Although the chamber of commerce initiated the work of Americanization in Syracuse, in a broad-minded way, it worked itself out of a job and turned over the control of the problem to the municipality, believing that the city was less likely to incur any suspicion of a partisan basis. It thus changed its position from being the parent of the movement to that of becoming a distant relative.

The foreign-born employee spends more time in the factory, shop, or store than in any other place. His health and even his life to some extent is in the hands of the manager of the plant in which he is at work. The ethical and economical part of Americanization should not be sundered. There remains a vast field for correlation of these forces by the chamber of commerce and other civic agencies.

USING THE WOMEN'S CLUBS

MRS. PERCY V. PENNYPACKER, HONORARY PRESIDENT
GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS

I fully believe that there is no greater duty before this conference than to present a sane, practical, comprehensive plan of work to the organized womanhood of the country. Such a plan must be scientific without being too technical and must be presented to the club women sympathetically, dramatically, and persistently. It must be presented sympathetically because the trained worker does not always realize the power of the volunteer force represented in an organized body of club women.

The trained worker should not expect from the volunteer worker just what she would from the person who has had all the advantages of training; but, on the other hand, she should not undervalue what the volunteer can give. The volunteer has learned lessons in the school of life that some experts have not; she has a certain practical contact with the community life about her that renders her invaluable. We have preached year in and year out that there is nothing so dangerous as ignorance at work, and we would like to make every woman's organization do this, too.

Women have proved, during the war, that they like to work under the Government's direction, so if we have the Government at the head of this movement it will be a tremendous incentive to women all over the land to do their best work.

LIBRARIES: THE FRIEND OF THE FOREIGN BORN PREPARED BY JOHN FOSTER CARR; READ BY MISS THERESA HITCHLER

In some respects the library has a far greater opportunity to be an aid to the foreign-born than do the schools, because being friendly and helpful its aid is oftentimes less formal and more inviting. It is open throughout the year, it makes no strenuous demands on a man after a hard day's work, and it welcomes those who think themselves too old to go to school. The library brings the immigrant in effective touch with American democracy and American ideals and helps destroy the impression of heartless commercialism that many of our immigrants continually assert is the main characteristic of our civilization.

Nearly 800 public libraries are taking part in the movement to aid the foreign-born. In New York City, with its 43 branches, those branches having the largest so-called immigrant membership lead all others in circulation. The use of books in foreign languages has increased so rapidly that their circulation now reaches nearly 700,000 a year. The results have been so pleasing that the supply of foreignlanguage books has been increased 30 per cent in the last two years. Once the foreign-born reader enters the library he needs personal attention to have the simple rules given him in his own language, to have the different rooms explained. He can not use the index cards nor understand the mysteries of registration. They may be brought in by various devices, publicity and service to classrooms being handy ones.

PUBLIC-HEALTH NURSE IN AMERICANIZATION

MRS. BESSIE HAASIS, EDUCATIONAL SECRETARY NATIONAL ORGANIZATION

FOR PUBLIC-HEALTH NURSING

The public-health nurse enters the home of the foreign-born at a time when there is trouble. Service is needed and needed badly. Her uniform proclaims her as a worker, and to the men and women who have toiled in workshop or field this is a passport to confidence. Those who come from countries where ministry to the sick is the function of the church recognize in the uniform the added sanction and beneficence of religious service. It is their thought that the priest might have sent her.

Nine times out of ten her visits bring immediate and tangible benefit. A few simple dressings for the burned hand and the father is able

to return to work in three or four days. Once the gratitude of the family and its confidence is gained there is no subject on which they will not ask and accept advice. Herein lies the opportunity of the public-health nurse to win the family over to such American standards and habits as are better than their own. There is no reason why the public-health nurse's advice should be limited to matters of health. Her aim is to remedy not only the case of illness, but whatever is wrong with the family. The nurse can get greater results and sooner through the children. The amount of time it takes to teach one foreign-born mother how to properly care for her baby will teach a class of 20 little girls the same knowledge. The children can convince the mother, especially when the nurse works with both.

BOYS' AND GIRLS' ORGANIZATIONS

BURDETTE G. LEWIS, COMMISSIONER OF INSTITUTIONS, NEW JERSEY

We should welcome boys' gangs and function them for the purpose of Americanization. Some of the things we may do are: Select the best out of all cultures and use it as a basis of our educational work; link up our educational and recreational systems; see to it that the schools teach our boys and girls how to make a living, as well as how to read and speak English; recognize juvenile delinquency as a family affair and turn our children's court into domestic relations'

courts.

