 350,000,000 tons annually, while Kentucky digs only 20,000,000. Of this we ship two-thirds to other states to make articles which are shipped back to us at enormous cost, but we pay the bill. All of this could occur within the area of our state if the thousands of unskilled laborers could bo by any method of training made into skilled workmen. Kentucky's skill and brains could in this way multiply enormously the wealth and capital of the bluegrass state. Tho creative power of the 208,000 people who cannot read and write, estimated on the basis of what other people have done, is enormous. The economic loss of the state in having those among us compared with what they might have produced is beyond comprehension, it has been estimated that every day spent in school when tho school term is extended through the high school is worth in increased earning power over the unskilled labor on the average of $10.00. The Bureau of Education estimates that the average school term of the average individual amounts to 5.27 years of two hundred days each, which when added to the high school amounts to about ten years or two thousand days of school work. Assuming that the individual att"-nd 90 per cent oi* his time in doing the work in the common schools, he will attend school olghteu hundred days. Assuming then that this work is com- pleted by the age of twoniy and that the individual would live to be forty years old, and that each day's vschooling is worth $10.00, wo have iin enormous economic loss in possible productive weal'Ji of $3,600,- 000,000.00, four times the assessed value of 1 11 the property of the state, which could be added to the wealth of the state if all the illit- erates could be transformed into highly skilled laborers working their maximum capacity for twenty years. To be conservative, if we could quadruple the educational power of all of our people, including those who car, not road and write, we could multiply ♦ho wealth of the state by at least ten. Then if we are to develop our natural resources, improve our soils, make our waste places blossom as the rose, con- serve our forests, keep our soil on the hillsides, unfetter the souls that are now in the bondage of illiteracy; if we are to make our homes fit places from a sanitary point of view for growing of man- hood and wom^inhood, and if we are to make two blades of grass grow where one formerly grew, nnd two graces of heart where none grew before, and if we are to keep alive in men's minds and hearts the ideals of truth, honor and patriotism, and cultivate patriotic, intel- ligent citizenship with reason and love of justice; if we are to pre- serve the subtratum of all democracy,; the individual, we must 71 educate all. of our people, must eliminate adult illiteracy. The illiterate voter must go, the republic cannot endure partly educated and partly uiuHlucated. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1919. Morning Session. Hon. Mat S. Cohen, Commissioner of Agriculture, Labor and Statistics for Kentucky, Presiding. Synopsis of address by Miss V. Lota Lorimer, Director of Red Cross Nursing, Lake Division. Subject: '' Public Health Program of American Red Cross." HOME DIETETICS. Each Red Cross Chapter, through its committee on educational activities, should actively promote the formation of classes in home dietetics both among Red Cross members and among non-members in its community. This course is designed to teach women the proper selection and nutritive value of food in order that they may under- stand and apply the underlying principlea of dietetics in buying and (booking, and in serving food in their own homes. The course consists or fifteen lessons of not less than two hours each' and a final exam- iiiHtion. A necessary requisite to appointment as an instructor for the course in Home Dietetics is that the candidate be an enrolled Red Cross Dietetian. Dietetians are enrolled for service with the Red Cross by the Department of Nursing af National Headquarters. From these enrolled dietitians in«tructors for the Home Dietetics course will be appointed. Red Cross chapters should render all assistance possible in providing adequate class rooms and in supplying the necessary class room equipment, in order to insure Instruction being given under favorable conditions and to reduce the expense of the course which must be borne by the members of the class. These classes may be organized by Individuals, schools, clubs or other organizations. It is not the purpose of the Red Cross to conduct its instruction work for profit, but rather to disseminate to the greatest extent possible the information and knowledge which the course In Home Dietetics offers. The chapter should aim to carry out this policy and by so doing further the spirit of the Red Cross in each community. The chapter should also establish the charge for in- struction in this course, and the amount of the instructor's compen- sation, and should collect the class fees and pay the instructor. It Is especially desirable that the class fees of students be the minimum if the class is composed of women of limited means; and by proper management the chapter may be able to extend the benefits of the course to many who could not otherwise afford to take the instruction. 72 THE DEVELOPMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF CHAPTER NURSING ACTIVITIES. The various specific nursing activities which, under proper con- ditions, may be instituted by a chapter are: (a) To develop and aid in the organization of public health nursing over the entire territory of the chapter. (b) To co-operate, wherever possible, with federal, state or local public health officials and bodies, and with the Federal Children's Bureau, in health campaigns. (c) To cooperate in the organization of committees on nursing activities in branches and auxiliaries where desirable. (d) To organize and conduct classes in Home Hygiene and Care of the Sick, and in Home Dietetics and to develop and extend such instruction to schools, clubs, industries, churches, etc. (e) To cooperate in the enrollment of Red Cross nurses and dietitians. (f) To engage in such other Red Cross nursing activities as may be established. The chapter Committee on Nursing Activities should include among its members one or more representatives of each of the fol- lowing: (a) The Board of Health. (b) The Board of Education (or a representative teacher). (c) The Medical Association. (d) The Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade. (e) The clergy. (f) Such other active local organizations as the Civic Club, Woman's Club, etc. (g) The Chapter Home Service Section. It may be of advantage also to have a representative of the Committe on Nursing Activities en the Home Service Committee, and it is suggested that this be ar- ranged for when practicable. (li) The Local Committee on Red Cross Nursing Service, whe^'e convenient; or if not, then a representative Red Cross nurse qualified as a general representative of the Red Cross Nursing Service should be appointed with the approval of the Division Director of Nursing. (i) Other local public health nursing agencies, if any. (j) Chapter School Committee. (k) United States Department of Agriculture (usually a Home Demonstration agent.) All money required for chapter nursing activities, such as admin- ifrtration expenses, salaries of public health nurses, cost of trans- portation and the purchase of equipment and supplies may be taken from the general chapter funds, when sufficient, on authorizaMon of the Chapter Executive Committee. 73 It is desirable that courses should not be given gratis, but the chapter, in organizing classes, should take into account the finan- cial ability of the class members and charge, where advisable, only a nominal sum. Hereafter, all the chapter functions of the nursing service ai'e to be conducted by the Chapter Committee on Nursing Activities, and this committee should absorb the committee, if any, now conduct- ing the course in Home Hygiene and Care of the Sick and Home Dietetics, but should not include the direction of First Aid instruction among its functions. THE ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF A PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING SERVICE. The Red Cross would prefer to have communities organize and finance their own public health nursing service, where possible, under the supervision of the state authorities. Where the community is unable, or rot ready to bear the entire burden of financing a public health nursing service, the Red Cross will undertake to organize the service and finance it, with the aid of the community or from its own funds, until such time as the state or municipality will take over the direction and supervision of the service. Where no Public Health Nursing Service exists or none is im- mediately projected it is very desirable that a chapter establish such a service and chapter funds may be used for this purpose. How- ever, it will be preferable in many cases not to use chapter funds wholly, but to enlist the support of the community by seeking the money needed from sources such as municipal or county funds, pri- vate contributions, or special campaigns. Where an organization interested in child welfare or general public health nursing has been working in a territory for a con- siderable period and is contemplating the establishment of a public health nursing service, the Red Cross chapter should not establish such a service without consulting the organization first in the field. Where it is ascertained that the other organization is considering the establishment of a public health nursing service and is well able to conduct it, the chapter should abandon any plans for setting up such a service. Where the other organization is accumulating funds and is in a fair way to collect an amount sufficient to set up the service the chapter should also withdraw from the field. Where there is an existing organization conducting a public health nursing service which might greatly extend the development of its work through the financial assistance of a chapter, the chapter could appropriate from its funds a sum sufficient to aid in the de- velopment. No donations from chapter funds in excess of one- tenth of the yearly expense of conducting the public health nursing 74 service shall be made, except upon consultation with the Division Manager, the Director of the Division Department of Nursing and the Director of the Division Bureau of Public Health Nursing, as to the wisdom of employing chapter funds in the development of the service in question, as very often it requires a close inspection of all aspects of the situation to determine whether the money would be well invested or not. The desirability of establishing a chapter public health nursing service having been decided upon, the chapter should adopt in ad- vance some plan for financing it. The financing of the public health nursing service shall be done by the Chapter Committee on Nursing Activities, subject to and with the advice of the Chapter Executive Committee. The nursing of patients shall be carried on only under the direc- tion of a physician. No other procedure is possible unless the nurse oversteps the bound of her profession. Bedside care shall not be extended to patients with certain communicable diseases, such as smallpox, scarlet