Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-09-09
NOW MY IDEA IS THIS
Daily Talks With Thinking Philadephans Subjects They
KnotU Best

real character to be good criminal as to
"As result of the dissatisfaction with
their conditions which our teachings created
in the younger people. they left their homes
and went elsewhere to live. This brought
upon us the anger Of their parents, because
they were thus deprived Of q source Of in
come, and we had some very unpleasant
scenes in the Settlement House about It.
II remember one man who had read Of
conditions in the Eighth Ward and he came
down here. quite upset, and said that he
didn't believe that anything so bad existed
in the city. accusing us of exaggeration and
Of trying to obtain unwarranted publicity.
l told him to take walk around the neigh
borhood and come back in an hour or so
and tell what he had seen and heard. He
did So, and, being an honest man. returned
! and admitted that things were far worse
than they had been reported
Real Settlement Work
Real settlement work Is the personal
contact of the settlement workers with the
neighborhood in which they are located
Perhaps in this way only few lives are
| touched, but this is the real purpose of the
| work. Our settlements nowadays have out
| grown In size the original ideas of the first
workers, and as a result they are too big to
get into the intimate cOntad with the neigh
| borhood which renders them valuable.
| Settlement work is, or should be, Shur-
| ing the lives of the neighborhood with the
| residents of 1t, and not n great institution.
| In the new work which I hope 10 do want
| to go back to the original plan and keep the
settlement small. In saying this feel that
| am not saying anything in opposition to
the feelings Of most settlement workers.
who realize that their plants are too big
| and who dcplore it.
Until the time when the newspapers ex-
| posed the situation in the Eighth Ward our
work was exclusively with the children. and
| there was plenty to do. We were received
with courtesy in all homes in the ward as
| long as our efforts were confined to the
children. But when the papers exposed the
| whole neighborhood It was either back out
| altogether or do new thing and antagonize
the whole situation. We decided to stick
1t out.
1T was then that we stepped out of the
nursery and into the speak easy and brothel.
| Naturally, we met with all kinds of oppo-
sition. Politicians made sugar coated prom
tses which they never intended to keep. but
as a matter of fact no one up to that time
| had paid any attention TO the neighborhood
Grime was open and generally unpunished
But when the situation was published the
| politicians had to back down and the police
had to buck up The eyes of the city were
upon us and the backbone of the neighbor
hood crime was broken that summer.
The Greek Influx
1--WE had to meet the embarrassing situa-
tion that many of the worst houses were
owned by persons of high standing, and one
| of the newspapers published a list of the
owners of those houses and, Of course. they
| had TO clean up Immediately. Hundreds
OF the Old people left and the Greeks began
TO swarm In, creating new atmosphere
Many small streets formerly colored are now
Greek entirely. 1t has become largely
business section. and business has been tho
largest factor in the change in the character
of the neighborhood. The whole ulace il
gong TO De memory in very short time
lt was unique, very, different from anything
else In the city, and many of the characters
who lived here will never be forgotten by
those OF us who knew them.
Ihe sentimental ideas regarding vice
ana rciorm do tremendous harm to work
such as ours. The criminal is USUALLY n
criminal because he wants to be one. and
there Is no kid glove work about irving to
reform him. 1t is wrong way of ioocins
~ II ana results from misunderstanding ~
thc "hole situation. No one knows ihis
bettcr than the criminal himself. and he
taxes every advantage of it.
10 be effectively coped with. crime must
be seen In the glare Of sunlight and nor in
the moonlight of scntmentaiity. You can
make an old tin can beautiful In moonI;sht
and to sGntimentality even crime nav bo
made to look attractive, But the tin can
Syti ML - lne IN can and crime still Is crime.
What we have heen able to do has heon
largely because the criminals knew thar wa
could not be fooled and that there was mo
use in bluthng. And In the end he respects
us more for it,
with the end OF this work here I homo
to be able TO go to some other parts of the
city where there are conditions which will
lead IN the end to repetition of the old
Eighth Ward days II they are not taken now
ana stopped; Now i would not be difficult
to correct these conditions. but II they are
not checked soon work such as it has taken
us twenty three years to Accomplish here
Will all have to be done over again"