6. In general, then, the delinquents studied were handicapped with respect to every aspect of their housing situation. With reference to the juveniles at least the conclusion can scarcely be escaped that the housing, if not the chief factor, was at least a very significant factor accounting for the delinquent behavior.

7. Most of the bad housing situations found, notably household congestion, poor structures, and bad elements in the neighborhood, would naturally be altered in correctly planned and adequately large housing projects.

8. It is reasonable to expect, provided the housing (including not only the structure itself, but also the immediate environment) were improved, that delinquency would decrease. This reasoning is confirmed by careful students of the problem.

SEVE

EVERAL laws for the provision of better housing were enacted in Sweden during June 1936, whereby assistance to those with low incomes will be granted to a total of 25,450,000 kronor.2 Government aid is authorized through loans, direct rent allowance, and experimental work in housing. Both urban and rural workers will benefit under the terms of the new legislation.

The specific amounts authorized and the purposes for which they are to be used are as follows:

Kronor

Additions to loan fund for housing large families with small means. 15, 000, 000 Direct rent allowances

Loans for house building:

Urban...

650, 000

2, 000, 000

2, 000, 000

Rural......

Promotion of house building..

Improvement of agricultural workers' dwellings

Total....

Data are from New York Times, June 22, 1936.

* Exchange rate of krona in April 1936=25.48 cents.

5, 500, 000

300, 000

25, 450, 000

LABOR OFFICES

Directory of Labor Offices in the United States and

A

Canada

DIRECTORY of labor offices has been compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is being issued as its Bulletin No. 621. As in previous years, the directory gives the names of the principal officers in the State and Provincial agencies which have to do with labor, as well as the address of the agency itself. Such offices include bureaus of labor, employment offices, industrial commissions, State workmen's compensation insurance funds and commissions, minimum-wage boards, factory inspection bureaus, arbitration and conciliation boards, and boards set up to administer unemploymentcompensation insurance.

Establishment of Palestine Central Statistical Office

UND

INDER the statistics ordinance, 1935, the Government of Palestine has established a central office of statistics at Jerusalem, the Government statistician of that country reports in a communication to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, under date of May 6, 1936.

The function of the new agency is to collect and publish statistics on such subjects as housing, wages, hours, and conditions of labor, employment and unemployment, industrial disputes, and prices.

Establishment of National Labor Office in Venezuela

A

NATIONAL labor office (Oficina Nacional del Trabajo) to enforce the present labor laws and to collect data with a view to their improvement was established in Venezuela by presidential decree of February 29, 1936. The office is to be attached to the division of justice, welfare, and worship (Dirección de Justicia, Beneficencia y Cultos) of the Ministry of the Interior. The five regional labor inspectors provided by the decree are to be responsible directly to the Ministry of the Interior, and the other employees are to be appointed by special resolutions of that ministry.

1 Data are from report of Meredith Nicholson, U. S. Minister at Caracas, Mar. 4, 1936.

RECREATION

Community Recreation in the United States, 1935

CONT

1

ONTINUED expansion of the community-recreation movement marked the year 1935. In 1934 the number of cities having some form of recreation service was more than twice that of the preceding year, while in 1935 there were 2,204 communities having such service, or 14 more than in 1934. The 1935 report of the National Recreation Association shows that although in 1,045 communities the recreation facilities and programs were provided entirely through emergency funds, more than 90 percent of all such funds were used in cities which raised part of the cost locally, either through taxation or from private sources. Eighty-three percent of all the workers paid from emergency funds also served in these cities. From these facts and since the amount paid for regular leadership in 1935 exceeds that for 1934, it seems evident, the report states, that to a large extent the emergency workers assigned for service to recreation agencies supplemented rather than supplanted regular services and workers in 1935. Nearly three times as much money was spent from emergency funds for land, buildings, and permanent equipment in 1934 as for leadership, but in 1935 this condition was reversed and more money was spent for leaders' salaries than for capital uses.

