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A Monthly Record Devotod to Aspects af Life and Labor from the Settlement Point vf Vlevy. 



Number 69- Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, April, 1903 

U-. 



connection between national progress and tech- 
nical training. "No nation," said he, "can afford 
to import articles which her own artisans can 
manufacture." The excellence of goous offered 
is directly dependent on the training of these 
artisans. England's commerce began to fall off 
as soon as the articles she exported were found to 
be inferior in quality to those made elsewhere. 
Superiority is brought about only by application of 
science to the processes of manufacture. Mr. Car- 
negie was the first man to employ a trained chem- 
ist in connection with the management of a blast 
furnace. Eapidly in every department of industry 
a corps of trained specialists has been added as 
an indispensable part of the working force, to di- 
rect processes, to improve methods, to solve prob- 
lems of handling, and to discover new properties 
and invent new uses for by-products. "It is the 
young, technically trained men that are causing 
this country to forge ahead. It is impossible to 
exaggerate their importance to the industrial de- 
velopment of the country. Thus, for instance, 
dairy schools have been of immense utility to cer- 
tain sections of the country. In Wisconsin, as 
the result of dairy instruction, the dairy interests 
of the State have increased 25 per cent." 

The increased value of the product turned out 
is still more important than the quantity. Here 
Dr. Snyder indicated the great work that the agri- 
cultural experiment stations have done. He 
snowed how the Babcock test for securing the ac- 
tual amount of butter fat in the milk has im- 
proved the quality of the dairy herd, how the 
beautiful fruit orchards of the Michigan west 
shore are due to the invention of spraying as a 
method of fighting destructive insects and fungi; 
how the beet-sugar industry originated in the work 
of the experiment stations. 

President Snyder noted the wonderful industrial 
progress of Germany in recent years, and recalled 
the fact that this success is generally attributed 
to Germany's splendid system of industrial euu- 
cation. 

PROF. HENRY C. ADAMS, ON "HIGHER EDUCATION 
AND THE PEOPLE." 

He spoke of the fact that Michigan has given 
to "education" a very comprehensive meaning, in- 
cluding not only the technical and general educa- 
tion of the school, the college, and the university, 
but the idea of popular education as well, as il- 
lustrated in our system of farmers' institutes. 



THE MICHIGAN CONFERENCE ON 
RURAL SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

This meeting, which was in form a joint ses- 
sion between the Michigan Political Science As- 
sociation and the Michigan Farmers' Institute, 
and in spirit a conference of all who are inter- 
ested in rural life, for discussing rural progress, 
was held February 25-28 at the Agricultural Col- 
lege, near Lansing, Mich. 

FINE PERSONNEL OP AUDIENCE. 

The aim had been to bring together not only 
farmers representing the various agricultural or- 
ganizations of the State, but pastors of country 
churches, rural teachers, county commissioners of 
schools, etc. The farmers were there, hundreds 
of them; but the other classes were not so well 
represented, which was, in fact, the one disap- 
pointment of the meeting. 

Several of the speakers remarked privately upon 
the earnestness and intelligence of the audience. 
And well they might, for the farmers present 
were a body of picked men and women, most of 
them members of the Grange, or farmers' clubs, 
and representing nearly every agricultural county 
in Michigan. The students and faculty of the 
Agricultural College and several members of the 
University faculty helped to make an exceedingly 
fine audience. 

We shall not attempt to report, the last half of 
the meeting, which was devoted to tephnical farm 
topics, such as sugar beets, etc. There were five 
sessions in the joint meeting proper, and an en- 
deavor was made to cover the economic, the edu- 
cational, the social, and religious interests of the 
farmer. 

We give no apology for making considerable 
use in this report of the exceedingly well-written 
and appreciative report of the meeting which ap- 
peared in the M. A. C. Eecord, the official paper 
of the Agricultural College. 

THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION. 

This topic was handled in an able paper by 
President J. L. Snyder, of the Agricultural Col- 
lege. Dr. Snyder defined industrial education to 
mean technical training for industry. After giv- 
ing a brief history of the land-grant colleges, 
which have originated in the last half century, 
and which fully embody the idea of industrial edu- 
cation. Dr. Snyder proceeded to show the direct 



2^99166 



THECOMMON8 



teachers; fourth, the county agricultural school. 
I do not claim that these movements will solve 
the problem, but I do claim they are helpful, and 
that they can be done, for they are being done." 

THE RURAL SCHOOL PROBLEM IN MICHIGAN 

was presented by Prof. Delos I'all, Superintendent 
of Public Instruction of Michigan. He urged a 
liberal education for the country boy. 

This liberal education he defined as a good high 
school education. "The demands on our chil- 
uren," said he, "will be those of the midale of the 
twentieth century, and a high school education is 
the very least equipment we can afford to furnish 
them with to meet these demands." 

Professor Fall then presented his argument on 
expense. For only one-sixth of the country pupils 
the farmers are paying in non-resident tuition to 
high schools $88,000. Add to this for transporta- 
tion, extra clothing, board, and books, an average 
expense of not less than $100 per year per pupil, 
and you get a large sum. Suppose we cut this 
in two and allow $50 to sustain a pupil 
one year at a city high school. Multiply the 
17,000 non-residents by 50 and you get $850,000. 
Add to this the $88,000 and we have nearly one 
million dollars, if you add also the school tax paid 
at home. This sum alone would suffice to main- 
tain the country high school at your own home. 

Then consider how for no added expense the 
high school would be brought within reach of the 
other five-sixths not here reckoned in. 

Another advantage would be the change in the 
character of the high school. The city school at- 
tempts impossible things. It does not serve its 
purpose. 

We must have radical changes in the city high 
school, and the rural high school will be the means 
of bringing about a nearer approach to . the ideal 
of true education. The rural high school will be 
of such a nature that the non-resident tuition will 
go in the opposite direction trom that now found. 

Superintendent Fall emphasized the necessity 
±0T consolidation shown by Mr. Harvey, giving 
examples from his own experience. Of eight dis- 
tricts in Berrien county, none had an attendance of 
over thirteen ; one registered six pupils. The aver- 
age was eight. 

Professor Fall stated that his ambition is to be 
known as a strenuous aavocate of the policy ox 
providing the opportunity for a high school edu- 
cation for every boy and girl in Michigan, espe- 
cially in the country. 

THE GROWTH OP FORESTRY SENTIMENT. 

"The Forestry Question" was the subject for 
an entire session. In the absence of Hon. Gifford 
Pinchot, of Washington, Professor George B. Sud- 



worth, of the United States Bureau of Forestry, 
read a paper on the growth of forestry sentiment 
in this country, of early attempts to accomplish 
something definite in this line, and described at 
length the present large plans and thorougmy 
scientific methods of the Department of Agricul- 
ture in forestry work. 

The problem of forestry as related to Michigan 
was discussed by Hon. E. A. Wildey and Hon. 
Charles W. Garfield, members of the State Forestry 
Commission ; by Professor C. A. Davis, of the 
newly established Department of Forestry in the 
University of Michigan; and by Dr. A. C. Lane, 
State Geologist. 

Mr. Wildey explained what the commission was 
doing in the matter of a forest reserve. This re- 
serve consists of 47,000 acres in twelve townships 
in Crawford and Roscommon counties. In it are 
the headwaters of the most important river sys- 
tem in the State, 700 to 800 feet above the level 
of the lakes, and hence most important for water 
power. The rivers are the Thunder Bay, the Au 
Sable, the Tittabawassee, the Muskegon, and the 
Manistee. He showed the importance of such re- 
serves through the present condition of the Kala- 
mazoo Eiver — much shallower and more variable 
than in former years. The commission has still 
comparatively little power to control these re- 
serves. It is desired that the people be educated 
to demand larger control from the legislature. To 
show what can be done in a comparatively short 
time he showed a section from a Cottonwood tree 
grown on a huckleberry marsh in 25 years. The 
tree was 81 feet high and 36 feet to the first limb. 
It grew in thick timber. 

Professor C. A. Davis pointed out that one- 
sixth of the area of the State is now held for de- 
linquent taxes and is worse than idle. It is a 
menace to other property, and is wholly unpro- 
ductive. 

Mr. Garfield said that it is worth while to 
grow timber on poor land, and the commission is 
trying to set an example on its reserves. We must 
make these six million acres of delinquent land 
produce something. The millionaires should en- 
dow pieces of land where nature can grow forests 
and manage them. The people should stand by 
the Forestry Commission in its efforts to solve this 
problem. 

In the discussion, which was the most animated 
and interesting ever seen in Michigan on this sub- 
ject of forestry, it was brought out that the Caro- 
lina poplar would produce in fifteen or sixteen 
years seven feet in circumference four feet from 
the ground; that it cost the State yearly $66,367 
to advertise these delinquent lands; that a tree 



THE COMMONS 



planted begins very soon to yield money return in 
the shade for stock, the shade increasing the flow 
of milk in the dairy herd; that the State encour- 
ages planting trees on the road by an allowance 
on the road tax; and that in eighteen years sugar 
maples will yield returns in sap. 

THE NEED AND POSSIBILITIES OF FARMERS' 
ORGANIZATIONS. 

This subject was treated in a paper by Hon. 
George B. Horton, master of the State Grange. 
It may be of interest to know that under Mr. 
Horton's ten years of leadership the Grange in 
Michigan has grown in number of Granges from a 
little over 200 to nearly 500, and from about 
10,000 members to some 27,000. 

Mr. Horton very earnestly emphasized the need 
for farmers' organizations on the basis (1) of the 
maintaining of a suflSciently high standard of 
social attainment to make and keep the farmer 
the peer of the best of our people; (2) of an in- 
tellectual training for his business and for the 
exigencies of public affairs; (3) of knowledge of 
the business and markets of the world such as will 
enable him to obtain more of the possibilities and 
enjoyments of life; (4) of such influence upon 
the body politic as will banish fraud, and encour- 
age legislation that gives the greatest good to the 
greatest number. The farmers constitute 40 per 
cent, of our population aijd should have propor- 
tionate influence in legislation. Nor should such 
influence be feared, for the farmer is by nature 
patriotic, conservative, and wise. 

Mr. Horton described how the Grange seeks to 
secure these ends and how it works out its prin- 
ciple. He also paid a tribute to the farmers' 
clubs and stated that these two farmers' organiza- 
tions are working in harmony and for common 
ends. They are in no sense partisan bodies, being 
very careful not to get involved in political quar- 
rels. Nor do they meddle with sectarian questions, 
though their influence is for better morals. 

Mr. Horton, however, does not favor the cen- 
tralization of schools as advocated by Superin- 
tendents Harvey and Fall, and took occasion to 
present very vigorously the other side of the case. 
He thinks the movement for centralization is like- 
ly to destroy interest among rural people in their 
schools and to be more expensive than the present 
plan. 

THE CHtTRCH AS A CENTER OP BUBAL OBOAHIZATIOK. 

This subject was assigned to Graham Taylor 
and the M. A. C. Record reports it as follows : 

"One of the most remarkable addresses of the 
whole mesting was delivered by Graham Tay- 
lor, professor in Chicago Theological Seminary, 
and of Chicago Commons Social Settlement. He 



spoke from a conviction born of direct, living con- 
tact with the most hopeless problems of social life. 

"Dr. Taylor commenced by denouncing the 
'fatal facility with which men forget the purpose 
and reason for the existence of established institu- 
tions. " The institutionalism which substitutes 
means for ends and subverts the ends in slavishly 
serving the means isi_ the very insanity of history. 
Examples were found in commercialism, which, 
substituting competition for co-operation, sacri- 
flces th* many to the few and brings about the 
death of trade; in the schools and universities, 
which, making knowledge an end instead of a 
means and apotheosizing culture for culture's sake, 
fail to minister to the life of the people. Next in 
meanness to an aristrocracy of wealth is an aris- 
tocracy of intellect too often prevalent among 
half-cultivated people who "fall short of knowing 
enough to know what is yet to be known." 

Dr. Taylor then traced the history of the church, 
which seeks to build itself up out of a community 
instead of seeking to build up the community out 
of itself, thus creating the paradox of a com- 
munity of Christians not being a Christian com- 
munity. 

"X)r. Taylor then traced the history of the 
church, beginning in New England, as the center of 
every community, and of its whole life. He showed 
now the problem had been changed by immigration 
and migration, until the country church was left 
to one side of the stream of human activity, cut 
off from the masses (1) by the diversity of lan- 
guage; (2) by diversity of traditions; (3) by 
multiplicity of sects. Forty-four per cent, of forty 
.and more townships in Vermont (Vermont, the 
most American of all the States) never go to 
church, while in that same State the churches were 
spending $1.50 for each man, woman, and child 
of the population. 

' ' Country life suffers from lack of social life. 
This it is the church's function to provide. It 
should have (1) a vision of its social functions; 
(2) a far-sighted view of denominationalism; (3) 
a power of generating public spirit, the spirit of 
cross-bearing. 

"In discussing these social functions Dr. Taylor 
insisted that the church should master the facts 
to be dealt with. In this connection he showed 
two charts made by young preachers (one in a 
city, the other in the country), recording the ac- 
tual facts of the neighborhood — recording, for 
instance, the number of people in each block 
(2,500 inhabitants in one block on oue map), the 
location of each saloon, etc. He showed the vary- 
ing methods of real service by which the saloon 
appeals to its community, the educative position 



6 



TH E COM Mt>N8 



of the theaters in the slums, etc., etc. "We muBt 
get more worldly, not less so." 

"He laid great emphasis on the evils of denom- 
inationalism, showing the demand for centraliza- 
tion. "The division of the forces of righteous- 
ness is the greatest bar to progress. We can't 
pray alifce, but we can have the co-operative unity 
of the spirit." The final test of the usefulness of 
the church is the attitude of denominations toward 
each other. 

Without Professor Taylor's permission we want 
to quote a comment from the Michigan Farmer, of 
Detroit : 

"Dr. Graham Taylor, of Chicago, easily car- 
ried oft the palm as the most entertaining orator 
01 the whole meeting in his address upon the above 
theme. His clear understanding of the economic 
principles of educational, social, and political or- 
ganizations and institutions appealed strongly t« 
the appreciation of the representative farmers 
and taxpayers to whom he spoke." 

K. L. Butterfield and B. L. Melendy discussed 
the subjects of the afternoon. 

DEPENDENCE OF AGRICULTUKE ON TRANSPORTATION. 

Judge Prouty, of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, had this theme, and his vigorous con- 
demnation of modem railway methods as to 
freight-rate making was fxilly appreciated by the 
audience of farmers. Judge Prouty said that 
"among the factors of great interest to this 
country the farmer stands first, the railroad sec- 
ond." He then proceeded to show the relations 
between these factors. "The railroad," he said, 
"determines the profit to the farmer of his com- 
modity. As an illustration of this point, the 
statement was made that one dollar a ton has 
beea charged by the railroads for transporting 
hay from Michigan to Boston. This being an 
excessive rate, makes the raising of hay by the 
Michigan farmer, for transportation, unprofit- 
able. Again, by reason of a just freight rate, 
Nebraska creameries can compete in the Lowell, 
Mass., markets with those of St. Albans, Vt. 
Hence freight rates determine prosperity. The 
farmer, unlike other classes, cannot combine. He 
is at the mercy of corporations." 

The speaker referred to the combination effected 
by the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Btir- 
lington roads. Seventy-five per cent of the busi- 
ness of the first two named is competitive. By 
combination a higher rate will be charged and 
poorer service rendered, although the promoters 
claim that the freight rates will be lowered. It 
stands to reason that combination is bronght 
about for the increasing of revenues. Bevenues 
are increased by higher rates, not by increase in 



business or by decrease in expenses. "Law," 
said the speaker, "is powerless to prevent combi- 
nation, but it can adjudge rates and can do so 
because the railroad is a public servant." 

THE DEPARTICENT OT AGBICiri,TnRE AND THE FARM. 

Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson made 
his first address before a body of Michigan farm- 
ers, with the above topic as his theme. He ex- 
plained clearly and fully the leading functions 
and the methods of the department. Probably 
many intelligent people have not the slightest 
notion of the great strides the department has 
been making and the great work it is doing. It 
is impossible to give in limited space an ade- 
quate resume of Secretary Wilson's interesting 
address. 

DEPENDENCE OF AGBICULTnBE ON THE HOME 
MARKET. 

Prof. E. D. Jones, who came this year to the 
University of Michigan to take charge of the 
courses in higher commercial education, read one 
of the meatiest papers of the entire program. He 
discussed the many losses that accrue to society 
through the exchanging of certain products be- 
tween distant markets, especially of the raw ma- 
terial. He urged that so far as practicable, com- 
munities would work up the raw material and 
ship as manufactured goods. 

As far as the farmer is concerned, the local 
market is a great factor in stimulating a more 
extensive agriculture. Local industries not only 
help the villages, but they help the farmer. He 
thinks that our country towns can manufacture 
laec, Hamburg edging, Plauen goods, carved fur- 
niture, bric-a-brac, etc. In fruit regions can- 
ning factories may be built to absorb the surplus. 
In natural dairy sections, creameries should be 
numerous, and the beet sugar industry is a cap- 
ital illustration of just this sort of union between 
the prosperity of the town and the development 
of better and more profitable farming. Almost 
every village has within it the capacity to make 
a product that will be admired throughout the 
country and will make it the Mecca of some craft. 
The geography of skill, experience, genius and 
perseverence is not like the geography of coal 
and iron, and no community need despair of its 
futiire. Our villages stagnate with an abundance 
of unused labor talent. The village is a great 
unused American force. 

CONFERENCES OF FARMERS, TEACHERS AND PAS- 
TORS PROVmED FOR. 

A resolution was unanimously adopted asking 
the officials of the Agricultural College, the 
Farmers' Institutes and the Political Science 



THE COMMONS 



Association, to take steps to organize future con- 
ferences, both state and local, where the object 
shall be to bring together farmers, rural teach- 
ers and pastors for the purpose of discussing rural 
social progress. 

Thus it seems quite certain that the fruits of 
this splendid meeting will not be lost. This is 
believed to be the first attempt on record to ac- 
complish this federation of rural social agencies, 
and its promoters, are chiefly anxious that it may 
simply be the forerunner of numerous and better 
meetings of a similar purpose. 

The hearty co-operation of President Snyder, 
of the Agricultural College, and Prof. C. D. 
Smith, of Farmers' Institutes, is cordially ac- 
knowledged, but the credit for the program be- 
longs chiefly to Prof. H. C. Adams, and the results 
of the meeting are a tribute to his interest in 
practical movements. 

More than that, the meeting is significant as 
illustrating the new interest that is being aroused 
in the rural problem. The papers by Dr. Cooley 
and Dr. Jones are indications of a mere begin- 
ning in a scientific study of rural sociological 
and economic questions. 

The impression that the meeting left upon the 
audience is also worth noting. The farmers ap- 
preciated the idea upon which the program was 
based and cordially commend it. The profes- 
sional men present were equally impressed. And 
it is safe to say that such conferences as these 
are entirely practicable, if wisely planned and 
conducted, and there can be no question as to 
their value. K. L. B. 



Thoreau's "Walden" Estimated by Howells. 

I have not read the story of his hermitage 
beside Walden Pond since the year 1858, but I 
have a fancy that if I should take it up now, 
I would think it a wiser and truer conception 
of the world than I thought it then. It is no 
solution of the problem; men are not going to 
answer the riddle of the painful earth by building 
themselves shanties and living upon beans and 
watching ant-fights; but I do not believe Tolstoy 
himself has more clearly shown the .hollowness, 
the hopelessness, the unworthiness of the life of 
the world than Thoreau did in that book. If 
it were newly written it could not fail of a far 
vaster acceptance than it had then, when to those 
who thought and felt seriously it seemed that 
if slavery could only be controlled, all things else 
would come right of themselves with us. Slavery 
has not only been controlled, but it has been 
destroyed, and yet things have not begun to come 
right with us; but it was in the order of Provi- 



dence that chattel slavery should cease before 
industrial slavery, and the infinitely cruder and 
stupider vanity and luxury bred of it, should 
be attacked. If there was then any prevision of 
the struggle now at hand, the seers averted their 
eyes, and strove only to cope with the lesser 
evil. Thoreau himself, who had so clear a vision 
of the falsity and folly of society as we still 
have it, threw himself into the tide that was al- 
ready, in Kansas and Virginia, reddened with 
war; he aided and abetted the John Brown raid, 
I do not recall how much or in what sort; and 
he had suffered in prison for his opinions and 
actions. It was this inevitable heroism of his 
that, more than his literature even, made me 
wish to see him and revere him. — W. D. Howells 
in "Literary Friends and Acquaintance." 



HOW MICHIGAN'S AGRICUL- 
TURAL COLLEGE UNIFIES 
AND ENRICHES RURAL 
^ LIFE. 

BY C. D. SMITH, DKSECTOB OF THE EXPERIMENT 
STATION. 

The Michigan Agricultural College, nurtured, 
as it is, alike by the general government and 
appropriations by the state, does not content 
itself with the work it does for such young men 
and women as can leave their own homes for 
either a four-year course at the college, or for 
the brief stay necessary to take the special 
courses. Through the Farmers' Institutes it 
reaches a large number of farmers once each 
year, calling the people together in small audi- 
ences in the country schoolhouses, grange halls 
and churches to listen to discussions of agricul- 
tural topics and of social topics as well, and to 
take part in such discussions. One idea followed 
out in these Institutes is to bring together in 
harmonious action the various forces now en- 
gaged in the betterment of rural life. The Grange 
and the Farmers' Clubs have their part in the 
program, in the preparation for the meeting, and 
in the discussions. The country church is recog- 
nized, often by holding the meeting itself in the 
church, by calling on the pastor to discuss the 
part played by his local organization in enrich- 
ing life and suppressing moral turpitude, and 
by placing on the program topics relating to the 
relation of the church to the community. The 
schools are recognized by placing on the program 
topics relating to rural schools, to be discussed 
by county superintendents or other school officers, 
followed by other citizens especially interested 
in the topic. Finally, in all Institute work, the 
family is regarded as the unit of society, and 



8 



THE COMMONS 



questions relating to home life are taught from 
every platform; what reading should be found 
in the home; how to encourage habits of in- 
dustry in the children; the creation of an ideal 
other than purely utilitarian, and similar topics 
give rise to animated discussion at many Insti- 
tutes. 

The round-up or closing Institute of the series 
is held by the Agricultural College. The rail- 
roads express their appreciation of the value of 
the meetings by granting all Institute workers 
half-fare rates to all the meetings, and extend 
the same concession to the public generally in 
attending the closing Institute. At this Round- 
up Institute there was held, this year, a joint 
meeting of the Michigan Political Science Asso- 
ciation and the Michigan Farmers' Institutes. 
The theme was the unification of the forces en- 
gaged in the betterment of rural life. The pro- 
gram was heartily received by the host of farm- 
ers present. More than one citizen long past 
middle life and living in an isolated community 
came to me at the close of the Institute and almost 
in tears expressed his gratitude that there- had 
been revealed to him aspects of his own life 
that had theretofore been withheld from him. 

The Institute movement is not the sole expres- 
sion of the extension work of the college. There 
is organized a system of reading for the country 
home by which the best books are nominated and 
means provided for their purchase at low rates. 
Further, the state, by special appropriation, pro- 
vides traveling libraries which go to communi- 
ties where half a dozen apply, and there remain 
for three months. The number of these libraries 
now scattered over Michigan is slightly over three 
hundred. The circulation of the books is very 
large, and the amount of good accomplished be- 
yond calculation. 

The general government furnishes to each 
state a fund to be spent in performing experi- 
ments with farm crops and animals, and study- 
ing insects and fungous diseases. That fund goes 
to the Agricultural College in Michigan, and 
there are forty thousand families now receiving 
the bulletins which give the results of the experi- 
ments conducted at the college and elsewhere by 
this fund. 

Such are, briefly stated, the various forms of 
the extension work of the college whereby the 
institution strives to help adult citizens in their 
own homes. At the college the young women are 
trained in household duties, cooking, sewing and 
domestic science generally, with a strong admix- 
ture of domestic art. They are trained to be 
good wives and good housekeepers at the same 



time they are educated in the languages, music 
and the sciences. Space forbids details, but the 
import of the movement can scarcely be compre- 
hended by the citizen to whom its very existence 
is new. 

To the young men a training somewhat sim- 
ilar is given, the idea being to train the mind 
and hand together at the same time that the 
studies in language, the sciences and the humani- 
ties are being pursued. 

THE HESPERIA MOVEMENT— ITS 
ORIGIN AND PURPOSE. 

D. E. McClube, Chief Clerk, Dep.\btmen-t op 
State, Lansing, Michigan. 
The movement was organized in the autumn 
of 1892. The writer, who is a granger, met with 
the Hesperia Grange and submitted a plan 
whereby the teachers and grangers of Oceana 
and Xewaygo counties organized a joint associa- 
tion to meet the second Thursday of the follow- 
ing February. The initial meeting grew out of 
a correspondence with Mr. and Mrs. Scott, mem- 
bers of the Hesperia Grange, to whom much credit 
is due in the organization of the Hesperia move- 
ment. At Hesperia is a large rink which the own- 
ers have made over into an opera house, and in 
this building the annual meetings of the associa- 
tion are held. 

SOCIAL BASIS rOK RURAL IMPROVEMENT. 

In my visits as commissioner of schools to the 
districts of Oceana county, I discovered that in 
neighborhoods where the rural folk met together 
for social and intellectual purposes, where there 
are a few good books circulating through the 
community, conditions were much better socially 
and intellectually than in communities where 
such conditions did not exist. 

Oceana county was organized into several dis- 
tricts, each having a local teachers' and patrons' 
association, each having a lecture course, and 
through the educational sentiment developed by 
these associations came the district school library. 
The Hesperia movement has a larger organiza- 
tion combining Oceana and Xewaygo counties. 
Hesperia is situated in both counties. The annual 
meeting occurs in February, commencing usually 
the second Thursday, and continuing in session 
until Sunday night. The evening sessions are 
given up to lectures by distinguished speakers of 
state and national reputation. The day meetings 
are employed in addresses, papers and discussions 
upon subjects pertaining to home, school, farm 
and civic life, interspersed with music and reci- 
tations. On Sunday all village and country folk, 
together with the stranger "within the gates, 
attend union meetings at the place of meeting. 



THE COMMONS 



9 



"the bio meeting." 

When I state the fact that Hesperia is a vil- 
lage of seven hundred souls, situated twelve miles 
from a railroad, and that I have audiences num- 
bering fifteen hundred interested, inspired people 
at the "big meeting," there ma7 be some who 
will doubt, but, doubter, attend the meeting and 
see for yourself. 

Col. Francis W. Parker, now of blessed mem- 
ory. Dr. Arnold Tompkins, ""Will Carleton," 
Hamilton Wright Mabie, Byron King, Eev. J. 
Morgan Wood, Principal W. N. Ferris and Hon. 
H. E. Pattengill, who have addressed the "big 
meetings," say there is nothing equal to it in 
America for inspiration, social and civic uplift. 

Hon. H. E. Pattengill, the best state superin- 
tendent, so far as the rural school interests are 
concerned, that Michigan ever had, and Principal 
W. N. Ferris, of the Ferris Industrial School, Big 
Eapids, helped create educational sentiment which 
helped on the "big meeting." Mr. Pattengill 
made twenty-eight and Mr. Ferris thirty-one ad- 
dresses in the rural lecture courses of Oceana 
county within the eight years that I was com- 
missioner of schools. 

The foundation purpose of the organization 
was a closer communion, sympathy and co-opera- 
tion of all the educational elements of the rural 
communities. As the movement took hold upon 
community life, the horizon lifted, ahd libraries 
for district schools, clean schoolyards and school- 
rooms, a larger use for education, a surer and 
longer tenure of service for teachers, with bet- 
ter wages, a socializing of rural conditions, were 
stars shining ever in the heavens of hope. These 
conditions, in some measure, have been realized, 
and are being realized. The inspiration, the song 
sung, the oration given at the "big meeting," 
have sunk too deep into thousands of care-bur- 
dened lives to be effaced. Many counties in 
Michigan have adopted and are adopting the 
movement, and it has made its way into many 
states, "has become national," as State Superin- 
tendent Fall says. 

• A CmC-CENTEE BUILDING NEEDED. 

The movement has reached a point now where 
we need a building which shall be dedicated to 
the civic, spiritual, intellectual life of the com- 
munity. A committee, of which Mr. Neal Mc- 
Calum is chairman, has been appointed to inves- 
tigate and make recommendations as to such a 
building. 

No extension movement, university or other- 
wise, will prove adequate to the social, civic, 
intellectual and spiritual life of rural communi- 
ties, since the force that socializes must be in 



the midst of the community — must be a part of 
its very life. The extension movement is an ad- 
mirable means to help raise the level of rural 
community life. The end to be reached, that we 
desire to reach by the Hesperia movement, is 
a building in which may be developed to a high 
degree the social, civic, spiritual and intellectual 
life of the community. This factor in community 
life is not intended to' displace any church or 
secret fraternal organization, but is one around 
which all parties, all creeds, all societies, can rally. 
The community shall own this building. It 
shall be the home in which aU that is best, all 
that makes for happiness, all that broadens and 
deepens Ufe's best impressions, all that makes 
government stronger, men less self-centered, life 
sweeter, may be developed. The Hesperia move- 
ment is doing this now. The movement is not 
a dream, not a theory, for it has passed beyond 
these into reality. 

SERVICE THE WATCHWORD OP PROGRESS. 

What do the philauthropical library, social set- 
tement movements, supported by the immensely 
rich, portend? Translated into the life of the 
twentieth century, they mean that there shall be 
no standing in the future social life of this 
nation for the vulgarly rich. / serve is the key- 
note of the new-old gospel. The world yearns 
to-day for an education of service, a religion 
of service, a living of service. Wherever vice, 
ignorance, crime predominate in communities, 
the cure is not for the good people to move out, 
but for more good people to move in. The world 
is coming to see that Emerson was right when he 
said: "A vulgar community is one whose 
poetry has not yet been written, but which you 
shall presently make as sweet as any. A social 
being, the normally organized man returns to 
society with usury the gifts wherewith he has 
been by society endowed." And this truth will 
be the starting-point of the ethical teaching of 
the coming years. 

Personality cannot live within itself, to perish 
with the individual Ufe of man. And so, little 
by little, age by age, society, which has created 
man, is by man transformed. Of supreme impor- 
tance in this work is the influence of those few 
transcendent minds whose genius pierces the 
unknown; of those pioneers of thought and con- 
duct who dare to stand alone in untrodden ways; 
of those devoted lovers of their kind, who, often 
in obloquy and pain, reveal the possibilities of a 
spiritual life. 

It is chiefly through these that the mass of 
humanity is lifted in some small degree above 
the plane of physical necessity into the freer air 
of liberty and light. 



10 



THE COMMONS 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBOR- 
HOOD WORKERS OF NEW 
YORK. 

Edited fob the Association 
BY Mart Kingsbubt Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



Classes for Neighborhood Workers. 

The attention of the Association of Neighbor- 
hood Workers was called in December to the need 
of some definite training for settlement workers, 
both resident and non-resident. After a good deal 
of discussion it was finally decided to confine our 
efforts this season to getting up a lecture course 
with class features, and a course in elementary 
handicrafts. 

The lecture course will be given by Mr. Bobert 
A. "Woods, of the South End House, Boston, and 
will be held at the West Side Neighborhood 
House. 

Morning CTass, 10:30 A. M. — Tuesday, April 1; 
Thursday, April 3; Tuesday, April 8; Thursday, 
April 10; Friday, April 11; Tuesday, April 15. 

Evening Class, 8 P. M. (Bepetition of morning 
course.) — Tuesday, April 1; Thursday, April 3; 
Monday, April 7; Tuesday, April 8; Thursday 
April 10; Monday, April 14. 

SY1.I.ABUS or COTTRSK. 

I. "The Weak in the Struggle." — Minimizing 
waste in production — The causes of poverty 
and pauperism and how they may be at- 
tacked — Shutting off the contagion of pau- 
perism and degeneracy. 

IL "The Aristocracy of. Labor." — ^How to stimu- 
late, safeguard and provide appropriate 
opportunity for ability and genius — Public 
importance of preventing the waste of abil- 
itv — Educational reform. 

III., IV.,' v., ' ' The Middle Class of Labor— the 
Working Class Proper." — (This class is 
not accessible primarily by its necessities, 
on the one hand, nor by its ambitions, on 
the other. It is accessible on the basis of 
its loyalties.) 
(1) Trade Unionism, (2) Socialism, (3) 
Politics, (4) Nationality, (5) Family and 
Neighborhod Ties, (6) Religion.' 

VI. ' ' The Settlement. ' ' — AJi instrument cleverly 
designed to secure access to this little- 
known, but vitally important social stratum. 
Its policy as to instituting or co-operating 
with organized charity (1), with educa- 
tional institutions (2), with working-class 
organizations (3) — The new tasks which it 
would place upon the municipal adminis- 
tration — Its influence toward the reorgan- 
ization of neighborhood life — Its influence 
toward democratic social relations through- 
out a city. 

REFEHEXCES. 

Mr. Woods requests all persons attending the 
classes to do the following reading, especially the 
selections marked with the asterisk: 



I. Charles Booth, '"Labor and Life of the Peo- 
ple," Vol. I. Part L 
Warner, "American Charities." 
II. Marshall "Principles of Economics," Vol. L, 
Part VT. 
Bliss, " EncyclopiBdia of Social Beform." 
Articles on Education, Industrial Education. 
U. S. Labor Bureau, 1892, "Beport on 
Technical Education." 
ill. Hobson, "Evolution of Modem CapitaUsm. " 
Trant "Trade Unions." 
Schseflla, *' ' Theory and Policy of Labor Pro- 
tection. ' ' 
rV. Kirkup, '"History of Socialism." 

Bussell, "German Social Democracy." 
Webb, "Socialism in England." 

V. Jane Addams, '"Ethical Survivals in Munici- 

pal Corruption. ' ' — International Journal 

of Ethics, April, 1898. 
"The City Wilderness." 
Albert Shaw, ' ' Municipal Government in 

England — in Continental Europe. ' ' 

VI. Buskin, *"Unto This Last." 

Woods, "English Social Movements," Chap- 
ter III. 
Coit, "Neighborhood Guilds." 
"Philanthropy and Social Progress." 
The Courses in Elementabt Hakdicraits 
are to be given at the School of Ethical Culture, 
1C9 West Fifty-fourth street. Ten lessons each 
in Basketry, Cord Work and Baffia, Bent Iron 
and Clay Modeling, at cost of course per person, 
$6.50. 

Each of the above courses will be given if six 
or more pupils are assured. These courses will 
be arranged for the afternoons, two or three les- 
sons a week, as desired. 

If these courses prove popular the association 
expects to enlarge the plan next season. 

Child Labor. 

Friends of the movement for the establishment 
of juvenile courts will deplore the appearance in a 
recent issue of the Juvenile Becord of a leading 
editorial calculated to alienate the largest possible 
number of allies and friends of such courts. 

This publication (*) flies at its masthead the 
assertion, "We advocate the establishment of a 
juvenile court in every State in the Union." It is, 
therefore; particularly unfortunate for it to print 
as a leading editorial an article offensive not alone 
to the trades unions the whole country over, but 
also to the National Consumers' League, with its 
many branch leagues, and to all those numerous 
workers in the settlements who have long been 
patiently striving to protect the all too brief child- 
hood of the boys and girls of the working class. 

After a few more such articles the unhappy de- 
pendent and delinquent children in whose interest 

*The Juvenile Becord is published at 25 West 
Twenty-fourth street. New York; 79 Dearborn 
street, Chicago, and in Portland, Ore. 



THE COMMONS 



11 



this paper is professedly published, and who are 
the beneficiaries of the juvenile courts, might well 
pray, "Lord ! Deliver us from our friends ! " 

The leading eaitorial in the February issie 
rests upon the brutal and belated theory that so- 
ciety can permit young children under the age of 
fourteen years to maintain adults by wage labor. 
A. semblance of humane intent is maintained by 
proposing that the young victims shall be selected 
by a judge. 

Happily, we have a warning example in the ex- 
perience of Wisconsin, where the child labor law 
has been vitiated ever since its enactment by this 
odious provision. There a judge may "exempt" 
a child from the protection which the law affords 
other children, if the family is poor. No judge 
has time to serve as investigator of the economic 
conditions of hundreds of poor families, and to 
ascertain how far the poverty may be due to causes 
for which the net result is that the calendar and 
docket are always so crowded that the judge relies 
upon the deputy factory inspectors for the facts 
in the case. The deputy factory inspectors are 
thus diverted from their legitimate duty of visit- 
ing factories to the wholly irrelevant task of in- 
vestigating questions of pauperism. The number 
of children exempted from the protection which 
the law should scrupulously give to the most de- 
fenseless grows constantly greater; the grant- 
ing of exemption to one shiftless family becomes 
a reason for granting it to others. 

Suburban Sanitary Inspection. 

The Civic Sanitation Association of Orange, K. 
J., has appointed a woman sanitary inspector. 
Territorially the inspection will center in Orange, 
but embrace the adjacent districts of the Oranges. 
The work of the inspector will be, first, systematic 
investigation of sanitary conditions in the dis- 
tricts concerned, including attention to individual 
complaiiits and insistence upon effectual action by 
the local boards of health, when injurious con- 
ditions are found to exist. Second, securing the 
co-operation of tenants in maintaining public 
health by exercising their rights as citizens to de- 
mand a proper system of public sanitation by the 
individual care of their own premises. 

The position of the inspector is unofficial and 
the salary is assured by private subscription. Her 
office will be in some central building of Orange. 

The Civic Sanitation Association is an active 
organization of prominent residents of the 
Oranges. 

Miss Helen Thompson, agent of the New York 
Charity Organization Society, and a resident of 
the Friendly Aid Settlement, a graduate of Vassar 
of the class of 1899, has been chosen to fill this 
position. 



Barnard Sociological Club. 

The interested student of sociology with leisure 
to continue his study aftfir leaving college turns 
about in some uncertainty to know where to put 
his energy. The settlement offers a practical field 
and he eagerly embraces the opportunity to test 
his theories. But the settlement is a bewildering 
mass of needs, which offers little opportunity for 
anything but acting quickly and continuously. The 
relation of things and the broader view is so often 
lost to sight in the necessity of the moment. 

It was somewhat with these thoughts — the 
search for a supplement to settlement work — that 
a little club of Barnard graduates was formed a 
year and a half ago to try, if might be, to build 
up a lasting organization by the undertaking of 
some piece of work. 

For several months the members floundered 
about, finding invariably that the work they most 
wanted to do was already being done more ef- 
fectively than they could do it by some other 
agency. The first light came when the club was 
allowed the privilege of sending delegates to the 
Association of Neighborhood Workers. Here it 
came in touch with all of the more important so- 
cial problems of the city. Finally a plan was sug- 
gested by the president of the association which 
seemed eminently suitable for the club members 
to undertake. This was the bringing out of a 
guide to the social activities of Greater New York 
— not a duplicate in any way of the Charities Di- 
rectory, but a readable description of what typical 
social activities may be seen in New York and 
how and when to see them. This handbook would 
address itself especially to strangers coming to 
New York and anxious to see something besides 
the theaters, desirous of getting an insight into 
the various church, school, and settlement activities 
and to see something of the way in which the city 
cares for its sick and its mentally and morally 
defective. 

This "Social Baedeker" would describe, for in- 
stance, what could be seen at some large settle- 
ment on one of the evenings when things were "in 
full swing," and what other places of interest in 
the neighborhood might easily be visited the same 
evening. Such a guide the Barnard Sociological 
Club hopes to bring out in the coming year. A 
book of this nature would of necessity require fre- 
quent re-editing, but this would be a small matter. 

We have dwelt at some length upon this under- 
taking because it seemed not unlikely that there 
might be other groups of students in other cities 
who might find such an undertaking extremely 
useful. As for the persons engaged in such a 
work, it would be hard to overestimate its vsliio 



12 



THE COMMONS 



as a means of placing them in immediate touch 
with th« resources of their own city. 

Cerise Caeman. 

New York Labor Notes. 

TWO BAD LABOR LAW AMENDMENTS. 

For three weeks psist a strong effort has been on 
foot to stop the passage of two very objection- 
able amendments to the New York labor law. 
One, and the most serious, is a Senate bill intro- 
duced by Mr. Marshall in the interests of candy 
manufacturers, which would free women over 
twenty-one years of age from any limitation of the 
hours of their work in factories. The attorney  
who drafted the bill and others interested in it 
state that it was not meant to increase the hours 
of labor, but merely to allow women to work oy 
night or by day within the ten hours a day at 
present allowed by law. Whether those concerned 
were really unable to see the effect that would be 
produced by their very clearly worded bill or 
whether they were desirous of withdrawing with 
some pretense at decent intentions it is impossible 
to say. Protests were sent to all the members of 
the committee that had the matter in charge, and, 
through many prominent individuals and through 
the settlements, to individual members of the Sen- 
ate and the Assembly. The labor people were also 
stirred up in the matter, and sufficient pressure 
was brought to bear within a week of the time it 
was taken in hand, to cause the passage of a mo- 
tion to reconsider the bill on tne day after it was 
passed by a unanimous vote of the Senate. The 
motion was tabled, and the chances are that it 
will not come up again; but ii it does, it will only 
be defeated, as we are most definitely assured by 
Senator Grady, who entered the motion to recon- 
sider. It was most astonishing that neither the 
labor people nor those persons interested in the 
conditions of working had any knowledge that such 
a bill was on the stocks until it was taken up by 
the Consumers' League nearly a fortnight after 
the bill was referred to the committee. The news- 
papers took the matter up with warmth and nearly 
all gave space to the objections to such a bill, 
which would have put New York far behind in its 
factory legislation and have left us where we were 
before the laws of 1899. 

The other bill attacked was introduced in the 
Assembly by Mr. Fowler, and simply removed all 
butter and cheese factories frota the category of 
factories, thus freeing them from all factory in- 
spection whatever. It is not likely that a bill so 
obviously drawn in the inter^t of a special in- 
dustry would be allowed to pass when once atten- 
tion has been drawn to it. The replies made to 
the protests against this bill have, however, been 



nrost amusing. The chairman of the committee 
has; written in the most patronizing style that be 
has no doubt the worthy ladies know a great deal 
about city conditions and needs, but that butter 
and cheese factories are to be understood only by 
those born and brought up in the country, a? is 
the case with himself. He evidently thinks the 
protest made is purely on account of the women 
and children, and states definitely that none are 
employed and that the reason for the proposed 
bUl is that the millt must come in early from the 
farms, so that it is absolutely necessary to open 
the factories before 6 o'clock. Unfortunately for 
his case, he overlooks the fact that even city-bred 
people may be familiar with the labor law and 
know that if his statement is true that no women 
or children are employed, nothing in the law would 
prevent his opening his factories at any hour he 
pleases or running them day and night. Also, un- 
fortunately for his cause, in his desire to em- 
phasize his right to be accepted as an authority 
in the matter he inadvertently states that he is 
personally the treasurer of a cheese factory, which 
seems to vitiate his value as an unprejudiced wit- 
ness. The proposer of the bill is equally ingenuous 
and more logical in his statement, made more than 
once, that the factory inspectors are a great nui- 
sance, coming around all the time and making them 
do unnecessary things, and that they are going to 
get rid of them. As a matter of fact, if the fac- 
. tories employ no women and children, the only 
effect of the factory law upon them is to insure 
to the employees proper protection agsiinst fire 
and accident and to enforce proper sanitary con- 
ditions. We are given to understand that this 
bill, too, has been practically disabled. 

Susan Walker Fitzgerald. 

Tree-Planting in New York. 

The treeiessness of New York has been noted 
by almost everyone who has seen its streets. 

The writer well remembers the picture, seen 
years ago in an old magazine, of the proud East 
Side boy "who knew where there was a tree." 

He also knows of an old up-state Methodist 
preacher who had been sent to New York by his 
church to work in the West Side tenements. h.o 
had been married over fifty years ago underneath 
a bough of apple blossoms, and had never failed 
to bring to his wife each year the very first blos- 
soms he had seen. He moved to New York, and, 
having no trees in sight, went to the country at 
the time he felt that the blossoms had come, only 
to find apples half an inch in diameter. When he 
was mildly derided for not knowing when the 
apple trees bloomed, he said : "How could I know 



THE COMMONS 



13 



that it was spring here in New York? The only 
thing I had to guide me was the way my feet 
felt." 

To give people some other way of knowing that 
spring has come there has recently been formed, 
under the auspices of the Tree-Planting Associa; 
tion, a special department known as the Tenement 
District Shade Tree Committee. 

The leading spirit in the movement has been 
Mr. Datus C. Smith, the chairman. 

At the outset the committee was told that trees 
would not grow in New York streets, but this ob- 
jection was overcome by pointing to the fact that 
at least a few trees did live. 

Then, having located such trees, their species 
and surroundings were carefully noted, and a de- 
■cision was reached as to what kind of trees should 
be planted and how the planting should be done. 

On these points the opinions of experts in the 
Department of Agriculture were obtained. 

This spring the committee will content itself 
■with planting about fifty trees in front of churches 
and settlements in the tenement regions. 

Next year, however, there will be a movement 
to secure the consent of property holders on ea- 
tire blocks, so that instead of a tree here and there, 
whole rows of trees will adorn ' ' the brick-walled 
streets. ' ' 

Archibald Hill. 

(Note. — Mr. Siebrecht, who has planted many 
trees for the association, recommends the North 
Carolina poplar, the German linden, and the soft- 
wood varieties of maples as the best trees for city 
planting. The cost of planting the trees in New 
York ranges from $10 to $20.— Ed.) 

New Neighborhood Club. 

A Neighborhood Club has been formed on the 
Middle East Side, which meets at the home of 
the secretary, Mrs. Herbert Parsons, 112 East 
Thirty-fifth street. 

The object of this club is to co-operate with the 
forces working in the interest of the neighborhood, 
which is a singularly varied one, extending from 
Fifth avenue on one side to East Eiver on the 
other. The plan of the club is to have three re- 
ports at each meeting. At the first meeting re- 
ports were made on the Tree-Planting Association, 
the new Kip's Bay Nursery and the Seventh Dis- 
trict of the Charity Organization Society. Any 
neighbor is eligible to membership, but is ex- 
pected to show some practical interest in some 
one of the organizations or activities engaged in 
neighborhood improvement. The organizations 
represented in the membership include the 
churches, schools, cluho, settlements, charities, nur- 



series, etc., as well as the local work of such gen- 
eral societies as the Consumers' League and the 
Woman's Municipal League. 

The City Club. 

"The City Club of New York has for ten years 
stood for the conviction that the government of 
the city must be separated at all points from na- 
tional party politics. Its constitution requires 
that it shall take no part in State or national poli- 
tics, except so far as the interests of the City of 
New Y'ork may be involved in the election of the 
two branches of the State Legislature and the 
passage of State laws." 

As a result of this position, consistently main- 
tained, the City Club has been the starting place 
of much non-partisan and effective work for the 
betterment of municipal conditions. The Citizens' 
Union, which now represents the idea that munici- 
pal administration is business and not politics, 
and which now constitutes an independent party, 
with a place of its own upon the ballot, had its 
origin in the City Club, and its most active work- 
ers are members of both organizations. The prac- 
tical working of the club appears under various 
aspects. One of its essentia,! committees is the 
Committee on Legislation, which restricts its in- 
quiry to legislation whch affects the City of New 
York. This committee of some twelve members 
receives directly from its agent in Albany every 
bill which affects the municipality in any way. 
These bills are distributed from the oflice of the 
secretary of the club to that sub-committee of the 
Legislation Committee to which has been assigned 
the department to which tney belong; as, for in- 
stance, tenement houses, franchises, and other sig- 
nificant divisions of the general subject. At its 
weekly meetings the committee hears a report from 
its sub-committees, opposes or approves the bills, 
and if the matter is of signal importance places 
a printed statement of the City Club's attitude, 
through this committee, in the hands of every mem- 
ber of the Legislature, the newspaper representa- 
tives at Albany, and the heads of departments in 
the City of New York. So valuable has this work 
been found that during the administration of Gov- 
ernor Roosevelt public acknowledgment was made 
by him of the influence exerted by the City Club 
in discriminating between good measures and bad . 
and in keeping a watch \ipon legislative procedure. 

The City Club, through its Municipal Govern- 
ment Committee, takes up grievances and matters 
of local importance which arise in the ordinary 
process of municipal administration. It originally 
brought the charges against the District Attorney 
of the County of New York upon which, through 
a long series of weeks, hearings were held before 



14 



THE COMMONS 



a commissioner appointed by the Governor. 
Although the incumbent of that powerful oflSce 
was not removed upon the charges made by the 
City Club's committee, it has been generally con- 
ceded that his subsequent removal was made possi- 
ble' by its exhibit of the administration of the 
oflSce. The club thus becomes a powerful 
ally for municipal administration when it is con- 
serving the interests of the city, and a critic and 
opposing force to such administration when the 
city's interests are disregarded. 

"When the Eamapo water deal was only delayed 
by the single vote of the Comptroller of the City 
of New York in the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment and the city was by this single vote 
saved temporarily from committing itself to an 
extent of two hundred million dollars upon an im- 
possible proposition, it was the City Club which 
first came to the reinforcement of the Comptroller 
in his opposition to this nefarious scheme. The 
club had already made careful inquiry into the 
water waste in the City of New York and had 
printed a report upon the matter. The Merchants' 
Association made an invaluable report upon the 
same subject later on, which resulted in the killing 
of the Eamapo scheme; but an examination of the 
lists of both organizations will show that the same 
public-spirited citizens were active in this matter, 
and constitute, whether in one association or an- 
other, whether in the City or the Eeform Club, 
the body of loyal, chivalrous, and disinterested 
citizens who have made possible the rescue of the 
City of New York from the Tammany rule of the 
past four years. 

The City Club is not simply a political club 
with a permanent headquarters, but it is also a 
social club, distinguished from other social clubs 
by the fact that it is organized round an idea. It 
is assumed that every man who comes into it is in- 
terested in the discrimination of the interests of 
the city from partisan interests. The result is that 
many yonng men who are just beginning to feel 
the value of citizenship and its responsibilities are 
found working side by side with such veterans of 
New York political life as Wheeler H. Peckham, 
John E. Parsons, E. Fulton Cutting, and others 
whose names appear as tue vanguard of every ad- 
vance movement for the betterment of conditions 
in New York. So completely is the matter of 
party allegiance subordinated to the interests of 
the city itself that it often happens in the work 
of a committee that the chairman of the commit- 
tee does not know the party to which the members 
of his committee severally belong, and has been 
able to make the best possible answer to a charge 
of party motive by polling his committee when 



such a charge has been made and finding that the 
majority occupied a position temporarily opposed 
to that which the charge covered. 

The club is about to build for itself a beautiful 
new clubhouse in the club center of New York, on 
Forty-fourth street, near Fifth avenue, and has 
every prospect of moving into its new quarters 
within a few months, with a membership of 800 
men devoted to the interests for which the club 
stands. It is proposed to secure in addition a 
large non-resident membership, which will, for the 
City Club, as has been the case with the Eeform 
Club, establish sympathetic relations with many 
centers where is presented the same problem of the 
separation of municipal from partisan issues. As 
Lord Eosebery pointed out in a recent address, 
and as every worker in municipal politics is con- 
vinced, the municipality is the real center of power 
in a government such as ours, and presents a field 
of study of absorbing interest and of growing im- 
portance. It may be that the multiplication of 
such clubs as the City Club in the cities of the 
country wiU hasten the time when politics shaU 
take its proper place as a science worthy of the 
attention of the intelligent, rather than as a 
game played by the designing upon the stupid. 
Thomas E. Slices. 



The Association of Organized Work with Boys 
announces a public conference on ' ' Summer Camps 
and Outings for Boys" for Tuesday evening, April 
8. In addition to the program an exhibit of photo- 
graphs, printed matter, and equipment illustrating 
camp work will be given. Inquiries for particulars 
as to place and other details should be addressed 
to Dr. EUas G. Brown, 481 West 145th St., New 

York City. '_ 

Orders for New Edition of 

FORBUSH'S BOY PROBLEM 

will be filled on receipt of the boks early in September 

AT 75 CENTS PER COPY 

Order of "The Commons." Grand Ave. and Morgan 
Street, Chicago. 

13he New Foxirth Edition of College. Social 
and University Settlements BibliogroLphy. 

Compiled by Caroliae Williamson Montgomerj'. 
For the College Settlement Association, with much 
new material. Now ready. Order through Thk 
Commons. Ten cents per copy. 

The Hartley House Cook Beck. 

Was written for teachers of cooking In settlements 
and girls' clubs, and for people who wish to provide 
nourishing, appetizing food (or a moderate cost. 

Order from Hartley House. 413 West Forty-slith 
Street. New York Cit.v. Silty-flve cents per copy by 
mail. \ si)ecial rate for orders of three or more. 



THE COMMONS 



15 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS 
ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Mary K. Simkhovitch (Mrs. 

Vladimir G. Simkhovitcli), 248 East 34tli St., 

New York City. 
Secretary: Mabel Gair CifRTis, 829 Boylston St., 

Boston. 
Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 

City. 
Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribnee (Mrs. 

Arthur H. Soribner), 10 West iZd St., New 

York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City — 95 Eivington Street. 

Philadelphia — 133 Christian Street. 

Boston — 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



EESIDENTS OF COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

At the meeting of the College Settlements 
Association, Oct. 12, 1901, Mrs. Helen Annan 
Scribner, a member of the executive committee, 
read a paper on "Residents of College Settle- 
ments." It was afterwards printed in the annual 
report. Her words are so interesting and sug- 
gestive that we have thought that it might not 
be amiss to pass them on to an enlarged circle of 
readers. Accordingly the following condensation 
is here presented: 

"The head worker and the residents have been 
and always will be the main spring of the settle- 
ment, and it is through their inspiration that the 
settlement work lives. 

"It has seemed wise to attempt to muster our 
forces to find out if possible how many have 
dropped from our ranks. We all know how diflB- 
cult it is to measure and value an experience in 
our own lives at any time, how impossible it is 
to measure it when it is near at hand, but how 
sometimes when we obtain the proper focus 
through the lapse of years, we can see and under- 
stand more clearly. So it has seemed that possi- 
bly former residents would have some message to 
send across the decade to those doing settlement 
work now or taking it up for the first time; or 
in other words, that the past experience might 
enlighten the present. 

"Unfortunately it has not been easy to reach all 
the former residents. 

"Nevertheless, however imperfect the results I 
have to offer may be as scientific data, I think 
you will agree that they are of interest. 



"In looking over the file of reports in an attempt 
to gain some objective view of the development 
of the settlement movement, it seemed to me that 
the ebb and flow of workers in our settlements as 
shown in the lists of residents was suggestive. 
The small number of pioneers, the rapid increase 
in the number of those seeking residence in the 
third and fourth years — the third report giving 
80 as the number of applications for residence in 
one settlement during the year — the gradual loss 
of undesirable notoriety and corresponding gain 
in solidity and strength, shown forcibly in the 
decrease of the number of applications and the 
increase in the number of permanent workers — 20 
being now regarded as large for the yearly num- 
ber of applicants — these superficial signs help us 
to realize that the settlement movement has passed 
through phases that have tested its strength, to 
emerge an accepted and potent factor in our social 
Ufe. 

"Of the 169 residents that have sent replies to a 
circular sent to all whose addresses could be ob- 
tained, 100, or nearly 60 per cent were college 
women. 

"Out of 169, 50, or over 29 per cent, have lived 
in more than one settlement, and the records range 
from residence in two settlements to the record 
of one resident, a former 'scholar,' who has spent 
from six months to a year and a half in six differ- 
ent settlements. This, it seems to me, shows an 
encouraging vitality and flexibility in the settle- 
ment life, provided of course that the term of 
residence in each settlement does not become in- 
creasingly short, of which I think there appears 
to be no danger. And naturally those who become 
permanent settlement workers eventually remain 
in one chosen settlement, and their experience in 
other settlements cannot fail to be of value. 

"According to the answers given in response to 
the question, 'What is your present occupation?' 
we learn that of former residents 37 are teachers, 
3 being college professors, 6 are physicians, 4 
are nurses, 27 are occupied in home duties, 26 
have no occupation, and 29 form a miscellaneous 
group. 

"One resident has given us the curious bit of 
information that in certain occupations the fact 
of having lived at a settlement is a powerful 
recommendation, though many employers do not 
know what it means. Further: 

"Forty-four are occupied in philanthropic or 
settlement work, and 37 are, in addition to other 
occupations, doing philanthropic work, or are in 
touch with settlement work, making a total num- 
ber of 81, or nearly 48 per cent, that since their 
first residence have continued the work begun in 



16 



THE COMMONS 



the settlements. Of this number 23 have held the 
position of head worker, of whom 15 at present 
are head workers. 

"Bearing in mind for the moment how diverse 
the lives of our residents have been since first 
living in a settlement, their testimony to the value 
of their settlement experience in its influence on 
their subsequent work will be of interest. Of the 
total number, 169, only 2 answered negatively, 
9 were doubtful, 44 left the question unanswered, 
and of these many were women at present en- 
gaged in settlement work, and therefore unable 
to measure the value of the experience on subse- 
quent work; 114, or over 67 per Cent, answered in 
the aflBLrmative, rendering the 'yes' emphatic in 
the majority of cases by some such expression as 
'decidedly.' One hundred and six expressed a 
wish to live again at a settlement, but of these 

44 did not plan to do so. Sixty-three, or nearly 37 
per cent, however, stated that they definitely 
planned to live again at a settlement. 

"In view of the interest that is being taken at 
present in the effort made to connect the theo- 
retical work in the colleges in economics and soei- 
ologj- with the practical work of the settlements, 
it has seemed well to inquire if many of our resi- 
dents have done work in these studies. 

"Of the total number, 169, 40 answered 'no,' 
19 left the question unanswered, 110 answered in 
the affirmative, and this number includes all those 
that have mentioned some reading as the extent 
of their study. Of these 110, 34 may be eliminated 
as having by their own statement given too super- 
ficial attention to the study for their opinion to 
be of statistical value. This leaves 76, or about 

45 per cent, as the number that have carried on 
some study in one or both of these branches syste- 
matically, either through independent reading or 
through courses in college. Of these, 56 are of the 
opinion that settlement work is helpful in these 
branches of study, many expressing themselves 
emphatically, saying 'settlement work is a neces- 
sary part of the study,' 'very helpful,' etc. 
Nineteen, however, gave no opinion, and one an- 
swered negatively. 

"On the other hand, of the 76 that have carried 
«n some systematic study in sociology or eco- 
nomics 44 were of the opinion that the study was 
definitely helpful in settlement work — one adding 
that it was 'subjectively helpful,' others that it 
was 'helpful in shaping the work,' that it was 
helpful as a 'question raiser,' that it was 'help- 
ful in giving proportion to settlement experience.' 
Twenty-one gave no opinion, 2 believed the value 
indirect, and 9 gave a negative opinion. 

"Making allowance for cases where the study 



was carried on subsequent to residence in a settle- 
ment, so that it was impossible to express an 
opinion as to the value of such study in settlement 
work, nevertheless there is undoubtedly evident 
some uncertainty as to the practical value of such 
study. Personally, I have little sympathy with 
such a feeling, but there is this much to be said 
in answer to this expression of uncertainty: We 
know that it is only within the last few years 
that in the academic courses in sociology and 
economics the study had been extended in its prac- 
tical work beyond the classroom. 

"Many of our residents in the past have not 
had the benefit of this broader method of study. 
As to the feeling expressed on the part of a few 
that the academic mind is often a hindrance in 
the formation of friendships and in the practical 
everyday life of the settlements, it seems to me 
we must answer that such a result is the fault, not 
of the academy or college, but of the mind that 
lacks flexibility and adaptability in using the 
knowledge it has acquired. As our headworkers 
have so often said, the value of a resident, as the 
value of any individual in any sphere of life, de- 
pends in the last analysis upon force of person- 
ality. And that sociology itself teaches. 

"It is only fair to add, however, that when the 
nimiber of those that have been students of eco- 
nomics and sociology has been narrowed down to 
the select few that have lived longest in the set- 
tlements, and at the same time have carried their 
studies the furthest, they agree unanimously as 
to the interdependence and supplementary value 
of settlement work and economic and social 
studies. 

"It is estimated that from 1,000 to 1,400 people 
eome to a settlement in an average week. Whether 
or not such knowledge is to be turned to account 
in any special line of study, will naturally depend 
upon the choice of the individual, but that it is 
infinitely broadening and enlightening to the cor- 
rect and intelligent living of the average life will 
be admitted, I think, by alL 

"And it is this idea expressed in various ways 
that has been given most generally in answer to 
the question, 'In what respect has your experience 
at a settlement been most valuable!' One resident 
writes that 'the settlement experience was of 
more value educationally than any year at col- 
lege." Another says that the value is 'to help 
gain normal estimates and proper proportions.' 
Another resident writes that it has been mAst 
valuable 'in the broader understanding of life 
and its meaning. I look back upon the two years 
and more that I spent in a settlement as the hap- 
piest and most satisfactory years of my life.' 



THE COMMONS 



17 



"As Miss Addams has so adequately expressed 
it, '* * • ne grow more and more discon- 
tented with a mere intellectual apprehension, and 
wish to move forward from a limited and, there- 
fore, obscure understanding of life to a larger 
and more embracing one, not only with our minds 
but with all our powers of life.' 

"That many have attained this, according to 
their own testimony, through settlements it is 
gratifying to learn, for though we know well that 
sacrifice is the fundamental law of life, and that 
no man entirely escapes it, we also know, how- 
ever paradoxical it may seem, that the man or 
woman who is to continue to be of benefit to his 
fellowmen must move forward in self-development 
as well, for in life there is no standing still." 

The Consumers' League in the Colleges. 
It is interesting to notice the strongholds which 
Mrs. Kelley is making for the Consumers' League. 
On January 20 she spoke at Wellesley College. Mr. 
John Cummings read a paper treating of the 
sweat-shop-question from an economic standpoint. 
Mr. Morris Kosenf eld read some of his poems, 
which were written while he was a worker in a 
'sweat-shop in New York's Ghetto. Mr. Wiener, of 
Har\-ard University, introduced Mr. Eosenfeld. On 
January 31 and February 1 there was an exhibit of 
goods, bearing the Consumers' League label, in the 
Phi-Sigma Society house. 

A Social Gospel from a Swedish Home- 
stead. 

We would call attention to a book entitled 
"From a Swedish Homestead," by Selma Lager- 
laf, translated by Jessie Brochner and published 
by McClure, Phillips & Co., 1901. The simple, 
child-like, vital religion of such stories as "Our 
Lord and St. Peter," "The Peace of God," is both 
refreshing and inspiring. "The Empress' Money 
Chest" is a sermon preached before a body of 
workmen who were in the midst of a strike, and 
who were quite willing to hear the Rev. Father pro- 
vided he would not mention the name of God. The 
entire collection, whether dealing with so-called 
secular or religious topics, is quaint, unique and 
forceful. 



"I believe that the great men don't change. 
Awaywithyour Napoleons andyour Marlboroughs 
and your Stuarts. These are the days of simple 
men who command by force of character as well 
as knowledge. Thank God for the American ! 
I believe that he will change the world and strip 
it of its vain glory and hypocrisy." Winston 
Churchill, of Abraham Lincoln in "The Crisis." 



THE WORLD AS SEEN THROUGH OUR 
SMOKE AND DUST. 

BY JENNIE MOTCH, A YOUTHFUL RUSSIAN SEER- 
SINGER DWELLING AMONG US. 

The world is beautiful and fair; 

Though there be troubles, evils there. 

A goodly part of it. is sad, 

And just as much of it is bad; 

The greatest part, though 's full of beauty. 

For there's the sense of love and duty. 

There's death and sickness, evil passions, 

Injustice, falsehood and oppression; 

But there is life and light and reason, 

The change of Nature every season. 

And, even if darkness comes with night. 

The sun is there to bring back light. 

And what if people sometimes err. 

Their conscience prompts them to forbear. 

When measured, good is more than bad; 

And this alone should make us glad. 

If there be still the wrong of yore. 

The right is gaining more and more. 

The future tempts us to progress, 

The ignorance is growing less, 

And day by day we come to learn 

That what we want we have to earn. 

Not money earning do I mean, 

But raising our pure selves within; 

And when the soul within is pure, 

For the sore outside there's a cure. 

Self-preservation, sparing others. 

And holding mankind sisters, brothers. 

The chance for deeds of love and duty, 

Is one that fills the world with beauty. 



412 W. North Ave. 



Jennie Motch. 



LAWN SWINGS 



MAY POLES 



W. S. TOTHILL 

Manufacturer 

Play Ground, Park, Gymnasiimi and Athletic Field* 
Equipments. Write for anything you want. 

126-128 West Wehster A venue. CHICAGO, ILL. 

"Bhe Church in Socia.1 Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion, 
at the International Congregational Council in Boston,. 
1899. Twenty-five Cents. 

PESTALOZZI.FR.OCBEL. 

KindrtfaLTten TrsLining School at 

Chicago Commons. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and: 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes op- 
portunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars, address. 

BERTHA HOFER HEONER. idi N*. Wlacbetter Av«. 

Chlcaco 



18 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A -Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
Labor from the SocIblI Settlement Point of View. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR Erflltor. 

Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.* Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



EDITORIAL. 



THE ALDEKMANIC ELECTION IN CHICAGO. 

For the seventh year the Municipal Voters' 
League was in the field, but this spring the earlier 
and stronger for having kept its oflSces open and 
its force at work all winter. It was thus in posi- 
tion to influence the party nominations more effec- 
tively than ever before. The result is apparent 
in an increased number of good nominees, especial- 
ly in wards which needed this help to avoid the 
scandalous nominations which the party machines 
have been accustomed to foist upon them. It has 
a great record to show for its small investment of 
money and its large expenditures in volunteer 
work. Seven years ago not one-third of the City 
Council were even suspected of being in it to 
ser\'3 public interests. Now not one-third of the 
aldermen are suspected of holding office for per- 
sonal gain, or of promoting private interests at 
public expense. The League's ante-election charge 
to its great jury, in view of the traction and other 
incalculably important interests involved, puts the 
case just as it stands: 

"The city is to be congratulated upon the con- 
tinuing improvement in the quality of aldermanic 
candidates and upon the increasing dignity and 
power for good of the City Council. With each 
successive campaign the thinned ranks of the old 
disreputables are materially reduced. Ward after 
ward is being redeemed from the ' hopeless ' column. 

"A few more years of struggle will see the 
extermination of the race of aldermanic boodlers. 
Cut off from their base of illegitimate supplies by 
the non-partisan organization of the Council com- 
mittees they cannot stand against a relentless, per- 
sistent war year after year. As the last strong- 
holds of the gang are being stormed the fight is 
waxing fiercer; and at this election, with few ex- 
ceptions, the discredited sun-ivors of a once defiant 
majority are fighting desperately with their backs 
against the wall. 

"Whether this question is to be settled wisely 
and fairly for all the great public and corporate 
interests involved depends upon this election. Upon 



it especially depends the preservation of the peo- 
ple's rights and ii large measure the future of 
Chicago. Whether in indorsing the upright or in 
rebuking the unfit, whether the situation in any 
ward appears critical or not, the value to the com- 
inunity of every vote should now be felt. No man 
holding lightly his privilege and his duty at this 
juncture is worthy of his citizenship." 



The returns as we go to press show the election 
of 28 candidates endorsed by the League, and the 
success of only eight whom it condemned. In 
the new council there will be 55 members approved 
by the League and 15 who are there against its 
protest. 



In our Seventeenth Ward, the better element in 
the Democratic party, backed by the joint action 
of the Municipal Voters' League and. the Com- 
munity Club of Chicago Commons, were able to fur- 
nish and nominate as good a candidate as the ward 
ever had the privilege of voting for. This cheer- 
ing result is for a second time due to the co-opera- 
tion of these two non-partisan organizations. Last 
year our Eepublican alderman, John F. Smnlski, ' 
began his able and honorable career in the City 
Council with the majority of nearly 1,300 votes, 
when his ward gave the Democratic mayor a ma- 
jority of over 608 votes. This year our Democratic 
candidate, Mr. Wm. E. Dever, overcame this alder- 
manic majority, being elected over his Republican 
"gang" competitor by 1,819 votes. 

In these encouraging results we are beginning 
to reap the advantage of having a permanent civic 
center at the settlement, manned by a non-partisan 
social and political club of both older and younger 
men whose rooms are always open and whose organ- 
ization is continuous and ever ready at hand for 
loyal civic service. 



The referendum vote in Chicago's municipal 
election for municipal ownership of street rail- 
ways was 124,594 in favor and 25,987 against the 
proposition, the proportion being substantially 
the same on the lighting plants For direct nomi- 
nations at primary elections 125,082 were cast 
in favor and 15,861 to the contrary. 



FALLEN IN THE FIGHT FOB DEMOCRACY. 
Chicago has lost two men of heroic mold, Francis 
W. Parker and John P. Altgeld. Very different in 
temperament, method and sphere, they alike had 
convictions and the courage of them, in the face 
of whatever opposition or criticism they had to 



THE COMMONS 



19 



meet. However faulty in judgment they may both 
be conceded to have been, no man who knew either 
of them for a moment doubted their sincerity, or 
their willingness to suffer personal loss and to dare 
the disaster of temporary defeat in his cause, 
■which each believed would triumph in the end. 
Both were intensely democratic in spirit and aim; 
the teacher making his school a little community 
of interdependent equals, the politician ruling 
party and state by and for the majority of the 
mass. Both were intolerantly, and to a fault, disre- 
spectful and iconoclastic toward mere convention- 
alism, and that conservation which is conserva- 
tive for the sake of conservatism. 

In their dramatically strenuous struggle for 
their ideals they each appealed to the loyalty of 
the common people. From the people came the 
support which kept Colonel Parker in his place 
at the Cook County Normal School for seventeen 
years, in every one of which the most determined 
official effort was made to dispossess him. The 
hearts of the common people never failed to re- 
spond to Altgeld, their unfailing friend and advo- 
cate, however they withheld their approval of some 
of his acts, or at times their support at the polls. 
Again and again they rallied to him and greeted 
his public utterances with something of the same 
unanimity with which they elected him Governor 
of Illinois. At their death, friends and opponents, 
followers and dissenters, vied with each other in 
personal and public recognition of that heroic 
devotion to high ideals of democracy which distin- 
guished the one as an educator and the other as a 
politician. 

Stricken while eloquently defending the forlorn 
hope of the South African Republics, Mr. Altgeld 
was followed to his grave by thousands of men 
representing bench and bar, trade and craft, turn- 
vereins and labor unions, poor and rich, foreigners 
and native-born, radicals and conservatives, while 
from utterances as extreme as Clarence Darrow's 
and from words as sound and sweet as Jane 
Addams' the last tribute of the people's devotion 
fell upon his funeral bier. 

From eastern universities and the national capi- 
tal, from western colleges and teachers' associa- 
tions, from the academic cloister, Jewish syna- 
goge and Christian churches, tokens of highest rec- 
ognition and tenderest devotion fell as thick and 
fast upon Colonel Parker's casket as the flowers 
from the hands of school children, which buried 
their f rienu and " emancipator ' ' from their sight. 
The "school of education," which Mrs. Emmons 
Blaine founded at the University of Chicago in 
devotion to his educational ideals and to give him 
the untrammeled opportunity to realize them, will 
stand as the very arch of Francis W. Parker's tri- 



umph. His death at the first flush of his victory, 
and so shortly before he could have left the im- 
press of his genius upon the outer and inner struc- 
ture of the great school, falls nothing short of a 
tragedy. Loyalty to his lifework, as well as to 
the generous hand which together gave it being, 
cannot fail to make the School of Education incar- 
nate and perpetuate the spirit of Francis W. 
Parker. Meanwhile parents of some of the chil- 
dren he taught, and teachers whom he trained, have 
united to make the "Francis W. Parker School" 
on the North Side of the city, worthy of the name 
and memory of its founder. 



Our readers will await the next issue of the Com- 
mons in May with special interest when they learn 
that it will be largely devoted to an illustrated 
description of the Hull House Labor Museum. No 
more uniquely constructive and fascinating feature 
has ever characterized settlement work than this 
highly original project of Miss Addams, which is 
appealing as powerfully to other people's interest 
as it does to her own social imagination. Her 
forth-coming volume from the Macmillan press 
on "Democracy and Social Ethics" is anticipated 
with keen pleasure by all who know of her per- 
sonal contribution both to the ideal and practice 
of democracy. 



Two small volumes of large import demand at 
least editorial mention, in lieu of the extended 
review of them, which must be reserved for 
our next issue. Mr. Charles Mulford Eobinson, 
member of the Architectural League of America's 
National Committee on Municipal Improvements, 
has furnished a rarely suggestive and compre- 
'hensive handbook entitled "The Improvement of 
Towns and Cities; or the Practical Basis of Civic 
Aesthetics" (G. B. Putnam's Sons). The volume 
cannot fail to be of the most inspirational and 
practical sort of help in stimulating and guiding 
the everywhere increasing interest and activity in 
the enrichment and beautifying of city and town 
Ufe. 

"The American Farmer" is all the more in- 
teresting because written by an avowed socialist 
for the "Standard Socialist Series" published by 
Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago. Its author, Mr. 
A. M. Simons, combines with his social idealism 
not only practical experience in farm life and 
work, but industrious research in the economic and 
social literature of agriculture. Mr. Simons, who 
is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, is 
editor of the International Socialist Review, and 
is also engaged in work upon agricultural in- 
dustries for "The Economic Year Book" and its 
bulletins, now being prepared under the supervision 
of WilUam English Walling and John E. Commons. 
(Bliss Building, Washington, D. C.) 



