DR. H. J. GERSTENBERGER'S PAPER 71 



not simply mean the knowledge of their individual 

 names and the type of work they are doing, but 

 implies a personal acquaintance with the individuals in 

 charge, a knowledge of the ideals of their own work, 

 a thorough inspection of their machinery and working 

 methods, an attempt to view their work as well as 

 one's own from their view point i.e., putting oneself 

 in the other person's boots, and to see and plan how to 

 help them an attempt to view their work from one's 

 own view point, and to see and plan how they can help, 

 or even modify their own activities to be better able 

 to aid without harming themselves and the general 

 development of the community along health and social 

 lines. 



The success and the organization of a broad work 

 in Cleveland is due far more to the accomplishment of 

 this practical plan than to that of any one ideal, 

 although the latter has not been absent. 



Before picturing Cleveland's progress in its infant 

 mortality work, it will be well to briefly describe the 

 environment in which this work was allowed to 

 grow up. 



Cleveland is a city 1 1 7 years old, and has a popu- 

 lation of some 630,000 people. In 1900 its popula- 

 tion was in the neighbourhood of 300,000. So its 

 development into what we may call a large city has 

 occurred rather recently, and this fact is the main 

 reason why the most important of Cleveland's philan- 

 thropic health and social organizations are of com- 

 paratively recent birth, which again is responsible 

 for the absence of hard and fast customs, practices 

 and precedents, which we are told exist in the older 

 larger cities and are a stumbling-block to those who 

 wish to attempt intimate and efficient co-operation. 



There is, however, another reason why co-opera- 

 tion and constructive work are comparatively easy in 

 Cleveland, namely, the fact that practically all of 

 Cleveland's important charities and social institutions 



