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NEW SERIES OF CHICAGO COMMONS/ 



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H flDontbls 1RecorJ> E>evotet> to aspects of life an> labor from tbe Soctl'#^jJ>:nto > Jitt''Woint,'of I3iew. 



Whole Number 13. 



CHICAGO. 



o ; MAY, 1897. 



[For THE COMMONS.] 
MY DEBT. 



[BY EMMA PLAYTEB 8EABUHY.] 



How can I pay the debt I owe 

For warmth, and light, and daily bread? 
To all the toilers who, I know, 

Have dwarfed their souls, that I be fed? 
How can I pay the debts that stand 

To farm, or mill, that grind or spin? 
The mines that deck my jeweled hand, 

The weary ones that gathered in? 

How can I pay the debt again 

To him who delves and toils for me? 
How can I call them brother men 

Unless I break their chains and free? 
I place upon their neck my heel, 

I rule them with my golden rod, 
While I can think, and dream and feel, 

And talk of justice and of God! 

How can I pay mine honest debt? 

By sharing poverty and blight? 
Or giving where our ways have met 

The glimmer of love's beacon light? 
Oh! breaking hearts who dumbly plead, 

Oh! burdened lives who only see 
The rocky, onward paths that lead 

Your crosses to your Calvary ! 

I stumble, but! see God's plan; 

I suffer, but his voice I hear ; 
I hope hope is for those who can 

Look up, and see life's vision clear; 
But if they cannot see the skies 

Because toil pinions tighter yet 
And tears and sorrow blind their eyes, 

How can I pay this fearful debt? 

How can I pay, how can I work, 

How can I recompense them all? 
I who am idle, I who shirk 

To raise the burden they let fall. 
Not by my gold-tliey scorn the gift; 

Not by my pity, cast away, 
But love and I must stoop and lift 

Their cross, and carry it some day. 

And resting, they may catch a gleam 

Of drifting clouds, of stars that shine, 
Of billowy bloom, and flashing stream, 

And hear a strain of love divine. 
And earth-bound hearts may sing a song 

Like that my soul hears every day, 
And in their strength I shall grow strong 

If I but strive this debt to pay. 

Miss Jane Addams, defines the "Social 

Conscience" as "that feeling which would prevent 
a man from enjoying a good supper if a starving 
wretch were watching every mouthful he ate." 



JAPANESE : 



OUTLOOK FOR A RAPID EXTENSION OF 
SOCIAL WORK THERE. 



Two Settlements in Existence and a Third in Imme- 
diate Prospect. " Osaka Commons " the 
Next Step in Advance. 



To Rev. Tomoyoshi Murai, who during the past 
two years has been in America, supplementing 
earlier theological studies at Andover Seminary, 
and who, during his stay here has resided in and 
made a careful study of American social settle- 
ments, we are indebted for the first outline of in- 
formation concerning the social settlements of 
Japan, which are springing up in that awakening 
empire, and are likely to afford models for even 
the same class of work in America. Mr. Murai 
lived some months in South End House, Boston, 
and has also spent more or less time in residence at 
Hull House and Chicago Commons. He feels that 
in the social settlement has been found a practical 
means by which to foster the best social influences 
for the forwarding of the progress of Japan, and 
upon his return to his own people, within a few 
weeks, he will institute a settlement of his own in 
Osaka, which has about 600,000 population, and 
very great manufacturing activity. Twenty years 
ago there was not a factory in Japan. To-day there 
are about Osaka, alone, more that 3,000 factories, 
surrounding the city with a dozen miles of chim- 
neys, and drawing the laboring population from all 
parts of the country to the city. Several tenement 
houses of the American style are already on the 
ground, and all the evils of crowded city life are 
increasing. 

BAD INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS. 

The conditions of industry are decidedly bad. 
Wages vary from five, or even less, to twenty cents 
a day for unskilled labor, the best skilled labor re- 
ceiving about forty cents. The hours of labor are 
excessive, in many cases exceeding twelve hours a 
day, and thousands of little children are employed 
without the interference of any law to the contrary. 
The laboring people have no appreciation of the 
evils of their condition, or of the greater evils c" 



THE COMMONS. 



Coiv\ 

[May, 



threatening their future. While there are strong 
organizations among the capitalists, there are none 
among the laborers, and nothing is more needed 
than the appearance of ipie-Hig^ent\ leadership and 
counsel for t 



vMjuvmis PL-v^Ss 

" My field of work v ' 1 ' days 'Mr.; iiura.i>' "will be 
Osaka, whicti is Vd became- the Industrial center of 
Japan. Whi,lM.Tv)kyo is the, iEtelJectdal and politi- 
cal center, Osakr-. is t-> b? the commercial center. 
I expect to locate m)' work in the midst of the la- 
boring classes, and to start work in the most quiet 
and unassuming manner, trying in the first place 
to become thoroughly acquainted with the people 
of the laboring community, studying their situation 
and its needs, and then striviug to enlighten and 
educate them. 

" My idea is to make the settlement a center of 
helpfulness, looking toward the reconstruction of 
the social and economic conditions. For this work 
I need a certain sum of money as an endowment. 
It is possible to interest the people of Japan in this 
work at the outset, but social settlement work does 
not yield a great harvest of statistics, and the re- 
sults cannot be measured in the ordinary way; 
therefore, their interest would soon flag, not seeing 
the apparent results of Christian labor. My de- 
sire is to get $3,000. On the interest of this sum I 
could support myself and family." 

Mr. Murai will introduce at once a gathering for 
the discussion of economic and industrial topics* 
and his settlement will, in all probability, be known 
in English as " Osaka Commons," the Japanese 
words, "Kyo-Do Kwan," which have taken his 
mind, meaning " The House of th^Wommon 
Sharing." 

KINGSLEY HOUSE, TOKYO. 

There is already a fine settlement work at Tokyo 
under the name of "Kingsley House." Mr. Sen 
Katayama, the head of the house, is a graduate of 
Iowa College, in the class of 1892, and took his 
theological studies in Andover and Yale. For 
years he has been deeply interested in the social 
movements of the time, and while in this country, 
he used all his spare moments in the investigation 
of American social and industrial conditions. 
After his return to Japan, two years ago, he was 
called to the chair of sociology in one of the prin- 
cipal schools of Tokyo, and also wrote a book on 
the railroad question, which made his reputation 
among the reading circles of Japan. He is now in 
process of writing two other works, one on the 
present social movement in England, the other on 
the elemental principles of sociology both for the 
information of Japan, rather than as commentaries 
for the reading of Europeans. 

Kanda, where the settlement is located, is the 
most crowded section of the city of Tokyo. Its 



population consists not only of the poor, but also 
of the students in the schools and universities of 
Tokyo. In the midst of this section, whose popu- 
lation is above 200,000 Tokyo is a city of over a 
million souls Mr. Katayama opened his house, 
naming it after the great English Christian So- 
cialist. 

The published description of the house and its 
purposes, printed in " The Christian,'" of Tokyo (in 
Japanese), names as the purposes of Kingsley 
House, "To elevate the standard of life in the 
neighborhood, to give opportunity to graduates of 
institutions of learning still further to study social 
conditions and movements, and to afford a center 
and headquarters for Christian social activities. It 
is also intended to facilitate the dissemination of 
the benefits of higher education among the peo- 
ple, and to encourage the larger acquaintance and 
social relations of the people of the neighborhood. 
To encourage the inauguration of work of the same 
kind in other parts of Japan. The work is to be 
avowedly Christian in spirit and purpose. It is 
supported by a 'Kiogsley House Association,' 
whose membership consists of those in sympathy 
with the purposes of the work, the assessment being 
$3.00 per year or more." 

As yet, Mr. Katayama is alone in actual resi- 
dence, but a goodly number of helpers, living in 
other parts of Tokyo, assist in the work during 
waking hours. The work thus far, in addition to 
the daily kindergarten, has been largely that of 
increasing social acquaintance, but it is expected 
that in the near future there will be further de- 
velopment in the way of educational classes, so- 
cial clubs, etc. It is to be expected that there 
will be weekly discussions of social and economic 
topics. 

THE KYOTO MISSION SETTLEMENT. 

" Airinsha the House of Neighborly Love," at 
Kyoto, is the outgrowth of Rev. Dr. M. L. Gor- 
don's American Board Mission at Kyoto. " We 
had," says Dr. Gordon, "a night school where the 
English branches were taught. Later, we estab- 
lished a kindergarten, which, like the night school, 
is still in successful operation." The district of 
Kyoto, where Airinsha is located, is east of the 
Karno river and near the greatest thoroughfare of 
the city, which is the third largest in Japan. In 
this district of Kyoto live thousands of abjectly 
poor laboring people, in the midst of a large num- 
ber of silk and porcelain factories, and in the 
neighboring hotels and boarding houses are many 
students. The distinctive feature of Airinsha is 
that it is missionary, and religious teaching is a 
large portion of its work. It is practically a house- 
hold church, including Sunday school, Bible 
classes, etc. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



IRotes of tbe & * * * * 
& & & Social Settlements 4 



A PRICELESS OPPORTUNITY. 



" To you who think that the school, the church, 
the Institution are not doing all that can be done 
to make happier the life of your brother, who think 
that all is not being done that can be done to save 
these little children, these babies, from sorrow, from 
sin, from crime and from ruin, 

"To you who have a faith that high ideals, 
strong purposes, noble character and tender love 



A SETTLEMENT IN ADOBE. 



Interesting Phases of Work in the " Casa de Castelar " 
at Los Angeles* 



Doubtless the first " 'dobe " settlement building 
on record is that of the " Casa de Castelar " of the 
Los Angeles Settlements Association, whose pic- 
turesque building is shown in this issue of THE 
COMMONS. As yet, this settlement is one in name 
only, for there are no residents, but the work was 
undertaken with the distinct understanding and 
avowal of an intention to reside, and it can proba- 
bly be welcomed to the circle of settlements with 




CASA DE CASTELAR. 
Settlement House at Los Angeles, Cal. 



may influence for good all those coming within this 
magic circle, 

fr " To you who believe In the inherent goodness 
of the human heart, who believe in love, in virtue, 
in optimism, in a wider knowledge of the human 
sou I and in a larger charity, 

ill "To you who believe that the philosophy and 
religion of Jesus are true and are applicable to hu- 
man life, 

" To you who look forward to the redemption and 
salvation of the human race, 

"To all of you who believe in the Fatherhood of 
God, the Brotherhood of Man and the divinity of 
humanity, we give this blessed opportunity of help- 
Ing in a labor of love." from the Circular Letter of 
Sen Adhent House, Hoston, March, 1897. 



assurance. For three years a growing social work 
has been under way, and the group responsible for 
the effort is greatly encouraged and hopeful. " At 
our Christmas party we found," says the unusually 
piquant and readable report of the work, " that the 
Spanish Mexican knows how to decorate a house 
much more artistically than we, so, while we stood 
off and wondered, the young women and the young 
men transformed our rooms into real bowers of 
beauty.',' Indeed, the first bond of sympathy seems 
to have been the aid rendered by the settlement's 
neighbors in preparing the house for guests. 
There is something very refreshing and novel in 
the names of the clubs, and at the same time their 



119J356 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



very novelty of sound proves again how like is 
human nature wherever found, and how surely it 
must be that the social instinct of all men answers 
to the normal, natural outreach of human hearts in 
social fellowship! Isabella club, for girls; La 
Primavera club, devoted by young men to music 
and social intercourse; El Club Esperanza, for 
economic and social discussion by young unmar- 
ried people over sixteen these and less romanti- 
cally-named clubs of well-known kinds, with kin- 
dergarten, library and savings bank and courses of 
lectures, make up the work of Casa de Castelar 
or Castelar House, named in honor of Emilio Cas- 
telar, a name familiar to Los Angeles and entitle 
it to settlement standing. The chief plea of the 
present report is for a resident nurse. If there 
were any disposition to doubt the title of this enter- 
prise to settlement status let Article I of the Asso- 
ciation's constitution testify: 

" The objects of this Association shall be: (1) To 
establish and maintain resident settlements in Los 
Angeles. (2) To study and develop the social con- 
ditions of the settlement districts. (3) To help the 
privileged and the unprivileged to a better under- 
standing of their mutual obligations. (4) To co- 
operate with all other agencies acting for the im- 
provement of social conditions." 



DELANCEY STREET, NEW YORK. 

Annual Report of the Oldest and Perhaps Most 
Efficient American Settlement. 

The oldest, and perhaps the most thoroughly 
efficient settlement in this cpuntry is the Univer- 
sity settlement of New York city, located at 26 
Delancey street, and of which James B. Reynolds 
is head worker. Its report for 1896 is not only the 
outline of a peculiarly effective work, but is also a 
compendium, so far as it goes, of social informa- 
tion concerning its district the tenth ward of 
New York. Mr. Reynold's report as headworker 
shows that one of the best works of the last year 
was the thorough inspection of the medical agen- 
cies of the ward. The house-furnishing and in- 
dustrial insurance companies have also been given 
attention. The -total number of depositors in the 
penny provident bank is now nearly 1,900, and 
weekly deposits average eight cents. One of the 
best things done under the settlement's auspices 
last year was Mr. Reynold's active part in the lo- 
cation in the crowded East Side section of several 
small parks. With the local schools and with the 
labor movement of New York, the settlement main- 
tains the most cordial and helpful relations, as also 
with the police and street cleaning departments. 

One of the most successful features of the settle- 
ment's work is the "Annex," at 200 Eldridge street, 



where the united clubs of the settlement have a 
veritable guild together, renting the rooms at such 
a rate as they are able to pay, and feeling while 
they are there that the rooms are their own because 
they pay for them. This report is one of the 
representative American settlement documents. 



" NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE." 



Welcome to the New Settlement in Downtown 
Louisville. 



The Louisville Neighborhood House has a 
unique interest in being one of the first two or 
three attempts to start a settlement in a southern 
city. Although not claiming to be a settlement 
as yet, its location has been selected and its 
neighborhood work begun with a view of residence 
within the next few months. The movement is 
fortunate in having been inaugurated and so far 
mainly sustained by a family of such versatile per- 
sonal resource that a large and varied work along 
educational, musical and social lines could be con- 
ducted by their own individual effort. One by 
one, others among the cultivated and financially 
resourceful families are joining them in the 
successful social service being rendered in the 
most dense and destitute population of downtown 
Louisville. As a large part of the neighborhood 
is Jewish, it is a cheering sign of the new Hebrew 
and Christian spirit, that the great synagogue of 
the Reformed Jews welcomed to its Sabbath ser- 
vice Professor Graham Taylor as a Christian 
minister and his plea for the settlement of 
Christian people among Jewish neighbors. The 
opposition of the Hebrew people which at first 
withstood the effort, vanished on the first real 
sight of the work itself and the spirit in which it 
is being done. 

The Louisville work received a distinct impetus 
from the simultaneous visit there of Miss Jane 
Addams and Professor Taylor, and their addresses 
in the Warren Memorial church before a large 
and eager audience. 



ST. PETER'S HOUSE, PHILADELPHIA. 



Good Mothers' Meetings the Feature of Last Tear's 
Settlement Extension. 



An interesting feature of the Year Book of 
St. Peter's Parish, Philadelphia, is the portion 
devoted to the report of the work of the St. Peter's 
House settlement. There are four residents, all 
women; Miss Gushing is head resident. The work 
of the house is primarily parochial, and the resi- 
dents are first of all right-hand helpers of the 
rector and his assistants, in calling, in all manner 
of ministries to the sick and poor of the neighbor- 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



hood, and in addition to this, they extend all the 
influence which the continued presence of "a 
family life actuated by Christian love " assures. 
St. Peter's Church, of whose social work this is a 
consistent part, is one of the city churches whose 
work has greatly changed with the movement of 
the more resourceful membership away from the 
centers, and all the problems of a " down-town " 
parish face the devoted workers. The most satis- 
factory extension of the past year has been in the 
way of reaching the mothers of the kindergarten 
children, and the mothers' meeting Wednesday 
Afternoon is a delightful occasion. A simple lec- 
ture is given on the care of children, or some other 
home topic, and a social hour is spent. St. Peter's 
House is at 100 Pine street, Philadelphia. 



CINCINNATI SETTLEMENT. 



Efficient Workers Supplied by Several University 
Fellowships. 



The Cincinnati Social Settlement was found, 
upon a recent visit there, to be well situated, com- 
fortably housed, thronged by its neighbors and 
growing in favor among those whose personal co- 
operation it needs. The few to whose social con- 
sciousness and vision its establishment is due, 
have a heavy responsibility and a large work in a 
city whose material growth thus far transcends its 
civic spirit and social progress. 

The maintenance of a settlement fellowship by 
the students of the University of Cincinnati is an 
auspicious sign for the future. The enthusiastic 
hearing given to the presentation of the settlement 
movement by both professors and students, among 
whom are many Hebrews, was significant. 

G. T. 



The settlement is at 300 Broadway, in a closely- 
built block, and in the midst of a dense tenement- 
house population. It avows its purpose to be "the 
club house of the poor, a center for their social 
life." Three of the workers are supported by uni- 
versity scholarships. There have been from six to 
ten in residence constantly, and about thirty non- 
resident workers help in the work. A home-lend- 
ing library, woman's club, Saturday children's day 
and many clubs for folks of all ages make up a 
busy round of engagements. One blessed feature 
is a club for the blind, meeting fortnightly at the 
settlement under the direction of graduates of the 
Columbus State Institute for the Blind. 



Members of the Social Science and Municipal 
Departments of the Twentieth Century Club, of 
Boston, under the leadership of Robert A. 
Woods of the South End House, are about to 
begin a thorough study of the local tenement 
house problem. 



IN THE FAIR FUTURE. 



" Fair the crown the Cause hath for you, well to die or well 

to live, 
Through the battle, through the tangle, peace to gain or 

peace to give." 
Ah, it may be! Oft meseemeth, in the days that yet shall 

be, 
When no slave of gold abideth 'twixt the breadth of sea to 

sea, 
Oft, when men and maids are merry, ere the sunlight leaves 

the earth, 
And they bless the day beloved, all too short for all their 

mirth, 
Some shall pause awhile and ponder on the bitter days of 

old, 
Ere the toil of strife and battle overthrew the curse of 

gold; 
Then 'twixt lips of loved and lover solemn thoughts of us 

shall rise; 
We who once were fools and dreamers, then shall be the 

brave and wise. William Morris. 



FORWARD MOVEMENT REPORT. 



Epworth House the Center of an Active and Far- 
Reaching: Work, 



. In the form of the report for the year of the For- 
ward Movement, of which Rev. Dr. George W. Gray 
is secretary, comes the circular of Epworth House, 
at 49 Pearce street, Chicago, the social settlement 
under the auspices of the Forward Movement. 
The settlement is the center of a large group of 
activities, including kindergarten, Sunday services 
and Bible school, at Forward Movement Hall, 225 
West Harrison street, classes, clubs and lectures at 
the settlement, and a large outre.ach of neighbor- 
hood visitation and personal influence. 

In this connection it may be said that Dr. Gray 
and his helpers are planning a large fresh-air work 
for the summer, to take possibly 1,000 children into 
the country and distribute them to private homes 
for a fortnight of outing. Some of the settlements 
will assist in this. Dr. Gray's address is 234 La 
Salle street, Chicago. 



DES MOINES SETTLEMENT. 



An article from the Des Moines Leader describes 
interestingly the work of the King's Daughters' 
settlement there. One of the features is a weekly 
newsboys' club. Aside from the books and games 
with which the boys are entertained, there is 
usually an interesting talk by some competent 
person on some topic likely to be of value to th 
boys. The settlement has a day nursery, a Satur- 
day industrial school; the kindergarten has been 
temporarily interrupted during the absence of its 
teacher. The article is by Charles E. Lynde, head 
of the settlement, who is also general secretary of 
the Des Moines Y. M. C. A. 



HELEN HEATH SETTLEMENT, CHICAGO. 

The Annual of All Souls' church, Chicago, is 
always an inspiring book, because All Souls' 
church is fairJy to be spoken of as an extraordi- 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



nary church, in its affording of a home for all the 
interests of its community. Few other institutional 
churches of this country carry on so diverse a 
work. Of particular interest for settlement folk 
is the report of Helen Heath settlement, carried 
on under the auspices of the church. The report 
includes an introductory word by Dr. Lorinda G. 
Brown, head resident, a chapter on " Clubs and 
Classes at the Settlement," and reports of the kinder- 
garten, by Miss Nellie F. Shields, its director; on 
the day nursery, by Mrs. I. C. Zarbell, and of the 
sewing school by Mrs. Anna L. Utter, manager. 
3. W. Lain son reports on the settlement finances. 



FIRST MILWAUKEE SETTLEMENT. 



The first settlement in Milwaukee, or indeed in 
Wisconsin, so far as we know, is announced in a 
joyful note from its head resident, Mrs. M. Isabel 
Carpenter, who says, " the ' Happy Home ' settle- 
ment was organized here last September. We have 
a, daily kindergarten for young children, cooking, 
housekeeping and mending classes, boys' club and 
Sunday school. This is the first settlement in 
Milwaukee and in the State. As we become 
familiar with the neighborhood types we realize 
the true value of settlement work." 



SETTLEMENT NOTES. 



The annual meeting of the College Settlements 
Association was held in New York, May 8. Some 
account of it will be given in the June issue of 
THE COMMONS. 

The Kinsley House Record for May has an 
interesting article by Mr. 8. Y. Sugiyama, on " The 
Growing Interest in the Social Settlement Move- 
ment in Japan." 

At the annual meeting of the Hartford Settle- 
ment association the board of managers was en- 
larged to include men, and three of the Hartford 
Seminary students were elected members of the 
Board. 

A pleasant occasion for the Chicago settlements 
was the reception given at Hull House on the 
evening of May 8, when the members of the 
Federation of Chicago Settlements were presented 
to Miss Helena Dudley, of Denison House, Boston. 

The annual report of Ben Adhem House, Boston, 
comes to hand just as we go to press. This settle- 
ment is in a less congested part of Boston, but finds 
much to do. Mr. and Mrs. Willard H. Ashton are 
at the head of the work. The settlement is at 24 
Mall street, Boston. 

London reports the spring exhibition of pic- 
tures under the auspices of Mansfield House as 
"at least as good as anything one sees in Bond 
street for a shilling." Last year 146,000 persons 
went to see this exhibition in eighteen days. A 
feature of these exhibitions is the vote for the 
best three pictures. As London says, these pop- 
ular votes ought to be collected and published. 



"They would be as good a guide to the best 
popular taste as anyone could want." 

Among recent articles by settlement workers in 
current publications is one by George E. Hooker 
(of whom the Congregationalist says he was "once 
in our active pastorate but now serving society and 
Christ by study and life at the Hull House ") in 
the April Review of Reviews, on the problem of 
street cleaning, whether by contract or direct 
employment. Frederick A. Bushe, of South 
End House, Boston, contributes to the April Arena, 
a fine article on the Italians of that city. 

Largely under the auspices of the Clybourn 
Avenue settlement of Chicago was held, in the 
first week of May, a Conference of Day Nurseries 
which was in a high degree a success. The prin- 
cipal speakers were: Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, of 
Clybourn Avenue settlement, Mrs. E. C. Dudley, 
founder of the first day nursery in Chicago, Mrs. 
Davis R. Dewey, of Boston, Miss Jane Addams, of 
Hull House, Mrs. A. M. Dodge, of New York, and 
Professor Charles R. Henderson, of the University 
of Chicago. 

SETTLEMENT LITERATURE RECEIVED, 



File of literature of Ben Adhem House, Boston 

File of reports and literature of East Side House, 
New York. 

File and literature of the University Settlement,. 
26 Delancey street, New York. 

The Nazarene for April organ of the Minster 
Street Neighborhood Guild, Philadelphia. 

" The Anatomy of a Tenement Street," by Alvan 
F. Sanborn, reprinted by permission as " Andover 
House Bulletin No. 6," from The Forum, January r 
1895. 

A Study of Boston Evening Schools, by William 
A. Clark, of Lincoln House, Boston. South End 
House Bulletin, No. 8. Pamphlet, 12 pp. 

"Country Week," by William I. Cole. Reprinted 
from Neic England Magazine, July, 1896, as South 
End House Bulletin, No. 9. Pamphlet, illustrated,. 
15pp. 

"Italian Immigrants in Boston," by Frederick 
A. Bushed. Reprinted from The Arena of April, 
1897, as South End House Bulletin, No. 10. Pam- 
phlet, 15 pp. 

A Study of Beggars and their Lodgings, by 
Alvan F. Sanborn. Reprinted from The Forum of 
April, 1895, as Andover House Bulletin, No. 7. 
Pamphlet, 16 pp. 

"The University Settlement and Good Citizen- 
ship,' 1 an address by Richard Watson Gilder at the 
annual meeting of the University Settlement So- 
ciety of New York, Jan. 29, 1897. Pamphlet, 12 
pp., 16 mo. 

A late issue in the Putnam series on " Questions 
of the Day," is T. C. Devlin's " Municipal Reform 
in the United States." 

A notable product of the Lyons centennial at 
Amherst is an address by Rev. Oliver Huckel on 
" The Higher Education and the Common People." 
It is published in pamphlet form. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



$ 



Studies of tbe * * * * & 
& & & & Xabor movement 4 



CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 

EVOLUTION OF JAPAN. 

Interesting Story of the Nation's Rapid 
Transitions, 



From Feudalism to Industrial Competition in Thirty 

Years. Remedies Suggested for Evils 

Incident to Progress. 



[BY TOMOYOSHI MURAI.J 

[NOTE. The following article, by a well-known and brilliant 
Japanese minister, who recently has conducted two 
years of study and observation of social conditions in 
America, is so timely in our study of industrial develop- 
ment that we give it place in our series. ED.! 

Some thirty years ago Japan was under feudal- 
ism. There were four orders or classes in every 
community. The highest of these was called 
" Samurai " a sort of military aristocracy. The 
second was the farming class. Then came the 
carpenters and artisans, and last of all was the 
merchant or commercial class, who were then 
regarded as the lowest afcd meanest, because their 
profession was largely to accumulate money for 
their own selfish purposes. An intense aristocratic 
feeling was the characteristic of the period. Rank 
was everything ; the individual was nothing. 

The individual was absorbed in the family, the 
family was absorbed in the class. This system, 
although artificial and mechanical, was not without 
its advantages. A kindly feeling ruled the com- 
munity. There was no hard competition between 
man and man, but everything was quiet and peace- 
ful. At the same time, because of no recognition 
of individuality, there was almost no opportunity 
for progress or development of any kind. 

THE NEW ERA BEGUN. 

With the inauguration of the present emperor a 
most radical change took place. Feudalism was 
abolished. All class distinctions were done away. 
Even the lords, the holders of land, sacrificed their 
holdings and titles for the good of the nation. A 
leveling process took place, looking towards a 
democracy. Wealth was redistributed by the 
dividing of land and property. There are at present 
in Japan few very rich men and at the same time 
few very poor. The democratic spirit began to 
rule. The individual came to be recognized and 
rank began to be ignored. The watchword of the 
present age is personal rights and freedom. All 
barriers in the way of personal improvement or 
Advancement were taken away. The consequence 



was, the awakening of life, activity, enterprise and 
progress. The industrial age was ushered in. The 
change as a whole was a healthy one, and a decided 
improvement upon the old system of society, a 
step in the direction of social evolution. 

BEGINNINGS OF COMPETITION. 

But the present stage is not by any means the 
final stage of progress. It is already producing 
many evils. The moment it begins to rule, the 
evils of the European system will appear. Already 
the competitive stage of industry is producing its 
fruits of selfishness and materialism. The motto 
is: "Every one for himself." The doctrine of 
laissezfaire is accepted. Life is becoming in this 
commercial struggle more and more brutal, and 
the old, beautiful, artistic life of Japan is hope- 
lessly fading away. As I have said, the evils in 
the rest of the civilized world begin to appear in 
our cities. The competitive age will have a quick 
run and will emerge into a commercial feudalism, 
into an era of monopoly, such as has already 
appeared in the United States. The factory is 
growing, population is centralizing in the cities. 
Until recently, all the manufacturing done in 
Japan was done in the household on a small scale. 
Now the factories and manufactures have grown 
and multiplied so rapidly that taking for instance 
only one, the cotton industry, there are to-day 61 
factories in operation, with 580,000 spindles (as 
shown by the statistics of the Osaka Board of 
Labor), employing 8,890 men and 29,590 women. 
The factories in course of construction will bring 
the number up to nearly a million spindles. A 
capitalistic class and a laboring class are forming, 
and the rich are becoming richer and the poor 
becoming relatively poorer. Women and children 
are becoming the victims of the remorseless greed 
of the capitalist. Wretched poverty, vice and 
crime and all kinds of social evils are soon to 
appear. 

The country must manifestly run through the 
competitive and monopolistic eras. The thing 
which may be done in Japan is to make the fever 
short in its duration. Evils should not be allowed 
to mature and then be overcome; they should be 
prevented. 

Before presenting my idea of the means of the 
.solution of these problems, I desire to present the 
opinions of the three schools of thought, bearing 
upon these questions. 

THE THREE JAPANESE PARTIES. 

There is first the Radical school, a thorough- 
going Europeanizing party who are ready to adopt 
and follow ideas of the materialistic school in 
Europe to any extreme, utterly regardless of the 
importance of morality. According to their view 
there is no higher law than the law of struggle; 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



the evils of modern civilization are inevitable and 
must be endured. The poor and the weak are the 
necessary victims of the rich and fortunate. This 
school is intensely individualistic, but, I am glad to 
say, is in the minority. 

There is the conservative school which is nation- 
alistic and anti-European in its tendencies. They 
have seen some of the evils of the new civilization, 
but failing to recognize its benefits, they desire to 
return to the primitive state of society. In their 
view personal freedom is the cause of the evil and 
the curse to be avoided. This school is also small. 

The third party or school, representing a major- 
ity of the Japanese people under the leadership of 
the late minister of education, and of prominent 
native scholars, may be called the Moderates. 
They stand for the eclectic principle, claiming to 
reconcile the old and the new; retaining the moral 
discipline of the old system and combining with it 
the free competitive spirit of modern industry. To 
so combine is a beautiful idea, but a serious criti- 
cism to be made is the absolute impracticability of 
their views, because the underlying principles of 
the two systems are wholly irreconcilable. The 
old moral discipline cannot be preserved, while the 
system of society which produced it is destroyed. 

THE SUGGESTED SOLUTION. 

To my mind the only solution of the problem is 
the application of the principles of Christianity to 
industrial life. Christianity fully recognizes self 
but does not inculcate a self-centered theory of 
life, its law of life being neither competition nor 
subjection, but brotherhood and love, " each for all 
and all for each," expressed by trades unionism 
and inaugurated by Jesus. This principle, the co- 
operative, is the only one, which if introduced into 
industrial life, will retain individual freedom, en- 
courage progress, maintain moral discipline and 
harmony. Japan has evolved from the military or 
feudal system into the commercial era and must 
go forward to a realization of social and industrial 
democracy. 

The question is: How shall we bring about 
this realization? 

OLD-TIME PKOPAGANDA INADEQUATE. 

I recognize the value of the old method of 
Christian propaganda, seeking and converting men 
to a Christian experience, yet I believe that this 
method is inadequate to bring about the desired 
social change. There is a more pressing work to 
be accomplished, that is to incorporate the prin- 
ciples of Christianity, especially that of equality and 
brotherhood, into the political, educational, social 
and industrial spheres. While the Christian church 
is trying to convert one here and there, the social 
and political conditions and especially the economic 



life are growing into modern commercial paganism. 
While the good angel is sowing the wheat, the bad 
angel is sowing tares which are growing into a 
poisonous harvest. 

The need is to have the nation warned from the 
pitfalls into which modern civilization has stumbled, 
and its footsteps guided into the paths of 
wisdom. In the present transition period, con- 
ditions are especially favorable to the introduction 
of the social principles of equality, and for organ- 
izing our national life upon these principles. 
Although this is not what is known as religious 
work, yet to bring about such conditions furnishes 
an environment favorable to religious development. 
Wherever the spirit of equality and brotherhood 
prevails, there the consciousness of relationship to 
the universal God will be easily and naturally 
awakened. It is claimed that if individuals are 
converted to Christianity, political and economic 
conditions will take care of themselves and become 
Christian. Without specifically denying this state- 
ment, I, on the other hand, claim that if the social 
environment be made just and right, and human 
relations be well adjusted, the religious spirit will 
grow by itself. To bring about this reconstruction, 
social settlement work is one of the best methods, 
to which work I am determined to devote my life.* 



LABOR STUDIES" TO BE CONTINUED. 



NOTE. The labor studies conducted by Prof. 
Graham Taylor began with our issue of Septem- 
ber, 1896, and will continue to be a feature of the 
present volume of THE COMMONS. The topics thus 
far covered include: "An Introductory Survey of 
the Field," " From Serfdom to Wages," " The Eve 
of the Industrial Eevolution," " Machinery and 
Labor," "The Competitive Industrial Order," 
" Ethics and Competition." 

The article printed above is in line with our 
policy to vary these studies by contributions from 
other sources which prove desirable either for their 
timeliness or for their value in illuminating or 
elucidating the subject under review. The move- 
ment of labor will be outlined from the point up to 
which we have already traced it, to the present 
social condition of labor. From the historical, 
biographical, economic and ethical points of view 
the studies will trace the social progress of the 
wage-earning classes from inferiority to equality 
before the law, as indicated by the evolution of 
labor legislation in England and America; from 
competition to combination, as shown in the organ- 
ization of labor, past and present, abroad and at 
home; from actual conditions toward ideal indus- 
trial commonwealths, as realized in literature and 
life. Present industrial issues will be frankly, 
fearlessly and impartially discussed, such as the 
standard of life and the living wage; existing con- 
ditions of laboring life among children, women, 
organized and unorganized trades; necessity for 
and methods of labor organizations, the strike 

*Some account of Mr. Mural's personal Ideas and plans 
will be found in another column. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



9 



versus the lock-out, the boycott versus the black- 
list, etc.; the relative status of the industrial classes 
in the community, educational, municipal, politi- 
cal, social, moral, religious. Bibliographical ref- 
erences, especially to available or accessible liter- 
ature, either in permanent or periodical form, will 
suggest reading collateral to the theme of each 
study. 

ARBITRATION AND STREET CLEANING. 



Successful Experiment in Commissioner Waring's 
Department at New York. 



An interesting document just at hand is the re- 
port of the first year's work of the " Committee of 
Forty-one and the Board of Conference" of the 
New York city department of street cleaning. 
Whatever may be the grievance of organized labor 
against Commissioner Waring, for his alleged 
effort to cut under the union scale and secure his 
labor in the cheapest market, it is undeniably a 
fact that this board of arbitration for such in 
effect it is has been a great success. It is a joint 
committee, of which the Commissioner is not a 
member, which meets at stated intervals and dis- 
cusses the interests of all parties to the work of 



the department. All grievances are there dis- 
cussed, and matters at issue between the Commis- 
sioner and his men are freely canvassed. As Com- 
missioner Waring says in his letter of transmittal 
or the Mayor, "the method adopted has elicited 
approval among those who are interested in the 
labor question." Copies of the report can prob- 
ably be secured by addressing Hon. George E. 
Waring, Commissioner of Street Cleaning, New 
York City. 

The St. Petersburg Tramways Company has in- 
troduced a five hours working day for all its 
horses, finding that that is the maximum which can 
be allowed with due regard lo keeping them in 
good health. The drivers, conductors and other 
employes of the same company, on the other hand, 
work twelve to fourteen hours a day. Comment is 
unnecessary. 

People who have the idea that labor organization 
and agitation are of modern origin will do well to 
read the remarkable article in the Arena for May, 
1897, on "Trade Unions Under the Solonic Law," 
by Hon. C. Osborne Ward, interpreter of the United 
States Department of Labor. Space is lacking for 
a summary of the article, which is most interesting 
and illuminating, showing clearly the existence of 
powerful labor organizations in ancient Egypt, 
Greece and Rome. 



FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS AND KINDERGARTNERS. 




SUMMER INSTITUTE. 



UNDER THE DIRECTION OF. 



FROM JULY 12TH TO 3 1ST. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL DEPT. Educational principles and practice 
in relation to the Sunday-School. Discussions on 
the following subjects: 

Fundamental Bible Truths. 

Stories. 

Songs. 

Picture Work. 

General Exercises and Order. 



KINDERGARTEN DEPT. Educational principles and practice. 
Discussions on: 
Gifts. 

Occupations. 
Games. Stories. 
Songs. 

Mothers' Meetings. 
Program Work. 



FOR BOTH DEPARTMENTS: Basket Weaving Wood Carving, Sloyd (For Beginners). 



SPECIALISTS IN ART AND MUSIC. 



A week-day Kindergarten and a Sunday-School Class will be in operation. For terms and other particulars, 
address, 

MRS. J. P. GAV1T, 

Chicago Commons, 140 N. Union Street, 
CHICAGO. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 





ft MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year, (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
At OUK BISK. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 

AM, COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to the 
Managing Editor, JOHN P. GAVIT, Chicago Commons, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 13. 



CHICAGO. MAY 15, 1897. 



PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 



WITH this number THE COMMONS enters 
upon its second year with new zeal and 
new desire to occupy more fully the field upon 
which it entered a year ago. The publishers ex- 
tend thanks to the many whose patronage and co- 
operation have insured the success of the paper, 
and on their 'own part pledge themselves to use 
every endeavor during the coming year to make 
the paper increasingly valuable. Hereafter it will 
be published on the 15th of each month. 



"THE COMMONS.' 



It is a magic word with which our title page will 
be headed hereafter the word of the future. We 
feel that we have taken a distinct step forward in 
the enlargement of our name. From being the 
representative of what might be regarded as a more 
or less restricted and local work, we go forward to 
become the exponent of the great settlement move- 
ment, and of all that it involves. With unabated 
interest in the settlement under whose auspices 
this paper was started; nay, more, .with in- 
creasing affection and loyalty toward that work, 
whose name the paper has borne to its own great 
advantage and assurance of welcome, we reach out 



at the beginning of this second volume to speak, 
so far as we may, also for the settlements and 
kindred movements of the world. 

" The Commons " those patches of mother-earth 
not yet staked out as " private " property, where 
man can meet with fellow-man in reciprocal ex- 
change of life-values on a basis of common human- 
ity for the settlements which regard themselves 
as places of neutral ground between the classes and 
the clans, and which hold themselves unclassed for 
the sake of all that they may do and be between 
the class lines, we would claim our place and 
name. 

" The Commons " that historic name of the 
common people, whom the Lord must love, as the 
great Commoner, Abraham Lincoln said, " or he 
wouldn't have made so many of 'em " in behalf of 
the commonplace folks who have been well-nigh 
crowded down and out in the battle for existence, 
we would plead the cause of human standards and 
values in the working world. 

THE COMMONS such will be our title hereafter, 
and the best and most useful work we can lay down 
for ourselves is to speak for and aid the little 
groups of people who have cast their lot with the 
poor, and established in dark places spots of, com- 
mon soil upon which men and women are esti- 
mated at their human value only, and further, as 
we have opportunity to interpret and prosper, to 
the limit of our ability, the great movement of 
common humanity toward the justice and the 
happiness that inevitably will follow the justice 
of the Kingdom of God. 



THE UNION LABEL. 



Not every reader of THE COMMONS has noticed, 
or noticing understood, the little device printed, 
hitherto, on the last page of the cover, but now in 
place at the bottom of the title page the " Union 
Label" and with the utmost sympathy and cor- 
diality we call attention to it, and suggest that our 
readers look for and insist upon similar marks upon 
other publications and goods purchased by them. 
It means that the shop where this paper is printed, 
or where was made the article on which the label 
is found, is a union shop, employing members of 
labor organizations, and conducted under the best 
regulations that the united action and agitation of 
working men have thus far been able to secure. 
So far as it goes, the Union Label is a guarantee of 
fair labor conditions, decent surroundings of man- 
ufacture, and humane treatment of the workers. 

THE COMMONS insists upon its use because it be- 
lieves that the organization of labor is, for the 
future, one of the safeguards of democracy and of 
social progress, because it believes that the next 
step in human advancement is to be the socializa- 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



tiou of industry and the economic emancipation of 
the workers, and it appears to us that one of the 
most important steps in this direction is the organ- 
ization of labor and the insistence upon the best 
conditions of industry which can from time to 
time be secured. The Union Label is, as it were, 
our public assertion of this belief. 



THE STREETS ARE THE PEOPLE'S. 



All the settlements of Chicago are with the 
people in their fight against the corrupt and in- 
famous street car monopoly which is attempting, 
thus far unsuccessfully, to tie the hands of Chicago 
and compel the continuance of the present exorbi- 
tant 5 cent fare for fifty years. A monthly paper 
like THE COMMONS cannot be expected to keep 
pace with the changing phases of the battle. We 
can only register ourselves as with the people in 
their struggle for independence against one of the 
most offensive and unscrupulous of modern mon- 
opolies, and quote these words not from a wild 
and woolly "Anarchist" paper of the far West, but 
from the conservative Hartford Post, whose editor 
is secretary to the President of the United States 
at the present moment apropos of the effort of 
the street railway companies of Indianapolis to defy 
the law reducing fares to 3 cents: 

"The struggle for what are understood to be the rights 
of the people to the streets, is beginning in earnest. What- 
ever occurs it is certain the agitation will not cease until In 
some way the people win. They are supreme. They are 
finally above all law because they make the law. They are 
superior to constitutions for they are the creators of consti- 
tutions. Whether charters are perpetual or not, they can- 
not be vested rights for all time. Conditions change, and 
the people will have their way. The only thing for corpora- 
tions to do is to squeeze out the water from their capital and 
make up their minds to accept a very moderate dividend. 
The streets are the people's and the increment likewise." 



IT WILL doubtless be sufficient to call attention 
to the advertisement on page 9 of this issue of 
THE COMMONS announcing the Summer Institute at 
Chicago Commons. This offers an opportunity of 
the first class to those who desire to know the 
fundamentals and modern methods of child-train- 
ing. Miss Frederica Beard and Mrs. Bertha Eofer 
Hegner, under whose instruction the Institute will 
be held, need no introduction to those interested in 
the application of the new Psychology and the new 
Education to the work of kindergartners and pri- 
mary Sunday School workers. Full particulars 
'will be mailed upon application. 



O SIDE from its being an unfailing indication 
/ \and consequence of government inefficiency, 
the vast flood which has been menacing the prop- 
erty and prosperity of the Mississippi valley, is a 
monument to and in a sense a punishment of hu- 
man folly and greed. The sufferers are not the 
winners, but there can be no question that in large 



measure these floods are the more or less direct re- 
sult of the foolhardy and unforeseeing devastation 
of the great northern forests at the Mississippi's 
headwaters. This is indeed but a specimen of the 
suffering which the future must bear through the 
selfishness and greed of the present. 



IT IS no evasion of honest debt that the Chicago 
Bureau of Justice has aided during the past 
year in securing the settlement of mortgage cases 
in which $5,000 was claimed, for less than $1,800. 
Those who have anything to do with the troubles 
of the poor know of the outrages of the mortgage- 
loan shark, whose peculiar trade is to feed upon 
the misfortunes of the helpless. One hundred, 
two hundred, and in some cases not infrequent 
five hundred per cent, interest is claimed and often 
secured from ignorant or helpless people by these 
brigands, and few successes of settlement workers 
are the source of keener delight than that involv- 
ing the discomfiture and defeat of some one of 
these fellows who has marked down some destitute 
family for persecution. 



THOSE who have been interested in and in- 
spired by the references in the columns of 
THE COMMONS to that shop where the Golden Rule 
is the only rule posted on the walls, and whose 
chief proprietor, with his wife, "warmed" their 
beautiful new house, at the outset, by a neighbor- 
hood reception in honor of the employes in the 
aforesaid shop, will be further interested and de- 
lighted to know that the same gentleman, Mr. 
Samuel M. Jones, has been elected Mayor of To- 
ledo, on a Golden-Rule platform. Another friend 
and substantial helper in the work of the Com- 
mons, is the newly elected mayor, John R. Oughton, 
of Dwight, 111. 

TO the many who have been asking forthe mean- 
ing of the word "Commons" as applied to the 
settlements, we can refer to no better definition 
and explanation than are to be found in the simple 
title of Mr. Murai's new settlement in Osaka, 
Japan "Kyo-Do-Kwan the House of the Common 
Sharing." The "common sharing " of life, and of 
all the privileges of life learning, social position, 
spiritual life, upward tendencies and impulses, all 
the beauties and pleasures that make life worth 
living, this is the fundamental idea and purpose 
of the social settlement, and the Japanese phrase, 
'"Kyo-Do-Kwari" expresses it better than any Eng- 
ish words of which we know. 



C* OMMONLY made in city missionary effort 
^/ and some settlement circles is reference to 
"the movement of population from the city center 
to the suburbs." There has been no such move- 
ment. There is more population in the city cen- 
ters the so-called " slums " this year than there 
was five years ago, more to-day than there was yes- 
terday, and all records will be surpassed to-morrow. 
There never was so great a " population " in the 
Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth 
wards of Chicago, for instance, or the Tenth Ward 
of New York, or the First of Cleveland, as there is 
to-day, and never was the call to Christian self- 
sacrifice to the Church of Christ so loud or so 
pressing as it is to-day. 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



Chicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 



est of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
i North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
er of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
[>on Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 
Object. As explained in the second clause of the Articles 
[ Incorporation of the Chicago Commons Association, filed 
ith the Secretary of the State of Illinois: 
"2. The object for which It is formed is to provide a center for a 
Igher civic and social life, to initiate and maintain religious, educa- 
onal and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve 
mentions in the industrial districts of Chicago." 
Or, as the explanatory circular of the settlement has ex- 
lamed it: 

"As exemplified at Chicago Commons, the Social Settlement con- 
its primarily of a group of people who choose to make their home 
that part of the great city where they seem to be most needed, 
ither than where the neighborhood offers the most privilege or 
iclal prestage." 

Support The work is supported in addition to what the 
isidents are able to pay for rent of rooms, by the free-will 
ifts of those who believe in what the work stands for. The 
ift of any person is welcomed, and the contributions are 
9th occasional and regular, the latter being paid in in- 
;allments, monthly, quarterly and annually, at the conven- 
>nce of the giver. 

Visitors, singly or in groups, are welcome at any time, 
ut the residents make especial effort to be at home on 
'uesday afternoon and evening. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
i gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
earing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
;ribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
on. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
auditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
ddressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



IMMEDIATE FINANCIAL NEEDS, 



Appeal for the Support of the Summer Work in the 
Seventeenth Ward of Chicago. 



Chicago Commons imperatively needs the 
>rornpt and generous assistance of its friends to 
>rovide the means of carrying its indoor expenses 
ind outing work over the summer. For the four 
nonths we need at least $1,000, and must look to 



individual donors for this amount. At this season 
it is difficult to secure either church collections or 
the larger personal contributions. Our depend- 
ence must be chiefly upon voluntary responses to 
this appeal or to the letters which we personally 
address to our friends. The wear and tear of 
standing so long under the burden and in the 
breach financially are so great that the few who 
have stood there waiting for the constituency to 
rally, should in justice to their own health and 
other work, as well as to the direct interest of the 
Settlement, be relieved of the personal care of pro- 
viding this money this summer. Despite the 
financial depression this constituency has rallied. 
It is so widely scattered, very variously composed, 
and in numbers and well- distributed resource so 
surely adequate to meet the modest demand of the 
large work, if fairly divided, that no giver need be 
overburdened, much less any one of the few at the 
head of the work sacrificed, to carry on and out to 
its largest success the movement centering at Chi- 
cago Commons. Who gives quickly and without 
solicitation gives manifoldly. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR, 
Warden of Chicago Commons. 



AT LAST A DAY NURSERY! 



West Side Young Woman's Club Comes to the Rescue 
with "The Matheon Creche." 



After months of weary waiting and turning away 
of anxious mothers who had to lock their children 
into their rooms for six, eight and ten hours while 
they were away at work, Chicago Commons has a 
day nursery! The need, and the ability to supply it, 
came together at a meeting of the Matheon Club, 
of West Side young women, who came to the res- 
cue forthwith, welcoming with open arms the op- 
portunity of service, and at once joining hands to 
fill the great need. The philanthropic department 
of the Club has the matter in charge, and under the 
direction especially of the executive officers of the 
department, Miss Jean Brophy, Miss Mary E. Sands, 
Miss Annie B. Kerr, Miss Kohlsaat, Miss Post and 
Mrs. Price, and with the co-operation of a host of 
the Club's friends, it is now an accomplished fact. 
It is expected that the cost of the enterprise will 
not exceed $800 a year. 

The creche is located in the pretty flat over the 
market of our neighbor, Andrew Dauser, at the 
corner of Union street and Austin avenue, next 
door but one to the settlement residence five light 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



and airy rooms, which the Matheon Club has fur- 
nished with the necessary criba, etc.; flowering 
plants bloom in the windows, and cleanliness and 
sweetness and love make the place a real home for 
the children. The mothers pay five cents a day for 
the care of each child, who is washed, fed, given a 
nap and made to know, as nearly as possible, " all 
the comforts of home." Those who are large 
enough spend the mornings in the kindergarten, 
and Miss Clawson, the trained kindergartner who 
acts as nurse, with the assistance of Mrs. Nelson, 
the housekeeper, conducts her own little baby gar- 
den for the tots who spend the morning with her. 
The response of the neighborhood was immediate, 
the first week averaging five children a day, and 
there is no doubt that from the outset the " Matheon 
Creche" will justify its existence. 



THE WOMAN'S CLUB. 



The progress and sustained interest of the Com- 
mons Woman's Club is a highly satisfactory feature 
of the settlement's advancement. Programmes of 
current meetings include such topics as " The Isle 
of Man ", by Mrs. Crane and Miss Heckenlively; 
" The Land of Evangeline ", by Mrs. Katharine L. 
Stevenson; "A Trip Through the Orient", illus- 
trated, by Miss Mary Eva Gregg; "Scandinavia", 
by Mrs. Anderson and others; " Woman's Work at 
the World's Fair ", by Mrs. Barker, saying nothing 
of several socials. The semi-annual election of 
officers occurs June 28. 



COMMONS NOTES. 



An appeal for copies of Fiske's " History of 

the United States," for which the boys are asking, 
brought nine copies the very next day from the 
Congregational Church at Ravens wood. 

A good friend of the settlements, and of 

Chicago Commons in particular, is lost in the sadly 
sudden death of Rev. C. H. Keays, pastor of the 
Congregational Church at Ravenswood, 111. 

With the coming on of spring, we renew our 

struggle with the omnipresent boy to raise a few 
blades of grass in our front yard about the largest 
patch of green (?) in a territory a mile square. 

The "Pleasant Sunday afternoon service" 

will be suspended until fall after the 16th of 
May, but it is expected that the Tuesday evening 
economic discussion will be continued throughout 
the summer without interruption. 

Just as we go to press comes news that the 

drinking fountain presented by the Evanston 
Woman's Club will be delivered at the settlement 
in a few days. The hot days of the early May 
have already shown that it will be a very welcome 
addition to the neighborhood. 

Helpful residents at the settlement during 

the winter have been two Japanese missionaries, 
graduate students at Chicago Seminary for the 



time Rev. Cyrus A. Clark and Rev. Horatio B_ 
Newell. Rev. Mr. Marsh, of the Bulgarian mis- 
sion, was also a resident for a time. 

We are hoping that some good friend will 

meet our need for a kindergarten sand-pile. Three 
loads last year were enjoyed to the fullest extent, 
but the winter's snows and thaws and rains have 
washed away most of it, and what is left is far 
from clean. It ought to be renewed, and for a 
very small sum a great deal of pleasure can in this 
way be insured. 

Secretary N. H. Carpenter, of the Art In- 
stitute of Chicago, has renewed his kindness of 
last year and sent to each resident of the settle- 
ment a special ticket of admission to the galleries 
for the ensuing year. This is one of the privileges 
that help to rob settlement residence of any ele- 
ment of the sacrifice popularly supposed to amount 
nearly to martyrdom. 

Most efficient and cordial service has been 

rendered by Fred'k P. Vose to those of our neigh- 
bors who were in need of legal advice and services 
but were unable to pay for a lawyer. Upon Mr. 
Vose's office in the Marquette building we have 
looked as a friendly port in the storms of legal per- 
secution which have overtaken not a few of our 
unfortunate neighbors. 

A kindergarten picnic to Oak Park is being 
planned for the 26th of May, under the direction 
of Mrs. G. F. Belknap and Mrs. Cyrus Falconer. 
It was under the same auspices last spring that the 
children had their first suburban outing, and the 
photograph then taken, and twice reproduced in 
THE COMMONS, has been printed in various parts 
of the country since. The little folks have already 
had several trips to the parks. 

Under the auspices and direction of the 

Commons the Christian ministry and visitation 
at the Cook County Infirmary at Dunning has 
been faithfully carried on. Robert E. Todd, a 
Commons resident and a student at the seminary, 
has made this his field work in the seminary course 
with good results to all concerned. It ought to be 
borne in mind that this is a department of the 
settlement's distinctive work, and that especially 
for the summer, the expense of maintaining it 
rests upon the general fund of the Settlement's 
finances. 

In the departure to New York of George 

M. Basford, of Oak Park, the settlement loses one 
of the very best of its non-resident workers. Be- 
side conducting the excellent "Red Cross Club" 
of boys in "first-aid to the injured," Mr. Basford 
taught, with notable results, a fine class of young 
men in mechanical drawing. He retains his inter- 
est in and support of the settlement, but we are 
sorry indeed to lose his actual presence. Mr. Basr 
ford became on May 1 editor of The American En- 
gineer, Car Builder and Railroad Journal of New 
York City. 

Prince Max, of Saxony, third son of Prince 
George, the heir apparent to the throne, has be- 
come a minister. He is twenty-six years old, and 
was trained for the army. In 1893 he entered the 
monastery at Eisenach. In so doing he renounced 
all his rights of succession to the throne. He has 
recently become pastor of the Roman Catholic 
Church of St. Boniface, in Union street, White- 
chapel, in the east end of London. 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



Ikinfceroarten anfc 



Scbool 4 



A KINDERGARTEN CHURCH. 

How the Little Children at Urbana, 111., Pass Church 
Time with Song and Story. 



This pretty story of how the little ones in the 
First Presbyterian Church at Urbana, 111., pass the 
otherwise long hours of the church's morning Sun- 
day service, is from an account written by the pas- 
tor, Rev. George L. McNutt, for the Child Study 
Monthly: 

Leaving the big folks to worship God as they 
choose, let us go this Sunday morning where the 
children are worshiping God in their own way. 
The little folks' pastor is a young woman with that 
cheery smile and gracious manner that the disci- 
ples of Froebel seem to have monopolized. There 
are little chairs, little tables, blocks, pictures, but 
prettiest of all the roguish, sparkling eyes of 
children when they are child-like. Let us see 
what they do. They pray, they sing about the 
Father, the sunshine and the birds, they take up a 
collection, and their pastor tells a story sermon. 
Then they get up and march round and round and 
eing as they march, sort of a thawed-out Episco- 
palian processional, or they go out for a walk. 
Next the curtains are drawn down, the room is 
darkened and the magic lantern brings the whole 
wonderland of pictures, of nature and art before 
the child mind; not printed daubs, but clear, life- 
like, life-size reproductions of great artists, and the 
child feels the spell of the master power. The 
pictured lesson cannot be forgotten. If it is a real 
sunny, warm, summer day they adjourn to some 
neighboring lawn and hold their service there; 
listen to the bird anthem, better than any choir; 
roll on the grass, may be, as natural as the daisy 
that peeps out of the grass at these other children 
of God. And the mother the mother is resting in 
the congregation, knowing her child is not only 
safe and happy, but is learning to know and love 
God in its own way in its " ownittee bittee church." 
At a signal the little ones file into the audience 
room, form about the pulpit, and the two congre- 
gations join in a song, a prayer and the benedic- 
tion. 

Such a kindergarten church service is held every 
Sunday morning in the Presbyterian Church, Ur- 
bana. It is the pride of our church, the joy of 
many mothers and the delight of nearly two score 
little ones. It keeps the family together. No one 
must stay at home. Best of all, it is a start, crude 
indeed, but a start toward intelligent child-study 



and a natural child religion where the child grows 
through nature, nature symbols, nature songs up 
to its God. Play is recognized as part of a child's 
religion. There is no music so sweet, so sacred, 
so appropriate to the Father's house as the ringing 
laugh of a little child. Did it ever occur to the 
mother that families become irreligious through 
child-bearing? The mother who has been active 
in church foolishly absents herself for months be- 
fore the baby comes, and of necessity for months 
afterwards, especially if they are plain people do- 
ing their own work. Before the first baby is old 
enough to take to church, another comes and 
another, and the family grows lukewarm and often- 
times positively indifferent to churches and relig- 
ion. The kindergarten and the nursery, taking 
the mother and her babes in sympathy and intelli- 
gent forethought, binds them both by loving links 
to the church home. It is, no doubt, contrary to 
the catechism and contrary to the theological popes 
to say that a child is naturally religious. Total 
depravity may characterize the man whose life has 
been perverted. It is no part of the normal child. 
The heavenly Father says, in the person of the 
Revealer, " of such is the kingdom of heaven," and 
He never meant that His little ones should be 
taken, night after night, where a revivalist with 
riotous imagination revels in the imagery of fear, 
that they may be converted and " get religion." 
They have " got religion " already. It is their 
divine inheritance and birthright. Our business 
is to warm it with our love, train its upturned ten- 
drils around the trellis of its daily life until it takes 
so strong a hold of the living God, the God of the 
sun that shines to-day, and the stars that sing to- 
night, and the flowers that He clothes, and the 
birds that He feeds every day, that no storm can 
loosen its hold. 

The idea of a kindergarten church was suggested 
to the writer while pastor of a church in Indiana- 
polis nine years ago, by a rumpus in church over 
a child, and by finding out the next day that a 
cheap variety theater provided a nurse and a play- 
room for the care of the babies while the mothers 
took in the show. The kindergarten church solves 
the question what to do with the children. In the 
spirit of the Master it says, " Let the little ones 
come." To the worn out mother it also says, 
" Come, and ye shall find rest." 



PLANTING THE TREE- 



What do we plant when we plant the tree? 
We plant the ship, which will cross the sea. 
We plant the mast to carry the sails, 
We plant the plank to withstand the gales. 
The keel, the Keelson and beam and knee; 
We plant the ship when we plant the tree. 

What do we plant when we plant the tree? 
We plant the houses for you and me. 
We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors, 
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors, 
The beams and siding.all parts that be; 
We plant the house when we plant the tree. 

What do we plant when we plant the tree? 
A thousand things that we daily see. 
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag, 
We plant the staff for our country's flag. 
Wo plant the shade, from the hot sun free; 
We plant all these when we plant the tree. 

Henry A hbey. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



9 Social "Wort of 



Cburcbes 4 



LOCAL CHURCH BROTHERHOOD. 



KtTort to Reach the Men of Angola, Ind., Already a 
Success. 



In an effort to reach the men of the community 
and ally them with the membership of the 
churches, a brotherhood has been organized at 
Angola, Ind., which is thought to have some ad- 
vantages over existing organizations. In this 
brotherhood, as one of the founders writes to THE 
COMMONS, " The brotherhood idea is central, and it 
seems to me especially well adapted to reach the 
brothers-in-law of the church and develop the 
spirit of brotherhood among the members and in 
the community. We already have thirty business 
men of a type we have never been able to touch 
before and they seem to be brought into closer 
affiliation with the life and work of the church. 
We are already moving for an open reading room. 
The central meeting is a fortnightly social meeting 
in which any questions of local interest can be 
discussed." 

BUSINESS MEN'S BIBLE CLASS. 



In many churches are springing up classes in 
which earnest men consider the bearing of Bible 
literature, precept and history upon issues of mod- 
ern life. Among the most active and practical of 
these is that in the First Congregational Church of 
Detroit. The class meets each Sunday at 12:15 P. 
M., a paper is read or talk given, after which there 
is brief and general discussion. The leader is J. 
Cotner, Jr. Just now the class, which is known as 
" The Business Men's Bible Class," is studying the 
Life of Paul. The first topic, for 1895-6, was a 
series of studies and discussions concerning the 
church in its relations to society, or Christianity 
applied to social problems. Last fall " The Exam- 
ple of Jesus Christ " was the theme. The present 
series, on Paul, was begun in February. 



LENTEN SOCIAL LECTURES. 



The London branch of the Church Social Union 
during the past lenten season, conducted a course 
of lenten social sermons in the Church of St. 
Edmund, Lombard street, on such topics as these: 
"Truth the Foundation of Right Living," Canon 
Gore; " Money Making," Rev. W. J. Horsley; 
" Employers and Employed," Canon Barnett; "The 
Aggressiveness of Christ," Rev. Ronald Bayne; 
"Trusts, Syndicates and Commercial Rings," 
Canon Hicks; " Miners and Their Surroundings," 



Rev. H. B.Thornton; "Christ's Law of Service," 
Rev. W. E. Moll; "The Church iand the Sub- 
merged," Rev. A. O. Jay; "What the Church can 
do for the City," Canon Ede. 



BROTHERLY LOVE IN VIRGINIA. 



When the Roman Catholic church in Portsmouth, 
Va., burned down the other day, the Baptist and 
the Methodist churches of the city, says the New 
York Tribune, offered the homeless congregation 
the free use of their chapels until it could provide 
itself with another edifice, and three Methodist 
and one Episcopal clergymen called personally on- 
the priest to express their sympathy with him and 
his people. 






point of IDiew 



"When them lazy days in summer cum, 

A feller* gets to wishin' 
He could be a boy agin an' 

Just go out a-fishin'." 



THERE is a lot of fine settlement spirit in this- 
little story clipped from the Scottish- American ,and 
sent to us by a reader. We reprint it especially for 
the benefit of any one who thinks himself too good 
to associate with his fellow-men: "Sandy," said 
Mrs. Simpson to her eldest olive branch the other 
day when he returned from school, " I forbid ye to 
play or lin about wi' that Bobby Wilson ony mare. 
Mind that, na, an' if I ever hear o' you playin' wi' 
him again I'll gie ye a guid thrashin'." " What 
way have I no' to play wi' Robby?" queried the 
youngster with some surprise. " Because he's a 
bad, wicked laddie," replied his mother. " Weel,. 
ma," returned Sandy, after a moment's thought, 
" I dinna think I'm that awful guid mysel' that ye 
need to be sae f eart." 



IT WAS a sight to melt a heart of stone to see 
the dear little folks of the kindergarten when they 
arrived at Union Park on the first of their park 
parties this spring. At first in awe of the rustling 
green grass, they finally stepped softly into it, as if 
fearing to injure it in some way. Then one and 
another stooped down and gently smoothed the 
tips of the blades, as if they were the fur of some 
great kitten. But the sight of all to bring tears to 
the eyes was to see one or two little ones, to whom 
grass was a brand-new experience, stoop softly 
down and kiss the green blades as if they were 
gentle things that could kiss and love in return. 
It takes not many sights such as this to set one 
thinking and wondering by what right these little 
ones are deprived of the beautiful things God made 
for them. 



*Anyfeller! no matterwlierehelives,orhowirmch money 
his father has, or whether his trousers are patched or whole!. 
ED.] 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



f jfrom Socioloaical & & & & 
5t Stufcies anfc Class TRooms 4 



FIELD-STUDY FOR THEOLOGUES. 

Original Investigation by Chicago Seminary Stu- 

dents in the Questions of Pauperism 

and Child-Saving. 

Some original research of high class was done 
this year by the students of Chicago Theological 
Seminary who elected Professor Taylor's special 
courses in " Pauperism and poverty, public relief 
and private charity, charity organization methods, 
and the function and agencies of the church in 
charity, and in child-saving, the private and public 
treatment of dependent defective and delinquent 
children, and the problem of child-labor." 

In none of the sociological work of the year was 
there a more eager interest, the students, who very 
largely elected the work, devoting themselves with 
great earnestness to the study and participating in 
the discussion of the great industrial problems 
involved with intense interest. 

The fruit of the course, so far as immediate 
results are concerned, is a very fine lot of theses, 
based to a considerable degree upon original 
observation, study and thought, and covering many 
phases of the subject. A noticeable feature is the 
almost unanimous tendency to seek for an econ- 
omic cause of poverty, to recognize that there are 
factors in the problem which cannot be dismissed 
by a sweeping reference to drunkenness, incom- 
petency, or shiftlessness, and that a large propor- 
tion of the very poor are so in these days at least 
through the operation of causes over which they 
had little or no control. The topics chosen for 
reading and investigation show the scope of the 
interest and of the reading and investigation. 

T. J. Woodcock Poverty as a Cause of Poverty, 
showing that in the truest possible sense "the 
destruction of the poor is their poverty," that once 
down in poverty, in these days, it is well-nigh 
impossible for a man to restore himself to self- 
support and comfort. 

H. M. Lyman A Hopeful Charity, the Care 
and Rescue of Dependent Children. 

H. L.Rood, and E. J. Goshen Friendly Visiting, 
Studies of its Relation to Organized Charity and 
the Friendly Helpfulness Toward the Poor. 

T. C. Wiswell A particularly creditable study 
from literary sources of " The Rauhe Haus at 
Horn." 

F. E. Bigelow, and M. J. Fenenga The Elber- 
feldt System of Poor Relief. 

Henry J. Condit The Boarding out of Depend- 
ent Children. 



Daniel W. Dexter Methods of Caring for 
Dependent Children. 

James Mullenbach The Michigan System of 
Child-Saving. 

J. B. Ross Poverty and the Labor Problem. 

S. H. Seccombe The Child Problem. 

A. A. Robertson The Destitute Sick. 

V. Prucha The Poor Among the Ancient 
Hebrews. 

W. R. Dixon Effects of Tramp Life upon the 
Community. 

S. H. Gray The Unemployed. 

J. E. Hartmann Some Psychic Causes of 
Pauperism. 

E. B. Kent Problem of Outdoor Relief. 
Benjamin Samuel The Homeless Poor. 
H. M. Triplett Giving to the Poor. 

F. P. Strong Influence of Christianity Upon 
Charity. 

M. E. Hannant Some Causes of Vagrancy. 

W. G. Ramsay The Kindergarten as a Means of 
Child- Saving. 

E. Burgi Public Charity in German Cities. 

A. S. Stewart Economic Condition of the Amer- 
ican Negro, with considerations of charges of 
immorality and pauperism. 

C. S. Baird The Alms House and its Inmates. 

J.,G. Wade True Charity. 

K. D. Momeroff The Involuntary Idle. 

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE POSTPONED. 

Owing to the necessary failure of several of the 
speakers who were expected to assist in the Spring 
Social Economic Conference under the direction of 
CHICAGO COMMONS and the Hull House, it has been 
thought best to postpone the session until the last 
of September. Adequate notice will be given in 
the columns of THE COMMONS, The Hull House 
Bulletin, and daily papers. The postponement, 
much as it is to be regretted on many accounts, 
will not be wholly a misfortune, for some who 
would not have been able to be with us this spring 
will be free to join us in the early fall. 

The topic, as was announced for the spring ses- 
sion will be, " Municipal Functions Powers and 
Limitations of City Governments." Among those 
who have promised to be with us, or with whom we 
have been in hopeful correspondence, are: 

Mayor Josiah Quincy, of Boston, and Robert A. 
Woods, of South End' House, in that city; Dr. 
Albert Shaw, editor of the Review ' of Reviews, and 
author of the notable studies of municipal govern- 
ment in the United States, and in Europe; Mayor 
Samuel M. Jones, of Toledo; Governor Hazen S. 
Pingree, of Michigan; John Maynard Harlan, of 
Chicago, who is regarded as one of the leaders of 
the municipal reform forces of Chicago and who in 
the last mayoralty campaign made a most wonder- 
ful record as an independent candidate; George E. 
Hooker, of Hull House, becoming well-known as a 
student of American municipal affairs, Professor 
Grey, of Northwestern University settlement who 
is expected to speak on " Publicity of Public Ac- 
counts," and others. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



17 



^Literature anfc 



THE NEW OBEDIENCE. 



That there is an awakening of ethical conscious- 
ness within the church is beginning to be much in 
evidence. The wide-spread discontent among the 
privileged classes, the dissatisfaction with conven- 
tional standards of moral obligation and service 
within religious circles, and a more general recog- 
nition of those ethical aspects of common life 
hitherto ignored or dimly perceived, are finding 
more and more pronounced expression. The per- 
sonal protest of individuals and groups who dare 
to be unconventional in this respect is being lived 
out, less in mere protestation, however, than in 
affirmative attitudes and cpnstructive endeavor. 
The impression of these lives is also being given 
to others through more adequate and outspoken 
literary expression. Such "A Plea for Social 
Submission to Christ" as William Bayard Hale 
makes in his little volume entitled "The New 
Obedience" (Longmans, Green & Co.) has not often 
been issued, in print at least, from the pulpit of our 
-day. The moral self-exactions imposed by "The 
Authority of Truth," the Christian " Code and the 
Issue," and the imperative present duty to the 
coming Kingdom, are brought to bear with an in- 
cisiveness impossible to parry, and a spiritual 
gravamen irresistible to any who seriously confess 
adherence to our common Christianity. Settle- 
ment residents cannot fail to appreciate or apply 
to themselves his keen dissection of every claim to 
property right or financial gain out of the literary 
portrayal of the misfortunes or shadowed lives of 
their neighbors. They will also the more fully 
appreciate and strive to share "The New Free- 
dom" and "The Certain Triumph" of "The New 
Obedience." Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 



ETHICS IN THE EPISTLES. 

Professor Charles R. Henderson, of the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, has rendered a differing service to 
the same general end in his little volume on " The 
Development of Doctrine in the Epistles." (Chi- 
cago: American Baptist Publication Society. 25 
cents.) For, in addition to the usual doctrinal devel- 
opment of these Scriptures, he has emphasized to 
A very unusual degree their ethical import and 
the application of their principles and precepts to 
the social, economic and industrial relations of 
common life. 



The Mansfield House Magazine for April contains 
an earnest and appreciative tribute to the memory 
of Henry Drummond, by Percy Alden. 



THE NEW CHARITIES REVIEW. 



A broader scope and field for both will be the 
result of the coalition of Lend-A-Hand, Edward 
Everett Kale's paper, with The Charities Review, 
which for six years has been published by the 
New York Charity Organization Society. The 
united papers, under the name of the latter, will 
continue to be published by the same society as 
before, but it will be of wider range of topics, and 
no longer the organ of the society. It will be de- 
voted to the study of social questions from their 
philanthropic side, and it will aim to be of inter- 
national interest. The new editor of The Charities 
Review is Dr. Frederick Howard Wines; and the list 
of associate editors includes not only Dr. Hale but 
Jeffrey R. Brackett, John Graham Brooks, P. M. 
Wise, John H. Finley, Francis G. Peabody, Charles 
L. Birtwell, Z. R. Brockway and Homer Folks. 

The business management will be in the hands 
of Nathaniel S. Rosenau of the United Hebrew 
Charities of New York. The subscription price 
is $2. 

INTERNATIONAL PRISON CONFERENCE. 



One of the most valuable documents, from a 
sociological point of view, recently issued from the 
Government printing office at Washington is the 
report of the State Department embodying that of 
the American delegates to the fifth international 
prison congress at Paris in July, 1895. In addition 
to the discussions of penal legislation in the va- 
rious states and countries, of prison administration, 
preventive means, and the aspects of children and 
minors as criminals, are four especially valuable 
special reports; that of General Brinkerhoff on 
"British and Continental Prisons," of Major Mc- 
Laughrey on "The Bertillon System" (of meas- 
uring prisoners), of Surgeon Paul Brown of the 
Army on "Anthropometric Measurements," and of 
Rev. Samuel J. Barrows on " The Discharged Con- 
vict in Europe." Secretary Olney's letter of trans- 
missal to the Senate recommends the appointment 
of a United States Prison Commissioner to co- 
operate with the international commission. 



"MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS" QUARTERLY. 



Last month we referred to the publication of a 
bibliography of municipal affairs, by the Munici- 
pal Committee of the New York Reform Club. A 
word further is timely. The publication Municipal 
Affairs is to be a quarterly, and this, the first issue, 
appropriately is devoted to an extensive and 
to a good degree exhaustive " Bibliography of 
Municipal Administration and City Conditions" 
Each issue, the prospectus says, will contain "one 
or more extensive studies of some phase of munici- 



18 



THE COMMONS. 



[May, 



pal government by recognized authorities. Shorter 
articles dealing with questions of immediate 
interest, book reviews and other departments 
suggested by the needs of the time will supple- 
ment the more extended studies." The subscrip- 
tion price will be $1.00 per year, single numbers, 
25 cents. (Reform Club, 52 William street, New 
York.) 

NOTES OF SOCIAL LITERATURE. 



The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, has in press 
" The Street Railway System of Philadelphia: Its 
History and Present Condition," by Frederick W. 
Spiers, Ph.D., of the Drexel Institute. 

Professor Richard T. Ely is quoted as saying that 
one hundred million dollars could be wisely ex- 
pended within a year in establishing free public 
libraries in cities in the United States. 

An interesting and valuable social study is found 
in " The Jewish Law of Divorce, according to the 
Bible and Talmud, with some reference to its de- 
velopment in post-Talmudic times," by David 
Werner Amram, M.A., LL.B., of the Philadelphia 
bar. Philadelphia, 1896. 

The striking papers of Dr. Shailer Mathews of 
of the University of Chicago published during the 
past year in the American Journal of Sociology, 
are about to be issued by the Mcmillan Company 
in one volume under the title of "The Social 
Teachings of Jesus: An Essay in Christian Sociol- 
ogy. 

"The Municipal Year Book of the United 
States," for 1897, will be issued by the editor, J. 
Henry Wood, 31 Church St., Buffalo. Subscrip- 
tion price, $5. It will include the result of the 
April elections, and will give condensed informa- 
tion of the municipal affairs of the two hundred 
largest cities in the country. 

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS RECEIVED. 



[NOTE. The editor reserves the right to regard acknowl- 
edgment in this column as sufficient notice of any litera- 
ture received. More extended notice will be given of 
the more Important or more valuable works in a later 
issue.] 

The International Studio, American edition of 
The Studio, edited by Charles Holme and pub- 
lished by John Lane. The Bodley Head. New 
York. Monthly. Subscription price, $3. 

Official handbook of the Independent Order of Knights 
of Labor, by Charles R. Martin, secretary-treasurer. 

Bulletins of Free Lectures to the People, under the aus- 
pices of the New York City Board of Education. Third 
course, 1896-97. 

Bulletin of the Department of Labor, Washington, B.C., 
for May, 1897. 

Journal of the New Zealand Department of Labor, for 
April, 1897. 

A professor of the University of Chicago has 
recently obtained from 3,000 public school children 
of Chicago, whose ages range from six to fifteen 
years, answers to a series of questions about read- 
ing. The first question asked was " What books 
have you read since school began last September?" 
The second, "Which one of these did you like best?" 
Of the one hundred books receiving the greatest 
number of votes, Prof. John Fiske's "History of the 
United States for Schools" was No. 15. The book 
also appears in the first ten voted for by boys 
thirteen years old and also in the first ten voted for 
by boys fourteen years old. 



Jfielo motes of ^ & j* & & 
j* * * Social pilgrimages 



THE SOCIAL PROPAGANDA. 



Carrying to Many Fields the Settlement Movement 
and the Cause of Brotherhood. 



[BY THE WARDEN OF CHICAGO COMMONS.] 

The deepening social consciousness and interest 
in the settlement movement is indicated by the 
entirely unsolicited invitations to which we have 
been able to respond within the past few months 
from many fields, including, as instances, the fol- 
lowing organizations : The Rock River Conference 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the yearly- 
meeting of the Friends' Endeavor Societies of In- 
diana and the Indiana State Epworth League, the 
Ohio State Convention of the Brotherhood of St. 
Andrew (Protestant Episcopal), the State Congre- 
gational Association and the Congregational Club r 
Peoria, 111., the National City Evangelization 
Society of the "Christian" Churches, the Indiana 
State Conventions of the Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation and the Young People's Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor, the International Young Women's 
Christian Association Convention at Detroit. Among 
the many local churches thus addressed are the 
Central (independent), St. Paul's (Reformed Epis- 
copal), and Bethel (colored), All Soul's (Unitarian), 
in Chicago; the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral in 
Cleveland, Ohio; the Friends' Meeting House, 
Richmond, Ind.; the Jewish Synagogue, Louisville, 
Ky., and many Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, 
Christian and Congregational churches in Illinois, 
Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Wiscon- 
sin, Nebraska. 

The sociological clubs at Hiram College, Ohio, 
and the University of Chicago; the Students' Chris- 
tian Association at the University of Michigan; the 
Milwaukee College Endowment Association, and 
the Association of College Alumnae, Chicago; the 
Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, Lane Theo- 
logical Seminary; the University of Cincinnati; 
Illinois College; Hyde Park High School; Women's 
Clubs at Fort Wayne, Ind., Englewood, Irving Park 
and Lake View, 111.; the Nineteenth Century Club, 
Oak Park, 111.; the Amity Club of Freeport, 111.; the 
Matheon Club, Chicago; the Association of Young 
Women's Clubs, Chicago; all have aided in the 
extension of the propaganda by affording in- 
terested audiences to hear the cause dis- 
cussed. Besides many informal groups and 
meetings of working people, the Seamen's and 
Machinists' Unions of Chicago and Trades and 
Labor Assemblies at Des Moines, Iowa, Grand 



1897. ] 



THE COMMONS. 



19 



Rapids, Mich., Elgin, 111., and the Machinists' re- 
ception of the Cleveland Young Men's Christian 
Association, have been addressed. 

Summer Schools at Bay View, Ludington, and 
Macatawa Park, Mich.; Ottawa, 111.; Des Moines, 
Iowa; Crete, Neb.; Ottawa, Kan.: Lake Madison, 
S. I)., and Chautauqua Lake, N. Y., have included 
representatives of the Commons on the pro- 
grammes. 

URGING THE CHURCH'S MISSION! 



Social Christianity Preached to the Friends at Cin- 
cinnati and at Lane Seminary. 



At the National City Evangelization Convention 
of tlie Christian Churches recently held in Cincin- 
nati, a whole evening's session was devoted to 
Professor Graham Taylor's address on " The Evan- 
gelization of Social Conditions," and the hour's 
questioning which followed. Part of another 
session was assigned to "The Social Settlement 
and Institutional Methods of Church Work " at 
which Hiram House, Cleveland, was discussed. 

On invitation of the professors, Laue Theological 
Seminary heard Prof. Taylor speak on the " Social 
Conditions of the Work of the Church and Min- 
istry." In introducing him, Professor Smith, son 
of the late Professor Henry B. Smith of Union 
Seminary, emphasized in the strongest terms the 
social accent to be placed on the ministry to 
modern life. 

The ninth annual report of the Chicago Bureau 
of Justice, a voluntary organization designed to 
assist in securing justice for the poor and unfor- 
tunate by helping them to recover legal dues and 
defending them against unjust and illegal claims, 
shows that during the last year the Bureau aided 
4,564 persons, over two-fifths of whom were 
women. Mortgage cases claiming nearly $5,000 
were settled for $1,780; 211 wage claims were re- 
covered, with an average of $14.25. The Bureau 
cost about $4,000 diwing the year. The report re- 
cites the details of a number of cases in which 
timely aid was rendered to unfortunate and perse- 
cuted persons. 

Out-Door Sketching Classes 

In Charcoal, Pencil, Crayon, or in 
Oil or Water Colors 



fiscal of JBrotberboojB ^ 
.* in Unoustn? anfc Business 



for teachers and Otbers 

Excursions to Chicago Parks Each School Afternoon 

from 4 till 6. 

Monday, Lincoln Park; Tuesday. Garfield Park; 
Wednesday, Jackson Park; Friday, Washington or South Park. 

Also Saturday Out-Door Classes from 9 till 12, and 
2 till 5 o'clock. 

TERMS SI. 50 per month for class from 4 till (> o'clock, 

(One afternoon a week.) 

S2.00 per month for either one of Saturday classes. 
Address or apply (Thursdays, 4 to 6) 

GEORGE: L. SCHKKIHKK. 140 North Union St. 



HUMANITY IN INDUSTRY PAYS. 



DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION OF THE 
WAGES SYSTEM. 

Striking Instance of a Factory Fellowship in Ohio 

Manhood Values Remarkably Recognized. 

Consideration Toward Women. 



[BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOK.] 

The most democratic and considerate adminis- 
tration of the wage-system which has come under 
the writer's observation is that of the National 
Cash Register Company at their shops in Dayton, 
Ohio. The forethought and delicate consideration 
for the comfort and convenience, health and feel- 
ings of employees surprise the visitor at every turn 
of the eye. Not only is there unusual window- 
space in proportion to floor-space, but the cleanli- 
ness and wholesomeuess of the vast establishment 
are as much in evidence inside as out, in the shops 
as on the grounds, around the forges and the pol- 
isher's dangerously dusty work as in the office. 
There is moreover many a touch of taste, entirely 
in keeping however with the place and purpose. 
No attempt at cheap paint decoration, but a rest- 
ful tint on wall and woodwork relieves the work- 
shop of its usual dullness or dinginess. A plenty 
of palms and an occasional vase of flowers within, 
vie with the art of the landscape gardener without 
in making the work-a-day place attractive. 

CHIVALRY TOWARD WOMEN. 

Toward the three hundred women employee 
there is a consideration shown that is little short 
of chivalrous. They are paid for nine hours and 
work about seven and a half daily, starting an hour 
later than the men, and leaving the shop half an 
hour earlier. No discrimination in wages for the 
same work is made between women and men. 
Ten minutes for calisthenic exercise break both 
the morning and afternoon work-hours. Saturday 
half-holidays and a day off each month at their 
own selection without deduction of wages; the use 
of the elevators; a bath each week in working 
hours; a " rest room " fora few moments of privacy 
and retirement; the lunch room, with its neat and 
tasteful device, and provision of coffee and one or 
more articles of food at the company's expense; 
these are some of the considerations shown to 
human nature and womanhood. It is hardly to be 
wondered at that women applicants are so numer- 
ous that while high school graduates only are now 
eligible for positions, there are five hundred of 
them awaiting the chance of employment. 

SHOWER BATHS FOR MEN. 

The same respect for what men care most for is 
shown on every hand. Where the work is hardest 



20 



THE COMMONS. 



and hottest, as in the molders' room, special pro- 
vision is made for the air and water needed to re- 
lieve and refresh. Even shower baths and a dress- 
ing room are included among the necessary equip- 
ments of this shop. Although the men work 59 

1 hT,i 1 nn r We6 , k ' yet !t is at an average wage for 
the 1,400 employes, of twenty cents and six mills 
per Hour, 

In those departments where piece-work is pos- 
sible the workman earns 37 per cent more than 
he did under the day-work system. Instead of the 
autocratic superintendent, the "making division" 
is directed by a "factory committee" of five, each 
department having sub-committees in charge of 
their work. "The office division " and the "sell- 
ing division " are similarly organized. An execu- 
tive committee, and the two owners serving as 
President and Vice-President of the company, 
complete the administrative force. Although these 
appointments are made by the company, ylt there 
is a large degree of free co-operation and inde- 
pendent action realized. Twenty or more of the 
heads of departments lunch together daily in the 
factory and consult over "the round table for an 
hour. "The Advance Club," consisting of all the 
men and women under whose supervision other 
employes work, meets from 10:30 A. M. till 12 M 
every Friday, and by turns, groups of fifty of the 
rank and file attend its session each week Gen- 
erous rivalry in making the best showing for 
health ability and economy prevails among the 
several departments, which are rewarded by prizes 
excursions to conventions, expositions, etc. 

ALMOST A SETTLEMENT. 

"The N. C. R. House" is the center of as many 
clubs, classes and guilds for children, mothers men 
and women, for literary, musical, educational, civic 
social endeavor, as most social settlements can 
boast. Bulletin boards and shop periodicals keep 
up the frank and confidential intercourse of all the 

Cp e h 8 i, - T ^ Ch ! b hal1 at the factor y and an ther 
large hall in the city provide amply for the ordin- 
ary gatherings, but the Opera House is needed to 
accommodate the throng of local and traveling 
representatives of this world-wide industry which 
gathers up and gives expression to the unique 

11011 



("May. 



BEST OF ALL, IT PAYS ! 

Best of all, this consideration of the personal 
elements and human factors of this great industrial 
enterprise, is declared by all to pay for the money 
invested in these feature,, from a Strictly buTnesI 
JESft A J- eW ;, Ifal per Cent loss u ^d to be 

nrnfit! H 1 i reCtIy0rindirectl y t U1 health on the 
profit and loss account, the saving on the annual 

payment of $700,000 for labor is thought to y eld 

SS V he , 8Um invested in $? 
the value of real estate for residence 

p inn^ n h a f the 8h p8 U8ed t0 be Depreciated by 
eir unsightly appearance and surroundings and 
the evil influence of three bad boys, its rise in 
tu e In 8 , e8 ' imated to more than cover the , ex, Sndi- 
rafnin Jn D f th C T "*>?"? the g arden -Plats and the 
aming of the boys of the neighborhood in truck- 
gardening. The crisis in the financial success of 



lessness, indifference or antagonism of employes 
Now, next in value to the perfected, patented 
SSjEif 1 P roce6S *s and products, the Company 
rates highest among the assets of the concern the 
intelligence loyalty, enthusiasm and fellowship of 
all concerned in this great community of interests! 

PROFIT-SHARING AT IVORYDALE. 

Interesting Visit to the Ivory Soap Works Where 
Proprietor and Employe are Partners. 

The direct and vital relation between learning 
and labor, the class-room and the shop, the letter 
of literature and the work-a-day life, which should 
everywhere be recognized, but is so seldom actually 
seen, is exemplified at "Ivorydale" the great and 
successful pront-sharing soap works of the Proctor 
<Su Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. The profit- 
sharing feature of this vast establishment was the 
suggestion of the sous of its sturdy founders It 
came simultaneously to two of them, one of whom 
became interested in the study of its theory in his 
course on Economics at Princeton and Colum- 
bia Universities and the other of whom ' was 
attracted toward the experiment by reading fin 

Ma * fr 



u , ' rae 

on "The Social Palace at Guise," or the 
Famihstere established by M. Godin at Guise, 
France, and also by the descriptions of successful 

SSSrfffSii^Sf in the <"*"* Union 
[nw 1 he Outlook}. With rare confidence in their 
juniors and rarer insight to the signs of the better 
times coming, the senior members of the already 
great firm consented to the very radically new 
departure,now so successfully established these nine 
years that no thought of departing from it is 
entertained. No one accompanying the member 
>f the company through the works, as it was the 
writer s privilege to do, could fail to see the unique 
personal interest of the profit-sharing workmen in 
the plant and its operation,' or the natural and real 
personal relationship subsisting between the 
money partners and labor partners in this ioint- 
stock profit-sharing industry. The following 
placards on the shop walls seemed to be thl 
common Bentiment of both. "Do not become mere 
machines. Give your work some thought and try 
to suggest better rneans of doing it." " Those who 
share m the next dividend. will be classed ac- 
cording to the interest they take in their work " 
_ ___ G. T. 

P. F. PETTIBONE & Go. 



PRINTERS 
STATIONERS 
BLANK BOOK 



INCORPORATED 



MAKERS 



Chicago 
Manufacturers of 

PATENT FLEXIBLE 

FLAT OPENING BLANK BOOKS 



48 and 5O Jackson Street 



Commercial 
Lithographing 



Novelties in 
Stationery Articles 
Society Stationery and 
Engraving 



CHICAGO 



SPECIAL 
ATTENTION TO 
CHURCH 
WORK 



NEW SERIES OF " CHICAGO COMMONS/ 



THE COMMONS 

H flDontbls 1Recorl> Devotes to Hapects of life an> labor from tbe Social Settlement point of Wew. 



Whole Number 



CHICAGO. 



JUNE, 1897. 



[For THE COMMONS.] 



"BEHOLD I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK. 

[BY EMMA PLAYTER SEABUKY.] 

" Behold, I stand at the door and knock, 

And you will not let me in. 
You know that the inoney-changers stand 

Barring my temple gate, 
Grasping my gold with greedy hand, 

While my starving people wait. 
I hear the tumult and din, 

I beat at the iron lock, 
Behold I stand at the door and knock. 

And they will not let me in. 

" Behold 1 stand at the door and knock, 

But no one seems to hear, 
Will you list to the clamoring crowd? 

The ominous, countless beat, 
Growing louder, and yet more loud, 
Of the people's bleeding feet? 
They will burst with an earthquake shock 
The doors they are coming near! 
The starving have no fear, 
They will not stand at the door and knock. 

" Behold I stand at my door and knock, 
There are angel choirs inside, 

And vaulted roofs and poems in stone, 
And carpeted aisles and pew, 

And warmth and beauty and light have shone 
So long for the chosen few ! 

' "I ask that the gates be opened wide 

These starving poor are my flock, 
They stand in the tempest and cold outside, 
And yet for these have I lived and died, 
Who each day on their crosses are crucified; 

And behold, I stand at thedoor and knock." 



TO ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 



Dear Francis, did Assisi's burghers frown, 
And did the women look askance and chiue, 
Because thou tookest for thy chosen bride 
Lorn Poverty, thrice-shunned of all the town? 
Was it thy pleasure thus to thrust aside? 
What wonder, then, that all the world deride 
To see thee wedded in a beggar's gown. 
They little knew that from thine emptied life 
Giotto and Oimabue would draw the power 
To bring forth Art, nor that tliy hymns when rife 
Would sow the seed for Dante's splendid flower. 
Nay, Poverty, I wot that never wife 
Brought to her own true lord such priceless dower. 
Ernest H. Crosby in Tht New Order. 



SOUTH PARK SETTLEMENT. 



Characteristic Work in a San Francisco 
Neighborhood. 



Common English Speech a Facilitating- Factor- 
Adult Co-operation from the Neighborhood. 



[BY FANNIE w. M'LEAN.] 

The home of the South Park Settlement, of San 
Francisco, has passed through the chequered 
history common to many settlement residences: 
first it was a beautiful and spacious family home; 




SOUTH PARK SETTLEMENT. 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



then a tenement house, and now a settlement or 
neighborhood home, which unites the gracious 
spirit of family life once dwelling there with the 
friendly neighborliness that followed. 

The San Francisco Settlement Association was 
formed in April, 1894, and a settlement opened 
at 15 South Park in the following January. South 
Park is a small square south-west from Rincon 
Hill, forming what in the memory of many San 
Franciscans was a fashionable residence quarter. 
The park itself is oval-shaped, with a roadway 
surrounding it having entrances at the four ends, 
and with houses on all sides. The settlement is, 
therefore, admirably located, removed thus from 
the large business streets, and yet in their very 
midst. It is at the peaceful heart of things, and 
endeavors to live up to the idea of sunlight and 
warmth, of freedom and open hospitality, suggested 
by the little park it looks out upon. 

South Park forms a little community the families 



people of South Park and of the streets in the 
vicinity are principally working people; they are 
native-born Americans, Irish, and Geimans, for 
the most part, and the fact that they are altogether 
English speaking distinguishes this neighborhood 
from the corresponding north side of the city, 
where the population is foreign and nou-English 
speaking. This fact also renders easy and natural 
the many social gatherings, lectures, concerts, and 
entertainments, which form so important a part of 
the South Park Settlement life. 

The South Park clubs, classes, and library, are 
similar in their workings to those of other set- 
tlements familiar to all. As in Hull House, for 
instance, these are largely in the charge of non- 
resident workers, as South Park is exceedingly 
accessible from other parts of the city. Thus the 
resident workers are enabled to reserve their 
time and energy for the distinctive neighboring 
element of settlement life. 




INTERIOR OF SOUTH PARK SETTLEMENT. 



of which vary greatly in their conditions of life. 
The families of the prosperous business man, of 
the poor but steadily employed workingman, and 
families verging upon destitution all dwell as 
neighbors in the small area of the park. 

Close to South Park is Third street, a street of 
small stores and an important thoroughfare of the 
south side of the city. Not far distant is the water 
front, bringing into the neighborhood of the settle- 
ment the usual industries found along the water- 
side. A few blocks away are the stations of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad Company. A flouring 
mill, two wine-vaults, marble works, gas and 
electric works, form other industries in the neigh- 
borhood. 

AN ENGLISH SPEAKING NEIGHBORHOOD. 

The dwelling-houses are the characteristic one 
8Wd two story frame buildings of the west. The 



Although this is known as a Social Settlement, 
and not as a University or College Settlement, the 
proximity to San Francisco of the two great 
universities, the State University at Berkeley, and 
Stanford at Palo Alto, brings to the settlement the 
inspiration of university life and the practical help 
of members of the teaching and student corps. 
The President, Vice-President, and one other 
member of the settlement council are members of 
the university faculties, and several others are 
alumni. 

ADULT NEIGHBORHOOD CO-OPERATION. 

The settlement has also been particularly happy 
from the first in securing the co-operation of the 
adults of the neighborhood in various settlement 
activities, and in opportunities to identify itself 
with municipal movements. The Men's Political 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



Economy club is engaged in the study and discus- 
sion of current economic and political questions, 
especially those of money and of the relations 
between labor and capital. Open meetings have 
been conducted under their auspices at which 
there were debates on subjects of immediate 
national or municipal importance. 

The present settlement family consists of five 
residents: Mrs. M. C. Schermerhorn, Resident-in- 
charge; Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Searle, Miss Claire 
Perry, and Miss Mary Very, who has been a 
resident at Denison House and at Dorothea House, 
in Boston. 

We who are interested in the South Park settle- 
ment ask that it be not forgotten by our co-workers 
in the eastern settlements, and hope that they may 
from time to time send visitors and residents to the 
San Francisco house. It is open to both men and 
women residents. A settlement with the environ- 
ments and with the climatic conditions peculiar to 
a city of the extreme West can but possess a 
characteristic tone and offer new problems for 
the student, new opportunities for the practical 
worker. 

Third Annual Report. 



Just as we go to press comes the third annual re- 
port of the San Francisco Settlements Association, 
which conducts the South Park settlement. It 
breathes the genuine " settlement spirit " in a high 
ideal of social democracy. " To reduce to terms of 
action along social lines," says the report of the 
residents, " the democratic ideal to which our 
country is pledged, has been one of the aims of our 
settlement. For we believe that only through 
social intercourse of an informal and friendly na- 
ture can come the better understanding that leads 
to mutual helpfulness." 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 



Animal Meeting at New York Mrs. Caroline Will- 
iamson Montgomery Elected President. 



The annual meeting of the College Settlements 
Association was held in New York City May 8. 
Electors were present from Wellesley, Smith, 
Vassar, Bryn . Mawr, Wells, Elmira, Swathmore, 
Cornell, Woman's College of Baltimore and Bar- 
nard College, with one non-collegiate and five asso- 
ciate electors. 

Mrs. F. H. Montgomery, of Chicago, who as Miss 
Caroline Williamson has for some years served the 
association as secretary with marked success, was 
elected president for the ensuing year, together 
with the following other officers: 

Vice-president, MissVida IX Scudder, of Boston. 

Secretary, Miss Susan G. Walker, 1202 Eight- 
eenth street, Washington, D. C. 



Treasurer, Miss Cornelia Warren, 67 Mt. Vernon 
street, Boston. 

Fifth member of Executive committee, Mrs. 
Jean F. Spahr, of Brooklyn. 

This meeting was devoted to routine business, 
the apportionment of funds to the settlemants, etc. 
The annual reports of the several settlements will 
be presented at the fall meeting. It is probable 
that a new edition of the association's " Bibliogra- 
phy of Settlements" will be issued during the 
coming year. 



Forward Movement Settlement in Chicago Settles 
in a New Territory. 



The removal of the Epworth settlement of the 
Forward Movement in Chicago from 49 Pearce 
street, where it has been since its foundation three 
years ago, is no abandonment of the field. Into a 
better house, with a more effective location, and 




RKV. DR. GEORGE W. GRAY. 

Superintendent of the Forward Movement* and of 
Epwortli House. 

with unremitting zeal the settlement workers have 
gone and are now located and nearly settled at 219 
South Sangamon street. To a section between 
Kinzie, Sangamon, and Harrison streets and the 
river on the east, the Epworth settlement, as rep- 
resenting the Forward Movement, endeavors to 
minister. This section is peculiar in containing a 
very large English-speaking population, as dis- 
tinguished from the foreign congested sections" 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



north and south of it, and also the bulk of the worst 
destitution of the river wards. It is about half of 
a square mile in area, and its population numbers 
easily 50,000. 

