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Show I REVIVAL OF NEIGHBORHOOD SPIRIT TO BE UNDERTAKEN IN OGDEN AT , MEETING TO BE HELD NEXT WEEK: 1 1 1 A revival of community service in J Ogdcn will be tnkon up at a meeting to bo hold at the Weber club next I week, Rev. John Edward Carver, local j director, announced yesterday. L. B. Williams of Salt Lake community service, ser-vice, will deliver an address on the of fort to co-ordinate all cummuniiy effort ef-fort in a nation-wide reconstruction 1 PritgIismexpecied that tho outcome of the meeting will be the preparation cu I a budget to be secured by popular sub- scrlptions in Ogden for the purpose o ! making real, all the community sen-ice sen-ice possible in this city. . During the past three months, the toUoitaS national communis workers h-vc visited Ogden: L. L. Middieton, supeCrinSendent of the Boulhwcstern j headquarters at San Diego. L. ll. Creech, general western superintend-1 ent at San Francisco; . G. lang burne, general secretary o the na tlonal community service with heau aunrters at New York. Their reports i In the hands of Rov. John Edward k Car and will bo nrcsentpu ai in-h' in-h' WM."nat'tbe movement proposes is ru-I ru-I counted in tho following account is-J, is-J, sued bv Dorothy Thompson for tho nail' na-il' lional conference committee at A asn- For the first time since the war the ovganizattions which co-operated so jnagnificiently to put across the war ' program in cities, towns and hamlets, I got together a few days ago to plan 1 a similar co-operation for meeting le-I le-I construction programs. Franklin K. I Lane, who, as secretao of the Interior K was responsible for the organization of i Ihc field division of the Council of j National Defense, which mobilized the j citizens of the countiy in their own M communities for selling Liberty bonds, I conserving food, and raising money lor war relief was responsible for the conference which met in Washington during the last days of March. The calling of the conference was Mr. Lane's last act before leaving the department de-partment of the Interior and the heads I of tho committee, which emerged not I as a government, official but as a pat- fl riotic layman. I Fifty Organizations Respond to Call. E That the spirit of patriotism and I public service is not dead; that the often talked of "reaction i'rom the & Avar" is not as serious as the lnlamity I howlers have indicated was shown by the extraordinary response to the in- f, vitation which brought the groups to gether. Governors of thirty states sent lj olflcial delegates busy men and wo- I men of affairs, who left their work and I paid their own expenses to Washing- I ton to discuss what plain American 3 citizens could do to help-meet extraor- A dinary problemss Fifty national and L state organizations responded to the 1 call. Among these were labor organ- izatlons Mr. Gompers himself, accept-j accept-j ing the invitation to send a representa-I representa-I tive from the A. F. of L. Farmers' or- 1 ganizations, associations ot women, ! war organizations, social service I groups, varieties of social and business I interest was represented among the I 500 delegates, who gathered in re-I re-I sponse to a call issued by a single per-I per-I son. only ten days In advance of the I date of the meeting, It Is, therefore, worth considering what such a group of people should decide. Plain Talk About Some National Shortcomings. There was plain talk at this conference confer-ence about the defects of our present national life. Frederick C. Butler of Cleveland, labor manager of tho Cleveland Cleve-land Garment Workers' association, and former director of Americanization Americaniza-tion under the department of the Interior, In-terior, pointed some of them out in the keynote address. "The future of America," he said "Rests upon her communities. Tho love of one hundred hund-red millions of people for this land is to be founded not upon the glory of her past nor the splendor of her institutions in-stitutions but upon the life that their community gives ihcm to live. We cannot can-not herd people together In cities which are bare and barren of those things which make life worth living and then expect to be loyal and devoted devot-ed American citizens. Wo have no right to expect that man gladly to die lor his country whose own community fails to give him anything worth dying jouuer men pointed out that in the surveys which were made during the war it was discovered that there was community conditions unspeakable, unspeak-able, educational facilities inadequate "I havo seen statistics somewhere that sixty per cent of our people can never nev-er expect to own their owa homes," he said. "When more than half the people of this country can never expect ex-pect to own the roof over their heads the limo has come when communities should take some thought of t'uis matter mat-ter and yet our cities today aie trying try-ing to solve this problem by encouraging encourag-ing private speculators to enter Into the erection of houses for private profit. prof-it. "Public health, housing, recreation, Americanization mese, ' said Mr. But I ler, "are only a few of the problems j that are pressing down upon our people; peo-ple; problems of whose .far-reaching import we can hardly comprehend. It is idle to leave them to law-making bodies. They are society's problems and society must solve them. Here and thero in all our cities are organizations organ-izations of men and women wholeheartedly whole-heartedly at work upon various phases of our mutual problem. They are strug-I strug-I gling forward often against great odds with inadequate funds and without I trained leadership. There is little co ordination and no common program. As a result thero is misunderstanding and friction and failure. In the aggregate ag-gregate these forces arc vast. Their i power is immeasurable but they must Jbe unified. There must be n single i purpose and an allied command." . This, then, as stated by Mr. Butler, ;and as reiterated throughout the conference, con-ference, was what was presaged by Ithis coming together the development develop-ment among all groups working in their own interests and in the interests inter-ests of their fellow men, of a common purpose, and an allied command. What the War Has Taught Us Orrin C. Lester, associate director of the savings department of the United Unit-ed States treasury pointed out how valuablo for peacetime effort was the oxperlence gained during the war. "The war. as far as America was concerned, con-cerned, was