66o THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
ance from seeing the poverty of her home. Where shall these young people meet in wholesome ways? Where shall these families gratify their longing for neighborliness ? Where shall the social life of these people find expression? Where shall con- tentment, happiness, sympathy, solidarity, neighborhood pride, and civic interest the very possibilities of morality and democ- racy be fostered?
There are those who know well enough the social instincts of a people, and who through ministering to these appetites in unwholesome ways, degrade and make poor in purse and spirit those whom our public welfare demands we should elevate. In the neighborhood referred to above there is not a place of public assembly except some saloon and the dance-hall connected with it. There the young men and women go; there the families go. There these people meet; but oh, the cost of it! Lost virtue, debauched mind, body, and heart, defeated ambition, sickening and failing sensibilities, impoverished and often wrecked homes; companionship with vice in the natural effort to gratify a worthy instinct of fellowship; going downward through ugliness, vicious- ness, and error, when the instincts that lead them on are those that God designed should most richly bless their lives ; consorting with all that is mean and ugly and hateful, when all that is good and beautiful and happy should be their constant delight !
There are those who believe that the public-school houses, with their large assembly halls, brightly lighted rooms, and tastily decorated walls, should be opened to the social life of such people.
When one looks at the need for increased use of public-school property, there seems to be no reason why the property is not thus increasingly used. But are there some difficulties? Are there some practical reasons why the buildings are not opened more for night schools, and for concerts, lectures, and social evenings? During the school year of 1902-3 the evening schools, the vaca- tion schools, the summer playgrounds, and the recreation centers increased the taxes about $733,000 in New York city, while similar extension in Chicago added $105,000 to the cost of the school system. The tax-paying public and the school boards of the great cities must be educated to the appreciation of the needs
