New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-15
EXPLORER NOW
Miss Smith to Investigate in
Ramapo Mountains.
WILL TRACE DEGENERACY
Mrs. E. H. Hartman Finances
Investigation Among Noun
taineers of New York.

A blond little, slender little thing she
is, with a nose that tits up considerably.
and soft, ingenious manner OF speak
ing-and yet she is going up into the
| Ramapo Mountains, among folk who live
precariously by hunting and berry picking
and cutting hoop poles, to gather staus-
tics about eugenics and the comparative
influence of heredity and Of environ
ment, and a few things like that.
Her name is Miss Florence Smith, ana
young as she looks-she was graduated
from Cornell with the class of OS-she
has done a lot Of sociological Work III
and around Philadelphia. Just now she
is fresh from course OF eugenics unoer
DR.. Charles b. Davenport, at the Gar
negie Institute for Experimental EVolu-
ton, at Cold Spring Harbor, n. Y. she
is one Of the field workers for the state
Charities Aid Association, and her salary
for the fob she Is to undertake now Is
contributed by Mrs. Edward II. Harri-
man. who has the Ramapo mountaineers
as neighbors.
Miss Smith SAYS that her interest In
eugenics arose from the things she saw
in her work around Philadelphia.
OPPORTUNITIES in Country.
81 did a good deal OF rural sociological
work around Philadelphia" she ex-
planned. land in rural work you can see
and learn things about families. as you
can't In crowded cities. In the country
or In small villages you can trace Ins
histories Of families, you can learn ABOUT
Their origin, you can get at records Sity
| populations are so shifting that IL wouio
be out OF the question TO make them inc
subject OF q study OF this sort
Gathering statistics isn't the sole pur-
| nose nor the chief end of Miss Smith
| tourney to the Ramapo Mountains.
You see," said Miss Mary Vida clark
acting superintendent OF the State Char-
fly Aid Associations agency for placus
out children, for O good while we nave
| oeen finding homes for children. We are
now carrying on systematic enort 10
| find whether we are doing 1t wisely
The idea is to study the families OF chill
dren whose names are reported to US oy
our county agents as available for adop-
ton. their history and their characters
tics so that we can select for them the
| homes best suited for their development.
Then, too, the people who adopt children
want 10 know something Of their history,
and have a right to.
Sixteen Agents at Work.
We have sixteen young women In the
| field now as county agents. From their
reports Il looks as II the greater part OIL
the children thrown under our care come
| from a limited number OF Degenerate
families They come, largely, from the
Hudson River district, and that Is where
Miss Smith is going TO make her inVesu-
cations.
I'VE wrote last September to Mrs.
Hartman. knowing that she and her
daughter, Mrs c. c. Rumsey, were in
| terested I'm these questions and In the
mountalneers up there, and Mrs. Harm
man agreed to help pay the salary OF an
investigator. SO Miss Smith is going
Rockland County and Orange County
will be the first scenes OF Miss Smith
labors. and she Will begin this week She
says she doesn't think II will be the least
bit hard to get at the families.
II will Just pose as an idler, Interested
In the affairs and the family histories OF
the people," she said, "and it's never hard
TO get them to talk. or course, l sha'n't
lust 20 about the thing helter-skelter
But when one OF the county agents says
to me, This child's mother is said to be
in an institution for tho feeble-minded,
It's brothers are epileptics and | believe
its father died insane'-why, then | shall
get TO work, find out the truth, the why's
and wherefores OF these things"