fever, etc., unless due provision can be made for the protection of other patients. Instruction in nursing and every possible assistance shall be given to families in which such cases occur. Under no circumstances shall a public health nurse be expected to act as dispenser of food, clothing, money or other form of material relief. The Red Cross public health nurse shall wear the standard nurse's uniform of the American Red Cross. Specifications for this uniform shall be obtained by the Chapter Committee from the Division Director of Public Health Nursing. Experience has shown that the scope of usefulness of a public health nurse is greatly broadened in a community by placing the work on a business basis, as many families who would not request the services of a nurse when the service is on a fe'ee basis, will readily do so when a fee is charged. The Chapter Committee on Nursing Activities shall decide the chapter policy on this question and fix the fee (sufficient to cover the average cost per visit) to be charged for all visits made at the request of the family visited. Any family in the community should be entitled to call for the services of a nurse and the public health nurse should, in conference with the sub-committee, if necessary, determine what fee, if any, should be charged those patients unable to pay the usual fee. The public health nurses must be appointed to the chapter by the Bureau of Public Health Nursing at Red Cross Division Head- quarters. In many cases the Chapter Committee on Nursing Activ- ities will request that a specific nurse be appointed, or suggest desir- able local candidates. All such cases shall be taken up with the 75 Division Director of the Bureau of Public Health Nursing and every efiort will be made to comply with the chapter's wishes. Nurses desiring to serve as Red Cross public health nurses must meet all the requirements of the Red Cross Bureau of Public Health Nursing and must be enrolled Red Cross nurses or must make appli- cation for enrollment. An effort should be made by the Chapter Committee on Nurs- iiig Activities to interest a nurse who is a local resident, and who will meet the Red Cross requirements for the service. The nurse's knowledge of and her adaptability to local conditions will be of help in her work. The first three months of a nurse's services shall be considered a probationary period, during which time either the Chapter Com- mittee on Nursing Activities is free to dismiss the nurse or the Eurse may resign, on a short notice. Any time after the expiration of the three months' probationary period when a change or dismissal of nurses is desired, at least a month's notice thereof shall be given to the nurse and to the Division Director of Public Health Nursing. The nurse shall also give a month's notice of her intention to leave. When practicable the nurse shall have one-half day a week, ex- clusive of Sundays and holidays, for rest and recreation. Under ordinary circumstances, nurses should not be called for night duty, but in case of emergency, when this is done, the chapter should provide for the care of her patients during the day. The chapter should forbid any attempts made by the nurse to practice privately after hours. It is desirable that the nurse have an office where she may be found at stated hours for conferences and for minor dressings. This office should not be connected with any church or society giving material relief. Such an office will fill a great need in small com- munities, if it can be centrally located, and may also serve the pur- pose of a dispensary, with a physician in attendance, one or two days a wotk. It is suggested that the office be a part of the chapter headquarters where convenient Address hy Dr. Arthur T. McCormack, St^te Health Officer of Kentucky, Late Chief Health Officer of Panama Canal. Subject: ''The Kentucky Health Problem." Kentucky's health problem may be discussed under three heads: (1) Invoice of health conditions so we may know which need remedy- ing. (2) Invoice of health agencies so necessary additions may be estimated and provided for. (.3) What is to be done now? 76 Regardless of your knowledge and mine, that almost half of the annual death rate of Kentucky is premature, caused by diseases which can and should be entirely prevented; in spite of the progress that has been made in this State in abstract knowledge of the sanitary laws of life — and in no other State has greater progress been made, nor are the health authorities so secure in the co-operation of the people in any other State as in Kentucky — our country is confronted with a demonstrable threat of national inefficiency from ill health. It is my purpose not merely to arouse this distinguished body to a reali- zation of this threat. A mere rhetorical display which would present to you the history of the mistakes of past ages would be as futile as it has always been. I would awaken you not only to the dangers which threaten, but to your own duty and responsibility in devising prac- ticable measures for preventing them while there is yet time. It is to such organizations as this that the country has a right to look for leadership — such inspired leadership as will not only present its facts convincingly, as will fearlessly denounce error or mistake in men or methods; as will, above all, devise and demonstrate the cor- rect ways and means; and then will persuade fiscal courts, city boards, the General Assembly and the National Congress to adopt such ways and means as will carry the lessons which mean health, life and efficiency tt) every individual in every home, however remote in the country, however crowded in the city. It is with this purpose that I shall present to you certain funda- mental facts as a basis for the executive and educational structure I would rear, embracing not health alone, but all those elements of action and knowledge on the part of its citizenship which are essential to the welfare of the Commonwealth. Naturally these statements of fact will be based upon my own experience as executive officer of the State Board of Health of Kentucky, and will suggest remedies for the conditions which exist here, although these conditions can be multiplied by the number of states in the Union, except that the factors going to make up the sum total of good or bad health of the people of each state vary with many more or less local conditions, which it is not necessary for me to enumerate here. In Kentucky we have about 30,000 deaths each year and a few more than 60,000 births. Of the deaths not only are practically 14,000 each year from diseases which we now know how to prevent, but the enormous sick rate of which these 14,000 deaths are the ultimate and tangible result would likewise have been entirely prevented had modern sanitary knowledge been ap- plied by the people themselves at the right time. For example, in 1918, a typical year, we had 4,643 deaths from tuberculosis, and 27,858 cases of illness from this disease were reported; 1,100 little babies died with the diarrheal disorders of infancy and 22,000 of them were re- ported as ill from this disease; there were 625 deaths from typhoid 77 fever and 9,375 people suffered from this purely filth-borne disease; 241 Kentuckians died from diphtheria, while 2,410- of them had their lives endangered from this cause; there were 342 deaths from measles from 17,100 cases and 829 whooping cough from 41,450 cases; 1,202 of our citizens died from cancer, and there were 1,776 killed by •industrial or other violence. In other words, and summing the mat- ter up in a common denominator, which is understood wherever English is spoken, during 1918, which has been an average year so far as sickness and death have been concerned, preventable illness has cost the people of Kentucky in unnecessary doctors', druggists' and nurses' bills and loss of tfime from work, $76,549,828. During the »ame time, in its dead citizens, valued by economists purely as ma- chines at $1,700 eaeh, that Commonwealth has lost $41,211,400 in the unnecessary, premature and preventable deaths that have occurred. As badly as the State needs many things, it is wasting the enormous equivalent in human flesh and bfood of $117,761,228 a year in wholly unnecessary sickness and death, at least three-fourths of which is readily preventable and should and can be prevented within ten years. In 1916 when our militia was mobilized, as a member of the Medical Reserve Corps of the United States Army I was ordered to assist in the examination of the Kentucky militia. At the call of the President and country there assembled 4,200 militiamen who were selected, as prescribed by law, from among the thousands of their countrymen who would gladly have responded to the Union's call. These men were selected by their officers, because superficially, at least, they seemed to possss the physical stamina and mental caliber necessary to make soldiers. When the physical examinations were completed, and they were conducted entirely by experienced Ken- tucky physicians, it was found that 1,600, or 37 per cent, were phy- sically udifit to go to the front. The deductions drawn from these smaller figures are amply con- firmed by the larger ones of the National Army. 75,024 men were examined, and with materials, lowered standards as to height, and weight, which accounts fully for the difference, 25% were physically unfit for duty as soldiers. In both examinations, however, the total rejections as totally unfit and wholly useless were between 14 and 16% of the total. Of these at least half are as useless and worthless as citizens as they would have been as soldiers. They represent a degenerate, because diseased, riff-raff from our cities and small towns with neither morals, mind nor physique sufficient for them to solve the complex problems of modern life in such a way as to make them useful. I regret to say that I believe had this mobilization been of our women, even the women of Kentucky who are our pride and boast, although .the causes of deficiency would have been superficially different, practically the same results would have presented them- 78 selves. Necessarily and naturally these figures do not include the obviously unfit, such as the insane, feeble-minded, criminal classes, but I desire to catll attention to the existence of an inefficient class in the United States, largely due to physical causes entirely pre- ventable oi: remediable, constituting approximately one-ten^h of our population, who remain so constantly inefficient throughout life that they are not self-maintaining, but are community or family bur- dens, and are therefore public charges directly or indirectly, and to leave with you the question as to whether it would not be better for the State to assume the charge directly with a view to gradually lessening it. As a natural corollary of these vital facts, and as an equally damning factor in the education of our youth for citizenship, I ask your attention for a moment to these facts gleaned from the census reports : Between 1870 and 1900 the population of the United States in- creased from 38,000,000 to 76,000,000, and in the same period the tilled farm land area increased from 400,000,000 acres to 839,000,000 acres. On the other hand, from 1900 to 1910 there was a 21 per cent, in- crease in the land in farms. There has been no