membered that there was an average of more than one tuberculous member for each family studied.

Twenty-eight of the families studied, or 7 per cent, were living on their own property. In some of these cases, however, the house was mortgaged, and in their efforts to meet financial obligations the family itself lived in two or three rooms in order that they might rent the balance of the building and thus increase their meager income. Some of the worst conditions of overcrowding were found in these homes.

The average rent for all the families studied is $12.34 per month. This item varies not only as between different cities, but in different parts of the same city. For instance, the average amount paid per room per month in one district of Chicago by the families having children in open-air schools is $4; in another $1.97. In New York City it was, respectively, $4.57 and $4.16 per room per month for two different schools; in Pittsburgh, $4.25, and in Providence, R. I., $1.90. The question regarding the character of the dwelling was answered for 375 families and shows that 73 per cent lived in tenements and 27 per cent in detached houses. A detached house does not mean, in this study, a separate dwelling for one family, but might contain two or three apartments. It simply means that the building was separated from other buildings by some width of air space.

One question asked was whether the family had or had not a private yard and vegetable garden. There were practically no answers to the question from the schools outside of Chicago. It was answered by comparatively few of the Chicago families, and when answered was in the affirmative. These replies show that 60 families had a yard. It should be recalled that 73 per cent of the families of Chicago children covered in this study lived in tenements, and the yard was used in common by two or more families, and was principally as a space in which to dry clothes.

The tenement districts of modern cities mark the final retreat of the children from a life in the open. Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon, in her book “Beauty for Ashes," speaks of "the essential unrighteousness of the 25-foot lot." Tenement houses in congested quarters of large cities usually rob the child of both the front and back yard. There are often two and sometimes three tenements on one of these 25-foot lots. When this is the case the essential unrighteousness is usually discernible in the children who live in such tenements.

Nineteen of the families were indicated as having gardens. A garden meant, however, a vegetable or flower garden, and any little plat along the fence was called a garden. Any return of vegetables from such gardens would be comprehended in a few radishes, onions, beans, lettuce, and possibly peas. In no case were the gardens appreciable factors as a source of food supply. They were unques

tionably of value, however, in the life of the family, for, no matter how small or insignificant, they gave diversion and a profitable use of time to fathers and mothers as well as children.

Window boxes, kegs, and other receptacles, where struggling plants and sometimes vegetables grew, were evidences of the tenacity with which people hold to the desire to grow things from the ground. When the yard and the garden with their tasks and chores and pets, and chance for initiative in work and play and for the development of responsibility were cut away, and when the home shrank from the ranch, the farm, an individual house on a lot with its own garden. and yard, to the three or four rooms on one floor level of a tene

ment house, and when ready-made and ready-to-serve commodities were brought into the home, new conditions, problems, and responsibilities came into the schoolhouse.

The question concerning tuberculosis was answered for 598 Chicago open-air school children and from 620 open-air school children outside of Chicago.

Of 598 Chicago open-air school children,

450, i. e., 75 per cent, were diagnosed as tuberculous (lungs, glands, bones, etc.).

136, i. e., 23 per cent, were suffering from anemia and malnutrition.

12, i. e., 2 per cent, were suffering from other defects (heart troubles, etc.).

Of 620 open-air school children in different cities,

259, i. e., 42 per cent, were diagnosed as tuberculous (lungs, glands, bones, etc.).

322, i. e., 52 per cent, were suffering from anemia and malnutrition.

12, i. e., 2 per cent, were suffering from other defects (heart troubles, etc.). 27, i. e., 4 per cent, not recorded.

Those who are familiar with work of this kind know how difficult it is to get full and accurate information on this point. Families shrink from examination, often making efforts to conceal the fact that a member of their household has the disease. Moreover, it takes a minute and careful examination to discover tuberculosis in its incipient stages. Accordingly, these figures are undoubtedly below the mark. The questionnaire shows, however, that there was an average of 1.8 tuberculous persons in each of the Chicago families of open-air school children and an average of 0.8 in families outside of Chicago. In the city of Chicago the Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium has clinics scattered over the city and a large percentage of the children in Chicago open-air schools reach these schools through the clinics. The absence of an activity of this kind in other cities might easily account for the smaller number of tuberculous children in open-air schools.

These defects are the most prominent, but as the whole physical condition of the child receives attention, many other defects, such as diseased tonsils, adenoids, decayed teeth, and defective eyes, are discovered. Of 598 Chicago open-air school children, 188 had diseased tonsils, 165 had adenoids, 466 had decayed teeth, and 152 had defective eyes. Of 620 open-air school children in different cities, 175 had diseased tonsils, 131 had adenoids, 347 had decayed teeth, and 107 had defective eyes.

