Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-30

Of professional man, the social engi-
neer, is about to be introduced to the
public. If you think OF sociology, its
problems of alleys, community CEN
tiers, industrial relations, and institu-
tons, and then think of an engineer. a
person who plans and constructs, you
may have an idea of the new social
engineer and his job.
Communities have made remarkable
progress in the past hundred years.
When you consider the intricate ma
chinery that directs a city's activities
you feel complaeently that you are liv-
ing in an enlightened age. But there
are still great defects in management,
Most OF our charities, for instance, are.
now widely regarded as evidence of
bad management on the part of a com
munity. II proper preventive meas
ures were taken, we are told. vice,
crime and disease could be reduced to
a minimum, and the charities they en-
tail would be largely unnecessary.
But instead of attacking evils at the
root, communities busily engage in
what n social expert calls 'mopping
up work" Everyone knows that al
leys and tenements breed crime and
vice, and that they are in the long
run expensive. Yet millions of dollars
are regularly put up for prison relief.
homes for abandoned mothers, and
milk for underfed babies, while it is
next to impossible to raise money to
! replace = tenement conditions with
something better.
/ The latter course would mean in
most cities a great reorganization, and
cities have always shrunk from try
ing to tackle a number of social prob
lens at once. 1t seems easier to fight
| vice at n time with Il board and
committees Of specialists, and to take
another time to campaign against de-
fective sanitation.
Into this situation comes the So
cial engineer. He is called in by a city
or county to point out the defects in
it's management and to suggest a way
to correct these defects. He surveys
the entire social organization. makes
a written report, and leaves the COM
munity a practical working plan to be
carried out.
This may well seem an enormous
task. We have become so used to the
idea that Il person must specialize in
a subject before he can be an author
ity that We instantly ask how a man
can be q specialist on the entire social
structure. The answer to this is that
ALtlS Y tAtA - AVN "a
specialist. He is a generallst.
A Practical Generaiist
The social engineer represents a re-
action against a tendency toward over
specialization. Some students of the
world and its affairs say that spec
ialization has become so acute that few
people are seeing things in their true
proportion. Too often a specialists
-., ,ar raattan nt ~ nxrylaio0 FJtIl !
his horizon and other mems work
fades into insignificance in his opinion.
This is one theory TO explain why
cities, continue to struggle along with
outworl Institutions. The experts do
not have a panoramic view of coudi- |
tons.
The social engineer. being a practi-
cal general;st. is supposed to get a
panoramic view. and what is more diff
ficuIt, he is supposed 70 make the
c%ommunity's specialists and workers
get il. That is, perhaps, his biggest
task.
This work is quite obviously Il de-
p~arture in professions, and while the
idea is already being taken up by some
cities, it. will be some time before the
profession is definitely established.
The National Community board.
which is sponsoring the social engi-
I~eering idea, admits that getting a
profession started in the world is
neither q quick nor an easy PROPOSE
ton. The board has taxed the first
step by announcing that it recognizes
social engineering Us a liberal profess
sion and that it aims 10 have it estab-
lished on the same ba@!s as law and
medicine.
DR.. Henry +. Jackson. president of
the board and an experienced social
worker. has been authorized by the
board to designate himself a social en-
gineer. He is the pioneer IN practicing
the new profession.
College Course Necessary
II social engineering is to become a
new career, as the National Commun-
ity board believes ir will. it will have
70 be standardized and proper training
for the work will have TO be given in
colleges. DR.. Jackson says thar these
steps viii soon be taken. He predicts
that ID 20 years universities ell over
the country will be giving such courses.
DR.. Jackson has been doing the
work of a social engineer without the
official title for some time. lie has
followed his profession in he noun
tains of Kentucky and in such widely
scattered cities as Toledo. Dallas.
Boston, Los Angeles. st. Louis and
San Francisco.
Dr. Jackson is not only Il social ex-
pert: he is something of a psychology
list and a diplomat. lie finds that com
munities resent the Importation of out
siders to do their work for them. That
Is why he merely prescribes for a sit
uation and leaves II newly formed and
inspired board Of local social engl-
neers 10 do the towns work. lie be
lieyes thai every city should have such
d board Of men and w0me who not
ouly know local conditions but who APP
ply their knowledge with social intel
l~igence.
The city manager is AZ present the
nearest approach to the social cngi-
neer. But the city manager is handi-
capped because he il almost entirely
RESTRICTED to administering affairs as
they are. He has little or 10 author
ity 10 try to change conditions, and so
his work is not often Of the construc-
tive, engineering type.
DIR, Jackson believes that a key TO
the defects in social organization is
found in the elaborate system Of char
tiles that exists everywhere. /
'"rhe waste Of money and good will
in cities is criminal he says. In II |
city in California we found 81 agencies