20 



THE COMMONS 



THE MONTH AT CHICAGO COMMONS. 

The event of the month has been the vigorous 
and effective campaign waged in ward politics by 
our Seventeenth Ward Community Club. It was 
the most potent force in defeating our old "gang" 
alderman and electing the honorable and capable 
workingman lawyer, William E. Dever, as the 
Democratic associate of the forceful and aggres- 
sively honest Republican alderman, John F. Smul- 
ski, who last year owed his nomination and, in no 
small part, his election to this club. We began 
early by trying to influence the nomination. The 
' ' First Gun of the Campaign ' ' was fired from our 
auditorium. Campaign literature was devised, ad- 
dressed and mailed to thousands of voters in sev- 
eral languages. The club marched in a body, 
headed by its transparency, from its rooms in the 
settlement to the halls where from eight hundred 
to a thousand men were gathered at a time. Small 
groups and individuals were visited. Speakers 
from the settlement, the club and their friends out- 
side the ward were sent forth nightly. The appeal 
throughout was made straight to the conscience and 
civic patriotism of the most cosmopolitan popula- 
tion in the city. In response to the announcement 
"Election Beturns Eeceived Here," "Everybody 
Invited — Refreshments Served ' ' the club and many 
other citizens had the satisfaction of congratulat- 
ing each other, their ward and the city upon the 
triumph of their non-partisan and patriotic co- 
operation. 

Mr. Raymond Robins of Chicago Commons has 
been chosen to succeed Mr. Robert Hunter in the 
superintendency of the Municipal Lodging House 
of the City of Chicago, which the latter leaves to 
take the head-workership of the University Settle- 
ment of New York City. Mr. Robins brings to his 
important work the training of a lawyer and a 
varied experience in municipal affairs at San Fran- 
cisco. His share in bringing order and law out 
of the chaos from which the mining camp at Nome, 
Alaska, developed into a city, also fitted him to 
bring sj-stem out of Chicago's demoralizing and 
vacillating policy in dealing with hordes of home- 
less men. Equipped with adequate and sanitary 
dormatories and backed by police power, the new 
municipal lodging house is amply justifying its 
establishment under the joint action of the city 
administration and the City Homes' Association. 

Married. 

Rawson — Clawson. At Chicago Commons, March 
20th, by Rev. James MuUenbach, Dr. Vance Raw- 
Son to Miss Carrie Clawson. 

At home, 639 Washington boulevard, Chicago. 



For Our Summer Campaign. 

To open our little playground to the hundreds 
of children who are waiting for their right to play 
in it we need the assurance at once of the incidental 
expense involved in keeping it open. Including the- 
constant service of a director of play, it will cost 
to maintain our playground only thirty-five or forty 
dollars per month. No one who knows our ward 
and its children will begrudge this investment,, 
especially in view of the influence our settlement 
playgrounds are having in securing the small parks- 
and municipal playgrounds in the densely popu- 
lated districts of Chicago. Who will help right 
awayt 

Boys and Girls Camp in the Penny Meadow 
AT Elgin. 

We are glad to announce to our neighbors and' 
outside friends that the beautiful Penny Meadow at 
Elgin, 111., has for the fourth season been placed 
at the disposal of Chicago Commons for its Boys 
and Girls' Camp. Our equipment provides good 
shelter for fifty boys or girls at a time. Including 
transportation, thirty-six miles and return, it costs 
only two dollars to give each boy or girl a two 
weeks' share of summer sunshine, fresh air and 
free life at Camp. Additional to what the children, 
can pay, we need at least $600 to maintain Camp 
Commons, and $400 more for day outings to the 
parks and suburbs and for the transportation of 
women and children to the country homes that are 
opening to them. 



The residents and many of the clubs and classes 
of Chicago Commons will be at home to their 
friends May 8th and 9th, afternoon and evening, to- 
exhibit the winter 's work in Kindergarten, Manual 
Training, Cooking, Carpet-weaving, Gymnasium, 
Fine Art and Educational Classes; thus also show- 
ing the new building equipment in actual opera- 
tion. 

The Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social Set- 
tlement point ol view. It is published monthly at Chicaeo 
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TKe Cominorvs 

A MentKly Record D»vote<l to Aspects of Li and Labor from the Settlement Point ^ Vl«w. 



Number 7U — Vol. VII. 



Seventh Year. 



Chicago, May, 1902 



THE LABOR MUSEUM AT HULL HOUS£- 

BY JESSIE LUTHER, OUEATOR. 

The present article on the Hull House Laboi 
Museum, has been requested by The Commons, 
but the subject as far as its origin, theory and ob- 
ject are concerned has been so fully treated in 
its columns that further comment on the theoret- 
ical side seems unnecessary. The present arti- 
cle therefore, while quoting from th*e first report, 
is confined chiefly to the increased facilities for 



Greeks, Syrians, Bussians, Poles, Bohemians and 
Germans, and among the older representatives of 
these nationalities many were found who, in their 
own countries, had used the primitive methods of 
spinning, with spindle or wheel, for the actual 
production of clothing for their families, and 
others who were familiar with the use of the loom, 
but who, under the changed conditions of life in 
a crowded American city, where machine-manu- 
factured material can be obtained for so small a 




THE TEXTILE SOOU. 



work, the enlarged equipment and exhibition, and 
last winter's development, which, though in some 
departments is wholly experimental, still brings 
to its promoters an increasing confidence in its 
popularity and essential usefulness. 

The prospectus recounts the fact that in the 
district immediately surrounding Hull House 
were people of many nationalities — Italians 



cost, had found no practical use for their skill 
and no incentive for its continuance. Further- 
more the younger generations, many of whom are 
American-born, were inclined to under-estimate 
the older people of the colony, lacking, as they do, 
the power to adjust themselves to the standards of 
American life. 

The idea presented itself that if a number of 



THE COMMONS 



those who were familiar with such work could be 
brought together on certain days to continue it, it 
would not only be a matter of education to the 
younger people of the community, but that it 
would perhaps give to the older peo- 
ple a chance to naturally assume a position to 
which their previous life and training entitled 
them, and they would be judged by something of 
an historic background. There are many shops 
and factories in the neighborhood, and it was 
hoped that the younger people who earned their 
living in them might learn something of the raw 
material which they were using in a finished state, 
or only in one stage of its manufacture, and that 
their daily occupations would thus gain an his- 
toric background and prove more interesting in 
consequence. 

A MUSEUM OP IXDDSTEIAL EVOLUTION. 

It was designed from the first to put the vari- 
ous processes into historic order and sequence, 
and, as far as possible, to illuminate them by 
correlated art and literature, historical lectures, 
with charts, diagrams and maps. 

The word museum was purposely used in pref- 
erence to the word school, both because the latter 
Is distasteful to grown-up people from its asso- 
ciation with childish tasks and because the word 
museum still retains some fascination of the show. 
It may easily be observed that the spot which at- 
tracts most people at any exhibition or fair is the . 
one where something is being done. So trivial a 
thing as a girl cleaning gloves, or a man polishing 
metal, will almost inevitably attract a crowd, 
who look on with absorbed interest. It was be- 
Keved that the actual carrying forward of indus- 
trial processes, and the fact that the explanation 
of each process, or period, was complete in itself 
would tend to make the teaching dramatic, and to 
overcome in a measure the disadvantage of irreg- 
ular attendance. It was further believed, al- 
though perhaps it is difficult to demonstrate, that 
when the materials of daily life and contact re- 
mind the student of the subject of his lesson and 
its connections, it would hold his interest and feed 
bis thought as abstract and unconnected study 
utterly fails to do. A constant effort, therefore, 
was made to keep the museum a labor museum in 
contradistinction to a commercial museum. 

THE TEXTILE EXHIBITS. 

The Museum was opened in November, 1900, 
and from the first, five departments were planned, 
though, owing to lack of space and equipment, 
only that of the textiles was developed to any 
extent during the first winter. In one room 
were placed various appliances for spinning and 
weaving, largely collected from the vicinity itself. 
Every Saturday evening people from the neighbor- 



hood who had been expert spinners or weavers in 
their own country came to demonstrate the differ- 
ent processes to the visitors who arrived in large 
numbers. The spinning was illustrated by the 
Italians, Greeks, Russians and Syrians, who spun 
with a distaff for holding the flax, and a spindle 
composed of a straight stick with one or two 
discs, and a small hook on the upper end to hold 
the thread. The Greeks and Russians spun with 
the head of the spindle downward, and the thread 
looped or hooked to the smaller end, the reverse 
of the Italian and Syrian method. All these spin- 
dles were set in motion by being twirled on the 
hip and then held in the air like a plumb and line, 
while the rapid revolutions of the spindle twisted 
the thread. 

The museum is now^ able to show four varia- 
tions of this earliest method of spinning. In one 
case an Italian woman from the interior of South- 
ern Italy uses a stick weighted by two discs which 
twirl the fibers together, while a Neapolitan from 
the coast uses a stick weighted by a ring of metal, 
which increases the momentum, producing a higher 
rate of speed. A third variation is used by a 
Syrian woman, and consists of a small wooden disc 
at the top of the stick, with which she is able to 
produce a thread so fine that it would have been 
broken by a heavier spindle. It is interesting to 
note that the Syrian skill is able to make good 
the loss of momentum, and that the speed is sus- 
tained. The same process is further illustrated 
by a Russian woman, who sits upon a chair with 
the flax held in place upon a stationary frame, 
thus freeing one hand and arm which would other- 
wise be obliged to hold the distaff. The women, 
two Italians, a Russian, and an Irish woman, who 
uses the comparatively recent spinning wheel, not 
only do the work well, but very much enjoy the 
demonstration and explanation, in which they 
join. The museum is further able to trace the de- 
velopment of spinning from this simple stick 
through the large hand spinning wheel and the 
small Saxony wheel, to a number of spindles 
mounted on a frame, and set in motion by the 
turning of one wheel for all. In connection with 
the spinning, demonstrations are held on the first 
crude processes of scouring, dyeing and carding. 
Wool, cotton, flax and silk are put through the 
various processes of preparation, and spun into 
thread by skilled spinners almost every Saturday 
evening. Little collections of flax and cotton, as 
well as wool and silk, are exhibited in the various 
stages from the raw material to the factory pro- 
duct, and are supplemented by some really beau- 
tiful photographs, the latter showing the early 
Egyptian spinning of flax with the distaff, and the 
cultivation of flax along the Nile. 



THE COMMONS 




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TiMr:-ix.Ki;HG wmkh hv^d-.^i nvix. we the: ONrrr torm of' spi/^NiAfc known 



v:cr or AfPLiGMK-vs ors""D*-"-\To.'-}\cHLMr.?ri' usexj.tok sn;^/^j/>jc. 



The attempt is made to present the connection 
between past and present, as graphically as possi- 
ble. A framed chart is hung on the wall, showing 
the length of time during which the hand spindle 
was used to produce all the clothing of the world. 
The comparatively short time during which the 
spinning wheel has been used, and the infinitesimal 
time during which steam machinery has taken its 
place, are revelations to the majority of people to 
whom it has not been dramatically presented. 



Beginning with 2000 B. C. the straight 
spindle was used to produce all the spun clothing 
used by mankind for more than three thousand 
years, and not until 1500 A. D. was the spinning 
wheel introduced into Europe. The European 
spinning wheel was used but a little more than two 
and one-half centuries when steam was iirst bung- 
iingly applied to textile manufacture, coming 
in the latter half of the eighteenth century. 




TWO METHODS OF SYUIA.N' SPINNIXU AND EUltOPEAN WHEEL. 



THE COMMONS 







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THE COMMONS 



Manjr of the Italian women who came to the 
museum had never seen spinning wheels, and 
lookeil upon them as a new and wonderful inven- 
tion. The chart shows that steam has been ap- 
plied to textile manufacturing but a short space 
in the long line of 3,900 years. Even then it is 
confined to certain countries of Europe and Amer- 
ica and a world map, exhibiting the places in 
which the straight spindle and the spinning wheel 
still survive, is a matter of unfailing interest to 
the visitors of the museum. 

Near the charts hangs a diagram of a number 
of hand spindles and implements used in spin- 
ning which were found in an Egyptian tomb, their 
probable age being about 4,000 years. The charts 
add an interesting historic background to the 
women of different nationalities who come on 
Saturday evening and spin with the inherited 
skill of many generations, but the small amount 
of thread that even the fastest spinner can pro- 
thread necessary to weave a piece of cloth 
thread necessary to weave* even a piece of cloth 
large enough to enfold the human body in the 
simplest way, makes one wonder that the human 
race could have been sufficiently clothed during 
all the thousands of years that a primitive spin- 
dle of some sort was used. Another primitive 
form of spinning was added this winter and is 
exhibited by a Syrian man who spins with two 
short sticks crossed at right angles and fastened, 
together with a bit of yarn, which is wound about' 
the point of crossing, and the four arms thus made 
are hung by the yarn and twirled as a wheel re- 
volves. The Syrian explained that it was the form 
of spindle used by the Bedouins in the desert. 
It has been quite unfamiliar to everyone who has 
seen it, and is probably oiite of the most primitive 
forms known. jV 

If one could add the spider and the caterpillar 
to the e-xhibiting spinners, ^t would indeed be 
starting at the beginning of things; but there be- 
ing difficulties in the way of 'Such continued exhi- 
bition, we must be content with the hand spinning 
introduced with the age of man. 

An Interesting exhibition of spinning with a 
wheel is shown by a Syrian woman who sent to her 
own country for a curious, clumsy wheel of ap- 
parently home manufacture. The spinner sits 
on the floor and the supports of the wheel rest 
at an angle; the wheel is turned by a crank, and 
the spindle is horizontal and attached to station- 
ary supports and is held in place by two dried 
mutton joints which contain enough oil to make 
any aditional lubrication unnecessary. When the 
wheel arrived from Syria the contents of the 
box showed signs of having bden tampered with, 
and one of the Joints was missing, the customs offi- 



cials doubtless being ignorant of the important 
functions of the mutton joints and neglecting to 
give them proper consideration. 

In weaving, the demonstration begins with the 
earliest weaving of branches and woody fibers in 




WEAVINO WITH NAVAJO LOOM. 

making baskets and mats for the sides of huts. 

Before man appeared upon the earth the bird's 
instinct taught it to weave its nest from fibres, 
twigs and grasses, the hair of animals, or moss 
and leaves,- The earliest rarces- -of man doubtless 
wove in some crude fashion, and in the tombs of 
the ancient Egyptions woven material has be'en 
found wrapping the bodies of mummies, of which 
the museum- contains a specimen. 

The method of lining baskets with clay and af- 
terwards burning away the basket, which led to 
the development of pottery and its earliest deco- 
ration, from the impression of the basket left 
upon the clay, is illustrated by an attractive little 
collection of pottery and baskets. 

The museum contains a model of a Navajo 
. loom made by the Indians themselves, as well as 
a Turkish loom, both of which are used by the 
visitors. Classes of children have reproduced the 
Indian looms, and, ^as is done in various schools, 
they have woven very creditable Navajo blan- 
kets. The old Colonial loom of which the mu- 
seum contains two specimens, was fast in compari- 
son with the more primitive looms, but slow when 
compared with the youngest of all, the power 
loom. The nearest approach to the latter which 
the museum could at first show, was a fly-shut- 
tle loom which demanded of the operator only to 
bring the lathe back and forth and to mend the 
broken threads — the harness being changed and 
the shuttle thrown by a system of levers, set in 



THE COMMONS 



motion by the movement of the lathe, but a 
modern loom, presented by a factory of a 
neighboring city, now completes the series, the 
power for running this loom being supplied by 
electricity from the Hull House plant. 

THE DYEING PROCESSES. 

Opening from the textile room is a smaller room 
with three large porcelain tubs used for dyeing 



done over bunsen burners, but any large amount of 
material is dyed in the vats, a pipe conducting 
live steam supplying the heat. 

The dyeing outfit, as well as much of the other 
equipment, would have been impossible in the 
narrow quarters in which the museum was at 
first started, therefore it was fortunate that in 
the midle of the winter it was possible to move 




COLONIAL LOOM. 



the material for weaving and for baskets, and 
equipped with dyes, scales for weighing and a 
sm^ll laboratory outfit. Some of the dyeing is 



the entire museum into the remodeled gymnasium 
building. 

It occupies the first floor of this building, a 



8 



TH E COMMONS 



space of 40x100 feet, and two rooms ob the sec- 
ond floor. The large windows on the street and 
alley were purposely planned for the convenience 
of spectators who might be attracted by the 
"show" elements of the museum, and the casual 
passer-by has proved a most enthusiastic adver- 
tiser. All of this space is used for three differ- 
ent purposes: a museum, a class-room and a shop. 
The museum proper, with all its dramatic features, 
is carried on Saturday evenings. The classes are 
in progress almost every afternoon and evening 
and several mornings of the week, and the prod- 



The space occupied by these six departments 
of the museum, house on two floors, is also used 
for class rooms. 

MANUAL TRAINING. 

On the lower floor the largest room is the gen- 
eral shop for manual training. Work benches for 
carving and carpentry fill one side and a double 
tool closet is built into the high wooden wains- 
coting; against one wall is a green board for 
drawing. 

The museum side, illustrating the wood, is very 




SPlNNINti WITH WOOL WHEEL. 



ucts of the shop are turned out by adult workers, 
more or less experienced, who are at liberty to 
come in whenever they have leisure, using the 
tools and paying only for material consumed. The 
product is sold, either by the craftsman himself or 
by the shop directors, some very creditable 
work has already been sold in copper and brass, 
silver filagree of Russian workmanship, in pottery, 
in carved wood, in homespun and rugs, the latter 
dyed and woven most skillfully. Already the de- 
mand for pottery, metal work, wood work and 
textiles far exceeds the capacity of the various 
workers to fill the orders. 



incomplete, but several antique wooden tankards 
and Viking bowls of Norwegian workmanship, 
some of them gaily decorated, are much studied 
and admired. A beginning has been made to- 
ing classes plan to place a frieze, illus- 
trating their growth and texture. The high 
wainscoting of the room ends in a shelf, and above 
it a space is left, on which the Hull House paint- 
ing classes are planning to place a frieze, illus- 
traiing the history of wood from the primevsJ for- 
est and appearance of the woodcutter, through all 
the processes of felling the trees, transportation^ 
logging and sawing. The classes in sloyd, carpen- 



TH£ Commons 



try and wood-earviiig are very popular, not only 
with the gills and boys, but with young men and 
women as well. 

Across the room a long table with iron vises at- 
tached, forms the nucleus for the metal work, and 
on Tuesday nights a large class meets and pounds 
copper and brass with great enthusiasm, and in 
most cases with success. Already some interest- 
ing bowls and dishes have been made both well- 
shaped and finished considering the inexperience 
of the pupils. The work is not easy and requires 
too much patience, precision and real manual ef- 
fort to appeal very strongly to the younger boys 
who prefer wood work or clay. 



have been given upon the guilds of metal workers 
and the effect of metal work upon Phoenician 
iiistory and commerce. 

The potter's wheel and clay bin stand in a re- 
tired part of the room with cases and shelves for 
exhibits on the walls, and on Friday nights pupils 
come who take turns in using the wheel, those who 
are not using it modeling pottery forms with 
their hands, while the process is completed by the 
firing and glazing done in the pottery kiln. 

Only a beginning has been made for decorating 
pottery, but the possibility has already percepti- 
bly infl^uenced the long established classes in de- 
sign and drawing. Hull House has maintained 




.METAL AND J'OTTEKY SECTIONS OF GENERAL SHOP. 



Against the wall are cabinets for unfinished 
work and near the end of the table stands the an- 
nealing furnace with its revolving pan and blow- 
pipe and bellows used for softening the metal, 
hardened by much beating, and a large case con- 
tains speciment of copper from the crude ore 
through its processes of stamping and refining to 
the finished product, exemplified by some beautiful 
pieces of Eussian, Italian and English work. 
There are colored drawings of the processes, of 
smelting carried on in the Calumet mines and 
photographs of famous metal work. Various talks 



a studio, in which has been taught large classes 
in modeling, drawing and painting. It is a dis- 
tinct advantage that the studio has been moved 
into the same building containing two shops, and 
that some of the most promising art students are 
becoming craftsmen as well. 

THE GROWTH OF GRAINS AND THEIR PREPARATION 
FOR POOD. 

The next departmen is that of grains. The room 
is large and is hung with many photographs il- 
lustrating the preparation of the ground for the 
grain and the processes of its preparation for 



10 



THE COMMONS 




COOKING SCHOOL KITCHEN. 



food as carried on in different countries as well 
as with one or two primitive implements for 
grinding. Cases on the wall contain specimens 
of grains and cereals and a large fire-place built 
on the model of those used in Colonial times, with 
its hobs, its crane, pot-hooks and trammels and 
old brass and copper kettles and cooking utensils 
form an historic background for the modern cook- 
ing tables with their iron racks and bunsen burn- 
ers, and a gas range of the newest type. Al- 
though cooking classes are held here every day 
during the week, there is still a waiting list and 
the regular attendance and good work testify to 
its popularity. It is one of the most important 
departments and the room with shining utensils 
on the shelves and racks, and its busy white 
aproned pupils, is a cheery sight. An Italian 
woman occasionally cooks macaroni in a kettle 
over the open fire and women of other nationali- 
ties are gradually, although as yet somewhat tim- 
idly, offering to demonstrate from their store of 
traditional household lore and training. 



Next to the kitchen is the textile room where 
during most hours of the day and evening work of 
some sort is being done. A neighboring Irish wo- 
man comes every day to spin flax and wool, which 
are used on the looms in the manufacture of rugs, 
homespuns and linen, and she has filled various or- 
ders from other shops as well. Twice a week a num- 
ber of Italian women from the neighborhood come 
for the afternoon to make baskets and sit about 
a table chatting gaily over their work. The 
small children, and sometimes even the babies, 
come with their mothers, and there have been days 
when the room has worn the aspect of a small Ital- 
ian colony. 

In this room are also conducted the dressmaking, 
millinery, sewing, embroiuery, basket-making anjd 
hammock-weaving classes. 

An attempt has been made to correlate the 
classes around their historic development. In 
cases along the wall are exhibits of cotton, wool, 
linen and silk from the raw material to the fin- 
ished product, showing examples of machine made 



THE COMMONS 



11 



and hand made work, and photographs and draw- 
ings illustrate the preparation of the material; 
the shearing of the sheep, the carding of wool, the 
treatment of flax, etc., and the processes of spin- 
ning and weaving as carried on in many countries. 
A number of fine specimens of rugs and blan- 
kets fill cases high on the wall and there is a 
small exhibit of baskets of Indian and Southern 
manufacture. A hatchell, which is a contrivance 
for combing the flax and separating it from the 
tow, is not only an interesting part of the exhibit, 
but an implement of constant use, as are the num- 
ber of reels of various sorts. 

PRINTING AND BINDING. 

Classes in designing and mechanical drawing 
are held in a smaller room at the south end of 



It is more difficult in this department than in 
any other to illustrate processes, for the reason 
that there are a great number of steps in the 
making of a book and some of them are too long 
to hold tho interest of the casual observer. This 
diflSculty is met, as far as possible, by showing ex- 
amples of book^ at various degrees of completeness, 
and by charts. Specimens of fine printing are 
shown in this room, including many examples of 
the Kelmscott Press, of the Dove Press, London, 
and experiments of various degrees of excellence 
in this country. A printing room has very re- 
cently been opened next to the bindery, with a 
full hand-press, which is in use and on view Satur- 
day evenings. Nothing of consequence has as 
yet been attempted on It, but there are plans for 




THt Hynji^ Bi.NDEKY. 



the general shop. The Hull House studio is on the 
floor above and on this floor are also the depart- 
ments of printing and binding. The bindery has 
been in existence for two years as a private work- 
shop. When the museum was reorganized in the 
autumn the bindery was also open to the public on 
Saturday evenings, when specimens of the various 
stages of the work are shown and explained, to- 
gether with tools and implements and examples of 
finished work. 



a joint piece of work by the printing and binding 
"guild" next year. 

LECTURE COURSE ON INDUSTRIAL HISTORY. 

A series of lectures on industrial History was 
given on Saturday evenings during the winter, and 
although the Hull House auditorium seats com- 
fortably 350 people, it was many times packed to 
its utmost capacity, the audience filling the stair- 
ways and the entire stage back of the speaker. 
The design of the lectures was to give a large and 



12 



THE COMMONS 



general Borvey of labor conditions and the effect 
of these conditions upon the mass of workers, as 
the following subjects would indicate: 

"Industry Among Primitive Peoples," "Labor 
Conditions Among the Jews," 'Slave Labor in the 
Roman Empire," "Prom Slavery to Serfdom — 
Conditions of the Serfs," "The Day of the Crafts- 
man and the Instinct of Workmanship," "The 
Guilds of the Middle Ages," "Conditions of Labor 
Under the Domestic System and Under the Fac- 
tory," "Historj- of Trade Unions," "The Devel- 
opment of the Factory," "History of Trade Un- 
ions," "The Development of the Factory," "Fac- 
tory Conditions to To-Day," "Labor in Competi- 
tive Industries and in Monopolistic Ones." 

INTEBPKETATIONS OP IKDCSTKT IN LnKEATCKE AND 
AET. 

An attempt was made to fill out by the inter- 
pretations of literature the periods of adjustment 
which accompanied the changes in industrial meth- 
ods, for although the times of transition were 
comparatively short, they were big with suffering. 

Perhaps the most striking picture of that period 
when steam was first applied to the manufacturing 
of textiles, is that drawn by Hauptmann in his 
drama of "The Weavers." An interesting lecture 
was given upon the Industrial Bevolution in Eng- 
land and the appalling conditions throughout the 
weaving districts of the north which resulted 
from the hasty gathering of the weavers into the ' 
new towns, also on the regulations of those con- 
ditions as the code of factory legislation was 
slowly developed. The lecturers in the museum 
found it easy, indeed almost inevitable, to pass 
from the historical situation to a statement of the 
industrial difficulties in which we of the present 
day are so often caught, and the need of adapt- 
ability and speedy readjustment to changing 
conditions which is constantly demanded from the 
contemporary workman. A tailor in the audience 
once suggested that whereas time had done much 
to alleviate the first difficulties in the transition 
of weaving from handwork to steam power, that 
in the application of steam to sewing we are 
still in the first stages. The isolated woman who 
trys to support herself by hand needlework is an- 
alogous in her position to the weaver of one hun- 
dred years ago, and the persistence of many of 
the weavers in their own homes until driven out 
by starvation is paralleled by much the same per- 
sistence among the "home workers" who sew in 
their own houses. In spite of Charles Kingsley's 
"Yeast," no poet or artist has endeared the sweat- 
ers' victim to us as George Eliot has made us love 
the belated weaver, Silas Mamer. 

For a program of labor songs, rendered by the 



pupils of the Hull House music school, it was pos- 
sible to find charming folk songs from the early 
textile workers, notably a spinning song by 
Rheinberger, and an old Irish weaving song of 
much beauty. For the latter period, involving ma- 
chinery, it was more difficult, although the head 
of the Hull House music school, Miss Eleanor 
Smith, set to music a poem written by a sweat- 
shop worker, Morris Eosenfeld, with such realism 
and force that the pupils of the music school have 
been invited to sing it before the Consumer's 
Leagues and other associations who have found 
it not only interpretative of an experience not re- 
mote from their own, but stirring and powerful in 
its moral appeal. 

The Chicago Arts and Crafts Society holds its 
bi-monthly meetings at HuU House, and its mem- 
bers have always been most generous with their 
time in assisting the workers in the shops. It is 
hoped that these shops will include the activities 
of many people besides the directors and will in 
time be able to present the historic background, 
through the people of the immediate neighborhood, 
whose training represents more primitive methods. 
These primitive methods will in turn be traced 
to the factories of the vicinity, and so far as possi- 
ble the enlarged and developed tool will be redis- 
covered there. Within a short distance of Hull 
House are large electrical factories and machine 
shops using quantities of metal — there are wood- 
working factories, bakeries and tailor shops. It is 
hoped that the men and women already working 
in them may care to come to the museum to be 
entertained, to work with the tools with which 
they are already familiar, to study charts and dia- 
grams which are simple and graphic, to attend lec- 
tures which may illustrate their daily work, and 
give them some clew to the development of the 
machine and the materials which they constantly 
handle. A man often cannot understand the ma- 
chine with which he works, because there is no 
soil out of which such an understanding may 
grow, and the natural connection of the workshop 
with culture is entirely lost for him. Two sound 
educational principles we may perhaps claim for 
the labor museum even in this early state of ex- 
periment — first, that it concentrates and dramatizes 
the inherited resources of a man's occupation, and 
secondly, that It conceives of education as "a con- 
tinuing reconstruction of experience." More than 
that the best "education" cannot do for any of us. 

During both winters a number of people have 
been attracted to the museum who had never cared 
to attend the other edhcational advantages offered 
by Hull House, and some of the most intelligent 
students from the various Hull House classes and 
clubs have cared a great deal for this new at- 



THE COMMONS 



13 



tempt at actual demonstration. During the winter 
numbers of school children and classes of teach- 
ers visited the museum, and on several occasions 
the museum itself became peripettic, and carried 
its demonstrations to normal schools. 

To many visitors it opened a new range of hu- 
man speculation, that for centuries the human race 
spun all its clothing with only a simple stick, and 
from that had to evolve the rapid and complicated 
machinery with which we are now familiar. It 
is a genuine piece of observation, and calls upon 
the analytic powers of the mind to work back 
from the complicated to the primitive and to 
see the two in historic relation. It breaks 
through the narrow present and one's own immedi- 
ate interests to see the customs of the various 
countries reproduced in connection with the ma- 
terial with which one is most familiar; to follow 
this material from its primitive form as it is sub- 
jected to direct processes to a finished product, 
and thus obtain something of the freedom of 
observation and power of comparison which travel 
is supposed to give. 

SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORK IN THE 
KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS. 

In the spring of 1899, there came to the Ken- 
tucky Federation of Woman's Clubs an appeal 
from the mountains to send thither "A woman, a 
gentle, womanly woman, to assist in the conduct 
of meetings, of wives, mothers, housekeepers, young 
women and little girls; to give lessons in cooking 
and home making as well as in culture and 
morals." In response to this appeal, the Ken- 
tucky Federation has for three summers sent just 
such women as were asked for into the most re- 
mote mountain counties to live in tents and carry 
on settlement work. 

The -"settlers" receive a cordial welcome from 
the mountain people, who are eager to learn. They 
say, "We 'low that you'uns as know how has come 
to show us as don't know how." Parents and 
grandparents declare, "We never had no chance 
to larn nothin'; now we are so glad the children 
have a chance." One man came with two boys, 
saying, "Will you just please larn 'em some man- 
ners," and a woman rode mteen miles on a mule 
with a girl behind her who "liked clean livin' and 
party fixin's" and also wanted "to larn." Boys 
and girls walked five and six miles daily to join 
the classes in cooking, sewing, kitchen-garden, kin- 
dergarden and singing. A man of thirty-five 
came to learn to patch and mend that he might 
teach his wife. Earnest and solemn, men and 
women, boys and girls, they sit on the steep hill- 
side, sewing from three to four hours every day. 

To the first sewing-class came a sixteen-year-old. 



lame mother, walking around a very steep, rough 
cliff, with a nine months' old baby in her arms. 
This baby had to be cared for while the mother 
learned to sew and it was soon "norated" about 
that all the mothers could come, as "them quare 
wimmin folks would keer for the babies."' So be- 
gan a primitive day nursery. 

Children not more than four years old would 
swear, chew, and smoke because they had nothing 
else to do. On these the kindergarten songs and 
occupations quickly took hold, so that it was not 
hard to persuade them to give up the bad for the 
good. A little fellow of six came with a bottle 
of moonshine whisky in his pocket, asking, 
"Whar is her what shows us howt" 

Boys of twelve and fifteen years old begged to be 
allowed to join in the making of pasteboard chairs, 
tables and wagons. DoUs they called "puppets" 
and the paper chains, rattlesnakes. 

Sunday schools claimed the time and energy of 
the "settlers," one on Saturday afternoons and 
two each Sunday, to which they walked twelve 
miles and a half. The young people would begin 
to gather by seven in the morning, pick the 
banjo and dance, drink moonshine and fire pistols 
all day. Yet by the time the teachers came all 
were in their places, knew their lessons, and be- 
haved as most boys and girls do at Sunday school. 
Very few of these people had ever been to school 
before, or had bibles. 

Besides the regular class work, much was done 
in the camp and in the homes of the people to 
cheer and to help them. "Fixin' up a little piece 
of writin' " for those who could neither read nor 
write; making the "buryin' " clothes and holding 
services for the dead; teaching the young people 
to sing and play innocent games which they could 
use instead of "mean things" customary at their 
"gatherin's" — these were some of the varied op- 
portunities for friendly service. Best of all per- 
haps was the chance to persuade the parents of 
children who were feeble-minded, or deaf and 
dumb, blind, and of sound and healthy children, 
too, to let them go to the proper schools in the 
lowlands. Two girls were given scholarships at 
Harlan and eight scholarships were offered at 
Berea. One ten-year-old girl, who had never been 
away from home and had never seen a town, 
started off bravely and cheerily to ride sixty miles 
behind her brother on a mule, her entire wordrobe 
besides what she wore, being one little grey dress 
on which she rode. Another young girl so wel- 
comed the chance to go to school that she was 
ready to start at once and walk one hundred miles 
over the mountains, carrying her clothes in a 
"meal poke." 

By a series of talks given in the east this winter. 



14 



THE COMMONS 



Miss Pettit and Miss Stone, the leaders in this 
mountain settlement work, have obtained money 
enough, in addition to funds already raised in 
Kentucky, to enable them to buy desirable prop- 
erty for a permanent industrial school at Hindman, 
Knott County, Ky. They need still the money for 
the settlement proper and for the annual expenses 
of both forms of work. It is earnestly to be 
hoped that it will speedily be made possible for 
them to bring into contact with the ignorant and 
humble mountaineer, with the sad and lonely 
lives of those with whom and for whom they 
have already lived and worked so much, all of 
strength and cheer and beauty that is so conveyed, 
in Its best interpretation, by the social settlement. 
Condensed from Miss Pettit's report by Mary 
Anderson Hill. 

FROM OUR BOSTON CORRESPONDENT. 

Boston. April 6, 1902. 

Ten years ago this winter settlements became a 
fact in Boston. In January, 1892, the Andover 
House, now South End House, was opened and 
Denison House was being talked of. To-day, in 
any discussion of settlement work, there must be 
added, to the seven or eight houses using the name, 
a number of flourishing clubs that in their neigh- 
borhood activities are following out what are 
known as settlement lines. 

"With these facts in mind, one is not inclined to 
give ear to the accusation of discouragement among' 
settlement workers lately made in a Boston paper. 
It is an encouraging sign that leaders of the 
movement no longer need as a stimulus the ideal- 
ization of their work that perhaps attended its 
beginning. The Elizabeth Peabody House re- 
port — one among a half dozen sizable and at- 
tractive settlement pamphlets lying before me — 
gives a summary of its year's work that perhaps 
characterizes the spirit of all the older workers in 
Its matter-of-fact frankness. It says: 

"The work of the kindergarten is good. The 
work of the boys' clubs, while not ideal, is still good. 
The work of the girls' clubs is good in itself but 
is not aimed at the center; there is a waste of 
energy. The social work is good so far as it goes, 
but is palliative rather than curative. Instead of 
making things more tolerable under the present 
tenement house conditions, we ought to better 
the conditions themselves." 

Quite a marked feature of this year's reports 
is their "Building News." The South End House, 
now having its men's residence at 20 Union Park, 
will soon lay the foundations of a building seventy 
feet square, that is to accommodate its clubs and 
classej', and give better opportunities for social 
functions, kindergarten and industrial work. The 



lively neighborhood interest in the lot of land that 
is being cleared of old buildings, and the appro- 
priative spirit with which the proceedings are 
watched and discussed, shows how true it is that 
there is no antidote to petty bickering like large 
mutual interests. 

The Lincoln House is projecting an Arts and 
Crafts building in the near future; and indeed 
it seems as if every settlement and club had either 
just removed to more commodious quarters or was 
about to erect some addition. The youngest 
member of the settlement family in Boston, the 
Civic Service House, established last October, 
found itself almost at birth in a new three-story 
building at 112 Salem street. That this is a 
iusty babe is testified by its leader, Mr. Meyer 
Bloorafield, who writes: 

"We have an average attendance of 400 men 
a week, 100 boys and 50 girls and women. We 
have two ideas in view — civic education and civic 
agitation; one for good citizenship, the other for 
good government." 

SETTLEMENT CO-OPERATION IN STREET CLEANING. 

The Civic Service House has united with the 
Xorth End Industrial School, the Elizabeth Pea- 
body House and the WUlard Y. Settlement in a 
street -cleaning movement. They are working 
among the children preparatory to forming juve- 
nile leagues for the care of the streets, after the 
pattern of those that existed in New York under 
Colonel Waring. Though the New York leagues 
were temporary, they did good work while 
they lasted, educating both children and parents 
in the city health ordinances, and arousing a sense 
of responsibility in the condition of the streets 
throughout whole neighborhoods. Whatever the 
cause of their falling to pieces, they were excellent 
in their results, and the present deputy commis- 
sioner of street cleaning, Mr. Gibson, has ex- 
pressed himself as disposed to repeat the experi- 
ment. This activity is part of a simultaneous 
movement among city reform organizations in 
regard to street cleaning, and the necessity of 
arousing a popular interest in the condition of 
highways and alloys. 

The Twentieth Century Club has just issued a 
report on street cleaning that makes no less than 
twenty-six recommendations for changes and im- 
provement in methods and ordinances, that seri- 
ous evils, may be warded off, and its committee are 
urging and outlining a plan of concentrated ac- 
tion for institutions and settlements. 

TRAINING SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL WORKERS. 

A work that interests and it is hoped will affect 
all the settlements of Boston is just closing its 
first season. A Training School for Social Work- 
ers was opened in October at Mrs. Quincy Shaw's 



THE COMMONS 



16 



house at 6 Marlborough street. The school has 
offered short courses of simple handicrafts that 
may be used by settlement workers in their clubs. 
Basket work and clay modeling have proved most 
popular, both among the normal students and in 
their clubs. All reports show the increasing be- 
lief in industrial work in the clubs. The purely 
social club has proved ineffective, except in rare 
instances, a ladder by which we all climbed but 
whose base degrees we are now unanimously 
spurning. The literary club we hear less and less 
about; it belonged to the idealistic period. But 
clubs that work together for an hour over a task 
that absorbs the attention of both hand and brain 
seem to us to hold great possibilities, material 
and spiritual. 

The South End House, like all the rest, feels 
this and is beginning to wonder, as well, if better 
results, with small children at least, cannot be 
achieved in large clubs, thirty or more, with sub- 
divisions — a federation of little clubs, each with 
its own leader, but all under the direction of one 
experienced head. Its first experiment of this 
sort bids fair to be a great success. Between 
the kindergarten and the clubs there has been for 
years a gap in which the children fell away from 
the influence of the House. Now, the kinder- 
garten "graduates," about thirty-seven in number, 
are meeting twice a month under the direction of 
the teacher. The children are classified according 
to age in several sections, each with its occupa- 
tion and leader; and at the end of the session, all. 
sections meet together for games and singing. The 
sections bear the same name, the i<indergarten 
Band, and there is all the stimulus of numbers 
with the individual attention of the small clubs. 

SETTLEMENT WORKERS FROM THE KENTUCKY 
MOUNTAINS. 

Boston has been shaking hands lately with a 
most unique and appealing settlement enterprise 
in a far-away state. Two young women have been 
visiting us who have told a fascinating story of 
settlement work in the Kentucky mountains, six- 
ty-five miles from the railroad, two days' horse- 
back ride through the woods. For several years 
these girls have lived in tents, able to work 
through the summer only. Now they are raising 
money for a school house and a permanent home 
where the work can go on the year round. Al- 
ready through their inspiration, several young 
mountaineers have made their way through the 
woods to become students at Berea College. The 
Congregationalist tells of this in its issue for this 
week, a "Good Cheer" number in honor of the 
eightieth birthday of that prophet of good cheer, 
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, whose birthday party last 



Thursday night filled Symphony Hall to overflow- 
ing. Another item tells of a union of pastors, 
church workers and settlement work workers at the 
South End, representing six denominations, who 
have organized for unsectarian social and religious 
work, reaching into corners of this straggling dis- 
trict heretofore untouched by church or settlement. 
Kindergarten, clubs, Sunday school and evening 
meetings are already started. Another encourag- 
ing unsectarian item is given in the notice of a 
new building opened by the Epworth League 
House, a medical mission. On the opening night 
a Roman Catholic speaker turned to the workers 
with the closing words, "And may God bless you 
in your work." Elizabeth Y. Eutan. 

The Hartley House Cook Book. 

Was written for teachers of cookiDg in settlements 
and girls' clubs, and for people who wish to proYlde 
nourisblng. appetizing food for a moderate cost. 

Order from Hartley House, 413 West Forty-slith 
Street, New York City, Siity-flTe cents per copy by 
mall. A special rate for orders of three or more, 

LAWN SWINGS MAY POLES 

W. S. TOTHILL 

Manufacturer 

Play Ground, Park, Qymaasiinn and Athletic Field 
Equipmeits. Write for anything you want. 

126-128 West Webster Avenue. CHICAGO, ILL. 

'Bhe New Fourth Edition of College, Social 
and University Settlements BibliograLphy. 

Compiled by Caroline Williamson Montgomery. 
For the College Settlement Association, with much 
new material. Now ready. Order through The 
Commons. Ten cents per copy. 



The Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social Set- 
tlement point of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave* Morgan St., 
Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago Postofficeasmail 
matter of the second (newspaper) class, 

T^" o?V,^*<"'*B*^'^ Price Is Fifty Csrkts a Year. 

(Two Shillings, Enjflish: 2.50 francs, French— foreign stamps 
accepted.) Postpaid to any State or Country. Six copies to 
oneaddress for J2.50, Send check, draft, P. O. money order, 
cash or stamps, not above s-cnt denomination . , at our risk. 
Advertlsemerkts in tKe Commons Durlntf 1902. 
One Page, $25 00; Half Page, »15.00; Quarter Page, $g.0O; One 
Inch, $2.00. For each insertion, 

Specl&I Rates for Special Numbers of theCommons 

Any number under twenty-five copies, five cents each; over 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
one hundred, two and one-half cents each. 
CKaLnges of Address. Please notify the publisher of 
any change of address, or of failure to receive the paper 
within a reasonable interval after it is due. 
Discontlfwiartces. Please notify us at once if for any 
reason you desire your subscription discontinued. Inaccord- 
ance with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscrib- 
ers, we continue The Commons to each address until notified 
to the contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
Labor from the Socla.! Settlement Point aj View. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR ZklHor. 

Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlementat Grand Ave.* Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



I 



50 Cents 



<T^g]aBi^^>tit 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



We congratulate the City of Cleveland, Ohio, 
Goodrieh House and its head resident, Mr. Starr 
Cadwallader, over his election as director of public 
schools, which places their business administration 
in his hands. 



Mrs. Elizabeth Y. Butan's letter from Boston is 
welcomed as an invaluable addition to our regular 
monthly surveys of social service by expert ob- 
servers at the great centers of progressive eflfort. 

That Overheated Conscience. 

As sure as the hearts of the American people 
are sound and their consciences are quick, some- 
body must answer for the astounding barbarity io 
the Phillipines which has disgraced the United 
States Army in the eyes of the civilized world. 
The Nation's indignation which sent the army 
to deliver the Cubans from Spanish methods of 
warfare was too sincere to allow the nation to 
abide the inconsistency between suppressing "re- 
coneentrado camps" in Cuba and tolerating "the 
water cure" in the Phillipines, between banish- 
ing by force of arms from the western hemisphere 
a government which could tolerate a Weyler at 
the head of its army, and justifying, under any 
provocation whatever, the order of an American 
officer to kill all over ten years of age and make 
their homeland a howling wilderness. For far 
less savagery against the Boers than that, 
the British General Kitchener shot two of his 
officers and imprisoned others for life. Sooner 
or later the reckoning will come. Better sooner at 
the hand of the administration than later at the 
hand of the people. 

It is a sorry rejoinder to the protest of the 
people 's conscience for editors to ask, ' ' Did you 
not know that war is hellf What else do you ex- 
pect it to bet" Even the charge that what the 
redoubtable General Funston is pleased to call 
' ' overheated conscience " is " firing in the rear,' ' 
will scarcely cool the white heat of our people's 
righteous indignation. 



A Stroke of Settlement Genius. 
For its originality, suggestiveness and educa- 
tional possibility, the Hull House Labor Museum 
is perhaps the most unique and distinctive settle- 
ment endeavor ever undertaken. Although its 
promoters modestly regard it as yet only in its 
initial and experimental stage, some features, 
such as the bindery, had achieved well recognized 
success before being incorporated in the general 
plan. The possibilities of a scheme so capable 
of indefinite development may always make its 
achievement seem meager and crude to those hav- 
ing the whole ideal in mind. But there is enough 
of it already in actual operation at Hull House to 
inspire a genuine interest in and study of the 
evolution of industry upon the part of both work- 
ing people and employers; to tempt -the invest- 
ment of money and talent in the development of 
the Museum; and so to fascinate those already 
enlisted in the enterprise that their enthusiasm 
and persistence will assure its ever-increasing 
growth and success. On Saturday evenings, 
when most of the departments are to be seen in 
full operation, Hull House presents a scene which 
casts its spell over every observer and abides in 
the memory as a point of view whence a broader 
and truer outlook on all life is taken. 

Hartford's Labor Mayor. 

The possibility of electing a representative of 
organized labor as Mayor of Hartford, Conn., 
would have seemed scarcely credible to one who 
knew that city and its labor unions ten years ago, 
as well as the writer knew them. The healthful 
mobility of American political life and the clear 
chance of welding the balance of power in the in- 
terest of any common cause which men can con- 
scientiously espouse are hopefully demonstrated by 
the present situation in this old stronghold of po- 
litical and social conservatism. Perhaps this fact 
is more significant to the country at large than the 
election of a more experienced politician would 
have been. That the hitherto unbroken reign 
of both political party machines could have been 
supplanted through the propaganda of a compar- 
atively small, though active and earnest, non- 
political "Economic League of Workingmen," 
shows how potent industrial issues may be in 
politics. 

The new Mayor thus creditably and modestly 
expressed his attitude toward the issues involved 
in his election at the hour of his triumph: 

"I fully indorse the principles of the league 
as to municipal administration. Foremost among 
these and covering live questions of the day are 
free text books in the schools, municipal owner- 
ship of the local gas plant, to give better service 



TH£ COMMONS 



17 



at lower coat, eight hours to be a day's work for 
all employes, living rates of wages for these men; 
employment of citizens only on any work paid for 
by the city; no contracts for street cleaning, 
sprinkling, or garbage collection, and, generally 
speaking, an honest and economical administra- 
tion of city affairs. 

"Here in Hartford we have seen the strength 
of united workingmen, and a demonstration of 
what the common people, an organization of the 
working people, can accomplish when the voters 
work shoulder to shoulder. 

"We are gradually coming to the time when 
all men will be equal. We have got it in our power 
now in this city to place our principles in practice. 
The present is not a day of politics and 
politicians, but of men and measures. I do not 
favor any man or set of men. I am anxious to 
be assisted in giving this city the best administra- 
tion possible. If questions of finance are to 
be considered it seems to me right and proper for 
men who are known as skilled financiers to come 
and advise with the Mayor on questions of finance. 

"When business matters are under considera- 
tion it would be proper, it seems to me, for busi- 
ness men to consult with the Mayor, not to come 
and attempt to force him to the wall. It is a 
teaching of our league as workingmen to be 
courteous to all men, to comport ourselves as the 
Christian virtues exact. We wish to respect all 
men and to respect the property rights of every 
one. It makes no difference to us whether a 
man is a union man or not. Is he deserving? is 
the only rule we shall apply. 

"They say we are inexperienced in public mat- 
ters. We have given a little time, a little atten- 
tion, and a little study to civic affairs. If men 
who control capital would come and talk with 
us and learn our aims and our intentions there 
would be less misunderstanding. We do not want 
their wealth; we have the right to live, and we 
want to get living wages, and we want to raise 
labor in the estimation of the people of the 
American continent." > 

Eobbing Children of their Childhood. 

The decision of the Chicago Board of Educa- 
tion to cut off the kindergartens from our public 
school, because of insufficiency of funds, due, let 
us ad, to wholesale tax-dodging, is arousing the 
people to form leagues for the protection of the 
kindergarten at settlement and other educational 
centers. The crisis has called forth from Jacob 
Kiis the following letter to Miss Amalie Hofer, 
editor of the Kindergarten Magazine, which 
forcibly expresses the settlement sentiment: 



"Dear Madam: My sentiments on the subject 
of playgrounds and kindergartens are expressed 
by me every day with tongue or pen or both, and 
I can add nothing to what I have said a thousand 
times — namely, that they are the prime factors 
in making good citizens. That is what it is 
coming to in the end, and a better beginning than 
they make I know not of. 

"If we learn by doing, if play is the normal 
occupation of the child, in which he first perceives 
moral ralations, what then of the playground that 
is set between two gutters always? I mean the 
street— in the past the only one the child had. 
From it must needs come tarnished citizenship. 

"You cannot rob a child of its childhood and 
expect to appeal to the child's manhood by-and- 
by. It takes a whole boy to make a whole man, 
and a boy's clean play is a big part of him. That 
we have seen that and restored it at last is the 
best proof in the world that our fathers have not 
built in vain and that our freedom will endure. 
If that is not cause for rejoicing I should like to 
know what is. Yours sincerely, JACOB RIIS." 



( 

Among the featxires of Browning Hall work for 
men we note the following announcements for 
the new year: 

The eighth year of the Pleasant Sunday After- 
noons open to all men over 16 years, 3:30 to 4:30 
every week. 

The Men's Club and Public Coffee Tavern with 
rooms to let for meetings of trades unions, 
friendly societies, etc., and including billiard 
rooms, "a social lounge, with bagatelle, chess, 
drafts, ping-pong, newspapers, etc.", and "frank 
and brotherly company," and "adult school for 
men," conducted by Councillor Tom Bryan, M. 
A., is announced for Sundays, 11 a. m. The sub- 
ject for the spring term is "Joseph Mazzini, 
His Influence on 19th Century Life and Thought." 
"A Greek testament class for beginners, conduct- 
ed by i!\ Herbert Stead," is also among the Sun- 
day announcements. 



New Cottage [at [Macatawa for Rent. 

A cottage of seven rooms and a bath-room, 
now being erected on an easily accessible bluff 
overlooking Lake Michigan, just south of Maca- 
tawa, will be ready for occupancy July 1. Any 
family desiring to inquire about this safe, com- 
fortable, beautiful summer home between the 
Michigan woods and the great lake, seven hours 
from Chicago by daily steamer lines may address 
"The Commons," 180 Grand avenue, Chicago. 



18 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Maky K. Simkhovttch (Mrs. 

Vladimir G. Simkhcvitch), 248 East 34th St., 

New York City. 
Secretary: Mabel Gair Curtis, 829 Boylston St., 

Boston. 
Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 

City. 
Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 

Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43d St., New 

York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City — 95 Eivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston — 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Willlamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The Probation Law in Pennsylvania. 

The probation law of Pennsylvania, a measure 
of the last Legislature, went into effect in May, 
1901. It deals only with "dependent, neglected 
and delinquent children" under the age of sixteen, 
providing that such children shall be disposed of 
by a special court, known as the Juvenile Court, 
and that, if sent by the court back to their homes, 
they shall remain there under the oversight of a 
special officer appointed by the court. Such chil- 
dren may be brought into the Juvenile Court 
through petition by citizens, but usually they are 
sent from the magistrates' courts and station- 
houses. When a magistrate transfers the case of 
a child brought before him to the Juvenile Court 
several days must often elapse before the sitting 
of the court. The disposition, of the child during 
that time is a serious question, since, so far, the 
state has provided no house of detention. In Phil- 
adelphia the Children's Aid Society, as far as 
possible, supplies this lack. 

The act has met considerable opposicion, both 
before and after its passage. Some contend that 
a previously existing law, if made mandatory in- 
stead of permissive, would have been sufficient. 
Others think that the spirit of the law unjustly 
discriminates against public reformatories. The 
House of Hefuge, in particular, having an immense 
plant and excellent facilities for dealing with large 
numbers of boys, feels that the law only offers an- 
other way of doing work already effectively done. 
At present an attempt is being made to test the 



constitutionality of the law on the ground of class 
legislation. The "taxpayer" has carried it into 
court, since the law requires an additional office 
and salary of $1,000. Its supporters are not dis- 
couraged; they believe that, should the law fail, a 
new one of the same purport but of better form 
will eomp. 

Like all other laws, only experience could show 
its practical workings and defects, if any. Its 
framers and supporters believe that by altering 
several small details its execution would be more 
effective. In the first place a state house of deten- 
tion is needed. Secondly, the present rotatory sys- 
tem of judges for the court hinders a consistent 
anu unified course of action. Lastly, and perhaps 
more important, the act does not include "incor- 
rigible" children in its provisions. Another exist- 
ing law permits magistrates to dispose of the class 
of children so-called. Hence a magistrate may, if 
he deem a child incorrigible, commit him immedi- 
ately to a reformatory, without bringing the case 
before the Juvenile Court. This power is some- 
times successfully invoked by parents who are 
tired of their children and want them "put away." 

Since last July the cases of 366 dependent and 
739 delinquent children have been dealt with. So 
far twelve probation officers have been employed, 
eight of whom represent various charitable socie- 
ties. One of the judges says: "A few months' 
practical working of the act has shown what a 
wonderful agency for good the probation officer is. 
* * * The whole scheme of the act is toward 
preventing deUuquents from becoming criminals. 
It is the ounce of prevention which is far, far bet- 
ter than pounds of cure. It aims to place the err- 
ing child of years too tender to yet fully appreci- 
ate the dangers ahead, under the restraining, guid- 
ing hand of an officer of the court. The restraint 
is that of oversight, the guidance that of kindly 
advice backed by that power everywhere recog- 
nized, the power of the law." 

Of the four Philadelphia probation officers not 
connected with societies, one has constantly made 
her home in the Philadelphia College Settlement, 
and here her probation boys come and bring their 
friends. Her idea is to provide a safe and natural 
outlet for the boy's social feelings, which he does 
possess, although his whole family may live in one 
room, and there is no place to entertain his friends 
except on the street. Many of these boys have 
been organized into clubs for gymnastics or other 
occupations of hand and head. The permitting of 
probation boys to bring tneir friends arose from a 
remark made by one of the friends that "a feller 
couldn't get to belong to one of them college set- 
tlement clubs unless he swiped somethin', or done 



THE COMMONS 



1» 



somethin' bad." That broke down one barrier and 
the probation boy brought in his gang, of which 
he was often the leader. In one such case the pro- 
bationer was an Italian ragpicker of fifteen, ar- 
rested for stealing from a back yard. When told 
he might bring his friends to the club he brought 
in fourteen other big, thick-set Italian boys. As 
for himself he has abandoned ragpicking and now 
earns $9 a weak in the navy yard, and what is 
better, has a very appreciable gentle and good in- 
fluence on the .rest of his club. 

Just one more successful probationer. A boy of 
thirteen robbed his employer of $20. He simply 
registered his proper time for going to work and 
stopping; in the meantime he sneaked in and out 
and played on a neighboring lot. For three weeks 
he drew his pay, then came discovery. His em- 
ployer had him arrested; the probation officer 
asked that he be taken back. The employer at 
first thought she was mad; afterward he remem- 
bered his own boys, appeared in court and prom- 
ised to give the boy another trial. Two weeks ago 
the boy paid back the last of the stolen money and 
received an advance in his position. Under the 
old law he would have gone to the House of Ref- 
uge for two years. 

The probation law has been in operation ten 
months and has done good and effective work, not 
only for the children themselves, but for the com- 
munity as well. The best thought and feeling are 
on its side. A judge who is recorded as opposing 
the passage of the bill now says: "Great good to 
the children and public must necessarily follow 
their [the probation officers] labors of humanity 
for a class of children unable to protect them- 
selves and criminally neglected by the commu- 
nity." As for the law itself he says, "It is its own 
best excuse for being." Edith Jones, 

College Settlement, Philadelphia. 

April 9, 1902. 

"Surely the largest field of usefulness is open 
to that church in which the spirit of brotherhood 
is a living and vital force and not a cold formula ; 
in which the rich and poor gather together to aid 
one another in work for a common end. Brother 
can best help brother, not by almsgiving, but by 
joining with him in an intelligent and resolute 
effort for the uplifting of all." 

"The spirit which exacts respect and yields it, 
which is anxious always to help in a mood of 
simple brotherhood, and which is glad to accept 
help in return — this is the spirit which enables 
men of every degree of wealth and of widely 
varying social conditions to work together in the 
heartiest good will and to the immense benefit 
of all." — Theodore Boosevelt, in the Fortnightly 
Review. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WOEKEES, NEW YOEK CITY. 

Edited for the Association by 
Mart Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



Mr. Woods' Course for Neighborhood Workers. 

The object of the course was to present a broad 
classification of the population in the working class 
districts of our cities; to suggest large lines of 
action designed to meet the situation in each in- 
dustrial stratum; and, in particular, to show what 
the special constituency of the settlement is. 

One must confront these problems not with any 
form of altruism, but in the spirit of constructive 
statesmanship. Government is not a tradition, but 
a science, and must adapt itself flexibly to things 
as they are. Social science is science in the same 
sense. The words by which we describe the person 
whose life has refinement and finish refer to the 
persons adaptedness to existence in a city — civil, 
polite, urbane. The truly cultivated person of 
these days shows the marks of his culture by com- 
ing in touch with the range of characteristic, con- 
temporary city facts. 

In endeavoring to mold city facts prescriptioM 
are useless. One must be an opportunist — now gen- 
tle, now firm; now using edge tools, now heavy 
machinery; now dealing minutely with individuals, 
now acting comprehensively and exhaustively. 

The need of painstaking analysis of city fact* 
exists because, with the great growth of cities, not 
only has the administration of the city broken 
down, but the very conception of the city has bro- 
ken down. Most citizens live on with the thought 
of their city as it was fifteen or twenty years ago. 
Others create out of part of it by a more or less 
imaginary boundary line a sort of village within 
which they have their "conversation." 

Charles Booth has rendered a great service to 
progressive citizenship through his analysis of the 
London population. His classification (found in 
Vol. 1, "Labor and Life of the People") is to the 
social student of the nature of the alphabet or the 
multiplication table. He finds the problem of pov- 
erty in four classes, together including about 30 
per cent of the London population — A (semi-crimi- 
nal), B (casual labor), C (Intermittent labor), D 
(regular low wages). He places the causes of 
poverty under three heads: matters of employ- 
ment, of habit, of circumstance. 

For the pauperized or semi-pauperized grades 
we need to organize large, systematic measures. 
They cannot be dealt with through the good deeds 
of the well-disposed. They represent a dangerous 



20 



THE COMMONS 



hereditary and contagious social disease. The ques- 
tion of responsibility and blame counts for little 
when a person has fallen into a gfrade where most 
of the recuperative moral vitality is gone. With 
the insane and criminals we think much less about 
blame than formerly. Pauperism, confirmed and 
incipient, must be dealt with by careful classifica- 
tion, but by wholesale and exhaustively, as we deal 
with problems of sanitation and infection. 

The pauper group is partly resident, partly 
roving. 

The roving pauper (tramp) must be abolished. 
Let every city and every considerable town be re- 
quired by statute to provide a lodging house 
where food and shelter will be provided in return 
for a severe stint of work. Make begging on the 
streets a punishable offense. Advertise to all 
householders that "sturdy beggars" be sent in 
every case to this lodging house. Experience has 
shown that towns adopting such a policy are in- 
stantly put upon the tramps' blacklist. An entire 
state could easily earn this happy opprobrium. 

The resident pauper should have a special type 
of institution of an encouraging sort to deal with 
him in his early stages. In some cases after being 
tested he would fall into the ranks of the eon- 
firmed paupers; in others he could be trained into 
self-reliance. 

The principle of the cumulative sentence should 
be applied to the confirmed pauper, the confirmed' 
drunkard, the confirmed prostitute. They ought 
to be effectually prevented from spreading their 
ctirse through contagion and heredity. 

Such a policy would secure a large saving of 
human life which now goes to waste in the human 
residuum. It would remove much of the ruinous 
competition by which the casual class undermines 
the employment of the intermittent worker and 
the wages of the regularly employed. It would 
eliminate a very perplexing factor from the prob- 
lem of the unemployed. It would make the saloon 
the entrance to a bottomless pit. It would vastly 
simplify the work of organized charity among the 
intermittent workers and the work of the settle- 
ment among the low-paid regularly employed. It 
could be carried out by such a combination of de- 
termination and resource as goes with any of our 
large industrial combinations. 

THB AKIST0C3£ACT OP LABOR. 

The second lecture dealt with the aristocracy of 
labor. A nation's chief outlay for new investment 
is in the cost of producing and training the rising 
generation. The fundamental wealth of a nation 
lies in the productive capacity of the people. 

Prof. Alfred Marshall estimates that about one- 
half of the beet natural geniuses bom into a conn- 
try is bom among the working classes. Most of 



this is lost to itself and to the country through a 
narrow scheme of book-work education and through 
allowing promising boys and girls to end their 
education with the bare rudiments for the utterly 
insequent reason that their parents happen to be 
poor. 

We need a great extension of manual and tech- 
nical training, and a system of free scholarships 
by which undoubtedly talented boys and girls 
could receive as complete a training as they could 
later make good use of. Advanced education is 
not urged for the great mass of the children of the 
working classes. The development of character, 
physical health, and sufScient education to give 
them adaptability is what is needed for the aver- 
age person. 

Trained leaders for the direction of industry 
and for the organization of labor would be devel- 
oped by a far-sighted policy like the one suggested. 

INMVIDUAUST AND COLLECTIVIST INDUSTELAL 
CLASSES. 

In the third lecture it was pointed out that the 
lowest and highest strata of industrial life were 
made up of individualists. In the one ease necessi- 
ties, in the other ambitions, drive the individual to 
direct effort after his personal ends. There is a 
great middle class of labor which is made up of 
coUectivists. This is the working class proper — 
held together by the various forms of association 
which are characteristic of the proletariat. Not 
accessible on the basis of necessities, on the one 
hand, nor of ambitions on the other. It is imper- 
vious to the influence of organized charity from 
beneath or from special educational institutions 
from above. 

WORKING CLASS ASSOCIATION. 

This and the two following lectures dealt with 
the various ways of working class association. 

It was shown that trades-unionism was an inev- 
itable development of the factory system, and the 
only way by which the workman could bargain ef- 
fectively with the man holding the power of organ- 
ized capital. 

The methods and objects of trades unions were 
explained. It was shown that in all of them there 
was a greater or lees kernel of good, but that most 
of the trades union policy was liable to abuse. 
Being a necessary factor in modem industry we 
must take it at its best, and help to bring it up to 
its own standards. 

Progress is being made in the matter of arbi- 
tration and conciliation. Under a joint board of 
conciliation, made up of a committee of employers 
and committee of workmen, some trades have had 
long immunity from conflicts, and this system is 
the surest way toward industrial peace. 



THE COMMONS 



21 



In the end the organization of labor will be a 
constituent part of the complete and united organ- 
ization of industry. 

Socialism was traced through its characteristic 
French, German and English aspects. The Fabian 
type of Socialism was commended as avoiding the 
militarist discipline, rigid equality and ready-made 
doctrinaire character of the orthodox German So- 
cialism. It was shown, however, that in Germany 
as Socialism becomes more powerful it becomes 
much more moderate and opportunist. 

In America, conscious Socialism has been largely 
of the extreme German type. But that there is a 
large amount of incipient Socialism among the 
people of American stock the People's party move- 
ment has shown. 

We may reasonably see advance toward economic 
socialism in the trades union movement: toward 
political socialism in the movement for the munici- 
palization of public utilities, toward educational 
socialism in the extension of the means of training 
and culture to the working classes, and toward re- 
ligious socialism in the growing hope of a better 
social order to come out of our present social con- 
fusion. 

CRUDE SOCIALISM IN WARD POLITICS. 

Ward politics is a kind of crude Socialism, bas- 
ing itself upon the feeling that the power of the 
ballot ought to bring with it tangible economic 
betterment to the people. It involves an elaborate 
scheme of local social influence, including recrea- 
tive, industrial, commercial, religious, family and 
neighborhood groups, all of which are used for 
their political value. The criminal, the unem- 
ployed, the casual, the unskilled laborer, the me- 
chanic, the tradesman, the young man ambitious 
for some higher career than that of his father — 
are all met with offers of some actual economic 
service. To each of them the ballot becomes an 
asset — to many of them it is the only one. 

The molding or the outright creation of local 
public sentiment is an important part of the work 
of the machine. The saloon is one of the chief 
centers for such influence. 

Municipal reform must follow the lines of the 
boss' strategy. It must improve the economic con- 
dition of the people, by instituting a truly helpful 
local political programme. The boss cannot be 
destroyed, but a better boss can be developed by 
pushing to the front genuine issues as to local 
improvement. A public bath or a public play- 
ground is a sort of kindergarten training in de- 
mocracy. Through such training the electorate is 
elevated and enlightened — and this Is the only per- 
manent way of reform in a democracy. 

Home and neighborhood are the real strongholds 



of working-class life. Working-class experiences, 
sentiments, gossip, vocabulary, cannot be under- 
stood except by seeing home and neighborhood 
from the inside. Charles Booth points out that 
near the line of poverty the fate of the home 
chiefly depends on the thrift of the wife. This is 
therefore the point at which wise help is greatly 
needed. Boys and girls should be trained for their 
future callings, and then actually launched, as the 
children of well-to-do parents are launched. 

The back streets have a sort of village life which 
needs to be understood and influenced. 

Nationality and religion serve to dig deeper the 
gulf of distinction created by wealth and poverty. 
The settlement is an ingenious device for secur- 
ing access to the otherwise almost inaccessible 
working class. It comes as a quasi-home, with po- 
tential neighbors, friends, fellow-citizens, ready to 
join in the various local forms of association on a 
basis of equal rights. This attitude of democratic 
co-operation secures approach to the working class 
on the basis of what is most real to it, its loyal- 
ties. 

The settlement is a religious unity binding to- 
gether rival churches. It makes a link of connec- 
tion between the public school and the home. Dif- 
ferent settlements widen their scope until the rip- 
ples of influeuce coalesce, creating a new moral 
synthesis, the pattern of the better city of the 
future. 

The Social Reform Club. 

The formation of the Social Reform Club was 
first proposed during the summer of 1894. On the 
conclusion of the municipal campaign of that year 
several preliminary meetings of social reformers 
were held, and the club was promptly organized 
at the residence of the Kev. Thomas J. Ducey, No- 
vember 22. The more prominent persons connected 
with its founding were Prof. Felix Adler, Dr. Al- 
bert Shaw, the Eev. W. S. Eainsford, Prof. E. E. 
A. Seligman, the Eev. Leighton Williams, Dr. 
Charles B. Spahr, Mr. J. W. Sullivan, Mr. Henry 
White and Mr. E. H. Crosby. 

Mr. E. H. Crosby was elected president and the 
Eev. W. S. Eainsford treasurer. The constitution, 
adopted at tlus meeting. United the club's prov- 
ince of work and discussion to matters relating to 
the immediate needs of the wage-earners. General 
theories of society were to be tabooed. Investiga- 
tion was to be made and arbitration attempted, in 
the case of labor disputes; legal aid was to be 
given in cases where justice demanded it; inquiry 
was to be made into industrial conditions, and 
weekly discussions on practical questions were to 
be held. The membership was to include women 



22 



THE. .COMMONS 



and to be as nearly as possible equally divided be- 
tween wage-earners and non-wage-earners. 

The club's first quarters were at 7 Lafayette 
place. By December 29 the membership had grown 
to 118, women constituting about one-fourth of 
the total. On January 20, 1895, the quarters were 
moved to Second avenue and Fifth street. The 
first general public meeting of the club was held 
in Cooper Union, January 30, when the report of 
the Gilder Tenement House Commission was dis- 
cussed. The speakers were the Eev. W. S. Bains- 
ford, E. W. GUder, Prof. Felix Adler, Prof. E. E. 
A. Seligman, Mr. Henry George and Mr. Edward 
King. It was an interesting and highly successful 
meeting and won for the club considerable promi- 
nence. A second popular meeting was held in the 
Criterion Theater, Brooklyn, February 28, to dis- 
cuss the question of the municipal ownership of 
the street railways. 

The first officers, with two or three exceptions, 
were re-elected (November, 1895) and three women 
were added to the executive council. January 1, 

1896, the club moved to new quarters at 28 East 
Fourth street. The real practical work of the so- 
ciety began in this home (June, 1896) by the selec- 
tion of a working programme and the appoint- 
ment of committees to take up specific lines of in- 
quiry and action. In many ways the club's influ- 
ence and power were exerted in behalf of labor 
and its rapid recognition from the public. 

Dr. Charles B. Spahr was elected president at 
the next election (November, 1896). Among the 
practical questions discussed during the club year 
was the state of the various city departments. This 
series of discussions strikingly revealed the abuses 
that had grown up under the previous Tammany 
administrations, and outlined the methods em- 
ployed or attempted for their reformation. The 
various programme committees continued to do 
active work in industrial, social and administrative 
questions, and greatly augmented the club's influ- 
ence. 

Dr. Spahr was re-elected president in November 

1897. The same general policy was continued 
throughout the year. A slight reaction, however, 
due to several causes, and particularly to the de- 
cline of public spirit consequent upon the triumph 
of Tammany Hall at the polls, was soon mani- 
fested in the club's activities; and it unquestion- 
ably lost ground as a public factor. 

At the succeeding election (1898) Mr. Edmond 
Kelly was elected president. Eesigning In Febru- 
ary, 1899, he was succeeded by Mr. James !K. 
Paulding, who was re-elected in the fall of the 
same year. The club had in the meantime (Octo- 
ber, 1898) removed to 45 University place to con- 
siderably larger but otherwise less satisactory 



quarters. In November, 1900, Mr. Robert Van 
Iderstine was elected president. On his resigna- 
tion shortly afterward, Mr. A. J. Boulton was 
chosen, and in November, 1901, the latter was 
succeeded by the present incumbent, Mr. W. 
Franklin Brush. In May, 1901, the club settled 
in its present home, 128 East Twenty-eighth street. 
In the years following its most flourishing pe- 
riod (June, 1896-December, 1897) the club has fol- 
lowed a rather various policy. It has alternately 
broadened its scope to allow the discussion of gen- 
eral and theoretical questions and again narrowed 
it to the consideration of the most practical prob- 
lems. The ebb and flow of interest in its work 
have been extreme; it has had its periods of dull 
stagnation no less than of ardent enthusiasm and 
fruitful activity. But against many obstacles it 
has survived; it has still a large membership and 
a healthy ledger, and it is the confident expecta- 
tion of those who best know Its history, its re- 
sources and its potential field of social endeavor 
that it will long endure as an influential factor in 
the socio-industrial affairs of the great metropo- 
lis. W. G. 

Child Labor Committee's Progframme. 

The committee of the Association of Neighbor- 
hood Workers, on Chila Labor, met recently and 
organized various committees for collecting infor- 
mation concerning the extent of the evil in this 
community. 

The following subcommittees were appointed: 
The Committee on Child Labor in Factories and 
Shops, Mrs. A. A. Hill; the Committee on Child 
Labor on the Street, Miss Lillian Wald, chairman; 
Child Labor in the Home, Miss Elizabeth Wil- 
liams; Child Labor in Philanthropic Institutions, 
Mrs. S. W. Fitzgerald; Child Labor in Vacation 
Time, Mrs. M. K. Simkovitch; Legal Committee, 
Calvin W. Stewart, chairman, 184 Eldridge street. 

At this meeting of the committee it was decided 
that the various subcommittees would co-operate 
closely with every one in the community, especially 
with the various settlements, who have opportuni- 
ties of observing child labor of various kinds. 

It is hoped that each settlement will bear this 
matter in mind and make a special effort to inves- 
tigate the conditions in their various localities, 
and that the residents doing this work will report 
to the chairman for the various subcommittees 
whenever they have come across information which 
will be of interest to our committees. Whatever 
organization of this work seems most satisfactory 
to the individual settlement will, of course, be sat- 
isfactory to the committee. The only thing that 
the committee wishes to urge is that unless some 
of the residents in each settlement may be inclined 



THE COMMONS 



2A 



to give this matter special attention the general 
committee will not be able to collect as much in- 
formation concerning this matter as we should 
have. The general committee will be dependent 
upon the settlements to a very large extent, and it 
hopes for a cordial and active co-operation. If 
any in the various settlements can give an un- 
usual amount of time in the matter we should be 
very glad to hear from them. Very sincerely yours, 
Robert Hunter, Chairman. 

The Tear at Alta House. 

The past year the Alta House has been one of 
great interest. I fancy we have all felt more 
keenly than usual the privileges, joys and satisfac- 
tion of settlement life. There has been a strong 
bond of sympathy and unity of purpose among the 
residents that could not but have its effect upon 
the life of the neighborhood. Consequently our 
clubs and classes have never been so full. April 
IE we opened the second kindergarten in the house 
in our effort to meet the needs of the little chil- 
dren. We now have an enrollment of 118, but still 
there is a waiting list, with many mothers anx- 
iously inquiring when they may send their chil- 
dren. 

