The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-12
CIVIC NEEDS IN THE SUBURB
By EMILY s. JOHNSON

Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Buream.
 The larger cities of the country. walk ing up to the chaotic condition of their reforms and charities. have been having themselves organized and "surveyed' The suburbs go unsurveyed It is, in tho sub nrbs that the charitable societies are sell dom couples together. seldom try for team work. It is in the suburbs that the la dies aid society refuses to perform any thing but solo part in the music of the spheres. making it's independent, in- dependable contribution to the commun- ity. raising money wildly and spending 1t wildly
 For no ladies aid society-the term is used generically and not limited to any church organization--has common standard or common ainn with any other. Trained workers do not have any thing to do with spending the funds for trained workers are not employed. There IS no attempt to plan ahead toward inn proving next years town. All the money that Is not spent. for the sectarian uses of one or another congregation Is devot- ed to giving food, medicine or clothing to the very poor or to nursing the sick Essentially, this is the old-fashioned wom- ans way of 'doing good"
 A Wrong Start
 The truth is that women got started wrong years ago. The trouble began with the Pilgrim Fathers in the cabin of the Mayflower. The day long, while tho men looked forward, planned constructively for the future. the women sat together mending up torn garments, knitting up raveled stockings cutting over old clothes for the children, and saving all the tiny scraps of fabric by making patchwork An1 fop certainty, pieced her own material all into her own quilt. minded her own task Teamwork in mending Elder Brewsters' doublet was unthought of. Cole. Car yer and Bradford patches were never pooled to make one quilt. Regular laid society," work, right at the start of things
 Wor!en have been a very long time learning the principle of cooperation. the multiplied power there is in community of effort. Some of them in this country are learning 1t now. The labor unions and the suffrage movement are grinding it into them day by day. Certainly, mod ern industrial life is shaping the long dormant instinct for group work. Some groups already have sense of identity, of pcwer, of purpose.
 Millions Wasted
 Now, just as in Elder Brewsters day. women's vital activity Is the nurture of their own households, the safeguarding of children. the nursing of the sck-this whether by their own hands directly or by the maintenance of hospitals and nursing societies. In work for children and sick people. women's societies raise and dispense millions of dollars a year in this country. Some other millions, . women raise for churches. There are some millions of the total wasted. some worse than wasted. The spending lacks Q yv yyn a nd hp n rd n ultimate end.
 have in mind an industrial suburb with meagre opportunity for recreation. Had 5000 been spent to provide some wholesome, democratic desirable place of amusement for working boys and girls the town would save amazingly on ths court costs and community costs of juve- nile fines.
 Recently, a group of women in Wilkes Barre, Pa.. published one issue of a daily paper of that city as wonlans edi- tion. Women's work in community life wa especially to be sought after. But the more one travelled, talked. saw, the more one realized that constructive civic work In tho suburbs could not be writ ten about-because 1t wasn't there. In- stead, one found the omnpresent social patchwork club at work ,as 1t was at work that day in the Mayfiower's cabin There was no disposition to teamwork There was nowhere any plan. No socie- ty even knew, except by chance gossip where another ladies' aid was giving financial help to some local case of need.
 The suburbs of Wilkes Barre are typi- cal, I think, of the industrial boroughs of any of the northern states where for eign labor has come in in variety to do the community's rough work. These towns are incredibly rich in church build