classes for both boys and girls are conducted after school hours.

During the summer the smaller children find the sand piles, the wading pools, the see-saws and swings a great delight; the older children enjoy the well equipped out-door gymnasium, the swimming pools, the tennis courts, the baseball field-with athletic contests planned for their pleasure. Here is really a "playground" for all-and its great need can only be appreciated by one who knows intimately the conditions of crowded city life.

Though parks and playgrounds cost a great deal, play and recreation in the open air is so necessary to health that money thus invested is well spent. Aside from providing parks, playgrounds and reading rooms, most American cities confine their responsibility for community recreation to the regulation of amusement enterprises conducted by private individuals.

Suggested Activities.

1. Visit a dairy, a grocery store, a butcher shop, a bakery—any place where food is prepared or sold and learn:

(a) The ways in which the food is protected by government agencies.

(b) Conditions which need to be remedied.

2. Study your school building and score it on the following points, allowing twenty as a perfect score on each point:

(1) Lighting.

(2) Heating.

(3) Ventilation.

(4) Water Supply.

(5) Playground Possibilities.

3. Choose sides and debate one or more of the following questions: (a) Resolved, that a sanitary survey of all the rural homes in the United States would be of greater value than a battle ship which would cost as much.

(b) Resolved, that the country is a more healthful place to live than the city.

Study Questions.

1. A family that takes pride in a clean, sanitary home has typhoid fever. The origin of the disease is traced to a servant. Should the head of the household discharge the servant or clean up the section of the town from which the servant comes? If he should decide on the latter course, how would he probably proceed? How does this case show the relation between personal hygiene and public hygiene? 2. Why should health and hygiene work be directed by our government? What organizations has our government created for this

purpose?

3. In what way is the United States Health Service proving of benefit to the people?

4. Why do city boards of health ordinarily have and exercise much greater power than county boards of health?

5. "The war against disease is a world war." Explain this quotation. 6. How do health authorities fight yellow fever, smallpox, typhoid and scarlet fever?

7. "Cheerful compliance with all public health measures is one of the best tests of a good citizen." Prove the truth of this statement. 8. In the thirty years from 1880 to 1910 the death rate from tuberculosis decreased about one-half. How can this be explained?

9. Malaria is a preventable disease. There were, for the ten-year period before the war, about 9,000,000 cases annually in the United States. If the doctor bill averaged five dollars and the loss of earning power ten dollars for each case, what was the annual cost of malaria to the people of the United States?

From a dictionary or the explanatory list on pages 267-287 lear the meanings of these expressions.

How Great Is America? America has so many advantages that a truthful enumeration of them sounds like bragging. People from less favored countries accuse us of saying with regard to almost anything American, "It is the greatest in the world." With this in mind, someone has said, "America is the greatest and richest country in the world. It has the tallest buildings and the most fires. Its trains run the fastest, go off the track oftenest and kill the most people. It has the most freedom and the greatest per cent of law-breakers; it has the most intelligent people and the most who do not know how to behave themselves."

Unfortunately some of these uncomplimentary statements are true. Especially do we have a great many law-breakers. Those whose law-breaking results in serious wrongdoing are called criminals; in a sense every violation of law is a crime, though the term misdemeanor is given to less serious wrongs like dumping ashes in a forbidden street or disturbing church service by noisy conduct. So many failures in co-operation as are represented by our lawlessness must be reckoned with in answering the question, “How Great Is America?"

How Much Crime Costs Us. Much of our energy still has to be expended in dealing with crime. We spend about as much for this as we do for all kinds of education. Jails and prisons are made necessary because of crime. A large share of our expensive courts' time must be devoted to criminal cases. Anything which causes so much misery and so great a burden of expense should surely receive most thoughtful attention. Whether America has more crime than other great countries is not as important a question as the challenge of what each of us can do to lessen serious law violation. In dealing with crime every community has to consider protection of itself against criminals and prevention or reduction of conditions which develop criminals.

Protection Against Crime. Forcible protection against the injury which criminals might do was once the only great measure used in relation to crime; nothing but fear of consequences avails against the worst law-breakers. To make ourselves safe against those who might kill, steal, burn houses, forge checks, counterfeit money or rob trains, some would-be wrong-doers have to be kept afraid. We must have strong, vigilant, courageous policemen and sheriffs, ready to use force in carrying out stern laws. Mere knowledge that such officers are ever ready to make arrests prevents crime. Fear of a just court which may impose a heavy fine, a term in prison or the death penalty restrains some. Even well-lighted streets make crime less frequent because of greater fear of being caught. We have jails and penitentiaries to confine those who are too dangerous to have their liberty.

Prevention of Criminals. But all the forcible measures we may adopt for mere protection do not of necessity make less the numbers of those who would be criminals if they were bold enough, nor permanently reduce crime. Every wrong

doer kept in prison is a dead-weight upon his community when he should be carrying his part of the load as a useful citizen. Prevention of conditions which may lead to crime is the great problem which the world is now trying to solve. No argument is needed to prove that prevention is more economical than protection alone and that it is more just. To go about the solution intelligently we must ask, "What are the causes and what can be done?"

We are

Causes of Crime. 1. Carelessness Causes Crime. not usually inclined to hold persons responsible for carelessness, but it is possible to be "criminally careless." Piling burning ashes against woodwork causes many fires for which careless persons are criminally responsible. Ignoring "safety first" directions may be criminal; even though the accident may befall the careless person, others suffer. The excuse, "I didn't mean to," is weak and insufficient. It takes watchful good intentions to avoid what the law calls criminal negligence.

2. Idleness. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop." "Idle hands find mischief still." It has been found that a very large per cent of criminals have never learned how to do any useful work. They have not the satisfaction which comes with an honestly earned living. Sometimes they are "hobos" who have acquired the love of wandering and despise steady employment. Even some who would willingly work fall into poverty because they have learned no trade for which there is demand. Such poverty frequently leads to crime.

3. Ignorance. A large proportion of law-breaking would not occur if all were intelligent enough to know the consequences of violating laws. Criminals as a class have little education; most of them dropped out of school very early. Education has always been recognized as one of the most effective ways of reducing crime.