Since the Christmas holidays we have added 276 
to the membership of the various clubs and classes, 
and now have a total of 1,265, besides those who 
use the more public features of the house — the 
batijs, poolroom and dispensary; At Easter time 
we invited the kindergarten mothers to come in 
one afternoon, and sixty-five responded to the in- 
vitation. All Italians but six. Miss Gutnerie, for 
a time our resident nurse (and consequently know- 
ing many of the mothers), speaks the dialect of 
our people fluently and was of great assistance. 

The mothers were seated around a large circle 
while she explained in their own language the mo- 
tive of our work with their little ones. 

Our kindergarteners then played several games 
which were carefully explained. After that many 
of the younger mothers, upon being invited, got 
up and joined them, greatly to the delight of the 
others who were looking on. It was a happy after- 
noon indeed, and after the playing of the games 
the residents met and talked with them while re- 
freshments were served. On leaving each one car- 
ried away a flower as a remembrance of the Easter 
thought that had been given them during the after- 
noon.  

The Alta House still continues to take a share 
in the public life of the community. A careful 
canvass shows its nine short streets to contain a 
population of 2,371 men, women and children, with 
862 children under 14 years of age; 1,203 of the 
population are Italians, 257 were born in the 



United States, 66 of whom are colored, 120 are 
German, 93 English, 32 Irish, and the balance 
Scotch, Scandinavians, French, Russian and other 
countries. There has been little serious illness and 
no contagious disease among us this winter, for 
the first time since the house was opened. 

The latest additions to the work are: A class 
of twenty-five piano pupils, chorus of twenty-two 
colored people, from 18 to 35 years of age, and a 
class in manual training. The regular spring work 
in the Domestic Science cottage has opened well 
and the poolroom is averaging fifteen a night. 

All things considered, we feel the winter has 
proved the co-operation of the neighborhood be- 
yond a doubt, and the devotion of the residents to 
the life they have chosen here. 

Katheeine E. Smith, Head Worker. 

The Hartley House Cook Book. 

jjuring the last few years a great number of 
cook books have been inflicted upon the unsuspect- 
ing public, many novices in the art of cooking 
seeming to feel their tenure of office insecure un- 
less they rush madly into print, the result being 
a few good and many utterly worthless produc- 
tions. One of the very best of these few good 
books is the little manual issued last year by Miss 
Ella A. Pierce, director of the cooking classes at 
Hartley House, called the "Hartley House Cook 
Book and Home Economist." 

This book seems to fill a long-felt want, being 
the most simple and altogether practical work of 
this kind that has appeared for some time. It is 
the outgrowth of the work in the Hartley House 
Settlement, where particular attention is paid to 
the improvement of housekeeping in the neighbor- 
hood, and to further which end domestic science, 
kitchen gardening and sewing receive especial at- 
tention. Cooking classes in the tenements are also 
a feature of tliis Avork, and the desire to aid this 
class of its workers, among whom is an increasing 
demand for the printed receipts used in the Hart- 
ley House cooking classes, led to the publication of 
this book. It is certainly true, as Miss Pierce says 
in her introduction, that the average American 
family spends much more for food than is neces- 
sary for adequate nourishment, and every one of 
the six hundred receipts given in this book can be 
leeommended to those who wish to live well at a 
moderate cost. 

pi:stai,ozzi-fr.oe:bcl, 

Kindrf ai.rte n TraLining School at 
Chicago Commons. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes op- 
portunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars, address 

BBRTHA HOFER HEQNBR, 363 N*. Wlocheater Ava. 

Chlcaeo 



24 



THE COMMONS 



May Festival at Chicago Commons. 
'10 give our neighbors and outside friends a 
Kttle glimpse of what has been going on at 
Chicago Commons all winter, and for the benefit 
of our summer outing work, an exhibit is an- 
nounced for Friday and Saturday afterr.oons and 
erenings, May 9th and 10th. The cooking and 
sewing schools, manual training, art classes, girls' 
and boys' clubs, the carpet-weaving loom, hat 
and basket making, instrumental and vocal classes 
and gymnasium drills will all contribute to the 
interest of the occasion, and stereopticon views 
of Camp Commons in the Penney Meadow near 
Elgin, lU., will be shown. The Festival will 
conclude on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, 
May 13th and 14th, with the production of the 
opera, "The Chimes of Normandy," by the 
Chicago Commons Choral Club, assisted by the 
Hinshaw School of Opera and Orchestral Ac- 
companiment. 

ova FRONT DOORYARD PLANTED. 

Through the kindness of a friend, who pays 
filial tribute to his mother's love of flowers, 
which he shares, by making several settlement 
houses bright with blossom and sweet with fra- 
grance, our dooryard entrance has been made beau- 
tiful and inviting with lawn, bushes, flowering 
plants, ivy and three whole trees The reservation 
of this little open space at the heart of our city 
wilderness of boards and brick is worth more to" 
those outside and within our house than anything 
we could have built upon it. Our good friend and 
his Sunday-school children, who shared the 
privilege of creating this little beauty spot, will 
never regret their investment in this bit of "God's 
country" among the multitude, whose lives are 
so completely divorced from nature. 

NEW PLAYGROUND OPENED. 

Through the co-operation of the Vacation 
School Committee we are thankful to announce 
the early opening of a public playground opposite 
Chicago Commons on the northwest comer of 
Grand avenue and Morgan street. When this 
committee offered to assure the fence and con- 
tribute toward the apparatus, the settlement 
could not do less than assume the expense of the 
nominal rental of the ground and provide volunteer 
supervision. Surely the two or three hundred dol- 
lars required will be considered a good investment 
by those who will want to take shares in-it before 
going on their summer vacations. The Committee 
hold out some hope of placing a Vacation School 
in our neighboring Washington School building. 

SHELTKBING THE MATfiEON DAT NURSERY. 

To assure the continuance of the good service 
rendered our neighboihood through the past six 
years by the Day Nursery, Chicago Commons re- 



lieves the Matheon Club of the expense of rental 
by taking it under our own roof for the summer. 
We hope this club of young ladies, which has 
hitherto borne the whole expense of the Nursery, 
will with such co-operation as we can render, be 
able to make permanent provision for it in the 
autumn. Parents who appreciate their need of 
help in caring for their children will realize what 
it means to • a working mother to have her little 
ones safely cared for all day while she is earning 
the living. What help to self-help can be more 
effectively considerate than this? Should we not 
expect offers of assistance to shelter the Nursery, 
which the Matheon Club will continue to support 
and manage, until the proposed annex to our new 
building is furnished by one or two generous 
hearts t 

Meanwhile, the space awaiting it will be utilized 
as a playground for the little children of the 
Nursery and the Summer Kindergarten. 

PUBUC RECEPTION TO OUR ALDERMEN. 

As the asperities of the vigorous aldermanic 
campaign speedily softened, Chicago Commons 
buried the hatchet under a love-feast. All the 
people of the 17th Ward were invited to meet 
their aldermen at a public reception tendered 
Alderman and Mrs. John F. Smulski and Alder- 
man and Mrs. Wm. E. Dever. The significance 
of the scene of democratic hospitality and good 
fellowship lay in the fact that the senior alderman 
is a Eepublican, elected a year ago by 1300 
majority, and the junior alderman a Democrat, 
elected this spring by over 1800 majority — the 
balance of power centering, at both elections, very 
near the Community Club rooms in Chicago Com- 
mons. 

VISITATION OF STUDENTS. 

Within the past few weeks entire classes of 
students with their instructors from the University 
,of Chicago, the McCormick and Lutheran Theo- 
logical Seminaries, and the ITniversity of Wis- 
consin have spent afternoons and evenings at the 
settlement. Settlement Fellowship students from 
the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan have 
also been in residence during the winter. Dele- 
gations from kindergarten and other training 
schools are constantly coming in touch with the 
work. Students of the Chicago Theological 
Seminary are assigned to settlement service aa 
part of the curriculum in the Sociological depart- 
ment. 

Pressing N^eds of Chicago Commons. 
To cancel building debt and interest. . . .$12,280 
For support of work through the year. . 5,600 
To  equip and maintain public play- 
ground 500 

For summer camp and outings 1,000 

To shelter Matheon Day Nursery 400 

For Men's Club and Manual Training 
Annex 10,000 



TKe Commorvs 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects ef LI and L«bor from the Settlement Point ^ Vto^fr^ 



Number 71— Vol. VII. 



Seventh Year. 



Chicago, June, 190 



Chicago's Park Commission on Eiver Ward 
Conditions. 

Suppiemetttary to their recommendation of sites 
for small parks, the Special Parks Commission of 
the City of Chicago submit to the West Park 
Board a report on the conditions which govern the 
commission's recommendation and also a series 
of valuable maps, showing the proportion in the 
rate of death and juvenile delinquency to the 
density of population and the lack of open spaces. 
The description of the conditions prevalent in the 
river wards gives a realistic impression of the 
surroundings of some of the Chicago settlements. 

THi5 CHICAGO COMMONS DISTKICT. 

"One can only realize what it means to be an 
American when he has walked with that great 
army of toilers — men, women and children — which, 
shoulder to shoulder, makes a steady stream of 
moving figures from five to eight o'clock in the 
morning and again from five to eight in the even- 
ing, marching to and from their labors along that 
great artery of traffic, Milwaukee avenue. When 
one has walked -five miles or ridden in the packed 
cars, with men and boys fastened like barnacles 
all over the platfonn, the crowd begins to dis- 
appear. Multitudes begin this teeming procession 
on wheels and afoot, multitudes drop off, others 
join it, but finally one is no longer shoulder to 
shoulder with the mass. He is almost alone and 
then only does he realize the many nationalities 
which share with him the right of being an Ameri- 
can. Above all else he realizes the immensely 
populous district of the northwest side. 

The densely populated Seventeenth river-ward 
contains about 65,000 people, mostly of the arti- 
san class. The only public breathing space is a 
one and three-tenths acre front yard strip in the 
west end containing a few trees and weedy grass. 
Twelve thousand children attend the public and 
parochial schools in this ward. It is the most 
populous school district in the city except one. 
The great number of children shows that this is 
a ward of homes. These children have no proper 
place to play. Swarms of boys and girls can be 
found after school hours in the unpaved, muddy 
or dust laden streets. There are few yards of 
any size in the ward, the lots being mostly cov- 
ered with the modern three and four story briek 



tenements, the old frame dwellings of village times, 
or the "double-decker." There are in some parts 
a conglomerate mass of old styled tenements, with 
many rooms damp and sunless. A careful investi- 
gation proves that the residence population is in- 
creasing much faster than the manufacturing in- 
terests and that by far the larger part of this 
ward will be increasingly a district of homes for 
generations to come. The population in parts of 
the ward reaches 2.50 persons to the acre and is 
steadily rising in density as the modern, many- 
storied flat buildings displace the smaller frame 
tenements. This ward has the smallest number of 
transients of any of the city's populous districts. 
The health department records show that in pro- 
portion to population for every child who dies 
in the Seventh ward four children perish in the 
Seventeenth. The comparison is almost as start- 
ling, when the figures as to the death of adults 
are considered, the proportion being three to one. 
The Seventh ward has the largest park area of 
any district in the city; the Seventeenth has prac- 
tically none. An examination of the Juvenile 
Court records shows that of the 2,900 delinquents 
in Chicago, since the court was established, 700 
live in the two districts of which the Seventeenth 
ward is a part. 

A small playground is maintained by the Chi- 
cago Commons social settlement, Grand avesue 
and Morgan street'. This is the only play space 
for the multitudes of children in the populous 
river end of the ward." 

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT NEIGHBOR- 
HOOD. 

"The Sixteenth ward holds the unique position 
of possessing a greater niumber of residents to 
the acre in certain parts than any other ward 
in the city. It is one of the most over-crowded 
regions in the world^ Every lot which is improved 
at all — and there are very few that are not — has 
one, two, or three houses covering its ground 
area. Almost every lot holds dwellings which 
shelter several familifs. An object lesson of the 
child population of this ward is to be seen im- 
mediately after school hours. From the block oc- 
cupied by the St. Stanislaus Kosta group of 
church and school bnildings (Polish), 3,800 chil- 
dren pour forth, swarming the streets like an army 



THE COMMONS 



of ants and disappearing through dark and nar- 
row passageways to rear tenements and basement 
homes. 

From three to five hundred persons occupy every 
acre, excluding streets and alleys. A rear tene- 
ment stands on almost every lot. In one block 
294 persons live in thirty-seven alley homes. On 
the alleys in ten blocks 2,600 people live, a 
large proportion of whom are in basements. 
Many smaU rooms are occupied by four and 
five people. It is common to find ten persons in 
three small rooms. Literally there is no room 
to live in this part of Chicago. The mortality 
of children in this neighborhood is extremely high. 
Ini one block the death rate of aU ages ran up 
to 37 per thousand; this means 22 persons dying 
unnecessarily from overcrowded and unsanitary 
conditions. 

THE GHETTO DISTRICT HENRY BOOTH HOUSE NEIGH- 
BORHOOD. 

The Ghetto in the Ninth ward is the mosst popu- 
lous school district in the city. Seven schools in 
this district have an enrollment of nearly 10,000 
children, to which are to be added 4,300 more who 
attend the five parochial schools and the Jewish 
Manual Training School. These 14,300 boys and 
girls, living In about one mile square of terri- 
tory, have no park or playground within ordinary 
walking distance. People of the Ghetto suffer 
intensely from overcrowding. Almost every avail- 
able foot of ground space is occupied by ' tene- 
ments. One block has a population of over 1,000 
persons. The landlords get high rents for un- 
sanitary dwellings and stores, while they habitually 
violate the sanitary laws. Dark and overcrowded 
rooms abound. Cellars, basements, outhouses are 
all used for living purposes. There are between 
four and five hundred people to the acre. There 
are no yards, so the children crowd the narrow 
streets and passageways, some of which are little 
better than alleys. Many hundred children, in de- 
fiance of the child-labor law, work in the factories 
and stores. 

THE BOHEMIAN DISTRICT. 

Next to the Sixteenth Ward the Tenth is the 
most populous ward in Chicago. It has the ap- 
pearance of being a distinct city in itself. It has 
no park nor playground. The dwellings are large 
tenement houses. Every inch of the ground space 
of a large number of lots is covered by this type 
of buildings. The rear tenements are the worst 
in the city. In one block, without an alley, there 
are several three-story tenements, running solidly 
through from street to street. The population of 
the entire ward is growing rapidly. Tenement 
conditions are fast becoming worse. The crowd- 
ing is becoming more intense, landlords are be- 



coming more rapacious, seeking to cover every 
inch of their ground space with solid tenements. 

HULL HOUSE DISTRICT. 

Italians, Jews, Syrians, Greeks, Irish and Bohe- 
mians constitute the mass of the population. Few 
houses have a yard or open space. Every inch 
of many lots is covered by buildings. Nearly 
half the people who live in one block have 150 
cubic feet less air space than the state law de- 
mands for every occupant of a ten cent lodging 
house. The comparative newness and open con- 
struction of the frame dwellings in Chicago have 
been important agents in preventing disease 
and keeping down the death rate, but a train of 
misery and infection is being laid by the brick 
double-decker. In the district investigated by the 
City Homes Association, 20 cellars and 192 base- 
ments were found, in which lived 436 adults and 
491 children. Five public schools in this ward 
have a total enrollment of 6,230 children, and six 
parochial schools have an attendance of 2,365. 
The only playground is conducted by the Hull 
House Settlement. 

COMPARISON OP DEATH RATES. 

The fifth sanitary division under the depart- 
ment of health covers the districts above men- 
tioned, and includes 7,900 acres, with a popula- 
tion of about 475,000, with death rate of a frac- 
tion under 15 per thousand. The divisions in 
which the large parks are situated show a mortal- 
ity for the same year of 10.99, 12.23, 10.56 and 
10.69 per thousand. Much of this mortality is 
charged by the health department to the lack of 
breathing space for the manual toilers of the 
great West Side and to the equally serious absence 
of safe places and healthy atmosphere for juve- 
nile recreation. The health department reported 
the proportion of deaths of infants to all deaths 
in the entire city as 22 to 100. In the Six- 
teenth ward it was 30.3 in every 100, or 40 per 
cent greater than the proportion for the whole 
city and 144 per cent greater than that for the 
Third ward. 

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY PROPORTIONATE TO LACK OP 
PLAY SPACE. 

Many factors coexist in causing a child of the 
tenements to become a delinquent before the Juve- 
nile Court and ultimately a criminal. The people 
of the tenements are working people, they cannot 
give much time to guide and train their children. 
When both parents are employed and are work- 
ing long hours, the boys are left to roam at will 
in the tenement, street and alley. Becreation 
grounds, which are provided by the Small Park 
Acts, together with playgrounds established 



THE COMMONS 



through other channels, will unquestionably do 
more to prevent the boys of our poorer districts 
from becoming criminals than will amy other re- 
medial agency. From public funds or from the 
private donations of wealthy, public-spirited citi- 
■zens, the children should be provided with decent, 
healthful places in which to live and play and 
work off their surplus energy in physical exercise. 
The commission's map embodying statistics, ob- 
tained from the records of the Juvenile Court, also 
bears witness to the fact that the parkless areas 
and the areas of juvenile turbulence and delin- 
quency are identical. A glance at this map will 
show the destitution of recreation spaces within the 
areas from which the majority of delinquents are 
brought before the Juvenile Court. It is in the 
spirit of play that children commit most of their 
petty offenses against the law. This is often the 
innocent beginning of a life of crime. The rela- 
tionship of juvenile lawlessness to the destitution 
of proper recreation places is shown by figures 
from the Johm Worthy School at the House of 
Correction. Out of the 314 boys confined there 
December 31, 1901, 128, or more than one-third 
of the total, came from six wards which con- 
tained no large park nor playground. The six 
wards, which contained the bulk of the park sys- 
tem, sent only 21 boys to this "Bridewell" school. 
The Vacation. School and Playground Committee 
of the Chicago Woman's Club, reports that "the 
police records show an increase of 00 per cent in 
juvenile arrests in the summer months. When 
children are not engaged in :jchools or absorbed 
in properly supervised playgrounds, juvenile crime 
increases. A lieutenant of police declared, 'Since 
the playground has been opened the boys give us 
no trouble. Not less than fifteen lives have been 
saved from the electric cars since the establish- 
. ment of the playground, and juvenile arrests h.'ive 
.decreased fully 33 1-3 per cent.' " 

Kote. 

The Commons has the privilege of publishing 
above the first comprehensive extracts to be 
printed from the report of the Special Park Com- 
mission of the City of Chicago, through the cour- 
tesy of Mr. Arthur O'Neill, secretary to the com- 
mission, and author of the report. Surely nothing 
more should be needed to point the appeal which 
our new little public playground makes for im- 
mediate equipment and enlargement, pending the 
success of the city-wide movement for small parks. 
Every such private initiative that demonstrates 
the demand is the most effective effort to secure 
the public provision for the supply. 



A Cry From The Ghetto. 

(Translated from the Yiddish of Morris Eosen- 

feld by J. W. Linn.) 
The roaring of the wheels has filled my ears, 

The clashing and the clamor shut me in; 
Myself, my soul, in chaos disappears, 

I cannot think or feel amid the din. 
Toiling and toiling and toiling — endless toil. 

For whom? For whatt Why should the work be 
donet 
I do not ask, or know. I only toil. 

I work until the day and night are one. 

The clock above me ticks away the day. 

Its hands are spinning, spinning, like the 
wheels. 
It cannot sleep or for a moment stay. 

It is a thing like me, and does not feel. 
It throbs as tho' my heart were beating there — 

A heart? My heart? I know not what it means. 
The clock ticks, and below I strive and stare, 

And so we lose the hour. We are machines. 

Noon calls a truce, an ending to the sound, 

As if a battle had one moment stayed — 
A bloody field! The deau lie all around; 

Their wounds cry out until I grow afraid. 
It comes — the signal! See, the dead men rise, 

They fight again, amid the roar they fight. 
Blindly, and fcnowing not for whom, or why, 

They fight, they fall, they sink into the night. 
— From Hull Kouse Bulletin. 



The Social Centers of Buffalo. 

BY EMILY S. HOLMES. 

"If you could district the large cities and 
induce the churches to look after the districts 
as the politicians look after the voters in those 
districts there would follow such an ' uplifting 
of the masses as has not been known since the 
coming of the Master." This remark, made by 
a foreign guest to Miss Maria Love, of Buffalo, 
was the influence which inspired her to inaugurate 
a movement toward the suggested end. The 
Charity Organization Society, Frederic Almy, sec- 
retary and treasurer, has been the working power 
in the carrying out of this plan, the growth of 
which has been watched with keen interest by 
many people both at home and abroad and the 
permanence of which seems to be assured. The 
city was divided into districts; the churches were 
asked to be responsible for them and one hundred 
and two responded favorably. Churches already 
doing some special work chose the district in 
which it was located, in some cases contiguous 
to the church and in other cases miles distant. 
From this movement have sprung into existence 
a number of social centers. They are not settle- 
ments, but they aim for the settlement ideals. 
When this social work is carried on in a building 
adjacent to the church or in the church itself it 
takes the form of institutional church work. In 
this class can be mentioned Emanuel (Baptist), 



THE COMMONS 



St. Paul's, St. Andrew's and All Saints (Epis- 
copal), and Bethesda (Presbyterian). Bev. 
Creighton B. Story, pastor of Emanuel church, 
has established a kindergarten, singing school, 
free reading room and library, classes in book- 
keeping, German, elocution, drawing, English lit- 
erature, stenography, typewriting and electricity. 
Kev. J. A. Begester, pastor of "St. Paul's," has 
social clubs for men, women, boys and girls. 
Trained teachers have charge of the kindergarten, 
physical culture and housekeepers' classes and 
volunteer helpers have classes in sewing and cook- 
ing. 

Bev. Harry Bansom, pastor of "St. Andrew's," 
and Bev. John D. Campbell, of "Bethesda," have 
broadened their social work as rapidly as limited 
means allowed. The former has established a 
young men's club and a club for older men, also 
sewing classes for women and girls, and the penny 
provident bank; and the latter has formed a club 
for men and opens Sunday school rooms for a 
daily kindergarten. Bev. G. H. Caviller, pastor of 
' ' All Saints, ' ' sustains a boys ' club and sewing 
school. Several missions, distant from the mother 
church, are also co-operating in this social work. 

Trinity Avenue Chapel is associated with the 
Prospect Avenue Baptist Church, Bev. J. N. Field, 
pastor. In the chapel are held sewing and dress- 
making classes, a club for women and a kinder- 
garten. Maple Street Mission is associated with 
another Baptist church, "Delaware Avenue," 
Bev. A. P. Gifford, pastor. A sewing school, a 
bank and a woman's society are among its activ- 
ities. 

Memorial Chapel, supported by Lafayette 
Avenue Presbyterian Church, Bev. WUliam T. 
Chapman, pastor, has equipped a diet kitchen, from 
which one of the district nurses takes food and 
clothing to the sick people. This mission also 
sustains a woman's club of nearly one hundred 
and fifty members and a large sewing schoo'L 

The mission of the Incarnation is connected 
with the Church of the Ascension, Bev. G. B. 
Bichards pastor. The main feature of this work is 
the diet kitchen, under the care of a professional 
nurse, whose attention is given to the sick of that 
particular district. 

The Epworth Chapel is associated with the 
Delaware Avenue Methodist Church, Bev. C. E. 
Locke, pastor. Adjacent to the Chapel is Dela- 
ware House, which is a cross between a mission 
and a social center. "Social center" is a term 
given to the new organism, which is the outgrowth 
of the uistrict plan. A statement has been made 
in public that there are nine social settlements in 
Buffalo. This is not true, according to the best 
authorities on settlement ideals. This statement 



is the result of confusing settlements with thi» 
new growth. A church taking a district where it 
had had no previous work was obliged to rent 
rooms or buy property in order to have some 
headquarters and these quarters soon become local 
points of social life. The avowed aim of the 
workers to become — in time — settlements, has in- 
creased the confusion. The similarity of work 
and methods, the fact that settlements are social 
centers, has made it difficult for the uninitiated 
to draw the line between settlements that are 
social centers and social centers that are not 
settlements. There has been further confusion 
of terms since missions have shown more interest 
in the social affairs of their 'adherents. 

The social centers, including settlements, are 
as follows : 

Westminster House (1894), 424 Adams St.; 
Miss Emily S. Holmes, head resident, 

Welcome Hall (1894), 404 Seneca St.; Miss 
Louise Montgomery, head resident. 

Zion House (1894), 456 Jefferson St.; Mrs. B. 
Desbecker (non-resident), general chairman. A 
janitor in residence. 

Xeighborhood House (1895), 92 Locust St. A 
committee (non-resident) of five. A janitrees in 
residence. 

Trinity House (1896), 258 Elk St.; Miss AUce 
Moore, head resident. 

Delaware House (1896), 101 Cayuga St.; Miss 
Henrietta Eeese, resident visitor. 

Angel Guardian Mission (1897), 318 Seneca 
St.; Mrs. Herbert P. Bissell (non-resident), presi- 
dent. 

Cottage Guild (1897), 387 Herkimer St.; Mrs. 
Seth B. Hunt (non-resident), chairman. 

Bemington Hall (1900), comer Canal & Eno 
Sts.; Miss Mary E. Bemington, head resident. 

These centers have activities common to aU. 
A kindergarten is connected with every one ex- 
cept three. Efforts are being made to open one 
at Delaware House and there is one near Bem- 
ington Hall. Each is a station of the Penny 
Provident Association. The one at Westminster 
House is the most popular. Five men manage it; 
$180.00 have been deposited in one evening, and 
thousands of dollars have been saved for its de- 
positors. 

The relation existing between the Charity Or- 
ganization Society and the districts introduced 
an element of charity that settlements decry. The 
workers of Buffalo, realizing the evil tendencies, 
have made great effort to prevent their growth. 
Most of the social centers have become embryotic 
employment bureaus and manufactories of work. 
Under the latter head are sewing clubs for mar- 
ried women suggested to the head resident of 



THE COMMO^■8 



Westminster House by a visit to the workroom 
under the control of the Charity Organization 
Society of Brooklyn. In these workrooms the 
woman clean, mend and make over second hand 
garments, cut and make new garments and bed 
linen, sew carpet rags and patchwork^ make quilts, 
in fact, utilize everything donated for the pur- 
pose. The nominal pay is eight cents per hour 
and the women receive the equivalent in finished 
garments and provisions or fuel. The undesir- 
able results of such an undertaking are avoided 
by limiting membership to the women of the dis- 
trict, calling at their homes frequently and watch- 
ing developments carefully, also advising women 
when prosperity returns to assist in the work- 
room without pay. The directors use this op- 
portunity to judge character and capabilities. 
The members buy coal at reduced rates, learn 
lessons in thrift as well as sewing and get other 
employment when qualified. 

There is certainly a utilitarian trend in all 
these centers but not to the exclusion of the artis- 
tic. Classes in sewing, dress making, millinery, 
house-keeping, cooking, laundrying, chair-caning, 
shoe-mending, carpentry and Sloyd are introduced 
as rapidly as possible, music and art follow 
more slowly, and book learning last. There is 
very little studying of text books in any of the 
social centers of Buffalo. The day and the night 
schools supply the demand for serious study and 
the Buffalo Public Library scatters its branches 
and home libraries all over the city. 

Delaware House is a one-story frame cottage 
where a woman, either a deaconess, a missionary, 
or a visitor, resides who does the friendly call- 
ing and has some over-sight of clubs. There are 
no accommodations for residents and no likeli- 
hood of this center becoming a settlement. It 
is under the auspices of the Delaware Ave. Metho- 
dist church. 

Cottage Guild was opened by a coterie of young 
ladies who were infused by the new spirit rife 
in Buffalo to start something that would become 
a settlement. A kindergartner tried living in the 
one-story frame cottage, but finding it impracti- 
cable abandoned that idea, and the young ladies 
have abandoned theirs, though the kindergarten 
clubs and classes have been continued. 

Zion House does work for the Temple and is 
maintained .by the Sisterhood of Zion. As the 
Eussian Jews predominate in the vicinity they 
predominate in the House. The influx of Eou- 
manian Jews driven from their country by the 
anti-Semetic agitation a year or so ago, increased 
attendances and demands. The desire in the 
hearts of . the influential Jews for a settlement, 
has not abated since the building of their House, 



which could be easily arranged for residents, but 
their wishes have not yet materialized, although 
actively engaged in much good work. 

At Neighborhood House every activity is based 
on settlement principles. Its home is the popular 
two-story frame cottage, serving very well imme- 
diate needs, but not at all adequate for residen- 
tial purposes. It is sustained by the Unitarian 
Church. 

The Angel Guardian Mission, under the auspices 
of the Roman Catholic Church, draws workers 
from all parts of Buffalo. Besides the usual 
features of kindergarten, kitchen-garden, bank, 
library, classes and clubs, there is a large Sun- 
day school which is, the workers distinctly state, 
"the only branch of the work which is for Cath- 
olics alone. In everything else all have equal 
privileges. ' ' 

Trinity House is the first of the centers to be- 
come a settlement, long cherished plans culminat- 
ing within a few months. The committee from 
Trinity Episcopal church has secured a head 
resident who, with one resident and a house- 
keeper, have begun settlement life in an ap- 
proved manner and are ready for more residents. 
Two of the ubiquitous two-story frame houses 
comprise the buildings, one of which has been 
daintily fitted up for a residence. Buffalo can 
now honestly say she has four "really truly" 
settlements. 

Westminster House is the oldest, opening with 
a kindergarten in September, 1894. From its 
conception in the mind of Eev. S. V. V. Holmes, 
pastor of Westminster Presbyterian church, set- 
tlement ideals have been held before its workers. 
The unity of purpose, permanence of residents 
and continuity of work have made it possible to 
do a broader work than other Buffalo settlements. 
The differentiating results are the public play- 
ground, the Men's Club House, built and pur- 
chased by men of the neighborhood, and a camp 
on the lake shore. The financial support is given 
by the Men's Club of Westminster church, assisted 
by other societies of the church. Among its six 
residents (it has had nine) are a professional 
nurse and a kindergartner, both devoting their 
whole time, as do two other residents. 

Welcome Hall opened a few weeks later than 
Westminster House. It has already outgrown the 
original buildings and is now quartered in two 
beautiful brick edifices, one for women residents, 
the other for men residents and the work. It is 
rich in equipment and with its new head resident 
is making rapid strides. * Five professional perma- 
nent residents devote their entire time, one man 
paying exclusive attention to work among boys. 
The supporting power is the First Presbyterian 



6 



THE COMMONS 



church (of which Dr. S. S. Mitchell is pastor), 
the directing power a council of men and women. 

Bemington Hall is an independent settlement 
without backers or trustees. Miss Bemington, its 
head resident, is the sole responsible party and 
secures money and workers through her own per- 
sonal, indefatigable efforts. Two permanent resi- 
dents assist her and oftc-. short-^oriod residents. 
A detailed account of her spleuuld work can be 
found in the Beview of Beviews for January. 

A large number of churches co-operating in the 
district plan have not been mentioned in these 
notes, as their methods of co-operation have not 
been distinctively along social lines. The aim 
of all the Social Centers is to develop the spirit 
of brotherhood, to eradicate social evils and to 
disseminate true principles of life; the unwritten 
law is never to proselyte. 

Foreign Systems of Poor Belief. 

BY PROFESSOR H. M. SCOTT, D. D. 

The "Beilage xax Allgemeine Zeitung" of 
Munich, for October 26, gives a synopsis of a val- 
uable work by Munsterburg on "Foreign Sys- 
tems of Poor Belief" (Leipzig, Duncker and 
Humblot, 1901), from which we glean the follow- 
ing: There are three general methods of such 
relief: (1) that of the German land, (2) the 
public relief system of England and America, 
and (3) "facultative" method of the Latin lands, 
Italy, France, Belgium. In recent years the 
whol» poor relief movement has gone in the direc- 
tion of prevention of poverty and sickness. This 
is the leading principle of modem dealing with 
pauperism. Bussia is active in this departure. 
There is here a ' ' board for securing work, ' ' pre- 
sided over by the Empress, which has elaborated 
187 methods for providing men with work; and 60 
of these arose in the past five years. Most o£ 
them are after the German models and provide 
garden and farm work, "laboring men's col- 
onies," labor bureaus, lodgings for the homeless, 
etc The constant aim is to give work and not 
alms. This board publishes a paper called ' ' Help 
to Work." Exactly the same movement is being 
pressed in France, with a station in Mammoz lor 
working men and one in Paris for working women. 
A "central committee to help obtain work" has 
its headquarters in Paris, and seeks to give unity 
to the whole movement in France, also to spread 
information on the subject. At the Paris Expo- 
sition tabulated statements of the whole work 
were presented. A striking part of this work has 
been the attempt to insure men against loss of 
labor. This was tried first in Switzerland, in the 
countries of St. Gall and Bern. All persons 
over fourteen years of age, working as factory 
hands, builders, or farmers, should be insured 



against lack of work where such lack was not 
their own fault. A certain percentage of wages 
is to be given by the employer to the insurance 
fund. The costs of administration are to be paid 
by the State, adding also a contribution, in Basel, ' 
of $6,000 a year. When voted in Basel this 
law was rejected, however, by 5,458 to 1,119 
votes. The great objection was that industrious 
workers would be taxed for idlers. Next to incom- 
petent mep come old men to be cared for. Nearly 
all recent legislation has had them in mind, being 
undoubtedly -stirred to action by German laws 
for the insurance of aged and infirm laborers. 
The Jerman display on this subject at the Paris 
Exposition aroused much interest, and led to bills 
being introduced in the French parliament in 
favor of old and sick working people. It is esti- 
mated that such classes form four per cent of the 
population outside of Paris, or 144,000 in all, 
of whom 70,000 needed care in asylums. The 
expense of the proposed measure would be $9,880,- 
000, of which $8,000,000 could be secured from 
the present system in force. The committee of 
parliament estimated that there are 113,000 work- 
ing people over 70 years of age, or six per cent 
of all over that age; while the sick workers are 
54,900, or one and five tenths per cent of the 
old people. That is, 168,000 old and sick laborers 
must be provided for, 95,000 by public relief, 
65,000 in hospitals, and 5,000 in families. Some 
estimate the total expense of the sick alone at 
$8,800,000. An army of 7,000,000 persons would 
be covered by this system of insurance. All 
classes of workers are included, except sailors, 
miners and others already covered by other poli- 
cies. These laws have not yet been passed, but 
are under consideration. Many oppose compul- 
sory insurance as detrimental to free activity, 
k^imilar movements appear in England, where a 
parliamentary commission reported on the subject 
in 1895. Parties are divided on the question 
there, as in France. In 1899 the House of Com- 
mons appointed a committee of 17 to consider the 
whole matter anew. It decided in favor of an 
old age provision for aU persons over 65 years 
of age, who are British subjects, who for the 
past twenty years had neither committed crime 
nor received poor relief, and who had done their 
best to provide for themselves and their families. 
This law would cover 655,000 persons, of whom 
469,000 are in England, 95,000 in Scotland, and 
91,000 in Ireland. The expense would be over 
$50,000,000. War troubles have meantime stopped 
all progress in insurance legislation in England. 
In European countries the question of insuring 
children is also under discussion. First of all 
comes compulsory education of the young, or, 



THE COMMONS 



11 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited for the Association by 
Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



Manual Training in Settlements. 

At the Nurses Settlement. 

The Xurses' Settlement (1265 Avery street, New 
York) has developed a new branch of work dur- 
ing the past year. 

Manual training classes, including elementary 
carpentry, wood carving and basketry, have been 
carried on. The work is made possible by sev- 
eral friends of the Settlement, and especially by 
Mr. C. Loring Brace, of the Children's Aid So- 
ciety. The day school of that society, in the 
same block with the Settlement, has been open 
afternoons and evenings for Settlement use, and 
dancing and gymnasium classes and many enter- 
tainments, have been held there, beside the man- 
ual training classes referred to. The classes have 
included twelve in carpentry, two in wood carving 
and two in basket weaving, and the members of 
these classes have had basket ball games and 
gymnasium privileges, and various entertainments 
in the building. 

The work was planned in order to gain a hold 
on the rough element of Irish and American boys 
from about the water front, to whom the purely 
social and intellectual clubs of the Jewish boys 
of the Settlement did not appeal. The plan 
was to gain the boys' interest through the work, 
develop his responsibility and an esprit de corps, 
with the hope of making the further Settlement 
connections as soon as it seemed natural and 
the boy himself proved responsible. 

For these purposes and also to avoid competing 
with the normal work of the public schools, the 
work was made as personal as possible. No defi- 
nite set of models was given, and each boy 
worked out for himself plans for construction 
' pf articles that he himself vrished to make for 
home or play use. The result is a large variety 
in the articles made and a large difference in 
the sizes and shapes of the individual articles. 
Coat hangers, bread and fish boards, salt, soap 
and brush and comb boxes, ironing boards and 
every description of foot benches and stools have 
been followed by ambitious attempts at tables, 
chairs and even one standard writing desk. The 
work has not been graded and there has been no 
standard of finish or accuracy that was held as ab- 
solute. The result is a gradual evolution of the 
idea and reason for accuracy and finish, and an 



intense interest in the constructive side of the 
work. The most encouraging responsibility has 
developed in the boys while at their work. At 
the beginning of the year no boy could be trusted 
with tool or supply closet, and every tool was 
counted as it was given out and checked on its 
return. Most of the boys could not be left alone 
in a room together with safety to one another, to 
tools or windows, even while the teacher went into 
the next room and back. Now there are two dou- 
ble classes with only one teacher, and while the 
instructor is in one room, the other room full of 
boys do their work, get their own supplies and 
when it is necessary, are allowed to get their 
own tools from the opened closet. Besides this 
responsibility, a large club has firmed itself, 
whose members, with those of the two most regu- 
larly attended classes, have th« promise of a 
summer camping trip this year. These boys have 
also had the pleasure of going to the circus, 
BufiFalo Bill, to the navy yard and the Bronx, 
not as rewards of merit for attendance, but be- 
cause their regularitj* had given the instructor 
more natural and intimate relations with them, 
and the club has formed a natural nucleus for such 
expression of interest and good fellowship. There 
have been four entertainments during the year, 
and the club mentioned above is at present pre- 
paring a final one for the spring closing. 

The work has been in charge of a resident 
worker, with four non-resident assistants, and sev- 
eral volunteers have helped in diflferent classes. 
Over 200 boys have been registered, but there 
has been an average roll of little more than 
half that number. Most of these come to one 
class, and have had gymnasium once a week, but 
about twelve boys have been given extra privi- 
lege of working two evenings instead of one. 
The results of the work have been most inspiring, 
both in the quality and quantity of models fin- 
ished, and in the very marked development of 
the individual boys. A class of boys has been 
reached and held that no social work could have 
kept within Settlement bounds, and their interest 
in the work has developed in them a self-respect 
and restraint that do credit to the natural manli- 
ness that many had been supposed to lack. 

Sus'AN E. Forte, Instructor. 

Carpentry at Hartley House. 

An experiment in carpentry, though incomplete 
as yet, is so full of suggestions that even at this 
stage it seems probable that something may be 
derived from a discussion of it. The main fea- 
ture of the experiment is that the children are 
allowed to choose their own models and it is es- 
pecially with the changes in method which this 
choosing has brought about that this paper is 
intended to deal. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



I have been fortunate in being able to carry 
out the plan this past winter in a private school 
and in afternoon and evening classes at Hartley 
House, in both of which places I have been per- 
mitted to develop the work in my own way. It 
is not believed to be the best plan of work in 
that it is quite separate and alone and not a 
part of the general scheme of education for the 
child. It is merely an expedient awaiting the 
fuller time when manual training and other kin- 
dred concrete subjects will take the place of 
the formal and abstract studies of little children, 
and it is thought that its elasticity admits an 
added richness both to the work itself and to the 
life of the . child outside of the work. A firm 
believer in Dr. Dewey's theory, that school is 
not a preparation for life, but life itself, I have 
made it my primary object to help the children 
to take their proper place in the life about them 
so far as I can do this through manual training. 
Just as soon as teachers realize that for them- 
selves life is the great teacher, not the school 
and university, they will be in a position to realize 
the possibilities of life as the teacher of child- 
hood and their own relationship both to this great 
teacher and to the children. 

The changes which choosing models brings 
about are, first, smaller classes. As the work is 
entirely individual and as the plan will not per- 
mit of prepared drawings, the activity which de- 
volves upon the teacher in order to keep the 
children at work intelligently is very great. 
Twelve is believed now to be the limit in size 
of a class which a teacher can handle effectually. 

Second: There is less necessity for disciplinary 
measures, or, perhaps it would be truer to say, 
that the teacher's standard of deportment under- 
goes a change in order that her theories may be 
consistent. Fuller expression in wood would be 
inconsistent with any system of undue repression 
of other modes of expression. Not that discipline 
is left out of account, rather it is left to take 
care of itself. If it is true that life contains 
discipline enough for the elders it is equally 
true that child life contains natural discipline. 
It is not always operative, but this is because 
adults stand between the child and the conse- 
quences of his faults and mistakes. In manual 
training especially, the children never escape 
from the effect of their mistakes; it is a con- 
stant discipline to them. The teacher need do 
little but wait, but too often either she does not 
realize this or she herself is not suflRciently dis- 
ciplined to do so. 

Third: There is an interest never before ex- 
perienced; an interest which, with the Settlement 
boys truly competes with the attraction of the 



street. The interest is not in the work alone but 
as the work progresses it becomes broad enough 
to take in things outside and in the home. While 
waiting for me one evening the boys were dis- 
covered examining some Steckley furniture to see 
how it was put together. One boy purchased at 
the class, and cut down to a size a board with 
which to mend his mother's ice box. Another 
came in out of a heavy snowstorm and would be 
content with nothing but a snow shovel, which he 
helped to plan and made in two lessons of con- 
centrated effort, such as I think he was not ad- 
dicted to. The next time he came I asked him 
if he still had the shovel and he said "No." 
I asked what became of it and he replied that 
it was broken. I asked how long it had lasted 
and he said three days, and upon inquiring how 
much of that time had been devoted to shoveling 
he said ' ' All the time. ' ' Examples might be mul- 
tiplied to the extent of fifty-six. the number of 
boys in the Settlement, plus twenty, the number 
of boys and girls in the private school, for every 
child has chosen at least once while many of 
them have chosen several times. Every model, 
in fact, which the children choose themselves, is 
an evidence of a carrying of the class into the 
home and the outside life and a bringing of the 
home and the outside life back to the class. 

Fourth: The children having made models for 
a purpose, they have taken them home upon 
completion and used them for that purpose. The 
mere saying, "This is a useful model" does not 
make it so. It must be useful to the child and 
he must have it when he wants it. A railroad 
ticket is of no value to me if I must remain 
where I am during the time it can be passed,, 
and a knife box loses its value to the boy whose 
mother becomes supplied while the box is on 
exhibition at the school. 

The "useful" feature of a model is generally 
admitted by manual training teachers to be a 
most valuable one. Indeed, whether or not the 
models are useful has been claimed as a funda- 
mental difference in systems of manual training. 
I should go a step further and say that the oper- 
ation of any system of exercises or models no mat- 
ter how carefully arranged, makes usefulness sub- 
servient to technical skill; hence, not educational 
in the best sense. For example, the Naas system 
of exercises and models based upon these, contains 
an analyzed series of exercises one following the 
other in regular order. It is more or less arbi- 
trarily said that such an exercise is more diffi- 
cult than a previous one and must be used in its 
legitimate place. Under such a system it is im- 
possible to let a pupil choose, because he would 
upset the system at once by choosing a model 



THE COMMONS 



18 



containing exercises which have been decreed too 
difficult for him. Hence, as the model most use- 
ful to him at the time must be given up and 
his choice controlled by rules which he cannot 
understand, the choosing devolves upon the teacher, 
who becomes in manual training as she is in 
everything else, the mouthpiece for the boy. The 
latter begins work upon a piece which is an 
expression not of himself but of his teacher, 
and which must therefore be only to a degree 
useful to him, if at all. And so it comes 
about that either the usefulness, in its best sense, 
and with all its superior educational value, must 
be given up or the system must be sacrificed. I 
have preferred to give up the system, relying 
upon my ability to control aspirations toward 
ladders fifteen feet long and equally impossible 
projects, and so far have had no difficulty. Nor 
do I believe that I have sacrificed anything in 
technical skill, though it would not worry me if 
I had. To choose the best and give it expres- 
sion is our highest adult aspiration and if it 
furnishes us as adults with a fire which carries 
MS over difficulties, it is no less true that it will 
do the same for children. I should like to give 
as an illustration the case of a boy of thirteen 
who, after completing a window box which was 
badly done, as poor a piece of work as was handed 
in, in fact, chose to make as his next model a 
wicker chair with wooden bottom such as another 
boy, who had had basket weaving, had just com- 
pleted, though not satisfactorily. I had concluded 
to try to dissuade all who wished to make the 
chairs when this boy made his plea. None of my 
arguments were of avail and I had to allow him 
to attempt it. At once he became painstaking. 
From never asking my assistance on the first 
piece and not following any suggestions, he be- 
came most careful, with a mind made up to do 
the thing right and he succeeded and had the 
great satisfaction of "crowing" over his teacher. 
The boy has not done a poor piece of work since. 
In connection with the choosing, no difficulties 
have arisen which could not easily be overcome. 
The models either have been simple or have ad- 
nutted of simplification, or else the boy has seen 
his choice to be too complicated to work out and 
has dropped the idea. If the boy insisted in the 
face of all discouragement and in spite of the 
one law operative in the shop, that a piece once 
begun must be finished, he has accomplished his 
■end; or has finished up something so badly that 
he doesn't care for it and is willing to do some- 
thing within his power next time. 

With the privilege of carrying honie the models 
lupon completion comes the necessity of doing 
away with exhibitions or it makes them, at least, 



less frequent, a result not undesirable in itself. 

Fifth : The standards of work must be lowered. 
None of the first models have been too poor to 
be taken home. Some of them were pretty bad, 
representing, as they did, a blind groping for a 
vaguely seen result, but to the children they 
were precious products of their own efforts. 
Manual training teachers are prone to force adult 
standards of excellence upon the children. A 
child learns only by experience that edges are not 
square and the bad effect of such edges on the 
whole piece. It is a gradual growth and te 
wantonly destroy a piece of work made by a child 
who is satisfied with it, is to trample on his rights 
as no one can be justified in doing. His stand- 
ards must be raised gradually by various means. 
One of the most gratifying technical results of 
this method of work has been the way that the 
boys have confessed that their last piece of work 
was poor. We have played too much to the gal- 
leries in the past by allowing the children to 
take home only those pieces of work which were 
well finished from a layman's standpoint. To 
insist upon a boy's doing a piece of work over 
is not in accordance with the theory that we learn 
by our mistakes as well as by our successes. If 
the boy's mistakes are destroyed by someone else 
he doesn't benefit by them. He should be allowed 
to keep them with him and grow tired of them 
as we, as elders, have the privilege of doing. 

Sixth: The method permits of the maximum 
of mental activity, a change of greater import- 
ance than any other. Each piece is planned by 
the child in advance first, as to form, and sec- 
ond as to size. It depends upon the age of the 
child whethei: all of the pieces which go to make 
up a model are decided upon, as to size, in ad- 
vance. A little girl of six decided upon the size 
of the top of a table, cut it out, and then by 
herself estimated the length of the legs. This 
is typical of the method used with children too 
young to think so far ahead as would be required 
to plan all of the pieces in the beginning. Draw- 
ings, for beginners, come logically after the model 
because they are abstractions. They have not 
been used so far except in a crude form but it 
is hoped to experiment with them in the near 
future. There is no doubt felt that the boys 
will be able to both plan and picture their work 
by means of a working drawing before touch- 
ing the wood, but this is thought to be a later 
development. 

The whole method might be summed up as that 
of the laboratory, with the teacher in the back- 
ground, the excuse for whose presence is that she 
may give assistance. The possibility of taking 
this attitude is the greatest boon to the teacher. 



14 



THE COMMONS 



She at once becomes a learner with the rest — not 
only a sfudent of child nature, but she even finds 
that there are several "best" methods to use 
in construction. She can refuse to know any- 
thing or she can by sheer force of sympathy come 
to the rescue of the boy who says, "This is too 
important for me to decide by myself. I want 
you to help me." She feels that, after all, there 
is. a chance for her to grow through Tier teach- 
ing, and not become the traditional, dictatorial 
school teacher of the past. Her attitude becomes 
one of humility in the presence of social forces 
which she cannot understand but feels to be 
worthy of study. 

The Settlement children, who are products of 
the New York public schools, were timid and 
abashed at the idea of being able to make any- 
thing they wished. At first few of them had 
anything to suggest, but soon the idea spread, 
and mothers, fathers, and even uncles and aunts 
came to the rescue. Failing these I have made 
suggestions. In fact, in order to get to work 
at all I have usually proposed the first model. 
The most marked difference is observed in the 
children with regard to the willingness to choose 
and on the whole, the children in the private 
school are anxious to do so, while those in the 
Settlement are glad, at first, to evade it. The 
children in the private school are more apt, also 
to choose things with which to play, while th'fl 
Settlement children choose those things which 
would be useful at home. Further experiment 
wiU bring out whether it is age which governs 
this or environment, or both. The children in the 
private school are from six to ten, while those 
in the Settlement are from eight to thirteen. 

Only one child in the private school as yet has 
proposed making anything for anyone else, which 
would popularly be supposed to indicate for the 
rest inherent selfishness, but which, according to 
scientific investigation in child study, stamps them 
merely as normal children. 

No one wiU believe that the experiment is jus- 
tifiable who will not admit that we need a larger 
social spirit in our schools, a greater toleration of 
child life and a recognition of the latter as 
such. The presence of manual training in educa- 
tional system is one of the best evidences that 
we have that there is this tolerant spirit existent. 
There is now but a difference in opinion of de- 
gree, not of the fact of toleration. All of the 
prominent educators of the day are teaching it, 
educational theory is full of it and educational 
practice is feeling the effect of it. There are few, 
however, who are willing to go so far as Dr. Dewey 
and give the child the fullest opportunity to de- 
velop through his social relations. In fact, to 



actively co-operate with children to secure for 
them the fullest expression in their own natural 
way, would occasion a tearing down of traditional 
theories and practice for which few pedagogue* 
are ready. 

It is strange that a subject coming into the 
school curriculum as recently as has manual train- 
ing and having the double advantage of being 
allied to the industrial world and of appealing 
essentially to child life as it does, should have had 
to go through the regenerating process of all 
school subjects, as it has. It has been treated 
even worse in some respects than other subjects. 
It has been systematized almost to death, princi- 
pally because it admits of systematization as no 
other subject does, and secondarily, because the- 
teaching of it fell into the hands of men who 
were essentially mechanical and the law of whose 
life was system. 

As manual training has been introduced into 
public schools it has partaken of the nature of 
the schools and has become a part of a rigid 
system. But there is no reason why the Social 
Settlements which are trying to appeal to the- 
neighborhood boys in a natural and healthful way 
should take upon them the mistakes of the school 
in introducing manual training. They will do this 
if they allow a rigid system to play any part 
I in their scheme. Cakolise L. Pratt. 

' Summer School for Artisans and Apprentices.. 

The University of Wisconsin announces the fol- 
lowing unique feature of its fourth summer ses- 
sion in Bulletin 53: 

"This school of shopwork and laboratory prac- 
tice has been established for the benefit of ma- 
chinists, carpenters, or sheet-metal workers; sta- 
tionary, marine, or locomotive engineers ; shop fore- 
men and superintendents; superintendents of 
waterworks, electric light plants, power stations,, 
factories, large office and store buildings in cities; 
and for the young men who -wish to qualify them- 
selves for such positions. The general fee for the 
session is $15. Students in attendance on the- 
eourses in the summer session of College of Letters 
and Science can take any of the work given in 
the School for Artisans without any extra fee, 
other than the regular shop and laboratory fees. 
This furnishes an opportunity to teachers in the- 
public schools to fit themselves to teach manual 
training, as the courses in this school cover all 
the shop and drawing work of the manual train- 
ing schools. 

"A full account of the shop and laboratory 
courses offered in this school is given in a special' 
circular which will be sent on application to W_ 
H. Hiestand, Begistrar, Madison, Wis." 



THE COMMONS 



15 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Mary K. SiMKHOviTCH*(Mrs. 

Vladimir 6. Simkhcvitch) , 248 East 34th St., 

New York City. 
Secretary: Mabel Gair Curtis, 829 Boylston St., 

Boston. 
Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 

City. 
Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 

Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43d St., New 

York City. 

settlements. 

New York City— 95 Eivington Street. 

Philadelphia — i33 Christian Street. 

Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited tor the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The writer of this article on the Philadelphia 
Settlement was one of the founders of the old 
St. Mary Street Library and has been the treas- 
urer of the Settlement ever since its inception. — 
Ed. 



The College Settlement of Philadelphia. 

The second settlement of the College Settle- 
ments Association came quietly to Philadelphia 
in 1892 to carry on the work of the St. Mary 
Street Library, whose managers asked the help of 
the Settlements Association because they felt such 
work was weak without a resident force. 

The neighborhood in which the Library was 
established was one ill suited for settlement life. 
It was honey-combed by missions and charities, 
conducted by non-resident organizations whose 
various and unrelated efforts seem to weaken that 
spirit of self dependance which is so necessary 
to. the creation of the neighborhood spirit and is 
vital to true settlement Ufe. But excellent work 
was done here by the Settlement, much of it of 
such a co-operative and constructive character 
that ' independent organization grew out of it. 
In 1899 the Settlement was obliged to move, owing 
to the demands of the city for its property for 



In St. Mary Street the equipment had been a 
house of twelve rooms rented at $300 a year and, 
a big public hall which was occupied rent free. 
The funds in hand for the new location were but 
$1,600 and the work in hand was the accumulated 
interest of seven years unremitting service. A 
timely gift of $3,000 made it possible to buy No. 
431 Christian St., which when added to 433 Chris- 
tian St., already rented, made a very convenient 
dwelling and offered good opportunities for club 
meetings but gave no assembly hall. The main 
room of the new house seats 100 people and the 
adjoining room can be used as a' stage in con- 
junction with it. 

It is expected that by next fall two more houses 
will be added and that the home equipment will 
be adequate for the small class and club work, 
but the need of a hall will still be great. 

There are ten bedrooms, four public rooms, the 
dining-room and study, and, crowning all, a pretty 
little roof-garden and, beneath all, a poor little 
cellar gymnasium. The latter is the poorest fea- 
ture in the house and withal one of the most 
prized. It is a valuable overflow, and gives safe 
outlet to the life of the untrained street boy. 
Good work in discipline and drill is done here by 
volunteer leaders in boxing and gymnastics. 

From early summer until autumn the roof gar- 
den is used for most of the social gatherings and 
class room, as weU as for resident sleeping apart- 
ments. Including the residents living at Roose- 
velt house, seven blocks away, the present house- 
hold numbers eleven people, five of whom have 
positions in kindred work in the neighborhood, — 
the school, the library, or the tenement house 
association. There are 585 members enrolled on 
the clubs which meet weekly; not including those 
who come to the library, bank, and open meetings 
of whom no roU is kept. Including these larger 
assemblies the total weekly attendance from the 
neighborhood aggregates about 1,200. These are 
chiefly children and young people, the neighbor- 
hood being almost entirely populated by foreigners 
into whose lives the Settlement can best enter 
through the children. But few of the adults seem 
to have the leisure for that which the Settlement 
can give, but in their children lie opportunities 
for development into thoughtful capable citizens. 
The aim is not to build up an institution nor an 
organization, but to create small centres of in- 
fluence, and in pursuance of this wish some club, 
bank and library work is carried on three miles 
away at Wrightsville and also a settlement house 
is maintained at Front and Lombard streets, seven 
blocks away. This is called Roosevelt house. It 
is part of an old colonial residence containing 
eight rooms, in which two residents are now liv- 



16 



THE COMMONS 



ing, one o( whom is a Probation officer of the 
Juvenile Court recently established in Pennsyl- 
vania. Boys brought before the magistrates for 
petty offences may either be sent to a reforma- 
tory or be allowed to remain at home under the 
oversight of an officer to whom they must report 
as often as she may require. 

The Settlement officer has about 120 boys whom 
she meets at their own club room at Eoosevelt 
House or at the Settlement, where she finds the 
gymnasium a valuable help with her unrestrained 
boys. 

The population in this neighborhood is English 
speaking and calls for work different from that at 
the Christian Street house. Next year it is ex- 
pected to have it in full working order — part of 
the equipment being a cooMng-school. 

Each year an effort is made to secure a sum- 
mer home. This year none has been found as yet. 

Hannah Fox. 

Any inquiries should be addressed to Miss Anna 
F. Davies, head-worker, 433 Christian street. 

Use of College Settlements to Women's 

Colleges. 
In The Outlook for April 19th, 1902, Miss Vida 
D. Scudder, of Wellesley College, contributes a 
suggestive article on "College Settlements and 
College Women." Those who know only the value 
of college women to the settlements are thus in- 
formed of the value which the settlements return 
to the colleges and their alumnae. 

• "No one who knows the situation from within 
can fail to realize how useful the settlement inter- 
est is to the college. Colleges, perhaps girls' col- 
leges in particular, tend to become self-centered, 
absorbed in their own little world of ambitions and 
relations. The settlement chapter, through the 
speakers whom it brings, through the ideas it 
awakens, through the points of contact it affords 
between the students and the actual settlement 
work, helps to keep the larger life of the nation 
and its needs ever before the eyes of those who 
are preparing to play their part in that life. It 
kindles that sense of social responsibility which 
it is one of our most imperative duties to arouse 
in those who have received much from our coun- 
try, if we are to spiritualize this mighty democ- 
racy of ours. It helps make the girls better Amer- 
icans. The intelligent ones realize that this set- 
tlement movement is their own; that they may nc*^ 
only take part in it, as they do in temperanc 
and missionary acivities, but that these house; 
founded by the colleges, actually depend on th 
colleges for existence. Were there any tendene 
on the part of the higher edueation to draw wome 
away into an arid pursuit of scholarship, or t 
isolate them in a fancied superiority of cultim 



the settlement movement would prove the best 
possible corrective. The inspiration of the move- 
ment is doubtless largely the same as that which 
has qi^ckened the study of political economy in 
all academic centers of late; this study certainly 
helps to keep the settlement chapters free from 
any overstress on the sentimental in their convic- 
tions, while the settlements serve as a splendid com- 
plement to the purely theoretical work of socio- 
logical departments. The consciousness of our 
national life as a whole; the impulse to react 
on it with forces of salvation; the desire for prac- 
tical usefulness, widely and intellectually conceived 
— all these things are developed in colleges through 
their relation to settlements more directly than 
in any other way. 

' ' The relations of settlements to college- trained 
women who are ready for life are of primary im- 
portance. We can only hint at them here. For 
many a woman the settlement has proved an in- 
valuable supplement to the college, a graduate 
school in the high art of living, where everything 
she had learned in student days of theory and fel- 
owship came directly into play. Eesidence in the 
settlements is never confined to college women, 
and many of those who have entered the life most 
fully have received no acadmic training; neverthe- 
less, no one can live in a settlement a week with- 
out recognizing a certain tone, a camaraderie, an 
adaptability to the peculiar conditions of com- 
munity life, which at once suggest the college. 
It is surely the wide interest fostered by college 
studies in the broader aspects of social problems 
which redeems much settlement life from a wear- 
ing absorption in practical detail ; on the other 
hand, people who have been trained chiefly in 
theories find refreshment in an atmosphere in 
which theory is, whenever possible, translated at 
once into experiment. These houses, with their 
intelligent, happy, and courageous households, are 
assuredly a beautiful outcome of the college tra- 
dition. The mere knowledge that they exist is 
salutary to graduates and undergraduates alike. 
Centers placed among the classes preoccupied with 
material production, drawing their life blood from 
classes trained to intellectual pursuits, may 
to a peculiar degree promote that untrammeled 
fellowship which is our great national aim; for 
they furnish a means that is proving month by 
month its rare effectiveness, by which the indus- 
trial population may be drawn into unity with 
thft rft&. nt thw TUtt.inn." 



THE COMMONS 



17 



Elegy Written in New York. 

By a Settlement Club Boy, thirteen years old. 
The church bells ring the knell of parting day, 

Their supper eaten the people take a walk; 
The lamp-lighter goes his weary way. 

And lights the lamps that illuminate New York. 

Now fade many people from the streets, 

Tor some are going to the show; 
Where, before their very eyes are performed feats 

That to perfom them only the actors know. 

But from the top of yonder house, 

A waft of music greets the listener's ear; 

And the shirtwaist man in his colored blouse 
Is in the roof-garden drinking beer. 

Beneath those rugged trees, that maples shade, 
Where with Ms can he's stretched out on the 
bench 
A tramp in his peaceful sleep is laid; 
. As if protected from the policemen by a trench. 

The breezy call of the milkman on his rout. 
The bridge jammed as full as a sardine box, 

The postman's whistle and the newsboy's shout. 
Shows that the city is as live as a fox. 

For a while no more the blazing stove shall bun^ 
For it is summer and men are drenched with 
sweat ; 

And all are wishing winter to return. 

But when it comes, they're not satisfied yet. 

Oft did a drunkard to the policemen yield. 
If he didn't, his head would near get broke; 

For a policeman's club can break through any 
shield. 
And to get it on the head, it is no joke. 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene. 
That is only an imitation pinned on a tie; 

Belonging to a confidence man may be seen 
Whenever a jay, the confidence man does spy. 

But knowledge to his eyes, has brains enough 
To see the gold bricks are brass and the gems 
imitation jewel; 
And the jay who to nobody was ever rough | 

Would be right in calling the confidence man al 
fool. 

Some village speaker who, with a bold voice. 

Comes here on polities to talk; 
To go home, or get mobbed he is told to take his 
choice. 
He wisely takes the former and forever leaves 
New York. 

Epitaph. 

But many a man who in New York was fed, 
When in a foreign country is engaged in talk, 

Turning to his listeners has often said. 
There is no place like New York. 



Hull House is frequently visited by people who 
may mean well enough, but whose ideas of a 
social settlement are somewhat vague, not to say 
amusing. These visitors ask to be shown through 
the house in the same spirit in which they would 
get permission to visit a menagerie or a collection 
of curiosities from the Sandwich Islands. After 
they have made the trip they frequently ask: 
"And now, won't you tell me what this is all 
fori" or, pointing to on« of the residents, they 
will inquire in a tone of interested curiosity: 
"Is she one of the inmates?" 

But the climax was reached recently when a 
larger party than usual was taken through aU 
the departments of the house. It happened that 
Miss Addams had been delayed later than usual 
and had come down to dinner after the rest of 
the Hull House family had finished their meal. 

One of the visitors caught a glimpse through 
the window of the solitary figure sitting at the 
table. The opportunity was too good to be missed, 
and the young woman promptly rose to it. With- 
out waiting for an invitation or asking permis- 
sion she threw open the door of the dining-room 
and stepped inside. At the same time she joy- 
fully shouted back to the other members of the 
party, as one who has found the cage in which 
the baby elephant is concealed. 

"O, girls," she cried, "come here quick. Here's 
one of them eating!" 

Why is it that of the seventeen Social Settle- 
ments in Chicago only two dispense sterilized 
milk to the needy children of their neighborhoods? 
A service so helpful, obvious and easy should 
commend itself to every settlement as an in- 
dispensable part of its summer work. 



pestalozzi.fr.oi:be:i.. 

KindrtSLrte i\ Tra-ining School at 

Chicatfo Commons. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes op- 
portunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars, address 

BERTHA HOFER HEaNBR, 363 N: Wlaehester Av*. 

Chlcaeo 



18 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects af Life and 
Labor from the Socla.1 Settlement Point ^ \lvrr. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR, ELdltor. 



Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.« Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



Miss Jane A^dams' AuthorsMp. 

The reading public did not need to await the 
appearance of Itiss Addams' first book to be aware 
of her strength and skill in authorship. Very 
widely have her contributions to the pages of 
our best periodical literature been read and ap- 
preciated, while her still more widely spoken utter- 
ances have added a charm all their own to the 
powerful impression made, both at home and 
abroad, by her personality and service. Indeed 
there may have been not a little risk in attempting 
to level a whole volume up to the very high 
mark which her self-expression has steadily, 
though unconsciously, made upon the many who 
have personally known her, and to the very marked 
impression which her occasional addresses have . 
made upon the many more who have heard her 
but once or oftener. While the balance of judg- 
ment may incline toward the uniquely impressive 
quality of her speech as even more Influential than 
her writing, yet this volume stands the crucial 
test of the comparison with high credit to her 
authorship. To say that the book has much, if 
not all, of the gentle strength, the incisive ethical 
insight, the capacity for comprehensive conception 
and the power of precision in expression which 
characterize her utterances, as the outgrowth of 
an extraordinarily varied and deep experience, is 
perhaps to pay it the highest tribute. 

The whole settlement constituency will a^rree in 
claiming "Democracy and Social Ethics," (Mac- 
millau & Co.), as the demonstration of the raison 

<l'etr« of tho Settlflm^nt T»./.«»rtt <•».<' ■^<^i\-~i\ n-J 



government to maintain in industrial conflicts, 
that America has yet witnessed. 

Elected as the chief executive of a great city 
by its citizens of every class, he has dared to 
enforce the law impartially between laborers on 
the one hand and employers on the other, through 
the crisis of a great strike. Calmly adhering to 
his declared policy of using the utmost power of 
the city of San Francisco to suppress unlawful 
force, whether indulged in by ignorant and em- 
bittered labor, or incited by scheming predatory 
capital, he has upheld the majesty of the law 
and given to the meanest citizen of our country 
a renewed faith in our form of government. 

This forward step toward the peaceful adjust- 
ment of industrial differences, marked by the set- 
tlement of the great street railway strike in San 
Francisco within a week, without the loss of a 
drop of blood by violence, or injury to a dollar's 
worth of property by riot, must be heeded and 
followed by all the mayors in the United States, 
Intelligent citizens will know whom to hold re- 
sponsible hereafter for such sanguinary scenes as 
were enacted in Albany a year ago, and in San 
Francisco last summer. 

It has long been an! open secret to informed 
and observant men that the best weapon for beat- 
ing labor into submission is an artificial riot. 
By the paid destruction of their own property 
and the paid assaults upon their own "scabs" more 
than one great strike has been won by corporate 
interests, and the power of public opinion changed 
from sympathy with the just claims of the work- 
ingmen, to a stern demand for the maintenance 
of law and order at any cost. The old custom of 
permitting employers to incite to riot by unnec- 
essary and illegal shows of force must cease. The 
mayor of San Francisco has shown us "a more 
excellent way." 

The chief executive of any municipality may 
not longer hope to escape the just resentment of 
an outraged people if he permits the use of police 
power, designed for the equal protection of all, 
as the special ally of capital against labor in the 
industrial conflicts of the future. The mayors of 
this country may well heed the political signifi- 
cance of the strike policy of the chief executive 
of San Francisco. 



The menacing struggle of Chicago street railway 
employes for their right to organize has been 
settled by the concession of the railway oflScials 
after a brief but stubborn resistance, as happily 
. for the companies and the whole city, as for the 
men and the Amalgamated Association. Again 
conciliation has proven more effective than strikes 
or arbitration, or the even balance of law justly 
enforced by the best mayor. 



THE COMMONS 



19 



A Visiting Doll. 

Of all the courtesies and co-operation which 
Chicago Commons has received at the hearts and 
hands of the public school teachers and scholars, 
in and far beyond the city, none have been more 
appreciated than this gift and letter from the 
sixth grade of the David B. Dewey School of 
Evanston, the pleasure of which we share with" 
our readers. 

THE HISTORY OF OUR DAISY ELLEN. 

Daisy Ellen is not a child as one might think 
in reading this, but a doll favorite of the David 
B. Dewey school kindergarten of Evanston. She 
is made of cloth, and stuffed with cotton. She is 
dressed simply and wears a long sleeved apron to 
keep her dress clean. Her first appearance was 
made five years ago. She was received with great 
joy and now the children would not part with 
her for the world. She was just a baby the first 
year, aiid had to take naps while the children 
worked. They think so much of her and embrace 
her so heartily that at the end of the year Daisy 
Ellen is so tired and worn out that she has to go 
to the country for her vacation. When she comes 
home in the fall her rosy cheeks have returned, 
and her hair is curly again, although sometimes 
changed in color by the sun. Last year when she 
came home from the country she was badly 
freckled, but they are disappearing now. When 
September comes many inquiries are made after 
Daisy Ellen, and she is received with great joy 
on her arrival home. 

The children love Daisy Ellen so much that in- 
stead of buying gum and candy with their pen- 
nies, they buy her shoes. The children think it 
necessary for them all to go to the shoe store, to 
be sure that the shoes fit. 

Daisy Ellen often gets presents of coats and 
hats, and goes with the children on their walks 
and expeditions. She often takes the morning air 
with the children. 

After the spring vacation is over, she is pre- 
sented with a satchel, which holds her nightgown. 
Then she makes visits for the night at all the 
children's homes. 

She has birthday parties with cake and candles, 
and she also has a tree every Christmas. 

Last winter, as there was so much smallpox, 
Daisy Ellen had to be vaccinated ( done with pen 
and red ink). She did not make the least bit 
of a fuss, although the doctor hurt her very much. 
Her arm was very sore (.red and yellow paint). 
Later it healed and left a scar (done with white 
darning cotton). 

Daisy Ellen is such a favorite that she often 
visits the first grade and sometimes serves as 
models for the other grades. 



Santa Claus has been implored many times to 
"bring me a doll just like Daisy Ellen." On her 
last birthday, eight of them came to her party. 

As the children of our kindergarten enjoy Daisy 
Ellen so much the sixth grade thought that the 
kindergartens of other schools would like one 
too, so we take great pleasure in sending this doll, 
hoping it may give as much pleasure as our 
"Daisy Ellen" has given our kindergarten. 

"Our Dear Daisy Ellen 
' Is with us again. 

So I write you her history 
With paper and pen. 

She is loved by the children. 

Their joy and delight, 
She is alvnays amusing. 

And kind and polite. 

Each summer her vacation 

Is in sweet country air; 
It makes her cheeks rosy, 

And curls in her hair. 

"Our Dear Daisy Ellen" 

Has a chair and a bed. 
And when the snow comes. 

She is pulled on a sled. 

She has lovely parties 

With candles and cake; 
She is very polite, 

So a second helping will not take 

So the sixth grade Dewey School, 
Sends her best likeness to you; 

She i.s always loving. 
Obedient and true. 

You must not call her Louise, 

Margaret or Helen, 
But, after her namesake, 

Just plain "Daisy Ellen." 



Our children have already yielded their -^learts 
to the charm of their new companion. They 
treat Daisy Ellen as one of themselves, bring 
their own dolls to visit and name them after her, 
ahower presents and valentines upon her. beg 
her to be their guest at home and had her join 
in their Washington's Birthday March. Their 
little friends in Evanston will rejoice tn hear 
how welcome their representative is all around 
Chicago Commons. 



KINDERGARTEN MAT DAY. 

One of the prettiest neighborhood amenities we 
have enjoyed was the May Day, given by the 
Chicago Commons kindergarten to the kinder- 
garten of the Washington Public School. The 
dance of the latter around their May Pole was 
reciprocated by the gift of a pretty May basket 
of flowers to each little guest from our little hosts. 



i() 



THE COMMONS 



To Supporters and Friends of Chicago 
Commons. 

The time has oome when the warden and resi- 
dents of Chicago Commons should cease to be 
so seriously handicapped in their settlement service 
and the ^velopment of their personal efficiency 
by the always overshadowing and ever overbur- 
dening solicitude and struggle to provide, the 
money for the equipment and support of the work. 
For over se^cm years we have lived and worked 
with good cheer and without whining under the 
harrow of this carping care. While the enter- 
prise was fairly to be considered experimental, 
we accepted it as the task of our faith thus to 
bear the burden of others' doubt. But now that 
the success of the settlement, both in its local 
efficiency and its far-reaching reflexive influence, 
has been demonstrated and is widely recognized, 
it is not economy of the personal or financial re- 
sources involved any longer to condition the work 
by thus OTerburdening the resident workers. The 
imperative demands of the public interests in- 
volved in his gratuitous settlement service, as well 
as of the prior professional and personal obli- 
gations incumbent upon the warden, urgently re- 
quire his immediate release from the incessant 
effort to provide the financial support of Chi- 
cago Commons, upon which its very existence has 
thus far entirely depended. Therefore a deter- 
mined effort is now being made in three direc- 
tions to achieve this result. 

rirst, to raise at once, by larger gifts, $12,000 
still due upon the building, thus providing a $68,- 
000 equipment without encumbrance which, by 
the terms of the ground lease, can never be mort- 
gaged. 

Second, to secure immediately, by smaller sub- 
scriptions, the $6,000 still lacking to maintain the 
work through the balance! of this year, including 
the camp and outings, so essential to the health 
and life of our neighbors, whose death rate is 
exactly proportionate to their lack of park and 
playground spaces. 

Third, gradually to solicit, as opportunity may 
offer, from people of wealth, an endowment of 
at least $100,000, which would provide one-half 
of the current expense of the Chicago Commons 
work, the other half of which can surely and easily 
be raised annually from the people of the neigh- 
borhood and outside friends. 

SUCCESS OF THE MAT rESTTVAL. 

So great was the success of our May Festival 
th*t" by common consent, it is already recognized 
to be thoroughly established as the chief annual 
occasidn of the settlement year. The exhibits of 
the cooking school, manual training department, 
and kindergarten deservedly enlisted the keenest 



interest of the neighborhood, especially of the 
parents and families of the boys and girls whO' 
produced them. 