Rev. Dr. George W. Gray, superintendent of the 
Forward Movement, is devoting much time and 
energy to the study of this problem and is organiz- 
ing a system of friendly visiting in this district, to 
facilitate which he has it divided into thirty dis- 
tricts for which he is seeking visitors. About half 
are already provided . In addition to this, a large 
plan of summer outiugs for the children is in hand. 

The scope and outlook of the Forward Move- 
ment's plan is well shown in the general circular, 
referred to in the last issue of THE COMMONS. 
Copies can be obtained of Dr. Gray at 802 Gaff 
Building, 234 La Salle street, Chicago. 

CHICAGO SETTLEMENTS MEET. 



Miss Mary McDowell Elected President of the 
Federation Dr. Reynolds as Guest. 



The annual meeting of the Federation of Chicago 
Settlements was held at Chicago Commons May 27. 
Among the settlements represented were Hull 
House, University of Chicago settlement, Chicago 
Commons, Northwestern University settlement. 
Clybourn avenue, Epworth House and Helen 
Heath House. The date of the next meeting is 
the third Saturday in October (16th), and by invi- 
tation of Rev. Mr. Gallwey it is to be held at the 
Clybourn avenue settlement. Officers for the en- 
suing year were elected, Miss Mary E. McDowell 
of the University of Chicago settlement, being 
chosen president, and John P. Gavit, of Chicago 
Commons, secretary. Mrs. N. E. Sly, of the North- 
western University settlement, holds over as treas- 
urer. 

The feature of the evening was the presence of 
the newly appointed health officer of Chicago, Dr. 
Arthur R. Reynolds, as the guest of the Federa- 
tion. As in his former administration of the same 
department, so now, upon his entrance upon 
another term, his attitude toward voluntary co- 
operation with the work of his office, especially 
upon the part of the settlements, was most appre- 
ciative and friendly. In the informal and conver- 
sational interview with the many residents present 
he touched upon many points of general interest, 
and some of very special concern to those residing 
in the most unsanitary districts of the city. 

John C. Huyler of New York has given a sum of 
money for the establishment of a sociological sec- 
tion in the library of Syracuse University. Mr. 
Huyler is a member of the Association for Munici- 
pal Control of Public Franchises. He wishes the 
students to receive instruction that will make them 
capable citizens, and has therefore authorized 
Prof. Commons to open a course on that subject. 



WHITTIER HOUSE THIRD REPORT. 



Features of the Settlement in the Factory District 
of Jersey City. 

Summer work is now the order of the day in 
Whittier House, Jersey City, whose third annual 
report is at hand. As in most of the settlements, 
summer weather is " a time of simple endurance." 
But, as the report says, it is also the time of flow- 
ers, " and with these as our sesame an abundant 

entrance is afforded us in all the homes 

Our summer work consists of clubs, visiting, flow- 
er giving and excursions. One summer we helped 
twelve hundred people to a day's outing." The 
story of the kindergarten's work is prettily told in 
the report. The newsboys' club, of which Fred S. 
Bennett is president, seems to be one of the main- 
stays of Whittier House, and to have done much 
good among the boys. They need a simple gym- 
nasium, and are hereby referred to Westminster 
House, Buffalo, for information on that score. A 
dozen clubs and a score of additional classes are 
listed in the schedule of formal work. 

Upon one point at least Whittier House is to be 
commended and emulated. They do not establish 
institutions rival to those of the neighborhood. 
For religious instruction and meetings they refer 
folks to the neighboring churches. Says Miss 
Bradford, the head worker: "We are here to do 
the work the churches cannot do. . . . Co-op- 
eration, not competition, is our creed. We are 
here to live our lives and to share them. Denom- 
inations are nothing to us. But the simplicity, 
sincerity, spotless purity and perfect sympathy of 
Christ is everything. We are here that we may 
help those about us into life, and life ' more 
abundantly.' " 

HIRAM HOUSE YOUNGSTERS. 



Best Proof of the Hold the Cleveland Settlement 
Has on Its Neighborhood. 



No better proof could be asked of the success of 
Hiram House in gathering together the children of 
its neighborhood than the photograph which we 
reproduce from the spring circular of that settle- 
ment. The view shows a pretty group of the 
children of the settlement kindergarten and nur- 
sery. 

The old quarters of Hiram House proved too 
small for the growing work, and on April 1st the 
home was moved to a rear-and-front at 183 Orange 
street, the old quarters at 141 being retained as a 
residence for men. The front part of 183 is the 
home of the women residents. There are now 10 
resident and 16 non-resident workers. 



The worse the condition of society, the more 
visionary must a true code of morality appear. 
Herbert Spencer. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



A SIMPLE GYMNASIUM. 

Satisfactory Results Achieved with Small Outlay as 
Shown in the Report of Westminster House. 

The satisfactory results that can be wrought with 
small expense in the way of a settlement gymnasium 
are well shown in the illustration from the report 
of Westminster House, Buffalo, reprinted in this 
issue of the THE COMMONS. Such a gymnasium 
can be arranged at small cost in any room of which 



the great cities. There is less floating population, 
and results of the work can be followed for a 
satisfactory period. The disorderliness of the boys 
has been mitigated by a system of fees for 
membership in the clubs, making it a matter of 
value to " belong." Great gains have been made 
in winning the affection of the neighborhood, and 
the report beams with cheery feelings of hope- 
fulness. 
The feature of the report is the mention of the 




A SIMPLE GYMNASIUM. 

Attractive Koom and Inexpensive Apparatus at Westminster House, Buffalo. 



the ceiling is sufficiently high. The photograph 
will be suggestive to those settlement workers 
whom the gymnasium problem has baffled. 

The report of this settlement for 189(5-7 is a very 
interesting one. The settlement is at 424 Adams 
street, Buffalo, and is connected with Westminster 
Presbyterian church. It is not yet three years old, 
but a good wprk is reported. Westminster House 
reports itself unique in having to deal with but one 
nationality the German. No Irish, Jewish or 
Italian problem complicates matters or illustrates 
the magnificent process of assimilation going on in 



Sunday " Children's Hour " with its attendance of 
thirty to fifty children otherwise wild on the street. 
" Singing and an informal talk or story occupies 
the first half hour, after which three classes are 
formed according to the ages of the children, which 
range from three to twelve years. The talk or 
story is then illustrated by drawing, stick-laying 
or. by use of other kindergarten materials best 
fitted for the purpose. The children are encouraged 
to talk freely of what most interests them at home 
and out of doors, and are sometimes allowed to 
select their own stories, these being confined to 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



nature-myths, Bible stories and stories of heroism." 
We shall hope to hear at first hand from this little 
meeting in the columns of a later issue. 

Twelve hundred persons are said to come to the 
settlement weekly. 



ORANGE VALLEY SOCIAL INSTITUTE. 



Second Settlement in New Jersey Opened Response 
of the People. 



Hitherto, so far as we know, Whittier House, 
Jersey City, has been the only settlement in New 
Jersey. It is now a pleasure to announce the 
establishment of the " Orange Valley Social Insti- 
tute " in the hat factory district, near Orange, N. J. 
We reserve for a later issue of THE COMMONS a 
full story of its beginning. The head worker is 
Bryant Venable, formerly a valued resident of the 
Cincinnati settlement, and the inauguration of the 
new settlement is full of promise. 

To an unusual degree the new settlement is in- 
tended to be the affair of the neighborhood; a 
"community house" of the neighborhood guild 
sort. This intention seems to have been taken in 
good faith by the neighborhood, and it is to be re- 
gretted that space is not at hand in this issue for 
the extended notice which has been received. Mr. 
Venable is as yet the only resident, but several are 
expected before fall. The Girls' Club of Orange 
Valley has become identified with the settlement, 
and there are two adult clubs. A kindergarten has 
met with ready response; Miss Helen Edwards is 
kindergartner. The children have several clubs 
for play and study. We hope in a later issue to 
report this work more fully, possibly with illustra- 
tions. 

WORK AND HOME-MAKING. 



Key-notes of the Endeavor of Hartley House in 
Neediest New York. 



The settlement of the New York Association for 
Improving the Condition of the Poor, has just 
issued a descriptive pamphlet under the title of 
" Hartley House, and its Relation to the Social 
Reform Movement," by J. G. Phelps Stokes. It is 
a clear and interesting outline of that work. The 
key-notes of this settlement's endeavor are the 
improvement of home life thro the teaching of 
domestic economy, and the attack upon the prob- 
lem of poverty and pauperism by the giving of 
work. The settlement is located in the Fifteenth 
Assembly district, that Great American Desert in 
which a house-to-house canvass found so much 
destitution and misery. Seven classes in cooking 
are in progress, with a basis of intelligent study of 
foods, under the direction of Prof. W. O. Atwater, 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, 



" a sufficient sum of money having been appropri- 
ated to the association for this work by that de- 
partment." A demonstration bedroom is kept 
ready for teaching of proper care of that part of 
the home. There are six sewing classes, a penny 
provident bank, a branch of the Cooper Union free 
labor bureau, and a department of industrial relief 
where the system of relief by work is in practical 
operation. Another feature of the work is the five- 
cent bath, hot and cold, open to women and chil- 
dren every afternoon. 

Early in May the Neighborhood Clubs Associa- 
tion, which had been at work in West 45th street 
(in an ex-saloon formerly known by the euphonious 
and pleasing title of "The Tub of Blood"), be- 
came associated with the Settlement, and hereafter 
Hartley House will be the field of work of both 
organizations. The residence is at 413 West 46th 
street. 

TO DISCUSS SETTLEMENTS. 

Toronto Conference of Charities and Correction 
to Have Another Session on the Subject. 



" Social Settlements " will be the topic of the 
morning session of Tuesday, July 13, at the Na- 
tional Conference of Charities and Correction, 
which meets this year, July 7-14, at Toronto, Ont. 
It is not yet thoroughly settled whether there will 
be also special section meetings on this subject, but 
depends upon the assurance of the attendance of 
settlement folk upon the conference. The speak- 
ers expected to address the settlement session are 
Percy Alden, of Mansfield House, London; Robert 
A. Woods, of South End House, Boston; Robert E. 
Ely, of the Prospect Union, Cambridge, Mass., and 
Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago. It is 
hoped that a goodly number of settlement people 
will attend. 



GLASGOW STUDENTS' SETTLEMENT. 



Social Religious Work Carried on in the Neglected 
Part of the Scotch City. 



A file of literature sent us from the Students' 
settlement, at 10 Possil road, Glasgow, brings the 
reports of that settlement on file up to April, 1897. 
The provocation of this work was a suggestion of 
Professor Drummond, and it extended in social 
ways the missionary and temperance activity pre- 
viously carried on at Garscube Cross. Fifteen 
students are in residence. They belong to many 
denominations and carry on many lines of work 
and study. The religious work includes a number 
of weekly services, open air meetings, etc., and ' 
the social work takes form in a workingmen's 
lectures and concerts, a woman's club, sewing and 
cookery classes, savings bank, poor men lawyer, 
medical service, neighborhood " at homes," etc. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



anfc & & 
Sun&a# Scbool 4 



KINDERGARTEN AND SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



Of interest and value to every kindergartner and 
Sunday school teacher will be the summer insti- 
tute to be held at Chicago Commons in the last 
three weeks of July. It is increasingly felt by the 
advanced Sunday school workers that the kinder- 



garten methods to the Sunday school. Her little 
book, "The Kindergarten and the Sunday School," 
is a classic in this field. 

In the Sunday school department there will be 
courses on fundamental Bible truths, stories for the 
primary children, songs, picture work, and consid- 
eration of general exercises and order. In the 
kindergarten department there will be instruction 
and exercise in gifts, occupations, games, stories, 
songs, and in the essential matters of the program 
work and the indispensable mothers' meetings. 
For both departments there will be instruction in 
basket weaving, wood carving and beginners' 
sloyd. This has relation to the Sunday school in 
its application to church and mission industrial 




YOUNGSTERS OF THE HIRAM HOUSE NEIGHBORHOOD. 



garten has as much to teach to the Sunday school 
as to the methods and spirit, as to the "secular" 
school, and that everything in the nature of a con- 
ference from the common view-point is of value. 
As was announced in the last issue of THE COM- 
MONS, the institute will be under the direction and 
under the instruction of two of the workers best- 
known and most proficient in the two spheres in 
this country, Mrs. Bertha Hofer Hegner, a gradu- 
ate of the famous Froebel-Pestalozzi Instituteof Ber 
lin, who has been since the beginning the kinder- 
gartner at the Commons, and a member of the fac- 
ulty of the Kindergarten Institute, and Miss Freder- 
ica Beard, one of the leading primary Sunday school 
workers, and a pioneer in the adaptation of kinder- 



classes. A week day kindergarten and a Sunday 
school class will be available for illustration and 
observation. There will be competent specialists 
in art and music. The terms are moderate, and 
with other particulars may be learned upon appli- 
cation to Mrs. John P. Gavit, 140 N. Union street. 
Much interest has been exhibited, and already 
the names booked assure full and enthusiastic 
classes. There is, however, no limit fixed to the 
number who can do this work. 



The wounds I might have healed, 
The human sorrow and smart! 

And yet it never was in my soul 
To play so ill a part; 

But evil is wrought by want of thought 
As well as want of heart. Thomas Hood. 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



cmfc tlje 





V 



A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PKICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above 5-cent denominations AT OUR BISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it Is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



ALL, COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 14. 



CHICAGO. JUNE 15, 1897. 



UNSIGNED editorials in this department of 
THE COMMONS are always written by the 
editor, and for them he alone assumes responsibil- 
ity. For utterances in signed articles only the 
writers are responsible. 



WE ARE HOPING to see someone undertake 
in America the praiseworthy and painstak- 
ing work that Joseph Edwards has done in the 
preparation of the English Labor Annual. Such a 
compilation of all sorts of information relating to 
reform movements in this country is sadly needed. 



THE setting in of the tide of voluntary protest 
against the uselessness of the life of the aver- 
age "society" person is showing itself in many 
kinds of effort taken up by the leading women of 
the large cities. A number of the best-known 
society women of New York have organized a 
society for promoting interest in the public 
schools, and a committee of the society is doing a 



very fine work in the encouragement of art in the 
schools, having undertaken to decorate every 
school with reproductions of the world's master- 
pieces. 

PROF. HENRY DRUMMOND was in some 
sense the founder of the Glasgow Students' 
Settlement. The settlement took possession of 
and widened the work of a religious and temper- 
ance character which for a year had been in activ- 
ity, and it was at Prof. Drummond's suggestion 
that the attempt to follow the example of Chalmers 
settlement in Edinburgh was made. Why not 
change the name of that settlement, now, and call 
it " Henry Drummond House " ? 



FRANK W. CROSSLEY. 



To the social settlements of the world and to all 
who look to the same kind of activity as a method 
for the future, the life and spirit of the late Frank 
W. Crossley, of Manchester, England, whose recent 
death is reported in another column, is a perpetual 
message. In these days of dangerous popularity, 
the social settlement is narrowly escaping, if in- 
deed it does escape, the peril which has beset, and 
sadly often overcome, every great movement of 
the world the humiliating tendency to degener- 
ate into a " fad." Sad will be the day for the real 
work that the settlement has to do, for the real life 
that the settlement has to live, when it begins to 
see the upgrowth of a settlement Cult, a settlement 
Priesthood, a settlement Creed. 

There was no trace of this tendency in Mr. 
Crossley's life. Before the social settlement was 
heard of, when such an action was unprecedented, 
extraordinary, this great-hearted man became pos- 
sessed of the Spirit of God, and in that outburst of 
essential communism which invariably ensues 
upon the outpouring of the Spirit, no longer " said 
that aught of that which he possessed" not even 
his daily life, his home, his culture "was his 
own," but poured it all out in an unstinted offering 
of love to God and his fellow-men. He could not 
bear that "property" things should separate him 
from his fellow-men, and he moved his home from 
the loveliest part of* Manchester to the lowliest and 
most degraded " slum," and there lived until he 
died. It was a costly sacrifice. There were then no 
conventions, no party enthusiasm, no body of liter- 
ature except the abounding literature of the 
Spirit no popular homage, no passing fashion of 
dilettante social patronage, to keep this great man 
and his devoted wife company in their sacrifice of 
social service far from it. Alone in that desert 
of unutterable human misery and suffering, viewed 
askance by those to whom their sacrifice was a 
meaningless extravagance of fanatical infatuation, 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



9 



not understood even by those to whom they minis- 
tered, these noble souls lived on serenely. 

We of the settlements need to learn of them that 
buildings are nothing, meetings are nothing, 
classes and clubs are nothing, save incidental 
means and varying temporary expressions of that 
which is everything the spirit of Jesus Christ in 
the heart of A MAN. The miserable, selfish 
" slums " and the miserable, selfish boulevards of 
our " civilization" need to-day, not better domestic 
economy, not cleanliness, not thrift, not improved 
charity methods, not soup kitchens or sewing rooms, 
or any other wretched makeshift they need, and 
they need equally, for the one is well nigh as self- 
ish and as miserable as the other, what God saw 
that the world needed, and what God gave to the 
needy world the best and the only gift in His 
power the incarnation of His love, His thought, 
His heart of hearts, His Word, in A MAN, "become 
flesh, and dwelling among men." 



THE AMERICAN PERIL. 



In spite of the most formidable opposition, in 
which was united almost unanimously the public 
sentiment of Chicago, and which was voiced by all 
the leaders and exponents of the best public spirit, 
the infamous street-car bills, amended only in the 
direction of increasing their offensiveness, have 
passed the Illinois legislature, and have become a 
law by the signature of the governor. It is a mat- 
ter of common assertion and belief that this legis- 
lation was obtained by the direct purchase for cash 
of the votes of legislators, and the open and un- 
denied accusations of corruption have not stopped 
at the legislature. There seems to be no legal re- 
dress. This thing is becoming far too common- 
place. A good deal of exaggerated nonsense is 
talked and written about the alleged degeneration 
of public spirit and political character in this coun- 
try, but it is no exaggeration and it is high time to 
say that the welfare of this country and the per- 
petuity of its peace and of its fundamental institu- 
tions are threatened to-day, not by wild-eyed econ- 
omic fanaticism, not by erratic financial theories, not 
by indiscriminate immigration, nor by free trade, 
nor by high tariff, nor by the growth of any 
foreign religious dominion, but by the insidious 
growth and inculcation of the idea that financial 
success is the standard by which men's actions are 
to be judged, that property is more sacred than 
human life and liberty and honor. The "anarchist" 
whom we need to fear in these days is the man 
who tramples under foot the rights of his fellow- 
men, who by the power of wealth forces his will 
upon the people in spite of their protesting help- 
lessness. Such a man, be he never so high in 
church or state or society, is to be feared and 



dreaded and restrained. Such men and the ideas 
which they embody have been the primary cause 
of the downfall of the great nations of the past. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT has been making a 
speech in which he tried to show that the 
possession of a great navy by the United States 
was one of the surest means of maintaining peace 
with the world. In the same speech he takes the 
view that war is a good thing for a nation, stimu- 
lating patriotism, inspiring " noble " sentiments 
and occasioning deeds of " heroism." It will occur 
to some plain people who use their brains that if 
war is a good thing, then a navy that serves to 
maintain peace must be a bad thing, and that Mr. 
Roosevelt has driven a team of horses through his 
own reasoning. To our miad the maintenance by 
this country of a large navy is an iniquity whose 
immediate penalty is visited upon those least able 
to bear it the working people by whose labor it 
is created and supported. War is not a good thing 
but an unspeakably horrible thing, and the "patriot- 
ism " to which it gives rise is mere sectionalism, its 
"noble" sentiments barbarous, its "heroism" the 
apotheosis of savagery. That is no true peace which 
cannot be maintained without the support of a 
mighty army, and a navy that becomes old-fash- 
ioned about as fast as it is built. That is no true 
honor or prosperity which must depend upon the 
support of a vast force of soldier and sailor idlers. 
Thank God! this nation's greatness will never de- 
pend upon war ships or upon rifles. In the day 
when it does so depend, that greatness will have 
departed. 

rOR THE fine portrait of Count Tolstoy on the 
cover, we are indebted to The University As- 
sociation, publishers of Progress. Tolstoy is dear 
to all settlement folk as one who counted no per- 
sonal cost in his carrying out of the principles of 
social righteousness in which he believes. 



IT IS a pleasure to acknowledge the blessing that 
has come to Chicago Commons and its neigh- 
borhood through the musical ministry of Miss 
Marie R. Hofer during the past two years. What- 
ever may come of wider plans now in prospect 
concerning the music of the settlements, it is to be 
remembered that Miss Hofer first opened the way 
and set the pace that will be hard to surpass. 



IT IS all very well for the press and others to 
fling gibes at Mr. Debs upon the score of his 
extensive co-operative colonization scheme. Let 
that plan seem as chimerical as it may, we have 
yet to hear of any of his conservative critics com- 
ing forth with a better plan. Something must be 
done for the millions of men who in this country 
are tramping the roads in search of work. Mr. 
Debs is one of those who appreciate the magni- 
tude of the crisis and are trying to do something 
about it. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



Chicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted strpet electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
Is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOK, Resident Warden. 



THE COMMONS CHORUSES. 



Satisfactory Conclusion of the Year's Musical Studies 
of the Neighborhood. 



One of the strong features of the educational 
work of the Commons for the past two years has 
been the music work carried on by Miss Marie 
Ruef Hofer. Two classes, a children's and an 
adult class, have successfully studied and made 
music thro the year for themselves and friends 
under the direction of their enthusiastic leader. The 
removal of the children's class from the Taber- 
nacle church to the Commons emphasized the 
neighborhood character of the work, bringing in 
the children of the immediate vicinity. The adult 
chorus registered seventy voices and rendered ad- 
mirable service in two public concerts. 

Here and there the word comes back of the 
social influence of the good music which goes out 
from these classes from the Italian mother who 
sings over her work songs without words or in 
broken attempts at English, to the teachers of the 
public schools who testify to the good results of 
the children's work there. Often from some secluded 
play-nook of the street arise the familiar strains of 
a class song where a group of children hold " sing- 
ing school just like the teacher." Again, as re- 



ported by one proud mother, the children hold 
concerts " of evenings." 

In addition to the frequent small recitals given 
by the choruses, two public concerts have been 
given, and have packed to the doors the large hall 
in the vicinity. The rows of singers, adult and 
juvenile, extending from the floor in front, graded 
up to the rear of the stage, make a beautiful sight, 
and with the singing and exercises of the children 
arouse endless pride and delight in the hearts of 
the family groups present. 

The singing of quaint part songs and folk songs 
by the adult chorus stirred the hearts and thoughts 
of many present. 

Some interesting folk lore study has. been done 
in connection with the singing of folk songs the 
children telling the fairy tales they knew, and 
some valuable investigation has been made in re- 
gard to the knowledge of stories and songs of the 
various nations. 

Altogether we of the settlement feel that the 
wide-spread possibilities of such a work as has been 
carried on by Miss Hofer at Chicago Commons are 
invaluable to the higher education of the neigh- 
borhood. 

THE DRINKING FOUNTAIN. 

Evaiiston Woman's Club's Tribute to its President 
and to the Commons. 

The long-awaited drinking fountain is at last on 
hand! Not quite yet ready for use, but in sight 
and in process of availability. The Evanston 
Woman's Club, always good friends of the Com- 
mons, collected the necessary funds, secured the 
fountain, and present it to the Commons in the 
name of the honored president of the club, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Boynton Harbert. In fact, it is the 
"Elizabeth Boynton Harbert Fountain," and many 
thirsty folk will bless her name. The necessary 
formalities are now in process. The Illinois Hu- 
mane Society, under whose care are all the city 
fountains, has interested itself in the matter, and 
it is hoped that the water will soon be running for 
thirsty man and beast. 

COMMONS SUMMER KINDERGARTEN. 



Children to be Welcomed Back to Their Happy 
Mornings After a Week's Vacation. 



The regular session of the Chicago Commons 
kindergarten closes June 18, and will be followed 
by a thorough cleaning of the rooms devoted to 
that use. On Monday, June 28, the summer ses- 
sion opens, and there is every reason to expect that 
the fine record of last summer will be duplicated. 
With the same self-sacrifice and abandon of all 
considerations of vacation and money that charac- 
terized the beautiful service last summer of Miss 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



Krause and Miss Day, the four trained kindergart- 
ners who this year have volunteered for this service 
come into the Great Desert of the river ward dis- 
trict without one cent of remuneration, assured 
only of their rooms and board. Miss Anna Mc- 
Laurie, of McGregor, Iowa, will be at the head of 
the work, and will be immediately assisted by Miss 
Louise Hare, of Rockford, 111. Miss Frain and 
Miss Strong, of Chicago, also will assist as volun- 
teers, and of the settlement ret-idents Miss Patrick 
and Mrs. Gavit will probably serve more or less 
continuously. It is a matter of amused conjecture 
in the settlement family whether Mrs. Hegnerwill 
have the courage to stay away from the work she 
so loves, in the weeks before she leaves for her 
vacation. 

It will require about fifty dollars to assure the 
expenses of the kindergarten for the summer. 
Last year the whole amount necessary was in hand 
before the kindergarten had been in session a 
week. We are ready now to receive the gifts of 
those who love the children and can serve them in 
this way. 

COMMONS NOTES. 

Among recent visitors to the settlement 

whose presence was mightily helpful and inspiring 
was Miss Gow, of the Woman's University settle- 
ment in London. 

The day nursery, for whose establishment 
and maintenance we are indebted to the Matheon 
club, is a great success. Sixteen different children 
were cared for for varying periods during the first 
month. The nursery is ministering in the best 
possible way to the real need of the neighborhood. 
The Girls' Progressive Club has increased 
in its interest and efficiency as a helper of the set- 
tlement, until we are looking upon it as one of the 
chief sources of our kindergarten support. A re- 
cent dramatic entertainment netted $50.00, all of 
which was turned over to the settlement for five 
kindergarten scholarships. 

WEST SIDE BUREAU. 



Good Progress of the New Branch of the Bureau of 
Associated Charities. 



One of the achievements of the winter in which Hull 
llonse, Epworth House and Chicago Commons have occa- 
sion to be grateful is the successful establishment of the 
West Side District of the Bureau of Associated Charities. 
The three settlements rallied such co-operation as they 
could for their respective wards the 19th, 18th and 7th 
and the representatives of some of the churches and clubs 
centering in the Eleventh ward, together with a very strong 
and helpful reinforcement of Oak Park and River Forest 
folks joined their stout hearts and friendly hands; and the 
long-needed center for Co-operative and intelligent charity 
work among the 120,000 neediest and densest people in Chi- 
cago became a fact. Walter Vose Gulick. one of the 
residents of the Commons, was chosen agent, and with 
much effective volunteer co-operation inaugurated its wide 
and wise work. 

Its plans for summer philanthropy are noteworthy for the 
delightfully personal e.emeut introduced into the life of 
both helped and helper. 

An effort is making to interest the helpers in the person- 
ality of the people aided, and to distinguish between the 
merely shiftless and incompetent and those who would do 
well if they had the chance. A number of fresh. air excur- 
sionsare planned, and on June 'Jl is to be held a meeting at 
which some prominent workers among the poor are to 
speak and to arouse interest in the matter of summer phil- 
anthropies. Provident savings enterprises are in view, and 
the question of a central west side workshop will be con- 
sidered. 






Sifce 



Sfeetcbee 



As THE Commons kindergarten children awaited 
the special street cars chartered to transport them 
to Oak Park they attracted the attention of passers- 
by on Madison street to a curious extent. Men 
and women of all classes stopped and looked at 
them intently, many of them a long while in si- 
lence, a few inquiring as to who they were and 
where we were taking them. One roughly dressed 
man, who looked hardly used by the world, mur- 
mured to himself as he moved off after gazing 
intently in silence for some time, " Well, some- 
body's good." 

SAID one of the little girls to another, " We are 
going to pick flowers." " No," sadly rejoined the 
other, " the man won't leave us." " But," tri- 
umphantly shouted the first, pointing at Professor 
Taylor, who in the eyes of the children of the Com- 
mons neighborhood embodies the authority of the 
Czar and the virtues of George Washington, 
"that man will leave us." And if our 
readers could have seen the very life of child- 
hood spring up afresh in its beauty at this brief 
breath of freedom on the grass, under the trees in 
sight of pastured cows and horses, on the straw 
ride and about the picnic-lunch-circles in the or- 
chard, they each and every one would want to be 
" the man who would leave them " free once in a 
while. " But," added the veteran teacher of the 
local high school, " these children have not grown 
far away from Nature to lose their love for her; if 
kept a few years longer away from Nature they 
would be more interested in a fire engine or street 
scene than in all the flowers you could show them.'' 
And yet a bunch of lilacs carried thro the neighbor- 
hood on a recent Sunday really made more excite- 
ment than an engine running to a fire. A group of 
half grown girls a block away caught sight of 
them, and ran up, pleading for "just a blossom!" 
A gang of our roughest boys, apparently engrossed 
in play away down by the railway tracks, broke 
and ran like a pac)j of hounds, surrounded the 
writer and literally begged for "just one apiece," 
and some for " one other for mother," or for " me 
aunt; she's sick." Even a man emerging from a 
saloon, beer mug in hand, politely asked if he, too, 
might have a flower. 

"CAN'T you take care of your own cousin,'' re- 
provingly said a motherly little Italian girl to 
another, approaching her, as she vainly was trying 
to dry the tears of the aforesaid "cousin." How 
much more reproachful it is to the children of the 
average poor family not to "take care of their 
own " than it is to the children in the average 
better-to-do family! 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



Hfceal of iKrotberboofc j* 
.* jt in SLife anfc Xabor 



THE BROTHERS. 



Two brothers, dwelling in a distant land, 
Were housed apart, tor one was of the court, 
Kich, powerful, the other mean and poor. 

And so, one day, the elder came to stand 
Before his father and to make report 

Of what had chanced to him in all that land, 
And gifts to offer from his growing store. 

' Where is my other son? " a question horn 

From out the silence, met his eager heart. 
' Am 1 my brother's keeper? " he in scorn 

Made answer. And there came a stern " Thou art! " 

Years passed. The elder brother slowly learned 

To help the younger in a hundred ways; 

Gave food for asking, warmed his dwelling place, 
And never from his own rich dwelling spurned 

The other's rags. Then in the latter days, 
With secret hope of praises dearly earned, 

Once more he stood before his father's face. 

' Where is my other son? " he heard again. 
' My father, all thy bidding I have done. 

Fed, clothed and taught him. What doth fail me then? ; 
1 Thou comest alone. Where is my other son? " 

Long ages full of failure passed away; 

And as the bettered days went softly by, 

They shone at last upon a place where stood 
Two brothers, strong of heart and clear of eye. 

And one said to the other, " 'Tis the day 
When we must go together, thou and I, 

And tell our father of our mutual good." 

But even then a voice between them fell: 
'No need to seek me far as once thou didst, 
For since my two dear sons together dwell, 
Lo, I have come to tarry in their midst." 

Sarah C. Day. 



FRANK W. CROSSLEY. 

Death of a Rich Englishman Who Made His Home 

Among the Poor of Manchester A Modern 

St. Francis and His Work. 



Not many Americans have understood what was 
Involved of loss to the essential settlement move- 
ment in the death of Frank W. Crossley at his 
home, Star Hall, Ancoats, Manchester, England. 
He was a man of independent fortune who chose 
to live with the poor. He was an engineer of note, 
was identified with the manufacture and ingenious 
improvement of the famous Otto gas engines, and 
was known throughout the business circles of Eng- 
land. But his friends, and those with whom he 
chose his home, know him for better and higher 
things than those connected with his business. 
For he was a man to whom religion was not a set 
of opinions concerning the philosophy of life, but 
a real thing, vitally interwoven with every fibre of 
his being. Indeed, religion was life to him. His 
life was in an extraordinary degree devoted to the 
service of his fellow-men. He was exceedingly 
successful in his business, but throughout was 
utterly simple and self-denying in his personal 



habits, and his money was given to works which 
seemed to him to make for the betterment of men. 
But the step by which he became most marked in 
the public view was his determination, made many 
years ago, before the " settlement " was heard of, 
to live among the poor. The story cannot be told 
better than in the words of an intimate friend, who 
wrote after his death to the Manchester Guardian: 

He searched carefully for the most needy district in 
Manchester, This he found in Ancoats, at that time much 
more neglected than it is to-day. There was an old music- 
hall called the Star, which he purchased, and upon the site 
of it and in the neighboring streets he built his mission hall 
and dwelling-house, and afterwards the row of houses used 
as training homes for missionaries. There he and his w f e 
and family have made their home, laboring without sparing 
themselves for the spiritual, moral, and temporal welfare of 
the Door people round about. It was a very nnusual course 
to take, and there was much wonder and some criticism 
among friends; but altogether apart from the success of the 
work m Ancoats and there was success an Impression 
was created in the minds of many good people of the more 
conventional sort which is not likely soon to wear off. Here 
were people really "living the life." There could be no 
mistake about the fact of their sincerity and devotion; they 
had decided on a noble course of action, and no generous 
heart could attempt to belittle it. The Star Hall soon be- 
came the cenier ot a movement for a higher and more con- 
sistent standard of Christian living, and its influence has 
by no means been confined to the inhabitants of the imme- 
diate neighborhood. 

Another friend, in describing his peculiar type 
of life, writes: 

An exalted enthusiasm of a noble kind was conspicuous 
in his whole bearing, was stamped on his face, and shone 
through all his life. It led him to take up positions and 
modes of action which many looked on as mere eccentrici- 
ties, but which all must recognize to have had the salt of 
utter self-oblivion and eager desire to help humanity in 
them. It would be difficult to estimate the value of the 
object-lesson which Mr. Crossley 's action, in fixing his home 
in the slums of Ancoats, has given to the class of the com- 
munity to which he belonged, as to the duty of the rich to 
care for and identify themselves with the submerged class. 
His princely generosity in giving money enriched the coffers 
of every movement in Manchester which aimed at social, 
moral, and religious advancement. But he gave more than 
his money he gave himself. . . . Those who knew him 
longest and best know how absolutely sincere, how utterly 
self-regardless, how gently affectionate, how unfalteringly 
brave in upholding and following duty he was, and how all 
the strength and beauty of his character were the direct 
outcome of the religious convictions which he himself felt to 
be the basis of his whole being. 



SERMONS ON SOCIAL TOPICS. 

Rev. Joseph H. Selden, of the First Congrega- 
tional church of Elgin, 111., has been preaching on 
Sunday evenings recently, in connection with the 
meetings of the Men's League of that church, a 
series of sermons on social topics. This is an out- 
line: 

" The Religious Aspect of the Problem of Social 
Reform." Social consciousness characteristic of 
the present century. A new interpretation of "The 
Gospel of the Kingdom." (2.) " The Fundamental 
Laws of Social Progress." Society is an organism 
its development, therefore, must be orderly. Fac- 
tors in social progress. (3.) " Special Hindrances 
in the Way of Social Progress." Grievous injustice 
the outcome of the present industrial system. The 
prevalence of the spirit of Cain. (4.) " Some Prac- 
tical Suggestions." 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



Studies of tbe j* ^ # & & 
j* jt ^ jfc Xabor /IDovement 4 



CONSCIENCE AND COMPETITION 



Jurisdiction of Ethical Over Economic 
Law, 



Labor's Agency in Developing the Ethical Modifica- 
tion of the Competitive System Eighth 
Labor Study. 



[BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR.] 

Conscience is surely, if slowly, establishing its 
sovereignty over competition, Ethics its jurisdiction 
over Economics. This, the historical student may 
affirm, is as trite as to say that civilization is 
advancing, but he will also have to admit that 
nothing retards its progress more than the still 
widely prevalent failure to recognize the fact. The 
ethical theorist, too, may truly maintain that men's 
economic relations have never been beyond the 
realm of the moral law, but he also will look in 
vain for any general recognition of its supremacy 
over them, either in accepted theory or in actual 
facts. Such recognition has only begun to be 
invested from both economic theory and practice. 

ETHICAL INFLUENCE OF LABOR ON ECONOMICS. 

The forces which have achieved this crowning 
moral victory of the nineteenth century are two 
the Labor Movement and the higher Christian 
Ethics. If the labor question has been the occasion 
or fulcrum, on which the whole economic life of 
man has been raised into the area of his moral 
sense, the distinctively Christian ethic, even if 
operating more obviously through the Labor Move- 
ment than through the ecclesiastical organization 
of the churches, has been the mighty lever to lift 
and leave it there. The ethical influence of labor 
upon economic life and literature must be clearly 
seenbfore its struggle for equality before the law, 
or the raison d'etre for the organization of the 
industrial classes into trades unions and class 
federation can be understood. 

THE APOTHEOSIS OF COMPETITION. 

Before these forces began to be recognized within 
the literary and scientific development of the com- 
petitive system of economics, competition was at 
first exalted above the sway of ethics into the 
unquestionable realm of religion. In "The Wealth 
of Nations," that Book of Genesis in the scriptures 
of English orthodox economics, Adam Smith 
foisted the science upon the quietly assumed 
postulates. Under the sway of the single and great 
idea of individual liberty dominating and justifying 



the French Revolution, he simply made the liberty 
of equality supreme in economics, and the self- 
interest of the individual the sole dependence for 
securing and maintaining the common good of all. 
Malthus,the English clergyman, strangely oblivious 
of the fundamental Christianity he was ordained to 
preach, thus sought to give a theological foundation 
of this economic principle: 

" The great Author of nature, with the wisdom 
which is apparent in all his works, has made the 
passion of self-love beyond comparison stronger 
than benevolence. By this wise provision, the 
most ignorant are led to promote the general 
happiness, an end which they would have totally 
failed to attain, if the moving principle of their 
conduct had been benevolence. Benevolence, 
indeed as the great and constant source of action, 
would require the most perfect knowledge of causes 
and effects, and therefore can only be the attribute 
of the Deity. In a being so short-sighted as man,. 
it would lead into the grossest errors, and soon 
transform the fair and cultivated soil of civilized 
society into a dreary scene of want and confusion." 
(Malthus, Essay, on Population, p. 492.) . 

Ricardo, the " Deuteronomist," of this law, laid 
down competition, entirely apart from ethics or 
religion, as the law of survival in nature. It was 
not a pure assumption, as has often been charged, 
but rather, as has better been said, was an attempt to- 
derive the permanent principle of unrestricted 
competition from the transcient phenomena attend- 
ing the introduction of machinery and the factory 
system, the significance of which he was the first 
thinker to discern. 

It was at this point then, when competition had 
been enshrined within religious sanctions as the 
" wise provision " of Almighty God for insuring the 
common-welfare and social progress of the race,, 
and had been exalted beyond mortal ken or reach 
as a "natural law," that the Labor Movement 
restored both human consciousness and conscience 
as factors of the mighty problem. " It was the 
labor question," writes Arnold Toynbee, " unsolved, 
by that removal of restrictions which was all 
deductive political economy had to offer, that 
revived the method of observation. Political Econ- 
omy was transformed by the working classes. The 
pressing desire to find a solution of problems 
which the abstract science treated as practically 
insoluble, drew the attention of economists to 
neglected facts." 

FACTS TO THE CONTRARY. 

The first of the facts thus called to attention was 
that the idea that the common-good is promoted by 
self-interest, is an assumption and not a fact. For 
did not adulteration and dishonesty in manufactur- 
ing prove to be for self-interest of the few at the 
sacrifice of the many "i Did not the resources 
upon which the many depend soon become "natural 
monopolies in the hands of the few." 

A second fact soon became manifest; viz., that 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



the freedom of individual competition was lost in 
the inequality of the competitor?, who were unable 
to compete on equal terms and thereby came to be 
less and less able to compete at all. Of the social 
ills resulting from competition under these in- 
equalities Prof. Francis Walker, wrote: 

"When it becomes unequal, when the ability of 
one industrial class to respond to the impulse of 
self-interest is seriously reduced by ignorance, 
poverty, or whatever cause, while the classes with 
which it is to divide the product of industry are 
active, alert, mobile, in a high degree, the most 
mischievous effects may be expected. . . . The 
tendency. ... is continually to aggravate the 
disadvantages from which any person or class may 
suffer. The fact of being worsted in one conflict is 
an ill preparative for another encounter. Every 
gain which one party makes at the expense of 
another furnishes the sinews of war for further 
aggressions. Every loss which one person or class 
of persons sustains in the competitions of industry 
weakens the capacity for further resistance. This 
principle applies with increasing force as men 
sink in the industrial scale." (The Wages Question, 
p. 163.) 

INSTINCTIVE EXEMPTIONS FROM COMPETITION. 

By the very instinct of self-preservation men 
have all along exempted their inner circles of asso- 
ciates from their social wreckage. The family 
circle has ever been safe, guarded by the principle 
of co-operation from the ravages of competition. 
The "village" enjoyed immunities to which the 
" market" of olden times was exposed. Tribe and 
nation knew exemptions unknown by the stranger 
or enemy. Even outside these precincts, sacred to 
brotherhood, other sanctities claimed protection. 
Custom and then law made men stop short of tak- 
ing life in dispossessing each other of coveted 
goods. Then the " body " of a person could no 
longer be seized or held for debt, and " habeas 
corpus " became an inalienable right. From open 
robbery, fraud, coercion, protection came to be 
generally afforded. The "right of possession" 
was compelled to give way to legal tenure. 

THE JUST PRICE. 

The natural restrictions thus imposed, as by the 
very instinct of self-preservation, upon that econ- 
omic force for which unrestricted freedom is 
demanded by the doctrinaire laissez-faire theorists 
were warrant enough for a more general challenge 
of its right to undisputed sway in wider circles. 
For public sentiment in mediaeval times sought to 
redeem even the "market" from the intolerable 
possibility of " unrestricted competition." By com- 
mon consent there was established the standard of 
the "just price," from which our present license 
to " drive the best bargain" and " sell in the dear- 
est market" is a most debasing retrogression. "The 
theory of the modern bargain," declared Prof. J. 



B. Clark, " appears to be that of the mediaeval judi- 
cial combat, let each do his worst and God will 
protect the right." 

LEGAL INTERFERENCE. 

The revival of fixing this criterion of the market 
price by appeal to something other than competi- 
tion, is still further limiting the operation of that 
so-called, all-pervasive principle. Employing cap- 
ital was first to invoke legal interference with the 
unrestricted competition of labor for wages. The 
" Statute of Laborers " vigorously, though vainly, 
sought to interfere with the freedom of the labor 
market by prohibiting under heaviest penalty the 
receiving or giving of wages higher than the rate 
prevailing before the Black Death. Labor unions 
have more effectually interfered to prevent com- 
petition crowding down the wages of craft after 
craft below the life-line of a human " standard of 
living." Public sentiment came to the rescue of 
the " unequal competitors " under the newly insti- 
tuted factory system, and by the factory legislation 
of the first half of the century not only emancipated 
the womanhood and childhood of the working 
classes from industrial and moral thraldom, but 
dealt the doctrine of laissezfaire its deadliest 
blow. 

COMPETITION THE DEATH OF TRADE TO CAPITAL. 

But it has been reserved to capital, simply in the 
exercise of its own instinct of self-preservation 
from the suicidal waste and warfare of this same 
"free competition," not only practically to exempt 
whole industries from its operation, but to suggest 
thereby a possibility of the indefinite curtailment 
of its remaining sway. For however short-lived 
and ineffectual have been the efforts of combina- 
tions of capital and labor to abolish competition by 
monopoly, they have concededly effected the com- 
petitive system more than any other agency. For 
by reducing the number of competitors to "so few, 
so powerful, and so nearly equal" combatants, 
there has actually developed, not " a battle of 
giants, but a system of avowed neutralities and 
federation of giants," so that an eminent econo- 
mist concludes: "The competitive action of an 
organized society, tends, within these limits, to 
self-annihilation." 

NON- COMPETING GROUPS. 

These non-competing groups, of which organized 
labor afforded the first most conspicuous examples 
in industrial life, have multiplied in so many 
realms of the very highest human interests (e. g. in 
Art, Architecture, Literature, Education, Discov- 
ery, Science, Philanthropy and Religion), that they 
are forcing economists to admit the narrower 
restrictions being imposed on the competitive 
principle, the sufficiency of the co-operative and 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



even " communistic " motive to prompt and per- 
petuate the most priceless products of the race. 

Mixed as have been the economic results of the 
competitive system of industry with splendid 
achievements and dire disasters, with a progress in 
which all have shared much, fewer have reaped 
hitherto unheard of wealth, and an ever-increasing 
multitude have suffered a poverty such as only the 
civilization of this system knows ; its effects upon 
morals have been insidiously and fundamentally, 
if not wholly, evil. 

(To be continued). 

(Prof. Taylor's next "Study" considers some of the "Casu- 
istry of Competition," illustrating good men's efforts to 
excuse or to escape the "moral dualism" which the 
competitive system makes inevitable]. 



9 ^Literature an> 



A SETTLEMENT STORY.* 



One of the most interesting of recent books, from 
a settlement point of view, is the story entitled "In 
His Steps," by Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, of Topeka, 
Kan. It has been running for some months in in- 
stalments in the columns of the Chicago Advance, 
and has attracted no small attention. 

The story is one of re"al interest, and in some 
portions it is fairly to be described as powerful. 
Its narrative hinges upon the taking of a pledge 
by a number of the members of a church to sub- 
mit all their actions and decisions to the question, 
" What would Jesus do?" and into the lives of 
several classes of persons the author pursues this 
question. He has the fiction-writer's advantage of 
being able to shape consequences to suit himself, 
and he has availed himself of it fully. It impresses 
us as distinctly a weakness in the story that the 
tremendous revolution of thought and action in the 
characters led in so few cases to actual and per- 
manent worldly loss, a result surely inevitable in 
practical life. The question, " What would Jesus 
do?" applied to any life, and especially to any busi- 
ness, most particularly a daily newspaper as in Mr. 
Sheldon's story, must of necessity force some 
searching queries as to common methods, and the 
fact that the suppositions editorial policy of Jesus 
would certainly mean financial ruin is granted by 
the author when he brings in one of the pledged 
church members to endow the paper with her 
hitherto selfishly-spent fortune. Mr. Sheldon does 
not broach the question of the origin of that for- 
tune or of whether Jesus would approve the use 



*In His Steps " What Would Jesus Do?" By Charles 
M. Sheldon, author of 'The Crucifixion of Philip Strong," 
etc., A Story. Chicago, The Advance Publishing Co., 215 
Madison St. Cloth, 282 pp. 8vo, paper, 25 cents. 



for any purpose whatever of the income of Sugar or 
Oil Trust certificates, for instance, or of some less 
notorious investments, whose continued dividends 
are assured by no less questionable and unchristian 
methods. 

But it would be ungracious to criticise closely 
the probability of details in a story so instinct with 
high purpose, so intense with earnestness and sin- 
cerity. It impresses after all the main truth, that 
the test of Jesus would and always does revolu- 
tionize motive, method and result, and transfigure 
the world with the light of love and righteousness. 
The story leads finally to the establishment by 
two consecrated ministers of a social settlement in 
the slums of Chicago. So far as its reference to 
the social settlement is concerned, it is quite 
natural that its touch upon the fundamental prob- 
lems of settlement life should be cursory, frag- 
mentary, and in some degree unsatisfactory. Mr. 
Sheldon is a believer in the settlement movement, 
and has spent some time in residence at Chicago 
Commons. The necessities of his narrative com- 
pelled some straining after effect and some rather 
arbitrary suiting of conditions to the desired re- 
sults. The story shows, however, with clearness 
what Mr. Sheldon, in both his pastorate and his 
settlement residence, has discovered: That social 
problems and sin-problems, which after all are the 
same thing, are not to be solved by cheap and per- 
functory talk and machine methods, but by Christ's 
costly process of love-filled life, by the consecra- 
tion of the whole of a man to the unreserving serv- 
ice of God thro fellow-men. The settlement is no 
patented method of doing this easily. It is simply 
a way and an opportunity which has thus far 
been fraught with blessing. It must be infinitely 
varied as the needs and circumstances of men are 
infinitely varied. This story exhibits some of these 
variations in a most interesting and inspiring way. 
(Chicago: The Advance Publishing Co. Cloth, $1; 
paper, 25 cents.) J. P. G. 



A MONTREAL SLUM STUDY.* 



Useful, not alone for itself, but also as an indi- 
cation of what may be done in the way of local 
study of conditions in any place, is Herbert Ames 
Brown's careful work on "The City Below the 
Hill." It is an examination of certain conditions 
in a crowded and destitute section of Montreal, 
made on the basis of a house-to-house canvass in 
the fall and winter of 1896. It is intended to cover 
and represent a fairly typical section of " indus- 
trial " Montreal, and eovkrs these topics more or 
less thoroughly : Employment, where furnished 
and to what extent; composition of the typical 



* The City Below the Hill. A Sociological Study of a 
Portion of the City of Montreal, Canada. By Herbert Brown 
Ames, B.A. The Bishop Eng. & Pr. Co. Flexible boards, 
8vo, 72 pp., table and 10 maps. 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[June, 



family, family incomes and workers' wages, homes 
of the industrial class, comparative rentals, density 
of population and overcrowding houses, the poor 
of the " West End," the death-rate and some of its 
lessons, nationalities, their location and distribu-' 
tion. The object of the book is to interest those 
more fortunate who are willing to help, and to 
demonstrate that proper reforms in the material 
surroundings of that part of Montreal can be un- 
dertaken on a basis of " Philanthropy and five per 
cent." This book will be one of the text-books in 
minor social statistics. 



BOOKS AND PERIODICALS RECEIVED. 



[NOTE. The editor reserves the rjght to regard acknowl- 
edgment in tins column as sufficient notice of any litera- 
ture received. More extended notice will be given of 
the more important or more valuable works in a later 
issue.] 



" Stray Thoughts for Mothers and Teachers," by 
Lucy H. M. Soulsby. New editon. New York, 
London, and Bombay, 1897. Longmans, Green & 
Co. Cloth, 8vo, $1.00. 

"In His Steps," (a social settlement story), by 
Charles M. Sheldon. Chicago, 1897. Advance 
Publishing Co., 215 Madison street. 8vo, cloth, 
$1.00; paper, 25 cents. 

" The City Below the Hill," a sociological study 
of a portion of the city of Montreal, Canada. By 
Herbert Brown Ames, B. A., Montreal, the Bishop 
Engraving and Printing Co., 169 St. James street. 
Boards, 8vo, 72 pages and 10 maps. 

"History of the Chicago Gas Companies." 
Extracts from the forthcoming report of the 
Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics, George A. 
Schilling, secretary of the Bureau. Selected by 
Professor E. W. Bemis. 

"Round-up for 1897" of the Free Bath and 
Sanitary League on the free public baths of Chicago. 
Paper, 63 pages, 8vo. Published by Dr. Gertrude 
G. Wellington, president, and J. Van Allen, secre- 
tary of the league. Illustrated. 

"The Anatomy of Misery Plain Lectures on 
Economics," and "From Bondage to Brotherhood 
A Message to the Workers," by John C. Kenworthy. 
London. First, published by William Reeves, and 
the Brotherhood Publishing Co., second by Walter 
Scott, Ltd. Paper, 12mo, 98 pp. and 141 pp., 
respectively. 

Report of the Bureau of Statistics of New 
Jersey, 1896. 

" The Gospel in Brief," by Leo Tolstoy. Croydon, 
England, the Brotherhood Publishing Co., London, 
Walter Scott, Ltd. 

" Fabian Essays in Socialism," and " Fabian 
Tracts," 1884-96, London, The Fabian Society, 276 
Strand, W. C. 

"New Moral World Series," edited by Arthur 
Baker, M. A., NOB. 1 and 2. " Shakers and Shaker- 
ism," and " A Plea for Communism," both by the 
editor. Pamphlets, 30 and 23 pp., respectively. 

Tolstoy: His Teaching and Influence in Eng- 
land, by John C. Kenworthy. Brotherhood Pub- 
lishing Company, Croydon, Eng. 



BUREAU OF 
SETTLEMENTS 



UNDER 
THE DIRECTION OF 



THE 

COMMONS 



PURPOSES 



To collect, disburse and publish bibliog- 
raphy and other historical data and general 
information concerning the world-wide Set- 
tlement Movement. 

To facilitate helpful communication between 
Settlements. 

To be of all possible service to people living 
and working on the basis of the Settlement 
Idea. 



WANTED, THEREFORE, 



Prompt Information as to the foundation 
of new Settlements, or the existence of old 
ones not well known. Better that we should 
duplicate information than not to have it 
at all. 

Copies (several when possible), of all 
reports, circulars, and other printed matter, 
however apparently trivial, including tickets, 
programs and all other transient material, 
issued by or concerning any Settlement. 
Complete files of all such matter are urgently 
desired. 

References to, and if possible copies of, all 
periodical, newspaper, magazine or review 
articles, or allusions, however scant, in 
books or pamphlets, with reference to the 
Settlement Movement or to any Settlement, 
These references should always give minute 
particulars as to the name of the publica- 
tion, date, author if possible, etc. 

In short, we desire to have on hand and to 
keep complete, material suggesting the en- 
tire history of each and every Settle- 
ment. 

All head-workers and secretaries of Settle- 
ments in all Countries are urged to co- 
operate. 

NOTK. The following Settlement Literature 
may now be obtained through the Bureau: 

"Social Settlements and the Labor Question 
(Reprint from tlie proceedings of the 23d National 
Conference of Charitiesand Correction). Single cop- 
ies, 10 cents, three for 25 cents, postpaid. 

Bibliography of College, Social and University 
Settlements, published by the College Settlements 
Association. Free on receipt of 2 cents postage. 

Chicago Commons Leaflets No. 1. "Foreign Mis- 
sions at Home." Free on receipt of 2 cents postage. 

Material for and inquiries concerning the 
Bureau should be addressed to 

Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union St., Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



NEW SERIES OF CHICAGO COMMONS.' 



THE COMMONS 

H flfioiubh? 1Recort> H>evotc& to aspects of life anfc labor from tbe Social Settlement point of View. 



Whole Number 15. 



CHICAGO. 



JULY, 1897. 



All are riot just because they do no wrong; 
But he who will not wrong me when he may, 
He is the truly just. I praise not those 
Who In their petty dealings pilfer not, 
But him, whose conscience spurns at secret fraud, 
When he might plunder and defy surprise. 
His be the praise who, looking down with scorn 
On the false judgment of the partial herd, 
Consults his own clear heart, and boldly dares 
To be, not to be thought, an honest man. 

In a Magazine published in 1830. 



KANSAS CITY'S "PATCH." 



Frightful Conditions in Which Child-Life is Being 
Destroyed by Wholesale. 



Blot on the State's Fame Extraordinary Legal 
Device Which Perpetuates the Evil- 
Bright Prospects of Good 
Work There. 



Kansas City, Kansas, has what is known there as 
" The Patch." It is to be feared, however, that 
there is more of dire prophetic significance in the 
name than that community recognizes in the facts 
of the human life thus designated. For however 
facetious this designation of place and people 
thus nicknamed, there is a grim irony in so calling 
them, the bitterness of which is sure to be shared 
quite as largely by that whole city as by the vic- 
tims of its most neglected quarter. When the 
reader knows what is there, he can decide whether 
this may not be true. 

A " patch " is usually a piece of ground upon 
which something is grown. Let us see how care- 
fully the soil of this one is prepared and what 
growths are thriving there. 

HOW ITS SOIL IS PREPARED. 

From those who have long lived near by and 
have been for years in daily touch with both this 
place and its people, the writer learns the follow- 
ing facts, with which to supplement the personal 
observation of appearances: The territory com- 
prises only about the space occupied by two city 
blocks, and includes a little more than eight acres 
of the " West Bottoms." It lies between the great 
Armour packing houses, the railway tracks skirt- 
ing the river and a street differing more in ex- 
ternal appearance from the patch than in essen- 
tial conditions. This district bears the poetical 



pseudonym of " Armourdale." The land is owned . 
partly by corporations and partly by an individual. 
Altho the occupancy looks as if it might be by 
right of " squatter sovereignty," the site of each 
shanty is leased by its owner for two dollars per 
month. There are almost one hundred of what, 
by poetic license, may be dignified as "houses." 
For only two of them are two stories in height, and 
the average number of spaces in each dwelling 
does not exceed three small, low, ill-ventilated and 
poorly lighted rooms. None of these habitations is 
connected with either the sewer or the water system. 
Two cisterns receive the surface drainage. Water 
is supplied by "driven wells" driven thro the 
low, marshy " bottom " land, polluted by the neigh- 
boring packing house and stock yard drainage and 
by the outhouses which are shared with the inhab- 
itants by their cows, horses and pigs. No provision 
has been made for streets, in place of which are 
irregular, unpaved, winding alleys, from eight to 
ten feet wide, which reek with filth, are rank with 
noisome stenches and swarm with children. 

SEEDED DOWN WITH HUMAN LIFE. 

Planted in this soil are no less than twelve hun- 
dred men, women and children. In nationality 
they are, in diminishing order, Austrian, Polish, 
Bohemian, Italian, German, negro and one Irish 
and some "mixed" households. The men are, 
most of them, said to be " single," from five hun- 
dred to six hundred of them being boarders, and 
almost all who work being employed in the pack- 
ing houses or stock yards. Many of these shan- 
ties are owned by " clubs " of them who hire a 
woman to cook, wash and mend for them, the 
expense being shared pro rata. In one of these 
shanties, containing five rooms, there are five chil- 
dren and eight boarders; in another of four rooms 
a man, wife and ten boarders. The women are, 
many of them, young, hard-worked and "do not 
have much let-up in their existence." Of the chil- 
dren, few get very regular or sufficient schooling, 
and many under sixteen are irregularly at work. 

THE HARVEST BEING REAPED. 

While there are not a few who are far better 
than their surroundings and escape from the dis- 
trict before sinking to its lowest levels, and while 
it is more of a wonder that all are not worse than 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



that some are so bad, yet the product of this care- 
fully prepared and planted " patch " is bad enough 
to startle the community responsible for both 
its existence and its effects, into a determined 
effort to stay the pest by eradicating the plague 
spot. The neglect of child-life is, of course, its 
first and bitterest fruit. In no one of our largest 
cities has the writer seen such evidence of shock- 
ing infantile depravity as in these reeking alleys. 
Such brutal disregard for the innocence of tender 
age and such awful oaths from lisping lips he 
never saw or heard. One little fellow, when told 
by the kindergartner of the work the children 
were to do, that first day of his in school, indig- 
nantly refused to do it, saying, " My pa don't work 
and I won't." Another, when having the " occupa- 
tions " explained to him, exclaimed that he wanted 
"to grow big so that he could swear and smoke 
and get drunk like pa." Children just able to walk 
are the carriers of the beer cans from the lowest 
kind of liquor resorts to these '.wretched haunts, 
which are (God save the mark!) their only " homes.' 
The prohibitory law to the contrary notwith- 
standing, there are in the Kansas side of "The 
Bottoms" twenty-two saloons, more than half of 
which flank " the Patch," besides which, on Satur- 
day nights, wagons from rival breweries unload 
kegs and half barrels at nearly every door, and then 
"the very dances of death begin, lasting till early 
Monday morning." There is said to be no need of 
" bad houses.'' Criminals from both cities of the 
two states are said to flee to this City of Refuge to 
lose themselves in its safe hiding. 

WHY THE PATCH IS MAINTAINED. 

To protect and perpetuate the fertility of " the 
Patch " and insure its prolific and perennial crops 
of carefully planted vice, scientifically nurtured 
crime, and the persistently cultivated degeneration 
of men and women and of boy and girl babies, a 
well devised legal contrivance has long been in 
thoroughly successful operation. For it appears 
that in cities whose common council and tax- payers 
combine to refuse making any appropriation for 
the support of police, there is a state law provid- 
ing that police commissioners shall provide for the 
maintenance of the force by the fines collected 
from those whom they arrest. This being the case 
in Kansas City, Kan., what more simple and 
economical plan and so just withal! could there 
be of paying the police than to raise the money 
for the guardians of the peace out of this same 
said prolific " Patch?" Thus at one and the same 
time, and by one and the same set of officers of the 
law, the majesty of the law is maintained and just 
enough lawlessness is allowed to maintain the 
maintainers. Thus the police admirably fulfill the 
double function of repressing and " protecting " 



crime, of punishing and perpetuating criminals, of 
fining and fondling the nurseries which supply 
both, and of making their own living by providing 
for the propagation of enough law-breakers to pay 
the requisite amount in monthly fines ! 

THE DESPERATE FIGHT FOB RESCUE. 

If this shameful situation is either rational or 
economical, either good citizenship or common 
humanity, there are not a few citizens who fail to 
recognize it as such. It exists against their pro- 
tests, spoken out in indignant words, and better 
expressed in sacrificial deeds for the redemption 
of this life, lost largely through lack of a common 
conscience and public opinion which is fully suffi- 
cient to prevent the loss. To rescue here and there 
"brands saved from the burning'' the brave little 
"Bethel Mission," facing " the Patch," has fairly 
fought for the lives of the men, women, and little 
ones it succeeds in saving. This "forlorn hope" 
is led at the cost not merely of religious enthu- 
siasm, but at the sacrifice of many small givers 
and of personal services gratuitously rendered by 
hard working people, led by the heroic self-denial 
of a self-supporting young physician, who is liter- 
ally pouring out his daily life in spiritual, physical 
and friendly ministries to this wretched popula- 
tion. 

Delicate and cultivated women, applying to this 
" open sore " of their home city the appeals for 
the social salvation which they heard a year ago 
at the Ottawa Chautauqua, have nobly rallied to 
the rescue of the childhood and womanhood of the 
" Patch." For nearly a year the Free Kindergarten 
has wrought its divinely preventive and forma- 
tive work for the little ones, and the Industrial 
School and Girls' Club have corraled the boys and 
girls within their preoccupying and elevating in- 
fluences; while through the magic leading of the 
little child all kinds of sweet womanly ministries 
are being rendered the household life in the 
" Patch." 

SIGNS OF PROMISE. 

After one season's work, the results of the kin- 
dergarten were so manifest that George Fowler, the 
packer, renovated and gave to the free kindergar- 
ten association a well-equipped building for the 
use of this their first school. Through the co- 
operation of a number of prominent women in 
Kansas City, Mo., there was added to the kinder- 
garten an industrial school in which sewing and 
cooking are taught daily throughout the year to 
older girls who already number eighty. A day 
nursery and night school are soon to be opened. 
The support of the work has been secured by popu- 
lar subscriptions from both sides of the imaginary 
state line dividing the two Kansas Cities, the 
Armour Packing Company being one of the largest 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



contributors. To supply the continuous personal 
influence without which all such work falls short 
of its highest efficiency and most permanent value, 
the social settlement idea and method are felt to 
be a logical and necessary development. The presi- 
dent of the association well expresses her clear 
appreciation of this in these words: " We are be- 
gining greatly to feel the need of at least one 
resident family there, with whom other interested 
ones might spend part of the time, and by so doing 
accomplish a kind of work that is not at present 
possible." 

MUST BE DONE AT THE SOURCE. 

But for all the noble work that 
is being done with the rescue of 
individuals, the conditions con- 
tinue to drag down many more; 
for every life thus rescued, many 
more are born into the same old 
molds of the lost life. For any 
household redeemed and re- 
moved, many household groups 
wait to move in. The stream 
must be purified at its spring; 
the supply must be stopped at its 
source. Prevention is better and 
cheaper than cure. It cost New 
York State the expense of 1,200 
criminal and pauper descendants 
of three or four neglected, wild- 
growing little girls from one of 
its uncared-for families. It cost 
the West the expense of caring 
for 1,800 of the offspring of one 
pair of ancestors neglected and 
fostered in the State of Indiana. 
The only way really to redeem 
"the Patch" is by a threefold 
effort. First, to destroy the phys- 
ical conditions of its existence 
through personal influence with 
the land-owners, or by publicly 
declaring its occupancy a nuis- 
ance, to be abated by the legal 
condemnation and demolition of 
its buildings. Why we may thus 
abate the fire risk or the danger 
from a falling building and not 
abate the greater sanitary and moral risk to the 
health and safety of a city, is inconceivable. Sec- 
ond, to prevent the perpetuation of such social 
conditions by supporting the police with money 
appropriated by tax-raised funds and doing away 
with the fine system and the temptations inevit- 
ably involved in it. Third, by preceding, sup- 
plementing and following all these efforts by the 
best spiritual, educational, industrial and social 
endeavor to preoccupy or repossess each indi- 
vidual life and every household involved. 



THE INEVITABLE. 

I like the man who faces what he must 
With step triumphant and a heart of cheer; 
Who fights the daily battle without fear; 

Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust 

That God is God; that somehow true and just, 
His plans work out for mortals; not a tear 
Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear, 

Falls from his grasp; better, with love, a crust 

Than living in dishonor; envies not. 
Nor loses faith in man ; but does his best, 

Nor even murmurs at his humbler lot, 
But with a smile and words of hope, gives zest 

To every toiler; he alone is great. 

Who by a life heroic conquers fate. 

Copied by a Reader of The Commons. 




THE KINDERGARTEN IN " THE PATCH.' 



Horace Greeley said that the chief end of a true 
political economy is the conversion of idlers and 
useless exchangers and traffickers into habitual, 
effective producers of wealth. The truth in a nut- 
shell. Commonwealth. 



The great difference between the real statesman 
and the pretender is that the one sees into the 
future, while the other regards only the present; 
the one lives by the day and acts on expediency, 
the other acts on enduring principles and for im- 
mortality. Burke. 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



IRotes of tbe & & & & j- 
jfc jfc jfc Social Settlements 4 



THE SACRAMENT OF SERVICE. 

"They who enter the service of the People take a 
solemn sacrament; they handle the most sacred 
things of life, their brothers' souls. Such a sacra- 
ment may be taken unworthily. 

" Society enters the service, and as it talks of its 
care of the poor over its wasteful dinner tables, it 
eats and drinks its own damnation. The many who 
listen eagerly to tales of suffering take the sacra- 
ment, but instead of finding life by giving'themselves 
as comforters, they find death by wearing out their 
best emotions." Canon Samuel A. Harriett, Warden 
of Toynbee Hall, in " Human Service."* 



I have learned how to pray, and toil, and save; 

To pray for courage, to receive what comes, 

Knowing what comes to be divinely sent; 

To toil for universal good, since thus 

And only thus, can good come unto me; 

To save, by giving whatsoe'er I have 

To those who have not this alone is gain. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in The Arena. 



Hearty Response of the Hat Factory Workers, 



Second Settlement in New Jersey Opens with the 
Good Will of All its Neighbors. 



The Orange Valley Social Institute, photographs 
relating to which are shown herewith, is the suc- 
cessor of not a few other efforts toward social 
amelioration, and is one of the most recent recog. 
nitions in New Jersey of the need of some work 
toward social unification. It is located in the heart 
of the manufacturing district of Orange. Numer- 
ous efforts had previously been made toward or- 
ganization for social, intellectual and moral better- 
ment of the Orange Valley, but they had all proved 
at best only partially effective, and for the most 
part short-lived. There; had been a Young Men's 
Christian Association, a Young Men's Catholic 
Lyceum, a parish club of the Episcopal Church, a 
girls' club, a boys' club, and numberless other 
works of various kinds, but on the one hand there 
had been a lack of sufficient catholicity of spirit 
in these works when conducted under denomina- 
tional or sectarian auspices; on the other hand 
there was frequently absence of the firmness and 
consistency of management necessary for perman- 
ency. It was in this condition of affairs that the social 
settlement idea commended itself to a number of 

^'Practicable Socialism." Essays on Social Reform, by 
Samuel and Henrietta Barnett. Second edition, revised 
and enlarged. London and New York, 1894. Longmans, 
Green & Co, page 287. 



men having the welfare of the community at heart 
and Bryant Venable, of the Cincinnati settlement 
and the University of Cincinnati, was secured as 
head worker. He came to the work the first of 
April, and at once began the planning. A commo- 
dious building was secured, and on the 30th of 
April was ready for occupancy. 

RESPONSE OF THE PEOPLE. 

The people entered at once into the spirit of the 
thing. The large majority of the 5,000 people in 
the Valley are more or less dependent upon the 
hat factories for employment and livelihood. 
Among the hat workers is the settlement's field. 
Before the house was opened the people were given 
to understand that it was to be their own " com- 
munity house," and that its success would be com- 
mensurate with their interest in it. As a result, 
the house was thrown open, not by the board of 
directors or by subscribers to the treasury, but by 
the men and women of the Valley. A few of them 
got together, made all the arrangements for the 
house-warming, and on April 28th threw open the 
doors, and the house became the common property 
of the people. 

In the scant three months since the house was 
opened the influence of its motive and impulse has 
extended in many directions. At present Mr. Ven- 
able is the only actual resident beside the care- 
taker and the housekeeper, but the fall will cease 
that, as several residents are expected. 

SOME OF THE CLUBS. 

The girls' club of Orange has become identified 
with the settlement. Two clubs of grown people 
for social and intellectual benefit, a young woman's 
literature and reading class, a kindergarten under 
the direction of Miss Helen Edwards, an experi- 
enced kindergartner of New York City, two boys' 
clubs, the " Johnnie Club " and the " Tanglewood 
Club," a penny provident bank, two base ball 
teams, a " Little Women Club," a mother's club 
are among the earliest fruits of the settlement. 
The " Omnibus Club " is made up of the older peo- 
ple, and meets for two hours every Friday evening 
for a lecture or concert and social intercourse. As 
many as one hundred and fifty persons have been 
present at this gathering. 

HOW THE CHILDREN HKLP. 

With so good a start, based on the genuine affec- 
tion of the people, it is hardly possible to overesti- 
mate the good that may be done thro this genuine 
settlement work. To the children especially it 
appeals. The district is less of a mere human 
desert than many other settlement districts the 
flower-decked mountains are near but the need of 
a socializing influence is apparent, and the response 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



to its beginnings is moat encouraging. Mr. Vena- 
ble, in his last letter to THE COMMONS, says: 

" Scarcely a day paasea in which some boy or 
girl does not bring in an armful of daisies or but- 
tercups or clover from the mountain to deck our 
parlors with. The little boys come to us in aquads 
on Saturdays to find out whether they cannot be of 
aome service about the house or yard. They cut 
the grass, clean the lawn, carry coal and do a dozen 
other little things juat because they love to do 
them. If the settlement has done this in these 
few weeka, what may it not do in time? " 



GROUP CLUBS OF BOYS. 



How the Work is Managed in the Clubs of the New 
York Riverside Association. 



Accumulating experience with boys' clubs is 
proving that the best way to deal with them is un- 
der the " group system," which involves the leader- 
ship of comparatively small permanent parties of 
boys by more or less trained leaders. In the clubs 
of the Riverside Association of New York, for in- 
stance, each club consists of four carefully selected 
workers, with a limit of twenty 
boys. Each club meets one night 
a week. First there is a business 
meeting conducted by the boys, 
including the reading of " Club 
News," a weekly paper, edited and 
printed by the boys. The meeting 
adjourns with the club yell. Then 
follows an hour of work chair 
caning, basket weaving, Venetian 
metal work, leather work, the mak- 
ing of rope mats and fret-sawing. 
Following the work hour is half an 
hour of fun. While one club is 
spending an evening in this man- 
ner, two other clubs meet in the 
gymnasium under the supervision 
of a skilled instructor and a com- 
petent assistant. Afterwards the 
boys have the privilege of a bath 
without charge. Afternoon classes 
for little boys are a feature of the 
system. It is from these classes 
that the evening classes will be 
recruited as the boys become old 
enough. The boys pay three cents 
each week to the club treasurer, 
and this is used in paying for 
gymnasium suits or apparatus, or 
to defray the expenses of outings 
or entertainments. 



AN EVANGELISTIC SETTLEMENT. 



The Amity" Adds Distinctively Religious Work 
to the Usual Activities. 



A short account of the "Amity" Settlement at 
310 West Fifty-fourth street, New York City, is 
contributed to the Altruist Interchange by the head 
of the settlement, Rev. Leighton Williams. He 
declares that " the Amity Settlement is a church 
settlement. The founders believe that the church 
was a social community in the beginning, and that 
the community idea has reappeared in the best 
and most fruitful epochs of its subsequent history, 
not as a monastic establishment, bound by irrevo- 
cable vows, but by voluntary association. While 
social settlements are everywhere springing up, in 
connection with churches and otherwise, it ia the 
special mission of the Amity Settlement to insist 
that the community idea is an integral part of the 
Christian ideal. In addition to all the social and 
educational work of the regular settlement, it is 
doing, as the predominating feature, direct evan- 
gelistic work." 




HOME OF THE ORANGE VALLEY SOCIAL INSTITUTE. 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



BROWNING HALL'S SECOND YEAR. 



'Fellowship of Christian Followers" One of the 
Features of the Past Year New Residence 
Contemplated. 



" The Fellowship of Followers " is a distinctive 
feature of Robert Browning Hall, reported upon in 
the second annual report of the settlement. It is a 
nearly unique thing among settlements, and servee 
to unify and give expression to the distinctively 
religious life of the neighborhood. It grew out of 
the felt need for closer spiritual unity among the 
Christians of the settlement and its neighborhood. 
" Men and women who had found in Jesus their 
supreme leader," the warden, Rev. F. Herbert Stead, 
says in the report, began to find each other out 
and to draw together accordingly. At the P. S. A. 
on September 6, the warden declared,with the man- 
ifest concurrence of the men, that the time had 
come to form a Fellowship of Followers, in which 
every one who reiolved to follow Jesus, whatever 
his views or want of views might be on things 
ecclesiastical or theological, should enroll himself. 
On Sunday evening, November 15, after an address 
by the warden, slips were distributed printed thus: 

"Jesus said: ' If any man would come after me, 
let him deny himself and take up his cross and 
follow m.' Meaning so to follow him, I wish to 
be enrolled in the Fellowship of Followers." Fifty- 
five men and ninety-seven women enrolled at once, 
and out of this nucleus has grown a most promis- 
ing spiritual band. 

The report shows a good work in civic ways by 
the residents. One strong feature is the getting 
of people from the crowded city centers back to 
the country. Three August camps have been held- 
A new residence is one of the contemplated im- 
provements. 

The celebration of Independence Day in the 
Browning settlement took the form of a meeting 
in favor of arbitration. 

William T. Stead, editor of the Review of Reviews, 
presided. In the course of the evening representa- 
tives of the Women's Press league of Chicago 
presented portraits of Washington and Lincoln to 
to the settlement. 



TRIBUTE TO TOYNBEE HALL. 



Percy Alden Writes of the Whitechapel Settlement 
in the Mansfield Honse Magazine. 



In the Mansfield House Magazine for July Percy 
Alden has a striking article on Toynbee Hall, 
illustrated with just such views as one wants to 
have of the great English settlement, the drawing 
room, the dining room, the quadrangle. The 
article is not so much a history or description as an 



inspiring suggestion of the spirit that rules in 
Toynbee. " There is an atmosphere," he says, " of 
toleration for differing tastes and opinions, which 
is very refreshing if on has lived in a narrow and 
restricted circle of interests." He pays high tribute 
to Canon Barnett "He himself would be the last 
one to admit that there was any justification what- 
ever for the title often claimed for him of ' Father 
of the Settlements,' and, indeed, the settlements 
are the direct outcome, to use his own words, of 
the spirit of the age, but none the less for that, as a 
guiding and moving influence, his personality 
must not be overlooked, and all the settlements 
own allegiance to him and are proud of his leader- 
ship. . . . May he be long spared to continue 
his work, guiding and advising not only Toynbee 
Hall, but many another settlement which ows 
much to his kindness. . . . No man has done 
more to promote right human relations than Canon 
Barnett." 

KINGSLEY KWAN OPENED. 



Tokyo Settlement Formally begins its Social Work 
Among: the Japanese. 



The formal opening of " Kingsley Kwan (House)" 
in Tokyo, Japan, which was reported upon in the 
May issue of THE COMMONS, is thus referred to in 
the Asylum Record, (English), of Okayama: 

Kingsley Hall, established by Mr. Sen Katayama, 
at Tokyo, recently held its opening exercises. 
Messrs. Matsumura and Motoda delivered addresses. 
Mr. Katayama explained the main object of the 
Hall, which is to become a connecting link between 
the higher and the lower classes of the country; 
and at the same time it aims to impart scientific 
knowledge to young men. Besides, lectures on 
sociology, socialism, economics, and the German 
and English languages, will be delivered. 



HULL HOUSE SUMMER SCHOOL. 



The summer school of Hull House, at Rockford 
College, began July 10. It is not so largely at- 
tended as was hoped, and it is timely to say that in 
this school a notable opportunity is offered for the 
combination of recreation and study. Students 
usually stay two weeks or a month, but they will 
be received for a shorter time, even for a few days 
if desired. The courses include outdoor study of 
birds and plants, Browning, art history, English 
and letter writing, French, German, industrial 
electricity, physics, mathematics, gymnastics, lec- 
tures and musicales. The regular expenses, in- 
cluding board and tuition, are $3 a week. Teach- 
ers and students take care of their own rooms, and 
give an hour a day to the general work of the 
house. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



SETTLEMENT NOTES. 



Miss Katharine B. Davis leaves the headworker- 
ship of the Philadelphia College settlement and 
the editorship of the College Settlement News, for a 
time at least, while pursuing a course of study and 
observation in Chicago. 

"Welcome Hall," in the canal section of Buffalo, 
is a settlement that Miss Remington, who has its 
work in charge, lives on the ground and gives 



Kingsley House, Pittsburg, declares its most 
vital present need to be a resident physician. 
" Such a present to the neighborhood can be made 
for a whole year for the sum of three hundred 
dollars," declares the Record, published by that 
settlement. 

Miss Emily Malbone Morgan has in the Kingsley 
House Record for June a striking article on "Sun- 
day Recreation," which may well be read and 
heeded by those, on the one hand, who would nar- 
row the uses of the day to the Puritanical idea, and 




ORANGE VALLEY SOCIAL, INSTITUTE. 

Some of the Bright Boys of the "Johnnie Club." 



herself in a service of utter self-abnegation to one 
of the neediest neighborhoods to be found in an 
American city. Her work is under the direction 
of the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo. 

A report for 1895-6 of the University Settlement 
Association, which conducts Toynbee House, Glas- 
gow, is at hand. We should be glad of a later report. 

This acknowledgment is made of the receipt 
from John Howell, of Stepney, England, of a large 
parcel of settlement and social literature repre- 
senting many activities in London. 

The "Jane Club" of Hull House celebrated its 
fifth anniversary on June 3. It is a co-operative 
boarding club for young women, and is named in 
honor of Miss Addams. 

The June issue of the Hull House Bulletin con- 
tains an interesting and suggestive article descrip- 
tive of the Easter Art Exhibit of the settlement. 
The interesting feature of the exhibit was the se- 
lection of handicraft work, to which space will 
hereafter be given. 



by those on the other who would open it wide to 
mere revelry. 

A valuable article concerning the history and 
work of the Nurses' settlement at 265 Henry street, 
New York, has been going the rounds of the press. 
We have it from the Hartford, Conn., Post, of June 
12. 

The Neighborship settlement of the Pratt Insti- 
tute, at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is reported thro th 
Pratt Institute Monthly (published at 215 Ryerson 
street, Brooklyn, 75 cents a year). Miss Ovington, 
the head worker, reported a good year's work at 
the annual meeting, May 10. 

" The Point and Drift of Settlement Work " is 
the title of a notable address by Robert A. Woods, 
of South End House, Boston, at a conference of 
charitable agencies of Philadelphia, the last of 
April. It is reprinted in the June issue of the 
College Settlement News, and from that in a leaflet, 
which doubtless may be obtained of the Philadel- 
phia College Settlement (617 Carver street). 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



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ALL COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 15. 



CHICAGO. JULY 15, 1897. 



VARIETY in the matter of THE COMMONS is 
somewhat sacrificed this month to the im- 
portance of the longer articles, of whose general 
interest we are assured. 



IT IS a curious fact that those who criticize the 
social settlements because although they are 
doing something they have not done or been all 
that could be desired, are usually those who them- 
selves have done nothing. 



TOWARD the great miners' strike now in prog- 
ress it would seem that unprejudiced persons 
could hold sentiments only of unqualified sym- 
pathy. From all the evidence at hand it seems 
unquestionable that the high-handed and heartless 
abuse of power on the part of the coal operators 
forced the miners to strike in sheer desperation. 
Of all manual toilers, these are the hardest-worked 
and the poorest-paid. For most of them life is a 
mere animal existence. It ought to be the sincere 
hope of every humane man that they will win 



their battle, even though it be for a scarcely larger 
pittance at best. If they do win, it will be by vir- 
tue of a just cause, good organization, shrewd 
leadership and *' hanging together." 



THE MISSING FACTOR. 



When the sign is in the window, and the dodgers 
have been distributed on the street corners and 
the hall is opened and the preacher preaches, and 
the people remain outside or pass by with indif- 
ference, it does not at all necessarily follow that 
the people's hearts are waxed hard or that they 
do not rwant to hear the truth. Indeed, other 
things being equal, such a state of affairs goes far 
to prove that there must be something the matter 
with the sign, or the dodgers, or the hall, or the 
preacher, or the benches that remain empty. Or 
it may be that the real trouble lies in something, 
or the absence of something, not mentioned in this 
catalogue at all. Possibly there may be, usually 
there is, a Missing Factor. 

When the mothers' meetings at Chicago Com- 
mons were first begun, two years ago, a note of 
invitation was sent out to the mothers of the 
kindergarten children, inviting them to come to a 
mothers' meeting. Every preparation was made 
for a pleasant time. Nobody came. Then the 
kindergartners called on every mother, and in- 
vited her to the meeting. Two came. The next 
time one came a different one. The third time 
two came still different; those who came once did 
not come again. The faithful workers were in 
despair. A mothers' meeting was so indispensable 
to the success of the kindergarten that it seemed 
as if some vital matter must have been neglected. 
But they could not think what it could be. They 
tried notes of invitation, they tried personal calls, 
they tried going in best clothes and in worst. It 
made little difference. The mothers came once or 
twice and then staid away. It seemed a my- 
stery. 

But now after two years of friendship and living 
near together the mystery is solved. Every Friday 
evening at the Commons, a large and happy party 
of neighborhood women gather with the kinder- 
gartners for a helpful hour together. They talk 
of their home problems, their management of their 
children, they sing together the kindergarten 
songs and play the kindergarten games. They 
have together a cup of tea or a bit of cake, or 
what-not, and when they separate they clasp loving 
hands and say, as one dear woman said: "This 
meeting joys me for all the week! " And when 
for any reason the meeting is omitted a week or so, 
the mothers send word by the children: " When is 
mothers' meeting again? " or " It stops too long, 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



9 



too long! " And those who come oftenest love the 
meeting the most, and the children show the 
influence of it. What is the secret? 

The secret is just that simple one that is so 
easy and so hard! for us all to learn, that secret 
of personal contact, of the loving touch of loving 
hearts. For six months and more that meeting could 
not succeed, because the mothers did not know the 
kindergartners, and the kindergartners did not 
know the mothers. Why should they come to be 
lectured about their children by young women 
who did not know them or their children save by 
name, and who perhaps knew nothing at all about 
children anyway? The mothers of the boulevard 
would not come under such circumstances why 
should the mothers of Union street? 

But when the personal touch was established, 
when mother and teacher were sharing together 
the problem of the little one's temper, or untruth- 
fulness, or physical deficiency; when all the trials 
and perplexities of that home were their common 
burden and study, then in a lovely, sisterly heart- 
bond they gathered, and " blest be the tie that 
binds " is no longer a prayer, but a fact, in that 
mothers' meeting. 

O, you foolish ones who think yourselves com- 
missioned to teach the poor who know often quite 
as much about life and its truths as you do, why will 
you not learn that it is an infinitely precious thing 
and an infinitely hard thing to help your fellow-men? 
Why will you try to save those whom you call " the 
lost " by some cheap and easy way of hanging out 
signs and opening halls and talk-preaching to men 
and women of whose life-problems you know 
nothing? It is easy to talk of love and of religion, 
but it is hard to do and to be love and religion. 
And where the easy way of mere talk fails, the 
hard and loving way of being always succeeds in the 
end. 



NONE too soon for the " recovery of the law " 
from the disrespect and suspicion among the 
common people into which legislators and lawyers, 
corporations and citizens of certain types are sink- 
ing it, are the heroic efforts of a few bravely 
bold spirits. The very first thing necessary to re- 
cover it is the insistence that it needs recovery. 
This has long been more widely seen than openly 
admitted. It was a brave thing for Andrew S. 
Draper,' president of the University of Illinois, 
boldly to declare this to be the fact in his recent 
commencement oration before the University of 
Michigan, and to impose upon this generation the 
duty " to restore discussion to our legislative as- 
semblies," " to have one law for all," " to notify the 
millionaires and the stockholders and the directors 
in corporations that if they undertake to use their 
millions to gain special favors and overthrow our 



political creed, in mad efforts to add other millions 
to their stores, we will punish them, as we would 
punish any other miscreants who break down our 
laws." " To hold th villains who defile the sources 
of the law as the most heinous of public enemies." 
None the less courageous or severe was the more 
direct and bitter charge made by Attorney C. 8. 
Darrow upon such men in his own profession as 
" are mere machines for getting money, viewing 
life and its duties and responsibilities in exactly 
the same way as the pawnbroker and the trust pro- 
moter," whose " talents are for sale to the highest 
bidder." Even that cynical critic of democracy, E. 
L. Godkin, in writing in the Atlantic Monthly of 
" The Decline of Legislatures," is obliged to plead 
for more democracy in the form of the " referen- 
dum" and less frequent meetings of our "law- 
makers." 

ANEW edition of the College Settlements 
Association's "Bibliography of College, 
Social and University Settlements " will be issued 
this fall. It will be prepared under the direction 
of the Association by the editor of THE COMMONS. 
Within a few days a blank will be sent to every 
settlement known to those having the work in 
charge, asking for information concerning the set- 
tlement. It will be of the greatest assistance in 
this work if those into whose hands these blanks 
may fall will use every reasonable effort to assure 
their reaching the proper persons and their being 
promptly filled and returned. Only in this way 
can settlement workers insure the mention of their 
settlements in the Bibliography. Failure to return 
a blank will, in absence of other assurance, reason- 
ably be taken to mean the withdrawal of the set- 
tlement from activity. Upon the head workers of 
settlements largely depends the perfection and 
therefore the usefulness of the new Bibliography. 



THE CLUB rate of THE COMMONS with the 
American Co-operative News is an opportun- 
ity not to be despised. The News is one of the best 
papers in its field, and the fact that it is carried on 
by a club of workingmen and is self-supporting 
adds interest to the matter. We are glad to offer 
THE COMMONS in so good a company. 



IT WILL interest all friends of Chicago Com- 
mons to know that next year Mrs. Bertha Hofer 
Hegner is to train at the settlement the kinder- 
garten assistants. A fuller notice is given in an- 
other column. 



r^ ONGRATULATIONS to the Congref/ationalist 
\^s upon its pretty new dress of type. Along 
with its new dress it comes in an unusually inter- 
esting issue of a good and enjoyable paper. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



Chicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

1 40 North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. AH inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



COMMONS SUMMER INSTITUTE. 



Kindergarten Training Class Grows Out of the 

Successful Work Good Attendance 

and Enthusiasm. 

The summer institute of kindergartners at Chi- 
cago Commons has been a success far beyond the 
expectations of those who arranged it. Altho there 
was a disappointingly small response on the part 
of Sunday school workers to what was, beyond a 
doubt, a rare opportunity for some very useful 
training, the gathering of kindergartners was large 
and enthusiastic. From Kentucky, Ohio, Iowa, 
Michigan, and from quite distant parts of Illinois, 
they came, eager to grasp the occasion, and it has 
been most profitable. A score of earnest young 
women are giving thoughtful and diligent atten- 
tion to the lectures and practice work, and not a 
few will return to their work with a new point of 
view and new inspiration. The art lectures by 
George L. Schreiber, and the music instruction by 
Miss Mari Ruef Hofer, together with two stirring 
lectures by Professor Taylor, on " The Social Func- 
tion of Education " and " The Social Function of 
the Family" were greatly enjoyed. 

Miss Frederica Beard and Mrs. Bertha Hofer 
Hegner, experienced kindergartners as they are, 



have been giving their best, in lectures on the 
fundamentals of kindergarten aim and method, on 
mothers' meetings, critical periods of child-life, 
problems of attention and will-training, Bible and 
other stories, mother plays, occupations, program 
work, etc. Two features are Mrs. Hegner's expo- 
sition of the philosophy underlying the home 
occupations and applications of sloyd, wood-carv- 
ing, basket-weaving, etc., as carried out in the Com- 
mons work, and her description of " A Visit to 
Froebel's Home in the Thuringen Forest." A 
social is to conclude the school on Friday, 80th. 

PLANS FOR A TRAINING CLASS. 

An outcome of the school, and a very welcome one 
from the point of view of the Commons residents, 
is the final determination by Mrs. Hegner to try the 
experiment of training in the settlement the kin- 
dergarten assistants. Hitherto the assistants in the 
Commons kindergarten have been young women 
students supplied by courtesy of the Kindergarten 
Institute, who spent a time in the settlement kin- 
dergarten for their " practice work." Its disad- 
vantage always was the fact that consecutive work 
or child-study was impossible, since the young 
ladies were obliged to change, for their practice's 
sake, to some other kindergarten after a compara- 
tively short time. The present determination will 
do away with this disadvantage by giving the kin- 
dergarten children the benefit of consecutive at- 
tention and study by the same teachers, and those 
who take the training that of the continuous set- 
tlement residence and point of view. It is expected 
that the training will be complete and first-class in 
every respect, fitting the kindergartner to take 
work of any kind and assuring her of a certificate 
of fitness equal to that granted by any training 
school. Mrs. Hegner, who will have the training 
under personal charge, hardly needs introduction 
as a graduate of the Chicago Kindergarten College 
and the Froebel-Pestalozzi House in Berlin, Ger- 
many. She has been a member of the faculty of 
the Kindergarten Institute, and her work in the 
Commons kindergarten is becoming the model for 
many other settlements and kindergartens. The 
opportunity is a rare one, and while it is intended 
that this training will be especially for the benefit 
of those who shall work in our own kindergarten, 
there will be no objection to taking a limited 
number of additional students. Those desiring 
to know terms and other particulars should address 
Mrs. Bertha Hofer Hegner, Chicago Commons. 



Flowers from the flower mission are a 

weekly incident to the Commons work. With 
those which personal friends bring weekly and 
oftener they afford opportunity for a happy min- 
istry in homes that could not be reached in any 
other way. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



SEVENTEENTH WARD PLAY-GROUND. 



Washington School Yard Opened for the Children 
of the Neighborhood. 



By permission of the Chicago school board, the 
yards and basement of the Washington school, 
about six blocks from Chicago Commons, on Mor- 
gan street near Ohio, has ben granted to a com- 
mittee of the west side people, under the auspices 
of the west side district Bureau of Charities, for 
an experimental play-ground. The movement has 
the generous interest and co-operation of the jani- 
tor, Mr. Ackerman, who has given a great deal of 
labor to make the thing a success, and other friends 
of the workers have given generous help. Swings, 
a hammock or two, three big piles of sand, a lot of 
dry goods boxes with hinged doors, and a load of 
paving blocks, offer a field of playing material that 
goes far to offset the attractions of the streets. The 
committee having the matter in charge, of which 
Miss Mary E. Sands is the leading spirit, has been 
indefatigable in the arrangement of the affair, and 
is giving earnest service on the ground. One of 
the Commons kindergartners gives two hours a 
day to playing with the children and seeing that 
all goes well. Some other school yards are opened 
in like manner, but this is the only one in the 
Seventeenth Ward. 



FOR THE LITTLE CHILDREN. 



The Summer Kindergarten a Great Success Money 
Needed to Keep it Going. 



That the little children of a crowded street will 
eagerly grasp the opportunity to spend their morn- 
ings in the safe and helpful kindergarten is abund- 
antly proved by the attendance upon the summer ses- 
sion of the kindergarten of the Commons. Nearly 
all of the neighborhood children who attend the 
kindergarten in the winter are in attendance. 
They have afforded a fine object lesson with which 
to illustrate the principles taught in the lectures of 
the institute. The garden blooms, the household 
work is well and eagerly done, and in all respects 
it proves to be worth while. 

The only cost of the session is the board of the 
two kindergartners. For this we have to rely upon 
the friends of our work, and the gifts for the pur- 
pose have been very few and small. We shall 
need about $50 to assure the success and solvency 
of this branch of the work. 



BOOKS FOR THE LIBRARY. 

Young Folks of Evanston Combine to Give The Com- 
mons a Thoroughly Appreciated Gift. 

No gift has come to The Commons of late more 
welcome or more sure to be appreciated than the 
88 volumes of tip-top story books brought in by the 
young people themselves from Evanston. Two 
clubs, " The Knights of the Round Table," com- 
posed of boys ten to fifteen years old, and " The 
Children's Hour Club," of girls eight to thirteen, 
gave an entertainment at the home of Mrs. O. F. 
Carpenter, and the proceeds were thus invested. 
The members of the clubs, to whom the settlement 
sends its cordial thanks, are: Alex. Gunn, presi- 
dent; Paul Gieberson, vice-president; Fred Fal- 



ley, treasurer; Frank Carpenter, secretary; Nathan- 
iel Carpenter, Lawrence Barker, Harold Dudley, 
Walter Dudley, John Flinn, Howard Johnson, 
Warren Knapp, Lawrence Kachlien, William Mac- 
lear, Fred Weston, and Otis Friend; and Mrs. O. 
F. Carpenter, president; Jessie Van Evry, vice- 
president; Cora Carpenter, treasurer; Anna Bur- 
chard, secretary; Anna Flinn, Bethel Knapp, 
Jennie Knapp, Marion Bearup, Ava Treelour, 
Florence Graham, Hazel Earhart, Ruth Fargo, 
Grace Earhart, Helen Lapham, Ruth Jennings and 
Isabel Maclear. 

COMMONS NOTES. 



Some of the girls' clubs are continuing to 

meet faithfully all through the summer. But it is 
hard to get the boys indoors these long evenings. 

A pretty observance of a little girl's birthday 

in a suburban town was the mother's inviting one 
of the girls of our neighborhood for a visit with 
her at their lovely home. 

Plans are already making for the work with 

the boys next winter. The faithful young folks of 
Evanston are planning to make their service even 
more effective than it has been in the past winter, 
which is saying a great deal. 

Neighborhood mothers are finding the creche 

a godsend these hot days. It is a hard thing to 
have to lock little children into two close rooms 
all day while mother is at work. But that is what 
the creche is more and more preventing. 

Parties, couples, and single children, and not 

a few grown folks are leaving the Commons almost 
daily now for points in the country. One or two 
have gone for the whole summer ; in nearly all 
cases the stay is at least a week. And it does lots 
of good. 

To the settlement's residential force is added 
the presence of the University of Michigan's resi- 
dent Fellow, Jesse K. Marden, of the medical de- 
partment of the university, who, under the fund 
supplied from the university, comes to spend the 
summer in observation and social service. 

By express vote of the men attending the 

meeting, the Tuesday night economic discussion 
has been intermitted until the first Tuesday in 
September. Even the ardor of the single taxer 
could not stand the heat in the low-ceilinged back 
room where our meetings have to be held. 

The settlement seems to be a Mecca in these 

summer days for ministers and others passing 
through the city. On a recent morning no less 
than twelve different parties were received and 
" toted " as the settlement saying is. And they are 
all welcome as flowers in spring! We are here to 
furnish a common ground and a common point of 
view, applicable to any point of contact, any- 
where. 

The notice of the opening of Goodrich House. Cleveland, 
O., omitted by an oversight from the last issue of THE COM- 
MONS, would have included a very warm assurance of Its 
success, for the response of its neighborhood has been 
immediate and cordial. Starr Cadwafiader is headworker. 
The settlement is at 568 St. Glair street. 

CO-OPEKATIVE NEWS. An arrangement has been 
made by which both THE COMMONS and The American 
Co-operative News (monthly, "an advocate of voluntary co- 
operation ") , can be secured for a club rate of only 75 cents. 
Present subscribers of THK COMMONS can secure the News 
thro this office for only 40 cents additional. 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



Stufcfes of tbe * ^ # ^ ^ 
jt j jt j* OLabor flDovement 4 



CASUISTRY OF COMPETITION. 



PRESENT AND PROBABLE ETHICAL EF- 
FECTS OF MORAL DUALISM. 



Classes of Casuists: Apologists, Dualists, Protestors, 
Seceders, Tolerationists. Misgivings of Econo- 
mists, Conviction Forcing to Action. 
Tenth Labor Study. 

[BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR.] 

