The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-18
A ROBINSON CRUSOE
 CIVIC LEAGUE Comm A lity Spirit In Manag- ing An Island.
MARY oHAa1BERLAIN
(ExcIusive servioe The Survey Press
 Bureau.1

fOb1nSOn CruSoe was the I1rSl SCI entific manager of an island, and ever since the days of Crusoe irnag- ination has been fired by the marvel ous possibilities of tract of land wholly surrounded by water
 A modern Robinson Crusoe Is the Civic League of Staten Island. the smallest borough in population of New York City. But while the pion- eer in island experiment. was wholly concerned in subduing jungle and savage for his own physical comfort, the Civic League Is busy developing a civic and social program for some s5.000 people.
 New York's Hodge Podge Berough
 Take the St. George ferry at the tip of Manhattan late some after noon. Watch Battery Park, the WooIworth Tower. the slender bow of Brooklyn Bridge and the beet1ing ferrssMh ouses melt into fuggy wedge of tssi thin buildings! Watch the huddled land across the harbcr stretch out and up into warehouses. trees and dwellings Then follow the ferry passengers out at St. Georges depot, the focus of Staten Island where scurrying little steam trains, Inner Circle Whisa< commuters to waterfront villages, and electric cars buzz off to the hilly interior.
 Out Of tangled streets laid over COW paths out of little provincial towns with local prejudice and set sprung up along the beaches New York city has determined the bor- ough of Richmond And it is this hodge podge of old Dutch gentry and garish South Beach midway that the Civic League is trying to weld together for team play and copamon purpose.
 What the Civic League has been doing since it expanded from $50 charter members in 1918 to a flour ishing organization, with fifteen lo- cal branches and more than 1, 700 members, may be gathered from looking over the issues of the Staten Island Civic League Bulletin.
 Team Play with Public Officials
 An advisory cornnittee. composed of two members from each ward. meets regularly to consult with the Borough President upon all proposed public improvements and the general welfare of the Borough.
 Persistent agitation has been kept up against the smoke nuisance from Jersey factories just across the chan mel. a, volunteer corps Of fire war dens has been organized to prevent woodland fires, a tree planting ser- movement have been started. 4 week before every local board meeting no- tices are sent to all property owners within the area of assessment of any public Improvement calling their att tention to the first hearing upon it. tive bills affecting Richmond direct 1y or indirectly and registers approv- al or opposition with representatives in the legislature.
 The social service work of the Civic League is as varied as that of ! cIa.. of the Charity Organization society covers the whole ST square miles of island the League has established a l Social Service Exchange and has en- gagged a supervisor Through this exchange the Charity Organization society, the Department of Public l Charities, the Hebrew Charities and other relief bodies onNthe Island may l co-operate and facilitate efficient charity work. They exchange itse1i 1 undertakes a certain amount of case work not handled by associations, as sists in any general relief movement I and is at present securing work for I unemployed in the borough. Besides l aiding the destitute, 1t has opened Q I successful day nursery in West New Brighton and two social centerB fo1 young people in school houses.
 The New Year Goals
 For the 1915 the Civic League will sf continue it's present activities, but iT ! addition it has three distinct projects sl on which it will concentrate.
 First of all it wishes to brfns ' about the consolidation of the posH office system conducted in a haphaz. I ard way from local offices establish ed in nearly all the A towns on tf1e l Island The general comfnittee os 5l petitioning Congress for an appro- Fl priation to provide for the construc. ton of a Borough Post Office ana Congressman Riordan has promised to frame such a bill Meanwhile. in. | as1nuch as a new post office woule not be aviIabIe for several years, 5 plan will be presented to the Pos Office department at Washington fo, Immediate Improvement of local ser vice perhaps through direct deliver.
 by automobile
 The second number on tne Leaguei
 program is to secure 9 comprehen sive city plan for Staten Island b.
 co-operating with the city planning
 committee of the New York Boart of Estimate. Many people are boost ing the idea of subway extension t J Staten Island but, as Mark Wise
 man, executive secretary of the Lea gue points out. why not first pro vide for the stream of immigratio.
 which will pour into the Islam
 through the subway? Now, Mi st -V1Seman cQnten0Ss- while pTop6rE I lvalues are still low and progress Jue
 beginning. is the time to stem hap
 hazard confused growth and map ou scientifically a beautiful and use 2 full plan of borough development.
 The last of the trio Of project
 which the Civic League will advanc
 this winter is a New York free po1
 located at Staten Island where good
 brought into harbor not for impol but for trans hipment in some forl or other may be- handled free of dut charges and without inspection b customs officers. Such goods coul be stored in warehouses until oppol tune time for marketing within th
 country or cargoes could be broker
 remade and trans-shipped. A fire zoner for the Port of New Tor : modelled after that of Hambnrl
 Germany, has been endorsed by th