The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-30
CHILDREN OF STREET-LAND
Rootblacks, Peddlers, Newsies, Messengers, and Their
 Handicaps.
e7htIip Davis, Formerly Supervisor of Licensed Minors, Boston
 Public Schools.
11sxcansive seryice The Survey Press
 Bureau.l

e Many growing boys and girls lodter in the market places in search of food to supplement their meals. Some fill themselves with pickles, cakes and the refuse of the pushcart Chronic Indigestion is the only price these street children pay for this market Food. But the cost to the commun- ity i'm wasted effort to educate such groups of children, labelled backward pr indolent in school, while in real lty half nourishe ed, is greater than. that of the school luncheons now provided by some communities These find lngs are the result of the first orga- nized Attempt at supervising the life and labor Of boys and girls on the street
 Observation In Many Cities
 The work was underta.ken under Inc auspices of the Boston School Board, with the idea of discovering how seriously the labor of these street. traders .interferes with their school work It began with the appoint- Fnsa If a director to supervise the lieAg minors of Boston some Ehrss thousand newsboys. bootb1acks, peddIers, messengers. delivery boys, bag boys, wood piclxers who were Round everywhere on the streets, too often during school hours. It led &o visits to many cities in. order to find out what the children of Street. Land were doing and what was being done for them.
 E1V9TXW A0TG HLle5 1nVGSL81E1Oh SHOW ed the same problem and the same results While the children of Bos-3 Ion frequent the city dumps, those Of Baltinaore use the gutter as their p1ayground-sthe open sewer their IafaRhfIler brook of the Kindergarten story. The East Side of New York is so crowded that a vacant lot is a ll11xiary- Each side of the street is ipre-ernpted by pushcart peddlers hours before the children rise in the NT,fz cago Loop, one of the most congest- led business districts in the world, children were found playing and working and Ioafing in the midst of danger
 And likewise, although each scity may be singled out for some special phase of the street problem the data proved hat pertain quarters in all ci6ls deyelop the same street en- yfron ff4ert and the same street pro- duet Every juvenile court proves the game contention regard less of the nationality of the child and the coun-1 try from which he cam me- Close crow ded homes. offering little oppor-a varying degrees, undermining the basis of family life-these are urli-a versal causes driving boys and girls onto the streets
 Streets As Play
 Other investi gations. those of ten eInent house commissions, immigra- ton Commissions, city surveys, and especially recreation surveys all point to one conclusion: The street, though unfit for play is, neverthelesss the playground of nInety-five percent of the children of most American cities.
 HOW to extract the good from street life and suppress the evfls how to get the street to cooperate rather than compete with home and school are the great educational problems of twentieth century days.
 There are two distinct naovements: the first an. effort to take (and keep1 children off the streetss the second, an attempt to improve the conditions for children who are on the streets. The first movement has always f stimulated home and school reform and the demand for more play grounds It may we'll besaas Charlotte PesrkzusEEzfIInatn has argued for years, that reoKgauizing the home will dis pensa with numerous adJuncts which literally crowd out children. Wash $ days are certainly hard on children fWhysnotFlet the children use the so- a1ledspar1orsor sorAfront room as a. play zDo1n. on such days-ind eed every day. 1sothing could be more useless lthanS the parlor, generally crowded ls7ftl1 Ht1 if furniture and locked, while the chi dFen play in the gutters.
 Tb6 use .of the back yard, too of. AtAh 18Hn36 to the needs of garbage, iis az UT gsnti ast6he conversion of the lparIoR into nlayroom. Roof gardens are sfm1layly possible. In the just l1y. called lung b1ocl<s". where tene- 4nnerdS a1Ees Jamaneds in, side to side, of. 5 ftan4ntraz4zzg Q party wall, a roof gar dens e0u1d run from. end to end thus resSoxfug 1of t1tsr children nearly every hnch cesthe3tenemeut took from Etl1ezn-
 CEaInre of zHToezers Who Work One of theasufest ways of taking .T.s eQ Az Itetreess lis to return mothers to their homes. The movement for widows pensfonssi is due to a growing convic- f5on thevchf1d f1dren of a wage-earn- zng widow, wnoa are either locked up in Eh@ house or locked out on the street.. may eventually cost the state more than a pension. But what of a working mother who is not a widow? IS she better able to look after the children while out washing or scrub ibing7 Is a. drunken husband who ahifts4 thes burden of support on his fw1Ge any more useful to the home hhansa dead husband State aid for such mothers is gaining ground in Eg1ixts-af yerfye-co4npeIs them to leave the honnes the obvious remedy is to remove poverty itself.'' The edghtzhour day which gives working parents more time for homes and children Is also a wise economic ex- pedaent and a social necessity.
 As the kdndergartens effectively take off the streets in the morning thousands of little children under compulsory school age, so the rapid conversion of schools into social cen sters isr now taking off the streets at right the youth above the Compulsory age Four hundred social centers 1ave been opened in the United States within a decade, with a phe- nonenaI attendance and a multitude of activities.
 Tn line with the second movement. to improve conditions for children on szs7e streets, is to close certain side etreets to through traffic and set