We should take the finger prints of all offenders, whether they be young or old, so that no one may make a joke of the laws of the land by falsifying about their identity. We should utilize the boys who organize the bottle-fight gangs and the girls who form peculiar cliques to bring home to their parents the benefits provided at the childwelfare stations in our cities. We can use the country boy and girl's desire to associate as a great force for revivifying American rural life. We can have the boys and girls bring their parents to school to see the motion pictures which we now use in teaching history, geography, and other studies. The boys and girls can be used to renew on American soil that association of child and parent in recreational activities so characteristic of many European nations.

We can introduce these foreign-born boys and girls to their own traditional games, such as Italian dancing, Japanese kite flying, and Bohemian wrestling. There are the Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls to be used for instruction in personal hygiene.

DEMONSTRATION AGENT'S RÔLE IN MOVEMENT

MISS GERTRUDE VAN HOESEN, EXTENSION WORK WITH WOMEN, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

District organizations in the cities and community organizations in the rural sections have made it possible for the home demonstration agents of the Department of Agriculture to reach the foreign-born woman. In many places each racial group is represented on the community or district committee by intelligent leaders of that group, who are able to articulate the needs of the non-English-speaking mother and housekeeper. The foreign clergy, the social workers, the visiting nurses, and the public school officials all offer opportunities for making such contacts in behalf of demonstration agents.

In many States the leaflets of the Food Administration during the war were translated in various languages. While there has been some criticism of this move, in numerous cases the very sight of the conservation receipts printed in her native tongue has been the entering wedge for developing the woman's confidence in the home demonstration agent. One of the most important things accomplished by the demonstration worker has been the closer understanding given the old American of the habits and needs of the new American, thereby inspiring enthusiasm and friendliness instead of apathy and antagonism. Social community leadership is absolutely essential to the success of any organization seeking to back up the home demonstration agent, and there is a wide field for the development of the home demonstration project leader. The highest function of the home demonstration agent is to solve problems, that the women may not only learn how to feed their families, but feed them accordingly.

CONGRESS OF MOTHERS AND PARENT-TEACHER BODIES PREPARED BY MRS. FREDERIC SCHOFF, PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THESE BODIES 1

There are obstacles which must be overcome in order to secure the mothers. The first one is the lack of encouragement of their husbands in regard to attending meetings. There seems to be a prejudice among foreign people against women going out or joining in club work. An important means we have found has been the placing of leaflets

1 Presented by Mrs. Joseph P. Munford, Vice President.

in schools where the fathers are learning English showing them the necessity of having their wives learn also.

The women feel that in their own countries they have brought up children successfully and that they do not need to be told everything. By learning the good things that our foreign-born people know, and showing them that they have some things to teach us, their attitude is entirely changed. We consider this is a very important part of the success in Americanization work.

The Parent-teacher Association, because it takes in all children in our public schools, has been a splendid medium for organizing foreign mothers.

The Americanization department of the Bureau of Education can do nothing better than to emphasize among the foreign men of this country the absolute necessity of keeping mothers up to the rest of the family in knowledge of our language and our customs.

WHAT THE STATE AND NATION CAN DO TO HELP THE COMMUNITY

GEORGE H. BELL, FORMER SECRETARY CALIFORNIA IMMIGRANT AND

HOUSING COMMISSION

To our way of thinking, the efforts of the communities are largely wasted if they are not based on uniform standards which have been so correlated that each community is doing its share in developing a unified State and Nation. Organization is the first step that the State and Nation must take to help the community. Each State must establish a central commission with the responsibility for developing and executing a State program of Americanization, properly coordinated with the national program. Secondly, the National Government must establish a central agency charged with the full power of a broad national Americanization program carried on in coöperation with the State. I am authorized to present this plan as the suggestion of the California Immigration and Housing Commission.

One has only to point to the lack of a clear, definite, authorized Americanization program during the past two years as proof of the need for one. A State commission which is to coöperate with an official central Americanization headquarters should be democratic and made up of citizens who have had actual experience with immigrants and who would represent various viewpoints in connection with the problem. The State can afford to keep experts on the various lines, even if the communities cannot do so, and make them available