The standard of living is a topic which has been much discussed in the literature of social and economic writers in recent years. The question of a living wage has been made the sole topic or has had an important place in many sociological and charitable conferences, and it is receiving more and more attention by all charitable organizations and associations whose work has to do with industrial or social conditions. In his book Principles of Relief (pp. 34–36), Dr. Edward T. Devine gives $600 a year as the amount on which at that time (1904) a family, consisting of man, wife, and three children, could live in New York City and maintain a minimum standard of health and efficiency.

In 1909 R. C. Chapin published a book on "The Standard of Living among Workingmen's Families in New York City." This was based on an extensive study of 391 budgets and working conditions in the year 1907. He placed the minimum income on which efficiency could be maintained at $900 to $1,000 (pp. 245-250). Since 1907 the

articles consumed in laborers' families have risen in cost about 21 per cent.

In its annual report for 1912-13 the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (pp. 45-50) gives data on the budgets of families cared for in its Home Hospital. This study places the minimum income on which health and efficiency may be maintained at from $1,000 to $1,150 for the Borough of Manhattan. One of the most definite budget studies so far undertaken was made in the years 1913 and 1914 by the funds to parents department of the Cook County (Ill.) juvenile court. This is the department which administers the mothers' pension work for Chicago and Cook County. The aim is to keep dependent children in their own homes, provided the mothers are fit persons, in other respects than financial ability, to have the care and custody of their children. The purpose of this work is not merely to keep people from starving for a given period, but to give such care to the family as may reasonably be expected to make efficient citizens of the children. A trained dietitian is in charge of this work, and a detailed study has been made of more than 1,000 family budgets. Actual items of expense were carefully tabulated, and the conclusions arrived at were based on purchases and needs of families dealt with in the courts. The conclusion reached by this study was that, in Chicago in 1913–14, an income of $75 per month was necessary to maintain a family of five or six in a state of physical and moral efficiency.

It is not the purpose of this chapter to establish what a minimum. standard of income should be, or to argue the merits of the conclusions reached by any of the authorities quoted. The purpose is simply to give the results of studies made as a background for the discussion of the social and economic conditions of children in openair schools. Military authorities agree that men can not succeed as soldiers without being properly fed and nourished. They also find that it is almost as important to be well shod. The country is beginning to question whether its school children can do the work expected of them on anything short of like conditions.

It is realized, of course, that $75 in the hands of one family may accomplish very different results from the same amount in the hands of another family. But a certain amount of food, clothing, and shelter is necessary for everybody; furthermore, as human beings are constituted, every family, sooner or later, has its share of sickness and other unexpected misfortunes, and no income is complete that does not make some provision for medical and dental service, for sick time, rest, and recuperation. The families studied by the Cook County juvenile court were all city families, and the other studies also related to families living in crowded city districts. It is to be understood, therefore, that under such conditions there is

no subsidiary contribution to the family's maintenance in the way of a garden, milk from the family cow, or eggs or meat from a poultry yard. Everybody probably knows families living on smaller sums of money than $75 a month, but conditions differ.

It is to be remembered also that, in the studies referred to, the whole needs of the family are considered. The sums mentioned as minimum incomes mean that the family should take care of its necessities and that the earnings should not be supplemented by hospital or dispensary care, charitable relief of one kind or another when the misfortunes come. The amount given by the juvenile court through the "Funds to Parents Act" is to relieve the families from the necessity of receiving aid from any other source.

The budget studies by the juvenile court of Chicago show the distribution of the $75 per month about as follows:

As a working basis for relief work the juvenile court treats the item of rent separately, because it varies in different families and in different parts of the city, and because sometimes families own the house in which they live. Since the average rent is about $12, an allowance of that amount is made in the budget. The remaining $63 is divided by five, the usual number in the family. This makes $12.60 per individual per month, and this is the basis on which budgets for families are calculated. Where there are six or more people in the family, the allotment is slightly reduced; where there are less than five, the individual per capita is increased. It is understood too, of course, that the needs of small children are less than those of adults or of children who are working. However, in these families ages average fairly evenly, and the sum mentioned ($12.60) is reckoned as necessary to maintain health, strength, and efficiency.

Accepting this standard, therefore, for the purpose of comparison, and understanding that each one who reads this will reserve the right to establish his own standard, the adequacy of incomes of open-air school children covered in the questionnaire is as follows: