The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-12-10
AN EARNEST WORKER DOING
 GREAT GOOD IN NEW YORK
Social Service Department By MRS. SIDNEY N. ULLMAN N

New York December 9.-(Specia1) Ut has been my good fortune to meet during my all too brief Gas far as the survey of social work in the city is concerned) stay among people great as social work CTS and high on the ladder of the social world, some near great and some, nayl great many ordinary, but seldom do we come in contact with such an earnest, vital and energetic social worker as Harry Schlacht, a small, young, East Side Russian Jew, but factor in the ser vice life of this great city Harry Schlacht is hardly known at all outside Of this great New York, and little known here, outside of the social workers com paratively small area, but from his fear less and honest survey has come some great work. Harry-for he is known to all his co-workers as Harry-and small won der with such an appellation to carry, pa- renthetically, let me explain, that Harry S last name means War" and one is sel- dom so fittingly named, for Harry is a boom right out of big gun. Harry Schlacht originated the idea of the po- lice boys in New York; these boys had no authority to act, only to report back to Harry, and Harry was then small force, too. So the boy police was called a nuisance: however, soon the police be- gan to find them useful; instead of big cop climbing four or five flights of stairs in an East Side tenement to tell the tenant to move her garbage pail or her baby from the fire escape, the police boy would go up to tell Mrs. ski to do his bidding. Nothing doing, then Mrs. ski was taken to the window, under which stood the "cop,' his threatening look and club was enough, and soon the fire escape was clear. and although this was a perversion of the first idea, it con- tained an element of good After while Cap. Sweeney took over the kid police, ' put little uniforms on the boys, and they are organized from the Bronx to River side, and from Dyckman to the Battery. But has the credit of all this fine work and idea been given to Harry? Oh, no! Small natter said Harry. the smiling youth. What I want is results, not fame," and now Harry has a new scheme and it is one that if it can be effective will revolutionize all of the local social work of New York. and if it is prac- tical and it looks so, will be pattern to all other communities. The idea is not particularly new, but in New York it becomes a gigantic undertaking.
 There are on the East Side of New York city 100000 people, the largest amount of people congregated together in as small an area anywhere in the world, not even the slums of England excepted said Harry "and these people need protection Every day some mush- room social agent comes along with some new scheme, and usually the poor victim is poorer by the experiment. Sometimes the worker is sincere; usually he is not. Now to obviate this condition a central committee will be formed of all recog- nized social agents to cooperate with city officials; that is. the municipal building in the section will be a meeting place for conferences, to be held by judges and social workers. Public needs will be considered, the individual protect be interferred with by some imposter or new agent"
 For instance, the health department will work comparatively with all health agents in the community, protecting the results, and each city department sends an agent to act the same way.
 Landlords and their problems are a big disturbing factor, and will be easier to handle through a municipal center as proposed here. A new Mems club and a Womens club will be formed, having no utilization with political parties, but open for discussion on all issues The present Mems City club and Womens, too, are partisan, having some political affilia- ton, and not every man can be member of the organization.