Greenbelt cooperator., 1942-10-23
By ANNE HULL


naires circulated to 800 residences
some two months ago? Even if
you weren't, you may be inter-
ested in some of the findings
made by William Form, who is
submitting a thesis dealing with
Greenbelt as part of the require
ments for his doctors degree in
sociology.
Mr.. Form is making special
lied study Of the white-collar
worker and finds, of course, that
Greenb2lt' elected the most in
purposes, as most of Us come
under this category. His question
naire was circulated to collect
data for the basis of study of
significant trends. Tabulation of
the answers on the questionnaires
is a tremendous Job and has not
yet been completed, but Mr.. Form
already has some interesting fig
ures and general observations to
offer.
The request for a list of 10 or
more "most important persons in
Greenbelt" elected the most in
teresting answers. Some gave the
names of the members of their
immediate families and friends,
saying that, to them, these were
the most important. Others listed
no one, remarking that there
could be no "most important"
people in town of so transient
nature as Greenbelt. Some
qualified their answers, indicating,
for instance, that if the question
naire meant "in a political sense,
they would list Community Man
ager Braden. If, on the other
hand, it was meant in an economic
sense, they would list Thomas
Kicker and various board mem
bers of the Greenbelt Consumers
Services. Mrs. Mary Jane Kinzer
and DIR. William Eisner were fre-
quently included in the lists, as
well as the officers of various
community organizations.
Almost half of those answering
the QUESTIONABLE had lived long
est in cities of over 100000. while
only Is per cent were from areas
of less than $500. The indications
are that most of US, therefore,
are city folks, and, as is typical
of city folk, we do not attend
church regularly. Only about one
quarter of us attend regularly.
Slightly less than one-half of us
(assuming that the cross section
is typical) never go to church.
Greenbelt is famous as a COM
munity which has a hign rate Of
organizational participation. This
reputation is well borne out by
QUESTIONABLE results. which indi-
cate that 55 per cent belong to
one or more local organizations,
which is a high percentage for an
urban area. Less than 80 per
cent belong to any organized
group in Washington, indicating
that we tend to be self-sufficient
in organizational opportunities.
81 per cent of the men in Green
belt are active in organizations,
as compared to 46 per cent of
the Greenbelt women. In any
given family, if the husband is
active in community affairs, ihe
wife is found to be equally so.
Six persons went out of their
way to state that they had volun-
teered their services in various
defense projects and that no one
had followed them up and told
them how they could be of serv-
ice. They protested, therefore,
against the charges of non-partic-
ipation leveled at citizens by de-
fense officials and by the Co.
operator.
Seventeen different informal
clubs were listed, with card clubs
having the heaviest participation,
closely followed by sewing groups
and "social" clubs.
1t seems that we are omniverous
readers. A large number of fam
lilies purchase at least two daily
papers. Over 40 per cent buy
four or more magazines; some
subscribe to as many as dozen.
Favorites are Time, Life, Readers
Digest, Women's Home Compan-
ion, Saturday Evening Post, Good
Housekeeping, Cosm mopo Titan,
American, Golfers, McCall's, Red
Book, Home and Garden. Various
church periodicals, technical jour
mails, and unusual hobby maga-
zines were also listed. Only three
per cent of the families answer
ing the questionnaires said they
purchased no literature.
And how we do study! Over
one-third of the family heads of
the sample cross-section went to
school last winter. Courses such