The Choral Club covered itself with glory in 
its spirited rendering of "The Chimes of Nor- 
mandy," and was rewarded by large and enthusi- 
astic audiences. A more practical demonstration 
•of the need and value of settlement service than 
was thus afforded could hardly be wished for. 
In the presence of such facts and scenes "seeing 
is believing." 

VACATION SCHOOL ASSURED. 

The gift to the Chicago Woman's Club's Per- 
manent Vacation School and Playground Com- 
mittee, sufficient to maintain two of their schools, 
assures the location of one of them in our neigh- 
borhood Washington School House. The an- 
nouncement of this good news was greeted in 
the neighborhood by grateful appreciation of the 
unknown donor's generosity. The contributions, 
amounting to nearly $100.00, which our neighbors, 
headed by the Chicago Commons Woman's Club, 
made to secure the school were thus diverted to 
the lease of the new "Public Playground," which 
is already being opened opposite the Commons, 
under the auspices of the settlement. 

OUR ARMENIAN CONTINGENT. 

The hospitality of the Chicago Commons build- 
ing is extended never more cordially than to our 
Armenian neighbors and fellow citizens. Every 
Sunday afternoon they conduct their own worship 
in one of our halls, and on the occasion of the 
Easter celebration of their ancient faith needed 
our large auditorium. They have recently secured 
for their leader the Bev. 6. M. Manavian, a 
very capable and highly endowed man, who sac- 
rifices a permanent position and comfortable home 
and devotes his university trained capacities to 
the leadership of his poor and exiled fellow coun- 
trymen. Their appeal for permanent club rooms 
and headquarters in behalf of hundreds of their 
>, homeless men would not be long unheeded, if our 
' Men's Club annex were built. Pending this pro- 
'* vision for their and others' needs, who will join 
us in providing temporary quarters, near Chicago 
Commons, for these refugees from the massacre 
of the Turks? 

SUMMER ACTIVXTIES NEEDING SUPPORT. 

For boys' and girls' camp, near Elgin, 111. 

(Opened June 16th) $800.00 

For young women's Vacation Cottage, rent- 
al and equipment 200.00 

For outings, to parks, suburbs and coun- 
try homes 150.00 

For sheltering Matheon Day l^ursery 400.00 

For sterilizing and bottling milk. (Sold 

at 3c for 7 oz.) 125.00 

For equipment of playground with appa- 
ratus 300.00 

For the Fourth of July, a flag-staff and 
American flag 100.00 



The Commons 

A Monthly Record lievoted to Aspects of Liife and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 7a— Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, July, 1903 



The Charities Convention. 

BY WILLIAM HAKD. 

Other people besides Charles Lamb have the 
ilifficulty about which the whimsical little Lon- 
doner used to complain. They cannot describe a 
thing. They describe the impression the thing 
lias had upon them. If the reader, therefore, 
should feel that he has not been told in this ac- 
count of the National Conference of Charities and 
Correction just what happened at each session, 
let him be lenient in his judgment and remember 
that he was warned in the first paragraph. 

The deepest impression the Detroit conference 
was likely to leave upon the visitor was its per- 
sonnel. The subterraneously scornful way in 
which some of the papers continually referred to 
the delegates as " philanthropists " and the as- 
sumption often made that, being "philanthro- 
pists," they were also social busybodies who at- 
tended to everybody's affairs but their own and 
were continually engaged in concocting patent 
remedies for the ills of the body politic and in 
arrogating to themselves the right to be guides, 
•philosophers and friends to the population of the 
whole earth, — all this unlovely picture, together 
with the priggishness and prudishness which went 
with it, could be seen by any careful observer to 
be untrue in almost every particular. The typical 
delegate to the convention was excessive in noth- 
ing. To begin with, he was usually a good fellow. 
He did not take the pose, still traditional, of be- 
ing "unco guid. " Neither did he pretend — in 
most cases — to be "unco canny." Perhaps it 
was his actual contact, in his daily work, with sin 
and vice that had made him, in the best sense of 
the word, "charitable."- At any rate, whether 
tliis was the true explanation or whether the thing 
simply happened, it was a fact among the men 
and women who were the backbone of the conven- 
tion that there was a striking absence of those rigid, 
grating qualities which so often cause the reformer 
to be unpopular among his fellow-creatures. 

To leave the delegates and to turn to the scene 
of their operations, Detroit received her guests 
with a cordiality that was admirable and delight- 
ful. The great permanent electric-light "Wel- 
come" on the city hall was supplemented with 
"National Conference of Charities and Correc- 
tion" as soon as "Catholic Knights and Ladies 



of America" had been removed. There was a re- 
ception committee 120 strong and an auxiliary re- 
ception committee 31 weak, or at any rate com- 
posed entirely of representatives of the weaker 
sex. There was also a committee on yachts and 
another one on carriages and automobiles. All 
the committees did good service. They showed 
their town off, and they had something to show. 
There is in England a guild called ' ' The Guild of 
Joyful Surprises." Detroit might be called— at 
least to a Chicagoan — the city of joyful surprises. 
The streets wind and twist enough to be interest- 
ing without being eccentric, and at almost every 
turn one stumbles on little ' ' sunny spots of green- 
ery." There are small parks even in the dovni- 
town district. The streets are well paved and dis- 
concertingly clean. One feels as if one were in a 
drawing room and might jostle against the bric-a- 
brac. The principal thoroughfares open out like 
the leaves of a fan from the spacious plaza near 
the river, while the river itself, running almost 
due west, forms the southern city limit. Those of 
the delegates who had never been in Detroit be- 
fore were much missed from the conference ses- 
sions. 

So much for who the people were and where they 
were, it might be well to say something about 
what they did. If an average of opinion were 
struck, perhaps one would find that the most im- 
portant event of the convention will be held to "be 
the, speaking diplomatically, rapproachment be- 
tween the extreme charity-organization-society 
idea and the extreme relief-and-aid-society idea. 
Everybody knows how the conflict has raged for 
years and perhaps almost everybody has known 
that the difference was more one of emphasis than 
of principle. At the Detroit conference the char- 
ity organization society people were willing to eon- 
cede a little bit to the notion of material assist- 
ance, while the relief and aid society people were 
willing to admit that perhaps a little more atten- 
tion might be paid to investigation and co-opera- 
tion. The tendency toward convergence of policy 
in this matter is as significant as it is desirable. 

Dr. Knopf's paper on consumption also made a 
stir. It was attacked vigorously and defended 
with equal spirit. The distinction it made between 
consumption's being contagious and its being 
communicable gave material to the reporter^ and 
its position with regard to the possibility of con- 



THE COMMONS 



sumptive patients remaining with their families 
without exposing them to any danger has raised 
comment all over the country. In both points Dr. 
Knopf took the Uberal view of the matter. He 
thought that consumption really was communicable 
rather than contagious, and that consumptives 
really could remain with their families. 

There seemed to be a strong feeling in the con- 
vention for a more active and adequate state 
supervision of private charities. The St. Luke 
Sanitarium fire and the light which that fire has 
thrown on the methods of Mr. O. £. Miller will 
convince Chicagoans that in this point, at least, 
the convention was not far astray. 

Miss Lathrop's discussion of the Scotch and 
Belgian practice of boarding out the mildly in- 
sane in private families was received with as much 
favor as any other single effort on the program. 
The skill the lady showed in dodging the fire of the 
enemy and in capturing an occasional gun from 
them made one feel sorry that she can never be a 
generaL 

These four things, — the closer understanding es- 
tablished between charity organization on the one 
hand and relief and aid on the other, the lecture 
on tuberculosis, the sentiment on state supervision, 
and the leaning toward boarding out, were, if not 
absolutely the most distinctive features of the con- 
vention, at least well up toward the head of the* 
list. Other things ought to receive "honorable 
mention," but will have to be passed over, and as 
for the sequence of sessions and the divisions and 
subdivisions of topics discussed, tnat is, the frame- 
work of the affair, perhaps the reader will have 
to content himself, as does the spectator at "The 
Belle of New York," with the announcement that 
' ' owing to the shortness of the evening, the plot is 
omitted. ' ' 

The next convention will be held in Atlanta. 
The program, ovring to the labors of the Executive 
Committee, of which Mr. BickneU, of the Chicago 
Bureau of Charities, was head, is unusually at- 
tractive. The stock committees have had their 
sphere of influence extended and will cover such 
fields as Legal Aid to Needy Families, Probation 
Courts, Truancy, Child Labor and Eecreation, The 
S^regation of Defectives in Colonies, Vagrancy, 
Sanitary Inspection, Disease and Dependence, Mu- 
nicipal Institutions, and Psychopathic Hospitals. 
There is one attraction, an unoflScial attraction, 
which the program does not mention. Perhaps the 
philanthropic Northerner who goes to Atlanta and 
stays for even a week may come away with mel- 
lowed and modified opinions on the great question 
of "Black and White." 

Northwestern University Settlement, Chicago. 



The Burden of Christopher. 

BY JOHN P. GAVIT. 

More than two years ago, when I was editor 
of The Commons, a book came to me for review; 
it came unannounced and unexplained. It was 
just a book, called ' ' The Burden of Christopher, ' ' 
by "Florence Converse," of whom at that time 
I never had heard. The only clue to personality 
was in the dedication — "Vida D. Scudder, her 
book." After a while I began to read it, per- 
functorily enough as a task, preparatory to a more 
or less perfunctory editorial notice of it. 

Before I knew it I was lost in it. For hours, 
which seemed days and months and years, I lived 
in the life of a New England factory town. At 
the end an unprecedented experience absorbed me. 
A May morning found me walking along a trafBc- 
roaring Chicago street, this extraordinarily en- 
grossing book in my hands, oblivious of my sur- 
roundings, lost in the denouement of this inex- 
plicable narrative, and sobbing like a child. When 
I reached home, I wrote in the back of the book 
these words: 

"Surely He hath borne our griefs and 
carried our sorrows. » « • He was 
wounded for our transgressions. He was 
bruised for our iniquities; the chastise- 
ment of our peace was upon Him; and 
with His stripes we are healed. * * • 
All we, Uke sheep, have gone astray * » * 
and the Lord hath laid on Him the in- 
iquity of us all. And they made His 
grave with the wicked » • » yet He 
bore the sin of many, and made inter- 
cession for the transgressors. • * » 

"Him who knew no sin He made sin 
for us; that we might become the right- 
eousness of God in Him." 

Having no clue to the author, I wrote about it 
to Miss Scudder, and received this reply: 

"Your letter brought me great pleasure — all 
the more because I am not the author of ' Christo- 
pher,' except as the mind of the author and my 
own are closely united. Miss Converse is * * * 
going to say to the world many of the things 
that I feel but have not the power to say. » * * 
I think you may have misread Christopher a bit. 
She meant him for a sinner, poor fellow, not for 
a martyr. Can one be both? The question cuts 
deep. At all events, the book — which I value as 
much as you do, and deeply love — brings into 
clearest relief the terrible moral tragedy, the 
choice of sins, which our hideous society often 
appears to produce — only appears — the deviation 
from the right, even for the sake of the right 
does but strengthen the bands of iniquity. 
Isn't that what she means t" 

I do not know what Miss Converse mefins. 
I do not undertake to say whether a man can 



THE COMMONS 



be both sinner and martyr. I do not know as much 
as I used to know about the ethics of doing wrong 
for the sake of ultimate right. I cannot guess 
what Miss Converse intended her story to teach, 
or whether she expected it to "teach" at all. But 
I know that this is in some ways the most ex- 
traordinary book I have ever read. I cannot "re- 
view" the book; and I have never been able to 
get myself to the point of opening it again. I 
am reluctant even to characterize it. Its people 
are living people; its ethical tragedy is as real 
to me as if I had known Christopher as a bosom 
friend. I am inclined to be silent about it, as 
one is silent about tragedies in the lives of those 
he loves. 

I have loaned the book to maybe a score of 
thoughtful people, and have watched with keenest 
interest their different comment. I have come to 
use it as a sort of moral precipitant by which to 
test the heart and conscience of a friend. I 
know more about a man after he has read this 
marrow-searching story and said his say about it. 

No bibliography of the literature of social de- 
velopment is complete without it. It is more pro- 
found and more clear-eyed and more timely than 
any of the furore books of latter days. As a 
dispassionate arraignment of the modern indus- 
trial status; a dramatization in white light and 
black shadow of the frightful ethical tragedy set 
before the man who has a part to play in modern 
industry, I do not know of its equal. It is a story 
pure and simple; it flaunts no moral, it draws no 
didactic lessons. It carries the reader through 
the experiences of a "captain of industry" who 
tries with all his manly might to do well with his 
property, and with the lives of those dependent 
upon him; and it tells what was the outcome. 
Think of it what you will; judge this Christopher 
by what moral standard you please; pronounce him 
' ' sinner " or " martyr ' ' as your ethical sense may 
impel you or your self -justifying instinct tempt; 
you will lack a major document in the case for 
and against modern industrialism until you have 
followed Christopher Kenyon through the steps of 
his efforts to incarnate the human Christ in the 
relationships involved in his management of his 
New England shoe factory, and of the trust-fund 
committed to his care. 

Pittsburg, Pa., June, 1902. 



Lady Henry Somerset, writing of Settlement 
ideals, in 'The White Hibbon; says:— 

"This new-born social consciousness is the most 
vital thing upon the planet. Toward it 'the whole 
creation moves.' The acme of the new sociology 
is, to develop the life of the individual out of 
a mere self-conscious existence into personality 
that shares the life of the whole brotherhood of 
man and the fatherhood of Qod." 



Social Settlement Week at Chautauqua. 

Among the unique features of the Chautauqua 
program for 1902 is the week of July 7-11 which 
will be devoted to Settlement Work. At this time 
an unusual experiment will be tried in the nature 
of a Settlement School in which representatives 
from the different cities who will come to Chau- 
tauqua for a two weeks' stay, will take. part. 
There will also be conferences during the day 
upon the Settlement Work, and lectures bearing 
upon the topic will be given by prominent people. 
Among those who are working up the movement 
and who will participate in the program are Miss 
Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago; Mr. Starr 
Cadwallader of Goodrich House, who is also Di- 
rector of the Public Schools of Cleveland, and Dr. 
Graham Taylor of the Chicago Commons. Abun- 
dant opportunity will be given those interested in 
this great movement, to come in touch with the 
actual workers and hear the latest developments 
thoroughly discussed. 

In addition to the Conferences in which she will 
participate, Miss Addams will give a series of lec- 
tures on sociological subjects. Mr. Cadwallader 
will speak of the relationship of the settlement 
to the neighborhood and to the community. Other 
prominent workers will be present from various 
parts of the country. There will also be in at- 
tendance at the School, about one hundred young 
women from the settlements of the different 
cities, Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburg. 



For Fourth of July. 

The following letter from President Lincoln to 
General Grant, which has had little or no publicity, 
is good reading for the Fourth of July: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, Jan. 19, 1865. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT : 

Please read and answer this letter as though I 
was not President, but only a friend. My son, now 
in his twenty-second year, having graduated at 
Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before 
it ends. I do not wish to put him in the ranks, nor 
yet to give him a commission, to which those who 
have already served long are better entitled and 
better qualified to hold. Could he, without em- 
barrassment to you or detriment to the service, go 
into your military family with some nominal rank, 
I, and not the public, furnishing his neoessary 
means? If no, say so without the least hesitation, 
because I am as anxious and as deeply interested 
that you shall not be encumbered as you can be 
yourself, Yours truly, 

A. LiNCOLK, 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
L&bor from the Soclei.1 Settlement Point of View, 



GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



Editor. 



Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.& Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



Chicago 's'deliverance from two great labor crises 
last month was notable. The possibility of a strike 
of the street railway employes to enforce their 
right to organize was fraught with incalculable 
disaster. No city in the whole country would suf- 
fer so much from a prolonged interruption of its 
street railway traflSc as Chicago with its principal 
business interests centered in so small a radius 
"within the loop." To the conservatism and ex- 
perience of the international oflScers of the Amal- 
gamated Association of Street Eailway Employes 
and the patience and reasonableness of the men is 
due their peaceful triumph. The new-found joy 
and independence which greeted the recognition 
of their brotherhood was like the reunion of a 
long-sundered family. The elemental loyalty of 
man to man gave expression to the highest en- 
thusiasm over the restoration to their former posi- 
tions and old runs of those who had suffered dis- 
charge, in bringing it all about. 

The teamsters' strike, which was attended by 
some rough work both by the strikers and the 
police, was happily conciliated by the secretary of 
the State Board of Arbitration, who succeeded in 
bringing the principals on both sides face to face. 
Then the difficulty was found to be more readily 
adjustable than it was dreamed to be, and a per- 
manent board of arbitration was agreed to with 
equal unanimity by both parties. In both casee, 
compromises were made, honorable alike to each 
side of what otherw^ise would surely have been 
a struggle fateful to both and to the city. 



Orgaaiization versua Personality in Settle- 
ment Work. 
This old problem has received a trenchant re- 
statement at the hand of Mr. E. J. TJrwiek, sub- 
warden of Toynbee Hall, in an address before 
the Federation of Women's Settlements in Lon- 
don, fully reported in the Boston Transcript for 
April 23rd, 1901. Starting with the fact that 
settlements began by "a revolt against half meas- 
ures of social service on the one hand, against 
well-meant but ill-planned panaceas on the other," 



his friendly and constructive criticism centers 
about the fear that they are reverting to the 
mechanical type of agency, in which the personal 
element is overshadowed more and more by insti- 
tutional activities. He attributes this tendency 
to two causes, the shortness of the average term 
of residence and ' ' the striving for concrete re- 
sults, which may be exhibited in reports to inter- 
ested friends and subscribers." 



Whatever the effectiveness of organized efforts 
in club or class, or in training the residents and in- 
fluencing outsiders reflexively, nothing can com- 
pensate for the lack of "real identification with 
the life of the neighborhood." Without 
that the residents "will be in the district but not 
of it, having their task to do there, their holiday 
from times of work, their days off and evenings 
out, to be spent always in the world outside to 
which their real selves belong." Or they may 
become "a coterie with machinery tacked on- 
working indeed at the business they have taken 
in hand, but after work retiring always into the 
cave of their own companionship. ' ' 



When we allow the outside world to judge us 
by our activities, Mr. Urwick thinks ' ' we appeal to 
our works as a proof not of our faith, but of our 
energy," and he believes that in this very energy 
and the consequent straining after effect the 
chief danger of settlement lies. "We vie with 
one another in the achievement of our doing, 
rather than the effectiveness of our being — tempt- 
ed sometimes even to the verge of the picturesque 
in order to satisfy the expectations of visitors or 
the demands of supporters." Faithful are these 
wounds of a friend and under every such stroke 
settlement residents will do well to let their sin 
both of omission and of commission find them 
out. 



But Mr. Urwick 's conclusion is open to grave 
misunderstanding outside of our circles and dis- 
astrous perversion within them. For these an- 
titheses are surely too antithetic; "the true set- 
tlement will be a center of trained sympathy, not 
of trained or untrained activity; a place of good- 
will rather than of good works." 

How "trained sympathy" can be real either 
to the one feeling it or to the other with whom 
he feels, without expressing itself in "trained 
activity," we find it difficult to imagine, under 
the conditions of life which prevail in settlement 
neighborhoods. 

As a "place of good will," however genially 
felt or good naturedly shown apart from co-oper- 
ative, persistent, progressive effort to make the 



THE COMMONS 



will good to the community in the achievement 
of deeds, the settlement would be sure to degen- 
erate into the very self -complacent, dillitante senti- 
mentality against which Mr. Urwick levels his 
strong and virile protest. 

There '"the will cannot be taken for the deed," 
wherever else, under easier conditions, ' ' honors 
are easy." To make "good will" will the good 
and effect it, there must be co-operation. To any 
kind of effective co-operation some degree of 
organization is indispensable. Moreover, if the 
settlers are to have time, strength and money 
to put into their neighborhood relationships, they 
cannot all exhaust their resources in maintaining 
separate, single households. Co-operate living is 
the economy in both financial and personal re- 
source which makes settlement service possible 
for most residents. 



But there should be the maximum of personal 
liberty and the minimum of institutional organi- 
zation consistent with the co-operate life and co- 
operate work essential to the very existence of 
most settlements. Moreover, non-resident control 
of the details of household life and neighbor- 
hood work is maintained almost always at the cost 
of personal spontaneity and individual initiative, 
without which the settlement loses its very soul. 
In the long run then it is essential to the success 
of a settlement to secure such a head-worker and 
residents as can be trusted and then to trust them 
with the management of the interior life and 
work while they continue in residence, changing 
the personnel if necessary rather than repress, 
much more suppress, the liberty of life. 



Mr. Urwick 's final plea is in line with that 
combination of the "Neighborhood Guild" idea 
with settlement residence, which has always 
seemed to us to be the ideal toward which we 
should work. It should be heeded all along the 
way to that goal by every settlement group and 
individual resident. 

"If we are to supply the complement of the 
social life in our district, then there must be a 
stern limit put to the artificiality of our way 
of living. The gap cannot be filled by a collection 
of spinsters, nor by a club of bachelors. A set- 
tlement is not a convent nor a college; it must 
be a society, however small, in which both men i 
anci women, and if possible married and single, ' 
have their place. Difficulties may be urged, no 
doubt, especially the prejudices of an older gener- 
ation, felt more strongly in this country than in 
some others. But the condition has been fulfilled 
even here in some cases; why not in all? More- 
over, the difficulties themselves are caused by 
another defect which, equally with the first, is 



involved in the artificiality of our life. We have, 
more often than not, aggravated our isolation, by 
shutting ourselves within a single wall. How can 
the closed community be an ideal neighbor! An 
hotel has no neighbors, nor has a palace; and 
the comparison is not as absurd as it sounds. 
Doubtless you must have your center, with its 
reception rooms, concert/ hall, club premises — 
what you will. And there you will have your half- 
dozen residents or so, but no more. The rest will 
be near — as near as may be convenient; but they 
will live on the 'scattered homes' principle, in 
twos and threes together, not in large clusters." 



"He that knows not. and knows not that he 
knows not, is a fool — shun him. 

He that knows not and knows that he knows 
not, is simple — teach him. 

He that knows, and knows not that he knows, 
is asleep — wake him. 

He that knows, and knows that he knows, is 
wise — follow him." 

Democracy & Social Ethics 

BY JANE ADDAMS. 

Head of Hull House. 

12 Mo. Half Leather - - $1.25 

Order through the Commons. 



LAWN SWINGS 



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Manufacturer 

Play Ground, Park, Oymnasimn and Athletic Field 
Equipmeats. Write for anything you want. 

126-128 West Webster Avenue, CHICAQO, ILL. 

The Commons 

Is devoted to .Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social Set- 
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to the contrary. 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEHENTS. 

STANDIKG COMMITTEE. 

President: Kathamne Coman, WeUealey, Mass. 

Vice Preiident: Maey K. Simkhovttch (Mis. 
Vladimir G. Simkhcvitch), 248 East 34th St., 
New York City. 

Secretary: Mabkl Gair CnBTis, 829 Boylston St, 
Boston. 

Treasurer: Elsik Clkws Pabsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 

aty. 

Fifth Memher: Helen Annan Scbibnks (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43(1 St., New 
York CSty. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York CSty — 95 Eivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston — 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomebt, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The Denison Dramatic Club. 

About four years ago the Denison • Dramatic 
Club made its debut, before an amused but sym- 
pathetic audience of Denison House friends, in 
' ' The Play of JuUus Caesar. ' ' At that time the 
members of the club were fourteen or fifteen 
years of age, noisy, thoughtless, untidy boys, 
turbulent in their relations with one another, ag- 
gressive in their attitude towards all the rest of 
the world, and entirely without vital interest in 
anything in heaven or earth, including the dra- 
matics which were their excuse for being. Out of 
this chaos "The Play of Julius Caesar" gathered 
itself,  or to speak accurately, was gathered by 
the combined eflforts of the director of the club 
and four or five other residents. 

It is a marked characteristic of the Celt that 
Ms spirit is willing but his flesh is weak. He 
likes to dream great things, but he is bored when 
he tries to. do them. Being bored he "throws 
up the job" and dreams of greater things. The 
rehearsals for "Julius Caesar" were teuious, for 
everybody concerned. But the director of the 
club was not a Celt: to her there were worse 
conditions in life than being bored. She knew 
her boys, individually and collectively; when all 
other threats and blandishments failed she occa- 
sionally said, "We'll give up the play." Under 
compulsion the Celt does not give up. 

For weeks beforehand the settlement floated 
dizzily upon billows of Roman toga; but at last 
the dream came true. Tue Irish boy cannot 
philosophize nor argue; he will not model in clay, 



nor weave baskets; he does not often have a zest 
for sloyd, nor a taste for music. To other races 
other gifts. But he can act a part ; he can put 
himself in the other fellow's place; and, although 
he is greedy for applause, his dramatic instinct 
springs from something nobler in him than vanity; 
for he .can thrill responsive to great thoughts, 
and utter them so that other people, less imagina- 
tive, must perforce thrill responsive also. Above 
all, he can live in his dream till he believee that 
it is real. When a fifteen-year-old bov, with a 
raucous voice and an untutored accent can hold 
a mixed audience to respectful gravity while he 
weeps over the dead body of Caesar, borne in on 
a kindergarten table, there is reality somewhere. 

At twelve o'clock at night, after the play was 
over, the club came back, cheering through the 
streets, to Denison House, and danced the Vir- 
ginia Reel, and danced and danced and danced. 
So the old heroes of their race danced, no doubt, 
and leaped ' ' the leap of the salmon ' ' long ago, 
after battle and conquest. And these also were 
conquerors, for they had conquered themselves. 
They had set out to do a thing, and they had 
stuck to it. They have stuck to it ever since. 

The second year they gave "Damon and Pythi- 
as, ' ' but Shakespeare had spoiled lesser play- 
wrights for them, and last year nothing would 
content them but ' ' The Merchant of Venice. ' ' 
They worked over it with tremendous earnestness, 
and did it so well that they were invited to repeat 
it at Wellesley, RadclifiFe, Lasell Seminary, and 
Belmont, not Portia's Belmont, but another, near- 
er to Boston. And they made money enough to 
support this winter all the sloyd and basket- 
weaving classes at Denison House, paying for 
teachers and materials, and to hire for themselves 
two club rooms in a neighboring house. 

This spring they have given Bulwer-Lytton 's 
play of "Richelieu," and they are to repeat it 
at Wellesley in April. The women's parts have 
always been stumbling blocks, and have neces- 
sarily limited the choice of plays. Cato's 
daughter was ruthlessly obliterated from "Julius 
Caesar," and the wife and daughter in "Damon 
and Pythias" were changed, by enterprising resi- 
dents, into a younger brother and son. Portia and 
Nerissa in "The Merchant of Venice" were more 
difiScult to manage, but by judicious cutting they 
were given prominence chiefly in those scenes 
where they masqueraded as men. And this year, 
profiting by experience, and by careful though 
clandestine study of the manners of students from 
Wellesley and Radcliflfe who frequent the house, 
Julie and Marion de Lorme were able to behave 
and to speak in a very ladylike, not to say girl- 
ish, fashion. 



THE COMMONS 



The young man who took the part of Eichelieu 
was Launcelot Gobbo last year. An excellent 
Gobbo in face and form and merry antic, but 
entirely unintelligible when he began to speak. 
This year his every word could be understood at 
the back of the hall; and no one would have 
recognized the gay buffoon in. the majestic and 
stately cardinal. As one of the boys said, he who 
was Brutus four years ago: "It isn't fair to 
give the same fellows the big parts every year, 
because then the others get discouraged; but if 
we take it turn about then everybody gets a 
chance to show what 's in him. ' ' Richelieu got his 
chance. 

They are going back to Shakespeare again next 
year. They say that Shakespeare's words are all 
tied up with the action, you can't separate the 
one from the other; but in this play of Bulwer- 
Lytton's they had to find out what to do before 
they learned the words at all. They feel the dif- 
ference in the language, too, "it speaks better." 

Whether the Eussian Jew, or the Italian, or 
the German, or the Syrian, will thrive and develop 
I on dramatics we cannot see, our problem is with 
the Irish boy, and for him Shakespeare is, we are 
sure, the "best text book. Out of Shakespeare our 
boys have learned English, and History, and Patri- 
otism, and Courtesy. The boy who took the part 
of Shylock knows what it means to be a Jew; 
the boy who took the part of Antonio knows what 
it is to be a friend. 

The club has also developed a sense of respon- 
sibility not wholly due to added years. The boys 
no longer wait to have things done for them. 
They hire the hall, attend to the printing of the 
tickets and programmes, and to the renting, but 
not the choosing of costumes. 

For several weeks before "Eichelieu" was giv- 
en, the librarian at the Branch Public Library in 
our district, reported that every book she had 
which contained any account of the play, or of 
the history of that particular period, was ' ' out. ' ' 
The whole neighborhood, not the boys only, but 
the mothers and sisters and fathers and friends, ' 

was reading about Eichelieu. 

t 
Strange as it may seem, this delight in being 

someone else is not accompanied, in these boys, 
with any stage fever. They take themselves very 
simply, as amateurs — true lovers; they have no 
illusions in regard to their own talents. Their 
sense of humor saves them from becoming con- 
ceited, except as all boys are inevitably con- 
ceited. 

The younger brothers are now besieging us with 
entreaties to be allowed to give a play. Of a 



trutli on Tyler street it would indeed appear that 
"All the world's a stage." 

Florence Converse. 



Robert Louis Stevenson's Chivalry. 
Mr. Graham Balfour, in his notable Life of Stev- 
enson, thus strikingly describes the charm of his 
character : 

"I have referred to his chivalry, only to find 
that in reality I was thinking of every one of the 
whole group of attributes which are associated < 
with that name. Loyalty, honesty, generosity, cour- 
age, courtesy, tenderness, and self-devotion; to im- 
pute no unworthy motives and to bear no grudge; 
to bear misfortune with cheerfulness and without 
a murmur; to strike hard for the right and take 
no mean advantage; to be gentle to women and 
kind to all that are weak; to be very rigorous with 
oneself and very lenient to others — these, and 
many other virtues ever implied in "chivalry," 
were the traits that distinguished Stevenson. They 
do not make life easy, as he frequently found." 

' ' There was this about him. that he was the 
only man I have ever known who possessed charm 
in a higher d^ree, whose character did not suffer 
from the possession. The gift comes naturally 
to women, and they are at their best in its exer- 
cise. But a man requires to be of a very sound 
fiber before he can be entirely himself and keep 
his heart single, if he carries about with him a 
talisman to obtain from all men and all women 
the object of his heart's desire. • » • But 
who shall bring back that charm f Who shall un- 
fold its secret? He was all that I have said; he 
was inexhaustible, he was brilliant, he was roman- 
tic, he was fiery, he was tender, he was brave, he 
was kind. With all this there went something 
more. He always liked the people he was with, 
and found the best and brightest that was in them; 
he entered into all the thoughts and moods of his 
companions, and led them along pleasant ways, or 
raised them to a courage and a gayety like his 
own." 



PESTALOZZI.FR.OEBEL, 

KindrtfBLrten TraLining School at 

Chicago Commons. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes op- 
portunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars, address 
BBRTHA HOFER HEQNBR. 363 N*. Wloebeater Av*. 

Cklcaco 



8 



THE COMMONS 



Settlement Investigations. 

Miss Margaret Schaffner, who has been in resi- 
dence at the Northwestern University Settlement 
all winter as incumbent of the University of Wis- 
consin Fellowship, has been investigating "the 
labor movement with special reference to the tran- 
sition from individual to collective bargaining." 
ShB becomes an instructor in economics in the Uni- 
versity of Iowa. 

Miss Gertrude E. Palmer, the University of 
Michigan Fellow at Chicago Commons this year, 
has completed the gathering of facts on "The 
Spendings and Savings of Children," and has re- 
turned to the University to prepare the report of 
her inquiry for submission to her in^ructors and 
to the Settlement. 

"A Schedule for the Study of Conditions of 
Children Street Vendors, Newspaper Sellers, etc.," 
is issued by Miss Mary E. McDowell, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago Settlement, calling for name, 
age, sex, address, nationality, length of time in 
the United States, attendance at day or night 
school and the grade, physical description, includ- 
ing any deformity or other feature, family's condi- 
tiwi, whether wholly dependent upon the earnings 
of the child, occupation, hours employed, day or 
night. 

Mr. Wm. C. Hunt, Chief Statistician for popu- 
lation of the Census Office at Washington, D. C.,- 
informs the Settlements and other centers of social 
observation of the bill establishing the Census 
Bureau, and especially of its provision for the 
collection of "social statistics of cities." He 
calls attention particularly to the power given the 
Census Bureau to arrange the statistics of popula- 
tion so as to give the distribution according to the 
nationality of parents. In view of the great need 
felt by social and religious workers for a better 
knowledge of their communities, it is important 
that the Census Office be urged to collect statistics, 
showing the birthplace of parents, which is a val- 
uable index to the characteristics of the people, 
and also the altruistic and religious work estab- 
lished among them. As such a study of the social 
statistics of cities, properly interpreted, would 
open a mine of valuable information to social and 
philanthropic workers, it is suggested that they 
urge upon the Census Office the collection of such 
data. 



Motto from Dalmeny Home for Dairymen, 
Briarcliff Farms, Briarcliff Manor, "N. Y. 
"God hath given thee to thyself and saith. I 
have none more worthy of trust than thee: keeo 
this man such as he was made by nature. Rever- 
ent, Faithful, High, Unterrified, Unshaken of 
Passion, Untroubled." 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited foe the Association by 
Mary Kingsbtiry Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



Letter from the Editor. 

New York, June 14, 1902. 
To the Editor of the Commons: 

The settlements in New York have been going 
through the annual period of semi-rest that in- 
tervenes between winter and summer and news 
is scarce. Perhaps a more diligent reporter than 
I would have found something more interesting 
to relate. But the bald fact remains that at 
this time of year the volunteer worker for the 
most part hies away, many residents follow suit, 
and before the pressing work of vacation par- 
ties begins there is a lull in activities, good for 
the soul but unproductive of news. In the m^n- 
time, however, a few changes are taking place. 
The Educational Alliance which is the largest 
educational and social institution on the lower 
east side, has opened a settlement c&lled the 
Alliance house. This house is in the neighbor- 
hood cf Seward Park, the playground in which 
has attracted a great deal of interest among 
all lovers of small parks and playgrounds in the 
country. For four years the Out-door Eecreation 
League has maintained several playgrounds in 
New York, as examples of what can be done 
to create healthful enjoyment and recreation in 
a relatively inexpensive and attractive way. Of 
all these playgrounds by far the most important 
was in Seward Park, situated in the heart of 
the city's densest population where formerly 
tenement rookeries had stood. One of the 
pledges made by the Fusionists before election 
was to provide playgrounds for the city's chil- 
dren. Encouraged by this declaration, the Out- 
door Recreation League felt that its work was 
done; that as the public demand for play- 
grounds had been created and the promise to 
provide them l^ad been made, there was no more 
work for the League to do. The League there- 
fore presented the Park Department with its 
apparatus worth about four or five thousand dol- 
lars with the expectation that the Department 
would continue the work of the League. But 
this expectation so far remains absolutely unful- 
filled and small hope is held out that the city 
will have playgrounds during this season. The 
plans for completing Seward Park do not ad- 
mit of a playground being opened there till Sep- 
tember 15th. In the meantime the apparatus 



THE COMMONS 



9 



could be used profitably on another space called 
Hamilton Fish Park. But the Park Commis- 
sioner, Mr. "Willcox, says that although the ap- 
paratus can be sent to the Park there is no 
money for care-taking and maintenance. It is 
impossible for the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment to make a grant for this purpose as 
it was not included in the budget for the year. 
It is thus possible that omission of direct men- 
tion of care and maintenance of playgrounds in 
the budget may cut off the rich city of New 
York from providing the very inconsiderable 
sum of $10,000 with which to. maintain play- 
grounds. 

We are inclined to believe, however, that when 
the public realizes that there are to be no play- 
grounds there will be so urgent a demand for 
an appropriation that a way out will be dis- 
covered, perhaps by the use of the contingent 
fund. In any case it is not pleasant to reflect 
that so serious an oversight took place when 
the budget was made up. Another fact not very 
agreeable toi dwell upon in this connection is the 
recent appointment of Mr. Thomas Murphy as 
one of the two Superintendents of Parks. Mr. 
Murphy's office was exempted from the civil 
service examinations on the ground that a Super- 
intendent of Small Parks should be so important 
an expert that the Commissioners should feel 
free to appoint the best man. Exempted on the 
ground that one part of his ofSee was the super- 
intendency of small parks, Mr. Murphy is actu- 
ally engaged solely in the other part of his 
office, that is, as general assistant to the Com- 
missioners. This would seem to be a more ap- 
propriate position for Mr. Murphy to fill than 
that of expert on small parks, as his previous 
record shows him to have been a locally promi- 
nent Republican, first a plumber, second super- 
intendent at Bellevue Hospital, and third a 
union official at the Capitol in Albany. Was 
Mr. Murphy so decidedly the only and unique 
person fitted for the position involving super- 
intendency of small parks that the office needed 
to be exempt from civil service examination t 

Perhaps next year, as the Mayor suggests, 
the administration will be in shape to press the 
playgrounds matter forward. In the meantime 
the Park Department will bear friendly 
watching. Another matter of interest to settle- 
ment readers will be that Dr. Jane Bobbins, for 
many years identified with the college settlement 
and latterly with the Normal College Alumnae 
Settlement, and always with the best interests 
of the working people of New York, has gone 
to Cleveland to take charge of the Alta House 
till the autumn. This house is situated in an 



Italian quarter and Dr. Eobbins' friendship 
with so many Italians in New York makes it 
especially appropriate that she should be in 
charge of Alta House till matters have been 
rearranged there. Before Dr. Bobbins' depart- 
ure from New York the Social Reform Club 
tendered her a dinner which was really a gather- 
ing together of a large number of her old friends 
and a testimonial of their lasting friendship 
and admiration. Among the after-dinner speak- 
ers wore Richard Watson Gilder, Jacob Biis, and 
Edward King. Perhaps tho most interesting 
speech was that of Mr. Gino Speranza, who spoke 
in the warmest way of Dr. Bobbins' friendship 
for the Italian people. 

Those who care for theories of progress as 
well as for its practice will be interested to know 
that the Junior Socialist movement in New York 
is becoming more and more impregnated with 
the Bernstein point of view. The more orthodox 
Marxists in the eld sense are dwelling in num- 
bers, while the new progressive Bernstein move- 
ment is daily becoming stronger and more im- 
portant. The east side socialist movement has 
hitherto been a matter of debate rather than of 
practical importance, but it is not at all im- 
probable now that the old Marxist creed is break- 
ing up, that the Socialist movement will become 
less aloof from other progressive movements and 
will lose its foreign isolated quality that Has 
heretofore distinguished it. 

To many of us who are not by any means satis- 
fied with the tendency of settlements to become 
large institutions, with views impressed on the 
neighborhood rather than coming from the or- 
ganized neighborhood itself, there is something 
very congenial and appealing in the develop- 
ment of the Social Halls Association identified 
notably with the names of Miss Wald, Miss Pot- 
ter, and Miss Strauss. This association proposes 
to erect in various neighborhoods as occasion 
arises, on a financially profitable basis, social 
halls where clubs may meet, dances be held, and 
refreshments enjoyed. I believe this plan is 
something of a solution to the growing institu- 
tional tendency in neighborhood houses. This 
plan provides for a neighborhood center for so- 
cial entertainments on a large scale, which at the 
same time allows settlements to carry on their 
own distinctive neighborly and family life in a 
free and simple manner unhampered by these 
large financial considerations which it is rather 
the function of a settlement to stimulate than it 
is to engage in. 

The summer school in philanthropic work con- 
ducted by the Charity Organization Society of 
New York will open Monday, June 16, and con- 



10 



THE COMMONS 



tinue till the last of July. The course as in 
former sununers will include visiting various New 
York institutions, daily addresses, practical work 
in the society's offices and one topic for each 
student for special research. 

Yours sincerely, 
Mary KiNGSBtjKT Simkhovitch. 



Social Movements in Kansas City, Ho. 

The social consciousness of Kansas City has 
been greatly aroused during the past two years and 
a number of movements have been inaugurated 
which promise much in the way of improving slum 
conditions. A spirit of social service has been 
cultivated and fostered by the Associated Chari- 
ties, the Women's Clubs and certain of the down- 
town churches. This spirit is now becoming mani- 
fest concretely in various forms of service for 
arousing and directing the self-consciousness r>f 
the neglected masses. 

Among these agencies may be mentioned the So- 
cial Settlements of which there are three, one, 
the Y. W. C. A. House, located in the packing 
house district, b«ng over the line in Kansas. The 
other two are about a mile apart in a very densely 
populated district of working people. One of 
these is in connection with the Mattie Bhodes 
Day Nursery and is known as the Mattie Rhodes ' 
Settlement. This work is in charge of Miss Edith 
M. Shortt who received her training at St. Paul 
in "The Commons" and "Neighborhood House" 
of that city. There are but two residents here, 
the matron of the Nursery and Miss Shortt. Their 
work has been largely with the patrons of the 
Nursery, and with the children. Clubs, classes 
and night school were conducted during the winter 
and now a play-ground has been equipped and an 
attendant hired for the summer. A very good 
beginning has been made this first year and it is 
hoped that something can be done this fall with 
the men and older boys of the district. 

The South Side Settlement is located in the 
most densely populated district of the city, there 
being about one hundred families on one block. 
Nearly one-half of this district are Bussian and 
Polish Jews. In helping this people, the United 
Hebrew Charities have co-operated and conducted 
the kindergarten during the entire year, admitting 
Gentile children on the same basis as the Jewish. 

Here, too, the first year's work has been largely 
for women and children, but it is expected that 
the resident's quarters will be enlarged this fall 
and more workers will be secured (there are now 
three) and then the full settlement work will be 
taken up. Besides the kindergarten, the Women's 
Aturillary of the Manufacturers' Union conducted 



a Sewing School every Saturday and the residents 
maintained the Boys ' and Girls ' Clubs, the ^ight 
School, the Penny Provident Fund and Beading 
Boom. A music teacher has a class in vocal music 
and a woman physician conducts a Free Dispen- 
sary. During the summer an ice water barrel is 
kept supplied and the children are given outings 
in the form of trips to the country and picnics and 
car rides. 

In addition to these, other movements are form- 
ing. The managers of the North End Day Nur- 
sery are engaged in raising money to erect a build- 
ing suitable for Settlement work, and the Baptists 
are going to erect a building for this purpose 
in "The East Bottoms." There is also "talk of a 
Settlement among the colored people. Separate 
schools are maintained here for the colored chil- 
dren, and a number of the teachers in these schools 
are interested, and it is probable that a number 
of them will go to one of the neglected districts 
this fall and live among their people. 

Of the other movements looking toward the bet- 
terment of social conditions may be mentioned the 
Home for Working Girls. This Home has now 
been in operation on a small scale for one year. 
So successful has it been that funds have been 
raised for the purchase of a beautiful old mansion 
containing sixteen rooms as a permanent home 
for the Club. The Club is called the "Hybho 
Club," the name being coined by taking the first 
letters of the words of its motto, "Help Your- 
self by Helping Others." 

The Improved Dwelling Co. was organized more 
than a year ago to take charge of old, unsanitary 
houses and tenements on the ' ' Octavia H ill Plan ' ' 
of combining rent collecting with friendly visit- 
ing. This Association has had charge of one hun- 
dred and twenty-four small houses during the past 
year, with very good results, and expects to enlarge 
the work this year. The rents are collected weekly 
by a lady residing in the district (the South Side 
Settlement), who in this way comes into close 
touch with the people, and so is able to help them 
in innumerable ways. The plan is found to be 
admirable as a basis for a social settlement, in 
that the residents find a natural entrance to the 
community through their business interests with 
it, and furthermore it is quite possible to sustain 
the work in this way. 

There is one other movement deserving of men- 
tion. This city has for nearly a year maintained 
a Probation Officer, who is paid by private sub- 
scription. He has recently been made a special 
police officer and receives one-half of his pay from 
the city. The jaU boys are now separated from 
the old offenders in some rooms set apart for them 
in a separate wing of the jail building. A teacher 



THE COMMONS 



11 



is hired by the citizens to conduct school every 
forenoon. This Is kiiown as the "Kindergarten," 
and it is safe to say that no city without special 
laws has done as much for its juvenile offenders. 

Steps are beme; taken now for the organization 
of a "Help to Self -Help Society," which shaU 
stand in the relation of friendly adviser to those 
iu any sort of trouble. One department of their 
work will be to conduct a Chattel Mortgage Loan 
and Pawn Shop, always discouraging the borrow- 
ing of money by the applicants if other plans 
can be devised for them. J. M. Hansen. 



Howell's First Impressions of a Factory. 

In his delightful reminiscences of his "Literary 
Friends and Acquaintance," William Dean How- 
ells thus lets us see the life-long impression made 
upon that very human heart of his by the first 
sight he caught of a New England factory town. 
Naivelj' he accounts for going to Lowell before 
making his pilgrimage to Concord, "that I might 
ease the unhappy conscience I had about those 
factories which I hated so much to see, and have 
it clean for the pleasure of meeting the fabricator 
of visions whom I was authorized to molest in 
any air 'castle where I might find him." Then he 
shares with us the aftermath of feeling he had 
over the rude shock which the mill life gave his 
sensitive vision. "I visited one of the great mills, 
which with their whirring spools, the ceaseless 
flight of their shuttles, and the bewildering sight 
and sound of all their mechanism have since 
seemed to me the death of the joy that ought to 
come from work, if not the captivity of those 
who tended them. But then I thought it right 
and well 'with sick and scornful looks averse,' 
for me to be standing by while others 
toiled; I did not see the tragedy in it, 
and I got my pitiful literary antipathy away as 
soon as I could, no wiser for the sight of the 
ingenious contrivances I inspected, and I am sorry 
to say no sadder. In the cool of the evening 
I sat at the door of my hotel, and watched the 
long files of the work-worn factory girls stream 
by, with no concern for them but to see which 
was pretty and which was plain, and with no 
dream of a truer order than that which gave them 
ten hours' work a day in those hideous mills 
and lodged them in the barracks where they 
rested from their toil." 

A Foundry Dedicated to Right Relations. 

It sounds strange to read of a foundry being 
opened with an invocation of the divine blessing 
upon "the works" and the guidance of "the 
Spirit" in its progress. Some day the strangest 
thing may be to remember that any such religious 



aspect of industrial relationship ever seemed 
strange to any one. The pledge of fraternal 
fealty which the proprietor freely offered the 
men has a ring of manly purpose about it at the 
furthest remove from cant. To all the assembled 
employees and guests he said: 

"I want to show you how I feel upon the ques- 
tion of labor and capital. I appreciate that ybu 
are the foundation of this business; that I have 
got to satisfy you; have got to pay you fair and 
liberal wages, and treat you right. I tell you 
from the bottom of ray heart that I will always 
do that and I feel that you will always do your 
duty. There is no doubt about the permanence of 
these works. I expect soon to erect buildings over 
the whole five acres of ground which we own 
here. ' ' 

He then outlined his plan to "give the married 
men sanitary homes to live in, with pretty gardens 
and aU conveniences, charge them less rent than 
they would have to pay elsewhere and let the rent 
go towards paying for the building, giving title to 
the building when sufficienl rent has been paid." 

At the blast of a bugle he then started the ma- 
chinery. Layers of iron and coke had been placed 
in the cupola and soon the moulten iron was run- 
ning out, accompanied by a shower of sparks, 
forming a beautiful pyrotechnic display. Men 
caught the running iron in holders and poured it 
into the moulds about the big place. 



I have always found that the people who talk, 
loudest about the pleasure which work affords 
make no great efforts themselves; whilst those 
who are uniterruptedly engaged in heavy labor 
are hesitating in its praises. As a matter of fact, 
there is a great deal of hypocritical twaddle 
talked about work. Three-fourths of it and more 
is nothing but stupefying toil. — Adolf Harnack. 



New Cottage at Macatawa for Rent. 

A furnished cottage of seven rooms and a bath- 
room, built this spring, on an easily accessible bluff 
overlooking Lake Michigan, just south of Maca- 
tawa, will be ready for occupancy July 1. Any 
family desiring to inquire about this safe, com- 
fortable, beautiful summer home between the Mich- 
igan woods and the great lake, seven hours from 
Chicago by daily steamer lines, may address Box 
12, Macatawa, Michigan, or "The Commons," 180 
Grand avenue, Chicago. 

Chiago Theological Seminary 

Opens Its 46th year Sept. 24th. Full corps of In- 
sti-uctors, Seminary Settlement. Affiliated schools 
In music, woman's work and missions. Diploma 
and B. D. degrees Merit scholarships. Fellowship 
for two years to each class. Address PROF. H. M. 
SCOTT, 520 W. Adams St., Chicago, 111. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



FBOM THE SETTLEMENTS. 

A new Settlement has been started by Mr. and 
Mrs. Charles F. Weller in their own home, 456 K 
street, S. W., Washington, D. C, which already 
has its promising complement of clubs and classes, 
including a free kindergarten. Mr. Weller recently 
left the West Side Bureau of Associated Charities 
in Chicago to become the superintendent of the 
Charity Organization Society of Washington. 

Another new Settlement has recently been ini- 
tiated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is to be called 
the Wisconsin University Social Settlement of Mil- 
waukee, and will be under the patronage of the 
University, though supported by Milwaukee peo- 
ple. The committee charged with the inaugura- 
tion of the work includes prominent representatives 
of the Christian and Jewish churches, and the pub- 
lic schools, and is headed by Prof. Richard T. Ely, 
of the University of Wisconsin. 

Gordon House, New York City, is to have a new, 
well-equipped Settlement building on West Sev- 
enteenth street, near Ninth avenue, work upon 
which has already begun. We hope to have the de- 
sign of the edifice, with a description of its ar- 
rangement and equipment, in an early number of 
Tax Commons. 



FEDBEATION OF CHICAGO SETTLEMENTS. 

The last session of the Federation of Chicago. 
Settlements for this season was held at Hull House, 
and its goodly fellowship was greatly enhanced 
by the presence and participation of Miss Wald 
and Miss McDowell, of the Nurses' Settlement, 
New York City. The former's racy account of 
settlement and social service in New York was 
greatly enjoyed and led to many questions and a 
pleasant interchange of view. 

The sale of "Modified" and "Pasteurized" 
milk in Chicago promises to be widely extended this 
summer. It is prepared in "a surgically clean 
laboratory" at the Northwestern University Set- 
tlement under the supervision of a physician and 
with the eo-operation of the ofiSce of the City's 
Commissioner of Health. It will be distributed 
from at least four settlements and the Central Dis- 
trict Bureau of Charitiea. 



CHICAGO COMMONS. 

The op^iing of our Public Playground was a 
great success. The Daily News Band, composed 
of boys, enlivened the occasion by their highly ap- 
preciated volunteer service. The Maypole dance, 
basketball match and other athletic contests great- 
ly delighted the throng of children who crowded 
everj- available foot of space in the yard, and the 
crowd of adults who looked between the pickets 
and over the fence from sidewalks and wagons 



lined up by the curbstone. Alderman Wm. E. 
Dever and Principal Bogan, of the Washington 
School, welcomed the advent of the playground 
right heartily to the ward. But the enthusiasm of 
the whole occasion rose to the highest pitch when 
a banker's gift of a thousand carnations arrived 
on the scene. A mighty cheer arose from the chil- 
dren, as, forgetting everything else, they stormed 
the platform and each one besought a flower. The 
playground is still in need of about $100 for in- 
creased equipment. 

Camp Commons opened on schedule time, June 
16th, and the first contingent of boys has come 
and gone. The pressure for admission is greater 
than our accommodations, preference, of course, 
being given to boys of our clubs. The co-opera- 
tion of the people of Elgin and towns outlying 
that city is greater than ever, especially among the 
churches of all denominations. Catholic and Prot- 
estant. Several of them are giving the Camp its 
dinner on a certain day each week for the season. 

A country cottage for the use of the young 
women of the neighborhood has been secured near 
the lake shore in Winnetka, lU., for the summer. 



The commencement exercises of the Pestalozzi 
Froebel "Kindergarten Training School were held 
on Friday, June 20th. Several songs were sung by 
the members of the school, and addresses were 
given by the Bev. Dr. H. W. Thomas and Miss 
Mary McDowell. The graduating class numbered 
fifteen members. After the exercises there was 
a reception to the friends of the school and an 
exhibition of the handwork of both junior and 
senior classes. The alumuK and members of the 
graduating class were invited to dinner by the 
residents, and a lively dinner it was, with the 
capacity of the large dining room taxed to its 
utmost to provide for the fifty guests. 

The alumnae now number fifty-five at the close 
of the fifth year of the training school. Their 
association came into larger life this year by join- 
ing the International Kindergarten Union, and at 
the enthusiastic meeting held after dinner the 
members pledged themselves to raise money to 
provide the school with a scholarship. 

The happy day closed with a farewell party in 
the kindergarten room. 

Toward the $18,000 appealed for in the last num- 
ber of The Commons to complete the building 
fund and carry the work over the summer $3,500 - 
has been received during the month, leaving $14,- 
500 still to be raised. 



One of the best managed and socially most suc- 
cessful occasions ever held at the Commons build- 
ing was the wedding reception given by the 
Tabernacle church to their pastor, Eev. James 
MuUenbach and his bride, on their return to their 
home next door to the settlement and to their work 
in the loyal parish. 



The Commons 

A Monthlr Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Ijabor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 73 -Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, August, 1903 



Two Poems By Matthew Arnold. 

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 Spitalfields, looked thrice dispirited. 

I met a preacher there I knew, and said, — 
"111 and o'erworked, how farfe you in this scene?" 
"Bravely!" said he; "for I of late have been 
Much cheered 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 1 
Thou mak'st the heaven thou hop'st indeed thy 
home. 

West London. 
Crouched on the pavement, close by Belgrave 

Square, 
A tramp I saw, ill, moody, and tongue-tied; 
A babe was in her arms, and at her side 
A girl ; their clothes were rags, their feet were 

bare. 

Some laboring-men, whose work lay somewhere 

there, 
Passed opposite; she touched her girl, who hied 
Across, and begged, and came back satisfied. 
The rich she had let pass with frozen stare. 

Thought I, "Above her state this spirit towers; 
She will not ask of aliens, but of friends. 
Of sharers in a common human fate. 
She turns from that cold succor, which attends 
The unknown little from the unknowing great. 
And points us to a better time than ours." 



If a man is unable, then, to go down to the root 
of humanity, and has no feeling for it and no 
knowledge of it, he will fail to understand the 
Gospel, and will then try to profane it or else 
complain that it is of no use. — Adolf Harnack. 



Tenement-House Settlement Work. 

The Commons, St. Paul, Minn., Wholly Self- 
Supporting, Unique also in its Methods, 
Introduces Important Questions. 

In describing the work of Settletaents it has 
been considered necessary to dwell upon the day 
nursery, the industrial school, the kindergarten, 
the clubs, the music, the games, the drawing, the 
dancing, the bank, the bath tub, etc., etc. These 
are all good works, but except the features dis- 
tinctively social, or those common to home life, 
are they embraced in the Settlement idea of so- 
cial service? Successful Settlement workers have 
always employed these activities chiefly as ave- 
nues leading to the real Settlement opportunities. 
Are not the clubs, classes, etc., the material, sur- 
face indications that the Settlement is in aetiont 
If the Settlement 'a purpose can be attained with- 
out these externals, if the opportunity which they 
afford for getting into the lives of the people, 
can be opened without them, would it not be 
well to dispense with many of them? If this is 
desirable what method more direct, and equally 
natural, may be employed to reach the hearts of 
the people who need the Settlement? 

A writer in the Charities Eeview some time 
ago drew attention to the fact that the ordi- 
nary tenement liouse furnishes the best possible 
opportunity for Settlement work, and the point 
would appear to be very well made. The idea 
is not that the tenement house is simply a good 
place in which supported workers may establish 
an institutional Settlement, with its complexities 
of clubs and classes. It is well suited for such 
undertakings, but it is also a place where Settle- 
ment work may be done by more direct methods, 
and be wholly self-supporting. No outside finan- 
cial assistance is needed. This merit of the tene- 
ment house may be turned to account in at least 
two ways. One is for not less than two quali- 
fied people, following their regular vocations, to 
take an apartment in the tenement, spending th^ 
evenings and other spare time in neig^borliness in 
the block. There is no chance for failure here. 
The degree of success depends simply upon the 
fitness of the workers. Some of the tenants in 
almost every such building are unconsciously do- 
ing a little work having some correspondence to 
this. Another plan is to lease a large tenement, 



2 



THE COMMONS 



sublet the apartments, live upon the margin of 

profit, and devote the time to Settlement work 
with the tenants. The relation of the worker to 
the people under such circumstances, is wholly 
natural. There is nothing to explain. The idea 
of brotherhood and friendliness is not veiled. 

In the Commons, a Social Settlement in St. 
Paul, Minn., directed by Miss Eleanor Hanson, 
the practicability of this plan is being demon- 
strated. This Settlement has been in successful 
operation six years, and is steadily enlarging its 
field of opportunity. The work is carried on at 
the corner of Jackson and Eighth streets, in a 
locality crowded with saloons and disreputable 
lodging houses. The building used is a four- 
story, steam-heated brick — five stores on the 
ground floor and one hundred apartments above. 
The stores and about ninety-five of the rooms are 
rented, the remainder being used by the family. 
The cost of rooms at the Commons corresponds 
with the amount paid for similar accommodations 
in the neighborhood. Xot to make a living profit 
would defeat the purpose at both ends; the work 
would fail from insutRcient support, and reducetl 
rents would tend to pauperize the tenants. Care 
ie taken to have no crowding in the place. About 
oni^ liundre.l and seventy people live there, and 
for these chiefly tl»e work is carried on. The 
popula'.ioi is made up of laborers, mechanics, 
factory girls, dorks, waiters, milliners, i-llice help, 
and the like. A small dining-room is operated 
and, while it is no necessary part of the plan, 
it is a convenience to some of the lodgers aud 
tends to give the helpful impression that the 
Inhabitants of the building all constitute one fam- 
ily. This unity of feeling in the place is most 
powerful for good. The family, lately moved in, 
who have been in the habit of sending the beer 
pail regularly to the saloon come to feel that 
they are a discordant note in the harmony of 
the house; and men and women whose lives bear 
the stains of darker deeds become sensible again 
of the sweetness and joyfulness and satisfying 
nature of a pure home life. Of course, no ques- 
tions as to character are asked of those applying 
for rooms. The receipts may be set down thus: 
Five stores, $115.00 per month; 95 rooms, about 
one-half of which are furnished, $455.00 a month ; 
yearly rent, $684.00; board, $1,160.00 a year; 
total, $8,000.00. The expenditures: Rent $3,- 
000.00; heat, $1,000.00; light, $750.00; water, 
$100.00; help, $1,100.00; provisions, $1,100.00; 
laundry, $250.00; furnishings, $200.00; repairs, 
$200.00; sundries, $300.00; total, $8,000.00. 

In the beginning the classes and clubs, usual 
in Settlement work, were organized and con- 
ducted with the customary degree of success; but 
later Miss Hanson came to believe that the en- 



ergy necessary to ke^ this machinery running 
could be better employed in touching simply and 
directly without plan the life-springs of char- 
acter. She tried this with highly encouraging re- 
sults. So most of the stated hours for doing 
material things were abolished. Some of them, 
for extraordinary reasons, remain; for example, 
the night school, established years ago, has grown 
so that it must be conducted in different quarters 
of the city, a large force of teachers under Miss 
Hanson's direction, being necessary. While not 
a little of her time is employed in influencing, 
by suggestion and encouragement, the chief 
thought is given to creating and maintaining a 
healthful, enlarging spirit in the house. This 
life in fhe place is its principal developing, up- 
lifting, constructive and reconstructive power. 
It goes without saying that well endowed tenants 
are insensibly drawn into the work. Sociables, 
plays, entertainments, musical recitals and such, 
are still common, but they are brought about by 
the people in the tenement for their pleasure 
and profit. The atmosphere of the house is wholly 
natural, wholesome and easy; the movement 
toward a higher and larger life distinctly visible. 

Of course, the qualifications needed to conduct 
successfully a work of this kind are of an order 
superior to those called for in teaching classes 
in sewing or carpentry, but there can be no 
doubt as to its greater effectiveness. Perhaps 
this introduces the question as to whether or not 
the Settlement is the best place for such neces- 
sary lines of work as industrial training. The 
word Settlement has not been clearly defined, of 
course, and whUe its spirit is recognizable at once, 
yet the personal feeling enters largely into the 
definition. The work at the Commons aims to 
supplement, but not to perform, the work of the 
home, the church, and the common, industrial, 
physical and art schools. 

It would seem as if this view of the Settle- 
ment opportunity simplifies the problem, and 
should lead to an extension of the work, as the 
highest quality of senice can be commanded 
without financial outlay. 



The Value of an Economic Library. 

BY HELEN M4B0T. 

In the spring of 1897, the Free Library of 
Economics and Political Science was opened in 
Philadelphia. It was founded on the idea that 
freely offered opportunities for education in eco- 
nomics and political science make directly for 
a more intelligent public opinion and a higher 
citizenship. 

The four years' struggle of the library was 
partly told in the financial statements in the 
three Annual Reports. It was, however, reeog- 



THECOMMONS 



nized from the time of its inception that an 
independent library, dealing exclusively with pub- 
lic affairs, was probably in advance of a liberal 
financial support for such a purpose. But the 
organizers of the plan trusted that the library 
would serve as an object lesson; that established 
educational institutions would appreciate its im- 
portance, and that the work, if once commenced, 
would be taken in hand and carried on by one 
of the existing organizations. Much to the sat- 
isfaction of the Directors this has recently been 
achieved in the transference of the library to the 
American Academy of Political and Social Sci- 
ence. The full value of the library to Phila- 
delphia will be realized when the Academy re- 
moves its headquarters to the heart of the city, 
as they are now planning to do. The interest 
of those either practically or . theoretically en- 
gaged in social questions will be strengthened 
by the establishment of this center. Under the 
direction of the Academy, the library will be 
developed, and its usefulness extended as it was 
impossible for it to be under the old manage- 
ment. 

The Free Ldbrary of Economics and Political 
Science was opened to meet what was recognized 
as a small but all important demand. It was 
appreciated that the demand came from those who 
were giving their time, publicly and privately, 
in poUtics and out, to advance the welfare of 
the country and to awaken in the people a sense 
of social responsibility. 

Possibly it is true that for some years to 
come the mass of the people will be willing to 
leave affairs of state to the few; but thought:^ul 
persons have given the warning that grave dan- 
gers threaten democracy unless the few increase, 
if not to all the people, then to a number suffi- 
ciently large to instiU life into the whole body. 

It is undoubtedly too true for our national 
weiiare that "yellow journalism" has increased 
and cheap sensationalism is often preferred to 
honest thought. So much more imperative is it 
on this account for us to open the way for the 
few who are searching for accurate statements 
and truthful deductions. There are always with 
us, private citizens whose potential qualities may 
at any time expand into larger social usefulness. 
The apathy of the people is apparent at the 
local elections in our large cities and their ignor- 
ance is perennially in evidence concerning eco- 
nomic issues. 

Educational work along political and economic 
lines is carried forward by colleges, public and 
private lecture courses and by public spirited 
citizens, through clubs, social settlements and 
various organizations contending for some specific 
reform. These different bodies are calling to their 



aid every year, men and women highly trained in 
the work requiring their assistance. 

The value of the library as an adjunct to this 
work is at once apparent. The failure of libraries 
in large cities to take their part and assist, shows 
a strange lack in initiative not consistent with 
the library spirit .of recent years. Libraries in 
small cities are not justified in specializing to any 
great extent except on the ground of demand, 
but this is not the case in the libraries of the 
great cities. The whole population of the country 
looks to these cities to supply the diversified needs, 
not only of their own immediate constituency, 
but of the inhabitants of the surrounding coun- 
try. It is from these great social aggregations, 
where industrial pressure is the keenest and po- 
litical strife most active, that leadership is ex- 
pected in the economic and poUtieal movements 
of the time. 

In every large city there is need of a library, 
which is either a department of one of the large 
public libraries, or a library connected with an 
unpartisan economic or political association, en- 
gaged in educational work. It is peculiarly the 
province of a public library, supported by public 
funds, to contribute towards the education of 
citizens in citizenship. The appropriateness of 
public libraries, giving attention to this material, 
was recognized and urged by the late Dr. Daniel 
G. Brinton. In spite of the fact that his own 
interests were bound up in ethnology, he saw that 
the subject, which dealt with public affairs, 
should take precedence in one of the public li- 
braries in every large city. 

The collection of sociological literature has gen- 
erally been carried further by the college libraries 
than by others, through the demand of the depart- 
ments dealing *ith the subject. But this is 
practically only accessible to professional people, 
and further, these collections, while covering the 
field needed in the courses of study, cannot be 
sufficiently comprehensive to meet the demand of 
general readers, as well as the special students 
of specific conditions or theories outside of the 
university. 

Such libraries as we have in mind should be 
kept fully stocked with the standard works of 
social economics and political science, both in 
theory and history, and should liberally include 
works in philosophy and science of importance to 
the student of these special subjects. If the 
library is a department of a larger library, ref- 
erence to the other departments could often be 
substituted for the books themselves. 

Liberality should also be extended to those vol- 
umes, if worthy, which are of importance only 
for a season. The best of this material, however, 



THE COMMONS 



is to be found in pamphlets of periodical liter- 
ature. 

The accumulation of this ephemeral literature 
as well as of state reports demands the atten- 
tion of some one who has not only a keen interest 
in public affairs, but who has a genius for the 
discovery and collection of material. 

The librarian, when making accessions to his 
library, is assisted in judgment, as a rule, by 
advance notices of a book, reviews and the repu- 
tation of the publishing house. Such assistance 
is generally lacking in the collection of pamph- 
lets. A librarian who is interested in the subject 
matter of his library will know oftener than not 
the reputation of the author of stray pamphlets 
and local societies issuing reports or other liter- 
ature. He will also, when reading a daily paper, 
instinctively discover the incidental allusions to a 
new or stray publication. His continuous meet- 
ing with others interested in the same subjects, 
in or out of the library, will enrich his opportuni- 
ties of discovery. 

Discrimination in the collection of state re- 
ports would be the most perplexing part of the 
work of collection. These reports are issued 
in overwhelming quantities and vary in value 
from statements of fact — which are evolutionary 
in character — to flagrant misstatements issued for 
partisan purposes. A long continued and indis- 
criminate admission of domestic and foreign 
reports would lead to a calamitous abuse of li-. 
brary space. 

un the other hand, the librarian should exercise 
his function of selection in the most generous 
spirit and remember that his judgment is not 
final, and, moreover, that exclusion of literature is 
sometimes more disastrous than overcrowding. 

The expense of expert assistance in the collec- 
tion of the pamphlets and state reports would 
be offset by the small cost of the literature it- 
self In comparison to its intrinsic value. Many 
political and economic associations issue their 
reports and other publications entirely free of 
cost. 

The importance of such literature, carefully 
classified and accessible to the general public, 
cap jot be overestimated. It would furnish val- 

jle statistics and thought for speeches and 
debates and would act, even if the library were 
used only by the few, as a leaven working towards 
a higher social plane. 

The administration of the library should be in 
th« hands of experienced librarians, who are 
trained not only in library methods but the sub- 
ject wfth which the library deals and are alive 
to public interests. 

The personnel of the library staff often makes 
as much difference to a reader, who approaches a 



subject for the first time, as the books themselves. 
Any one who has used a well conducted library, 
which specialized in some one subject, will re- 
member that there was something contagious in 
the atmosphere and, if those in charge did not 
know the subject as well as he, they at least 
knew the literature far better and were able to 
help him to a further knowledge of what he 
wanted as well as to the books and papers. When 
a reader's topic is an inclusive one rather than 
some well defined subject, his painful search 
through a drawer of cards and bibliographical 
lists seldom returns to him the same wealth of 
material that librarians will unearth. The lat- 
ter 's constant experience gives them cues which 
they can adjust to the new demands of readers as 
they come up. 

A catalogue in special libraries is as much 
if not more for the use of the librarian than 
the readers, an opinion in which the latter are 
generally glad to concur. The advantage of 
coming in contact with the readers is no less to 
the librarian, who can in this way broaden his 
knowledge and point of view for the direct benefit 
of the library. 

A library, conducted on these principles and 
dealing with social problems, would in time grow 
into a veritable bureau of information. The bul- 
letin boards would call attention to the literature 
in the library dealing with the issues before the 
people, to recent books, the newly issued reports 
of importance to economic and political thought 
and would keep on file recommended courses of 
reauing for isolated students. 

It can hardly be doubted that the very ex- 
istence of such a library in a large city would 
stimulate interest and promote less biased thought. 
New York City. 



Chicago Theological Seminary 

Opens its 46th year Sept. 24th. Full corps of In- 
structors, Seminary Settlement. AflUiated schools 
in music, woman's work and missions. Diploma 
and B. D. degrees Merit scholarships. Fellowship 
for two years to each class. AddreSs PROF. H. M. 
SCOTT, 520 W. Adams St., Chicajro, 111. 



PCSTALOZZI-FR.OCBEL. 

KindrgaLrten TroLining School at 
Chicago Commons. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes op- 
portunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars, address 

BBRTHA HOFER HBQNER, 363 N*- WlocheaUr Av*. 

Cbldkco 



THE COMMONS 



Chautauqua'8 Social Settlement Week. 

BY JANE E. ROBBINS, M. D. 

Twenty workers from a djr.en Settlements gatli- 
ered together in Chautauqua, New -York, during 
the second week in July, which was largely devoted 
to a Settlement conference. The speakers at the 
meetings were all heads of Settlements, Mr. Tay- 
lor, cf Chicago Commons; Mr. Cadwallader, of 
Goodrich House, Cleveland; Mr. Daniels, of Neigh- 
borhood House, Philadelphia; Miss Holmes, of 
Westminster House, BuflFalo, and Miss Addams, 
of Hull House, Chicago. The audiences were made 
up of people who varied in the amount of their 
information all the way from the workers them- 
selves to men and women like the country doctor, 
who said slowly at the end of a lecture: "I think 
Mr. Cadwallader showed great indiscretion in 
choosing a subject that no one knew anything 
about. I am a well-read man and I have never 
heard of a Settlement." 

The subjects considered were: "Settlement 
Mediation in Politics and Religion," "Relation 
to the Neighborhood and to the City, ' ' and ' ' The 
Personnel and Management. ' ' Mr. Taylor gave 
the address on "Settlement Mediation in Polities 
and Religion." He spoke of the Settlement as a 
unifying force and described the "Pleasant Sun- 
day Afternoon" which is arranged for all and 
where everything that divides is shunned. The 
degree to which a Settlement may engage in or 
co-operate with church work was said to be deter- 
mined by what it is possible for a Settlement to 
undertake in a given community without ceasing to 
be a Settlement. What one Settlement can do in 
one neighborhood is no criterion for judging 
another in a different district. He spoke also 
of the work done in politics in rallying the moral 
forces of the neighborhood in a successful effort 
to break down the corrupt gangs which ruled both 
political parties. 

Mr. Cadwallader said in one of his addresses: 
' ' There are many people in the world with benevo- 
lent impulses who think they have high ideals of 
doing good, of doing things which shall be of use 
in the world (and to a very considerable extent 
that is true), but there is failure in one point — 
they never seem to arrive at such a state of mind 
or heart that they can associate with other men 
and women on the basis that they are men and 
women, and that there are things in every life to 
he respected, that they have ideals of living as 
important for them as any ideals which can be 
created for them. This thing is not so easy to ar- 
rive at. In the Settlement the attempt is made to 
maintain a relationship which shall be natural, 
which, on the other hand, shall not be some sort of 



a looking down, or coming down to somebody's else 
level, or lifting them up to a higher plane, elevat- 
ing them to an ideal that ought to be good for 
them, according to the idea of somebody else. The 
Settlement is an association for getting for both 
sides the best there is for them in the association. ' ' 

Miss Holmes described the different ways in 
which Settlements come into existence. Sometimes 
a group of individuals or a family goes to live in 
a crowded neighborhood and gathers about them 
their friends who have similar aims. And some- 
times the work begins as an organization with a 
formal board of managers. She thought that the 
resident to be desired in the Settlement must be 
public-spirited, adaptable and happy. 

Jfiss Addams gave a number of addresses to 
large audiences. She spoke twice on Tolstoy and 
once on "The New Ideals of Peace." Her ad- 
dress at the regular Settlement conference was on 
' ' Arts and Crafts. ' ' She brought out clearly the 
solace to be found in fine workmanship and the 
importance of having the man in the factory learn 
to use his hands so that he shall give himself some 
pleasure thereby. 

Mr. Daniels gave an illustrated lecture, showing 
pictures of the neighborhood where he has his 
home and describing the simple and natural rela- 
tions of a family to its neighbors. 

The thought most prominently brought out, both 
in the public meetings and in the private confer- 
ences, was the democratic spirit. One speaker 
said : ' ' The ideal person to help in a Settlement 
is one of strong democratic character, with infinite 
faith in human beings, who protests against the di- 
vision of society into classes and who believes that 
the truest, happiest life is the democratic life." 
Some of us certainly noticed with a feeling of re- 
lief that nothing was said about the young investi- 
gators from the classes in sociology, "Those uni- 
versity pests," as a scoffing young working girl 
called them, and we took heart to hope that "the 
social laboratory" has had its day. 

