The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-09

Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bu- reau.)
 Recently The Survey sent out a call for a statement on the boy problem as it exists in representative cities and towns Of the United States. The occasion for this request was the nation wide study of the boy problem under the auspices of the National Federation of Settlements, which is now nearing completion, and on which 8 lay opinion was desired. The letter of inquiry was sent to the entire Survey Press Service from San Jose, Cal, to Lewiston, Me, and Duluth, Minn.. to Galveston, Tex. The following queries were put to the editors and newspaper men:
 | Is there boy problem in your town2
 2. How would you describe it?
 3. What are the first steps that should be taken toward meeting it?
 The answers to the first question nat urally vary from i've do not know of any boy problem apart from the human problem" to well, rather. There are 10000 of them, a problem for every boy.
 HOW DIFFERENT CITIES FEEL
 It is interesting to note how different cities feel about this matter. Some of them are sweetly unconscious. The prob lem exists for them more or less" Oth- CTS call it "most serious" Still others are full of problems. To quote from a central state: we have boy problem and a girl problem and a man problem and woman problem and always will have" Some blame it on the parents, others on the fathers in particular or on men in general. A southern city says wherever a sufficient number of men gather together there exists a boy prob- lem" Most cities Gowns in particulaD blame it on the environment. One New England town cries out there is nothing here for boys to do." Another one is more specific: "Our problem is to give our boys some place and opportunity for the expression of their physical force and to afford them healthful recreation
 In answer to the question, How would you describe it." one city says, "Our problem is almost entirely that of the messenger boy and the newsboy." These cities thus remind us that the problem of street trades is by no means uni versally solved and that while one state may have standard child labor laws, an other State, not far off. either may still be very far from the standard. In the language of a southern city: Our child labor law does not regulate street trades at all. The adverse conditions of our negro children complicate the problem still further" Many more towns com- plain that while they have plenty of child labor laws, they can't get them enforced. Here Is complaint even more significant. One town says: You know we have no compulsory education law"
 BACKWARD TOWNS
 Other towns are backward in many other respects. While Boston may be. in the language of Edward Everett Hale ''the most institutional place in the unf- verse;" it Is worth remembering that other cities are suffering from lack of any institution, even of the most elemen- tary sort. One of them says "our prob lem is that we have no institution for the dependent or delinquent children" Others describe it in terms of weak homes or no homes at all. Anothern city says: We have a large transient popula- tion, great number of them being boys" Still others describe 1t in terms of weak schools or no schools. An east ern town says: What shall our boys do after school or working hours?" A Can- adian city complains that it's night schools are empty: "The boys seem to lack ambition to study.' Query: Is it the fault of the school or the boy, or both?
 A California city describes the problem in terms of loose ties. "On the Pacific coast home ties are not as binding, nor discipline as rigid" we are told, "as farther east.'' The east would thank fully acknowledge the compliment if it were so, but as one eastern city replies: l ''Our homes are no homes at all. Our boys practically live on the street."