The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-09
SOCIAL SURVEYS
Facts of City Conditions Neces- sary As Basis for Civic
 Progress

Shelby M. Harrisou, Director, De-
 partn1errts sS1rveys and. Exhibits Rus
 sell Sage Foundation.
 (FcEclustve Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 Know Your City, is a slogan that stands for the new civic point of view. Facing hard facts for the sake of first step in making our cities, towns and villages better places in which to live The day of boasted bdgness, Of superficial pride and of unintelli- gent compIacency is passing. The day of the social survey as a scientific way a city may know itself is at hand. Leading citizens and organizations, who once looked asIance at expos ures'' and ttmuck-raking'' have come to understand the constructive value of a survey and now take active part in, efforts to have one made in their locality
 Since 1909, when the first reports ap- peared of the Pittsburgh Survey, the first undertaking of the kind in this country, cities in two-thirds of the States have become interested. Near ly a score of cities have actually com pIeted surveys. So great became the interest, and so urgent the desire for scientific tK1orouhguess in the work, that the Russell Sage Fo1nda tfon last October organized a Department of Surveys and Exhibits. In these nine months over one hundred cities-from Halifax to San Diego, and At1anta. to Indian Head, askatchewan-have ask ed for surveys or advice in starting local survey movements. Tn many cases requests are backed by local commercial organizations, chambers of commerce and boards of trade. Bus mess men. are recognizing the conner cial value of healthier, better and -&cJD DIo 7eyo for all the city's dwellers.
 The essence of the survey idea. rests on a recognition of important changes in human relationships due to tremen- dous ipduEtTfaI deXelOpnent, the city ward r1oyenlent irnrn fgratfon, he ir= Aux of men dn industry and other causes. With these changes have come new problems calling for new diagnosis and study to learn whether the old machinery for individual and social advance is fitting the new needs, whether the community has been keep ing abreast of scientific progress We have been experimenting with instru- mentS to get at, register and inter pret the situation The creation of the new department in the Russell Sage Foundation may be regarded as recognizing in a new and larger way than heretofore the survey as an or gantzed method of social discovery and the exhibit as an agency for popu- lar interpretation Their usefulness has been demonstrated as means to be employed in auditing present effi- cteney, in securing corrective action and in constructive planning for the future.
 The responses of the Department of Surveys and Exhibits to the requests from cities have been determined by several factors-chiefly the timeliness of the proposed survey and it's prob able influence on other cities As to tIneIiness, consideration is made of the probability of the project being adequately financed and of dts receiv- ing representative local backing. If a city cannot see sufficient value in a survey to be willing to pay for it, es- pecta1Iy when all overhead charges are borne by an outside organization, 1t is considered not ready for a. sur vey.
 Moreover, the undertaking should be a community enterprise, aimed to ad- vance the well being not of any par ticular interest or set of interests, but of the community as generally as pos sible. The survey is an effort to- ward a democratic solution of local