In one of the private meetings a warning note 
was uttered against the danger to the Settlement 
movement of having big buildings and much or- 
ganization. It was pointed out that the adminis- 
tration of a large work takes the time and strength 
that ought to go to "folks," and that it would 
not take long for institutionalism to kill out all 
the good that is in the Settlements. The pre- 
Raphaelitc movement in England and its great in- 
fluence on art was given as an instance of the 
power of ideas freely expressed by individuals 
who were unhampered by organization. 

The Settlement workers enjoyed being together, 
and the conference was said to be one of the most 
successful that Chautauqua has ever known. 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
Labor from the Saciak.1 Settlement Point ef Vlevtr. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR, 



E:dttor. 



Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.* Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Gents 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



We congratulate the Liniversity of Michigan, as 
well as the farming communities of that great 
state, upon the appointment of Mr. Kenyon L. 
Bntterfield, one of the most valued contributors to 
the columns of The Commons, as lecturer on ' ' Ru- 
ral Sociology" in this greatest of our state uni- 
versities. By his scientific knowledge of agricultu- 
ral interests and his wide observation of the social 
aspects of the rural problem, he is exceptionally 
well qualified to serve the state and the whole coun- 
try in this capacity. 



Mr. John Palmer Gavit, the first editor of The 
Commons, to whose self-sacrifice and journalistic 
abiUty the settlements owe the founding of this 
paper in their interests, returns to journalism and 
literary work in Albany, N. Y. His ten years of. 
social service has added to his rare instinct for 
letters such a varied experience and range of ob- 
servation as cannot fail greatly to enhance the 
practical value of his writing and the charm of his 
style. 



The Chautauqua Settlement Conference. 

It added as much interest to the rich program 
at Chautauqua Lake as it rendered a practical 
service to the Settlement cause to have "A Social 
Settlement Week" in this year's assembly season. 
The occasion rallied some of the most experienced 
Settlement workers from Philadelphia, New York, 
Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and other points. The 
program, although not very carefully prearranged 
to secure unity and cumulative effect, was prac- 
tically suggestive and inspiring. Its main features 
are sketched by Dr. Jane Bobbins in another 
colnmn. As is always the case, however strong the 
program may be, the greatest helpfulness came 
from the personal fellowship and informal confer- 
ences which fell in between sessions. These were 
greatly enriched and enlivened by the presence 
and participation of Professor Earl Barnes, who, 
though never a resident, has done much consecutive 
work with the English Settlements, especially at 



Toynbee Hall, Bermondsey and Passmore Edwards 
House. His estimate of the American settlemeuls 
as the "finest expression of America's greatest 
contribution to the world — the democratic spirit, ' ' 
laid upon every one of us who shared the charm of 
the unreserved companionship a new sense of our 
obligation to preserve the simplicity and reality of 
that social democracy which constitutes the very 
soul and power of every Settlement worthy of the 
name. 



A young merchant at the Chautauqua Settle- 
ment conference finely said: "With refinement 
always comes the democratic spirit, which is just 
another name for sympathy." 



Anent the country doctor's remark a long-time 
resident observed: "I am sure he is a scholar 
and a gentleman, and, so tired do I get sometimes 
of being in the public eye that I am just thankful 
that he never heard of us." 



Over sixty young women, who had for years 
attended the Hull House summer school at Rock- 
ford, 111., accompanied Miss Addams to Chautau- 
qua Lake for this season's session. This change 
of base added variety in instruction and travel, 
including a trip to Niagara. 



Ennobling the Sullied American Name. 

The fear of being charged by the foremost of 
our military censors of national morality with 
having "an over-heated conscience" does not 
seem to have deterred President Roosevelt in retir- 
ing from active service the Brigadier-General who 
ordered our soldiers to kill all over ten years old 
and make Samar "a howling wilderness." In so 
doing the President was not inconsiderate of that 
oflicer's "long career distinguished for gallantry, 
and, on the whole, for good conduct such as to 
reflect credit upon the American army." But he 
fully shared the revolt of the nation's heart and 
conscience against those exceptional "instances of 
the use of torture and of improper heartlessness in 
warfare on the part of individuals and small de- 
tachments." For with the full effect of his action 
^ upon party press and politicians before his eyes, he 
did not hesitate publicly to declare what the peo- 
ple have personally felt, that "the shooting of 
the native bearers by the orders of Major Waller 
was an act which sullied the American name." 
What could be done to make lustrous that which 
was thus sullied the President's order has bravely 
and in a manfully American way undertaken to do. 



THE COMMONS 



A Christian Revenge. 

To "revenge" the murder of one of their grad- 
uates at the hand of one of the boy gangs in the 
St. Pancras district, London, the pupils of Millhill 
School have been moved by their head master to 
support one or more of their alumni in residence 
at Passmore Edwards House to work among these 
neglected boys. Already this school sustains boys' 
clubs at Toynbee Hall, whose members are wel- 
comed to share the field sports on the luxurious 
grounds of this select school. 

Wounded unto death, at the hand of a man who 
resented insult to his family, gathered on .the 
doorstep of his home in the neighborhood of Chi- 
cago Commons, a member of the "Trilby Gang" 
lies at the City Hospital. To save these poor 
"gang" boys from the perversion of their nat- 
ural social instincts two things seem necessary — the 
exclusive use of a club-room every evening, and 
the leadership of a " born leader ' ' of boys. Both 
can be secured at the cOst of not more than $50 
per month. Why should not our privileged high 
schools, institutes and academies in Chicago and 
every city take this kind of revenge on the menace 
which neglected boys ever are to the community 
which abandons them to ignorance, idleness and 
brutality? Had Chicago Commons entered upon 
its work sooner, perhaps Chicago might have been 
saved the crimes of a criminal family whose boys 
grew into desperadoes just ahead of our boys' 
clubs. Three of them have for a dozen years 
robbed and assaulted whenever out of prison, and a 
fourth is fast following the examples and actual 
training of parents and brothers. As we write, 
one of them is dead at the morgue, shot through 
the heart by his criminal father while trying to 
beat out his brains with a sledge hammer. 



Chicago Commons. 

Outings Between Showers. 

Despite the "return of the clouds after the 
rain ' ' through two of the three oul-of-door months, 
our outings have succeeded, however often their 
scheduled dates have been drowned out. The play- 
ground floats above all floods. Its swings weather 
every gale. Even Camp Commons at Elgin, though 
most of the time more of an aquarium than the 
sunny meadow by day and the camp-fire circle by 
night, has not dampened the boys' spirits down 
into ' ' the blues ' ' or the depths of home-sickness. 
Old Sol begins to shine a little more invitingly 
upon the coming of the girls for their month at 
camp. The Winnetka country cottage for the 
young women fulfills its purpose of supplying a 
happy, healthful place in which their smaller 



groups spend the well-earned and all too brief 
vacations. By the persistent kindness of some 
of our suburban friends and by the grace of an 
occasional sunny day we have had some of the 
largest and most thoroughly well enjoyed day pic- 
nics we have ever had. Of the day at Biver 
Forest one of the guests of the Woman 's Club de- 
clared, "It was the happiest day of all my many 
years in America." The Noyes Street Mothers' 
Club of Evanston had their fears of too small an 
attendance pleasantly disappointed by having 350 
mothers and children to entertain, only a hundred 
more than they really expected. "Very manifold 
and sweet are the summer reciprocities which grow 
in number and deepen with the years of Settlement 
co-operation. None are more satisfactory than those 
which are growing between the good people of 
Elgin and the boys and girls of Camp Commons. 
The churches of several denominations, Protestant 
and Catholic alike, vie with each other in providing 
dinners, entertainments and financial support for 
the camp. It is hard to tell whether UniversaUsts 
or Presbyterians, Congregationalists or Eoman 
Catholics are most interested. The good priest of 
St. Mary's has shown us the hospitality of his 
home and parish by inviting the resident in charge 
of the camp to dine and address the women of his 
church, who take their turn in supplying camp 
dinners. He also sent a carry-all out to bring all 
the boys into his church service one Sunday, and 
then left with them money enough to buy base 
balls and bats, besides more for camp expenses. 
Several Protestant pastors have taken like initia- 
tives, wliile the people of all faiths have happily 
fraternized in serving "these least." 



The public playground opposite Chicago Com- 
mons, on the corner of Morgan and Grand avenue, 
was opened most auspiciously in June. While 
much smaller than the requirements of the neigh- 
borhood, every inch of ground is made to do duty. 
The playground is open during vacation from 9 
to 12 o'clock in the morning, from 2 to 5:30 in 
the afternoon, and from 7 to 9 in the evening, with 
a resident from the Settlement always in charge. 
Like a swarm of bees, the children buzz around 
the gate waiting for the gates to open, and not 
a few in their eagerness surreptitiously climb the 
fence. Four large swings, three see-saws, a turn- 
ing pole and two sand piles are in constant use, 
while games of different kinds are carried on by 
small groups. Story-telling is most fascinating 
for ihe children, and the resident who is an ac- 
complished story-teller stands high in their estima- 
tion. Occasionally the children themselves take a 
hand in story-teliing, and most strange and extrav- 
agant are their descriptions of people and things. 



THE COMMONS 



It is impossible to estimate the advantages to 
the children. An active child, be he rich or 
poor, with nothing legitimate to occupy him, 
is bound to find Something to do and the 
"find" generally ends in trouble and mischief. 
The resident in charge hsis his or her hands full 
in seeing that the use of swings is equally divided, 
to look after the ' ' teeters, ' ' sand piles and various 
games, to check rude language and selfishness, but 
each and all as they take their turn are most en- 
thusiastic over the work accomplished. 

On Fourth of July evening the neighborhood 
Italian band played in liveliest fashion, fireworks 
of various kinds from the pinwheel to the gorgeous 
burst of roman candles and rockets were set off 
and thoroughly enjoyed by parents and children, 
who crowded the playground and surrounding side- 
walks. The playground is a great success and 
should be made permanent by private if not by 
public funds. 



Starr Centre Coal Club. 

BY PHILIP B. WHELPLEY. 

Since colonial times, when the New England 
fishermen worked on the share system, experiments 
in the co-operative principle in this country have 
had their ups and downs, and have faithfully 
registered the rise and fall of national prosperity. 
Co-operative societies, large and small, provided 
they are conducted honestly and in a business-like 
way, promote thrift and many strong moral virtues. 
The complete success of well-managed co-operative 
clubs is the best recommendation that could be 
put forward. 

In the Seventh Ward in Philadelphia, where 
there are 9,000 colored people huddled together, 
there is a co-operative coal club that has been re- 
markably successful and is having a good moral 
and educational influence on the community. This 
club started eight years ago, has progressed slowly, 
but has gone far. It issued from the efforts of 
one person and has now become thoroughly 
naturalized in the neighborhood. It was started 
and is now a branch of the work carried on by 
the Starr Center and is known as the Starr Center 
Coal Club. 

The club is fortunate in having for a manager a 
lady who volunteers her services and throws herself 
into the work with enthusiasm, sustained and 
strengthened by rare patience. 

The members of the coal club, numbering now 
above six hundred, are all colored. It had been 
the custom of most of them to buy their coal by 
the pail or bucket, paying at the rate of seven or 
eight dollars per ton and by the installment plan 



$6.50 or more when the retail price was $5.50. 
One great 6bject of the coal club was to break up 
this habit of buying by the bucket. Then there 
is a social side which is, of course, of inestimable 
value, and a moral value which lies in the teaching 
of these people to save, thus helping them to a 
self-respecting independence. 

The coal is bought at the mines at market 
prices, stored in the bins of a large company in 
Philadelphia, and delivered as desired. One great 
benefit to the members is the certainty of correct 
meaeure and good quality. The coal is sold in ton, 
half -ton and quarter-ton loads. Two members may 
i>rder two barrels (one-quarter of a ton) ^together, 
which may mean a saving of fifty cents on the 
same amount bought by the bucket. The annual 
fee is ten cents for each member. There is a small 
profit on the sale of the coal, which is used by 
the club for the necessary expenses of oflSce 
serv-ice, printing, and social meetings, and any 
residue is used in such a way as seems to the 
greatest advantage to the members. 

The club has a corps of visitors, whose object is 
not only to collect payments, but to establish 
friendly relations with the family and exert a 
helpful influence. Members are encouraged to 
make their deposits at the Starr Center office, 
which is open every day from nine to five. Month- 
ly meetings form another important social feature, 
tlordial relations are established between people 
of diiferent creeds, neighborhoods, and walks of 
life. Coal is not the only topic discussed, and 
music and lectures add to the interest. 

In brief, the coal club is a trust of labor, thrift, 
and mutual confidence, and its members grow more 
and more unselfish and their respect and affection 
for their neighbors increases as the co-operative 
principle crystalizes in their own minds. It should 
be remembered that the success of a club of this 
kind depends entirely upon the character and 
ability of the manager, who must give it a constant 
stimulus. 

A few figures from the annual report : 
Number of visits paid, per week, about . . 250 

Number of members 612 

Tons of coal sold 1,095.12 

Number of orders filled 1,628 

Money received for coal $5,447.25 

Price by bucket — 

Stove or chestnut (8 cts.) 6,432.00 

Pea (5 ets.) 1,455.00 

$7,887.00 
Price by the quantity 5,447.25 

Saved over bucket price $2,439.75 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Mrs. Helen Rand Thayer, 

•Portsmouth, N. H. 
Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, Marion, 

Mass. 
Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 

City. 
Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribnee (Mrs. 

Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43d St., New 

York City. 

settlements. 

New York City — 95 Eivington Street. 
, Philadelphia — 133 Christian Street. 

Boston — 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association bt 

Caroline Williamson Montgomket, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The change of officers in the C. S. A. cannot be 
noted without a feeling of deep regret at the 
withdrawal of the secretary, Miss Mabel Gair 
I'urtis, who has served the association with un- 
tiring devction, energy and zeal and has brought 
both executive ability and a spirit of high en- 
deavor to her work. The amount of time and 
strength which her position has entailed are known 
only to those who have had similar positions. It 
is a pleasure to welcome back to the position of 
vice-president one of the earliest workers, Mrs. 
Helen Eand Thayer. The new secretary, Miss 
Tomkins, has held the position of Wellesley under- 
graduate elector for two years and is therefore 
not unacquainted with some of the work of the 
association. 



A successful scheme op work for a c. s. a. 

CHAPTER. 

It has seemed to the editor of this division of 
The Commons that a description of methods em- 
ployed by a successful chapter of the C. S. A. 
might be helpful not alone to chapters whose fol- 
lowing is less large, but to all who have the dif- 
ficult task of raising money in small amounts for 
Settlement expenses. The following scheme of 
work and an appeal which has done valiant service 
are accordingly given below: 

' ' October 30, 1900. 

"Mt Dear : The College Settlements 

Association enters this year upon its second decade 
of life. It was founded in the earnest desire to 
share with the unprivileged throngs of our great 



cities our very best — not only our possessions but 
ourselves— in the name of Christ and of the de- 
mocracy. We feel that the depth and value of this 
initial impulse is fully proved, for Settlements have 
spread over all parts of America in these brief ten 
years, and are, moreover, exerting a vital influence 
over many other forms of social work. 

"It is surely not too much to hope that in the 
ten years before us the College Settlements Asso- 
ciation may largely increase its resources. The 
Settlement movement is the only one which the 
women's colleges have initiated; it represents to 
the public in definite form the social faith and 
activity of college women. Marvelous has been 
the growth in numbers and prosperity of the col- 
leges for women during the last quarter of a cen- 
tury ; shame on us if membership in the Settlements 
Association should remain stationary, or as has 
been the case of late years, should crawl slowly 
upward by fives and tens, while the collegiate 
alumnse increase yearly by hundreds. 

' ' Wellesley has 1,860 alumnae ; only 454 alumna; 
and former students belong to the College Settle- 
ments Association. May not the number within 
the next year be doubled? The college thrives and 
increases; in desolate neighborhoods, devoid of 
light and beauty, thronged by the hard-toiling 
hosts who perform the manual labor by which we 
live, are the three small houses, supported, par- 
tially only, by our association. Opportunities 
press upon them from every side. Theirs it may 
be to bring to these crowded workers some knowl- 
edge of the household arts possible even in pov- 
erty; something of the rich inheritance of beauty 
and wisdom in which we rejoice; many of the 
richer gifts of simple personal friendship and 
service. These Settlements need more space, more 
equipment, more workers. New regions call us 
also ; for every city in America has more than one 
wilderness of poor and neglected folk who would 
be glad in our coming. Can we not give our 
money, if we cannot give ourselves, to hasten the 
day when these great wildernesi^es of modern life 
shall become fit for human habitation? 

' ' Full membership in the College Settlements 
Association costs five dollars a year. Partial mem- 
bership of a dollar and upwards is possible in the 
alumna; as in the undergraduate chapters. 

"ViDA D. SCUDDEB. " 



the way at wellesley. 
The inventor of a novel and effective way of 
presenting his begging-bowl to the benevolent pub- 
lie should be hailed as a mendicant sage indeed. 
The Wellesley Alumnffi Chapter, however, can claim 
no such proud distinction; it employs the time- 



10 



THE COMMONS 



worn methods of eliciting interest and support. 

The chapter has two officers elected in alternate 
years for a term of two years; a secretary and 
treasurer, who collects all dues and sends out bal- 
lots and notices, and an elector, who appoints the 
vice-electors, one for each class and one for each 
Wellesley club. Upon the zeal and judgment of 
these vice-electors depends the efficiency of the 
chapter. 

The work of a class vice-elector is carried on by 
mail. She sends a personal letter to every mem- 
ber of her class, accompanied by a printed leaflet, 
if available. Such a canvass requires months to 
complete; but the personal word yields far better 
results than the most carefully prepared circular 
letter. A class needs such a stirring up once in 
five years. In the meantime, the vice-elector as- 
sists the treasurer by dunning those members of 
her class who are behind with their subscriptions, 
and is constantly on the lookout for possible non- 
collegiate subscribers and for opportunities to es- 
tablish sub-chapters in preparatory schools and 
women's clubs in which Wellesley graduates are 
influential. In order to better systematize the 
work, each class vice-elector is now preparing a 
card-catalogue of all members of her class, grad- 
uate and non-graduate, giving the name, address, 
date when last written to, date of reply, attitude 
toward the C. S. A., and, if a subscriber, date and 
amount of last payment. This record can be re- 
vised from time to time, thus giving tne vice-elector 
and her successor all information as to the status 
of the work in her class, and, possibly, furnishing 
a basis for statistics. 

A club vlce-eleetor, having her victims within 
ear-shot, usually arranges for an address in behalf 
of the Settlements, which she follows up by verbal 
interviews and personal notes. When appropria- 
tions are made from the club treasury, she urges 
the claims of the C. S. A. 

The propaganda is further carried on by a pub- 
lic meeting held at Wellesley every June, which is, 
unfortunately, but slimly attended amidst the dis- 
tractions of commencement week; by reports from 
the College Settlements printed in the Wellesley 
Magazine; by seizing chances to advertise the C. 
S. A., such as the displaying of a poster and the 
distribution of reports at the Wellesley headquar- 
ters in Buffalo during the Exposition, or a toast 
at a Wellesley luncheon. 

Thus far in its experience the chapter has found 
two ideas most useful in maintaining its member- 
ship; friendliness and informality in appeal; and 
promptness and perseverance in reminding delin- 
quents of unpaid dues. It has found its greatest 
consolation for the loss of members in the knowl- 
edge that many who withdraw from the C. S. A. 



( do so only to apply all their energies to some Set- 
tlement or similar work at their own doors. The 
greatest service of the C. S. A. is not in maintain- 
ing three Settlements, but in inspiring the whole 

! body of college women with the Settlement ideals 
of democracy and service. 

j Emily Budd Shultz, 

i Wellesley Alumnae Elector. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 

WOEKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited for the Association by 
Maky Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



At the June meeting of the Neighborhood Work- 
ers ' Association the following officers were elected: 
For president, J. L. Eliot; vice-president, Mrs. V. 
G. Simkhovitch; treasurer. Cerise E. A. Carmen; 
secretary, Antoinette Parry. 



New York Playgrrounds. 

As a result of having the equipment of the Out- 
door Becreation League handed over to it, the city 
has decided to run playgrounds in two of the 
small parks this summer, in addition to the fifty- 
four Board of Education Playgrounds, which will 
be run for six weeks in connection with the general 
vacation school work. 

The two undertaken by the Department of Pub- 
Jic Parks will be one in Hamilton Fish Park and 
one in the DeWitt Clinton Park. Conunissioner 
Wilcox, who failed in his effort to secure appro- 
priations for the proper equipment of playgrounds, 
is now arranging with the Board of Education to 
have the two playgrounds mentioned managed by 
that board until such time as he can get from 
the Civil Service Commission a list of qualified 
persons to serve as gymnasts, kindergartners and 
caretakers for the Park Department. 

The Outdoor Becreation League is maintaining a 
small playground on Sixty-eighth street on private 
grounds. The city administration is much inter- 
ested in the playground movement and hopes by 
next season to accomplish more in this direction. 



Public Baths in New York City. 

During the past winter there has been much 
discussion of the marked extension of the system 
of public baths in New York City. The New York 
Association for Improving the Condition of the 
Poor, which has successfully maintained a public 
bath at Center Market place for eleven years, has 
made a careful report to the president of the 



THE COMMONS 



11 



borough of Manhattan with regard to the plans 
of construction of baths, the cost of maintenance 
and the .desirable locations. The association recom- 
mends a system of seventeen municipal public 
baths for the borough of Manhattan, to include 
the one already existing in Rivington street. Care- 
ful plans are submitted showing the capacity of 
the baths suggested as compared with those now 
existing in New York and in other cities, and the 
estimated cost of the sites, buildings and main- 
tenance is given. 

There are at present in Manhattan six public 
baths, open the year round, one' belonging to the 
city and five operated by various societies. The 
city has also fifteen river swimming baths, open 
only in the summer, but the Board of Health op- 
poses an increase in river baths, owing to the 
pollution of the river water, and has condemned 
baths on the rivers formerly used as unsanitary, so 
that only six floating baths are now in operation. 

On February 25th Mr. Cantor presented a 
scheme for public baths along the lines of the 
report of the Association for Improving the Con- 
•dition of the Poor, and as a result the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment voted $450,000 for 
the purchase of sites and the erection of five all- 
year-round baths, three in Manhattan and two in 
Brooklyn. Those in Manhattan will be located 
as follows: One in One Hundred and Ninth street, 
near Second avenue; one in Forty-first street, near 
Ninth avenue, and one in the lower East Side, the 
site as yet not definitely settled. In addition to 
these baths to be erected by the city, Mrs. A. A. 
Anderson has just announced her intention of 
building a large public bath on Thirty-eighth 
street, between First and Second avenues, which is 
to be presented to and managed by the Association 
for Impro\-ing the Condition of the Poor. This 
bath is expected to cost $100,000 for land and 
buildings. 

In the report of the Association for Improving 
the Condition of the Poor, it is suggested that if 
the city deems it unwise to build the sixteen con- 
templated baths all at once, it should build three 
each year in Manhattan until the number is com- 
pleted. It is to be hoped that the city's decision 
to build three this year means the acceptance of 
the suggestion and that the remaining twelve 
needed, according to the report, will be built 
within four or five vears. 



A New Cooperative Settlement. 

The Co-operative Social Settlement Society of 
tlie city of New York has just been incorporated. 
The purposes of the society are stated in the char- 
tor as follows: 



' ' The particular objects for which the corpora- 
tioD is to be formed are the establishment and 
maintenance of a Social Settlement, or Social Set- 
tlements, in the city of New York, as centers for 
social, educational and civic improvement, to be 
carried on in conjunction and association with the 
people residing in the neighborhoods where such 
Settlement or Settlements may be situated." 

The corporators of the society are: Felix Adler, 
E. Fulton Cutting, Eugene A. Philbin, Henry C. 
Potter, Jacob A. Biis, Carl Schurz, and Mary 
Kingsbury Simkhovitch. 

The Board of Managers until the annual meet- 
ing in January, 1903, consists of: W. Franklin 
Brush, Edward T. Devine, Rowland G. Freeman, 
Meredith Hare, Elsie Clews Parsons, Edwin R. A. 
Seligman, and Frieda S. Warburg, together with 
the residents of the Settlement, ex-officio, viz.: 
Louise C. Egbert, Paul Kennaday, Annie Anthony 
Noyes, Carol S. Nye, Anne O'Hagan, William 
Potts, Mary Sherman, Mary Kingsbury Sim- 
khovitch, and Vladimir G. Simkhovitch. 



The settlement, which will be under the personal 
direction of Mrs. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 
will be located on the lower West Side, in the old 
Greenwich village. 

It is estimated that the cost of rent of settle- 
ment house and club rooms, fitting up, maintenance 
of kindergarten, mapual training and domestic 
science work, compensation of those under salary 
or wages, and incidental expenses for the first year, 
may be brought within the sum of $8,000. The 
residents provide for their own board and attend- 
ance. 

The new feature in this Settlement to be noted 
is the participation by the residents (the term 
resident being carefully defined in the constitution) 
in the management of all the affairs of the settle- 
ment. 



Investments in Social Halls.* 

The Social Halls Association of New York has 
just acquired property on Clinton street, between 
Grand and Broome, and is preparing plans for its 
building, which is to contain restaurant, assembly 
and meeting rooms, bowling alley, billard room and 
roof garden. The company was organized for the 
purpose of supplying the crowded tenement dis- 
tricts of New York with a building which should 
be available for all kinds of meetings and enter- 
tainments. Heretofore the people living on the 
lower East Side have been compelled to make use 
01 the halls adjoining saloons for the lack of 
anything better, and demoralizing results have 
naturally followed. 



THE COMMONS 



Although prompted by the desire to benefit the 
neighborhood, the association has been organized 
on strictly business principles, with the idea that 
it was entirely possible to combine philanthropy 
and three or four per cent. A stock company has 
been incorporated with fifteen hundred shares of 
one hundred dollars each, and it is the hope of the 
directors that a moderate rate cf interest may be 
paid on the investment. 

Being content with a much smaller return than 
purely business enterprises are expected to yield, 
it will be enabled to give double or treble the 
accommodation, facility and comfort. The people 
who avail themselves of the benefits offered will 
be patrons and not patronized and will therefore 
enjoy a sense of freedom and independence which 
would be impossible in a philanthropic institution. 

The building is to be composed of five stories 
and basement. In the basement, besides the neces- 
sary kitchens and store rooms, there will be bowl- 
ing alleys, billiard rooms and baths. The main 
floor, on a level with the street, contains two 
restaurants, a cafe for men with a lunch counter 
at one end and a restaurant for non-smokers. 
These rooms are to be made as attractive as possi- 
ble, and good, wholesome and daintily prepared 
meals are to be served at prices within the reach 
of the very poor. 

The second floor will be entirely given over to a 
large hall, accommodating over five hundred peo- 
ple, which may be rented for concerts, lectures, 
weddings, balls, religious services, etc. 

The remaining three floors are devoted to meet- 
ing rooms of various sizes, which it is expected 
will be rented every evening for different local 
organizations — lodges, boys' and girls' clubs, etc. 
The demand for these rooms has recently been 
demonstrated by the many inquiries which have 
come to the directors as to how soon the building 
will be ready for use. According to the present 
outlook the building will be opened about May 1,^ 
1903, and it is hoped that all promises and ex- 
pectations may be amply fulfilled. 

Sara Stbaus. 



Mayor Jones' Illness and Recovery. 

The illness of Mayor Samuel M. Jones, of To- 
ledo, has alarmed, not without cause, many friends 
who have been shocked by his changed appearance. 
Their solicitude has called forth from his great 
big heart one of those uniquely confidential and 
child-like statements to the public which are as 
characteristically natural to him as they are im- 
possible to others. It concludes thus: 

"I am going out into the country to take 
physical culture and plain work, such as my father 



took and such as the farmers and laborers of to- 
day are taking, and plain living, and I trust in a 
few weeks I shall be able to present to my lo^^ng 
friends a physical appearance that will calm their 
fears, for I know that seeing is believing. In all 
of this I have acted according to the highest im- 
pulse of my conscience. In everything I have 
done the very best 1 knew. Belonging to no school, 
I am open and ready to receive any ne^^ truth. In 
short, with regard to health, I stand on the same 
ground as I do in politics — I am a man without 
a party, free to choose the best, as it shall ap- 
pear to me. Lovrngly, 

' ' Samuel M. Jones, Mayor. 

"Toledo, O., July 8, 190:i." 

We take the liberty of sharing with the many 
friends of Mayor Jones among our readers the 
words of good cheer from a letter .iust received: 
' ' After fifteen days in the Wilderness I rejoice 
in new life. Life! I have found it 'more abund- 
.intly. ' I am nearer life, physical and spiritual, 
to-day than I have ever been before. The road, 
all roads, leading to it are labelled— Simplicity. " 



She New Fourth Edition of College. Soci&I 
and University Settlements BibliotfraLphy. 

Compiled by Caroline Williamson Montgomery. 
For the College Settlement Association, with much 
new maMcial, Now ready. Order through Th« 
CoMMO--^ "" —  ?«^"ts per copy. 



Democracy & Social Ethics 

BY JANE A.DOA.MS, 

Head of Hull House. 

12 Mo. Half Leather - - $1.25 

9IAOIILLAK C09IPAKV. 

Order through the Commons. 

HAND SEWING LESSONS. 

A graded course in a popular method, arranged 
by experienced teachers. Printed directions ex- 
plicit, with over one hundred illustrations of 
models oi work, hands in position, lace and fancy 
stitches, containing also a set of blank leaves 
for models. 

This pupil's text book and teacher's guide is 
recommended by foremost teachers. Do you or 
your friends need it for school or homef Price, 
cloth-bound, 35 cents; by mail, 40 cents. 

Order of The Thomas Training And Xormal 
School, 3.52 Woodward avenue, Detroit, Mich. 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Kecoril Devoted to Aspects of I^lfe and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 74 -Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, September, 190a 



The Tramp Problem and Municipal 
Correction. 

RAYMOND ROBINS. 

SUPERINTENDENT CHICAGO MUNICIPAL LODGING 

HOUSE. 

For some thousands of years the vagrant and 
the body politic have been at war. This class of 
human parasites has a vefy ancient history, and 



reetive legislation seeking to compel the able- 
bodied vagabond to industry is an interesting 
chapter in legSFl lore. The aflBrmative clause of 
the fourth commandment has found expression in 
countless statutes prescribing penalties against this 
class. The court of Areopagus in Athens punished 
idleness, and a provision of the Civil Law expelled 
all sturdy vagrants from the Eternal City. A 
statute of King George the II. gravely classifies 




the "Independent Order of the Never-sweats " 
is older than the pyramids. The vagabond has 
mention in the psalms of David, and a grave 
maxim of Confucius sets forth most wisely his 
burdensome relation to the commonweal. Cor- 



the genus Hobo into three particular species, and 
sets a special penalty for each degree in vagrancy. 
In common with all penal legislation of earlier 
times, these statutes have been punitive rather 
tnan reformatory. The Solons cf the past, intent 



THE COMMONS 



upou pTi n ishing results, inquired little into causes. 
The day has been in merrr England when to 
be an able-bodied vagrant was punishable with 
death. Of Britain in these good old times it has 
been said that "the hangman was her Minister 
of Justice, and the gallows the symbol of her 
dyilization. " But from the vagrancy provisions 
of the Xew York Code, back through the English 
poor laws to the Statute of Laborers is a far cry. 
The evolution of vagrancy correction witnesses a 
marvelous amelioration. Two opinions have di- 
vided the thought and inspired the legislation of 
the world upon the subject of " vagabondia. " 
One has held that all homeless beggars are vicious 
and unworthy — incipient if not hardened crim- 
inals. The other has regarded the tramp as a 
helpless victim of unjust industrial and social 
conditions — an inevitable product of the times. 
The one has prescribed whipping posts, rock plies 
and workhouses, the other indiscriminate charity 
and free soup. The one has looked for deliver- 
ance by the rigfid enforcement of barbarous stat- 
utes, the other has expected a solution in indus- 
trial and political revolution. The debate still 
goes on, but tJie hangman has given place to 
the sociologist, and the gallows to the municipal 
lodging house. There has been such an institu- 
tion in 'Huddersfield, England, since 1853. New 
York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Providence, 
and Springfield, Mass., among American cities, 
have adopted this advanced method for dealing 
with the tramp problem. Some of these cities • 
have had a municipal lodging house for eight 
years, and in all instances the results have been 
most satisfactory. 

BEGIKNIKG OP MUNICIPAL LODGINGS IN CHICAGO. 

The how of this reform in our Chicago was 
thiswise. Some two years ago a company of 
public-spirited men and women formed the City 
Homes 4^sociation, for the purpose, as the record 
runs, "of improving the physical conditions of 
life in the more thickly settled districts of Chi- 
cago." Standing committees were organized upon 
"Tenements, Small Parks and Playgrounds, Laws 
and Ordinances, Investigation, and Publication." 
The original membership of the Executive Com- 
mittee was a galaxy of illustrious citizens. Mrs. 
Emmons Blaine was elected Chairman, and Cyrus 
Bentley, Esq., Secretary. Miss Jane Addams, Mrs. 
Cyrus H. McCormicK and Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, 
with Messrs, Nelson P. Bigelow, Edward B. Butler, 
Chas. L. Hutchinson, George E. Vincent, Leslie 
Carter, and Chester M. Dawes made np its per- 
sonneL 

Immediately things began to happen. A thor- 
ough investigation of the tenement conditions of 
Chicago was undertaken, diligently prosecuted and 
finished within a year. The data carefully com- 



piled and strikingly illustrated were published, and 
this report is recognized as a permanent contribu- 
tion to the literature of "housing." An ordi- 
nance based upon the findings and recommenda- 
tions of this report is now pending in the Chicago 
City Council. In the meantime the Association 
helped through the legislature a bill providing 
for Small Parks and Kecreation Grounds in the 
crowded areas of Chicago. The labors of the 
Small Parks Commission of the City ConncU in 
selecting sites, were greatly facilitated by the 
investigations and counsel of the specialists of 
the City Homes Association. 

INVESTIGATION BY THE CITY HOUES ASSOCIATION. 

The problem of vagrancy came up for considera- 
tion when the Lodging House Committee began 
its investigations. Mr. Edward B. Butler visited 
the municipal lodging houses in New York and 
Boston, and his printed report contained the 
suggestive statement tjiat "in 1899 Chicago 
housed in her police stations 160,000 people, while 
New York cared for only 80,000 in her municipal 
lodging house." This report also embodied a de- 
tailed schedule of initial cost and operating ex- 
penses. The subject was brought to the attention 
of Mayor Harrison, and a hearing before the 
finance committee of the City Council was granted. 
Largely through the friendly interest of the Mayor 
an agreement was reached whereby the City 
Homes Association was required to lease a suitable 
building for six months and properly equip it 
for lodging house purposes, while the city agreed 
to conduct the administration and provide the 
running expenses. The selection of the superin- 
tendent was left with the City Homes Association 
subject to the ratification of the mayor. Mrs. 
Emmons Blaine took up the matter of finance, and 
by personal solicitation and contribution soon se- 
cured the necessary funds, and a vacant factory 
buiivung centrally located was leased and equipped 
to house, bathe and feed 200 men a night. The 
police stations were closed to vagrants, and the 
— amcipal Lodging House opened its doors on the 
evening of the 21st of December, 1901. 

MUNICIPAIj LODGING HOUSE IN ACTION. 

Every evening at 12 South Jefferson Street for 
the past eight months from 10 to 140 hungry 
and homeless men have Stood up for registration. 
The police oflScer in charge separates this group 
into two lines, "first nighters" and those pre- 
viously sheltered. As the newcomer steps np to 
the desk the lustration oflicer, with a pile of 
blank cards before him, begins his questioning. 

KEGISTEATION AND SUPPER. 

Name and age, place of birth, length of resi- 
dence in the state and city, occupation, with the 
names and addresses of his last three employers, 
and when and how long he worked for each — all 



THE COMMONS 



this and more goes down in black upon the white. 
The man is given two duplicate numbered checks, 
and then begins his ascent toward supper, a bath 
and bed. Kntering the first room upon the second 
floor aod sitting down upon a wooden bench be- 
fore a plain board table, our lodger receives his 
one-third loaf of fresh bread and pint of hot 
coffee. This dispatched, he is ushered into a 
large room supplied with benches, and directed 
b}- the attendant to the dispensing window of the 
sack room, he gets a large meshed clothes sack 



be poorly done through laziness, repugnance, or 
unfamiliarity with the task, the officer in charge 
returns him willy nilly, and should the lodger 
seem unequal to the labor a husky attendant does 
him to a turn, and ho comes forth, if not as beau- 
tiful as the lily, surely with a not unpleasant 
shining, and if cleanliness be next to godliness, 
then much nearer the Almighty than he has been 
for many days. 

MEDICAL EXAMINATION. 

Putting on a pair of carpet slippers, and ar- 




and fastens upon it one of his duplicate checks. 
Every rag of clothing, hat and shoes, and all the 
contents of his pockets are put into this sack. 
The draw string pulled and tied, this bag of 
dead and living matter is i.ikin to the fumi^tin^ 
room and subjected for souie eight hours to the 
fierce destroying fumes of ten pounds of rolled 
brimstone sulphur, burning out all life within its 
walls. 

COMPULSORT BATH. 

Next in order is the bath. This is administered 
in an open, well-lighted room, 18x24 feet, contain- 
ing eight hot and cold water showers, strong soap, 
brushes and towels without stint. Should this job 



rayed in that informal fashion which prevailed in 
Eden before the fall, he presents himself to the 
skilled and keen discernment of the examining 
physician. This disciple of Galen having found 
the facts of the lodger's physical condition, writes 
them upon the same record card that holds his 
story given at the desk below. He is now re- 
corded beyond the possible success of "fake" ex- 
cuses in an attempt to evade his reasonable stint 
of labor on the morrow. The physical examination 
finished, our lodger dons a clean night robe, and, 
going up another flight of stairs, finds himself in 
a large dormitory. There are two sleeping rooms, 
each containing 100 single enameled iron beds, 



THE COMMONS 



supplied with a spring mattress, blankets, sheets 
and pillow. Here he is met by an attendant, who 
takes him to a bed of corresponding number with 
his check, and our lodger enters into silence — and 
perhaps a dreamland musing over better days. 

At half past five o'clock each morning all the 
men are called, and, coming down to the dressing 
room, each gets his sack of clothes, and after a 
breakfast of the same quality and proportion as 
the supper of the night before, our lodger, with 



envy, flow like a troubled river for an hour and 
a half. All the evils in Pandora's box have here 
a victim, and every vice a votary, but John Barley- 
corn is easily the greatest potentate among them 
all. 

Nevertheless, with the handicap of th*e record 
card containing last night s story in black and 
white against him, the only way of safety for the 
iodger is to tell the truth. In making Ms excuse, 
if the tale sounds "fishy" he is put through 




his fellow sojourners for the night, is sent to the 
ofSce for distribution. 

When all the men have filed in, the superin- 
tendent calls attention to the rules of three hours' 
labor on the city's streets for all able-bodied men, 
and then explains that the city's interest is in 
having her citizens engaged in honest, independent 
work, and if they have a fair chance for remunera- 
tive employment for that day, and can tell a 
straight story, they will be excused from street 
work and sent at once upon their way to industry. 

Now begins the rarest chapter in all the book. 
Hard luck experiences, stories of dissipation, dis- 
ease, accident, industrial displacement, and fairy 
talcR that would turn Hans Andersen green with 



the same questioning as on the night before, and 
on the principle that if he lied then he probably 
lies now, if ho varies from his original story he 
is promptly brought to book, and checked into the 
street gang for three hours' labor with a hoe. 

DISTRIBUTION. 

As the eases are disposed of, three main classes 
of the able bodied are formed: 

First — Those who have secured employment for 
themselves, and can return that day into the ranks 
of industry. 

Second — Those who have worked, and worked 
well, upon the streets the previous day, and, their 
references having been investigated and found 
good, are to be sent to those firms and corpora- 



THE COMMONS 



tions that employ worthy men from the Municipal 
Lodging House. If there is no employment re- 
^ ported for that day, these men are given the 
entire day to seek for work. 

Third — "First-nighters" and others whose 
record is not satisfactory', and who must work 
upon the streets if they lodge at the city's charge. 

The first class go at once, taking a card to be 
signed by their employer or foreman, and which 
is returned by mail or otherwise to the Municipal 
Lodging House. 

The second class are sent to those public-spirited 
firms and corporations that, seeing the value of 
the work of the Municipal Lodging House, give 
it the substantial co-operation of employing the 
worthy lodgers whenever they have vacancies. 

The third class are taken in charge by a fore- 
man of the City Street Department, and under 
the supenision of an ofiScer of police, are re- 
quired to work three hours upon the city streets. 
Each of these men is given a card, and when his 
stint of work is finished the foreman writes a 
record of the quality of the lodger's labor upon 
this card and attests it with his signature. 

THE SICK ARE CARED FOR. 

When these classes are disposed of there yet 
remain the crippled, sick, physically incompetent 
and delinquent class. The ilunicipal Liodgmg 
House, as a clearing house for the indigent, en- 
deavors to secure the final ' disposition of each 
casa In making this distribution a single night's 
registration sometimes calls into helpful co-opera- 
tion nearly all the charities, public and private, in 
Chicago. 

REDUCED THE VAGRANT CLASS. 

While every man in Chicago homeless and with- 
out money is welcome at the M. L. H. 
for four nights, fewer than 8,000 lodgings 
have been sought by indigents in six months. And 
this despite the fact that the organized charities 
and many private citizens, together with the police 
department, refer all vagrants and homeless indi- 
gents to the place. This striking decrease is 
mainly due to the compulsory bath, medical ex- 
amination and labor test, which make the Munic- 
ipal Lodging House uncomfortable to the pro- 
fessional tramp. 

RESULTS. 

The most conspicuous public benefit that has 
resulted from the opening of the M. L. H. 
is the breaking up of organized begging. 
Beggars now receive a ticket to the lodging 
house or its address, instead of the pauperizing 
premiums of indiscriminate charity. As the citi- 
zens and housewives of Chicago learn to know that 
food, a bath, and a clean bed are given free to any 
homeless man or boy at the Municipal Lodging 



House the disintegration of the beggar organiza- 
tions has begun. As one of the "fraternity" 
was overheard to remark, "the mu-ni-cip-al lodg- 
ing house has put Chicago on the bum fer us 
fellers; we've got ter move on." The discouraged 
tramp leaves the city or goes to work. The munic- 
ipal lodging house is the scientific method for 
dealing with both vagrancy and the bane of in- 
discriminate charity. It is far more effective than 
raiding "barrel houses" or giving an occasional 
beggar six months in the House of Correction. It 
discriminates between the unfortunate and the 
vicious, the discouraged boy and the hardened 
vagabond, and it results in the cutting off of the 
base of supplies for the mendicant army. 

BOY VAGRANTS. 

Another benefit of no small merit is the service 
rendered in reclaiming the youthful vagrant. A 
boy from the country or some small town, weary 
of long hours and short pay, or dazzled by a 
dream of fortune in the great eity, comes to Chi- 
cago with a few dollars and great expectations. 
After a few days or weeks, it may be, his money 
is gone, he is discouraged by the rebuffs his awk- 
ward seeking after work has received, and the 
noise and rush, and heartless might of the down- 
town traffic have overwhelmed him. He feels so 
insignificant among the great piles of brick and 
stone, among the clanging ears, and the hurrying 
thousands of indifferent fellow men. A false 
pride keeps him from returning to his home, if 
he has one. His heart fails him, and he thinks 
of suicide. Wandering about the streets, he hap- 
pens upon a ' ' barrel house " or " hangout ' ' for 
hoboes and petty thieves. Here he is sure to re- 
ceive a hearty welcome, perhaps the first fellow- 
ship and human interest in himself that he has 
found for many days. Some ' ' jocker, ' ' taking 
in the situation at a glance, will give him some- 
thing to eat and a drink, if he will have it, tell- 
ing him the while a ' ' ghost story ' ' about the easy 
money, freedom, and good cheer of the hobo 's life. 
This ' ' professional ' ' will care for the boy for 
days, if need be, well knowing that the boy will 
almost certainly become a "prushun" or a "jolt" 
and ' ' batter ' ' many a sinker in the next few 
weeks that will find its way in loving gratitude 
into his capacious pocket. The very awkward 
"greenness" of the boy is now his capital, and 
with a little "priming" the boy will tell a 
"ghost story" that, backed by his fresh face and 
countryfied appearance, will get him ' ' oodles ' ' of 
food and clothes, and not a little money from 
the kind-hearted mothers in Chicago. This was 
the way we cultivated vagrants and petty crim- 
inals in the past years! Now this boy is directed 
to the Municipal Lodging House, and either re- 
turned to his home or helped into the ranks of 



6 



THE COMMONS 



honest industry. Within six months over 500 
youths under 20 years of age have passed through 
the M. L. H. From this class and that of the 
worthy stranger or displaced wcrkingman, the 
Municipal Lodging House has sent over 1,700 men 
to paid employment since the first day of January. 
190a. 

SPECIAL STATISTICS. 

So much for the work of the day. The larger 
values of such social service as the Municipal 
Lodging House can render, will doubtless be, the 



To the question, "If you could stop indis- 
criminate out-door relief, would such action help 
to rid the city of tramps to any large extent t" 
all but four replies answer yes, vrMx empnasis. 
To this query the Chief of Police of one ot 
our largest cities answers laconically, "I think 
one-half. ' ' 

All opinions unite in agreeeing that "the free 
transportation afforded vagrants by the railroads 
of the country is largely responsible for the 
growth and prevalence of this class in the United 




facts collected — the body of real knowledge that 
will grow up — regarding a class that, in all past 
civilizations, has grown with the increase of 
wealth, and augmented with material progress. 

THE PROBLEM IN OTHER CITIES. 

Through the helpful co-operation of Francis 
O'Neill, General Superintendent of the Depart- 
ment of Police for the City of Chicago, a letter 
has been sent to the heads of the police depart- 
ments in all the larger cities of the Unitea States 
enclosing a list of questions upon ' ' Vagrancy 
and Municipal Correction." Beplies have been 
received from over fifty cities, some of which are 
informing and illuminating to a degree. 



States." Upon this phase of the problem one 
Chief of Police remarks: 

' ' A very large percentage of all crime against 
persons and property in country places and smaller 
cities is perpetrated by this class of people. If 
it were possible (and I believe it could be made 
so) to prevent the professional hobo and tramp 
from beating his way on railroad trains, a great 
reduction in crime would surely follow." Another 
Chief of Police in a large manufacturing city says 
upon this same subject: 

"I deem it (easy transportation) to be largely 
responsible for the tramp evil and its continuance. 
I think stringent measures should be taken to 



THE COMMONS 



lessen, and, if possible, to break up the practice by 
tramps of riding on freight trains. The facility 
with which hobos can move themselves from point 
to point by trespassing upon freight trains (and 
on passenger trains in some instances) tends to 
keep aUve the tramp nuisance." 

That this practice by vagrants of beating their 
way from city to city on railroad trains is a 
curable evil is witnessed by the following testi- 
mony of a Chief of Police in one of our larger 
inland cities: 

"Bailroads entering our city that have railroad 
police are seldom bothered by the tramp. Nine- 
tenths of our tramps are brought here by rail- 
roads having no special police." This opinion is 
reinforced by the statement of the general man- 
ager of one of the great railroad systems of 
America having a thorough police system. He is 
quoted as follows: 

"There are three conspicuous reasons that have 
deterred railroad people from attacking the tramp 
problem. First, it has been thought it would 
entail a very great expense. Our experience on 
these lines has shown that this fear was not war- 
ranted. Second, it has been thought that no 
support would be given the movement by the local 
magistrates and police authorities. Our experience 
shows that in a great majority of cases we have 
the active support of the local police aufliorities 
and that the magistrates have done their full duty. 
Third, it was feared that there might be some 
retaliation by the tramps. Up to date we have 
had very little to complain of upon that score. 
From the reports that I get from my men, I am 
led to believe that we are gradually ridding, not 
only the railroad property but much of the terri- 
tory in which it is situated, of the tramp nuis- 
ance. ' ' 

The final testimony upon this aspect of the 
case is presented in the words of the Chief of 
Police of one of the larger Pacific coast cities. 
He says: 

"That the free transportation of the young 
hobos on the railroads makes them criminals there 
is no doubt, and they are on the increase." 

Regarding the effectiveness of the municipal 
lodging house method for the correction of vag- 
rancy in cities, the Chief of Police in a city that 
has had a municipal lodging house" for eight years 
testifies as follows : 

"Since the establishment of the Municipal 
Lodging House, where hobos are compelled to 
work, their numoer has decreased from^ over 6,000 
annually to between 600 and 700." 

WHAT THE LODGERS HAVE TO SAY. 

What does the worthy displaced laborer, or 
honest wayfaring seeker after work, think of the 



Municipal Lodging Houset Quite a number of 
this class of lodgers have seen fit to write to us 
after they have become re-established in the ranks 
of industry. We quote from some of these com- 
munications, omitting signatures: 

South Chicago, March 15th, 1902. 
Superintendent Municipal Lodging House : 

Dear Sir. — I thought I would write you these 
few lines, as a letter of thanks in regard to the 
much appreciated favor you have shown me, as 
I consider it my duty to do so. As you gave 
me shelter and food when I had no place to go, 
or no friends to look to, it has been highly appre- 
ciated, and any time that I can do any good 
toward you and the lodging house I would be 
pleased to do so. 

Well, I come over here and got the job on the 
B. & O. E. E. as a fireman, and expect to be 
called at any minute to work, and I will try to 
hold it down as long as I can. 

Well, I guess I will close this short manuscript, 
hoping you success in the Lodging House, and i 
wish you would give my regards to all the officers. 
Eespectfully yours. 



Chicago, May 5th, 1902. 
Superintendent of the Municipal Lodging House, 
12 Jefferson St., City: 

Dear Sir. — i desire to express my gratitude 
to yourself and to all the men in your office, and 
to the janitor, for the kind treatment that I have 
received from all connected with the institution. 

I came to you after I had spent my last cent 
in search of employment in this city. I did not 
know which way to turn, and, though I hesitated 
to apply for assistance, I am now glad that I did 
so. The manner in which you and your men 
receive applioants is such that a person does not . 
feel that he is a mendicant, but is simply one 
member of the great brotherhood of mankind. 

Please extend my thanks to the men under your 
superintendence. Eespectfully, 



j Chicago, May 24th, 1902. 

Mr. Robins: I take the liberty to write you 
expressing my opinion, also my thanks for the 
kinduets received. I came to your city last 
Wednesday, dirty, tired and hungry, but willing 
to work. I got something to eat, a good bath, and 
a bed to sleep in, also work. If every city would 
do the same, I do not think half the people would 
be wandering round the country that is. I will 
cite a case of my own. I was in Buffalo and 
was offered a job at $3.50 per day, but had, to 
refuse it on account of having no place to sleep 
or eat, and the pay day was two weeks off. 

Sincerely, 



8 



THE COMMONS 



Delaware, Ohio, August 15th, 1902. 
Mr. Eobins, Supt. M. L. H.: 

Dear Sir. — Please accept my thanks for hos- 
pitality and otlier kindness shown me at the lodg- 
ing house for the past few days. I was surprised 
and comforted at the eleannees of the beds and 
the treatment 1 received. I received money by 
mail this morning, and arranged to come here, 
where my people live. Yours, 



MANY ARE WORTHY MEN. 

As evidence that all homeless men are not 
unworthy idlers, and that honest and eflScient 



sire to thank you for the prompt manner in which 
you attended to our requests for help. If at 
any time in the future we may need laborers we 
will be pleased to call on you. 

Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) Glaser, Kohn & Co., 

D. A. McNeiU. 

INVESTIGATION AND EXTENSION. 

During the National Conference of Charities and 
Corrections in session at Detroit last May, a sub- 
conference was held upon the subject of "vag- 
rancy. ' ' The following sub-committee was ap- 
pointed to investigate the vagrancy problem and 




workmen may become displaced through mis- 
fortune and the industrial movement, and in need 
of such ministration as the Municipal Lodging 
House affords worthy indigents, the following 
letter is submitted: 

ulaser, Kohn &iOo., 
West Randolph and Green Sts., Chieago. 
Mr. Raymond Robins, Supt. Chicago Municipal 
Lodging House, City: 
Dear Sir. — Replying to your favor of 12th inst., 
we desire to say that the men you furnished us, 
as a rule, were reliable and satisfactory. We de- 



to consider the municipal lodging house system 
as a means of dealing therewith: 

W. H. McClain, President St. Louis Provident 
Association, Chaitman. 

Prof. Frank W. Blackmar, President Kansas 
Association of Charities. 

Robert W. Hebberd, Secretary New York State 
Board of Charities. 

W. S. French, President Associated Charities, 
Evansville, Ind. 

William Hard, Associate Editor, Chicago Trib- 
une. 



THE COM M ONS 



Eaymond Eobins, Superintendent Chicago Mu- 
nicipal Lodging House, Secretary. 

This committee was further instructed to seek 
the co-operation of the National Bureau of Labor 
to secure data and assist in bringing the subject 
to the consideration of the people of the United 
States. 

CAUSES. 

Of causes a wise man will hesitate to speak too 
positively. Years of patient, open-minded, first- 
hand study are needed for an authoritative opinion 
here. The personal vices, of which drunkenness 
is easily first, are most in evidence. Of the in- 
competent, the feeble, the uncalled, we see not 
a few. Traced back we find insanitary homes, 
insuflioient food, during the growing years, and 
child labor as first in the list of causes for this 
class. Industrial displacement, due to invention 
and consolidation in industry, and advancing years 
is responsible for a growing class in the ranks 
of vagrancy. This phase of the subject will en- 
gage the attention of the civilized world before 
the end of the present generation. 

What is a Tramp ? 

GEO. L. m'nUTT. 

The world's acute interest in the Tramp is 
gratifying and amusing. As usual society is sat- 
isfied if she can drive the tramp, like the criminal, 
out of sight. Organized society, as a rule, kicks 
and curses where it ought to cure. People say 
to me, ' ' Now, Mr. McNutt, you have been a tramp, 
what do you think about the tramp question?" 
Do you think we ever ought to. feed a Tramp?" 
According to the approved conclusions of scientific 
charity, I answer, "No, never feed a tramp." 
If, however, you want to feed a hungry man, that 
is another question. I know in many instances 
where people by feeding hungry Men have made 
NEW MEN, and added untold value to the world's 
sum total of manhood. In this, as in other cases, 
there is no clash between the teachings of Christ 
and that which is true, and therefore scientific. 
AVheu Christ rates a man's standing at the Judg- 
ment day by the way he has clothed the naked 
and fed the hungry He is bidding us do nothing 
that is in conflict with the best methods of deal- 
ing with the lowest level of THE OTHEB HALF. 
On the contrary, the teaching of Christ would, 
if followed by those who assume His name, de- 
stroy this lowest level. The hungry and naked 
man 's importunity is some man or woman 's oppor- 
tunity. If that man or woman is too busy, too 
selfish, or too senseless to deal fairly, frankly and 
intelligently with the hungry, tattered, lonesome 
man, or, as we say, the Tramp, better let him 
go hungry, freeze or die of loneliness. 



What is a Tramp anyhow? A product? Un- 
questionably yes, and that, too, not of spontaneous 
generation. Some men, it may be, are born tramps 
beyond the hope of redemption. That I question. 
Some men achieve tramping, and, what is of in- 
finite more importance from the point of view of 
the weU-to-do, is the fact that some have tramp- 
ing thrust upon them. The proof can be found 
at any railroad crossing. Five years ago the 
American people were confessing their childish- 
ness in Economics by creating and perpetuating 
a panic and industrial depression. I assume that 
a panic is lingering evidence that society has not 
yet learned to walk alone in the midst of the 
limitless bounties of God, nor lost the fear of 
the goblins that get us sure when we get scared. 
Five years ago it was nothing uncommon to see 
fifty or a hundred men at a railroad crossing, im- 
provising a cup of coffee with the classic tomato 
can, waiting for the lower berth on the brake 
beam, and rated by those who have bread and 
to spare as incorrigible hoboes. Where are those 
men now? They are not at the railroad crossing. 
Where once there were fifty there are not to be 
found today five. They have been absorbed in 
the World's work, giving the lie direct and un- 
answerable to the charge so brutally made, "Once 
a tramp always a tramp." To understand the 
tramp question as we find it in aggravated forms 
every few years it is necessary to go back to the 
"dear dead days beyond recall," before the war 
and for, perhaps, fifteen years after the war. 
Our people then were essentially rural and agri- 
cultural. The farm of 160 acres had two houses, 
a farm house and the tenant house. Those were 
not the tenants of today who run a farm for a 
share or cash. Those tenants had no horses nor 
tools. They had, as a rule, children a plenty, 
likewise a dog or gun, a pig, cow and a garden. 
The house was frequently of logs, with an open 
fire and free fuel. Here the tenant lived. Ac- 
cording to the rating of mercantile agencies, he 
had no rating, yet this man was rich compared 
with his children of today, who, grown to man- 
hood and womanhood, are found, not in a tenant 
but the tenement house. Etymologically a tenant 
house and a tenement house are the same. Socio- 
logically, they are as far apart as Paradise, aiid 
Purgatory. From the old-time tenant paradise, 
with its simple fare of corn bread, cabbage and 
pork, with now and then a squirrel or a rabbit, 
with barefoot children, with access to "the old 
swimmin' hole," and the violets with the stars 
j above and a mother's love and a mother, too, 
1 who was the friend, an associate of the farmer's 
j wife. These, with the debating societies, the spell- 
ing match, the revival, and a Saturday in town, 
i have passed out of sight. They disappeared with 



10 



THE COMMONS 



the coming of the gang plow, the cultivator and 
the binder. "While the population of the country 
has increased so rapidly, the rural population has 
decreased. The old log tenant house is a hog pen, 
or burned down with just an old chimney left, 
the lonesomest thing on earth, telling the glory 
of departed days. The farmer and his sons no 
longer need the continuous services of a tenant 
family. But, and this is the crux of the situation, 
the farmer can plant larger crops than he can 
harvest. This fact propagates and perpetuates a 
floating population that creates the tramp. The 
fact that help is found from somewhere to gather 
the havests of the Dakotas, to cut the broom com 
of Illinois and husk the maize proves that there 
is an army of men who have no regular employ- 
ment but have a r^ular habit of going hungry 
and sleepy. 

A fanuliar sign in Chicago is "Wanted 200 
men for B. B. work. We ship tonight." There 
is something sinister in the idea of shipping men. 
It sounds aU right for hogs or com, but to ship 
IMAGES OF GOD seems uncanny. The fact at 
issue is that somewhere there is a field white to 
harvest, but no neighborhood laborers. At an- 
other point there are the men with ranpty stomachs 
wilUng to work and without work, and hungry 
enough to be shipped. I do not pretend that the 
Tramp is a saint. I merely resent the idea of 
calling every man we see peering out of a box 
car or risking his life on the brake beam a hope- 
lees, homeless happy-go-lucky tramp, whose joy, 
like the miller's, is "to wander, to wander." 
The man is a l^itimate social product. He is the 
offspring of existing economic forces. The pa- 
ternity cannot be denied. That the cast-off child 
of such parentages should become a vagabond 
is nothing strange. Tramp as he is, he is a social 
animal, and whether he works or hibernates, his 
environment is almost wholly bad. Whether lum- 
bering, or railroading, or harvesting, he is de- 
serted by all save the outcast woman and the 
man who makes merchandise of his appetite. In 
the winter his only home is the cheap lodging 
house or the police station, things incredible and 
discreditable to twentieth century society. So- 
ciety cannot disown its own, I merely ask what 
are we going to do with himt He is ours. Society 
has no more right to spurn or mistreat him than 
a mother would have to neglect her idiotic or 
cripple child. Fortunately, there is evidence at 
hand that the vagrant and the criminal wiU re- 
spond to a patient scientific treatment. Where 
we use a policeman's club we ought to use a 
doctor's skill and a nurse's love. When we turn 
him over to the constable we ought to give him 
into the hands of a cook. I was greatly inter- 
ested in the philosophy of a quiet little man down 



in the Illinois reformatory, who holds what he 
regards, with pardonable pride and truth, the most 
responsible position in that institution, to wit: 
that of cook. It is a matter of record that a 
physician was given, by request, the twelve laziest, 
most worthless boys in the reformatory at Elmira. 
Being toughs, he b^fan with them as the house- 
wife does with a tough piece of meat: He par- 
boiled them every day for a month in Turkish 
baths. After he had, so to speak, roasted 
the devil out of them, he began to feed them 
with the intelligence that an Illinois farmer feeds 
his hogs and forgets his children. In less than 
a year he put eight of those ineorrigibles on 
the honor roll of the institution. So many in- 
stances of this sort are being brought to light that 
the old terrors of the doctrine of heredity, the 
gospel of despair for the living, and remorse for 
the dead, has given way to the larger social hope 
of a social redemption through scientific environ- 
ment. And that to the opportunities of such a 
gospel even the tramp is amenable. 



Labor Movement Week at Chautauqua. 
Significant of the growing emphasis, breadth, 
fearlessness and intelligence with which the ethics 
of industry are being popularly discussed is the 
exceptionally frank and thorough-going way they 
were handled in the week devoted to the purpose 
at the great New York Chautauqua Assembly. 

ME. WEIGHT ON LABOB IX LAW. 

United States Commissioner of Labor Hon, 
Carroll D. Wright presented a carefully prepared 
and valuable development of the rights of labor 
in statutory and common law. He thus sum- 
marized the concrete results of statute law: 

1. It has withdrawn much child labor from 
the factory and workshops. 

2. It has given a general guaranty of education 
to working youths. 

3. It has secured added leisure to the great 
body of workers, and this means the opportunity 
to advance their standards of living. 

4. It has lessened casualties by protecting dan- 
gerous machinery and requiring fire escapes on 
buildings. 

5. It has insisted upon cleanliness and gen- 
erally good sanitary conditions in work rooms, 
with a perceptible influence upon the health and 
homes of operatives. 

6. It has extended or modified the common law 
relating to employers' liability to an employe for 
bodily injury sustained in service, 

7. It has recognized the rights of labor under 
the labor contract and as an incorporated body. 

8. It has secured the privil^e of we^y pay- 
ments, exemption from fines, and the payment of 



THE COMMONS 



11 



wages to a certain amount under the. bankruptcy 
of the employer. 

9. It has furthered the interests of industrial 
arbitration and conciliation. 

10. It has established bureaus of statistics of 
labor, whose duty it is to collect statistics and to 
investigate labor conditions. 

11. It has evolved and provided a most efficient 
inspecting force for the enforcement of labor 
laws. 

More far-reaching still are the reversals of un- 
just and long established precedents in the com- 
mon-law in the recognition of the legal status of 
labor organizations, which were under the ban of 
conspiracy so late as the first quarter of the last 
century, and of the employer's liability for the in- 
pury or death of employes, which has steadily given 
more ample protection to the life and safety of 
working people. In treating the question whether 
there is any solution of the labor question, Mr. 
Wright was necessarily less thorough, very slight- 
ingly referring to single-tax, socialism and all 
other radical solvents. He declared : ' ' The ques- 
tion is not how to kill or remove the cause, but to 
soften the struggle — for there is to be a continual 
struggle." A religion which allies ethics and 
economics and an evolution which believes in the 
potency of effort are the highest forms of solu- 
tion yet offered. 

Mr. Wright also conducted a labor conference, 
in which he was quizzed closely on industrial con- 
ciliation and arbitration, and also the factory sys- 
tem. 

WHAT LED TO THE COAL MINERS" STRIKE. 

In a candid and matter-of-fact way Mr. S. J. 
Strauss, of Wilkesbarre, Pa., explained the situa- 
tion' involved in the anthracite coal strike from 
the viewpoint of both miners and operators. When 
the strike of 1877 ended, he intimated that the 
immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe 
which then set in was "well planned from this 
side of the water, so that there would be in the 
anthracite region an overflow population at all 
times, and strikes would therefore become prac- 
tically hopeless. ' ' It was thus ' ' calculated to 
revolutionize the circumstances of this mining," 
and he grimly remarked : ' ' Now twenty -five years 

At the beginning of the strike of 1900 there 
were 10,000 members of the United Mine Workers' 
Union in the region; at its end there were 100,000 
who had learned to speak for themselves. The 
operators then "recognized the union by uniting 
against it," and, under the pressure of political 
influence in the Presidential campaign, by conced- 
ing the terms it demanded. After discussing the 
specific points at issue with luminous fairness, he 
claimed "there never was a strike in which the 



strikers were so well prepared, under the law, for 
winning." All that was necessary for the union 
was ' ' to keep its hands on the certificated miner. ' ' 
This it could easily have done, and needed not to 
make the strategic mistake of calling out the 
pump and steam workers almost to the destruction 
of the mines. "They can win the strike only by 
obedience to law. ' ' Their only recourse is ' ' from 
within their own ranks by putting down the ten- 
dency to disorder and the boycott, and by secur- 
ing toleration between union and non-union men. 
In these days," he concludes, "when capital has 
organized into unions, the employer as a competi- 
tor has been eliminated; and it is only natural 
that the employe as a competitor should be elim- 
inated. The only basis I can see is that there shall 
be just what unionized labor is striving for— a con- 
ference between unionized labor and unionized 
capital. ' ' 

WHAT LABOR UNIONS REALLY ARE. 

In the most straightforward way and with the 
very best spirit, Frank P. Sargent, the United 
States Commissioner-General of Immigration, de- 
scribed what a labor union really is, by what the 
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen had been to 
him, and to the elevation of that craft. ' ' In 1873 
the average wages of the firemen was $32 per 
month, and they worked as many hours as their 
employer wanted, and without extra pay. Today 
the average wages of a fireman per month is $62 
for an average workday of ten hours, with extra 
pay for every hour of overtime. In 1873 the fire- 
men had no standing in the communities in which 
they lived; today they and their families are in 
the best of society, prominent in the churches, 
schools and elsewhere. While the strike is held 
as a weapon in reserve, we have held that weapon 
in the background and in seventeen years of flour- 
ishing life there have been only two conflicts in 
which the strike weapon has been used. 

"So, labor, be patient! Organized labor, go 
carefully! You are on the right track, so long 
as you respect law and keep order. If men want 
to go to work in your places in those mines, let 
them go. Do not beat them down with clubs or 
knife them like assassins. Your position is right, 
absolutely right, and there is a current of influence 
and power at work in this country far greater 
than you or I can understand. 

"So I ask you, when you think of organized 
labor, reflect not upon the individual outbreaks 
which represent only that which organized labor 
seeks to avoid, but think of the underlying prin- 
ciples of trades-unionism and the great work it 
has done and is doing towards uplifting the 
toiler. ' ' 

In many respects the most outspoken advocacy 



THE COMMONS 



of the economic necessity and public utility of 
organized labor was made by Senator Hanna: 

"We have to be thankful for an era of pros- 
perity unequaled in our history. We are all so 
busy now that we are liable to forget whence it 
comes. It is our duty while enjoying this pros- 
perity and its fruits, when we come to consider 
the material interests at stake, to remember that 
there are two factors along that line which con- 
tribute to it; the men who work with their hands, 
and the men who work with their brains; partners 
in toil who should be partners in the benefits of 
that toiL 

"I have been an ranployer of labor for many 
years. I am not a novice at that. I know men 
pretty welL But I know another thing — that the 
natural tendency in this country, aye, of the 
world over, has been to selfishly appropriate the 
larger share to the benefit of capital. As long as 
labor was in a situation to which it was bound to 
submit, that to a very large d^ree \70uld continue. 
It is human nature. But, in the evolution of the 
twentieth century, when thinking men are begin- 
ning to think seriously of this great question, the 
time is coming, aye, it is here, when we must 
make up our minds that not only will we give 
consideration to those who are in our employ with 
a view of more close and friendly relations, but a 
larger proportion of the profits. 

"All strikes do not originate from that source; 
they are not always because of a demand for 
higher wages. There are other grievances. At 
least, the men imagine they are grievances. If 
they were acting in their individual capacity for 
some slight grievance and asked to appear in th^r 
employer's presence to ask consideration, how 
much would be shown themT Xot much. There- 
forey when they band together in an organization 
for their own benefit and which will furnish than 
the opportunity through their organization to 
reach that source of power which can grant the 
remedy, I say, organized labor is justified. 

' ' It does not end there. Nearly all of the labor 
organizations with which I am familiar have con- 
nected with them a benevolent feature. That 
bond of fellowship which induces them to unite 
their strength in their interests also prompts them 
to help one another and their families. What 
greater incentive can be urged to induce the 
amalgamation of labor than thisf Let the cap- 
italist who is organizing and forming combina- 
tions think of this. How much of that principle 
enters into the organization of capital Y I never 
heard of one of them helping the other fellow in 
whom he had no interest, and I am one of that 
class. I am an employer of labor, and I am will- 



ing and ready t<^ criticize the evu in both classes — 
and it exists. I do not expect in my feeble way 
to change the great current of selfishness which 
moves men, but while my life and strength lasts, I 
can, as I am doing today, appeal to my fellow- 
countrymen and to all classes of citizens who are 
interested in this social question, to appreciate 
that the time now is when something must be 
done. 

"Start there, then, with your proposition of 
practical work and admit that strikes have been 
settled, not because the men started wrong and 
had then been convinced and started right, but on 
the hypothesis that half the time the men were 
right, and that there are reasons why more than 
half the time advances should be made on the 
side of capital to settle by fair means the labor 
difficulties. 

"This organization of capital has come to stay, 
just as organized labor has come to stay, and for 
the same reason it is necessary. You cannot 
separate the interests of capital and labor. If it 
is good for one to be organized for any purpose, 
it is good for the other for the same reason. They 
are both good. They are both necessary, as ap- 
plied to our conditions today and our developmmt 
for the future. 

' ' Our experience has diown that of the men who 
are associated with our organization (the National 
Civic Federation) on the part of labor, twelve ot 
them, all leaders of great labor organizations, are 
just as competent, in our conferences upon this 
subject, just as earnest and just as honest in th^ 
treatment of this matter as the other side. 
Becognize that fact, give them credit, and the 
battle is more than half won. Make them feel 
that your interest in them is for the mutual 
benefit of both, and believe in their sensibility and 
their ability to manage their affairs as well as 
you can manage yours, and you will create a trust 
that no law can break; the kind of trust for 
which you need no constitutional amendment. 
Trust one another, whether your associate in busi- 
ness, or the man in your employ, and yon will 
establish a principle in business that will be uni- 
versal and invaluable to business houses. It is 
a great, broad principle on which the very founda- 
tions of our government rest. ' ' 



Bussia has in her student class a set of fine, 
brave men. These in time will unfold a richer 
Bussia than the world dreams of. The Slav is 
far more radical than the Saxon or the Teuton, 
and when our reforms come they will go much 
deeper to the roots of things than any reforms 
in the world that have preceded than. — Tolstoy. 



THE COMMONS 



18 



The Leader of the People. 

By Edwin Markham. 
Swung in the Purpose of the upper sphere, 
We sweep on to the century a-near. 
But something makes the heart of man forebode; 
There is a new Sphinx watching by the road! 
Its name is Labor, and the world must hear — 
Must hear and answer its dread Question — yea, 
Or finish as the tribes of yesterday. 
Thunder and Earthquake crouch beyond the gate; 
But fear not: mem is greater than his fate. 
For one will come with Answer — with a word- 
Wherein the whole world's" gladness shall be heard; 
One who will feel the grief in every breast, 
The heart cry of humanity for rest. 

So we await the Leader to appear. 
Lover of men, thinker and doer and seer. 
The hero who will fill the labor throne 
And build the Comrade Kingdom, Stone by Stone; 
That kingdom that is greater than the Dream 
Breaking through ancient vision gleam by gleam — 
Something that Song alone can faintly feel. 
And only Song's wild rapture can reveal. 

Thrilled by the Cosmic Oneness he will rise, 
Truth in his heart and morning in his eyes; 
While glory fallen from the far-off goal 
Will send mysterious splendor on his soul. 
Him shall all toilers know to be their friend; 
Him shall they follow, faithful to the end. 
Though every leaf were a tongue to cry ' ' Thou 

must ! ' ' 
He will not say the unjust thing is just. 
Not all the fiends that curse in the eclipse 
Shall shake his heart or hush his lyric lips. 

His cry for justice, it will stir the stones 

From Hell's black granite to the seraph thrones; 

Earth listens for the coming of his feet; 

The hushed Fates lean expectant from their seat. 

He will be calm and reverent and strong, 

And, carrying in his words the fire of song. 

Will send a hope upon these weary men, 

A hope to make the heart grow young again, 

A cry to comrades scattered and afar! 

Be constellated, star by star; 
Crime to all mortals justice and forgive: 
License must die that liberty may live. 
Let Love shine through the fabric of the State- 
Love deathless, Love whose other name is Fate. 
Fear not; we cannot fail-^ 
The vision will prevail. 

Truth is the Oath of God, and, sure and fast, 
Through Death and Hell holds onward to the last. 
— From Lincoln and Other Toems. 



What Trade Unionists Think of Settlements 

The New York State Commissioner of Labor 
devoted a large part of his report for 1900 to an 
exceptionally thorough and satisfactory treatmejit 
of the history, description and public utility of 
social settlements in that state. The following 
excerpts are good reading for Labor Day: 

RELATIONS OF THE SETTLEMENTS TO TRADES UNIONS. 

"The attitude of the settlement toward trade 
unions is most cordial. Recognizing their value, 
it seeks to co-operate with them in promoting the 
labor movement, to which subject the residents 
have given much reflection, and have often assisted 
in the formation of unions. One of the aims of 
the Settlement is to increase mutual understanding  
between employer and employed, and it always 
advises rational modes on both sides in adjusting 
disputes. It urges that the workers should re- 
ceive through their organizations not only thor- 
ough instruction in the principles a^d philosophy 
of trade unionism, but also knowledge as to the 
large social and economic questions, thus fitting 
them to assume important and active positions ' 
in all great movements that tend to uplift the 
masses. 

