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In the summer of 1912 the field work was completedfor the West Side studies published in thesevolumes. They are part of a wider survey ofthe neighborhood which it was proposed to makeunder the Bureau of Social Research of the New YorkSchool of Philanthropy with funds supplied by theRussell Sage Foundation. Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay,director of the School, and I were in charge of theBureau and together planned the scope and nature ofthe inquiry. To his inspiriting influence was due inlarge measure the enthusiasm and harmonious work ofour staff.
The investigators in the Bureau were men and womenwho had been awarded fellowships by the School ofPhilanthropy. There were junior fellowships, given forone year only, and intended to provide training insocial research for students without much previousexperience, who were required to give part of their timeto class work and special reading. There were alsosenior fellowships given to more advanced students whodevoted full time to investigation. After two years’work it was felt that to carry out the original plansatisfactorily would require the employment of a permanentstaff of investigators who were well trainedand equipped. The School, therefore, decided not tocarry the survey further and reorganized the Bureauon a different basis.iv
This brief account of the Bureau is needed to explainthe special topics dealt with in these volumes. Thepersonal qualifications of the investigators as well asthe available opportunities for investigation necessarilydetermined the choice of subjects.
A word must be said, too, as to the selection of thisparticular West Side district of New York City. These80 blocks which border upon the Hudson River, betweenThirty-fourth and Fifty-fourth Streets, contrastsharply with almost all other tenement neighborhoodsof the city. They have as nearly homogeneousand stable a population as can be found in anypart of New York. The original stock was Irish andGerman. In each generation the bolder spirits movedaway to more prosperous parts of the city. This leftbehind the less ambitious and in many cases the wrecksof the population. Hence in this “backset” from themain current of the city’s life may be seen some of themost acute social problems of modern urban life—notthe readjustment and amalgamation of sturdy immigrantgroups, but the discouragement and deteriorationof an indigenous American community.
The quarter which we studied is strangely detachedfrom the rest of the city. Only occasionally an outbreakof lawlessness brings it to public notice. Its oldreputation for violence and crime dates back many generationsand persists to the present day. So true is thisthat we considered it essential at the beginning of ourundertaking to ascertain the main facts of the district’sdevelopment. To Otho G. Cartwright was assignedthe task of collecting this material. He did notmake an exhaustive inquiry, but obtained fromreli