As boldly in theory as in their general practice 
some have simply denied the application and per- 
tinency of ethics within the economic sphere of 
thought or action, sanctioning their separation by 
the claim of non-interference with " natural law." 
The assertions of this class of writers are put in 
their most uncompromising form by Professor 
Sumner, who, for example, declares : " The supreme 
result of modern society is to guarantee to every 
man the use of all his powers exclusively for his 
own benefit;" and again, contradicting, as Profes- 
sor Giddings says, "the truth of both biology and 
history," he avers, "whenever nature yields to 
man an atom which he has not earned, or advances 
it one second of time before he has earned it, we 
may all turn socialists and utopists." .(Sumner's 
Essays in Political and Social Science, p. 50.) Con- 
sistent as these theorists are in standing up to the 
logical consequences of their theory, yet they too 
are inconsistent enough to place about the same 
"natural" restrictions upon the operation of the 
competitive principle within their own innermost 
life-spheres as those who try to make their logic 
and their life square with each other. 
HUXLEY'S ASSERTION OF ETHICAL INTERFERENCE. 

Mr. Huxley was too good an interpreter of na- 
ture to admit " the cosmic struggle for existence " 
to be the " natural law " of man's higher social 
life. Indeed ethical interference "to the end of 
curbing the cosmic process " is recognized by him 
to be the natural law of normal human existence. 
" The practice of that which is ethically bestwhat 
we call goodness or virtue involves," he declares, 
" a course of conduct which, in all respects, is op- 
posed to that which leads to success in the cosmic 
struggle for existence. In place of ruthless self- 



[*In the June issue of THE COMMONS, Professor Taylor 
began the consideration of the conflict of Competition with 
Conscience, and of the question O f the jurisdiction of Ethical 
over Economic Law. The present instalment is really a 
direct continuation of that subject. ED.] 



assertion it demands self-restraint; in place of 
thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, 
it requires that the individual shall not merely re- 
spect but help his fellows; its influence is directed 
not so much to the survival of the fittest as to 
the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It 
repudiates the gladiatorial theory of existence. It 
demands that each man who enters into the enjoy- 
ment of the advantages of a polity shall be mind- 
ful of his debt to those who have laboriously con- 
structed it, and shall take heed that no act of his 
weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted 
to live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to 
the end of curbing the cosmic process and remind- 
ing the individual of his duty to the community, 
to the protection and influence of which he owes, 
if not existence itself, at least the life of something 
better than the brutal savage." (Collected Essays, 
Vol. IX., p. 81. Essay on " Evolution and Ethics.") 

MORAL DUALISM 

Another class unconsciously, or consciously, suf- 
fers the self-stultification of moral dualism. Mostof 
them consciously accept the ethics of Christianity 
itself in a very restricted domain of their unevenly 
divided lives, which they are pleased to consider 
their "spiritual" or "religious" or "Christian" life, 
and at the same time accept the wholly unethical 
and absolutely contradictory principle of as un- 
restricted a competition as code or custom allow to 
be the law under which all the remainder of their 
life and relationships are lived. It never seems to 
occur to many such to put the two " water-tight 
compartments" of their existence near enough 
together even to see their incongruity, much more 
to compare, contrast, or seek to harmonize them. 

But the attempt of others to harmonize these 
incompatibilities is even more pitiful in the process 
and more disastrous in its effects upon the moral 
nature. With the Rev. Mr. Malthus they profess, 
and preach, and perhaps even practice the " Golden 
Rule" and the "New Commandment," of their 
faith within their religious relationships. But how 
distinguishable from hypocrisy is it for them to 
justify the contradictory principle of self-interest 
dominating the "secular" life and economic 
relations by reasoning as devoid of Christian ethics 
as if it had never been written, " Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself," or " Love one another as 
I have loved you "? Surely it savors more of cant 
than of sanctity to attempt to sanction this hope- 
less stultification of the moral sense by theologizing 
about benevolence being " only the attribute of the 
Deity," whose "wise provision" it is that "a 
being so short-sighted as man " should promote 
the general happiness by " the passion of self- 
love," sharing enough of the Deity's benevolence 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



to be " the kind corrector of the evils arising from 
the other stronger passion " ! 

SELF-STULTIFICATION OF THE CONSCIENCE. 

Not a few are honest enough hopelessly and 
helplessly to accept this moral dualism of their own 
and the whole world's life, without, on the one 
hand attempting to justify it, or on the other 
hand either seeing the use or knowing how to 
raise their protest against it. Such is the pitiful 
plight in which the more conscientious and thought- 
ful of all who recognize the ethical ideals of Chris- 
tianity find themselves in the competitive system. 
Summing up the harmful effects of this dualism 
in the domain of practical morals, Prof. J. B. Clark, 
of Columbia University, writes: 

" It is a common remark that business practices 
are not what they should be, and that a sensitive 
conscience must be left at home when its possessor 
goes to the office or shop. We helplessly deprecate 
this fact; we lament the forms of business 
depravity that come to our notice, but attack them 
with little confidence. We are appalled by the 
great fact of the moral dualism in which we live, 
and are inclined to resign ourselves to the necessity 
of the two-fold life ***** 

So effectual has been at times the separation of 
religious life from business life that seeming piety 
has, in too many cases, been consistent with 
business meanness. Such is the bitter moral fruit 
of the competitive system." (Philosophy of 
Wealth, p. 157.) 

CONSCIENCE IN REVOLT. 

There is, however, a 
persistent and growing 
r e vo 1 1 of conscience 
against this enforced 
duplicity. Within the 
century it has come 
more from the ranks of 
the industrial classes, 
because as an eminent 
economist admits, 
" workmen have here- 
tofore been the most 
frequentvictims of pre- 
datory competition," 
"the extreme results of 
unbalanced competi- 
tion are suffered by the 
laboring class." In the 
labor unions, in which 
they have stopped com- 
peting among them- 
selves in order the 
better to compete as 
one body with their em- 
ployers; in the strike 
and the boycott, and in 
the socialistic, commu- 



nistic, or anarchistic expedients to destroy the com- 
petitive system, the " still small voice " of labor's 
conscience has found thunder tones in which to 
articulate its sense of injustice to the closing decade 
of the Nineteenth century. 

MORAL PROTEST OF 8ECEDEH8. 

All along the cent 'tries, a continuous succession 
of protestants have made their impressive protests 
heard in forms differing as widely as the patristic 
literature of the church differs from modern econo- 
mic pamphleteering. Both by their religious scru- 
ples and their industrial hope or despair men have 
never ceased to secede from the prevailing indivi- 
dualistic industrial system, from the time of the 
voluntary communism of the Pentecostal church 
to that of Tolstoy's abjuration of the world's 
ways. However small or large, temporary or 
permanent, foolish or wise, extreme or moder- 
ate, ruinous or successful these communities of 
seceders have been, they have one and all 
lodged their appeal for a better order of the 
common life with their protest against a worse, 
whether in the asceticism of religious orders or in 
the communism of industrial communities, in the 
isolation of co-operative commonwealths or the 
partial abandonment of competition in profit- 
sharing shops. 

STAND TAKEN AGAINST COMPETITIVE SYSTEM. 

Less extreme yet more formidably destructive to 
the competitive system is the quiet stand being 




ORANGE VALLEY SOCIAL INSTITUTE. 

Group of the Little Ones and their Kiudergartner. 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



taken everywhere by men, with as much mind as 
conscience, with no less economic knowledge than 
ethical conviction, for a more moral and therefore 
more rational order of industrial life. Some of 
them say with Arnold Toynbee: 

"Competition we now recognize to be a thing 
neither good nor bad; we look upon it as resembling 
a great physical force which cannot be destroyed 
but may be controlled and modified. We accept 
competition as one means, a force to be used, 
not to be blindly worshipped, but assert religion 
and morality to be the necessary conditions of 
attaining human welfare. . . . When we 
have done our best with competition, when we have 
controlled it and modified it, the fullest life will 
not be reached without religion and morality. 

The whole meaning of civilization is in- 
terference with this brute struggle. We intend to 
modify the violence of the fight and to prevent the 
weak being trampled under foot." (" The Indus- 
trial Revolution in England," pp. 20 and 86, Riv- 
ington, Ed.) 

MISGIVINGS OP ECONOMISTS. 

With Prof. J. B. Clark more and more economists 
hold: 

" If competition were supreme it would be su- 
premely immoral, if it existed otherwise than by suf- 
ferance, it would be a demon. Nothing could be 
wilder or fiercer than an unrestricted struggle of 
millions of men for gain, and nothing more irrational 
than to present such a struggle as a scientific ideal. 
If it be pruned of ite greater enormities, as in actual 
life is done, if combinations restrict its field and if 
arbitration and co-operation assume some of its 
functions, it still requires discernment to see the 
agency of moral law amid the abuses that remain. 
If, however, the sole end for which the process is 
tolerated is the suppression of a greater and more 
general injustice, and if a superior power is ready 
to abolish it whenever it fails to fulfil this end, it 
may be classed, not as an ideal, but as an available 
means of approaching an ideal. In this view only 
are we secure from the blank confusion of suppos- 
ing that the comprehensive field of economic life is 
alone outside of the controlling influence of 
morality. If . . the ethico-economic rule 
of 'every man for himself were a recognized 
principle of action, the result would be a society 
composed, indeed, of men, but completely dehu- 
manized in its organic action. It would be a col- 
lective brute." (" Philosophy of Wealth," pp. 219 
and 133.) 

Thinkers who with Prof. Sidgewick, the English 
economist, cling to the Ricardian political econo- 
my, in the absence of any more fundamental sys- 
tem, are so doubtful as to its ethical tendencies as 
to raise the question: 

"Whether, namely, the whole individualistic 
organization of industry, whatever its material 
advantages may be, is not open to condemnation as 
radically demoralizing. Not a few enthusiastic 
persons have been led to this conclusion partly 
from the difficulty of demonstrating the general 
harmony of private and common interest . . . 
partly from an aversion to the anti-social temper 
and attitude of mind produced by the continual 
struggle of competition, even when it is admit- 
tedly advantageous to production. Such moral 
aversion is certainly an important, though not the 



most powerful element in the impulses that lead 
thoughtful people to embrace some form of social- 
ism. And many who are not socialists, regarding the 
stimulus and direction of energy given by the 
existing individualistic system as quite indispen- 
sable to human society as at present constituted, 
yet feel the moral need of some means of develop- 
ing in the members of a modern industrial com- 
munity a fuller consciousness of their industrial 
work as a social function, only rightly performed 
when done with a cordial regard to the welfare of 
the whole society, or at least to that part of it to 
which the work is immediately useful." (Sidge- 
wick's Principles of Political Economy, p. 385-590 
as quoted by Gladden in "Tools and the Man," p. 254.) 

PROTESTING SUBMISSION TO DUALISM. 

Many individual Christians take temporary ref- 
uge, at least, in the attitude advocated by Prof. 
Henry C. Adams, who, while insisting that the 
Christian is, for the present, "obliged to accept 
moral dualism," yet declares: 

"A true disciple of Jesus, by which I mean one 
who desires above all things else that Christianity 
should become a social force, positive, aggressive 
and directive in character, must assume th ethical 
teaching of Jesus as an unalterable premise in the 
discussion of every social, political, industrial, or 
personal question. The actual business conduct 
of man at the present time is conformed to the 
rule of the Justinian Digest, which says: ' In pur- 
chase and sale it is naturally allowed to the con- 
tracting parties to try to overreach each other,' and 
in so doing disregards the rule of Christ, which 
says : ' Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you, do ye also unto them.' The former is the 
heathen rule of conduct, the latter is the Christian 
rule of conduct, and it is not too much to say that 
in business affairs the commercial spirit of the 
Nineteenth century is essentially heathen. It is 
indeed an exceedingly difficult role the Christian 
as a business man is called upon to assume. For 
while holding strenuously to the highest law so far 
as faith is concerned, he is obliged to conform in 
large measure to the rules of conduct adopted by 
those with whom he has business dealings. He is 
obliged to accept moral dualism not only as inevit- 
able, but under the legal conditions and commer- 
cial customs of the times, as in the highest degree 
moral. What makes him a follower of Jesus Is not 
his refusal to recognize that in a business transac- 
tion, each contracting party tries to overreach the 
other, but that he recognizes it to be at variance 
with the law of Christ. He is justified in protect- 
ing his own interests by methods which the law 
calls honest; but if he be a Christian he will as- 
sign to himself as the highest aim of life the task 
of doing what he may to so change the laws and 
customs that the old Christian conception of ' A 
Just Price ' and the modern Christian conception 
of equal opportunity for all may become a realized 
fact. Not till then will the necessity for moral 
dualism pass away, and not till then can the law of 
Christ exert its full influence as a social force and 
bestow all the blessings of which it is capable." 
(Address on " Christianity as a Social Force," be- 
fore the Students' Christian Association of the 
University of Michigan.) 

ACTION TO FOLLOW SUCH CONVICTIONS. 

Such positions as are taken by these men are 
confessedly temporary and transitional. To what 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



they may lead others, if not themselves, is not yet to 
be discerned. But it is plain enough that many 
cannot abide long in them, nor stop short of some 
action prompted by such deep conviction. When 
enough kindred spirits take their stand thus far 
out of the existing order, they are sure to com- 
bine to go still farther. To take advantage of 
human necessity by selling in the dearest and 
buying in the cheapest market, cannot long con- 
tinue to be considered consistent or compatible with 
a moral, not to say a Christian, life. Orthodoxy of 
life will yet be as essential a test of anyone's Chris- 
tianity as orthodoxy of belief. Heresy of heart 
and conscience will yet be a surer excision from 
the Christian body than heresy of the head. 
Sooner or later no one will be recognized as a 
Christian who will not profess faith in the ethics 
of Jesus as the rule of practice, and who does not 
honestly endeavor to do the things that He says. 
For, as Prof. Adams further affirms," the infidelity 
of our century and this is the only form of infi- 
delity to be feared is the disbelief in the Golden 
Rule of conduct, and," he adds, what many of the 
loyalest children of the church are profoundly 
convinced of, that " if Christianity ever comes to 
assert a positive influence in the direction of the 
affairs of men, it will be through the persistent as- 
sertion, on the part of the disciples of Jesus, that 
this rule is paramount, that it is universal in its 
application, and that every interest opposed to 
it is an unchristian interest." The social organ- 
ization of the moral force now being generated in in- 
dividuals is inevitable. If the power that tolerates 
and controls competition is moral, as Prof. Clark 
affirms, when it socially organizes itself it may be 
expected to exempt larger and larger areas of the 
common life from its divisive sway, and reduce the 
baleful existing moral dualism to the moral 
monism of seeking first the Kingdom of God and 
its righteousness. Whatever earthly form the 
righteous order thus sought may take, it will 
be that "Kingdom," and whatever organization 
mobilizes the moral forces that bring it in will be 
"The Church." 



REFERENCES. 

The Philosophy of Wealth, J. B. Clark. Ginn & 
Co. 

The Distributive Process, Clark & Giddings. 
Ginn & Co. 

Wealth and Moral Law, E. Benj. Andrews. 
Hartford Seminary Press. 

Tools and the Man, Washington Gladden. 
Houghton, Mifflin & Company. 

The Wages Question. Francis A. Walker. 
Henry Holt & Co. 

The Nw Obedience, William Bayard Hale. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 



[NOTE There will be at least one more study of this 
phase of the labor question, and It Is likely that at the end 
of this part of the discussion there will be need of a "quiz" 
upon points iuggested during the discussion. With this in 
view ft is suggested that any who desire to comment upon 
matters raised during the past three papers, whether of 
personal misgivings or experience, or general considerations, 
will feel at liberty to write of these things. Professor Tay- 
lor will discuss In a later " study " the points thus brought 
to Issue. Communications intended for such a purpose may 
be addressed to Professor Taylor, or "Editor of Labor 
Studies" in care of THH COMMONS.] 



^Literature anfc 



SETTLEMENT LITERATURE. 



Some Books that are Fundamental in the Field of 
Social Study and Service. 

In response to a constant request, we devote this 
department this month largely to a note of certain 
works which many settlement workers have come 
to regard as fundamental. The first of these works 
is "Practicable Socialism," by Canon S. A. and 
Mrs. Henrietta Barnett. This book has been called 
" the Bible of the settlement movement." As to its 
title, it is decidedly misnamed, from the title of 
one chapter, for it has nothing whatever to do with 
socialism. It is a field-book of social service, and 
reflects the underlying motive of the essential 
settlement movement better than any other book 
that we know. None can read its chapter on 
" Human Service " and remain uninspired by a 
motive to do and to give and to be in th behalf of 
fellow-men. Other notable chapters are "The 
Children of the Great City," " At Home to the Poor," 
"University Settlements," "Pictures for the People," 
" The Work of Indignation." (Longmans, Green & 
Co., New York and London.) 

Another book calculated to arouse a desire to 
serve, and giving some useful outline in the 
direction of ways of doing it, is Josiah Strong's 
trumpet-call to organized Christianity, " The New 
Era" (Baker & Taylor Company, New York.) 
Robert A. Woods's " English Social Movements " is 
a work by a settlement worker and from the settle- 
ment point of view. Its chapter on " University 
Settlements " is a classic in its field. The essays 
in social reform entitled " Philanthropy and Social 
Progress" (T. Y. Crowell & Co., New York), 
two remarkable addresses by Miss Jane Addams, 
on the subjective necessity and the object- 
ive benefits of settlement residence. They 
reflect with inspiring clearness the spirit that 
motives the work of Hull House, to which 
Miss Addams has given the best nine years of her 
life. 

" Hull House Maps and Papers," also published 
by the Crowells, is the most important piece of 
settlement literature emanating from the settle- 
ments themselves. Its colored maps showing 
nationalities and family wages in a Chicago slum 
district are unique in scope, usefulness and signifi- 
ance. 

Professor George D. Herron's " Social Meanings 
of Religious Experiences " (Crowell) is a series of 
lecture-sermons first delivered at the .Chicago 
Commons School of Social Economics in August, 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[July, 



1895. They are rarely inspiring and represent the 
author's most constructive message. Their title 
clearly suggests their scope and purpose. 

" Ruling Ideas of the Present Age," by Rev. Dr. 
Washington Gladden (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is 
another impressive book, calculated to arouse 
interest in the fundamental problems of the day, 
and the spirit in which they are to be met. 

Of technical writings on the subject of settle- 
ment methods and matters there is nothing equal 
to the pamphlet (obtainable only through THE 
COMMONS) embodying the papers and addresses on 
" The Social Settlements and the Labor Question," 
given at the National Conference of Charities 

O 

and Correction at Grand Rapids in June, 1896. 
Through THE COMMONS is to be obtained also the 
"Bibliography of College, Social and University 
Settlements " issued by the College Settlements 
association. 

In later issues of THE COMMONS, other books new 
and old, of special interest or value to settlement 
workers, will be referred to from time to time. 



SOCIAL VALUE OF THE SALOON. 



A decidedly unusual treatment of the saloon 
question is made by E. C. Moore, who for a year or 
so has been a resident of Hull House, in his arti- 
cle in the American Journal of Sociology for July, 
entitled " The Social Value of the Saloon." That 
current ideas of the saloon, especially those upon 
which indiscriminate denunciation and prohibition 
are based, must undergo important modifications is 
a belief common among settlement residents. The 
fact that the saloon is the result of natural causes 
and supplies certain legitimate demands is the 
basis of Mr. Moore's paper, and as a whole it can- 
not successfully be attacked. He has unduly em- 
phasized less important parts of his theme at the 
expense, of more important, and has been dogmatic 
at points wherein his information is least assured, 
as for instance in asserting the harmlessness of 
moderate quantities of alcohol. The important part 
of his paper is his clear exhibit of the fact that the 
saloon, with all its evils, does supply real social 
needs, that it can be combatted or supplanted only 
with that fact in view. The rest is more or less 
immaterial. 

FOR MOTHERS AND TEACHERS.* 



" Stray Thoughts" is an unfortunate title tc at- 
tach to any serious work of literature, and is espec- 
ially inappropriate for the good book for mothers 
and teachers which Lucy H. M. Soulsby has given 
in the enlarged revision of her former " Stray 
Thoughts for Teachers." It is not a volume of 
" stray" thoughts, but of very carefully worded 
and direct thoughts upon some very timely and 
important subjects. Teachers and mothers will 
find it both useful and instructive. Especially 
timely are the chapters on " Mothers and Teachers, 
or the Division of Labor," ''Home Rule, or Daugh- 

*Stray Thoughts for Mothers and Teachers. By Lucy H. 
M. Soulsby. London and New York, Longmans, Green & 
Co. Cloth, 16mo, 210 pp. 



ters of To-day," "Wanted, Moral Training," and 
"Home Education," the latter containing a list of 
poems to be memorized, a list of books to be read 
aloud, and a library for "elder sisters" those who 
are teachers at home. The work is solid and with 
reservations for differences of opinion on some 
points, altogether profitable. 



A SOCIAL MUSEUM. 



Bureau of Sociology and Labor Kstablished in Paris. 
Privately Endowed but Publicly Useful In- 
stitution Which Would be Useful 
in This Country. 



Lack of space only has prevented mention before 
of the nearly if not quite unique " Musee Social " 
recently opened in Paris. It is a privately endowed 
but public institution, the object of which is to 
pursue and facilitate the study of social, and espe- 
cially labor, questions in all parts of the world. It 
is a sort of elaborated labor bureau, supported by 
private funds, furnished by the Count de Cham- 
brun, who established an endowment for it of 
$328,000. Its objects are " to place gratuitously at 
the disposition of the public, documents with col- 
lateral information, models, plans, constitutions, 
etc., of social institutions and organizations which 
have for their object and result the amelioration of 
of the material and moral situation of the laboring 
classes." As far as possible it avoids mere aca- 
demic discussions, and confines its attention to mat- 
ters relating to practical labor questions. In a 
building owned by it, it has accumulated a library 
of all the principal official reports, publications of 
private associations and industrial organizations, 
and private treaties printed in all languages bear- 
ing upon practical labor problems. It has fitted up 
rooms for lectures and meetings and for students 
who desire to make use of the library. It has a 
permanent exhibition of models, plans, etc., of 
workingmen's houses, devices for preventing acci 
dents, constitutions of social institutions of all 
kinds. It provides for lecture courses on labor 
problems. 

CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE MUSEE. 

As regard its own direct contributions to a 
knowledge of labor conditions, it from time to time 
organizes special commissions in France and in 
foreign countries to inquire into labor subjects of 
present practical importance. The publications of 
Muse'e Social naturally constitute a very important 
part of its work. Of these there are several kinds. 
It issues from time to time volumes in a series en- 
titled Bibliothfeque duMus^e Social, which give the 
results of its investigations and other material rep- 
resenting the results of original research. The 
second class of publications consists of more fre- 
quent bulletins or circulaires, as they are called, for 
the publication of shorter contributions. There 
are two series of these bulletins, the first of which 
is intended for a wide gratuitous circulation among 
the working classes and is devoted to giving infor- 
mation concerning recent happenings relating to 
labor, such as the meetings of labor congresses or 
organizations, social legislation, etc. The second 
series embraces studies more in the nature of eco- 
nomic monographs. A most important feature of 
these bulletins is the valuable bibliography of re- 
ports and works relating to the question under 
treatment, which is always appended. 



THE COMMONS 

H rtiontbls IRecoro Sicvotco to aspects of life an> labor from tbe Social Settlement point of Ifliew. 



Whole Number 16. 



CHICAGO. 



AUGUST, 1897. 



THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD. 



[" He was a friend to man and he lived in a house by the 
side of the road." Homer.]* 

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn 

In the place of their self content; 
There are souls, like stars, that dwell apart, 

In a fellowless iirmament; 
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths 

Where highways never ran 
But let me live by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

Let me live in a house by the side of the road, 

Where the race of men go by 
The men who are good and the men who are bad, 

As good and as bad as I. 
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, 

Or hurl the cynic's ban- 
Let me live in a home by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

I see from my house by the side of the road 

By the side of the highway of life, 
The men who press with the ardor of hope, 

The men who are faint with the strife. 
But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears 

Both parts of an infinite plan- 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead 

And mountains of wearisome height; 
That the road passes on through the long afternoon 

And stretches away to the night. 
But still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice, 

And weep with the strangers that moan, 



the side of the road 
alone. 



Nor live in my house by t 
Like a man who dwells 

Let me live In my house by the side of the road 

Where the race of men go by 
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong, 

Wise, foolish so am I. 
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat 

Or hurl the cynic's ban ? 
Let me live in my house by the side of the road 

And be a friend to man. 

Sam Walter Foss in The Independent. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR AN APPRECIATION. 



[BY PERCY ALDEN, MANSFIELD HOUSE, LONDON.] 

"Be alive and sympathize with all that lives. 
Attack what is wrong, but always make your posi- 
tive faith palpable and unmistakable behind your 
negative criticism." 

These words, of a representative English jour- 
nalist, might very well stand as the utterance of 
Graham Taylor, Professor of Christian Sociology 
and warden of Chicago Commons. I first grew 
interested in him and his career on learning, in 
1892, that his call to a chair in the Congregational 



*This motto, and the poem which follows, constitute the 
literary inspiration of the "Roadside Settlement," con- 
cerning which see article on page 3. ED. 



seminary at Chicago was received by the people of 
Hartford, and indeed by New England folk gener- 
ally, with an outburst of real grief. I said to my- 
self at the time, and doubtless the same thought 
occurred to many others, " The men who so strenu- 
ously deprecate the removal of a pastor from his 
church to another sphere of labor, and who urge 
that the city will suffer no less than the church, 
must have some well-founded reason for their 
protest." It came to my knowledge that all sorts 
and conditions of men, from a judge of the police 
court to the workingmen whom he loved, and the 
outcasts whom he saved, were unanimous in asking 
him to remain. It was borne in upon me that 
here was a parson who was something more than a 
parson. He was a man. Indeed, the constituent 
elements of his church at Hartford, where he 
labored for twelve years, bear witness in a remark- 
able way to his fine democratic leadership. He not 
only largely increased the membership of the 
church and many men have done the same thing 
but he presented to us what even in these latter 
days is an all too rare phenomenon the spectacle 
of a church in sympathy and touch with the com- 
mon people. 

As one descended from a long line of ministers, 
some sort of allowance might have been made for 
him had he failed fully to comprehend the mean- 
ing of ihe part he was called upon to play. It is 
ever hard to shake ourselves free from the tram- 
mels and bonds of conventional custom and usage. 
The minister or clergyman is much inclined to be 
"groovey." Until a comparatively recent date, 
little or no effort was made by religious teachers or 
by the students of theological seminaries, to inform 
themselves as to the bearing social problems had 
on their routine work. They are not to be blamed 
for this any more than we should blame the weaver 
of fifty years ago for using a hand- loom. None 
the less we rejoice in the foundation of the institu- 
tional church, and the chair of Christian Sociology. 
Even now, people are apt to sneer at these develop- 
ments, as if the man who undertook to impart 
spiritual truths to the individual could shirk his 
responsibility for the ability or inability of that 
individual to apply the truths taught. How can 
we expect to help Chicago, New York, or East 
London, if we don't know the rudimentary facts 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



concerning the lives of the people as organized in 
society? We are far too inclined to say our citizen- 
ship is in heaven, and forget that we pray every 
day "Thy kingdom come, on earth." 

All honor then, to those who have led the way to 
a wider outlook and a truer ideal of citizenship! 
Amongst those who should have our honor I count 
Professor Graham Taylor to be not the least nor 
the last. He possesses both the knowledge and 
the sympathy requisite for the making of a true 
social reformer. Few men are so well informed, 
for example, with regard to the history and prog- 
ress of the labor movement in England and 
America, the bearing of religion upon our economic 
and industrial life, the relation of ethics to politics. 
He takes a truer and broader view than the aver- 
age sociologist, who looks upon the settlement as 
a laboratory for the study of social facts, and treats 
of economics from a purely academic standpoint. 
The task placed upon Graham Taylor's shoulders, 
not only of helping the working people amongst 
whom he lives, but also of saturating the churches 
with the social spirit, is a far more difficult one 
than that of lecturing with authority from a pro- 
fessorial chair. That he is sympathetic with the 
workingmen in their struggle for betterment, not 
even his bitterest enemy would deny. Indeed, the 
complaint often made, is that he cares too much 
about them. But a sturdy sort of common sense 
redeems what in a younger man might be wasted 
enthusiasm. He never talks without acting, doing, 
working, for the end he has in view, and it is the 
same end all through, whether he is lecturing, 
preaching, or organizing at the Commons. The 
one object is to educate the civic conscience, to 
establish better social conditions, to make it easier 
for people to live the true and pure life. 

The restless energy and the ready wit, the untir- 
ing enthusiasm and the cheerful, unassuming spirit 
of the man were borne in upon me this summer 
more than ever before. We were both lecturing 
at Chautauqua, and we shared the same room in 
the same cottage. We faced, together, the same 
questions on a common platform at the evening 
" quiz;" so that I had every chance of getting to 
know his real personality. The more I know, the 
more I am impressed with the thought that if the 
warden of Chicago Commons had been an ambitious 
man he might have attained to almost any position 
of honor or dishonor that the world had to offer. 
The sacrifice that he has made, both financially and 
socially, in going and living in the Seventeenth 
Ward of Chicago, amongst a population of Scandi- 
navians, Italians and Poles, is hardly regarded by 
him. He would not call it sacrifice, rather he 
would speak of himself as the gainer by the trans- 
action. And in one sense to have come into con- 



tact with the great throbbing, suffering heart 
of the people, to have been able in some 
measure to understand and to help, is a real gain. 
For out of this comes a wider interest and a fuller 
life. 

It may, however, be permitted to me to say, that 
he and his wife and family have set an example 
which few have the courage and devotion to copy. 
Half a dozen such men, living in each ward, might 
save Chicago. The worse the ward is, either in its 
political or sanitary aspects (and the two are more 
intimately connected than is apparent at first sight) 
the more need there is for men of his type. My 
own work in East London has taught me how 
seldom they can be found when most required. 
And yet the whole idea of our municipal life rises 
upon the supposition that they will answer to the 
call of the social need. The people have put up a 
great inarticulate cry for help, in their ignorance 
and misery. It is one of life's "little ironies " that 
they do not know what they want, that they are 
blindly groping in the dark for a helping hand. 
Graham Taylor, in answer to their pathetic appeal, 
came to the rescue without counting the cost. His 
work will live, tho he himself pass away. But it 
is important, in the interests of civic reform, in the 
interests of religion itself, that he should live for 
many years to come. May I be allowed to urge 
that one who has done and is doing so much to 
establish right human relations should be cheered 
and encouraged by all who desire the common 
weal, who look for the Republic of God. 



CHILDREN IN SETTLEMENTS. 



Professor Taylor's Letter to an Inquiry On an Inter- 
esting Question. 



There is probably no question in connection with 
the work of the settlements in general, and Chi- 
cago Commons in particular, that has attracted so 
much interest and query as that involved in the 
presence of children in the settlement. Especially 
since Professor Taylor moved with his family, in- 
cluding two little girls, into the Commons residence, 
and since Rev. Mr. Boiler, with three small boys, 
had residence with us, has this question been one 
of the first and most persistent to be asked, par- 
ticularly by persons interested in settlement work 
almost to the point of entering upon it, yet deter- 
red by reason of having small children. 

On this point probably there could be no clearer 
statement of the case than in a recent letter sent 
by Professor Taylor to an anxious inquirer who 
had represented the urgent objections and protest 
of not a few other correspondents: 

I am anxious that you should understand our position 
regarding children in the settlement, so that you can intel- 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



ligently see and discuss the issue from the settlement point 
of view. I protest against considering the property line, or 
the more or less arbitrary social classification, to be the test 
of the character of one's children's associates. The same 
discrimination is demanded of the parent among the richer 
as among the poorer classes, on the boulevards as in the 
industrial residential districts, in the private school as in 
the public school, in the class church as in the people's 
church. 

My judgment is based upon observation and experience 
on both sides of this artificial and superimposed line. I 
received more harm, as a boy, in the aforesaid selectcircles. 
to which I was quite exclusively confined, tnan my children 
have from their broader, more democratic, yet not less care- 
fully considered associations. We feel that neither they 
nor we can afford to limit life to any little horizontal level, 
or to allow it to belong to any class, either that of poorer 
or richer, less cultivated or more cultivated. So we try to 
keep in personal touch with and have personal friends in 
both. Whatever we may lose in exterior surroundings by 
living in this working people's district (which none should 
consider a " slum ") is, perhaps, more than made up by the 
high ideal and standard of relationship which steadily 
obtains within the settlement household. Whatever may be 
lacking in little luxuries is, perhaps, more than compen- 
sated for by not a few very real and rare privileges . What- 
ever the immediate neighborhood in our former surround- 
ings might have afforded us, a wider range and choicer 
selection of associations are strangely, though naturally, 
attracted to the settlement circle. Whatever may be sac- 
rificed in the lesser accomplishments, is more than coun- 
terbalanced by that larger purposef ulness which adds more 
of an educative and essential value to every life. 

Apropos of this question is the story that has 
been going the rounds of the press lately, of the 
little boy whose prudent mother forbade his play- 
ing with the boy next door, on the ground that 
the latter was not a suitable playmate : 

" But, mamma," the boy asked, " why cannot I 
play with George?" 

" I think he is not a good enough boy for you to 
play with." 

" Do you think I'm a better boy than he is?" 

" Usually, yes." 

" Well then, perhaps I'm a good kind of a boy 
for him to play with ." 



Concerning Samuel M. Jones, the reform mayor 
of Toledo, of whose "Golden Rule Shop " we have 
several times spoken, the London Progressive Re- 
view's correspondent in America, writes: "He is 
a successful manufacturer, in spite of the fact that 
the only rule he has posted in his factory is the 
golden rule. He disregards the market wage in 
the payment of his men, shares profits with them, 
and in every way in his power deals with them as 
brothers. He has read his Mazziniand bis Ruskin 
and his Christ so faithfully that he believes that it 
is his duty to practice what they preach." 

A " Tolstoi Colony " is to be planted at Alderney, 
on the Channel Islands. It is to commence with 
fifty people each contributing 100 who are to 
work co-operatively as gardeners, fruit growers 
and fishermen. The promoter is ,1. Herbert Wil- 
kinson, president of the Institute of Architects and 
Surveyors. 



liH 1 C t.^ 1 1 1.' C ^* ^ ^* e^* <9* 

& & j* Social Settlements 



T 



HY FISHES breathe but where Thy waters roll; 

Thy birds fly but within Thy airy sea; 

My soul breathes only in Thy infinite soul; 

I breathe, I think, I love, I live, but Thee. 

Oh breathe, oh think, O Love, live into me; 

Unworthy is my life till all divine, 

Till Thou see in me only what is Thine. 

Then shall I breathe in sweetest sharing, then 
Think in harmonious concert with my kin; 
Then shall I love well all my Father's men, 
Feel one with theirs the life my heart within. 
O brothers ! sisters holy ! hearts divine ! 
Then I shall be all yours, and nothing mine- 
To every human heart a mother-twin. 
George Macdonald, in The Diary of an Old Soul. 



ROADSIDE HOUSE SETTLEMENT. 



The Social Endeavor of the Des Moines, Iowa, 
King's Daughters Circles. 



[BY ONE OF THE KING'S DAUGHTERS.) 

" He was a friend to man, and he lived in a house by 
the side of the road." 

A bar of Homer's music, drifted down the cen- 
turies, has been caught up and is being resung in 
a corner of this ordinary, prosperous western city, 
taking concrete form in a settlement house on the 
corner of Eighth and Mulberry, close to the busi- 
ness center and adjoining a district of railroad em- 
ployes, and not far away from a region called 
" below the dead-line." 

" The Roadside Settlement " differs little in spirit 
from its more mature and developed kindred in 
other cities. But certain individual features it has 
which make up its particular personality. First of 
all, Des Moines is not so large a city as is the usual 
birthplace for settlements, nor is it a place of such 
material desolation as sometimes forces a settle- 
ment into existence. It is a city of some seventy 
thousand inhabitants, for the most part intelligent, 
in some considerable degree cultured, and as a 
whole conservative and moral in tone. We have 
no great distances in space between the wealthy 
and well-to-do and the poor, hard-working laboring 
class. The vicious and pauper element are located 
in more clearly defined limits. It follows, there- 
fore, that the "class lines," those imaginary hori- 
zontals that divide the social zones, are less distinct 
here than in larger or older cities. 

FEATURES OF THE WORK. 

The house was opened last October with five 
residents. Not until recently have any of the resi- 
dents been able to devote consecutive attention or 
time to settlement work. Yet, notwithstanding 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



these disadvantages and the minor ones always 
attending the first year of such an organization, the 
work has prospered. We have a newsboys' club 
of gome twenty-five members,a boys' club of thirty 
or forty keen, healthy, attractive school-boys be- 
tween "twelve and one hundred years of age " so 
runs their by-laws who have administered city 
affairs thro a mock council of mayor and aldermen, 
settling our great municipal questions with ease 
and enthusiasm ; a young people's tourist club of 
young men and girls between 14 and 20, which has 
grown to such a size as to crowd our parlors. A 
woman's club has struggled thro adversity to a 
permanent and growing life. The men's club, 
made up of some young professional men, but 
more working men, discusses political and econ- 
omic questions. Nowhere can one see more clearly 
the good effect of American democracy and less 
marked social lines than in both these clubs where 
the independent spirit is shown by yielding hom- 
age to none save for stronger traits of mind or 
character, and by the free expression and mainten- 
ance of individual opinions and rights. In addi- 
tion to these clubs the home has been open Thurs- 
day evening to the neighbors and Sunday afternoon, 
when sacred music and a short talk gave the 
quieting influence of the day. There is, as a per- 
manent part of the work, a day nursery and kin- 
dergarten, and a weekly industrial and cooking 
school, numbering at times a hundred members. 

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS' UNION. 
Such is the achievement of the joint effort of the 
residents and of a King's Daughters' Union, an 
organization of some two hundred young women 
with an actual working force of about forty, who 
represent nearly every denomination of churches 
in the city, not excluding the Roman Catholic, as 
well as some who affiliate with no church, but find 
work here to do " In His Name." It was thro the 
efforts of these young women that the settlement 
was organized. They secured the funds for fur- 
nishing the house and have maintained the ex- 
penses which the small number of residents has 
failed, of course, to meet. The general plan of 
work and management has been carried on by 
King's Daughters' representatives. Several of the 
clubs, the kindergarten and nursery, have been 
formed and maintained thro the individual mem- 
bers or circles of the Union. However delicate 
maybe the adjustment of these two bodies of 
workers in practical administration, it is worth all 
the care and caution it may cost to secure the great 
advantage of having so many people representing 
scattered localities and interests in close touch 
with the work and profiting by its reflex influence. 
It seems certain that "The Roadside Settlement" 
of Des Moines, working "In His Name," will be a 
permanent feature of this city, and perhaps prove 
a little leaven to the neighborhood in which it is 
located. 



SUMMER SETTLEMENT TOUR. 



Some Personal Observations in Five Settlements of 
the Western Country. 



[BY THE WARDEN OP CHICAGO COMMONS.] 

The name and strikingly appropriate motto of 
the Roadside Settlement at Des Moines, Iowa, were 
suggested by the poem printed in connection with 
the description o^ its work. For the christening, 
Rev. A. L. Frisbie, D. D , is responsible, for it was 
he who rescued these ringing verses from his file 
of the Independent, and by reading them from his 
pulpit in the First Congregational Church of Des 
Moines, not only made old Homer sing again in 
this midland city, but gave currency to what can 
hardly fail to become a settlement poem. The 
"Midland Chautauqua " also had somewhat to do 
with the establishment of the settlement, for by 
the social teachings of its platform the King's 
Daughters were the more inspired thereunto. And 
so the words of last summer, cast as bread upon 
the waters, returned in the works of this summer, 
after not many days. How real and vital is this work 
of the Daughters of the King may be inferred 
from the fact that a neighbor of the settlement 
when asked by the writer what he thought of its 
work, replied: "Well, I moved into this house 
since they came, because I thought their residence 
and work would influence the neighborhood." 
Their Chicago landlord seems to share this opin- 
ion, for he is said to have offered to build them an 
assembly hall as soon as the settlement could as- 
sure him a fair rental. Its friends should close 
with that offer at once. 

HIRAM HOUSE, CLEVELAND. 

The lease of greatly enlarged accommodations is 
the best evidence of the rapid growth of Hiram 
House and its work for its needy neighborhood in 
Cleveland. Two entire houses are now in constant 
use and part of a third is also permanently occu- 
pied. The little lawn which fills the space be- 
tween sidewalk and curbstone in front of one of 
them is already matched by that which a neighbor 
has started, and Orange street is the brighter and 
better for this and many another social service thus 
rendered. The boys call the little oasis " our 
grass." A neighboring saloon-keeper declared to 
the writer, " Everybody in the neighborhood likes 
those people and believes in their work. My chil- 
dren go there." On the parlor wall hang two 
artistic pictures which were secured by one of the 
Jewish young men who constitute the " Web- 
ster " Debating Club. In soliciting their donation 
from a dealer, he insisted upon the gift of "his 
best pictures " if he gave any. A Jewish foreign 
consul recently sent the settlement a generous and 
unsolicited contribution in recognition of its min- 
istry to his country folk. For the reflex influence- 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



of this settlement there is a boundless field among 
the thousands of churches and million or more 
members in the "Christian" or Disciples fellowship. 
Hiram College, which has furnished nearly all the 
residents, is in heartiest co-operation. The pres- 
entation of its cause is welcomed not only in many 
of these churches but at their National City Evan- 
gelization Society anniversary, and their principal 



largest, best equipped and most costly settlement 
building in America. It is one of a very few edifices 
built especially for settlement work, and is there- 
fore of such special interest that THE COMMONS 
later will present to its readers an illustrated 
description of its general appearance and detailed 
plan. The possession of su ch a plant,with its service- 
able apparatus, is a serious social responsibility, in 




ROADSIDE SETTLEMENT, DES MOINES, IOWA. 
[With group of residents and kindergarten children]. 



periodical, The Christian Evangelist, publicly urges 
co-operation for the sake of the churches as well 
as for that of this neighborhood. The prospect of 
securing a large and but partially used Mission 
building for the exclusive use of Hiram House is 
interesting people of several church fellowships 
in Cleveland. 

It is not an invidious comparison to assert that 
the Goodrich Settlement House in Cleveland, is the 



the successful discharge of which THE COMMONS 
wishes its donor, Mrs. Samuel Mather, its earnest 
residents, and its management, representative of 
the principal denominal fellowships, the heartiest 
God-speed. 

TWO CHURCH SETTLEMENTS IN BUFFALO. 

Indicative of the deepening social consciousness 
within the churches are " Westminster House " and 
" Welcome Hall." The former bears the name of 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



the church that established and maintains it. Its 
cottage- like houses, with their comfortable, easy 
rooms, their tasteful and artistic adornment, the 
practical provision they afford for the gymnasium, 
recently pictured in our pages, and last but by no 
means least their unique little roof garden, demon- 
strate to what good and large use very ordinary 
buildings can be put in settlement service. 

The First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo is 
building a $50,000 down-town complement to its 
beautiful up-town temple. " Welcome Hall," which 
three years ago designated a single two-story 
house, and six months later an old warehouse ren- 
ovated to accommodate the growing mission work 
and its diverse social extensions, now covers no 
less than three new and finely equipped buildings 
soon to be in the possession of a full fledged social 
settlement. One of these buildings is exclusively 
for residence purposes, providing comfortable 
quarters for seven women residents; another is 
specially designed for the kindergarten and the 
class and club work, with rooms for men residents 
above, and a third contains a gymnasium and a 
large assembly hall capable of seating nearly 500 
people, with additional smaller rooms for general 
use. An open court, and also a wide strip of garden 
space running between the two streets, on both of 
which the settlement buildings front, are attractive 
features of this admirably planned and situated 
settlement "plant." With such a property and such 
adequate financial backing in reserve, the earnest 
work to be transferred from the old home to the 
new should add to itself a host of new workers and 
immeasurably new power. 

SETTLEMENT RALLY AT CHAUTAUQUA. 

Percy Alden and Professor Taylor Head Up a Rous- 
ing: Gathering and Discussion. 



The lectures of Percy Alden, warden of Mans- 
field House, East London, at Chautauqua, N. Y., 
was the occasion of an unexpected rally of set- 
tlement forces and folks at that great summer 
assembly. His course on "Present Social Move- 
ments in England" included five topics, viz.: 
"London Settlements," "Poverty and the State," 
" The Labor Movement in England," " Life in East 
London," "The Social Outlook in England," and 
received marked attention, as did Professor Gra- 
ham Taylor's course of five lectures on "Way- 
marks of the Labor Movement." The popular 
response elicited was noteworthy in the large at- 
tendance and eager questions at the daily " quiz," 
which both lecturers co-operated to hold. The 
interest manifested by people from the southern 
cities was especially observable. 

An impromptu settlement conference was held 
one evening in the parlors of the Athenseum Hotel. 



Representatives of no less than ten settlements 
were present and participated in the informal 
discussions Mansfield House, Whittier House, 
Philadelphia College Settlement, Westminster 
and Welcome Hall, Buffalo; Baltimore Settle- 
ment, Louisville Neighborhood House, and three 
Chicago settlements University of Chicago, North- 
western University and Chicago Commons. 

Miss Hanna Fox, of the Philadelphia settle- 
ment, and Miss Bradford, of Whittier House, ad- 
dressed the Woman's Club Conference. Professor 
H. B. Adams, of Johns Hopkins University, who 
was an interested participant in all these occa- 
sions, invited the settlement constituency to meet 
socially as his guests at the Athenaeum Hotel. Mr. 
Alden gave his impressions of William Morris as 
poet, artist, manufacturer and socialist, and the 
evening was rounded off with a merriment not 
equalled to many since college days. 



SETTLEMENT AT PASSAIC. 

Another New Jersey Endeavor Heard From Firnt 
Year Completed With Good Success. 



With a pleasure unusual in the confession of 
error THE COMMONS has satisfaction in announcing 
that its statement that the Orange Valley Social 
Institute, described and illustrated in the last issue,, 
was the second settlement in New Jersey, was an 
error. We receive notice of a settlement of some 
months' standing at Passaic. There has been at 
least one person in actual residence since January, 
and the work has followed the usual lines of settle- 
ment work, organizing a force of non-resident 
workers, with two boys' clubs, one girls' club, sew- 
ing school for little girls, and a satisfactory kinder- 
garten with fifty children in attendance, and a fine 
round of visiting, mothers' meetings, etc. There 
has been also a class of older girls in domestic 
science. The secretary of the settlement is Edward 
W. Berry, and the address is 42 Irving Place, 
Passaic, N. J. They desire to come into touch 
with other settlements. An appropriate name will 
soon be decided upon. 



NEBRASKA UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT. 

Work of the Enterprise Recently Started in the 
Poorer Part of Lincoln. 

At the corner of 8th and "W" streets, in Lin- 
coln, Neb., a settlement has been in successful 
operation for some months. It is valuable to 
Nebraska university since it affords a base of 
operations for the students who spend longer 
or shorter terms in residence, and to the neigh- 
borhood by furnishing a common center for 
social life, increasingly availed of, in a vicinity 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



of varying nationality. German and Russian are 
the prevailing national types. Three school rooms 
are used in the settlement work, which is affiliated 
with the religious activity in the neighborhood of 
the Young Men's and the Young Women's Chris- 
tian associations, including a successful Sunday 
School. The settlement has been in satisfactory 
operation for about a year. Mr. and Mrs. Floquet 
are the permanent residential nucleus about whom 
the work centers. 



TORONTO SETTLEMENT SECTION. 



Addresses by Miss Addams, Mr. Ely of Cambridge 
and Professor Peabody of Harvard University. 



Space is available for only a brief account of the 
social settlement section of the international confer- 
ence of charities and correction, held at Toronto in 
July, just too late for a report in the last issue of 
THE COMMONS. The attendance of settlement peo- 
ple was not so large as was desired, owing to the 
inconvenient time of year and the distance from 
most of the settlement centers. The settlement 
section was in charge of the general meeting 
of the conference on the morning of July 13. 
Professor Francis G. Peabody, of Harvard, chair- 
man of the section, presided, and introduced the 
subject with some general account of the settle- 
ment movement. Of the settlement as an embodi- 
ment of the larger idea of charity he spoke, and 
made reference especially to it as an educational 
institution. 

Kobert E. Ely, of the Prospect Union of Cam- 
bridge, Mass., spoke strikingly of the inequality 
of opportunity in this civilization. Mr. Ely's 
remarks were instinct with sympathy and insight, 
as he told of the lack of a fair chance for boys to 
make the best of themselves. He pleaded for a 
democratic principle of meeting with the work- 
ing people ; not that the settlers should try to get 
the workingmen to do what they wanted of them, 
but help them to do the things they themselves 
wanted to do. 

One of the most striking things Miss Jane 
Addams, of Hull House, said was with reference 
to the matter of early marriages among the poor. 
The workingman, as she pointed out, is in the 
flower of his usefulness from 18 to 40, and if he is 
to marry at all and raise children it must be in the 
early years of his manhood. After he is 40 he 
must depend largely upon his children ; they are 
his support, and he must make early in life his in- 
vestment in them. Another strong point in Miss 
Addams' address was her protest against over- 
emphasizing the economic virtues of industry and 
thrift as if all human peace and happiness depend- 
ed upon them. She begged for a larger view, 



which would think of the outreaching scope of a 
man's life, to which saving and industrial energy 
are by no means the only contributing virtues. 
Earnestly she protested against the small and self- 
ish spirit of many literary men, who confine their 
service to the small circle of the " cultivated " and 
leave the toiling masses out of view. 

The discussion of the topic aroused fresh interest 
in the movement of the social settlements, and the 
press of Toronto carried the message out to a large 
constituency. 

Miss Jane Addams 's address on "The Settlement," given 
at the first annual meeting of the Illinois State Conference 
of Charities and Correction, is reprinted in full in the report 
of that meeting issued by the state con; mission of public 
charities. It takes its illustrations from Hull House, but is 
of wide interest and general application to settlement prob- 
lems. 

PERCY ALDEN'S VISIT. 



Chicago Federation of Settlements Welcomes the 
Warden of Mansfield House. 




The presence in Chicago of Percy Alden, the 
warden of Mansfield House, Canning Town, East 
r~ London, was a feature 

of the summer in settle- 
ment circles. Making 
his headquarters at Chi- 
cago Commons, he visit- 
ed several of the settle- 
ments and renewed his 
acquaintance with vari- 
ous phases of Chicago 
life. 

On Friday evening, 
August 61 h, the Feder- 

PEKCY ALDEN, M. A* ation of Chicago Settle- 
ments gave Mr. Alden an informal reception at 
Hull House, to which came most of the settlement 
folk then in the city, together with a number of 
invited guests from among the friends of the settle- 
ments. The occasion was rendered doubly interest- 
ing by the presence of Miss Conian, of Denison 
House, Boston, who with Mr. Alden, spoke briefly 
of the work of settlements. 

Mr. Alden's increasing knowledge of American 
affairs and life, and his intimate acquaintance with 
American settlements made especially valuable his 
suggestions as to the possibilities of following out 
in work in this country some of the kinds of activ- 
ity in which he has been successful in Mansfield 
House. Of its public work, thro administrative 
officers of the town, he spoke especially. "Our 
problem is," said he, " how to organize the thought- 
ful minority of working people so that they may 
help themselves and their fellows to be better and 
happier." 



*Portrait from The Outlook. 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above 5-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two m >nths. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



ALL COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 16. 



CHICAGO. 



AUG. 5, 1897. 



THE addition of THE COMMONS to the catalogue 
of the Parmelee Traveling Library system, 
of Des Moines, Iowa, is a gratifying feature of the 
past month's progress. 



THE plea for safe postal banks grows with the 
reports of failures and defalcations in savings 
institutions. There will come a day when the 
delay in establishing postal savings banks will be 
classed with other incredible procrastinations of 
these days. 

TAKING advantage of the absence in the East 
of Professor Taylor, and of the timely presence 
of Percy Alden at the Commons, we are able to 
gratify the wish of hosts of our subscribers and 
readers for a portrait of and an appreciative tribute 
to the former from the pen of the latter. What- 
ever hesitation we of the Commons might feel on 



the ground of good taste in paying such a tribute 
ourselves to our beloved leader and warden is 
waived in the possibility of having it so well done 
by Mr. Alden, who need feel no such diffidence, 
and who yet is peculiarly well qualified to speak 
with knowledge and appreciation. His warm word 
needs no addition either on our behalf who might 
say much, or on that of those who read THK 
COMMONS and love and admire the warden of the 
settlement under whose auspices it is published. 



A VOICE FROM THE DARK ACES. 

In the increasing necessity upon us to choose 
between lowering our Christian and American 
ideal of a human life or raising the standard of 
living to comfort therewith, evidence is not lack- 
ing that the wrong choice is beginning to be delib- 
erately made and even publicly advocated. Prof. 
H. T. Peck, of Columbia University, has had the 
hardihood to square the issue in the July Cosmo- 
politan. Free and compulsory education appears 
to this teacher of 'American youth to be " the most 
profoundly serious of our educational mistakes." 
No principle is so fundamentally untrue, because, 
forsooth, " none is fraught with so much social and 
political peril for the future." For this is the sim- 
ple syllogism of our patrician professor's simple 
logic anent the proletariat, "education means am- 
bition and ambition means discontent." Yet the 
state decrees that all shall have some share of ed- 
ucation that is, some share of discontent and as 
the vast majority of minds are limited and feeble, 
compulsory education means compulsory discon- 
tent. Could anything be more fatuous or more 
dangerous from a statesman's point of view? in- 
quires the panic-stricken professor. 

Forgetting Lowell's laughter over those who 
" shudder " at every new knock of democracy at 
the door, and Mazziui's grave correction of the 
" statesman's " wild cry, " the barbarians are at our 
gates," our professor shudders at " the influx of 
the mob " by which, alack, " the university has in 
fact been swamped " when it used to have " a very 
special class," " trained according to one particular 
standard," who " stood forth as a sort of Sacred 
Band alike in private and in public life, exercising 
an influence for serenity and sanity of thought " ! 
And our professor has a remedy all his own. But 
it is only to " wait and hope for a reaction and a 
very radical reversion to the sounder practice of 
the past," tho he sadly admits that " to seek to stem 
the tide of tendency is an idle task." Meanwhile, 
out of the tendency of this " feeble-minded " mob 
to swamp the university in educating itself for the 
duties of American citizenship, this professor in 
" Columbia " University thus defines its duty to the 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



democracy of the republic: "It should produce for 
the service of the state men such as those who in the 
past made empires [italics ours] and created com- 
monwealths a small and highly trained patriciate, 
a caste, an aristocracy, if you will." And this is the 
reason: "For every really great thing that has 
been accomplished in the history of man has been 
accomplished by an aristocracy, * * * driving 
in harness the hewera of wood and drawers of 
water who constitute the vast majority, and whose 
happiness is greater and whose welfare is more 
thoroughly conserved when governed than when 
governing." Shades of the signers of the immortal 
Declaration of Independence! and the Columbian 
Exposition! But then Citizen Peck, of Columbia 
University, N. Y., is only a professor of Latin, 
whose " sense of proportion " and " luminous phil- 
osophy" is "a thing impossible to those who do 
not draw their inspiration from the thought, the 
history and the beauty of the classic past." 

The " mob " will straightway cease governing to 
seek its "happiness and welfare in being driven in 
harness!" If not, then perhaps our "statesmen" 
will parry the peril by seeking to raise the stand- 
ard of living just a little nearer the American, not 
to say Christian, ideal of a human life, while our 
teachers will be as splendidly loyal as ever to the 
faith of the republic and to the thought and beauty 
of our American history. 



ONE MUST be a good deal of a philosopher 
and charitable withal, to view without bitter- 
ness of heart the Pharisaic protest and precautions 
of dwellers along the lake front near Lincoln Park 
against the bathing of children in the lake. Many 
boys from the Commons neighborhood who cannot 
afford bathing suits have gone to the lake and 
bathed with their clothes on, while the noble 
guardian of " the peace " watched vigilantly to see 
that no wretched urchin bared his little pinched 
white body to prurient gaze from neighboring 
houses. Whose lake is it, anyway? 



NOT every sober and thrifty man is a good man. 
We are accustomed, as Miss Addams well 
said at Toronto, to estimate men by their economic 
" virtues " alone. This is a subtle form of the judg- 
ment according to success, but it is scarcely less 
fatal to right judgment, scarcely less opposed to 
the Christian standard. 



SEVEN thousand copies of THE COMMONS were 
printed for the July issue, in response to 
actual demand,and show how the effort to establish 
a settlement paper has met with cordial response 
on all hands. One year ago, the edition of the 
August issue was three thousand. 



Sfcetcbes. 



THE curious idea that many well-to-do people 
seem to have, to the effect that everybody 
who is poor mu^t also be drunken or dissolute, or 
at lea&t the victim of dissipated relatives, was never 
better illustrated than in the case of a well-meaning 
lady who set out one afternoon, as the story goes, to 
"do good to the poor." And the absurdity of her idea 
could. not be better exposed than was done by the 
sturdy working woman upon whom she first called. 
The two never had met, but that makes no differ- 
ence in cases where good ladies set out to "do 
good " to somebody. So in she walked, the story 
says, and sat herself down in the astonished laun- 
dress's kitchen. " Good afternoon," said she. 

" Good afternoon," responded the other. 

" Does your husband drink?" 

" No. Does yours?" 

And it is related that the lady thereupon came 
away, fully persuaded that " The Poor " were be- 
yond rescue, and highly inaccessible at best. 



"AND why did you come home?" the resident 
asked of the boy who had departed gleefully for 
the country two days before for a two-weeks' stay, 
and who yet was found again in the old street- 
haunts. 

" Aw, dey wasn't no kids dere!" 

" Well, you knew that when you . went. Didn't 
you like the place?" 

" Oh, yes, it was a lovely place de finest dat 
ever happened and dey was good to me, too. An' 
I had fun milkin' and chasin' de chickens, and 
goin' in swimmin'. Say, I could ha' staid dere a 
long time if it had staid light, but de nights was ter- 
rible. Say, it was awful dark I never seen so 
much dark all at once in me life! And den de 
crickies sang all night, and some kind of frogs 
tree frogs, dey called 'em hollered out of de dark 
at a feller, and I couldn't stand it. I'd just a-died, 
dat's all, if I'd had to stay dere another minute. 
So I come home, where they was some kids and 
some 'lectric lights, and things wasn't so lone- 
some.'' 

A GREAT splash of blood in the middle of the 
gate at the playground was the gory sight that 
greeted the eye the other morning and suggested 
to the visitor the fear lest the children had been 
too earnestly " playing " cannibal. Inquiry devel- 
oped the fact that two bosom friends among the 
boys had had " an awful scrap," and at the cessa- 
tion of hostilities both noses were in a highly san- 
guineous condition. The sight of blood dismissed 
all thought of enmity, and the two friends made it 
up forthwith. Then they stood in the gateway, a 
back against each post, and, with heads together, 
dripped their gore down into a common pool, and, 
finally, in unusually literal illustration of the 
"blood brotherhood," walked off arm in arm to buy 
a mutual stick of candy. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



Cbicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted strpet electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
Is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



COMMONS SUMMER WORK. 



An Unusually Satisfactory Vacation Season in Which 
All Hands Have Been Busy. 



While the summer activitea of the Commons 
have been of a character hard to list or describe, 
they have been unusually comprehensive and 
effective. An especially helpful group of tem- 
porary residents has filled the places of the absent 
permanent onep, and the personal outreach of the 
home-group has been more constant and more far- 
reaching than ever before. The month of July 
was made notable by the kindergarten institute 
reported in the July issue of THE COMMONS, and 
from the group of those in attendance who made 
the settlement their home was drafted much serv- 
ice of a most effective character. During that 
three weeks the mothers' meetings, for instance, 
were particularly well attended and helpful. 

A very large number of personal visits in tha 
neighborhood have been made, not only upon 
the personal friends of the residents, but still 
further in connection with the organization of 
the fresh-air parties and the distribution of flowers 



sent in by suburban friends of the settlement, and 
upon the poor and sick neighbors to whom such 
ministry was possible and welcome. 

The summer kindergarten has been in session 
without interruption since the first of July, and 
closes for a short vacation before the fall term at 
the end of the month. Miss Anna McLaury and 
Miss Louise Hare, who have had the work in 
charge, have given themselves unstintingly in all 
sorts of ways and have made the kindergarten a 
spot of light and cheer to the children who have 
sought its shelter from the sultry streets during 
the oppressive and monotonous days of the sum- 
mer. Several of the temporary residents, and the 
kindergartners among the permanent residents on 
the ground, have given regular and devoted serv- 
ice. A final picnic at Lincoln Park is to be given 
before the kindergarten closes, by some of the 
Evanston friends, under the special inspiration of 
Mrs. Thaddeus P. Stanwood. 

Outings and picnics for a day or so have de- 
lighted the hearts of the folk of all ages, and for 
those who have been unable to stay even so long as 
a single day shorter trips to the parks have been 
conducted. Among the most interesting and en- 
joyable of these have been the parties of Italian 
boys in Mrs. Hegner's charge. The boys have in- 
sisted upon paying all their own charges, and have 
freely expressed their regret that their lack of 
money was a preventive to their paying also the 
expenses of their guides. 

Most satisfactory was a large picnic at May wood, 
in which case it would be difficult to say whether 
the guests or the hosts most enjoyed the occasion. 
Other places to which such trips and fortnightly 
parties have been taken were Elgin, Downer's 
Grove, Berwyn, Longwood, Blue Island, Belmont,. 
Evanston, Ravenswood, Aurora, Ottawa, and other 
near-by towns and villages. 



SCORES AT THE FOUNTAIN. 

The Evanston Woman's Club Benefits the Great 
Procession of the Passers- By. 

The first morning after the fountain was started 
its usefulness was beyond dispute. The two 
lion-heads at the top of the iron pillar were 
spouting water into the basins, and within a single 
half-hour of ordinary traffic in the middle of a 
week day morning forty men, women and children 
had taken a drink. The omnipresent boy of course, 
had to have his fingers at the spouts and squirt the 
water over his companions, but he shortly got used 
to the fountain's presence, and it is now used with 
incessant gratitude by the great procession of the 
passers-by. With a view of putting it where it will 
be most useful, we have located it round the corner 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



from the Commons, a few feet from the crossing of 
Milwaukee avenue, and the greatest sceptic con- 
cerning the usefulness of public drinking fountains 
would be convinced in a five-minute watching of 
the drinkers who stop for a cupful. 

The fountain has been put in charge of the 
Illinois Humane society, through whose influence 
the water permit was secured. Many stop^to read 
the inscription : " Presented in Honor of Elizabeth 
Boynton Harbert, by the Evanston Woman's Club." 
The horse-trough, which was to have been located 
in conjunction with the upright fountain, could not 
be placed with it, but will be made more accessible 
to a needy district by location in another part of 
the ward. The arrangements for this are now in 
progress. 

COMMONS NOTES. 



The Tuesday evening economic meeting will 

probably be resumed on the evening of September 
7th. 

The parent Chautuaqua repeats its gift of 
last year by a check for $40, for the Commons 
fresh-air fund. 

The Wpman's Club and the Girls' Progressive 

Club have met without interruption during the 
summer, and have had a number of interesting 
occasions. 

An unusually capable and earnest force of 

residents is promised for the coming winter, The 
applications for residence already filed fairly tax 
the capacity of the house. 

A crokinole board and some other games 
from the Columbia School of Oratory add to our 
supply in that direction, and to our already large 
obligation to the good people of that school. 

A considerable enlargement of the settle- 
ment library comes through the loan of a large 
collection of especially well selected books by J. H. 
Bissell, to whom they were a trust. Thirteen boxes 
of books and the necessary cases comprise this 
windfall. 

The vesper service of Thursday evening, Au- 
gust 5, was made memorable by the fact that it was 
conducted by Mr. Alden, who spoke especially of 
the religious phases of the Mansfield House work, 
and of his own experience in the inauguration of 
the settlement. 

Several temporary residents have been in 

the Commons this summer, and have rendered 
service of the first quality in the short-handed days 
of the vacation. Miss Elizabeth Myers, of Ottawa, 
111., has taken active part in the kindergarten and 
outing work, and the service of Mr. Marden, the 
University of Michigan's Fellow on the field, has 
been invaluable. 

Our remark that the playground opened in 
the Washington school yard, near the Commons, 
was only one of several, brings from the committee 
in charge the announcement of the fact that it is 
the only one in Chicago, and embodies the initial 
experiment. At any rate, we are justified in assert- 
ing that its success this year will surely lead to an 
enlargement of the scope another year. 



SEWARD VACATION SCHOOL. 



Summer Enterprise of the University of Chicago- 
Settlement. 



The chief, and doubtless most interesting of the 
summer activities at the University of Chicago 
settlement this year has been the vacation school 
carried on in the Seward school building at 46th 
and Page streets. In every respect it has been a 
success. The principal is Richard Waterman, Jr., 
who has brought to the work a remarkable apti- 
tude and a high degree of interest and self-devotion. 
Every morning, as the report of the school says, all of 
the classes gather in the school hall for the opening 
exercises consisting of patriotic songs and a brief 
talk from one of the teachers. The three-hour 
session which follows is divided for each of the 
regular classes into six periods, of which two are 
devoted to manual training, two to music and 
physical culture, one to nature study and one to 
drawing. 

The response of the children has been astonish- 
ing, to anyone who thinks of children as hating to 
go to school. They come eagerly and devote them- 
selves to the work earnestly, and their interest is 
especially keen in the "Clean City League" which 
has been organized by Mrs. A. E. Paul, chief sani- 
tary inspector of the Civic Federation. The num- 
ber of complaints filed by the children of this 
league concerning unlawful states of affairs in that 
ward have surprisingly waked up the officials of 
the city hall department, and have led to manifest 
improvement of conditions. A penny provident 
savings bank is a popular feature of the school. 
The session closes Friday, August 20. 

NORTHWESTERN PLAYGROUND. 



Delightful Prospect of a Permanent Recreation for 
the Children of the Sixteenth Ward. 



To the delight of every heart interested in the 
Northwestern University settlement, is the an- 
nouncement that through the interested efforts of 
Mr. Fargo and some of his generous friends, a, 
playground under the auspices of the Northwestern 
University settlement, in the northern part of the 
sixteenth ward, is nearly an accomplished achieve- 
ment. In a few days it will be opened and a five 
years' lease of the ground from the Northwestern 
railroad makes sure that it will be more than a 
temporary affair. An effective fence about the 
grounds, a large sheltering building for inclement 
weather, "and what is best of all," as Mrs. Sly, the- 
headworker of the settlement says, "there is real 
dirt there ! None of your ashes or cinders or 
asphalt, but really, truly dirt, with grass growing 
in it ! " There will be swinge, and sand-piles, and 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



all the other delightful things that children dream 
about, and the vista of results in Mrs. Sly's visions 
would make Froebel or Aladdin jealous of their 
imagination. When the ground is really in use we 
shall show a photograph of some sixteenth ward 
children in the very act of being supremely happy. 



PASSMORE EDWARDS HOUSE. 

The Bloomsbury Settlement iu London Nearly Ready 
for Occupancy Flans for the Work. 

A handsomely printed and attractively illustrated 
leaflet comes to us from Mrs. Humphrey Ward, in 
accordance with her promise of some months ago, 
describing the New Passmore Edwards house in 
the Bloomsbury and St. Pancras districts of North- 
west London. The settlement buildings are nearly 
ready for occupancy, and the plans of a good work 
are going forward. Educational and social work 
will be the features of the enterprise. The en- 
couragement of Bible study in particular will be 
sought, and courses of lectures by distinguished 
speakers are promised, among them a special 
lectureship to be called the " Jowett Lectureship," 
in memory of the late Master of Balliol. 

About $7,500 is still required for the building 
and equipment, but the distinguished list of coad- 
jutors which Mrs. Ward has gathered together 
seems to assure ready assistance in the matter. 



ECONOMIC CONFERENCE. 



MANCHESTER'S SETTLEMENT. 

Second Annual Report of the Lancashire Effort in 
the 1 1 ill me District Shows Good Results. 



A strengthening and unifying in all directions of 
the work already in hand is the summary of the 
Lancashire College Settlement in the Hulme district 
of Manchester, England, just at hand from the 
general secretary, Alfred T. S. James. Fourteen 
residents have lived at the settlement during the 
year ending June, 1897. It is next intended to en- 
large the quarters by the renting of two additional 
buildings. Features of the Lancashire settle- 
ment's work include a " children's hour " on Sun- 
day morning, pleasant Sunday afternoon class, and 
Sunday evening service these of a religious char- 
acter Saturday evening concerts, lad's club, boy's 
brigade, etc. The women's department of the set- 
tlement include mother's meetings, cookery in- 
struction, and dress-making classes. Expenses of 
the past year have been about $1,000. 



A programme of a most enjoyable entertainment by the 
Boys' club of VVhittier House, Jersey CHy, shows a varied 
array of talent and performance, and the Interesting fact 
that with the exception of the address to the boys by How- 
ard Bliss, the entire programme was given by the club 
members. 



The postponed session of the Settlement Social 
Economic Conference will be held by Hull House 
and Chicago Commons in the week beginning 
October 4. The subject, as heretofore announced, 
will be " Municipal Functions." The program 
in full will be announced in the next issue of THE 
COMMONS. 

The list of speakers includes, as we have indi- 
cated, the names of men distinguished in efforts 
for municipal betterment, and the occasion will 
certainly be one of rare interest and value. 



"THE WHITING PLAN/ 



Chicago Scheme for Organizing the Unemployed 
" Out-of-a- Job " Its Organ. 



The "Whiting Plan" is a Chicago proposition 
of relieving the unemployed through co-operative 
effort. It is an adaptation of that labor exchange 
plan which Robert Owen put into operation in 
London in 1832. Owen established a central de- 
pository and invited workingmen to make goods 
and bring them there for exchange. The deposit 
checks were received in exchange for purchases 
at the same place, and were a'ccepted by neighbor- 
hood tradesmen as the business grew. The Whit- 
ing plan provides for local branches organized into 
a centralized system, the society being its own 
producer and consumer, as far as may be. No . 
farming will be attempted. 

While the Whiting plan is like the Debs propo- 
sal, in that it provides for a general co-operative 
organization for production and exchange, there 
are marked points of contrast: 

1st. The basis is the local, home branch. No 
colonizing will be tried, and the men are to be 
given work as near home as possible. 

2d. The society will use the machinery and fac- 
tories now idle by reason of the hard times instead 
of trying to create new tools and buildings. 

In times o'f highest prosperity, when our indus- 
trial system is working with the greatest degree of 
economy, the society will have correspondingly 
little to do. Conversely, in dull times, when there 
is the greatest waste of labor and capital, the soci- 
ety will have its opportunity for expansion. The 
exponent of the idea, and organ of the society to 
be, is Out-of-a -Job, a weekly publication which be- 
gan in July, with H. S. Davidson and B. F. Sewall 
as editors. 

Tommy Maw, doesn't anybody but good people 
go to heaven? Mrs. Flag That's all, my son. 
Tommy But, maw, how does the good people 
enjoy themselves if they ain't any bad people there 
for them to try and manage? Exchange. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



Studies of tbe & & * * & 
jt & & jt Xabor /IDovement 4 



BE NOT CONTENT. 



Be not content; contentment means inaction; 

The growing soul aches on its upward quest. 
Satiety is kin to satisfaction ; 

All great achievements spring from life's unrest. 

The tiny root, deep in the dark mold hiding 
Would never bless the earth with fruit and flower, 

Were not an inborn restlessness abiding 
In seed and germ to stir them with Its power. 

Were man contented with his lot forever, 
He had not sought strange seas with sails unfurled ; 

And the vast glories of our shores had never 
Dawned on the gaze of an admiring world. 

Prize what is yours, but be not quite corttented; 

There is a healthful restlessness of soul, 
By which a mighty purpose is augmented 

To urge men onward to a higher goal. 

So, when the restless impulse rises, driving 
Thy calm content before it, do not grieve, 

'Tis but the upward reaching and the striving 
Of the God in you to aahieve, achieve. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcnx. 



THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE. 



Relation of Monotheism and Democracy Slow 
Evolution of Moral Judgments Religious 
Sources of Ethical Standards Modern 
Individuality and Social Consci- 
ousness the Issue of the 
Common Faith. 



ELEVENTH LABOR STUDY. 



[BY PROFESSOR GBAHAM TAYLOR.] 

" Conscience claims the right to audit the books 
of society," ia the fine assertion of a recent writer 
in token of the religious progress and hope of the 
race. This claim may not be more startling to the 
many than the fact that it is only beginning to be 
recognized is surprising to the few. We may well 
pause in our more direct study of the labor move- 
ment to inquire why this is the fact ; why the 
jurisdiction of ethics over economics, of conscience 
over competition, which we have been considering, 
has been so late in asserting itself and so long in 
being recognized even by the most ethical and 
religious in each generation. 

OUR NEED OF TIME-SENSE. 

The same writer well reminds us that " one of 
the sore perils besetting us is the too direct ap- 
proach to the social question. The need of our 
time is a manhood that shall gain a little just a 
little of the geologian's time-sense." This is 
pre-eminently true of the study of the present 
social condition of labor, especially in its relation 



to both ethics and religion else, as has been 
wittily said, we may "forget our history in preach- 
ing our sermons." 

To read the story of the present in the light of 
the past has equal value to those of opposite tend- 
ency. It reminds the too impatient radical that the 
problems which he imagines maybe readily solved 
are the heritage of a long, dark past; that as they 
were not born of our century they may possibly 
not be buried by it; that we who are learning to 
live and work together have an entailment of diffi- 
culties, to which of course we have added, but for 
which we are not wholly responsible, and that in 
our common heritage suggestions may be found 
toward the solution of the present untenable situa- 
tion. 

DANGER OF REACTIONARY CONSERVATISM. 

It also reminds those who are conservative prin- 
cipally for the sake of conservatism that change is 
still, as it ever has been, the law of life, and that 
the modern mandate to adjust life to changing con- 
ditions is perhaps even more imperious than ever 
before; that nothing is so much to be feared in our 
present civilization as the temporarily predomi- 
nant force of a reactionary and repressive conserv- 
atism; that with the desperate " cry of the human 
foundation " for relief from the grind of our social 
pressure a little excess of radicalism may be safer 
to conservative progress than a little too much 
suppressive conservatism. 

If we try to solve our questions only from our 
present surroundings, without looking at the past,, 
and without looking to the great future, we have 
minimized the struggle, we have cramped our 
definitions, we have impeded progress and endan- 
gered the present. Surely there is a great calm and 
a great hope begotten in the mind by taking the 
evolutionary point of view, and seeing the slow 
developments and unfoldings of a great plan, as 
high above our little projects as God is higher than 
man. There is a poise and a patience, and a quiet 
of spirits, and a lessening of the attritions of mere 
personal conflicts that we are to thank the evolu- 
tionist for, as he has shown the evolutions of na- 
ture, of Christendom, of society, of history and 
of the conscience of Christendom. 

SOCIAL CONSCIENCE AN EVOLUTION. 

For we who remember and acknowledge all this, 
are prone to forget that it applies to the common 
conscience to which we appeal all too often in 
vain against the wrongs which it could right. 
May it not make us at once more just and hopeful 
to recollect that this social conscience has not 
always been among men, and is now only coming 
into their consciousness just enough to be appealed 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[August, 



to? For however intuitive may be the moral sense 
with which we are all endowed, the moral judg- 
ment of each age is both a product and a process 
of social evolution, to be itself accounted for. 

To account for the very existence of the modern 
problem of equality of economic opportunity, it is 
not enough to refer to the democratic movement 
in politics and industry. The anterior question 
remains to be asked and answered what moved and 
maintains this very movement? It will not do 
either to credit it to the advance of popular educa- 
tion, which profoundly as it has promoted it, is it- 
self a very late effect of the movement. 

RELIGIOUS SOURCES OP MORAL RIGHTS. 

Only through the long, slow evolution of the 
religious consciousness, has conscience come to the 
knowledge either of the rights and duties of the 
individual, or of the common sense of justice to 
which it now so confidently appeals. To a super- 
ficial view of both religion and economics this may 
seem to be a most repugnant misstatement. But 
Mazzini's fundamental contention that " every 
political question is rapidly becoming a social 
question, and every social question is a religious 
question," is the fact underlying the whole present 
situation and future prospect of labor, which should 
determine the relation between it and religion. 

APPEARANCES AND FACTS TO THE CONTRARY. 

Be it admitted as fully as the facts will warrant 
that religion has been perverted into an anti-social 
force and its power abused by the few against the 
many; be it not denied that its ecclesiastical ex- 
pression and influence have been, to as large a 
degree as may justly be claimed, antagonistic to its 
own ideals and destructive to the people's interests 
which it was designed to protect and promote; be 
it confessed that even the most of those who have 
understood its teachings the best and done the 
most to formulate, interpret, exemplify and pro- 
pogate its faith and life, have been largely uncon- 
scious of the social significance or economic appli- 
cation of the ethical bearings of their own religion, 
nevertheless the deeper insight into the present 
outcome of essential Christianity clearly shows its 
fundamental tenets to have had the inevitable social 
tendency to produce the very social consciousness 
and democratic ethic which are the high-water 
marks of all religious progress. Again, it is no 
evidence to the contrary that this consciousness 
and ethic have found readier reception and fuller 
expression at times and in places, without than 
within the ranks of those who either profess or are 
recognized to be " believers." For it is true that 
the common faith has leavened not only Christians 
but Christendom, and also that without the part 
that the Christian spirit, teachings and life have 



had in the evolution of the social consciousness and 
conscience, neither can the presence of these best 
of our present possessions be accounted for, nor 
their line of descent to us explained. As well try 
to unravel without destroying the weaver's pattern 
from the warp and woof upon which it is woven, as 
to dissociate the consciousness that any one of us 
has of his own or his fellow's individualities from 
those fundamental tenets of the Christian faith 
which are at least the main strands of the fabric 
upon which stands out the highest idea of a man 
and of society that possesses the modern heart and 
mind. 

LINKS BETWEEN OLD DOCTRINES AND NEW DUTIES. 

By way of illustrative proof of the religious 
source of the democratic ideal and social ethics, 
which fundamentally underlie the labor movement* 
the following links of relationship between ancient 
dogma and present duty are cited in hope that the 
reader may refer to " The Genesis of the Social 
Conscience," by Prof. H. S. Nash,* for the powerful 
elaboration of many more points in common than 
these that are therein suggested for our present 
purpose. 

UNITY OP GOD AND OF MAN. 

1. To the very idea of democracy, that of the unity 
of the race is pre-requisite. All claim for equality 
is based on some idea of unity. However com- 
monly accepted and scientifically demonstrated at 
present, thro most of history the unity of mankind 
has been a religious tenet, the first-born of the 
doctrine of the unity of God. Without belief in 
one God, there has been no idea of the oneness of 
men, or of a man that counted one. Monotheism 
is the historical and religious, if not the scientific 
and ethical basis of democracy. By it " one God, 
one good," was proclaimed for all, and " one 
capacity for receiving the good is ascribed to all." 

THE MAN THAT COUNTS ONE. 

2. The very idea of the individual man is the crea- 
tion of the belief in one God. Man had from time 
immemorial been merged in the mass. Individu- 
ality had long been lost, if, indeed, it had ever 
been found. The very consciousness of self as we 
know it had been lost in that of the family, tribe, 
or nation. The group was the only individual, of 
which the person was but a fraction. It was 
monotheism which singled the one man out, stood 
him upon his own feet before the one God and 
counted him as one among many brethren. 

FIRST " A SOUL " TO BE A MAN. 

3. Thus to emancipate him from being a mere 
component of a group or mass it was necessary to 



* Genesis of the Social Conscience. Professor H. S. Nash. 
The Macmillan Co., New York. Chicago: A. C. McClurg 
&Co. $1.50. 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



dissociate him almost from his time and place, 
from " country, kindred and father's house." This 
was done by associating each one with the one 
God and with his universe. The common man be- 
came "a soul," etherialized, universalized im- 
mortal the "elemental man." Temporarily, the 
divine supplanted the human, eternity time, the 
soul the body, heaven earth, the monastery the 
family and the neighborhood. Heavenly citizen- 
ship expatriated and exiled the "saint" from 
earth. Sonship to the Father, crowded out brother- 
hood to fellow-man, the first table of the law was 
writ so large that the second was well nigh lost 
sight of. Whatever the temporary cost to the rate 
of social progress, a permanent human value was 
thereby added, without which society would have 
had nothing to progress toward or to be propelled 
by. "The conception of the elemental man, as carry- 
ing his own value within himself because in cov- 
enant with the eternal, looked out over society and 
the state with prophecy of afar future." "The 
right and duty to be individual," " largely indi- 
vidual," is the ideal element within our social un- 
rest." " Individuality is the stake of Socialism." 

ALL-LEVELLING TENETS. 

4. Upon the same level of equality in the divine 
birthright to which every child of God was thus 
raised, all men are kept by such tremendously 
democratizing doctrines as, for instance, the Incar- 
nation which assured the common man that he was 
"kith and kin with the highest, that he was in 
everlasting partnership with the best;" sin, which 
is a "leveller and equalizer the mortal foe of aris- 
tocracy;" sacrifice, with its atoning death for all, if 
for any, and its cross for each ; judgment, for 
which "all must appear before God ; " baptism and 
the Lord's supper, the only token and the common 
meal for the whole communion of the one king- 
dom. 

BACK TO THE WORLD FROM THE MONASTERY. 

5. The new relationship between man and man 
grew up within the bonds of the new sense of duty, 
of justice and of love which possessed this spiri- 
tual fellowship. Restricted at first and for so long 
a time to monastery or church, the new spirit was 
allowed to spend itself within the charmed circle 
no longer than was necessary to form and fix on 
earth the new type of the individual man, which 
could suffice to be the unit of the " new earth " and 
its redeemed society wherein God's will is done as 
it is in heaven. 

The "liberty, equality and fraternity," which 
had so long existed only within the monastery 
walls, began to be demanded without and to be 
impelled to go forth. From within "the right of 
private judgment" and the opening of the Bible 
"that book of witness to the downmost man's capac- 



ity for the highest things " began to detach men 
from the artificial life of the cloister or dependence 
thereupon. From without, the eighteenth century's 
revolutionary cries for a human brotherhood within 
a democratic society constituted for moral ends, 
summoned faith back to earth and the letter of the 
word back to the life of the world. The nineteenth 
century missionary spirit, social endeavor and 
ethical renaissance are in evidence that the sum- 
mons is not unheeded. 

THE GOSPEL HAS STRUCK THE EARTH. 

If the points above are well taken then these 
conclusions follow: First, that the social unrest 
and industrial discontent with their struggle for a 
living wage and the standard of a human, not to 
say Christian, life, are due more than anything 
else to the fact that the Gospel of the Son of Man 
has at last struck the earth at the feet of the 
common man. 

RAISE THE STANDARD OF LIVING OR LOWER LIFE'S 
IDEAL. 

Second, that believers in Christianity are shut up 
to the alternative either of lowering its standard of 
life, individual and social, or of raising the stand- 
ard of living to the ethics of the law of love and 
its golden rule. Third, that while begetting the 
divine ideals and spiritual energies of the social 
conscience, the church may be excusable for not 
further and faster realizing the former by the use 
of the latter, the hour has struck for her avowed 
acceptance of her God-given social function to re- 
alize her ethical ideals of human relationship in 
the economic and industrial life of men, at what- 
ever cost of sacrificial service. Unto such Messi- 
anic suffering for the sin of the world she and all 
who claim to be of her are called. In the union 
which her sons may make to accept the Golden 
Rule as the rule of economic faith and practice is 
the strength of our Almighty Father to realize 
human brotherhood. Fourth, that however much 
labor must rely upon the union of its forces and 
the exertion of its utmost effort in its own behalf 
yet without its co-operation, the religious ideals 
and social conscience cannot prevail upon which it 
must depend for the final success, as it has for the 
past progress of its common human cause. 

TWENTIETH CENTURY'S WARNING TO THE NINE- 
TEENTH. 

In his acute attempt to discern our present social 
and religious tendencies, Edward Bellamy warns 
the clergy of the possibility of "the tragic distinc- 
tion of having missed the grandest opportunity of 
leadership ever offered to men." But even with 
his lament over the " passing of the Temple," he 
foresees that only from the time when "the Great 
Revival" touched enthusiasm for humanity with 
religious emotion, is to be dated " the beginning of 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[August 



modern religion a religion of life and conduct 
dominated by an impassioned sense of the soli- 
darity ( f humanity and of man with God." 

REFERENCES. 

Genesis of the Social Conscience. H. S. Nash. 
(The Macmillan Co., $1.50.) 

English Economic History. W. J. Ashley. (G. 
P. Putnam's sons.) Vol. 2, chapters 5 and 6, on "The 
Relief of the Poor" and "The Canonist Doctrine." 

Gesta Christi. A History of Human Progress. 
C. Loring Brace. (Armstrong.) 

History of European Morals, W. E. H. Lecky. 

History of the Rise of the Spirit of Rationalism. 
Same author. 

Liberty and Democracy. Same author. Chap- 
ters 8-10. 

The Social Spirit in America. C. R. Henderson. 
(Flood & Vincent.) 

The Duties of Man and Thoughts on Democracy. 
Joseph Mazzini. (Smith & Elden.) 

God and the People. The Religious Creed of a 
Democrat. Selections from the writings of Maz- 
zini. By C. W. Stubbs. (Unwin.) 

Industry and Democracy. Arnold Toynbee. Ap- 
pended to the Industrial Revolution. (Longmans, 
Green & Co.) 

The Philosophy of Wealth. J. B. Clark. (Ginn 
& Co.) Especially chapters 9-12. 

Social Aspects of Christianity. R. T. Ely. (Cro- 
well.) 

Social Law of Service. Same author. (M. E. 
Book Concern.) 

Social Reform and the Church. J. R. Commons. 
(Crowell.) 

Outlines of Social Theology. W. DeWitt Hyde. 
(MacMillan.) 

Equality. Edward Bellamy. (Appleton.) Espe- 
cially chapters 31 and 35. 



A SETTLEMENT HANDBOOK. 

Professor Henderson Prepares a Volume that Prom- 
ises to be Unique and Useful. 

A. D. F. Randolph & Co., New York publishers, 
are about to publish a small volume on social 
settlements from the pen of Professor C. R. Hen- 
derson. The first part will be devoted to a brief 
historical sketch of the social causes of the move- 
ment, with a list of the houses and their addresses, 
and a notice of characteristic methods. The second 
part will summarize the principles and ideals of the 
movement. The third part will present an analysis 
of the activities of the workers and practical 
methods of conducting the enterprises. An analytic 
table will present a classification of these activities 
according to the age-grade of the neighbors. A 
selected bibliography will be printed. The design 



is to present in a compact and cheap form an 
answer to the questions asked by friendly inquirers 
in relation to the movement. It will be convenient 
to circulate as a handbook. Every statement will 
be based on observation or documents. 



PROFESSOR HENDERSON'S NEW BOOK. 

Prof. Charles R. Henderson, of the University of 
Chicago, has well supplied the long-felt want of a 
popular first book* to put into the hands of the 
multitude of readers who are inquiring for a start- 
ing point in social study. It is admirably adapted 
to introduce not only the great " Chautauqua Cir- 
cle " but the wider range of general readers, to the 
literature, as well as the service, of the social spirit. 
There is scarcely a connecting point between the 
individual and his fellows at which this volume 
could not bring the one life into real and vital con- 
nection with the service of the many. Its influence 
cannot fail to inspire, sweeten and unify our peo- 
ple. 

NEW YORK CHARITIES DIRECTORY. 



A highly useful work sent us by a friend is the 
new Charities Directory of New York City. It is 
a classified and descriptive directory of the philan- 
thropic and educational societies and institutions 
and the churches of the city. It is published by 
the Charity Organization Society, Fourth avenue 
and East Twenty-second street. 



The bibliography by Miss Madeleine Milner of 
the literature of child-labor and the employment 
of women, published in the July issue of the Ameri- 
can Journal of Sociology, is the most complete out- 
line in existence of this phase of the American 
labor literature. It deals only with the United 
States, but within that scope, so far as we know, 
quite exhausts the subject. It covers the statistical 
and official as well as the more popular literature 
of the matter and, soon to be published as a pam- 
phlet, will be a classic. University of Chicago Press. 

" Fabian Tract No 76," just issued, deals with 
" Houses for the People," and urges the enforce- 
ment of the act passed in 1890 by which all the 
Town Councils in England were empowered to 
supply dwellings for the people through compul- 
sory purchase and clearing of buildings from any 
unsanitary area. 



* "The Social Spirit in America." Prof. C. K. Hender- 
son. Flood & Vincent, Chautauqua Press, Meadville. Pa. 
$1.00. 350 pp. 

CO-OPERATIVE NEWS. An arrangement has been 
made by which both THK COMMONS and The American 
Co-operative News (monthly. " an advocate of voluntary co- 
operation ") , can be secured for a club rate of only 75 cents. 
Present subscribers of THE COMMONS can secure the News 
thro this office for only 40 cents additional. 



THE COMMONS 

H flDontbl? IRecoro Devotes to Hspects of Xife anb labor from tbe Social Settlement point of IPiew. 



Whole Number 17. 



CHICAGO. 



SEPTEMBER, 1897. 



[FOB THE COMMONS.] 

THE MINERS. 



[BY KMMA PLAYTER SEABUKY.] 

Shoot the poor coal niiner down! 

Talk not of a God-given right; 
The smiling patience, and not the frown, 

Are for him, and he must not fight. 
He is but as the dust of the street, ' 

His soul? It never could shine. 
The road is for commerce and wealth to meet, 

And for your carriage and mine. 
Shoot down the miner, you say, 

He is only a dog half fed; 
Made of the poorest and commonest clay, 

And his children are whining for bread. 
His sphere is down in his tomb, 

Under the earth to be; 
He is only a blur in the gloom, 

The sun is for you and for me. 
The rich must gather the spoil, 

And the poor must add to their might; 
These poor brown children of toil, 

Our rum and our slavery blight. 
My lady wants jewels and lace, 

And my lord wants his yacht on the sea; 
The miner must sweat in his place, 

The world is for you and for me. 
Rouse! Forward! Oh Church of the Christ, 

The Man of the people advance; 
Greed, avarice have not sufficed, 

Give the worker his due and his chance. 
So long he is pressed to the wall, 

While of patience you love to recite; 
God's purpose is justice to all, 

And a conscience and heart for the right. 



ARNOLD TOYNBEE, CHRISTIAN ECONO- 
MIST. 



[BY JOHN P. GAVIT.] 

The extraordinary character of the work and in- 
fluence of Arnold Toynbee, and the lesson of the 
power of one man in a short life to mark an era of 
thought and effort, become more apparent as the 
years go by and the name of this somewhat ob- 
scure and entirely unobtrusive youna; man, fading 
not into the mists of a commonplace past, becomes 
more and more as that of the martyr of a cause 
That of this man's name and life and work a me- 



morial stands in Whitechapel, known throughout 
tbe world and sought as a Mecca by men and 
women to whom the appeal of social need comes 
with force, appears the more noteworthy when he 
is recalled, in the words of one who knew and 
loved him well, as " a man who has been dead for 
nearly fifteen years, whose life was short and un- 
eventful, who never occupied any conspicuous 
public position, or was associated with any great 
achievement, and whose remaining writings not 
without merit certainly, but inconsiderable in 
amount and fragmentary in form convey a most 
inadequate idea of the personality of their author. 
I feel," says Albert Milner, his friend,* "that I 
should confer a great boon upon any man whom I 
could help to realize Arnold Toynbee." 

Toynbee was born in 1852, in London, the son of 
a physician of some prominence. He was always 
somewhat delicate i-.i health, and was, as Mimer 
says, a strange, solitary, introspective youth. In 
1873 he entered Oxford. Five years he spent as 
an undergraduate at Pembroke and Balliol, and 
five more as a tutor and lecturer at Balliol. 

It seems to have been his deserved appointment 
as lecturer and tutor at the foremost Oxford col- 
lege that awoke Toynbee to his life-work, for life- 
work it was, though in all scarcely five years long. 
With this appointment the reclusive student en- 
tered upon a life of the most intense educational 
and social activity. As Milner said, in his memorial 
address at Toynbee Hall in 1894, " If ever a man 
wore himself out in the service of mankind, it was 
Toynbee." He was a poor-law guardian, a co- 
operator and a church reformer, and his outside 
activities and interests were many. Especially he 
devoted himself to sympathetic following of the 
development of trades unions and friendly socie- 
ties. In the thick of every movement to secure 
better municipal conditions was Toynbee to be 
found, an earnest adviser, an aggressive exponent, 
an enthusiastic leader upon occasion. 

It had been in 1875, while still an undergradu- 
ate, that he sought residence under the direction 
of Rev. S. A. Barnett, vicar of St. Judes in White- 
chapel, and spent considerable parts of his vaca- 
tions in close touch with the working people in 



* Arnold Toynbee, A Kemimscence, by Alfred Milner. 
London, Edward Arnold, Publisher to the India Office, 1895. 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



that district, visiting under Mr. Barnett's direction 
and under that of the Charity Organization society. 
It was here that he gained his notable knowledge 
of and sympathy with the poor and their condi- 
tion "so much talked about and so little known." 
But the life was too tense and the external condi- 
tions too wearing for his frail physique, and his 
actual residence was comparatively brief. But in 
all available ways he was ever devoted to the serv- 
ice of the working people, and his most earnest 
desire was to bring to them the impulse and direc- 
tion of religion and true economic knowledge. 

In the summing up of the actual doings and 
events of Toynbee's life, one is forced to wonder 
at the unique place his memory finds. Scores of 
commonplace men do twenty times as much actual 
work, and have much more results to show. In 
what was Arnold Toynbee peculiar, and why have 
men been led to revere his memory and rear me- 
morials in his name? 

No answer can be given to this question save 
that it was all in the power of a great personality. 
For such he had, and such he was. " Tf might be 
said of Toynbee," says Milner, "that he ouched 
nothing which he did not elevate." And again, " I 
doubt whether there was any set in Oxford that 
could for a moment compare with the ' disciples ' 
of Toynbee in moral fervor, and certainly there 
was none in which the central personage was so 
inspiring or so dominant. It was this unique posi- 
tion of Toynbee among his own friends which led 
one of the most brilliant of his and my contempor- 
aries to dub him, half in admiration and half in an- 
tagonism, ' the Apostle Arnold.' " His effect upon 
those with whom he came in contact was most up- 
lifting and inspiring. " It was a distinguishing 
mark of those who came under Toynbee's influence 
that they were deeply impressed with their indi- 
vidual duty as citizens, and filled with an enthusi- 
asm for social equality which led them to aim at 
bridging the gulf between the educated and the 
wage-earning class. In this respect," Milner adds 
(and in this .point lies the significance of Toynbee's 
position as a forerunner of the modern settlements), 
" he and they were pioneers apt to be forgotten 
afterwards, like all pioneers in a movement 
which is one of the most important and characteris- 
tic of the present time." 

And in all this he was still the common-sense 
observer of the times. His friend, Jowett, the 
Master of Balliol, who conceived the greatest lik- 
ing and admiration for him, says in his Memoir, 
which precedes the best ediiion of Toynbee's 
"The Industrial Revolution in England," "though 
full of idealism, he had no dreams or illusions 
about great political or other reforms. He had 
plenty of common sense, and this, cdmbined with 



the gift of imagination, enabled him to realize the 
difficulty of changing an ancient civilization (this 
in particular with reference to his ideals for a re- 
formed India). Apart from the transparent sincer- 
ity of the man, and his love of and faith in his fel- 
lo.ws, he had the constructive power of a great uni- 
ty. Of this Jowett says: 

" There was a certain unity in all his views 
which was the unity of his own character. In 
religion as in political economy he was the enemy 
to abstractions, to disputed dogmas of theology as 
much as to abstract theories about capital and 
labor ; religious truths must be clothed in flesh 
and blood and brought into some relation with ac- 
tual life before they had any hold upon his mind. 
He was always seeking to carry out in practice the 
ideas which he had conceived." Or, as Milner 
puts it, "The more transcendental his faith, the 
greater seemed to him the necessity of a life of ac- 
tive usefulness. Idealism such as his, he always 
felt, could only justify its existence by energetic 
devotion to the good of mankind. Nothing was 
more abhorrent to him than an apathetic mysticism. 
His faith, however transcendental, was a rational 
faith, and he would prove it by being as sober, aa 
practical and as effective as any so-called rational- 
ist or utilitarian. He would not be behind the 
Positivists in the service of man, because he em- 
braced that service for the love of God." 

The trend of his thought made him a student of 
economics. He was " on fire with the idea of a 
great improvement in the condition of the working 
class," and always in sympathy with their aspira- 
tions. " It was from this point of view that he ap- 
proached the study of political economy. For the 
sake of religion he became a social reformer; for 
the sake of social reform he became a political 
economist." 

From this point of view of the possible literary 
achievement, the interruption of what even in its 
fragmentary and unfinished form narrowly escapes 
being a great work "The Industrial Revolution 
in England " is greatly to be deplored. By men- 
tal equipment, by historical vision and imagination 
and by thorough study on both literary and prac- 
tical sides, Toynbee was peculiarly fitted to write a 
great economic history. But it was not to be. 
Short indeed were his five years of ardent service 
after his graduation. On the 9th of March, 1883, 
and as a result immediately of entire exhaustion 
brought on by overwork, he died, after seven weeks 
of illness. 

The power of Toynbee's personality upon those 
who knew him grows -as the time passes. He 
founded no institution and stood for no cult or 
dogma. He never heard of the settlement move- 
ment, and the popular idea that he was the founder 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



of Toynbee Hall is, of course, erroneous. But to 
the settlement movement, he will remain a pioneer, 
and almost a patron saint. In method, and in some 
sort in the scope of its ideals, the movement has 
outstripped him, but it will never cease to be true 
that the influence of Arnold Toynbee's life upon 
those who knew him was the immediate impulse 
of the modern movement of the social settle- 
ments. 

In words which might be Toynbee's own, Mr. 
Milner concludes his reminiscence: "May these 
walls, which bear Toynbee's name, be ever instinct 
with his spirit ; a meeting place for men of vari- 
ous education and antecedents ; a home of eager 
speculation, ever learning from experience and 
'earnest controversy, untinged with bitterness and 
party prejudice ; the headquarters of a band of 
' unresting and unhasting laborers,' not in one but? 
in many fields of social endeavor, united by a com- 
mon faith in the efficacy of such endeavor to ele- 
vate their own and others' lives." 



RECESSIONAL. 



God of our fathers, known of old- 
Lord of our far-flung battle-line 
Beneath Whose awful Hand we hold 

Dominion over palm and pine- 
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, 
Lest we forget lest we forget! 

The tumult and the shouting dies 
The captains and the kings depart; 

Still stands Thine ancient Sacrifice, 
A humble and a contrite heart. 

Lord God of Ho-its. be with us yet, 

Lest we forget lest we forget! 

Far-called our navies melt away 
On dune and headland sinks the fire 

Lo, all our pomp of yesterday 
Is one witli Nineveh and Tyre! 

Judge of the Nations, spare us yet, 

Lest we forget lest we forget ! 

If drunk with sight of power, we loose 

Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe- 
Such boasting as the Gentiles use 

Or lesser brepds without the Law- 
Lord God of Hosts, be witli us yet, 
Lest we forget lest we forget! 

For heathen heart that puts her trust 

In reeking tube and iron shard 
All valiant dust that builds on dust. 

And guarding calls not Thee to guard 
For frantic boast and foolish word, 
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord! 

Amen. 

Rudyard Kipling, in the London Times. 



Surely this is a strong statement, made, we be- 
lieve, says the Christian City, by a very young man 
the leader of the striking " knee pants makers" 
and yet it may be true. He is reported to have 
said, "If the mother of every boy in New York 
would pay one cent more for each pair of knee 
pants she buys, and that one cent should go to the 
men and women who make them, the starvation 
wages of the two thousand thr^e hundred strikers 
would be doubled." Whether this is an over-state- 
ment or not, a casual observation upon the East 
Side will show that it hits a point near enough 
truth's center to be appalling. 



StuDtcs of tbc jt * < ^ 
& & & & Xabor /iDovement 

CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 4 



SITUATION IN ENGLAND 



IMPRESSIONS OF THE ENGLISH LABOR 
MOVEMENT. 



Marked and General Socialistic Tendency Expressed 
in Efforts Toward Political Action The 
Penrhyn Strike as a Signifi- 
cant Illustration. 



[BY PROFESSOR GEORGE D. HERRON.J 

These are impressions only and as such must be 
taken. They are the result of a varied contact 
with labor leaders in England, and with men and 
women who are helping the social movement from 
the political, literary, religious or social settlement 
point of work. 

I should say, first of all, that the labor movement 
of England is every year becoming more socialistic. 
Of course the term socialism is used so indefinitely, 
or rather used with such diversity of meaning, that 
it is difficult to know what one means by calling 
himself a socialist. But, broadly speaking, it ap- 
plies to those who would substitute a co-operative 
for a competitive organization of society, and who 
believe that the state mu&t be the organ of the 
social re-organization. There are many degrees 
of socialism and of socialists. Some would take 
all industry and economic activity under the con- 
trol of the people, making the state an economic 
rather than a political person. Others would take 
only a limited amount of property, such as is now 
under monopolistic control, into the economic state, 
leaving a large realm of private property, although 
subjecting it to social direction. Some would call 
themselves municipal socialists only. Then there 
are leaders in co-operative movements who are 
strenuous opponents of socialism. Yet when all 
is said, the labor movement of England is rapidly 
finding, or thinks that it is finding, the freedom 
and future of labor in those methods and organiza- 
tions of industry which culminate in socialism. If 
they do not always use the word socialism, they 
yet mean the things for which the word stands. 
While the extreme or materialistic socialism, such 
as is represented by Mr. Hyndman and the follow- 
ers of Marx, has less and less influence, labor 
leaders such as Burns, Hardy, Mann, Crooks and 
Burrows are standing upon what is practically a 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



socialistic program. Many of them are more rad- 
ical as to the immediate methods than Sidney 
Webb and the Fabians, but they have the same end 
in view. 

SOCIALISM PERVADING ENGLISH THOUGHT. 

Their position is strengthened by the uncon- 
scious socialism which seems to pervade English 
feeling and thought, and to permit great freedom of 
utterance. As a matter of fact England has prob- 
ably undergone the greatest revolution of the 
Christian era within the last generation, but the 
revolution has been so peaceful compared with 
historic revolutions that the English people need 
to stop and think about it intently in order to re- 
alize the change. 

Views that would be regarded as radical and 
even dangerous in America are commonplace in 
England. John Burns is a respected and trusted 
man by even members of the House of Peers ; yet 
I have heard him speak his mind in Trafalgar 
Square in a way that would cause his immediate 
arrest in Chicago or New York. 

ATTITUDE OP THE PARTIES. 

The socialist position is also strengthened by the 
attitude which all parties in English politics have 
felt compelled to adopt towards the labor move- 
ment. The Conservative meets the Liberal party 
with what it claims to be a more generous social 
program. Each party finds itself compelled, in one 
way or another, to reckon with the social conscience 
and to appeal to the feeling that is making for 
socialism. Principles which we would call ex- 
treme are assumed as a matter of course in English 
politics. I listened with close attention and inter- 
est to the debates in the House of Commons on the 
Lord Penrhyn strike. I was surprised to find that 
our American notions of private property seemed 
obsolete in the English Parliament. No man was 
Tory enough to assert that Lord Penrhyn had the 
right to do what he pleased with his own. The social 
obligation of his property, the right of the state for 
an account of his stewardship, was assumed. The 
whole debate turned on the question of whether 
Lord Penrhyn had fulfilled his social obligation, 
or whether he had been so far false to it as to make 
his transgression a debatable matter in the House 
of Commons. A member of the House of Peers, 
representing one of the oldest English families, 
asserted openly that Lord Penrhyn was not the 
owner of his estate, but held it as trustee of the 
realm, and that if the people through their sover- 
eignty in the House of Parliament found him un- 
faithful and unjust they had the right to declare 
his title forfeited. As we have just learned, after 
a most stubborn and bitter contest, Lord Penrhyn 
has been completely defeated. Public opinion was 
on the side of the strikers. Subscriptions were 



raised for them by the great London newspapers, 
and collections were taken in such churches as St. 
Paul's at Westminster, as well as in Dr. Parker's city 
temple. A great railway strike was settled in a 
few days by like force of public opinion. Exclu- 
sive private control of property is becoming prac- 
tically an obsolete notion in English politics. 

ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH. 

Then the attitude of the English Church aids the 
socialistic propaganda. Not only are the literary 
and university leaders becoming socialistic, the 
Established Church is slowly submitting to the 
ideas which issue in socialism. In fact, in its gen- 
eral attitude to the labor movement, the Church of 
England seems to me far in advance of the non-* 
conformist body. . I cannot see that the non-con- 
formist church cuts much of a figure in the Eng- 
lish social movement. It is acommon remark that 
socialism and High Churchism now go together. 
The leaders of the high church party, such as 
Canon Gore and Canon Holland, are outspoken 
socialists. Pusey House at Oxford is a center of 
socialist propaganda. Of course this socialism is 
bitterly opposed in the Established Church by 
bishops and the like, but is opposed to no purpose. 
It is said by non-conformists that this socialism 
springs from a desire to bring the labor movement 
into the Church, rather than bring the Church to 
the aid of the labor movement. Be that as it may, 
it none the less contributes to the growth of social- 
ism in English labor. 

MOVEMENT BECOMING POLITICAL. 

I should say in the second place that the labor 
movement in England is rapidly becoming more 
political. I think it is the conviction of all the 
labor leaders that their cause can be won only 
through political action. An evidence of this is 
the anxiety of the two great parties to accommo- 
date themselves to the labor movement without 
committing themselves to it. At the present mo- 
ment the Conservative party has the advantage of 
the situation. Standing as it does for the vested 
interests of England, it feels secure in dealing in a 
way that it conceives to be generous with the labor 
people. The Liberal party is slowly disintegrat- 
ing. Having in its ranks both the followers of 
Cobden and the non-conformist manufacturer, 
with his individualistic religious and political 
training, while having on the other side many of 
the social reform people, it is able to present no 
definite program. The group of young leaders 
known as the Young Liberals are seeking to com- 
mit the party to a definite, tho Fabian and limited, 
social program. They feel that both their own 
political futures and the welfare of England de- 
pend upon the union of the younger Liberal forces 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



with the social movement. This element of the 
Liberal party is represented by such men as the 
younger Trevelyau, Mr. Crooks, Mr. Samuels and 
the younger Mr. Gladstone and others. But there 
is no large promise of their success. The Inde- 
pendent Labor party is gaining from the Liberal 
party's lack of leadership and lack of a definite 
program. The Labor party is probably the fore- 
runner of the party that will yet stand for co-opera- 
tive England. 

Of course it would be a great oversight not to 
take account of the great work being done for 
social progress by men and l(bmen all over Eng- 
land who take no definite party names, but faith- 
fully take in hand the next thing to be done. Of 
these are Sidney Webb, the Fabian leader ; Percy 
Alden, of Mansfield House, and a greater multi- 
tude than could be instantly named. 

THE MOVEMENT INTENSELY RELIGIOUS. 

Lastly, I should say the labor movement of 
England is tending to become intensely religious 
or Christian. Materialism and atheism have no 
longer any influence of consequence with English 
labor. To many different leaders in various kinds 
of social reform, as well as to influential and unin- 
fluential labor leaders, I put the question as to the 
position of Jesus in the English labor movement 
as a whole. Not once did the answer fail to be 
that Jesus is the most influential leader in the im- 
mediate future, if not the immediate present. 
This movement of labor towards Jesus does not 
satisfy the Church. In fact the influence of Jesus 
seems to be pervading the people without refer- 
ence to the Church at all. Jesus is appealed to as 
the ultimate social authority by those who are 
antagonistic to the Church, as well as by those who 
take no thought of it. Oftener still He is appealed 
to as the judge of the Church, as one who stands 
for the things which the Church is against, and 
who stands over against the things for which the 
Church stands. This feeling is often unjust to the 
Church. But whether the feeling be right or 
wrong, it is the fact of the present moment. And 
it is no less true that the feeling of English labor 
towards Jesus is deep and genuine as far as it goes, 
and that it is growing. There is everything to hope 
from it. It promises a new sort of revival. The 
leaders of English labor say that if the teachings 
of Jesus could be stated in a definite economic and 
social program, he would sweep England in a 
social crusade which none could resist. 



SAVING A CITY. 



BATTLE FOR REDEMPTION OF GREATER 
NEW YORK. 



Waymarks of the Social Movement Work of the 
Citizens' Union Colonel Waring's Tri- 
umph of Clean Streets. 



The United States Department of Labor is pre- 
paring for publication in an early issue of the Bul- 
letin an account of homes for working girls. Much 
of the information has been derived by assistance 
of the settlements in various cities. 



The settlements have reason to take pride in the 
position and leadership of James B. Reynolds, of 
the University Settlement, at the head of the " Cit- 
izens' Union campaign for civic betterment in 
Greater New York." His cool, firm, far-sighted 
management is attested by those whose inside ob- 
servation x makes them competent to judge. 

The integrity and perpetuation of the well-organ- 
ized and widespread movement for non-partisan- 
ship in municipal administration probably justify 
his insistence upon the nomination of Seth Low 
for mayor, independently of the other anti-Tam- 
many political organizations. The Citizens' Union 
might otherwise have disappeared within the vora- 
cious maw of Boss Platt's machine, which is little 
better than Tammany's. 

Great is the stake at issue. The election of its 
first may or will decide between the use or abuse of 
seventy millions of dollars of public monies not 
only, but the wrong or right start of Greater New 
York toward either the partisan control of its vast 
power or the dedication and development of its in- 
calculable material and social resources to the 
service and uplift of over three millions of people 
who are to constitute the citizenship of the second 
largest city of the world. 

The midsummer campaign in New York is de- 
cidedly picturesque both in its leaders and in its 
literature. It centers socially at the "City Club" 
on Fifth avenue, where, on any of these summer 
evenings, might have been found men of the stand- 
ing of Richard Watson Gilder in the professional 
and business circles of the city, devoting them- 
selves to committee work and remaining in town 
thro their vacations to stand by the great cause. 

THE CITIZENS' UNION. 

The Citizens' Union headquarters in each assem- 
bly district happily offset the Tammany district 
organizations. By polyglot placards, popular 
speeches, free discussions, stereopticon lectures 
and social occasions, appeal is driven home to 
choose between what New York was under the 
boss and gang rule and what it is and may become 
under the non-partisan administration of the city 
for its citizens. Clean streets, public baths, parks 
and playgrounds, municipal ownership of fran- 
chises such are the new battle cries raised here 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



for the first time in American city politics. To ap- 
peal to the imagination, as surely as to the nostrils, 
of a cosmopolitan population like that of New 
York, thro its street cleaning and garbage collect- 
ing department, is the great achievement of Col- 
onel Waring and his White Brigade! But a 
glimpse of him at his City Hall office desk in the 
regimentals of one of his " White Angels," dis- 
patching his college graduate section-foremen to 
the field of never-ending action, shows him to be a 
man of enough brains, enthusiasm and military 
precision to be adequate even for this! Against 
the effective arraignment of Tammany, with the 
"before and after" argument based on Colonel 
Waring's figure and picture facts, its newspapers 
can say nothing, except that "it costs more.'' But 
then it was paying much for nothing, now it pays 
to give more for so much more cleanliness and 
health, so much less dirt, disease and death. 

THE JUVENILE LEAGUES. 

Colonel Waring's " Juvenile Leagues " of boys 
and girls, whom he has rallied to his aid in "try- 
ing to keep the streets clean," have been found so 
useful that they are lo be extended thro the entire 
public school system by the hearty co-operation of 
the Board of Education. Of them he affirms in 
" McClure's Magazine " for September, that they 
are not only " active inspectors of local conditions," 
but '* means of communication and contact with 
the public sentiment of large elements of the com- 
munity." "Then, too," it is well added, "we are 
giving an entirely new and very useful training to 
those who are soon to become the men and women 
of the city. They are being taught that govern- 
ment does not mean merely a policeman to be run 
away from, but an influence which touches the life 
of the people at every point. We are making, it is 
hoped, citizens who will be interested in the city 
and who will do what they can to help improve its 
ways as well as its highways." 



YOU CAN KEEP 

UP TO DATE 



ECONOMIC CONFERENCE. 



We 



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w '" c '' p ' l anc * sen< i it to y u - Rates. $1.00 
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56 Fifth Avenue, CHICAGO 

THEO. WIESE, Manager. 



Program of the Discussions of Municipal Economics 
by Well-Kno\tn Students. 



The fall session of the social economic conference 
under the auspices of Hull House and Chicago 
Commons, will open in the Hull House gymnasium 
Monday evening, October 4, at 8 o'clock, and con- 
tinue four days. The first address, " A Historical 
Survey of Municipalities," will be made by J. 
Ramsay MacDonald, of London, a member of the 
executive committee of the Fabian Society and of 
the administrative council of the Independent 
Labor Party. He has given much study to the 
subject of municipal government, and will have a 
useful word for Chicagoans to hear. Mr. Mac- 
Donald will speak also on Tuesday evening on 
" Moral Gains by Legislative Methods." 

Other speakers will be Mayor Samuel M. Jones, 
of Toledo, Ohio, an old friend of the settlements, 
and one of the latest comers among the reform 
mayors, who will speak of his experiences; Prof. 
J. S. James, former president of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science, on the 
new charter of Greater New York; Prof. John H. 
Gray, of Northwestern University, on " Publicity 
of Public Accounts " ; William Burritt Smith, of 
Chicago, one of the leaders in the Civic Federa- 
tion's battle for the civil service reform here, who 
will speak of the situation in Chicago; Prof. Chas. 
Zueblin, of the University of Chicago, with an 
illustrated address on " Recent Municipal Progress 
in England," and Geo. E. Hooker, of Hull House, 
who, out of several years' study and observation in 
this country and abroad, will speak of " A Munici- 
pal Labor Policy." The hours of the program 
will be as follows: 

Monday, at Hull House. 

8 p. m., Mr. MacDonald. 
Tuesday, at Hull House. 

3 p. m., Prof. Gray; 8 p. m., Mr. MacDonald. 
Wednesday, at Chicago Commons. 

3 p. m., Mr. Smith; 8 p. m., Mr. Jones, Prof. 

Zueblin. 
Thursday, at Chicago Commons. 

3 p. m., Prof. Gray; 8 p. m., Mr. Hooker. 

It is expected that leaders in Chicago's battle for 
better government will be present to participate in 
the discussions, which will be open to all without 
favor. The open discussions are the feature of the 
conferences, and quite as much value is to be 
attached to the general interchange of sentiment 
as to the more formal presentation in the addresses. 
The meetings are, of course, open to all interested 
without charge. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



HEREDITY. 



Why bowest thou, O soul of mine, 

Crushed by ance-tralsin? 
Thou lia.t a noble heritage 

That bids thee victory win. 

The tainted past may bring forth flowers, 

As blossomed Aaron's rod, 
No legacy of sin annuls 

Heredity irom God. 

Lydia Avery Connley in The Arena. 



MARY A PSYCHOLOGICAL SKETCH.* 

[BY JUSTINE STERNS.] 

This is the tale of a small Italian lassie in a slum 
kindergarten, and how she grew; Mary was five 
when she came, chronically hungry and dirty, and 
selfish oh, so selfish ! Possession for possession's 
sake was her rule of conduct. " What's yours is 
mine, what's mine's my own," her motto, and grab- 
bing her occupation. She grabbed anything, every- 
thing not necessarily to use much oftener just 
to hold tight. She not only wanted to possess 
everything, she wanted to do everything. When- 
ever any play was begun on the circle, there was 
straightway a wail from Mary " Teach', I want 
make ! Teach', I want make!" And she had the 
most phenomenal power of sustained weeping ever 
possessed by mortal child. She had evidently been 
brought up to rule by tears, by her ease-loving 
Italian relatives, who doubtless gave her what she 
wanted to stop the crying which annoyed them, 
and which they could stop no other way. She had, 
beside, a wealth of affection, which she knew no 
way to express except by bear-like hugs as high 
up as she could reach, and kisses and pattings 
lavished on the hands of the kindergartners be- 
tween storms. 

For six long months Mary was the champion 
problem of the kindergarten. At first it was nec- 
essary to make sure that hunger was not the root 
of her unlovely ways. Feeding her never reformed 
her, however. After a few months she seemed to 
be properly fed at home. She really needed more 
opportunity for expression of all kinds than the 
average child, she was so full of vitality that had 
never had normal opportunities for expression. 
But nothing short of everything satisfied her. Day 
after day she had to be carried from the morning 
circle, sometimes more than once, because her 
wails rent the air. Day after day there were tem- 
pests at the table by her and by the children she 
abused. 

Day after day the kindergartners strove to have 
Froebel's great, "third something, which is the 
right, the best," to which they were "equally sub- 
ject, rule invisibly " between them and Mary, while 



* From the Kindergarten Magazine, September, 1897. 
[Kindergarten Literature Co , Chicago.] 



they patiently taught her cause and effect, over and 
over and over in a hundred ways. 

She believed in chance, did Mary; that crying 
very long and very hard would probably get her 
what she wanted, though it might not. She could 
not seem to see that when she screamed she was 
always taken from the circle, away from what she 
wanted to do or have. 

All the time she was given what she wanted as 
much as was possible without injustice to the other 
children, or the injustice to herself of yielding to 
her willfulness; and all the time she was led to 
do things for others, that she might forget herself, 
if only for a moment at a time. Still it was impos- 
sible to say that she was less selfish or unreason- 
able. 

In the last month of the six the kindergartner at 
the table bethought herself of the fundamental 
principle that serving brings loving, and loving is 
unselfish and made it concrete for Mary. She 
racked her brains for helpful things that Mary 
could do. Most of all, when she began to express 
selfishness she promptly set her to doing some- 
thing for some one. If there was nothing else 
there was a note to the director of the kindergar- 
ten lying in wait for Mary, in her belt a note 
which said, " Mary needs to serve. Can you give 
her something to do ?" Then she restored what 
MaryTiad snatched away or consoled the slapped 
child. 

It was almost the real Easter time when Easter 
came to Mary her very own Easter. 

When they first noticed that she was changed 
she stood on the circle leaning forward with her 
lips parted in a smile, her usually pale cheeks 
pink with excitement and her eyes shining, watch- 
ing the children play " Old Mother Hen." For the 
first time that any of the kindergartners had ever 
seen, she had wholly forgotten herself in watching 
the pleasure of others. Then, with a miracle-like 
suddenness that one held one's breath to see, she 
grew uentle and loving and reasonable and happy, 
apparently from that moment; not perfect, of 
course, but truly another child from the Mary of 
the week before. 

Bt was like the butterfly bursting its chrysalis 
all those months when the kindergartners could 
not even feel that they were doing right because 
they saw no growth, and then the wonder of hid- 
den growth made visible ! It was like the seed 
that patiently climbs to the surface before we see 
the leaves which prove to us that it has been grow- 
ing. The change was permanent for the short 
time that Mary remained in kindergarten. A pro- 
longed attack of measlf-s a week or two after vaca- 
tion took her out of the kindergarten atmosphere. 

Next year she wil 1 come back and grow strong 
and beautiful in this " soul garden." 



THE COMMONS. 



[ September, 



anfc tty* 



(> ff> - -'-& 
V * 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



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ALL COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 17. 



CHICAGO. 



SEPT. 20, 1897. 



THE latest Plattism in New York is the use by 
Mr. Plait's Governor Black of " university 
settlements " and " university extension " as 
synonymous and interchangeable terms! 



THE striking portrait of Arnold Toynbee 
which adorns our cover for this issue is a re- 
production of that in the Toynbee monograph by 
Mr. Montague, and is used by courtesy of the 
Johns Hopkins University Press. 



LET US keep sweet. In these days of stress 
and friction it is very easy to get into the 
habit of indiscriminate denunciation. And the 
easiest thing of all is to aim our bitterness at those 
who have been merely more successful than we in 
the fearful battle for existence in which so many 
thousands have gone down. Let us be patient, 
knowing full well that no single man or set of men 



is responsible for the great social movements in 
the throes of which we are now tossed about, and 
that especially it comes poorly out of the mouth of 
one who has tried current methods and failed, to 
denounce as " robber " or " thief " him who has tried 
current methods and succeeded. The rich man 
has his griefs and problems as well as the poor 
man, and many a poor man would be willing 
to get rich by the same methods if he could. 
Especially should one who believes that both rich 
and poor are largely victims and products of a 
false and tottering social system refrain from per- 
sonal abuse and denunciation. He, of all others, 
should look beyond the evil to the cause of it, and 
spend his energy in working at that point. Let us 
keep sweet, whatever else we do ! 



RESPONSIBILITY AND AUTHORITY. 

Responsibility and authority must go hand in 
hand. No good work can be done in any field 
where the two are separated. It is the height of 
injustice to hold a worker responsible for a field or 
a work in which he has not freedom of action and 
decision and as nearly as possible absolute author- 
ity as to method and detail. Even in cases where 
he works under a general principle and policy laid 
down for him, his method and its details should be 
left to him alone as long as the responsibility lasts. 
On the other hand with authority should go 
responsibility. The person who decides the policy 
and dictates the method should be held responsible 
for the results. 

There is no field of endeavor to which this prin- 
ciple can be applied more rigidly or with more cer- 
tainty of its justice than that of social settlement 
work. It is no uncommon thing, however, to find 
settlements in which the interference of a govern- 
ing board or committee is almost a bar to good 
work. The distinctive thing about settlement ser- 
vice is the presence upon the needy field of a resi- 
dent group, who through study and experience 
come to understand conditions and needs and to 
devise with intelligence effective means. This can 
be done only by workers living in the midst of 
their " parish " and accommodating their method to 
the experience of need and opportunity. 

This much granted, it becomes obvious that no 
committee or board, living far from the scene of 
labor, and at best only visiting it from time to time, 
can possibly do other than harm by effort to 
restrict or govern the action of the resident work- 
ers. Settlements are in mind at the moment whose 
usefulness is well nigh nullified T)y the constant 
interference in details of the " board of managers." 

Generally speaking, the business of the govern- 
ing board is to outline a general policy, if even 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



9 



that be necessary, and then to keep " hands off." 
Having workers in whom they have confidence, 
they should give them final and entire authority 
during the term of their service, and hold them 
responsible for the effectiveness of their methods 
to the results desired. Their chief energy as a 
superintending and supporting body should be 
devoted to an earnest effort to supply the sinews of 
war, to put into the hands of the resident workers 
the best weapons with which to work, and to cheer, 
and encourage, and support and " back up " those 
workers with heart and hand acd voice. 



NOT BY BREAD ALONE. 

To social workers in the deserts of the great 
cities nothing becomes more apparent than he 
fact that men are seldom if ever saved to better self 
and life by mere material betterment. And con- 
versely none see this fact more clearly than they, 
who day after day endeavor to minister of the 
things of life to needy souls and bodies amid 
degrading conditions. Making every possible allow- 
ance for the absolute necessity of human condi- 
tions in which to live a human life, and bearing in 
mind every possible case in which men have been 
helped to higher things, and even to religion itself, 
by the renovation of outrageous material environ- 
ment, the fact remains incontestable that the high- 
est life also must be fed, and that in the swing of 
the pendulum away from the excessive emphasis 
upon the so-called "religious" aspect of a man's 
life, we are in danger of being carried to the equally 
untruthful and unscientific extreme of emphasis 
upon the mere material aspect. Man is neither a 
disembodied soul nor a soulless body. His life is 
made up of contacts with many kinds of experience, 
and a rational helpfulness takes account of them all. 

SURPRISING only to those who had the temer- 
ity to place dependence upon the pledged 
word of Governor Tanner of Illinois is his removal 
of Mrs. Florence Kelley from the office of State 
Inspector of Factories, which she has so signally 
honored and made effective. It is somewhut dis- 
heartening, however, to find that the appointment 
of her successor surrenders the child labor law into 
the hands of its chief enemy, the glass makers of 
Altou, in whose business children scarcely old 
enough to go to school are employed beside the 
doors of the glass furnaces in a temperature ap- 
proximai ing 1200 degrees of heat. So far as they go, 
the removal and appointment simply add two co- 
ordinate items to a thus far all but unbroken record 
of official mischief. No action that may be taken 
by the friends of ex-Governor John P. Altgeld can 
do so much to vindicate him in the eyes of the 
state and nation as the outrageous conduct of his 
successor. 



WORK on the Bibliography of College, Social 
and University Settlements is well in hand, 
but some question-schedules are still unreturned. 
If any settlement has failed to receive the Hanks, 
it is hoped they will at once notify the editor of 
THE COMMONS. 



rOR any expense and trouble connected with 
the publication in the July issue of THE 
COMMONS of the article illustrating and describing 
the Kansas City " Patch " we are well repaid by 
the assurance that with renewed vigor those who 
lone for the betterment of conditions there are 
buckling to the work for the coming winter. 



PROFESSOR HERRON'S article in this is- 
sue of THE COMMONS on his impressions of 
the English labor movement gives us occasion to 
express the general gratification upon his return to 
this country in reinvigorated health, and to call at- 
tention to the surpassing importance of the fea- 
tures of the English labor movement which he 
emphasizes. The strongly socialistic trend, with 
the assurance that it is anything but materialistic, 
the active entrance of the Church of England into 
the labor movement for its itplift, and best of all, 
the surpassing influence of Jesus Christ upon and 
throughout the movement, must cheer the heart 
of the reader, and renew his courage of outlook 
for this country. 



nOST satisfactory to all interested in the solu- 
tion of labor troubles mu&t be the termina- 
tion of the great strike at Lord Penrhyn's quarries 
in Wales. The strike was notable for the degree 
of public sympathy shown toward the strikers, and 
for his lordship's entire refusal to admit the pro- 
priety of any outside interference in the matter, 
not only by representatives of the workingmen, 
but by the Board of Trade. The result is an un- 
mitigated success for the employes from every 
point of view. Lord Penrhyn concedes the right 
of the men in all controversies to be represented 
by commissioners of their own choosing, and the 
public interest in the case has compelled him to 
recognize the interest of the public in enforcing a 
settlement of a strike which threatens the public 
peace as well as private justice. 



In a previous issue of THE COMMONS mention 
was made of the social studies in the Sunday 
school of the Presbyterian Church of Clyde, N. Y., 
of which Rev. V. N. Yergin is pastor. The work 
goes on with increasing success. Recent topics 
have been "The Gospel and Humanity's Need,' 
"The Christ of To-day," "The Brotherhood of 
Man, and its Consequent Reciprocal Obligations," 
"The Duties of Man." 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



(Ibicago Commone. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will he mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOK, Resident Warden. 



OPENING WINTER ACTIVITIES. 



Good Start for the Various Phases of Work at 
Chicago Commons. 



The outlook for the winter's work at Chicago 
Commons is exceedingly encouraging. The set- 
tlement begins with the largest force of residents in 
its history, and several have been added to the 
permanent nucleus who can assume regular and 
continuous service. The night classes will open 
Monday evening, October 11, and already there is 
large inquiry for particulars, not only by the 
former students, but also by many who are at the 
settlement for the first time. 

The first social of the season was a reception to 
the teachers of the two neighboring, Montefiore 
and Washington, public schools. There was a good 
attendance, and Professor Taylor extended the 
verbal greetings of the occasion, while the women 
residents served tea and wafers. 

OUTLOOK FOR MANUAL TRAINING. 

A special feature of the winter's activity will be 
the classes in sloyd manual training, of which a 



good beginning was made last year. Robert E. 
Todd will be the settlement worker in charge 
and thro the co-operation of Frank H. McCulloch 
of Evanston, Principal Belfield of the Chicago 
Manual Training School, C. B. Bouton, and other 
friends, a larger scope is given to this year's plans 
in this department. In co-operation with the set- 
tlement in this line of work will be the industrial 
school at the Tabernacle Church, of which MissM. 
E. Colman will have charge. 

WITH THE CHILDREN'S CLUBS. 

The faithful band of young folks from Evans- 
ton, who last year aided indispensably in the clubs 
for the neighborhood children, begin their third 
season's work with unabated enthusiasm and with 
even superior definiteness of purpose. The 
children's library will be enlarged, and made avail- 
able for a larger clientele. 

The musical work, with the children's and adult 
classes, will begin the first week in October with 
renewed interest and plans for a much wider scope 
and outreach. 

KINDERGARTEN TRAINING CLASS. 



Good Opening of the New Department of Chicago 
Commons. 

The training class for kiudergartners, under the 
direction of Mrs. Bertha Hofer Hegner, and with 
the assistance of several noted specialists in psy- 
chology, music, and art, opens with a larger attend- 
ance and prospect of success than was dreamed of. 
Eighteen students, regular and special, are en- 
rolled, and not only assure the settlement of plenty 
of efficient assistants for its kindergarten, but lead 
to day-dreams of kindergarten extension in the 
needy neighborhood. 



COMMONS NOTES. 

The fall session of the Commons Kinder- 
garten began with a very full attendance and 
promises the best work. 

A general overhauling of the settlement 
residence at considerable inevitable expense, by 
the way has greatly improved both appearances 
and sanitary condition. 

The Girls' Progressive Club displayed their 

affection for their President, Miss Belle Richard- 
son, by presenting her with an exquisite jewelled 
thimble in token of her approaching marriage. 

-The presence as a resident in the Commons 

of Miss Smith, the head kindergartner in the Tab- 
ernacle kindergarten, insures still further cordial- 
ity of relation and harmony of work between the 
settlement and the church. 

The Matheon day nursery gains in useful- 
ness and popularity. As many as fifty attendances 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



have been reported in recent weeks. The school 
teachers have been able to insure the attendance 
at school of children hitherto compelled to stay at 
home as nurses by recommending the nursery to 
busy mothers. 

The Tuesday evening economic meeting 
opens for the winter October 12 with an address 
by Professor Graham Taylor on "The Need of a 
Positive Programme for the Labor Movement." 
H. L. Bliss will speak on the 19th on " Some Offi- 
cial Statistics," and Clarence S. Darrow on the 
26th on Robert Burns." 



"STRICTLY BUSINESS/' 



Some Financial Considerations Regarding "The 
Commons." 

THE COST of publishing such a paper as THE 
COMMONS is far greater than the superficial ob- 
server would suppose. And when it is attempted 
to publish such a paper without capital, depending 
upon its monthly receipts to pay its printing and 
publishing bills, it becomes self-evident that every 
cent that can be gotten for subscriptions or adver- 
tising is needed at the earliest possible moment, 
and that prompt payment of subscriptions is an in- 
dispensable prerequisite to success. 

If all the overdue subscriptions of " The Commons " 
were paid to-morrow, there would be money enough in 
hand to run the paper for six months without another 
dollar. 

We desire to make this paper truly an exponent 
of the social settlement movement. We want it to 
be, like the true settlement movement, independent 
of money considerations. We want, to put it in the 
hands of every student of social affairs, whether he 
can afford to pay for it or not. We do not want to 
lose a single reader because of inability to pay the 
subscription price. We can do this if every reader 
who can afford to pay does so promptly and in 
full. 

SOME of our friends have felt so much interest in 
the venture of THE COMMONS, and have so far seen 
the possibilities of the paper, as to make payments 
in excess of the actu 1 subscription price. Every 
person who has done this has helped to improve 
the paper, and has enabled us to put it in the hands 
of truly interested persons who are unable to add 
the cost of subscription to their already heavy ex- 
penses. In particular, this applies not only to 
settlement and other workers in the more purely 
social field, but to missionaries on the home and 
foreign fields, pastors in small places who, thro 
THE COMMONS, have been enabled to gain wjder 
view and enthusiasm for their own work, and in- 
deed some help as to method, school teachers 
whose lives have been inspired to larger outlook. 



A few hundred dollars capital for THE COM- 
MONS would put it in the way of doing a wide work 
for social Christianity. But without endowment, 
and without surplus payments on the part of any- 
body, THE COMMONS can pay its way, improve its 
appearance and gain in effectiveness, if every 
reader of the paper who is able to do so will 

PROMPTLY PAY HIS OWN SUBSCRIPTION. 



A FRIENDLY LETTER has been sent this month 
to all whose subscriptions have expired and who 
have sent no notice of renewal or discontinuance, 
presenting the facts above referred to. It is hoped 
that it will be received in the spirit in which it is 
sent, and that all concerned will render the co- 
operation so much needed and so easily made effec- 
tive if all will join hands. 



SEND YOUR COPY OF THE COMMONS to some 
friend who will be interested in it. We shall 
always be glad to send you a copy to take its place. 
And if you know some people to whom you could 
send it, we can send you at any time a parcel of 
sample copies without charge for that purpose. 
Another thing that you can do is to send your par- 
ish or congregation list, with the names checked of 
those who you think would like to see a copy of 
THE COMMONS. We can always send sample 
copies, or copies in which any article desired is 
marked, to a list of your friends. Think a moment 
now whether in this way you cannot TO DAY be of 
service to the cause of the social gospel. WE 

NEED YOUR HELP. 



FOR NEXT MONTH. 



WE SHALL HAVE a particularly valuable issue of 
THE COMMONS next month. There will be a report 
of the Chicago Social Economic Conference, an 
illustrated article on GOODRICH HOUSE, CLEVELAND, 
the best-equipped settlement in the United States, 
in point of building, certainly. There will be a 
fine budget of settlement notes crowded out of 
this issue. And there will be 

A CHRISTMAS OFFER, 

in which all readers of THE COMMONS will be in- 
terested, and of which all will desire to take advan- 
tage. Keep an eye out for the Christmas offer in 
the October issue. It will be of special interest to 

THE CHILDREN. 

CO-OPERATIVE NEWS. An arrangement has been 
made by which both THE COMMONS and The American 
Co-operative News (monthly. " an advocate of voluntary co- 
operation ") , can be secured for a club rate of only 75 cents. 
Present subscribers of THE COMMONS can secure the News 
thro this office for only 40 cents additional. 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



f IRotes of tbe & j* # & <* 
jfc ^ ot Social Settlements 



EAST LONDON. 



'Twas August, and the fierce sun overhead 
Smote on the squalid streets of Bethnal Green, 
And the pale weaver, through his windows seen 

In Spitalflelds, look'd thrice dispirited. 

I met a preacher there I knew and said : 
"111 and o'erworked, how fare you in this scene? '' 
" Bravely ! " said he ; " for I of late have been 

Much cheer'd with thoughts of Christ, the living bread." 

O human soul! as long as thou canst so 

Set up a mark of everlasting light 
Above the howling senses' ebb and flow 
To cheer thee, and to right thee if thou roam 

Not with lost toil thou laborest through the night! 
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy home. 

Matthew Arnold. 



NEW YORK'S PICKET LINE. 



CORDON OF SETTLEMENTS ALONG MAN- 
HATTAN ISLAND. 



Tour of the Social Outposts in the Metropolis Active 
Work of the Churches in this Direction 



[BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR.] 

The location of the settlements and the deploy 
of their forces in New York impress one to whom 
the city is well known with the growth and per- 
manency of the movement. 

To rind a continuous line of settlements, planted 
only a few blocks apart, running through the great 
East Side, from Henry street, within half a mile of 
the City Hall, all the way up to 104th street, is indi- 
cative enough of the hold which the idea has taken 
upon the heart and conscience of the metropolis. 
The very varied classes of people and the widely 
differing impulses found to be so far possessed by 
a common social motive as to start, support, and 
personally co-operate with these entirely independ- 
ent settlements, show them to be the products of a 
spontaneous movement of life, and not at all a 
concerted effort to propagate a certain type of 
institution. Their supporting constituencies are as 
variant as are university men from hospital nurses; 
an Episcopal cathedral from normal school teach- 
ers, a charity society from women's colleges, a 
theological seminary and Woman's Christian Asso- 
ciation from a group whose religious attitude is 
unavowed. The adoption of the settlement method 
by such conservative bodies as one of the oldest 
charity societies in the city and several of the most 



venerable and substantial parishes of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church is surely significant. 

IN THE DENSEST DOWN-TOWN DISTRICT. 

Nowhere does the mere fact of settlement resi- 
dence seem to be so impressive and to stand for so 
much in itself as in densest population of that down- 
town district of New York, where men, women and 
children are massed together in less space than 
anywhere else on earth. A group of four settle- 
ments is located in the midst of the very thicket of 
this bewildering life. Farthest down town, at 265 
Henry street, the Trained Nurses have located their 
residence, and with a high degree of social intelli- 
gence and practical efficiency are doing a wide 
work, which has attracted unusual attention and 
support. Directly in their rear, a worthy represen- 
tative of the McDowell family has taken up her 
abode in a house which she uses for the higher 
interests of the neighborhood. In a still more 
crowded section and only a block or so apart are 
the men's university settlement and the women's 
college settlement. The dingy, well worn, all open 
house of the t former is at 26 Delancy street, of 
which the ever-thronged library and reading rooms 
are the most conspicuous feature, although the 
political influence of the residents in all move- 
ments for municipal progress, dominates their 
work. The light and airy old mansion of 95 Riv- 
ington street has long been, not only the home of a 
brilliant group of college women and the center of 
every elevating influence exerted upon the home 
and social life of that vast neighborhood, but also 
the source of the higher inspiration and effort of 
the alumnae of many colleges scattered all over the 
country. 

Off nearer the river, at 130 Stanton street and 153' 
Essex street, are the buildings of the Pro-Cathedral, 
in which Bishop Potter has started the " Commu- 
nity House," where he has himself temporarily 
resided, with the clergy and other parish workers 
whom he has permanently located there. 

THE MIDDLE GROUP OP SETTLEMENTS. 

The middle group of settlements occupy the 
field lying between Eighth and Thirty-fifth streets 
and have been established by three churches. 
Midway between their magnificent temples on 
Broadway and on Fourth avenue, the Grace and 
Calvary Episcopal parishes have established the 
settlement features of their work in connection 
with their chapels and missions. The noble group 
of buildings on 14th and 13th streets near First 
avenue, which, in his Year Book, Rector Hunt- 
ingtpn says has come to be called Grace Chapel 
Settlement, provides among its many fine equip- 
ments for social service, ample accommodations 
for the residence of the vicar and his family and 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



the staff of assistants, now numbering six. Cal- 
vary church supplements its chapel midway on 
23d street, and its great Galilee Mission nearer the 
docks, with a settlement house on 22d street in 
the rear of the latter, where not only the clerical 
deacons of the parish, but the members of the 
order of deaconesses serving there to, are to reside 
with a House-Mother. Dr. Parks, who founded 
St. Peter's House, Philadelphia, has introduced 
this feature in assuming charge of his great New 
York parish. 

The Park Presbyterian church is making over 
its mission at 314 East 35th street into the "Phelps 
Settlement " with resident clergymen and other 
workers. 

In or near this same territory, without settlement 
residents or title, All Souls' P. E. church has its 
"Friendly Aid House;" St. George's, its great 
Morgan parish building, and St. Bartholomew's, 
its originally large, but now vastly enlarged, 
parish house, with the most varied, well equipped 
and popular social organizations that are tributary 
to any church work in the country. 

SEVEN UP-TOWN SETTLEMENTS. 

The up-town group of seven settlements cover a 
wide range of territory and method. " Hartley 
House " was established only a year ago as an 
industrial settlement under the direction of the 
Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor. 
It already owns and uses three houses centering at 
413 West 46th street for manifold purposes, one of 
them for work-rooms to which needy and deserving 
women are sent for employment. Four women are 
in residence, one of whom is a trained nurse, and 
another an instructress in home-keeping, which is 
a prominent feature of work here. 

The " West Side " settlement at 453 West 47th 
street is an adaptation of the Young Women's 
Christian Association work to settlement methods. 

In an attractive building called " Association 
House," equipped with exceptionally good bath- 
ing facilities, the Riverside Association prosecutes 
its work at 259 West 69th street. While without 
provision for residents, two of its workers live in 
the immediate neighborhood and devote their 
whole time to its service. 

Out of one of the New York Kindergarten Asso- 
ciation's Schools, the Normal College "Alumnoe 
Settlement " has grown at 446 East 72d street. 

In a fine old mansion on a charming site upon 
the banks of the East River at the foot of 76th 
street, tl>e "East Side House" is thoroughly well 
established with an unusually mature body of resi- 
dents and influential supporting constituency. The 
up-town branch -of the Nurses' Settlement on 
Henry street, is at work at 312 East 78th street. 

The " Church Settlement Society " of the P. E. 



Church of the Redeemer has recently removed 
from Avenue A to buildings at 88-83d street and 
on 84th street, where its work is based on "the pro- 
mulgation of Christianity as a first principle." 

Last, but by no means least in its opportunity, 
especially for reflex influence, is the settlement of 
the Union Theological Seminary. Although furth- 
est up-town, yet the neighborhood of its house, 237 
East 104th street, is so populous that one of its best 
services is the maintenance of a spacious play- 
ground for the children and youth of the district. 
Its residents are chiefly, though not exclusively, 
students, preparing for the ministry in the semi- 
nary, from among whose professors and givers 
have come its founders and supporters. 
MR. GILDER'S ESTIMATE. 

Speaking of the work centering at these fourteen 
settlements for the city of New York, Mr. Richard 
Watson Gilder, editor of the Century Magazine and 
prominent in all recent efforts for civic betterment, 
remarked to the writer: " It is so invaluable that I 
wonder how we ever got along without it. " 



NEEDS IN BALTIMORE. 



Plea for a Larger House for the Settlement and Its 
Growing Constituency. 

The Baltimore Daily News reports the Hull Street 
settlement as greatly in need of a larger building. 
The Brown Memorial church is bearing the ex- 
pense of the settlement kindergartner, and fifty 
children are cared for daily. The departments of 
work now actively in hand include spiritual, physi- 
cal (under this head a strong social purity move- 
ment is making), industrial, educational and social. 
The two permanent residents, Mrs. Diawoodie and 
Mrs. M. D. Gardner, devote their time to the work 
daily, and during the past year have made nearly 
700 personal calls. The clubs and classes will open 
for the winter about October 1. During the sum- 
mer 108 children were given outings under the 
direction of the settlement and with the aid of the 
fresh-air fund conducted by the News. 



YOUNG WOMEN'S SETTLEMENT. 



Ne\JEiTort of Y. W. C. A. in New York's East Side 
District. 



The Young Women's Settl-meut at No. 163 Ave- 
nue B, New York, has taken no measures to ad- 
vertise its existence, but its presence is already 
felt in that neighborhood, and its purposes are be- 
coming known abroad. It aims, says the Christian 
City, to do settlement work from a definitely Chris- 
tian standpoint. It will link itself with the col- 
leges on the one hand, and on the other will minis- 
ter in all practicable ways to the girls and women 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[September, 



of the district in which it is located. The resident 
workers at present are Miss C. I. MacColl, state 
secretary of the Y. W. C. A., Miss Bertha Conde 
and Miss Sara L. Carson, general evangelist of the 
Y. W. C. A. Enlarged plans are awaiting the fall 
for fuller development, but even during the sum- 
mer months a work of definite value has been con- 
ducted by those earnest young women. 



SCHOOL-HOUSE LECTURES. 



Suggestion to Settlement Having Influence to Secure 
Use of School Building*. 



To settlements having access to school buildings 
and halls, a highly suggestive and useful hand- 
book would be the bound copy of the "Bulletins of 
Free Lectures to the People " issued under the 
auspices of the New York city board of education. 
It contains the outline of the free courses carried 
on for the third year so successfully in New York 
city school-houses last winter. The long list of 
subjects not only shows the scope that a popular 
course of lectures can be given in the interest of 
extended education, but provides a fruitful source 
of suggestion to those arranging either courses or 
single lectures. Henry M. Leipsiger, M. D., who 
can be addressed in care of the board of education, 
has had the conduct of these courses in charge, 
and will doubtless be glad to afford any desired 
information. 

NEW BOSTON SETTLEMENT. 



St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Preparing to Open a 
Work on Decatur Street. 



St. Stephen's Church, Boston, is announced as 
about to open a settlement on Decatur street. It is 
to be distinctively a church work, and three minis- 
ters, Messrs. Brent, Torbert and Dennen, will reside 
on the field. The first-named, Rev. Charles H. 
Brent, is rector of the church, and will be head of 
the settlement. He has been in London all sum- 
mer studying methods at Oxford House in Bethnal 
Green. The building to be occupied is to be built 
for them by the Episcopal City Mission, and all 
the religious purpose of the church will be com- 
bined with the social work of the settlement. 



Space is available for only a brief mention of 
the highly successful, fresh-air " Camp Good Will," 
maintained by residents of Oak Park. A large 
number of families from crowded city quarters 
were given a week or two of camp life in tents to 
their great enjoyment and benefit. 



An interesting issue of the Musee Social's 
Ctrcul<iire, under date of August 30, 1897, contains 
an article descriptive of Toynbee Hall, London, 
under the title, "Un Settlement Anglais; Notes sur 
Toynbee Hall." 






Sifce-Xicjbt Sfeetcbes 



IT WILL interest readers to know that " Mary," 
the heroine of the child study sketch on another 
page, is a well-loved member of Chicago Commons 
kindergarten. 

WHEN early in the present administration in 
New York a woman in the Five Points dis- 
trict was heard to say to another: " Well, I don't 
care, my street is cleaner than yours is, anyhow," 
it was felt that the battle was won. 



IF I could only get to Peoria," said a settlement 
neighbor, "1 could make my husband support, 
me. They have a law there that puts a man 
in jail when he doesn't support his family. I know 
this because four of my gentlemen friends are in 
jail in Peoria for that very same thing." 



A GRINDER of emery wheels in Chicago recently 
was ordered by the factory inspector to put in 
" blowers " to keep the fatal emery dust out of the 
lungs of the workers. A sufficient number of 
blowers were contracted for and would have been 
put at their life-saving work within a week or two. 
Then Governor Tanner removed Mrs. Kelley and 
appointed a successor with different sympathies 
and widely differing methods. Immediately the 
contract for the blowers was annulled and the 
employes in that factory will continue to sacrifice 
their lives to the absolutely fatal dust of the emery- 
wheels. 

SCIENTIFIC VALUE OF THE SOCIAL SET- 
TLEMENT.* 

[BY HERMAN F. HEGNER.] 

It is fifteen years since Toynbee Hall, the first 
university settlement, was founded. The Univer- 
sity Extension movement took root in the English 
universities about the same time, and both were the 
result of a dawning democratic spirit in the social 
evolution of England. Arnold Toynbee went to 
live in the terrible Whitechapel district to show 
the wcrkingmen, by social experimentation and 
judicious teaching, how the wise application of 
economic knowledge could raise their standard of 
living and begin to solve the problems that stared 
them in the face. He builded better than he 
knew. The people refused his science of political 
economy, but accepted him. He gave what he 
was as well as what he had. After Toynbee's 
death, Canon Barnett and others founded Toynbee 
Hall in memory of his devotion, and made this idea 

* Abstract by Mr. Hegner of his article under he same 
title in the American Journal of Sociology, for September, 
1897. [University of Chicago Press.! 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



of the sharing of personality and life the central 
principle of the settlement movement. 

A SETTLEMENT DEFINITION. 

Some idea of the present status of this movement 
can be obtained from the expressions made by the 
most hard working residents of the principal 
settlements. These may be summed up into the 
following statement, which might almost serve as 
a definition: 

The social settlement, being in no wise Utopian 
or institutional in its aims, but empirical, recipro- 
cal and broadly religious in its method, plants it- 
self at the point of greatest need in the modern 
city, to make life more wholesome and sincere, the 
environment more elevating and to mediate be- 
tween the alienated classes, by making a sincere 
effort toward adding the social function to democ- 
racy. 

The method of the social settlement is scientific 
because it takes society as it finds it, and 

1. It tries to understand it by studying the real 
facts and the social forces of the community. 

2. It attempts to improve the social environment 
by accelerating the processes of social evolution. 

3. It tries to test economic and social laws by 
actual experimentation. 

TWO PERSISTENT EFFECTS. 

The residents of a social settlement try to pre- 
serve and perpetuate good traits of character in 
their neighborhood, and so at once become stu- 
dents of ethical standards. It is not very long be- 
fore an inside knowledge of the real facts modify 
their ideas of the ethics of their neighbors. This 
accounts largely for two characteristics of social 
settlements: 

1. The residents who remain any length of time 
generally change their social point of view. 

2. There is a remarkable difference in the char- 
acter of the work and life of the different settle- 
ments. 

There are two methods of carrying on the settle- 
ment work the organized and the unorganized. 
The organizations already in the neighborhood are 
studied to develop their social possibilities and 
make them wholesome. New organizations at the 
settlement aim to supply a need that has not al- 
ready been supplied. Those who believe in the 
settlement method of social service are fearful of 
any tendency to institutionalize the work. So no 
new organizations are forced upon the people, but 
the settlement tries to help wake up the organiza- 
tions already there, and make them do the work of 
sweetening the neighborhood. 

AN OPEN CLEARING HOUSE. 

The idea of an open clearing house for the fair 
exchange of privileges and thought lies at the bot- 



tom of the educational and industrial meetings. 
The classes supply the need of those whose long 
hoi' s of labor in the shops and factories have rob- 
bed their lives of the intellectual and social ele- 
ment. So instruction is made as sociable as possi- 
ble. The industrial meetings at Chicago Com- 
mons, whose motto is: "All welcome Free Floor 
No Favor! " bring together the moat extreme 
radicals, who here have the extremes rubbed from 
their theories. Although these debates seem very 
shocking to those who hear them for the first time, 
those who have observed them longest have noticed 
a hopeful spirit of toleration come even to the 
most radical thinkers. Such a result as this cer- 
tainly has in it a suggestion for the future safety 
of society. 

This function of a social clearing house, where 
rich and poor can stand on common ground and 
find that they are all brothers after all, is the ideal 
for which the settlement stands, while discovering' 
the inside facts of society so as to co-ordinate and 
direct the social forces, answers the demand for 
scientific method. 



THE PROMISED LAND. 



I TUNE "BEULAH LAND."] 

Our weary years of wandering o'er, 

We greet with joy this radiant shore; 

The Promised Land of Liberty, 

The dawn of Freedom's morn we see. 

O Promised Land, we enter in, 

With " Peace on earth, good will to men; " 

The "Golden Ag^ " now comes again, 

As breaketh every bond and chain; 

While every race and sect and clime 

Shall equal share in this glad time. 

Toilers in many fields have come 

Witli sheaves for this our " Harvest Home," 

While spirits true in every age 

Have won for us thK heritage. 

O golden dawn, O promised day, 

When error's lost in truth's clear ray, 

When all shall know that God is Love, 

His Kingdom here, around, above, 

The world one equal brotherhood, 

And evil overcome with good. 

Then onward march in truth's crusade, 
Earth's faltering ones implore our aid, 
The children of our schools and State 
This coming of the Lov ng * ait. 
O doubting ones! O tempted ones! 
The shadows fade, the sunshine comes; 
Freedom for each is best for all, 
The "Golden Rule " our butrle call; 
And as to victory on we move, 
The banner over us is Love. 

Dedicated by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, to the Intel-na- 
tional Council of Women. 



Under Toronto date of September 17, this note 
was printed in the Chicago Record: At the Domin- 
ion Trades Congress at Hamilton to-day this reso- 
lution was adopted, three to one: 

Rexolved, That we urge our members to continue their 
warfare against Sunday work, remembering that if six men 
work seven days they do the work of seven men in six days; 
therefore every time six men work Sunday they are taking 
the bread out of the mouth of one fellow- workman. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



[September, 



Ube 



4 ; 



of Brotberboofc * 
in Xife anfc Xabor 



[FOR THE COMMONS.] 

NO ONE COULD TELL. 



[BY ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY.] 

No one could tell me where my Soul might be. 

I searched for God but he eluded me. 

I sought my Brother out and found all three. 



"BUSINESS IS NOT BUSINESS." 



Dr. Nchemiah Boynton's Stirring Words on the Chris- 
tian Employer. 



A splendid ring there is of Christian manhood 
"and Christian outlook in the outline for the uniform 
prayer-meeting topic on " The Christian Employer 
and his Employe," by Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, 
recently published in The Advance. It speaks out 
the new gospel of business in a style that will not 
please those who think Jesus " should remain upon 
the Mount of Transfiguration," and keep out of the 
" practical business " of today. It flies in the 
face of the commonest maxim of the " practical 
business man," with this fearless opening chal- 
lenge: 

" Business is no longer business, for which let us 
be duly grateful. Business is good will, brother- 
hood, character; it is the expression in the marts 
of trade of real manhood; the proofs of success- 
ful business are increasingly moral rather than 
the money values, and ' merchant princes ' are 
being esteemed more in terms of their worth than 
of their wealth." 

"There is a new business," declares Dr. Boyn- 
ton, "just as there is a 'new theology,' a 'new 
psychology,' a 'new science,' a 'new world'; it 
springs from a broader conception of relationship, 
the roots of which are imbedded in those two divine 
conceptions, the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man. The religious man never before, 
since the morning stars sang together^ has had 
such an opportunity to bring the kingdom of God 
into the kingdom of commerce. 

"The Christian principle settles at once, for the 
Christian employer, all questions about what he 
can afford to do for his help, what sort of places he 
will provide in which they shall work, what wages 
he shall pay, and what personal interest he shall 
have in those for whom he provides the opportunity 
of bread-winning. 

" Can he afford to do business at a loss? To 
keep his help when it is unprofitable? That is a 
question of stewardship, like every other. In 



some instances the loss absolves him from 
Christian responsibility. In others it only makes 
his responsibility more distinct and emphatic! 

"Does this make a visionary and an impracticable 
man? Would the commerce of the world, operated 
in such a spirit, be in hopeless and utter confusion 
in a twelvemonth? Oh, for such confusion! A 
general has some other relation to his soldiers 
besides leading them in battle; a teacher, if true, 
will do more for the student than hear him recite; 
a minister will do more for his parish than preach 
on Sunday. Each will supply a personal equa- 
tion, which will be superior and effective, as the 
life it expresses is committed to the highest 
ideals. 

"A Christian employer is so far from being an 
exception that he is a conspicuous illustration of 
the principle. Let him live beneath the full 
strength of his principle, and whether he pays 
wages high or low, whether his factory* is ancient 
or modern, whether he accepts profit-sharing 
or encourages insurance and benefit organiza- 
tions, his help will feel the nobility of his purpose, 
the honor of his character, the sympathy of his 
spirit." 

Turning then to the "domestic servant problem," 
Dr. Boynton reaches the seat of the difficulty with 
this home thrust to the women who have con- 
tracted the " new disease " of distraction about 
their servants: 

" Not every Christian lady takes her religion 
with her as she goes to the kitchen to give her or- 
ders for the day. The quality of service in our 
homes is to be improved not by academies of de- 
portment and cooking schools alone, but by a 
Christian interest on the part of the housekeepers 
in those who wait upon them. Surely a more 
genuine interest in the well-being of the servant, 
her tastes as well as her morals, on the part of 
the Christian mistress, would not only ameliorate 
many a distressing situation, but would practically 
solve many a vexed question of relationship." 



KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN 




IN THE OCTOBER NUMBER 

OF.... 



Tb6 Commons 



OF SPEClflL, INTEREST TO THE, 

CHILDREN 



THE COMMONS 

H flDontbl\? 1RecorJ> 2>e\>ote& to Bspects of life ano labor from tbe Social Settlement point of ItMew. 



Whole Number J8. 



CHICAGO. 



OCTOBER, 1897. 



THE NEW ENVOYS. 



BY ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY. 
I. 

See the chasm between rich and poor ever widen- 
ing, 

The newly-invented millionaire and tramp mark- 
ing the greatest stretch ; 

More charities, but less fellow-feeling; more pat- 
ronage, but less sympathy. 

If disdain hardly cares to hide itself on one side, 
can we wonder if we detect hate and envy on 
the other? 

And yet even envy and hatred may be in part puri- 
fied by a sense of injustice, of righteous indig- 
nation, of a common cause. 

What God hath joined, man is putting asunder. 

We are cutting an ugly gash in the flesh of 
humanity, and are slowly waking to the naked 
shame. 

II. 

But how bravely and tenderly nature seeks to heal 
the ghastliest wound, 

Tissue striving to knit itself to tissue, 

Muscle, sinew, flesh doing their best to bridge the 

abyss, 

oping outward tentatively, longing to meet a 
like growth from the other side, and once 
more to help mould all together in the old 
union ! 

And so with us, behold the first envoys of recon- 
ciliation, 

Young men and women leaving ease and comfort 
and idleness to live in the slums of our great 
cities. 

Sacrificing self, because they cannot do otherwise, 

Yet living gladly, finding new, undreamt-of joys in 
life. 

See in far Russia one nobleman after another don- 
ning the peasant's sheepskin, working in the 
fields, "going to the people;" 

And so in Prussia, the rich land-owner marrying a 
peasant woman, sending his children to the 
village school, delighting in a new-found sense 
of brotherhood; 

In Belgium the young baron insisting on sitting in 
the patrician Senate in a labourer's blouse, 
proud only of his manhood; 

In England the University don throwing up his 
fellowship, exchanging it for a real fellowship, 
choosing to share a workman's cottage, tilling 
a market garden, preaching simplicity and 
fraternity, writing books that will live. 

III. 

" Fools," says the world, " harboring a false senti- 
ment and then absurdly overdoing it; 



Degenerates, mattoids, cranks, at least unbal- 
anced; " 

Nay, say rather strong types and symbols of the 
fellowship to be; 

Taking upon themselves the sins of their age, 

Leaping into the chasm that it may close behind 
them, 

Overdoing, perhaps, but what a glorious overdoing 
it is; how necessary as a graphic protest 
against the wrongs that be, how well designed 
to arrest the mind of the delirious world and 
shake it from its dreams! 

I love them all with their sheepskins and blouses 
and peasant wives and children 

Love them as the heralds of the coming time, as 
the vigorous, homely, exaggerated words of 
destiny. 

Such were the prophets of old, 

Preaching the word of the Lord in their deeds, 

Fitting the symbol to the lesson as they walked the 
streets, 

Living epistles read of all men 

Nay, such was the Master, Himself, Who for our 
sakes became poor, that we through His pov- 
erty might be rich. 

In "The New Age," London, 



GOODRICH SOCIAL SETTLEMENT. 



Origin and History of the New Work in Cleveland 

A Beautiful New Building with Which to Equip 

a Large and Much-Needed Activity. 



[BY REV. STARR CADWALLADER, HEAD RESIDENT.] 

The Goodrich Social Settlement, in Cleveland, 
is unique among American settlements in that 
it is the first of the settlements to possess at the 
time of its organization a building of considerable 
size, constructed expressly for its use. The posses- 
sion of such a building presents difficulties and im- 
poses responsibilities which were appreciated, at 
least in part, by those who planned for such a 
thing and made it possible. The settlement was 
incorporated May 20, 1897. The articles of incor- 
poration state that, " The purpose for which this 
corporation is formed is to provide a center for 
such activities as are commonly associated with 
Christian social settlement work." The incorpo- 
ration was made to facilitate the work to be carried 
on in and through Goodrich House, a building 



THE COMMONS. 



[ October, 



erected at a cost of more than $80,000 by Mrs. 
Samuel Mather. 

THE ORIGINAL WORK. 

Work had been going on for two years, which 
demonstrated the fact that something might be ac- 
complished in the downtown district of Cleveland 
along such lines as are followed by settlements in 
other cities. The need for such effort was soon 
evident. The possibility of organizing and main- 
taining boys' clubs was shown by Mr. and Mrs. E. 
W. Haines, who brought together boys from the 
street and formed them into clubs, which increased 
in membership during two or three years to about 
200. This was done under circumstances not par- 
ticularly favorable. The rooms obtainable for a 
meeting place were unattractive and poorly ven- 
tilated; nevertheless, the boys came. The greatest 
difficulty was that of finding helpers who could or 
would serve with regularity. A sewing school for 
girls had drawn a considerable number of pupils 
for some two or three years. Last winter the name 
" Saturday Club " was given to this gathering, and 
its program was extended to include recreation in 
addition to the instruction in sewing. In April, 
1895, a guild for women, having for its object mu- 
tual helpfulness, was organized from the remnants 
of a mothers' meeting. 

These activities were carried on under the au- 
spices of the First Presbyterian Church until Good- 
rich House was finished,when they were transferred 
thither to be conducted under its management. 
These activities, together with one of the kinder- 
gartens of the Cleveland Day Nursery and Free 
Kindergarten Association, for which a room had 
been provided, formed the nucleus for work when 
the house was formerly opened, May 20, 1897. 

NEW SUMMER FEATURES. 

The summer months have not been favorable for 
any great extension of organization, but a few new 
features have been added. A vacation club, for 
girls from eleven to fourteen years of age, offered 
both recreation and instruction to its forty-four 
members on two forenoons of each week during 
July and August. A club for young women, with 
a membership of thirty, has been started. Two 
classes in singing and a class in stenography have 
had a good average attendance each week. 

Beside the four residents who were in the house 
at the time of opening, two students from Adelbert 
College have been in residence, one for two months 
and the other for three months. A few visitors 
have also come, each staying for a few days. 
Among the outside helpers in the vacation work 
were five or six young women from the College for 
Women. 

We realize that this is a beginning only, and that 
development will come and character will be given 



to this settlement, as the personality of those now 
identified with Goodrich House, or of those who 
will be in the future, impresses itself upon the life 
of the house and of the neighborhood. 

This article is intended to give a description of 
the house rather than an account of what has been 
done in it. 

THE HOME OF THE SETTLEMENT. 

Goodrich House is located on the corner of St. 
Clair and Bond streets, in the " down-town " dis- 
trict. This district, to outward appearances, is not 
so densely populated as some other parts of Cleve- 
land. There is, however, much crowding of fami- 
lies into two or three rooms. There is also much 
that is very bad from a sanitary point of view. The 
population is, for the most part, English-speaking. 

The house itself is a substantial building of 
impervious brick and terra-cotta, with a frontage 
of 122 feet on St. Clair street and 97 feet on Bond 
street. The design is Gothic, ornamented with 
Spanish renaissance detail. Building was begun 
in April, 1896, and the building was completed, 
ready for occupancy, in June, 1897. The building 
consists of basement, first, second and third stories. 
The interior is finished throughout in oak. The 
side walls and ceilings are painted in plain, har- 
monious colors. The general impression is one of 
cleanliness and roominess. The building cannot 
remain standing long without proving, even of 
itself, a beneficial influence. 

Over the inner doorway, on the St. Clair street 
side, are two inscriptions. The words of the one 
are from Abraham Lincoln: " With firmness in the 
right as God gives us to see the right ; " the other 
from John Hay: " He who would rule must first 
obey." 

On the first floor are the reading room and 
library, the gymnasium, the restaurant, the kitchen, 
the kindergarten and the kitchen garden rooms. 
The reading room and library, large and well 
lighted, is fitted with reading tables, paper racks 
and book cases. An arrangement has been made 
with the public library whereby such books as are 
needed for circulation at Goodrich House are fur- 
nished by the library. 

The gymnasium has a floor space 40 x 46 feet. 
The apparatus is so arranged that it can be easily 
removed to change the gymnasium into an audience 
room with a seating capacity of about 300. A stage 
and two dressing rooms provide for entertainments. 

The restaurant is the corner room, lighted from 
two sides by casement windows. It is used as yet 
largely as a dining room for the residents and as a 
refreshment room for club meetings and enter- 
tainments. Opening out of the restaurant is the 
kitchen, conveniently arranged and with ample 
shelf and cupboard space. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



The kindergarten is a room 30 x 34 feet. Cases 
fitted in the walls are large enough to contain all 
supplies. A number of excellent pictures make 
the room attractive. The tiles about the fireplace 
depict rural scenes in which domestic animals and 
children occupy a prominent place. The kitchen 
garden consists of three rooms kitchen, dining 
room and bedroom, affording an opportunity for 
practical instruction in housekeeping. 

In the basement are locker room with 340 lock- 
ers, shower-bath room, bowling alley, washroom, 
engine and boiler rooms and a laundry, and an open 
court with concrete floor and flower beds on either 
side afford a " basement garden." 

LAUNDRY ROOM FOR ALL. 

The other part of the basement which is of 
special interest is the laundry, open at a nominal 
price to the women of the neighbor- 
hood. This is fitted with sets of tubs, 
each supplied with hot and cold water 
and a steam coil for boiling. A steam 
drier provides for the quick drying. 
The usefulness of this laundry is yet 
to be demonstrated. Women of the 
neighborhood will be enabled to re- 
move the unsanitary processes of 
washing and drying from already over- 
crowded home space and sleeping 
rooms. 

On the second floor are four class 
rooms, a game room, two club rooms, 
two office rooms, a parlor, a small 
reception room,, a sitting room, and 
bath rooms. The bath rooms on this 
floor are fitted with porcelain lined 
tubs, and are designed for the use of 
women and girls. Something of the 
value of the club rooms and parlor as 
a social meeting place has been shown already. 
The finished part of the third floor is divided into 
rooms for residents. At present accommodation 
can be offered to about twelve persons. 

ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE IDEA. 

It is fitting in this article, practically the first 
general announcement in regard to Goodrich House, 
that a word be said concerning the thought which 
Mrs. Mather had in mind when she erected the 
building and gave it a name. The House is the 
result of a plan which was developed and modified 
in various particulars after the consideration of 
several years. Originally the sole idea was to 
provide a place where the parish work of the First 
Presbyterian Church could be enlarged, as the 
work of a church so situated might be. To find 
a suitable site in the immediate vicinity of the 
church proved a difficult matter. As time went 
on, each year showed more convincingly that the 



field was too large for any one church to care for, 
and that opportunity was offered for many workers 
of varied gifts. Finally the present location for 
the building was fixed upon. Meanwhile the 
settlement idea had been growing and proving its 
worth wherever conducted in the right spirit. This 
led to the conviction that the field here was one 
where a settlement might be more useful than a 
parish house. 

HOW IT WAS NAMED. 

A name for the building was not far to seek. 
Twenty-five years ago Rev. Dr. William H. Good- 
rich was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. 
Dr. Goodrich was a man of delightful personality, 
who combined broa.d culture with deep sympathy 
for humanity, and took the greatest interest in the 
welfare of this locality. His name, suggestive of 




GOODRICH HOUSE, CLEVELAND. 



much that harmonizes with settlement ideals, could 
be applied with peculiar appropriateness to a home 
devoted to settlement work. 
Cleveland, October, 1897. 



GOSPEL'S SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE. 



Striking Passage from a Rochester Pastor's Letter 
to His People. 



The fact that the social gospel is to be preached 
in Brick Church (Presbyterian), Rochester, N. Y., 
this winter needs no further announcement than 
in the words of this extract from W. R. Taylor's 
pastoral letter to his parish, published in the last 
issue of the church paper, Brick Church Life: 

" This year I come back especially impressed 
with the social significance of that supreme event 
the Incarnation; with the duties which the life of 



4 



THE COMMONS. 



[October, 



the Divine Man shows us we owe to each other as 
friends and neighbors, as partners and competitors, 
as employers and employed, as more favored by 
circumstances and Divine endowment, and less 
favored, as brothers all, sons of one loving Father. 

" The inward, Godward, private and personal 
side of religion must ever be that with which we 
must start. To it we must ever recur. But to stop 
there is to lose even that which we have. Love to 
God is a living root of which love to man is the 
growth. If the second does not appear, it is proof 
that the first is dead. 

" The great need of our day is that men should 
have it disclosed to them to what an extent the 
selfishness of our business and social life has en- 
croached upon and strangle!! Christian love, and 
stayed the advance of the Kingdom of God upon 
earth." 



In the quarter century since the death of George 
Peabody his magnificent gift of $2,500,000 for 
workingmen's houses in London has increased to 
$6,000,000. It is stated that in these houses the 
death-rate of infants is four per cent, below the 
average death-rate in London. Last year the 
trustees of the Peabody Fund provided over 11,000 
rooms, besides bath-rooms, lavatories and laundries; 
nearly 20,000 persons occupied them. 



MDNDN ROUTE 



p))QlltAOO.|l<DIAIUPOtlSf-|oillSVII.U ftAIUVAY 



THB DIRBOT 



JlETlf'EEN 



Chicago 

Indianapolis 
Cincinnati 



AND ALL 
POINTS 
SOUTH 



THROUGH SLEEPERS TO CINCINNATI AND WASHINGTON DAILY 



FRANK J. REED, G. P. A. 
CITY TICKET OFFICE. 232 CLARK ST. 
CHICAGO. 



[For THK COMMONS.] 
OUR REPUBLIC. 

[Bv EMMA PLAYTEK SEABURY.] 
Yes, we are great, but greater have decayed: 

Dead is the nation's soul, and gorged with greed. 
That lias not listened when its people prayed. 

Or heard their cry and gave no heed. 



AN APPEAL OF COAL MINERS. 



Starving Families la the Spring: Valley District 
Who Must be Helped. 



The following letter will be self-explanatory: 
UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, 

LOCAL JSo. 43. 

SPRING VALLEY, ILL , Oct. 11, 1897. 
AN APPEAL. 

To all Trades Unions and Labor Organizations of 
America: 

On July 4, 1897, the miners of Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia were 
called out on strike to resist a reduction in wages, 
which was then below a living wage. 

At a conference of miners held in Columbus, 
Ohio, September 9, it was decided that all miners, 
who could secure the scale price, resume work at 
once, and by this action Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
Indiana resumed work, as the operators in those 
states had consented to pay the scale of wages 
demanded by the miners, and as the operators of 
this district have refused to pay the price demanded 
for mining, it has left the miners of this district to 
fight the battle alone for a living wage, which we 
cannot do without the assistance of a sympathetic 
public. 

In the district of Spring Valley, Illinois, where 
there are two thousand miners, we have eight hun- 
dred families on the relief fund at present, and the 
same is increasing daily. 

We therefore appeal to all trades unions and 
labor organizations, and to all others who can, to 
assist us financially in our battle for a wage that 
will allow miners to live as American workingmen 
should live. 

During the year from May 1, 1896, to May 1, 
1897, the average wages of the miners in this dis- 
trict was 87 cents per day. From this the opera- 
tors propose to reduce the miners 21 per cent., 
which all fair-minded people can see is impossible 
for men to live at such wages, and as the result of 
such conditions there are hundreds of families in 
this district on the verge of starvation. 

We therefore issue this appeal to our fellow-men 
to assist us in this great struggle for justice and 
the right to live as human beings should live. 

All donations of money or provisions can be sent 
to Michael Stanton, Spring Valley, Illinois, Box 98, 
and the same will be acknowledged through the 
local press, and each association or others donat- 
ing money or provisions will be sent a copy of the 
same. Signed, 

JAMES S. RICHARDS, 

Pres. Local Union 43. 
JAMES THOMAS CRYOR, 
G. M. SCHMIDT, 

, , - N , E. M. HENDRTCKS, 

j SEAL ( AUGUST REVENISS, 

' , ^ ' JOHN R. EVANS, 

JOHN BILLARD, 

Committee. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



MUNICIPAL ECONOMICS, 



DISCUSSED AT THE SOCIAL - ECONOMIC 
CONFERENCES OF THE SETTLEMENTS. 



Hull House and Chicago Commons Conduct Another 
Successful Series of Meetings History and Prog- 
ress of Municipalities, Publicity of Ac- 
counts, Municipal Labor Policy, 
Etc., Debated with Interest. 



The social economic conferences held in October, 
by Hull House and Chicago Common8,were devoted 
to the discussion of municipal economics, and 
although the topic was of less popular interest than 
the various forms of revolutionary theory which 
attracted so much interest in their discussion last 
winter, good sized audiences gathered to hear the 
lectures and debate the questions raised 
by the various speakers. The most 
distinguished of the lecturers was J 
Ramsay Macdonald, of London, repre- 
senting the Fabian Society and the In- 
dependent Labor Party, who discussed 
municipal matters on both sides of the 
water with vigor, discrimination and 
wide knowledge of his subject. Open- 
ing the series of conferences with an 
evening address in the Hull House 
gymnasium on October 4, Mr. Mac- 
donald reviewed the history of munici- 
palities, attending particularly to the 
municipalities of England. 

The necessity for a municipal ideal 
he presented very forcibly, and in this 
address, as well as in those delivered in 
Willard Hall at noon, and in an in- 
formal reception at Hull House the 
week previous, preached to Chicago 
folk a much-needed sermon on the truth that a 
petty work makes a petty workman, and a low 
public ideal a low grade of public servants and 
public service. 

Mr. Macdonald traced the history of English and 
Scotch municipalities from their low beginnings 
and medueval inefficiency to the good status of 
many English and Scotch cities at the present time. 
The reforms are founded on the two ideas of Dem- 
ocracy and Home Rule, and one of the most im- 
portant items in this clever Englishman's message 
to America was that one point upon which we pride 
ourselves but in which England to-day leads us 
confidence in the principles of democracy and in 
the good faith of all the people. 

Mr. Macdonald believes in the principle of in- 
direct democracy, of choosing policies and chief 
commissioners and public bodies by vote of the 
people, and then holding them responsible for ap- 



pointment of subordinate executive officers to carry 
out the work, independent of party politics. The 
people decide the policy; the public officers carry 
it out, and stay in office during good behavior. 

With regard to the conduct of public affairs, he 
raised three points which are cared for in England: 
the first not the interest on invested capital, but 
the supplying of the public needs; the second, the 
city supplying its own needs in clothing, buildings, 
labor, etc., and third, to deal on the city account 
only with fair employers, who provide good labor 
and other conditions. The cry for municipal econ- 
omy has ceased in favor of the cry for sound muni- 
cipal assets. " Make the debt of the city as big as 
you please," was Mr. Macdonald's striking way of 
putting it, " if only you have over against it a real 
investment, whose income' lowers the expense of 




GOODRICH HOUSE THE PARLOR. 

living in the city." And the final point was to in- 
dicate how large had been the recent progress 
toward municipal communism, based not on how 
much one man uses a given public convenience, 
but on the whole public's need, as in the case of 
good roads, parks, schools, libraries, water, etc. 

Mr. Macdonald's final point was a dream, of a 
time to come " when children need not always be 
white," he cried, "houses need not always be 
crowded, streets need not always be torn up, nor 
darkness always overhead from wires and elevated 
1 roads, water and lighting need not always be the 
prey of gamblers " an ideal city and an ideal citi- 
zen was the goal .toward which the English messen- 
ger urged the people. 

WHAT LEGISLATION CAN DO. 

Mr. Macdonald's second address was on " Moral 
Gains by Legislative Action," and in its course he 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[October, 



made these four propositions, which he ably de- 
fended: 

1. The will of the whole people is more moral 
than that of the average individual not than that 
of the best, but than that of the average. 

2. It is perfectly legitimate for a municipality, 
or government, to enforce a moral principle upon 
even an unwilling minority. 

3. A moral state may grow by use and law, and 
we may express a high moral standard in the 
terms of a good law. 

4. It is well to pass into law a moral gain, as, 
for instance, in the case of a moral conception of 
property and its rights. 

Character and law, Mr. Macdonald declared to 
be the warp and woof of history, and he skilfully 
avoided the Scylla of absolute faith in making men 
righteous by statute on the one hand, and on the 
other the Charybdis of making men independent of 
law and governed by character alone. He traced 
the progress of English criminal law, for instance, 
and showed how the higher ideals of people were 
expressed in, and encouraged by, the steps of prog- 
ress in the statute law. The gain, he held, is in 
the higher estimate of man. There is a greater 
gulf between us and our grandfathers in morals, 
he said, than in time. The character of the few 
has become the law to which the many must con- 
form. 

The most important paper of the series, from the 
point of view of local and American conditions, 
was that of George E. Hooker, of Hull House, on 
" A Municipal Labor Policy." Mr. Hooker has 
been carefully studying this matter in various 
American cities, and his paper was a valuable con- 
tribution to the literature of the subject. 

MUNICIPAL LABOR FOLICY. 

Mr. Hooker began with the self-evident propo- 
sition that in all public work, the proper conditions 
of labor should be observed, and cited at the outset; 
the labor policy of the London County Council, 
which had its origin in the 80's, following a vigor- 
ous agitation of the question by the Social Demo- 
cratic Federation and the Fabian Society, and 
converging in the election of 1889, when a large 
progressive majority was returned, pledged to the 
Adoption of an advanced labor policy. The newly 
-elected Council accordingly provided for (1) stand- 
ard wages for standard hours of labor, and in 
occupations where there was no standard, the 
Council endeavored to fix minimum rates, without 
reference to the market rates, which should be 
equal "to those required for efficient and decent 
existence." This provision was for direct public 
work. The Council then sought (2) to enforce 
these conditions upon contractors doing public 
work, and the opposition to the Council's new 



labor policy was on this point most strenuous. 
The contractors complained that it involved 
unwarrantable interference with their business, 
they organized a boycott, and this boycott was 
their undoing, for when the Council found that 
they must pay exorbitant rates, must abandon 
their labor policy, or must do the work by direct 
employment, it chose the latter course, and this 
was the occasion of the establishment, in 1893, of 
the famous " Works Department " of the London 
County Council. In the course of four years, the 
Department has executed between one and two 
million dollars' worth of work, and within a year 
has completed a handsome new building for its 
own office purposes. 

The career of the Department has been remark- 
able for executing work undeniably superior in 
quality to that of the contractor?, with a slight 
saving in cost, in addition to sinking fund charges, 
and with the full maintenance of the labor policy 
adopted at the outset, yet the unceasing criticism 
enforced by electoral results and the general con- 
servative reaction of the last two years in London, 
has developed a wrecking and impeding policy 
which has greatly crippled the work of the Depart- 
ment in the last few months, and imperilled its 
future. Mr. Hooker attributed this policy of hos- 
tility to the principle of direct employment, and 
yet declared that, though the particular method of 
direct employment may be displaced by some 
other form of organization, and succeeded by a 
longer or shorter period of suspended animation, 
the Council can hardly abandon the principle. 
" Even the moderate party would not now dare to 
go back to the electors next spring in declared or 
admitted opposition to the principle," said the 
speaker. 

DIRECT EMPLOYMENT INCREASING. 

Of some of the fundamental principles upon 
which this experiment was based, Mr. Hooker 
pointed out that it is a growing tendency for large 
corporations to do their large work by direct 
employment, and with their own salaried superin- 
tendents "the London Council's Works Depart- 
ment is only a conspicuous instance of a general 
movement." 

It is further plain that the contract system, as the 
device of any administrative department, means a 
weak department, thereby removed from the 
processes of its work, unfamiliar with details, cost, 
devoid of invention, late in becoming aware of im- 
provements, and an easy prey to collusion on the 
part of contractors facts all of these which would 
surely tell both in quality and in cost of the work. 

These points are strongly indicated by Sidney 
Webb, whom Mr. Hooker quoted with approval, 
showing that economy of money cost may not at 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



all indicate real economy, but only that labor has 
been sweated. And he contends, finally, that it is, 
in the long run, good policy in the interest of pro- 
ductive results for the public to maintain high 
conditions of labor, whereby superior quality is 
both enlisted and maintained at a high degree of 
efficiency. The typical movement in British 
municipal life at present, on its industrial side, is 
the extension of the system of direct employment 
of labor in public work, and the steady improve- 
ment of conditions of labor in the public service. 

CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO. 

Turning from this somewhat agreeable picture 
from afar, Mr. Hooker brought up home conditions. 
Conditions of labor on municipal work in America 
are governed by city councils and state lawe. 
Eight hours is a legal day in several states, and by 
many municipal ordinances, and a min- 
imum wage of $1.50, or more, for city 
employes is quite generally to be 
found. In Detroit and Chicago there 
are provisions for these conditions 
whether in direct or contract labor 
upon public work. But most fre- 
quently the administrative depart- 
ments ignore the enforcement of the 
conditions, especially upon contract 
work. And the most serious difficulty 
is that, in many cases, public bodies 
are forbidden to do their work directly. 
The county commissioners of Cook 
County are obliged to let out all con- 
tracts over $500. " In short," said 
Mr. Hooker, " the contract system is 
the chief stronghold of bad labor con- 
ditions in municipal work." 

It is in the unskilled trades that the 
conditions bind most heavily and are 
hardest to overcome. At the lower point is the 
place where conditions most need to be raised, and 
the speaker declared that the one straightforward 
course was to supplant the contract method by that 
of direct labor. Taking up two lines of work in 
which the contract system shows its fruitage most 
obviously, Mr. Hooker referred to the cleaning of 
streets and the removal of refuse, garbage and 
ashes. Space is not at hand for a quotation of his 
exposure of the outrageous treatment of the Italian 
laborers by the political " padrone," furnishing 
perquisites for the bosses and defeating the civil 
service laws. 

CONDITIONS UNDER PUBLIC FRANCHISES. 

The conditions of labor under public franchises 
received Mr. Hooker's particular attention, and 
there could be nothing clearer than 'his word on 
the subject of the public's interest in good labor 
conditions for the employes of the street railroad 
companies, and in their organizations, to the forma- 



tion of which companies, all over the country, op- 
pose the usually effective method of instant dis- 
charge. " How prone we are," he exclaimed, " to 
look at this matter exclusively from the sordid 
point of view of the investor, or the selfish point 
of view of the passenger ! If, however, my sense 
of social relationship is at all awakened, how can 
I, when riding on the street cars of the city, escape 
the feeling that I, as the user, as the ultimate em- 
ployer of the labor there engaged, am responsible 
for its present servile condition, that the men are, 
in effect, my employes, and that I have no moral 
permission to leave them thus as virtual public 
servants to a corporation's general manager, or to 
the exploitation of a stock- jobbing middle-man." 

WAITING FOR A LABOR POLICY. 

In conclusion, Mr. Hooker expressed it as [his 




GOODRICH HOUSE THE VACATION CL.UB, 1897. 

opinion that the political enthusiasm and progress 
of Chicago are waiting for the inspiration cf a 
genuine labor policy, that local politics are bad 
because they do not mean or stand for anything 
good or inspiring. He would have the Municipal 
Voters' League stand for " standard conditions of 
labor in all municipal work, direct or contract," 
and for the cry for " compensation " would substi- 
tute public ownership as a means to low fares 
right to organize, and model treatment of em- 
ployes. And above all, he would have the reform 
movement stand for the abolition of the contract 
system in public work. 

CHARTERS, AND CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 

The merits and demerits of city charters were 
discussed by Prof. Edmund J. James, of Chicago 
University, who has studied the subject in many 
phases. The charter of the Greater New York 
was the text of his discourse, which was heard 
with great interest. Notable was his expression 



THE COMMONS. 



[ October, 



of belief in the necessity of retaining in the state 
legislatures some elements at least of the control 
of the cities, for Professor James has little confi- 
dence in the ability of cities to save themselves. 

Edwin Burritt Smith reviewed the history of the 
civil service reform in this country, its difficulties 
and its progress, referred to the various attempts 
in Illinois and Chicago to nullify and defeat the 
law, which, of course he held to be in defense of 
the public interest. -Not often is there a clearer 
presentation than was Mr. Smith's of the fact that 
the civil service laws, far from discriminating in 
favor of the few applicants for public office, gives 
equal chance to all. " The spoils system," Mr. 
Smith declared, " is an odious conspiracy to erect 
an aristocracy between the people and their gov- 
ernment for private gain, for the boss, of the boss, 
and by the boss." 

PUBLICITY OF ACCOUNTS. 

The need of publicity in the accounts of quasi- 
public corporations was the theme of the address 
of Professor John H. Gray, of Northwestern Uni- 
versity. The strong point made in the course of 
his address was that the statistics at present ob- 
tainable upon the subject of the cost of production 
of gas, street-car service, and other matters of pub- 
lic supply, are nearly or quite worthless through 
the unreliability of the accounts available for the 
public. Many corporations have two sets of books 
constantly kept up, one for their own information 
and another for display in court and elsewhere. 
Publicity of accounts of the corporations which 
apply to the public for franchises, etc., would do 
away with this evil, and make it possible for the 
people to tell whether or not public ownership 
would be profitable. 

The address by Professor Charles Zueblin was 
illustrated by views of various scenes and objects 
connected with recent municipal progress in Great 
Britain, and is, of course, impossible to reproduce 
in letter-press. Suffice it to say that none could 
see the photographs and maps displayed by Mr. 
Zueblin and not have a higher ideal of municipal 
functions and possibilities. 

The unique campaign and experience of Mayor 
Samuel M. Jones, of Toledo, was described in a 
letter which he sent to Professor Graham Taylor, 
and which was read at the Wednesday evening 
session of the conference. It is a letter impossible 
to condense, so full is it of the individuality of the 
writer, but it is hoped that it may be printed sub- 
stantially in full in a later issue of THE COMMONS. 



Almost anybody can make a good trade when he 
is in a position to dictate all the terms and compel 
the other fellows to comply. That is the condition 
of the country to-day; a few men are in position to 
dictate all the terms by which the common people 
stay on earth. Salt Lake Living Issues. 



ABOU BEN ADHEM. 

Abou Hen Adhem may his tribe increase! 
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, 
And saw amid the moonlight in his room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold; 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the vision in the room he said, 
" What writest thou?" The vision raised its head, 
And with a voice made of all sweet accord, 
Replied, ' The names of them that love the Lord." 
"And is mine one," said Abou. "Nay, not so," 
Replied the angel. Abou spake more low, 
But cheerily still, and said, " I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one who loves his fellow men." 

The angel wrote and vanished. The next night 
He came again with great wakening light; 
And showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest. 

Leigh Hunt. 



ONE of the best things lately published in the 
daily press, illustrating the settlement point of 
view, are these paragraphs from the Chicago Times- 
Herald by the " Looker-On: " 

NOTHING is easier or more fascinating to talk 
about than social unity. After a good rousing 
altruistic discussion women go home fairly brim- 
ming over with the milk of human kindness. But, 
alas and alack! the cream of it has to be spent, 
not on cripple, or tramp, or drunkard, or criminal, 
but on the unpardonable bore, or the pushing 
woman just below your own level, or the inefficient 
worker to whom you would rather give alms than 
the greater boon of employment, or the half-edu- 
cated creature who will follow your lead into 
broader ways. Heigh-ho! It will be a dreary 
road traveled in her company. Lord, who is my 
neighbor? 

A CERTAIN suburbanite counted among hers a 
shiftless family where the husband drank and the 
wife idled away her time and the children pigged 
along as best they could. Not desirable acquaint- 
ances, yet she honestly did her best to open friendly 
intercourse with them. By and by her little son's 
birthday came round and there was to be a modest 
celebration. She needed help ; her neighbor needed 
money; accordingly she engaged her for that day. 
The other seemed pleased, and though the suburb- 
anite might have had more valuable assistance, she 
felt that she had done a neighborly act. 



THE important day arrived. The poor neighbor 
came early, tidy and trim for once, in a clean white 
apron. She swept, she dusted, she made sand- 
wiches, she cut cake, she waited upon fifty restless 
children, she was extremely useful. At evening 
the suburbanite thanked her and took a couple of 
bills from her purse. But the other drew herself 
up. " You insult me," said she. "I wouldn't think 
of taking money. It is a pity if I can't do a neigh- 
bor a kindness without being paid for it." The 
poverty-stricken, ill-esteemed creature had her 
point of pride, and the greatest service that could 
be done her, the " Looker-On " concludes, was to 
permit her to do another a service. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



" STRICTLY BUSINESS." 



These Being a Few Paragraphs Relating to the 

Fact that It Costs Money to Keep " The 

Commons " Going. 

AN OFFER of more than ordinary value is to 
be found in that of Mrs. Andrea Hofer 
Proudfoot's " Child's Christ-Tales " for one month 
only, at fifty cents to readers of THE COMMONS (see 
advertisement on another page). The price is a 
very low one, but we are hoping that many quick 
sales will justify the risk we take in thus offering 
it at half the retail price. It is strictly in the line 
of the work to which THE COMMONS is devoted 
that we desire the further circulation of this de- 
lightful collection of Christ-Tales, of which eleven 
thousand copies were sold last season. It is the 
book for mothers, children, kindergartners, prim- 
ary Sunday school teachers, and all 
others who have anything to do with 
children in home or school or church, 
and in all the realm of literature there 
is no better book for a Christmas gift 
to a child. 

Our interest in it, aside from gladly 
giving circulation to a good and in- 
spiring book, is in the fact that all the 
profits of the sales through THE COM- 
MONS are to go to the settlement pub- 
lication fund, for the maintenance 
and improvement of this magazine. 



LET A FEW TESTIMONIES about this 
little book be heard. The first rom 
Mrs. Wilbur F. Crafts, of the Primary 
Sunday School Union, who knows 
what children like, and what is good 
for them : 

" It is not always that the children's Christmas 
story has in it the true spirit of Christmas glory 
and honor to him who was born a Savior. ' Child's 
Christ-Tales ' is, to my mind, the most Christian of 
all kindergarten story books, and is in every way 
suited to the purposes of the primary teacher at 
the Christmas season." 



AND THIS from the Chicago Times- Her aid : 
" The exquisite sympathy with child nature 
which characterizes all of the works of Andrea 
Hofer (Mrs. Proudfoot) is shown in the dainty lit- 
tle work for children which she has recently pub- 
lished under the title of ' Child's Christ-Tales.' The 
beautiful stories are doubly precious at this season 
of the year when little ones are clamoring for an 
explanation of the true meaning of Christmas, and 
so gracefully and cleverly are they told that they 
cannot fail to interest and delight our most remorse- 



less of critics the children. Andrea Hofer's con 
nection with the Kindergarten Magazine and Child- 
Garden has associated her name so closely with 
the kindergarten work of the country that a book 
from her pen will find a warm reception." 



RENEWALS are coming in well, and the outlook 
for the " business end " of the subscription list is 
encouraging. But it requires eternal vigilance o 
keep this part of the publication work up to date, 
and it will save a great deal of anxiety and extra 
work if those whose subscriptions have expired 
will renew promptly, and send a list of friends, 
church or society members, or others intere 
to whom sample copies may be sent. 

OCCASIONALLY a mistake is made and an expira- 
tion notice is sent to one whose subscription has 
been renewed. It has been a great^comfort to find 




GOODRICH HOUSE IN THE GYMNASIUM. 

such errors received in the kindly spirit in which 
the whole work of THE COMMONS is conducted. 
The handling of 4,000 names each month, with a 
rapidly-growing list, makes an occasional error 
unavoidable. 

FOR THE PICTURE ot Oxtord House, London, 
upon the cover of this issue we are indebted to the 
courtesy of the Outlook, New York, which pub- 
lished it recently in connection with Sir Walter 
Besant's article on " The Higher Life of London." 



THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE COMMONS will appear 
about November 20th, and will contain an article 
on " The Settlement and the Church," by Clarence 
E. Gordon, of East Side House, New York City, a 
complete list of the Settlements of the world, and 
an unusual variety of matter in the several depart- 
ments, including a report of the meeting of the 
Chicago Federation of Settlements. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[October, 



cmfc ttye 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

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Not above 5-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
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the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
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Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



ALL, COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 18. 



CHICAGO. 



OCT. 25, 1897. 



THE contractor must go. That is the key-note 
of progress in municipal reform. The paper 
of George E. Hooker, read at the social economic 
conference, reported elsewhere, is a forceful point- 
ing-out of some of the mischiefs of the contract 
system and the benefits of direct employment in 
public works. 



THE final unseating of Stephen P. Revere, who 
fraudulently claimed to have been elected 
alderman of the Seventeenth ward of Chicago, and 
the recognition of James Walsh as the rightfully 
elected alderman, is a triumph for the group of 
good citizens who have been battling for clean 
ward politics for the past three years, and is a most 
encouraging indication of what a social settlement, 
such as Chicago Commons can do, by affording a 
rallying place for the better elements in the ward. 
The next step will be to send to state's prison, 
where they belong, the rascals who impudently 
sought to thwart the will of the people. 



I RAMSAY MAcDONALD, of London, made 
Q> . many friends during his visit to Chicago, 
and did the cause of good city government a dis- 
tinct service by his addresses. 



IF Mr. Low is defeated in New York it will indi- 
cate simply that the campaign of education, so 
well begun by the Citizens' Union, must be contin- 
ued. The harder the job the harder must we work 
to do it. 



AND another point. For such a defeat of Mr. 
Low one man, and one alone, will be 
responsible. Thomas C. Platt, a more intolerable 
public enemy than even Croker himself, has been 
the one serious obstacle since the beginning of 
the campaign to the union which could defeat 
Tammany. Progress will be impossible until this 
odious, self-opinionated boss's political scalp hangs 
at the belt of some real leader of the people. 



"THE MINERS." 

Some of our friends have written words of criti- 
cism, or protest, with regard to the poem " The 
Miners," by Mrs. Emma Playter Seabury, in the 
last issue of THE COMMONS. After making our 
reservation to the effect that we do not necessarily 
subscribe to every sentiment printed in these 
columns over the signatures of their writers, we 
desire to say, that making such allowance as is 
proper for the latitudes of poetic license, we fail 
to see wherein Mrs. Seabury's poem overstepped 
the limits of truth or of justice. 

Any person who knows the condition of the 
bituminous coal miners of this country to-day 
knows that the miner's life is that of a dog. In 
actual practice, he has no rights that any one need 
respect. His life, and that of his family, is counted 
at small value by those who estimate him for hire, 
or who, for instance, order the cutting away of 
mine supports for the coal that is in them, thus 
imperilling the roofs, and frequently letting tons 
of coal and earth and slates down upon the miners, 
so that in some of the mines of Southern Illinois, 
as we are informed, the deaths from cavings-in 
average three a week. 

In many of the mining towns the children are 
little better than savages through lack of school 
privileges worthy of the name, and the starvation 
wages paid at the best render mere existence 
difficult and decent home life impossible. Mrs. 
Seabury has quite accurately counted the current 
estimate of the coal miner, especially if he be of 
foreign blood "only a dog, half-fed, made of the 
poorest and commonest clay; hie sphere is down in 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



the tomb, under the earth to be; he is only a blur 
in the gloom." 

As for the miners' strike, those familiar with its 
beginnings know that it was forced upon the 
miners practically by intention, as the result of the 
greed and inhumanity of certain mine-owners, 
who kept wages down when an increase was both 
demanded by the elementary human needs of the 
miners and justified by the condition of the 
market. 

And that Hazelton shooting a blot upon the 
escutcheon of this nation which will go down in 
infamy to posterity a butchery of unoffending 
men paralleled by not even the anti-Chinese 
massacres in the Pacific States. It was the one 
appreciable outbreak in what is conceded to have 
been one of the most peaceful, self-respecting and 
law-abiding efforts for human conditions to be 
found in the history of the American Labor Move- 
ment. On the public road, doing no violence, in 
accord with their expressed constitutional right of 
free assembly for the redress of grievances, these 
men, whom every witness agrees was unarmed and 
orderly, were shot, most of them in the back, by a 
crowd of bullies, who kept up their murderous 
work for some ten minutes, shooting down like 
dogs men fleeing for their lives, men who had 
thrown themselves down behind frail shelter, and 
the best excuse that these butchers could muster 
was that " if something wasn't done, there might 
have been violence !" Something was done, and 
there was " violence," indeed ! The only outbreak, 
or breach of the peace, worthy of the name in all 
that strike was that at the hands of cowardly 
Sheriff Martin and his deputies. 

It is not in such ways as these that we are to 
teach the foreigners in this country to luve ita 
name, its flag, its institutions. Not with flags 
over school-houses, or by the preaching of Fourth 
of July sermons, or by didactic teaching of any 
kind, and especially not by massacre on the public 
road, can we stem the tides of anarchy and revolu- 
tion. You cannot "teach," much less compel, a 
child to love its mother, or a man to love his 
country. Patriotism does not consist in love of 
bunting, and it is vain to preach such " patriotism" 
to a man who has nothing but bunting to eat for 
himself and his children. We must give to 
the cry for better conditions of life some other 
answer than bullets. Within the country, as well 
as without, we must lean for glory and for peace 
on some better support than rifles and bayonets. 
The struggle for human rights and values in the 
working world is one that should enlist the sym- 
pathy of every Christian, of every humane person, 
of every lover of his race. And there is no trade 
or industry upon which this sympathy can be 
bestowed with more obvious justice and propriety 



than that of the coal miners of the United States, 
and particularly of the middle West. 

[In this connection we refer with cordial endorse- 
ment to the appeal of Spring Valley Local Union 
No. 43, printed in another column.] 



THE death of Henry George, at the hour of his 
greatest service to the common people whom 
he loved, and to whose emancipation his life has 
been devoted, afforded the most sensational feature 
to the extraordinary campaign in New York, and 
gave the cause of social, industrial and economic 
reform its most distinguished martyr. In the front 
of battle he died, undaunted, laying down his life 
as truly as did Lincoln for the cause of freedom 
and justice and human emancipation from accursed 
conditions and powers of wickedness in high places. 



THE new affiliation of Chicago Commons with 
its neighborhood church may mark a new 
era in settlement service. The situation differs 
from that of English settlements established in 
city parishes, or church settlements in this country, 
in the fact that the settlement, in response to obvi- 
ous need, has poured its life and vigor into a nearly 
moribund institution in its own neighborhood, and 
has already gone far to put it upon its feet and 
devote it again to the service of the people. 



THE Kingdom, of Minneapolis, comes out in 
new dress, and with new vigor, none the 
worse for its summer vacation, and only the better 
for the impudent attempt of the American Book 
Company to silence its heavy artillery of exposure 
of that company's notorious methods. All friends 
of free speech, and of clean business methods, will 
be interested in the litigation of which The King- 
dom is at once the victim and the hero. 



p^RIENDS of Colonel Francis W. Parker, of the 
Chicago Normal School, and of the modern 
spirit in education, must rally to his support in the 
present case of a determined effort to remove him 
from the position he has so conspicuously honored 
and made effective. Chicago could not afford to 
lose this man than whom no American has done 
more for the encouragement of intelligent methods 
in education. 



THIS issue of THE COMMONS has been seriously 
delayed by many things, but most of all by 
the exacting labor upon the new edition of the 
" Bibliography of College, Social and University 
Settlements," which the editor has been compiling 
for the College Settlements Association. Due 
announcement of its completion will be made in 
these columns. 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[October, 



Chicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

I ii for motion concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



COMMONS AND TABERNACLE. 



Professor Taylor Assumes Pastoral Charge of the 

Neighborhood Church An Announcement 

and an Appeal. 

To the Friends of Chicago Commons: 

What the residents of the Commons regard as 
the best news they have had to tell since the found- 
ing of the settlement three years ago, is found in 
the announcement of a still closer affiliation with 
the neighboring church the Tabernacle, at the 
corner of Grand avenue and Morgan street by Pro- 
fessor Taylor's call to the pastoral charge of the 
church. It is the legitimate and logical outcome 
of the course which the settlement has pursued 
toward the church from the beginning of its social 
ministry in the neighborhood. To that church it 
was naturally drawn, by ties of language, of such 
denominational connection as its residents hap- 
pened to have, but most of all by its perception of 
the mutual need of both neighborhood and church; 
the former for a strong spiritual force in the com- 
munity, the latter for some larger touch with the 
people who had drifted away from it in the great 
movement of population which has been changing 
the character and personnel of the Seventeenth 
ward for twenty-five years or more. 



To the church they rallied, and, as has been re- 
lated in these columns from time to time, they 
afforded to its work all the assistance in their 
power. During the past year a majority of the 
heads of departments of the Tabernacle have been 
drawn from the settlement. And when, early in 
October, Rev. B. F. Boiler, for the last three years 
its devoted pastor, accepted a call to the chaplaincy 
of the State Reformatory at Pontiac, it was with 
unmixed pleasure that the workers in the settle- 
ment welcomed the call of the officers of the church 
to Professor Taylor, to take pastoral charge with- 
out compensation, at his own suggestion until the 
church should be on its feet financially. It was 
arranged that Rev. H. F. Hegner, of the settlement, 
should serve as associate pastor, and the rest of 
the residents stood by with earnest wish to be of 
service to the one English speaking Protestant 
church in the ward of 30,000 persons. 

A TREMENDOUS ADDITIONAL BURDEN. 

The assumption by Professor Taylor of this added 
burden is no small matter, and lays upon the shoul- 
ders that have so long borne the settlement re- 
sponsibility a new weight that will be tolerable 
only if the friends of the settlement and of the 
cause of Christianity in the down-town districts 
join very cordially in the sharing of the financial 
burden. Hours and strength that have been given 
to securing support for the settlement must now 
be devoted to the cause of the church, which, 
although rallying in the emergency with most en- 
couraging enthusiasm and with all the resource of 
limited pecuniary ability, is no small addition to an 
already overtaxing burden upon Professor Taylor. 
We, of the settlement, feel that a large step has 
been taken in the progress of both church and set- 
tlement by this new and significant affiliation, but 
it is in no sense an exaggeration to say that only 
the most unstinted co-operation on the part of our 
friends in both relations can prevent the double 
burden resulting in the crushing of the noble spirit 
under whose direction we are proud to be working 
for civic betterment and the evangelization of 
down-town conditions. Only those of us who work 
with him from day to day can appreciate what to 
this one brave and undaunted soul Chicago owes. 

JOHN P. GAVIT. 



WINTER NIGHT COLLEGE. 

Classes at the Commons Start Off with Vigor for 
the Winter's Work. 



The three years during which the settlement has 
been offering a full list of classes in many branches 
to the people of the Seventeenth ward, have drawn 
together a large and enthusiastic clientele, and it 
was no surprise to find that an increasing number 
welcomed the announcement of the opening of the 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



winter classes, October 12. A full schedule of the 
clubs and classes will be published in the next 
issue of THE COMMONS, and will show what the 
settlement is doing, and what the neighborhood is 
ready to grasp in the way of intellectual stimulus 
when the opportunity is offered. 



COMMONS NOTES. 



Professor Tomasso's mandolin classes pros- 
per, and are becoming a feature of the settlement 
musical work. 

Owing to the enlistment of nearly the entire 

settlement force at the Tabernacle on Sunday, the 
Pleasant Sunday Afternoon has not as yet been 
resumed. 

The third birthday of Chicago Commons as 

a settlement will be celebrated by the Commons 
Woman's club on Monday evening, November 8, 
with appropriate exercises. 

A beautiful occasion was the Sunday after- 
noon for our Italian neighbors, to which Professor 
Tomasso and his friends contributed Italian 
remarks and music appropriate to the audience 
and the occasion. These Italian Sunday afternoons 
will be a feature of the winter work. 

A new library, with book-cases, etc., and a 
new supply of books, secured through the interest 
of friends in Evanston, has been prepared for the 
boys' clubs, and the eager inquiries of the boys as 
to "When can we get libraries?" indicate that the 
opportunity is valued by the young folks for whom 
it is intended. 

The Tuesday evening economic meeting com- 
mands a larger interest than that of last year even. 
The most notable item thus far was the delightful 
paper by Clarence S. Darrow, on " Robert Burns." 
The opening meeting was given up to a discussion 
of "A Positive Program for the Labor Move- 
ment," which was opened by Professor Taylor, and 
discussed by T. J. Elderkin, O. A. Bishop, Mrs. 
A. P. Stevens, and others. 



TABERNACLE CHURCH NOTES. 

Professor Taylor has an office hour at the church, 
Wednesday evening, from 7 to 8, before the prayer 
meeting, Mr. Hegner, before the Christian En- 
deavor meeting, on Friday evening. 


By the kindness of the friends of the church, it 
has been made possible to overhaul and repair 
thoroughly the main room down stairs, and to 
replace the broken windows with suitable stained 
and other glass. 

It has been found necessary to move the main 
department of the Sunday School from the rooms 
down stairs to the church auditorium, in order to 
provide adequate room for the rapidly growing 
primary department, which hereafter will occupy 
the main room down stairs. 

The annual " New England Social " of the church 
will be held on Thursday evening, November 18. 
Tickets will be 25 cents, instead of 50, as in past 
years, and a very large attendance is to be expected. 



lf*l I V ? I LlJw 3* <^* ^* ^* e^* 

jfc j* jfc Social Settlements 



Did ye then deem the way would not be rough 
Unto the lovely land ye so desire? 
Did ye not rather swear through blood and fire, 
And all ill things to fo 1 ow up this quest 
Till life or death your longing laid to rest? 

Let us not linger here then, until fate 
Make longing unavailing, hope too late, 
And turn to lamentations all our prayers ! 
But with to-morrow cast aside your cares. 
And stout of heart make ready for the strife 
Twixt this short time of dreaming and real life. 

William Morris. 



WILLARD "Y" SETTLEMENT. 



Young Women Offering an Opportunity to the 
Working <iirls of Boston. 

The Willard " Y " Settlement, at 11 Myrtle street, 
Boston, will be dedicated November 16. It is a 
settlement, named in honor of Miss Frances E. 
Willard, and to be devoted to the interests of the 
young women in the lodging houses of its neigh- 
borhood. It will have as an unusual settlement 
feature, that of offering a home at low prices to 
girls of low wages, fourteen of whom are already 
living there. Attractive evening entertainments, 
clubs, classes, lectures, etc., and evangelistic ser- 
vices will be added to close, and neighborly visita- 
tion and friendship, to give the young women of 
the neighborhood opportunity to develop the best 
of themselves. Miss Caroline M. Caswell, associ- 
ate secretary of the world-wide "Y's " is at the 
head of the work. 



MAXWELL STREET, CHICAGO. 



Bear Cottage to be Opened as a Men's Club Fall 
Work Well Begun. 



The fall announcement of the Maxwell Street 
settlement, in Chicago (270 Maxwell street), shows 
a fine series of educational classes and clubs. The 
cottage in the rear of the settlement is to be opened 
at once as a men's club. The work of the coming 
winter will, as in the past, be largely educational. 
Mr. Jacob Abt has been resident director from the 
beginning. 

SETTLEMENT NOTES. 



The South Park Settlement, San Francisco, has 
changed its address from 15 South Park to 84 
South Park. 

Ridgeley Institute, Baltimore, and Eighth Ward 
House, Philadelphia, are new settlements reported 
to us, concerning which we should be glad to have 
full information. 

The opening of a coffee-house is the event of the 
last month with the Northwestern University settle- 
ment, Chicago. A delicious luncheon is served at 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[ October, 



a low price, and bread is supplied at current rates. 
A considerable business in the latter line is already 
won by the excellent quality of the article fur- 
nished. 

The reports of the. conference of day nurseries 
held in Boston, in March, are now ready, and will be 
furnished at 25 cents a copy by Mrs. H. M. Laugh - 
lin, 74 Carver street, Boston. 

The Delano settlement, at Foster and Myrtle 
streets, Evanston, 111., reports excellent progress, and 
a good outlook for the year. Its work is largely with 
boys, but an economic debating club is in prospect. 

The Pratt Institute Monthly, for October, reports 
upon the summer work of the Neighborship Set- 
tlement in Greenpoint, maintained under the insti- 
tute auspices. A large emphasis was placed upon 
the fresh air activities. 

The Oxford House Chronicle is publishing a 
series of articles discussing and answering "Objec- 
tions to Christianity" by the warden, Rev. A. F. W. 
Ingram, showing how strongly religious is the 
trend of the settlement's life and influence. 

A paper on " The Problem of Amusement," by 
Dr. W. E. Burghardt DuBois, is a feature this 
month of the Philadelphia College Settlement News, 
It deals with the question especially from the 
point of view of one interested in the education of 
the negro. 

Miss Myrtle Jones, who has spent two or three 
seasons at the New York College settlement, is 
acting as head-worker of the Philadelphia College 
settlement, succeeding Miss Katharine B. Davis, 
who is pursuing a course of studies at Chicago, and 
in residence at Hull House. 

The name of the street on which the Minster 
Street Neighborhood Guild of Philadelphia is 
located has been changed from Minster street to 
Addison street, and the brave little family settle- 
ment there will hereafter be known as the Phila- 
delphia Neighborhood Guild. 



9 ^Literature anfc 



MISSIONS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. 



A very distinct service has been rendered to 
students of the social sciences and workers in all 
fields of social, ethical or religious effort, by the 
author and publishers of " Christian Missions 
and Social Progress," by Rev. James S. Dennis, 
D.D. [Fleming H. Revell Co. In two volumes. 
Large 8vo. $2.50 per volume.] Scientific socio- 
logical literature has not been more strangely 
oblivious of the facts and forces of religious his- 
tory and experience than theologians and the great 
body of church workers have been of the social 
phenomena and conditions which enter so largely 
into the making and unmaking of human character. 
None have better opportunity to observe the facts 
on both sides than those who work for the higher 
ethical and educational ideals among peoples liv- 
ing under the belated civilizations or uncivilized 



conditions which obtain on "foreign missionary 
fields." None engaged in religious endeavor have 
so clearly seen the need and make so large use of 
social facts and forces as they. No such body of 
trained minds, in so close and vital contact with 
the life and literature of more widely differing 
lands and varying races is at the command of the 
student and investigator of contemporary social 
phenomena, as the carefully selected and generally 
thoroughly trained men and women constituting 
the foreign missionary force of Christendom. The 
opportunity to enlist so many capable, studious and 
sympathetic people scattered all over the world as 
observers, at first hand, of contemporary life in its 
social relations and institutional structures has 
been improved for the first time for sociological 
purposes by the author of this unique essay in 
descriptive social pathology and therapeutics. Not 
since the appearance of Herbert Spencer's Tables 
of Descriptive Sociology has any such collation of 
phenomena along these lines been placed at the 
disposal of students as is to be found in the first 
volume of this massive work, and as is promised 
in the second volume which is nearing completion. 
Whatever attitude the scientific sociologist may 
assume toward the missionary motive and inter- 
pretation everywhere avowed in the author's hand- 
ling of the data, he can hardly afford to ignore the 
array of pathological phenomena of the individual, 
family, tribal, social, national, commercial and 
religious groups into which the enormous body of 
facts gleaned at almost unlimited cost of toil and 
money from the world-wide field have been con- 
veniently, and with not a little scientific insight, 
classified. While not claiming technically scien- 
tific authority in sociology, the author incidentally 
betrays a scholar's familiarity with the best socio- 
logical literature in all branches of his subject, not 
only by the exceptionally well selected and com- 
prehensive bibliographies that greatly enrich the 
volume, but also by the scientific point of view 
from which he has written his first chapter on 
"The Sociological Scope of Christian Missions." 
To the literature of social progress this work is 
the most important addition contributed from the 
religious side of the subject since Benjamin Kidd's 
" Social Evolution " forced the consideration of the 
religious phenomena of social progress upon the 
scientific mind. Within the church the appear- 
ance of this scholarly, fair, many-sided, far-sighted 
volume, with its intellectual, social and spiritual 
grasp and enthusiasm, ought to date a new epoch 
in her missionary movement marked by the socio- 
logical interpretation of Christianity's mission to 
the world and the more intelligent and practical 
use of the social sciences in applying the power of 
the Christian faith to human life. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS 



15 



bri$tma$ 




A 

SPECIAL 
CHRISTMAS 
BOOK j 

FOR 

CHILDREN 



CHILD'S CHRIST-TALES 



BY ANDREA HOFER PROUDFOOT 



It is a Christmas Classic, contributed to Literature by a Kindergartener. 

No Book -Stall is complete without it and no Library 

is complete without it. 



The book is illustrated with 30 reproductions from the Old Masters, and 
many stories. It is printed on fine enameled paper, hand- 
somely bound, with attractive cover. 



ELEVEN THOUSAND COPIES SOLD IN J896-J89 



IT WILL BE SOLD 
AT 



But readers of " THE COMMONS " can secure it for FIFTY CENTS, by 

mailing that amount in check, money order, stamps or cash, 

before November 30th and with the following order: 



Order for gbild's Cbrist-Caks 



Good only until Nov. 30, 
1897, and if accompanied by 
SO cents. 



Publishers of " THE COMMONS" 

140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 

Enclosed find 50 Cents in payment for one copy of CHILD'S CHRIST- 
TALES, to the following address: 



If Accompanied by this Order, and received before November 30, any number of copies may be had at fifty cents each. 
After that date positively no orders received at that price. 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[October, 



Municipal Affairs, 

A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE 

Devoted to the Consideration of City Problems from the 
Standpoint of the Taxpayer and Citizen. 

Among the subjects to which attention will be given in the pages of "MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS" 



are the following: 



Baths and Lavatories. 

Finance. 

Assessments for Benefit. 

Franchises. 

Transportation. 

Public Works. 

Police. 



Gas and Water Supply. 

Public Art (including 
Music, Paintings, Stat- 
uary, Monuments, etc.). 

Schools. 

Charities. 

Hospitals. 



Prisons. 

Docks. 

Street Cleaning. 

Amusements. 

Protection against Fire. 

Parks. 

Markets. 



Excise. 
Libraries. 
Museums- 
Sewage Disposal. 
Electric Lighting. 



VOL. I, No. J, MARCH, J897. 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MUNICIPAL ADMINISTRATION 
AND CITY CONDITIONS. 

By ROBERT C. BROOKS. 

Published in full in the March number of " Municipal Affairs," 
Vol. I, No. 1. Paper, J2mo, 224 pp., 50 Cts. 



A municipal bibliography that is by far the most complete, 
so far as we are aware, that any one has yet compiled. 

Review of Reviews. 

The bibliography will be invaluable to all reformers, 
public officials and students of civics. 

Independent, Ne-w York. 

Indispensable to clubs, committees and individuals who 
undertake investigations or the preparation of reports or bills. 

Times, Ne-w York. 




The bibliography is by far the most complete that has 
been published, containing all references of importance not 
merely to municipal administration, but also to general mu- 
nicipal problems. Annals of the American Academy. 



VOL. I, No 3, SEPTEMBER, J897. 



Should Greater New York Operate Its Street Railways ? Yes. - Hon. John DeWitt Warner. 
Municipal and Private Ownership and Operation of Street Railways 

A Study of Results and Possibilities. Edward E. Higgins. 

Business Men in Civic Service, The Merchants' Municipal Committee of Boston. Robert C. Brooks. 
Recreation Piers. - Hon. Edward C. O'Brien, Commissioner of Docks. 

The Labor Question in the Department of Street Cleaning: of New York. George E. Waring, Jr. 
Municipal Statistical Offices. - - - - Dr. Edward M. Hartwell. 

Book Reviews, Digests of Periodical Literature, Bibliographical Index, etc., etc. 

Subscription price, $1.00 per year. Single numbers, 25 cts. each (except Vol. I, No. J, containing 

Bibliography, price of which is 50 cts.) 
Address all communications to 

Committee on Municipal Administration, 

52 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK CITY. 



THE COMMONS 



U flfcontbls 



2>evote& to Hspects of Xife ano labor from tbe Social Settlement point of IDiew. 



Whole Number J9. 



CHICAGO. 



NOVEMBER, 1897. 



A TRUE HOME. 



What is a home? A guarded space 
Wherein a few, unfairly blest, 

Shall sit together, face to face, 

And bask, and purr and be at rest? 

Where cushioned walls rise up between 
Its inmates and the common air, 

The common pain, and pad and screen 
From blows of fate or winds of care? 

Where art may blossom strong and free, 
And pleasure furl her silken wing, 

And every moment laden be, 
A precious and peculiar thing? 

And past and future, softly veiled 
In hiding mists, shall float and lie 

Forgotten half, and unassailed 
By either hope or memory, 

While the luxurious present weaves 
Her perfumed spells, untried, untrue, 

'Broiders her garments, heaps her sheaves, 
All for the pleasure of a few? 

Can it be this the longed-for thing 
Which wanders on the restless foam, 

Unsheltered beggars, birds on wing, 
Aspire to, dream of, christen "home"? 

No. Art may bloom, and peace and bliss; 

Grief may refrain and death forget; 
But if there be no more than this 

The soul of home is wanting yet. 

Dim image from far glory caught, 
Fair type of fairer things to be, 

The true home rises in our thought 
As beacon for all men to see. 

Its lamps burn freely in the night; 

Its fire-glows, unchidden, shed 
Their cheering and abounding light 

On homeless folk uncomforted. 

Each sweet and secret thing within 
Gives out a fragrance on the air 

A thankful breath sent forth to win 
A little smile from others' care. 

The few, they bask in closer heat; 

The many catch the further ray; 
Life higher seems, the world more sweet, 

And hope and heaven less far away. 

So the old miracle anew 

Is wrought on earth and proved good, 
And crumbs apportioned for a few, 

God-blessed, suffice a multitude. 

Susan Coolidge. 



WANTED. 



An Arnold Toynbee will for labor now; 

A Kuskin's heart, a William Morris' pen, 
A Lincoln's power, another grand Neal Dow, 

To break the shackles from the lives of men. 

A voice arraigning gold, and greed and spoil, 
Making our land in deed, not name, all free; 

A brother for the serfs of rum and toil, 
A living, working Church. O Christ, for Thee! 

Emma Playter Seabury in The Kingdar 



THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO 
THE SETTLEMENT. 



[BY CLARENCE GORDON, EAST SIDE HOUSE, 
NEW YOKE CITY.] 



Humanitarians, socialists, philanthropists, may 
do settlement work and do it well, but where the 
actuating impulse and reason are religious, i. e., 
the recognition of God as an object of worship, 
love and obedience, it will be better done; but only 
on the foundation of Christ, the God-man, and with 
His example and grace to inspire and direct, can 
the settlement realize its highest possibilities. 

Ctiristianly humane should the settlement and 
its residents be ; socialists they should be, not to 
sow dissension between people of different condi- 
tions, lots, offices, etc., nor to advance selfish 
schemes for social, civic and industrial reform, but 
socialists to evolve in love from what is that devel- 
opment of individual and community life the tex- 
ture of which is "He that keepeth his life shall 
lose it, and he that loseth his life shall keep it unto 
the life eternal;" philanthropists they should be 
because of the love of Christ for them and in 
them. 

It is the relation, then, of the Christian Church 
and the settlement that we are considering the 
Christian Church Jn its breadth ; not the Episco- 
palian, nor Presbyterian, nor Methodist, nor Roman 
Catholic, nor any other division, but the Church 
as one in the Christ of God. The combination of 
any set of men and women who love their fellow 
men, be they religious or not, be they "Jews, 
Turks, infidels or (and) heretics," may do good in a 
settlement. The foundation of a house may be of 
wood ; for permanence and security it must be 
of stone. " For other foundation can no man lay 
than is laid, which is Jesus Christ.'' For this .rea- 
son the relation of the Church and the settlement 
is a matter of supreme importance. Unrelated and 
separate, there is God in one, and man, alone, in 
the other. 

Such is my conviction ; that the relationship is 
fundamental ; that it is precious, and to be insisted 
upon and maintained if the settlement is to become, 
as we most confidently believe, the secular right 
arm of the Church, the social unifying power to 



THE COMMONS. 



[November, 



complement her lay work. I would try to define 
some parts of each in this co-operating kinship, 
that we might understand not only how the Church 
may vivify be, indeed, the soul of the settle- 
ment, and counsel if, and contribute men as resi- 
dent workers in the settlement, and help in the 
financial support of the settlement ; but that we 
might know what the settlement can do for the 
Church in the practical education of her ministry 
in the social needs of the people, in an on-the-level 
acquaintance with average humanity outside a 
church, where, though some men may be brutes, 
no man is acknowledged to be a priest because of 
his garb alone, but readers of THE COMMONS have 
probably in mind those points, and I have not space 
here more than to name them. Therefore, leaving 
them as they stand, and having expressed my con- 
viction of the first and all-important relationship 
of Church and settlement, let us look now into the 
economic relations of the two. 

If the settlement is not doing what it might in 
religious lines with the people, are not churches 
going out too much from their spiritual function 
to do social work ? And in overlapping the out- 
side work of laymen, have the clergy that worldly 
experience, that practical knowledge of social 
science, that plane ship with the people, which, 
each and all, are requisite in the settlement? The 
institutional and ecclesiastical character of church es 
and the priestly garb of some denominations are 
difficulties where churches run settlements. And 
there are certain social recreations of the settle- 
ment, harmless in themselves, which are not de- 
corous and are generally forbidden within the pre- 
cincts of a church ; such are dancing and card 
playing. The enjoyment of billiard room, gym- 
nasium and other provisions on Sundays, which 
keep men from the saloons and street corners is, 
also, not permitted. 

There are other limitations of settlements con- 
ducted by churches which, I think, should influ- 
ence the churches to encourage and assist outside 
settlements rather than to undertake, themselves, 
the work. An Episcopal church, for instance, does 
not gather into its settlement Roman Catholics, and 
so of any denomination, its church settlement's 
invitation is not likely to be accepted by people of 
other sects. This limits the important social char- 
acter of settlement work the bringing together 
many orders of the community to meet one another 
on ground of common interest and practical equal- 
ity the kind of work that will reach, " if," as 
Bishop Potter says, " any human agency is to reach, 
persuade and enlighten the multitudes in our great 
cities with whom, finally, so largely rests the choice 
of our rulers, the stability of the republic, and the 
progress of our civilization." 

Another difficulty in a church settlement is that 



its people are encouraged (not intentionally by the 
church) in a certain dependence, dependence upon 
churchly authority and favor, and upon alms, 
whilst the laymen's settlements educate to the 
most self-respecting independence, though, of 
course, they must at times, relieve cases of imme- 
diate suffering or destitution. The church has its 
poor fund. Her people know that. And then how 
unnecessarily costly and luxurious is often the 
plant of a church. Does this teach a righteous 
lesson? 

The neighbors, the friends, the associates of the 
settlement should have space, order, cleanliness, 
beauty, means to educate body, mind, morals and 
soul, but I would not have marble baths and swim- 
ming pools, chairs, lounges and desks such as in 
the homes of the wealthy and luxurious. I would 
have good engravings not paintings and so, in 
every line, the settlement house should be on a 
high plane, both fitting to the home condition of 
the average wage-earner and an object lesson of 
what he may justly aim to possess and enjoy, 
whilst it should not, by surroundings not necessary 
in fact or aesthetics, either incite to acquire what is 
superfluous for comfort, respectability and develop- 
ment; or, what is worse, to sow the thought that the 
world, or the community, or anything else, owes this 
person a living, or owes him any more than he can 
win himself fairly and squarely. This is the lesson 
and practice of the settlement, and if and when the 
Church fosters or permits the idea to live that she 
will give us in this world what we do not earn or 
deserve, or that she will coddle and indulge her 
children when she should, by discipline and truth* 
inure them to the God-order, she does that which 
contravenes the principles of social science and 
settlement practice. But if the relation of the 
Church to the settlement is not frugal when she 
takes entirely in hand work which she should 
rather inspire, permeate and sustain, the settle- 
ment certainly fails in its relation to the Church. 
When, whilst supplying many temporal needs of 
the people, its workers do not Christianly influence, 
by life and precept, those with whom they. are con- 
stantly and personally in touch, and when, whilst 
supplying so many worldly needs and refresh- 
ments, they do not, also, afford opportunities for 
spiritual betterment. To illustrate this position 
let there be quoted here portions of a letter which 
a settlement head worker wrote lately to his bishop: 

DEAR BISHOP: It lias been my wish for a long time to 
have some religious service here on Sunday afternoons; that 
whilst the men in the House can exercise in thf gymnasium, 
kick font-ball play cards or billiards, there shall also be pro- 
vided other entertainment and improvement, which some of 
them will certainly take advantage of the cine as free as 
the other, and with no authoritative influence exeited in 
either case. Permit me to add that, as I think of it. clergy- 
men and laymen of any Christian church might preach very 
briefly on practical, personal religion short, frvid ad- 
dresses; that such services should be late in the afternoon, 
to follow our Sunday School; that they should not exceed, 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



say, twenty-five minutes in length; that good music should 
be provided to occupy ten minutes; that the address should 
not exceed twelve minutes, and the prayers three or five 
minutes. 

Such services, thoroughly well planned in advance, as to 
the men who are to conduct them, the arrangement and 
character of the music, and all else constituting reverence, 
heartiness and directness in the worship, would, I am confi- 
dent, gather in from the House itself and from the settle- 
ment neighborhood a congregation which would soon, and 
regularly thereafter, fill our assembly room, and I can well 
believe that the results would be happy for all concerned. 

I have talked of this plan with several of the men, and 
they received the Idea with approval. Roman Catholic 
priests could not, as I und rstand it, officiate, but laymen of 
that church could and would. As a large number of our 
people are Roman Catholics it would not be right, as I see 
it, that they should not be duly considered. 

I have ventured thus briefly and roughly to lay the mat- 
terof such importance I deem it before you that the 
counsel of our bishop may weigh for or against the propo- 
sal. Soliciting your judgment, I am, 

Respectfully and faithfully yours, 



A settlement which is part of a church is ever 
fully provided with money (often extravagantly 
expended) for its maintenance, and the settlement 
which is known not to " meddle in religious mat- 
ters " can reach the purse of the public, but the 
settlement which, whilst not the offspring of any 
one church or parish, is striving to do social work 
on a Christian foundation and by active Christian 
means, stands out in the cold neglected by both the 
Church and the world. If there is just and righte- 
ous relation of Church and settlement, the Church, 
it would seem, might do more than she does for 
the encouragement and material support of out- 
side settlements. Bishop Potter has said that "to. 
continue 'the compaign of education ' we have as 
yet discovered no agency that, in almost every 
respect, is at all comparable with the college or 
university settlement. * * * Such an agency 
can only want adequate support because the men 
and women (of New York) do not yet recognize its 
high and wise purpose and its already remarkable 
achievements." 

Will the Church narrow this settlement cam- 
paign this campaign where social and religious 
enlightenment go hand in hand to the precincts 
of individual churches and to the administration of 
such churches, or will the Church so express and 
exert her relation to the settlement that any settle- 
ment at large, working on Christian principles and 
with practical results directly helpful to the 
Church victory over the world, the flesh and the 
devil, need not beg of the latter powers, but find 
due measure of support from the Church whose 
faithful child and servant it would be? 



The wife of Sir Bartle Frere, the British Gen- 
eral, was to meet him on, a certain day at a railway 
station, and having her servant with her requested 
him to go and find the General. The servant had 
not seen his master, and, nonplussed, replied, 
" But how shall I know him?" " Oh," said Lady 
Frere, " Look for a tall gentleman helping some- 
body." He went out and found Sir Bartle helping 
an old lady out of a railway carriage. 



Of tfcC- 



A living cfotf! *Ar?d Vi-cK I 
It touched anotrtev eoaf, Jva,.^, 
The dai k form into radiance'gtew, 
And light and cheer beamed forth anew. 

A living heart! And with its love 

It touched another heart which strove 

"With adverse waves on troubled sea, 

When oars were plying heavily; 

And lo, through rifted clouds Hope smiled, 

And Love the weariness beguiled. 

That living coal be mine to glow, 
That loving heart be mine to show, 
While earth has sorrowing hearts that wait 
The opening of Redemption's gate. 

Lucy E. Brown in the Advance. 



LATEST LIST OF SETTLEMENTS. 



United States, Great Britain and Asia Contribute 

a Long: Array of Social Work-Centers 

Where Groups are Living Out 

Their Social Principles. 



The following list of settlements of the world is 
probably as nearly complete as any list can ever be 
again. It is that collated from the new edition of 
the " Bibliography of College, Social and Univer- 
sity Settlements," compiled by the editor of THE 
COMMONS for the College Settlements Association. 
But settlements are springing up daily in -all parts 
of the world, and it is nearly, or quite, impossible 
to keep any list complete. The new edition of the 
Bibliography, which is now in press and will be 
ready soon, will contain a chapter on the origin 
and history of the settlement movement, a selected 
Bibliography of reading references to the move- 
ment as a whole and the literature of the individ- 
ual settlements and an index. The following list 
in no way forestalls the Bibliography, but gives an 
idea of the present scope and numerical import- 
ance of the settlement movement. An incidental 
motive of its publication is the desire to have all 
the readers of THE COMMONS interest themselves 
in sending information of omissions or changes. 

CALIFORNIA. 
Los Angeles. Casa de Castelar, corner Castelar 

and Ord streets. 
San Fraucisco. South Park Settlement, 84 South 

Park. 
West Oakland. The Manse, 1730 Eighth street. 

ILLINOIS. 

Chicago. Chicago Commons, 140 North Union 

street. 
Clybourn Avenue Settlement, corner Cly- 

bouru and Halsted. 
Elm Street Settlement, 80 Elm street. 
Forward Movement, 219 S. Sangamon street. 
Girls' Club, 531 West Superior street. 
Hull House, 335 S. Halsted street. 



THE COMMONS. 



[November, 



CHICAGO. (Continued). 

Helen Heath Settle'odcnt, 869 Thirty-third 

Court.' '-.--' . . : 

Kirkland 0c,hool Settlement- .334 Indiana 

street. ,, V * i.' - - 

Maxwell Street Settlemftn^lQ Maxwell St. 
Medical Missionary 1 College Settlement, 744 

Forty'-seventh street. ' * - ' 
Neighborhood floasp; ;15oO 'Sixty -ninth St. 
Northwestern IJniver&ity Settlement, 252 W. 

Chicago avenue. 

University of Chicago Settlement, 4638 Ash- 
land avenue. 
Evanston. Delano Settlement, Foster street and 

Myrtle avenue. 
INDIANA. 
Terre Haute. Social Settlement, 28 North First 

street. 
IOWA. 
Des Moines. Roadside Settlement, 720 Mulberry 

street. 

Grinnell. College House, 615 Pearl street. 
KENTUCKY. 

Louisville. Neighborhood House, 324 East Jef- 
ferson street. 

MARYLAND. 

Baltimore. Lawrence House, 214 Parkin street. 
Locust Point Social Settlement, 1409 Hull 
street. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 
Boston. Ben Adhem House, Mall street, Rox- 

bury.' 

Denison House, 91-93 Tyler street. 
Epworth League House, 34 Hull street. 
Elizabeth Peabody House, 156 Chambers 

street. 

Hale House, 6 Garland street. 
Lincoln House, 116-122 Shawmut ave. 
St. Stephen's House, Decatur street. 
South End House, 6 Rollins street. 
Willard " Y " Settlement, 11 Myrtle street. 
Cambridge. The Prospect -Union, 744 Massa- 
chusetts avenue. 

MICHIGAN. 
Detroit. The Berean Mission Settlement, 642 

Russell street. 
Grand Rapids. Bissell House, 425 Ottawa street. 

MINNESOTA. 
Minneapolis. Unity House, 1620 Washington 

avenue, north. 
St. Paul. Commons, Jackson and Eighth streets. 

MISSOURI. 

St. Louis St. Louis Settlement, Second and Vic- 
tor streets. 

St. Stephen's House, Sixth and Rutger Sts. 
NEBRASKA*. 
Lincoln. Graham Taylor House, 945 N. Eighth 

street. 

NEW JERSEY. 

Jersey City. -Whittier House, 174 Grand street. 
Orange Valley. Social Institute, Orange Valley 

P. O. 

Passaic. Dundee House. 20 Second street. 
NEW YORK. 

Brooklyn. Neighborhood Settlement, The As- 
tral, 184 Franklin street, Greenpoint. 
Buffalo. Welcome Hall, 437 Seneca street. 
Westminster House, 424 Adams street. 
New York. All Souls' Friendly Aid House, 248 
East Thirty-fourth street. 



NEW YORK. Continued. 

Alumme House, 446 East Seventy-second 
street. 

Amity Church Settlement, 312 West Fifty- 
fourth street. 

Association House, 259 West Sixty-ninth 
street. 

Calvary House, 335 East Twenty-second 
street. 

Church Settlement House, 329 East Eighty- 
fourth street. 

New York College Settlement, 95 Rivington 
street. 

Community House, (Pro-Cathedral) 153 Essex 
street. 

East Side House, Seventy-sixth street and 
East River. 

Gospel Settlement, 211 Clinton street. 

Grace Church Settlement, 417 East Thir- 
teenth street. 

Hartley House, 413 West Forty-sixth street. 

Nurses' Settlements, 265 Henry street, 279 
East Broadway, and 312 East Seventy- 
eighth street. 

Phelps Settlement, 314 East Thirty-fifth 
street. 

Union Settlement, 237 East One Hundred 
and fourth street. 

University Settlement, 26 Delancey street. 

Young Women's Settlement, 163 Avenue B. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 
Grace Post Office, Buncombe County. Log Cabin 

Settlement. 
OHIO. 
Cincinnati. Cincinnati Social Settlement, 300 

Broadway. 
Cleveland. Goodrich House, 368 St. Clair street. 

Hiram House, 183 Orange street. 
PENNSYLVANIA. 

Philadelphia. College Settlement, 617 Carver 

street. 
Eighth Ward House, Locust street, near 

Ninth. 

Neighborhood Guild, 618 Addison street. 
Princeton House, 505 Pine street (combined 
with Parish House of First Presbyterian 
Church). 

St. Peter's House, 100 Pine street. 
Pittsburgh. Kingsley House, 1709 Penn avenue. 

WISCONSIN. 
Milwaukee. Happy Home Settlement. 

ENGLISH AND SCOTCH SETTLEMENTS. 
ENGLAND. 

Bristol. Broad Plain House. Address Bristol. 
Ipswich. Ipswich Social Settlement, Fore street. 
Liverpool. Women's Settlement. Address Miss 

Ling, Aigburth, Liverpool. 
London. Allcroft Road Neighborhood Guild, 

140 Allcroft road, N. W. 
Bermondsey Settlement, Farncombe street, 

Jamaica road, 8. E. 
Bermondsey Settlement, Woman's Branch, 

149 Lower road, Rotherhithe, S. E. 
Cambridge House, * 131 Camberwell road, 

Camberwell, S. E. 

Chalfont House, 20 Queen Square, W. C. 
Charterhouse Mission, Fabard street, South- 

wark, S. E. 

Christ Church Mission, 53 St. Leonard's road. 
College of Women Workers, Dartmouth 
Row, Blackheath Hill, S. E. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



LONDON. (Continued). 

Eton Mission, Gainsborough road. 

Friends' New East End Mission, Bedford 
Institute, Spitalfields, E. 

Gonville and Cains College Settlement, Bat- 
tersea, 8. E. 

Harrow Mission Association, 91 Latimer 
road, W. 

Hoxton Settlement, 280 Bleyton street, Wile 
street, N. 

Lady Margaret House, Kensington road, 
Lambeth, S. E. 

Leighton Hall Neighborhood Guild, 8, 9 and 
19 Leighton Crescent, Kentish Town, N. W. 

Mansfield House, Barking road, Canning 
Town, E. 

Mansfield House Settlement of Women 
Workers, 461 Barking road, Canning 
Town, E, 

Mayfield House, Old Ford road, Bethnal 
Green. 

Newman House, 108 Kensington road, S. E. 

Oxford House, Mape street, Bethnal Green, 
N. E. 

Oxford House, St. Margaret's House (La- 
dies' Branch of Oxford House), Bethnal 
Green, E. 

Passmore Edwards House, Tavistock place 
and Little Coram street, St. Pancras, N.W. 

Pembroke College Mission, 207 A East street, 
Walworth, S. E. 

Robert Browning Hall, York street, Wal- 
worth, S. E. 

Rugby School Home Mission, 292 Lancaster 
road, Notting Hill, W. 

St. Mildred's House, Millwall, E. 

Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial street, E. 

University Hall, Gordon square, W. C. (suc- 
ceeded by Passmore Edwards House.) 

Wellington College Mission, Walworth, S.E. 

Women's University Settlement, 44 Nelson 
square, Blackfriars road, S.E. 

York House, 527 Holloway road, N. 
Manchester. Lancashire College Settlement, 
Hulme, Manchester. 

Owens College Settlement, Manor street, 
Ardwick, Manchester. 

Star Hall, Ancoats, Manchester. Address 

Mrs. F. W. Crossley. 

Sheffield. Neighborhood Guild. Address Shef- 
field. 

SCOTLAND. 
Edinburgh. Chalmers University Settlement, 10 

Ponton street, Fountain Bridge. 
Divinity Students' Residence (Est. Church 
of Scotland), 14 George square. 

New College Settlement, 48 Pleasance. 

University "Hall, Outlook Tower, University 

Hall. 

Glasgow. Students' Settlement, 10 Fossil road, 
Garscube Cross. 

Toynbee House, 130 Parson street. 

SETTLEMENTS IN ASIA. 
INDIA. 

Bombay. Missionary University Settlement. 
(Address unknown.) 

JAPAN. 

Kyoto. Airinsha. Address, Rev. M. L. Gordon, 
Kyoto. 

Tokyo. Kingsley House, Kanda, Tokyo. Ad- 
dress, Mr. Sen Katayama. 



CHICAGO FEDERATION. 



Fall Meeting at the Clybourn Avenue Settlement. 
Resolution upon Henry George. Inter- 
esting Discussion. 



The meeting of the Chicago Federation of Set- 
tlements on December 11 will discuss various mat- 
ters of settlement interest, and especially the ques- 
tion of the attitude of the settlements upon the 
subject of relief work this winter, and the position 
of city and county officials upon the matter. The 
meeting will be held with the Forward Movement 
Settlement. 

The feature of the last meeting, held at the Cly- 
bourn Avenue settlement October 30, was the 
adoption of a minute with regard to the death of 
Henry George. It was proposed by a commit- 
tee, consisting of Professor Graiiam Taylor, Rev. 
Dr. George W. Gray, and Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, 
and was adopted by a rising vote, as follows: 

" IRRESPECTIVE of varying economic opinion, we 
are at one in our reverence for the manly simplic- 
ity, courage, patriotism and religious devotion to 
the common cause of all the peoples, which consti- 
tuted the character of HENHY GEORGE, and in our 
admiration for the rare intellectual ability, pro- 
found conviction, logical acumen, exceptionally 
pure and vigorous literary style, and beautifully 
human spirit which characterize his epoch-making 
writings. 

" While profoundly and sorrowfully conscious 
of the irreparable loss to the Labor Movement and 
the cause of social progress, in the removal of so 
devoted and gifted a man, and the sudden cessa- 
tion of his brilliant leadership, we recognize that 
in no higher cause and in no nobler way could he 
have offered the sacrifice of his life than in his 
truly great effort to restore the municipal admin- 
istration to the social service of the whole people 
by inalienably investing the imperial power of the 
Greater New York in the sole possession of its 
own citizens." 

The settlements represented and the number 
present from each at the meeting were: Clybourn 
Avenue (16), Elm Street (2), Chicago Commons (20), 
Forward Movement (6), Helen Heath (5), Hull 
House (9), Maxwell Street (2), Neighborhood 
House (5), Northwestern University Settlement (4), 
University of Chicago Settlement (8). 

Miss Addams, of Hull House, moved that each 
settlement pay $1.00 per year for membership in the 
Federation. Carried. Miss Addams, Mr. Gallwey and 
Mr. Abt were appointed a committee to consider 
the question of the co-operation of the settlements 
in the current movement for free lectures in the 
public schools. Committees were appointed also 
to consider the question of a work-test for those 
who were given assistance by the city or county 
this winter, and the movement looking toward the 
establishment of a municipal lodging house. 

The discussion of the evening was upon the sub- 
ject of the relation of the settlements to positive 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[November, 



programs of reform and institutions of one kind 
and another, and that of individual residents toward 
their settlements upon matters concerning which 
the settlement represents a policy. Mr. Simons, 
of the Chicago University Settlement, was the first 
speaker. He thought the settlements too much 
inclined to hide behind indefiniteness, and argued 
for a good deal more positiveness than, is usually 
shown. " We take positive positions on local 
issues," said he, "why not on the larger things? 
Why must we neglect to seize the great levers of 
church and state, and by them modify the social 
machinery toward the great ends for which we 
labor?" 

Professor Taylor warned the settlements against 
institutionalism, and pleaded for the same liberty 
within the settlement as that accorded to all com- 
ers on the outside. -Let there be substantial har- 
mony in general that will almost surely follow 
from oneness of motive but let there be liberty in 
details. On the other hand, he argued for recogni- 
tion of the great forces which impelled men, in 
religion and social life, and utilizing them to bring 
about the social righteousness toward which the 
settlement labored as one of the freshest and most 
vital movements now in progress. 

Mrs. Harriet Van Der Vaart, of Neighborhood 
House, presented the view of the settlement as im- 
personal, as broad enough to include all on a basis 
of common humanity, and as friendly without 
prejudice. She was inclined to think that any 
form of propaganda would stand in the way of this 
openness and unbiased friendliness. 

A brisk discussion evoked much originality of 
opinion and brought to light many sides of the 
question. 

The settlement conducted by Mrs. and Miss 
Williamson, as the outgrowth of a girls' club on 
West Superior street, was admitted to the Federa- 
tion, and increases the list of Chicago settlements 
to thirteen. 



MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT 



First. Year's Report of the Owens College 'Enter- 
prise in the Artlwick District. 



The first annual report of the Owens College 
Settlement in the Ardwick district of Manchester, 
England, is at hand. The history of the settlement 
is interestingly recited in the preface of the report. 
The constitution gives the purpose "This settle- 
ment is founded in the hope that it may become 
common ground on which men and women of 
various classes may meet in good will, sympathy 
and friendship; that the residents may learn some- 
thing of the conditions in an industrial neighbor- 
hood, and share its interests, and endeavor to live 



among their neighbors a simple and religious life." 
The departments of work reported upon include 
the debating society, lectures, regular and occa- 
sional, reading parties, classes, " at homes," "crip- 
ples' parties," to which infirm persons were assisted 
for a pleasant hour or two, industrial school, penny 
banks, employment bureau, visitation and summer 
excursions. 



A NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL. 



Novel Feature of Work at the University of Chicago 
Settlement. 



One of the causes of notable success in the work 
of the University of Chicago Settlement is the de- 
gree of co-operation between the settlement and 
the neighborhood. There is no better indication of 
this than the existence of the neighborhood "Coun- 
cil of Ten," which confers with the leaders of the 
settlement once a month concerning the work. It 
is made up of five men and five women, and Miss 
McDowell is most enthusiastic concerning the de- 
gree of interest shown by these friends of the work 
and the good results from their co-operation. An- 
other feature of work there which is redounding 
to the success of the endeavor is the club made up 
exclusively of Bohemian women, who have their 
meetings in their own language largely, and appre- 
ciate them all the more for that reason. 



SETTLEMENT JOTTINGS. 



Literature concerning a new settlement work in 
Aigburth, the north end of Liverpool, England, is 
sent us by friends of the work. The settlement is 
under the auspices of the Liverpool Union of Wo- 
man Workers, and two young women are i.i resi- 
dence. A public meeting aroused interest in the 
enterprise, and the work starts off with the good 
will of the Liverpool press and public. 

The fifth annual report of the settlement of 
women workers associated with Mansfield House 
in Canning Town, is just at hand. It is an attrac- 
tively printed and illustrated pamphlet of sixty- 
six pages, and reports upon the work among the 
factory girle, women's pleasant Sunday afternoon, 
mothers' meetings and sewing classes, winter and 
summer children's works, etc. 

The report, balance sheet and list of subscrip- 
tions for 1896, of Oxford House in Bethual Green, 
London, is interesting reading. It takes up the 
work of the settlement in detail, and with notable 
clearness gives a picture of the settlement activity. 
Especially interesting is the report on the connec- 
tion with St. Matthew's parish. 

A new settlement in New York is reported by 
the Outlook as having been established by Mrs. 
Sarah J. Bird. It is to be called the " Gospel Set- 
tlement," and is located at 211 Clinton street. 

An interesting series of subjects is announced in 
the program, for the winter, issued by the " Colum- 
bian Woman's Club " of the Northwestern Univer- 
sity Settlement, Chicago. 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



I Stu&ies of tbe j* j 



CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



A LABOR SERMON. 

TOILING MANHOOD'S RIGHTS PLEADED 
FOR IN A PULPIT. 



Rev. l)r. W. R. Taylor's Rochester Sermon Another 

Indication of the Church's Growing Interest in 

the Labor Movement A Notable Series. 



The immensely widening and rapidly accelerat- 
ing interest in the Labor Movement is not better 
shown than in the increasing number of sermon- 
topics in churches, relating to the subject. And 
no better illustration can be found of the earnest- 
ness and good faith with which ministers of the 
gospel are turning to the consideration of this, the 
most important subject now before the minds of 
men, than the series of sermons on the Labor 
Movement now in progress by Rev. Dr. W. R. Tay- 
lor, in the Brick Presbyterian church, of Rochester, 
N. Y., one of the largest and most influential 
churches in the Presbyterian denomination. 

The first sermon, the substance of which is given 
below, was on the question, " What is the Labor 
Movement?" 

The particular topics and dates for the balance 
of the course will be as follows: 

Dec. 5th" In the Good Old Days before Machin- 
ery." 

Jan. 2d " Machinery, and some of Its Results." 

Feb. 6th "The English Workingman and -the 
Law. Dark Side and Bright Side." 

March 6th "The Earl of Shaftesbury and Other 
Friends of the Workingman." 

April 3d "The American Workingman." 

May 1st "Trade Unions." 

Some special labor hymns have been gathered 
by Dr. Taylor, and one or more of these will be 
used at each of the services. 

WHAT IS THE LABOR MOVEMENT? 

After a strong opening, in which Dr. Taylor em- 
phasized the importance of the subject, and the 
propriety of a minister's speaking of such subjects 
in a church, he said: 

"The first thing to be learned in studying the 
Labor Movement is that this phrase has two senses 
one broader, the other narrower and more spe- 
cific. In its broader sense, the Labor Movement is 
nothing more nor less than the upward movement 
of man. It is inseparable from the struggle for 
liberty which has practically constituted the his- 
tory of Europe since the beginning of the break-up 
of the Middle Ages. 

"Take the history of England as an example. 



Going back 700 years the people of that time were 
serfs, tied to the soil, and in bondage to the lords. 
There was no great body of people, such as we who 
compose this congregation represent, working for 
our living, as, almost without exception, I suppose 
we do, but free to come and go as we choose, owing 
no man any service but such as we choose to ren- 
der, each one equal to every other one before the 
law, with an opportunity to rise to any height we 
can command, and participating in the govern- 
ment. 

"An English serf could not leave his land, or 
give his daughter in marriage, or sell a yoke of 
oxen without the consent of his lord, and generally 
not without paying him something for the privi- 
lege. He was regarded as an inferior person before 
the law. His rights were not half the rights of a 
man. By a system of caste, almost as rigid as that 
of India, he was condemned to remain all his life 
in the station in which he was born although 
there were instances of men of exceptional strength 
breaking through and struggling up. 

"The whole social and political system was 
based not on the assumption of our Declaration of 
Independence that 'all men are created free and 
equal,' but that men are born in classes, permanent 
and fixed, one class to serve, and the other to be 
served; one class to govern, and the other to be 
governed. 

$HE ANGLO-SAXON STRUGGLE. 

" That was in England 700 years ago. What do 
we find there now? A people practically as free 
as we are. What has gone between? An unceas- 
ing struggle. Between whom? Between the peo- 
ple on one side, and the Kings and nobles on the 
other. 

"But who are 'the people?' The workers, the 
farmers, the mechanics, the merchants, the clerks, 
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, the 
doctors, the lawyers, the ship owners, the inventors 
in a word, the great army of people who live and 
make their fortunes by their own labor, as distin- 
guished from those who live upon the labor of 
others. For what was the struggle? For human 
rights, the rights to live the life of a man. 

"Anglo-Saxon liberty is the achievement of the 
workers of the Anglo-Saxon race. The Declara- 
tion of Independence, the War of the Revolution, 
the Constitution of the United States, were all ' way 
marks of the Labor Movement.' .... The whole 
upward movement of the mass of mankind which 
has marked the last six or seven centuries of Euro- 
pean and American history, and the fruits of which 
we are at this moment enjoying, is really a Labor 
Movement a movement of the world's workers of 
all classes. 

(Continued on page 12.) 



PLYMOUTH WINTER NIGHT COLLEGE, 

DEPARTMENTS OF STUDY. 



SCHEDULE OF 

CLASSES, CLL 

..WIIMTEI 



ART... Drawing from Casts and Still Life, Art Talks, Studies in Buskin and 
Morris, Painting, Embroidery, Clay Modeling. 

MUSIC... choral Singing, Vocal Culture (Small Classes and Private Work) 
Piano, Mandolin, Violin, Guitar. 



ACADEMIC... 



BUSINESS... 



German, French, Advanced Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, 
Mechanical Drawing, Elocution, Literature. 

Bookkeeping, Stenography. 



DAILY. 



6.3O a. m. to 7.3O p. m., MATHEON DAY NURSERY (64 Austin avenue), 

9.OO a. m. to 12.OO a. m., KINDERGARTEN 

7.00 p. m., HOUSEHOLD VESPERS (Neighbors Welcome) . 



Children cared for, for 5 cents per day 
. Mrs. Bertha Hofer Hegner, in charge 



MONDAY. 

4.OO p. m., ELOCUTION (Children) . Miss Minna Roman and Miss Jennie Newman (Columbia School of Oratory) 

4.OO p. m., BOYS' CLUB, Mr. Graham R. Taylor, Chicago Commons 

6.30 p. m., COOKING FOR GIRLS, Mrs. C. O. Richardson 

7.00 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, Mr. R. E. Todd. Chicago Commons 

7.OO p. m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK Miss Carrie M. Clawson, Chicago Commons 

7.15 p. m., GERMAN, . Mr. Johan C. Schwabenland, Wilton College 

7.30 p. m., EMBROIDERY, Miss Mary E. Tiffany (Marshall Field & Co.) 

7.30 p.m., BOYS' CLUB, Mr. Nathan H. Weeks, Chicago Commons 

8.00 p. m., GIRLS' PROGRESSIVE CLUB . 

8.00 p. m., WOMEN'S CLUB, 

8.OO p. m., COOKING, V Miss Emma Heckenlively (Armour Institute) 

8.OO p. m., STENOGRAPHY, ........ Miss Carrie M. Clawson (Marshall Field & Co.) 

8.15 p. m., GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION Mr. Arthur S. Dascomb, A. B. (Dartmouth College) 

8.15 p. m., ELOCUTION Miss Elsie M, Chandler (Northwestern Scliool of Oratory) 

TUESDAY. 

6.3O p. m., GIRLS' CLCB, . . . Miss Ida E. Hegner, Chicago Commons 

7.00 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, Mr. R. E. Todd, Chicago Commons 

7.30 p. m., HOME DRESSMAKING, . Mrs. Larsen 

7.3O p. m., ENGLISH READING (Scandinavian) . . . Mr. Frederick Nelson, A. B. (University of Wyoming), 
8.OO p. m., COOKING, ............. Miss Heckenlively 

8.OO p. m,, INDUSTRIAL-ECONOMIC LECTURE AND DISCUSSION FOR MEN AND WOMEN. 

WEDNESDAY. 

3.OO p. m., PIANO LESSONS, ........ Miss Harriet Brown (Berlin Conservatory) 

4.OO p. m., DRAWING (For Children) 

4.0O p. m., CECILIAN CHOIR, Miss Brown 

4.OO p. m., ELOCUTION (Girls over 13 years old) . . . Mr. Charles A. Marsh (Columbia School of Oratory) 

7.00 p.m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK (For Girls) ... Miss Clawson 

7.15 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, . . . Mr. E. H. Sheldon (Chicago Manual Training School), and Mr. Todd 
7.15 p. m., GIRLS' CLUBS, .... Under direction of Miss Henrietta E. Stone of Chicago Commons 

7.3O p. m., BOYS' CLUBS, ..... Mr. Sidney B. Foote and Mr. Walter C. Johnston, of Evanston 

8.OO p. m., FRENCH (Elementary) ....... Mr. E. J. Danforth, A. B. (Amherst College 

8.OO p. m., ELOCUTION, ............. Miss Chandler 

8.3O p. m., CHICAGO COMMONS MANDOLIN AND GUITAR CLUB, . . . Prof. Salvatore Tomaso 

8.30 p. m., GUITAR LESSONS, Mrs. Tomaso 

8.30 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING Messrs. Sheldon and Todd 



ID LECTURES. 

1897-8.. 



CHICAGO COMMONS 

140 NORTH UNION STREET 

NEAR MILWAUKEE AVENUE. 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE... Professional Dressmaking, Home Dressmaking, 

Copking, Home Nursing. 

INDUSTRIAL TRAIN ING... Manual Training, Sewing, Basket Weaving, Wood 

Carving, Chair Caning. 

NIGHT SCHOOL STUDENTS... English Grammar and Composition, Spell- 
ing and Writing, Elocution, Arithmetic. 

OTHER BRANCHES WILL BE ARRANGED for if there is sufficient demand 

for them. 

THURSDAY. 

4-OO p. in., CHILDREN'S CHORUS, Miss Marl Kuef Hofer, director 

7. oo p. m., FRENCH (Conversational) . . . "'." Mr. George L. Schreiber 

7.OO p. m., VOCAL CULTURE, Miss Hofer 

7. OO p. m., MANUAL, TRAINING, Mr. Todd 

7.3O p. m.. DRAWING AND PAINTING, ...... Mr. Schreiber (Lecturer. Art Institute) 

7.30 p. m., BOYS' CLUBS, Miss Cora E. Ellis, Chicago Commons, and Mr. Weeks 

8.OO p. m., BOOKKEEPING, F. E. Henry (Iowa College) 

8.OO p. m., CHORAL CLUB Miss Hofer and Miss Katharine Crawford 

FRIDAY. 

6.3O p. m. ITALIAN CLUB, ............ Mr. Danforth 

7.OO p. m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK Miss Clawson 

7. oo p. m., ARITHMETIC, ... ... Konstantin D. Momeroff, B. 8. (Wheaton College) 

7.3O p. m., ENGLISH READING . Mr. Nelson 

7.3O p. m., BOYS' CLUBS, Under direction of Mr. Weeks 

8.00 p. m., BOYS' LIBRARY, Mr. Arthur E. Ormes, of Evanston 

8.OO p. m., ALGEBRA, .............. Mr. Momeroff 

8.OO p. m., ELOCUTION, . . . . . . . Miss Cora E. Ellis, Ph. B. (Northwestern University) 

8.OO p. m., MOTHERS' MEETING (Fortnightly) Mrs. Hegner 

SATURDAY. 

9.OO a. m.' to 1 8.00 a. m., MANUAL TRAINING, Messrs. Sheldon and Todd 

8.00 p. m.. VIOLIN LESSONS Mr. T. M. Thomason (Armour Institute) 

8.OO p. m., PIANO LESSONS 

8.00 p. m., HOME NURSING CLUB, ... ... Miss Emma Warren, M. D. 



i For Girls' ^ TABERNACLE CHURCH INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL (Cor. Grand Ave. and Morgan Street) 

Under direction of Miss M. E. Coleman, Chicago Commons 



SUNDAY, 



a. OO p. m., BOYS'. CLUB, .... 

4.00 p. m., BOYS' CLUB 

5.oo p. m., ENGLISH (For Italians) . 

5.OO p. m., PLEASANT SUNDAY AFTERNOON. 
8.OO p. m., BOYS' CLUB, 



Mr. Weeks and Miss Ellis 

. Mr. Weeks and Miss Ellis 

Mr. Danforth 

For Italians. First Sunday in Month 

For Germans. Third Sunday in Month 

Mr. Weeks and Miss Ellis 



TRAINING, PROFESSIONAL DRESSMAKING, ART AND MUSIC, 

Further information about the classes can be obtained by writing or applying to 

HERMAN F. HEGNER, 

Resident in Charge of Educational Work, Chicago Commons. 
Office Hours, Mondays, 5.0O till 7.3O P. M. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[ November, 



cmb itye 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above s-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



ALL COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 19. 



CHICAGO. 



NOV. 25, 1897. 



j\A AZZINI said that discouragement was "dis- 
/ \ enchanted egoism." From such a charge 
the undaunted young men of the Citizens' Union 
in New York are acquitting themselves by organ- 
izing in the midst of a glorious defeat for a four- 
years' campaign of education. This is the way 
causes are won. Municipal reform is the cause of 
the day, and this is the way to win it. 



El DECENT conduct of primary elections would 
/ \ be a long step in the direction of clean ward 
politics. Those who have tried to fight clean men 
into office in down-town aldermanships know to 
their sorrow that it is easier to elect a man than to 
get him nominated. The foul primary is one of 
the strongholds of corrupt politics. The other is 
the control by corrupt officials of public rights and 
franchises for which corrupt corporations are 
ready to pay. 



THE ringing appeal for interest and co-opera- 
tion in the Labor Movement, made by Rev- 
Dr. William R. Taylor in the Brick Church at 
Rochester, and summarized on another page, 
is referred alike to those who charge the church 
with indifference to the interests of the working- 
men, and those who need to be convinced that the 
Labor Movement is one in which all earnest people 
ought heartily to be interested and ought cordially 
to assist. 

SETTLEMENT AND CHURCH. 



The article on another page on the relation of the 
social settlement to the church is the first of what 
we hope to make a useful series of contributions 
to the increasingly discussed question of the place 
that the social settlement can fill in the work of 
social reform. Mr. Clarence Gordon, of East Side 
House, New York, who contributes the current 
article, is a member of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, and has distinct views upon the relation 
which may be borne by the settlement toward the 
churches. Many settlement workers will differ 
with him, some in detail, some in toto, and we 
shall be very glad to receive the contributions of 
those who hold views either agreeing or differing 
with Mr. Gordon's. Ministers all over the world 
are looking toward the settlement with the query 
whether it may offer the long-sought method of 
socializing the church, and it is quite time that the 
question should be faced. Assuming absolutely no 
responsibility for any opinion or utterance on the 
subject except those appearing in the editorial 
columns of the paper, or signed by its editor, we 
still open our columns to those who have opinions 
on this matter. At a later time, possibly after the 
subject has been ventilated more fully, we shall 
take occasion to discuss, with some convictions, the 
relation of the church to the social settlement, and 
the question of what each has to offer to the other 
for the future. 



The Monthly Bulletin of the Wage Earners' 
Self-Culture clubs of St. Louis, is practically the 
record of a settlement sort of effort. It is a bright 
little paper, and reports a most useful work. 

Goodrich House, Cleveland, sends us the out- 
line of their attractive "Thursday Evenings at 
Goodrich House." The "evenings" are free, and 
these are some of the subjects : Nov. 4, talk by C. 
Wason, "World's Fair by Electric Lantern"; Nov. 
11, entertainment by members of the Garfieldand 
Kingsley clubs; Nov. 18, talk by Prof. H. E. 
Bourne on "A Great Navy"; Nov. 25, open house, 
"An Hour of Magic, etc."; Dec. 2, talk by Dr. H. 
H. Powell, " Reminiscences of Travel"; Dec. vj, 
concert by Mrs. A. K. Cole; Dec. 16, talk by Dr. 
E. G. Carpenter, " The Brain How built up and 
how destroyed," (views); Dec. 23, entertainment by 
Miss Jennette Carpenter (holiday program). 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



11 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electrlccars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Object. As explained in the second clause of the Articles 
of Incorporation of the Chicago Commons Association, filed 
with the Secretary of the State of Illinois: 

"2. The object for which it is formed is to provide a center for a 
higher civic aud social life to initiate and maintain religious, educa- 
tional and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve 
conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." 

Or, as the explanatory circular of the settlement has ex- 
plained it: 

"As exemplified at Chicago Commons, the Social Settlement con- 
sists primarily of a group of people who choose to make their home 
in that part of the great city where they seem to be most needed, 
rather than where the neighborhood offers .the most of privilege or 
social prestige." 

Support The work is supported in addition to what the 
residents are able to pay for rent of rooms, by the free-will 
gifts of those who believe in what the work stands for. The 
gift of any person is welcomed, and the contributions are 
both occasional and regular, the latter being paid in in- 
stallments, monthly, quarterly and annually, at the conven- 
ience of the giver. 

Visitors, singly or in groups, are welcome at any time, 
but the residents make especial effort to be at home on 
Tuesday afternoon and evening. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



KINDERGARTEN THANKSGIVING. 



Happy Time for the Little Folks at the Commons- 
How the Grossmutter " was Remembered, 



The pages are held open for a note about the 
happy time the children of the Commons Kinder- 
garten had for the Thanksgiving season. The 
scene was almost indescribable. Imagine a room- 
ful of little folks Italian, Swedish, German, Nor- 
wegian, Polish, Irish, and half a dozen other 
nationalities, gathering very early in the morning, 
each bringing a handful of remembrance for the 
" Grossmutter." Potatoes, apples, onions, turnips, 
bread, carrots, and what not else, piled high on the 
tables in the middle of the kindergarten room, and 
all for the " Grossmutter! " And who is the " Gross- 
mutter? " Dear me, only a very old, and very poor 



and very lovely soul, who can speak only German, 
and who lives in a little room over on Desplaines 
street. The room is whiter and brighter than it 
used to be, because Deacon Johnson, of the Taber- 
nacle church, put a half-day's calcimining upon it 
the other day, and there are flowers and other 
things that the friends of the Commons, who love 
the " Grossmutter," have taken there. 

Well, she came to the Thanksgiving party, in the 
fine warm shawl that the mothers'-meeting gave 
her, and she hadn't an idea of what was going to 
happen. She looked at the wagon-load of things 
that the beaming children brought from their poor 
homes, and she wondered who could have all those 
things. And when she finally found that they 
were all for her, and was struggling to find even a 
few German words with which to stammer her 
gratitude, a strange thing happened, and it was 
that the children who brought the things, became 
happier than the "Grossmutter," who received 
them! 

A simple luncheon was then served to the chil- 
dren, consisting of bread, spread with the jelly, 
preserves or cranberry sauce, which the children 
have been making during the past weeks, and 
doughnuts and milk. And all was as sweet and 
mannerly as one could ask. They waited till their 
little "blessing prayer" was sung, and there was 
never a snatching, never a bit of hustling, or any- 
thing that would have been out of place at the table 
of Queen Victoria, except when Jerry fell asleep 
with his ear exactly in the middle of a doughnut! 



STUDENTS AT THE SETTLEMENT. 

Growing Use of the Opportunities on the Field- 
Demand for Public Presentations. 



The permanent educational value of the settle- 
ment is more and more apparent. Aside from its 
popular social propaganda among its own neigh- 
bors, in which the offer of a supply most encour- 
agingly creates the demand for knowledge, more 
and more students are making laboratory use of the 
social settlement everywhere. At Chicago Com- 
mons the demand for information, bibliography 
and the personal impressions of the residents from 
educational institutions and study groups in 
women's clubs, churches, labor unions, and more 
private social circles, increases every month. It 
surely betokens an ever-widening appreciation 
both of the settlement point of view and the first- 
hand knowledge of social conditions thence to be 
obtained. 

Calls for presentation of the social cause for 
which the settlement stands are far in excess of 
our ability to respond to them. The diverse settle- 
ment occasions are also personally taken advantage 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[November, 



of to deeper insight of human life and broader 
outlook on the world. Not only do the students in 
Professor Taylor's classes come in groups to work 
up their assigned topics from the statistics and 
social data in the Chicago Commons library, and 
by personal observation in the neighborhood field, 
but at the Tuesday evening economic discussions 
their numbers are largely augmented by whole 
squads of men from other theological seminaries 
and the University of Chicago. 

At the request of students in these other institu- 
tions, a student's economic conference is to be held 
at the settlement fortnightly throughout the winter 
on Saturdays or Mondays, at which specialists will 
speak to and be questioned by them. Fullest, 
freest and sharpest discussion of social problems 
will be maintained, and visitation of public institu- 
tions in and beyond the city will be arranged for. 
The first of these gatherings will be held on Satur- 
day, Nov. 27, at 3 p. m., when Prof. George D. 
Herron will lead the discussion. Two weeks later 
(Dec. 11) Mr. Abraham Bisno, a socialist, will pre- 
sent for criticism Karl Marx's theory of value. All 
students, men and women, in any branch of educa- 
tional pursuit are cordially invited to attend these 
conferences. 



THE COMMONS FELLOWSHIP. 



University of Michigan Renewing Its Settlement 

Representation. 



The Students' Christian Association of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan has placarded the town with 
large posters announcing " Live Thought on Living 
Subjects." In a series of a'ddresses which they 
offer to the University and city public of Ann Arbor. 
Professor Graham Taylor opened the course with 
two lectures, the first at Newberry Hall, which 
was completely filled by the students Saturday 
November 20, to hear him speak on " The Social 
Aspects of Personal Progress." On Sunday even- 
ing a union meeting of the city churches, with the 
University, was held in the great University hall 
for the discussion of " Personal Responsibility for 
Social Progress," upon which there were said to be 
2,000 attendants. At the conclusion of his address 
Professor Laughlin made a strong appeal for the 
continuance and increase of the financial support 
of the University of Michigan's social settlement 
Fellowship at Chicago Commons. It was estab- 
lished last winter and sustained in summer resi- 
dence Mr. Jesse K. Marden, who, after doing 
effective work at the Commons, reported the re- 
sults of his observations and sociological study to 
Professor Cooley's " seminary " in sociology. The 
aim this year is to place the fellow in residence for 
a longer period, beginning not later than February. 



It is expected that University credit will be given 
for the work of the student, while in residence, in 
the departments of political economy, sociology or 
ethics. A liberal response in subscriptions toward 
the fellowship fund was made at the meeting. 

The other lecturers in the course are Dr. Wash- 
ington Gladden, " The Sermon on the Mount as a 
Basis for Social Reconstruction," and " The Form 
and Substance of Culture." Miss Jane Addams, of 
Hull House, will speak on " A Chicago Alderman " 
and " The Social Theories of Count Tolstoy." Hon. 
S. M. Jones, Mayor of Toledo, will speak on " The 
Golden Rule in Business and Politics." 



COMMONS NOTES. 



The schedule of classes and clubs, for the 

winter term, is given in full on pages 8 and 9 of 
this issue. 

The Matheon day nursery, connected with 

the settlement, grows in usefulness and popularity. 
Fifteen children in one day was the recent high- 
water mark. 

The first meeting of the Boys' Good Will Club 

was made pleasant by a series of readings by Miss 
Elsie Chandler, illustrated folk-tales by Mr. George 
L. Schreiber, and various entertaining features 
rendered by the boys themselves. 

Space is lacking for more than a mention of 
the celebration of the third birthday of Chicago 
Commons by the Woman's Club of the settlement 
November 8. A pleasant entertainment was given, 
and the club presented the settlement with a por- 
trait of Professor Taylor. 

The appeal in the last issue of THE COM- 
MONS for help for the settlement has resulted in 
some friends stepping into the breach, but there 
will need to be many helping hands to make up the 
shortage caused by the assumption of the Taber- 
nacle pastorate by Professor Taylor, and the nec- 
essary withdrawal of a large part of his energy 
and time from the work of gathering support for 
the settlement. This is a temporary crisis in the 
affairs of the settlement which those interested in 
its work can tide over by renewing their generous 
support of previous years without special solici- 
tation. 



A LABOR SERMON. 

(Continued from Page 7.) 

" Now the Labor Movement in the narrower sense 
the sense in which it is commonly understood 
is simply a part of this larger movement in which 
we all have such a vital interest. It is a movement 
within a movement. It is the movement, more or 
less concerted, of the world's manual workers, for 
their own protection and advancement. 

" But why, it may be asked, is any such con- 
certed movement necessary? Why should the 
manual toilers find it necessary or advisable to go 
off by themselves in a class movement? Has not 



1897.J 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



the battle for personal freedom and equality be- 
fore the law been fought and won? 

" It has. But there is this great difficulty the 
tendency of labor to become a mere commodity to 
be bought and sold at market rates, such rates to 
be fixed as the rates for other commodites are, by 
the law of supply and demand. . . . 

" The conditions of human life are such that the 
vast majority of the race must earn their living by 
selling the labor of their hands. We may talk as 
we please about there being ' room at the top,' and 
about the idleness, the unthrift, the intemperance, 
and hot-headedness of the working classes being 
the chief causes of their miseries, and there is too 
much truth in it all. 

"But that does not alter the fact that labor al- 
ways tends to become a mere commodity and 
nothing more; that the sellers of the commodity 
are at a disadvantage as compared with the sellers 
of other commodities, and before the purchasers 
of it; that the welfare of human personalities is 
bound up in the terms of the sale; and that those 
who are affected so profoundly by these facts con- 
stitute, and will continue to constitute, the vast 
majority of mankind. 

A MOVEMENT FOB HUMAN RIGHTS. 

" Now the Labor Movement, in its essence, is a 
movement to resist this tendency of labor to be- 
come a mere commodity, and to secure 'the recog- 
nition of human rights and personal values in the 
working world.' It is a movement to limit and 
control, in the interest of the personal welfare of 
the workers and their families, the application of 
the law of supply and demand to labor." 

Of the methods of education, agitation and 
struggle which have characterized the Labor Move- 
ment Dr. Taylor spoke, and continued : 

" In the tendency of labor to sink to the level of 
a mere commodity, to be bought and sold at mar- 
ket rates, without regard to the welfare of the 
workers as human beings, the Labor Movement 
finds its all-sufficient justification. Here is a real 
menace to human rights against which it is not 
only the privilege but the duty of those concerned 
to defend themselves by every lawful and peace- 
able means in their power. . . . 

"The Labor Movement, as such, is, therefore, not 
something to be feared, and as far as possible re- 
pressed. It is, just so long as it is properly di- 
rected, a humane movement, a Christian move- 
ment. It is in perfect alignment with the whole 
process of human evolution, which has for its aim 
the complete development of every individual. 
There is promise and hope in it for us politically. 
As citizens of a democracy, in which every man's 
vote is as good as every other man's, we ought all 
to be glad of a movement which has for its object 
the elevation of the multitudes of manual toilers, 



and the raising of their standard of living and in- 
telligence. And it will be not less beneficial to 
trade and industry. For political economy has 
taught us that high wages do not by any means 
always imply low profits, and experience long ago 
showed, and continues to show everyday, that effi- 
cient labor, at a high price, is cheaper than ineffi- 
cient at a low price. 

HOW SECURE BIGHT DIBECTION? 

" But all these benefits are, as stated above, con- 
ditional upon the right direction of the labor 
movement. A very important question, therefore 
is, How is that right direction to be secured? 

"Will it be by the two contending parties as- 
suming an attitude of mutual hostility of suspi- 
cion, fear and hatred? Will it be by each party 
refusing to listen to what the other has to say? 
And especially, will it be by those who have 
knowledge, and calmness, and character, and in- 
fluence keeping still, and allowing the ignorant 
and unscrupulous and violent to do all the talking? 

" Or will it be by a hearty recognition by each 
party of the other's humanity and honesty, by a 
sincere effort of each to understand the other's 
position, and by a full and free discussion? 

" I am no believer in the socialistic doctrines of 
some of the labor organizations. I am no apolo- 
gist for the violence with which some of them are 
chargeable. But I am in favor of all wise and just 
efforts, including labor organizations, for the pro- 
tection and elevation of the great multitude of our 
working people, and I believe that in view of what 
history, economics, humanity and the Gospel have 
to teach us, the only attitude for those who are not 
manual toilers to assume toward the Labor Move- 
ment is that of honest, open, thoughtful friend- 
ship. 

" ' Stand up,' said Peter to Cornelius, the noble 
centurion who had come to him for instruction in 
Christian truth, and had fallen at his feet to do 
him reverence. ' Stand up ; I myself also am a 
man.' 

"That struck the note of brotherhood which 
rings all through the New Testament; and until 
our civilization responds to it, we shall look in 
vain for peace, and progress will be slow indeed. 

"'Stand up; I myself also am a man ! ' That is 
the spirit which ought to be in every man toward 
every other man the spirit of liberty, equality, 
fraternity. O that it might be in me, and in you ! 
for when it is real it spreads more rapidly than 
fire. 



No individual life can be truly prosperous passed 
in the midst of those who suffer. To the noble 
soul it cannot be happy; to the ignoble it cannot be 
secure. Mathew Arnold. 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[November, 



Xiterature anfc 



"THE WORKERS/' 



The popular mind will be caught with Walter 
Wyckoff s pictures of the condition of the laboring 
man in this country, as with no serious dissertation 
of the essay sort, and when his volume on " The 
Workers " is really out after its run in magazine 
serial form in Scribner's, it will not soon be off the 
platform as a topic of thought, conversation and 
discussion. As Current Literature said of these 
studies in reality, "that which gives an especial 
charm to the article is that Mr. Wyckoff keeps in 
the background the knowledge of sociology he has 
received from books, and lets this knowledge 
merely serve as a quickener of his observation. 
The occasion of his entering upon his year of 
experience as a casual laborer was his sense of the 
partial justice of a criticism that his views on the 
labor question were mere theories. It was at a 
summer resort in Connecticut, six years ago, that 
he left the world in which he had prominently 
moved, and became a laborer, tramping across the 
continent, working here and there at whatever he 
could find to do, and sometimes even in the 
prosperous year of 1891 finding nothing whatever 
to do he came to have a first-hand knowledge of 
the conditions under which unskilled laborers 
work and live. * * * But the sociological 
observations which are made, whether regarding 
the present position of laborers or its possible bet- 
terment, are more full of sociological wisdom and 
social insight than decades of research in sociolog- 
ical libraries could have given. Few books have 
been written which contain so much enlightenment 
and enlivenment regarding industrial conditions." 



44 SETTLEMENTS AND LABOR." 



Pamphlet on Settlement Work Which Gives a Val- 
uable Sketch of Methods and Scope. 



Owing to the limited supply on hand, and the 
considerable shrinkage in receipts for them, it has 
been found necessary to fix at twenty-five cents 
per copy the price for the pamphlet, " Social Set- 
tlements and the Labor Question," reprinted from 
the proceedings of the Grand Rapids Conference 
of Charities and Correction, and obtainable through 
THE COMMONS. This is the most comprehensive 
publication on the subject of social settlements 
known to us. Papers by some of the bet>t known 
settlement workers in this country discuss the 
matter from many points of view, and the book is 
not merely a discussion of one aspect of settlement 



work that of its relation to labor. The work of 
the settlement in politics, in education, in charity, 
civic reform, etc., is considered by such workers as 
James B Reynold, of the New York University 
settlement; Miss Julia C. Lathrop, of Hull House; 
Miss Mary McDowell, of the University of Chi- 
cago settlement; Jacob Abt, of Maxwell street set- 
tlement, Chicago; Miss Katherine B. Davis, of the 
Philadelphia College settlement. Copies of the 
pamphlet will be sent to any addrees, postpaid, for 
twenty-five cents. As the supply is limited, those 
who are especially desirous of having the pam- 
phlet would do well to apply at once to the pub- 
lishers of THE COMMONS. 



OTHER RECENT BOOKS. 



Among other books that will be useful in the 
social field are these recently issued: 

Mental Development A Study in Social Psy- 
chology, by James Mark Baldwin, The Macmillan 
Company, New York. A study of the human 
psychology, with reference to tracing it into the 
field of social manifestation. 

Practical Idealism, by William DeWitt Hyde, 
The Macmillan Company, New York, tracing the 
newer manifestations of idealism into the worlds 
of sense-perception, association, science, art, per- 
sons, institutions, morality and religion. 

Christianity and Property, an interpretation, by 
Albert E. Waffle, Philadelphia, American Baptist 
Publication Society. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 
cents. An attempt to collate and interpret the 
New Testament teachings on property. 

Growth of the Kingdom of God, by Sidney L. 
Gulick, M. A., missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in 
Japan, Fleming H. Revell Company, Chicago. A 
review of the spread of Christian ideals and organ- 
izations throughout the world. 

For the Country, by Richard Watson Gilder, The 
Century Company, New York, $1.00 cloth. A small 
volume of timely and patriotic poems. 



LITERARY NOTES. 



The Proceedings of the section on Organization 
of Charity of the National Conference of Chari- 
ties and Correction, (Toronto, 1897,) have been 
reprinted in a separate pamphlet, and as a supple- 
ment to the National Bulletin of Charities and 
Correction, Minneapolis, for August, 1897. 

Rev. Charles M. Sheldon's new book, In His 
Steps, " What Would Jesus Do ?" published by the 
Advance Publishing Company, Chicago, is having 
a very successful sale, the fourth thousand having 
just gone out within ten days of its issue from the 
press. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS 



15 



BUREAU OF 
SETTLEMENTS 



UNDER 
THE DIRECTION OF 



THE 

COMMONS 



PURPOSES 



To collect, disburse and publish bibliog- 
raphy and other historical data and general 
information concerning the world-wide Set- 
tlement Movement. 

To facilitate helpful communication between 
Settlements. 

To be of all possible service to people living 
and working on the basis of the Settlement 
Idea. 



WANTED, THEREFORE, 



Prompt Information as to the foundation 
of new Settlements, or the existence of old 
ones not well known. Better that we should 
duplicate information than not to have it 
at all. 

Copies (several when possible), of all 
reports, circulars, and other printed matter, 
however apparently trivial, including tickets, 
programs and all other transient material, 
issued by or concerning any settlement. 
Complete files of all such matter are urgently 
desired. 

References to, and if possible^ copies of, all 
periodical, newspaper, magazine or review 
articles, or allusions, however scant, in 
books or pamphlets, with reference to the 
Settlement Movement or to any Settlement. 
These references should always give minute 
particulars as to the name of the publica- 
tion, date, author if possible, etc. 

In short, we desire to have on hand and to 
keep complete, material suggesting the en- 
tire history of each and every Settle- 
ment. 

All head-workers and secretaries of Settle- 
ments in all Countries are urged to co- 
operate. 

NOTK The following Settlement Literature 
may now lie obtained through the Bureau: 

"Social Settlements and the Labor Question 
(Reprint from the proceedings of the 23d National 
Conference of Charities and Correction). Single cop- 
ies, 25 cents, postpaid. 

Bibliography f College, Social and University 
Settlements, published by the College Settlements 
Association. Free on receipt of 2 cents postage. 

Material for and inquiries concerning the 
Bureau should be addressed to 

Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union St., Chicago, 111., U.S.A. 



"STRICTLY BUSINESS." 

Some Additional Facts about the " Child's Christ- 
Tales." A New Premium Offer for Subscrip- 
tions to " The Commons." 



THE OFFER of the " Child's Christ Tales " to 
readers of THE COMMONS, see page 16, was 
received on all sides with so warm a welcome, and 
the response in the form of orders was so prompt 
and eager that the first supply is entirely exhausted. 
But there will be a new invoice on hand in a few 
days, ready to supply any demand. It is to be noted 
that we are able to make this generous offer only 
through the kindness of Mrs. Proudfoot, author of 
the book and one of the best friends of THE COM- 
MONS, who places it at our disposal at such a ridic- 
ulously low figure that we are able to place it 
within the reach of any reader of THE COMMONS 
and at the same time make a welcome profit for 
the publication fund of the paper. 



You all want the little book. If you have any- 
thing to do with children, either your own chil- 
dren, or a Sunday School class, a kindergarten, a 
boys' club, or perchance a youthful niece or 
nephew, or if you are looking for just the thing 
for a Christmas gift to a child, the " Child's 
Christ-Tales" are what you want, and if you are a 
reader of THE COMMONS, you can secure it until 
the first of January for 75 cents, by enclosing the 
order-blank to be found on page 15 of this issue 
with the amount in cash, stamps, check, draft or 
post-office order. Or you can have it for 50 cents 
if you will enclose with your order $1.00 and the 
name of a new subscriber for THE COMMONS. That 
is, for a limited time, both THE COMMONS for a 
year and the "Child's Christ-Tales" can be se- 
cured for $1.00, the book alone for 75 cents. 



THE half-tone reproduction of the Lincoln me- 
dallion on the cover of THE COMMONS this month 
is copyrighted by G. R. Burgess, of 314 Thirty-fifth 
street, Chicago, dealer in art goods; and larger 
copies of the photographs of the medallion can be 
obtained of him. 



THE NEXT ISSUE of THE COMMONS will contain a 
portrait and brief sketch of Miss Mary McDowell, 
head resident of the University of Chicago Settle- 
ment, a characteristic letter from Rev. F. Herbert 
Stead concerning life at Robert Browning Hall, 
London, an article about Kingsley House, Tokio, 
and an interesting budget of settlement news and 
timely matters of other sorts. 



" EVERY issue of THE COMMONS appeals to me 
like a bugle-call, summoning me to hasten and get 
rid of the rubbish and give my time and strength 
to these things that are in the highest sense worth 
while." E. 8. PARMENTER, Field Sec'y National 
Christian Citizenship League. 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[November. 



Christmas 
Offer to 
Commons 
Readers 



A 

SPECIAL 
CHRISTMAS 
BOOK j* 

FOR 

CHILDREN 



CHILD'S CHRIST-TALES 



BY ANDREA HOFER PROUDFOOT 



It is a Christmas Classic, contributed to Literature by a Kindergartener. 

No Book-Stall is complete without it and no Library 

is complete without it. 



The book is illustrated with 30 reproductions from the Old Masters, and 
many stories. It is printed on fine enameled paper, hand- 
somely bound, with attractive cover. 



ELEVEN THOUSAND COPIES SOLD IN J896-J897 



LOO 



But readers of "THE COMMONS" can secure it for SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS, by mailing 

that amount in check, money order, stamps or cash, before January l, 1898, 

and with the order given below; or for FIFTY CENTS by sending with 

the following order the name of a NEW SUBSCRIBER to "THE 

COMMONS" and the fifty cents for the subscription. 

ONE DOLLAR secures the"' Child's Christ-Tales" 

and " THE COMMONS " for One Year. 



Order for Child's bri$t-ak$ 



Good only until Jan. 1, 1898, 
and if accompanied by 75 cents 
(or $1.00 if a new subscription 
to "THE COMMONS " is included.) 



Publishers of "THE COMMONS;' 

140 North Union Street, Chicago, III. 

Enclosed find - in payment for copies of CHILD'S CHRIST- 

TALES, to the following address: 



If accompanied by this Order, and received before January 1, any number of copies may be had at seventy-five cents each. 



THE COMMONS 

H flDontbls IRecoro S)ex>oteJ> to Bapecta of life ant> labor from tbe Social Settlement point of Dlew. 



Whole Number 20. 



CHICAGO. 



DECEMBER, 1897. 



CHRISTMAS. 



Slow slow and weak 

As first the tongue began to speak, 

The hand to serve, the heart to feel, 
Grew up among our mutual deeds, 
Great flower, out-topping all the weeds- 
Sweet fruit that meets all human needs 

Our love our common weal. 

It spread so wide It tossed so high, 

We saw it, broad against the sky, 

Shine downward where we trod ; 

It stormed our new-born consciousness, 

Omnipotent to heal and bless, 

Till we conceived we could no less- 
It was the love of God! 

Came there a man at length, 

Whose heart so swelled with the great strength 

Of love that would have way, 
That in his body he fulfilled 
The utmost service love bad willed, 
And the great stream, so held, so spilled, 

Pours on until to-day. 

Still we look back to this grand dream, 
Still stoop to drink at this wide stream, 

More wide each year we live; 
And on one yearly blessed day 
Seek not to earn and not to pay, 
But to let love have its one way 

To quench our thirst to give! 

Brothers, cease not to bless the name 

Of him who loved through death and shame, 

We cannot praise amiss ; 
But not in vain was sown the seed; 
Look wide where thousands toil and bleed, 
Where men meet death for common need 

Hath no man loved but this? 

Yea, all men love. We love to-day 
Wide as the human race has sway, 

Ever more deep, more dear; 
No stream an everlasting sea 
Beating and throbbing to be free; 
To give it forth there needs must be 

One Christmas all the year! 
Charlotte Perkins Stetson; in the American Fabian. 



KINGSLEY HALL, TOKYO, AND ITS 
FOUNDER, 



(BY AKTHDK L. WEATHERLY, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 



Sen Joseph Katayarna, founder and head of 
Kingsley Hall, Tokyo, Japan, would be an excep- 
tional man in any community. He has carried on his 
work in the face of many difficulties, almost alone, 
and is really giving his life for his people. He is 
the son of a peasant, and has obtained a good edu- 
cation largely through his own efforts. Against 
almost overwhelming obstacles he raised himself 



in position and knowledge till he taught in the 
high schools of his own country. About thirteen 
years ago he came to the United States, possessed 
by the desire for the learning of the West. 

Unlike some of his fellow-countrymen he de- 
termined to earn his own way. He obtained em- 
ployment as a house-servant in San Francisco. After 
some months he found that he was neither learn- 
ing our language nor saving much money. At the 
suggestion of a friend he attended the classes of a 
mission school, there learning English and becom- 
ing converted to Christianity. He afterwards 
studied at a preparatory school in Oakland. Going 
thence to Marysville, Tenn., he was in college for 
two years. During all this time he received little, 
if any, aid, and suffered at times for the necessa- 
ries of life. But lack of clothes and food in no 
way turned him from his purpose. At the sugges- 
tion of an Iowa pastor, visiting in Marysville, he 
wrote to Professor Parker of Iowa College, asking 
if he could obtain an opportunity to work his way 
through college, and encouraged by him entered 
Iowa College and was graduated with the class of 
1892. 

A HARD-EARNED EDUCATION. 

He earned his board and room-rent b} r doing house 
work in the family of one of the college officials. 
His pluck as well as his scholarship won for him 
the admiration of all. Independent to a fault, 
faithful in all things, he persevered, without osten- 
tation. He spent two years at Andover Theo- 
logical Seminary, and the summer following in 
England and Scotland, studying social conditions. 
On his return he went to Yale University, where 
he entered the Divinity School, from which he 
was graduated the following spring. 

It is no fulsome praise for the writer, who was a 
classmate in college and at Andover, to say that 
never has he known a man who obtained a com- 
plete college and professional training under such 
difficulties. During his vacations Mr. Katayarna 
earned money as a pastry cook at Northfleld and 
Old Orchard. Although his health was very poor 
he never complained. A part of the time in the 
seminary he cooked his own food. He was handi- 
capped by unfamiliarity with the language. His 
reticence and pride kept him from revealing his 
needs so that only a few knew of them. A larger 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



portion of his education in Japan was obtained 
under similar difficulties. 

JAPAN INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS. 

Tired, and often sick, Katayama worked on, never 
losing faith in himself or his mission. He saw the 
great industrial changes that were going on in his 
own country. He saw the peasant coming into the 
city and all the evils of factory and tenement life 
being rapidly thrust upon a people in no wise pre- 
pared for them. His ambition was to go to Tokyo 
and to preach to the poor of that great city. His 
idea was to live in their midst as one of them. 

While in this country and in England he made a 
study of social settlements and similar forms of 
work. He prepared himself by study and per- 
sonal investigation for the work that he has under- 
taken. 

When he had finished his work at Yale one of 
his severest trials came to him. He was ready to 
go to his own people but was without the means of 
doing so. Then came long months, long and dreary 
to the one far from home, spent in earning as 
pastry cook the money for his passage. Brave and 
independent as ever, he would ask no one for that 
which he could do for himself. 

A FRUITLESS STARTING OUT. 

He sailed for Japan late in the fall of 1895. His 
college and seminary classes each made him a 
small present of money for his use when he landed 
in Japan. The ship on which he sailed was dis- 
abled and after drifting two months without a rud- 
der it was towed back to Victoria. The second at- 
tempt was more successful, and early in the fol- 
lowing year he reached Japan. 

After a short visit at his home Mr. Katayama 
went to Tokyo where he endeavored to find an op- 
portunity to begin his work. He found himself 
alone and almost friendless in the great city. He 
wrote a book on railroads and some articles for the 
magazines. Later he published a work on English 
social problems. In the fall of 1896 he obtained a 
position as professor in a private college. 

SETTLING AMONG THE POOR. 

He made his home in a poor quarter of the city 
and began his work among the children of the 
poor. He thought that his teaching would be the 
means of earning his living, and that he would 
carry on social settlement work at the same time. 
But he soon discovered that the moral tone of the 
institution with which he connected himself was 
by no means what it should be. He felt it to be 
his duty to resign his professorship. He left the 
institution and the assured income that it gave 
him and began to earn a precarious living as a 
private tutor, while he continued his work as 
Christian preacher and teacher in the neighbor- 
hood in which he had made his home. 



Shortly after this he was taken sick with small- 
pox and was kept from his work by the long illness 
which followed. To be seemingly baffled on every 
hand proved a hard trial. Yet he was not discour- 
aged. A few weeks rest after his discharge from 
the hospital was all that was needed to make him 
ready for work. 

THE SETTLEMENT ORGANIZED. 

He at once set about to place his social settle- 
ment work on a firm foundation. After obtaining 
the approval of a number of missionaries and lead- 
ing Christian workers in the city he organized last 
spring " The Kingsley Hall Association." The 
articles of association being founded on those of 
the South End House, Boston. 

Since that time Mr. Katayama has given himself 
almost entirely to the work, except so far as it has 
been necessary for him to earn a living by teach- 
ing and writing. He has not been entirely alone. 
When Kingsley Hall was first opened a Japanese 
friend promised a small monthly contribution to 
the work. Fifty persons have joined the associa- 
tion, paying three yen or seventy-five cents each. 
The expenses of the hall amount to from fifteen to 
twenty yen per month. In addition to this, Mr. 
Katayama pays the salary of the young woman 
who has charge of the kindergarten and Sunday 
school. 

A PATHETIC LETTER. 

At this point I can do no better than to quote 
from his last letter: 

" I must hasten to mail this letter in order that I may 
send it by 5 sen stamp, for I must pay 10 sen after October 
1st. Well, my dear friend, I am almost worn out with my 
work and care. Financially I have been hard up for the 
last two months. Prices of necessaries are very high and I 
have had but very little work. There are none who can aid 
or sympathize with my work. I have started with the kin- 
dergarten, but the contractor is slow, and is very severe In 
asking for the money which I intended to pay in the future. 
But the contractor is also hard up, and that makes it very 
hard for me to stand. I want you to raise some money for 
my work. I can only open my heart to you and ask you 
this, so pre-sing, and can say that I will do my best in the 
work and be worthy of your aid and support. I am, day 
and night, praying for the work to be done by the aid of our 
Master, Jesus. You know that I asked you Americans very 
little while I was in your country. If it was not for the mis- 
sion work I would not appeal to you in this manner. I am 
sure that you will work for me and for Japan." 

