The Green Forest tribune., 1913-01-31
STUDIES BIG PROBLEM
BUREAU OF SOCIAL HYGIENE IS
 EXPLAINED.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., Tells of It's Origin, Work and Plans for the Investigation of Vice
 Conditions.

NeW 1OEh. Jan. Gf.-lD OfQGr that the public might better understand the Bureau of Social Hygiene, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., today gave out a statement explaining the origin, work and plans of that institution. The bureau, he said, came into existence about two pears ago as a result of the work of special grand jury ap- pointed to investigate the white slave traffic in New York city. This jury recommended that a public comm1s sion be appointed to study the social evil
 MT. Rockefeller was foreman of that grand jury and he thereafter gave the subject deep thought and conferred with a large number of lead ing men and women. These confer ences, says MT. Rockefeller, ''devel oped the feeling that a public commis sion would labor under number 0 disadvantages, such as the fact that il would be short lived; that it's work would be done publicly; that at bes t could hardly do more than present ANSOIAAIlI ICiAN6lLlOl1O. 6O IDG COlN lCllOh grew that in order to make a real and lasting improvement ill conditions, permanent organization should be ereat ed, the continuation of which would not be dependent upon a tempo rary wave of reform, nor upon the life of any man or group of men, but which would go on, generation after genera ton, continually making warfare against the forces of evil. It also ap- p2afed that a private. organization would have, among other advantages, a certain freedom from publicity and from political bias, which a publicly appointed commission could not so easily avoid.
 Therefore, as the initial step, in the winter of 1911 the Bureau of So- cial Hygiene was formed. It's pres ent members are Miss Katherine Bem- ent Davis, superintendent of the New York state Reformatory for Women at Bedford Hills, N Y: Paul NJ. War burg, of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.,; o,arr J. Murphy, of the New York bar, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. As the work develops new members may be added.
 One of the first things undertaken by the bureau was the establishment at Bedford Hills, adjacent to the re- formatory, of a laboratory of social hygiene, under Miss Davis direction. In this laboratory it is proposed to study from the physical, mental, social and moral side each person committed to the reforma ory This study will be carried on by experts and each case will be kept under observation for from three weeks to three months, as may be required When the diag- nosis is completed, it is hoped that the laboratory will be in position to rec ommend the treatment most likely to reform the individual, or, if reforma- tion is impossible, to recommend per manent custodial care. Furthermore, reaching out beyond the individuals involved, it is believed that thus inn portant contributions may be made to a fuller knowledge of the conditions ultimately responsible for vice. If this experiment is successful the prin- ciple may prove applicable to all classes of criminals and the conditions precedent to crime, and lead to lines of action not only more scientific and humane but also less wasteful than those at present followed"
 That it's work might be done intelli- gently the bureau employed George J. Kneeland to make a comprehensive survey of vice conditions in New York, and Abraham FleXner to study the so- cial evil in Europe, and their reports are now being prepared. These studies will be followed by others in various American cities, and it is the hope of the bureau that, based upon all of them, may be devised a practical plan for dealing with the social evil.
 In conclusion AIr Rockefelle's state ment says: Tt cannot be too strongly emphasized that the spirit which domi- hates the work of the bureau is not sensational or sentimental or hysteri- cal; that it is not spirit of criticism of public officials but that it is es- sentially a spirit of constructive sug gestion and of deep scientific as well as humane interest in a great world problem"