The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1914-03-10
STELzLE'S IDEAS
ON TOWNS NEEDS
Qaxs'COnCIusiOns from Report
of Social Survey.

W oVVtut outiVJs
Under the general topic what is
the matter with Morristown" the Rev.
Charles ]. Stelzle gave the results of
social survey of Morristown Sun
day evening at community mass
meeting held in the First Presby-
terian church. The survey was taken
under the auspices of the unlUed
churches of the town and upon the
platform with Mr.. Stelzle were the
| pastors of the Methodist, Presbyter-
| ian, Episcopal and Baptist churches.
| The survey had been under way tn
past six months under the supervls-
/ ion of G. b. st. John, explained Mr.
/ Stelzle. 1t shows that Morristown
has as possibly its greatest problem
the foreign born population. OF ma
tive born the per centage is IL, of
foreign born, 81 and of negroes, g..
The speaker coined a phrase when
he said the town was suffering from
absentee residentatus' that
many of the people of the town have
homes in New York as we'll and know
more of the New York slums than of
Morristown's poverty. He sketched
some of the conditions along these
lines as found by the survey investi-
gators and commended the churches
and other organizations of the town
for what they are doing, yet called
attention to the need of increased eff
ficiency, case in point being the
Young Mems Christian association
L w fi,,n ,1a b,,t NTH
membership of which a very small
proportion are workingmen, the very
class, Mr.. Stelzle declared, the as
sociation should reach.
He told of the school system, how
there are 1913 pupils of whom 12 pei
cent. are on half time. Though the
town has not had a normal growth ol
population in the past ten years, ,he
percentage being but IL, someone
had been caught mapping when sc
Large a proportion of children are or
half time and though he was tod 6
| building is to be built when IL is
decided whether it shall be a h 81
school or a grammar school he urged
that the decision be reached quickly
He told of there being 160 cases
of truancy last year, or II per cent
of the total and said this indicated
leak or waste in the school system
He asked if the schools are interest
ing enough in every particular to at
tract the children. OF 1877 persons
ten years old or over per cent. art
illiterate while of the popula ito / o
the state but 8 per cent. of the tota
are illiterate. OF the negroes 10 PEI
cent. of those in the town are litter
ate. There being no manual train
ing, domestic science or agrlcultllr,
courses in the high school he de
plored and declared that the curricu
: lum, like that of other public schools
Is fitted for the 6 per cent. of tn,
} children who graduate and go to col
lege and not for the "a per cent
who, after graduation, enter shopl
and stores to make their livelihood
The schools, he declared, do no
leach the dignity of manual labor
Some adjustment of the curriculum
is needed and more publicity shoult
be given the work of the schools.
Mr. Stelzle told of tenements, un
sanitary conditions of houses ant
backwards particularly in the Italiar
: district. The death rate in Morris
town he asserted to be so per cent
higher than that of New York city
He told of the many deaths of chill
dren under five years of digestive
troubles and of pneumonia and sait
. the remedy was one of education
that the foreign born mothers mus
be taught how to care for their chill
dren.
In taking up the police work he
said that last year there was one ar
rest for every sixteen persons. OF
the arrests 16 per cent. were oi
colored people. For disorderly con
duct and for drunkenness and disorder
the arrests aggregated 1871 per cent
of which so per cent. were of labor
ing men while 25 per cent. of the ar
rests of single week were made on
Saturday night.
He scored the people for self-com-
pl'acency--. and said that conditions
cannot be remedied by outside agencies
but must be taken up by Morristown
people who must regard these prob
lens as affecting the entire COM
munity and not some particular Sec
ton OF which they are not a part.
There was needed the social mes
sage of Jesus Christ carried into the
foreign sections and into the homes
of poverty and distress and not SO
many ice cream socials and oyster
suppers. The church, he declared,
Was not an end but the means to an
end-the people are the end.
The church was crowded at the
mass meeting, all the protestant
churches of the town dispensing with
their regular evening services. Fred
eric r. Kellogg presided and the
Rev. Philemon F. Sturges read the
lesson and offered prayer, the Rev.
Ralph B. Urmy, d. D., announced the
dinner and the opportunity for those
who desired to contribute towards
the payment of the $40O which the
survey cost, and the Rev. Merle II.
Anderson who pronounced the bene-
diction. The music was particularly
fine, the singing being led by the
vested choir of the church together
with the girls choir.
At the meeting in the Young Mems
Christian association following the
supper Monday evening DR.. Francis
H. Glazebrook, of the board of health
and Superintendent of Schools J. Bur
ton Wiley took issue with some of
the statements made by Mr.. Stelzle
at the meeting Sunday evening.