HIS WORK FOR LABOR. 

In addition to the work directly connected with 
Kingsley Hall Mr. Katayama, thro the books that 
he has published and the articles that he has writ- 
ten for magazines, has shown his sympathy for the 
working people of Japan in the great industrial 
upheaval that is entirely revolutionizing their 
social life. Conditions as awful as those that 
existed in England at the beginning of this cen- 
tury are threatening the -working people of Japan. 
It is well that a strong, educated Christian man is 
in their midst who can plead their cause, and in a 
measure warn them from the evils of our Mam- 
mon-loving civilization. Partially thro Katayama's 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



efforts an association for the encouragement of the 
formation of trade unions has been organized. 
Mr. Katayama is one of the directors, and is also 
editor of a labor paper that has just been started 
by the association. 

TO FINISH THE BUILDING. 

The immediate need of Kingsley Hall is the 
completion of the building for the kindergarten. 
When the building was started he received one 
small gift and made arrangements to borrow the 
remainder. A part of this was to be obtained 
from the builder, but the builder has been unable 
to fulfill his agreement, and the work is at a stand- 
still. There is no Alphaeus Hardy to help him. 
He asks for no great gifts. He only asks that 
those who understand and appreciate what he is 
trying to do will give a little. He should have 
enough from America a paltry $250 to take the 
burden of the building from his shoulders. I am 
sure that it will be gladly given to lighten the 
great burden he has felt himself compelled to 
assume. It is hoped that a Kingsley Hall Aid 
Association may be formed in this country, its 
membership to consist of those who give one dol- 
lar yearly to the work of Kingsley Hall. If you 
can make any contribution, will you please send it 
to the undersigned, who will undertake to for- 
ward it at once. Let those who love a brave man 
support him in his noble effort. 

ARTHUR L. WEATHERLY, 
53 Ellery St., Cambridge, Mass. 



MANSFIELD HOUSE REPORT. 



Illustrated Pamphlet Describing the Canning Town 
Settlement's Work During the Fast Year. 

A fine picture of the new settlement residence of 
Mansfield House is the frontispiece of that settle- 
ment's interesting report for 1897. The house was 
opened by Sir Walter Besant with special dedica- 
tory services, December 1. The foundation stone 
was laid a year ago by Dr. Edward Caird, Master 
of Balliol College, Oxford. The report contains 
satisfactory portraits of Dr. Caird, D. S. Crichton, 
the sub-warden; the settlement residents and legal 
aid committee (this a group portrait), and several 
photographs of groups and incidents connected 
with the past year's work. An exceedingly inter- 
esting portion of the report, of special value to all 
workers with boys' clubs, is the report of the Fair- 
bairn House Boys' Club. Another valuable feature 
is the long list of suggestive subjects of addresses 
at the pleasant Sunday Afternoons, Sunday Union 
services and public lectures. 

There is also at hand the report of the Settle- 
ment of Women Workers, connected with Mans- 
field House. This also is illustrated with views of 
the work and of the settlement residence group. 
We regret that space is not available for more than 



a mention of these reports, copies of which could 
doubtless be obtained by addressing Percy Alden, 
Mansfield House, Canning Town, E., London, Eng- 
land, and enclosing a small sum to cover postage 
and cost of printing. 



NEW YORK ALUMNAE HOUSE. 



Report of and Articles About the Normal College Set- 
tlement in Seventy-Second Street. 

A file of the recent issues of the Alumna News, 
published by the Associate Alumnae of the New 
York Normal College, comes to hand with the 
annual report of the " Alumnae House," the social 
settlement conducted at 446 East Seventy-Second 
street, New York, under the same auspices. The 
September issue of the News was largely given up 
to the description of the summer work of the set- 
tlement, reported upon in detail by those who had 
the several parts of the work in charge. This 
issue, which may be obtained for 10 cents of Miss 
Jessie Winterton, 118 West Seventy-Fifth street, is 
suggestive for planning for summer work, which 
the settlement will soon need to have in hand. 

As the report shows, the work is largely among 
children, though there are mothers' meetings, 
doctors' talks to adults, etc. 



FOOD INVESTIGATION. 



Fourth Annual Report of the Kingsley House Asso- 
ciation Includes a Valuable Report on Dietaries. 



The feature of most general interest in the 
fourth annual report of the Kingsley House Asso- 
ciation of Pittsburgh, Pa., is the report of the food 
investigation carried on under the auspices of the 
settlement, continuing a similar work of last year. 
Two families were the subjects of study, and their 
entire expenditure for food was estimated in its 
food value, as to nutriment, waste, etc., and in its 
proportion to the entire income and expenditure 
for other purposes. There is also in this report 
the outline of an investigation into the question of 
neighboring saloons. The remarks upon the vari- 
ous departments within the settlement show a 
good year's work. 



ANTIQUITY. 

He spoke to us of Egypt in her prime; 
He showed us pictures of the rock-hewn kings 
And Menmon's hoary bulk, that no more sings 
His greeting to the morning sun. The time 

Slipped back through thirty centuries, dim with rime 
And mist that veils the dawn of human things, 
Until we felt the awe the great past brings 
To us who dwell in this unstoried clime. 

And then he paused and turned ; the night was torn 
With flying clouds, but once, there gleamed a star 
A single sun of all the heavenly band; 

And he. " Lo! that dim light saw Egypt born; 
Before it, all earth's ages moments are, 
And all her greatness but a grain of sand." 

James Sanderson in the Century, 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



ONE'S OWN. 



In primitive ages while over the waste 

Barbarians wandered alone, 
They invented a theory, just to their taste: 

" One may do as he likes with his own." 

And what could there be, more peculiarly his, 

Than lives from his own life grown? 
"To save or to expose them my privilege Is; 

One may do as he likes with his own/' 

The mother? Another possession was she, 

One flesh with him, bone of his bone. 
A bowstring or sack her sentence might be; 

One may do as he likes with his own. 

The thoughts of men widened; around wife and son 

The State its protection had thrown . 
But the slave, though one's child or its mother, had none; 

One may do as he likes with his own. 

The bondsmen were freed; but from ancestral land 

Scotch crofters were heartlessly thrown. 
The land was the noblemen's heritage and 

One may do as he likes with his own. 

Now workmen are spurned from the factory door 

Their daring to strike to atone! 
What matter their sufferings? We hear it once more : 

" One may do as he likes with his own." 

Oh, when will man learn it? The fact that one can, 

Never made a wrong right; be it known, 
The limit to property rights is that man 

May not do a wrong with his own. 

Miles Menander Dawson. 



LIST OF SETTLEMENTS. 



(Including all not previously listed in THE COMMONS. The 
assistance of all persons interested is asked to keep this 
list complete from month to month.) 

ALABAMA. 
Calhoun, Lowndes County. Calhoun Colored 

School and Settlement. 
MINNESOTA. 
Minneapolis. Bethel Social Settlement, 1416 

Second street, south. 
NEW YORK STATE. 

Buffalo. Neighborhood Guild, 13 Perkins street. 
New York. Settlement at 9 Goerck street. 
ENGLAND. 
Liverpool. Victoria Women's Settlement, Kel- 

ton, Aigburth. 

London. Hoxton Settlement, 280 Bleyton Build- 
ings, Nile street, Hoxton. 
Manchester. University Settlement, Ancoats. 

DISCONTINUED. 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
Philadelphia. Princeton House, 500 Pine street. 



We hope to live to see an industrial system under 
which the destruction of property won't be a god- 
send to the workingmen who are employed to re- 
place it. Star and Kansan. 



NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING IN THE UNITED 
STATES. A book of two hundred pages, containing 
a catalogue of about six thousand newspapers, being all 
that are credited by the American Newspaper Directory 
(December edition for 1897) with having regular issues of 
1,000 copies or more. Also separate State maps of each and 
every State of the American Union, naming those towns 
only in which there are issued newspapers having more 
than 1,000 circulation. This book (issued December 15, 
1897) will be sent, postage paid, to any address on receipt of 
one dollar. Address The Geo. P. Rowell Advertising Co 
10 Spruce St., New York. 



Stuoies of tbc $ *& & 
| & & & & Xabor /IDovement 

5 CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



THE in I>M of to-day are fighting for security: 
security of standing- ground ; security of oppor- 
tunity ; security of personal recognition among 
the shareholders in the inheritances of the ages ; secur- 
ity of a man's chance to be a man ; security that the 
mighty impersonal power of capital and organization 
shall not be it I lowed to march masses of men rough- 
shod over individual men, in pursuit of schemes vast 
in aim, but needlessly terrific in means. . . . It is 
possible that we are at present rating individuals as 
too small and too cheap parts of society. It is possi- 
ble that our mighty plans of commercial conquest 
are not worth success, because it would have to be 
purchased at too great cost of individual security. 
The social movement, candidly and fairly Inter- 
preted, means that millions of men believe this to be 
the case. . . . Men are going back to first princi- 
ples. They are saying that security of fundamental 
rights is good for some men. and therefore good for 
all men. They are saying that this security is being 
impaired. They are demanding that it shall be 
strengthened. Prof. Albion W. Small. 



SOCIAL MOVEMENT 



PROFESSOR SMALL'S COMMENT UPON ITS 
TREMENDOUS SIGNIFICANCE. 



Stirring Words From a University Professor Upon 

the Signs of the Times The Battle for 

Human Rights and Its Present 

Status and Indications. 



"The Meaning of the Social Movement" is the 
title of an article by Professor Albion W. Small, 
head professor of Sociology in the University 
of Chicago, in the November issue of the Amer- 
ican Journal of Sociology, the gist of which is 
the best possible message that we could at 
this time interject into our series of studies in the 
history and progress of the labor movement. Accord- 
ing to Professor Small, the social movement was first 
"that dawning of the national consciousness which 
produced the series of revolts from hierarchic sway 
called the Reformation. The social movement was 
the growth of the Third Estate from a name to a 
power, . . . the abolition of political privilege, 
the enlargement of religious toleration, the exten- 
sion of industrial opportunity. 

" The social movement is, an unfriendly observer 

might say, a confusion of fussy, fidgety folk, 

blocking each other and everybody else by their 

foolishness. Here it is free soup, and there it is 

(Continued on page 11.) 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



5 



Chicago Commons. 



A PERSONAL STATEMENT. 



Prof. Taylor's Word of Explanation and Appeal to 
the Friends of the Settlement. 



To the Friends of Chicago Commons: 

Thro these columns and elsewhere, a few friends 
of Chicago Commons have kindly spoken from 
within to the many friends of its work scattered 
abroad, of the help immediately needed to make it 
possible for me to carry the 
burden of its administration 
thro its present crisis. They 
insist that I now speak for my- 
self for the sake of the cause at 
stake, which is as dear to them 
as to me. 

For nearly four years I have 
cheerfully borne the sole finan- 
cial responsibility, without really 
expecting any one else to share 
it with me during the period of 
initiation, when others had the 
right to regard the work as an 
experiment. Altho never with- 
out some sacrifice and more 
solicitude, it has yet been possi- 
ble for me, in addition to my 
prior duties in classroom and 
elsewhere, to bear the burden 
of personally soliciting the gifts of friends, and 
of giving or borrowing what was lacking. It has 
been done at the cost of almost every leisure 
hour and the sacrifice of nearly all my holiday or 
summer vacation time to this purpose. 

With the rapid growth of the Commons work, 
however, the strain and stress of raising the pecu- 
niary support has gradually been increasing until 
the limit of endurance began to appear. When 
the supreme opportunity unexpectedly came vi- 
tally to relate the neighborhood church and the 
settlement work for the whole neighborhood by 
assuming the charge of the pulpit and pastoral 
ministry at the Tabernacle, the utmost possibility 



of personal service was suddenly reached. If this 
very considerable additional burden was to be 
taken on, something must be done to relieve me 
from some part of the load already shouldered. 
The uncertainty and irregularity of the financial 
support and the personal indebtedness occasion- 
ally involved caused the greatest wear and tear. It 
is at this point, therefore, that friends insist upon, 
and the visible limits of personal strength demand, 
immediate relief. 

The Trustees of Chicago Commons personally 
assumed the payment of $500 indebtedness, and 
inaugurated the movement to secure in advance 
the $5,000 needed to maintain and develop the set- 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

tlement work during 1898. Upon my assurance 
that $2,000 of this sum could be obtained in 
smaller donations thro church collections and the 
gifts of many people of very limited means, the 
effort is being made to raise $3,000 in larger sums. 
Five friends have already subscribed $200 each, 
and at least as many more are needed to do as 
much. If in addition to these, ten subscribers of 
$100 each can be found, the worry will be gone for 
the year, and the work will receive full strength, 
more time, and better still, a power that only peace 
at heart can give. 

As one of the many who have something to give 
and who need to take nothing from what is given, 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



may I not ask prompt co operation in immediately 
assuring these larger and many more smaller sub- 
scriptions? I do so in the confidence which many 
have with me that the success and usefulness of 

the work have been practically and permanently 

* 
demonstrated, and that its financial cost bears a 

very small proportion either to the reach and range 
of the service rendered, or to the personal sacrifice 
which the twenty-five resident and scores of non- 
resident helpers, are making for our country and 
for the Kingdom of the Father. 




WORK OF THE COMMONS. 



Various Directions in Which the Settlement's En- 
deavor Has Been Successful. 

The following outline of the successful work of 
Chicago Commons was sent to one of the Trus- 
tees who recently asked for such a statement, and 
is reproduced here as the best brief summary that 
could be made covering the various points upon 
which the settlement's efforts and influence are 
divided: 

In the following ways, at least, Chicago Com- 
mons may fairly be said to have done distinctively 
successful work within its own neighborhood and 
in the broader field of social endeavor. 

POLITICAL: Perhaps the most potent influence 
exerted upon the district and the city at large has 
been political. Gathering the better elements of all 
parties in the Seventeenth Ward at the settlement 
residence, as a common, neutral center, Chicago 
Commons has afforded opportunity for a united 
action for better local government and municipal 
conditions. The result has been a strong inde- 
pendent movement in three out of the four alder- 
manic campaigns since the establishment of the 
settlement. Twice at least, and probably at the 
third election also, the independent candidate was 
elected, but counted out by the conspiracy of 
the two hopelessly corrupt machines in the ward. 
In the spring of 1897 the election was contested 
and after a long and bitter contest against the tre- 
mendous odds, opposed by men in many positions 
of official power, the independent was seated by 
the Common Council. The conviction of the pre- 
cinct judge and clerks of election, who were 
proved guilty of the fraud, was secured after two 
angrily contested trials before the Criminal Court. 
This victory of law and order has been most salu- 
tary, not only within the ward, but wherever polit- 
ical corruption has been rampant throughout the 
city. 

SOCIAL : As a social center for the entire section, 
Chicago Commons holds a large and unique place. 
From demoralizing dance halls, happily long since 
closed up, from the saloon life and other attrac- 
tions even more vicious, the settlement has drawn 



a large number of people, young and old, to its 
clubs, discussions, social gatherings and education- 
al classes, which are attended by no less than 1,000 
people each week. From virtual imprisonment in 
small homes women have been drawn, through the 
Woman's Club, into the current of the world's 
higher life. A large number of boys and girls 
have been taken off the street into their pleasant 
evening gatherings and given a start in a taste for, 
and use of, helpful knowledge and elevating recre- 
ations. 

The unification of the neighborhood has been 
notably fostered by parties, group socials and the 
larger meetings, in which, not only different 
classes and nationalities have mingled, but not a 
few long-time neighbors have, for the first time, 
become acquainted with each other. 

INDUSTRIAL: In the study of and influence upon 
the industrial situation the settlement has had a dis- 
tinctive part, by affording a neutral, free floor on 
which all classes and interests might meet, strike 
hands and talk things over and by maintaining ab- 
solute freedom of speech as an essential, funda- 
mental and inviolable rule of these economic dis- 
cussions, the 'settlement has won the confidence 
of the workingmen of the city. From 50 to 250 
men and women, representing all shades and de- 
grees of thought and interest, attend these weekly 
meetings and not only contribute to each other's 
knowledge, but very perceptibly modify and 
broaden each other's opinions. 

MUNICIPAL: By constant co-operation with the 
city authorities, especially the Health Board, the 
settlement has been helpful to the administration 
of public affairs. For two years one of its resi- 
dents served the city as ward inspector of streets 
and alleys. Two of the residents are now on the 
Civil Service eligible list for the same position and 
may secure positions as soon as the courts decide 
that these inspectorships must be filled under the 
Civil Service rules. 

EDUCATIONAL : Friendly co-operation with the 
neighboring public schools is steadily maintained. 
The settlement residence is occasionally used by 
teachers as the most attractive place for social 
gatherings with their classes. The principals and 
teachers of all the neighboring schools are tend- 
ered a reception by the residents each year. The 
settlement kindergarten makes for the best child- 
culture of nearly one hundred children of the 
cosmopolitan neighborhood week-day mornings 
throughout the year, and closely connects with the 
homes thro a fortnightly mothers' meeting. For 
those who cannot attend the public night schools, 
or who desire a higher grade of study, the Com- 
mons maintains its Winter Night College, in which 
a large number of classes are successfully con- 
ducted in science, art, domestic economy, language, 
music, mechanical drawing, American history, etc. 
All possible use is made of the privileges and 
courtesies extended by the Art Institute, the Field 
Museum and other centers of culture. Industrial 
training in sewing, basket weaving, chair caning, 
wood carving and sloyd is given each week to two 
hundred boys and girls. 

RELIGIOUS: Besides the large and evident value 
of the establishment of an avowedly Christian 
home in the midst of such a depressed population, 
the vital and cooperative relationship of most of 
the twenty-seven residents, with the .only exclu- 
sively English-speaking church in the ward, is 
proving to be reciprocally helpful and full of 



1897. J 



THE COMMONS. 



larger promise. Without attempting any organic 
union, Chicago Commons and the Tabernacle 
Church have made common cause. 

POPULAR PROPAGANDA : Last, but far from least, 
is the very large field outside of the neighborhood, 
throughout the city not only, but in all the states of 
the middle West, in which a constant propaganda 
has been carried on from the settlement's unique 
vantage point. Before church congregations, social 
clubs, schools, colleges and summer assemblies, 
labor unions and general audiences of many kinds, 
the social point of view is being brought to thou- 
sands. A large correspondence is held with hun- 
dreds of inquirers concerning social problems and 
methods. The monthly periodical, THE COMMONS, 
has, within a year and a half, not only attained a 
circulation of five thousand in this country and 
England, but has also obtained the recognition of 
settlements everywhere as the best exponent of 
their ideals and methods, and enjoys a unique and 
rapidly growing influence and support. 



SETTLEMENT FINANCES. 



Items of Interest from the Last Year's Accounts 
of Chicago Commons. 



From the detailed financial statement to be pre- 
sented to the Trustees we compile the following 
items, as of interest to our friends in general : 

From hundreds of friends, a large proportion of 
whom live outside of Chicago, all the way from 
the Rockies to the Atlantic coast, we have received 
$4,405.88 during the year 1897. Only eight of 
these gave more than $100 each, the largest dona- 
tion being $330. The great preponderance of gifts 
came from persons of very limited means', in sums 
ranging from $10 to 25 cents. Of the money thus 
received we were intrusted with $1,180.09 for the 
specific purposes of the kindergarten, manual 
training classes, religious work at the Cook County 
Infirmary and Poor House at Dunning, 111., Michi- 
gan University scholarship, the cost of erecting 
the public drinking fountain given by the Evanston 
Woman's Club, and the work of the neighborhood 
church. In addition to the gifts we received in 
tuition fees $123.87 from the kindergarten children 
and those enrolled in the Winter Night College 
classes. 

Among the items of expenditure it may be of 
interest to note that the sum of $257.07 was devo- 
ted to the development of the neighborhood Tab- 
ernacle church. The special departments men- 
tioned above cost $415.37 more than was specifi- 
cally given for their maintenance. For necessary 
repair and equipment $461.82 was required. The 
balance, $2,673.50, was the scant margin left for 
the rent, light, heat and care of the rooms used 
for public purposes and for the subsistence of four 
residents who devote their time exclusively to the 
general work of the settlement. 



"Please, ma'am, will you give me an old suit of 
your husband's clothes? I am one of the John- 
stown flood sufferers." "Poor man! Of course I 
will. Come right in. So you were in the dreadful 
flood, were you?" "No, ma'am, but my wife sent 
all my clothes to the people who were." Washing- 
ton Post. 



FOR A NEW BUILDING. 



Increasing Interest in a Project to Shelter Church 

and Settlement Under One Roof Growth 

of the Combined Work Crisis 

and Opportunity. 



The possibilities that open before the settlement 
in its increasing affiliation with the Tabernacle 
affords food for interest and conjecture as to the 
future possibilities perhaps of a combined work. 
In a recent issue of the Chicago Advance, in the 
department headed " Social Aspects," and con- 
ducted by Prof . Taylor, appears this view of the 
outlook as seen from within the settlement. It 
well suggests the situation at present and reflects 
the feeling of the settlement group toward the 
church. 

" A month ago our neighborhood church the old 
Tabernacle had reached the crisis of its later 
years. For three years it had made heroic but los- 
ing effort to support the pastor of its choice. All 
it had, even all its living, and more a debt had 
gone, into this single endeavor ; but now, despite 
his fidelity and the people's loyalty, the church was 
pastorless, its treasury debt-laden, its building so 
far out of repair in roof, window and wall as to be 
untenantable at the approach of winter, and its 
people so discouraged that they had begun to 
scatter. 

INTO THE BREACH. 

" Then came the call of the congregation for help. 
Would we step into the breach and tide the old 
church over? Would we contribute our gratuitous 
charge of pulpit and pastorate, if they would rally 
all their resources to the payment of debt, the repair 
of the building and the expenses adequate to the 
worship and work of the church? The City Mis- 
sionary Society also offered the continuance of its 
appropriation to secure assistance in pastoral serv- 
ice and musical leadership. Duty to the neighbor- 
hood with which we had cast our lot and loyalty to 
the fundamental religious motive and ideal of the 
settlement seemed to demand the assumption of 
this additional burden, at the expense to the Com- 
mons of whatever calls to outside service might have 
to be sacrificed and at the risk of the loss of what- 
ever settlement constituency might take affright 
or offense. And so the leadership of what seems 
to many " a forlorn hope," but to us a hope well- 
nigh assured, was accepted. Down went our name 
upon notes helping to secure the loan of five 
hundred dollars, with which the church was 
relieved from the discredit of its indebtedness and 
its sanctuary was placed in tenantable repair. 
Then the work of preaching, prayer meeting, Sun- 
day school, Endeavor Society and visitation, in 
which we had all along co-operated, was renewed 
with grim but hopeful determination. A month 
has past, and there has come at the church a 
response in attendance and enthusiasm, larger and 
more immediate than we dared expect; and at the 
Commons no faltering in the loyalty upon which 
the settlement's neighborly friendships, free floor, 
(Continued on page 13.) 



PLYMOUTH WINTER NIGHT COLLEGE, 

DEPARTMENTS OF STUDY. 



SCHEDULE OF.... 

CLASSES, CL 

..WIIMTl 



ART... Drawing from Casts and Still Life, Art Talks, Studies in Ruskin and 
Morris, Painting, Embroidery, Clay Modeling. 

MUSIC... choral Singing, Vocal Culture (Small Classes and Private Work) 
Piano, Mandolin, Violin, Guitar. 

ACADEMIC... German, French, Advanced Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, 
Mechanical Drawing, Elocution, Literature. 

* Bookkeeping, Stenography. 



DAILY. 

6.30 a. m. to 7.30 p. m., MATHEON DAY NURSERY (64 Austin avenue), 

9.OO a. m. to 12.OO a. m., KINDERGARTEN, . 

7.00 p. m., HOUSEHOLD VESPERS (Neighbors Welcome) . 



Children cared for, for 5 cents per day 
. Mrs. Bertha Hofer Hegner, in charge 



MONDAY. 

4.OO p. m., ELOCUTION (Children) . Miss Minna Eoman and Miss Jennie Newman (Columbia School of Oratory) 

4.OO p. m., BOYS' CLUB, . . Mr. Graham R. Taylor, Chicago Commons 

6.3O p. m., COOKING FOR GIRLS, Mrs. C. O. Richardson 

7.OO p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, Mr. R. E. Todd, Chicago Commons 

7.0O p. m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK Miss Carrie M. Clawson, Chicago Commons 

7.15 p. m., GERMAN, Mr. Johan C. Schwabenland, Wilton College 

7.3O p. m., EMBROIDERY Miss Mary E. Tiffany (Marshall Field & Co.) 

7. 3O p. m., BOYS' CLUB, ........ Mr. Nathan H. Weeks, Chicago Commons 

8.00 p. m., GIRLS' PROGRESSIVE CLUB, 

8.00 p. m., WOMEN'S CLUB, 

8.15 p. m., GRAMMAR AND COMPOSITION, . . . Mr. Arthur S. Dascomb, A. B. (Dartmouth College) 

8.15 p. n., ELOCUTION, . . . . . . Miss Elsie M. Chandler (Northwestern Scliool of Oratory) 

TUESDAY. 

6.3O p. m., GIRLS' CLUB, . . . . . . . . . Miss Ida E. Hegner, Chicago Commons 

7.30 p. m., HOME DRESSMAKING, Mrs. Larsen 

7.30 p. m., ENGLISH READING (Scandinavian) . . . Mr. Frederick Nelson, A. B. (University of Wyoming), 

7.30 p. m., BOYS' CLUB Mr. Weeks 

8.OO p. m., COOKING, Miss Emma Heckenlively (Armour Institute) 

8.0O p. m,, INDUSTRIAL-ECONOMIC LECTURE AND DISCUSSION FOR MEN AND WOMEN. 

WEDNESDAY. 

3.00 p. m., PIANO LESSONS, Miss Harriet Brown (Berlin Conservatory) 

4.00 p. m., NORMAL MANUAL TRAINING, ... . Miss M. E. Colman, Chicago Commons 

4.00 p. m., DRAWING (For Children) . 

4.00 p. m., CECILIAN CHOIR, Miss Brown 

4.OO p. m., ELOCUTION (Girls over 13 years old) . . . Mr. Charles A. Marsh (Columbia School of Oratory) 

7.00 p. m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK (For Girls) Miss Clawson 

7.15 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, ... Mr. E. H. Sheldon (Chicago Manual Training School), and Mr. Todd 

( Under direction of Miss Henrietta E. Stone of Chicago Commons, assisted by Misses Alice B. 
7.15 p.m., GIRLS' CLUBS ,-{ Cogswell, Elizabeth V. Myers and Ellen M. Smith, of Chicago Commons, and Misses Alice 

( Dale, Jessie Eversy and Roselle Ward, of Evanston. 

7.3O p. m., BOYS' CLUB, Mr. Walter C. Johnston, of Evanston 

8.00 p. m., FRENCH (Elementary) Mr. E. J. Danforth, A. B. (Amherst College) 

8.00 p. m., ELOCUTION, Miss Chandler 

8.30 p. m., MANUAL TRAINING, ... ... . Messrs. Sheldon and Todd 

TUITION 25 CENTS FOR TEN LESSONS, EXCEPT IN NORMA1 



ID LECTURES. 

1897-8.. 



CHICAGO COMMONS 

140 NORTH UNION STREET 

NEAR MILWAUKEE AVENUE. 



DOMESTIC SCIENCE... Professional Dressmaking, Home Dressmaking, 

Cooking, Home Nursing. 

INDUSTRIAL TRAIN ING... Manual Training, Sewing, Basket Weaving, Wood 

Carving, Chair Caning. 

NIGHT SCHOOL STUDENTS... English Grammar and Composition, Spell- 
ing and Writing, Elocution, Arithmetic. 

OTHER BRANCHES WILL BE ARRANGED for if there is sufflcie nt demand 

for them. 

THURSDAY. 

4-00 p. m., CHILDREN'S CHORUS, Miss Mari Ruef Hofer, director 

7.OO p. m., FRENCH (Conversational) . . . . . . . . . Mr. George L. Schreiber 

7.OO p. m., VOCAL, CULTURE, Miss Hofer 

7. OO p. m., MANUAL, TRAINING, Mr. Todd 

7.30 p. m., DRAWING AND PAINTING, . . . . Mr. Schreiber (Extension Lecturer, University of Chicago) 

7.30 p. m., BOYS' CLUBS. Mr. Weeks 

8.00 p. m., STENOGRAPHY, Miss Carrie M. Clawson (Marshall Field & Co.) 

8.00 p. m., BOOKKEEPING, . . F. E. Henry (Iowa College) 

8.00 p. m., CHORAL CLUB Miss Hofer and Miss Katharine Crawford 

FRIDAY. 

4.0O p. m., GIRLS' CLUB, ........... Miss Margaret Stevenson 

4.00 p. m., NORMAL MANUAL TRAINING, . Miss Colman 

6.30 p. m. ITALIAN CLUB, ... Mr. Danforth 

7.00 p. m., PENNY PROVIDENT BANK, Miss Clawson 

7.OO p. m., ARITHMETIC, ... ... Ronstantin D. Momeroff, B. 8. (Wheaton College) 

7.30 p. m., ENGLISH READING, Mr. Nelson 

( Under direction of Mr. Weeks, assisted by Misses Harriet Fitch, 
7.3O p. m., BOYS' CLUBS, .,..-< Belle Froe, Florence Warner and Messrs. ,T. D. Burt and Edwin F. 

( Walker, all of Evanston, and E. J. Danforth, of Chicago Commons. 

8.OO p. m., BOYS' LIBRARY Mr. Arthur E. Ormes, of Evanston 

8.OO p. m., ALGEBRA, . Mr. Momeroff 

8.00 p. m., MOTHERS' MEETING (Fortnightly) Mrs. Hegner 

8.30 p. m., CHICAGO COMMONS MANDOLIN AND GUITAR CLUB, . . Prof. Salvatore Tomaso 

8.3O p. m., GUITAR LESSONS , . Mrs. TomaSO 

SATURDAY. 

9.OO a. m. to 12.OO a. m., MANUAL TRAINING, Messrs. Sheldon and Todd 

8.00 p. my, VIOLIN LESSONS, Mr. T. M. Thomason (Armour Institute) 

8.OO p. at., PIANO LESSONS, ...... 

8.00 p. m., HOME NURSING CLUB, Miss Emma Warren, M. D. 

10.00 a. ir.* For Boys, ) TABERNAC1 ,E CHURCH INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL (Cor. Grand Ave. and Morgan Street) 
3.OO p. m. For Girls, > 

Under direction of Miss M. E. Colman, Chicago Commons 

SUNDAY. 

2.OO p. m., BOYS' CLUB, Mr. Weeks 

4.OO p. m., BOYS' CLUB, .............. Mr. Weeks 

5.OO p. m., ENGLISH (For Italians) Mr. Danforth 

5.00 p. m., PLEASANT SUNDAY AFTERNOON FOR ITALIANS, .... First Sunday in Month 
6.3O p. m., EAGLE CLUB, (Italian) Mr. Danforth 

TRAINING, PROFESSIONAL DRESSMAKING, ART AND MUSIC. 

Further information about the classes can be obtained by writing or applying to 

HERMAN F. HEGNER, 

Resident in Charge of Educational Work, Chicago Commons. 
Office Hours, Mondays, 5.OO till 7.30 P. M. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 




V 



A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 1 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 1 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above s-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



AM, COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 20. 



CHICAGO. DEC. 31, 1897. 



WITH most cordial endorsement we make space 
for Mr. Weatherly's appeal for Mr. Katayama 
and his work at Kingsley House in Tokyo. Aside 
from its tribute to a modern hero worthy of knight- 
hood, it presents a need worthy of immediate relief, 
The industrial conditions which give rise to nearly 
all of our modern social problems in the United 
States are rapidly passing into effect in Japan, and 
the brave young fellow who is preparing to face 
the tide at Kingsley House needs and deserves as 
much interest and friendship as any foreign mis- 
sion in Japan. Indeed, Mr. Katayama is in a posi- 
tion to do much that no foreign missionary in Japan 
can do, for as a native Japanese he intuitively 
understands the situation as none but a native can 
understand it, and his location in a district where 
the industrial shoe pinches tightest gives him a 
great advantage with the working people, without 



whose evangelization no influence of Christianity 
upon the " upper" classes will make much for the 
leavening of Japan. The two hundred and fifty 
dollars needed by Mr. Katayama for his building 
ought to be in his hands within thirty days, and we 
cordially hope it will be. 



I~*\ERFORCE of financial circumstances over 
f~^^ which we have, regrettably, little control, this 
issue of THE COMMONS must be devoted largely to 
the interests of Chicago Commons, the settlement 
under whose auspices it has been issued from the 
first, and which has all along borne the expense of 
its publication and the responsibility for its cost, up 
to this date never met by the paper receipts. This 
necessity has modified the plans for this issue and 
crowded out a portion of the matter provided and 
promised for it. But we trust our readers will find 
the description of the Commons work and present 
condition not uninteresting, and will wait with 
patience for the succeeding issue,the matter already 
in type for which promises to maintain the stand- 
ard of interest and value thus far winning for THE 
COMMONS a steadily increasing clientage. 



CASTING UP ACCOUNTS. 



This is the time of year for the casting up of 
accounts and the striking of balances, and it is a 
very good time for individuals to take account of 
stock and estimate personal assets and liabilities. 
There's many a man and many a woman who 
might make an assignment, this glad new year, 
for the benefit of creditors, and it's a searching 
and profitable question for each to ask himself 
whether there would not be a serious deficit in the 
final summing-up. Suppose each one should say 
to himself, just now, " How would my books foot 
up, now, for the past year? " The reflection might 
take some such course as this: 

For twelve months of 1897 I have been consum- 
ing raw material and occupying valuable space. 
On my debit side I must count as receipts to be 
accounted for, the fact that in all parts of the world 
men have toiled for me. In dark and dismal mines 
hundreds have crawled upon their bellies and 
stunted their lives for me. Each drink of water, 
perchance, was from a glass made by the help of 
little children whose lives were hazarded at the 
mouth of fearfully hot glass furnaces and whose 
childhood was wasted in dangerous toil, for me. 
The coat on my back, the shoes on my feet, the 
bread I have eaten, the beef that has sustained 
me, the railroads that have transported me upon 
pleasure trips, the books and newspapers I have 
read, the music I have heard, the assurance of 
sleep free from peril of fire and violence all 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



these things have been mine at the expense of 
untold thousands of my fellow-men. 

And my credits? What have they been? Has 
the world had a fair return in the past year for the 
cost of my living? If a shrewd manufacturer 
should be asked to take account of me as an 
investment in the open market, and should fairly 
estimate the value and productiveness of my life 
in proportion to what it has cost to maintain me 
would he think the output justified the longer run- 
ning of the machinery? What am I living for? 
Taking the total product of the past year, or five 
years, or ten years has the result been worth the 
cost of maintaining the enterprise? Computing 
my life in terms of railroad stock, would I keep 
my money in an investment that returned so few 
dividends? How, then, shall society estimate me ? 
Do I cost more than I come to? 

Thought like this is wholly profitable, for it 
leads a man to figure out his own value to society 
in comparison with what he costs society. Most of 
us may well start the new year with a sweeping 
prayer, " Forgive me my debts ! " and beg leave to 
begin the new year with a fresh start and a new 
purpose. Says Thomas a Kempis : " A life with- 
out a purpose is a languid, drifting thing. Every 
day we ought to say to ourselves, this day let us 
make a good beginning, for what we have hitherto 
done is nothing." 



I ROM a rather unexpected source has come a 
recent interpretation of the social movement 
which involves the admission of all that the ad- 
herents of the Labor Movement have been con- 
tending for as fundamental facts the uncertainty 
of individual economic status in these days, the 
fact that the Labor Movement is the movement of 
the mass of men, and that it involves the upward 
aspiration of the best in men for opportunity to 
express itself in a rational human life. The ab- 
stract of Professor Small'8 article in the American 
Journal of Sociology, printed in another column, 
will enlighten not only those who believe that the 
''Labor Movement is at present the great religious 
and ethical movement of the times, but also and 
especially those who have looked upon it as merely 
the loud-mouthed agitation of a few malcontent 
disturbers of a peaceful society. 



THE REFORMER. 

Before the monstrous wrong he sets him down- 
One man against a stone walled city of sin. 
For centuries those walls have been a-building; 
Smooth porphyry, they slope and coldly glass 
The flying storm and the wheeling sun. No chink, 
No crevice lets the thinnest arrow in. 
He fights alone, and from the cloudy ramparts 
A thousand evil faces jibe and jeer him. 
Let him lie down and die; what is the right 
And where is justice in a world like this? 
Hut by and by earth shakes herself, impatient; 
And down, in one great roar of ruin, crash 
Watch-tower and citadel and battlements. 
When the red dust has cleared the lonely soldier 
Stands with strange thoughts beneath thefriendlystars. 

E. R. Sill. 



THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT. 

(Continued from page 4.) 

demand for a work-test instead of free soup. It is 
industrial education here, it is there a trade-union 
practice to prevent people from learning trades. 
It is importunity for law, and clamor for no law. 
It is in one group the prescription of political ma- 
chinery, and in another the proscription of polit- 
ical machinery. It is in one party the outcry for 
more democracy, and in another it is a wail for the 
revival of aristocracy." 

Thus picturing the confusion of mind into which 
the many phases and aspects of the social move- 
ment in our day throws the unfriendly observer, 
Professor Small protests that the movement is one 
not open to ridicule, or to be stopped by pointing 
out its lack of harmony. " It will not be arrested 
by pointing out its contradictions any more than 
the waves of the sea will be stilled by showing 
that they do not all keep the same tempo." 

So long as men have lived, he writes, they have 
at times shown two opposite dispositions: first, 
calmly to take life as they find it ; second, to try to 
better themselves. The latter impulse is not 
peculiar to our day; nevertheless, the modern 
social movement means that there is a new note in 
men's purpose to better themselves; it has new 
force; it has a changed outlook. Professor Small, 
taking up these three points in order, maintains in 
brief that the new note is this : Men used to ac- 
cept the situation and tried to make themselves as 
comfortable as possible in it; to-day they propose 
to change the situation. Men look with contempt 
upon adjustment of relations between social 
classes; they want to obliterate social classes. 

THE PEOPLE'S SELF-APPRAISAL. 

"The people who used to be called the rabble 
are now making their own appraisal of their social 
value. They are not abashed at the thought of 
steering the ship of state with their own hands. 
No vague awe draws invisible but impassable lines 
beyond which they must not step in pursuit of 
their desires. All sorts and conditions of men are 
saying with more than the bravado of Macbeth, 
' What man dare, I dare!' 

" More than this, the increasing volume of social 
force has new leverages with which to exert its 
power. In the days of John Ball in England, or 
of the Bundschuh in Germany, the masses had 
merely the power of numbers. They had none of 
the tools of popular education, few means of com- 
munication, little political influence, no plausible 
programs, no power of organization, no allies to 
speak of in other classes. To-day the same social 
elements have more knowledge than the aver- 
age clergyman had in many periods of the 
Middle Ages. They give a living to crowds 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



of crafty men for printing back at them their own 
provincial thoughts. They are learning to array 
themselves in effective political formations. They 
are producing and spreading programs which 
have the merit of aiming at many things which 
it would be very comfortable to have. They 
are cultivating mass sympathies and drilling 
themselves in mass movements, and, not least of 
all, they are sapping and mining the foundations 
of supposed pillars of society by making many 
friends and champions in social classes whose lives 
move in entirely different lines. . . . The social 
movement is thus not the inertia of the many 
slightly disturbed by the few, it is the momentum 
of the many, hardly restrained by all the arts that 
the few can contrive." 

THE NEW OUTLOOK. 

" The supreme purpose of life has sometimes 
been to escape the wrath to come. People are to- 
day fleeing from the wrath that has come, and they 
are frankly prospecting for happiness. . . . The 
social movement is a deliberate undertaking to get 
more satisfaction out of life than it has ever yielded. 
It is impelled by bold and stubborn presumption 
that men are fools not to be happy and comfortable 
in this world. There is not very much reckoning 
with the conditions of another world in the present 
social movement. The idea is that there is a way 
to be physically and morally happy now if we can 
find it, and then the hereafter will take care of 
itself. This way of looking at things is not neces- 
sarily opposed to religion. It is opposed to all con- 
ceptions of religion which make it a matter of 
greater importance to dead men than to living 
ones." 

. " My interpretation of the social movement then 
makes it, with all its faults, a proof that the natu- 
ral force of humany is not abated, that social vir- 
ility is not exhausted. The social movement is 
to-day's form of the same vital facts which have 
always been the impulse of human advancement. 
. . . Extraordinary men have roused desires 
dormant in the ordinary man, and thus humanity 
has progressively found itself. Humanity has ex- 
pressed itself, and asserted itself, and exerted itself 
in its most forceful specimens, and in them and 
their works the rest of men have learned to know 
their own nature, and power, and destiny. 

THE ONWARD MARCH. 

" The social movement of to-day is the onward 
march of that same average humanity toward 
further gains indicated as within human reach, 
because they have actually been compassed by 
some men. We are simply continuing the series 
of movements by which all historical men have 
proved their power to take up and use knowledge 
of themselves and their resources that representa- 



tive men have gained. Social classes have been 
advance-agents of prosperity for the social mass. 
Powers and rights that aggressive classes have at 
first monopolized have gradually appeared to be- 
long not to classes as such, but to men as such." 

The paramount dignity of the individual person, 
regardless of his social state, has now become dis- 
tinct and commonplace, after the struggle for 
equality before the law, the democracy of religion, 
but even yet there seems no basis for permanent 
contentment, for while, as Professor Small con- 
cedes, the toiling millions can buy more with their 
wages than ever before, and the laboring classes 
are more necessary to civilization than ever before, 
"the individual laborer is to-day haunted by the 
thought that he may any day lose his job. He 
feels that he has less certainty of keeping himself 
and family from starvation or pauperism than the 
average American slave had of living in comfort 
through old age. The free man's freedom to-day 
is evidently a struggle with severer and more re- 
lentless contingencies than slaves, as a class, have 
encountered in civilized countries in modern times. 
Men are accordingly beginning to feel that the 
wide wide world is a very crowded place, and that 
its accommodations are not as free as they used to 
be. . . . Opportunities are to-day so controlled 
that men feel themselves more subject to the 
caprice of others than at any time since serfdom 
disappeared. 

CLASS STATISTICS VERSUS INDIVIDUAL FACTS. 

" It is no comfort to the side-tracked man to read 
in tables of statistics the story of material and 
moral gains by all classes. These tables make no 
exhibit of the sense of insecurity of individuals 
within the classes. If that schedule could be filled 
out it would show a balance of unhappiness so 
great that it possibly makes our present civilization 
bankrupt. Machinery and capital and commercial 
combinations put multitudes in a condition of 
dependence on vast operations upon which they can 
exert but feeble influence. The many are getting 
into a state of panic as they contemplate the possi- 
bilities of this dependent condition. They feel that 
they have somehow been tricked out of their share 
of guaranties for ' life, liberty and pursuit of hap- 
piness.' They suspect that they are really being 
deceived by smooth words. They think they 
detect the beginnings of a slavery for the many in 
which the masters are released from the moral 
responsibility which mitigated the lot of former 
slaves, and at the same time have subtler means of 
making their mastery oppressive." 

BATTLING FOR FOOTHOLD. 

" The men of to-day," Prof. Small continues, 
"are fighting for security; security of standing- 
ground, security of opportunity, security of per- 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



sonal recognition among the shareholders in the 
inheritances of the ages, security of a man's chance 
to be a man, security that the mighty impersonal 
power of capital and organization shall not be 
allowed to march masses of men roughshod over 
individual men, in pursuit of schemes vast in aim 
but needlessly terrific in means. The French re- 
public gravely parades that legend as its ideal. It 
is maddening the very people whom it is intended 
to soothe. 

" I predict that this fact about the social move- 
ment will be perceived more and more, and that it 
will shape more and more the strategy of the 
movement. Men are parts of society and necessa- 
rily subordinate to society. It is too late to avoid 
that fact. The needs of society must necessarily 
require frequent exercise of eminent domain over 
individual interests in ways for which damages 
cannot be collected. 

INDIVIDUALS BATED TOO LOW. 

" But it is possible that we are at present rating 
individuals as too small and too cheap parts of 
society. It is possible that our mighty plans of 
commercial conquest are not worth success, be- 
cause it would have to be purchased at too great 
cost of individual security. The social movement, 
candidly and fairly interpreted, means that millions 
of men believe this to be the case. They say we 
have invented some modern improvements that are 
working at too great cost of manhood. They pay 
in false coin. Their profits are delusions. They 
are destroying the securities on which reliance 
should be placed for individual and social strength. 
4 Give back by any means the vanishing security 
which we have exchanged for deceptive and debas- 
ing prosperity.' 

" I repeat that I am not attempting to weigh the 
justice of this plea. It is the temper of the social 
movement as I observe it, and I am trying to state 
the bald fact. The fact must be clearly under- 
stood, whether we justify it or not. Otherwise we 
are entirely at fault in our estimate of the social 
movement. 

" There is certainly a solemnity about this mat- 
,ter when we come to see these features. Men are 
going back to first principles. They are saying 
that security of fundamental rights is good for 
some men, and therefore good for all men. They 
are saying that this security is being impaired. 
They are demanding that it shall be strengthened. 
No temporary and frivolous issue this. There can 
be no permanent settlement until there are different 
popular convictions about social tendencies, or 
until the tendencies themselves are changed. 

SUBLIMITY OF THE MOVEMENT. , 

" But if there is solemnity about the social move- 
ment it has also traits of sublimity. If security is 



the primary end of the social movement to-day, it 
is also not less a means. . . . They feel, if they 
do not expressly say, that man's life is not realized 
when he is a well-greased cog in the industrial 
machine. . . . Cultivating man is as proper a 
pursuit as amassing riches. . . . They want 
security in order that as workers and thinkers and 
citizens and worshipers they may realize their 
larger selves. The task which society to-day im- 
poses upon its members is direct and conscious 
effort so to organize personal relations that the 

masses of men, with their manifold endowment 

, 

may together realize their common humanity. 

" The social movement is set in motion by this 
need, tho it does not distinctly understand the im- 
pulse. The social movement is thus inevitable, 
tho not yet wholly intelligent. It is respectable, 
tho its manifestations are not yet altogether digni- 
fied. It deserves the study of all who love truth. 
It deserves the sympathy and the wise co-opera- 
tion of all who love their kind." 



FOR A NEW BUILDING. 

(Continued from page 7.) 

and non-sectarian educational and social service 
had obtained their three years' hold. 

THE CRISIS OP SUCCESS. 

" With success, however, comes crisis. When, 
because of church appointments, the writer could 
no longer go out of town to solicit funds, sufficient 
money to carry the settlement ceased to come in. 
The situation is further complicated by the 
approaching expiration of the lease of the settle- 
merit residence, which necessitates a long look 
ahead. ' When things look dark, move to the 
front,' was General Grant's policy in crisis. So to 
our friends we stated our present need of money 
for current expense, and confidently await their 
response, which has never failed, so far, to provide 
bare subsistence at least. Then there came out of 
the dark dilemma the first initiative given to the 
settlement from without the inner circle of its 
residents. A business man of experience and 
influence, formerly of Chicago, now of New York 
City, called to express and to inform his growing 
interest in our work. He learned with pleasure of 
the consummation of the hope of a closer co-oper- 
ation with the neighborhood church, which he 
knew had all along been entertained by the resi- 
dents. It led him to see visions and dream dreams. 
For at the end of the month he has returned to 
surprise us with carefully-thought out plans of a 
new settlement building, from the boiler room in 
the cellar to the roof of the fifth story. 

A PEOPLE'S TABERNACLE. 

" Centering about an auditorium providing nearly 
a thousand sittings there are grouped: a gymnasium 
with its baths and lockers, a manual training shop, 
a baking room and cooking class equipment and 
all the machinery for heating, lighting, ventilation, 
and power; a kindergarten, nursery and reading 
and social rooms for boys and men; provision for 
the girls' clubs and classes, the art and music 
room; the settlement dining hall and kitchen, par- 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



lor, reception hall and library; on the fourth and 
fifth floors the family suites and single rooms for 
the residents. 

" With somewhat the quiet air of a prophet this 
man left us with the remark, ' It is a case of got-to- 
be for which I want to help you get ready. For 
what needs to be, comes to be, and this is nearer 
the botton of the city problem than anything else 
known to me.' 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN? 

" We at the settlement and the church, and not a 
few of our friends outside of the neighborhood, are 
wondering what it means. We wonder if we 
secured the building, whether it could not provide, 
not only for the diverse and overcrowding work of 
the settlement, but also the modern equipment 
needed by the old Tabernacle to do its really great 
work for a population of nearly 30,000 predomi- 
nantly Protestant people, among whom it is the 
only exclusively English-speaking church . For we 
know that it would promote economy of adminis- 
tration to such an extent that under one roof a 
greater work could be done both by the church 
and the settlement than either has yet attempted, 
at little more than half the cost that is now re- 
quired to maintain the present schedules of the 
separated works. To the value of the so-called ' in- 
stitutional methods ' of church work, the proposed 
co-operation would add the assuredly effective 
advantage of having a family household with thirty 
resident-workers at the center of the neighborhood 
church. 

"In view of the apparent failure to maintain 
churches in the far down-town centers of our great 
cities that at all worthily represent our Protestant 
Christianity, or meet the spiritual needs of the 
neediest life, is it too much to ask of Christian 
enterprise to invest the cost of such a building in 
combining the two most effective means of reach- 
ing and holding the people known tq the modern 
church? 

CHRISTIANITY IN CITY CONDITIONS. 

" Some of us who have lived and labored longest 
among those most destitute of church privileges 
and Christian ministrations, not only believe, but 
we simply know, that Christianity, in the form of 
the primitive church adapted to the conditions of 
modern city life, can survive and prosper in these 
densest and most deserted populations. We are 
willing to give our very lives to demonstrate it, and 
ask only barely adequate means to provide us the 
opportunity for the demonstration. By the common 
consent of all who know it best, there exists neither 
in Chicago nor any other city a fairer field for this 
demonstration than the neighborhood of the old 
Tabernacle Church and Chicago Commons. Better 
vantage for prosecuting these approved methods 
could hardly be asked than that already possessed 
by the groups of allied workers at this church and 
settlement. Somewhere, we believe, the 'Lord of 
the harvest' has people of his own who will speed- 
ily make it possible to realize this practical ideal of 
a church which shall be the ministering body 
of the Son of Man to the neediest people, and 
to set a type of service that will recover to Chris- 
tianity the lost ground on which it won the greatest 
of its earliest triumphs." 



The legal evictions in Ireland last year are 
reported at 9,000; in New York City they were 
51,723. 



COMMONS TRUSTEES. 



List of Those Who Comprise the Settlement's In- 
corporated Board. 



In view of the larger outlook into the future, 
and of the efforts to put the settlement on a sound 
financial footing, the personnel of the settlement 
board of trustees (" Trustees of the Chicago Com- 
mons Association Incorporated") is interesting. 
It comprises eleven members: David Fales (Lake 
Forest), and Prof. H. M. Scott (West Side) repre- 
sent the Seminary board of directors and faculty; 
Thomas P. Ballard stands for the Evanston affilia- 
tion of the settlement, and Charles H. Hulburd of 
the Board of Trade (North Side) represents the 
City Missionary society's board of directors; John 
S. Field (Knickerbocker Ice Co.) and J. H. Strong 
(U. S. Life Insurance Co.) represent Plymouth 
Church; E. Burritt Smith (South Side) is an officer 
in the University Church and a prominent legal 
representative of the Civic Federation; Edward 
Payson (Oak Park) is treasurer and Graham Tay- 
lor (Professor of Christian Sociology, Chicago 
Theological Seminary) is president of the Associa- 
tion and resident warden. Miss Jane Addams em- 
bodies the close and friendly encouragement which 
has been reciprocal between Hull House and the 
Commons since the latter's founding, and John P. 
Gavit represents the settlement residents. 






Sfcetcbee 



A FRIEND of the editor, who helps in a settle- 
ment in another city, sends this copy of a letter 
received by him from Becky Goldberg : 

Dear Mr. : We all thank you for the money 

you gave Miss Jones for our parties. Now I will 
tell you all about our party. We began our party 
playing the donkey's tail. Afterwards we played 
Jerusalem, then clothes pin game. Then we be- 
gan our party; we all enjoyed it very much. We. 
had ice cream, cake and candy. We closed our 
party by marching around about two or three 
times, and then we marched out the door. We 
began it about 4:30 p. M., and ended it at 6 o'clock. 
It did not take all the money for our party, but 
had some money for the other parties. These are 
the following clubs that had parties : Liberty, 
Little Women Club, Sewing School, Tuesday Night 
Club, and many other clubs. I am writing for 
Celia, Katie, Becky, Gracie Goldberg, Edith and 
Lizzie Wirtz, Mollie and Alice Longworth, and a 
good many others. There are two Becky Gold- 
bergs, but the one that is writing this letter is the 
oldest one. And some day I think we might meet 
each other and then you will know me. 

Goodby, from BECKY GOLDBERG. 



1897.] 



THE COMMONS. 



15 



BUREAU OF 
SETTLEMENTS 



UNDER 
THE DIRECTION OP 



THE 

COMMONS 



PURPOSES 



To collect, disburse and publish bibliog- 
raphy and other historical data and general 
information concerning the world-wide Set- 
tlement Movement. 

To facilitate helpful communication between 
Settlements. 

To be of all possible service to people living 
and working on the basis of the Settlement 
Idea. 



WANTED, THEREFORE, 



Prompt Information as to the foundation 
of new Settlements, or the existence of old 
ones not well. known. Better that we should 
duplicate information than not to have it 
at all. 

Copies (several when possible), of all 
reports, circulars, and other printed matter, 
however apparently trivial, including tickets, 
programs and all other transient material, 
issued by or concerning any settlement. 
Complete files of all such matter are urgently 
desired. 

References to, and if possible copies of, all 
periodical, newspaper, magazine or review 
articles, or allusions, however scant, in 
books or pamphlets, with reference to the 
Settlement Movement or to any Settlement. 
These references should always give minute 
particulars as to the name of the publica- 
tion, date, author if possible, etc. 

In short, we desire to have on hand and to 
keep complete, material suggesting the en- 
tire history of each and every Settle- 
ment. 

All head-workers and secretaries of Settle- 
ments in all Countries are urged to co- 
operate. 

NOTE. The following Settlement Literature 
may now be obtained through the Bureau: 

"Social Settlements and the Labor Question" 
(Reprint from the proceedings of the 23d National 
Conference of Charities and Correction). Single cop- 
ies, 25 cents, postpaid. 

Bibliography of College, Social and University 
Settlements, published by the College Settlements 
Association. Free on receipt of 2 cents postage. 

Material for and inquiries concerning the 
Bureau should be addressed to 

Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union St., Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



STRICTLY BUSINESS. 



' Child's Christ-Tales" Still In Demand, and Just 
the Book for Workers In Settlement Clubs. 



CHRISTMAS is over, to be sure, and the de- 
\^/ mand for Chrismas gifts is past, so that now 
is the time to get a copy of the beautiful " Child's 
Christ-Tales " for your own use. There is no book 
in all the range of literature that will be more use- 
ful to Sunday School teachers and workers in set- 
tlement clubs. In this little book is an unequaled 
collection of the Christ-Tales that children love to 
hear, and that are so often so hard to tell unless 
you know just how. Mrs. Andrea Hofer Proudfoot, 
the well-known student and lover of children, and 
editor of the Child-Garden, with all the joy of 
Christian life and service, has compiled in an 
attractive, beautifully printed volume, illustrated 
with the best pictures that the Christ-love has 
brought to perfection among the masters of art in 
both past and present, these sweet stories, in such 
apt words that one can pass them on unchanged 
to the children, or tell the stories in one's own 
words, sure of a hearing and of a deep and true 
impression. On the next page the terms on which 
the "Christ-Tales" can be secured by COMMONS' 
readers are explained in detail. 



A TIMELY acknowledgment is not out of place 
here. In large measure, the success of THE COM- 
MONS its very existence, in fact has been due to 
the friendly aid and unfailing courtesy of Messrs. 
P. F. Pettibone & Co., 44 South Desplaines and 50 
Jackson street, who from the outset have been our 
printers. In the times when receipts have been 
small and the paper struggling for mere existence 
among the crowding popular magazines of the 
day, the consideration of the Pettibone Company, 
in according long credit to the publishers, has 
tided us over and enabled us to keep up to stand- 
ard. The quality of work done by this establish- 
ment needs no other testimonial than the high 
average of appearance and style maintained by 
THE COMMONS from month to month. It need 
hardly be said that this acknowledgment is spon- 
taneous and unsolicited. 



The Nasarene gives reason to think the finan- 
cial stringency has been hard to bear in the 
Philadelphia Neighborhood Guild. Its outline 
sketch of what would happen in Addison street 
" If We Should Abandon the Work " not only ex- 
hibits how great would be the misfortune there, 
but incidentally shows how many-sided is the 
work that a small sum of money will do for hu- 
manity when it is invested in so thoroughly good 
a work as that in Addison street (formerly Minster 
street), Philadelphia. 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[December, 



Special 
Offer to 
Commons 
Readers 



A 

BEAUTIFUL 
STORY- 
BOOK j* 

FOR 

CHILDREN 



CHILD'S CHRIST-TALES 



BY ANDREA HOFER PROUDFOOT 



It is a Christ-Lore Classic, contributed to Literature by a Kindergartener. 

No Book -Stall is complete without it and no Library 

is complete without it. 



The book is illustrated with 30 reproductions from the Old Masters, and 
many stories. It is printed on fine enameled paper, hand- 
somely bound, with attractive cover. 



ELEVEN THOUSAND COPIES SOLD IN J896-J897 



IT WILL BE SOLD 
AT 



LOO 



But readers of "THE COMMONS" can secure it for SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS, by mailing 

that amount in check, money order, stamps or cash; or for FIFTY CENTS by 

sending with the following order the name of a NEW SUBSCRIBER to 

"THE COMMONS" and the fifty cents for the subscription. 



ONE DOLLAR secures the "Child's Christ-Tales" 
and " THE COMMONS " for One Year. 



Order for Child's bri$iCak$ 



Good only if accompanied 
by 75 cents (or $t.OO if a new 
subscription to "THE COM- 
MONS" is included.) 



Publishers of "THE COMMONS;' 

140 North Union Street, Chicago. Ill 

Enclosed find - - in payment for copies of CHILD'S CHRIST- 

TALES, to the following address: 



If accompanied by this Order, any number of copies may be had at seventy-five cents each. 



THE COMMONS 

B flOontbly TftccofS ScvotcJ to Bapecta of Xife an> labor from tbe Social Settlement point of View. 



Whole Number 21. 



CHICAGO. 



JANUARY, 1898. 



[For THE COMMONS.] 
HYMN. 



BY ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY. 

Open our eyes, O Lord, 

Who wander in the uight. 

One blessing to Thy Church accord, 

That it receive its sight. 

Show us the world we make, 
This world of crime and pain. 
Show us the want from which we take 
Our fill of cruel gain. 

Show us the clear effect 
Of every thought and deed. 
Make it so easy to detect 
That he that runs may read. 

Like us, our fathers groped. 

Their eyes were holden too. 

While they adored and prayed and hoped, 

They lived as tyrants do. 

They could not see the slave, 
Oppressed and scourged and bound. 
They could not see the look he gave 
For help he never found. 

Nor did their eyes behold 

The horror of their laws, 

Which hanged and burned both young and old 

For every trivial cause. 

And they who were the first 

To point them out their sin, 

Were mobbed, imprisoned, hated, cursed, 

Aud killed by kith and kin. 

O Lord, vouchsafe Thy grace, 
That when again Thou send 
A messenger before Thy face, 
We greet him as a friend. 

And may we with him dare 
To choose th' eternal right; 
But grant us first our fervent prayer, 
That we receive our sight! 
Ehinebeck, N. Y. 



MARY E. MCDOWELL A SETTLEMENT 
WORKER. 

BY JOHN P. GAVIT. 

It was a blazing hot day last summer when I 
asked a bright-looking little girl out in the Stock 
Yards district where the University of Chicago 
Settlement might be. She looked at me in blank 
amazement for a moment, and then averred that 
she never had heard of no such place. I chanced 
to know that the settlement was just four doors 
from where we then stood, but I had a bit of a 



theory, which the little girl's reply abundantly 
verified for she was just coming from the said 
settlement, with a book under her arm which I 
knew she had drawn but a moment before from 
the settlement library. So I proceeded to test my" 
theory further. 

Five saloon-keepers within a short distance had 
never heard of the place, and a neighboring grocer 
wanted to know what in the unmentionable I was 
talking about. The policeman on the beat seemed 
equally ignorant, and none of the children I met 
knew of any such strangely-named enterprise. 
One rather intelligent looking street-car man 
laughed at me as he assured me that I was miles 
from the place " the University of Chicago is way 
down by Sixty-third street, man ! How did you 
ever get way out here ? " 

But let me confess the whole truth. Every child 
of them all, the saloon-keepers without exception, 
the emphatic groceryman, the policeman and the 
conductor all lighted up with pleasure when I 
changed my question and asked if they knew 
where Miss Mary McDowell lived ! " Sure ! " they 
cried, " we know her ! She lives right down there 
over the feed store why didn't you ask for her 
first what was that queer place you said you 
wanted to find ? " 

I was glad that my theory was verified, but I was 
more glad still to have this unconscious testimony 
to the hold which one woman has gotten upon a 
neighborhood in which she has lived but three 
short years. The institution with the complicated 
name was nothing at all in that barren neigh- 
borhood ; the loving personality of a ministering 
woman was what the people knew, and their faces 
brightened as they spoke of her ! 

The first time I met Mary McDowell she pre- 
sided as hostess to the Federation of Chicago Set- 
tlements in the tiny quarters where the University 
Settlement began its work a wee band-box of a 
place and I was sure then, as I know now, that 
with the same grace, the same bonhomie, the same 
gentle good-fellowship, she would welcome to her 
home, be it palace or hovel, the laundress around 
the corner or the Empress of India. She is a typical 
" settlement feller," and probably that is the best I 
can say of her. 

Mary E. McDowell was born in Cincinnati, of 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



that everlasting and omnipresent southern New 
England stock, that " does exploits " wherever it 
goes. They were people who thought a good deal 
of " blood," but she was saved from being an aris- 
tocrat by her father's conversion at forty years of 
age. He was an officer during the war, first on the 
staff of his brother. General Irvin McDowell, and 
than a commander in the Western Pay Department. 
He was a genial, social, rather worldly man, who, 
at the age of forty, left the conventional church, in 
which he had been raised but which he had not 
joined, and became a member of an old-fashioned 
Methodist chapel on the banks of the Ohio river in 
Cincinnati. 

" Ship-carpenters were the pillars and saints in 
that church," Miss McDowell told me the other 
day, "and I consider my introduction into that 
democratically Christian fellowship the beginning 
of my social education. I was eleven years of age 
at this time, and joined this dear old church with 
my father. It was an epoch in our family life. My 
father being an inventor, a mechanical engineer, a 
railroad man, a soldier, our social circle was more 
inclusive than that of any other family I knew in 
my childhood. I remember meeting at our table 
private soldiers, dirty and sick, often just out of 
Libby Prison carpenters, blacksmiths, generals, 
governors, and ex-President Hayes has been often 
with us. 

" Then, my early life was in a neighborhood of 
working people, many of them poor. My grand- 
father's home, where I was born, was one of those 
old homes left on the edge of a growing city. Not 
being a strong girl, and being very nervous, my 
education was rather slipshod first public, then 
private, then back again to the public school I 
cannot remember receiving much from my school 
life, but my social life in church, at home and 
away from home has been to me a liberal educa- 
tion." 

Pressed for the sources of the impulse leading to 
her present social work, Miss McDowell said, " To 
Jane Addams, of Hull House, and to Elizabeth 
Harrison, of the Chicago Kindergarten College, I 
owe a debt of gratitude I shall never be able to 
pay, for helping me to make definite the growing 
belief in the solidarity of humanity, which I first 
received from St. Paul and from Jesus Christ. I 
came into the settlement through my interest in 
children, as a kindergartner, but I believe now that 
even the kindergarten cannot do its legitimate work 
without the awakening of mothers to see that they 
are a social force, and in the teaching of everyone 
that not only can a life not live to itself, but neither 
can a neighborhood, a city, a nation. More and 
more I believe in the fundamental democratic prin- 
ciples underlying the Settlement Movement, and 
because they serve to give freest expression to my 



ideas of religion, making objective the ideals I 
have long held therefore I more and more love 
the idea and work of the settlement." 

When I told Miss McDowell that I was asking 
these questions for such a sketch as this, she said 
a characteristic thing, " Oh, don't say anything that 
is personal or good only, if you think it will help 
anyone to think of these things, you might give 
some of the reasons for my social feeling. That is 
not personal, but is something outside of myself 
and yet possessing me, and it may go on to possess 
others." 

That is Mary McDowell, whose work speaks for 
her when she will not speak for herself. The 
impress of her individuality is upon hundreds of 
lives in many parts of Chicago and the West, for 
the cheery message of her loving heart passes on to 
others, whether she speaks, or directs the work of 
the settlement in the reeking Stock Yards district 
whence comes the meat that two continents eat 
unthinking, or whether she moves in simple life, a 
Christian disciple among her fellow-men. 



CHRISTIANITY AND PROPERTY. 



Bibliography of literature Containing: Christian 
Teachings and Ideas on Ownership. 



Through the kindness of Professor George D. 
Herron, of Grinnell, Iowa, we are able to present 
the bibliographical list, recently prepared by him, 
of literature since the early Christian centuries 
containing Christian teachings on ownership of 
property. We present it without comment at 
present : 

I. 

THE FATHERS OF THE EARLY CHURCH. 

1. Origen's " Answer to Celsus," Chapter III. 

2. The Sermons of Chrysostom before his exile from Con- 

stantinople. All through Chrysostom's sermons are 
many references to economic matters. 

3. Canon Farrar's "Lives of the Fathers," Vol. 2d, chap- 

ter 18 on Chrysostom. MacMillan's, New York and 
London. 

4. Neander's Chrysostomus. 

5. See Ambrose "De Tobia," "De Offlciis Ministrorum," 

lib. 103. " De Nabuthe" 513 and 607. Also references 
in his work on " Virginity." 

6. Augustine. See Farrars " Lives of the Fathers," Vol. 

2d, chapter on "Augustine as a Bishop," with refer- 
ences on pages 365 and 366. Also examine the " City 
of God." 

7. Nltti's "Catholic Socialism," chapter III, including ref- 

erences. MacMillan's, New York and London. 

8. Nash's Genesis of the Social Conscience, page 206, the 

rest of the chapter, Including the references. See 
also appendix aud references at end of book. Mac- 
Millan's. 

9. See Gore's " Incarnation of the Son of God," pages 228 

and 229. Scribner's, New York. 

10. John Brisben Walker's "Church and Poverty." Cos- 
mopolitan Publishing Co. New York. 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



11. "Aryus the Lybian," a novel, anonymous, published 
by Appleton's, New York. 

II. 

PROPERTY IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN 
THOUGHT. 

1. Uhlhorn's " Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," 

pages 104 to 118, then 191 to 198. Scribner's, New 
York. 

2. Harnack's " Monasticism, Its Ideals and History." 

Christian Literature Pub. Co. 

3. Hatch's "Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages on the 

Early Christian Church," specially chapter on Ethics 

and concluding chapter. Also his " Organization of 

the Early Churches." Hibbert Lectures. Riving- 

ton's, London. 
4 Weissacker's "The Apostolic Age of the Christian 

Church," page 52 and pages immediately following. 

Scribner's, New York. 
5. The whole of the second volume of Maurice's " Moral 

and Metaphysical Philosophy" ought to be carefully 

studied. MacMillan's, New York. 
. Tolstoi's " Kingdom of God," exegetical parts; also ex- 

egetical parts of "My Religion." Cassell Pub. Co., 

New York, and Thos. Y. Crowell & Co., Boston. 

7. " The Secret of Catholicism," by Rev. Wm. Barry, D.D., 

National Review (London), August, 1896. 

8. " My Quest for God," by John Trevor. London, Labour 

Prophet Office. 

9. "Society the Redeemed Form of Man," by Henry 

James. Boston:^Houghton, Osgood & Co. 

10. "Civilization: its Cause and Cure," by Edward Carpen- 

ter. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. 

11. "The Evolution of Property," by Paul Lafargue. Lon- 

don: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. . 

12. " The Theory of Human Progression," by P. E. Dove. 

New York: The Humboldt Publishing Co. 

13. "The Christian Revolt," by John C. Kenworthy. Lon- 

don: William Reeves, 185 Fleet Street, E. C. Also 
by Mr. Kenworthy: "The Anatomy of Misery," 
"From Bondage to Brotherhood." Brotherhood 
Publishing Co., Croydon, London. 

14. Notice Henry George's acknowledgment all through his 

works, that Christianity literally carried out means 
communism. Also to the same acknowledgment in 
Rousseau's works. It is very interesting also to go 
through the works of George William Curtis, and 
notice how persistently he is touched by the com- 
munistic ideal of Christ. 

15. Darmsteter's "Essays," I and II. Houghton.Mifflin & 

Co. 

16. As a scientific comment on Jesus' doctrine, in Matt. 

5:42, read " The Social Philosophy of the Charity Or- 
ganization Society," by J. A. Hobson, the English 
economist, in "Contemporary Review," Nov., 1896. 



III. 



IN THE REFORMATION. 

{Property in the Teachings of the Reformation, and the 
Catholic Revival preceding the Reformation. 

1. Sabatier's " Life of St. Francis." Scribner's, New York. 

2. Morrison's " Life of St. Bernard." MacMillan's, New 

York. 

3. Nitti's " Catholic Socialism," page 71, with references. 

MacMillan's, New York. 

4. Ashley's " English Economic History," Vol. I, chap. III. 

MacMillan's, New York. 

5. Langland's " Vision of Piers the Plowman." New Edi- 



15. 



tion by Stafford Brooke and Kate M. Warren; Lon- 
don. 

"A Dream of John Ball," by William Morris. 
Proudhon's " What is Property? " pages 349 and 363. 
Green's " Longer History of English People," Vol. Ill, 

specially chapters III and IV. 
B. O. Flower, " The Century of Sir Thomas More." 
Thomas Hughes' " Life of Alfred the Great." 
Hyndman's "Historical Basis of Socialism," specially 

chapter IV. 

E. Choisy, "La Theocratic a Geneve au temps de Cal- 
vin." 
Carl Marx's " Capital and Capitalism," chapter 27, and 

indeed the whole of part VIII. 

" The Journal of John Woolman;" introduction by the 
poet Whittier, published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
Fabian Tract No. 79 contains a bibliography of Wool- 
man's writings on political, social and economic 
questions questions to which the author came from 
an intensely spiritual point of approach. 
The following "Translations and Reprints from the 
Original sources of European History," published by 
the Department of History of the University of Penn- 
sylvania: 

"The Early Reformation Period in England," Wool- 
sey, Henry VIII. and Sir Thomas More. Edited 
by Edward P. Clieyney. A. M. Vol. I, No. l. 
"The Period of Early Reformation in Germany." 
Edited by James Harvey Robinson, Ph. D., and 
Merrick Whitcomb, A.B. Vol. II, No. 6. 
"English Towns and Guilds," Edited by Edward 

P. Cheyney, A.M. Vol. II, No. 1. 
" England in the Time of Wycliffe." Edited by Ed- 
ward P. Cheyney, A.M. Vol. II, No. 5. 



ARNOLD TOYNBEE AN ECLECTIC. 

i 

He died too soon, in any case, to construct a 
system. But if he had lived a hundred years he 
would still have remained an eclectic. He was the 
apostle, not of a scheme, but of a spirit. No 
wonder that he was the despair of all extremists. 
Here was a man whose glowing fervor, whose abso- 
lute unselfishness, whose whole-hearted devotion 
to the cause of social progress surpassed that of any 
fanatic of them all. Yet he was absolutely devoid of 

fanaticsm While health lasted no man had a 

calmer judgment, or imposed the dictates of that 
judgment with more indomitable will upon his 

own ardent temper Toynbee had the moral 

genius which could wed enthusiasm to sobriety and 
unite the temper of the philosopher with the zeal 
of the missionary. Alfred Milner. 



The loss of labor in begging for work is sad to 
contemplate. With four men waiting and watch- 
ing for one job and the whole transient population 
hunting about for odds and ends of employment, it 
takes about four days' labor to tind one day's work. 
Under the proper system of exchange, there would 
be no floating population prowling about in search 
of bones and crusts thrown from the tables of those 
who are so fortunate as to have anything left 
over. All would have homes and be secured in the 
right to self-employment at fair rates of exchange. 
It is just as great an indignity for a man to be 
obliged to ask employment from a fellow being as 
it is to ask for bread. The Commoner, Portland, 
Ore. 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



MINISTERS' TRAINING. 

Canon Ingram, of Oxford House, London, Suggests 

a Foreign Missionary Sojourn for 

all Ministers. 



Rev. A. F. Winnington Ingram, warden of Oxford 
House, in East London, has been appointed canon of 
St. Paul's cathedral, and will be obliged, shortly, 
to give up his active work in the settlement. Canon 
Ingram has been the most effective worker in East 
London, and as rector of St. Matthew's has been 
able to combine the work of church and settlement, 
as he assures an interviewer from the BritiahWeekly 
without prejudice to either. One of his first ser- 
mons at St. Paul's contained some suggestions for 
the ministry which, as the Outlook says, showed 
that his training in the poor quarter of London 
" has not been without effect." 

He suggests that there should be a continual 
passing to and fro between the foreign and home 
field, and that young men should spend several 
years of their ministerial lives abroad before begin- 
ning their work at home. His illustration he draws 
from the social settlement work. Many who are 
going into the ministry and into other fields spend 
some time in the social settlement, thus becoming 
acquainted with men and life, and are, therefore, 
better qualified for their future career. Canon In- 
gram would have it as natural for the young clergy 
to find themselves at Delhi, Cawnpore, Calcutta or 
Zanzibar, as now for an undergraduate to find him- 
self in one of the social settlements at home. He 
uses these words: 

"There must be no talk of a man having put his 

hand to the plow He has to test his vocation, 

and he scarcely can test it unless he tries. A vast 
majority will stay, at any rate for a good spell of 
work, and when they do come back they will be 
apostles of the colonies or apostles of the mission 
field from which they have come, as undergraduates 
or graduates who have stayed in Bethnal Green are 
the apostles of Oxford House." 

THERE IS ALWAYS THE FIELD. 

Commenting on this statement, the Guardian 
says: 

" When men complain that there is no work for 
them at home, why are not they more ready to take 
work abroad? Have they faced the fact that there 
are three vacancies in Lahore, three in Madras and 
seven in Delhi, for all of which there is money pro- 
vided to pay the worker, but no workers yet to go? 
If it were a common thing for men to work on 
some mission in India or the colonies until they are 
thirty -five, we might hear fewer complaints of the 
impossibility of getting a curacy after that age. 
The grievance would then be transferred to the in- 
cumbents, and have as its text the impossibility of 



finding a curate under thirty-five. The only ob- 
jection that we can imagine is that a young man 
might plead that he had no vocation for mission 
work. But in that case, might he not do well to 
begin the inquiry a little earlier, and to ask himself 
whether the absence of vocation did not cover a 
larger field whether, in short, he were fitted for 
the clerical life at all ? Officers in the army think 
it not a hardship but an honor to be sent on foreign 
service for a part of their career; why should a 
different feeling be apparently common among offi- 
cers in the Church?" 

The Outlook thinks there are really no serious 
objections which can be offered to the suggestion 
of Canon Ingram, continuing: "It may be said 
that the young men will remain abroad only long 
enough to get fitted for the work, and then will 
giv it up. The reply will be: Many will doubt- 
less remain, and all will give the missionaries the 
advantage of their help for a limited time, while 
they themselves secure such an appreciation of 
what the ministry and missionary service are, as 
could be secured in no other way Many minis- 
ters without fields profess to be anxious to work 
for the Kingdom. If no field opens for them at 
home, why should they not take up work abroad? 
There are not too many ministers in the world, 
but there are too many in some localities. What 
is needed is not a diminution in number, but a bet- 
ter adjustment of the forces." 



MINISTERS DISCUSSING AFFAIRS. 



Social Topics on the Program of a Southern Min- 
isterial Conference. 



The appearance of the social interest in Southern 
churches is indicated by the increasing number of 
programs sent us of ministers' meetings and church 
gatherings whereat social matters are a prevailing 
topic. From the ministerial association of Hunt- 
ington, W. Va., and vicinity, comes a program con- 
taining such topics as "The Merits of a Curfew 
Law," "Trials and Progress of the Afro- American," 
" The Problem of the City's Poor," by the Overseer 
of the Poor; " Hindrances and Helps of a Public 
Prosecutor," by that official; " The Future of the 
Federal Principle," "Jane Addams and Hull 
House," Review "The Genesis of the Social Con- 
science," by Rev. H. S. Nash; "Hindrances and 
Helps to Our Educators," " The Temperance Ques- 
tion Brought Down to Date," Review Cornelison's 
" Religion and Government in the United States," 
" Moral Reforms Through Municipal Legislation," 
by an attorney; " Christian Morals and Social 
Pleasures," Review " Christian Missions and So- 
cial Progress," " Helps and Hindrances to the 
Administration of Justice," by a judge. 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



9 motes of tbe ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
jfc j* j* Social Settlements 



A STREET IN THE SLUMS. 



I slowly wander through the crowded street 
And see the people swarming on my way. 

Hear clatter of their hundred thousand feet, 
And watch their faces, stolid, grave or gay. 

And there are children children everywhere; 

Some sprawl before you, some go running by, 
Some shouting here, while some are singing there, 

The elder laughing as the younger cry. 

Their hands and faces all are soiled and smeared, 
Brown, naked, muddy all their legs and feet; 

Young savages in city cellars reared, 
The gypsies and the Tartars of the street. 

A crowd of buxom, ruddy-visaged girls 
In saucy gladness down the sidewalk comes; 

Doves of the alleys, hovel-hidden pearls, 
The roses and the lilies of the slums. 

A proud young mother, nursing twins, sits there, 
One at her breast, one fallen fast asleep; 

A tall policeman treads with lordly air, 
As though the kingdoms all were in his keep. 

Down there a beggar's old hand-organ squeaks. 
Fruit- venders, unshaved peddlers standing nigh; 

The freckled newsboy runs and calls and shrieks, 
Street-cleaners, porters, bootblacks, plodding by. 

Here, wearing ear-ring hoops of solid gold, 

A rich Italian matron goes in black; 
And here a toothless, bearded beldame old 

Bends with the burden on her crooked back. 

I watch the old Jew in his clothing-shop, 
The curious sign in Hebrew at the door; 

I see him call his country friends to stop 
And view the untold wonders of his store. 

And last I note the old primeval curse 
That comes to all. in squalor and in state; 

That small white coffin yonder in the hearse 
Leaves one more shabby home disconsolate. 

--Walter Malone, in Harper's Weekly. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 



EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
ASSOCIATION. 



New York, Philadelphia and Boston Settlement Work 
Reviewed Report of Klectoral Board. 



The eighth annual report of the College Settle- 
ment Association, for the year ending October 1, 
1897, is just issued in pamphlet form. It shows 
receipts for the year of $7,259.77, including $1,427.- 
19, balance from last year ; expenditures of $5,517,- 
34, and a balance on hand of $1,742.43. 

The Electoral Board, which consists of represen- 
tatives of the various college settlements, reports 
with regret the loss of two of its head-workers, 
Miss Katherine B. Davis, of Philadelphia, who, 
however, pursues sociological studies at Chicago 
University with a view of further settlement work, 



and Dr. Jane E. Bobbins, of New York, who re- 
sumes medical practice. 

"The board has come to realize," says the re- 
port, " that it is impossible to depend so largely 
as had been hoped for residents on women who can 
give their whole time to settlement work, and pay 
their board as well. Few women can give them- 
selves to the work, unless by some means they can 
defray their expenses. It has, therefore, seemed 
desirable to make an organized effort to secure 
scholarships to be used to pay the board of resi- 
dents at the various settlements. It is hoped 
that workers can thus be retained longer than 
would otherwise be possible, and that in time there 
will be a body of experienced workers with the 
training needed to fit them to hold salaried posi- 
tions, and thus remain permanently in the work." 

"Settlement methods," the Secretary notes, 
"have crept into all forms of philanthropic work, 
and the idea of residence, once so strange, is now 
the corner stone of almost every such effort. In 
time, we may hope that the leaven will have worked 
so well that no separate institution will be needed 
as its medium and then, when it is the usual thing 
for earnest men working for reforms to live among 
the conditions they wish to change the settle- 
ments will have reached their end and will die a 
natural death, leaving the work of reform to ad- 
vance unimpeded by ignorance of conditions and 
mutual prejudice." 

NEW YORK SETTLEMENT. 

What is presumably Dr. Robbins' final report as 
head-worker of the New York College Settlement, 
reviews the year's good work, especially with the 
children, and adds : 

" In all our work we have tried to keep before 
our eyes our two aims to help the neighbors and 
to know the neighborhood. The resident who 
comes with an earnest desire to be of help is usu- 
ally the quickest to appreciate the simplicity and 
beauty in the lives of many of our neighbors, and 
to feel how much there is for us to learn. To want 
to be of help to someone is human nature, and ten- 
ement house people are quick to feel that such a 
wish on our part is a very natural one. It is only 
necessary to look back eight years to realize that 
we have learned something about Rivington street, 
and we have passed on our knowledge to a wide 
circle of friends. The newspaper accounts of the 
slums have carried the most exaggerated notions 
far and wide. If it were not for the questions 
sometimes asked by our visitors, and for what we 
hear when we are away on our vacation, it would not 
seem possible that intelligent people could hold 
such absurd ideas about New York tenement house 
life. Even if we had done nothing more, it has 
been worth while leaving our comfortable homes to 



G 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



prove that we can have a pleasant life and congen- 
ial friends on the East Side." 

The New York settlement reports expenses last 
year of $8,311.99, of which the College Settlements 
Association furnished $3,000. 

WOKK IN PHILADELPHIA. 

A year of thorough, studious, earnest service is 
evident from the brief outline of the Philadelphia 
settlement. A sociological study class, many lec- 
tures, active co-operation in the Fifth Ward cam- 
paign for better school government, the residence 
of two settlement Fellows, investigating the con- 
dition of the 10,000 colored people in the adjoining 
Seventh Ward, are features of the work reported, 
in addition to the mere routine clubs and classes. 

The expense of the work during the year was 
$6,225.96, of which $1,000 was given by the College 
Settlements Association. 

SUGGESTIONS FROM DENI8ON HOUSE. 

The feature of Miss Helena S. Dudley's report 
as head worker of the Boston College Settlement 
(Denison House) is her comment upon the question 
of the wisdom and propriety of seeking to share 
the more advanced education with the working 
people. She condenses the conclusions of herself 
and fellow residents thus : 

" 1. The working people want what we can give. 
Not of course all of them. A small proportion in 
any class care for the intellectual life ; naturally a 
less portion of those absorbed in toil. But many 
are ready and eager to advance beyond the subjects 
covered by a common-school education, and will 
show sacrifice and patience to do so. 

"2. You cannot make scholars out of people 
whose chief nerve force is given to manual work 
all day long. You must take them as they are, ig- 
norant and immature. 

" 3. The lack of training is compensated for to a 
certain degree by unspoiled intuitions, and a poetic 
sensitiveness in artistic and literary lines, rare in 
more highly trained students. If you cannot turn 
out scholars, you can make happier women [peo- 
ple]. 

"4. A little culture, with all the joy and en- 
largement it brings, can be gained let us boldly 
say, it is worth gaining without any basis of edu- 
cation. 

"5. The subjects most profitable for working- 
women to study, are not, as a rule, utilitarian sub- 
jects, but those which enrich the imagination." 

The cost of the Boston work last year was $7,- 
449.14, including $4,634.94, extraordinary expense 
for putting into tenantable repair the house ad- 
joining the former quarters, and into which the 
settlement grew. The College Settlements Associ- 
ation appropriated $1,000 to the work. 



RELIGION IN SETTLEMENTS. 



Lincoln House, Boston, Avows its Position on the 
Subject In its Annual Bulletin. 



Lincoln House, Boston, boldly avows its positon 
on the question of religious teaching and conver- 
sation in the settlement, in its annual Bulletin for 
1897. While there are many settlements and espe- 
cially many settlement workers, who would not 
agree with the stand which Mr. William A. Clark, 
the resident director, takes in this matter, the ques- 
tion is thoroughly a debatable one, and it is well 
to have the issue squarely and fairly raised. This 
is the way Lincoln House looks at the matter : 

" It is our settled policy to make no effort to in- 
fluence our young people along religious lines. 
Nevertheless the religious dynamic (if idealism 
can be so regarded) is doubtless the greatest source 
of power in our work, but our aim is purely ethical. 
As a result of this attitude toward religion we 
have the sympathy and commendation of priest 
and rabbi. We believe, from our own experience, 
that purely social organizations should simply 
stand for inorganic religion, and that without 
words. 

" The social worker is not a dilettante, taking up 
work among the poor as a fad, nor, on the other 
hand, an excessively earnest person ' with a mis- 
sion.' It is to be hoped that he is normal, and is 
sensitive to humorous situations. He is not a mis- 
sionary or a charity worker. The charity worker 
gives goods directly or indirectly a very impor- 
tant service. The missionary says: 'Accept this 
gospel which I have for you.' The social worker 
gives of his society, of his personality. The social 
worker finds things in common with less fortunate 
people, and they work together or enjoy together." 



WORKING GIRLS' CLUB IN BUFFALO. 



Enterprising: Young: Women Who Have Established 
a Comfortable Home. 



Under the leadership of Mrs. Wm. T. Emory, 
and other bright young women, the Working Girls' 
Club of Buffalo is meeting with deserved success. 
This enterprising club rents a house for $1,000 a 
year and pays a matron, cook and three or four 
helpers to do the housekeeping. Membership 
fees are one dollar a year, rooms rent for two dol- 
lars a week, and good meals are furnished for the 
low price of ten cents. 

The club is in no sense a charity, but pays its 
own debts, puts needed repairs on the house and 
lays up money in the bank. 

Teachers do generously give their services to 
classes in cooking, sewing and music for a nominal 
price of ten cents apiece, and friends with talent, 
or influence, furnish some entertainment for the 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



girls every week. One night it was an amateur 
play, which proved so successful that the girls 
mean to provide a stage and have stage-properties 
of their own. 



SETTLEMENT NOTES. 

The Berean Settlement, in Detroit, Mich., has 
just finished its first year. 

The next meeting of the Federation of Chicago 
Settlements will probably be held on Saturday 
evening, February 26. 

The marriage is announced of Miss Elizabeth 
Gibbons, resident at Hiram House, Cleveland, to 
Mr. George Davis. Mr. and Mrs. Uavis will con- 
tinue in residence at Hiram House. 

The Hale House Log, issued monthly by Hale 
House, Boston, is a bright and effective means of 
circulating the news of that settlement among its 
neighbors and settlement constituency. 

The Federation London Settlements, which 
meets semi-annually, had its meeting January 31, 
with an address by Percy Alden, of Mansfield 
House, on " Some American Settlements." 

Miss Carol Dresser (Wellesley '90), resident of 
the Denison House, Boston, and Rivington Street 
Settlement, New York, in past years, is now head 
of the Elizabeth Peabody House in Boston. 

Miss Anna Davies, M. A. (Lake Forest Univer- 
sity), who was resident for some weeks at Robert 
Browning Hall, in London, became head-worker 
at the Philadelphia College Settlement, January 1. 

The 1898 leaflet of the Roadside Settlement, 720 
Mulberry street, Des Moines, Iowa, shows that the 
work goes on, increasingly effective and develop- 
ing in many ways. This is the second year of the 
settlement. 

The Hull House Bulletin, for January -February, 
is one of the most thoroughly representative out- 
lines of settlement work that we have seen lately. 
The twelve pages are full of suggestions for set- 
tlements and settlement workers. 

The account of Goodrich House, Cleveland, pub- 
lished in THE COMMONS for October, 1897, has been 
made up into "Chicago Commons Leaflet No. 4," 
and may be obtained for two cents each, postpaid, 
upon application to THE COMMONS. 

The new officers of the Co-operative Union of 
America, elected at the annual meeting of the 
Union, reported in the January issue of the Ameri- 
can Co-operative News, include as president, Rev. 
Robert E. Ely, of the Prospect Union. 

If Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, should 
sue and recover damages from the Chicago papers 
jointly for the recent outrageous caricatures which 
have purported to be faithful likenesses of her, 
she could endow Hull House for all time! 

Greatly to be regretted on many accounts is the 
suspension of publication of the College Settlement 
News, until lately published by the Philadelphia 
College Settlement. It was a breezy little sheet, 
full of the good spirit of the settlement, and reflect- 
ing well the good work of the group under whose 



auspices it was issued. It has been arranged that 
the unexpired subscriptions .-I mil be filled by THE 
COMMONS. 

An attractive program of the work of Goodrich 
House, Cleveland, is at hand, showing the hours of 
their varied and growing work. 

In February the new Victoria Women's Settle- 
ment in Liverpool will open in its permanent quar- 
ters at 322 Netherfleld Road, North, with a fine 
work, built up in the temporary rooms occupied 
during the few months since the beginning of the 
enterprise. 

Dr. Furnivall, the eminent English Shakes- 
pearean authority, recently demonstrated his inter- 
est in the London social settlement which bears 
Robert Browning's name, by giving to its library 
over 200 volumes of the texts of the Early English 
Text Society and of the new Shakespeare Society. 

Miss Edith Kerrison, of the woman's branch of 
Mansfield House, better known as " Sister Kerri- 
son," has been elected a member of the West Ham 
Board of (poor law) Guardians, heading the poll in 
the Plaistow Ward by a substantial majority. It 
was the settlement influence that secured her this 
victory. 

Miss Mary Kingsbury, who has been assistant 
head-worker at the New York College Settlement 
since September, became head-worker January 1, 
succeeding Dr. Jane E. Robbins, who will resume 
her practice, probably in the neighborhood of the 
work in Rivington street, which she has so splen- 
didly served for several years. 

The new Eighth Ward Settlement House in Phil- 
adelphia, at 922 Locust street, is directed by Miss 
Grace E. Mallory, as head resident. Its work so 
far includes kindergarten, cooking and sewing 
classes, and special emphasis in various ways upon 
co-operation with city departments in sanitary 
improvement. There is but one resident as yet. 

Dr. Stanton Coit, of the London Ethical Society, 
and founder of the New York Neighborhood Guild 
(now the University Settlement, at 26 Delancey 
street), has beaun the publication of the Ethical 
World, at 17 Johnson's Court, Fleet street, London, 
E. C. Its high moral and literary tone entitle it to 
a leading place in the ethical literature of the day. 

Largely a children's work, thus far, is the newly 
established Neighborhood Guild, at 13 Perkins 
Place, Buffalo. There are girls' and boys' clubs, 
savings bank, kindergarten and mothers' meeting, 
and it is expected that the various lines will extend 
into the homes of the neighborhood, and build up 
a community life. Miss Marion G. Haynes is in 
charge, as yet the only resident. 

ANNOUNCEMENT. 

The following announcement was sent out with each copy 
of the Philadelphia College Settlement News for January: 

" It has been decided to discontinue the publication of the 
College Settlement News with the present number. As there 
is some confusion concerning the dates of subscriptions, It 
is requested that those to whom any numbers are still due, 
notify the editor, 617 Kodman street, who will see that THE 
COMMONS (Chicago) Is sent in its stead. This we consider 
the best paper devoted to the Interests of Settlements and 
we hope that THR COMMONS may receive some new sub- 
bers from our list. THE EDITOR." 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



SUBSCRIPTION PKICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above s-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



AM. COMMUNICATIONS 

Relating to this publication should be addressed to 
JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Editor THE COMMONS, 
140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



No. 21. 



CHICAGO. JAN. 31, 1898. 



TWO THINGS are evident in the interview 
with George Cadbury, the great English 
cocoa maker, which we publish this month under 
the head of " Labour Studies." One of these thing?, 
and the most valuable, is the fact that the head of 
a great manufacturing establishment, employing 
2,500 workers, sees the indisputable fact that the 
organization and progress of the working people 
is actually in the interests of their work, and indeed 
of their employer. The other fact is that the aver- 
age manufacturer of England is far more intelli- 
gent upon the subjects involved in the discussion 
of the Labour Movement than the average American 
of the same position. The greatest need of the day 
in this field is that employers, and people of the 
middle class generally, should be better informed 
on economic subjects than they are. The aver- 
age workingman in American cities is far better 



informed on the great industrial questions of the 
day than his employer. This is somewhat true in 
England, but far less so. It would be next to 
impossible in England, for instance, to find a per- 
son in an intelligent company who would confuse 
the terms or the ideas of socialist and anarchist, 
socialism and anarchism, whereas, to the majority 
of fairly well-informed middle class folk in this 
country, they are still regarded as synonymous. 
We are badly in need of the appreciation of our 
own failings and of effort to become wiser. 

MORAL CONTINUITY. 



A GOOD man said lately that what the world 
most needed now was that men should have 
moral earnestness, and an earnest audience ap- 
plauded the saying. And it was partly true; yet it 
obscured the greater truth. What we are needing 
now is not so much moral earnestness as continuity 
of moral purpose. Any honest man has moral ear- 
nestness enough to-day to last him till to-morrow 
or next day. But the trouble is that to-day he is mor- 
ally earnest or earnestly moral about this, to- 
morrow about that, and yet another day about 
something else. Not often does he break down and 
be earnest about nothing, or not earnest at all. 

The folks who do things in the world of moral 
endeavor are those possessed by some great truth, 
who stick to it. Wherever you find them, they are 
at the business of their lives, and with due allow- 
ance for growth and changing conditions they are 
at the same business once for all. It is as true in 
moral effort as in the scramble of sordid "busi- 
ness" that the rolling stone gathers no moss. The 
men who lead the forlorn hopes of reform to suc- 
cess are those whose lives are tuned to some great 
principle, possessed of some great idea, and who 
follow it through thick and thin to the last ditch. 
Almost everybody has moral earnestness in some 
degree; it is only the truly great whose earnest- 
ness is characterized by continuity of purpose. 



PLANS FOR "THE COMMONS." 



nlTHERTO, the circumstances have made it 
necessary for THE COMMONS to confine itself 
more largely to the news aspects of the settlement 
progress, and to present those matters in a more 
popular vein than would, be demanded by a con- 
stituency composed solely of settlement workers. 
The time seems to have come, however, for a 
widening of scope, and it is hoped that, beginning 
with the next issue of THE COMMONS!, each number 
will contain some more general discussion of the 
subjects related to the settlement movement. The 
point of view will always be that of the settlement, 
but it is evident that many topics of a general 
character must be presented in order to exhibit the 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



settlement idea and method. Discussion is now in 
progress of the feasibility of a settlement quarterly 
of a more general and pretentious character. Such 
a periodical would have many advantages, and 
would be cordially welcomed by THE COMMONS, 
but whether that comes to fruition or not, we hope 
to fill more and more thoroughly the field that we 
have thus far occupied alone that of a somewhat 
general and popular representative of the settle- 
ment idea and movement, interpreting its view to 
the common man and woman, and serving as a 
medium of interchange and communication among 
the settlements. 



WE GREATLY regret that of the most interest- 
ing exchange that comes to us we are unable 
to read more than one-eighth. The Labor World, of 
Tokyo, has one page in English, which we always 
read with great interest the rest is in Japanese ! 
Mr. Katayama, of Kingsley Hall, is deeply inter- 
ested in this paper, which is one of the most 
encouraging signs of the awakening self-consci- 
ousness of the working people of Japan. More 
power to its spicy pages ! 



SHORT-SIGHTED indeed is the glorying of 
some English employers, and not a few 
American newspapers, over the apparent failure of 
the great strike of the English engineers, just come 
to a close. The effort to suppress trades-unionism 
is a reactionary attempt to drive the labor move- 
ment back over nearly a century of hard-won prog- 
ress, and it will fail. It is a doubly foolish attempt 
on the part of capital, for every apparent failure of 
the milder efforts of trades-unions for better con- 
ditions simply drives more and more workingmen 
into the rapidly growing schools of ultra-radicalism. 



