Against the bitter opposition of the dancing academy proprietors the bill became a law and went into effect in September, 1909.  Almost immediately it was challenged on constitutional grounds.  The committee promptly introduced another bill, this one to regulate dance halls.  This bill, which passed the legislature and is now a law, aims to wipe out the saloon dance hall absolutely, and so to regulate the sale of liquor in all dancing places that the drink evil will be cut down to a minimum.  The license fee of fifty dollars a year will eliminate the lowest, cheapest resorts, and a rigid system of inspection will not only go far towards preserving good order, but will do away with the wretchedly dirty, ill-smelling, unsanitary fire traps in which many halls are located.  The dance-hall proprietor who encourages or even tolerates “tough” dancing, or who admits to the floor “White Slavers,” procurers, or persons of open immorality, will be liable to forfeiture of his license.

The committee has done more than try to reform existing dance halls.  It has taken steps to establish, in neighborhoods where evil resorts abound, attractive dance halls, where a decent standard of conduct is combined with all the best features of the evil places—­good floors, lively music, bright lights.  Two corporations have been organized for the maintenance, in various parts of the city, of model dance halls, and one hall has already been opened.  The patrons of the model dance hall do not know that it is a social experiment paid for by a committee of women.  It is run exactly like any public dancing place, only in an orderly fashion.

Every extension of use of public places, schools, parks, piers, as recreation places for young people between fifteen and twenty is encouraged and supported by the committee.  Already two public schools have organized dancing classes, and several settlements have thrown open their dances to the public where formerly they were attended only by settlement club members.

By helping working girls to find cheap vacation homes in the country, and by establishing vacation banks to help the girls save for their summer outings, the committee hopes to discourage some of the haphazard picnic park dissipation.  In summer many trades are slack, girls are idle, and out of sheer boredom they hang around the parks seeking amusement.  It is only a theory, perhaps, but Mrs. Israels and the others on her committee believe that if many of these girls knew that a country vacation were within the possibilities, they would gladly save money towards it.  At present the vacation facilities of working girls in large cities are small.  In New York, where at least three hundred thousand girls and women earn their bread, only about six thousand are helped to summer vacations in the country.  What these women are doing now on a small scale, experimentally, will soon be adopted, as their children’s playgrounds, their kindergartens, their vacation schools, and other enterprises have been adopted, by the municipalities.  Their probation officers, long paid out of club treasuries, have already been transferred to many cities, east and west.  Soon municipal dance halls, municipal athletic grounds, municipal amusement and recreation centers for all ages and all classes will be provided.