VIEWS OF WORK-PEOPLE. 

"With regard to the effect of Settlement work, 
from the viewpoint of its constituency, it may be 
of interest to here note the opinions of several 
critical workingmen who are club members at a 
house located in a section of New York City com- 
posed of wage earners, and not in nor of the 
slums. Three of these nuen were interviewed. 
One, a trade unionist, who is designated as the 
Nestor of the club of which he is a member, said : 

" 'The Settlement idea is a grand one. My at- 
tention was called to it some years ago through 
my boys taking books out of the library, which 
institution of itself is worthy of high praise, be- 
cause of the great good it is doing in the neigh- 
borhood. I joined the Settlement and am a mem- 
ber of a club or association which discusses social 
and various other subjects. At our meetings the 
intelligent forces of the working masses and the 
people of higher education are brought together. 
Distinguished clergymen, captains of industry, 
workingmen, and eminent professional and public 
men take part in the discussions. There is no 
adverse criticism among the speakers, and every 
one is welcome to take the platform. The Settle- 
ment is non-sectarian and non-political, every kind 
of persuasion being represented under its roof. It 
is one of the humblest of its kind. Its methods 
are attractive and everyone helps in the good 
work. I cannot speak too highly about what I 
think of it, for it certainly tends to elevate the 
masses. ' 



14 



THE COMMONS 



"This is the view taken by another member of 
the club, a young trade-unionist: 

«' 'Ultimately the Settlement will be a fine 
thing. It brings together men of all vocations, 
and in this way they are better enabled to get a 
clearer insight into life. In our club all have 
independent ideas, and freely express them. We 
discufls different questions, and these discussions 
bring out truths, for the subjects are argued in- 
telligently. Although we pay dues, the work is 
not self-supporting. We would rather it was con- 
ducted without outside aid. Nevertheless, it is 
not a charity in any sense of the word; yet many 
people in this vicinity have an idea that it is, and 
will not attend on that account. I think the work 
the Settlement is doing is all right. It promotes 
the social life. If there were enough room in the 
house so that the same club could meet every, 
night it would be more beneficial, and would prob- 
ably attract many young men who now congregate 
en comers or in saloons for the purpose of associa- 
tion. In my judgment, if such a thing were 
. possible, great good could be accomplished if the 
state would adopt the Settlement idea and carry 
on the work something akin to tiie public school 
BTBtem. By opening attractive quarters in every 
crowded block and iollowing out the Settlement 
plan of entertaining and instructing young people, 
a very large number of youths would doubtless 
leave the corners and drinking places and spend 
their time more profitably in public club rooms 
sustained in this manner.' 

"Here is the opinion of the third workingman: 

" 'Settlements are a great benefit in certain 
localities. For instance, there is the University 
Settlement, which is doing a splendid work down 
town. It is in a crowded district, where the peo- 
ple need such a thing, and take advantage of it. 
Up here, where men are able to pay their way, 
the Settlement cannot reach the people it is trying 
to reach. The objection is that it is not self- 
supporting. Most of the members of our club, 
all of whom pay dues, would like to see it so. 
We, however, do not consider it a charity, for if 
we did the house would soon be empty. When 
the house was first opened there was a feeling 
that those who came over from Fifth avenue were 
patronizing, but such was not the case, and of late 
that idea has been entirely eliminated. The peo- 
ple of means who contribute toward the Settle- 
ment are sincere in the belief that they are doing 
a real good to the community, but if there is a 
notion that in this way social equality can be 
brought about between the rich and poor, I am 
afraid it never will be realized. I must say, 
though, that any association whose main purpose 
is to bring men together is certainly beneficial.' " 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBOEHOOD 
WOEKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited for the Association by 
Maky Kingsbuey Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



POPUUiK USE OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS. 

There is a decided tendency in New York to 
increase the use of the public school buildings for 
purpose of recreation and of general neighbor- 
hood usefulness, and the movement has resulted 
during the summer in the opening of schools on 
Sundays for the holding of concerts and in the 
opening of the roofs of schools on week day 
evenings and having the music and dancing there 
for children. On one roof there are often aa 
many as 2,000 or 3,000 children. This is all in 
addition to the work of the vacation schools and 
play grounds, 65 in number, and of tie 12 play 
centers that are in operation throughout the year. 
The concerts and the lectures given through the 
winter under the auspices of the Board of Educa- 
tion are of great value, as they appeal to the 
adult population, and it is greatly to be hoped 
that the movement will spread and grow until 
these buildings, erected and maintained at the 
public expense, shall be in constant use, winter 
and summer, day and evening, for the advance- 
ment of all the interests, educational and social, 
of the entire population of the district. 

The vacation playgrounds of the Board oi Edu- 
caion are more thoroughly organized and much 
attention is being given to industrial work, ee- 
peeially basket weaving. The vacation schools 
are open in the morning and the play grounds only 
in the afternoon instead of all day as heretofore, 
and this arrangement is proving much more de- 
sirable than the previous one. 

Through the interest and help of Mrs. Henry 
Parsons the Dewitt Clinton Park, until recently 
an unkempt waste, has been converted into an 
outdoor school in gardening and agriculture. This 
land, which had never been improved, has now 
been plowed and fertilized until it has become a 
field fit for farming. All this has been accom- 
plished by the work of the children in this neigh- 
borhood who have been interested in tne plan. 
The little plot of ground has been divided into 
100 smaller sections, each of which has been as- 
signed to a boy. Each boy has been given pack- 
ages of flower and garden seeds. Mr. Austen, 
chief gardener of Central Park, addressed the 
children before the seeds were distributed, ex- 
plaining the different characteristics of the vege- 
tables and telling them how to plant and cultivate 
them. The plan and aim of Mrs. Parsons, it 
^ould be understood, is solely educational, not 



THE COMMONS 



15 



philanthropic, and is designed to reach all children 
that remain in the city and can thus benefit by 
the instruction. The movement for which she is 
largely responsible purposes to make farming a 
subject of study in the curriculum of the public 
schools in Greater New York. In this intention 
she is being supported by many local organiza- 
tions for civic improvement. 

Similar work is being done in six of the Board 
of Education play grounds. The boys have done 
all the work of preparing the ground, planting 
and caring for the flowers and vegetables, and 
there has developed among them a strong pride in 
the gardens and a marked feeling of responsibility 
towards them. 

Another Neighborhood House. 

Articles of incorporation, approved by the State 
Board of Charities, have been filed with the Secre- 
tary of State by the Hamilton House, with head- 
quarters at No. 32 Hamilton Street, New York 
City. It is proposed to improve the condition 
of the neighborhood by maintaining reading and 
playrooms, day nurseries and other kindred con- 
veniences. The directors of the institution for 
the first year are as follows: Franklin S. Billings, 
Mary H. Brown, Thatcher M. Brown, Eleanor 6. 
Crawford, Morean Delano, John H. Denison, Win- 
throp E. Dwight, James S. Gilbert, William R. 
JelUffe, Louis A. Eipley, Willet C. Koper, Frances 
L. Seymour, Walter 8. Sullivan, Pearl L. Under- 
wood of New York City, and Oswald Garrison 
Villard of Dobbs Ferry. 

Chicago Theological Seminary 

Opens its 46th year Sept. 24th. Full corps of In- 
structors, Seminary Settlement. Affiliated schools 
in music, woman's work and missions. Diploma 
and B. D. degrees Merit scholarships. Fellowship 
for two years to each class. Address PROF. H. M. 
SCOTT, 520 W. Adams St.. Chicago, 111. 



PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL. 

Kindergarten Training' ScKool 

at CKicago Commons. 

Opens Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1902. 
Two ye.irs' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial and 
Social Development emphasized. Includes opportu- 
nity to become familiar wuh Social Settlement Work. 
For circulars and particulars, address 

BERTHA HOFER HEQNER, 

Chicago Commons. iSo Orand Ave,, Ch cago. 

Che New Fourth Edition of College. Social 
and University Settlements BibliotfrsLphy. 

Compiled by Caroline Williamson Montgomery,: 
For the College Settlement Association, with much 
new material. Now ready. Order through Ths 
CoMito*» ~!~~ ci'its per copy. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANMKO COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 

Vice President: Helen Chadwick Band Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, Marion, 
Mass. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Her- 
bert Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York 
City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43d St., New 
York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City — 95 Eivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association bt 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



Relation of Colleges to Social Service. 

abstracts from a report prepared for the c.s.a. 

BY miss S. E. FOOTE SMITH '96, ALUMNAE ELECTOR. 

The primary purpose of the College Settlements 
Association is "to found and support settlements 
and direct their general policy." The associa- 
tion has always aimed to take such a place in the 
general altruistic movement as should be filled by 
a body of people educated to the modem scien- 
tific principles underlying any realization of that 
altruism. To this end the Settlements have at 
tempted to co-operate with existing remedial and 
educational agencies, and the general association 
has collected and published such settlement biblio- 
graphies, information, and studies as it has con- 
sidered of probable service to people interested 
in social work. Beside these things, a committee 
has helped to supply speakers on social work to 
our colleges, clubs, or other bodies of people de- 
siring such talks. 

As our work extends, and more and more people 
are interested in it, and able to give their time 
to it, it has been felt that we are not fulfilling 
our whole duty. The association forms a natural 
link between the colleges, their courses and stu- 
dents, and the practical philanthropic work of the 
world. 

Almost every woman of today is confronted by 
some phase or other of social problems, whether 
in private life or in the capacity of a professional 
social worker. We, as college graduates, feel the 
justice of the two-fold criticism that college 
courses deal too little with the practical side of 
such problems, and that the college graduate finds 



16 



THE COMMONS 



herself utterljr at loss in her first experience with 
their administration. 

Truly, our colleges are not intended as train- 
ing schools in philanthropy, but just as truly are 
we losing one of our greatest privileges for a real 
education, if we leave out those elements essential 
to just and sane ideals and service in society. 
The educational value of field work in sociology 
lias been demonstrated as of the same use, in the 
training of the mind, as laboratory work in 
sciences. There is, then, a double reason for its 
introduction into our college courses. The asso- 
ciation has felt this for some time, but has had, 
up to this time, only the power of individual 
alumnae to impose on the colleges any demand 
for co-operation. Now, however, several of the 
colleges have asked for the help of the associa- 
tion, and it is hoped that the present report may 
prove a preliminary step in that direction. 

The aim in preparing this report has been 
three-fold: First, full and definite information 
of the actual courses now given in our colleges, 
with statistics of students engaged in the courses, 
the general trend of interest in them and a his- 
tory of students of the last decade who have 
entered social work as a profession. Second, an 
expression of expert opinion on the advisability, 
ways and means of bringing collie courses into 
touch with the practical field. Third, a descrip- 
tion of work already done by any institutions, in 
co-ordinating practical work with teaching of 
theory and history. 

A college course has usually been able to give 
students only a modicum of field or observational 
work. In some colleges the location of the college, 
or other limitations, make impossible any but the 
most elementary efforts at such work. This should 
be borne in mind in any comparison between the 
college courses noted in this report. The great 
excellence of the Barnard-Columbia work is due, 
not only to its staff of university professors, but 
also to its location in a great city and to the 
peculiar advantages derived therefrom. Wellesley 
also has the advantage of co-operation with some 
of the civic work of Boston, while more remote 
colleges are barred from these broader fields of 
work. 

A very strong feeling is evidenced in replies 
to this circular letter — that our college courses 
could be made vastly more vital and useful by 
more work along the line of institutional investiga- 
tion, field work, and practical knowledge of the 
administration of charities and corrections. Sev- 
eral of the college departments have evolved par- 
tial answers to these problems. 

But very suggestive work is being done by other 
institutions than those directly within the confine* 



of our association. The work of the New York 
Charity Organization Summer School of Philan- 
thropy, that of the Hartley House Fellowship at 
Barnard, and of the recently instituted Special 
Training Course in the School of Economics and 
Political Science of the University of Wisconsin 
are given at some length, because of their sug- 
gestive value here. Michigan University has a 
fellowship for five months' ro«<ience at Chicago 
Commons. 

Doubtless much useful information could be 
obtained from the work of other organizations, 
but these have seemed most directly connected 
with the problem in hand. 

Summary of expert opinion: 

The colleges and settlements or other social 
agencies could be mutually most helped as fol- 
lows, by: 

(a) (1) The establishment of resident fellow- 
ships (one person suggests that these should be 
for two years, if possible), and (2) arranging 
short terms of residence for students. 

(b) Clubs should be formed in colleges to study 
definite social questions and interest themselves 
in one settlement, or group of settlements. 

(c) More talks before the college classes and 
clubs should be given by practical organization 
and settlement workers. (The need of this was 
emphasized by almost every answer to this ques- 
tion). 

(d) (1) Publication of an adequate current 
bibliography of social articles, the collection of 
the articles themselves at some central points 
where colleges and settlements could have access 
to them, (2) notice of especial work done by 
students along social lines and of desire of stu- 
dents and settlements to gather or tabulate infor- 
mation, statistics, and other material. 

(e) Special graduate and other courses at col- 
lege opened to social workers. The colleges should 
be welcomed to attend lectures and courses by 
social organizations. Settlements and organiza- 
tions have much material that would provide the 
practical side for the theoretical college work, and 
exchange of these commodities would be mutually 
beneficial. 

(f ) Establishment of fellowships where students 
could be given field work to supplement definite 
college courses. 

(g) Work of students as volunteer visitors for 
C. O. S., Penny Provident, should be encouraged. 

The following detailed suggestions are by Mrs. 
Elsie Clews Parsons, Hartley House Fellow (act- 
ing assistant to Prof. Giddings in Department of 
Sociology at Barnard College), and Treasurer of 
C. S. A.: 

In answer to question 3. The college can be 



THE COMMONS 



17 



useful to the C. O. S. in many ways, among 
which I would suggest: 

1. In providing volunteer workers from among 
students in actual attendance. This is done to 
some extent in New York City, and to a larger 
extent in Cambridge, through the Students' Vol- 
unteer Committee, of which Mr. Birtwell has had 
diarge for many years. 

2. By providing from the faculty members of 
the Board of Managers, Chairmen of District 
Committees, etc. 

3. By supplying expert statistical advice in re- 
gard to forms used in the ordinary work of the 
society, statistics to be collected, and books to 
be selected for reference libraries. 

4. By giving workers an opportunity to attend 
special courses where these are given at con- 
venient hours. 

5. By providing speakers for public meetings. 

6. By studying and analyzing ease records and 
aiding the practical workers to draw general con- 
clusions from them. 

7. By attending charity conferences to become 
actively interested in the questions which are dis- 
cussed in such conferences. 

8. By encouraging their graduates to enter pro- 
fessionally upon this kind of work when it can 
be made to their advantage to do so. 

The societies can aid the colleges: 

1. By ofifering, in some instances, a satisfactory 
career to college graduates. 

2. By providing material for laboratory study 
and statistical inquiry. 

3. By directing the work of students who wish 
to do volunteer work arid who otherwise might 
enter upon it in a haphazard and misdirected way. 

4. By giving practical talks or occasional courses 
of lectures upon subjects which are of interest 
in sociological courses, and which can best be 
treated by practical workers. 

5. By providing literature (periodicals, annual 
reports, pamphlets, etc.) useful for the study of 
social questions. 

They can be mutually helpful: 

1. By promoting good legislation, both state 
and local, and in arousing public sentiment 
against that which is pernicious. 

2. In securing the appointment of good oflScials, 
both in public oiBces and in private societies. 

3. In educating public opinion upon charitable 
and social questions. 

4. In raising the professional standard of social 
work in various ways, such as the organilzation of 
summer courses, of evening lectures, and of useful 
periodicals. 

Summary of answers to the question, "WiU 



you outline a college course especially adapted to 
prepare workers for your distinctive workf" 

Economics, Theory and Practical Investigation. 

Sociology, Theory and Field Work. 

Civics: Municipal Problems, Anthropology and 
Ethnology. 

History: Industrial Crises and Development, 
Lives of Kef ormers. Poor Laws. 

Psychology: Education, Aesthetics, Ethics, prac- 
tical and theoretical. Comparative Religious. 

Music, Chemistry, Physical Science. 

In The House Beautiful for June, Wallace Rice, 
in an illustrated article on '"Miss Starr's Book 
Binding," at Hull HousCj has this to say: 

' ' The proof of the workwoman is her work, in 
the last analysis. Since Miss Starr's return to 
Hull House in Chicago, where she maintains her 
shop, much that she has done deserves high praise 
for its conscientious workmanship, for its faithful 
carrying out of the spirit of her master's de- 
signs (Cobden Sanderson), and for close adhe- 
rence to the. principle of binding none but worthy 
books, and those in the worthiest manner. In 
spite of the disadvantages under which the Amer- 
ican bookbinder labors in respect of the finest 
materials, which must be had in Paris, and after 
much has been taken by the famous Parisian book- 
binders. Miss Starr has achieved some noteworthy 
results in her chosen occupation." 



Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, long identified with 
the Northwestern University Settlement, has a 
suggestive article in the same magazine on the 
"Simplification of Life," of which these are the 
closing words: 

"This gregariousness rushing on apace in 
American cities, this living in tiers and learning 
to bear patiently the sound of the reighbor's 
pianos and noisy children, to endure the odors 
and publicity and restlessness of apartment-house 
life, is, after all, a struggle to simplify life and 
yet enjoy all of the 'modern conveniences' and 
keep in close touch with the city's panoramic life. 
There is danger of sacrificing the wrong things in 
the eflfort to simplify. Work and care and duty 
are the very fabric of life, and not to be escaped, 
but gladly undertaken. What we get in exchange 
for them is the important point — whether gold or 
dros8. 

' ' Wisdom and co-operation are needed to guide 
and develop the growing feeling and effort to 
evolve the simple life, artistically ordered, out of 
the average chaotic and commonplace one." 



Success is a very hideous thing, and its resem- 
blance with merit deceives men. — "Lee Miser- 



18 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
Labor from the SoclaLl Settlement Point ef View. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



E:ditor. 



Entered at Chicago Post 0£Sce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.s Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents <!^^^^>ttw [A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



Too few American settlements have had the 
advantage, which many settlement houses in Eng- 
Isind have all along found practicable and profit- 
able, of having in residence those in official posi- 
^ tions of civic, educational and philanthropic trust. 
Hull House and the University Settlement in 
New York have, perhaps, led the way among 
us, to this much-to-be desired end in which other 
settlements may well endeavor to follow, for the 
sake of both the settlement and eivic service. 
Chicago Commoks is glad to give and get the 
advantage of having one of its residents in the 
supeiintendency of Chicago's Municipal Lodging 
House. His valuable service to the city and the 
settlement cause may be suggested by his de- 
scriptive sketch of the new, but long and des- 
perately needed, opportunity to apply intelligence, 
experience, justice and humanity to the problem 
of caring for homeless men. How well he has im- 
proved it, we, who knew Chicago before, can 
testifv. 



The Labor Day Outlook. 

As our contribution to Labor Day comment 
this year we cannot present anything more valu- 
able than the summary of "Labor Movement 
Week," carefully compiled from the full reports 
in The Ouxutaiaqaa Assembly Herald. The power- 
ful appeal made by these strong men for far- 
sighted intelligence, tolerant patience and hopeful 
confidence are especially needed just now. For 
those under the frightful pressure of these fateful 
strike-times are not more likely to be violently 
bitter, on both sides, than those who judge and 
criticize from afar are likely to be pessimistic 
ii. their judgment of those at issue and of the 
ou*eome of the titanic struggle. No man to wnuiu 
the facts of the situation are known, and by whom 
they are squarely faced, can make light of its 
gravity to either side, or to the still greater pub- 
lie issues at stake. But the seriousness of the 
situation and the fact that no one knows an; 
single solution, either ready at hand or in plain 
sight, should paralyze the hope and effort for 



an outcome worthy of the American democratie 
ideal and spirit. The imperative duty of the 
hour is to understand and interpret facts on both 
sides, and to deal in a just and conciliatory way 
with each successive phase of the situation within 
range of personal influence or corporate action, 
refusing either to be driven into paralytic pes- 
simism or an inanely do-less, easy-going optimism. 
The strength of the settlements is to quietly and 
firmly maintain their position between the lines, 
refusing to be stampeded from their belief in the 
good men on either side and the justice which lies 
somewhere within reach of both. 



The Eelation of Settlements to Politics. 

Arguments for and against activity in local poli- 
tics apply of course only to those Settlements 
whose resident or neighborhood constituencies may 
be in vital touch with men, and within the sphere 
of political influence. Settlements which have no 
voters in residence and few men within reach of 
their influence, of course, can have very little or 
no political significance in their districts. Settle- 
ments handicapped by too much non-resident con- 
trol or repression lack that freedom which only a 
large degree of household and local autonomy 
can give and which is absolutely essential to actual 
participation in ward politics, or indeed in any 
other sphere of neighborhood life. Even with 
these conditions in possession, a Settlement can- 
not hope to exert any real political influence until 
its men residents have been long and closely 
enough identified with a fair proportion of the 
voters to be accepted by them as personally identi- 
fied with them and as having actual interests at 
stake. The intrusion of "carpet baggers" and 
outside "reformers" is rightfully resented as an 
impertinence in local polities, where home-rule is 
jealously guarded as an inalienable right and a 
safeguard of personal liberty. 

Even when free from such insurmountable 
hindrances some Settlements hesitate or decline to 
take any part in politics, because whatever part 
may be taken will surely be divisive and wiU cost 
friendly relationships with some of the neighbors. 
The primary purpose of the Settlement is rightly 
held to be the social unification of the people, and 
everything that threatens to impair its unifying 
influence may weU be cautiously considered, but 
not always avoided. For a fatally short-sighted 
view of the function of a Settlement, as well a^ 
the relation of local politics to it, is serioti^ in- 
volved. Settlements must not be blind ttf the fact 
that the arbitrarily superimposed fHrty lines, 
which are so irrelevant to all l*I interests at 
stake in local politics, are iBpelessly divisive. 
They net only introduce t* a neighborhood and 



THE COMMONS 



19 



foster political and moral corruption, but prevent 
the people best qualified to suppress and eradi- 
cate such evils from working together. They 
array one set of neighbors against another in 
strife over fictitious issues, or as unwilling "con- 
stituents" of self-seeking, self -nominated bosses, 
who are in politics only for what they can get 
out of the people for themselves. Meanwhile the 
meretricious "success" of these ward bosses in 
gaining prominence, place and spoils sets them up 
as exemplars to the aspiring boys and young men, 
who are tempted to think them to be the kind of 
men whom the people really honor and support, 
like whom they must be if they would be honored 
and advanced in life. Precept and example set 
forth by settlement, school or church carry very 
little weight against this argimient of practical 
success. 

The Settlements must choose, then, between di- 
viding precept from example, ideal from practice, 
and risking antagonism, which at worst is likely 
to prove only temporarily and superficially 
divisive. In one instance, where a Settlement 
initiated a movement of independent voters which 
resulted in the overthrow of the local bosses of 
both political parties, and in the imprisonment 
of two of their dupes for attempting to steal an 
election by fraudulently changing the figures on 
the tally-sheet of a voting precinct, the fierce 
threats against the house and its residents were 
idly harmless, and most of both gangsters' reti- 
nues soon became friendly, including one of the 
two dethroned bosses who was thus ousted from 
the office of alderman. In another instance, where 
the effort of a Settlement failed, against far 
greater odds, to disi)ossess an almost impregnably 
entrenched ward boss, it aroused a much more seri- 
ous antagonism, but its social influence, friendly re- 
lationship and extensive neighborhood work have 
not been perceptibly impaired or impeded. Even if 
its political prestige suffers for years to come, it 
is at worst only good-naturedly regarded as hav- 
ing been beaten at the game of chance and skill 
which politics is thought to be. In being willing 
to suffer defeat, and take all the risks, in standing 
for its ideals through thick and thin and to the 
bitter end, this Settlement did more to rally and 
unify the loyalty of the people to the highest and 
best than it ever could have done in maintaining 
a compromising attitude in the interests of a 
superficial harmony. 

Strictly non-partisan must the position of the 
Settlement be, however free the party affiliations 
of its residents are left to their individual prefer- 
ence. To stand in between all party organiza- 
tions, willing to help each, is a far stronger posi- 
tion than to identify the Settlement with any one 
of them, even the most independent. For it thus 



encourages independent voters in all parties, and 
strengthens every influence within the organiza- 
tion tending toward worthier principles and nomi- 
nations. The Settlement's neutral ground and 
independent influence are a standing offer of help 
to the better elements in all parties, which one 
after another they are generally sure to seek. A 
Settlement hall at free command for such political 
uses may, if wisely used and as wisely reserved, 
be no small factor in local politics. The balance 
of power can thus very often, though not always, 
be held and wielded by a non-partisan political 
club centering at, or inspired by, a Settlement, 
but the power thus in balance must be placed and 
kept in the hands of voters of the district or- 
ganized and trained to hold and wield it. It must 
never be claimed as the prerogative of the Settle- 
ment, much less of any outside organization that 
presumes to reform politics for the people. 

With such wisely and effectively constituted and 
managed efforts to co-operate with the better 
elements of all parties in striving for higher ca- 
pacity and integrity in city politics as the Chi- 
cago Municipal Voters' League, Settlements may 
safely and with reciprocal advantage affiliate. 
Yet the independence of the local organization, 
fostered by the Settlement, should be preserved 
organically intact from absorption, even by such 
justly popular city-wide movements as these, if it 
is to possess and perpetuate real political in- 
fluence in the locality and actually to play prac- 
tical politics. 

(Eeprinted by the courtesy of The Neighbor, 
to whose columns the article was originally con- 
tributed by Graham Taylor.) 



In connection with the article on "The Burden 
of Christopher," the novel by Miss Florence Con- 
verse, of Denison House, Boston, published in 
the July issue of The Commons, the name of the 
publisher of the book was, through an oversight, 
omitted. "The Burden of Christopher" is pub- 
lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. 

Miss Scudder's Atlantic Articles on De- 
mocracy. 

In the Atlantic Monthly for May, Vida D .Scud- 
der, of Wellesley College, opened a series of 
papers to answer the question how we Ameri- 
cans, without abandoning home, profession or 
personal interests, may further the cause of 
social unity and help to draw all our citizens into 
one invisible common wealf 

The intellectual and moral disunion prevailing 
among us is the hidden weakness in our democracy 
which the writer takes as her point of departure. 
The dramatic fact, which at once stimulates and 
appals, is that all the elements of disunion that 



20 



THE COMMONS 



human history has evolved are at play among the 
people gathered on our shore. Eaeial hostility 
blends with religious antipathy; both enhance 
that class antagonism present in every civiliza- 
tion, but for obvious reasons more conscious and 
aggressive in a democracy than elsewhere. These 
dark-winged spirits of discord seek to hold their 
mighty sway in a country dedicated as no other 
land has ever been to the creation of a universal 
fellowship. Bafiling are the intellectual differ- 
ences to the social explorer who ventures beyond 
all those interests which form a common world 
wherein the sons of privilege abide together. But 
still more so is the absence of a common ethical 
consciousness. Strange and interesting are the 
variations in ethical type among differing social 
groups. For example, the strict regard for exist- 
ing rights, which makes justice the ideal virtue 
of the privileged classes, is offset by a people who 
have conquered no such right, with their favored 
virtue of generosity. To the one the other seems 
as shiftless as to the other the one seems in- 
humanly hard. The appeal of the situation is to 
the average man to co-operate all he can with 
thoee forces making for vital fellowship and shap- 
ing the nation into one harmonious whole. Upon 
the average man's attitude in private life depends 
the success or failure of the spiritual democracy. 

In the June Atlantic the writer proceeds to dis- 
cuss, under the title, "A Hidden Weakness in Our 
Democracy," democracy in education. Admitting 
that industrial conditions at present absolutely 
forbid the manual worker from entering on any 
large scale or in any general sense into the intel- 
lectual heritage of the race, she claims that these 
same workers possess faculties even now ready to 
yield quick response to a wise culture, and only 
await a wider freedom to help in enlarging and 
uplifting our intellectual life. Though not easy, 
it is possible to discover by delicate experiment 
the common ground where educated and unedu- 
cated can alike rejoice to wander, but by no 
shorter or easier way can the enrichment of the 
worker's life be promoted than by living the CMn- 
mon life in common. 

Miss Scudder 's third article on ' ' Democracy and 
Society" will be eagerly read in the pages of the 
Atlantic for September. Her "singularly well 
considered essay upon 'Democracy and the 
Church' " is announced for the October number. 



The gloomy voice of the people could be heard 
hoarsely growling. It is a startling and sacred 
voice, composed of the yell of the brute and the 
word of God, which terrifies the weak and warns 
the wise, and which at once comes from below like 
the voice of the lion, and from above like the 
voice of thunder. — "Les Miserables. " 



Chicago Commons. 

The political pot has been boiling fiercely all 
summer, as the movement for an independent can- 
didate to represent our district in the state legis- 
lature has centered at Chicago Commons. The 
two parties nominated only three candidates for 
the three oflices. So an independent effort be- 
came necessary to save the election from being 
the sorry farce it has been for several years, and 
to assure the possibility of having at least one 
reputable representative. As under the propor- 
tional representation system each voter can cast 
three votes for one candidate, we have a good 
chance of electing the capable and honest nomi- 
nee selected by our district "legislative" league 
from a field of no less than seven or eight worthy 
aspirants. By the courtesy of The Neighbor we 
are permitted to make editorial use of an article 
contributed to its columns, which is timely to our 
situation at Chicago Commons and may be to that 
which other Settlements confront. 

OUR PLAYGROUND SHOULD NOT CLOSE. 

The four months' lease and management of the 
public playground opposite Chicago Commons was 
one of the ventures of the summer. Well war- 
ranted has been the investment which our neigh- 
bors put into it and the gratuitous personal 
service which, at no small cost, has been contrib- 
uted by the half dozen young women and men to 
the child-life of our neighborhood. Children and 
parents alike have shown their appreciation of 
the privilege of play (which ought to be every 
child's right). The need of the playground will 
not cease with the summer. All through the 
fine autumn weather, which often continues into 
December, it can be in constant use. In win^ 
the commissioner of public works heis offered to 
flood it for use as a little skating park. For $50 
per month we can probably continue our lease and 
directorship of it. Who will assume this great 
service to the children of our streets at this com- 
paratively small cost? Our lease expires at the 
end of this month. 

SAFE MILK FOR BABIES AND THE SICK. 

Although the summer heat has not caused the 
usual suffering among little children, the excessive 
rains have brought much sickness to many homes. 
So the supply of pasteurized milk, which in co- 
operation with other Settlementa and the city 
health department, has been eagerly sought, has 
brought us in friendly contact with many families. 

DISTRICT VISITING NURSE IN RESIDENCE. 

The residence at Chicago Commons of the visit- 
ing nurse of our district has been of great 
reciprocal advantage both to her work and that 
of the Settlement. Never has there been such 
widespread need of her skilled and tender service 
all about us as just now. 



TKe Commons 

.- A Slouthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlement Feint of View. 



Number 76-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, November, 190a 



THE NBW PROMETHEUS. 

BY JOHN FINLEV. 

Who, who shall bring us back the fire again? 

We thought a new Prometheus now had come. 

Champion of men, unmindful of himself. 

Willing his high prerogative to lose 

If he might, sharing, mend the lot of all. 

He failed? But so the old Prometheus failed 

When he did first essay to arbitrate 

'Twixt gods and men, inviting praise and hate; 

And though he suffered torture through long 

years. 
His vitals by the vultures daily plucked. 
Yet brought he fire at last to men again;— 
And so may he, who recking not of pain. 
Nor counting gain, nor minding adverse fame, 
Is still unbaffled in his vicar task. 
The pent-up fires may he for us unloose! 
Here's strength unto his purpose and his arm! 
—From Tlie Independent. 



MINNEAPOLIS CONFERENCE OF EM- 
PLOYER AND EMPLOYE. 

BY PROFESSOR FRANK L. M'VEY, UNIVERSITY OF 
MINNESOTA. 

In 1901 Mr. G. L. Rockwell of Minneapolis 
organized an Eight-Hour league and proposed 
early in that year to hold a convention, na- 
tional in character, to discuss the various 
phases of that proposition. He associated with 
him a number of Influential citizens of Minne- 
apolis who early recognized the futility of a 
discussion of a single question of this kind. 
There was a tendency to drop the eight-hours 
convention idea and let the whole matter pass, 
but at this point the originator of the eight- 
hours convention suggested that a wider appli- 
cation of the idea be had and that the conven- 
tion be made an employer and employe confer- 
ence. This change in the scope of the conven- 
tion was accepted and an executive committee 
was formed consisting of Cyrus Northrop, pres- 
ident of the University of Minnesota, Thos. 
Lowry, president of the Twin City Transit 
Company, J. B. Gilflllan, lawyer, Marion D. 
Shutter, pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, 
A. B. Cutts, general passenger agent of the 
Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, Ira B. Shut- 



tuck, proprietor of Nicollet House, Lucian 
Swift, manager of Minneapolis Journal, and 
Prof. W. W. Folwell. The originator of the 
plan, Mr. Rockwell, was named as secretary. 
It was found that special attention would have 
to be given to the organization of the program 
and the preparation of the literature necessary 
to set forth the purposes of the convention. To 
this task Dr. W. A. Schaper of the University 
of Minnesota was called. 

PARTY OF THE THIRD PART KKCOCNIZED. 

In the past many conferences of employers 
and employes had been held, but the secretary 
of the literature committee was anxious that 
this conference should recognize two factors in 
the problem that had been omitted in previous 
conferences. These were the government and 
the public. The program then must not only 
be one that would move forward with its sub- 
jects for discussion, but also include the four 
interested parties to the discussion: employer, 
employe, the government and the public. la 
this it is the writer's belief that the program 
was unusually successful. 

The organization had scarcely been completed 
when secret opposition was found bearing upon 
the conference and its success. Efforts espe- 
cially from so-called capitalistic quartei-s were 
made to call the convention off, but the per- 
sistent efforts of the secretaries and the chair- 
man of the committee finally resulted in the 
plans being carried out. The community, and 
many of the labor leaders feared that with the 
original intention of the convention in the way 
of the new venture great opposition might 
spring up against the movement. In this they 
were not disappointed. When, however, the 
consent ot President Roosevelt was gained to 
address the conference the way was clear for the 
consummation of the plan. Invitations were 
sent to men in all walks of life throughout the 
United States to be present. Many of these 
were .'.ccepted, but afte all is said and done the 
"conference of employer and employe" was a 
meeting of employer and employe with the first 
suspicious to the last and conspicuous by his 
absence. The notable exceptions to this rule 
were the men upon the program 



THE COM MONS 



UUOIPIXG OF SUIiJECTS AND SPEAKERS. 

The proTram uself may be divided into 
groups of subjects and speakers. Such a di- 
vision will suggest very clearly the careful plan 
the maker of the program, Dr. Schaper, had 
in mind. The thesis of the meetings is found 
in the title of Carroll D. Wright's paper, "Is 
There a Solution to the I.^bor Problem?" After 
this comes a discussion of the various efforts 
that have been made to secure some answer to 
the problem. These were: I. Arbitration. II. 
Better Labor Conditions. III. Employers' 
Efforts for Betterment. IV. The Place of the 
Government and the Public. In these discus- 
sions the speakers may be grouped as follows: 

EMPLOYE— Frank P. Sargent, Commissionet 
of the Bureau of Immigration. 

E. J. Gainer, Secretary of the Executive 
Board of the National Association of 
Letter Carriers. 

W. H. Jackson, President International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. 

W. E. McEwen, Secretary-Treasurer of Min- 
nesota T^o"* — "■ 1 of Labor. 

EMPLOYER— Herman Justi, Commissioner of 
the Illinois Coal Operators' Association. 

E. Sutro, Sutro & Son, Philadelphia. 

W. D. Wiman, John Deere Plow Co. 

Jas. Kilbourne, Kilbourne & Jacobs Co. 

A. B. Stickney, President of Great Western 
Railway. 

UNIVERSITIES— Cyrus Northrop, University 
of Minnesota. 
John Bates Clark, Columbia University. 
Frank L. McVey, University of Minnesota. 
Chas. Zueblin, University of Chicago. 
Richard T., Ely, University of Wisconsin. 

SOCIAL WORKERS— Jane Addams, Hull 

House. 
Florence Kelley, Secretary National Con- 

sumera' League. 
Mrs. Elizabeth A. Wheeler, Social Secretary 

of the Shepard Co. 
Julian V. Wright, Assistant Manager of 

Labor Bureau, National Cash Register 

Company. 
William H. Tolman, Secretary of the League 

for Social Service. 

THE GOVERNMENT: State— P. W. Job, 
Chairman of the Illinois Board of Arbi- 
tration. 
Samuel R. VanSant, Governor of Minnesota. 

FEDERAL — President Theodore Roosevelt. 

Frank P. Sargent. Commissioner of the 
Bureau of Immigration. 

But few of the speakers failed to make their 
appearance upon the platform of the confer- 
ence. Among these were the two representa- 
tives of the federal government, one prevented 
by an operation and the other by business en- 
gagements. The other absentee i were Prof. 
Richard T. Ely of the University of Wisconsin, 
and Mr. E. Sutro of Philadelphia. In order 
that the reader may get the full scope of the 
conference the program is given in full at this 
point. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22. 
EVENING SES,S10N, 7:30 P. M. 

1. Music, orchestra. 

2. The National Conference of Employers and 

Employes, called to order by David P. 
Jones,/ Acting Mayor of Minneapolis. 

3. Prayer, Rev. Dr. Marion D. Shutter. 

4. Address of Welcome, Samuel R. VanSant, 

Governor of Minnesota. 

5. Election of officers and perfection of a tem- 

porary organization. 

6. Opening Address, Cyrus Northrop, President 

of the University of Minnesota. 

7. "Is There a Solution to the Labor Question?" 

Carroll D. Wright, United States Commis- 
sioner of Labor. 

8. Discussion of the paper to be opened by Rich- 

ard T. Ely, Director of the School of Eco- 
nomics, Political Science, University of Wis- 
consin. 

tuesday, september 23. 
Morning Session, 10:00. a. M. 

1. "Arbitration, Its Uses and Abuses," Herman 

Justi, Commissioner of the Illinois Coal 
Operators' Asociation of Chicago. 

2. "Arbitration from the Point of View of an 

Arbitrator," F. W. Job, Chairman of the 
Board of Arbitration of the State of Illinois, 
Chicago. 

3. Opening the discussion of the above paper, 

Avery C. Moore, Grangeville, Idaho. 
AFTERNOON SESSION, 3:00 P. M. 

5. "Some Views on Arbitration," Frank P. Sar- 

gent, Commissioner Bureau of Immigration, 
Washington, D. C. 

6. "Is Compulsory Arbitration Inevitable?" 

John Bates Clark, Professor of Economics, 
Columbia University, New York. 

7. "Employers vs. Employes," E. Sutro, of E. 

Sutro & Son, J»hiladelphla. 

EVENING Session, 8:00 P. M. 

8. "The Opportunity of the Social Secretary," 

Elizabeth C. Wheeler, Social Secretary of 
the Shepard Company, Providence, R. I. 

9. "The Economic Efforts of the Eight-Hour 

Day," Frank L. McVey, Professor of Eco- 
nomics, University of Minnesota, Minne- 
apolis. 

10. Discussion opened by Prof. J. B. Clark, W. 
H. Jackson, President of the International 
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chicago; 
George P. Gordon, letter carrier, Minne- 
apolis. 

11. An address. W. D. Wiman, Vice-President 
John Deere Plow Company, Mollne, 111. 

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24. 
MORNING Session, 10:00 A. M. 

1. "The Rewards of Industry: How Produced 

and Divided," A. B. Stickney, President of 
Chicago Gi-eat Western Railway, St. Paul. 

2. "The Social Waste of Child Labor," Jane 

Addams, Hull House, Chicago. 

3. "The Indirect Employer, the Purchaser," 

Florence Kelley, Secretary of the National 
Consumers' League, New York. 

AFTERNOON SESSION, 3:00 P. M. 

4. "The Government as an Employer," E. J. 

Gainor, Secretary of the Executive Board 
of the National Association of Letter Car- 
riers, Muncie, Ind. 

6. "Some Advance Work." Julian V. Wright, 
Assistant Manager of the Labor Bureau, 
National Cash Register Company, Dayton, 
Ohio. 

EVENING Session, 8:00 P. M. 

6. "Some Phases of the Labor Question." Col. 
James Kilbourne. President and General 
Manager of the Kilbourne & Jacobs Manu- 
facturing Company, Columbus, Ohio. 



THE COM MONS, 



7. "The Higher Industrial L,l£e, or the Golden 
Rule in Business" (Illustrated), William H. 
Tolrnan, Secretary of the League for Social 
Service. New York. 

THURSDAY, SEPTKMBER 25. 
MoiiNiNG Session, 10:00 A. M. 

1. "The Relation of the Public to Capital and 

Labor," Charles Zueblln, Associate Profes- 
sor of Sociology, University of Chicago. 

2. "Future Relations of Labor and Capital," W. 

E. McEwen, Secretary-Treasurer Minnesota 
Federation of Labor. 

Afternoon Session, 3:00 P. M. 

3. An address to the Conference of Employers 

and Employes, Theodore Roosevelt, Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

EVENING Session, 8:00 P. M. 

4. Business meeting and perfection of a per- 

manent organization. 
Delegates and visitors are asked to register 
at headquarters in the West Hotel Immediately 
upon arrival. 

The convention was opened by the acting 
mayor. Mr. D. Pevey Jones, of the city, who, 
after a few remarks introduced Hon. Samuel 
R. Van Sant, the governor of Minnesota. In 
a brief speech of welcome the governor called 
attention to the high character of the labor 
legislation in the state of which he was gov- 
ernor and introduced President Northrop of 
the University of Minnesota as the chairman 
•f the evening. In an earnest address which 
put the object of the convention on a high 
plane. President Northrop opened the program. 
The following extracts from his address will 
make clear the importance of his discussion: 

PRESIDENT NORTHROP STRIKES THE KEY NOTE. 

"We are in the midst of great prosperity. 
Capital and labor are both in demand, are both 
abundant, and for the present are both in no 
condition of distress. At the same time, there 
is not a little unrest and not a little feeling of 
insecurity for the future. Some mighty con- 
flicts have been going on, and others, no doubt, 
are to come. 

No doubt capital has a right to combine — 
and, no doubt, also, labor has a right to com- 
bine. But might never yet made right, and it 
never can. No man has any right to live exclu- 
sively for himself, and no aggregation of men 
has any right to live exclusively for themselves. 
Capital owes a duty to labor, and labor owes 
a duty to capital. 

I cannot put my fingers on the absolute 
cRuse of contention. Under ordinary conditions, 
capital ought to be contented with a fair re- 
ward for its services. But ordinary conditions 
no longer exist, and neither labor nor capital 
is to-day satisfied with what would be a fair 
reward but for the abnormal condition of 
things. 

I suspect that the watering of stocks, the 
multiplication of the millions of capital by ar- 
bitrary arithmetic without adding a dollar to 
the value, has something to do with the trouble, 
and that the unrest of labor is in a large degree 
sccasioned by the necessity of earning a reason- 
able profit, not on actual capital, but on inflated 
an-d wateix>d capital. 



This will explain why labor Is so dissatisfied 
with conditions that would once have been 
deemed most happy. And it is not surprising 
that labor should grow disquieted over its mod- 
est rewards, when capital multiplies Itself at Its 
own sweet will and demands to-day interest on 
a hundred millions of stock representing pre- 
cisely the same property that yesterday was 
but fifty millions. 

This convention has been called in the inter- 
est of peace and harmony. It Is not intended to 
denounce capital, nor to denounce labor. It is 
not intended to promote the interests of any po- 
litical party or the theories of any particular 
school of economics. It recognizes the fact that 
the present methods of settling disputes be- 
tween labor and capital are terribly costly, op- 
posed to the best interests of the people and not 
productive of permanent good to any one. 

It desires to find some way by which strikes 
and lockouts can be avoided, and capital and 
labor work together without interruption. For 
this purpose, the ablest thinkers of the country 
have been invited to attend the convention and 
address it. Many of them have accepted and 
will speak during the week. The President of 
the United States will speak the last day of the 
convention, and I doubt not that he will have 
much to say that will be most interesting." 

V. a. LABOR COMMISSIONER CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 

Upon Hon. Carroll D. Wright rested the pres- 
entation and discussion of what might be called 
the thesis of the conference. From the view- 
point of many of his audience the address was 
regarded as academic and in sense it was, but 
for a broad view of the labor question it is 
doubtful if the situation has ever been so well 
put. In substance he said: 

"It is perfectly natural and human that men 
should seek an Immediate panacea for existing 
evil. John Stuart Mill has said that there is 
not any one abuse nor Injustice by the abolish- 
ment of which the human race can pass to hap- 
piness. How much greater are the difl[lculties 
when we try to solve the whole range of this 
mighty question. 

The question is not how to kill or remove the 
cause, but to soften the struggle. To this end 
many remedies have been suggested. We will 
now consider some of these methods. First, 
through legislation. Now, if any effort has 
proved fallible, it is the attempt to secure good, 
pure individual character by statutory enact- 
ment. 

You may read the history of the world in its 
statutes; yet statutes are not the leaders, but 
the followers of the popular voice. Laws are 
but the crystallization of public sentiment, and 
as such they may exert an educational influ- 
ence. But they can never serve as a solution of 
social and economic problems. 

Then there is compulsory inspection of fac- 
tories, which is mere police regulation. We 
have had this inspection for years, yet the 
problem still exists. We have laws fixing lia- 
bility for accidents to employes, but they have 
not relieved the strain. 

Laws for the betterment of sanitary condi- 
tions have wrought worthy reforms, but they 
have not touched the heart of the problem. 

Lessening the hours of labor has not proved 
beneficial, iDUt to a very limited extent. As for 
arbitration, while I am favorable to the system 
in adjusting differences between nations or be- 
tween employers and employed, yet I cannot see 
in it a solution. 

Much of the harm resulting from a neces- 



THE COM M ONS 



sary reduction of wages consists in the spirit 
of suspicion engendered. 'The worlier fights 
against the cut because he must fight again 
for an increase. 

The single tax doctrines and nationalism are 
questions too vast for discussion. But it is safe 
to say that when the single tax advocates can 
demonstrate to us that one-half or even one- 
tenth of the benefits they claim for their sys- 
tem are profitable, we will all gladly become 
single taxers. 

Socialism is the most ambitious remedy that 
has been offered. Socialism is not a vital prin- 
ciple, because it has no God in it. It embodies • 
no God because it does not recognize the God- 
given qualities in human nature. It is not a 
constructive force. It has no justice, no hu- 
manity, no progress. 

The decalogue is as good a labor platform 
as any. In religion we find the highest form of 
solution yet offered. Next to religion comes 
constructive evolution — that evolution which be- 
lieves in the potency of effort. 

The economic man is growing into the co- 
ordinate man. We are to have a new law of 
wages, grown out of the religious thought. The 
old struggle is for existence. The new struggle 
is for a wider spiritual margin. The appli- 
cation of this religious idea is the true solution 
of the labor problem. 

The whole question must be placed on an 
altruistic basis. Man's average of conduct is 
not better than his character. His treatment 
of his fellows is consistent with his sense of 
justice. 

Out of this new strug'gle is growing a new 
political, economy. It holds all things contained 
in the old, but there are many additions. The 
new economy looks largely to the care and com- 
fort of the men. The new religion is one of 
progress, and one of its results will be the al- 
liance of ethics and economics. 

Religion forecasts the social destiny of man. 
The remedy may effect a relief, but not a curft 
There is to be a continual struggle, so let us 
soften that struggle as best we may. 

This position reaches into the coming re- 
vival of a religrion which shall hold in its power 
the church, industry, commerce and the whole 
social fabric. Whoever aids the struggle for 
higher standards in rational ways Is the friend 
of humanity; whoever retards it by irrational 
ways is the enemy of humanity. 

ABBITBAnON. 

The sessions of the morning and afternoon 
on Tuesday were devoted to arbitration. The 
speakers in the morning were Mr. Herman 
Justi, commissioner of the Illinois Coal Oper- 
ators' Association, Mr. F. W. Job, chairman of 
the Illinois State Board of Arbitration, and 
Prof. J. B. Clark of Columbia University. The 
speakers were by no means agreed as to the 
final outcome of arbitration. Mr. Justi was op- 
posed to arbitration, while Prof. Clark went 
so far as to assert that the existing conditions 
would make some form of compulsory arbitra- 
tion inevitable. The following are extracts 
from the address of Mr. Justi: 

"The subject of this address is suggested by 
the freedom with which the term 'arbitration' 
is used as a word to conjure with. Its meaning 
seems to be little understood. To many people 
it is something new, and to the popular mind 
its very novelty places a dangerous glamor 



about it. The gravitj' of arbitration and all 
that it Involves is little appreciated, and. herein 
lies one of the prime causes for its abuse. Wise 
labor leaders and thoughtful employers of labor 
view it alike with apprehension. 

The most persistent advocates of indiscrimi- 
nate arbitration are generally of the class who 
know least about the danger of arbitration, for 
the reason that the proposition to arbitrate is 
seldom carried home to them. Those who have 
most to say upon the subject among the class 
of our citizens who are at the same time the 
most intelligent, are notably our clergymen, our 
lawyers and our editors. Some of the difficul- 
ties of arbitration as they appear to others 
might be carried home to them. Suppose the 
city clergyman's salary is to be decided by a 
board of arbitration, and it is submitted to one 
composed of rural preachers, who are admitted 
to be honest and intelligent men. The salary 
of the famous city clergrj'man would in all prob- 
ability assume the sorry proportions of a bar 
of soap after a day's hard washing. 

In the coal mining industry of Illinois, arbi- 
tration by outsiders would be well-nigh impos- 
sible, whether the interests of employers or em- 
ployes are to be considered. Why? Because In 
the coal industry of Illinois certain fixed or ac- 
cepted principles of political economy were 
thrown overboard long ago. It is no longer a 
question of the survival of the fittest — a ques- 
tion of natural conditions — a question of the 
earning capacity of the workmen. It is the 
competitive conditions which must be taken 
into consideration in order to determine the 
scale of wages for mining coal; it is a question 
of giving or of dividing work in mines, and 
among miners in the different coal fields of the 
state. Arbiters not thoroughly familiar with 
the peculiar conditions of the coal mining in- 
dustry in Illinois might succeed in either arbi- 
trating some of the operators out of business 
or in arbitrating a large number of deserving 
workmen out of emplojinent, because most men 
not in the industry itself would be governed by 
the general laws of trade or of political econ- 
omy. Is it surprising, therefore, that corpora- 
tions representing great industrial interests, or 
labor organizations representing the sacred and 
vital interests of laborers, hesitate to arbitrate 
and especially to arbitrate through an alien 
body? 

I am convinced that only by organization 
can common labor get the maximum wages for 
its hire. I am equally well convinced that only 
through' organization of the employer class will 
capital obtain from organized labor the most 
and the best service in return for the wages 
paid. 

In no age of the world has the labor problenx 
seemed either more complicated or more impor- 
tant, and in solving it we must look to experts 
or specialists — to wise, strong, fair men, who 
will consecrate their lives and dedicate their 
talents to its proper solution. It is a great, 
vast, intricate problem, and it is not enough, 
therefore, that we have 'good Samaritans,' wise 
philanthropists, kind and generous men and 
women in large centers of population helping 
to solve it, but what we need is more such 
lives as these, consecrated to humanity in the 
lowly walks of life and in out-of-the-way places. 

An occasion like the present confers upon so- 
ciety only the minimum of good unless the les- 
sons here learned and the resolutions here 
formed are religiously enforced day by day. 

Let us arise to the needs of our times and 
remove the dangers by which we are threat- 
ened. Let us apply to all public questions, but 
more particularly to that most vital question 
affecting the relations of capital and labor, our 



THE COMMONS 



well-earned national virtue, common sense, and 
the boasted quality ot our race, the spirit of 
fair play." 

ILI.I.XOIS STATE BOARD OF ARBITRATION.  

The discussion at this point was continued 
by Mr. F. W. Job, who spoke as an officer ap- 
pointed by the state to encourage reconciliation 
and moderation in labor disputes. The paper 
read by Mr. Job was exceedingly suggestive ot 
the future possibilities of state boards of recon- 
ciliation that were willing to prevent trouble 
before it occurred and by bearing the expense 
remove one of the obstacles to arbitration. The 
refusal of either side to take the initiative in 
tJie settlement of a labor dispute is overcome by 
the existence of the state board. Upon this 
point Mr. Job says: 

'We found, among other things, that neither 
side ever wanted to pose or be considered as a 
party which had suggested the meeting of the 
participants in the strike. 

Accordingly we originated a system of what 
might be called 'butting in' to labor troubles 
and of framing and delivering what we regard 
as a tempting invitation, to conferences, which 
we soon found was effecting results. With these 
principles in mind we coupled with our invita- 
tions to combatants the guarantees. 

First — That a conference with each other and 
with our board would do them no harm, if it 
did them no good, 'and would at learst leave 
them where we found them, if it did not settle 
the trouble. ' 

Second— That our board could be relied upon 
not to carry tales from one side to another. We 
realized that we knew that no trouble was ever 
settled by the mediator or peacemaker who car- 
ries stories from one side to the other. 

Third— That it would not cost the contestants 
a single cent; that the state paid the bills. 

We find that when we have reached the point 
where we can get the employer and his em- 
jiloye to agree to meet and reason together that 
they are always well on the road to reconcilia- 
tion. 

By far the most common .source of our trouble 
is the recognition of the union, and this brings 
me to the subject of why, in my opinion, there 
are so many strikes at the present time. From 
my humble point of view I believe the recent 
advance in the cost of living and of the com- 
modities used by laboring men, which I think 
can be put conservatively at from 30 to 40 per 
cent during the past year or eighteen months, 
and the unusual prosperity of the country, 
which has made the manufacturer too busy in 
many instances lo attend to the question of 
what wages his employes are getting, I believe 
these things have caused many of the recent 
strikes. The advances in prices have resulted 
in mens forming unions for the betterment o£ 
their conditions, and in a great many instances 
strikes or lockouts have followed. 

Of course. I believe that the state board of 
arbitration is. or should be, one of the most im- 
portant boards in any state, and I have gone 
to some pains to make an investigation into 
the work done by various boards throughout 
the country, with the most surprisingly varying 
results. I find that twenty-four of the states 
of our union have boards of arbitration, or labor 
boards which exercise the functions of arbi- 
tration and mediation. In most of the states 
the salary paid boards of arbitration is so small 



that good citizens cannot be induced to accept 
the positions. 

We do not think that there is any short cut 
to the solution of all labor troubles. We do not 
claim to have a panacea to fix up every case. 
There is one thing this board does find, how- 
ever, and that is that a great many employers 
and employes who formerly were the last to 
think even of the matter of conciliation and ar- 
bitration are now the most eager to take the 
matter up, and, in fact, are clamoring for it." 

In the afternoon Prof. Clark was the only 
speaker. Mr. Sargent was detained by govern- 
ment business and Mr. Sutro of Philadelphia 
was also prevented from coming. The papers 
of these gentlemen were read by title. Mr. 
Sutro suggested shorter hours and a halt-holi- 
day on Saturday with fair wages as one of the 
best methods of avoiding labor difficulties. He 
also suggested the advisability of sending a 
commission to Europe to stiidy the lalxir ques- 
tion there. 

PROF. J. B. CLARK OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, N. Y. 

In perhaps what was the most impor1a,nt 
paper of the conference Prof. Clark called at- 
tention to the changed industrial* conditions ot 
the present and the inadequacy of a trade union 
as a force to deal with a great trust organiza- 
tion. Further than this the public has a right 
to be considered. Both facts alter the situation 
very materially and they bring the state to this 
dilemma. Will the government relentlessly en- 
force the law and prevent strike breaking or 
will it develop a system of compulsory arbi- 
tration? Prof. Clark made it very clear that 
to dream of world dominion on one hand and 
to fight among ourselves on the other was sure 
to weakeR the industrial organization. Por- 
tions of the speech are printed below: 

"It is an inspiring thought that, as the evil 
is institutional, the remedy may be so. and that 
by some change in the system we may bring 
peace to the world without waiting for it to 
people itself with better men than those who 
are now living. 

New Zealand settles such differences by com- 
pulsory arbitration, and this example has begun 
to provoke imitation. Indeed, the results of 
this experiment have led at least one prominent 
New Zealander publicly to tell Americans that 
the people of his island live in a vestibule of 
paradise and that Americans are living in a 
purgatory which may be the vestibule of — 
something worse. We need to inquire whether 
the conditions of our country are less favorable 
for compulsory arbitration than are those of 
New Zealand. If the differences tjetween the 
countries count In favor of such a system, by 
all means let us try it in some of our own 
states. 

What are some of these differences? First, 
our system of industry is more complex than is 
that of New Zealand. The different branches 
of it are closely interdependent and the para- 
lyzing effects of a strike In one of them extend 
through the whole system. Tbe injury that it 
causes goes far beyond the area of dispute. 
This increases the need of some measure for 



THE COMM ONS 



promoting harmony. Secondly, our country Is 
full of trusts and a strike instead of shutting up 
one mill out of a score or a hundred in the 
same industry, leaving others to minister to the 
needs of the public may paralyze them all and 
cut off the supply of some needed article. 

Every such strike is largely against the public 
and many of them occurring in quick succes- 
sion might have effect enough to impoverish a 
country, otherwise full of resources. The ex- 
istence of trusts puts many strikes on a radi- 
cally new footing. A motive for yielding to 
strikes is removed. When one employer out of 
a score in the same industry finds that his men 
have gone on strike, he is under strong pres- 
sure to make concessions to them. A trust has 
no such rivalry to fear and can bide its time 
before yielding to its men. 

On the other hand, the trust has much to 
gain by first holding out till its men are near 
the end of their resources and then making 
some small concession that will bring them back 
to their work. It can charge the cost of such 
a concession to the public and exact a large 
profit besides. It can mark up the price of its 
products and make the public pay twice over 
the costs that it incurs in fighting its men. 

Theoretically, competition gives to the laborer 
the value of the product that he specifically 
creates. The mill and the men together turn 
out certain quantities of cloth, shoes, pig iron 
or what not; apd there is a distinguishable part 
of this joint product which is traceable to the 
labor alone. The value of this separate part of 
the output of cloth, shoes or pig iron, as the 
case may be. is the natural pay of the men who 
make it, and this is what competition would 
give to them if it worked in entire perfection. 
It does not work in perfection, and one of the 
things that interferes is the inequality of 
strength that is apparent when consolidated 
capital makes a bargain with unconsolidated 
labor. What a trade union can compel an em- 
ployer to pay is thus partly governed by what' 
idle men here and there are willing temporarily 
to accept, and that may be an amount that by 
no means represents their entire earning power. 
Strike breaking freely allowed appears to cause 
wages again and again to fall somewhat below 
their normal level, though it may allow them 
afterward to rise slowly toward or to it. 

Yet there is not in our civil system any pro- 
vision for restraining this strike-breaking oper- 
ation. Idle men have an absolute right to take 
work when it is offered them, and employers 
have a perfect legal right to offer it. The 
only influence that prevents the offering and 
accepting of such work is that which trade 
unions themselves exert, and they exert it in a 
way that easily runs into a breach of social 
order. 

The only compulsory arbitration that I am 
willing to recognize as possible hinges on that, 
claim to a tenure of place which organized" 
workmen assert and vindicate in their own ir- 
regular way. It legalizes that right to the ex- 
tent of protecting from eviction men who ac- 
cept terms that are pronounced Just — but after 
it leaves men who reject just terms to go 
elsewhere and shift fr>r them.se!ves. 

Compulsory arbitration might easily go be- 
yond this and it has been supposed by many 
persons that it would do so and that it would 
encounter constitutional ditflculties. It has 
been thought that in announcing to a corpora- 
tion what would be the rate of wages, the 
tribunal would virtually say, 'You must pay 
this, and you must run your mill, whether you 
want to or not." This would be an interfer- 
ence with the rights of capital. It has also 
been supposed that in announcing the fair rate 



to the workmen, the court would say to thea, 
'You must take this amount and actually work, 
whether you wish to or not," which would be 
a clear interference with personal liberty. TWs 
kind of compulsory arbitration would encounter 
practical as well as legal difficulties. If, on tie 
contrary, you say to a body of strikers, 'Com- 
tinue at work while we investigate your claims. 
If you demand only that natural rate of pay 
which represents what you produce, you shall 
be protected in your tenure of place. If you 
ask more we will announce the rate which is 
natural and fair and give you the first optio« 
of accepting it. If, then, you refuse to take it, 
your tenure of place is forfeited, the employer 
may put new men in your places and they will 
be protected by the fullest power which the 
state can exercise.' 

This is the only logical outcome of the present 
anomalous and intolerable condition. As it is 
there are those who would have the state put 
forth its ultimate power wherever a strike oc- 
curs and protect to the uttermost the nom- 
union men whom the employing corporations 
may bring in to break up the movement at lis 
inception. This Is now what the law itself for- 
mally requires. Letting the present semi anarch- 
ism continue and increase would be thought of 
only if there were no way of avoiding it. There 
is one way only of avoiding it, and that is by 
creating competent tribunals which shall de- 
clare on what terras the workmen now in a 
given industry may keep their places in prefer- 
ence to other men and on what condition the 
other men may be allowed to come in under 
guaranties that they will make them safe. It 
is an adjudicating of the organized workmen's 
claim to their tenure of place, enforcing this 
claim where it is made on just terms and other- 
wise declaring it forfeited. 

In general, it may be said that there is a«- 
archy inherent in the present situation, and in 
two ways consolidations are making it worse. 
, First, they enable employers to put the cost of 
strikes on the public, and then make them will- 
ing at times to have production stopped. The 
burdens fall most heavily on working men, who 
are the most numerous and most sensitive part 
of the public. They feel the injury most and 
have most of it to feel. Consolidations also 
make the workman's tenure of place more im- 
portant to him and impel him to defend it, 
though he can do this only in irregular ways. 
The scale on which all this is taking place is 
growing larger as the consolidation of capital 
and the organization of labor progress, and It 
 is a question when the evil will become too 
great to be borne. 

I should like, if there were time, to try to 
prove that the kind of co.npulsory arbitration 
that I have suggested is practicable, and to try 
to prove that a court which settles the ques- 
tion of the workman's tenure of place has an 
obvious and practical way to' enforce its de- 
crees. 

It could, be shown, if there were sufficient 
time, that so much of authoritative arbitration 
as this signifies would protect both labor and 
capital from wrongs which they now suffer 
through irregularities of the present industrial 
state, and that in all probability it would re- 
sult in insuring rates of wages that would comi 
cearer-to the normal standard based on the 
productivity of labor than do the rates which 
now prevail. If law is to rule, and if democ- 
racy is to succeed and become permanent, if 
our country is to be rich, contented and fra- 
ternal and is to have its vast strength avail- 
able in the contest for the prizes of a world- 
wide commerce, a system of authoritative arbi- 
tration is inevitable." 



THE COM MONS 



DISCUSSION OF ABBITKATION FEOM THE FLOOR. 

The discussion from the floor on the general 
subject ot arbitration was unusually interest- 
ing. The speakers were in nearly every case 
members of trade unions. It was brought out 
very clearly that the rank and file were In 
favor of compulsory arbitration, but that there 
was very pronounced opposition to such a pro- 
posal by the labor leaders. This opposition of 
leader and led was explained by Mr. E. J. 
Gainor, secretary of the executive committee of 
the Letter Carriers' organization, as based on 
the fear that the functions of the former would 
be materially reduced under a compulsory 
arbitration law. The discussion further de- 
veloped the notion that arbitrators were re- 
garded as dishonest and that labor could not 
trust the decisions. As evidence of this many 
references were made to "government by in- 
junction" and the bias of judicial officers. The 
discussion then drifted into government owner- 
ship of public utilities as a means of solving 
the difficulty. 

BETTERMENT OF LABOR COKDITIONS. 

The evening session was given over to an- 
other general subject, "The Betterment of La- 
bor Conditions." The first speaker was Mrs. 
Elizabeth C. Wheeler, social secretary for the 
Shepard Company of Providence, Rhode Island. 
In a paper of some length she presented the 
■work of a social secretary in a large department 
store. This new profession, if it may be so 
called, is peculiarly a woman's work, requiring 
great tact to meet the many situations of a day. 
In part Mrs. Wheeler said: 

"The position of the social secretary is the 
result of the industrial change that has been 
worked in the past half century. There was a 
time when the employer and the employe 
worked together in the same shop, sometimes 
OB the same bench. 

With the coming of the corporation Idea and 
tihe factory system, all this was changed, and 
the personal relations between the employer 
and the employe began to vanish. That such 
should be the case was only natural. Their 
little personal affairs, their trials and their joys 
which were discussed by employer and em- 
ploye alike years ago are now unknown to the 
employer. 

Here is where the social secretary steps in 
and acts as an Intermediary between employer 
and employe, learning the wants of the em- 
ployed, studying the real facts of the case, and 
then presenting them concisely to the em- 
ployer. Her work does not end here, she must 
look after the social side of the girls In the 
factory or in the store. 

It is a new position created by the develop- 
ment ot industry and Is growing steadily, so 
that I look to see the day when there will be 
an international convention of social secre- 
taries held every year." 

It was the intention of the program-makers 
.aad of the committee to devote the principal 



part of the evening to the Eight-Hour Day and 
its discussion. A great interest in this ques- 
tion had been created in the city of Minneapolis 
by the demands of the millers in the flour in- 
dustry for an eight-hour day instead of the 
two-shift system then employed. Owing to the 
lateness of the hour the discussion from the 
floor was postponed until the following day. 
Prof. Frank L. McVey of the University of 
Minnesota presented the principal address of 
the evening upon this theme. The point insist- 
ed upon by him was the necessity of doing as 
much work in eight as in ten hours in order 
to maintain the same wages. If trade unions 
prevented men doing their full part in the 
business of production wages could not be main- 
tained in the long run. He said in part: 

"The Introduction of machinery at the close 
of the last century with the attendant high 
cost of capital forced longer hours of labor 
than existed under the old domestic system. 
Human endurance was for many years the sole 
check upon a day's labor. The whole tendency 
of modern industry, even with the shortening of 
hours, is in the direction of Increased exertion. 
The essential element in the machine organiza- 
tion is the human one, the most precious and 
the most difficult to replace. The energy of a 
worker in any Industry should always be equal 
to that of the day before. If the pains of 
labor are heavy the tone of the workmen is low- 
ered, and his surplus energy disappears while 
he tends to become a mere automaton, valua- 
ble to society for the net surplus he creates 
for others. The round of production of energy 
into goods, goods into utilities, and utilities into 
energy, is broken down by any such heavy 
burden. We must, therefore, hail, certainly 
from the viewpoint of the community, any 
movement likely to increase its working power. 
Whether the eight-hour day Is able to do this 
Is the question with which we must deal In 
the course of the evening's discussion. •  • 

The arguments back of the philosophy of 
the eight-hour day may be grouped under the 
three heads of economic, social and human 
necessities. It is demanded by economic neces- 
sity for the reason that the modern factory can 
turn out more goods than are needed to supply 
the wants of people. Machines and inventions 
are continually introduced, resulting in no 
higher wages for the worker, and the piling up 
of goods for which there is no market. The in- 
creased purchasing power of his wages may 
be lost at any time by the competition of the 
unemployed, who tend to force the employed 
to take a lower remuneration. The w^orker is 
thus confronted by lower wages to balance 
lower prices. 

The employer, too, is compelled to keep in 
the procession of low cost, producing cheaply 
when he needs the supply, closing his mills 
when the demand falls and his supply Is suf- 
ficient. This condition of affairs produces the 
unemployed. 

It is the presence of the unemployed that 
creates the social necessity for the eight-hour 
day, so It Is urged. A large body of unem- 
ployed, increases the burdens of society, en- 
larges the ranks of criminals, and those de- 
pendent upon charity. The trade unions are 
jeopardized by the greater difficulty of keeping 
up their organization and their rates. Union 
wages fall, demand for commodities declines. 



THE COMMONS 



the weaker concerns fail, and consolidation of 
interests results, bringing another social prob- 
lem for solution. 

The wear and tear upon human life steadily 
increase under modern methods of production. 
This is the third reason urged for the adoption 
of the eig'ht-hour day. If men are to stand as 
heads of families, as electors, and even as 
operators of machines, they must have time for 
rest, for education and for family life. The 
responsibility of government increasingly falls 
upon the worlting classes in a democracy. 
Shorter hours of labor alone can give the 
worker the leisure for the careful study of pres- 
ent day problems, thrust more and more upon 
the electorate for decision. * * • 

As a means of solving the unemployed prob- 
lem the eight-hour day has no value except 
as it abolishes overtime and all its kindred 
evils. The phenomenon of non-employment is 
due In a large measure to sickness, shiftless- 
ness of individual laborers, and the fluctuations 
of commercial credit resulting in the closing of 
mills and the discharge of workers. Upon the 
first two the eight-hour day has no visible 
effect, upon the third by abolishment of over- 
time it may have a most important bearing.. 
Employment and production would be rendered 
more stable and periods of non-employment 
and overtime would be arranged by continuous 
employment of the worker. * » • 

The eight-hour day will secure larger con- 
tentment and cheerfulness for the working peo- 
ple of the world. The economic value of this 
gift is yet to be appreciated, but there can be 
no doubt of its great productive power when 
applied to industry. Under its influence the old 
rate of dally production will be maintained and 
little or no change will result in the long run 
in the effects upon wages, proflts, the unem- 
ployed, and foreign commerce." 

Prof. .J. B. Clark discussed the paper briefly 
and to the point, saying that the shortening of 
the hours of labor was the register of civiliza- 
tion, and therefore as civilization advanced the 
hours must necessarily become shorter and 
shorter. He put his argument in a few words, 
as follows: 

"If you want a man to work for you one 
day and one day only, and secure the greatest 
possible amount of work he is capable of per- 
forming, you must make him for twenty-four 
hours. If you would have him work a week 
It will be necessary to reduce the time to 
twenty hours a day; if you want him to work 
for a month a still further reduction to eighteen 
hours a day. For a year, fifteen hours a day 
will do; for several years, ten hours; but if 
you wish to get the most out of a man for a 
working Hfetime, you will have to reduce his 
hours of labor to eight each day." 

The closing paper on the program was given 
■fay Mr. W. P. Wiman, vice-president of the 
John Deere Plow Company of Moline, 111. Mr. 
Wiman contended that the present status of 
labor organization was responsible for the un- 
willingness of the employer to enter into arbi- 
tration, either voluntary or compulsory, or to 
take the matter of their differences before a 
court of law. Continuing, Mr. Wiman said: 

"The fact that for the most part labor unions 
are not incorporated and have no legal entity, 
while the corporation Is the reverse position, 



places a barrier between them. The labor union 
is bound by no court, except the court of pub- 
lic opinion, while the employ'er is bound to ful- 
fill all his contracts under the penalty of the 
law. 

Of what use is It there? he asked, for an 
employer to enter into an agreement with a 
labor union, which is not bound by law to keep 
the agreement on its part, while should the 
employer fail to live up to his he can be 
brought into any court and redress given. The 
employe is stronger than the employer in this 
regard. What do labor contracts mean? 

Is there a sufllcient consideration to make 
them binding on the part of the eniployer and 
the employe. They are not mutually binding, 
because the employer has no means of forcing 
the union into fulfilling what it promised to 
do, and that the sole purpose and intent of a 
contract. 

This is the present state of affairs existing 
between the employer and employe, and in ray 
opinion the settlement of labor difficulties de- 
pends to a great extent upon the mutual lia- 
bility of labor contracts." 

A large audience greeted the speakers on 
Wednesday morning. Mr. A. B. Stickney, pres- 
ident of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, 
was the first speaker. His paper was in marked 
contrast to the papeis of the conference in Its 
rigid adherence to the "laissez faire" doctrine 
and the necessity of letting the merciless law 
of existence take its course. 

MR. STICKNEY VEItSUS MISS ADD.\MS. 

Mr. Stickney, in opening his address on 'The 
Rewards of Industry," dwelt on the universal 
necessity for work. He pitied the unfortunate 
rich, who were so put to their resources for 
entertainment that, as in a recent case among 
the moneyed idlers of New York, they found it 
necessary to import a marmoset of exceptional 
intelligence, attire him as a gentleman of 
fashion, and dine him in the place of honor 
at an expensive dinner, in the hope, possibly, 
that he might relieve the dull monotony of 
idle existence. 

"Work or starve" Mr. Stickney held to be 
the fundamental law of existence. This faw na- 
ture enforced without mercy. Nothing could 
be obtained from nature without work. 

Nature guarded the secrets by which man 
might wrest a living from her with the pro- 
foundest secrecy. To discover nature's secrets 
and to profit by their solution, had been the 
work of man from earliest times. During all 
the past centuries, while the hand has reaped 
the crops grown in nature's lap. the brain of 
man has been at work battling for the secrets 
of nature's laws. 

The three elements of human activity, linked 
in an indissoluble partnership, were the wage 
earners, the profit earners and the interest 
earners. 

As joint producers these three became' joint 
owners. Each had rights in respect to others' 
rights. This huge partnership in production 
was conducted in petty departments scattered 
over the world. In each of the departments 
each of the partners was engaged, and the ag- 
gregate production of each department must 
always be the aggregate reward of all the wage 
earners. 