The reports are incomplete both for cities having recreation programs under regular leadership and for localities carrying on programs with emergency funds. Reports covering regular recreation service were received from 1,159 communities (6 less than the year before), and no reports were received from some States which carried on comprehensive programs with leaders from relief rolls, Even though the reporting was incomplete, the figures indicate that on the whole recreation held its own during 1935.

The number of workers employed as leaders for community activities who were paid from regular funds was shown by reports from 714 cities to be 18,496, of whom 2,606 were employed on a fulltime yearly basis. In addition to these workers there were 5,374 fulltime workers paid from emergency funds in cities providing regular

Recreation (New York), June 1936, pp. 99-160.

service, with a total of 21,033 workers paid from these funds. Volunteer workers numbered 9,364, of whom more than half were men. Salaries and wages, both in cities with regular recreation service and those having emergency service only, amounted to $12,420,091.26 for the cities reporting on this point, while a total expenditure for recreation of $21,552,621.32 from regular funds was reported. There was an additional expenditure of $14,373,231.03 from emergency funds in cities carrying on some regular recreation service, of which $5,204,553.39 was paid for salaries and wages.

Cities with regular recreation service reported a total of 8,062 playgrounds for white and colored persons, of which 729 were open in 1935 for the first time. The recreation facilities provided by cities included 1,043 recreation buildings and 3,639 indoor recreation centers such as schools, churches, city halls, etc., which are not used exclusively for recreation but in which a recreation program, under leadership, is regularly carried on. The total yearly or seasonal attendance of participants at recreation buildings for white and colored people in 193 cities was 41,095,778, while the total yearly or seasonal attendance of participants and spectators at playgrounds in 576 cities was 231,275,169. Special recreation activities include arts and crafts for children and adults, a large number of athletic sports, dancing, drama, music, outing activities (including gardening, camping, hiking, etc.), water sports, special winter sports, and a group of miscellaneous activities. Training institutes for both paid and volunteer workers are maintained in a number of cities, the total registration at 290 institutions numbering 16,443.

The marked expansion in the public-recreation movement which has taken place during the period from 1925 to 1935 is shown in the following statement:

SELF-HELP MOVEMENT

Cooperative Self-Help Movement in Utah

UTA

TAH was the first State to pass legislation setting up machinery for the encouragement and supervision of self-help cooperatives. A State board for this purpose was created by an act approved March 25, 1935. Although prior to that time the relief authorities of certain other States had delegated to an individual or a division of the staff oversight over self-help groups which had benefited by grants from relief funds, none of these supervisory agencies were created by statutory authority.

The act which created the Utah board grew out of a recognition of the seriousness of the relief situation in that State and the desire to encourage a movement which, experience had demonstrated, was of value in assisting the unemployed to become at least partially selfsupporting, to retain their industrial skills, and to maintain morale. The relief problem has been serious in Utah. The proportion of persons on relief there has been among the highest in the United States, and during the last half of 1935 was more than half again as high as among the population of the country as a whole. The State, however, furnishes a particularly favorable field for cooperative endeavor of any sort, for the people have a tradition of cooperative action. In the early pioneer days, joint, even community action was necessary for mere survival. Even today some communities carry on programs for social benefit.3 Much joint action has always been carried on in Mormon church activities. Thus it is not surprising

1 California, Idaho, and Michigan.

* Among the cooperative activities were the consumers' cooperatives, which were set up in many places. Remnants of this early movement are still found in the State, still operating under the "cooperative" name but actually merely joint-stock enterprises.

* Thus, one whole community has organized for a recreational and educational program. It has thus, by joint action, been able to supply movies at 5 cents admission, dances for the same price, lectures, concerts, etc. Even at this price there were "profits" which were used for the purchase of their own sound equipment and projector and the erection of a grandstand.

In this connection the recently announced program of the Mormon Church is of interest. Data are to be obtained as to resources in goods and surplus commodities among the church members, and possible openings for employment are to be registered. All the resources are to be marshaled and the whole church organization is to be directed toward the utilization of these for the unemployed church members, in the endeavor to take all such members off public-relief rolls.

349