Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/761

 POSSIBILITIES OF THE PRESENT INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM 747

home for all connected with the works and is in charge of a deaconess, performing all the functions of a social settlement. In addition to the above organization there are the Boys' Club, the Sunday school, the Choral Society, the South Park Club, the Relief Association, and four or five musical organizations. There are occasional picnics or outings given by the company, especially the one in connection with the meeting of the foreign representatives. The Progress Club is the employes' club for general discussion, topics similar to the following being subjects : "Is Direct Legislation of Greater Benefit than our Present System?" " Is Competition the Life of Trade?" "What Training besides his Trade should a Mechanic Have?"

Not only is it the effort of the company to create harmonious relations with its employes, but it also seeks to make the entire community, depending as it does upon the enterprise, take a lively interest in its welfare. To this end various plans have been adopted. The company's landscape gardener has general oversight of the streets, lawns, and park places of the entire community. An Improvement Association, composed for the most part of officers and employes, labors for the general improvement of the appearance, comfort, and health of the community. Stereopticon lectures are given upon the planting of trees and vines, and kindred subjects. Prizes are offered by the company for the best specimens of landscape gardening by residents of South Park. Prizes are also given for the best-kept square in any street ; also prizes to boys for the five best-kept backyards. This effort has in the course of a few years created quite as remarkable a change in the general appearance of the community as has been made within the factory itself. The growth is adequately expressed in the change in name of the community from Slidertown to South Park.

In addition to these the company furnishes a garden plot, prepares the ground, furnishes the seed and tools, and place-* it under the general direction of their landscape gardener to be cultivated by the boys of the neighborhood. These boys, last year forty in number, are selected by the Mothers' Guild, and the five most successful were rewarded with prizes in addition