That nothing could be divided which had not 
first been produced, was a fundamental truth 
of the wage question. Thus had evolved the 
complicated and difficult problem which had 



THE COM M ONS 



led to the fixing of values and the use of money 
in effecting exchange. 

The first conflict in trade arose between the 
wage earner as seller of labor, and the profit 
earner as buyer. It seemed beyond question 
that wage earners, by exercising more care and 
intelligence in exchanging money for products, 
could increase their percentages in the division 
more than the possible 5 or 10 per cent increase 
in the money compensation received from labor, 
through the doubtful medium of a strike. 

The supreme power of the univers.^ rules the 
economic affairs of mankind by the silent law 
of cause and effect with a merciless hand. It 
■•ecognized neither legislation, organized capi- 
tal nor organized labor as its superior . It does 
not recognize the modern theories of the eight- 
hour day and ten hours' pay, or that every 
man is by right entitled to sufficient to enable 
him to live the life of a respectable American 
citizen, or to support his family in respecta- 
bility and to educate his children. 

On the contrary, it says 'work or starve.' If 
you work, you are only entitled to a fair pro- 
portion, determined by the law of cause and ef- 
fect, of the pile of products to which your work 
has contributed, and you can take nothing from 
the pile which has not been put into it. If 
you have only contributed eight-hour days you 
can only withdraw eight-hour products, and 
your fair share of the aggregate pile is all 
that you can get. With such share, you must 
live the life of a respectable American citizen, 
and you must, with their assistance if neces- 
sary, support your family in respectability and 
educate your children. 

"There is no hardship in its rule. It requires 
the energies of industry to be divided between 
the different occupations in such proportions 
as shall produce the amount of each kind of 
products that is wanted, and when this is done 
largest possible rewards will be produced and 
there will he an abundance for all. There will 
be no idle men, no idle capital, no over-produc- 
tion or under-cnnsumption. " 

Much to the delight of the audience who Had 
received the dogma of the merciless law with 
some impatience. Miss Jane Addams, of Hull 
House, Chicago, the next speaker, took some ex- 
ceptions to Mr. Stickneys statements. The fol- 
lowing is an account of her address: 

On being introduced. Miss Addams preceded 
her address on "The Social Waste of Child 
Labor" with a rather forceful reply to the re- 
marks of Mr. Stickney on the inevitability of 
work and the necessity of work for all. Miss 
Addams did not want the children to be in- 
cluded in so hard a theory of life, and she took 
exception to the point of view that labor or- 
ganizations existed with the prime object of se- 
curin.ij increase in wages. 

Miss Addams declared that only a few of the 
strikes in history had been brought for the pur- 
pose of getting more money compensation for 
work, and she pointed out that on the contrary 
every .strike had been precipitated by the desire 
of the employed to prevent having their com- 
pensation reduced to the detriment of their 
families. 

To President Stickney 's explanation of the 
coal strike as due to the fact that more work- 
men had be€n attracted there by the high wages 
paid, than were necessary to do the work. Miss 
Addams replied that: 

"The men had not gone there because of high 
wages, but had been induced to go through the 



efforts of the operators themselves whom she 
held responsible for existing conditions, saying 
that they had deliberately brought men into 
the fields with the idea of increasing the supply 
of labor and thus diminishing its cost. 

The speaker drifted naturally into her own 
topic of child labor, by showing the most active 
work for the betterment of conditions in locali- 
ties where child labor was employed, had been 
done by the labor organizations. In England, 
where such remedial laws as the intelligence 
of the nation suggested, had been passed, there 
were really earnest efforts to control or elimi- 
nate the evil of child labor. Factories were 
properly inspected, they were sanitary as a 
rule, and children under the law could not be 
worked more than half a day. and it was a 
fact that needed ventilation that such work 
as had been accomplished in England was due 
to the initiative of organized labor, which had 
hammered away at it until given support by 
the philanthropists and law-makers of the na- 
tion. 

Miss Addams made a very touching plea for 
the unfortunate factory children of North Caro- 
lina, whose vitality Is sapped by long hours of 
work to which they are physically unequal. 
She was vigorously applauded on closing." 

Mr. Stickney did not answer Miss Addams' 

objections to his statements. 

MR.S. FLORE.XCE KELLEY ON THE CONSUMER'S RE- 
SPONSIHILITy. 

The morning session closed with an address 
by Mrs. Florence Kelley, secretary of the Na- 
tional Consumers' League. 

"Mrs. Kelley's address was an appeal to the 
consumer for discrimination, by means of which 
much good might be gained for the cause of 
labor and. as well, for the interest of the 
worthy employer of labor. 

Mrs. Kelley insisted that the mothers of the 
land were blind who would purchase New York 
sweatshop clothing for their children, knowing 
that these tenements in which such goods are 
made are the worst breeding resorts of the 
tubercular bacilli in this or any other country, 
that the sweatsjiop clothing is the most cer- 
tain means of transmitting such disease that 
can be thought of. 

The speaker insisted that the remedy for im- 
pure foods, and more than ninety per cent of 
the food in the market was Impure, was an 
inslstance on the public's part which would 
brook no denial. The remedy lay largely in 
the hands of the women in this country." 

GOVERNMENT AS EMPLOYER. 

"Two employers of labor were discussed at 
Wednesday afternoon's session of the conven- 
tion. 'Uncle Sam' was the first and received 
many compliments and considerable criticism 
l)y his critic, E. J. Gainor of Muncie, Ind.. 
secretary of the executive board. National As- 
sociation of Letter Carriers, who read a paper 
on 'The Government as an Employer.' Open- 
ing with a statement of the obvious fact that 
the tendency in this country, as well as else- 
where, is toward what opposing politicians have 
termed 'paternalism,' in other words, the pub- 
Mc ownership of public utilities, Mr. Gainor 
argued that such a policy would prove inimical 
to the best interests of American manhood, 
unless the government should radically change 
its methods. In effect, his paper was a plea 
for the further extension of civil service reform. 

Taking his own branch of the government 
service as an example the speaker referred to 



10 



THE COMMONS 



the many advantages of employment under the 
government, such as retention In service dur- 
ing good behavior; an eight-hour day; the 
avoidance of strikes; an annual vacation with 
pay; proper sanitary conditions in the build- 
ings occupied, and the absence of favoritism. 

Then he turned the page and discussed the 
disadvantages of government employment. He 
pointed out the fact that heads of all govern- 
ment departments are taken from civil lite; 
that the postmaster in a city does not rise from 
the ranks, but is appointed from outside the 
department, while the same thing, he said, was 
true of all other departments. This, he argrued, 
deprived the government employe of a stimulus 
for his ambition, and tended to make him a 
mere machine, desirous only of transacting the 
duties allotted to him in the manner prescribed 
by regulation. ' 

In civil life, he said, the capable employe 
was promoted as it is necessary to have capa- 
ble men in important positions, while the head 
of a government department usually knows 
nothing of that department's workings until 
after his appointment. 

He charged the government with keeping too 
close a surveillance over its employes outside 
of working hours, and said that offenses which 
would pa.«.s unnoticed by an employer in civil 
life would, if committed by a man in govern- 
ment employ, be the cause of an instant in- 
vestigation. Admitting that this produced a 
good moral effect, he argued at the same time 
that it was unwise to restrict individual free- 
dom." 

y.VnON.Kh CASH REGISTER COMPANY'S EXPERIENCE. 

The second employer was the National Cash 
Register Company, whose work and the im- 
provement of labor conditions were interest- 
ingly presented by Mr. Julian V. Wright, assist- 
ant manager of the Labor Bureau oi the com- 
pany, under the title of "Advance Work." Sum- 
marized the story he told was this: 

John H. Patterson, the head of the company, 
had a factory to build, and built it in one of 
the worst sections of Dayton; Ohio. His em- 
ployes would not move their families into the 
section, there were so many obnoxious' sur- 
roundings. Out of pure wantonness, the win- 
dojN's of the factory were broken by idle boys. 
Gardens were laid out, acres of them, and their 
use, with tools, water supply, seed and other 
things, were given to boys who would apply. 
Soon all the boys in the neighborhood were too 
busy to throw stones at factory windows. The 
gardens blossomed, dismal surroundings disap- 
peared. Residents in the neighborhood caught 
the fever of improvement, flower gardens blos- 
somed out everywhere, and the factory, to keep 
up simply parked the grounds around and 
among its factory buildings. 

■With all these attractive surroundings, work 
would seem tn be play; but the company would 
not tax Us employes too heavily; so the hours 
of work were reduced for men from sixty to 
fifty-six and for women to forty-four, and 
wages have remained where they were on the 
sixty-hour schedule. Kven the street car ac- 
commodations of the women are a matter of 
attention on the part of the company. 

That Is only a part of the wonderful tale 
told. Its system of business organization by 
committees and boards of heads of departments 
is another long chapter quite as wonderful and 
pregnant with reasons for the success of the 
company. The comparatively small cost at 



which it has all been done and the rewards 
are other things to make the eyes stick out. 

Yet, in spite of it all, Mr. Wright said he 
did not regard the labor question as settled. 
The settlement of that would depend, however, 
upon a belief in the integrity of each other's 
purposes by employer and employe, and a more 
general recognition of the interdependence •f 
the one upon the other." 

SHORT HOURS AND NO STRIKES FOE THIRTY TEARS. 

The Wednesday evening session brought t» 
the conference the experience of a manufac- 
turer who in a period of thirty years had nerer 
had a strike. This paper was read by Col. J. 
F. Kilbourne of the Kilbourne-Jacobs Com- 
pany, of Columbus, Ohio. The manly positioa 
taken by this speaker in his relations to his 
employes was an object lesson to the whole com- 
ference. What Mr. Kilbourne had to say up** 
the eight-hours day is reproduced in part: 

"One thing which can and .should be done to 
better the condition of workingmen, is t« 
shorten the hours of labor. 'Man does not lire 
by bread alone,' and workingmen should haTe 
greater opportunity for recreation, for sports, 
and for reading and study. It Is their just due, 
and one which they have a right to demand 
from society. Shorter hours would lead to the 
shortening of the list of th" unemployed, and 
assist in securing better wages. 

Released from the effect of the constant pres- 
sure of large numbers of unemployed, forced 
at times to accept work at any price to escape 
starvation, workingmen could easily secure bet- 
ter terms. The eight-hour day is possible with 
labor well organized under conservative lead- 
ers. Legislation can supplement and confirm 
what they accomplish, but cannot secure the 
end sought without their united and har- 
monious demand. This ought to be made, and 
I hope to live to see the time when eight hours 
will bo the limit of a day's work for manual 
labor in ihis country. 

I am aware of the objection which is made 
that the effect of such shortening of time means 
an enhancement of the cost of production, 
which competition with those working longer 
hours would make fatal, but I am contemplat- 
ing a reduction so widespread that this would 
not apply. If an eight-hour day is established 
in this country in any important trade, the 
same would be quickly established in England, 
and then, more slowly, perhaps, in other com- 
peting countries. If one trade is thoroughly 
successful, the others wx)uld quickly follow. 
Just men, whatever their position in life, ^11 
oppose child labor and excessive hours of work, 
not for the reasons already given, but for the 
sake of a happy home without which neither 
virtue nor religion thrive." 

The evening closed with an illustrated lec- 
ture by Mr. W. H. Tolman. Secretary of the In- 
stitute for Social Service, of New York City on 
the "Golden Rule in Business." 

PROF. 7.UKBLIN ON THE RIGHTS OF THE PUBUC. 

The position of the public in the conferemce 
had not yet been clearly stated. It remained 
for Prof. Chas. Zueblin of the University of 
Chicago to deal with this point. In clear and 
emphatic language he presented the reasons 



THE COMMONS 



11 



why the public was a factor in every industrial 
dispute. This interest rests upon the principle 
that both capital and labor should receive such 
rewards as lead to industrial efficiency and be- 
cause consumption is the root of all production. 
As capital and labor are dependent upon the 
public for their rewards the public has a right 
to control the conditions under which these 
rewards may be sought. In discussing further 
the points involved in his subject, Prof. Zue- 
blin referred to the benefits conferred upon the 
working man, by the trade unions and to the 
probable ownership of public utilities by mu- 
nicipalities. 

L.VBOR LEADER'S OPTIMISM. 

Mr. W. C. McEwen, the secretary-treasurer 
of the Minnesota Federation of Labor, followed 
ia an address on the "Future Relations of La- 
bor to Capital." Mr. McEwen was very optimistic. 
He looked upon the future as a time when the 
trade union would be an absolute necessity in 
the conduct of business and so recognized as 
ssch by employers. He emphasized a point 
already brought out in the convention, that of 
a labor department in the great corporations; 
a department that would devote its time to 
dealing with the difficulties existing in the 
works. 

Mr. Powderly's unexpected presence gave the 
conference an opportunity to hear him upon 
the labor question. His special advice to the 
laborer was to save and buy shares in the cor- 
poration for which he worked. He regretted 
the failure to study the great question except 
at times of strikes, a view of the situation 
that was highly acceptable to his audience. 

PBEMANENT ORGANIZATION AT CHAUTAUQUA NEXT 
YEAR. 

On account of the absence of Pres. Roosevelt 
Thursday afternoon was left on the confer- 
ence's hands. The committee on resolutions 
had already reported in the morning recom- 
mending the appointment of a committee of 
seven to take up the matter of organization. 
The nominating committee, consisting of Mr. 
W. D. Wiraan, Prof. Frank L. McVey and Mr. 
B. E. Clark, presented the following names &s 
a permanent committee: Hon. J. B. Gilfillan, 
Minneapolis; Mr. E. E. Clark, Cedar Rapids, 
la.; Mr. J. F. Kilbourne, Columbus, O.; Mr. 
James Duncan, Washington, D. C; Mr. Herman 
Justi, Chicago; Prof. J. B. Clark. New York 
City; Prof. Graham Taylor, Chicago. A ma- 
jority of the committee met at the West Hotel 
*Mi decided to hold, if possible, a similar con- 



ference at Chautauqua, N. Y., in July or August 
of the coming year. 

Very little opportunity was given on account 
of the length of the program for discussion. 
It was therefore proposed that Thursday after- 
noon be devoted to this purpose. The millers' 
request for an eight-hour day made that ques- 
tion the logical one for discussion. Early in 
the afternoon a resolution was introduced ad- 
vocating the eight-hour day. This at once 
raised the question of the advisability of pass- 
ing such a resolution and much of the time 
wg.s taken up in its disposal. The conference 
finally refused to pass any specific resolutions 
and adjourned sine die. 

WEIGHINQ THE RESULTS. 

The value of the conference as a force in the 
settlement of industrial difficulties can only be 
guessed at. A writer in the Minneapolis Jour- 
nal had the following to say about the con- 
ference : 

"The first session of the national convention 
of employers and employes, held at the exposi- 
tion building last night, was not remarkable for 
enthusiasm nor a large attendance. Yet it was 
a gathering of historic importance. Not be- 
cause it was to discuss the familiar 'labor ques- 
tion,' not that it was to provide a specific rem- 
edy that can perfect man's nature and practi- 
cally remove the primal curse, but because it 
was the first voluntary, national acknowledg- 
ment of capital, labor and government in mod- 
ern times that, despite progress, despite pros- 
perity, there is radical wrong in the economic 
situation and that there is need of radical 
remedy. 

Heretofore there have been conventions in- 
numerable to discuss special phases of the labor 
problem. Disputes in particular industries or 
in particular groups of industries have called 
forth assemblies with a limited program. But 
the assumption in reference to the labor world 
at large has always been optimistic. It was 
taken for granted that, as a i~ule, money is 
doing all for toil that civilization can expect, 
and that toil is fulfilling every just demand. 
Even the notable meetings held in eastern 
states to set forth men of national reputation 
as permanent arbitrators of labor disputes have 
never found fault with the general relations of 
the master to the man. Arbitration, it was as- 
sumed, might be necessary in those few cases 
where misunderstandings of the real situation 
would arise. The object of the notable meet- 
ings was to provide arbitrators of sufficient dis- 
tinction and therefore of sufficient influence. 

But the present convention in Minneapolis 
is an organized confession by American leaders 
of social philosophy and of organized labor, by 
oflicers of the federal government, and, in a 
much less degree, by leaders of capital, that a 
hundred years of specific remedies for isolated 
symptoms of the labor malady may have re- 
moved the symptoms but have only suppressed 
the actual disease. Legislation, arbitration, 
conciliation— -all have failed to attain the princi- 
pal object. A new cure must be sought by the 
combined wisdom of the nation. 

The peculiar Importance of the first session 
and the nature of factors at work were reflected 
in the audience. It was not a large audience 
for the big exposition building. Few seats were 



12 



THE COM MON S 



occupied outside of the main floor, the 'parquet,' 
so to speak. But in the faces of the 1,500 or 
more men and women was a seriousness rare 
at secular gatherings. Whether they fully real- 
ized it or not, these hearers were influenced 
by the fact that their position somewhat re- 
sembled that of the first American congress. A 
question of pressing weight was to be solved. 
The solution, or the attempted solution, might 
affect for good or for evil the social, commer- 
cial, political, the national life of fenerations. 

And no less reason for such seriousness was 
advanced by the first spealcers when they 
frankly admitted that the remedy sought would 
probably not be found. 

Still another proof of the value of the con- 
vention, of its necessity, Indeed, had come to 
many in the audience through their knowledge 
of the great coal strike, its effect on their own 
purses, and its portentous possibilities in the 
industrial future. 

The intent eyes were those of bankers and 
of labor leaders, of social philosophers and of 
college students, of prominent merchants and 
of women well known to society. It was a select 
audience. Its average of intelligence was ex- 
ceptionally high. In that respect it surpassed 
the usual convention, whether political or 
otherwise. And the interest of the listeners in 
the general subject was manifested by the 
churchly quiet that prevailed during the even- 
ing, in the unbroken attention given to the 
most philosophic arguments of the longest ad- 
dress." 

Undoubtedly the chief value of the confer- 
ence was in breaking down some of the sus- 
picions the different factors in the problem 
have of each other. Certain it is that the 
general feeling during the meeting, was un- 
usually conciliatory and friendly. The em- 
ployer was not present in any numbers. The' 
conference was in a sense forced to justify 
itself and in this it was highly successful. 
Yet the opposition to it from many sources 
Indicated a feeling that there is no common 
meeting ground and my business matters are 
nobody's business but my own. 

As yet no provisions have been made for the 
publication of the addresses and the discus- 
sions from the fioor. It is honed, however, to 
secure sufficient funds at an early date to make 
publication possible. Until such publication 
is made the report here given is the only con- 
secutive one known to the writer. 



A people cannot be forced to move faster 
than it wishes by a surprise, and woe to the 
man who tries to compel it; a people will not 
put up with it, and then it abandons the insur- 
rection to itself. — "Les Miserables." 



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Cioth, price 3S cents; by mailt 40 cents. 

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ment S, Detroit, Midi. 



THE RESERVED SECTION. 

["The rights and interests of the laboring man 
will be protected and cared for, not by labor 
agitators, but by the Christian men to whom 
God in His infinite wisdom has given control 
of the proi)erty interests of the country." — Mr. 
Baer.] 

In the' prehistoric ages, when the world was a 

ball of mist— 
A seething Swirl of something unknown in the 

planets' list; 
When the earth was vague with vapor, and 

formless, and dark, and void— 
The sport of the wayward comet — the jibe of 

the asteroid — 
Then the singing stars of morning chanted soft: 

— "Keep out of there! 
Keep off that spot which is sizzling hot — it is 

making coal for Baer." 

When the pterodactyl ambled, or fluttered, or 
swam, or jumped. 

And the plesiosaurus rambled, all careless of 
what he bumped, 

And the other old-time monsters that thrived on 
the land and sea, 

And didn't know what their names were any 
more than to-day do we — 

Wherever they went they heard it; — "You fel- 
lows, keep out of there — 

That place which shakes and quivers and 
quakes — it is making coal for Baer." 

The carboniferous era consumed but a million 

years ; 
It started when earth was shedding the last nf 

her baby tears, 
When still she was swaddled softly in clums^ily 

tied on clouds. 
When stars from the shops of Nature were 

being turned out in crowds; 
But high o'er the favored section this sign said 

to all: "Beware! 
Stay back of the ropes that surround these 

slopes — they are making coal for Baer!" 

We ought to be glad and joyous, we ought to he 

filled with glee, 
That aeons ago the placard was nailed to the 

ancient tree. 
That millions and millions of ages — back farther 

than Adam and Eve— 
The ichthyosaurus halted, arid speedily took 

his leave. 
And so it was all saved for us, the spot with 

' the sign: "Beware! 
This plant is run by the earth and sun and is 

making coal for Baer!" 
— W. D. Nesblt, In Baltimore American. 



"When we are poor we always have very 
clear ideas of the duties of the rich; but when 
we gain money we are experts in the science 
of showing the poor how to behave."— Puck. 



THE COMMONS 



1. 



IMPRESSIONS OF MISS ADDAMS' " DE- 
MOCKACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS." 

Bv Jake E. Robbins. 
"Democracy and Social Ethics" is distinctly 
a book of leadership; many of its thoughts 
may have been dwelling for some time in the 
obscure corners of our brain, but they come 
out for the first time into the clear light of 
day under the influence of its pages. The book 
is delightfully written and it expresses the 
best that is peculiar to American thought and 
feeling. There are many men and women 
identified with the progressive movements in 
our country to whom the ideals of a larger and 
more satisfying democracy have, become almost 
a religion, and it is in the minds of these men 
and women that Miss Addams' words will find 
their most fruitful soil. 

The one criticism that can be made most 
justly against the book is that some parts of it 
are too analytic to be an integral part of the 
great modern democratic life. The essay on 
charitable effort shows this defect most clear- 
ly. Some of the difficulties described as be- 
setting the path of the young college graduate 
are simply the product of his over-analytic 
mind. The obstacles that he sees are really a 
figment of his imagination, born of "too much 
thinking and too little active responsibility." 
Let him go ahead simply and naturally and 
his difnculties will vanish, because they never 
were there. Instead of further analyzing the 
situation for such a young person, it is quite 
as well to laugh and to teach him to laugh. 
The difficulty, however, of reconciling a good 
deal of what is called "charity" with the demo- 
cratic feeling is very real, and Miss Addams' 
words have undoubtedly helped many a puzzled 
"friendly visitor" to stick courageously to his 
task. 

The social claim and the family claim are 
placed in sharp antithesis to one another; too 
sharp, perhaps, to be taken with absolute lit- 
eralness, for after all society Is made up of 
families; but the essay contains much that Is 
suggestive, and it certainly ought to be helpful 
to our parents. 

Under the heading, "Industrial Ameliora- 
tion," Miss Addams gives a clear picture of the 
man who is both business man and philan- 
thropist. His . motives are beyond reproach, 
but he overlooks the necessity of getting "the 
consent of liis fellow-mfen." This appeal for 
associated effort is one of the finest things in 
the literature of modern progress. It ought to 
be in the hands of every employer of labor 
who can be reached by an appeal made to the 



democratic feeling that is supposed to be In 
the blood of us all. 

There is a wonderfully true description of 
the district leader in the fine essay on "Polit- 
ical Reform," and this whole chapter will be 
of great value to those interested in municipal 
politics. To all Setttlement workers the book 
is a source of peculiar pride and pleasure. We 
feel that if Miss Addams had not been living at 
Hull House she might never have had the Illu- 
mination of this wider and more thoroughly 
human experience that has given her the 
power to speak with authority on social right- 
eousness. 



COOK COUNTY CIVIC IMPROVEMENT CON- 
FERENCE, NOVEMBER 22. 

The second conference of Cook County Im- 
provement Societies is announced for Saturday, 
November 22nd, in FuUerton Hall, at the Art 
Institute, Chicago, under the auspices of the 
American League for Civic Improvement. The 
hearing of reports, a feature of real interest and 
much value, and the consideration of business 
matters, will be followed by addresses delivered 
by speakers of note. 



SUnnER ASSEMBLY PROPERTY PUT TO 
WINTER USE. 

The establishment of the Winona Agricultu- 
ral and Technical Institute -at Winona Lake, 
Indiana, is suggestive of the larger social serv- 
ice to which the great summer assembly 
grounds and equipment m^y be put. The waste 
of resource and opportunity in keeping these 
great popular centers closed and vacant eight 
months of the year, especially where located 
near the needy city population. Is beginning to 
prompt such use of them as is happily inau- 
gurated at Winona. The Institute is to fur- 
nish to boys of more than fourteen years Of 
age such surroundings and training in agricJil- 
ture, horticulture, and the use of tools and 
machinery, including thorough courses in 
English branches and English Bible, "as will 
assist them in their growth toward Christian 
manhood and useful citizenship." The ex- 
pense of board and tuition is |225, offset by the 
payment of 8% cents for each hour's labor. 
Eleven free scholarships, kindly placed at the 
disposal of the Chicago settlements, are filled 
by boys nominated by them from their imme- 
diate neighborhood. 



' Progress, man's distinctive mark alone. 
Not God's, and not the beasts' ; God is, they are, 
Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be." 

— Kobert Browni A 



14 



THE COM MONS 



ASSOCIATrON OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Association by 
Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



Trained Nurses in Public School Service. 

The Nurses' Settlement of New York is at 
present conducting the experiment (in co-opera- 
tion with the Board of Health and the Board of 
Education) of introducing a trained nurse into 
the public school system, to work in conjunc- 
tion with the medical inspector of the Health 
Board, who inspects and excludes cases of in- 
fectious troubles among the children. This 
work of the "School Nurse" has been carried 
on successfully for some time in England, and 
has- been written of fully in the American 
Journal of Nursing. Miss Honnor Morton's 
account of how she established this system la 
London Board Schools appeared in the Janu- 
ary, 1901, number, and since then items from 
the English journals, showing the extension 
of the work of several District Nurses' Asso- 
ciations to similar service in the schools of 
other places, have appeared in the Foreign De- 
partment of the Journal. 

Miss Wald, the head of the Nurses' Settle, 
ment, has always cherished the hope that the 
trained nurse might be introduced into the 
large public schools of the crowded foreign 
quarters of the city, and has lost no oppor- 
tunity of making the "School Nurse" of Lon- 
don known to those who might be interested in 
a similar movement here. Some little time ago 
Miss Whitelaw, who has had both teachers' 
and nurses' training, went back to public school 
work after having worked in the settlement 
as a nurse, and from her double standpoint 
presented a strong set of data to a school board 
official, showing the loss of school time often 
suffered by children who were excluded by the 
medical inspector from the school by reason 
of some slight infectious trouble, which by dint 
of not being attended to, remained uncured and 
debarred the child from its education, all tot) 
short at any rate for the children of the poor, 
who must at the age of fourteen leave school 
for wage-earning. 

About the same time the subject of the 
medical inspection — its good points and Its 
weak ones — was spoken of at the Nurses' Set- 
tlement by members of the Board of Education, 
and practical suggestions were invited from 
A^^ Wald and her associates. The experience 



of the nurses in the settlement was, that th« 
medical inspection was deficient from tka 
standpoint of the child, in that it excluded him, 
but did neither advise nor treat him, neither 
was he looked after. Their practical sugges- 
tion was that a nurse should work with tke 
physician, carrying out under his orders the 
treatment for simple cases, without excluding 
them from the school, and following to their 
homes the more serious cases of eye, head, •r 
skin trouble; seeing that they received medical 
attention, teaching the mother, when this 
should be necessary, and keeping a record «f 
the time the child was absent, not allowing it 
to remain out of school longer than necessary. 
At present, while the truant officer has tke 
oversight of delinquent children, he has ■o 
jurisdiction over those who have been semt 
home by the doctor. This suggestion was cor- 
dially received both by the Education and 
Health Boards, and not long ago the presidents 
of the two boards dined at the Settlement, 
where the plan was discussed and details for a 
month's experiment talked over. 

The result was that Miss Wald offered to 
supply a nurse for one month, without cost, 
and on the first of October the experiment was 
begun. Miss M. L. Rogers, a resident of tke 
Settlement, being the one selected to initiate it. 

Miss Rogers has a group of schools itt the 
near neighborhood, four in all, having a school 
population of about 4,500 children. She visits 
each one daily, having in each one an extem- 
porized dressing room, with lamp for heating 
water, etc. Here she dresses or cleanses all 
such cases as the physician directs; mild cases 
of conjunctivitis, minor skin infections, sucb 
as ring worm, etc., and these children need 
not then miss their class work, as otherwise 
they would have to do as a matter of protectiaa 
to the rest. She then visits those who hare 
been sent home, and keeps records of them. 

The teachers have received her in the m««t 
cordial and helpful spirit, and the medical in- 
spectors have made the most careful and 
definite effort at thorough co-operation, that tke 
work may be effective, and proceed witho«t 
hitches. 

So far the experiment seems eminently satis- 
factory, but whether it can be continued is 
of course a matter of uncertainty, as it would 
involve expense, and municipal appropriations 
are never large enough. However, that it has 
been begun is a matter of congratulation, aad 
that it has the support and endorsement of 
the health and education officers is beyond 
question. L. L. D. 



THE COMMONS 



15 



Settlement Women Appointed Tenement 
House Inspectors. 

Of the eight women who have been recently 
appointed as tenement house inspectors for the 
Tenement House Department of New York City, 
seven have been connected with various social 
settlements of New York City and vicinity. 
Miss Mary B. Sayles, a graduate of Smith 
College, has during the past year pursued as 
fellow for the College Settlements Association 
an investigation of the housing conditions of 
Jersey City, while living at "Whittier House, 
Jersey City. Miss Mary Nevins was in resi- 
dence for a time during the past summer at 
the New York College Settlement. Miss Jean- 
«ette Moftett, who has pursued special work in 
Economics at Barnard College and who was 
in charge of the government social science 
exhibit at the Paris Exhibition, has been a 
fellow during the past year at the Woman's 
Branch of the University Settlement, New York 
City. Miss Emily Dinwiddle was for some time 
in residence at Whittier House. She Is at 
present compiling for the Charity Organization 
Society of New York the current Charities Di- 
rectory. Miss Helen D. Thompson, a graduate 
©f Vassar, was during the past two years a 
resident of the Friendly Aid Settlement of New 
York City. She resigned a position as sanitary 
inspector for the Civic Sanitation Association 
•f the Oranges to take the position of tenement 
house inspector. Dr. Gertrude Light has been 
associated with Hartley House, New York Citj^, 
giving medical service in that district. Miss 
Mildred Fairfield has had club work at the 
University and the Nurses' Settlement, and has 
been engaged in the work of the University 
Extension Society. 



West Side Branch of University Settlement. 

Through the generosity of friends we have 
been able to extend our usefulness to a new 
field where a house Is to be put in order for 
more extended industrial work and better ac- 
commodations furnished for the kindergarten. 
The rapid growth of the work this fall has 
made many demands upon the limited space of 
our house as well as our ingenuity and this 
new old house is the solution to many of the 
difficulties. The neighborhood to which we 
lend part of our residential force, is largely 
Italian, with a representation of both German 
and Hebrew, with perhaps the usual number 
of Irish whom we no longer consider foreign 
when considering racial problems. Miss Mar- 
garet Batcheldor, formerly of the College Set- 



tlement, Rivington Street, holds the Thomas 
Memorial scholarship and will be in residence 
here during the year, making as her special 
work the investigation of child labor In factory 
and commercial establishments. Miss Mary B. 
Lippincott, formerly in the College Settlement, 
Philadelphia, four years, and as head resident 
at Kingsley House, Pittsburg, six years, will 
be specially charged with the organization and 
extension of the class work. 



A Church Settlement for Manila. 

A comprehensive movement, having for its 
object the extension of the American national 
idea in the Philippines and of Christianity 
among the native Filipinos, has been started 
by the Protestant Episcopal Church of this 
country. It proposes to raise a fund of 
$1,000,000, with which a central institutional 
church will be founded at Manila, and from 
-which preachers and lay teachers will be sent 
to other parts of the islands where branch in- 
stitutions are to be established. No attempt 
whatever, it is stated, will be made to work in 
antagonism with the Catholic Church in the 
islands. 

It was said that of the fl, 000,000 required, 
about $200,000 is in sight. 

At the Manila Settlement there will be nine 
members of the clergy, two trained nurses, and 
several kindergarten teachers and lay mission- 
aries, besides a physician. It is estimated that 
the maintenance of the Settlement will cost 
about |5,000 a year, and the industrial school 
which will be established in connection with it 
will cost about $2,000 more. In the school ag- 
riculture and woodworking are to be taught. 



With the Mansfield House Magazine, we offer 
our hearty congratulations to the Browning 
Hall Settlement upon the opening of their new 
Men's Club. "The beautiful building, which 
cost about £5,000, stands upon a corner site, 
j and is one of the finest buildings, architectural- 
i ly, in Walworth. At the opening ceremony 
Dr. Chas. Booth unlocked the door with a 
golden key, and made' a charming little speech, 
and the liberal-minded Bishop of Hereford of- 
fered the dedicatory prayer. The club is already 
provided with some good billiard tables, while 
the Dr. Dale library, in its naked eloquence, 
pleads for literary clothing. There is also a 
public restaurant in connection with the club, 
which will meet a need of the neighborhood. 
We wish our sister Settlement all success." 



HI 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEAIENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDINC. COMMITTKE. 

I'retiilenl: Kathakise Comas, Wellesley, .3Iass. 
fire President: Helen Chadwuk Rand Thavek 

(Mrs. Lucius H. Thavt-r), Portsmouth, N. II, 
Serreturi/: Sakaii Graham Tomki.xs, Marion, 

Mass. 
Tren-<iner: Elsik Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 

Parsons), 112 East 35lh St., New York City. 
Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Jlrs. 

Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 

Yorl£ City! 

STANUING CO.MMITTKE OS SUBCHAPTERS. 

Chairman: Loi'ise B. Lockwood, 441 Pari? Ave.' 
New York. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City— 95 Riviugton Street. 
Pluladelphia— 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn -Avenue, Cliicago. 



College Settlement Sub-Chapters. 

BY LOUISE B. LOCKWOOD. 

The systematic work of establishing sub- 
chapters among the schools of our country was 
ttegun by the College Settlements Association 
four years ago. Believing that this movement 
had the two-fold advantage of uniting the 
schools in a common aim and of interesting our 
future women in the practical philanthropy of 
the times, the principals of our private schools 
were asked to co-operate with the colleges in 
forming these sub-organizations which should 
report progress to the Electoral Board either 
through a college chapter or through the stand- 
ing committee. 

School girls like to help. With a definite 
purpose at hand, a definite problem to solve, 
the need of service awaiting them in their own 
city at once aroused their interest. Their 
response and the hearty co-operation of the 
principals made the results surpass the ex- 
pectations of the Board. In the winter of 
1899-1900 five sub-chapters were started, and 
the following year two local committees, one 
in Boston and one in Philadelphia, were formed, 
who, supervising the work In these cities 
should report to the standing committee in 
. New York. Letters to the principals of the 
private schools were followed by personal in- 
terviews, and where the principal approved of 



the plan an address was made to the school 
by a settlement worker, and some special task 
proposed. Miss Davies, Miss Dudley and Miss 
Williams being most kind in* assisting us in 
this way. Thirty sub-chapters appeared on our 
list at the close of that year's campaign and 
in 1901-1902 the number increased to forty. 

The prescribed duties of these sub-chapters 
are light. Each contributes ten dollars an- 
nually to the general fund of the association 
and sends a report. If it is an independent 
sub-chapter this goes to the chairman of the 
local committee, thence to the standing com- 
mittee. If it is a college sub-chapter it attends 
the meetings of the mother chapter, when that 
is possible, and keeps in touch with the elector. 
Barnard College has thirteen sub-chapters; 
Bryn Mawr, one; Wells, one, Wellesley, five; 
Swarthmore, one; Smith, one; Vassar, one. The 
rest are independent. 

The sub-chapters are asked to work for the 
Settlement nearest their location — Denison 
House for those in Massachusetts; 433 Chris- 
tian Street, Philadelphia, for those in Pennsyl- 
vania, while those near the vicinity of New 
York naturally confine their efforts to 95 Riv- 
ington Street. 

What have these organizations done for the 
work? Perhaps the hundreds of dolls that have 
come to us at Christmas, dresse<l often by the 
girls themselves, are not the least, though 
among the most conspicuous proofs of interest 
^besides books, knives, horse reins for the 
boys, and gifts that have brought cheer to 
families in the neighborhood who otherwise 
would have had no festival. During the sum- 
mer, boxes of flowers have brought a breath 
of country and thoughts of brooks and birds to 
friends in the crowded districts. "Library," 
at 95 Rivington Street, and "Bank" have been 
regularly supplied. Although we like to have 
suggestions come from among the girls them- 
selves, they frequently request a definite piece 
of work be given them. Sewing classes, par- 
ticularly in Lent, are quite common, during 
which sessions sheets for Mt. Ivy, towels, nap- 
kins and night gowns, etc.. have been made. 
Besides these more general donations, the girls 
have come into direct connection with the Set- 
tlement, helping in the library, playing games 
with the children Saturdays. The boys' sub- 
chapter sent their glee club to act as orchestra 
for "Esmeralda," given by one of the Settle- 
ment clubs. One girl went into residence at 
Mt. Ivy and the interest she there conceived 
for the work was instrumental in forming the 
Junior League, an organization of young 



THE COMMONS 



i: 



women who give personal work and entertain- 
men IS for the cause, $1,500 being raised in this 
way. A reception was given by one sub-chapter 
to the others last winter at which music was 
supplied by a pupil from our music school, 
and an address made by Mr. James B. Reynolds. 
One school regards the kindergarten room at 
1S8 Ludlow Street as its peculiar charge, and 
having furnished it artistically, will continue 
to care for it. Still another furnished money 
to turn the. yard into a fit playgi-ound. A 
liorse was donated from one school for Mt.-  
Ivy. Tennis nets, bathing suits, shoes, pillows 
and numerous household furnishings have, 
moreover, been entirely supplied by these 
friends. 

Again, it was thought by the sub-chapters 
that w^e were able this year to build a tank at 
Jit. Ivy, and for the first time have sufficient 
water to supply the house. Others helped to- 
ward our camp for small boys. 

In Boston one sale resulted in $250 for Deni- 
son House, and two others were no less en- 
couraging. Blankets and linen were furnished 
by another, and still a third gave a play, the 
proceeds of which were devoted to Denison 
House, and two sub-chapters aided by articles 
and personal service the Woman's Club sale. 
In Philadelphia the story is practically the 
same, although it has been a little more dif- 
ficult . here to have the girls visit the Settle- 
ment. But thi'ough the assistance of Miss 
Davies the interest of the schoo^g has resulted 
in a play given at the Settlement, the proceeds 
of which went to the Front Street House, a 
large Winged Victory for the Cliristian Street 
House, besides the general Christmas cheer, 
incntioned before. Here as in Boston picnics 
for the children, and a general meeting for the 
sub-chapters with tea and addresses were 
given to promote unity of action, and added 
enthusiasm resulted from both these receptions. 

The foregoing are but a few of the many 
tangible results of our work. Behind these lies 
the ideal of strengthening through the younger 
members of the association the general cause 
of Settlements. To discover that service for 
humanity in their own city need not be a mere 
dream appeals to the school girl and boy, as 
perhaps no other cause can, and we find that 
they regard their work as an opportunity not 
only for preparatory years, but for greater help 
in college or home life. So that it is in the 
hope of thus uniting the sympathies ot our 
coming generation that we look toward this 
undertaking as yielding constantly Increasing 
results. 



Independent Sub-Chapters. 

Anabel, Philadelphia, Pa, 

Case and Child, 1527 Pine St., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Classical School for Girls, 2042 Fifth Ave., 
New York, N. Y. 

Cutler's School, 20 East 50 St., New York. 

Dwight House. Englewood, N. J. 

Miss Brown's School, 66 Marlborough St., 
Boston, Mass. 

Friends Select School, 140 North 16th St., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Miss Kimball's Sub-Chapter, Worcester, 
Mass. 

Ossinlng, School. 

Bradford Academy, Boston. 

Miss Oilman, 324 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. 

Miss' Dana, Morristown, New Jersey. 

Dana Hall, Wellesley, Mass. 

Miss Emerson, 401 Beacon St., Boston. 

Rosemary Hall, Greenwich, Conn. 

Lockwood Collegiate, Mt. Vernon, New York. 

BRVN MAWR SUB-CHAPTKH. 

Miss Shipley's School, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

BUITII SIJB-CHAPTEH. 

Burnham School, Northampton, Mass. 

WELLS SUB-CHAPTER. 

Wells' Preparatory, Aurora, N. Y. 

SWAUTHMORE SOB-CHAl'TER. 

Swarthmore Preparatory. 
Junior League, New York. 
Miss LeBaron Drumm, 40 West Seventy- 
second St., New Y'ork. 
Flushing Seminary, Flushing, New York. 
Rogers Hall, Lowell, Mass. 

BARHARD SUB-CHAITERS, 

Catherine Aiken School, Stamford, Conn. 

Barnard Classes, 430 West 118th St., New York. 

Bennett School, Irvlngton-on-Hudson. 

Berkley Institute, 82 Lincoln PI., Brooklyn. 

Miss Annie Brown's School, 715 Fifth Ave., 
New York. 

Misses Jaudon's School, 26 East Fifty-sixth 
St., N. Y. 

Miss Low's School, Stamford, Conn. 

Morgan's School, 15 West Eighty-sixth St., 
New York. 

Riverside School, 315 Riverside Drive, New 
York. 

Sach's School, 116 West Fifty-ninth St., New 
York. 

Mrs. Weil's School, 109 West Seventy-seventh 
St., New York (extinct). 

L/eggett Sisters' Memorial, Miss Botsford 
School, Staten Island. 

Brooklyn Heights Seminary, 138 Montague St. 

WKLLESLEY SUB-CHArTERS. 

Miss Hills' School, 1808 Spruce St., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Miss Peebles' and Miss Thompson's School, 
New York, N. Y. 

Staten Island Academy. • 

Walnut Hill School, Wellesley, Mass. 

Mrs. Staler's, 217 East King St., Lancaster, Pa. 



18 



THE COM MONS 



THe Commoris 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the 5ocial Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HA.M TAYLOR., - 



Editor 



Entered at Cliicat'O rostoHice as Secon<l-Cl:iss Malter, anil 
I'lihlislied tlie liist of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



Our readers will share the indebtedness we 
feel to Professor McVey for contributing to The 
Commons the only consecutive report, so fully 
given to the public of the important and inter- 
esting conference of employes and employers 
recently held in Minneapolis. In anticipation 
of special demand, we have printed a larger 
edition than usual so as to fill orders for extra 
copies. 

Next month we publish a descriptive report 
of the St Paul Convention of the American 
League for Civic Improvement from the pen of 
the field secretary, and print in full Professor 
Zueblin's presidential address on "A Decade of 
Civic Improvement." Advance orders are so- 
licited. 



Union Labor After the Miners' Strike. 

With the close of the United Mine Workers' 
strike in the anthracite coal fields, organized 
labor has scored by far the greatest triumph 
it has ever won in America. The issue at stake 
steadily rose from the Pennsylvania coal pits 
until it lodged itself before the mind and con- 
science of the whole people at the national 
capital. 

Unofficial though the action of the. President 
was, it was sanctioned by an overwhelming 
public opinion throughout the entire country. 
Chicago was never more a unit than in the 
favorable attitude toward the miners taken by 
rich and poor, in press and pulpit, club, shop 
and office. Although prior to this dramatic 
turn of affairs, the right of labor to organize 
was conceded by an ever increasing number of 
people, a large majority have withheld their 
approval of what they have supposed to be the 
methods, spirit, and public utility of trades- 
unionism. A very considerable minority con- 
scientiously and from patriotic motives regard- 
ed their influence as destructive to equality 
before the law and subversive to personal lib- 
erty. Before this great jury of the vast outside 



majority, union labor has been on trial as never 
before. 

The educative showing it made of its caus* 
at the White House was so country -wide an* 
immediate as to be almost magical. In the 
attitude of the President of the United States 
the Nation gave its first recognition of orgam- 
ized labor, and for the first time registered tlie 
Public as the third party in every issue betwee* 
capital and labor that affects common interests. 
The informality or extra legal and unofficial 
character of the President's interposition de- 
tracted nothing from the national sanction witk 
which the arbitration commission is invested. 
A decision of the Supreme Court or an act of 
Congress would not have so directly and em- 
phatically registered the verdict of the whole 
people. 

National recognition has been given, first of 
all, to the self-control under great provocatiom, 
the ability under the most exacting tests, and 
the loyalty to law and public welfare, under the 
most distracting class interests shown by the 
representative of organized labor in the person 
of John Mitchell, who towered h^ad and shoul- 
ders above all others involved in the crisis, 
excepting only President Roosevelt, with whom 
he stood equal on the same high level of char- 
acter and action. 

The Nation recognized the wonderful dis- 
cipline maintained by the United Mine 
Workers at first in keeping inviolate the soft 
coal miners' contracts with their employers, 
and then to "a still greater degree through 
months of desperate struggle and hardship, in 
preserving order and loyalty among the mixed 
and polyglot multitude imported by the oper- 
ators for the purpose of making' the organiza- 
tion of. labor impossible. 

The employer's remedy for the all too clearly 
manifest evils and abuses of labor organizations 
is recognized to be not in such foolhardy and 
futile attempts to crush out all organization 
of labor as the National Manufacturer's Asso- 
ciation rashly announces, but in co-operating 
with the better labor leaders and the public in 
promoting the more orderly organization and 
legal responsibility of labor. 

The social settlements agree with The Out- 
look in urging this policy upon both labor unions 
and employers. Because, as its editor well 
says, "by fighting them they increase the power 
of the belligerent and the demagogical leaders, 
for in time of war the belligerents and the 
demagogues always come to the front. By 
co-operation with them they increase the power 
of the conservative and the constructive leaders. 



THE COMMONS 



19 



for in time of peace constructionists always 
come to the front. This lesson is writ large in 
the history of the last few months. Whether 
the mine operators have yet learned to read 
such writing we do not know, but it is very 
legible to the general public." 



Unjversity of Wisconsin Settlement at 
Milwaul<ee. 

We congratulate the University of Wisconsin 
and the city of Milwaukee upon their co-opera- 
tion in establishing a social settlement under 
the most promising auspices. It is to take its 
name from the university and five of its direct- 
ors from among those actively identified with 
the university work and life. Milwaukee fur- 
nishes ten of the directors and much of its 
support, toward which the university alumni 
are also invited to contribute. The Settlement 
Association is so fortunate as to have secured 
as warden Mr. H. H. Jacobs, who for several 
years has had a city-wide influence in his work 
at the Haiiover Street Congregational Church 
and in other lines of social and civic service. 
An old three-story mansion, strategically lo- 
cated in the heart of the Polish district, at 
First Avenue and Becher Street, has- been se- 
cured as the settlement house, into which Mr. 
Jacobs moves this month with his family and 
other resident workers. The easy proximity 
of the university constituency will afford the 
settlement a great source of personal service, 
and the settlement in turn will supply the 
university with its first natural point of contact 
for field study and social research. Encourage- 
ment to take advantage of this enlarged oppor- 
tunity should come from the fact that the 
student sent by the department of economics 
to study in the Chicago settlement graduated in- 
to an instructorship in sociology and economics 
at the State University of Iowa. In our December 
issue we hope to present our readers with an 
illustrated description of the 'University of Wis- 
consin Settlement by its own warden. 



From Chicago Commons' Point of View. 

The legislative campaign in our 21st Sena- 
torial district that is just drawing to a close 
has been full of stirring incident. It is a 
"shoe-string" district, having the shamelessly 
"gerrymandered" dimensions of six miles 'n 
length and a width averaging ten to six blocks. 
The party "machines" placed only three men. in 
nomination for three offices, thus leaving the people 
no choice. In obedience to the urgent demand of 
independent Republicans and Democrats the 
17th Ward Community Club with headquarters 



at Chicago Commons united the decent citizens 
of the district in a non-partisan Legislative 
League and nominated J. J. McManaman, an 
able young lawyer, as the people's candidate. 
This nomination was endorsed by the Legisla- 
tive Voters' League and the Public Ownership 
League. With small means and no "organization" 
a thorough canvass has been made of each pre- 
cinct. So encouraging was the response to this 
first independent legislative campaign that a small 
majority for Mr. McManaman appears on the face 
of the returns while the official count is being 
made. The close vote and the temptation to partisan 
manipulation may involve a contest. Our district 
rolled up next to the largest independent vote 
cast in Chicago. As the foundation for intelligent 
-political action in local affairs we quote from the 
constitution of the Community Club: 

OUR NOX-PARTISAX CREED. 

1st. We believe the time has arrived when 
national politics should not be allowed to inter- 
fere with local issues. 

2d. We believe it to be our duty to en- 
courage all parties to nominate honest and 
capable men for office. 

3d. We believe it to be our duty when the 
established parties fail to nominate honest and 
capable men, to secure the nomination and fur- 
ther the support of an independent citizens 
ticket. 

4th. We believe that defeat in a good cause 
is often the way to future victory, but that 
success achieved by dishonor is always the way 
to final destruction. 



The Northern Illinois Teachers' Association, 
at their annual convention in Rockford, by a 
rising, unanimous vote, appropriated }150 to 
the work of Chicago Commons, thus generously 
reciprocating the service of its warden in ad- 
dressing them on "The Responsibility of the 
Public School for Social Ethics." 

THe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It Is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
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we continue The Commons to each address until notl&ed 
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20 



THE COMMONS 



Encourajemeat to Cancel Chicago Commons' 
Debt. 

The statement of our financial crisis in the 
October number of The Commons brought us 
from a friend the offer of the last fl.OOO of 
our total indebtedness. This leads us to in- | 
elude the payment of the mortgage on the lot 
adjoining our new building, purchased as the 
site of the proposed men's club house, and also 
the estimated expense of the settlement work 
to the end of this year, which is somewhat 
increased by assuming the responsibility for 
the day nursery and additional equipment. | 

OBLIGATIONS TO BE MET BEFORE THE CLOSE OF 
THE YEAB. 

Building fund notes $11,227 i 

Mortgage on new lot for men's club * ! 

house 1,500 I 

Note covering deficit in current account. 1,500 
Day nursery maintenance and additional 

equipment 750 

Estimated expense of settlement work to 

Jan. 1st 1,750 

Total liabilities |16,727 

Contributions assured since Oct. 1 4,395 

Total needed to close the year free from 
debt 112,332 



Camp Commons Reunion. 

As is their happy custom the boy and girl 
campers rallied for their camp reunion at the 
opening of the club work in October. Our large 
auditorium was filled by the children, their 
families and friends, among whom was a large 
delegation of "camp followers" f»om Elgin, who 
received an uproarious welcome. The "camp 
fire program" included songs and stories, 
"stunts" and cake walk, recitations and 
"jigging," such as brightened the golden sum- 
mer days and merry evenings in the Penny 
Meadow. 

The Day Nursery. 

The crisis which threatened the continuance 
of the day nursery which we reported in our 
last issue has been happily tided over. The 
Matheon Club has requested the residents of 
Chicago Commons to assume the responsibility 
for the management of the nursery, but con- 
tinues its identification with the work which 
it has so long maintained by aS^pointing a 
strong advisory committee and pledging at 
least five hundred dollars a year toward the 
expenses. We have rented suitable quarters in 
a first-fioor fiat adjoining the Chicago Com- 



mons building on the south at 163 Morgan 
Street. Under the competent care of a matron 
especially trained for nursery work in our 
own kindergarten training school, the little 
ones and their mothers will receive the same 
careful service which has meant so much to 
their home life during the past four years. 
Toward the additional $500 expense which Chi- 
cago Commons thus assumes we invite the 
friends of helpless infancy and struggling 
motherhood to send special contributions. 



Public School Co-operation. 

The evening public school in our neighbor- 
ing Washington school house has taken a sur- 
prising and inspiring turn in its history this 
autumn. All the years in which its work was 
confined to the common English branches it had 
a small attendance, especially of adults. When 
its superintendency was given to the principal 
of the day school it was put in vital connec- 
tion with the neighborhood at once. In adding, 
by his own generous enterprise and that of 
those whose interest he enlisted, such social 
features as manual training, mechanical draw- 
ing, stenography and type-writing, sewing and 
cooking, clay modelling and the making of * 
potter^r, Principal William J. Began has been 
met more than half way by people of every 
race and class in our cosmopolitan neighbor- 
hood. It is an inspiring scene to witness between 
600 and 700 men, women and children, most of 
them men, gathering five evenings a week for 
educational and social purposes on their own land 
and under their own roof. Whole rooms full of 
Scandinavian, Polish, Italian, Greek and German 
men learning English tinder teachers of their 
own nationality, impress the visitor with the 
limitless possibilities in the social extension 
of the public school. The truly democratic 
and social spirit which perVades every ses- 
sion has developed a contagious enthusiasm 
which permeates- the whole school house. 
Chicago Commons has gladly turned all appli- 
cants for common English branches, which it 
used to teach, over to the evening public 
school. We are thus relieved from work which 
public schools can do better than the settle- 
ment, and are freer to develop such social, rec- 
reative, industrial, civic, ethical and religious 
features as the settlement can more effectively 
undertake than the schools. 



"Be not so busy with your own career. 
However noble, that you cannot hear 
The sigh of those who look to you for help; 
For thls^ is purchasing success too dear." 

— Duer. 



THe Commons 

A Montlily Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and LAbor from the Settlement Point of Vieir. 

Number 77— Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, December, 1903 



I Written for The Commons.J 
A PAUPER'S PLEA. 

UY JOHN P. GAVIT. 

"Forgrive us our debts." — The Lord's Prayer. 

Forgive me. Lord, my countless debt to him 

Who toils for me! 
To all that host who give of life or limb 

To set me free. 

My food, for which Thy bounteous Hand I 
bless, 

Is good to eat, 
But giv'n at last by those who have far less 

And poorer meat. 

My feet are shod by myriad busy hands 

Of maids and men. 
Who go ill-shod, o'er street and field, and sands 

To work again. 

My back is clad by folk in fetid air 

With faces gaunt, 
Who earn far poorer garb than I "must" wear. 

By toil and want. 

What books and learning in the schools I had 

Has now my boy — 
The builders and the printers had been glad 

To share the joy! 

And when I go abroad, these rushing days. 

By ship or train. 
The faithfulness of thousands guards the ways 

O'er hill and plain. 

This warmth, that thaws me from the Winter's 
chill— 

In midnight holes 
The miners delve in hordes beneath the hill — 

What of their souls? 

A pauper I, before the face of All. 

Kneel now to Thee; 
Thy needy children — yea, I hear their call 

True against me!- 

Beneath this load of Debt to Man I bow. 

Long on me laid; 
O shame, in all the worthless years till now, 
So little paid! 
Albany. New York. 



A DECADE OF CIVIC IMPROVEMEST- 

1893-1902. 




President Charlef^ i.. . n's Address at the 

Convention of the American League 

for Civic Improvement. 

The last decade has witnessed not only a 
greater development of civic improvement than 
any previous decade, but a more marked ad- 
vance than all the previous history of the 
United States can show. At the beginning of 
this period, the most significant expression of 
civic interest in cities was to be found in the 
first social settlements of New York and Chi- 
cago, in the beginning of the expansion of the 
public school system, in the first struggles to 
transplant the merit system from federal to 
municipal offices, in the preparations for tho 
World's Fair, in the isolated examples of vil- 
lage and town improvement, and in the develop- 
ment of municipal functions, such as street 
paving and lighting, as well as in the first 
attempts at administrative reform, which found 
expression subsequently in the metropolitan 
systems of Boston. The evidences of the edu- 
cation of public opinion are to be found in such 
facts as these: The first American Improve- 
ment Association was that founded at Stock- 



THE COMMONS 



bridge, Mass., in 1853, while tlie chief develop- 
ments of village improvement have taken place 
in the last half dozen years. The first public 
baths were established at Boston in 1866; but 
outside of Milwaukee, which established a 
natatorium in 1889, the general movement for 
public baths in this country dates from 1893. 
The initial proposal for a vacation school was 
made in Cambridge in 1872; but the first vaca- 
tion school was established in 1896. The first 
play ground was inaugurated by town vote in 
Brooklyn, Mass., in 1S72, but the play ground 
movement dates from the equipment of the 
Charles Bank in Boston in 1892. In 1851 the 
first steps were taken in New York to establish 
Central Park, but the chief park extensions of 
most American cities have been made in the 
last decade. The chief municipal gas and 
electric light plants in American cities were 
inaugurated since 1893. 

THE NEW CI\^C SPIRIT. 

The movement for civic improvement may be 
said to have found a three-fold expression in. 
first, the new civic spirit; second, the train- 
ing of the citizen, and third, the making of the 
city. At the close of the ninth decade of the 
last century, the new civic spirit was finding its 
chief expression in the adoption of certain 
important English social movements which had 
flourished for a number of years across the 
water, chief among which were social settle- 
ments and university extension. The accumu- 
lation of wealth during the eighties, the de- 
velopment of popular education and the in- 
crease of leisure gave an opportunity for the 
performance of public duties such as had not 
seemed to exist to the young American of the 
tormer generation. Unfamiliar with the du- 
ties of citizenship and social service, the 
altruistic individual of the nineties naturally 
drifted into movements which had received the 
stamp of approval in the older country. These 
movements have grown stronger as the years 
have gone by, in spite of or because of the 
multiplication of other movements; but for a 
time they absorbed the energy of the lovers 
of their kind who were not attracted by the 
familiar charitable organizations or by politics. 
They gave an opportunity also for the expres- 
sion of the American interest in private and 
voluntary organization as distinguished from 
public work, which was supposed to involve 
the odium attached to the politician. 

EDUCATION OF THE CITIZEN. 

It was not long, however, before the contact 
with working people and the real facts of the 
light of the masses impressed upon the social 



servants the significance of public activities. 
There consequently followed important move- 
ments for democratic education and municipal 
reform, which now constitute the chief factors 
in the training of the citizen. The expansion 
of the school curriculum, the multiplication of 
facilities in the school house, the extension of 
education to adults and to people engaged in 
wage earning occupations, are all comprehended 
within the decade just closing. Nature study, 
manual training, art in the public schools in 
decoration and instruction, gymnasiums, baths 
and play grounds, vacation schools, free lec- 
tures, these are familiar terms: but they were 
virtually unknown to the citizen of 1892. 
Along with the development of democratic edu- 
cation there has taken place a m6st marvelous 
transformation in the conduct of municipal 
affairs. Corrupt as are the American cities 
of to-day in contrast with those of Great 
Britain, they would be scarcely recognized by 
the spoilsmen of the early nineties. The first 
conference for good city government was held 
in 1893, followed two years later by the or- 
ganization of the National Municipal League. 
Subsequently there sprang into existence two 
organizations representing municipal oflBcials. 
The legislature of New York granted to the 
metropolis the first elements of the merit sys- 
tem in 1894. Chicago introduced civil service 
reform in the spring of 189.'). Many of the 
American cities now have police and fire de- 
partments strictly controlled by civil service 
regulations, and scores of them p«rform their 
work of street cleaning and scavenging, some 
of them even of street and sewer construction, 
by the employes of the city. 

THE MAKING OF THE CITY. 

The new civic spirit which first found expres- 
sion, and happily continues to find expression, 
in the training of the citizen, finally promises 
to crown its activities by setting the citizens 
to work in the making of the city. Here, 
again, the contributions of the last ten years 
are as notable as al! those which have preceded. 
During that time the chief streets of most 
American cities have received their first good 
paving; street cleaning has been made possible 
as a result of the pioneer efforts of Colonel 
Waring in New York; telegraph and telephone 
wires no longer disfigure the main streets of 
New York, Chicago. San Francisco and a few 
other cities. The overhead trolley has been 
abolished in Manhattan and Washington. Parks 
and boulevards have multiplied, as have beau- 
tiful public buildings, including public schools 
and libraries. During the past decade, accord- 



THE COMMONS 



ing to Mr. Herbert Putnam, "There have been 
erected or begun five library buildings costing 
over a million dollars each, whose aggregate 
cost will have exceeded fifteen million dollars 
(Library of Congress $6,400,000, Boston J2,500,- 
000, Chicago $2,000,000, New York $2,500,000, 
Columbia $1,250,000, Pittsburg $1,200,000), and 
various others each of which will represent 
an expenditure of over a hundred thousand to 
seven hundred thousand dollars each, while 
buildings costing from five thousand to one 
hundred thousand dollars now dot the coun- 
try." The decoration of public buildings on a 
scale comparable to European accomplishment 
has been successfully undertaken in the Boston 
Public Library, the Library of Congress, the 
Appellate Building in New York, the Baltimore 
Court House, the Cincinnati City Hall and else- 
where. Many other individual attempts at the 
improvement and beautifying of towns and 
cities contribute to the greatest of recent civic 
achievements, the co-ordination of various ef- 
forts in a comprehensive plan for the improve- 
ment of modern communities. Once more we 
go back to the date 1893 for the first of these 
great accomplishments, the Chicago World's 
Fair. For the first time in the history of 
universal expositions, a comprehensive plan for 
buildings and grounds on a single scale was 
projected and happily accomplished by the co- 
operative effort of the chief architects, land- 
scape architects and sculptors of America. The 
contrast between the white city of Chicago and 
the black city of Chicago was no greater than 
that between the old conception of the city 
beautiful and the new. Coincident with this 
great architectural triumph was the establish- 
ment of the Metropolitan park system of Bos- 
ton, the most notable municipal undertaking 
in the history of American cities. Within eight 
years what was a dream of one man was more 
than realized for the benefit of more than a 
million people. The Metropolitan park system 
of Boston, comprising play grounds, city parks, 
rural parks, including forest, hills, river banks, 
and sea shore reservations is only a part 
of the great co-operative scheme of Metro- 
politan Boston. The district within eleven 
miles of the State House in Boston united for 
the mutual advantage of all the communitiea 
in the provision of water, the disDosition of 
sewage, for rapid transit and recreation, in 
four great metropolitan ^commissions. The ad- 
ministrative problems have not been entirely 
solved, but the conception of a comprehensive 
plan has received an emphasis even beyond that 
of the Chicago White City. Most recently this 



idea has had confirmation in what are knowa 
as the "Harrisburg Plan" and the "Improve- 
ment of Washington." The Harrisburg League 
for mutual improvements projected a plan for 
the employment of expert advice with regard 
to the city's water supply, the sewerage system, 
parks, boulevards, play grounds and street pav- ' 
ing. The society provided the funds, amounting 
to over $10,000, for the employment of these 
experts and the conduct of the campaign whioh 
resulted in the election of worthy officials and 
the passage of a referendum vote, authorizing 
the issue of over a million dollars in bonds. 
The Harrisburg Plan is a model of scientific 
method and enthusiastic citizenship, but it has 
a worthy rival as a spectacular accomplishment 
in the improved plans for Washington. 

The magnificent plan of L'Enfant, approved 
by George Washington, is responsible for th» 
Capital City's being one of the most beautiful 
cities of the world, but the failure to take 
advantage of all the elements of that plan or 
to be consistent with its beginnings, makes 
necessary the commission of to-day. L'Eufant's 
plan, in brief, took into consideration the 
topography and the supposed necessity of a 
water approach to the city, and then located 
the streets on the plan of two sets of wheel 
spokes laid on a gridiron witli the Capitol 
as one hub and the President's house as the 
other. Along the axles of these two buildings 
was projected apart and they were to be con- 
nected directly by a broad street, Pennsylvania 
Avenue. The other public buildings were also 
to be appropriately grouped. 

Even the fundamental features of this scheme 
have not been held sacred by their builders. 
The vista of the White House along Pennsyl- 
vania Avenue has been obscured by the Treas- 
ury and State Department buildings; curious 
and unsightly edifices have been erected along 
the Mall; the Washington monument, which 
should have stood at the junction of the axes 
of the two main buildings, occupies a site- 
unpardonable in its isolation one hundred teet. 
south from the axis of the Capitol, and several 
hundred feet east of the axis from the White- 
House: the Pennsylvania railway has been al- 
lowed to cross the Mall at grade; and to men- 
tion but one other incongruity, last but not 
least, the Library of Congress has been so. 
located that its dome diverts attention from 
the all important majesty of the Capitol. 

The recommendations of the American Instl-^ 
tute of Architects, on the occasion of the cen-  
tennial celebration of the establishment of the! 
Government at Washington, will fire the en^ 



THE COMMONS 



thusiasm of all who read them. The subject 
has since been exhaustively studied by the new 
commission. They point out possibilities still 
latent in Washington, and the influence which 
their realization would have on the other cities 
of the country is immeasurable. The construc- 
tion of the Houses of Parliament in London, 
on the Gothic model, though not an unqualified 
success, was the most important architectural 
event of the nineteenth century in Great 
Britain, and led to the revival of the minor 
arts as well. Even greater service will be 
rendered the cities of the United States when 
the noble plan of 1,' Enfant, projected at tlie be- 
ginning of the last century, shall be reincor- 
porated in the best expression of the new 
century, happily now assured by the appoint- 
ment of the present excellent commission, 
Messrs. Daniel H. Burnham, Chas. P. McKin, 
Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., and Augustus St. 
GaudenS. The proposed improvements of the 
lake front in Cleveland and Chicago, the boule- 
vard scheme for St. Louis, the great concep- 
tion of a united park system taking in the 
multitude of beautiful lakes about St. Paul 
and Minneapolis, all testify to the growing 
appreciation of comprehensive schemes tor 
improvement. The same tendencies are in 
evidence in the plans for rural improvement 
such as those of the Massachusetts trustees ot 
public reservations, the Essex County, New* 
Jersey Park Commission, the State Control of 
the Palisades, the National Parks in Wyoming, 
Colorado, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin and 
elsewhere. 

A X.^TIOXAI, UNIFICATION OF ISlPROVE.\tENT FORCES. 

The beginning of the new century finds ideals 
and concrete accomplishments so far advanced 
that for the first time the public is ready for 
a national organization to represent and co- 
ordinate these interests. The American League 
for Civic Improvement would have been sadly 
premature in 1893. It is hardly appreciated 
even In 1902, but the friendly response from 
every state in the Union and from Canada, 
from city, town, village and rural district, 
from men, women, and children, from public 
official and private citizens, from practical 
workers, writers, teachers and dreamers, all 
point to the necessity of a unification ot im- 
provement forces throughout the land. We be- 
lieve the brief experience of tour years of 
pioneer effort with inadequate financial support 
and notable sacrifices on the part of the leading 
workers sufl5cient to warrantthe claim that the 
American League for Civic Improvement has 
outlined a satisfactory plan for our co-opera- 



tion. Whether it shall be the organization 
honored with the mission of carrying out this 
plan will be determined by the next few years 
of effort. In any case it is my privilege to 
testify that a year's association with the leaders 
in this organization gives me confidence in 
believing that the work they have done will 
lead to one of <,he most significant advances in 
the public life ot America. 



St. Paul Convention of American League for 
Civic Improvement. 




BY B. G. ROUIZAHN, FIELD SECRETARY. 

"This is a sublime movement, and it is bound 
to succeed." Thus did Archbishop Ireland 
characterize the movement towards higher 
ideals in all "that pertains to the city, citizen- 
ship and the citizen." 

These strong words found interesting war- 
rant in the evident enthusiasm and deep- 
seated convictions ot the speakers and audi- 
ences, at the annual meeting of the American 
I.«ague for Civic Improvement held in St. 
Paul and Minneapolis, September 24-26. 

The occasion was described by a St. Paul 
daily as having assembled "a small body of 
men and women with large ideas. In each of 
the delegates present at the opening session 
there appeared to be v.ested a great fund of ex- 
ecutive force. " 

Again, an editorial writer in The Pioneer 
Press urged that "the particular value" of the 
League "is in emphasizing the interdepend- 



THE COMMONS 



ence of the various movements for civic bet- 
terment and in uniting the forces that are 
behind these movements. The phases of mu- 
nicipal activity are so various and there is such 
a diversity of tastes and Inclinations that ob- 
jects which appeal to one set of public-spirited 
citizens as of prime importance do not arouse 
the activity of another set. * * * And all 
these matters, political, social, commercial, 
aesthetic and humanitarian, are so closely 
related to one another and so dependent on 
one another that they are really only subdi- 
visions of a great and rapidly spreading move- 
ment — the effort to secure honest, efficient and 
intelligent municipal government in American 
cities, to the end that they may be safer, more 
convenient, more comfortable and in every 
way better to live in." 

By bringing together the leading spirits of 
these diverse interests the conventions of the 
American League for Civic Improvement tend 
towards that coherence which gives added 
power and permanency to all the factors in 
the nation-wide movement. 

VAIUKl) IXTEBE.STS REPKESENTEU BY MANY 
SPEAKERS. 

The list of speakers who addressed the re- 
cent gathering evidences that it was in truth 
a "clearing house" gathering. 

Miss Jane Addams. of Hull House; Mrs. Flor- 
ence Kelly, of the National Consumers' Leag^ue; 
K. J. Parker, of the American Park ar.d Outdoor 
Art Association; Dr. Justus Ohage, (if the St. 
Paul Health Department; Dr. Ida C. Bender, 
of the Buffalo Public Schools; Mrs. W. E. D. 
Scott, of the Eastern Conference of Public Edu- 
cation Associations; Mrs. Louis Marion McCall 
and Earle Layman, of the St. Louis Civic Im- 
provement League; O. McG. Howard, of the 
Farm, Field and Fireside; Mrs. Martin Sher- 
man, of the Woman's Auxiliary of the American 
Park and Outdoor Art Association; Miss Mary 
E. J. Coulter; Geo. Weilbrecht, of the St. Paul 
Mechanic Arts High School; Edward W. Bemis, 
of the Cleveland Water Works; Charles Zueblin, 
of the University of Chicago; W. W, Folwell, 
of the University of Minnesota; C. HA. Lorlng, 
of the Minnesota State Forestry Association; 
Miss M. Eleanor Tanant, of Louisv.ille Neigh- 
borhood House; Dwight Heald Perkins, of Chi- 
cago Special Park Commission; H. A. Board- 
man, of the St. Paul Commercial Club; Scott 
Brown, of the Chautauqua Institution; Louis 
E. Van Norman, of Home and Flowers; Thomas 
E. Hill, of Duluth. 

Judge W. W. Slabaugh, representing the 
Omaha Woman's Club; Mrs. E. P. Turner, 
of the Oakcliff, Texas. Improvement League; 
D. J. Thomas, of the Chautauqua Press; 
Mrs. Conde Hamilton, of the St. Paul Wo- 
man's Civic League; .Charles Mulford Rob- 
inson, of the American Park and Outdoor Art 
Association; Rev. Marie Jenny, of Des Moines; 
Archbishop Ireland; O. S. B. Green, of the Min- 
nesota College of Agriculture, presented reports 
and addresses. 

Mrs. E. B. Heard, of the Carnegie Travelling 
Libraries of Georgia; Albert Kelsey, of the 



Architectural Leagiie of America; Kenyon L 
Butterfleld, of University of Michigan, and 
others, sent papers and greetings. 

TYPICAL city' and COINTKY MOVEMENT.S. 

Mrs. Louis Marion McCall's paper upon 
"Improvement Organization in St. Louis," re- 
vealed a fascinating story of actual achieve- 
ment in a great city, the fourth in size in our 
country. The business like methods of the St. 
Louis League may well be adopted in numerous 
other cities. The American League of Civic 
Improvement plans to elaborate the practical 
application of Mr. Butterfield's theme, "The 
federation of rural social forces," an idea fa- 
miliar to readers of The Commons. 

The practical program of the convention, 
supplemented- by numerous smaller confer- 
ences, served to crystallize ideas and plans for 
the new year of propaganda and activity. 

The convention recommended the establish- 
ment of a model school garden as a feature of 
the proposed "model" city atid farm exhibits 
at the St. Louis Exposition. 

By resolution the convention endorsed the 
adoption of a method of instruction in civic 
improvement by the public schools. 

The intention of enlarging the section coun- 
cils emphasized the Lea'feue's service in claim- 
ing the co-operation of experts and authorities. 
The decision of the Executive Board to form 
city and state councils indicates the increasing 
efficiency of this organization as a federation 
agency. 

nEADlilAHTEK.S HEMOVKI) TO CHICAGO. 

The election of officers resulted in the selec- 
tion of the following representative executive 
board: President, J. Horace McFarland, Har- 
risburg. Pa.; First Vice-President, Edmund J. 
James. Evanston, 111.; Second Vice-President, 
Mrs. Louis Marion McCall. St. Louis, Mo.; 
Third Vice-President, General William J. Pal- 
mer. Colorado Springs, Colo.; Treasurer. Mor- 
ton D. Hull, Chicago,; Recording Secretary, O. 
McG. Howard, Chicago; Field Secretary, E. G. 
Routzahn, Dayton, Ohio; Corresponding Secre- 
tary, Charles Zueblin, University of Chicago; 
Edwin L. Shuey, Dayton, Ohio; Frank Chapin 
Bray, Chicago; Mrs. W. E. D. Scott, Princeton, 
N. J.; Mrs. Conde Hamlin, St. Paul, Minn.; 
Albert Kelsey, Philadelphia; Mrs. Percy V. 
Pennybacker. Austin, Texas; Clement Stude- 
baker, South Bend, Ind. 

The choice of these officers accompanied the 
decision to remove headquarters to Chicago, 
thus adding the first national organization to 
the increasing array of Chicago's social ma- 
chinery. 



6 



THE COMMONS 



The gpreater facilities of the Chicago head- 
quarters, which will include up-town and down- 
town offices and a civic improvement library, 
the personnel and geographical distribution of 
its officers and executive board, testify to the 
growing importance of the League and its pur- 
pose to serve as a clearing-house for all the 
allied interests of civic improvement. 