increase in the pro- duction of food grains in the last twenty years. Between 1900 and 1910 there was an actual decrease of 20,000,000 of the food producing animals, although there was an increase of 16,000,000 people in the same time. Between 1880 and 1910 the area of tilled farm lands in New England, New York and New Jersey decreased 9,809,834 acres, and in a recent address before its legislature the Governor of Vir- ginia announced that there are now in that state 10,000,000 acres of tillable unfarmed lands. Turning from results to causes, let us consider the basis upon which we now term diseases as preventable, realizing that preventive medicine is in its infancy, and that such a consideration is elementary and suggestive as compared with what may actually be done when the health part of education has received its proper emphasis. Preventable diseases are grown from seed, which we call germs, just as crops or weeds are grown. Just as the seed of wheat and barley grow best in the North and cotton and sugar-cane in the South, so the germs of tuberculosis, of diphtheria, of pneumonia have their natural locus in the respiratory tract, while those of typhoid fever, the dysenteries and the intestinal parasites are found developing in the intestines. As the seeds and their products, as food, from northern fields are distributed not only through the South but throughout the nations of the earth — to those in direct line first — just so these dis- ease seed and their products, as poisons, are found scattered through the whole body of the one in whom they develop and are thence con- veyed to relatives, neighbors, friends — to those in direct line first. The natural laws under which the seed of the field are planted, de- velop their crops and are harvested are no more definitely known 79 than are those in accordance with which the seed of these diseases are propagated, develop their symptoms and are harvested as un- necessary sickness, preventable death or lingering inefficiency. While it is true that scientists understand the one as definitely as the other the practical knowledge of crop management is in th« hands of those who manage crops; the practical knowledge of disease prevention and human e^iciency is not in the hands of those who would live and who would be efficient. It is the man who has the disease who must know how to prevent the spread of the disease seed which have de- veloped in his body. Sanitation has too much emphasized the wrong of having disease as disting"uished from the crime of spreading dis- ease. It would be neither difficult nor expensive for every individual to so manage himself or for counties or cities to so manage that practically all the excretions which might harbor diseased seed would be so disposed of that they would not reach some other individual. A child who contracts diphtheria or influenza from you or me and dies is poisoned, is murdered as much as if you or I poisoned it with strychnine or arsenic. Systematic and annually repeated examinations of the well so that remediable defects may be remedied while simple; early and adequate treatment, including nursing and hopitalization of infectious diseases, with a view to not only decreasing the death rate but to preventing the spread of sickness; systematic inspection and sanitary licensing of food for their citizenship producing and handling establishments; the economic disposal of garbage and manure so as to prevent fly breeding and water pollution; the provision of pure water supplies not only for cities but for homes. When what we now know of the causes of diseases and methods of spread are known to every individual, health departments will have the time and equipment to investigate and include many other diseases now con- tributing to inefficiency, but which we are as yet unable to prevent, and will assist those who have an aroused health conscience not to spread; will perform those definite community functions which can be done more effectively and economically than by each household separately; will, by frequent physical examinations and re-examina- tions, help each and all to practical knowledge of how to live and work and play; will bring before the courts those criminals who propagate disease; and, more than all else, will continue to take their part in the training of the young during their formative periods in all these things. How may these desirable ends be brought about in these physi- cally degenerate days in which we live? I shall answer this query by recalling to you the definite cam- paign conducted by the State Board of Health of Kentucky, financed by the Rockefeller Commission for the eradication of hookworm dis- ease. The incidents of this campaign, with its successes and failures, constitute the most brilliant page of health work in Kentucky, and 80 the lessons it has taught there are capable of universal application in all sections and for all diseases. In order to make this clear, I must tell you what we told the people at every crossroads in the counties- where these public health campaigns were conducted about hookworm disease. Tliis disease is most prevalent in the sandy soils of our hill and mountain sections. The people of this part of Kentucky are a pure bred Anglo-Saxon people. They have the virtues and faults of their ancestry. Hospitable, frugal, conservative, it is necessary to actually show them the proof of one's proposition; but once convinced, it is easy to get their co- operation, but difficult to keep it. About hookworm disease they knew nothing; hence did not believe such a disease existed. They did not actually believe it non-existent, as so-called more highly edu- cated antis would, but had never heard of it. Even if there were such a thing, they did not believe they had it, or, if they did, that we could recognize or cure it, and many of them, religious but fatalis- tic, believe that, in common with all afflictions, it there is, and if they have hookworm disease, it has been given them for a good purpose by a higher power who will relieve them of it when He chooses. They gathered at our announced dispensaries by the dozens or hundreds, frequently coming for miles, quietly distrustful, but equally without prejudice for or against us or our propaganda. The hookworm is about half as long as a common pin and about the size of a pin. In its natural size, seen singly, it does not appear formidable. But when you see its magnified mouth, with its hooks from which its name is derived, and know that once hooked into the intestine it sucks blood, each worm using a dtop or more each day, and then, through what we may call its hollow fangs, it pours its poison into the blood stream, and that it is rarely found singly but usually by hundreds and not infrequently by thousands, it is easy to realize its twofold results in the individual, especially if young and undernourished, who harbors it. These are stunted of growth, frequently even to dwarfish, from the anemia or blood starvation, and toxemia from the poison infected. A boy of twenty may look as if he were ten or twelve — permanently ruined, dwarfed, hopeless, a mental, moral, physical wreck, stranded by an eddy in the river of progress — and yet live for years; while another, similarly infected, may develop the rapid anemia and toxemia, abdominal dropsy and general edema and death. .Each female worm lays eggs by the hundreds. These pass with the dejecta, and dropped where there is shade, moisture and warmth, the eggs soon hatch out their -baby worms, and these are in a few days ready to push through the exposed skin of the toes, legs or hands of the next unthinking boy or girl who comes along. In the toes or along the legs they produce the symptom long known as dew poison, or toe itch, for which our grandmothers tied a greased, red flannel string 81 1 around the big toe. This treatment always cured (?), because the tiny worms, 1/400 of an inch long, rapidly work through the skin and flesh and swim along the veins to the heart and lungs, whence they are coughed up and then swallowed, finally attaching themselves in the intestines, sucking in their food of its wall . and they remain months or years until accident or treatment dislodges them, causing the various and vague symptoms and physical phenomena which go to make up what we call hookworm disease. You understand that I am but sketching the picture which is drawn in the vernacular when talking to the people, a lantern slide showing each step to the eye as the words describe it to the ear. The audience listens, respectfully, intent, but unconvinced. We show them on the screens groups from neighboring sections — the nearer the better — calling attention to the expression or rather lack of mobile expression the laughless face, frequently asym- metrical; the staring fish eyes, the protuberant, dropsical abdomen — what they call pot-belly — in the children, the swollen legs, whole families consisting of many stunted, mirthless children, varying but little in size, but all prematurely aged and apparently with the weight of the ages on their too small shoulders. We throw on the screen the old houses, carved out of the forests by the hands of their pioneer forefathers, and get them to see with us their rotting timbers, broken porches, the irregular and broken comb-lines of the roof, missing rocks in unpointed, decaying chimneys. We picture the gradually decreas- ing acreage of tilled lands on the farms of which these houses are the homesteads, the successive areas of "new ground," cleared of their virginal forests, the surface soil frequently washed away, leaving the bare, gravelly ditches washing over patches of dwarfed grain. Where the pioneers built homes the later generation built cabins, first log and now the miserable, rough, upright box houses that too frequently sawmills enable those decadents to build. Children, parents, homes, farms, orchards, even the infrequent livestock, all seem to be laboring under some spell that makes them slow and heavy, dull and listless. Of course we all know that not all of any section of Kentucky is like this gloomy picture, and that in many parts of the State there is practically no hookworm disease. The exceptions in the affected sections are the rifts in the clouds that show what all could be, what all have a right to be, when they are cared for as human beings, examined and treated and then followed up and re habili nted, shown hov/ to earn a living, and then how to live. Jubi as we lead them on the pathway to health, so must they as care- fully, as slowly, as thoughtfully, be taught to see and tread the other paths; all essential for them to know the road to a wholesome, moral, useful life. Next, pictured on the screen, is shown a dilapidated building — evidently not a safe or fit refuge or abiding place for the beasts ol 82 the field — and we try to show the futility of such schoolhouses for any practical training in life as it should be distinguished from as it is. A few interiors from the worst class of schools; many without desks having only rough benches; others with desks designed by a descendant of old Procrustes, the feet of the smaller children dangling, asleep, on their tiny legs varying inches from the floor, the gaunt legs of the older ones twisted, scissors fashion, as they bend their stooped shoulders to try to cipher or decipher in the