Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1913-01-27

318
THE ALAMO LUMBER COMPANY

ial organizations. clergymen, settlement
workers, social workers, labor leaders
and refOrmers. These conferences de
veloped the feeling that a public com
mission would labor under a number Of
disadvantages, such as the fact that it
would be short lived; that its work
would be done publicly; that at best it
could hardly do more than present rec
concentrations. The conviction also grew
that the main. reason why more pernfan-
ent results had not been obtained by the
various organizations which had dealt
with the subject of the social evil during
the past ten or fifteen years was that
most of them were temporary. While
active, they materially improved the
situation, but as their efforts were re
Taxed, there came the inevitable return
to much the same conditions as before.
The forces of evil are never greatly
alarmed at the organization of inveSti-
eating or reform bodies, for they know
that they are generally composed Of busy
people, who can not turn aside from
their own affairs for any great length
of time to carry OH reforms, and that
sooner or later their efforts Will cease,
and the patient denizens of the under
world and their eXploiters can then re
appear and continue the traffic as form
erly.
So the conviction grew that in order
to make a real and lasting improvement
in conditions, a permanent organization
should be created. the continuation of
which would not be dependent upon Il
temporary wave of reform, nor upon the
life of any man or group of men, but
which would go on, generation after gen
GRAFTON, continuously making warfare
against the forces of evil. 1t also APP
pcared that a private organization
would have, among other advantages. a
certain freedom from publicity and from
political bias, which a publicly appoint
ed commission could not so easily avoid.
Therefore, as the initial step, i'll the
winter Of 1911 the Bureau Of Social
Hygiene was formed. Its present mem
bers are Miss Katharine Bcment Davis.
superintendent of the New York state
reformatory for women at Bedford Hills,
New York; Paul NJ. Warburg of the firm
Of Kuhn, Loeb & company; Starr j.
Murphy, of the New York bar; and John
ID. Rockefeller jr. As the york develops
new members may be added.
One of the first things undertaken by
the bureau was the establishment at
Bedford Hills, adjacent to the refOrma-
tory, of a laboratory of social hygiene,
under Miss Davis direction. In this
III I,I,u,4crr- ~ Il, ,,pnyornI "a Stt1y from,
the physical. mental, social and moral
side each person committed TO the re-
formatOry. This study will be carried
on by experts and each case will be kept
under observation from three weeks to
three months, as may be required. When
the diagnosis is completed, it is hoped
that the, laboratory will be III position
to recommend the treatment most likely
to reform the individual, or, if reform1-
ton is impossible, to recommend per
manent cuStOdial care. Furthermore.
reaching out beyond the individuals in
vOlved, it is believed that thus important
contributions may he made to Il fuller
knowledge of the conditions ultimately
responsible for vice. If this experiment
is successful. the principle 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.
In entering upon its lab0rs, the bu-
reau regarded ii Of fundamental import
ance to make a careful study of the social
evil in this country and in Europe, feel
ing that this problem, like any other
great and difficult one, can be intelligent
ly approached only by means Of i
thorough and complete knowledge of AL
the factors involved, as well rs the
methods and experiences Of other cities
and countries in dealing with it, Ar
rangementS were made, therefore, in the
early part Of last winter to secure the
services of George J. Kneeland. who had
directed the Chicago vice commission in
vestigati0n. Since that time, Mr.. Knee
land, with a corps of assistants has
been making 4 thorough and comprchcn-
Sive survey of the conditions Of vice in
New York city. This survey has covered
not only houses of prostitution. RaincS
Law hotels, disOrderlv saloons, cafes and
restaurants. massage parl0rs and other
places where vicious people congrcgatc,
but also the personal histories of some
two thousand prostitutes; and a study
Of all the case records for one wear of Il
great majority of the hospitals and dis
pcnSaries in New York city, with a view
~ CaantnlnInn tho npnN-nlnn.n nf