Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-12-22
bROThfRLY LOVE TRIED IN SUBURB
 0f CINCIhNATTI
Under the Social Units Plan, the True Fraternal Spirit Is Being Created
 By Carrying Your Neighbor's Load
(Bv Frederic ]. Haskin)

seems a brand new panacea for the ills which democracy is heir to, or otherwise comes by. and brand new angle on internal construction have been developed i the WohaWk- Brighten Social Unit of Cincinnati Ohio How the scheme works be- came known here last week when Mir. and Mrs. Wil0uf C. Phillips, founders of the social unit. came to Washington on business connected with the scheme.
 It is the brief of the sponsors of the Cincinnati Social Unit plan that the closest approach to a working democracy in this country is that which exists in the small village (This is, of course, lookin gat it from the standpoint of cooperation and community service) In a vil- lage the wealthiest landowner is ac- quainted with the poorest laboring man; with his history and his con- dition. He shows. or at least is eX- pected to show. a fraternal interst in his welfare-which need go no further than finding him new job when he needs it. or sending his wife occasional basket of provi~ sions. Down at Chatman's Landing whe Mrs. Whipple, the widow. is taken suddenly to bed With an at tack of influenza. and her daughter 1o0 miles away at normal school. it is considered no more than right for Mrs. Wiggins (who lives in the next house) to take charge of the prem- ses and nurse Mrs. Whipple until her daughter can return.
 That in a way, is the idea which Mr. and Mrs. Phillips and their CO., workers have applied to the Mohawk Brighton district of Cincinnati. Gin cinnati was selected for the eXperi- met because it was thought to con- tain more average conditnos' than any of the 15 other cities under con- sideratijon Mohawk Brighton-a pe- culiar section of Cincinnati was chosen because it was believed to De the one where the social unit plan might be tried out with best results. It was a tenement district without being slum district.
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 "It is the size of our city commit mites" contends Mrs. Phillips which prevents people from knowing their own needs, individually or as a group. In village no one can be i'll or out of job without everyone else knowing about it. Oftener than not, there is some one in the village, usually a woman. who makes it her business to do something about it.
 This is the situation we have tried to initiate ill the Mohawk Brgh- ton Social Unit. We overcome vast ness by dividing our districts into groups. As a rule these groups are nothing more than city blocks" In each of the social uts wo- man has been chosen to acts as sort of "village mother" She is elected by the residents of her block, and it is her job to know what is wrong with each individual member of her group. She is paid small sum- in order that she may have her house work done for her. and thus be at ilperty to devote all of her time to her neighbors
 Furthermore the village mother" IS her blocks representative to the Citizens District Council'' one of the two bodies controlling the social unit. The council is made up en- tlrely Of such mothers" and has one executive elected from among it's members. In the council are taken | Up the individual needs of individual | families, and measures to fill the needs are voted.
 There is another body called the "Occupational Council' In this each group is represented by ar elected member. Thus expert skill Tn virtually all lines is thoroughly mobilized.
 More than anything ese, parti cular attention has been paid to hy glene: Practically the geratest medi cal skill in the country has been re qulsltioned for the unit. The leadin. physicians of the country have form ed committee before which tn. council of Cincinnatti physicians cal lay any problem brought forward b, the ouncil of district physicians. +
 Public health nursing has bee, an important feature of the work o the Mohawk-Brfghton Unit, an, perhaps the single line in which mos success has been attained. Sevara of the Cincinnati relief organizations which agreed to cooperate with th roscial unit plan. did so by turning over all of the nursing work and majority of their trained nurses t. it. Mrs. Phillips characterizas tn work of these women as remarkable
 During the epidemic of influenz our public health nursing system re ported twice as many cases as wer reported from the average for tn city. But with double the numlbe of cases so discovered we had onl half as many deaths as any cores ping section of the city"
 The public health nurses have, c course, representatives in the occu pational council, and their lntinlat knowledge of conditions among th people render them among the mos valuable members of that o9tv
 The Social uit plan has been i operation for less than year an even yet all possible lines of cooper ton have not been worked out. l Is too carly to Sa vi Whet h a. fbo ;daa