THE TWO SEEDS. 



To a man were given two seeds. One he planted 
in the sand, and for lack of nutriment and care it 
grew a withered life, and bore no bloom or any 
good thing. The other he planted in rich ground, 
and it flourished greatly, and bore beautiful flowers 
and good fruit. And the man said, "Blood will 
tell." He did not know that both came out of the 
same pod. Berry Benson, in the Century. 



Prince Mohammed Ali, brother of the Khedive 
of Egypt, is said to be in love with an American. 
He will be permitted to marry the girl of his choice 
if the Khedive has a son born to him. Otherwise 
Prince Ali must choose a partner among the ladies 
of his own rank for the sake of the succession. 
The fact that princes who are willing to become 
commoners are getting so numerous seems to 
indicate that the king business isn't what it used 
to be. Literary Digest. 



Studies of tbe j* & # * * 
,* & & & Xabor /IDovement 

CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



* ' y^~ OME hither, lads, and hearken 

For a tale there Is to tell, 
Of the wonderful days a coming, when all 
Shall better be than well. 
And the tale shall b told of a country, 

A land in the midst of a sea, 
And folk shall call it England 
In the day that's going to be. 

There more than one in a thousand 

Of the days that are yet to come 
Shall have some hope of the morrow, 

Some joy of the ancient home. 
For then, laugh not, but listen 

To this strange tale of mine: 
All folk that are in England 

Shall be better lodged than swine. 

Then a man shall work and bethink him, 

And rejoice in the deeds of his hand, 
Nor yet come home in the even 

Too faint and weary to stand. 
Men in that time a coming 

Shall work and have no fear 
For to-morrow's lack of earning 

And the hunger-wolf anear. 

I tell you this for a wonder, 

That no man then shall be glad 
Of his fellow's fall and mishap 

To snatch at the work he had. 
For that which the worker winneth 

Shall then be his, indeed. 
Nor shall half be reaped for nothing 

By him that sowed no seed. 

O strange, new, wonderful justice! 

But for whom shall we gather the gain? 
For ourselves and each of our fellows, 

And no hand shall labor in vain. 
Then all Mine and all Thine shall be Ours, 

And no more shall any man crave 
For riches that serve for nothing 

But to fetter a friend for a slave." 

WiMam .Moms. 



AN EMPLOYER ON LABOR. 

GEORGE CADBURY'S VIEWS OF THE 
ETHICS OF THE QUESTION. 

Head of an Establishment Kequlring 2,5OO Em- 

ployees, Who Favors Unions, Shorter Hours 

and Compulsory Arbitration. 



We suspend the regular course of our studies in 
and consideration of the Labor Movement as a 
whole, to make space for a striking interview in 
the British Trade Review of January 1, with Mr. 
George Cadbury, of Birmingham, Eng., of the 
great firm of cocoa makers, and the employer of 
nearly 2,500 workers. Apropos of the recent great 
engineers' strike throughout England, and the 
practical failure of voluntary arbitration in settling 
the matter, the Review is inclined to favor compul- 
sory arbitration, and cites New Zealand and other 
colonies as examples to prove that it works in prac- 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



January. 



tice. Mr. Cadbury had written the following 
letter, which was widely quoted throughout Eng- 
land: 

BIRMINGHAM, December 14. 1897. Dear Mr. Bums: 
Durinc the conference between the masters and the Amal- 
gamated Society of Engineers I have discontinued my 
weekly subscription, but arbitration without an Impartial 
arbitrator has not been satisfactory. I would advise British 
workmen at the next Parliamentary election to support 
such candidates only, whether Liberal or Conservative, as 
would vote for a bill which would make arbitration In trade 
disputes compulsory as in New Zealand. Without such pro- 
tection the toilers have never been able, in the long run. to 
participate fairly in the result of their labor. The weekly 
contributions made by the engineers in work, also by other 
trades unionists, prove the value of trades unions in devel- 
oping forethought and self-reliance. By maintaining the 
standard of wages they tend also to prevent the unequal 
distribution of wealth which might ultimately be the ruin of 
our country. For these reasons, until the masters are will- 
Ing to have an impartial arbitration, or the matter is fairly 
settled, I will recommence and continue the payment of 50 
per week. Yours truly, GEORGE CADBURY. 

" Yes," said Mr. Cadbury, in reply to the inter- 
viewer, "that is quite correct. I wrote that letter, 
and I am still of the same opinion." 

"How many weeks have you been subscribing?" 
" This is the tenth week, but as it is Christmas 
time I am doubling my contribution, and just as 
you came in I was drawing a check for 100, 
instead of the usual 50, and I hope others who are 
subscribing will follow the same course, for I 
think that when the men are making such great 
personal sacrifice for a principle, as they are, they 
deserve all the support they can get." 

ETHICAL REASONS FOR UNIONS. 

" My reasons for supporting trades unions are 
largely ethical. Without such bodies wages are 
brought down to the lowest point ; take for exam- 
ple the case of the seamstresses of London, whose 
wages are only just sufficient to keep soul and body 
together. Only trades unions can secure collective 
bargaining. Without them, the individual work- 
man must always be at a great disadvantage com- 
pared to the employer. They tend to high wages 
and thus to the more equal division of the wealth 
of a country, which can only be termed truly pros- 
perous when the bulk of its inhabitants are living 
in comfort. England with all its colonies and 
wealth cannot be said to be a prosperous country 
while millions of its people are on the verge of 
starvation and living in unhealthy slums." 

" You think then that our working classes under 
the present condition of things is worse than that 
of other lands?" 

" The condition of toilers in America," replied 
Mr. Cadbury, " is, on the whole, very much better 
than the condition of toilers in England ; but I am 
most anxious that our Australasian and other Colo- 
nies shall take a step further, and that legislation 
and fiscal arrangements shall, as far as possible, 
prevent vast accumulations, either of land or 
money, in the hands of one individual." 

" I believe you have a high opinion of the possi- 
bilities of New Zealand?" 



"Yes ; I look upon New Zealand as the paradise 
of working men, and compulsory arbitration as 
adopted there has been one cause of this." 

" But can we suppose that, because compulsory 
arbitration is successful in a comparatively new 
community like New Zealand, with chiefly agricul- 
tural pursuits, it would be suitable for a manufac- 
turing nation like England, with its old established 
institutions and with its multiplicity of industries?' 

"That objection has been raised in other quar- 
ters," replied Mr. Cadbury, "but I do not at all see 
why compulsory arbitration should not answer 
equally well in England. The more trades there 
are, and the more people engaged in them, the 
greater is the need to prevent disputes ; and the 
more severe is likely to be the disturbance to 
trade occasioned by permitting those disputes to go 
unsettled." 

" Then your view is that the State should, in the 
interests of the people as a whole, exercise its 
paternal prerogative to the full, in the same way 
that the head of a household may settle family 
quarrels?" 

"Precisely; or in the same way r> as a schoolmas- 
ter keeps order in a school." 

" But what about the right of trades unions to 
interfere with the working of machines?" 

NEED OF ARBITRATION. 

" Well, with regard to that, though the principle 
may be right, mistakes have, I admit, been made 
by trades unionists in carrying out the detail ; but 
such mistakes would have been corrected by an 
impartial court of arbitration, which must be out- 
side all political influence. The provision of 
means for securing action by the Board of Trade in 
Great Britain is a step in advance, but it evidently 
does not go far enough. The successful working 
of the Act in New Zealand proves that by a system 
of fines, &c., the decision ofj this impartial court 
could be enforced. Such a law, although appa- 
rently arbitrary, would be justified, because it 
would secure public peace, security of labor, and 
would prevent untold suffering, which always 
results from a strike, and which falls most heavily 
on the women and children, and in many cases on 
the labourers who work under the skilled workmen, 
and who are innocent in having any part in the dis- 
pute." 

" You are aware that during the strike, and in- 
deed at all times, the trades unions have had a 
great deal to say about shorter hours. Your views 
on the relation of hours to output would, I think, 
be interesting, and perhaps instructive to our read- 
ers." 

AS TO SHORTER HOURS. 

" Well, with respect to the hours question, taking 
for purposes of illustration our own trade and our 
own firm, I may say that we employ about 2,400 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



hands, and our wages are higher and our hours 
shorter than those of our foreign competitors. 
Competition abroad in our articles is very keen, 
and we are on the whole handicapped by our fiscal 
regulations ; Germany and France allowing draw- 
backs on duty paid on raw cocoa, whereas no such 
drawback is allowed to us. Yet with all this we 
are making remarkable progress in our export 
trade; the average increase for the last three years 
has been 15 per cent, per annum, or in other words, 
our export trade is more than half as large again as 
it was in 1894. We attribute this largely to the 
hearty co-operation of our employees, to their 
healthy surroundings, and to their shorter hours 
The normal hours for women at the works of some 
of our leading Continental competitors are sixty 
per week, and for two months before Christmas 
they are from 7 A. M. to 9 P. M. on six week days, 
and from 8:80 A.M. to 5:30 p. M. on Sundays or 
89% hours per week. The normal hours of our 
girls, of whom we employ over 1,600 (they all leave 
when they marry) are 43 hours per week, and for 
two months before Christmas 50^ hours, and yet 
they turn out in some departments as much as our 
foreign competitors during their very long hours. 
The hours of piece workers should be short, as 
competition between the workers is sure, in time, 
to bring about working at very high pressure." 

Mr. Cad bury is a member of the Society of 
Friends and holds that the chief use for money is 
to do as much good as he can with it, and his wide 
practical philanthropy (as is well known) is com- 
mensurate with the abundant wealth which his 
remarkable business abilities and many years of 
hard work have brought to him. 



LITTLE THINGS. 

If you were toiling up a weary hill, 

Bearing a load beyond your strength to bear, 
Straining each nerve untiringly, and still, 

Stumbling and losing foothold here and there. 
And each one passing by would do so much 

As give one upward lift and go their way, 
Would not the slight reiterated touch 

Of help and kindness lighten all the day? 

If you were breasting a keen wind, which tossed 

And buffeted and chilled you as you strove, 
Till, baffled and bewildered quite, you lost 

The power to see the way. and aim, and move. 
And one, if only for a moment's space, 

Gave you a shelter from the bitter blast, 
Would you not find it easier to face 

The storm again when the brief rest was passed? 

There is no " little," and there is no " much ;" 

We weigh and measure and define in vain. 
A look, a word, a light, responsive touch 

Can be the ministers of joy to pain. 
A man can die of hunger, walled in gold; 

A crumb may quicken hope to stronger breath, 
And every day we give or we withhold 

Some " little thing" which tells for life or death! 

Susan Cootidge. 



If thou can'st not make thyself such an one as 
thou would'st.howcan'st thou expect to have another 
in all things to thy liking. Thomas a' Kempis. 



5 ^Literature anfc 



STORIES OF WORKERS. 



Mr. Wyckoff'8 "Experiment in Reality "Limitation* 
to Its Value Stories of Kallroad Life. 



Two things in the work of mediation and inter- 
pretation between social classes are difficult, and 
add an element of discouragement to the service - 
one, to make the working people believe that the 
well-to-do and privileged care a whit about them 
or their sufferings ; the other, to make the well-to- 
do and privileged care that whit. The need of the 
day for this work of interpretation is intelligent 
information, and it is an encouraging sign of the 
times that an increasing number of observers is 
springing up and giving forth their impressions 
from first-hand observation. These fall into two 
classes ; the intelligent working people who, from 
experience, write and talk of the struggles of their 
class, and the better educated college men and 
others who voluntarily assume more or less of the 
lot of the working people and more or less fully 
share their lives in order truthfully to picture the 
conditions as they are. Of this latter class is the 
writer of "The Workers An Experiment in Re- 
ality," recently published by Charles Scribner's 
Sons, and from the pen of Walter A. Wyckoff, a 
Princeton University graduate, who felt the use- 
lessness for practical purposes of discussion from 
rneiely literary sources upon the present industrial 
conditions, and determined to see for himself the 
circumstances of the unskilled laborer of these 
times. 

One hot summer morning, Mr. Wyckoff, clothed 
in an old suit, without a copper in kis pocket, set 
off from the comfortable summer home of a friend 
on Long Island Sound, on foot and alone, to chal- 
lenge the world bare-handed for a living. In 
delightfully direct, clear, forceful Anglo-Saxon, 
with ready wit, discriminating judgment, fairness 
of mind, and humane temper of heart, this self- 
made proletaire tells the story of his experience. 
As a common laborer pulling down a building at 
West Point, a hotel porter, a hired man at an asy- 
lum, a farm hand, and a "bud" in a logging camp 
in Western Pennsylvania, he recounts his adven- 
tures, feelings and experiences from day to day in 
most interesting fashion, and contributes a rare 
insight into the daily life of the classes of labor 
among whom he found himself from the view- 
point of a cultured man of the world, incidentally 
weaving into his narrative some exceedingly vig- 
orous and suggestive reflections upon various 
aspects of social life and contrast. To this extent 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



the book is an unusually refreshing and instructive 
one. When Mr. Wyckoff thus faced the world 
empty-handed, he did a brave, unusual perhaps 
unparalleled thing, an exceedingly interesting 
thing, and his observations of real life at first hand 
are of no small value. But the book is not an 
important contribution to social science. 

After all, men are much more governed by feel- 
ing than by knowledge, and what we want most 
nowadays is to feel the condition of the working 
classes. We need some one to paint before us in 
clear colors, with the touch of life, the picture of 
the average worker of to-day nay, more, thro 
the life of some great author from the common 
people we must live the very life of the American 
unskilled laborer, upon whom the conditions of our 
day press hardest. This Mr. Wyckoff helps us 
very little to do, for he is always the observer, 
seldom the one to whom the weariness, the despair, 
the hunger, the struggle with poverty and uncer- 
tainty and temptation are real and present things 
of life. The reader finds himself constantly think- 
ing of this jaunt across-country, earning by the 
way the daily bread and nightly shelter, as after 
all not much more than an unusually interesting 
adventure, with small terrors for a keen, self-reli- 
ant young life, always within telegraph call, or at 
most a few days' mail, of home and friends. The 
adventure could be terminated at any moment. 
None of the desperation of modern industrial life 
is attached to this journey. He could never cease 
to be the alert young professional man, " experi- 
menting " with reality. Always he could return at 
will to his comfortable home and comfortable mid- 
dle-class status. If he should find himself where 
never any job at all was to be had, it was no ques- 
tion of starvation with him home and friends 
guaranteed him funds to tide him over the idle 
spell or to abandon the experiment altogether. A 
serious illness could threaten little more than a ter- 
mination of his rather enjoyable flitting from one 
employment to another. 

What could he tell us of the despair of a strong, 
single young man, without a cent, homeless, friend- 
less, workless in a great country, wanted nowhere, 
hurried from pillar to post by policeman, boarding- 
house keeper and the host of his own like that 
scramble for every trifling job in the great city? 
What could he know of the agony of a human 
father, watching with breaking heart the starva- 
tion of his family, his home broken up by sickness 
and want, last bits of furniture pledged for food 
and coal and shelter, as day after day, day after 
day, he tramps the streets with weary feet, weaken- 
ing body and vanished courage, seeking for any 
kind of work at all that might promise a bite to 
eat never once in all his book does Mr. Wyckoff 



picture to us this fellow-man, of whom the great 
cities are so full. 

An interesting piece of somewhat transient liter- 
ature, sure to make some think who have not 
thought before of the laborer as a human being, of 
his weariness of body and barrenness of mind, it is 
ungracious to say no more of a book so well-meant 
and so full of the flavor of real life. Nevertheless 
this is no great contribution to the field of social 
study or of realistic life-studies. It tells some 
truth, but fails to tell the whole bitter truth the 
world needs so much to know. 

[The first volume deals with experiences in the 
East ; it is expected that a second series will 
describe experiences among " the workers " in 
Western cities and towns.] 

Of the other class, and likely to be quite as val- 
uable, if not more so, is the series of articles on 
railroad life, now being contributed to McClure's 
Magazine by Herbert E. Hamblen (" Fred B. Wil- 
liams "). His own experiences as brakeman, flag- 
man, fireman, engineer, and finally in important 
offices in the executive management of the road, 
are related vigorously and with a wealth of detail 
and vernacular that assures the reader of the gen- 
uineness of his claim to personal knowledge of the 
labor-life of which he writes. The account of his 
loss of his job because he could not recall, in such 
a way as would please the officials of the road 
and save from blame a relative of its president, 
the orders in supposed obedience to which two 
trains rushed on to their collision, will strike a 
sympathetic chord in the heart of many an old 
railroad man, and serves to add a touch of reality 
to the story and display the helplessness of the 
" unorganized " laborer. J. P. o. 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOCIAL REFORM. 



The long-promised " Encyclopedia of Social 
Reform," edited by William D. P. Bliss, with the 
co-operation of many specialists, has just beeu 
issued by the Funk & Wagnalls Company, of New 
York. For just this sort of book a popular need 
has been widely felt. It is a large octavo volume 
of 1,439 papes, two columns to the page, but is so 
well printed and typographically displayed as to be 
in most convenient form for ready reference. For 
comprehension of range, condensation of material, 
thoroughness of treatment, combined with popu- 
larity of style, the volume stands quite by itself. 
The only work with which it can be compared is 
Lalor's "Cyclopedia of Political and Social 
Science," in three volumes. 

But the technical character of the latter invalu- 
able authority, together with its expensiveness, 
leaves to this single reference volume the whole 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



field of demand for a popular encyclopedia de- 
voted to social phenomena. In the variety of top- 
ics considered, as well as in the historical and 
scientific treatment of many subjects, the compass 
of the work transcends the suggestion of its title, 
for many of its articles deal with far wider aspects 
of their subjects than any present reformatory 
phase of them. And yet the very best basis and 
material for social reform are thus afforded. 

For instance, the family is treated in a thor- 
oughly scholarly way both historically and from 
the natural history sources of its origin. Its socialf 
ethical, legal and religious status is as thoroughly 
handled, and its defense from what threatens it is 
made. Copious extracts from the best literature 
upon each subject are freely included, to the great 
enrichment of the whole work. 

Without any fear of accusation of lack of origin- 
ality, a whole page of acknowledgment of indebt- 
edness to authors and publishers is made for per- 
mission to use the quotations which enhance the 
convenience of the volume to any reader, and its 
value to all who have not access to the authorities 
cited. 

The article on " The City and Social Reform" is 
conspicuous for its success in the frank use of 
widely scattered but highly useful pre-existent 
material. In the departments of political economy, 
municipal administration, industrial economy, 
political science, social theory, and the scientific 
treatment of dependency and delinquency, the 
hand of expert specialists is everywhere visible. 
Unexampled emphasis and unusual space is given 
to the ethical and religious bearings of social phe- 
nomena. Writers selected from each of the prin- 
cipal* religious denominations have shown the rela- 
tions of their respective church fellowships to 
social reform. Pope Leo's entire encyclical on 
labor is printed to show the position of the Roman 
Catholic Church upon the social question. The 
editor's avowed Christian socialism assured the 
presentation of every phase of that theory of social 
ideal and order. 

The selections and treatment of bibliographical 
data is one of the most suggestive features of the 
volume. The access given to the study of subjects 
of present interest and the material upon them 
gleaned from fugitive and obscure sources, which 
are beyond the ready reach of most readers, adds 
not the least element of unique value to this indis- 
pensable book of reference. Where else, for in- 
instance, will one look for material upon such 
present-day issues as abandoned farms, absentee- 
ism, age of consent, agrarian legislation, individu- 
alism, injunctions, Chicago anarchists, "plutoc- 
racy," police matrons, trusts, unemployment, pro- 
portional representation and the referendum, the 
sweating system, Switzerland and social reform, 



tramps, women's work and wages, women's college 
settlements, etc., etc.? 

While, of course, .sources of information upon 
most of the above subjects are accessible to schol- 
ars, there are thousands of readers and thinkers 
whose minds are in the grip of the social problem, 
to whom this single volume will become almost 
the only source of information and suggestion of 
further literary resources for studying social phe- 
nomena. GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



THE NEW BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



List and Description of the Social Settlements of the 
World, 



The new edition of the College Settlements Asso- 
ciation's " Bibliography of College, Social and Uni- 
versity Settlements " is at last in the hands of the 
contributing subscribers, and has been well re- 
ceived. It contains many new features and adds a 
good deal to the value of the former issues edited 
by Miss M. Katharine Jones, of Englewood, N. J., 
which was, up to its date, the best thing'of its kind 
in existence. The present edition has a strong 
paper cover, a frontispiece portrait of Arnold 
Toynbee, used by courtesy of the Johns Hopkins 
University Press, and an introductory chapter on 
the nature and history of the Settlement Move- 
ment, by John P. Gavit, who compiled for the 
Association the present edition. An index makes 
the matter much more available than in former 
editions. 

Seventy-five American settlements are listed, 
forty-three English and Scotch, and three in Asia, 
with a short description of each. This Bibliogra- 
phy can be obtained of the secretary of the Col- 
lege Settlements Association, Miss Susan G. Walker, 
1202 Eighteenth Street, Washington, D. C., upon 
application, with two cents postage. THE COM- 
MONS also has a limited number, and they may be 
obtained at Hull House, 335 South Halsted street. 



THE " LABOUR ANNUAL." 



Fourth Issue of an Invaluable Year Book of Social 
Reform. 



The 1898 edition of the invaluable "Labour 
Annual," published and edited at Liverpool, Eng., 
by Mr. Joseph Edwards, is at hand and maintains 
the high standard of the three preceding editions. 
It is indeed " the year book for social and political 
reformers." In concise, clear, forcible manner is 
presented the view of the efforts for reform in 
England, and there is a good array of American 
references. Biographies and portraits of workers 
in the various schools are scattered through the 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



work, and the lists of lecturers, books, societies 
and periodicals are most valuable. There are a 
number of good articles on various aspects of 
reform work, and leading societies give brief 
reports of the work of the past year. The work 
can be obtained of THE COMMONS in paper for 30 
cents, in cloth for 60 cents. We cordially recom- 
mend this and former issues for each contains 
valuable matter not found in the others to all who 
are interested in any phase of reform work, espe- 
cially for the betterment of the condition of the 
working classes. 



DAY NURSERY CONFERENCE. 



Valuable Report of the Proceedings of the Meeting 
Held In Boston Ready for Distribution. 



A pamphlet of unusual value to settlement work- 
ers and others interested in children's work is the 
report of proceedings of the conference of day 
nurseries, held in Association Hall, Boston, March 
24 and 25. As stated in the brief notice in last 
month's issue of THE COMMONS, the report can be 
obtained for 25 cents a copy by addressing Mrs. H. 
M. Laughlin, 74 Carver street, Boston. The report 
includes addresses on " The Children of the Tene- 
ments," by Jacob Riis, of New York; "The Scope 
of Day Nursery Work," by Mrs. Davis R. Dewey, 
of Boston; " Nursery Training and.Kindergartens," 
by Laura Fisher; "Benefits of Central Organiza- 
tion," by Louise Rawson, of Cleveland; "Day 
Nurseries from a Money Point of View," by Mrs. 
Clifton Wing, of Boston; " Investigation and Regis- 
tration," by Charles W. Birtwell; "The Physical 
Care of Children in the Creche," by Maria E. Love; 
"The Training of Nurse-maids," by Thomas M. 
Rotch,M. D.; "Whose Children Shall We Admit?" 
by Rev. N. B. W. Gallwey, of Chicago, and an ad- 
dress by Professor John Graham Brooks, of Cam- 
bridge. The pamphlet contains also a list of day 
nurseries in the United States, a set of very useful 
statistical tables, and a good index. 



A copy of an attractive magazine issued in Tokyo 
and called the Far East, is at hand, with a fine arti- 
cle by Mr. Sen Katayama, of Kingsley Hall, Tokyo, 
on "The Labor Problem, New and Old;" and another 
by Mr. Tomoyoshi Murai, formerly a resident of 
South End House, Boston, and of Hull House and 
Chicago Commons, on "The Development and Out- 
look of Christianity in Japan." 



THE moment working people are morally one? 
united in idea, injunction government and deputy 
massacres will cease. But revolutionary instiga- 
tors are powerful to keep the people divided. 

Public, Ownership Review. 



STRICTLY BUSINESS. 



Some Thoughts About Advertising in "The Com- 
mons "The " Labour Annual "To Phila- 
delphia Readers "Christ Tales." 



AS WE HAVE STATED in an advertisement on 
the cover of this issue of THE COMMONS, the 
time has come for advertisers who want to reach 
our kind of constituency to consider THE COMMONS 
as an advertising medium. What kind of constitu- 
ency is it ? That's a fair question, for it concerns 
the 7,000 folk to whom the December issue was 
addressed, and their friends and relatives, who also 
read the paper. Well, they include all the settle- 
ment workers in the world, for to every settlement 
we send THE COMMONS free, as a matter of course. 
Then there is the large and growing number of 
plain people in this country interested in the work 
the settlements are doing for the social welfare. 
Thoughout the Middle West especially, but in all 
parts of the country as well, professional men and 
women, teachers, ministers, business men of pro- 
gressive mind, and others interested in the essential 
social movements of our day, have THE COMMONS, 
and scores of letters attest the fact that it is read 
by them from cover to cover. Intelligent working- 
men of many kinds of thought follow its Labour 
Studies with interest. An advertisement in THE 
COMMONS, in short, will be READ with attention by 
a large, increasing, and yet selected constituency 
of the keenest minds and most intelligent observ- 
ers of the affairs of the world. 



To PHILADELPHIA READERS of THE COMMONS, 
we need to explain that this issue is being sent 
to all former subscribers of the College Settlement 
News, until lately published by the Philadelphia 
College settlement. We shall publish from time 
to time a budget of news from that settlement, and 
shall seek, so far as we can, to supply the place 
which the suspension of that excellent little paper 
leaves vacant. 

WE HAVE STILL ON HAND a large supply of the 
" Child's Christ Tales," and urge again the excel- 
lence of this collection of Christ-stories for all who 
have occasion to tell such stories in children's 
clubs, Sunday schools, or to children anywhere. 
The rate of 75 cents will be continued for a short 
time, and readers can obtain the book for 50 cents 
by sending with the order a new subscription to 
THE COMMONS. (See advertisement, page 16.) 



WE ARE GLAD TO OFFER to our readers, at the 
same price at which it sells in England, the 1898 
issue of the English "LABOUR ANNUAL," pub- 
lished at London by Joseph Edwards, and to furn- 
ish former issues at the same figure, as they may 
be ordered. Any other books in the social field we 
can furnish to our readers as cheaply as they can 
be obtained of any bookseller. We shall always be 
glad to quote prices upon any work in the market. 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



15 



BUREAU OF 
SETTLEMENTS 



UNDER 
THE DIRECTION OF 



THE 

COMMONS 



PURPOSES 



To collect, disburse and publish bibliog- 
raphy and other historical data and general 
information concerning the world-wide Set- 
tlement Movement. 

To facilitate helpful communication between 
Settlements. 

To be of all possible service to people living 
and working on the basis of the Settlement 
Idea. 



WANTED, THEREFORE, 



Prompt Information as to the foundation 
of new Settlements, or the existence of old 
ones not well known. Better that we should 
duplicate information than not to have it 
at all. 

Copies (several when possible), of all 
reports, circulars, and other printed matter, 
however apparently trivial, including tickets, 
programs and all other transient material, 
issued by or concerning any settlement. 
Complete files of all such matter are urgently 
desired. 

References to, and if ''possible copies of, all 
periodical, newspaper, magazine or review 
articles, or allusions, however scant, in 
books or pamphlets, with reference to the 
Settlement Movement or to any Settlement. 
These references should always give minute 
particulars as to the name of the publica- 
tion, date, author if possible, etc. 

In short, we desire to have on hand and to 
keep complete, material suggesting the en- 
tire history of each and every Settle- 
ment. 

All head-workers and secretaries of Settle- 
ments in all Countries are urged to co- 
operate. 

NOTE. The following Settlement Literature 
may now be obtained through the Bureau: 

"Social Settlements and the Labor Question" 
(Reprint from the proceedings of the 23d National 
Conference of Charities and Correction) . Single cop- 
ies, 25 cents, postpaid. 

Bibliography of College, Social and University 
Settlements, published by the College Settlements 
Association. Free on receipt of 2 cents postage. 

Material for and inquiries concerning the 
Bureau should be addressed to 

Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union St., Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



Cbicago Commons 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 



(Beached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
__ by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 



or 



west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GKAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 



COMMONS NOTES. 



The Choral Club will give a concert Febru- 
ary 14, at Scandia HalJ. 

A much enjoyed visit from abroad, late in 

January, was that of Mr. William A. Clark, head 
of Lincoln House, Boston, who spent several days 
with us. 

The preponderance of Chicago Commons 

matter in the last issue leads us to minimize it in 
the present issue. It is for no lack of interesting 
news, however. 

Recent speakers at the Tuesday evening 

economic metting have been Thomas J. Elderkin, 
secretary of the National Seamen's Union; Mr. 
Abraham Bisno, who spoke on the " Marxian The- 
ory of Value;" Thomas J. Morgan, on " Law and 
Labor;" Rev. Charles M. Shelden, on " Conditions 
in Kansas;" James B. Smiley, on "The Referen- 
dum;" Prof. George D. llerron, on " Christ's Eco- 
nomic of Distribution;" J. Stitt Wilson, on "Christ's 
Solution of the Labor Problem." The meetings 
are certainly gaining in value and seriousness, and 
in their instructive quality for all concerned. The 
attendance continues to tax the resources of our 
largest room. 

A REFORMER. 



He spent his life reforming things, 
But when, at last, they laid him on the shelf, 

St Peter stopped him on his way for wings- 
He had neglected to reform himself. 

Chicago Daily News. 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[January, 



Special 
Offer to 
Commons 
Readers 



A 

BEAUTIFUL 
STORY- 
BOOK j* 

FOR 

CHILDREN 



t^w c^w 



CHILD'S CHRIST-TALES 



BY ANDREA HOFER PROUDFOOT 



It is a Christ-Lore Classic, contributed to Literature by a Kindergartener. 

No Book -Stall is complete without it and no Library 

is complete without it. 



The book is illustrated with 30 reproductions from the Old Masters, and 
many stories. It is printed on fine enameled paper, hand- 
somely bound, with attractive cover. 



ELEVENtTHOUSAND COPIES SOLD IN J896-J897 



IT WILL BE SOLD 
AT 



LOO 



But readers of "THE COMMONS" can secure it for SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS, by mailing 

that amount in check, money order, stamps or cash; or for FIFTY CENTS by 

sending with the following order the name of a NEW SUBSCRIBER to 

"THE COMMONS" and the fifty cents for the subscription. 



ONE DOLLAR secures the "Child's Christ-Tales" 
and " THE COMMONS " for One Year. 



Good only if accompanied 
by 75 cents (or $1.00 if a new 
subscription to ''THE COM- 
MONS" is included.) 



Publishers of "THE COMMONS" 

140 North Union Street, Chicago, III 

Enclosed find - in payment for copies of CHILD'S CHRIST- 

TALES, to the following address: 



If accompanied by this Order, any number of copies may be had at seventy-five cents each. 



Settlements anfc fDMssfons " SHecuesefc in Gbis Heeue. 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



VOL. II, NO. JO. 



CHICAGO, 



FEBRUARY, J898. 



PHASES OP LIFE 

IN CROWDED 
CITY CENTERS 



PROGRESS OF MANY 

ENDEAVORS 
IN HUMAN SERVICE 



STUDIES OP THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT 



NEWS OP THE 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 



SOCIAL WORK OP 
THE CHURCHES 



GROWTH OP THE IDEAL 

OP BROTHERHOOD 

AMONG MEN 




KOHE HAWTHORNE LATHKOP, 

left her home In New York to nurse and minister to the can- 
cerous incurables in the crowded districts of the city. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS. 



Entered in Chicago Poit-Offic* is Second-Class Matter. 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



WE DESIRE TO DOUBLE 
OUR CIRCULATION 




AND 

WITHIN 
SIX 

MONTHS 
TO 

SECURE 



TWELVE THOUSAND 



READERS 



THIS WILL BE VERY EASY 

IF EVERYBODY HELPS 

IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING WAYS: 



OF THE 

COMMONS." 

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, 
50 CENTS PER YEAR. 



BY GETTING SUBSCRIBERS. 

To help this along, we will send six copies for one year to any one address, anywhere, for $2.50. 
This is a club rate of 4O cents per copy, and will apply to any number of copies above six, 
sent to one address. 

BY SENDING US LISTS 

of church members, clubs, societies, or personal friends, in any number. We shall be glad to send 
sample copies to any persons upon application. Send us your church directory to-day. 

BY ADVERTISING. 

It is by cash receipts from advertising that we hope to make up the discrepancy between the low 
price of subscriptions and the cost of printing and delivering the paper. We will send rates upon 
application and allow a liberal commission upon desirable advertising secured for us. 

IN GENERAL 

By interesting yourself and friends in The Commons, and the cause of social brotherhood 
for which it stands and which it tries to aid. For instance, why not write a couple of letters to-day 
to some good friends, telling them about it, and sending them your copy of the paper ? We will 
send you another copy for every one you distribute in this way. 



WHEN YOU THINK, 

That in these ways, and others that may occur to you, you can assure the permanency, stability and 
constant development of the paper ; that thus you can be of material assistance in arousing interest 
in the work of social reform and rejuvenation, not alone in the social settlement, but in churches, 
societies and among individuals widely scattered in many parts of the world ; 



YOU WILL GLADLY HELP. 



For sample copies, advertising rates and all information 
on the subject of the paper, address 



PUBLISHER. THE COMMONS, 

140 NORTH UNION STREET, 

CHICAGO, ILLS. 



THE COMMONS 

B Aontblf IRccoro Devotes to aspects of life airt labor from tbe Social Settlement point of View. 



Whole Number 22. 



CHICAGO. 



FEBRUARY, 1898. 



HIS COMING. 



I think I would not care to be 
Waiting in great expectancy 

For my dear King. 
For if I kept my eager eyes 
Always uplifted to the skies, 

Some little thing 
Beneath my feet might dying be 
That needed tender care from me. 

I would not dare be listening 
With bated breath for echoing 

Of angel song, 

For I might lose the feeble cry 
Of some lost child that only I 

Could lead along. 
Enough for me each setting sun 
Brings nearer the Beloved One. 

How sweet to labor some day long, 
With busy hand and cheerful song, 

And then to see 

His presence turn the evening gloam 
Into a golden pathway home 

As he draws near. 
Not by my merit, but His grace. 
My King will find my lowly place. 
-Myra Goodwin Plante, in Sunday School Times. 



MISSIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. 

[BY JOHN P. QAVIT.] 

And here come some dozen or two of " rescue " 
missions, with recently-started industrial classes 
and employment bureaus, asking to be classed as 
" settlements." Whereupon the writer of these 
lines arises to protest. These estimable folk mis- 
understand the situation. A settlement is by no 
means a socialized mission, or in any proper sense 
a mission at all, for it assails the social problem 
from quite the opposite point of view. As one 
having some experience in both, may I be permit- 
ted to outline the essential difference between the 
two, as it appears to me ? 

A mission, in the ordinary sense of that word, 
comes from outside to a neighborhood or community 
which it regards as " degraded." Assuming, tacitly 
at least, that only by help and inspiration from 
without itself can this neighborhood be uplifted, it 
moves in among its " fallen " brethren to extend a 
hand and seek to draw up, out of hopeless squalor 
and sin, at least a few of the " lost." Ordinarily it 
regards the life and institutions of the people 
among whom it locates as products of debasement, 
from which the people must be weaned to a bet- 
ter life. Usually, though by no means invariably, 
its workers live in other parts of the city, lead a 
wholly different life, and meet the people chiefly, 



if not exclusively, in the meetings or in philan- 
thropic "calls." It is estimated that "the poor" 
will be benefitted by contact with these workers, 
who are better dressed, better educated and [some- 
times] more intelligent. 

A settlement, in the distinctive sense of the term, 
starts with the assumption that in any community 
or neighborhood there is resident always enough 
essential goodness, enough aspiration, enough high 
impulse, to save and uplift that community if only 
it can be made self-conscious and given means and 
occasion to express itself. The settlement bases 
its existence, its hope, its endeavor, on the firm 
foundation of Democracy on the thesis that the 
people must and can and will save themselves. It 
seeks, and finds, the spirit of Almighty God striv- 
ing among the poor folk of the congested districts 
as much as among the rich of the boulevards 
sometimes far more effectively. Whatever else it 
may be and do, the true settlement offers, first of 
all, a center for the expression of the neighbor- 
hood's own civic life and virtue. Glad to bring to 
the neighborhood and offer for the social service 
there any treasures its group of residents may col- 
lectively or individually possess, it is much more 
interested and rejoiced to offer a focus about which 
may gather and become effective the social energy 
of the people themselves. Not so much teachers, 
preachers or benefactors as friends, neighbors, fel- 
low-citizens, fellow-sufferers, fellow-men, the resi- 
dents offer their possessions and themselves in the 
service of the community. 

Whatever may be their ideas in undertaking 
residence in a settlement, those who do it soon 
learn that there is to the square inch or to the 
square man as much goodness, as much social and 
civic righteousness, as much unselfishness, as much 
mutual helpfulness, among the poor of the East 
Side as among the middle classes of the avenues or 
tbe rich of the boulevards. It is impressed upon 
them, for instance, that it is no poor man from the 
" slums " who has debauched the State Legislature 
of Illinois and made the Chicago Board of Alder- 
men a stench in the nostrils of gods and men ! 

To the heterogeneous population of thirty-eight 
nationalities in the Seventeenth Ward of Chicago, 
the social settlement offers a neighborhood club- 
house, a neutral meeting-place, where Jew and 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



Gentile, Irish and Italian, German and Frenchman, 
Russian and Swede, Swiss and Norwegian, Pole 
and Icelander and Mexican and Spaniard and 
American can meet without prejudice, talk over 
common interests and in the warmth of frankly 
recognized fraternity, fuse and grow and build into 
an assimilated, homogeneous American people. 

And the result ? Just what might be expected. 
To the mission go those whom the mission seeks 
and bids for and can minister to the degraded, the 
gutter bummers, the professional idlers the lost. 
Make all allowances that can be demanded for 
exceptional rescue missions and exceptional cases 
in average missions it is still sufficiently true to 
be stated that you will seek there in vain for the 
self-respecting, sober, industrious workingman and 
workingwoman, standing erect before God and 
man, claiming each the right and the ability to 
earn his own living, live his own life and develop 
his own relations according to his own conscience 
with the Power that brought him into being. 

To the true " social " settlement, by the same 
token and for the same reason, respond those for 
whom the settlement exists. The tone is too high, 
the atmosphere too clean and strong for the wil- 
fully idle of any class. The professional beggar 
finds the searching eye of the clean workingman 
too keen for him, the frank free speech is too hon- 
est for the cringing hypocrite or the political par- 
tisan. With all its imperfections and limitations, 
it is late enough in the experiment to say that the 
true life of the common people does find expres- 
sion in the neighborhood center offered by the 
settlement, and that to the optimistic student of 
Democracy it is its own reward. 

Without the frank recognition of the ability of 
the people to face their own problems, to evolve 
their own institutions, social, political, religious, 
and to respond to the Spirit of God moving upon 
and within to-day's chaos of human affairs, there 
can be no true social settlement. No addition of 
industrial education, employment bureaus, " con- 
trolled " meetings for the cautious discussion of 
economics and political matters, can fill the need 
of the awakening life of the people. The res- 
cue mission which " goes down " to " lift up " 
will serve some purpose for those who are " down." 
It will doubtless turn some drunkards from their 
drink, clothe some naked, feed some hungry, and 
save in fact some of the waste of our consum- 
mately wasteful civilization. But it will never 
attract to itself or appreciably influence those who 
are not " down," but who, the peers of any of their 
fellows, are seeking hand-in-hand the way out of 
the wilderness of this day's frightful fratricidal 
strife for bread in the midst of plenty, into the 
Kingdom of God, where Liberty, Equality, Fra- 
ternity shall reign in love for ever and ever. 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS. 



[J. RAMSEY MACDONALD IN The Ethical World.} 

One of Ihe most hopeful directions in which the 
ethical spirit of America is becoming active is in 
the social settlement movement. In this country 
[England] the settlement is too often a church or 
chapel propaganda, a university condescension, a 
mission. In America it is rarely that. Its republican 
surroundings preserve it from superior airs ; the 
character of the people with whom it has to deal 
tells it that it may save itself the trouble of posing 
as anything. It, like every other moral stirring-up 
of American society, cannot afford to strike a false 
note. When the Seth Low movement struck such 
a note it was doomed. 

PURPOSE SUFFICIENT SANCTION. 

The settlement in America refuses every sanc- 
tion save its own direct purpose. It has a distinct 
individuality as a settlement, and it thinks rightly 
that to make its work an aspect of chapel work, or 
the visible proof of dogmatic enthusiasm, or the 
outlet for denominational fervour, is lowering, 
both to the work itself and to those who engage 
in it. When I visited Hull House, Chicago, re- 
cently, a dignitary of the Church of England came 
to examine the place. "Now, why are you all do- 
ing this excellent work ?" he asked the worthy 
head of the House. "Are you all Socialists ?" 
"We are not," she replied. "Are you bound by 
religion ?" " We are of all creeds," said she ; "and 
some of us have none to boast of." "Are you at- 
tached to some university, then ?" " We are not." 
"Then," he asked in amazement, "why are you 
here ?" " We like it," was Miss Addams's charac- 
teristic reply. A sprightly American, whose opin- 
ion I asked as to why so many young ladies on 
leaving college went into one or other of the col- 
lege settlements, replied, " The revolt of the daugh- 
ters!" and, altho she was pretty right, her answer 
required an explanation. It is the revolt against 
the conventional existence which, despite com- 
mon report, the majority of well-to-do American 
women have to live ; and it is not, as is generally 
the case here, a fling, but the assumption of new 
and more worthy duties. 

One of the features of American settlements is 
the part played by women in them. Miss Addams, 
of Hull House, Chicago ; Miss Dudley, of Denni- 
son House, Boston ; Miss Wald, of the Nurses' 
Settlement, New York ; Miss Bradford, of Whit- 
tier House, Jersey City, have done, and are doing, 
work of infinite value to American citizenship. 
The women of America have indeed been fortunate 
in the example of Miss Addams, and if the revolt 
of the daughters on the other side has taken this 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



meritorious form, it has been largely owing to her 
lead. 

The settlement conception in America is much 
wider than the settlement conception here. It is 
not merely that the poor should be treated to 
Shakespeare readings, technical classes, free con- 
certs, and charity organization fallacies. It is that 
every town should have at least one center of civic 
virtues. The supreme test of a settlement is 
whether it influences its neighbourhood, whether its 
neighbourhood is proudly conscious of it, whether 
it makes the good more easy and the bad more 
difficult for its district. It may do excellent work 
as an educational center, it may give culture to an 
exceptional man here and there, and thereby j ustify 
its existence ; but if it stops short at that, it hardly 
justifies its name. The, American settlements I 



tlement,was Mr. Seth Low's chairman ; Miss Wald, 
one of his most devoted helpers. Miss Addarns 
and Professor Graham Taylor, of the Chicago 
Commons, have got more influence than everybody 
else put together in the Chicago reform movement. 
Mr. Woods is a Boston reformer, as well as the 
head of a House. The backward state of opinion 
in America hampers them somewhat, because they 
are influenced by the collectivist opinions so prev- 
alent here, rather than by the more individualistic 
thought which still inspires the majority of even 
advanced Americans. But in that respect they are 
on an equal footing with every other American 
movement. Here, again, emphasis must be made 
of their social value. Settlement opinion is to be 
one of the most powerful factors in the destruction 
of the imperfect democratic machinery which 





"RIVER WARD" GLIMPSES IN CHICAGO. 

(By courtesy of the Deaconess' Advocate.) 



saw could fearlessly invite the most severe test. 
Their method of work is largely educational, and 
everyone was starting, in the late autumn when I 
was there, a long programme of classes. And yet 
I felt that that side of their work might be passed 
over, and their value be unimpaired. They are 
essentially civic centers neighbourhood guilds. 
They are looked upon with pride by the trade 
unionists ; their influence is always at the disposal 
of the champion of municipal reform ; they have 
given public parks and playgrounds to cities; they 
have hunted out sweaters' dens and demolished 
insanitary areas ; they have boldly set themselves 
to stem the tide which the Johnny Powers and the 
Boss Crokers have let loose by their bribes and 
favors, rushing to the destruction of republican 
institutions. Mr. Reynolds, of the University Set- 



makes freedom of thought difficult in America ; it 
is to remove many of the antiquated conceptions of 
liberty which do so much to impair the efficiency 
of American republicanism as a social fact. 

MODIFYING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 

Nor is the influence of the American settlement 
confined to the making of opinion and the support 
of movements. It is modifying public administra- 
tion. Mrs. Kelley's work as factory inspector for 
Illinois, Miss Johnson's services as garbage inspec- 
tor in Chicago, Mrs. Stevens as agent for the police 
court children, are typical examples of settlement 
work in America. In the feast, where societies are 
subdivided and work specialized, the settlement 
stands more especially for the more individual and 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



unofficial reforming'efforts ; but even there a very 
short acquaintance with the specialized agencies 
of reform will reveal the mark of the settlement 
inspiration. 

Upon this wide field which the American settle- 
ment occupies, as compared with the English (with 
a few exceptions like Mansfield House, Canning 
Town), its justification is much more apparent. 
The notion of " bringing down " sweetness and 
light to the poorer districts is false in its ethics ; 
the idea of living the life of a neighborhood, 
entering into its movements, not as a superior critic 
or adviser, but as a sympathetic sharer, is sound. 
The soundness is apparent in no more convincing 
way than in the relation between the people affec- 
ted and the workers of the settlement. In no sin- 
gle case did I meet a settlement head in America 
who was afraid to help needy cases in the neigh- 
borhood with money. I consider that as final. 
The coppers which one poor neighbor gives to 
another in distress bear none of moral evils of 
charity ; charity is only evil when the recipient 
feels some difference between himself and the 
giver, and it is just in so far as I saw evidence to 
convince me that the American settlement method 
had succeeded in establishing the basis of friendly 
equality between the institution and the neigh- 
bourhood that I was also convinced of the superi- 
ority of that method. I was, moreover, specially 
impressed by the thorough disbelief in charity 
organization methods held by the ablest settlement 
heads on the other side, and regard that as but an 
indication of their success in handling human 
problems. 

FOR THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 

But, again, in attempting to estimate the value of 
the American settlement, we must remember some 
pretty fundamental differences between American 
and British society. The settlement in America 
may probably be considered from the point of view 
of the supreme task of American education. That 
task is the making of American citizens. In the 
schools it is done by sticking " Old Glory " on the 
walls, by singing patriotic songs, by making Bunker 
Hill an epoch-making event in history (as indeed 
it was), by setting lessons on the Constitution and 
Declaration of Independence. The settlement 
starts as a civic conception supplementary to this. 
It stands for American public life in a small area. 
It is the citizenship of example supplementing the 
citizenship of precept. But the very fact that 
America has to produce citizens by an educational 
process gives the social settlement there opportun- 
ities that it has not got here. That difference is 
fundamental. And yet the neighborhood idea is 
the only moral basis of a social settlement, and until 
its special application to the circumstances of this 



country is thought out and applied, our settlements 
will produce as many prigs as honest citizens a 
charge from which the American experiments are 
remarkably free. 






Sketches 



AT ONE of the meetings of the Federation of 
Chicago Settlements, a year or two ago, a 
committee was appointed, with Miss Julia C. La- 
throp of Hull House as chairman, to report a defi- 
nition of a "settlement", upon the basis of which 
admission to the Federation might be regulated. 
Time and again the committee "reported progress' r 
and asked " leave to sit again." Finally patience 
ceased to be a virtue, and the Federation demanded 
a report. Miss Lathrop arose and with some show 
of desperation, as one driven at last to bay, said: 

"Well, friends, the truth is that your committee- 
has been unable to agree upon a definition. We 
never could keep up with the new forms under 
which the settlement idea appears. We know 
fairly well what the Settlement is to-night, but we 
are quite unable to prophesy what it may be by to- 
morrow morning ! " 

The committee thereupon was discharged, and 
the definition is still lacking. 



A MAN in San Francisco, who wears in his shirt- 
bosom a diamond large enough to supply a stopper 
for a fair-sized decanter, and who measures his 
money, they say, by the peck, was asked if he was 
going to attend one of Professor Herron's lectures 
in that city. 

" No, indeed I ain't," he snorted, " I ain't got no 

use for these d d communicants that go around 

the country, preachin' arnica ! " 



SOME years ago a clergyman visiting a ragged 
school in London asked a class of bright, mis- 
chievous urchins, all of whom had been gath- 
ered from the streets, " How msCny bad boys does 
it take to make a good one ? " A little fellow 
immediately replied : " One, sir, if you treat him 
well." 

THERE are still in hand a goodly supply of the 
"Child's Christ-tales/' by Andrea Hofer Proudfoot, 
which is, as we have said before, one of those 
books that none can spare who has occasion to tell 
the stories of the child Jesus to children. Any- 
one can have a copy mailed to him for 75 cents, 
and we send THE COMMONS for a year and the 
" Christ-Tales " to anybody for one dollar. This- 
offer will be continued for but a limited time. 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



irioies or IDG 3* *?' ?* ^* ?" 
& & & Social Settlements 



NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, LOUISVILLE. 



[BY ARCHIBALD A. HILL, HEAD-WORKER.] 

A few years ago a number of Louisville people 
became interested in the various settlements in 
Chicago. Through their efforts, Prof. Graham 
Taylor was requested to come to Louisville to speak 
in one of the local churches. His address aroused 
so much interest that it was decided to inaugurate 
settlement work in Louisville. After months of 
alow work and weary waiting, two rooms in the 
up-town section were secured, and a small work 
was begun in October, 1896. No one was found who 
could go into residence, and so the work was begun 
as a neighborhood club room. Here the younger 
people in a neighborhood met in a few clubs and 
and classes. The number of people desiring ad- 
mittance to these clubs and classes, and also the 
number of clubs soon outgrew the capacity of the 
two rooms. Accordingly, last September, a larger 
house, No. 324 E. Jefferson Street, was secured, and 
four people went iuto residence. 

Neighborhood House has no social propaganda 
other than that a man has certain rights inhering in 
himself, which must be respected and observed in 
the spirit of brotherhood so wide and so deep that 
it will reach to every man of every class or caste or 
creed. It was the desire of the founders of the 
Neighborhood Houee to make secure a little patch 
of Mother Earth where men could meet on the sim- 
ple basis of manhood ; where a man's a man and a 
brother, be he Dive's or Lazarus, "barbarian, Scyth- 
ian, bond or free." They believed that in accom- 
plishing this they would assist in bringing in the 
glad dawn of the better day. Therefore Neighbor- 
hood House seeks to be the common center for 
all the forces of righteousness in its neighborhood. 
It believes that it is bringing to light righteous 
forces which before lay hidden under the surface, 
and that it is demonstrating that everywhere "the 
Power not ourselves " is working for righteousness. 

For a Southern city, the population of the neigh- 
borhood is remarkable for its heterogeneity. It is 
predominantly Jewish, but Germans, Italians, Ar- 
menians, Turks, Syrians and Greeks are found. 

The work is largely educational and social and 
is conducted to a large extent by non-residents. 
There are now about thirty weekly appointments. 
There are classes in drawing, clay modeling, bas- 
ket weaving, sewing, gymnastics, elementary 
kitchen garden, physical geography of historic 
places, chemistry, United States history, music, 



book-keeping, English language and English liter- 
ature. There are also social clubs and a club for 
the discussion of social questions and one for the 
study of the lives of famous women. 

So far as is known to the writer, Neighborhood 
House is the first settlement in any city south of 
the Ohio river. 



CHICAGO FEDERATION. 



Settlement Ethical Problems Discussed at the 

February Meeting:. Next ifleeting to 

be Held April 16. 

Settlement ethical problems were discussed with 
vigor by a full representation of the Federation of 
Chicago SMt'ements, at the University of Chicago 
Settlemei t on February 26. So interesting and 
profitable was the discussion, indeed, that the sub- 
ject was continued for further illumination at the 




NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE, LOUISVILLE. 

next meeting, which will be the annual meeting 
for the election of officers, and will be held April 
16, with the Northwestern University Settlement, 
252 West Chicago Avenue, beginning with supper 
at 6 p. m., in the Settlement Coffee House. 

A distinguished guest of the Federation, upon 
this occasion, was Miss Emily Holmes, head-worker 
of Westminster House, Buffalo, who assisted mate- 
rially in the discussions of such questions as: 
(Continued on page 10.) 



8 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



* 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



JOHN P. GAVIT, 



EDITOR. 



Published on the last day of each month from CHICAGO 
COMMONS, a Social Settlement at 140 North Union Street, 
Chicago, 111. 

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
Not above 5-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary and until all arrearages are paid. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



No. 22. 



CHICAGO. FEB. 28, 1898. 



NOTICE that THE COMMONS is published at the 
last of each month, not the first, as is usual 
with magazines. This issue, for instance, is dated 
February 28. 

WHY should a settlement plant be largely 
vacated in summer ? The hundreds of 
neighbors who get no vacation need a community 
center quite as much in warm weather as in cold. 



OF ALL the wicked nonsense that has been 
uttered in the name of liberty, the worst that 
we have seen of late is that of the New York Sun, 
opposing the statutory reduction of the hours of 
labor in Southern factories, on the ground of "liberty 
of contract." And no comment of ours could be 
more thoroughly apropos than that of Gunton's 
Magazine, which asks savagely : 

"Does not the New York Sun know that factory 
operatives never had the right to make 'private 
contracts' North or South, or in any country in the 
world? The working hours in factories are every- 
where fixed by the employers. Individual opera- 



tives have absolutely no right of contract whatever. 
That is part of the necessity of the case. The 
working hours fixed by the corporation for one la- 
borer must be the rule for all laborers, and the 
hours established by one corporation practically 
become the rule for all competing corporations. 
It is because individual contracts in such matters, 
however desirable, are economically impQssible, 
that statutory enactment becomes necessary. In 
no other way has the working day of the factory 
operatives ever been shortened." 



SERVICE ITS OWN REWARD. 



CRITICS of these days, dreaming of the "good 
old times," commonly complain of the increas- 
ing scarcity of good workmanship, of conscientious 
service on the part of workers of all kinds. What- 
ever defense may be offered for these times, in con- 
trast with the old, it can hardly be doubted that 
there is quite generally a lack of the fine quality of 
work in mechanics, in art, in literature, in service 
of almost every kind,which characterized the prod- 
uct that has come down to us from the past. 

It is doubtless true that the methods of machine 
production have tended to supplant the more thor- 
ough and the more individual hand work of other 
times, but we doubt if to the mere method of pro- 
duction can be attributed the whole of the deteri- 
oration. As commercialism has captured govern- 
ment and the sources of law-making and law-ad- 
ministration, politics and literature, so has it seized 
and demoralized almost, if not quite, every other 
kind of human effort. " What is there in it for 
me ?" is the key word of these days, and the ideal 
of the honest expression of the truth that is in a 
man, regardless alike of consequences and of re- 
ward, seems often a thing of the past. The condi- 
tions of industry are such that the main thought of 
the mechanic is not " How can I produce the best 
piece of work, which shall be an honor to my talent 
and a blessing to my fellow-men ? " but " How 
much can I do in the shortest possible time that 
will sell and hold together until the purchaser is 
out of sight?" The typical artist in these days 
paints, not the great picture which breathes forth 
an honest man's conception of the truth, but that 
which the commercialized critic will praise, and 
the commercialized crowd will applaud and pur- 
chase. The great writer whom Almighty God has 
blessed with a keen vision and with talent, sells 
himself by the yard for hire, and even though, in 
spite of all, a message does reach the hearts of men, 
it is tainted with the stench of the market and the 
slave block. 

Politics and administration are poisoned by wide- 
spread suspicion and corruption. Why? Because 
the blasting, polluting blight of commercialism is 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



upon them. Even the pulpit, in many instances, 
instead of being the mouth-piece of God's truth 
about human rights and duties and human justice, 
is stifled by the degrading atmosphere of purchase 
and sale. 

At the root of all this we find the key-note of the 
competitive system service for hire, working for 
pay. Thank God, a new note is being struck in 
these days ; the voice of prophecy rings out with a 
word fraught with hope for the future. SERVICE 
is ITS OWN REWARD. If a man is to work only 
according to his pay, and be paid only according to 
his work, then let there be no complaints. When 
men hold each other by the throat, exacting the 
last copper of every bargain, and giving only so 
much service as is paid for in the dirty money of 
the world, he is clever and praiseworthy who gets 
the most in return for the least, and the swindler 
and the shirk are the true types of humanity. 

The truth is, that no good piece of work was ever 
done for pay. The incentive of gain never inspired 
a great invention, a great book, a great picture, or 
a great sermon and it never will. The great 
work of the world has always been done by men 
whose souls were filled with the spirit and power 
of truth, to whom "woe be" if they did not preach 
their message. Great service is always its own 
reward, and we shall have little good work in the 
world until men have opportunities for free self-ex- 
pression ; until by brotherhood and co-operation 
the products of industry are given to those who 
make them ; until want and the fear of want is 
driven from before the face of men ; until the motto 
of human society and industry becomes in effect, 
"From each according to his ability, to each according 
to his needs" Then will a man breathe forth freely 
what is in his heart; then will the round pegs 
among mankind be found in the round holes, work- 
ing freely and happily ; then will brotherhood be 
a fact; then will Christianity be a possibility; then 
will the kingdom of God be come. 



A NOBLE WOMAN. 

NO MAN who believes either in the immor- 
tality of the individual soul or in the eternal 
life of truth, can say of Frances E. Willard that she 
is " dead." From before the face of man she has 
passed to the unceasing activity of the "servants 
who serve Him " in the world of the unseen, but 
her life lives still, in the lives of those to whom she 
has been leader and teacher and prophet of free- 
dom, and in the unending vigor and influence of a 
spotless life. It cannot be too much to say that no 
woman has ever lived who did more for her sex 
and for her race. Those of us who differed with 
her most sharply even upon fundamental points 



both of theory and of method do most honor to our- 
selves when we pay unreserving tribute of loving 
reverence to the memory of this great woman who 
has passed on to her further work for truth and 
liberty. 

O BOUT the most discriminating and intuitively 
/ \ sensible commentary upon the American 
settlement movement that we have seen for many 
a long day, is that of Mr. J. Ramsay Macdonald, 
of the English Independent Labor Party and Fabian 
Society, lately a visitor to the United Statee, whose 
article on "Social Settlements in America" we re- 
print, with acknowledgments to Dr. Stanton Coit's 
Ethical World, to which it was contributed. Mr. 
Macdonald probably overestimates theactual results 
thus far, and generalizes on some 'points perhaps 
from too few instances, but to our mind he senses 
the work and province of the social settlement 
exactly. His keen criticism of the movement 
offers the healthiest reading for certain settlement 
folk that we wot of, and it is referred to those 
whom it may concern for their prayerful consider- 
ation. 

AN INSTRUCTIVE study in the ethics of 
present day conditions may be found in the 
astounding fact that thousands of men in this 
country are welcoming the least possibility of a 
war with Spain as offering a chance for " pros- 
perity." In all honesty, now, what shall we say of 
a social "order" in which men shall seriously 
seek for "prosperity" in the destruction of vast 
amounts of laboriously-constructed property and 
thousands of priceless human lives? 

OUR frontispiece is a portrait of Mrs. Rose 
Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, who has left home and comforts in 
New York City to nurse and minister to the poor 
and incurable sufferers from cancer in the New 
York tenement districts. We are hoping for an 
article presently from Mrs. Lathrop's pen on this 
phase of nursing among the helpless. 

ONE who desires to help settlement work in 
the summer months, but is prevented by 
prolonged absence from town, can at least deposit 
with a settlement a sum of money for street-car 
outings for the " shut-ins." 



N 



OW is the time to be planning for the summer 
work in your settlement. 

The good opinion of honest men, friends to free- 
dom and well-wishers to mankind, is the only 
reputation a wise man would ever desire. Wash- 
ington. 

The city of Glasgow now owns 1,000 dwellings, 
and is usiug the income derived from their rental 
in further improving the sanitary and architectural 
conditions. 



10 



THE COMMONS. 



February, 



CHICAGO FEDERATION. 

(Continued frm Page 7.) 

1. What shall be the attitude of settlements up- 
on the Sunday observance question, as involved in 
matters of games in the settlement buildings on 
Sunday, Sunday sports, ball games, picnics, etc. 

2. As to dancing, in general, in the settlement, 
and in the settlement neighborhood. 

3. Toward saloons, and on the liquor question 
generally. For instance, should a settlement rep- 
resent, inaugurate or participate as an institution 
in a local temperance, prohibition or saloon closing 
crusade. 

Such questions as these led to a very brisk and 
instructive debate, and so much difference of opin- 
ion appeared that it would be difficult to say what 
the concensus was upon any one of the questions. 



ALMOST A SETTLEMENT. 



Froebel House, Wilmington, and its Kindergarten 
Extension Work. 



The good people identified with the work of 
Froebel House, Wilmington, Delaware, modestly 
disclaim standing as a settlement, and in truth lack 
the requisite of actual residents. Nevertheless a 
considerable social work has grown up about the 
kindergarten which they established some time 
ago. The endeavor was to establish the kinder- 
garten as an educational center, and a letter from 
one of the workers says, "Our association is creat- 
ing a wider circle than that contained within its 
own walls, and is demonstrating this year what a 
kindergarten does in a public school. We have 
lately opened one in a school building, and hope 
to some day have a part in getting the kindergarten 
adopted as part of the school system. We wish 
very much that our little house and the movement 
it represents might have been honestly included 
among the social settlements, but it cannot lay claim 
to the essential of resident workers. We were re- 
stricted by our inability to leave homes ; but prob- 
ably this restriction was the origin of what we pro- 
jected at the Froebel House, under the desire to 
form an educational center, with the kindergarten 
as a nucleus. Perhaps there will be other experi- 
ments tried in other places, as interesting in their 
way as ours, in which case the Froebel House will 
form a part of the history of 'educational centers.'" 



AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH SETTLEMENT. 

Grace Chapel Work in New York Reported in the 
Parish Year. Book. 



The Year-Book of Grace Episcopal Parish, New 
York, is an interesting illustrated volume of 170 
pages, devoted to a varied work in that busy 



parish. Space is at hand for only a reference to its 
comment upon the work of industrial education 
and employment, care of the sick and needy and of 
little children, visitation of neighborhood and of 
prisoners, the promotion of temperance, of fresh 
air work, libraries and reading rooms, friendly soci- 
eties and brotherhoods. The Year-Book will be 
interesting especially to those who desire to see 
the work of the church developed in social ways. 



HARTLEY HOUSE REPORT. 



First Year's Work of the Forty-Sixth Street Settle, 
ment in New York. 



The first annual report of Hartley House, 413 W. 
46th St., New York, is printed in the 54th annual 
report of the New York Association for Improving 
the Condition of the Poor, under whose auspices it 
is conducted, and also in a pamphlet by itself, 
illustrated by a frontispiece portrait of R. M. Hart- 
ley, former superintendent of the society, in whose 
honor it is named. In addition to the ordinary set- 
tlement work, Hartley House makes it a specialty 
of assisting the working people, to the best of its 
ability, in industrial ways, having a branch of the 
Cooper Union Free Labor Bureau, work rooms, and 
system of relief by work, which is reported as re- 
sulting satisfactorily. 

The fact that its baths are popular is not surpris- 
ing in the light of the fact that the bath tubs of the 
vicinity number only one to over four hundred and 
forty families. Outings and a vacation school were 
features of last summer's work. 



SETTLEMENT NOTES. 



There is talk of a new settlement in Milwaukee. 

Social students and workers in Burlington, Iowa, 
have a settlement in mind. 

Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, is at Grinnell, 
Iowa, making several addresses. 

Hale House, Boston, is preparing for the summer 
by the organization of an active nature study club. 

The work of Goodrich House, Cleveland, is ^de- 
scribed and illustrated in the issue of the Jewish 
Review, of that city, for February 11. 

Professor Graham Taylor, of Chicago Commons, 
has just returned from a series of presentations of 
the settlement idea and the social gospel in general, 
in Montreal and Toronto. 

Mr. and Mrs. Carl Kelsey, who have been for 
some months at Welcome Hall, Buffalo, have re- 
signed their connection with that work, and are at 
present visiting relatives in the East. 

The National Cash Register Company's bright 
little weekly, The N. C. A'., keeps us posted regard- 
ing the good work in every sense of the settlement 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



kind carried on at the N. C. R. House, at Dayton, 
Ohio. The settlement was inaugurated in April, 
1897, with Rev. Y. P. Mogan as Warden, and Miss 
Lena E. Harvey, Deaconess, in resident charge. 

Miss Emily S. Holmes, head of Westminster 
House, Buffalo, has been making a month's visit at 
Hull House and Chicago Commons, in search of 
inspiration and hints for her own good work. 

The Nazarene for February contains the 1897 
report of the Philadelphia Neighborhood Guild. 
The work, which to our mind is one of the best 
settlement works in this country, cost last year 
$2,073.10. 

The new buildings of the Passmore Edwards 
settlement in Tavistock Place, St. Pancras, London, 
are now occupied by the settlement. It is foreseen 
that the work of the settlement will first take on 
the aspect of a large co-operation with public 
administration. 

The Calvary Evangel is a bright and readable 
monthly, published from November to June, in the 
interests of Calvary Episcopal Parish, New York 
City, and reporting especially upon the work of the 
settlement sort done in Calvary Parish House, New 
York. The subscription price is 50 cents. 

The Kingsley Houxe Record for February con- 
tains, among other interesting matter, a suggestive 
article on " Missionary Homes," by Mrs. Susan K 
Bourne, in a series on " Home-Making as an Im- 
portant Factor in Solving the Problems of Social 
Science." Archibald A. Hill contributes an article 
on Neighborhood House, Louisville, of which he 
is head worker ; and there is also description of the 
Berean Social Settlement in Detroit. 



I find more profit in sermons on either good 
tempers or good works than in what are only 
called " gospel sermons." The term has now 
become a mere cant word; I wish none of our 
society would use it. Let but a pert, self-sufficient 
animal, that hath neither sense nor grace, bawl out 
something about Christ or His blood, or justifica- 
tion by faith, and his hearers cry out, " What a 
fine Gospel sermon." John Wesley in 1778. 



"IN His STEPS " 

A Story by REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON, of 
Topeka, Kan. 



ONE OF THE FEW STORIES IN WHICH THE SOCIAL 
SETTLEMENT PLAYS A PART. 



Order through " The Commons." 
Paper Covers, 25 cents. 

Cloth Covers, 75 cents. 



"The Commons" for a year, and 

" In His Steps," in cloth covers, $ 1 .00 



J Studies of tbe & ^ * & & 
^ ^ ^ ^ Xabor /Movement 

CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



The toad beneatli the harrow knows 
Exactly where each tooth-point goes; 
The butterfly upon the road 
Preachec contentment to that toad." 

Rudyard KipHng. 



DISINTEGRATION OF FAMILIES. 



EFFECT OF MODERN SOCIAL CONDITIONS 
UPON AMERICAN HOMES. 



Startling Results as Shown in Statistics of Divorce 
and Desertion of Families Economic Sig- 
nificance of the Day Nursery. 



[BY ETHELBERT STEWART.*] 

We never fully realize the result of conditions of 
which we are a part. The individual passengers 
of a sinking vessel neither see nor care how many 
fellow-passengers are going down. Each is grab- 
bing for a plank intent only on saving himself. It 
is only after the wreck that those who are saved 
begin to think of the poor victims of an unseaworthy 
ship, lost in a mad struggle with the waves. The 
condition of the industrial world to-day, after less 
than two hundred years of the Manchester school 
of political economy, is essentially that of a shat- 
tered vessel on a stormy sea. Nine-tenths of the 
population of the world are grabbing for a plank 
to keep from sinking. Most of them sink. Of the 
few who are safely landed some are making statis- 
tics show that, since they are saved, nobody much 
is lost, while others are showing that in the strug- 
gle for existance those who do not survive are not 
fit to survive, while all agree that " every fellow 
for himself" is the highest conception of economic 
morality. In discussing industrial affairs with ad- 
vocates of Manchesterism, one is often tempted to 
quote the reply of the French philosopher to the 
Calvinist: " Your God is my devil." 

The subject assigned me on this occasion goes to 
the core of the question of the essential morality 
or immorality of the individualistic, competitive 
system under which we live or try to live. 

SLAVERY AND THE FAMILY. 

A principal argument against chattel-slavery wa 
that a family might be, and often was, separated 
upon the auction block; that it did not recognize 
family ties; the slave's home had no protection. 



*An address delivered before the World's Fair Labor 
Congress, Chicago, August 30, 1893. 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



and ia the nature of the case could have none. I 
have inherited a deep-seated hatred for the institu- 
tions of slavery; but I believe the competitive wage- 
sys'em is a more impersonal, cold, mechanical, 
calculating, heartless, inhuman system in its prac- 
tical application and results than chattel-slavery as 
known in our Southern States. The selling of a 
slave wife and husband away from each other was 
the exception, not the rule; and where this occur- 
red there was an unwritten law, rarely if ever 
ignored, that the slave-husband was to be allowed 
time and means to visit his wife Saturday evenings 
and spend his Sundays with her. When the slave- 
husband was one hundred miles or more from the 
slave-wife the custom was to allow the husband 
to go home every three weeks. 

The wage-system recognizes no unwritten laws. 
Its mottoes are plain and for the most part strictly 
adhered to. The employer will hire where he can 
hire cheapest ; the laborer will go where he can 
get most if he can get there and every fellow 
will be, must be for himself. 

The centrifugal force contained in these prin- 
ciples is tearing and will tear society to pieces, and 
the family will be the first to go. 

In good times the doctrine of " every fellow for 
himself" will mean himself and his family, an 
aged mother or a sick sister; but as conditions grow 
harder there Comes a stricter construction of this 
motto of modern economic morality, and the wife 
goes into the factory; the child must shift for 
itself ; the aged mother becomes a public charge. 
It is my purpose only to suggest lines of inquiry, 
to provoke thought and investigation ; I wish to 
call your attention to a tendency of our present 
system not usually observed. 

The institution of the family cannot be preserved 
for a very long time in a state, country or world 
where the economic motto is " every fellow for 
himself." When the logical result of the system 
is reached, when its ideal is attained, disintegra- 
tion, individualization will be complete each will 
be for him and herself. If it is objected that no 
such result has been reached, the reply is, the sys- 
tem is not two centuries old ; that it has gained 
complete control of conditions only in England and 
the United States, and already the humane instincts 
of the race are rebelling against its cold-blooded 
commercialism. 

EVIDENCES OF DISINTEGRATION. 

I wish to call your attention to a few of the evi- 
dences of these disintegrating forces. A few years 
ago some very scary statistics of Marriage and 
Divorce were published under authority of Con- 
gress. These figures show that between 1867 and 
1836 the number of divorces increased lfV7 per 
cent., while population increased but 60 per cent. 



Back of all marriage and divorce laws there is a 
Law of Divorce and Marriage which pays no atten- 
tion to statutes. It is an economic law ; and the 
divorce question like all other questions, when you 
get to the bottom of it, is a bread and butter ques- 
tion. The decrease in marriage began in 1873, the 
year of the great economic disturbances that 
reached every part of the world that had been per- 
meated by the Manchester idea of political econ- 
omy, and the factory system of production by ma- 
chinery. The abnormal increase in divorce began 
later than the decrease in marriage. 

In Will County, Illinois, in 1872, there were 445 
marriages and 21 divorces ; in 1873 there were 378 
marriages and 36 divorces. The number of mar- 
riages decreased year by year, and notwithstanding 
the increase in population, the number of mar- 
riages solemnized in 1872 was 'not reached again 
until 1880. In Cook County the number of mar- 
riages in 1873 shows but a slight increase over that 
of 1872 ; while betweep 1873 and 1874 there was a 
falling off of over 1400 marriages. In 1873 the 
number was 6,842, in 1874 it was 5,460. There was 
a continuous drop year by year until the minimum 
was reached in 1877 which records 4,568 mar- 
riages. The ground lost was not even numerically 
gained until 1881, which year records 7,895 mar- 
riages ; but if ratio of marriages to population be 
considered the ground has never been regained. 
The hard times of 1833 did not effect the marriage 
record of Chicago until 1884, when its influence is 
seen in an almost stationary record for three years. 
In Philadelphia the number of marriages dropped 
from 7,891 in 1873 to 6,539 in 1874, and kept falling; 
the lost ground was not numerically regained until 
1882, and when taken in proportion to population 
has never been regained. 

ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF DIVORCE. 

That this is an economic and not a legal question 
is shown by the fact that the abnormal increase in 
divorce and decrease in marriage is found in the 
cities, while in the rural districts the marriage and 
divorce movement keeps fairly even pace with 
population. The number of divorces increased in 
Pittsburg 203 per cent, between 1870 and 1880, 
while the increase for the State of Pennsylvania 
outside of Pittsburg was 45 per cent. The intensity 
of the spirit of commercialism, and the severity of 
competition in the labor market in any given city 
will determine its marriage and divorce rate as 
compared with other cities. Will some " Divorce 
Reformer" who wants Congress to interfere tell 
why Pittsburgh divorce record increased 203 per 
cent, while Philadelphia's increased 56 per cent, f 
The divorce law of Pittsburg is the divorce law of 
Philadelphia ; but the Law of Divorce is stronger 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



in Pittsburg. The centrifugal force of commer- 
cialism is more potent. t Without a change in a 
single section of the law, divorces have increased 
243 per cent, in Illinois, and nearly all this increase 
is in the industrial centers. The divorce laws of 
Michigan have never changed ; but as lumbermen 
and furniture-workers' wages went down the 
divorce rate of Michigan increased 300 per cent., 
while her marriage rate correspondingly de- 
creased. 

The report of the Indiana Bureau of Statistics 
for 1884 says: 

"Of the 1,227 divorces granted in sixty-nine 
counties of this State in 1883, 776 were to the wife, 
and in nearly every case the cause was 'failure to 
provide.' In some instances it was ' desertion ' or 
'cruelty and neglect;' but a very small per cent, 
were based upon other than economic causes." 

WHEN DESERTIONS COME. 

It will be said that the leaps in divorce do not 
always occur in the especially hard years. True, 
but the wives and families are deserted during 
these periods of stress. Divorce could not be ob- 
tained for from one to three years after the deser- 
tion, even if desired; and until the hard times 
are passed, and the marriage record begins to as- 
cend, the deserted wife would have no opportunity 
to form a new marriage, hence have no need for a 
decree of divorce, with its attending expense. The 
same law that runs the marriage record down; the 
stringency of the times which prevents young men 
from assuming new burdens; operates with great 
force to tempt men who under better conditions 
have assumed these responsibilities, to throw them 
off. I doubt if the divorce record indicates one- 
half the desertions in every city during such times 
as the present, as 1873 and 1877. Every city is full 
of deserted wives, who, knowing nothing of the 
laws of marriage, work for themselves until such 
time as a new marriage is offered, and then enter 
it, without contributing a year's wages to court 
costs and lawyer's fees. 

THE DAY NURSERY AS A FACTOR. 

So far as I have had time to do so, I have investi- 
gated the conditions of the deserted wives and 
mothers who leave their children in the day nur- 
series while they go out to work. The Creche or 
Day Nursery for children of working-women is a 
new thing in this country, but an institution well- 
known in France and Belgium. There are six of 
these institutions in Chicago, with a capacity for 
217 babiee, and during the busy months they are 
over-crowded. The mother who must go away 
from home to work brings her baby to the creche, 
paying from five to ten cents per day. So far as 
my investigation goes I find that 50 per cent, of 
these mothers live with their husbands. Some of 
these husbands are unable to work ; most of them 



work but are unable to earn enough to support 
their families. About 20 per cent, are widowp. Of 
the deserted wives, who constitute 30 per cent, of 
the whole, 56 per cent, were deserted just before 
or immediately after the biith of the second child; 
16 per cent, upon the birth of the first child ; and 
28 per cent, just before or immediately after the 
birth of the thiid child. My data are gathered frcm 
three states, Massachusetts, New York and Illinois. 
So far as it goes my investigation indicates that 
men marrying under industrial conditions that 
enable them to support a wife, desert the post of 
duty when the conditions grow harder or the bur- 
den becomes greater. It must not be forgotten, 
however, that one-half of the mothers whose chil- 
dren are left in the creche are not deserted, but 
are keeping up a semblance of home and family. 
(To be concluded next month.) 



"THE WORKERS" AGAIN, 



Walter A. Wyckoff among the Unemployed and 
Hungry In Chicago. 



Criticisms in these columns a month ago upon 
the essential truthfulness and importance of Wal- 
ter A. Wyckoff's studies of " The Workers" are in 
a fair way to be greatly modified by the quality of 
these studies as pursued still further among 
the unemployed and hungry in the great city. In 
the current issue (March) of Scribner's. The re- 
cital of the fortunes of a homeless, friendless, pen- 
niless " hobo " in the city's agonizing scramble for 
jobs is begun, and there is no question now of the 
genuineness of the experiences related. The cold, 
stormy night on the street?, in the cheap dives, in 
the station-house, is made exceedingly real in the 
writer's vivid English. Nobody could read the 
present instalment of " The Workers" in the West 
without feeling as never before the reality of the 
suffering which night after night and day after 
day, faces thousands upon thousands of homelesp, 
hopeless working men in the great cities of our 
" prosperous " country. 



Competition has been most successful in increas- 
ing the efficiency of production. Distribution has 
lost, perhaps, more than it has gained by it. And 
the problem of distribution is the true problem of 
political economy at the present time. Toynbee. 

"AMERICAN CO-OPERflTlVE NEWS" 

Organ ot the Co-Operative Union of America. 

Subscription Price - 50 Cents a. Year. 

Glob rate, when ordered with " The Commons." 

Both Magazines, one year, 75 cents. 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[February, 



Hj Cbicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



c CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 
nenof Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

I Object. As explained in the second clause of the Articles 
of Incorporation of the Chicago Commons Association, filed 
with the Secretary of the State of Illinois : 

"2. The object for which It IB formed la to provide a center for 
higher civic and social life to initiate and maintain religious, educa- 
tional and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve 
conditions in the industrial districts.of Chicago." 

Or, as the explanatory circular of the settlement has ex- 
plained it: 

P"As exemplified at Chicago Commons, the Social Settlement con- 
siste primarily of a group of people who choose to make their home 
In that part of the great city where they seem to be most needed, 
rather than where the neighborhood offers^the most of privilege or 
social prestige." 

r Support. The work is supported in addition to what the 
residents are able to pay for rent of rooms, by the free-will 
gifts of those who believe in what the work stands for. The 
gift of any person is welcomed, and the contributions are 
both occasional and regular, the latter being paid in in- 
stallments, monthly, quarterly and annually, at the conven- 
ience of the giver. 

Visitors, singly or in groups, are welcome at any time, 
but the residents make especial effort to be at home on 
Tuesday afternoon and evening. 

^Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 

Form of Bequest. "I give and bequeath to the Chi- 
cago Commons Association (incorporated under the laws of 

the State of Illinois) Dollars, to be devoted to 

the social settlement purposes of that Association." 



EDWARD J. DANFORTH. 

The first bieak by death in the family circle at 
Chicago Commons came in the passing away on the 
night of the first of February of Edward J. Dan- 
forth, son of Rev. Dr. James R. Danforth, of Cin- 
cinnati, formerly of Philadelphia. Mr. Danforth 
had been a resident of the settlement since the 



October opening of the Seminary, of which he was 
a junior student, and had been a faithful and effi- 
cient resident of the settlement. He had two 
classes in French, two boys' clubs and one unique 
group of Italian young men, to whom he was at 
once endeared by reason of his familiarity with 
the Italian language and Italian places and popu- 
lar life. 

Somewhat retiring and introspective by disposi- 
tion, Mr. Danforth was less widely acquainted 
among settlement people than others of even 
shorter terms of membership in the settlement fel- 
lowship, but in his death the fraternity loses an 
unusually earnest and devoted worker and the 
ministry of the church the promise of a young life 
increasingly consecrated to the service of human- 
ity and increasingly appreciative of the opportunity 
of the times. 



SEVENTEENTH WARD POLITICS. 



Chicago.Commons in the Spring Campaign for 
Honest Aldermen. 



The election for Alderman of the Seventeenth 
Ward takes place April 5, and the voters who live 
at Chicago Commons are in the opening campaign 
with enthusiasm, and good hope of the election of 
an honest and capable representative of the ward. 
The passage of the new primary elections law 
somewhat complicates the situation, since it in- 
volves some degree of obligation upon members of 
the parties at least to endeavor to secure, by partici- 
pation in the regular primaries, the nomination of 
acceptable candidates by the old parties. 

Preparations are complete, however, to place an 
unexceptionable independent candidate in the field 
if the primaries fail to result satisfactorily. The 
seating of the rightfully elected independent can- 
didate, James Walsh, last Spring, and the sentence 
to the Joliet penitentiary of the election officers 
who, in one precinct of the ward sought to falsify 
the result of the balloting, and retain in his seat 
the former alderman, has aroused public sentiment 
in the ward to such a point that an independent 
candidate would probably be elected if the attempt 
was made. 



BOYS' CLUBS THRIVING. 



Feature of the Winter's Work at Chicago Commons 

Good- Will Club Growing in Numbers 

and Interest. 



While Chicago Commons cannot be regarded as 
a work for children in any exclusive sense, and 
while in many ways we feel that our influence in 
our neighborhood relates even more to the men 
and women than to the boys and girls and little 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



15 



children, there can be little question that the fea- 
ture of the present winter's work is that with the 
boys of the neighborhood. The arrival in residence 
of Mr. Nathan H. Weeks, of Dedham, Mass., who 
at once won the hearts and heads of the boys, was 
the beginning of the solution of our boy problem. 
A Good- Will Club, comprising all the boys coming 
to the Commons, was organized as a federation of 
the single boys' clubs. A picked club of fifty, who 
serve a probation of thirty days always, and wait- 
ing until a vacancy after that, form the nucleus, 
with a weekly meeting and a monthly entertain- 
ment, and among the incidents of the divided work 
are fascinating readings from history and from 
*' Uncle Remus " and Kipling, and a thriving chess 
club, in which boys who. last year, could not sit still 
two minutes by the watch, contest three-hour 
games of the ancient tavorite of soldiers and 
students. 

The most satisfactory evening we have yet had 
with our boys was on the evening of February 17, 
when the Good Will Club invited its " lady friends " 
to its entertainment. One boy brought his mother; 
the rest took the opportunity in good faith, and the 
result was a large attendance of the girls. Music, 
recitations and a most entertaining chalk-talk were 
hugely enjoyed. 



COMMONS NOTES. 



Washington's birthday was celebrated effect- 
ively by the kindergarten. 

New flooring throughout the long halls of 

the house affords a most welcome improvement to 
the eye and under foot. 

A circle of the Brotherhood of the Co-oper- 
ative Commonwealth has been organized by some 
of the men of our community, and will meet for 
the present at the Commons on Saturday evenings. 

One of the pleasantest occasions in which 

the Commons Woman's Club has participated was 
the recent reception of the Chicago Women's Club 
to the Women's Clubs of the settlements. 

Dr. Emma Warren gave the Girls' Progres- 
sive Club a lecture on " Beauty " on Monday even- 
ing, February 28. She gave a most practical talk 
about dress, food and personal hygiene. 

Miss Renick, of Galena, 111., a trained nurse, 
with much experience with children, comes to suc- 
ceed Miss Emma Heckenlively in charge of the 
Matheon Day Nursery, aiB Hated with the Com- 
mons. Miss Heckenlively returns to her home in 
Missouri for a much needed rest and in obedience 
to claims of duty in her home. She has for two 
years been one of the most faithful and efficient 
residents of the settlement, having been in charge 
of the nursery for the past year. 



A religion that does not call for self-denial, sac- 
rifice and labor for mankind with something of 
the heroic spirit, becomes an emasculated thing, 
useless and farcical. Men. 




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THE COMMONS. 



The Labour Annual, 

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FOURTH YEAR OF ISSUE. 



A Year Book 
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Separate portraits of forty-five Reformers and Groups of ninety-two others. 
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A MONTHLY RECORD 

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FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

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VOL. n, NO. n. 



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MARCH, J898.H 




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[March, 



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It is by cash receipts from advertising that we hope to make up the discrepancy between the low 
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application and allow a liberal commission upon desirable advertising secured for us. 

4. IN GENERAL 

By interesting yourself and friends in The Commons, and the cause of social brotherhood 
for which it stands and which it tries to aid. For instance, why not write a couple of letters to-day 
to some good friends, telling them about it, and sending them your copy of the paper ? We will 
send you another copy for every one you distribute in this way. 



WHEN YOU THINK, 

That in these ways, and others that may occur to you, you can assure the permanency, stability and 
constant development of the paper ; that thus you can be of material assistance in arousing interest 
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THE COMMONS 

H flBontblie IRecoro BJevoteb to aspects of life ano labor from the Social Settlement point of Diew. 



Whole Number 23. 



CHICAGO. 



MARCH, 1898. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



What is the Kingdom of God? 

Is it a far-away singing of psalms and harping of harps? 

Or a new order here on earth introduced by act of the leg- 
islature, and enforced by courts and policemen? 

Or a mad revel of license with each man's desire a law unto 
itself? 

Nay, the Kingdom of God is that social lifeiwhich expresses 
man's realization of the divine consciousness within 
him. 

In this consciousness behold the Christ come down to save 
the world, 

God manifest in the flesh, and forever persecuted and cru- 
cified, 

Descending with his life-line to the lowest depths of crea- 
tion. 

And rising at last again to the throne having drawn all 
things unto himself. 

This is the eternal fact of the creeds, the drama df history, 
the Kingdom of God . 

Ernest Howard Crosby, in The Kingdom. 



TRUE COURAGE. 



I honor the man who is willing to sink 
Half his present repute for the freedom to think; 
And when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, 
Will sink t'other half for the freedom to speak; 
Not caring what vengeance the mob has in store, 
Be that mob the upper ten thousand or lower. 

Lowell. 



VACATION SCHOOLS IN CITIES. 



[BY SADIE AMERICAN.] 



The summer months to which many people look 
forward with anticipations of delight in the cool 
forests or by the running waters, are to a great 
number of people a time of dread, and discomfort 
and suffering. With the crowding in our modern 
cities, problems present themselves for solution of 
which our fathers knew nothing, and danger 
in many forms hovers over old and young, but more 
especially over the young. An attempt to ward 
off a part of this danger is expressed in the Vaca- 
tion School, which in itself seems a paradox, yet 
makes the only vacation in any true sense of the 
word that the children in crowded districts can 
enjoy. 

In the crowded districts, families of from four to 
ten live in two or three rooms where the various 
duties and occupations of home life are followed, 
the rooms are sufficiently stuffy in any case, but 
with washing, ironing and cooking, and children 
swarming about, there is no spot where little John- 
nie can play with any comfort. He is perforce 
driven out on to the street there to find what? 



no trees, no green grass, nothing attractive but the 
garbage box ; no playthings to occupy him, no re- 
sources within himself to keep him out of harm's 
way. Our cities have magnificent parks and boul- 
evards, but of them the poor have little good or 
use, because they are on the outskirts and not near 
the centers of the city where they are most needed. 

Wandering idly about, the boy, whose natural ac- 
tivity makes him desire to do things, gets into mis- 
chief. He follows the excitement of the police or 
fireman's gong, or perhaps plays the brigand with 
his hiding-place under the- sidewalk, and without 
any intention of "stealing" takes here and there 
from some grocer's barrel or some .fruit stand to 
stock his cave. Soon he finds himself pursued and 
perhaps arrested by the policemen. This is but 
one of many phases of temptation in which there is 
no actual wrong but which have a tendency to de- 
moralize the boys and lead them on the wrong 
path. 

Our laws are so formed as to protect property 
rather than character. No matter how tempting 
an empty lot, the boys must not go into it to play 
ball if the owner objects ; neither may they play 
ball on the street, for fear they may break some one's 
window or head. And so it comes about that the 
Gentleman who occupies himself with idle hands 
finds things for them to do. It is in competition 
with this Gentleman, whose name is not mentioned 
in polite society, but who is yet often there, that 
the Vacation Schools are instituted. 

An examination of the police records of the Max- 
well street district show that juvenile arrests in- 
creases 60 per cent during the summer months 
over the other months. This is so alarming a state- 
ment that it sets one immediately to seeking ways 
to prevent it. 

THE VACATION SCHOOL. 

It is claimed on the strength of some years' ex- 
perience in New York and Chicago that the Vaca- 
tion Schools will do this. It is in no sense a con- 
tinuation of the work of the school year. No text 
books are used. All attendance is voluntary. Man- 
ual training, organized play, and excursions into 
the country to hold the interest of the children 
and keep them occupied, and not only prevent the 
formation of evil habits but form good ones. 

In 1894, the society for " Improving of the condi- 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 



tion of the Poor" in New York took up this work ; 
they raised $5,000 by public subscription and con- 
ducted three Vacation Schools. So great became 
the interest of the public that from year to year 
larger sums have been subscribed, until in 1897 
ten schools were supported by the public and 
maintained by the 8. 1. C. P. The School Board of 
New York, convinced of the good accomplished by 
these schools and the necessity for them, adopted 
them as a part of the school system of New York 
City, and appropriated $10,000 for their mainte- 
nance in 1898. Mr. Locke, Superintendent of the 
Vacation Schools, and also the truant officer, says, 
more and better results can be obtained in six 
weeks of manual training in the Vacation School 
than in a year of its teaching in our public schools 
as now conducted." 

THE MOVEMENT IN CHICAGO. 

Two years ago the movement was started in Chi- 
cago and a school was conducted in the Joseph 
Medill School building. Three hundred and sixty 
children attended, while almost four thousand who 
begged for admission were turned away for lack of 
funds to pay the teachers. In 1897, hundreds ap- 
plied for admission hoping that the school would 
be re-opened. While there were no funds for this, 
through the generosity of one woman, a vacation 
school was held in the Seward School, in the Stock- 
yards district, under the auspices of the University 
of Chicago Settlement. Three hundred children 
attended this school, and many are now inquiring 
whether this school will be re-opened during the 
coming Summer. Parents in both districts are very 
anxious to have the schools re-open, for it relieves 
them of much worry about their children who else 
must play upon the dangerous streets. 

Children from the ages of 3 to 14 years are ad- 
mitted; the school is open during the mornings 
of six weeks in July and August, and the work 
consists in manual training in its various forms, 
nature, and science work, clay modeling, drawing, 
music and gymnastics, and, where possible, cook- 
ing and domestic science. 

The Women's Clubs of Chicago have taken up 
the matter this year, and will push it, no doubt, to 
a successful issue, llarely has more enthusiastic 
a body of women worked together than the repre- 
sentatives from the twenty-three Women's Clubs, 
each striving to secure as much money as possible 
in order that as many children may be benefitted 
as possible, for the success of the work this year 
depends entirely upon money. 

The educators of the city are in favor of these 
schools. Many business men feel them a necessity. 
Sympathy we have of many people, and all that re- 
mains to give a splendid object lesson to our Board 
of Education is the money to conduct these schools 



pro.perly ; for it is our hope that before many years 
the Board of Education will follow in the footsteps 
of that in New York, and make them, the schools, 
an organic part of our city school system. In 
order to bring this about, the same plan must be 
pursued as was pursued by the Kindergarten Asso- 
ciations, i. e., to conduct them under private auspi- 
ces until by their very excellence they forced them- 
selves where they belong. The vacation schools 
serve another purpose. They become the stations 
in which may be proved, as has already been prov- 
en, that were many of the so-called fads introduced 
into our schools, they would do away both with the 
decrease in attendance in our upper grades and 
with much truancy, for they prove that with noth- 
ing but the interest of these studies making work 
for these little hands to do, the children flock to the 
schools in vacation time ; and it is but a just infer- 
ence that were these studies more thoroughly in- 
troduced into our schools the children would love 
to come during the ordinary school year. 

It is estimated that it takes about $1,000 to con- 
duct a school, besides several hundred dollars for 
the excursions, the intention being to take each 
class into the country weekly, with its teacher, in 
order that the children may gain inspiration from 
God's own green fields and come back to their work, 
refreshed and inspired. 

The Women's Clubs have issued a circular set- 
ting forth what this article contains,and asking the 
support of the public for these schools. The Board 
of Education grants us the privilege to use all 
buildings necessary, but for maintenance the 
schools must depend upon the generosity of the 
people. No gift, however small, is despised, for 
every little helps. It costs about $2.50 for each 
child for the six weeks. There are many who can 
contribute this much, or secure this much from 
others, thereby insuring the happiness of at least 
one child. 

We would like to establish a vacation school in 
every crowded district in the city. So far, we are 
assured of only one, but we hope much, for we 
feel that whoever knows of the schools must be in- 
terested and desire to help them on. The Settle- 
ment workers all are eager for them, and are help- 
ful in every way they can be, and we all know that 
whatever they indorse we can safely follow. 



EDITOR'S NOTE: All contributions for this purpose may 
be sent to Miss Sadie American, Chairman of the Committee 
on Vacation Schools, No. 3130 Vernon Avenue, Chicago, and 
any further information may be had of her. or of the Editor 
of THE COMMONS, who is also a member of the Committee. 



There is no wealth but life. That country is the 
richest which nourishes the greatest number of 
noble and happy human beings. Ruskin. 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



t IRotes of tbe ^ & & & & 
.* j* ^ Social Settlements 



n 



OW long will men despise the flower 

Because Its roots are in the earth, 
And crave with tears from God the dower 

They had, and have despised as dearth! 
And scorn as low their human lot 

With frantic pride, too blind to see 
That standing on the head makes not 

Either for ease or dignity? 
But fools shall feel like fools to find, 

Too late informed, that Angels' mirth 
Is one in cause, and mode, and kind, 

With that which they despised on earth!" 
Coventry Patmore, in " The Angel in the House." 



SETTLEMENTS AND RELIGION. 



NOTABLE UTTERANCES AT A RECENT 
CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK. 



Bishop Potter's Deprecation of Some Criticisms of 

Settlements James I!. Reynolds on the 

Question of " Equality." 

[From a Correspondent.] 

Bishop Henry C. Potter was the leading speaker 
at a recent conference held under the auspices of 
the Charity Organization Society in New York 
City, at which the topic was " The Settlement 
Idea." The other speakers were James B. Rey- 
nolds, headworker of the University Settlement, 
who spoke on " Neighborhood Influence " ; Miss 
Mary M Kingsbury, headworker of the College 
Settlement, read a paper on "The Settlement 
and Its Relation to Women and Children," and 
Clarence Gordon, of the East Side House, who 
spoke upon " The Settlement and Its Relation to 
Men and Citizens." Representatives from all 
phases of charitable and philanthropic work in 
New York were in attendance. 

The address of Bishop Potter was an important 
contribution to settlement thought, not because the 
ideas which he expressed are new to settlement 
workers, but because from a religious teacher 
speaking to workers in various religious move- 
ments he showed "settlement contact" without 
direct religious teaching to be the plan followed 
by the Great Teacher. 

" The complaint is sometimes made," said he, 
"that the settlement does not have distinctly 
religious features. I do not think that a candid 
study of the New Testament would show that 
Jesus established the point of contact between 
himself and the world on a religious basis. The 
text that shows Him most clearly to us is ' His 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.' I do 
not find that he ever gave the religious idea spe- 
cifically as the reason why he did anything for any- 
body. The introduction of a religious test as a 



means of getting hold of people is often the source 
of great hypocrisy and disingenuousness, and the 
results have often been disastrous to those who 
have been too eager to introduce it." 

The Bishop spoke of his own work with the 
Young Women's and Young Men's Club of Grace 
Church, in which no religious exercises were held, 
and concluded by saying : " I should be very sorry 
to introduce the religious test into settlement 
work." 

SUPERIORITY, INFERIORITY OR EQUALITY. 