poorly lighted, badly ventilated r^om. Stove and children quickly consume between them the available oxygen, and the poor youngsters who contin^ie to drink at these Pierian springs hibernate through their school days, asphyxiating themselves as the bears in the same wilds did before them. Small wonder when one sees such schools, and even much better ones, and knows that these children and their parents "sense," with- out exactly knowing that they know, that the curriculum is as use- less in their lives as "a painted ship on a painted ocean," that the investigation in one of our best counties has shown that 47 per cent of those of school age are enrolled as pupils in the common schools in spite of drastic compulsory education laws. Of this less than half of the children, only 20 per cent enter high school; while but 3 per cent of the latter go to college, and, last and most significant, in this good county, of this 3 per cent trained under a whojly impractical and inefficient system, less than 0.1 per cent return to live in the county which educated them. And yet, wond^ful to relate, the whole course of education from the first grade to the eighth through the high school and the college, is framed, as it came through Virginia from England, for the negligible minimum who are too frequently taught just enough to ruin them for useful lives in their nautral rural en- vironment and driven to make a large part of the half-baked, under paid, submerged, professional or semi-professional town or city men. What a wealth of truth and philosophy, what a general application, had Uncle Remus' exclamation about his humbler race: "Put a spellin' book in a nigger's hand an' right den an' dar you ruins a plow hand. Wid one bar'l stave I can fa'rly lift the veil of ignorance; yes, honey, wid one bar'l stave I can teach more dan all the schools twixt dis and Michigan." And yet in one of the humblest of those schools was observed one of the most pathetic examples of primal vocational education. In the very heart of the hills we found it, its teacher and each and every one of its forty-five pupils, a victim of hookworm disease, to say nothing of other ailments, and as we went in we found this teacher giving a rather complex lesson in music to these pupils. On a blackboard, once black calico, and blacked and reblacked with stove polish or shoe blacking, he had laboriously drawn his bars and notes where his flimsy "board" rested against the smooth logs, leiiaving his 83 students to read between the lines what they would where the rough "chinkin" made writing impossible. Standing in the door of this cabin school I could look across a ravine and see a ledge of coal that under- lies practically all of this county, and yet wood in a tight stove con- sumed the scanty oxygen of these already anemic pupils. As I thought that if these children went through the eight years of the common school, and tli^n, as no child has yet done from that district, spent four years in a high school and four in a college, and more yet in a university, he might and would be taught i^ny things, he might learn to become a faddist or to call himself ^a philosopher; but in them all he would never learn things that he could bring back home to his own kind which would call them out from their inefficient, because diseased lives and teach them the value of the soil and minerals with which they are surrounded. It w^as only after returning home that, pondering over these things and others, I realized that the teacher taught wiser than he knew. In Kentucky, out of each five babies born one dies in infancy; another in childhood; a third between child- hood and womanhood or manhood; and, of the other two, only one goes to school; and it dawned on me that this poor teacher, intuitively feeling these things he could not knew, taught music because his pupils would, mostly, join the heavenly choir, where music will be their vocation. These details are essential to the preparation of these people's minds, but they all have seen all these things throughout their lives, without realizing their cause, effect or relative proportion, and this recital leaves them unconvinced of the reality of hookworm disease. Then the screen tells human stories, written, it almost seems, in the very blood of those it pictures. In the one family we note the marked results of the disease itself not only in the anemia and edema but the squalor and abject poverty — the hopeless worthlessness of them all; or another family in another county, typical of hundreds of their too prolific kind, who never laughed, sang, bathed, thought or worked. Primitive almost as when Druids were priests, glance into their cooking and eating arrangements, and you who never know the pangs of hunger unappeased, pause with me and think of the re- volting mess of corn and beans swimming in unsavory fattish water and turn away in natural disgust and as naturally ask, "Am I my neighbor's keeper?" Then think of the slums, of the brothels, of the grog-shops, of the imbeciles, of the jails and poor farms, of the housing of the workmen in mines and factories and on farms, of all burdens of our several sections, and reconcile yourselves with all these for- gotten ineffectives and the great Father "who must love the poor because he made so many of them," think and pray a little for this stranded section, peopled by our own flesU and blood, and remember that mos.t of these njen and women are potential sons or daughters of the Revolution which won our freedom; that they are as proud 84 and patriotic as they are shy, ignorant and impoverished; tAiat they have forgotten and been forgotten too long to be able or willing to redeem themselves; that thousands of them are paupered inefficients, resident in pauper counties, and that this nation can ill afford to lose them or their kind. They hold as much promise for the future as any section of the race. Make them conscious of their real con- dition, help to lead them into all that i's best of Christian civilization, and at an expenditure of a few cents per capita for a few years, you can add a better, bigger Scotland to the world. Think of H C . This poor, miserable, dying wretch was hauled from the county poor house to one of our dispensaries for miles in a jolt sled. Pellagrous, edematous, gasping for breath, our inspector pulled him into this chair, and for two years I used his picture to illustrate the end-results of a certain part of these poor people. One night I told his story to our legislature, and one of the senators, recognizing him, exclaimed: "Why, Doctor, that man is alive and well. You almost refused to give him any medicine because he was so near dead. But he took it after that long ride back and they said he passed thousands of little worms. He is not dead at all but is now a mine foreman, making over $5 a day." And when I next saw him he appeared as an honest workman, his clothes, once empty, almost too full of healthy manhood, and, then again, dressed up on his way to a ball game, when he was learning, late in life, the ele- ments of play which are as essential as work to well-rounded de- velopment, and which is a rarer accomplishment even than work in this workaday world of ours. Let me introduce you to H L . As I first saw him when he strayed, more in the semblance of a fox or rabbit, into a crowded dispensary group, the good country doctor, who was the mainstay and inspiration of that particular clinic, as some good coun- try doctor was of all of them, came over to me and whispered: "Get that fellow out as soon as you can. His kind are so degenerate, he is such a pariah that soon no one else will be here if we keep him." Naturally interested in "poor white trash," these hopeless human derelicts, the diseased and ignorant driftwood of our own race, I led him, as one might a stray pup, to the barn, and when we had un- dressed him we thought we had a case of tinea versicoloris or some rarer skin disease, but subsequent developments showed it to be in- grained dirt. H had never worn his clothes out; he had worn them in. He had, when opportunity offered, added any outer gar- ment which might cover a hole or reinforce a thin place, and soap and water repeatedly applied for months uncovered the skin underneath, as a little medicine and much kindness and some food brought the mind and soul that had sulked in that miserable body. At this inter- view H ^ was too wild and shy, as well as ignorant, to tell his story, but it was drawn from him piecemeal as he developed. He 85 was about twenty-four years old. He did not remember having seen either h!s father or mother, but of the latter "had heered she was an old woman over the hill." I asked him if he ever earned any money. He replied, "$6." Remembering that he was twenty-four years old, I asked him how he earned it. "I sold my vote*three times for $2 each time." "For whom did you vote?" "I do not know. The man who traded with me told me to take a stick I would find on the shelf back of the curtain and make a mark with the pointed end of it in a ring under a house on the paper, and then come out and tell him the kind of a house it was and he would give me $2." I never think of the pathos of this poor fellow's degradation without wondering how a man who opposed his wife's right to vote could reconcile her to any confidence in his judgment and sense of fairness if he believed in manhood suffrage, and that this animal should vote merely because he had a semblance of a man. In one of our interviews I asked H ■ — if he had ever heard of the Bible. "No, I never heerd of no such thing!" "H , did you ever hear of Jesus Christ?" "No," came his slow reply; "there was never nobody by sueh a name in these parts." And in his part there never had been! From the miserable hovel on the hills'de where he lived, or rather existed, the spires of three churches could be seen pointing toward the blue sky. Inquiry showed that each of them made substantial contributions toward the support of missionaries in Asia and Africa. In this they are right, but I'd rather have H ■ L— 's chance for admission to the eternal home than to have that of all those who merely contribute of their surplus to pay substitutes to do their work in His vineyard here! H 's treatment cost less than a dollar. He is an Anglo-Saxon white man of our own flesh and blood. He earns almost as much per day for honest labor as he had been paid in twenty-four years for his d-shonor! He has occupied his idle hours wandering over bridle paths through his native hills se- curing specimens for examination and taking back the medicine to those found infested, so that they may have the benefits he has se- cured. Is not work worth while which will redeem such pariahs? There are many of them within a few blocks of where I speak, wherever that may be, in any part of this Christian land we profess to love. And I would rather have H 's chance here and here- after than yours or mine, unless we are willing to give some of our- selves, our brawn and brain to the service of our neghbors. I wish all of you could have seen two poor children in Lai^e County when I first saw them. They were born almost in sight 6f the birthplace of and from the same social substratum as our great President, Abraham Lincoln. A telephone message came to us from the neighborhood physician that he had five cases in one family? which