won," he said, "not from I zZZTT Nvasii.iijjcOu. urn from the cities, hamlets ham-lets and farms whore people were grouped together for work and service" serv-ice" And Mr. Lester went on to point out that the economic problems confronting con-fronting the country now the problem prob-lem of the cost of living, for Instance, demanded a citizenship as well Informed In-formed and as completely organized as It was during the wnr. There was hardly a group in the country uhoso needs were not touched upon during the all-day session. Mr. Gompers, speaking for the American Federation of Labor, pointed out that the workers were not only producers, but consumers as well, and that they needed 10 organize not only in the factory, fac-tory, by themselves, but as part of the community in which they lived. '"The problems which confronts tho worker today,", he said, "is not onu of wages, but of real wages. What does it mat-tor mat-tor if a man gets twice as mucli money! for his work if that amount will only buy half as much food and clothes. This community movement which is sweeping the country is among other things, a movement of the citizens and consumers to get together and protect pro-tect themselves by intelligent, organized organ-ized action against exploitation and by value of the goods which they pro-closer pro-closer co-operation to get the fullest duce from the money which they earn. This community movement promises better living conditions free from tho taint of philanthropy. Neighborhood Organization the Plan There was disagreement in the meeting meet-ing over what might be the wisest immediate course of aciion. Some were for forming a national organization organiza-tion at once- co-ordinating all agencies agen-cies and organizations. The more thoughtful, realizing the extent of the problems which they faced, favored moie considered action, and won the day through the appointment of a largo committee empowered tq survey the whole tleld of community effort and bring In more specitic recommendations recommend-ations at a future conference. The committee thus formed is probably the most widely representative committee com-mittee ever gottea together to plan a 1 wwiuuiun iJiuruLu. uiuciai oureaus and departments such as the Bureau ; ot Education and the treasury depdrt-I depdrt-I nent are represented on it. The .merican Federation of Labor, the lu-vxchurch lu-vxchurch World Movement, the Amer-; Amer-; can Red Cross, the National Community Commu-nity Center association, the Social nlt Organization, the General Federation Feder-ation ol Women's clubs, the United states chamber of commerce these -re only a few of the groups repre-unted. repre-unted. But with a final program still to be .jade, there was no disagreement upon this, that the basis upon which all could co-operate was upon a program f neighborhood organization, the mob-lization mob-lization of people, in their own communities, com-munities, in democratic, self-governing ,elf-supporting units, organized for jcrvice, for self-expression, for the more effectiv6 use of the official and anofficlal agencies which were eneav-oring eneav-oring to serve them. Said one of the opeakers: "Tho church, the school, the club, and other social agencies of tho community are doing a fine job in chelr own particular field of action, and with "their knowledge of the entire community problem, but we have come to the time when community problems and programs must take precedence pre-cedence over institutional programs, when all tho forces of the community which stand for the political, Industrial, Indus-trial, and social improvement of the people must be so united that they can all work together toward tho one common com-mon end of larger service to the public." pub-lic." Neighbors Day. To awaken the country to the need for such mobilization of the forces of each community, Mr. Lano proposed an idea that was enthusiastically taken tak-en up by everyone. The suggestion, sugges-tion, was that Flag Day, usually ob served perfunctorily by the hanging out of flags and bunting, should this year be observed as "Neighbors' Day" and neighbors meeting in every community com-munity after the fashion of tho Now England Town Meeting should discuss together their common problems, reaffirm reaf-firm their desiro to express their patriotism pat-riotism through service, and plan for an all-around the year nelghborliness. Committee to Make Plans. And so a committee was appointed by the conference, to plan for this event and to transmit the plans and recommendations to all the cities in all the states, through the organizations organiza-tions which responded to the call to the conference and through the gover-nora gover-nora of the states, thlrtv of whom have already pledged the'ir co-operation in making tho United States a neighborly and friendly country. The committee Is empowered, moreover, more-over, to make far-reaching plans to Investigate what Is being aone nil over the country in community organization and on the bases of this investigation to present an actual program at another an-other conference to bo convened by the committee in a few months. The committee in whose hands these plans were left represents the Bureau of Education, Ed-ucation, the National Social Unit Organization, Or-ganization, the American Red Cross, Community Son-Ice, Inc., the National association of Locomotive Engineers, ihe Association of Neighborhood Houses, tho Federal Council of Churches, the National City Bureau, the American Farm Bureau, the Carnegie Car-negie Foundation, the National Association Associ-ation of Community Centers, the Detroit De-troit Community Union, tho American Public Health association, the National Nation-al Education, the National Organization Organiza-tion for Public Health Nursing, the Departmont of Agriculture, the General Gen-eral Federation of Women's clubs, the American Federation of Labor, the United States Chamber of Commerce, tho Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. Those who bellevo that tho solution of grave social problems will only be reached through an awakened citizon-ship, citizon-ship, drawing upon its own resources, through democratic, self-sufficient organization, or-ganization, will welcome this acknowledgment acknow-ledgment coming as it does from representatives repre-sentatives of such varying Interests and duplication of effort among work-ors work-ors in the social service field, will also herald the Washington conference confer-ence as at least a step toward greater efficiency as well as more democracy. |