Throughout the depression decade of 1930 settlements urged adequate public work and home relief, paid in cash, and the utilization of unemployed artists and professional workers to sustain and even to enhance the standard of life in tenement neighbourhoods.
Wage Earning.—Mrs. Florence Kelley (Hull House) and Robert Woods were leaders in the movement to raise the com pulsory education age from 14 to 16 years. Graham Taylor (Chicago Commons) has interpreted trade unions and working class life to the Protestant Churches. Mary E. McDowell (Uni versity of Chicago Settlement) started forces that led to the Federal investigation of the conditions of women and child wage-earners in the United States, 1910-1913. John L. Elliott (Hudson Guild) founded a school for printers' apprentices man aged jointly by representatives of employers, labour unions and the settlement. The steps which led to the organization of in dustrial guidance in the public schools were taken at Civic Service House, Boston.
Recreation.—Charles B. Stover (University Settlement, New York) has been a national figure in the playground movement. Public playgrounds, baths, gymnasiums and school centres have been obtained by settlements in many cities.
The remarkable public recreation centres in Chicago owe much to Hull House, and in Los Angeles to Bessie D. Stoddard (College Settlement).
Clubs and Sociability.—Sociability is an important means through which individuals and groups are trained in ways of living together harmoniously and productively. Settlements were the first to point out the theoretic and practical importance of the "gang" or "natural group" as a useful social instrument. Clubs are usually federated into "councils" which provide train ing in representative action. There are relatively few men's clubs. The settlement women's clubs have brought the tenement wife and mother into the great woman movement. Classes in physical culture, in home-making and in dancing are an important interest with girls, and athletics and wood work with boys. Summer camps have developed into an educational resource of major importance.
The first settlement music school was established by Eleanor Smith (Hull House) in 1892, and there were in 1939 15 schools with advisory boards of artists, highly trained faculties, and well rounded curricula; and more than Ioo music departments. Drama and the dance have had a similar development. The number of "little theatres" and permanent companies of players grows steadily. Classes in drawing and modelling and pottery are increasing, and several art schools and a local art museum for children have come into being. The arts projects sponsored by the Federal Unemployment Relief Administration have been in large part the projection of programs and methods worked out in settlements.
Federations of Settlements.—City federations of settlements (1896 ff.) are found in II cities. The federated settlements have been influential in child labour and housing legislation, and in con trol of the liquor trade. A national federation of settlements (1911) includes 150 houses of first importance. It holds an annual conference, carries on studies (prohibition, 1927; unemployment, 1928; health insurance, 1936), publishes monographs and a quar terly journal, co-operates with other national agencies and takes occasional part in legislation.
Present Tendencies.—New buildings of exceptional quality are becoming common, i.e., Kingsley House, New Orleans. Endow ments increased in the decade of 1920 and were reduced during the 1930's. Programs since 1930 have been largely determined by the needs of the unemployed. Housing, irregular employment, adjustment of family relationships, the promotion of understand ing across racial, national, religious, economic and social bor ders engage many leaders.
The settlements serve as a bulwark against over-centralization of education and philanthropy. They resist the tendency to stereo culture, seek for evidence of new life in their communities, and promote adjustment of all kinds in advance of social strain.