El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-12-29
Quiet Zones Are Sought
Street Noises Prove Serious HandI-
cap to Study and Health IN
Cities; Remedy Is Sought.
. d Erederic D. Rnnkin-


! wv Next to the patients in the hos
j pitfalls, the children and teachers
in the public schools suffer most from
street noises. often they are not aware
Of it and simply accept it as natural
( condition The Investigations of the
! antinoise crusades have revealed many
| conditions which materially interfere
/ with the efficiency of school work. In
| Brooklyn a public school is located
| whistle Of pneumatic stone cutting
| machinery, accompanied by the blows
! of the mauet penetrate every corner
/ of the school building and every bit
| of instruction given has to be keyed
| to a pitch above such noise.
In Schenectady, eight out OF the 70
] school buildings are located along
! streets where trolley cars continually
/ furnish noise. In rural section IN
Ohio, a schoolhOuse is located near the
I turn of a trolley track. Each time
| car passes around that curve the
! teacher has to pause momentarlly Pc
! cause she cannot be heard above the
/ noise. The cars pass on an average OF
| once every ten minutes. If each car
( causes the loss of a minute of time the
/ aggregate amounts to six minutes an
! hour or over half an hour each day
Causes Partial Deafness.
] Deaf persons have always an air OF
I stupidity because they DO not near
/ what is going on around them SchoOl-
I feet reduce all of the children to
state of partial deafness. They cannot
hear all that the teacher says, ana the
, strain Of trying to do so prevents them
| from assimilating it thoroughly Edu-
Gators who are now studying the sub
/ ject connect four distinct wastes with
| the penetration Of outside noises INTO
the school room. The teachers time
/ is wasted in trying to impart instruc-
ton which the children DO not hear.
| The childrens time is wasted, as IS
also the vital energy Of both teacher
and children. These entail the addl-
tiOnal waste of school money when
does not bring about a sufficient re
turn for the expenditure. Records nave
now been made which prove that the
attainment of children who attend
schools in noisy locations falls short
of those who have not this disadvan-
tage to contend with.
seek Quiet Localities Now.
In the selection of the locations OF
new buildings, attention is now being
paid to the probability Of traffic and
noise producing agencies in its proX-
| unity In buildings already IN use the
elimination of much of this NOISE may
be brought about The establishment
of quiet zones around school buildings
was taken up in New York city by the
Society for the Suppression OF Unnec-
essarY Noises Immediately after the
establishment of the quiet ZONES
around hospitals. Much Improvement
has been made, although a great deal
remains to be accomplished.
In some localities, it was decided
that hard pavements exaggerated the
traffic noise and soft sound resistant
material such as asphalt, has been
substituted. A diversion OF traffic pc
tween the hours Of $3.50 and $3.50 o'clock
has also been possible in some places
where a recognition of the Importance
of the matter has been brought about.
The keeping of the street car tracks
and cars in better order is another
= l. 49, Ell
greasing of the curves near the school
houses lessons the noise materially and
is being rigidly enforced in a number
of places, including several rural OF
suburban localities. The starting or
a car from the barn with a pounding
flat wheel can be made a punishable
offence for the company OWn1nE II
The useless changing of the bells oy
the motorman can be abolished.
Quiet Zones Essential.
The desira bility OF quiet zones
around schools is not confined to the
public schools. DR.. Nicholas Murray
Butler. president of Columbia univeT-
sity, New York, has Joined heartily in
the movement not only for its general
good effect, but because he is daily
brought to face the need of some pro-
lection from the noise surrounding the
university. The traffic along Amster-
dam avenue where the institution IS
located, is conducted with so much
noise that sometimes it is necessary 10
AS this is not a crowded business sec
ton. DR.. Butler is urging the fact that
much Of this noise could be abated.
The public school physicians ire
quentIy have found cases of headache,
nausea and other ailments due to the
foul air of the schOolrooms. The air IS
bad because the street noise makes 1t
Impossible for any work to be carried
on with the windows raised Conse-
quently, teachers and children suffer
from the hours spent in unventilated
rooms.
Where elevated roads pass a school
building, rigid laws should be enforced
compelling the use of every possible
sound deadening device. Experiments
which have recently been conducted
show how much Improvement is pos
sible by this means in sections where
the relocation Of the school building is
out of the question. In Poughkeepsie,
a school building is located almost IN
der a bridge The adoption of sound
reducing methods upon the part of the
railroad company materially mitisated
the noise.
Since the suppression of necessary I
noise is largely a matter of education,
the aid of the school children can be
called into play for the general good
Of the community. When they are once
made to realize how much they suffer
from the effect Of noise nuisances at J
a time during which they should have
quiet study and instruction, they are
more than willing to lend their aid to-
wards protecting other people from a
like affliction-
In the public schools of a number Of !
large cities, antinoise brigades are be- (
ing organized by the school children
and their effect goes far towards
maintaining the quiet of the COM
munity. The first of these was organ
lied in New York, by Mrs. Rice. who
has been indefatigibIe in her efforts
for securing municipal quiet She en-
listed the active interest Of the late !
Mark Twain. who became the leader
of the antinoise brigades of New York. !
His effective little talks to the chill
dren upon the subject had wide in
fluence.
The antinoise movement is being !
strongly taken up by the leagues Of |
good citizenship wherever they exist !
In a Chicago public school an anti |
noise meeting was recently held by the |
children themselves, the general sub !
iect being, How many noises do you
hear every day which are not neCes- /
sary2" The children were evidently !
awake early in the morning to make {
observations. A little girl reported, I
when our milkman comes into the I
apartment house he carries the bottles I
loose on an iron tray so that they I