seemed a combination of Bright's disease and peritoneal tuber- culosiS' which he wanted investigated. Two of the little lives had snuffed out before we saw them. Hookworms were so thick in their starved little intestines that they seemed like wet hair-hrushes. The little remnants, white as alabaster, emaciated yet edematous, looked like the spectres they s»on would have been. But 20 cents' worth of medicine transformed and a little kindness redeemed them and their parents too. I saw them first after a year and marked the mere physi- cal transformation. This in itself would not have been so remarkable, because we have often seen the emaciated and the weak restored to health and strength by love and care. But this is actual redemption. A little search would have revealed these lads' grandparents who were neighbors and friends, no doubt, of Tom Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. Think of the miserably hovel in which they were found; sit- ting in the mud of the "dog-tjot." Think with me of these two old wrecks who had tottered through their worthless existence, without conscious knowledge of any of the higher impulses which distinguish the human from the brute. Will you turn with me again to the grandchildren, after two years, and as we know them, the first of their breed that ever worked: descended as they were from the poor- est of "poor white trash," and realize that in five short years these three boys and their one shiftless father and mother and sister and little brothers have become real people, that he has paid off the mort- gage on their rough farm, that they burned some lime and planted legumes on their wornout fields; that their new home has screened windows in its dining-room-kitchen and that a Kentucky sanitary privy devised by my father as a necessity of this campaign, self- cleaning, fly-proof, water-tight and clean, which prevents the possi- bility of the soil polution which ha.« dragged their family in its de- graded depths, and, at the same time, fertilizes a flower bed, typical of the ];Jcom of hope, of life, now and in eternity, that has come to them; will you not with me return thanks to the Great Physician that these in their redemption showed how the inefficient, submerged ele- ment of our race may be redeemed. Our auij^nces listen to these recitals,, moved emotionally, as you are, by tllSfe; but they listen as to the average sermon — with ap- proval, even appreciation of what has been done for these poor sufferers, but without any idea or thought that they themselves are sufferers. They are willing, though, almost every single one of them, to take a great step forward in cooperation with us — as they file out of the meeting place they take the proffered little tin pillboxes, and next morning each of them brings it, half-filled with feces for exami- nation for the eggs of the various parasites. The bright young women trained in our laboratories as microscopists, who travel with us to these people, soon find, in some specimen, hookworm eggs, and it is surprising how the countryman, used to sighting a rifle, can be 87 taught to sight* down the inside of the barrel of a microscope. Always, in some one specimen at least, there will be discovered live embryo- nic worms just emerging from their shells, wriggling about the micro- scopic field. Leaders of public opinion at once become zealous con- verts. The wealth of conviction with which one of these old weather- beaten dubitists, straightening his full length after inspecting these tiny varmints that have come from his own person: "Wall! I'll be durned! I never knowed I were a durnei snake-hole," indicates a revolution in the inner man, and the unbeliever is transformed into a willing follower. And, like" his fellow Anglo-Saxons everywhere, when he has taken the medicine which was freely given him and finds subsequently that he has been harboring countless, tiny leeches, that had been sucking his blood and his vitality, he is seized with the missionary spirit, and goes forth to bring his neighbors and relatives that they too may find relief. Almost 100,000 were treated during this great campaign. Thousands of these were permanently cured. Hun- dreds were redeemed from utter worthlessness and hopelessness here and hereafter. At least two brigades of the American Army which helped to free the world for democracy and set the stage from which a parliament of nations will recognize the rights of all mankind were physically qualified during this work to take their places as soldiers, and, now returning, to proudly resume their places as citizens. But this section and this campaign have taught us one lesson, which we must all appreciate if we are to make real progress in Ken- tucky, that health is but one, even if the most important one, of the re- quisites of efficiency. Recall for a moment the M s and remember that for a year after they were cured of disease they were but husky brutes. It was only after they were shown how to work that they be- came efficient, and, subsequently, productive citizens. What we must have is an educational system which will put in their proper propor- tions and place a proper value upon not culture alone as at present but culture and agriculture, health and roads, the civil government of the world and the Divine government of mankind — will develop all these things into the warp and woof of every childish nature so that each of them will know how to do his job well, whatever that job is; will know how to enjoy and help control, and defend, if need be, our freedom and our country; will be taught enough of the sciences and the arts to appreciate his '^own work and to realize the necessity of that of his fellowmen; will be shown how, and then taught to work to improve the environment in which his fathers learned to be free- men; will be trained to live so that 'he will avoid disabling disease and acident himself, but so that should either mishap overtake him, he will, at all hazards, prevent others from contracting it from him. He will do those things because they are right and because it is his duty to his country, to his God and to himself for him to be efficient. 88 I cannot consume enough of your time to more* than glimpse the application of this plan to occupational diseases and to industrial injuries, and all that large class of diseases which produce not death alone, but lingering inefficiency, of which malaria, tuberculosis and cancer are types. How shall we be organized for such a nation wide campaign? How may we substitute the State in the place of parents when the latter are but the empty semblance of the real thing? How shall we strike a balance between what demagogues howl about as liberty and that necessary patriotic restraint which is essential if we would rid ourselves of our ineffectives? How are we to avoid socialism and preserve individual liberty of action, and yet avoid national inef- ficiency? I would answer these queries by saying we must have organiza- tion, education, law enforcement and executive control. To secure national efficiency we must co-ordinate education with public health and all these other civic activities that go to the making of citizens out of men and women. We must have a Department of Public Health in Washington, of which our excellent Public Health Service should be the nucleus and the strong executive right arm. It must have permanently attached to it the various existing bureaus having health functions which before the war were scattered aimless- ly and at haphazard, unguided and uncontrolled, through various de- partments. It must have laboratories, modelled upon the splendid work now being done by the hygienic laboratory, but greatly enlarged, so that the basic problems, such as local health work, rural sanita- tion, home ventilation and hundreds of others almost entirely neg- lected, may find solution through scientific research and co-operative demonstration. No stone may be left unturned until the exact cause, and then the practical methods of prevention and relief have been actually put into the hands of the people themselves through local educational and health agencies. State health departments, like head- quarters of army corps, would put into execution those of the plans of the federal board of strategy, the National Department of Health, which would be necessary for their differing peoples. The Kentucky State Board of Health, I am happy to say, is now built on the best approved and most modern lines. Freed by law and by its courts from partisan politics, the bane of health work and the paralyzant of health workers this country over; controlled and guided by the most democratic and yet the strongest medical organization in any of the states — the same organization which sent 40% of its membership to care for Kentucky boys in the army, and yet, with the 60% left at home coped the most terrible epidemic of history in such a manner that Kentucky's toll of death, though appalling, was amongst the lowest — your health department was endowed by the last General Assembly with all the elements recognized by those who 89 know best as requisite for real results. While still hampered by a small income, the State, in its poverty, has given us our proportion of its income, and from the operation of improved revenue laws and thoughtful and constructive consideration of the peoples' needs by the leaders of thought at such conferences as this and by the people themselves, we will be given the balance needed for the most r5uc- cessful operation. Our laboratories will locate disease and provide and distribute remedial and preventive sera and other necessary munitions which will be made universally available when needed, regardless of the economic condition of the individual or section where needed. Our statistical bureaus will gather the facts in regard to the causes of sickness and death and inefficiency, and the federal department will compile them so that all the people would know where trouble was, so that concentrated e'ffort on the part of all necessary agencies, Federal, Red Cross, State, local and volunteer, could be focalized until it be relieved. In a democracy, after all, the most important governmental agencies should be these local ones which come in closest contact with the daily lives of the people themselves. It is important to re- member, however, that, while most important, they are frequently the least efficient. In the people they have many masters, most of whom are too busy with self-interest to give adequate supervision to their public employees. Our local health departments, outside of cities of the first and second class, are so organized that they are autonomous, not dependent on local political conditions, empowered fully to take whatever action, wherever necessary, to prevent inef- ficiency through ill health. In order to do this effectively, however, the fiscal court of each county must declare it "a health district, thereby creating a county health department. They must have a qualified and responsible head who should have been an experienced practicing physician, with his necessary technical knowledge of disease and sym- pathy with the diseased, specially trained in the methods of preven- tive medicine. This all-time health officer and his necessary assistants, especially public health nurses and sanitary inspectors, should