Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-11-06
SURVEY OF CITY IS FAVORED
Church Brotherhoods Impressed
by DIR. ArOnovici's Exposition.
Nincty-Thrce Men Unanimous for Pro-
ject which VIII Cost SI,IOO-An-
other Meeting to he Held
This Evening.

the city IN the basement of the College
street Church last night on the subject
of social survey for Burlington. After
tine address and an extended discussion,
secret ballot was taken to ascertain the
true sens" OF the meeting as to the adj
Visibility OF procuring a survey of the
city. The result of the ballot was that
% ballots were Gast-which was practically
the number present-and of these every
one favored the taking of immediate
steps to secure a survey.
! The brotherhoods gathered for a supper
at $3.50 o'clock. After supper they were
addressed briefly by DR.. +. w. Sears.
who introduced Dr. Aronovici in the most
laudatory manner.
DR.. Aronovici speaks English with a
foreign accent. but very well. He out
! lined the general trend of city conditions
which make slums a problem not only
/ in great cities but in smaller cities and
i'm cities the size of Burlington. He then
told of conditions which his superficial
investigation had given him reason to be
lieve existed in Burlington and of the
possibilities of cleaning up the city. Next
! he told OF the nature of survey work in
some Of It's branches, He then told of how
it could he made effective and particular
" stressed the point that without vigor-
Gus following M by the citizens, all the
surveys in the world would accomplish
/ little
| He said that Of ali the people living in
! the United States one-fifth are living on
/ sixty-two thousandths Of the territory
! and one-third on one-thousandth part of
the territory. The immigrants have
swelled the numbers of our large cities
with this influx of new inhabitants
comes more complex social problem
/ Immense human waste is caused by deadly
living conditions by which millions OF
hours of labor and all the accomplish
ment which might be gained from the
effort of mutitudes of lives are lost
Lepcr-spots called slums are the dis
! trihutinC centres of disease.
This is not confined to New York but
/ is spreading through the other cities
! Conditions in smaller cities reproducing
conditions in great centcrs are constant
! lN sprnginE up. He mentioned condi-
tions in Salem and Springfield. not he
! cause these cities A." bad but because
! they illustrate the typical situation. He
4 hazarded the statement that not a city
of ovcr twenty thousand population in
I the 9stern part of the United States was
| entirely without its Stun problem. He
called attention to the rather surprising
census fact that the small cities have
! been Increasing faster in the United
States than the large cities. He laid
this to the over-capitalzation of the land
in large cities which is driving the in
dustrics with their hundreds of employees
/ to the smaller places.
The tendency is double one. The
! immigrant goes to the great city The
/ trend of industry out of the great city
into smaller cities where land is less ex-
pensve carries him with it.
! LOCAL CONDITIONS.
Turning his talk to Burlington, he
spoke a few words in praise of the city
in point of location and in other re-
spects. He said. however: you can
take prize among communities with
newly developed bad housing conditions"
/ He said that sanitary conditions on the
inside of some houses which he had Wis
tied even in his short sojourn here We're
such as to cause grave concern He re-
marked on the unreasonableness of COM
munitics not able to house what they
have.
| He then turneo to the social evil. He
claimed to have been accosted seven
times in one evening here. He said he
had talked with cabmen. He said: "If
it We're not for the fact that your police
are Inefficient and that you as citizens
are inefficient your hackmen would not
ply the trade they do" After more
about Burlington at which many resi-
dents shook their heads. he turned to
the explanation of what survey is
\ survey is a social stock taking
| social inventory. He said that to say
that we know the social conditions about
! us Just because we have lived here for
years is In itself a confession of ignor-
ance He said that even an expert work
! er by Just living here without making
any Investigation could not begiv to
! know the conditions which really exist
He said: ''lf YOU take a survey / adj
! wise investigating conditions of i'm
morality, but first | should suggest that
you take up bad housing conditions" He
explained this by intimating that immoral
conditions must come largely from bad
home conditions
He said in closing that men of Burlng-
/ ton must make up their minds to put
their shoulders to the wheel, if survey
were to do any good in this city
HOW SURVEY IS MADE
Professor Emerson asked for details as
! to the methods pursued In making a sur
vey, and DR.. Aronovici explained at
| length how tactful. trained workers with
| definite statistics to get and cards to fiji
out would do their work. He said the
study would be confined to the part of
! our population which seemed to need it,
| In al bo
vestigation of about ZOO people, or 300
! families Typical or particularly striking
| conditions are photographed. An advisory
| committee of men informed of local con
ditions is constantly consulted
| questioned about the method of sup
great factors in the work were propcr
| vigilance of the probation officer and
better supervision Of hotels He said that
rooms We're being rented over restaurants
! in a way which should be suppressed He
spoke of "A large amount of illegal selling
j, y. Barss of the Vermont Industrial
school at Vergennes, when called upon
to corroborate some of Mr.. Aronovici's
| statements, made some assertions even
more startling
SURVEY is ORDERED.
! Prof A. X. Clifford read a report of the
committee under whose auspices Dr.
| AronoviCi was induced to come here
In order to prove the sentiment of the