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CIVICS CLASSES AS SANI­
TARY INSPECTORS
By O. R. GEYER
S T U D E N T S in the civics classes
of the three high schools of Des
Moines, Iowa, have been enlisted
for service as sanitary
inspectors in a "Making Citizens"
course conducted by their instructors
as a means of bringing home more
clearly some of the problems found in
the textbooks. Armed with cameras,
hundreds of boys and girls, members of
high school improvement leagues and
civics students, spend several weeks of
each semester in an investigation of sanitary
conditions, which extends over practically
the entire city. Incidentally they
have discovered violations of city health
laws which no one dreamed existed, and
the new interest they have taken in their
classroom work promises well for the
citizenship of the future.
Des Moines is said to be the first city
in the country to adopt such a plan, and
the school authorities are preparing a
bulletin which will be given wide circulation
among the schools. The investigations
made by the students included
almost every phase of city life—such as
crime and punishment, child labor, a
census of the occupations of the parents
of the high school pupils, public health,
public utilities, public recreation, public
buildings, educational institutions, poverty
and pauperism, and dependents and
their care.
Some of the evils of uncleanliness
were brought home to the pupils in pictures
taken by the investigators. These
pictures included almost everything in
the range of what a city should not have
—unsightly and unsafe holes in paving,
overflowing garbage cans, and poorly
kept back yards and alleys. Dairies,
bakery shops, candy shops, grocery
stores and other business houses cooperated
with the schools by opening their
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doors for the civics class student inspectors.
One of the most interesting discoveries
made by the students was the extensive
use which housewives made of empty
milk bottles as receptacles for vinegar,
kerosene, and gasoline. These bottles
were traced back to the dairies, where,
it was found, they were washed in common
with bottles collected from all parts
of the city, thus threatening the milk
supply of several neighborhoods with
acetic acid impurities.
During the school year the civics students
extended their investigations to
include housing conditions among the
poor, and the workings of the police
court. City officials are cooperating in
this work of making better citizens, and
plans are being considered for the enlargement
of the work of the junior
leagues.
This work assumes even greater importance
today, for while thousands of
the men who have portions of this duty
on their shoulders normally, are away to
war, the boys and girls will have to step
forward and fill the gap. In every city
a league of the high school and grammar
school students should be formed.
In the all-important problem of supplying
sufficient food to our Allies and
ourselves, waste is a positive crime. The
careful watching of sanitary conditions
should help tremendously in minimizing
waste.
Miss Alice E. Moss, a prominent educator
of Des Moines, was the originator
of the system. She has been behind it
from the beginning, and deserves a great
deal of praise for her efforts. In the
course of the next few years she doubtless
will see many other cities fall in line,
training their youth just as Miss Moss'
charges have been trained.