have a tenure of office dependent solely on honest and economic administra- tion and diminishing the sick and death rate and their consequent inefficiency. These assistants should be sufficiently numerous and similiarly trained and qualified, under civil service, so they could carry to every individual in every home on every highway, in every byway, the necessary knowledge which means abundant life; so they could compel the negligent or unthoughtful or the criminal to do these things, with the distinct purpose of such an organization as will make the second case of preventable illness impossible and the first case im- probable. Then, and not until then, will the people of Kentucky — thoroughly efficient, physncaly, morally and mentally capable of use- 90 ful labor — realize on their constitution contract with their government, guaranteeing them not only in liberty, but in life and the pursuit of happiness. "We raise no monument of graven stones To mark the spot where some great battle raged; Where nation spoke to nation in the tones Of iron hate by crimson flood assuaged. "No pillared hall of justice build we here, Nor marble fane, nor house of narrow faith; But firm and strong these fortress walls we rear, To buttress out the ghastly hordes of death. "The death that rides triumphant on/the breeze. That taints the crystal goblet ere we drmk; That brings the strong man trembling to his knees, An^ hurls its gasping victim o'er the brink. "We build a knightly hold along whose halls The white-clad hosts of healing come and go; And from the crest of battlemented walls, Where struggling science marks her ancient foe. "We give our red cross banner to the breeze, Where all the stricken myriads can see; And in the face of many-fanged disease We hurl the gauntlet of the strong and free." Address by Mrs. Helm Bruce, Chairman Kentucky Division, Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense. Subject: Woman's Committee. When America entered the war in April, 1917, as many as one hundred women's organizations wrote to the President offering help. Wonderful stories of what the French and English women had done, had come across the seas to us, and we knew that we could do as well if the need were as-great. Mr. Wilson summoned to Washington eleven prominent women; women who had handled large organizations, and presided over large assemblies, and turned over to them the task of co-ordinating the women of America into what was to be known as the Woman's Com- mittee, Council of National Defense. This was done by appointing State Chairmen who in their turn were to appoint County Unit Chair- men or Township Chairmen as seemed best in the different localities. 91 The organization proved to be entirely satisfactory as a means of communication between the President, his Council of Defense and the women of the country. Not only the organized women, but individual women in remote sections were reached by the messages from Wash- ington in a short space of time, i^ new dignity was added to the posi- tion of women and they felt it and measured up to the task. There were in each State w^omen who never caught the vision — who were out of harmony with the government. We had such m Kentucky, I am sorry to say, and in so far as their influence extended, they hampered the plans of the government; but their number was small and the Kentucky organization was ranked at Washington among the best. The committees formed were to deal with home problems during the war. While the sons and daughters were to go over seas and many older men to Washington, the women of mature years must form the home guard. They must register for service; go into the homes and impress on housekeepers the necessity of saving food and using substitutes; they were to interest the children and grown people also in planting war gardens; they must look after the health of the children and see to it that the schools were not closed; they were to take an interest in the women workers, especially those who would take the places of men; they were to help in the liberty loans, they were to see that all communications sent to the women from Washington were distributed throughout the State; they were to guard the recreation of the young people, and they were to see to it that home charities did not suffer in the midst of war work. The first request from the Washington coiiimittee came in the form of copies of the President's war message which were put into the hands of the drafted men when they registered. Our boys must know why they were called to fight the Hun at the very first period of their training as soldiers. Then came the distribution of food pledges and literature, the first Liberty Loan, the drive for 25,000 Student Nurses to fill vacan- cies in military and civil hospitals, the carrying out of "Children's Year" planned by the Children's Bureau, the Second Liberty Loan, and finally the enlistment of our interest in the returning soldier, in his surroundings and his job. Very soon we found that a manual must be prepared which would direct the many women who called at the State office to ask what they could do to help win the war. This little manual was our first publication and served its purpose well. Later on it was supplemented by a larger one, prepared at Washington, which directed the energies of the women into wider fields of service. Our next publication was a war cook book prepared by Miss Mary Sweeney. It is a tremendously patriotic little volume explaining the use of substitutes for lard and flour and sugar, and placing the 92 ■ whole question of food saving on a par with military service in tho field. 8,000 copies of this little book were distributed throughout the State and smoothed the brow of many a puzzled housekeeper whose patriotism was being sorely tested in her efforts to follow Mr. Hoover's directions, and, at the same time, keep the men of the family in a good humor. Dr. Shaw won great applause last spring in her address to the women of the Council of Defense, when she exclaimed, 'Yes, Mr. Hoover, we promise to use the substitutes and make all the mixtures, if you will see that the men eat them." The third and last publication of the Kentucky Committee is a pageant written by Miss Ethel Allen Murphy called "The Triumph of Humanity." It is a beautiful presentation of the real meaning of the war. We hope it will be given by every school in the State. Our children need very much to know the true significance of the struggle and may be taught it by taking part in the pageant better than by any written history. Now that our work is about completed we feel that the women of the Kentucky Division, Council of National Defense, are quite ready for Community Council organization. They, better than others, know the ground that must be covered. For two years they have carried out the requests coming from Washington among their own friends and neighbors. It was during the drive for student nurses that the limelight was turned on the lack of education in our State. Kentucky's quota was 700. We sent in, after weeks of la.bor, 234. Four years of high school training was required for entrance into military hospitals, and one year for civilian hospitals. It was an interesting study of girl life. There came into the office in Louisville a few girls who had the nec- essary education, and were eager to go, but could not get the consent of their parents; girls who had substituted a business course for high school training; business girls who would gladly have changed their work for nursing but who could not afford to give up the salary they were receiving; girls whose best beloved had gone over seas, and who wanted to go too, and some of the pitiful painted creatures who had none of the necessary qualifications. Meantime the County Unit Chairmen were busy in their respective locations and were encounter- ing the same difficulties. Our girls had all the patriotism in the world, but lacked the education necessary, or the consent of parents. We must remember in this connection the vast number of young Kentuckians who could not sign their names when they were drafted into the service. A young officer overheard this exchange of sentences between two of our boys at Camp Taylor. The first boy had received a letter from some one at home, and came up to the second one with the question: "Can you read writin'?" "Naw, I can't read readin'," was the pathetic answer. This was multiplied many times. So it seems in our community work there is nothing so important as better educa- 93 tion. These County Unit Chairmen could very easily be induced to enter into a friendly rivalry for better schools, for consolidated schools, for better roads, connecting the schoolhouse to the home, and for bet- ter salaries for teachers. Then c^me the influenza epidemic, and the women of the State dropped everything else and grappled with this dreadful disease. They nursed the sick with f^ar in their hearts, but with heroic unselfishness —many of them laid down their lives in consequence. I can truthfully say that no report I sent to Washington of the work of the Kentucky Division was given with the same pride as the short one that went saying: "All the work has been stopped. Our women are nursing in- fluenza." There was revealed to us during these distressful days our lack of nurses, and the ignorance of many communities of the simplest laws of sanitation. The Woman's Committee at once formed the de- termination to do something to remedy the situation, and called on the County Units to appeal to local Red Cross Chapters and fiscal courts to add to the State contribution and raise the salary of at least one public health nurse in each county. This work was under way, when the State Federation, through its president, requested the priv- ilege of carrying it on and it was so ordered. The Woman's Committee has been organized in 101 counties, and in the remaining 19 counties there are food chairmen who would represent the committee in any community work undertaken. In Christian, McCrac^ten, Campbell, Kenton and Fayette counties the organization is es^Decially complete, and in some remote mountain districts our chairman have done valuable work by distributing literature sent from Washington among the people. No other organ- ization ever linked the women of the State to the Federal govern- ment, no other organization of women ever reached the obscure rural woman, and made her feel that she was a part of the great democracy. Lunacy decreased among farm women during the war in one state where t^e survey was made, 40 per cent. I feel very sure that the literature so liberally supplied by the Government and sent into country homes by the Woman's Commfttee had much to do with this — literature on food topics, on child welfare, on patriotic themes, etc. We have sent out from the State headquarters in Louisville a letter to the County Unit Chairmen explaining the very simple way in which the work of this war organization is being gradually turned over to permanent organizations of women. Children's year closes April 1st, a year rendered almost futile in its last two drives, "Back to the School," and "Keep in School," by influenza. As a survey is now in progress in Kentucky in the interest of child welfare by the Child Labor Association, we feel that our child welfare committee is no longer needed. The women in industry committee has been merged into the Consumers' League of Kentucky, thereby greatly strengthening that organization. 