Bishop Potter was followed by Mr. Reynolds, 
who began by asking what should be the attitude 
of the settlement. Should it be one of superiority, 
of inferiority or of equality? It should be all 
three, was his answer. " In the simple relations of 
life," he said, "we are simply these people's 
equals. We ought to approach them with the 
feeling that there is therefore a human bond be- 
tween us. In one respect we are their inferiors ; 
that is, in knowledge of the social scheme of their 
lives, which, when we go to live in their quarters 
it takes us months to appreciate and years to learn. 
Among these people we shall find examples of 
character, of philanthropy and self-sacrifice, to 
which we must bow in humility. In what respect 
would we be their superiors? " Mr. Reynolds went 
on to ask. " We should have a certain scientific 
training, a knowledge of the value of things and 
of their relations. We should have a broader view 
than they, and we should not absorb the prejudices 
of the quarter in which we may be working. This 
does not involve a superiority of mind or of atti- 
tude. If there is any such superiority it will be 
discovered soon enough without our telling of it." 
Mr. Reynolds quoted with approval what had been 
said on religion in settlements. " Religion," he 
said, " does not need to be labelled in carrying on 
this work. There is in the work room for all the 
religion we have in us, but it should be expressed 
in life and conduct rather than by formal state- 
ment." Mr. Reynolds added, " If we are too anxi- 
ous to label our religious efforts the people about 
us find it difficult to understand what is meant 
when one says, ' This which I now do is Christian, 
and that which I did a few minutes ago was only 
humanity.' " 

Miss Kingsbury pointed out the value of per- 
sonal friendly relations, with some interesting 
examples, and an appeal for helpers. 

Mr. Gordon spoke of the work of the men's club 
of East Side House. It appeared that the settle- 
ment had not so much gotten hold of the men as 
that the men had gotten hold of the settlement. 
Mr. Gordon told of a man whose voice was so com- 
pletely changed in the course of two years and a 
half attendance at the settlement that a former 



6 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 



Intimate friend, hearing him speak in the -next 
room, could not recognize it, and refused to believe 
it his. 

The last two addresses were excellent illustra- 
tions of the points mentioned in the first two, 
showing what great results devoted Christian liv- 
ing can accomplish when unaccompanied by any 
self-demonstration in conventional or doctrinal 
form. There were some sharp questions by those 
who differed from the views expressed, but both 
Bishop Potter and Mr. Reynolds held their ground. 



THE ALDERMAN'S "PULL." 



Miss Addams Analyzes the Power of the Boodle 

Alderman, and Shows Why It Is Hard 

to Dislodge Him. 



There has been no more important contribution 
to the literature of municipal government and the 
study of its problems than the paper contributed 
to the International Journal of Ethics by Miss Jane 
Addams, of Hull House, Chicago, under the title 
"Ethical Survivals in Municipal Corruption." It 
is essentially a study of the Chicago alderman, and 
may fairly be assumed to describe the situation in 
the Nineteenth Ward, whose unsavory alderman 
Hull House has several times endeavored to dis- 
lodge. The battle this year has been fiercer than 
ever, but there is little reason to hope that the 
effort will succeed. It is a matter of sincere regret 
that space limits absolutely forbid any attempt to 
reproduce the paper in THE COMMONS. The issue 
of the Journal of Ethics (April) may be obtained 
for 65 cents at 1305 Arch street, Philadelphia, and 
it may be remarked that a fair summary is to be 
published in the Outlook (New York) of April 2. 



SETTLEMENT NOTES. 



The second annual report of Ben Adhem House, 
Boston, comes to hand just as we go to press. 

An account of the work of Dundee House, Pas- 
saic, N. J., is printed in the Passaic daily News for 
March 21. It shows the settlement prospering. 

Chicago settlements have lately enjoyed the visit 
of Miss Wald and Miss McDowell, of the Nurses' 
Settlement, New York. Pleasant gatherings in 
their honor were held at Hull House. 

The Cambridge House Magazine tells of a grow- 
ing settlement work in South London among Jew- 
ish children and young people, conducted by Mr. 
Percy Harris, of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 

The second report of Hiram House, 183 Orange 
Street, Cleveland, is at hand with a particularly in- 
teresting outline of the work there. Two illustra- 
tions of the children's life in the kindergarten 
together with a third of the children's group out- 
side the house, which has already been printed in 



THE COMMONS, adorn the report. Copies can be 
obtained by addressing the Warden, Mr. George 
A. Bellamy. 

Ill health will prevent the contemplated visit of 
Percy Alden, of Mansfield House, to this country 
this summer. It was expected that he would 
deliver a course of lectures at several summer 
assemblies. 

The Neighborship settlement in Greenpoint, 
Brooklyn, has moved into much more commodious 
and convenient quarters in the same immediate 
environs. " F " House puts the work all under the 
same roof. 

We have received copies of the Maxwell House 
Bulletin, published at 214 Church Street, New York 
city, in the interest of the Brooklyn Guild Associa- 
tion, which conducts the work at Maxwell House. 
This comparatively new Brooklyn work has a fine 
list of activities. 

A settlement, named " Het Leidsche Volkshuis ' 
(something like " Neighborhood House ") has been 
founded in Leyden, Holland, by Professors 
Drucken, Greven and Van der Vlugt, and Miss 
Knappert. We shall hope to refer to it with 
greater detail in a future issue. 

The Pro-Cathedral Record reports the progress 
of work in the various departments of the Pro- 
Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Stanton 
Street, New York. It is issued monthly, with a 
subscription price of 50 cents. The editor is the 
Rev. H. R. Hulse, addressed at 130 Stanton Street. 

The address of Mr. Arthur L. Weatherley, form- 
erly of Cambridge, Mass., is now 7 Jay street, West- 
erly, R. I., and contributions for Mr. Katayama's 
settlement work at Tokyo, Japan, may be sent to 
Mr. Weatherley for whose proper disposal of the 
fund we are glad to vouch. The sum given now 
amounts to over $150. 

The Labor World, of Tokyo, gives in the issue of 
February 15, on the English page, a brief report of 
the work of Kingsley Hall. There are at present 
four residents. The program of work now on hand 
includes : Kindergarten, occasional lectures, reg- 
ular classes in English and social subjects, and a 
vast deal of conference and consultation of a per- 
sonal sort. 



"!N His STEPS " 

A Story by REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON, of 
Topeka, Kan. 



ONE OF THE FEW STORIES IN WHICH THE SOCIAL 
SETTLEMENT PLAYS A PART. 



Order through " The Commons." 
Paper Covers, 25 cents. 

Cloth Covers, 75 cents. 



"The Commons" for a year, and 

" In His Steps," in cloth covers, $ > * 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



I 



Chicago Commons. 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted street electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 



ner.of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Object. As explained in the second clause of the Articles 
of Incorporation of the Chicago Cornmqns Association, filed 
with the Secretary of the Stato of Illinois: 

"2. The object for which it is formed is to provide a center for a 
higher civic and social life to initiate and maintain religious, educa- 
tional and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve 
conditions in the Industrial districts of Chicago." 

Or, as the explanatory circular of the settlement has ex- 
plained it: 

"As exemplified at Chicago Commons, the Social Settlement con- 
sists primarily of a group of people who choose to make their home 
In that part of the groat city whore they seem to be most needed, 
rather than where the neighborhood offers the most of privilege or 
social prestige." 

Support. The work is supported in addition to what the 
residents are able to pay for rent of rooms, by the free-will 
gifts of those who believe in what the work stands for. The 
gift of any person is welcomed, and the contributions are 
both occasional and regular, the latter being paid in in- 
stallments, monthly, quarterly and annually, at the conven- 
ience of the giver. 

Visitors, singly or in groups, are welcome at any time, 
but the residents make especial effort to be at home on 
Tuesday afternoon and evening. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 

Form of Bequest "I give and bequeath to the Chi- 
cago Commons Association (incorporated under the laws of 

the State of Illinois) Dollars, to be devoted to 

the social settlement purposes of that Association." 



BOYS' SUMMER CAMP. 



DELIGHTFUL PLAN FOR THE LADS OF THE 
"COMMONS" CLUBS. 



Mr. Weeks Explains How the Summer Outing: will 

be Managed One Hundred Boys to be 

Cared For Near Elgin- What 

It Will Cost. 



Ever since our club work with 'the boya of the 
Commons first began the project of a summer camp 
has been in mind, but never has been practicable 
until this year. Plans are now under way, how- 
ever, looking to the establishment of a camp on the 
bank of the river about a mile and a half west of 
Elgin, 111. Mr. Nathan H. Weeks, whose good 
work with the boys was spoken of in the last issue 
of THE COMMONS, is perfecting the arrangements, 
and there is little doubt that they will be carried 
into effect. Let him tell the story in his own 
words : 

"The great handicap in our work with the boys, 
as I suppose it is in all settlements, is the shortness 
of time we have them under our control and influ- 
ence. Once or twice a week we can get hold of 
them for an hour or so ; then for the rest of the time 
they are in the street. It has seemed to me that a 
camp, allowing for quite extended periods of con- 
tinuous work with the lads, offered large promise 
of useful and constructive influence. 

"The idea is to secure, with the help of good 
friends who can afford the use of land or of money 
for the necessary expenses, a sufficiently large tract 



near Elgin, far enough away to minimize the influ- 
ence of even a small city. We shall probably have 
to use tents the first summer, though we shall erect 
one more substantial shed for the shelter of our 
perishable supplies. 

THE BOYS WILL DO THE WORK. 

" The boys will be with us at camp for periods 
varying according to their spare time, from work, 
for instance from three or four days to three 
months. Probably the average will be three weeks 
or so. They will pay for their ' keep ' by work ; 
that is to say, all the necessary labor of the camp 
will be done by the boys themselves. We expect 
to have two large gardens, one for vegetables and 
one for flowers. The cultivation, including carry- 
ing of water, etc., will consume a part of the day; 
there will be cooking, dish-washing, etc., to do, 
and errands to the city will require some time. 
The extra hours will be devoted to games, athletics, 
fishing, swimming, boating and the like. We shall 
have at least two manual training outfits there, 
and the boys will have the benefit of sloyd, nature 
study, some reading of an appropriate and interest- 
ing sort, and such. other harmless diversions as the 
circumstances call for. 

WHAT IT WILL COST. 

" We calculate that the cost per boy will average 
somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.00 per week 
or $3.00 for the average stay. On the basis of our 
expectation of taking about 100 boys, we suppose 
the total cash cost, in additon to what the boys can 
(Continued on page 10.) 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



JOHN P. GAVIT, 



EDITOR. 



Published on the last day of each month from CHICAGO 
COMMONS, a Soclai;Settlement at 140 North Union Street, 
Chicago, 111. 

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft, P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
not above s-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
label will ordinarily serve as receipt for renewals. These 
changes are made once in two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary. 

Changes of Address Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



No. 23. 



CHICAGO. MARCH .31, 1898. 



E&itorfal. 



" I 7AR, glorious war !" United States Senator 
Vv William E. Mason, of Illinois. 
" War is hell." General William T. Sherman. 



AND after the war is all over there will be the 
everlasting labor problem. At least as many 
people are slowly dying for lack of proper food 
and shelter in the United States as in Cuba. Shall 
we attend to that next ? 



nOW this day's social conditions are working to 
the destruction of American homes and fam- 
ilies is shown in Mr. Ethelbert Stewart's stirring 
address, reprinted in THE COMMONS this month 
and last. Those who seek to remedy the disinte- 
gration of families by more stringent marriage and 
divorce laws will do well to read this address and 
take knowledge of the tremendous social forces 
working against them. 



SINCE 1890 the number of war pensioners in 
the United States and the expenditures for 
pensions have increased about 90 per cent. Shall 
we have a new crop of pensions, now, which will 
double, and treble, after thirty years ? 



VACATION schools and playgrounds will con- 
stitute a feature of the summer's activity in 
Chicago this year. We cordially refer to Miss 
Sadie American's article on another page, and be- 
speak hearty support for the work of which she 
writes. 

f~\ PROPOS of the excellent Labor Annual, pub- 
/ \ lished by Joseph Edwards, at Liverpool, and 
to be obtained through THE COMMONS for 30 and 
60 cents in paper or cloth, respectively, notice is 
hereby given that the title of The American Labor 
Annual has been copyrighted, by John P. Gavit, 
who expects to issue the first number early in 1899. 
The editor will be glad to receive any suggestions 
as to its scope or contents. 



THERE is hardly a question any more whether 
the people control the railroads or the rail- 
roads control the people. The recent discussion of 
means of doing away with the postal deficits and of 
the charges of the railroads for carrying the United 
States mails, clearly exposes two facts one, that 
the entire deficit in the post office finances is more 
than accounted for by excessive transportation 
charges ; the other, that only one Postmaster-Gen- 
eral within the past twelve years has had the cour- 
age to assail the" evil face to face and call it even 
approximately by its name. And he had not been 
out of office one year before all his reforms and 
economies were swept away and replaced by more 
outrageous extortions than before. Let it be under- 
stood that in speaking of " extortions," we are not 
referring to some vague discrepancy between the 
actual charges and personal notions as to what 
would be fair and right, but to the fact, for instance, 
that railroads which carry the mails not only over- 
weight the cars at the weighing time, but charge 
the government from four to ten times as much as 
they charge private persons or corporations for 
like service. Comparative figures show that to-day 
it is proportionately cheaper by many per cent 
to carry mail on mule-back than by rail ! 



THE corruption which taints municipal and 
national politics is an exact reflection, coun- 
terpart, and largely a result, of the corruption which 
characterizes other aspects of life, especially 
" business." The corruption which characterizes 
the Chicago Common Council and city govern- 
ment, for instance, comes directly from the contact 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



9 



of both with private and corporation " business." 
The ward bosses of both parties are either con- 
tractors or the tools of contractors, who are in poli- 
tics for the sake of their business, "for revenue 
only." The aldermen are bribed to betray public 
interests for the benefit of private business. There 
is a direct line of progress, of cause and effect, 
from the boodle alderman's vote to the dividend 
check of the street railroad stockholder ; from the 
corrupt cowardice of a postmaster-general to the 
profits of the railroad company. It is " business" 
that corrupts politics, not politics that corrupts 
" business." 



AND the spirit is well-nigh universal. We 
bribe the sleeping-car porter and the hotel 
waiter to give us special attention ; we pay the buy- 
ing agent of our customers to use our stock ; we 
give the policeman a cigar or a basket of peaches to 
overlook our encroachment upon the sidewalk in 
the display of groceries. Special "pulls" and 
friendships are used to thwart inimical administra- 
tion and save our friends from trouble. Our letter 
of recommendation gets the man we chance to 
know a job, and turns out the equally needy and 
equally deserving man we do not chance to know. 
We point the finger of scorn at the "boodling" 
official and ourselves bribe the garbage collector to 
carry away our own unlawful rubbish in the city's 
wagon. Indeed, we are in a sorry plight, and in 
these days it is hard to find even the " remnant" 
that has not bowed the knee to Baal. It is timely 
for this nation to talk of sackcloth and ashes. 



GOOD roads are the means through which can 
be done in rural districts much that settle- 
ments may try to do. Open the country neighbor- 
hoods to the visits of mail carriers and to the free 
exit and interchange of produce and personality, 
and the isolation which makes the village lad flee 
to the city and shuts the farmer in to his own 
thoughts and his family away from human com- 
pany, and" the problem of the country will be well 
on the way to solution. 

IN a recent address in New York city Henry D. 
Lloyd said strikingly "that the only people 
who despair of democracy are those who never 
understood or have wronged it." 



ALL friends of progress in municipal reform 
rejoice in the fact that the outcome of the 
local elections in London has been the pres- 
ervation of the famous County Council's work 
for municipal administration and progress upon 
the lines of public service so magnificently 
laid down in the past years. All the forces of con- 
servatism, landlordism and greed were leagued 



against the progressives in the battle, even to the 
extent of interference by the prime minister in 
person, whose land interests seemed to be threat- 
ened by the policy of the council, but the victory 
was a signal one, and showed how ready the people 
are to endorse a policy of public advancement when 
it is genuine and thoroughgoing. The policy of 
contract work and private profit in public service 
has had no such deadly blow as this victory for 
the London County Council. 



A BROTHERHOOD DECLARATION. 



A group of Christian men in Chicago have held 
several informal conferences, with a view of arriv- 
ing at some agreement as to a basis of fellowship 
looking toward a Christian order of society. They 
recently put forth the following as a tentative 
basis : 

A DECLARATION OP FAITH. 

"Accepting the teachings of Jesus as an interpre- 
tation of human life, law and relations, and seek- 
ing a way by which we may practice his teachings, 
we find ourselves compelled, both by our faith in 
Jesus and by our love for our fellowmen, to organ- 
ize a fellowship that shall stand for a changed civ- 
ilization, in order that men may live the Christian 
life. We believe that the teachings of Christ, if 
applied to and obeyed in human affairs, can mean 
nothing else than : 

" I. A co-operative in the place of a competitive 
administration of society. Competition is a state 
of war in which only the strong may survive. 
Jesus initiated a mode of life which he called the 
kingdom of heaven, the law of which kingdom is 
love, and the program of which initiative is the 
fitting of all to survive. Men can neither learn 
nor practice the law of love in a society based on 
competition or war. The present competitive civ- 
ilization thus renders the fundamental law of the 
kingdom of heaven, or the first principle of Jesus' 
teaching, in a large degree inoperative and imprac- 
ticable. 

"II. The operation and distribution of production 
by the people and for the people. It is a law of 
the kingdom of heaven, a fundamental principle of 
Christ's teaching, that service is its own reward. 
A system based upon profit as the reward of ser- 
vice, upon wages as the reward of labor, is directly 
opposed to this fundamental law. A profit-making 
system also degrades labor from its true dignity, 
destroys its freedom and joy, and compels the 
laborer to become the economic serf of the profit- 
maker in order to earn his daily bread. Service to 
be Christian must be voluntary and free. Men 
must be equal in privileges, opportunities and the 
government of their affairs in order to be brothers, 
Christians, and lovers one of another." 



JO 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 



BOYS' SUMMER CAMP. 



(Continued from page 7.) 

raise of their own simple food, will be about 
for which we shall depend upon friends of the 
Commons and others who believe in country life 
for street boys." 

The interest and enthusiasm with which Mr. 
Weeks and his boys are preparing for the camp 
insures success so far as they are concerned, and 
we are sure those who believe in this sort of enter- 
prise and want to help it along will quickly place 
in hand the $300 necessary to carry out the plan. 
Three dollars is a small sum with which to keep a 
restless boy out of the mischief which increases 
city crime 60 per cent during the summer months. 



GIRLS' PROGRESSIVE CLUB. 



Departure of Miss Richardson Preparations for 

the Annual Entertainment The Club 

Prospering. 



It was no lack of appreciation that permitted the 
omission from earlier issues of THE COMMONS of 
mention of the regret of the Girls' Progressive Club 
of Chicago Commons at the departure from the 
club work of Miss Belle Richardson, who has been 
the club's president since its formation, three 
years ago. The long trip from the Buena Park 
suburb, where she lived, never prevented her reg- 
ular attendance upon the club's meetings, or her 
lively interest and enthusiastic leadership and par- 
ticipation in all its work. Only when she left for 
Japan in the fall was the faithfulness interrupted, 
and then she was Miss Richardson no longer, but 
as Mrs. Cameron Johnson she sailed with her hus- 
band to join the Presbyterian Board's mission work, 
and put into the Christian propaganda in the island 
kingdom the fruits of her settlement experience. 
The club gave her a parting bouquet, and their 
faithfulness to her work and her wish is exhibited 
in their continued interest in the club. 

The annual entertainment is now preparing, and 
the club, with the co-operation of Mrs. Gavit and 
Miss Myers, of the settlement, will continue the 
work with interest and unabated enthusiasm. Un- 
der the instruction of Mr. Frank H. McCulloch a 
group of the girls is studying the elements of law, 
and there are classes also in art, literature and hy- 
giene. 

Mr. and Mrs. H. S. McCartney, of Evanston, 
have moved into the near neighborhood of the set- 
tlement, and living at 159 West Ohio street afford 
great help and encouragement to the Commons 
group, in the work both at the settlement and at 
the Tabernacle. 



* Studies of tbe > & & j> j- 
& & & & SLabor /IDovement 

CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



The race is won ! As victor I am hailed 
With deafening cheers from eager throats, and yet 
Gladden the victory could I forget 

The strained, white faces of the men who failed. 

Julia Schayer in The Century Magazine. 



DESTROYING THE FAMILY. 



WORK OF MODERN INDUSTRIALISM IN DISIN- 
TEGRATING HOMES, 



Estrangement and Exile of Fathers, Factory Em. 

ployinent of Mothers Employment Bureau 

as a Factor Marriage Becoming 

Impossible. 



[BY ETHELBERT STEWART.*] 

The report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics for 1882 states that 50 per cent of the work- 
ingmen of Illinois are unable to support their 
families without the assistance of their wives and 
children. Every one who has gone through the 
cotton mill towns of New England and the South 
has seen house after house locked up and little 
faces peering out at the windows. The mother has 
gone to work in the mill and locked her baby in 
the house. The father is working somewhere else, 
probably in some other state. I submit that a 
family is pretty well disintegrated when this is the 
normal condition the every-day life of that fam- 
ily. I have walked along rows of factory tene- 
ment houses and found three out of five deserted 
by father, mother and all the children big enough 
to work, while the babies were left to do the best 
they could. In most cases the father was working 
at a distance from home. The extent of this may 
be inferred from the fact that in the cotton mills of 
the United States, in 1880, the whole n'umber of 
employes was 172,544; of this number 112,859 
were women and children, while only 59,685 were 
men. In Massachusetts, out of 61,246 employes in 
cotton mills, 22,180 are males, 31,496 are women 
and 7,570 are children. In the latter state, in fact, 
throughout New England, many of the manufac- 
turing towns are known as " she towns," owing to 
the great disparity in the number of men and 
women employed.^ 



* Second half of an address delivered before the World's 
Fair Labor Congress. First half reprinted in THE COM- 
MONS for February, 1898. 

tin the logging camps of the lumber districts, in the gold 
and silver mining camps of the West, in the boarding tents 
of the iron ore region, we see thousands of men living in 
what are called "stag camps," without a woman in fifty 
miles of them. The "she towns" of the East and the 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



The 20th report of the Massachusetts Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor shows that the employment of 
women in industries increases three times as fast 
as the female population ; that between 1875 and 
1885 the number of housewives decreased 13,625, 
or nearly 2 per cent, and of all the females em- 
ployed in the state 12 per cent are married women. 
This percentage is too small for the country at 
large, for in Massachusetts the number of married 
women is smaller in proportion to the entire female 
population than is true of the entire country. It is 
claimed by some that the employment of women 
and children is not on the increase, and this is true 
if only one or two states be selected for considera- 
tion. So stringent are the child-labor laws of 
Massachusetts that the cotton mill proprietors of 
that State are erecting works in Kentucky and the 
South, where they are not troubled by laws regu. 
lating the hours and conditions of labor. Not 
many years ago a large factory moved from Chi- 
cago to Aurora to escape the factory inspection 
rules of this city, and whether there is improve- 
ment or not would depend on whether we are con- 
sidering Chicago or Aurora. Hence, while ameli- 
oration can perhaps be shown for one state, it is at 
the expense of other sections of the country, and 
as taken as a whole the tendency is toward the 
further employment of women and children. 

Mr. Wade, in his able work on " Fiber and Fab- 
rics," says : 

The tendency of late years is toward the employment of 
child labor. We see men frequently thrown out of employ- 
ment owing to the spinning mule being displaced by the 
ring frame, or children spinning yarn which men used to 
spin. In weave shops girls and women are preferable to 
men, so that we may reasonably expect that in the not very 
distant future all the cotton manufacturing districts will be 
classed in the category of "she towns." But the people 
will naturally say, what will become of the men? This is a 
question which it behooves manufacturers to take seriously 
Into consideration, for men will not stay in any town or city 
where only their wives and children are given employment. 
Therefore, a pause at the present time might be of untold 
value In the future. 

ESTKANGEMKNT OP FATHERS. 

I have met hundreds of men in Illinois and Ohio 
whose families are now in New England "she 
towns." Many of them entirely estranged from 
their families, having lost, first, all hope ; next, all 
intention of sending for them. They were as good 
converts as Adam Smith could wish to the doctrine 
of " every fellow for himself." 

Not only is the factory system in its frantic 
efforts to hire cheap, taking wives and children of 
workingmen from the homes to work in the fac- 
tory, but the slimy arm of a worse industrial 
"devil fish" the sweating system is reaching 

" stag camps " of the West are alike carbuncles upon our 
civilization ; the inevitable product of the wage system, and 
very often the inmates of the "stag camps, " are the hus- 
bands of the women who live in the " she towns." 



out and making a factory of what was the home 
itself. The Massachusetts Labor Bureau, the Illi- 
nois and the Ohio Bureaus, have tried to give us 
some statistics on the subject, but they only treat 
of the sweat shop. 

Statistics of sweat shops might be recited here 
by the hour, but who will tell us how many thou- 
sand homes that ought to be the sweet stops of a 
man's life, are turned into sweat shops? I have no 
doubt 15,000 families in New York, 10,000 in Chi- 
cago, 1,500 in Boston, really have no home apart 
from the rooms in which they make cigars or cheap 
clothing all day long. At one end of the line the 
wage system is drawing the mother and child 
out of the home into the factory; at the other end 
of the line it is forcing the factory into the home. 

FOREIGNERS LURED AWAY FROM THEIR HOMES. 

In Pennsylvania one finds tens of thousands of 
Italians, Hungarians and Poles who, lured by the 
lying advertisements of steamship companies, or 
duped by American contracting corporations, have 
left their families and come to the coke ovene, the 
iron ore mines, the pig iron furnaces and coal fields 
of Pennsylvania, to be numbered and tagged by the 
time-keeper. They send their money to their fam- 
ilies in Europe for a year or two ; some for five 
years ; they send for their families to come here if 
they can, but if they cannot, after a few years, they 
keep their money. The family is gone. 

In the West, women are filling our stores, our 
shoe factories, every place where their cheaper 
labor can be utilized. AB they enter an occupation 
or industry the higher priced labor of men retires. 
The male labor market becomes more crowded, and 
in times when work is scarce the unmarried man 
fixes the wages of labor, and fixes it at the amount 
upon which a single man can live. Marriage stops. 
Married men push out into new fields to meet with 
disappointment and never return ; a deserted wife 
gets a divorce. 

I like woman's independence, but if she insists 
upon taking the positions that men have filled, at 
half the wages men have received, hers must be 
an independence of singleness, for she prevents 
the man who would marry her from supporting 
and giving her a home. 

Between the years 1870 and 1890 the age of 
brides increased in the Umited States from twenty 
to twenty-four and a half years, while the bride- 
grooms increased from twenty-two to twenty- 
nine years. The Roman senate once passed a law 
to compel men to marry after reaching the age of 
thirty-five years, but they could not enforce the 
law. 

EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS AS A FACTOR. 

Another feature of modern industrialism which 
is proving a potent force in the disintegration of 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 



families is the employment agency. It is the auc- 
tion block of the wage system. While New York 
City is threatened with bread riots, while in Buffalo 
and every industrial center in the State of New York 
factories are closed or running five hours per day, 
five days per week, West Madison street has a 
flaming sign, " 4,000 men wanted in New York 
State to work on railroads ; good wages ; free trans- 
portation." These men pay the employment office 
one dollar each, possibly their last dollar. The 
railroads transport the 4,000 men, its officials know- 
ing at the time they want only 350. But the pres- 
ence of the 4,000 will make it easy to make their 
own terms with the 350 they want. The employ- 
ment office has made $4,000 ; the railroad corpora- 
tion has an over-crowded labor market as a menace 
to the refractory. The balance of these men are a 
thousand miles from the homes they left buoyant 
with hope of soon earning some money to send to 
the wife and babies. Out of work, away from 
home, they degenerate morally and physically 
until, in Chicago, there are another batch of de- 
serted wives, in New York another set of tramps. 
The employment agencies of this and all other 
cities are the vilest vultures that ever preyed upon 
a corpse. Their victims are the men who are out 
of work and want work. They make most when 
times are hardest, and their victims can least afford 
to be fleeced. The farther they can ship their vic- 
tims the better they like it, and, as the Iowa and 
Missouri Bureaus of Labor Statistics have shown, 
the corporations of the West would rather give 
free transportation to 500 men from a distance than 
to employ the 100 men they need directly from the 
neighborhood of the work to be done. The far- 
ther they can get a man from home the better 
terms they can make with him. And this is good 
economic morality. Not only hire when you can 
hire cheapest, but produce those conditions under 
which you can hire cheaper. I defy any advocate 
of Manchesterism to consistently oppose these 
methods. Hamlet tells us that the sun will breed 
maggots in a dead dog, and these villainies are the 
logical outcome of the putrid political economy 
we are asked to worship. 

IN THE BETTER PAID EMPLOYMENTS. 

In the better paid walks of life the same centri- 
fugal tendency of the wage system is seen. If a 
salesman in an establishment prove efficient, intel- 
ligent and trustworthy, he is offered better pay to 
go on the road and sell the old stock of goods to 
the new country merchants. He thinks he must 
go where he can do best, "best" always meaning 
most money. The inducement offered succeeds, 
and the victim leaves home a traveling man. He 
has been sold on the auction block of the new com- 
mercialism, and sold away from bis family. He 



may, probably will, remain a family man in broken 
doses, but the process of disintegration has begun. 
The statistics of family separation among travel- 
ing salesmen, even if obtainable, might be to pain- 
ful to recite here. 

Nationalists and American Socialists are some- 
times charged with desiring to destroy the family. 
I maintain that only through an abandonment of 
the present system and the adoption of some sort 
of collectivism, instead of our present individual- 
ism, is the maintenence of the family possible. 
If individual and corporate capitalism continues 
another century, there will be no family institution 
left for Socialism to destroy. 



You often hear women discussing the whims of 
servants. Do they ever discuss their own ? Well, 
the German Housewives' Society proposes to do the 
dicussing for them, for when the society finds that 
servants are leaving the employ of one of its mem- 
bers in quick succession it investigates not the 
servants, but the member, the housewife, and rea- 
sons with her how best to adjust the difficulties in 
her household. N. Y. Herald. 



Opinions will go where soldiers cannot march or 
cannot be transported. Commonwealth. 



WHAT IS A SOCIAL 
SETTLEMENT? 

The best single publication on the subject 
is a 65- page pamphlet, "Social Settlements 
and the Labor Question" . . . 

TEN PAPERS BY LEADERS IN SETTLEMENT 

WORK ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION. 



Single Copies, postpaid, - - 25 cents. 

Three to One Address, - - 50 cents. 

SIX FOR ONE DOLLAR. 



Address, Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



literature anfc 



PAPERS ON EDUCATION. 



Valuable Material in the Publications of Govern- 
ment Bureaus and Departments 
Transient Literature. 



We have remarked before upon the vast amount 
of valuable and entertaining material hidden away 
under the dingy black covers of the government 
reports. The last report of the Commissioner of 
Education, for 1895, being volume 2, and contain- 
ing part 2 of that" report, is a conspicuous example 
of this fact. Education in Sweden and Iceland, 
a report on typical institutions in the United States 
offering industrial training, articles on education 
in Sweden and Iceland, on the teaching of agri- 
culture in Prussia and France, on industrial edu- 
cation in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on 
the Bertillon system as a means of suppressing the 
business of living by crime, on art decoration in 
the public schools, and many other topics of cur- 
rent interest and value are to be found in this re- 
port. It may be obtained upon application of the 
Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. 

A useful feature of the increasingly useful out- 
put of government reports is the almost daily issue 
of "Advance Sheets" of the consular reports to the 
State Department. They include a great deal of 
important sociological material from consuls in 
foreign countries. 

Two important articles are published in the 
March issue of the Bulletin of the United States 
Labor Department. One is a comprehensive con- 
sideration of " Boarding Homes and Clubs for 
Working Women," by Mary S. Ferguson, the other 
a discussion of the "Trade Union Label," by Pro- 
fessor John Graham Brooks. 

"The Coal Miners' Strike of 1897 " is the subject 
of the supplement to the sixteenth annual coal re- 
port of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics. 



FOR A NATIONAL CHURCH. 



Dr. Huntingdon's Signal Service to .the Cause of 
American Church Unity. 



A distinct settlement service has been rendered 
the whole Church by the Rev. Melville K. Bailey, 
of Grace Church Settlement, New York, whose 
" Bibliography of Irenic Literature, American and 
English," enhances the unique value of Dr. W. R. 
Huntington's plea for "A National Church " (Chas. 
Scribner's Sons, New York). 

Conceding the largest liberty in belief, polity and 
worship, consistent with the integrity of Christi- 



anity, the author of the above volume pleads for 
nationalism in religion as a necessary temporary 
expedient to lead out from home rule to the uni- 
versal kingdom of the Father. 

Three types of natural temperament and convic- 
tion divide the churches by local autonomy, the 
principles of representation and unity of adminis- 
tration. They might all be conserved, the author 
thinks, by a " county church," having a " master 
missionary" or county pastor ( " bishop " ) a county 
council ( " presbytery " ), representing autonymous 
local churches ( " congregational " ). Differing 
groups of worshippers could even use the same 
sanctuary and its better equipment. A triennial 
state convention of county pastors and local clergy 
and laity, and a decennial national congress, with 
two houses, each having lay and clerical members, 
completes the "National Church." 



We are in receipt of copies of an interesting and 
thoughtful review of Edward Bellamy's "Equality," 
by W. L. Sheldon, of the St. Louis Ethical Culture 
Society, entitled "Why Progress is so Slow." Some 
unchanging points of human nature are cleverly 
presented. 

In the April number of The New Time, F. G. R. 
Gordon declares that it will be possible to cross the 
continent for one dollar when the government owns 
the railroads. He backs his proposition up with a 
striking array of figures as to cost of construction 
and operation. The New Time is getting to be a 
strong reform magazine, and gains daily in deserved 
popularity. 

The monthly publications of the Christian Social 
Union have a notable addition in the paper of Mrs. 
Charles Russell Howell on " Consumers' Leagues." 
This is the most recent and probably the most use- 
ful effort of purchasers to govern the conditions of 
industry in the production of articles for domestic 
consumption by demanding goods made under fair 
conditions. Ten cents postage sent to " Secretary, 
Christian Social Union, Diocesan House, 1 Joy 
street, Boston," will secure the pamphlet. 

The Social Gospel is the name of the brightest, 
cleanest, most sweet-tempered publication that 
comes to THE COMMONS. There is never a harsh 
or hateful word in it from cover to cover, and never 
a flat or platitudinous line. It is the monthly pub- 
lication of the Christian Commonwealth, a commu- 
nistic colony in Georgia, and its editors are George 
Howard Gibson and Rev. Ralph Albertson. JNot a 
word too much is this to say of a publication that 
has for its motto : " I am among you as he that 
serveth." THE COMMONS has no object but the 
truth in advising its readers to subscribe for The 
Social Gospel. The price is fifty cents a year, and 
the publishers' address is Commonwealth, Ga. 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[March, 



Trees, Shrubs and Roses 

^ SPECIAL OFFER ^ 




BY EXPRESS. (APRIL DELIVERY.) 



$4.00 

$8.50 



SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. J, complete, 

Assortment of 12 trees, shrubs and roses, (our selection). 

SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. 2, complete, 

Assortment of 28 trees, shrubs, roses and plants, (our selection). 

SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. 3, complete, - $18.00 

Assortment of 70 trees, shrubs, roses and plants, (our selection). 
COM PRISING 

5 Fruit Trees ; apple, cherry and pear ; 4 to 6 ft. 

3 Shade Trees ; elm and catalpa j 4 to 6 ft. and cut leaf weeping birch. 

2 Vines ; clematis and honey suckle. 

2 Climbing Roses; including new Japanese crimson rambler. 
12 Hardy Roses; strong; 2 years, (colors, white, pink, red and yelllow.) 
12 Hardy Shrubs, (lilacs, spireas, barberries, etc.) 
24 Hardy Border Plants, (peonies, iris, phlox, hibiscus, yuccas, etc.) 
10 French Cannas ; strong roots. (Will make large bed.) 
70 No. 3 collection makes a good start on 50 to 75 ft. lot. 



SEND DRAFT OR MONEY ORDER TO 



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PARK, ILL. 



We also offer 1800 Shade Trees, 10 to 16 ft. high, at low prices. All fine stock. 

PLANTING PLANS sent FREE to nil intending purchasers. 



Sex and Religion 



A series of papers on the important relation of 

the two in national, family and individual life 

BY 

DR. LUTHER GULICK, 

Physical Director, International Y. M. C. A. Training 

School, Springfield, Mass., in successive 

issues of 

** The Association Outlook " 

LUTHFJR. GULICK, Editor and Manager, 
Springfield, Mass. 



Subscription Price, - 



$J.OO per year. 



MDNDN ROUTE 



o)) (HICACO.IMDIAKAPOIIS f-|gmsvuit PAIIWAY ((Q 



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THROUGH SLEEPERS TO CINCINNATI AND WASHINGTON DAILY 



FRANK J. REED, G. P. A. 
CITY TICKET OFFICE, 232 CLARK ST. 
CHICAGO. 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



15 



STRICTLY BUSINESS. 



SEVERAL valuable books are advertised in this 
issue of THE COMMONS. " The Labor Annu- 
al," " In His Steps," " Social Settlements and the 
Labor Question," should all be in the hands of set- 
tlement folks. And we are glad to sell them, be- 
cause we've enough of the profit-making spirit of 
this degenerate age about us to be very glad of the 
little margin of profit that we can devote to sup- 
porting and improving THE COMMONS. 

IT is gratifying that advertisers are responding 
to our call of THE COMMONS to their attention. 
We are not in, and do not propose to enter, the 
scramble for " business," but we have valuable ad- 
vertising space at low rates for the right kind of 
advertising. Some kinds we will not print at any 
price. If you see an advertisement in THE COM- 
MONS you can be assured that the publishers hon- 
estly believe the article advertised to be just as it 
is represented to be. 



What right have you to make your manner of 
looking at things the standard by which to judge 
all other ways of looking at things ? When will 
you learn that if you don't like something, it is not 
necessarily because it is it, but because you are 
you ? Ernest Newman, in " University Magazine" 




THE BLICKENSDERFER,., 



A REVOLUTION IN 

PRINCIPLE, IN EXECUTION, 

IN PRICE. 



TYPEWRITER 



No. 5 Blickensderfer 
No. 7 Blickensderfer 



$35.OO 
50.OO 



CHICAGO, March 30, 1898, 

I have used most of the leading makes of type-writers 
now on the market, and consider the Blickensderfer, regard- 
less of the question of price, as the equal of any, and the 
superior of most of them. It has been used for more than a 
year, daily and constantly, and with increasing satisfaction, 
In the office of The Commons. 

JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Managing Editor of The Commons. 



Write for Cata/og-i/e and fart ioulars. 



W. J. BLICKENSDERFER & Co., 

195 La Salle St., Chicago. 




P. F. PETTIBONE & Go. 

INCORPORATED 

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Chicago 
Manufacturers of 

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SPECIAL 
ATTENTION TO 
CHURCH 
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A. NIEHANS 



**** 



MANUFACTUBER OF 




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Rubber Feet with Anklejoint. 

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THE COMMONS. 



"Its Readers READ It!!" 

PEOPLE READ TS COMMONS 

"From Cover To Cover" 

WE RECEIVE SCORES OF LETTERS, SHOWING 
THAT THE PAPER IS READ 

Thoroughly, Constantly, Thoughtfully 

AND NOW SURELY 

THE TIME HAS COME 

FOR ADVERTISERS 

TO THINK!! 

Of THE COMMONS as an Advertising Medium in view of 
the facts that 

Its CIRCULATION is rapidly increasing without special 
effort to "boom" it; it is double this year what it was last & 
Its READERS, in nearly every civilized country in the world, 
are thinking, reading people, who regard it as a friend < <* *?* 

Itwa Bito Advertise in The Commons. 



account of flDrs. Ibumpbre^ Wart'0 Settlement in Xonfcon. 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



VOL, II, NO. J2. 



CHICAGO, 



APRIL, J898. 



PHASES OP LIRE 

IN CROWDED 
CITY CENTERS 



PROGRESS OP MANY 

ENDEAVORS 
IN HUMAN SERVICE 



STUDIES OP THE 
LABOR MOVEMENT 



NEWS OP THE 
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 



SOCIAL WORK OP 
THE CHURCHES 



RQWTH OP THE IDEAL 

OP BROTHERHOOD 

AMON MEN 



LD Syracuse was admirably literary. When it 
took its Athenian enemies captive in battle it 
spared those of them who could repeat the verses 
of Euripides. But old Syracuse crushed humanity, tor- 
tured slaves, worshipped with its appetites and greedily 
swallowed its weak competitors till it was itself swallowed 
by greedier Rome. "Am I my brother's keeper? " It is 
Cain's question. Yes, you are ; all men and women are 
one another's keepers, educators, helpers or hinderers, 
saviours or seducers. You are trying to fill your life with 
beautiful things. The way is to fill it with right things ; 
for, as society ripens, as the standard of manhood rises, 
the right things will come to be the beautiful things, as 
sure as God lives. 

BISHOP F. D. HUNTINGTON. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS. 



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THE COMMONS. 



The Labour Annual, 

JOSEPH EDWARDS, Editor and Publisher. 

FOURTH YEAR OF ISSUE 



A Year Book 
for Social and Political 
Reformers 



.* ^ CONTENTS FOR J898 J & 

ARTICLES . . . 

Great Battle of Labour. Labour Legislation. Chronology of Social and Political Progress, etc. 

BIOGRAPHIES . . 

Of forty-seven Reformers and Workers for Humanity. 

DIRECTORIES . . . 

World's Reform Press, Reform Societies, Useful Addresses for Reform Work, Trades' Council Secretaries, 
Reform Books and Reference Books of the Year, Social Settlements. 

PORTRAITS . . 



Separate portraits of forty-five Reformers and Groups of ninety-two others. 
REPORTS . . . 

Of all the Principal Advanced Reform Societies of England. Beside numerous other striking and useful 
features, with advertisements of the Principal Reform Agencies and Periodicals of the World. 



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Order through THE COMMONS. Prices: Paper covers, 30 cents; cloth covers, 60 cents, postpaid. 



WHAT IS A SOCIAL 
SETTLEMENT? 



The best single publication on the subject 
is a 65- page pamphlet, "Social Settlements 
and the Labor Question" . . . 

TEN PAPERS BY LEADERS IN SETTLEMENT 

WORK ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE QUESTION. 



Single Copies, postpaid, 25 cents. 

Three to One Address, 50 cents. 

SIX FOR ONE DOLLAR. 



Address, Editor of THE COMMONS, 

140 North Union Street, Chicago, 111. 




THE BLICKENSDERFER... 



A REVOLUTION IN 
PRINCIPLE, IN EXECUTION. 



TYPEWRITER 



No. 5 Blickensderfer 
No. 7 Blickensderfer 



S35.OO 
5O.OO 



CHICACSO, March 30, 1898. 

I have used most of the leading makes of type-writers 
now on the market, and consider the Blickensderfer, regard- 
less of the question of price, as the equal of any, and the 
superior of most of them. It has been used for more than a 
year, daily and constantly, and with increasing satisfaction, 
In the office of The Commons. 

JOHN P. GAVIT, 

Managing Editor of The Commons. 



Write for Cftt a/og-ue and Particulars. 



W. J. BLICKENSDERFER & Co., 

195 La Salle St., Chicago. 



THE COMMONS 

B riDontbl? IRecorb Devotes to Bepecta of life an6 labor from tbe Social Settlement point of View. 



Whole Number 24. 



CHICAGO. 



APRIL, 1898. 



THE FATHERLAND. 



Where is the true man's fatherland? 

Is it where he by chance is born? 

Doth not the yearning spirit scorn 
In such scant borders to be spanned? 
Oh, yes! his fatherland must be 
As the blue heaven wide and free! 

Is it alone where freedom is, 

Where God is God and man is man? 
Doth he not claim a broader span 

For the soul's love of home than this? 

O, yes! his fatherland must be 

As the blue heaven wide and free! 

Where'er a human heart doth wear 
Joy's myrtle-wreath or sorrow's gyves, 
Where'er a human spirit strives 

After a life more true and fair, 

There is the true man's birth-place grand, 

His is a world-wide fatherland. 

Where'er a single slave doth pine, 

Where'er one man may help another 
Thank God fop such a birthright, brother 

That spot of earth is thine and mine! 

There is the true man's birth-place grand, 

His is a world-wide fatherland. Lowell. 



PASSMORE EDWARDS HOUSE. 



Mrs. Humphrey Ward's Settlement in London The 

Outcome of Aims and Ideals Expressed 

in "Robert Elsmere." 



[FROM A CORRESPONDENT.] 

The University Hall Settlement in London 
and the neighboring Marchmont Hall, one the 
residence for helpers, the other a center for 
the social and educational work of the settle- 
ment, were started through the efforts chiefly 
of Mrs. Humphrey Ward in 1890 ; aims and 
ideals expressed in " Robert Elsmere," it is 
generally believed, having given the impetus 
to the movement. 

Now, after seven years of work, which how- 
ever satisfactory has been much hindered by 
want of space and the inconvenience of using 
separate halls, the hopes and ambitions of 
all those interested in the settlement are real- 
ized in a beautiful building which will accom- 
modate under one roof the three branches of 
work and serve as a lecturing center, a resi- 
dence, and a nucleus for social work, all organ- 



ized under the name of "Passmore Edwards 
Settlement." 

The Settlement is situated in the north of 
London in a quarter which, though separated 
by the width of Euston Road only from the 
worst "slums" of Somers Town, is composed 
of respectable streets inhabited mainly by the 
better class of artisans: men and women who are 
not so miserably ground down by poverty as to 
be callous to the privileges offered them, while 
their children are capable of profiting by the 
opportunities for mental and physical devel- 
opment. It seems to me that the good results 
secured during the last seven years are very 
much due to this fact, as well as to the efforts 
which have been made to include every mem- 
ber of a family in the enjoyment of the Hall. 
There are lectures, debates and concerts for 
the elders; gymnastics, carpentering, sewing 
and games for the boys and girls; so that not 
only does each one, big and little, feel himself 
a part of the whole, but each is united in inter- 
ests and amusements with the different mem- 
bers of his own family. 

WORK OF A TYPICAL WEEK. 

A glance at the doings of the week will show 
how broad and varied is the scheme of work : 
it begins on Sunday evening with a lecture, 
the subject of which is ethical or religious al- 
ways unsectarian and undogmatic, of course 
sociological or literary. Monday evening is a 
very busy time; a painting class for sixteen 
little girls is held between 6:30 and 7:15, and 
the musical drill commencing with the junior 
boys and girls, separate and together, then with 
the older girls alone lasts almost without in- 
terruption from 6:45 to 10. Tuesday night there 
is a very prosperous boys' club and a most suc- 
cessful carpentering class; Wednesday, a girls' 
club and dancing class; Thursday, sewing from 
6:30 to 8, and afterwards a lecture historical, 
literary, sociological or scientific the third 
Thursday in each month being devoted to a 
social debate. These debates are conducted on 
strictly parliamentary principles, the Chair 
alone being addressed, and they are one of the 
most interesting and suggestive features of the 
work. Sociological and economic subjects nat- 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



urally arouse the greatest and most excited in- 
terest, and though in every such assemblage the 
"born orator," tedious and long-winded, is a 
constant danger to the progress of the discus- 
sion, the chairman can, with a little tact, stem 
this flow of words and call forth real sense and 
eloquence from less ambitious and more 
thoughtful sources. The women are generally 
more silent than the men, but whether this 
comes from native and becoming (?) modesty or 
from an inability to quickly find fitting words 
for their ideas, is a question which, however 
interesting, need not be considered here. But 
in either case, and with or without the prospect 
of the universal suffrage, the power of ready 
and lucid language is something that all wom- 
en would do well to cultivate. 

To continue the program of the week's work, 
the boys' club meets again on Friday, and on 
Saturday the Hall is opened in the morning as 
a playground from Hi to 11, the boys making 
the rafters ring with their noisy gymnastics ; 
the next hour being devoted to the quieter 
singing games and dancing of the girls. In 
the afternoon, some one is always at the Hall 
to tell or read fairy stories to any children who 
like to come and listen, and in the evening 
that most popular of all the entertainments, a 
concert, takes place. The always excellent vo- 
cal and instrumental music of these concerts 
is listened to with the greatest enjoyment, and 
with an ever-increasing appreciation of the 
really good as compared with what is merely 
popular. 

THE "HEALTH CLUB." 

In addition to this weekly round, I should 
like to speak of the " Health Club." This was 
started two years ago, and in connection with it, 
monthly health lectures, illustrated whenever 
possible, have been given and a considerable 
amout of simple health literature has been cir- 
culated in the neighborhood. ' An important 
part of the business of the club" I quote from 
a report "will be to make itself thoroughly 
acquainted with the working of the local sani- 
tary machinery and especially to collect local 
statistics, so that in any questions atfecting 
the sanitation of the district it may be able to 
speak with authority." 

There is also a sociological society to pro- 
mote special facilities for the study of social 
and other questions by the reading and discus- 
sing of text-books on these subjects; and the 
Association of Marchmont Hall have taken part 
in school-board elections, school management, 
and charity organization committees. They 
have also played an important role in a strug- 
gle which, though unsuccessful itself, has laid 



the foundation for future success to secure a 
public library for the Vestry of St. Pancras. 

Saturday afternoon pilgrimages to places of 
interest, such as the tower, Westminster, the 
British Museum and the Salvation Army work- 
shops have proved most pleasurable and sug- 
gestive, while delightful excursions to the 
country on Sundays or Bank Holidays, are con- 
stantly being made. Last summer forty men 
and women, with a little financial assistance, 
from the " Associates' Holiday Fund," and in 
the delightful company of the Warden and his 
wife, paid a week's visit to Paris! What such 
journeys may do to quench time-dishonored 
national antipathies, it is impossible to calcu- 
late, but that they engender the kindly feeling 
of understanding was proved to all who took 
part in this recent trip to France. 

GOVERNMENT OF THE SETTLEMENT. 

Marchmont Hall is supported by voluntary 
contributions from friends connected directly, 
or only by sympathy, with the work, and a 
small sum is realized by the sale of the pro- 
grams at the weekly concert. Besides this, in 
1894 a number of the most regular attendants 
at the lectures and concerts enrolled them- 
selves as Associates of the Hall, and to testify 
to their wish to share some portion however 
small of the general expenses decided to sub- 
scribe a penny a week to the funds. 

" A committee, elected partly from the Asso- 
ciates and partly from the residents at Univer- 
sity Hall, meets monthly to consider the names 
of intending Associates and to make sugges- 
tions as to the general management of the Hall, 
and the proposals which have from time to 
time come from this committee have proved 
most helpful and suggestive. It was from thia 
committee that the idea sprang which led to 
the drawing up of the following statement of 
' beliefs and aims ' which it will, doubtless, be 
of interest to set forth here, as the statement 
was most cordially adopted by the Associates, 
and is printed each week at the head of our 
leaflet of coming events : 

" We believe that many changes in the condi- 
tion of life and labor are needed and are com- 
ing to pass ; but we believe also that men, 
without any change except in themselves and 
in their feelings towards each other, might 
make this world a better and a happier place. 

" Therefore, with the same sympathies but 
different experiences of life, we meet to ex- 
change ideas and to discuss social questions, 
in the hope that as we learn to know one an- 
other better, a feeling of fellowship may arise 
among us. 

" We hold religion the noblest element of 
life to be that binding force of conviction and 
emotion by which the best men have been 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



5 



driven and upheld, so that for us a man's re- 
ligion consists in what he lives and does, not 
merely in what he believes. 

" To these ends we have Clubs, Lectures, En- 
tertainments and Classes, and we endeavor to 
make the Hall a center where we may unite 
our separa e resources in a social and intel- 
lectual home." 

To this statement, however brief, little need 
be added; it expresses, I think, the motive 
power of Marchmont Hall. There a sense of 
freedom prevails and an understanding of the 
dignity of the individual and respect for his 
rights which is very far removed from the at- 
mosphere of philanthropy and so infinitely 
healthier and pleasanter. The men and women, 
and the children too, meet you frankly and 
cheerfully without the servile whine one grows 
to abominate in the English " lower classes;" 
they immediately make a friend of you. There 
are few formulated rules or restrictions, each 
one seems to feel instinctively that his indi- 
vidual liberty must not without common con- 
sent interfere with any other individual lib- 
erty the sense of freedom and the sense of 
responsibility going, as they always do, hand 
in hand. 



KATAYAMA'S THANKS. 



Head of Klngwley Hall, Tokyo, Writes Gratefully 
to American Friends. 



The following letter from Mr. Sen J. Kata- 
yama, head of the Japanese social settlement, 
Kingsley Hall, at Tokyo, is sent thro THE 
COMMONS in gratitude to those friends in 
America who responded with generous gifts to 
the appeal for funds for his work, which was 
contributed to the December issue by Mr. Ar. 
thur Weatherly, now of Westerly, K. I. The 
letter is dated Misakicho, Kanda, Tokyo, April 
14, 1898 : 

" Dear friends," writes Katayama, " with sin- 
cere gratitude I beg to acknowledge the receipt 
of your very kind gifts for my work at Kingsley 
Hall. Your draft came at a time of great need, 
and 1 am sure that, though the work goes slow, 
yet already it is making an impression in this 
great city, and that you may feel confident that 
your investment will bear big interest. I do 
not forget the responsibility of spending the 
money you have so generously contributed, and 
I shall try to make every cent count in building 
up the work for humanity, and shall spend it 
with greater care than if it were my own money. 

" You must remember that this is the first 
settlement work attempted in Japan, and that, 
while my resources are so limited, I cannot 
accomplish what I would. To insure the prog- 



ress and success of the work I must have your 
assistance until philanthropists are raised up 
in Japan to take your place. 

" Yours, in the great work for God and 
humanity, SEN JOSEPH KATAYAMA." 

Mr. Katayama adds these details of the grow- 
ing work of Kingsley Hall : 

WEEKLY PROGRAM. 

1. Daily classes in English. 

2. Seven religious meetings each week. 

3. Night school for laborers six evenings. 

4. Daily work among the children of the 
neighborhood. 

" This is the regular program," he says, "but 
beside this we have a lecture at least once a 
month, and receive and return hundreds of 
calls. We edit a semi-monthly paper for labor- 
ing men and preach frequently for pastors in 
various parts of the city." 



ffrom ne point of Wew. 



'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower 
Of fleeting life its luster and perfume. 
And we are weeds without it. Cowper. 



WHAT a difference the point of view makes! 
I notice that there's nothing like pros- 
perity to modify a man's radicalism. One of 
the most revolutionary of the radicals who were 
among my first settlement acquaintances is 
now a member of the Board of Trade, and 
making money at it. And I haven't seen him 
at a radical meeting, nor have I heard a revolu- 
tionary word out of him since his luck changed! 



AND surely that raises an interesting ques- 
tion: If necessity is the mother of invention, 
and hard times the fore-runner and in some 
sort the cause of economic agitation and re- 
form, is it too much to say that the man who 
corners the wheat market and forces starvation 
upon the eaters of bread throughout the world 
is after all a benefactor of the race and an ac- 
tive agent of progress? Here's a pipeful for 
the anti-capitalists to smoke, and a sub-head 
for the school-boy's composition on "Sweet 
are the uses of adversity." 



EVERY man and every women who lias brain of a 
superior quality is a visionary. It is only the dull, 
senseless clod who has no visions of a higher-fed 
humanity; of an international brotherhood where- 
in there shall be no soldiers and few policemen; of 
a holier church, purer judges and a better law. 
These were some of the visions of Jefferson. M. 
Trwnbull. 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



Social Worfe ^ * <* * 
jt jt jk of tbe Cburcbes 



TABERNACLE PROGRESS 



NEW STEPS IN THE EFFORT TO ADAPT 
THE WORK. 



Professor Taylor Called to the Permanent Pastorate 

The Church's Enthusiastic Acceptance of 

the Conditions Changes to meet 

the New Situation. 



In many ways the entire question of the pos- 
sibility of maintaining aggressive Congrega- 
tionalism, or even progressive Protestant Chris- 
tianity, so far as the church is concerned, in 
downtown Chicago, is involved in the experi- 
ment now trying in the old Tabernacle whose 
latter-day progress has from time to time been 
reported in these columns. Since the last 
issue of THE COMMONS another step in the ex- 
periment has been taken, in the acceptance by 
Professor Taylor of the church's urgent call for 
him to the pastorate of the Tabernacle. With 
absolute unanimity of vote and unqualified 
assurance of loyal co-operation, the church has 
requested him thus to serve, and has in terms 
accepted the conditions proposed by him to 
characterize the campaign of aggressive work 
thus entered upon. 

THE CHUKCH'S PLEDGE. 

Under these conditions the church agrees 
that " as a church we shall live and work, not 
for ourselves, but for all the people of our 
neighborhood and within our reach;" the pas- 
tor is to select his own pastoral assistants, the 
church declares its purpose to adapt present 
methods to changing conditions or adopt new 
ones promising the greatest good to the great- 
est number; to do its utmost to raise the 
amount needed for current expenses and to 
cover indebtedness to date, and in lieu of a sal- 
ary for the pastor, who is to serve the church 
gratuitously, a " pastor's fund " is to be created 
with additional moneys received over and 
above accrued indebtedness, for the salaries of 
assistants and the extension of the church's 
service and influence. 

NEW PASTORAL ASSISTANCE. 

The City Missionary Society's appropriation 
enables the church to add to the pastoral force 
Mr. Henry J. Condit, of the Seminary graduat- 
ing class, who will serve during the summer, 



beginning with a thorough canvass of the dis- 
trict. 

A men's club has been organized, Avith Mr. 
H. sTlIiecartney"as^pre8ident, under the name 
of the Neighborhood League. It has already 
gathered into its membership and organized 
for service about 50 men of the church and 
neighborhood, and a bright and helpful future 
is assured. The work of the League will be to 
affiliate the men of the immediate neighbor- 
hood in an auxiliary organization designed to 
assist in the outside work of the church, and 
in the ingathering for the Sunday evening 
"People's Hour" of song and story, plain talk 
and cordial spirit. The number of men in 
both morning and evening attendance and in 
the mid-week meeting is notably increasing 
through the personal efforts of the men thus 
interested and inspired with the desire to do 
aggressive service. 

The church starts out upon its new lease of 
life with vigor and enthusiasm, and proceeds at 
once to fulfill its promise to adapt methods to 
suit changing conditions. Already the morn- 
ing service and the large Sunday School have 
been united in a stirring family service, with 
social study classes for all ages, from the kin- 
dergarten in the basement to the pastor's Bible 
class in the gallery. A short sermon in line 
with the work of the classes closes the session 
at noon. The attendance at once attested the 
success of the venture, and the evening pleas- 
ant hour of music and plain talks attracts a 
growing constituency of people from the neigh- 
borhood. 

AN ENERGETIC SUMMER CAMPAIGN. 

With energy and definiteness the plan of cam- 
paign will be carried on through the summer, 
and it is expected that the opening of the fall 
will find the work ready for a stirring and effec- 
tive winter's effort. In all branches of the 
church a new spirit of enthusiasm is evident, 
and old friends and members are coming back, 
even to the extent, in at least one case, of mov- 
ing back into the community to take part in the 
work. 

DOWN-TOWN CHURCHES. 



Spicy Words from a Cleveland Worker as to Actual 

Conditions In that City. Where 

Is the Sacrifice? 

Life and Labor is the title of a breezy little 
monthly issued under the auspices of tbe Central 
Friendly Inn, of Cleveland, Ohio, whose Superin- 
tendent is Rev. Alexander F. Irvine, well-known in 
mission work, is virile, and its view refreshing. 
Under the title, "The Down-town Church," it has 
some spicy things to say which may well be read 



1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



in other cities than Cleveland. '-Where is 'Down- 
town?'" the writer asks. "Is it the business sec- 
tion where nobody lives, or is it the congested re- 
gion where people swarm like bees? Is the down- 
town church a society of men and women or is it a 
building? 

. "Much twaddle has been written and spoken on 
this subject, and much remains to be said. We are 
in need of a definition. I pinned a map of Cleve- 
land on my study wall and went in search of a con- 
tribution to the discussion. I selected a very 
down-town church stuck a pin (with a tiny piece 
of red ribbon attached) in the spot, and by the help 
of the denominational hand-book went in search 
of the members. I first sought the parsonage it 
is on Euclid avenue. I found the officers corre- 
spondingly distant. 

"I continued to mark the residences on the gilt- 
edged avenue, and very soon Euclid avenue had 
half a hundred red banners marking the residences 
of this very down-town church. Another half hour 
and Prospect street, Sibley street, Kennard street, 
East Cleveland, West Cleveland and Cleveland 
avenue were decorated with the tiny streamers. 
Then I had to get a map of the state to find some 
who still held membership here and lived in other 
parts of the state. Closer investigation showed 
that these members passed churches of all denom- 
inations on their way down town. Some of them 
lived almost next door to struggling churches of 
their own denomination, and it is not improbable 
that they spend more in car-fare on Sunday than 
they put into the treasury of the 'down-town' 
church. 

"After this little exercise I made up my mind 
that when some men talk of the wonderful sacrifice 
of the up-town people's down-town church that 
they do the most of it in their hats." 



Sfeetcbes 






ROSIE. 

ROSIE is not exactly a normal child. Her 
small, very wiry body is topped by an odd, 
round head, which, in turn, is finished at back 
by a horizontal brown pig-tail, and critical 
gray eyes look out from the sallow little face 
with highest scorn. 

Rosie lives in the basement of a mean house 
on - street. The family consists of father, 
mother, a brother of nine years, Rosie, five, a 
sister of three and a baby. They are Italian. 
The mother speaks no English and the children 
understand and speak it imperfectly. A pleas- 
ant-faced young woman is the mother, and she 



appears to be proud of her children, but allows 
them to go insufficiently clad and immoderately 
dirty. It would be hard, perhaps, to be any- 
thing else, living where they do. 

Rosie is a very reserved child, but has out- 
bursts of energetic expression, at which times 
she falls upon her victim with satanic glee, 
pinching, slapping, or otherwise afflicting 
them in such ways as her mood and her intui- 
tive ingenuity in that line suggest. Punish- 
ments are unsuccessful with her, unless an ap- 
peal is made to her affections and her need of 
love from others is dwelt upon. 

It does seem, when at last a long-wished-for 
monosyllable escapes from her tightly-shut 
lips, that there is a heart under her dirty little 
dress (which, by the way, has done faithful 
service for months without a single visit to the 
wash-tub). 

Rosie has a distinct purpose of appropriating 
what attracts her; a high spirit of camaraderie 
at times takes the place of supreme indiffer- 
ence and so she is regarded by her companions 
with interest, mingled a bit with awe. A slap- 
ping, among our Italian neighbors, is quite the 
mode of expressing slight displeasure, it is not 
so strange that Rosie should do to others what, 
in all probability, is done to her many times a 
day. The little hands are formed for violence. 
The tight muscles, however, are relaxing gradu- 
ally as a gentle spirit seems to be taking pos- 
session of the child. These same little hands 
are clever at their work, and do it quickly. 

Rosie prefers doing differently from others, 
and her end is usually apparent to slip into an 
advantageous position, or in some other way to 
outwit her companions. The idea of co-opera- 
tion, and the distinction between meum and 
tuum, are but just now dawning upon Rosie. 

The bands which heredity and environment 
have put upon her can be loosed somewhat in 
the kindergarten, only to be pressed back more 
or less by the influences of home and street. 

The divine in Rosie is indeed thickly veiled. 
It can certainly be found by exploring long 
enough in her dark little soul with the lamp of 
love. For after all, one cannot help loving this 
weird little being, and imagining her clothed 
with all virtues, which are doubtless possibili- 
ties if environments are favorable. With her 
strong will and distinctive personality, she 
may become, in spite of environment, like the 
blossom thorn-girt, for which she is named a 
sweet human Rose. E. V. M. 

Chicago Commons. 

The longer I live the more 1 value kindness and 
simplicity among the sons and daughters of men. 
Tennyson. 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



05ob anft tit* 





A MONTHLY RECORD 

DEVOTED TO 

ASPECTS OF LIFE AND LABOR 

FROM THE SOCIAL SETTLEMENT 

POINT OF VIEW. 



JOHN P. GAVIT, 



EDITOR. 



Published on the last day of each month from CHICAGO 
COMMONS, a Social .Settlement at 140 North Union Street, 
Chicago, 111. 

SUBSCRIPTION PRICK 

Fifty cents a year. (Two shillings, English; 2.50 francs, 
French foreign stamps accepted.) 

Postpaid to any State or Country. 

Six copies to one address for $2.50. 

Send check, draft. P. O. money order, cash or stamps, 
not above 5-cent denominations AT OUR RISK. 

Renewals The change in the date on the address 
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changes are made once m two months. In accordance with 
custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, we 
continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified to 
the contrary. 

Changes of Address- Please notify the publishers 
promptly of any change of address, or of failure to receive 
the paper within a reasonable interval after it is due. 

Advertisements First-class advertisements desired 
at reasonable rates, which will be furnished upon applica- 
tion. 



No. 24. 



CHICAGO. APRIL 30, 1898. 



THE WAR 



IT IS war now, and we are all together in it. 
Let us keep in mind the highest possible 
motives, and strictly avoid low appeals to race 
prejudice and the instinct of butchery. Let us 
never forget that every time we destroy a 
battle-ship or bombard a town, we kill and 
maim human beings. The crew of a ship even 
a Spanish ship is made up of fathers, brothers, 
sweethearts, for whom human hearts bleed and 
in whose absence human mothers, wives and 
daughters grieve and long in vain. War is hell, 
in its utmost earthly expression, and it is well 
to keep in mind that it is our hell. We are 
making it ourselves. The seaman who aims the 
gun to send a hundred pounds of dynamite into 
a shipful or buildingful of human beings is 
doing it for us, in our name, and upon our re- 
sponsibility It is well that we should face 
these facts, and rigidly examine ourselves every 
day of this war, which we can honestly claim 



is for humanity's sake, and in the cause of lib- 
erty, and cast out every motive of hate, every 
trace of the blood-lust, every thrill of the greed 
for gain or territory. The < glory of war" is a 
gruesome fiction; let us not deceive ourselves 
with these antedeluvian superstitions of bar- 
barism. War is simply associated, legalized 
killing of men and destruction of property, and 
we whose war it is need to find the highest pos- 
sible justification for it. Let us see to it that 
there are no other motives. If it is a war of 
blind revenge and reprisal, let us be honest 
about it. " liemember the Maine " is no battle- 
cry for us in a war of liberation. We shall be 
sufficiently brutalized in the outcome without 
manufacturing hatred by appeals to the thirst 
for vengeance. In any case, the men we kill 
in the PhiJlipines, for instance are not the 
guilty ones. 

It is hard to choose between a war that is hell 
and a "peace" like that which Weyler sought 
to conquer in Cuba, which is more hellish still. 
Now that events have driven us into tLe war, 
let it be a war for justice and liberty and peace, 
rather than for vengeance and spoil. It will be 
many a long day before we recover from the 
brutalizing effects of it as it is, and attention 
will long be distracted from the great social 
questions which at last had become important 
in the eyes of the world. Let us have the work 
done, as quickly and energetically as possible, 
and turn again to the sane business which was 
well in hand before the butchery on the Cuban 
island called us aside. 



"LOOKING FOR SOCIOLOGY.' 



A YOUNG woman with a notebook of for- 
bidding size and a gold-trimmed fount- 
ain pen called at a settlement not long ago, and 
said she wanted a resident to take her into 
some "lower class homes, don't you know." 
She looked very wise and very intellectual, 
and, it must be admitted, very pretty, as she 
explained: "I am looking for sociology. I 
wanted to make a study of human nature, and 
thought some of you delightful settlement peo- 
ple could take me where there was some." 

Few cases so naive as this come to hand, to 
be sure, but it is in this spirit that many a 
bright young man or woman enters upon set- 
tlement residence or visitation. We are con- 
tinually forgetting that " human nature " is no 
more to be found among what the Superior are 
pleased to call the " lower classes " than among 
the Superior themselves. The settlement resi- 
dent had some difficulty in refraining from tell- 
ing the young woman of the incident above 
related that she herself was one of the finest 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



specimens of " human nature " that had of late 
come under his observation. 

We are always looking somewhere else for 
our sociology. The pot of golden knowledge is 
always at the foot of the receding rainbow. 
When shall we learn that " sociology" is going 
on in our own street, our own house, our own 
family, our own self? The relation of family 
to family is exemplified with intensest interest 
in our own neighborhood ; social psychology, 
social customs, social consciousness, are to be 
studied at first-hand in our own church, in our 
own club, at the last card party, wedding, 
dance or funeral that we attended. The labor 
question with its aspect of caste-hatred, eco- 
nomic injustice, industrial misunderstanding 
and conflict of interest is nowhere crying louder 
for study and solution than in the relation be- 
tween your own parlor nd your own kitchen, 
dear searchers after sociology and human 
nature." Nobody needs study and reformation 
any more than you do, you fair reader who 
keep the "servants" in "their place." You 
yourself, lofty mistress of your menage, are one 
of the most insoluble problems of the social 
complexity! 

Let us put aside the buncombe, now, and in 
all honesty look each other in the face. Let us 
admit, lofty and lowly together, scribe and 
Pharisee and publican, leper and harlot, bond 
and free, Jew and gentile, self-righteous and 
dust-humbled, all and each of us, that WE are 
the problem of the ages; that WK are " human 
nature " ourselves; that neither in this mount- 
ain nor at Jerusalem shall we find what we 
seek. What we must study and reform is OUR- 
SELVES, and our problem is always to be found 
beneath our own hats, standing in our own 
shoes. 

THE vacation schools afford one WH.Y to keep 
children from the streets and to direct 
their summer to useful and healthful ends. 



IN A recent address in New York city Henry D. 
Lloyd said strikingly" that the only people 
who despair of democracy are those who never 
understood or have wronged it." 



AS THE hot summer comes on, the value of 
the small parks and breathing spaces be- 
comes evident. It is a good time to begin agi- 
tation with city councils and mayors. 



The 'second annual report of the Locust 
Point settlement in Baltimore shows nearly 
1,000 calls made and over 5,000 calls received 
during the past year. 



Studies of tbe ^ & & & & 
j j, j j Xabor /iDovement | 

CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR GRAHAM TAYLOR* 



FOR THOSE WHO FAIL. 



' All honor to him who shall win the prize," 

The world has cried for a thousand years, 
But to him who tries, and who falls and dies, 
I give great honor and glory and tears. 

Give glory and honor and pitiful tears 
To all who fail in their deeds sublime, 

Thpir ghosts are many in the van of years. 
They were born with Time in advance of Time. 

Oh. great is the hero who wins a name, 

But greater many and many a time. 
Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame, 

And lets Goil linish the thought sublime. 

And great is the man with a sword undrawn, 
And good is the man who refrains from wine; 

But the man who fails and yet still fights on, 
T.o! he is the twin-born brother of mine. 

Joaquin Miller. 



SOME ETHICAL ASPECTS OF THE LABOR 
MOVEMENT. 



BY JOHN P. GAVIT. 



Two kinds of minds are found among men, 
and most of the religious, philosophical and 
scientific battles in the world of thought have 
been fought between these schools. One, to 
which we owe the progress of the world, looks 
always forward. It sees the past in the light 
of the future. To-day's gain is only a stand- 
ing-ground from which to advance to to-mor- 
row's victory. The ideal is ever in the future. 
Man is always moving forward toward uncon- 
ceived blessing and achievement. To this type 
of mind, the Almighty seems to be leading man 
on through progressive stages of development 
toward the Highest. 

The other kind of mind is the Conservative. 
It lives, as it were, in the past. History, not 
prophecy, speaks to them of the divine ideal, 
and yesterday's achievement is a finalty to be 
conserved for posterity at all hazards. Ven- 
tures into the unknown, whether material or 
speculative, savor of the blasphemous, and to 
such minds only unquestioned success can at- 
test the permissibility of experiment in any 
field. This school of thought and solidity con- 
serves for to-day what the progressives secured 
and discovered yesterday. The priest holds 
fast to what the prophet has left in his rear; 
the radical presses on toward the shining 
heights, often forgetting his own debt to the 
less venturesome faithful who hold what he 
has gained aforetime. 

In viewing the history and prophecy of the 
Labor Movement these two kinds of thought 



JO 



THE COMMONS. 



| April, 



are clearly exhibited. Two kinds of attitude 
attest the points of view. And these two points 
of view are occupied by both friends and oppo- 
nents of the Labor Movement. Upon the point 
of view depends the attitude of mind with 
which one will view the movement itself. 

THE CONSERVATIVE VIEW. 

In the view of the typical Conservative mind, 
the Labor Movement is a thing of to-day or 
yesterday, and is generally synonymous with 
the sum total of the efforts of labor unions to 
force from unwilling employers larger wages 
or shorter hours, or to prevent honest working- 
men who will not join their organization from 
getting work. To such the mention of the 
phrase " Labor Movement," calls to mind 
merely this, that, or the other recent strike; 
brings to the mental eye a picture of riotous 
mohs, deserted or barricaded streets, burning 
freight cars, with a background of glittering 
bayonets and an accompaniment of Gatling 
guns. It is no source of wonder that those to 
whom the Labor Movement means no more than 
this should view its manifestations with alarm, 
and its leaders with vigilant suspicion. And 
this view is held to-day by thousands of other- 
wise intelligent men. Unless it may be made 
to appear that the Labor Movement is some- 
thing more and broader than this, serious- 
minded men and women will devote their time 
to the consideration of matters of more lasting 
import, unless, indeed, by common, determined 
action, we may put down, once for all, these 
outbreakings of unwarranted discontent and 
covetousness. 

THE TBUER PERSPECTIVE. 

Indeed, it is more than this! More than any 
of its incidents, more than any of its methods, 
more than any of its separate causes, more than 
any of its leaders, more than any of its epochs, 
is the vast movement of the progress of the 
laboring man toward justice. 

What, then, is the true view of the Labor 
Movement, to hold which is to see, in some- 
thing like true perspective, the smaller epi- 
sodes of its progress? Of what other manifest- 
ation of life dare we think, apart from its place 
in the Scheme of Things? Characteristic as it 
is of the minds of a great class of men, that 
they view each event, each day, by itself, 
apart short-sighted, unhistoric, without per- 
spective, supposing each incident to be, as it 
were, a freak of blind chance, without cause 
and without effect, must not we be wiser, plac- 
ing all these things in their bearings, seeking 
for each the cause, and tracing out, as we may, 
the purpose of God in the whole? 



To such a spirit the Labor Movement proves 
itself to be of immeasurable antiquity and of 
inestimable significance, as of Almighty God. 
To-day and to-day's incidents are but heart- 
beats, as it were, in the ceaseless, unswerving 
on-go of humanity, whencewhither? 

For however we may define it, we find that 
throughout the ages there has been a constant 
and irresistible progress of the cause of the 
workers of the world toward economic better- 
ment, toward the recognition of manhood as 
the standard of values, of human life as the one 
sacred thing, over against any sanctity of 
property or things. Our economic system is 
still very far from embodying the belief that a 
man is more precious than a machine, but it is 
in that direction by many and painful ways 
that the Labor Movement has led and is lead- 
ing us. 

AN UNCEASING MOVEMENT. 

In many guises, under many flags, with many 
watchwords and many leaders changing from 
age to age as men changed and steps of prog- 
ress have been made, it has gone on cease- 
lessly. The battle of the weak and the honest 
to recover the spoil from the strong and the 
cunning; the appeal from the " divine right " of 
kings and aristocracies to the divine right of 
humanity; the cause of the worker against the 
idler it has gone on from age to age, gaining 
step by step as the method of human progress 
changed from a mere beast-conflict to a brain- 
conflict; as ideals of right and justice gained 
sway, and as men laid aside mor^ and more the 
weapons of war and took on the weapons of in- 
dustry. The one factor which has lent bitter- 
ness to the struggle for labor emancipation, 
has been the tardiness with which personal 
freedom and nominal equality have been fol- 
lowed by caste-equality. The taint upon the 
laborer which made him less than a human 
being in the classic days of Lycurgusin Sparta, 
and which even when serfdom was abolished, 
clung still to him, who labored with his hands, 
yet persists in some degree. 

WHAT WAS ITS ORIGIN? 

The Labor Movement is not of American 
origin. Indeed, in America, the progress of the 
Movement is only in its beginnings. It is not 
English, though to us the literature of the 
English industrial movement is best known. 
It is not French, though many steps of progress 
have been made in France. It is not German, 
though to Germany the modern Labor Movement 
owes much of its most intelligent and scholarly 
leadership. It is not Saxon, though the Saxon 
love of liberty is woven through its fabric, and 



1898.] 



THE COMMONS. 



11 



it may be that in the Saxon guilds we find the 
forerunners of our modern trades-unions. It is 
not Roman in origin, although in the Rome of 
classic days flourished many a powerful labor 
organization, and in the time of Nurna Pompi- 
lius they had legal status and played a power- 
ful part in political affairs. It is not Greek, 
though under the Solonic law, for instance, 
labor unions were numerous and powerful. It 
is not Israelitish, though the Law-giver Moses 
conducted one of the most stupendous and most 
successful strikes in history. It is not Egypt- 
ian, even though we have record of some an- 
cient unions in the time of Amasis II. Con- 
cerning the origin of the Labor Movement we 
can only speculate; as concerning its triumph 
we can only dream. It began, let us say, in the 
protest of the first victim against the aggres- 
sion of the first victor. When the conquered 
cave-dweller, if you please, bowed before his 
conqueror because he must, and yet dared to 
demand the recognition of right as of authority 
co-ordinate with might, the Labor Movement 
had its beginning. 

WHAT, THEN, IS THE LABOR MOVEMENT? 

How, then, shall be defined this Labor Move- 
ment, of which we are hearing so much in these 
days of crisis and social tension? For upon our 
definition must depend our attitude toward 
this, as toward any other movement claiming 
our attention. 

Is it not, after all, the more or less conscious 
and concerted effort upon the part of the less 
favored of the workers among men to secure 
the recognition of an ethical rather than a 
force-standard in human relations; to induce 
or compel the strong to concede the rights of 
the weak; to declare for man as more precious 
than things, people than property? Professor 
Ely calls it The effort of men to live the life 
of men." Professor Taylor defines it as " Noth- 
ing less than the more or less concerted move- 
ment of the majorities of the world's workers 
for the recognition of human rights and person- 
al values in the working world." 

UPRISING OF THE BF8T IN MAN. 

And is this a mere materialistic movement, a 
struggle merely for the possession of Things? 
Very far from it. It is the uprising of the Best 
in Man, the cry of the indwelling Spirit and 
Purpose of the Almighty, forbidding men to be 
satisfied with any conditions that militate 
against the development of Self in the line of 
the Pattern of Perfection. It is the spontaneous 
outbreak against enslaving conditions, against 
work and the surroundings of work, that tend 
to make men mere beasts of burden. 



If, indeed, every attempt at uplift, toward 
better life, is of God, then this mighty, never- 
ceasing, irresistible movement of the Mass of 
Men toward tolerable economic and spiritual 
conditions must indeed be Ethical, must indeed 
be Religious. 

When Moses led the Children of Israel out of 
the economic bondage of Israel, in that first 
great labor-strike of which history has thus far 
told us, and laid the foundations of that Re- 
public of God in Canaan, as socialistic in mauy 
ways as any of which Karl Marx or Kropotkin 
ever dreamed, the ideal was JIT TICE such re- 
lations between man and man that harmonious 
adaptation to God's Law would be possible. 
Every Mosaic law of which the Old Testament 
tells us was set to the key-note of Justice. It 
is to love mercy and to do justly that the Lord 
requireth of thee, O man and yet not even 
Justice and Mercy are sufficient in themselves 
as an end. What then? 

FOR FREEDOM TO DEVELOP SELF. 

In order that each man, and each woman, 
from childhood to death, should have oppor- 
tunity to develop the highest and best that God 
may give him or her to make the most of them- 
selves in the line of their talents for this rea- 
son, I dare to say, God Almighty ordained Jus- 
tice as the law of Israel. But justice never has 
ruled upon earth, and does not rule to-day. 

History is one long horrid story of the crowd- 
ing down and out of the weak and defenseless 
under the heel of injustice, and at the hands 
of the strong and clever and unscrupulous, and 
we know in our hearts that one of the first 
steps toward the consummation of the Kingdom 
of God perhaps the all-sufficient step must 
be the establishment of justice, the abolition 
of the Right of Might, and the universal en- 
thronement and recognition of the Might of 
Right. 

It is not justice that thousands of little chil- 
dren, stinted of their childhood and fore- 
damned of their manhood, should work long 
hours for wretched pittances in the factories 
and mines and workshops of this and other 
lands. It is not justice that the labor of human 
beings, with souls and hearts and noble aspira- 
tions, should be a " commodity " in the market, 
with lumber and bricks and pig iron, till, 
under the "Iron Law of Wages," the men and 
women and children are crowded down to the 
condition of cattle. 

Not alone for abstract Justice for it is a far 
cry from the conditions which prevail today 
under most favorable circumstances, to even 
approximate fair play, for human conditions, 



12 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



in these days, the Labor Movement pleads and 
agitates, and sometimes wages war. For a " liv- 
ing wage," on less than which a mtm cannot 
live, and marry, and maintain a home worthy 
the name, for a margin of leisure in which to see 
and enjoy the beauties of nature and the work 
of man's hands; for fair protection to life and 
limb in arduous and dangerous kinds of work; 
for the Manhood Status, in short, free from the 
ancient intolerable taint of servility; for equal 
right with other men to organize for protection 
against destructive competition and concen- 
trated greed for these things the Labor Move- 
ment now pleads and strives and sometimes 
wages war. 

ON TOWARD THE KINGDOM. 

I am convinced that the Labor Movement is 
the great Religious movement of Mankind 
toward the. Kingdom. What can be more relig- 
ious than the effort of Humanity to secure for 
its individuals the highest and best that can be 
gained for them? Let it be admitted that it is 
reducible by the philosopher of pessimism to 
merely the sum of the efforts of individuals to 
get more Things then I shall retort that so is 
the history of religion merely the sum of the 
efforts ol men to get their souls saved and into 
Heaven! 

It is the Spirit of God, pleading with men, 
however unperceived by them, to estimate 
themselves the least and last and lowest of 
them as more than draft-oxen, more than 
mules, more than the machines at Avhich they 
weave the fabric, which, be it ever so fine, can- 
not save the soul of the weaver from destruc- 
tion. 

" Let there be worse cotton," says Emerson, 
" and better men." 

" The Almighty never created the black man," 
cried Channing, "in order that sugar or cotton 
might be sold a cent a pound cheaper!" 

Thus far, civilization has been built up at the 
expense of the toiling masses of man. Labor- 
saving machinery has saved everything except 
the laborer. 

THE FAIR SUPERSTRUCTURE. 

The time is at hand when upon the fair ma. 
terial basis which we have built at so great 
cost, we shall place the crowning piece a re- 
deemed Manhood and Womanhood and Child- 
hood redeemed from the soul-destroying con- 
ditions of poorly-rewarded toil. Then, under 
the Juggernaut of "Progress" we shall no longer 
crush out the lives and the souls of women and 
little children; the labor-s.iving machinery 
will indeed save Labor and the Laborer, and 
men rich and poor, if you please will have 



opportunity to live the human lives which the 
inhuman conditions of our present Struggle for 
Existence deny them. 

The movement in demand and struggle for 
this consummation is called the Labor Move- 
ment. Its history is written in unintentional 
fragments through the literature of the haughty 
patricians to whom the common people were 
but slaves to be trodden under foot at will, or 
stands in the monuments which with the grim 
irony of God Almighty today outlast the names 
of the oppressors to whose futile vanity they 
were reared. 

History indeed it has. In the words of one 
far better versed than I in its literature: 

" It not only has a history, but has made, is 

making, and more, will make history 

Checkered indeed its history has been, with a 
class selfishness as abhorrent as that of any in- 
dividual, yet also with as sublime an unselfish- 
ness as gilds the progress of altruism. Check- 
ered with strikes and violence? Yes, but also 
with the heroism of as sublime a patience, as 
brave a self-sacrifice . as serene a faith, and as 
divine a nope, as have glorified the < Book of 
Martyrs.' Checkered, be it sadly admitted, 
with cruel contempt of personal liberty and the 
awful injustice of the mob, but, be it not 
denied, with a consciousness of conscience for 
Justice, justifying its claim to be one of the 
profoundest ethical and religious movements 
passing through the nineteenth century into 
the twentieth." 



Hon. Benjamin Pickard, liberal member of Par- 
liament, says the English workingineu will organ- 
ize and s*>nd 400 labor representatives into the next 
House of Commons, as an outcome of the engi- 
neers' defeat. 




1898. J 



THE COMMONS. 



13 



Chicago Commons 




CHICAGO COMMONS. 

14O North Union Street, at Milwaukee Avenue. 

(Reached by all Milwaukee avenue cable and electric cars, 
or by Grand avenue or Halsted strret electric cars, stopping 
at corner of Austin avenue and Halsted street, one block 
west of Union street.) 



CHICAGO COMMONS is a Social Settlement located 
on North Union street, two doors from the southwest cor- 



ner of Milwaukee avenue and the crossing of Union street 
upon Milwaukee and Austin avenues. 

Object. As explained in the second clause of the Articles 
of Incorporation of the Chicago Commons Association, flled 
with the Secretary of the State of Illinois: 

"2. The object for which it is formed Is to provide a center for a 
higher civic and social life to initiate and maintain religious, educa- 
tional and philanthropic enterprises and to Investigate and Improve 
conditions In the industrial districts of Chicago." 

Or, as the explanatory circular of the settlement has ex- 
plained it: 

"As exemplified at Chicago Commons, the Social Settlement con- 
sists primarily of a group of people who choose to make their home 
In that part of the great city where they seem to be most needed, 
rather than where the neighborhood offers the most of privilege or 
social prestige." 

Support The work is supported in addition to what the 
residents are able to pay for rent of rooms, by the free-will 
gifts of those who believe in what the work stands for. The 

ift of any person is welcomed, and the contributions are 
oth occasional and regular, the latter being paid in in- 
stallments, monthly, quarterly and annually, at the conven- 
ience of the giver. 

Visitors, singly or in groups, are welcome at any time, 
but the residents make especial effort to be at home on 
Tuesday afternoon and evening. 

Information concerning the work of Chicago Commons 
is gladly furnished to all who inquire. A four-page leaflet, 
bearing a picture of our residence, and other literature de- 
scribing the work will be mailed to any one upon applica- 
tion. Please enclose postage. 

Residence. All inquiries with reference to terms and 
conditions of residence, permanent or temporary, should be 
addressed to GRAHAM TAYLOR, Resident Warden. 

Form of Bequest. "I give and bequeath to the Chi- 
cago Commons Association (incorporated under the laws of 

the State of Illinois) Dollars, to be de\oted to 

the social settlement purposes of that Association." 



GOD HELP THE BOY. 



God help the boy who never sees 
The butterflies, the birds, the bees, 
Nor hears the music of the breeze 

When zephyrs soft are blowing. 
Who can not in sweet comfort lie 
Where clover blooms are thick and high, 
And hear the gentle murmur nigh 

Of brooklets softly flowing. 

God help the boy who does not know 
Where all the woodland berries grow, 
Who never sees the forests glow 

When leaves are red and yellow. 
Whose childish feet can never stray 
When nature does her charms display 
For such a hapless boy I say 

God help the little fellow. 

Nixon Waterman. 



has made several trips to Elgin, presenting the 
plan in churches and to individuals, and has 
been most cordially received. Some readers of 
THE COMMONS have sent individual contribu- 
tions. Friends in Evanston, whose young peo- 
ple have aided so effectively these four winters 
in the conduct of the boys' clubs, have prom- 
ised assistance, and if friends of the work who 
read THE COMMONS, appreciating that $3 00 
will assure a delightful vacation for one boy at 
the camp, will lend their cheerful aid, this can 
be made a permanent feature of the settle- 
ment's summer activity. 
Who will send one boy to camp this summer? 



THE SUMMER KINDERGARTEN. 



THE BOYS' CAMP. 



Every Prospect of a Successful Summer in the 
Suburbs of Elgin. 



Entertainment of the (iirls 1 Progressive Club As- 
sures Three Able Kindergartners to 
Conduct the Work. 



Elgin has responded nobly to the appeal for 
support of the summer camp of the boys of the 
Commons neighborhood in the vicinity of that 
city. In the last issue of THE COMMONS the 
plan was outlined and an appeal was made for 
the $300 or thereabout needed to equip and 
maintain the encampment. We are as yet far 
from having the whole sum in hand, but the 
response of the people in Elgin churches and 
homes gives assurance of success in the start 
at least. Mr. N. H. Weeks of the settlement 



The Girls' Progressive Club of Chicago Com- 
mons is largely to be thanked for assurance 
that the summer kindergarten is to be inaugu- 
rated with every prospect of the most success- 
ful work in the history of this feature of the 
settlement. The entertainment was given April 
25, and consisted of tableaux, a flag drill, violin 
solos by Mr. Francis Komanes, songs by Miss 
Mari Hofer and piano solos by Miss May Giles 
Smith. The entertainment was a great suc- 
cess from every point of view. 

The summer kindergarten will open the last 



14 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



of June, and Miss Roberts and Miss Morse, of 
the Kindergarten Institute, and Miss Broad, of 
Kansas City, a pupil in Mrs. Andrea Hofer 
Proudfoot's training class at Longwood, a Chi- 
cago suburb. All three are fully trained kinder- 
gartners. In asking for the full support of this 
feature of our summer work from those who 
have helped it in past summers, we can assure 
these friends that the work will be better done 
than ever before. One hundred dollars will 
cover all expenses and keep the kindergarten 
open for all the children of the neighborhood 
during the two months. 



KINDERGARTEN TRAINING SCHOOL. 



Settlement Feature Now a Permanency at Chicago 
Commons Outline of Next Year's Work. 



The attempt to found a kindergarten training 
class on the basis of the settlement kindergar- 
ten, made last summer and fall by Mrs. Bertha 
Hofer Hegner, the Commons kindergartner, has 
proved a striking success, and we regard the 
training school as now a permanent feature of 
the settlement's activity. The advertisement 
of the school, found on another page, will out- 
line the courses for the coming year. The dis- 
tinctive feature of the school is its basis in the 
settlement idea, and its courses in mother-play, 
theory -of gifts and history of education, home- 
making and occupations, psychology and child- 
study, art, music and physical culture, and the 
lectures on the social function of education, 
child-study, practical English, etc., will all 
bear a close relation to actual life and social 
development. 

About twenty kindergartners have taken ad- 
vantage of the opportunity this year, and the 
applications already received assure a full and 
enthusiastic membership next year. The school 
will open on Monday, October 3. Applications 
and inquiries should be addressed to Mrs. 
Hegner at the Commons. 



The educational classes are coming to a 

close after a successful winter's work. 

A budget of settlement news is displaced 

this month by the long articles. The next issue 
will be an especially newsy one in this par- 
ticular. 

"With the advent of warm weather, our 
drinking fountain, the gift of the Evanston 
Woman's Club last year, starts again, and for 
its augmenting patronage of thirsty passers-by 
quietly does its own effective temperance work. 

An account of the exhibition of the Chi- 
cago Arts and Crafts Society is crowded out of 
this issue, but will be published in the next num- 
ber of THE COMMONS. The society was organ- 



ized at Hull House, and has done a really great 
work in arousing interest in the subject of the 
relation between handicraft and the higher life 
of men. We shall endeavor to extend the 
article into a description of the society's work 
and plans. 

Casa de Castelar, the settlement in Los 
Angeles which has been described and illus- 
trated in THE COMMONS, has moved to 428 Al- 
pine street, and now has workers in residence, 
including a housekeeper, nurse, kindergartner 
and a young man, whose name our informant 
does not give, who has charge of the public 
baths which the settlement has opened and 
which are largely patronized. The public li- 
brary supplies a librarian and a reading room 
will be opened. 



GO-OPERATIVE NEWS" 

Organ of the Co-Operative Union of America. 

Subscription Price - 50 Cents a Year. 

Club rate, when ordered with " The Commons." 

Both Magazines, one year, 75 cents. 



"!N His STEPS " 

A Story by REV. CHARLES M. SHELDON, of 
Topeka, Kan. 



ONE OF THE FEW STORIES IN WHICH THE SOCIAL 
SETTLEMENT PLAYS A PART. 



Order through " The Commons." 
Paper Covers, 25 cents. 

Cloth Covers, 75 cents. 



"The Commons" for a year, and 

In His Steps," in cloth covers, $ \ .00 



A. NIEHANS. 



MANUFACTURER OF 




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Rubber Feet with Anklejoint. 

Soft. Pliable. Durable. 



MEDAL AWARDED AT WORLD'S FAIR 1893. 



J67 Washington St., CHICAGO, ILL, 



1898. j 



THE COMMONS. 



15 



Trees, Shrubs and Roses 

<* SPECIAL OFFER ^ 




BY EXPRESS. 

SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. J, complete, - $4.00 

Assortment of 12 trees, shrubs and roses, (our selection). 

SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. 2, complete, $8.50 

Assortment of 28 trees, shrubs, roses and plants, (our selection). 

SUBURBAN COLLECTION No. 3, complete, - $18.00 

Assortment of 70 trees, shrubs, roses and plants, (our selection). 
COM PRISING 

5 Fruit Trees ; apple, cherry and pear ; 4 to 6 ft. 

3 Shade Trees; elm and catalpa; 4 to 6 ft. and cut leaf weeping birch. 

2 Vines ; clematis and honey suckle. 

2 Climbing Roses ; including new Japanese crimson rambler. 
12 Hardy Roses; strong; 2 years, (colors, white, pink, red and yelllow.) 
12 Hardy Shrubs, (lilacs, spireas, barberries, etc.) 
24 Hardy Border Plants, (peonies, iris, phlox, hibiscus, yuccas, etc.) 
10 French Cannas ; strong roots. (Will make large bed.) 
70 No. 3 collection makes a good start on 50 to 75 ft. lot. 



SEND DRAFT OR MONEY ORDER TO 

Payson's Fair Oaks Nursery, 



^- . OAK PARK, ILL. 

We also offer 1800 Shade Trees, 10 to 16 ft. high, at low prices. All 6ne stock. 

PLANTING PLANS sent FREIS to all intending purchasers. 



Sex and Religion 



A series of papers on the important relation of 

the two in national, family and individual life 

BY 

DR. LUTHER GULICK, 

Physical Director, International Y. M. C. A. Training 

School, Springfield, Mass., in successive 

issues of 

44 The Association Outlook' 

LUTHER GULICK, Editor and Manager, 
Springfield, Mass. 



Subscription Price, - 



$J.OO per year. 



P. F. PETTIBONE & Go. 



INCORPORATED 



PRINTERS 

STATIONERS 

BLANK BOOK MAKERS 



Chicago 
Manufacturers of 

PATENT FLEXIBLE 

FLAT OPENING BLANK BOOKS 



Commercial 
Lithographing 




SPECIAL 
ATTENTION TO 

CHURCH 
WORK 



16 



THE COMMONS. 



[April, 



Giiicaoo 

commons 

Kindergarten 

ranino 

school 



Year Opens 
. October 3, 1898 . 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and Practice. A 
course in Home Making. Industrial and Social Development 
Emphasized. Also a Mothers' Class. 

INSTRUCTORS 

BERTHA HOFER HEGNER, . . . Theory and " Mother-Play " 

FREDERICA BEARD, $ Principles and Theory of Gifts 

( and History of Education 

MARI RUEF HOFER, Music and Physical Culture 

MR. GEO. L. SCHREIBER, . . Drawing, Color Work and Design 

MRS. JOHN P. GAVIT Home Making and Occupations 

SPECIALISTS on Psychology and Mother Study 
T FrTUKER c \ P r f- Graham Taylor, Social Function of Education 
( Prof. Colin A. Scott, Aspects of Child Study 



There will be other LECTURES on Special Subjects during the year. For Circulars 
and particulars, address, 

BERTHA HOFER HEQNER, 

140 North Union Street, CHICAGO 



SUMMER SESSION 



OF THE 



Columbia 

School of 

Oratory 

JULY 5-30 




TEACHERS OF EXPRESSION AND 
PHYSICAL CULTURE 

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS 

THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS 

LAW STUDENTS AND BEGINNERS 



SEND FOR CIRCULAR 



MISS MARY A. BLOOD, Principal 
MRS. IDA MOREY RILEY, Associate Prin. 

STEINWAY HALL, CHICAGO 



MDNDN ROUTE 



C HltA6 



THB 




L,INB= 



JiETWEKX 



Chicago 

Indianapolis 

Cincinnati 
L,afayotte 
Louisville 



AND ALL 
POINTS 
SOUTH 



THROUGH SLEEPERS TO CINCINNATI AND WASHINGTON DAILY 



FRANK J. REED, G. P. A. 
CITY TICKET OFFICE, 232 CLARK ST. 
CHICAGO. 



., 



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