Ch. 2
Pg. 4
THE THREE Rs:

 ettlement residents approached the problems of the inner city with a philosophical view that differed substantially from the position held by their colleagues working in the charity organizations. However, these two groups were similar in several important ways.
Like the charity organization workers, settlement workers attempted to translate some of the new concepts of scientific thinking into strategies that would give their work maximum impact and efficiency. The early settlement workers attempted to apply scientific thinking through what they often referred to as the three Rs of settlement work: Research, Reform and Residence.
 

 

"Robber's Roost" by Jacob Riis

 

 

DuBois in 1898
esearch:
Instead of investigating the poor, settlement workers researched the problems of the poor through scientific surveys. The studies typically documented the systemic nature of the problem. Surveys were usually sophisticated indictments of the economic, political and social systems prevalent within the inner cities.
An early example of a successful and important survey focused on the plight of recently urbanized African Americans in Philadelphia. Initiated by Susan Warton, from Philadelphia's College Settlement, that survey employed a young African American teacher, W.E.B. DuBois, as primary researcher. Published in 1897, THE PHILADELPHIA NEGRO: A Social Study, was an important first effort in documenting the trials of urban African Americans.

The study also provided an early argument that the social problems were the result of structural circumstances rather than individual deficiencies. The Philadelphia survey was followed by similar work in other urban areas that served to heighten awareness of the the plight of the urban African American.
The Pittsburgh Survey was the most influential. There were other important settlement- sponsored surveys with national impact. HULL HOUSE MAPS AND PAPERS was published in 1895, documenting the problems faced by new immigrants living in inner-city Chicago. In Boston, Robert Woods' South End House published THE CITY WILDERNESS in 1898 which also focused on new immigrants and their poverty. Many settlements published lesser known but locally important surveys that described the conditions and trials of a variety of groups including immigrants, working women, children and the unemployed. Even the media joined the rush to use the principles of surveying. Jacob Riis's photographic survey of how New York's poor lived, How The Other Half Lives (1890), helped change how many viewed the poor.

"The Bend" One of New York's most crowded areas. by Jacob Riis