94 The work of the health and recreation committee should go on in each community indefinitely. There should be a censorship hoard in every town, composed of men and women who would have jurisdiction over the picture shows, vaudeville and the public dance halls that are doing so much to undermine the moral standards of America. Whole- some recreation is absolutely necessary. Why are we willing to leave so much of it in the hands of the devil? This is a definite and very necessary piece of work for a community council. The only committee whase work is incomplete is the American- ization-Education Committee, which is now under the leadership of Mrs. Morris Gifford and Miss Alexina Booth. There is no doubt that a desire for better educational institutions is in the hearts of many Kentucky men and women at this time. We haven't a serious problem of the foreign born, but our native born boys and girls must be taught what it means to be a citizen of this great country, this country which has been the refuge of those who have been denied liberty in their own lands, which has been permitted to play a magnanimous part in the war, sending men and women and food and clothing to the suffering peoples of Europe. These children must have better schools, free from the control of politicians; they must be fitted for honorable, independent lives. It was not necessary to "stab the con- sciences" of women "broad awake," as Stevenson puts it. For many years Kentucky women have studied her institutions and, denied the vote for some reasons best known to a few Kentucky men, have pleaded with legislatures for progressive measures, with some degree of success. One thing is very sure, the war has developed a new realization of power in women. Banded together in Council of Defense work — Red Cross, Liberty Loan campaigns and parades, they have accomplished what seemed impossible tasks, and the government has recognized and acknowledged the share they had in winning the war. This great army of women is ready now to throw its strength into forward move- ments for better education, for better public health and for the de- velopment of a more united citizenship. They want a large share in Kentucky's development. 95 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION. De. Prank L. McVey, President, University of Kentucky, Presiding. Address by E. W. Burr, District Counsel United States Reclamation Service, Denver, Colorado. Subject: ''The Soldier on the Land." Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: It is a great pleasure to be with you and to take p^t in the pro- ceedings of this conference. Nevertheless I am sorry that Dr. Elwood Mead is not able to be here. He had made complete arrangements to come to Lexington, but Secretary Franklin K. Lane insisted that he remain in Washington for the conference of governors now being held in the White House. Dr. Mead would have been able to have given you a more com- prehensive view of the soldier settlement program than I shall be able to do. He is a man of international experience and world-wide observation in governmental land settlement enterprise. Briefly to outline the plan proposed for the soldier on the land: THE SOLDIER SETTLEMENT PLAN The plan proposed is that of the appropriajtion by Congress of the sum of one hundred million dollars to secure land and to construct reclamation projects of sufficient area so that communities of not less than one hundred soldiers and their families may be located on each project. The term "soldier" is conveniently used to include soldiers, sailors and marines who have served either at bome or abroad in the armed forces of the nation. It is estimated that the appropriation would provide homes for about twenty-five thousand families and projects will be located so far as practi'bable through- out the country. THE NATION'S LANDED ASSETS As has been remarked by Secretary Lane, the part which the veterans of the American Civil War took in the development of the great west is one of the epics of our history. The great free west, however, is now a thing of the past and the present day veterans will find no land available for men not possessed of considerable capital. Since long before Rome found it necessary to provide for her legendaries land has been one of the great necessities at the close of war. There yet remain three classes of landed assets which may be utilized for the soldiers after means for reclamation have been car- ried out. These are: First, the arid and semi-arid lands lying roughly 96 west of the 100th meridian, reclaimable by irrigation; second, the swamp and overflowed lands in the soutli, the Mississippi Valley, sev- eral of the states bordering on the Great Lakes, the Sacramento Val- ley, in California, and smaller areas in many parts of the country, these sections being reclaimable by drainage; and third, the logged- ofr and cut-over areas to be found in the lake states, the south, various parts of the east and on the Pacific slope, reclaimable by the removal of stumps and undergrowth. There is a fourth class of landed assets which may be utilized, namely, lands now under cultivation but poorly tilled and susceptible under cooperative community methods of being made highly pro- ductive. These areas are-, many of them, in large holdings and iu many instances they are owned by non-residents and farmed by ten- ants. In almost all parts of the country and even within fifty miles 01 some of our largest cities waste, run down or badly tilled lands are to be found and these may, I am informed, frequently be purchased at reasonable prices, such that their value to settlers under proper management would be many times their price The federal government has been in reclamation work as re- gards irrigation since 1902, and land has been reclaimed from arid or semi-arid conditions in seventeen western states upon twenty-seven projects. The settlers have never been financed by the government to an extent greater than the construction of the irrigation works and the delivery of water to individual tracts. The United States has said to them: "Here is tlie water, build your homes, level your land for irrigation, provide yourselves with all the necessary build- ings, equipment, tools and seed and support your families as best you may until you can place your desert holdings upon a paying basis and in the meantime begin the repayment of the cost to the United States." The result has been that upon the majority of the government projects there has been a period of severe hardship and numbers ol the original settlers, stalwart and energetic as many of them were, have, in far too many cases, been obliged to leave their homes and sell such improvements as they had been able to make to a second Ol even a third or fourth settler upon the same tract. The federal reclamation work is proving a splendid success and the projects, many of them, have already attained complete success, v.'liile the others are rapidly reaching similar achievement. This has, nevortlieless, been at a large cost in uneconomic hardship and in the failure of many of the original settlers. The difficulty has been that men of large financial ability generally preferred to seek homes in more advanced communities, while men of small means often found themselves unable to meet the financial burdens necessary. 97 WHAT SHALL BE DONE FOR THE SOLDIERS? In the main, the soldiers will have even less financial means than those who sought homes upon the present reclamation projects, and if the American people are to embark upon a soldier settlement pro- gram, it is necessary for them to give the men a financial system which will permit of average success and security for the return of the funds invested. This means not only long-continued financial backing upon an amortization plan, but it also means that the gov- ernment must go much further than it has yet done in financing the s;ettler. The plan advocated by Secretary Lane, and v/hich has been tried out under the superintendence of Dr. Mead, in Australia and Cali- fornia, includes not only the securing for the settlers of the land and the reclamation works, but also the construction of dwellings, out- buildings, wells and fences, the preparation of the land for farming and the actual stocking and equipment of individual farms. Such a plan would put the soldier into possession of a farm upon which he would be able to make a living approximately from the very start. It is proposed that repayment of the principal and four per cent interest shall be made over an amortization period of forty years by means of an annual payment of five per cent. One of the features of the plan is that the soldiers will be given ample opportunity for work upon the projects whereby it will be possible for them to secure money for a payment down upon the farm after the projects have been completed. Opportunities will be furnished by the necessary construction work from common labor thru most of the trades to the highest engineering ability, so that it will be practicable even from the soldiers to require a payment down. The Australian colonies under similar financial plans have shown a very high degree of success on the part of settlers; in New South Wales, for example, ninety-five per cent of the men have been able to make their payments and even where default was made the gov- ernment's security proved ample, WHY ADOPT A SOLDIER SETTLEMENT PLAN? There are several points of departure from which the present proposed government policy may be considered, and if due considera- tion is given, the result, I believe, is several lines of thought con- verging to the conclusion that it is exceedingly desirable that a na- tional soldiers' land settlement policy be immediately inaugurated. There is time for but three points: 98 THE LABOR NEED. It would be absolutely trite to enlarge upon the unsettling effect of the great war upon the world's labor market or its influence upon the mind of laboring classes everywhere. The comparatively brief experience of America in the war has somewhat lessened, or pos- nibly delayed, labor difficulties of this country, but the readjustment period has hardly begun and there are dangerous conditions in many parts of the country. It is imperative that the government adopt wise meaisures v/hereby the labor situation may be successfully cared for during the years which may ensue before the international adjustment of in- dustry shall have been effected. For this reason several measures have been introduced and advocated in Congress looking toward the construction of federal public Vv^orks and the absorption therein of large numbers of men of almost all grades of skill. Most of these pro- posals have been directed toward the building of roads or other pub- lic works involving a permanent outlay of federal funds. The soldier settlement plan, however, contemplates that every dollar that shall be expended will be returned by the soldiers with four per cent interest. The employment of labor of many grades, valuable as it is intrinsically under present conditions, would be much more valuable in the output which would be realized as a result of the contemplated expenditure. Homes will be made, citizenship safe- guarded, agricultural returns will be greatly increased and the v/ealth, prosperity and stability of the country enhanced without any permanent outlay whatever from the federal treasury. THE AGRICULTURAL NEED. The thoughtful men of the country for several decades have been deploring the steady movement taking place over the country away from the farms and toward the cities. The percentage of the popula- tion living in rural communities and that dependent upon agriculture for a livelihood has been steadily decreasing. Moreover, the proportion of tenant farms to the whole number of farms has been steadily mounting while the average per acre crops of almost all staples con- trasts very poorly with the agricultural figures of other lands. In spite of great increases in population large areas of land once profit- ably tilled have been abandoned. Two causes for this unfortunate development only may be re- ferred to. One is the arduous financial conditions which the farmer has confronted for many years. The farmers in this country, and those who have desired to become farmers, have had less help from the banking and financial interests than similar classes in almost any other progressive country in the world. Moreover, until . the I'ederal Farm Loan Act was passed they had received practically no 99 assistance from the federal government. This act affords a gr«iat measure of relief to farmers who are able to give first mortgage se- curity, but to those wh« desire to acquire homes no relief in the main is granted. Other nations, irrespective of the great war, have de- veloped progressive methods whereby men have been enabled to acquire farm homes and meanwhile make a living for their families, while the United States is lagging far behind. Under the plan pro- posed the United States is preparing to provide for a soldier desiring to farm a fiscal method comparable in point of progressiveness with those of other nations in so far as the soldier is concerned. Whether such a policy is necessary in general for the nation it is certainly due to the soldiers. The other cause for the drift to the cities, to which I shall refer, is the hardship of pioneering and the isolation of farm life, particu- larly in its effect upon women. The time has gone by when wives will willingly live and bring up their families in isolation from other homes and undergo the hardships which were met in earlier days. They insist upon living conditions for themselves and their children comparable to those in more settled communities. The pioneering clays were romantic but the effect was wasteful in human energy and whether for bad or for good, the pioneering days are evidently ever. A part of the plan of Secretary Lane, and one upon which he has laid great stress in his addresses to Congressional committees on the soldier settlement bill, is his proposal, if the authority is granted to him, to assist the soldier colonies to become genuinely progres- sive, cooperative communities having a social life of value to men, women and children. He believes that there is no necessity for the old type of isolation or the old individualism, but that farmers in common with men of other callings, are fully entitled to the bejiefits of cooperation in their pleasures and in their livelihood. Community ownership of the more expensive and less used im- plements, community planning as to varieties of stock and purchasing of necessaries, community dairying and community buying and mar- keting are within contemplation. Moreover, the improvement of schools and a better class of local highways are matters to which Secretary Lane has devoted his attention. THE PATRIOTIC NEED. The nation could ill afford to have the great war end and to present to the men who risked their lives no exceptional opportunity, in so far as they may desire, to secure homes upon the land. A large percentage of the men who were brought into the armed forces of the United States are from the farms of the country and will wish to return to farm life. 100 Erery man who secures a farm home is a bulwark to American- iam and not only will he be entitled to pride in the possession which has come to him partially as a reward for his services, but others Avill be entitled to pride in the fact that service to the United States does not go entirely unrewarded. FARMS VERSUS PENSIONS. And yet, at the same time, this pride will not be tinctured in the slightest with any admixture of the sense of dependence or of undue help. Our soldiers do not desire that. The help which is ex- tended is in the nature of a loan — not a gift — and the soldier-farmer is not deprived of his initiative or his responsibility in the matter of making good. This plan may seem to some paternalism, but compared with the old pension system it breathes the spirit of independence. It should be remembered that although it is over fifty years since the Civil War closed the annual expenditure for pensions runs in the neighborhood of two hundred and twenty-five million dollars annually. WHAT OTHER NATIONS ARE DOING. It is not practicable to outline to you the accomplishment and the proposals of other countries along the line of soldier settlement. It is sufficient to say that Great Britain, France and Italy, South African Union, the Australian Commonwealth and the individual Australian states, the Canadian government and several of the Canadian states and New Zealand all have land settlement policies which they are eiigaged in carrying out and which look forward to the expenditure of large sums of money. In Australia the land settlement policy several years antedated the war and has been entirely successful. If the United States were to embark upon a program of expenditure equal in proportion to its population, with that of the Australian government, the proposal would be to expend for the soldiers the sum of, not one hundred million dol- Lirs, but four billion dollars. With all the great unused lands of the country, all the latent patriotism which has been aroused by the war, and all our pride in our men in arms, it cannot be that the American people will be the only one of the progressive nations, great or small among the allies, which will not expend or loan a dollar in carrying out a national soldier settlement policy. Several American states are already lead- ing the way, appropriations having been made by some and in others provision for bond issues running into several millions are now auth- orized or awaiting an election. These laws, however, look forward in the main to cooperation with the United States under the plan now proposed. AMERICAN GRATITUDE. Our soldiers, sailors and marines are certainly entitled to our .i^ratitude andjiave it in abundant measure in our personal and public expressions. This, however, will turn cold and artificial unless it is followed up with a national policy somewhat in harmony with thos'e that are being adopted by other English-speaking governments; nor can we expect any other outcome than the loss of many of our young \eterans to other nations, whose words of gratitude are better sup- ported by deed unless our national policy shall materilaize. Such a policy is rapidly materializing and this government will, I believe, undertake a program which will be found sufficient. Address by Hodman Wiley, Commissioner of Public Roads for Kentucky. Subject: ''Good Roads." I consider it a great honor to be invited to make a talk on "Good Roads" on this occasion, when we are dealing with the broad subjects which affect the general welfare of this Commonwealth. I am indeed glad to know that all sensible people of this state, who naturally are interested in its upbuilding, have come to realize the fact that good roads are necessary before it is possible to have much development. In other words, tbe real development of any community, any county, any state, or any nation, follows instead of precedirg the building of roads. Tlie history of the world has been a history of transportation facilities. In the early times, the Med- iterranean served as a means of transportation and consequently we find that civilization centered there. Show me a county without good roads, a state without good roads, and I will show you a county or a state that is poor compared v/ith a county or state of equal size and equal resources that has good highways. Whether a nation is at war or peace, roads are necessary. The soldiers on the march must have good roads in order to make time and to save themselves from physical exhaustion, and you know that a nation with good highways is able almost at a moment's notice to send its armies to the front. They are necessary to send food, ammu- nition and reinforcements. In this world war from which we have just emerged, everyone is aware of the fact that the allies never for one moment neglected the highways. Thousands of engineers and hundreds of thousands of men were constantly kept busy building roads. Without quoting exactly, it is said that Napoleon, at the close of his career, stated that the roads that he had given to France would prove to be the greatest thing he had ever done. The Duke 102 of Wellington, when embarking upon a military campaign, stated to Ills superiors, ''What we need, my lords, is roads, roads, roads." And so with many other noted men. Our great President is a good roads enthusiast and is in a large measure responsible foi» our Federal Road Act. The same is true of the U. S. Secretary of Agriculture, and of all the cabinet officers. Governor A. O. Stanley is the greatest good road governor that Kentucky has ever had. The governors of all the states are now deeply interested in the road question. We find most states ready and glad to furnish sufficient money to build good highways. It is unnecessary for me to dwell upon the advantages of good roads before ^sucji ,a^ ^enjlightened audience. I would like to tell you somfe ^fnhe pVeblepi^ th&t confront the State Road Department of this state, and to^ ask 70U tg give us your assistance in this great work. ///" Jtr*est people for community organization and welfare. Better schools, proper salaries for teachers, the roads, agricultural development, farm and farm labor problems, the town loafer, law and order, in fact the 'whole range of topics affecting the civic and commercial welfare of town and county could be discussed and handled to the benefit of the entire community. The various depart- ments of our Goverment at Washington, our Agricultural Department at Frankfort, and the University of Kentucky at Lexington, are con- stantly issuing immensely valuable bulletins of great interest and value to every citizen. These might be discussed with special refer- ence to their adaptability to the respective communities. Farmers should be members of the commercial club along with the merchants and other town peole. A wonderful field is open to all citizens, men and women, to link up the interests of town and county by community organization for the mutual good of all interests of each and every county. A number of counties, county seats, towns and villages in our State are sadly behind those of similar population in respect to agri- culture, business and social conditions. Community uplift through community organization is the great need. A commercial club is the best means to do the work. THINGS TO DO. Tn general, in response to various in