The executive headquarters are now defi- 
nitely located at 5711 Kimbark Avenue in con- 
junction with the offices of the Chautauqua 
Institution and the editorial offices of The 
Chautauquan. This location is a recognition of 
the complementary relations between the Chau- 
tauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York, 
and American League for Civic Improvement. 
The leaders of these two movements — the one 
formed to promote individual and community 
search for culture and knowledge, the other de- 
signed to arouse and organize social forces for 
actual achievement — have discovered a vital 
"community of interests." 

The down-town office of the League, at 1303 
Chamber of Commerce Building (Telephone 
Main, 3591). will afford a place for appoint- 
ments and immediate access to the leaders of 
the movement Both city and out of town 
friends of the movement are invited to visit 
either of the offices and to make freest possible 
use of the same. 



Our City and County Improvement Societies' 
Conference. 

BY MRS. ORVILLE T. BRIGHT. 

The Conference of Cook County Improve- 
ment Societies, held at FuUerton Hall on Sat- 
urday, November 22d, brought together an 
audience which, if not altogether satisfactory 
in point of numbers, was entirely so as repre- 
senting the varied civic interests of the county. 

A notable feature was the predominance of 
men at each of the three sessions, the club 
women and the public school teacher being 
mainly conspicuous by absence. 

Prof. Charles Zueblin presided at the morn- 
ing session, which was occupied by reports 
from the different organizations of work either 
already accomplished or outlined for future 
accomplishment Mr. Dwight-Perkins pre- 
sented a resolution looking to the unification 
of all Improvement Societies of Cook County. 
In the discussion which followed and which 
was continued at the luncheon tables, there 
developed the usual diversity of opinion as to 
the feasibility of the project 

The resolution was "carried and a committee 
appointed by the chair to take the necessary 
steps to carry out its provisions. 



The afternoon session — with Mrs. Orville T. 
Bright in the chair — was devoted to the subject 
of school extension. Dr. Henry Leipziger, su- 
pervisor of the Municipal Lecture Course In. 
New^ York City, delivered a most stirring and' 
delightful address descriptive of the "complete- 
education" work in that city. During the sum- 
mer of 1901-1902 the Board of Education ex- 
pended J125,000 of the people's money on 
vacation schools and playgrounds, the average - 
daily attendance being 150,000. In the vacation 
schools were taught basketry, carpentry, leather- 
work, sewing, dressmaking, millinery, crochet- 
ing, knitting, drawing and painting, embroid- 
ery, chair-caning, cooking, nursing, housekeep- 
ing, Venetian ironwork, whittling, cardboard^ 
construction, fret-sawing and other forms of" 
manual training. 

In the evenings band concerts were given oa 
the roof playgrounds of seven large public 
school buildings and were so largely attended,- 
not only by children, but by the mothers, often, 
with babies in their arms, that this feature 
will be extended another year. Adult educa- 
tion finds a place in the New York publi<r 
school system. Last year a series of free lec- 
tures and concerts were attended by over three- 
quarters of a million people, chiefly fathers and 
mothers from the tenements. 

Several school buildings are kept open in the 
evenings as play centers all the year round. 
Here the children play games or are given, 
books to read or have debating societies, all 
under the charge of a competent overseer. 
And all this is in addition to the regular even- 
ing schools. 

No brief summary can do justice to Dr. 
Leipziger's address. ^Tien he had finished his- 
account of this work so great so noble and 
at the same time so wise, so sensible and prac- 
tical no citizen was there of the "complacent 
city" to raise his voice for Chicago. Rev. R. 
A. White, 'who led the discussion, voiced the- 
feeling of the audience when he expressed a 
sentiment of humiliation that our great city 
of the middle west should be so completely 
distanced by her e&stem rival in this best or 
civic works. 

Informal discussion turned toward the edu- 
cation bill now being prepared by the Civic- 
Federation, and a resolution was adopted urg- 
ing the authors of the bill to so frame it that 
it should give legal authority to the Chicago- 
Board of Education to open the school build- 
ings as social centers as well as for "school 
purposes." 

The evening session had for its chairmaOL 



THE COMMONS 



Mr. John Wela. Two most Interesting ad- 
dresses were given. Ttie first, by Mr. Horace 
MacFarland, was Illustrated with stereopticon 
views and gave an account of the work of a 
few enterprising and loyal citizens of Harris- 
burg, Pa., in suppressing ugliness and creating 
beauty in that city. The second, by Mr. 
Dwight Perkins, presented "An Architect's 
Dream of Chicago." 

Altogether the series of meetings should 
have been of keen interest to Chicago people 
generally. It is a matter for regret that more 
were not present. It is a matter for congratu- 
lation that these conferences have become an- 
nual affairs and doubtless the great success of 
this program will Induce a better attendance 
another year. 



UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT IN HAMBURG, 
GERMANY. 

By A. Westenholtz. 
The Hamburg University Settlement was 
started very quietly and on a small scale in 
July, 1901, under the name of "Volksheim." 
The impulse was given separately by a num- 
"ber of people not over 30 years of age, who 
hearing the one about the other, joined in open- 
ing the work. These people were partly influ- 
enced by London ideas, partly by a movement 
going on at German universities for students to 
volunteer for the poor relief, and for the pub- 
lic popular lectures being held in Berlin. The 
Hamburg Settlement has practically left out 
all university extension ideas. They do not 
even have evening classes, the opportunities 
for instruction being abundant in western 
Germany and the Volks-Schulen very good. 
The chief aim of the settlement people is to 
bring together those that one day will have 
important relations in government or business 
with the laboring class; to give the former an 
opportunity of seeing with their own eyes the 
conditions in which the average worker lives, 
see his surroundings and get acquainted with 
his conceptions of government, socialism, labor, 
wealthy people and of the world in general. 
The bulk ot the Hamburg workingmen belong 
to the Social Democratic party, that has a very 
strong hold over them, although none but a 
comparatively small number are real conscious 
and professed socialists. There was much talk 
at first of the Settlement intending to pro- 
pitiate the hatred of the laboring to the wealthy 
class. That, of course, is an imposibility, as 
this hatred has not arisen from a revolutionary 
Jigitation, as many of the rich used to believe. 



One can only bring to people what Is really 
lacking, and that in the first place is some 
good and cheap enjoyment, a social and aes- 
thetic center for the neighborhood. Besides 
that the Settlement has tried to remove as 
much as possible all prejudices. The Hamburg 
society considers only those of the workers, 
while the inner circle of Settlement people 
consider the enlightening of the "upper ten" 
on this subject not only easier but, perhaps, 
more necessary, too! 

Although the money for the work is to a 
great extent given by distinctly "conservative" 
and "aristocratic" people, still this very circle 
of society will strongly object to the idea of 
any condescending attitude toward the workers. 
This is due to the fact that the money-giving 
people are mostly the fathers or other near 
relations of the progressive younger genera- 
tion, and still further to the fact that the hon- 
orary president, who patronizes Volksheim, 
is a manufacturer, and for some time a Ham- 
burg senator, who is himself doing much social 
work among the workingmen of his factory. 
The Social Democrats have partly been ap- 
peased; they just remain neutral, seeing there 
is a very free spirit ruling in Volksheim. Still 
the Settlements have to be very careful. So, 
for instance, they have entered in their statutes 
a paragraph excluding all systematic political, 
social-political or religious propagandism, the 
latter being particularly feared in Germany. 

The enterprises of Volksheim include a read- 
ing-room, providing all classes of newspapers 
and a small library, although there is hardly 
any demand for a library that lends the books 
for home use, which is done by another insti- 
tution of the city. Twice a week they open 
an Information oflSce, where all difficulties and 
questions concerning bad landlords, testaments, 
things concerning law, where to get some sub- 
sidy, labor, insurance (Imperial German), 
may be sought. There are weekly club evenings 
for mutual Instruction and discussion on sci- 
entific or other subjects. 

One day is chess evening, Settlementists and 
customers of the House joining in this and 
other table games'. Every Sunday there is an 
entertainment, for which an admission fee ot 
two and a half cents is charged, or a concert. 
It is the only thing the people have to pay for. 
There is difficulty to get the grown up workers 
into the Settlement, as they are very tired at 
night and prefer being with their family. The 
favorite enterprise of the Volksheim men are 
the boys' clubs that meet on Sunday afternoon 
and evening to play table games, read and get 



THE COMMONS 



a lecture on some subject of interest or im- 
portance. Besides they have their g>'mnastics 
(Turner), weekly courses in stenography, Eng- 
lish and other branches. The boys that belong 
to the club are of a somewhat higher class. 
This boys' work is the best — furnishes the best 
opportunity for bringing together the grown- 
up laborers and their families with the Set- 
tlement people. 

It is still to be said that Volksheim does not 
deal with the "slums." Its chief object being 
to affiliate the real average workingmen and 
the Social Democrats. The slum work is not 
needed half as badly as it is in England, for 
instance, being done by the government poor 
relief and private charity organizations, as well 
as missions. Perhaps some day the Settlement 
will start a boys' club in that part of the city. 

Volksheim has not got a house of its own 
nor hardly any residents. The young gentle- 
men and ladies, as well as the older gentlemen 
that gathered around the work, lecturing and 
giving information, just come over to the block 
quarter when it is their turn. A small number 
of them are to be found daily in the Volks- 
sheim rooms, who go to stay in that quarter 
for a few weeks. They just have a room or two 
in the neighborhood of one of the Volksheim 
Settlements. The Gesellschaft Volksheim pays 
a secretary, or better to say, gives a fellowship 
to some learned social-economist, who carries 
out and manages all the affairs of the asso- 
ciation. 

Starr Centre Penny Lunch Club. 

BY PHILIP B. WHELPLEY. DIKECTOR IX CHAKGE. 

The Neighborhood Work that has been known 
for many years as the Starr Centre, situated in 
the Seventh Ward, Philadelphia, has recently 
been consolidated and is now under a director- 
in-charge. 

Special effort is made to reach the colored 
population, which is very larga in this vicinity. 
Co-operative clubs for the purpose of securing 
staple household articles have proved to be 
an excellent method of holding the interest of 
the colored people, and through the agency of 
these clubs ways have been opened for their 
social and educational betterment. 

The harmful effects of poor foods are vividly 
demonstrated to settlement and neighborhood 
workers in all branches of their work, and the 
necessity of imparting to their neighbors the 
importance of good food and the knowledge of 
how and what to buy is forcibly borne in upon 
them. 

To enlist the interest of parents in the food 



question the Starr Centre of Philadelphia has 
instituted a Penny Lunch. These lunches are 
carefully prepared at the Centre and sold in 
the school yards at recess time. The Penny 
Lunch consists of: 

FOK OXE CENT. 

Two slices of bread with apple butter, one 
slice of ginger cake, one bun, one currant cake, 
one slice of white cake. 

A FEW BESCLTS. 

Professor Atwater gives as a standard for 
one-fourth day's ration for children between 
two and six years (kindergarten age), the 
following: 

Proteid. Fat. Carby. Calories. 

13.7 gr. 10 gr. 50 gr. 355 

We were able to furnish: 

Bread sandwich: weight, 2 oz.; cost, .0026; 
proteid, 5.43 gr.; fat, .90 gr.; carby. 31.25 gr.; 
calories, 158.50. 

Gingerbread: weight. 2Vi oz. ; cost. .0056; 
proteid, 3.42 gr.: fat, .92 gr.; carby., 38.26 gr.; 
calories, 179.48. 

Currant cake: weight, 2% oz. ; cost, .0064; 
proteid, 3.72 gr.; fat, 1.76 gr.; carby., 36.30 gr.; 
calories, 180. 

A few words from the first annual report: 

"The words philanthropy and charity to-day 
have such a different meaning from the same 
terms in the past that we look about us for 
other ways of expressing the new idea. In their 
origin these words had a beauty and power 
which no longer is theirs, but in the growing 
insight into the needs of those whom we call 
"the poor" we are struggling to restore their 
old significance. To-day, in the present, so 
alive with promise, if not with fulfillment, the 
question is asked, how may we best strive to- 
gether to meet the needs of the needy? And 
the answer comes, not in words, but in patient, 
intelligent, persistent daily effort, an answer 
often without apparent result, but never futile. 

FOOD OF THE POORER CLASSES. 

"In 1889 a member of the Starr Centre com- 
mittee, in visiting the neighboring homes, was 
deeply impressed with the fact that an intelli- 
gent knowledge as to the selection and prepa- 
ration of foods would save the money of the 
people daily, to say nothing of their health. 
Cooking classes were, naturally enough, the first 
expression of this anxiety, and so, for two 
years, these were carried on." Penny Lunches 
have been served to five schools and eight play 
grounds. 

The teachers are very willing to co-operate 
and do all they can to encourage the children 



THE COMMONS 



to buy the Starr Centre lunches in preference 
to the wretched candy and deleterious pastry 
that is sold in the neighborhood. Their names 
and addresses are secured, their homes are 
visited and the parents are instructed as far 
as possible regarding the selection of food, and 
what is perhaps of even more importance, the 
cooking of it. The worliing man, according to 
recent reports, spends more than half of his 
earnings for food. This cannot be entirely 
the result of the prevailing high prices — cook- 
ing, or, rather, the lack of it, must play a 
large part in bringing about this ratio. Prof. 
Atwater, in one of his interesting reports on 
food economy, says: "We are guilty of serious 
errors in our cooking. We waste a great deal 
of fuel in the preparation of our food, and even 
then a great deal of the food is badly cooked. 
A reform in these methods of cooking is one 
of the economic demands of our time." 

Readers of The Com.mons will remember an 
article in the August number descriptive of the 
Starr Centre Co-operative Coal Club. It may 
be of interest to them to know that the Coal 
Club was able to supply the members with 
coal at $5.75 per ton through the strike period, 
up to September 20th, when hard wood was 
substituted with occasional small portions of 
coal — at normal rates. 

This strike period has been bridged over by 
the club so far without physical suffering or 
financial loss to its members. 



Men are like rivers; the water is the same in 
each, and alike in all; but every river is nar- 
row here, is more rapid there, here slower, 
there broader, now clear, now cold, now dull, 
now warm. It is the same with men. Every 
man carries in himself the germs of every 
human quality, and sometimes one manifests 
itself, sometimes another, and the man often 
becomes unlike himself, while still remaining 
the same man. — From lolstoy's "Resurrection." 



Men think there are circumstances in which 
one may deal with human beings without love; 
and there are no such circumstances. One may 
deal with things without love; one may cut 
down trees, make bricks, hammer iron, without 
love; but you cannot deal with men without it, 
just as one cannot deal with bees without be- 
ing careful. If you deal carelessly with bees 
you will injure them, and will yourself be in- 
jured. And so with men. It cannqt be other- 
wise, because natural love is the fundamental 
law of human life. — From Tolstoy's "Resur- 
rection." 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIQHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fou the Associ.^tion by 

MaKY KtNOSBUKY SlMKHOVITCH, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Municipal Adoption of Trained Nurse Service 
for Siliools. 

The experiment of placing trained nurses in 
the public school service of New York City, 
which was reported in tlie last number of The 
Co.MMONP, has proved so successful that the 
service has been adopted by the municipality 
and henceforth the city will pay the salaries 
of the school nurses. 

Miss Rogers has received a badge from the 
Board of Health in recognition of her con- 
nection with the department. Other nurses 
will be appointed as soon as possible, that all 
of the schools in the crowded quarters may be 
covered. 

During the month of October Miss Rogers 
had 264 school patients, made 137 visits in the 
homes, and gave 893 first aid treatments. 



Sunday Concerts in the Public Schwis. 

Sunday, November 9th, was a day of peculiar 
interest, and deserves to be remembered as 
having witnessed a historic event. On the 
West Side of the city, between Ninth and 
Tenth avenues, a schoolhouse was opened on 
Sunday for the use of the people of the neigh- 
borhood. The West Side Civic Club, an or- 
ganization composed of young men living in 
the district, had succeeded in securing the use 
of this school for a public concert. The mat- 
ter of opening the schools on Sundays has 
been in the air for a long time, and it has at 
last become a reality. 

Although the matter had not been widely ad- 
vertised, a large audience gathered. Fathers 
and mothers with whole families .came in. 
The Board of Education furnished the light 
and heat and gave permission to use the build- 
ing. The Civic Club paid the janitor and also 
the incidental expenses of programs, and 
through an auxiliary committee of their 
friends from uptown, had secured the music, 
all of which was volunteered. 

There is to be a series of six Sunday after- 
noon musicales, at the end of which time it is 
hoped that the Board of Education will grant 
the Civic Club the privilege of continuing the 
concerts through the winter. Mr. Burlingham, 
president of the Board of Education, said that 



10 



THE COM MONS 



no particular privilege had been granted, that 
the schoolhouses belonged to the people and 
the people had a right to use them. 

The musical selections were all of a rather 
simple character and bright in nature. Many 
of them, however, were chosen from the classi- 
cal composers, and intermingled with popular 
airs. The audience was not only large but 
enthusiastic, and a great movement, which it 
is hoped will spread to all parts of the city, 
has been fairly and happily launched. 



Work Rooin at St. Rose Settlement. 

St. Rose's Settlement, 323 East 65th street, 
has opened a workroom for women. The object 
is to provide employment for those who are 
unable by reason of family cares, delicate 
health or advanced age, to work all day, and 
who must often support not only themselves 
but also a family of small children or an in- 
valid husband or parent. 

Orders are taken for all kinds of plain and 
fine sewing, darning, mending, binding skirts, 
cleaning and mending gloves and lace, marking 
linen binding rugs, hemming towels, sheets 
and napkins, making ladies' and children's un- 
derclothing, etc. A competent directress super- 
intends the work. Special attention is given 
to the sanitary conditions under which the, 
work is done. The reports of the Board of 
Health are received daily at the Settlement 
and the houses from which the women come 
are frequently visited. 



Warren Qoddard House. 

The Friendly Aid Society invited the friends 
of its work to the Warren Goddard House, 
264-248 East 34th street, on November 24th, to 
celebrate the raising of the debt and to accept 
the tablet memorial of the first president, 
Warren Norton Goddard. An informal recep- 
tion followed, to introduce Miss Leggett, the 
new head worker. 



Manhattan Trade School for Olrls. 

A school for training girls for the skilled 
handwork required in trades employing women 
will open Nov. 1st, 1902, at 233 West 14th St, 
New York City. It will be called the Man- 
hattan Trade School for Girls. Training of 
this character is not receiving sufficient atten- 
tion in the United States. This school is the 
result of many months of careful investigation 
and discussion on the part of a number of men 
and women well acquainted with the conditions 
under which working girls live, and also with 



the demands of certain trades for an adequate 

supply of skilled labor. 

Workers are overcrowding the unskilled 
parts of trades where the wages are small and 
even declining, while trade itself is suffering 
for the need of well-trained helpers. A com- 
plete investigation of those trades requiring 
expert handwork was made by this committee. 
The opinions of employers, organized labor and 
the workers, were sought by them. Institutions 
offering training in handwork were inspected, 
and the conclusion was reached that courses 
of trade instruction to meet the needs both of 
trade and labor, though not lacking, are inade- 
quate to the need. They do fit hundreds for 
earning a livelihood, but fail to reach the great 
class of workers who enter some line of trade 
work as soon as the compulsory school years 
are completed. Such girls are not skilled in 
handwork, nor are they usually able to select 
work best adapted to their talents. They must 
take the first position that offers, with small 
prospect of change to more congenial occupa- 
tion. As there is no regular apprentice system, 
they gain their experience as best they can, 
generally taking several years to become expert 
in work which might be easily learned in half 
the time if the instruction were regular and 
adequate. The factory, the operating room and 
dressmaking establishment claim a vast ma- 
jority of these girls. The families from which 
they come cannot afford to have them non- 
supporting when the compulsory school years 
are over. The problem of living is too vital 
for them even to make a temporary sacrifice 
for a future economic gain. 

The desire of the Manhattan Trade School 
for Girls is to reach the very poor who are 
obliged to earn their living. Free instruction 
will be offered and a system of scholarships, 
amounting to one hundred dollars a year, has 
been provided that each girl may receive the 
amount which she would probably earn in her 
first year of factory work; she will thus be 
able to avail herself of the benefit of this 
instruction. The school is making every effort 
to obtain students who are really deserving. 
Public school principals, supervisors of hand- 
work, settlement leaders and neighborhood 
workers have been appealed to for lists of 
girls who should be offered such instruction. 

The investigations of the various trades have 
enabled the school to decide on certain courses 
of work which will prepare for trades which 
are now in need of workers, and which pay 
good salaries. The selection for the first year 
will be those branches of industry which use 



THE COM MONS 



11 



the needle, the paste-brush and the sewing 

machine. Each one of these divisions has 
numerous attendant lines of development. The 
first classes to begin will be, probably, sewing, 
labeling, photograph mounting, box making, 
machine operating, and designing. From these 
beginnings other trades will open out as the 
pupils' talents will direct. Bright girls will 
be given the opportunity of advance into more 
skilled lines as quickly as possible. The ob- 
ject is to develop In each student the highest 
technical skill of which she is capable, while, 
at the same time, making her an intelligent 
worker and a high-minded, helpful woman. 
The courses of handwork will be supplemented 
therefore with other training, such as drawing 
and color work, business forms and methods, 
English, and practical courses in a knowledge 
of the development and needs of special trades. 
The future work in each of the courses has yet 
to be determined; the school holds itself in 
readiness to continue its classes into expert 
work of several years' duration if the student.s 
desire or need it. Other branches of trade will 
receive attention later. They are now under 
consideration. 

The problems confronting such a school are 
large, but the solution is greatly needed in 
education, as well as Jn life. The board of 
management are careful thinkers and active 
doers of tried experience. They will study the 
problem as the work opens out. They desire to 
build up a school which may be fitted to the 
needs of American workwomen and American 
trade conditions. Mary Schknck VVooi.max. 

NOTE. 

The director of the school is Mrs. Mary 
Schenck Woolman, who is also director of Do- 
mestic Art Department, Teachers' College, 
Columbia University. She has been connected 
with this work for eleven years, and has 
studied the subject from many sides in the 
United States and in :^urope. She has made a 
personal investigation of trades employing 
women. 

The principal of the school. Miss S. R. M. 
Miller of Minneapolis, has been identified with 
educational work for many years; her judg- 
ment is ripe aud her organizing power of a 
high order. 

The officers are: President, Miss Virginia 
Potter; vice-presidents, Mrs. Theodore Hell- 
man, Mrs. Henry OUesheimer, Mrs. Anna Garlin 
Spencer, Felix Adler. Ph. D.. John Graham 
Brooks; treasurer, J. G. Phelps Stokes; secre- 
tary, John L. Elliott, Ph. D.; assistant secre- 
tary, Miss Louise B. Lockwood. 



COLLEQH SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine C'oman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thayeu 
(.Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Gb.uiam Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 
York City. 

STANDING COMMITTEE ON SUB-CUAPTERS. 

Chairman .• Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave. 
New York. 

local committees. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia— Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 
settlements. 

New York City— 05 Rivington Street. 

Philadelphia— 433 Christian Street. 

Bostou— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for tub Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomkry, 

5548 Woodlavvn Avenue, Chicago. 



Fall neeting of the College Settlements 
Association. 

Held at 438 Christian Street, Philadelphia, 
Octobeu 25, 1902. 

In the absence of the president, the vice- 
president, Mrs. Thayer, called the meeting to 
order at 10 o'clock. The roll was called, show- 
ing a total of twenty-one members present. 

The following changes in the board were 
reported: Miss Emily S. Brown (Wellesley, 
1904) to succeed Miss Tomkins, Miss Dolly 
Tannahili (Smith, 1904) to succeed Miss 
Weeden, Miss Frederica Le Fevre (Bryn 
Mawr, 1905) to succeed Miss Cornelia Camp- 
bell, Miss Emily Richardson (Radcllfte, 1904) 
to succeed Miss Boyd, Miss Katharine Green 
(Packer, 1904) to succeed Miss Lethbridge, 
Miss Frances Kerr (Woman's College of Balti- 
more) succeeds Miss Hendrix; Miss Mary R. 
Drury, of Bristol, R. I., will take up the work 
of Miss Emily Lovett Eaton, Radcllfte Alumnae 
Elector. 

The resignation of Mrs. E. Kent Hubbard 
as non-collegiate elector was reported to the 
board. 

Miss Williams, of Newark, N. J., was elected 



12 



THE COMMONS 



to fill the place made vacant by Mrs. Hubbard's 

resignation. 

Tlie chief items of interest in the report of 
the standing committee were in regard to the 
fire at Mount Serf, the summer home of the 
New York Settlement, where some of the barns 
were destroyed by lightning last July, and in 
regard to the question of the Manila Settle- 
ment. , 

It has been proposed that the College Settle- 
ments Association take under its care the new 
settlement in Manila, which is to form part of 
the work of Bishop Brent and his corps of 
helpers. Miss Margaret Waterman, a graduate 
of Wellesley College, who was for some time a 
resident of Venison House, and who has long 
been closely connected with Boston settlement 
work, has gone to take charge of the settle- 
ment this fall. No action was taken upon the 
matter at this meeting. 

After the reading of the reports of the 
electoral board and of the treasurer (borh 
will api)ear in full in the annual report soon 
to be issued). Miss Lockwood, who had to leave 
on an early train, presented the report of the 
standing committee on sub-chapters, which 
showed a total of forty sub-chapters now in 
existence and the movement still making good 
progress. 

Miss Lockwood, as chairman also of the. 
committee on sub-chapter finances, appointed 
at the spring meeting, presented certain plans 
for the avoidance of confusion in the matter 
of collecting and recording sub-chapter sub- 
scriptions, and urged a closer relationship be- 
tween the standing committee on subchapters, 
the college electors and the electors of sub- 
chapters. 

The nominating committee was then elected, 
consisting of Mrs. Fitz Gerald. Miss Warren 
and Mrs. Doty. 

Miss Lockwood was re-elected chairman of 
the standing committee on sub-chapters with 
power to choose her own committee [names 
wiil be printed in annual report!. 

The speakers committee reported plans for 
an active campaign this winter and asked to 
have sent to them any applications for help 
in the form of a speaker or address on settle- 
ment work. 

The reports of the head workers of the New 
York. Philadelphia and Boston settlements will 
be printed in full in the annual report. 

Mrs. Parsons, as chairman of the committee 
on fellowships, announced that the two fel- 
lowships voted at the May meeting of the 
electoral board for the year 1902-1903 have 



been awarded to Miss Frances A. Kellor and 

Miss Lydia G. Chace. Miss Kellor is a gradu- 
ate in law of Cornell University, class of '97. 
She has also been a graduate student in the 
department of sociology of Chicago University. 
She is the author of a text-book entitled "In- 
ductive Sociology," and has also published sev- 
eral magazine articles on special sociological 
investigations, notably on the criminal woman. 
Her subject for investigation during the year 
is employment bureaus for women in New 
York and Chicago. She will reside at Hull 
House and the University of Chicago Settle- 
ment and at the New York Settlement. 

Miss Chace is a graduate of Brown Univer- 
sity, class of 1900. In 1901 she took her mas- 
ter's degree at Brown University. Her subject 
for investigation will be the physical defects 
of New York public school children. She will 
live at the New York College Settlement and 
will probably confine her investigations to the 
5th school district, the district in which the 
Settlement is located, and of whose local 
school board Miss Williams, the Settlement's 
head worker, is a member. 

Both Miss Kellor and Miss Chace were mem- 
bers during the past summer of the summer 
school of the New York Charity Organization 
Society. 

The committee on fellowships also reported 
that a paper was written by Miss Sayles, the 
Association's fellow in 1901-1902, on the hous- 
ing conditions of Jersey City, her subject of 
investigation for the year, and published in the 
July number of the Annals of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science. This 
paper did not contain the full results of Miss 
Sayles' investigation, and both the editor of 
the Annals and the committee on fellowships 
think the full results ought to be published. 
The editor of the Annals states that he will 
be glad to publish the report as a supplement 
to the Annals January number, providing the 
Association pay the cost* of printing. The cost 
will be $400 for 3.000 copies, these copies to be 
distributed according to certain plans outlined 
by the committee. 

The committee on fellowships also stated 
that Miss Sayles, association fellow for 
1901-1902, had done excellent work. She is 
now employed in the Tenement House Depart- 
ment of New York City as sanitary inspector. 

The board moved that $400 be appropriated 
for the printing of Miss Sayles' report in full 
in the January number of the Annals of thQ 
American Academy of Political and Social 
Science. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



Mrs. Simkhovitch, chairman of the com- 
mittee on the enlargement of the fellowship 
and scholarship idea, appointed at the May 
meeting, was not able to be present, but her 
report was read by the secretary. The com- 
mittee suggested that each chapter of the 
Association raise money each year or one fel- 
lowship or scholarship, or secure an endow- 
ment for fellowship, the work to be done at 
one of the Settlements of the Association pref- 
erably. The money should not be raised 
among the students, but if possible ampng 
those interested in the furtherance of the 
economic work at the respective colleges. 

A committee of two was appointed to con- 
sider the matter and report at the spring meet- 
ing. 

A committee was also appointed to look up 
the matter of extending the Association in- 
terest in western colleges and if practicable to 
start new chapters. 

After a vote of thanks to our host, the meet- 
ing adjourned at 1 o'clock. 

Sarah Graham Tomkiss, 

Secretary. 



NOTES. 

The afternoon of October 25th was spent by 
the board of the C. S. A. in visiting some of 
the Philadelphia Settlements. 

Miss Sayles has written a most interesting 
summary and account of her work, to appear 
in the annual report of the C. S. A. soon to 
be issued. 

The editor records, with deep regret, the 
death of John F. O'Sullivan, A. F. of L. or- 
ganizer. He has been a friend of Denisop 
House and could not well be spared to the 
cause of labor. Our deep sympathy is extended 
to the wife who, as many know, was well 
known to Chicago and Boston people 

The work of renovating and fitting up the 
house next to the Philadelphia Settlement on 
Christian street is practically nearing comple- 
tion. The lower floor already looks most at- 
tractive with its tinted walls and black wood- 
work. The board appropriated $1,000 for this 
special work at the May meeting. 



WORK OF VASSAR STUDENTS. 

The work among the maids at Vassar Col- 
lege is carried on by three organizations, each 
taking a different phase of the work. 

The Chapter of the College Settlements 
Association has organized a ^system of classes, 
which the students teach. 'The classes, with 



the exception of the dancing class, are held 
in the students' rooms, so making it necessarv 
that the number be limited. We found that 
five or six in a class was as many as could bo 
comfortably accommodated. The most popular 
among the classes were those which were 
purely for recreation, such as the dancing and 
embroidery classes, but French and German, 
as well as reading-, writing; an 1 ariiliinetii: were 
studied and enjoyed. This year we have been 
asked to have a class in book-keeping. 

The Christian Association of the College has 
weekly meetings. One meeting each month 
is a prayer meeting, led by one of the stu- 
dents. Another is usually addressed by some 
member of the faculty upon some popular sub- 
ject. A third meeting is given over to having 
a generally good time, dancing, marching, 
playing games, and singing. The fourth meet- 
ing is led b)- one of the students, wlio gives 
an informal talk, which is intended to be of 
an interesting and practical nature, and to 
present to the maids those things whiah will 
broaden their interests. The attendance this 
year h^s been better than ever before, there 
being as many as sixty at the good-time meet- 
ing. A small room given over to the use of 
the chambermaids of one of the buildings Is 
kept supplied with books and periodicals. 

The Students' Association has charge of the 
scheme for the maids club house. This plan 
was started a little more than a year ago. It 
proposes that $20,000 should be raised to build 
and endow a club house for the maids, where 
j they may meet for classic recreation and rest. 
Permission has been granted by the trustees 
for such a house, and ouite a little of the 
money has been raised. The students are much 
interested in it as they feel they can gain a 
practical as well as theoretical knowledge of 
social questions while in college. The maids 
are most enthusiastic, and especially at pres- 
ent, as we are starting to organize them Into a 
self-governing club. 

The work has not only been of great pleas- 
ure to the students and the maids, but it has 
also aroused interest in the authorities of the 
college, as shown by certain improvements in 
the maids' Quarters. 

Elizabeth Fenno Uptox, 
Yassar Undergraduate Elector. 



There are some men who toil to extract gold, 
but He labored to extract pity; the universal 
wretchedness was His mine. Sorrow all around 
was only an opportunity for constant kind- 
ness. — The Bishop in "Les Miserables." 



14 



THE COMMONS 



TKe Commons 

A iMonthly Record Devoted to Aspects o< Life and L^bor 
irom the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR., - - 



Editor 



Entered at Chicago rostoffice as Second-Cl.iss XIalter, and 
Published tlie first of every niontli from Cii icac.o Commons, 
a Soiial Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 1 11. 



50 Cents C^^^^n 



A Year 



I^OITORI AL. 



The Indulgence of our readers who are 
identified with other settlements Is unavoid- 
ably presumed upon once more in devoting so 
large a proportion of this issue of the paper to 
the interests of Chicago Commons. For years 
these pages have offered almost the only way 
this settlement has had of communicating with 
its supporters and friends, and we have been 
accustomed to issue a large supplement to the 
December number dev( ted wholly to its work. 
In broadening the scope of Thk Com'muns to 
include the interests of Jill other settlement 
and social service, it is our purpose to reduce 
the references to the work of "Chicago Com- 
mons" to a minimum, consistent with the fact 
that the entire financial responsibility and 
heavy deficit in publishing this monthly jour- 
nal is borne by the slender resources of this 
settlement. Another year, however, we hope 
to be able to relieve our readers of this dis- 
proportionate reference to our local interests. 
If the subscribers to this paper would help 
make it self-sustaining by cooperating to in- 
crease its circulation and advertising, they 
would not only afford Chicago Commons 
needed relief, but serve the cause for which all 
settlements stand. 



Our readers will share our satisfaction over 
the announcement made on the last page that 
only $4,737 remains to be raised to clear the 
debt on the Chicago Commons building before 
the close of the year. To have permanently 
established at the very center of Chicago's 
population the diversified work which expands 
not only reflexively but directly to other locali- 
ties both in the city and in many other states; 
to have acquired without encumbrance the 
plant which is valued by our auditor at $70,- 
768.92 on the building and $12,000 on the land, 
or, with the furnishing and equipment, $85,000 
in all ; and to have started and maintained The 
Commons without capital until its average 



monthly circulation exceeds 5,000 copies, have 
filled eight years very full of manifold work, 
of care that carped somewhat at times, and 
with fellowships deep and wide. 



The editor of The Commons has the oppor- 
tunity of presenting such "social aspects of 
life and labor" as appear on his settlement 
horizon to as many of the 300,000 readers of 
the Chicago Daily News as scan its Saturday 
Evening editorial page. 



Books of Social Si^niticance. 

The book lists are unusually full of titles of 
social interest and value, the contents of some 
of which we hope to indicate in brief descrip- 
tive reviews in subsequent numbers of The 
Commons. Bishop Sjtalding, of Peoria, has 
added to his strong treatment of religious and 
educational subjects a little book on "Social- 
ism and Labor, and Other Arguments" (Mc- 
Clurg & Co., Chicago, 16mo, 80 cents net; de- 
livered 87 cents). "Some Ethical Phases of the 
Labor Question" are handled by Carroll D. 
Wright from the rare advantage of his point 
of view as U. S. Commissioner of Labor 
(American Unitarian Association, Boston, 
12mo, $1.00 net). Bishop Henry C. Potter ren- 
ders good service in his vigorous and incisive 
analysis of the industrial ethics of citizenship 
under a title of "The Citizen and the Indus- 
trial Situation" (Charles Scribner's Sons, $1.00 
net, postage 10 cents). A study of the primi- 
tive Christian doctrines of earthly possessions 
in Dr. Orello Cone's "Rich and Poor in the New 
Testament" is an important accession to the 
literature of Biblical sociology (Macmillan Co., 
8vo, $1.50 net>. Prof. F. G. Peabody, of Har- 
vard, valuably contributed in the same line in 
his "Jesus Christ and the Social Question" as 
did Prof. Shailer Mathews, of the University of 
Chicago in his "Social Teachings of Jesus.'" 

Descriptive of city conditions there are three 
notable volumes to report. Jacob A. Riis', 
already well known, "The Battle with the 
Slum" (Macmillan Co.) and "The Leaven In a 
Great City;" Lilian W. Betts' wonderfully real- 
istic forth-showing "of the advance of social 
life among the working people in New York, 
the infiuence of the altruists and the 
churches in the lives of those who ask for 
nothing but the opportunity to earn wages, 
and the needs of a great class who, maintain- 
ing home and social standards, add by the 
bravery and purity of their lives to the finan- 
cial, political and normal capital of the city." 
(Dodd, Mead & Co:, 12 mo, $1.50 net) 



THE COMMONS 



15 



"Americans in Process," edited by Robert A. 
Woods, is the title of another volume reporting 
the original investigations of the South End 
House, Boston, in American civic life as repre- 
sented in that city. It is announced for publi- 
cation early in the year. 

Prof. Charles Horton Cooley, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, writes with strength and 
originality of "Human Nature and the Social 
Order." duly emphasizing the first term of his 
title which has had all too slight emphasis at 
the hand of social theorists. (Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons, 8vo, $1.50 net.) The new president 
of Oberlin College, Henry Churchill King 
presses the sociological point of view into the 
discussion of theology in his lectures before 
the Harvard Summer School of Theology, pub- 
lished under the title of "Theology and the 
Social Consciousness." (Macmillan Co., fl.25 
net.) "The Church and Its Social Mission" is 
another course of lectures delivered on the 
Baird foundation at Glasgow, by John Marshall 
Lang, of the University of Aberdeen, (New 
York. Thomas Whittaker). Dr. Josiah Strong 
has added another trenchant treatment of the 
religious aspects of the social movement, to 
the list of his widely read and Influential 
little hooks, "The Next Great Awakening" (The 
Baker and Taylor Co. 12 mo. 75 cents). Rev. 
Wilber F. Crafts sketches the social aspects 
of religious progress in his "March of Christ 
Down the Centuries" (P. Anstadt & Sons, York, 
Penn. 12 mo. Cloth, 25 cents; paper, 10 cents). 
Social phenomena are very ably and empiri- 
cally subjected to psychological analysis and 
formulation by Denton J. Snider in two vol- 
umes on "Social Institutions" and "The State." 
(Sigma Publishing Co., St. Louis, Mo. Sold by 
MeClurg & Co., Chicago, $1.50). There is no 
more practically valuable handling of the 
difficult and delicate subject of "The Social 
Evil," than in the report prepared under the 
direction of The Committee of Fifteen, with 
special reference to conditions existing in New 
York City. (G. P. Putnam's Sons). Its trust- 
worthy analysis of legislative and police reg- 
ulations, ancient, mediceval, modern in all 
lands and among many peoples, makes 
it an invaluable book of reference. The 
application of socialism to the interpretation 
and progress of agricultural interests is the 
Interesting task of A. M. Simons, editor of the 
International Socialist Review, in his compact 
and forceful little volume on "The American 
Farmer." (Charles H. Kerr & Co., Chicago. 50 
cents). In "American Municipal Progress," 
Prof. Charles Zueblin of the University of 



Chicago has given us chapters in municipal 
sociology, which add not only to the literature 
of the subject, but will promote the practical 
work of the American League for Civic Im- 
provement, of which the author was the found- 
er and first president. The statistical supple- 
ment to James S. Dennis' massive and unique 
volumes on "Christian Missions and Social 
Progress" is a valuable addition to that labor- 
ious work, which will prove to be a, permanent- 
ly useful reference book, "Centennial Survey of 
Foreign Missions" (Fleming H. Revell Co. $4 
net). Three novels of note, have social themes, 
"The Leopard's Spots," by Thomas Dixon, Jr., 
is the special pleading of the white man's bur- 
den under the negro problem. Henry Kitchell 
Webster, who early won deserved repute as 
the author of those striking stories of commer- 
cial life, "The Banker and the Bear" and 
"Calumet K," has added to his influence and 
constituency of readers very markedly in 
"Roger Drake, Captain of Industry." (Macmil- 
lan Co., 12 mo. $1.50). Charles M. Sheldon, 
whose romancies of the religious life have been 
so widely circulated, has based his last story, 
"The Reformer," on the housing problem as 
it is presented in the report of the Chicago 
City Homes Association on "Tenement House 
Conditions in Chicago," the plates from which 
are used as illustrations. (The Advance Pub- 
lishing Co., Chicago.) 



Teach the ignorant as much as you possibly 
can; society is culpable for not giving instruc- 
tion gratis, and is responsible for the night it 
produces. This soul is full of darkness, and 
sin is committed, but the guilty person is not 
the man who commits the sin, but he who pro- 
duces the darkness.— "Les Miserables." 

TKe Commons 

Is dpvotcd to Aspects of T.lfe and I^bor from tlio Social 
Sottlomeiit point of view. It is publlshwiniontlily at Chicago 
Conniiniis, a Social Settlement at (iranil Ave. and Morgan 
St., Cliicano, ill., an'l is entered at tlie Ctiloago I'ostoltico as 
mail m.itter of the second (uews|paper) class. 
The Subscription Price Is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
S llIinKs, Knglisli; 2.r,o francs, French— foreign stamps ao. 
( eple I.) I'ostpaia to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one a<ldres3 for $2.ro. Send clieck, draft, I". O. money order, 
casli or stamps, ml ab'ive 5-ci.nt dew.mmatiuii, at our rislj. 
Advertising Rates. One page. $2.1.00; Half Page, Jl.i.OO; 
guarler J'age, SS.OO; Ouo Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Commons. Any 
niinilier under twentv-i'ive coi)^es. five cents eadi; ovej 
twentv-live and under one hundred, tiiree cents each; over 
one liuud. ed, two and one fialf cents eacli. 
Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
clii.iiKe of adilic^-. or of fuiinre to receive tlie paper within 
a rca» nabie int. rval alter It is due. 

Discontinuances, Please notify us at once if for any reason 
youdesiio your subs r.ptlon discontinued. In acconlance 
with cnstorii, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue TiiK Commons to each address until notlUed 
to tlio contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



CHICAGO COMMONvS 



Its WorK 

for tHe 

Ninth 

Winter 

1902-1903. 



Grarid /*iventie and Morgan Street. 




Social Clubs for men and women, boys and girls. 

G3'mnasium Classes and Baths for all. 
Chorrd Club, Children's Chorus and Orchestra. 

Instruction in piano and other instruments. 
Educational classes and co-operation with evening public school. 

Day Nursery and Kindergarten. 
Penny Savings Bank. 

Public Librar}-, cards and catalogiies. 

District Visiting Nurse. 
Manual training. 

Cooking School for women and girls. 

Loom for weaving carpets and rugs. 
Pleasant- Sunday Afternoons, with music, song, pictures, stories. 
All rooms open for recreation and socials, every Saturday evening. 



'WKat it is and tiow iSupported. 

r hicgoi^oramonsis a "Social Settlement." located at the corner of Grand Avenue and 
Morgan Street. It was founded in May, IS94. and is the home of a groupof people who want to' 
share the life of the neighborhood, its comforts and discomforts, its privileges and responsi- 
bilities, ils political, civioand personal duties and pleasures. They offer their home as a 
social center for the neighborhood, where they desire to be friends, fellowcitizens, neighbors 

By the service of tne residents and other friends, who vo'unteer to teach classes, work 
with the clubs, or furnish "the talent" for social entertainments and public occasions. 

By the share which every class and club assumes in the expense of lighting, heating and 
caring forthe rooms. 

Ry the gifts of the friends of the work toward the cost of the summer camp and outings, 
support of assistants, printing and otherincidental ex] ersi s. 

The whole work of Chicago Commons is dependent upon the volunteer co-operation of Its 
friends in and outside of the neighborhood. It has had no endowments, and needs what every 
one can do to help. 



THE COM M O NS 17 



Clubs, Classes and Social Occasions 

OCTOBER 1902 to JUNE 1903 



DOnESTlC SCIENCE: Miss Bond, Director, 

CooKiXG: — Adult, every evening except Saturday, 7:30 p. m. 

Children (10 to 14 years) Every afternoon except Saturday, 4 p. m. 
Monday evenings during February free demonstration lessons 

will l>e given to women at 8 p. m. 
Sewing: — For girls (6 to 14 years) Saturday, 9 a. m. 
Dressmaking: — On application. 

Kitchen Garden: — Monday, 3:45 p. m. Miss Bradley. 
Battenberg and Embroidery — Friday 9 a.m. 8 p.m. Migs Hamilton 
MANUAL TRAINING: Mr. Laughein and Mr. McLean. 

Boys: — Monday-, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 7:30 p.m. Saturday 9 a.m* 
Girls:— Monday, 4 p. m. 

Fees — 10 cents per month in advance. 
GYMNASIUM: 

Adult —Mr. Todd, Director. 

Monday, Italian Young Men; Tuesday', Young Men; 

Wednesdaj', Young Men; Friday, Young Women. 

Cla.ss work begins at 8 p. m. and includes calisthenics, apparatus 

work and games. Individual work may be had half an hour before 

the class. A nomin^ fee is asked, and some form of gymnasium 

suit is required. 
Boys — H. F. Burt, Director. 

Boys: — ( 12 to 14) Saturday, 10:30 a. m. (8 to 12) Wednesday 4 p. m. 

Working Boys Cla.ss: — Thursday 7:30 p. m. 

Italian Bo}-s: — Saturday, 9 a. m. 

Girls:— (8 to 14) Tuesday, 4 p. m. 

Fees: — 10 cents per month, 25 cents for working bo\'s. 
SOCIAL CLUBS: 

Woman's Club: — Tue.sday 2 p. m. Mrs. Conant, President. 

Mothers' Meeting: — Friday evening. Miss Stone. 

Shakespeare Club: — Tuesday, 8 p. m. Mr. Crawford. 

Progressive Club of Yoiuig Women :— Monday 8 p. m. 

Girls' Junior Progressive Club: — Tuesday 8 p. m. Miss Taylor. 

Girls' Clubs: — (8 to 14) Monday, Thursday, Friday, 4 p. m. and 

Monday, 7:30 p. m. 
Community Club: — For Men, daily, 7:30 to 10:30 p. m. 

Weekly meeting Thursday, 8 p. m. 
Young Men's Club: — Thur.sday, 8 p. m. 
Boys' Clubs: — Every evening, 7:30. Mr. Burt. 

Applications to join Boys' Clubs, Manual Training and Children's 

Gymnasium received Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. 
EDUCATIONAL; 

Music: — Adult Chorus, Wednesday 8 p. m. Mr. Gordon, Director. 



18 TH E COMMONS 



Children's Chorus, Wednesday 4 p. ni. Miss SpRAGtrE. 

Stringed Orchestra training will be given on demand by Mr. Newell. 

Piano, Wednesday afternoon and evening. Miss Hawkins. 

Saturday afternoon and evening. Miss Hyres. 
Mandolin, Guitar and Banjo — Wednesday afternoon and evening. Mr. 

Newell. 
Violin; — Wednesday afternoon and evening. Miss Garfield. 

Fees; Adult Chorus, 25 cents a month. Instrumental, 50 cents an 
hour. Class instructions 25 cents a lesson. 

Art: — Drawing, Water Color, Mechanical Drawing, Wednesday. 
Fees; 50 cents for xo lessons, in advance. 

Italian-English: — Every evening at 7:30 p. m. Miss Philips and 
Mes. Ricketts. 

Elocution: — Children, Tuesday, 4 p. m. Mrs. Crawford. 
Adults, Tuesday, 8 p. m. Mrs. Crawford. 
Fees: — 50 cents for 10 lessons in advance. 

NOTE— The educational classes aim only to supplement the privileges offered at the Free 
Evening Public Schools and other educational centers. All desiring to avail themselves 
of the popular educational advantages offered in the evening ciasses or correspondence 
courses by the Lewis Institute, Madison and Eobey streets, the Armour Institute of 
Technology. 33d and Armour streets. The Athenaeum 18 Van Burep street. Association 
College, 153 La Salle street, will be advised and put in communication with the repre- 
sentatives of these institutions by Miss Waugh. 

Other Features and Occasions. 

KINDERGARTEN AND TRAINING SCHOOL— Daily, except Satur- 
day and Sunday, from 9 to 12'a. m. The Kindergarten is held for 
children under 7, Miss Stone, director. The school is under the 
management of the Pestalozzi-Froebel Training School, Mrs. Bertha 
Hofer Hegner, principal. The training school classes for kindergarten 
teachers are held four afternoons each week, from Monday to Thursday 

MATHEON DAY NURSERY— 163 Morgan street, one door south of 
Chicago Commons, Miss Ida Noetzel, matron. The nursery is open 
daily, except Sunday, from 6:30 a. m. to 6:30 p. m. for the children of 
working or sick mothers. Provision is made for lunch at noon and for 
the sleep, play and safekeeping of the children; charge 5 cents a day. 

MOTHERS' MEETING — A meeting is held by Miss Stone, director of 
the kindergarten, every Friday evening, in the kindergarten rooms for 
the mothers of the neighborhood, to give them a pleasant and restful 
evening in each others company, and to afford help in the care and 
training of their children. 

PENNY PROVIDENT BANK OF CHICAGO— For the safe keeping of 
small savings. Deposits of one cent to $5.00 will be received by Miss 
Inglis at Chicago Commons, every Tuesday from 2 to 6 and 7 to 8 p. 
m. No money will be received or paid out at other times. Bank books 
drawing interest will be given on deposits of $5.00 and over. 



THECOMMONS 19 



PLEASANT SUNDAY AFTERNOON— Every Sunday, 3:30 p. m. 

Varied and interesting program, musical, literary, stereopticoii , and 
descriptive of different lands and people, aimed to please and profit 
those of all ages and nationalities. Families especially invited to come 
together. Children under 1 2 admitted only with adults. 

FREE FLOOR LECTURE COURSE AND DISCUSSIONS:— Every 
Tuesday evening, 8:15 to 10 p. m. Present day industrial and eco- 
nomic questions will be discussed each week by well qualified speakers. 
Open to both men and women. 

SEVENTEENTH WARD COMMUNITY CLUB;— Social, reading and re- 
creation rooms open every evening to members and guests introduced 
by them, 7, -30 to 10:30 p. m. Special entertainment provided every Sat- 
urday evening. Lectures on departments of the city government and 
other municipal interests will be given the last Thursday evening in 
every month by city officials and other specialists. 

ORCHESTRAS — Two neighborhood orchestras meet at the house weekly, 
one under Mr. Schow's directorship, on Monday evenings, another 
under Mr. Swanson's leadership, Wednesday evening. 

HAND LOOM — For weaving Carpets, Rugs, or Curtains, may be used on 
application to Mrs. Carr. 

VISITING NURSE — Miss McPheeters, representing the Visiting Nurse 
Association of Chicago. Calls for her services laill be received at 
Chicago Commons, Telephone Monroe 1030, or at Michaelson's drug 
store. 116 N. Center avenue. Telephone Monroe 403. The nurse will 
attend free all persons unable to pay for her services, but any jiatient 
who can do so will be expected to pay from 5 to 25 cents a visit. This 
money is used in the charity work of the Association. 

OPEN-HOUSE SATURDAY EVENINGS— All the public rooms are re- 
ser\'ed on Saturday evenings for free entertainments and social occas- 
ions. Everjone welcome. Come to the neighborhood parlor first to 
meet the residents and each other. 

ROOMS ARE OFFERED for private gatherings, weddings and other fam- 
ily festivals, parties and social occasions, special meetings of neighbor- 
hood organizations, trades unions and churches. Apply at the office 
of Mr. Todd as long in advance as possible. No rent is charged, only, 
a share in the exj^ense of maintenance is expected. 

THE NEIGHBORHOOD PARLOR is open all day and evening for the 
free u.se of the neighbors, who are invited to come in to read or rest 
and meet each other or the residents. 



»». F. PETTI80NE A CO. PRINTERS. CHtCAQO 



20 



THE COMMONS 



CHICAGO COMMONS PROSPtCTS. 
To Close This Year Free of Debt. 

Auditor's valuation of plant |85,000 

Total liabilities on Sept. 1, 1902 $16.7^7 

Reduction by payments from Sept. to Dec. . 4.540 
Balance due on notes and current accounts. 12.187 
Amount subscribed or guaranteed by friends. 7,450 
Remainder of debt to be raised in Dec 4,737 

FOR THE SnPPORT OP THE SETTLEMENT WORK 
NEXT TEAR. 

Maintenance of building, |200 per month . . . |2,400 
Day Nursery, rental and support, f lOOpermo. 1^200 
Full service of sis paid' residents, |325 per mo. 3,900 

Summer camp, outing and playground 1,100 

Stenography, printing and periodical 760 

Unclassified and special expense account. . . 600 
Estimated expense for 1903, per month, |830.|9,960 



Besides the gratuitous services of twelve resident 
and many non-resident workers, and the receipt of 
$1,300 annually toward the maintenance of the 
work from all the settlement and neighborhood 
organizations sharing its privileges, Chicago Com- 
mons' sole dependence for its support is upon the 
larger and smaller contributions of its friends, not 
only in Chicago but throughout the countrj-. To 
plan for the year's work and avoid a deficit at its 
close, we need to receive most of the subscrip- 
tions in December or January, with some assurance^ 
when their payment may be expected. 



Our Ninth Winter's Work. 

The announcement to our neighbors of what 
is going on at the house this winter, repro- 
duced in the four preceding pages, will give 
in brief space and graphic form a realistic ana 
suggestive idea of our settlement service. We 
are depending entirely upon it to give the In- 
formation of our work needed to elicit its 
support next year. When the debt is paid, we 
expect to commemorate the achievement and 
' what it s,tands for by an illustrated descrin- 
tive souvenir of the building and the social 
service Qf which it is the center. 

BUBTIXG THElPOtmCAL HATCHET UNDER A LOVE 
FEAST. 

The reception given Mr. and Mrs. McMana- 
man after the official assurance of his election 
to the Legislature by 526 votes majority, was 
not only the event of the month, but one of tue 
most inspiringly hopeful occasions ever en- 
joyed at Chicago Commons. The Independent 
was congratulated by both the Republican and 
Democratic aldermen of our ward, the Repre- 
sentative of the Legislative Voters' League, the 
Municipal Voter's league, the Referendum and 



Public Ownership Leagues, and by hosts of 
friends old and new. The blending of those of 
different nationality, party, sect and condition 
in the new bonds of social faith and fellow- 
ship begets the hope of making independent 
politics a patriotic basis for social unification. 

SOME OITINOS OF THAXK8. 

Thanksgiving united the kindergartens of 
the public school and the Commons in happy 
array within our big circle, rallied around our 
resident visiting nurse thirty convalescent 
children whom she had nursed through typhoid 
fever, gathered many groups for parties and 
united Italian, Armenian, and American 
churches with the Tabernacle in the giving of 
thanks. 

Our Woman's Club is rejoicing over a "linen 
shower" which filled their new chest to over- 
flowing with material for the visiting nurse 
and resident physician. Two of the residents 
have successfully established a clothing ex- 
change through which clothes sent in by out- 
side friends are sold at rates which help the 
very poor without making them the recipients 
of charity. 



Trade Talks and Economic Lectures. 

With Qukstions axd Discussions. 
CHICAGO COM M oy S FREE FLOOR! 

Grand Ave. and Morgan St. 
Evert Tuesday Evenisg, 8:15 to 10 o'clock sharp. 



TOPICS AND SPEAKEKS FOR DECKMBER. 

Dec. 2. "How a Twentieth Century Newspaper 

is Made." Stereopticon talk, W. B. Cor- 

win, of the Chicago American. 

Dec. 9. "Our State Board of Arbitration," 

Frederick W. Job, Chairman of the Board. 

Dec. 16. "The Social Waste of Child Labor," 

by Miss Jane Addams, Hull House. 
Dec. 23. "Moral Issues in the Labor Move- 
ment," Prof. W. D. Mackenzie, editor 
"American Weekly." 
Dec. 30. "Child Labor in Illinois," Mrs. S. S. 
Van der Vaart, Chairman Federated Indus- 
trial Women's Clubs. 
Chicago Commons Free Floor is a friendly 
conference for men and women interested in eco- 
nomic problems, and hoping for the betterment 
of industrial conditions and relations through 
the education of all the people, and the tolerant 
respect for each other's opinions. 

SELF IMPOSED REGVl^ATIOXS OF DISCUSSION. 

AH Sides. No favors to any. Stick strictly 
to the point. One at a time. Three minutes 
apiece. Keep your temper or be stIU. Don't 
think you know it all. Be fair. Trust the truth. 
-Ml freely welcome. 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and I.Abor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 78-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, January, 1903 



THE CRY OF THE AQE. 

BY HAMLIX GARLAND. 

What Shall I do to be just? 

What shall I do for the gain 
Of the world— for its sadness? 
Teach me, O Seers that I trust! 

Chart me the difficult main 
Leading out of my sorrow and madness; 

Preach me the purging of pain. 

Shall I wrench from my finger the ring 

To cast to the tramp at my door? 
fehall I tear off each luminous thing 

To drop in the palm of the poor? 
What shall I do to be just? 

Teach me, O Ye in the light, 
Whom" the poor and the rich alike trust: 

My heart Is aflame to be right. 

— From The Outlook. 



"The Present Time, youngest-bom of Eter- 
nity, child and heir of all the Past Times with 
their good and evil, and parent of all the fu- 
ture, is ever a 'New Era' to the thinking man 
• * * to know it, and what it bids us do, is ever 
the sum of knowledge for all of us." — Latter 
Day Pamphlets. 



SrORY VF A WOMtN'S LABOR UNION. 

UY M VRY E. MUOWEI.L. 

Thte first union of women workers, of the 
great packing houses of the Union Stock Yards, 
Chicago, was organized at the University of 
Chicago Settlement last April with twenty 
charter members. It is known as "Local No. 
183 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and 
Butchers' Workmen of North America." 

Three years ago a small group of four girls, 
inspired by an Irish girl, one who had worked 
tor a good many years in "The Yards," whose 
love for the cause of labor was deep and in- 
telligent, organized a strike at Libby, McNeill 
& Libby's. The strike resulted disastrously to 
all Involved; the leaders were dismissed and 
have never been reinstated. This same young 
girl, a victim of the conditions under which 
she worked, when dying of consumption, was 
still a leading spirit. She sent to Miss Mc- 
Dowell, Head Resident of the settlement, an 



urgent request to organize the women and girls 
of the packing houses. She felt that the time 
was ripe and the girls needed only to be called 
together. Miss McDowell had been reported in 
the press as urging women to organize, espe- 
cially those who were competing with the men, 
as they were doing in "The Yards." These 
girls read the paper and very soon both men 
and women workers knew that the Head Resi- 
dent of the University of Chicago Settlement 
"believed in the unions." 

Miss McDowell secured the help of Mr. 
Michael Donnelly, President of the A. M. C. 
& B. W. of Noi'th America, a man whose en- 
ergy, tact, conservative policy and business 
ability has so successfully organized the con- 
glomerate mass of workers in the Stock Yards 
that he had been able in a year to gain one vic- 
tory after another without a strike. From the 
first his policy with the women workers was 
broad and generous. Rare is the occurrence 
of such an organization being formed except 
for fight. "This union," he said, "was to be 
formed first for the education of the members 
and then to grow strong enough to be able to 
ask in a dignified manner for better wages, 
hours and conditions."' He congratulated the 
girls on the opportunity they had of meeting 
at the settlement, and even used this fact as 
an argument in favor of his peace policy. The 
first six months were most discouraging. The 
leaders were dismissed on the plea of "slack 
work." Some of them have not yet been re- 
instated. The girls believed they were dis- 
charged for the purpose of "breaking the back 
of the unions." The back was not broken, 
since Labor Day^ found the sixty odd members 
with suflicient spirit to enter the labor pro- 
cession. The meeting following Labor Day 103 
women workers were initiated, and since that 
day the membership has grown to 1,000, rang- 
ing in ages from sixteen to sixty years, and so- 
many nationalities that several interpreters are 
used at initiations. Even the race prejudices 
that had often threatened a race feud in "The 
Yards" has been allayed. 

It was a dramatic moment when the Guard, 
an Iristf girl, announced at the union's meet- 
ing, "Sister President, a colored sister asks ad- 



2 



THE COM MONS 



mission. Shall we admit her?" The President, 
another Irish girl, obeying a higher law than 
that found in "Robert's," answered, "Adunt 
her by all means, and let every member give 
her a hearty welcome." Seven more colored 
girls were initiated at meetings following. 
About 2,000 women ajjd girls are employed in 
the different departments of the packing houses 



resulting in violence, disturbance of the work 
and only disaster to the workers. The differ- 
ence between that uncivilized method of the 
past and the rational method of the present 
self-governing organization with 1,000 mem- 
bers is seen in recent experiences. The day of 
hysteria is past. Now the girls meet in com- 
mittees from the different packing houses, com- 



I. 


ki& ^p 


-^^^ 







OFFICKKS OK I.OCAI, INIOX NO. U3. 



and are for the first time gathered together 
about a common interest — members of a great 
organization whose ideal is "The welfare of 
each is the care of. all." In the past when a 
woman worker had a grievance, real or fancied, 
when a raise of wages was asked for. It meant 
a struggle that was radical, unorganized, often 



pare the scale of wages, agree upon their de- 
mands, and bring them before the union, 
where they are criticised and discussed in an 
orderly manner. The scale of wages is then 
presented to their business agent, who takes 
it to the Executive of the International 
Union. Then, if it seems reasonable and has 



THE COMMONS 



the "O. K." of the International, it is presented 
by the business agents to the employers. The 
educational influence of this procedure must 
be evident to even a prejudiced person. One 
evening, at supper time, the settlement resi- 
dents were summoned to the gymnasium. 
When they arrived the room was found filled 
with a large number of the union girls, whose 
happy faces proved that they had won a vic- 
tory. Twenty-five cents a day had been granted 
"without a kick" on the demand of their repre- 
sentatives, who had been treated with respect. 
The union has tremendous work ahead of it 
if conditions of their working lives are to be 
changed. 



vatlve policy of the executive of the Meat Cut- 
ters' Union, and has in turn given to the set-' 
tiement a vital relation to the third largest 
industry in America. The Head Resident of 
the settlement meets with the union, and is 
counted a member not only by the girls, but 
by the men, who have honored her by giving 
her the right to attend their packing trades 
council. She considers this the richest experi- 
ence the settlement has had in its history of 
nine years. Sunday afternoons she invites the 
members to have tea at the settlement, thus 
e'nabling them to talk over special problems of 
the organization. 
University of Chicago Settlement. 




I.OCAr, UNION NO. 18.3 IX CUKAGO LAIiOl! 1>AY I'AUADE. 



The first woman delegate to the International 

A. M. C. B. W. of was sent by this 

woman's union, and was received so naturally 
that she said she forgot she was the only wo- 
man present. The fact that this union was 
organized and has had its home at the settle- 
ment has done much to strengthen the conser- 



"Inflnite is the help man can yield to man." 
-Sartor Resartus. 



" 'Do the duty that is nearest thee' — that first, 
and that well; all the rest will disclose them- 
selves with increasing clearness, and make 
their successive demand." 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the 3ocial Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HA.M TAYLOR., 



editor 



Entered at Chicago Postofflce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Comjioxs, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 

50 Cents <^^^^^3» A Year 

EDITORIAL. 



5pirit of the Settlement House. 

Th3 interior life of the settlement furnishes 
not the least of its problems. Indeed, what the 
settlement has to contribute to the solution of 
neighborhood or community problems, or 
whether it has any contribution to make 
toward it, is very largely determined by the 
way in which it solves the problems of its 
own life. For its influence upon the people 
outside its walls can be no deeper or more real 
than the relationship of the people living un- 
der its own roof. 

These problems begin with the relation be- 
tween the authoritative or contributory con- 
stituency and the household of "resident work- 
ers. Liberty for spontaneous development and.; 
activity is the charm of settlement service, if 
it be not the secret of its power. Any exer- 
cise of authority or surveillance beyond what 
is absolutely essential to the corporate life 
and co-operative work of the household, robs 
it of its distinctive spirit and strengthj Non- 
resident control of the residents' household 
life and neighborhood work. Is, to say the 
least, more often a disastrous failure than a 
conspicuous success. Those with whom the ul- 
timate responsibility rests can fulfil it in no 
better way than to trust the head worker and 
residents as long as the work can be satis- 
factorily committed to their care, or to super- 
sede them with others to whom the free con- 
trol of the house and its work may be en- 
trusted. 



The method and success in choosing resi- 
dents test tact and judgment to the utmost. 
A clearly understood tentative residence of two 
or three months is both safe and just, not 
only to the settlement but to the applicant as 
well. At the end of that period the question 
of admitting the applicant to residence should 
invariably be submitted to the residents. For 
the household relations are far too personal to 



allow the introduction of anyone to the group 
without the final consent of the others. The 
declinature of an application, even after tenta- 
tive residence, may be based on so many 
grounds of mere expediency as to involve no 
reflection whatever upon either the personal 
qualities or qualifications of the one whose 
aptitudes may not fit the present needs. The 
head worker will always be considerate and 
courteous enough not to allow the possibly 
adverse decision to come to a formal vote. 



The adjustment of the residents to each 
other and their work must be a natural growth 
from within. If at all promoted from without 
it must be by an art which ingeniously con- 
ceals the art. Time and patience, with self 
and others, are required to find and fit one's 
sell into one's own niche. While the process 
may be ameliorated by the amenities of cour- 
tesy and sympathy, it can rarely be hastened, 
and may never be safely averted or avoided. 



To grow together in the home life of the 
settlement, the conditions of fellowship must 
exist. One of these is that the number of new 
residents must not be disproportionate to the 
more permanent group. Upon the permanency 
and strength of the nucleus who remain at 
the center for years depend both the efficacy 
of the neighborhood work and the homelike- 
ness of the household life. An atmosphere 
of fellowship and ideality must exert its pres- 
sure unconsciously upon all, if the tone of 
inner relationship and the standard of outer 
service is to be maintained. This cannot be 
made, it must simply be. To be, it must find 
self expression, and some medium of inter- 
change. It may not even thus be foisted upon 
any, but it must be fostered in all. 



This household fellowship — the having and 
sharing something in common — requires social 
occasions for its expression and growth. There 
are two such. One is the sacrament of the 
daily meal. At least once each day, generally 
at the evening meal, the whole household 
should be gathered in the joyous sanctity of 
friendliest fellowship. The privileges of 
guestship may well be extended by the whole 
group or by individual residents to friends in 
or beyond the neighborhood, to non-resident 
workers, and to those who come to render oc- 
casional service. There is no better way than 
this of deepening interest in the settlement, 
of forming real personal attachments and of 
exemplifying social democracy. 



THE COMMONS 



The Settlement Vesper Hour. 

The other occasion, referred to above, in 
which the fellowship of the settlement house- 
hold may find fitting expression, is the vesper 
hour, of which we may be permitted to speak 
out of our own experience. 

Having a group of from twelve to twenty- 
flve residents, always representing varied re- 
ligious predilections, differing antecedents and 
outlook upon life, one-third of them being in 
residence several years, and two-thirds from 
nine months to a year or so, some common 
point of contact where we could all exert and 
yield to the uplift of our common purpose, 
has always been felt to be a necessity. The 
half hour immediately after the evening meal 
proves to be the only time when we can all 
be together. So we naturally linger in the 
resident's parlor before going to our evening 
classes or clubs or other work. Someone plays 
a few moments on piano or violin. A hymn 
or song is sung. Another, usually the warden, 
though often one of the residents, sometimes 
a guest, reads or says something briefly that 
lifts us up and welds us together. A simple 
prayer is usually, though not always, said or 
sung. Once more we sing what is spon- 
taneously suggested by one or another. The 
informal interview merges or shades off into 
conversation, and one by one we slip away or 
are called out to our appointments, carrying 
with us into our work and life the vesper glow 
and inspiration. 



Variety and interest are gained by devoting 
one or two occasions each week to some specific 
purpose. One evening there may be musical 
vespers. On another we may exchange items 
of interest from the most socially significant 
news of the week, or from current literature 
and new books, or from the best things gleaned 
at some gathering which we have been privi- 
leged to share. Still another such opportunity 
has proven to be not too brief for reading a 
few pages at a time such books as Miss 
Addams' "Democracy and Social Ethics," 
Canon Barnet's misnamed volume, "Practicable 
Socialism." the South End House contributions 
in "The City Wilderness," and "Americans' in 
Process," Dean Hodge's "Faith and Social Ser- 
vice," Lilian Betts' "Leaven in a Great City," 
Bushnell's "Moral Uses of Dark Things," Bage- 
hot's "Physics and Politics," Mazzini's "God 
and the People," edited by Stubbs, Grigg's 
"New Humanism." Miss Scudder's "Social 
Spirit in English Letters," Gibbin's "English 



Social Reformers," and Tolstoy's "Gospel in 
Brief." 

Helpful to the devotional spirit we have 
found such little books as "Prayers Ancient 
and Modern" (Doubleday and McClure), "A 
Book of Common Worship," prepared by R. 
Heber Newton, Rabbi Gottheil and Rev. 
Thomas R. Slicer (Putnam), "Daily Strength 
for Daily Needs" (Roberts Bros.), Stanton 
Colt's "The Message of Man" (Scribners), 
"The Ethics of the Hebrews," by Rabbi Moses; 
excerpts from such biographies as those of St. 
Francis, St. Bernard, Mazzini, Tolstoy, Shaftes- 
bury.Phillips Brooks, Henry Drummond, Pesta- 
lozzi and Froebel, and most of all the words 
and work of the Old and New Testament 
heroes, seers and saints, above every name be- 
ing that of The Son of Man. 



Among the hymns most frequently suggesting 
themselves are Bonar's " When the weary seeking 
rest,'' Parker's " O, thou great Friend of all the 
sons of men," Baring-Gould's " Now the day is 
over," Proctor's "The Shadows of the evening 
hour," Newman's " Lead, kindly light," Johnson's 
" Father, in thy mysterious presence kneeling," 
Keble's " Sun of my soul '' and " New every morn- 
ing is the love," Waring's " Father, I know that all 
my life," Whiting's " Eternal Father, strong to 
save," Whittier's " We may not climb the heavenly 
steeps," How's "For all thy saints who from their 
labors rest," and the chants of the Lord's I^rayer, 
Twenty-third Psalm and Te Deum Laudamus. 



AN APPRECIATIVE ECHO. 

The Boston Transcript has these kind words 
to say of the effort made by this paper to 
serve the cause for which all the settlements 
stand: "The Commons is one of the few regu- 
lar publications in the settlement world that 
are so broadly and sanely edited as to be of 
real value and interest to the lay reader." As 
evidence that its "contents are not confined to 
the doings of the settlement workers" it cites 
our report of the Minneapolis Convention of 
the Employer and Employe as a particularly 
valuable contribution. Our editorial accom- 
panying that report in the November number 
on "Union Labor After the Miners' Strike," is 
referred to as an illustration of "the sanity 
which characterizes the editorial direction of 
The Commons." Our readers will pardon this 
quotation, we are sure, in view of our strenu- 
ous endeavor to be fair-minded and judicial in 
that utterance at a time when it was hard to 
be Impartially true to facts. 



6 



THE COM MON8 



NOTES FROM THE SETTLEMENTS. 

Hull House, Chicago, observes "Old Settlers' 
Day" at New Year annually. The elderly peo- 
ple who have longest resided in the district 
enjoy this social reunion greatly, storing up 
their memories and saving up the stories of 
their early experiences and companionships 
for the occasion. 



The Warden of Robert Browning Hall, Lon- 
don, prints on his holiday greeting the photo- 
graph of the Lord Mayor, and under it the 
words: ' 

"The First Settlement Mayor in London sent 

to serve 

Labor, learning and the civic life." 



The National Conference of Jewish Charities 
has two representatives in University Socio- 
logical Fellowships — one at Columbia in New 
York, and the other at the University of Chi- 
cago. 



Miss Frances F. Kellor, who, as the College 
Settlements Association fellow, has come to 
Chicago to investigate women's employment 
bureaus, has been in residence at the Uni- 
versity Settlement, spends the next six weeks 
at Chicago Commons and then goes to Hull 
House. 



The manufacturers in the neighborhood of 
the Gads Hill Settlement, Chicago, are organ- 
izing for the betterment of social conditions 
in that great industrial district. Several of 
them have recently accepted membership on 
the Settlement Board, and interesting develop- 
ments may be forthcoming. 



As third arbitrator in a serious difference be- 
tween a large shoe shop and their lasters, the 
Warden of Chicago Commons was gratified to have 
secured a unanimous decision, possibly promoting 
the interests and relations of the entire shoe in- 
dustry in the city. The other arbitrators, who 
signed the decision, were Edward M. Cole, a Chi- 
cago shoe manufacturer, who was nominated by 
the employers, and Father T. McGrady, of Cin- 
cinnati, who was nominated by the lasters. 



SETTLEMENT CLASSES IN ENOINEERIMO. 

The Armour Institute of Technology is offer- 
ing extension courses in Engineering at some 
Chicago settlement centers. They include civil, 
hydraulic, electrical, mechanical, architec- 
tural, locomotive, stationary and domestic 
branches. A large class has been formed at 



Gad's Hill settlement and others are" gathering 
at Hull House and Chicago Commons. Credit 
is given for work done by the American 
School of Correspondence and should students 
continue their studies at the Armour Institute, 
these extension courses will count on the re- 
quirements. 



>EW^ DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDBEX's CHORUSES. 

Our Children's chorus is to be one of four 
settlement centers for the development of Mr. 
William L. Tomlins' unique plans for his Na- 
tional School of Music for Teachers, which 
starts with the New Year under the patronage 
of some of the most public spirited men in 
Chicago. It is expected to draw teachers and 
students of music from all parts of the coun- 
try. Private generosity has already extended 
its privileges to over one hundred public school 
teachers officially selected from as many 
schools. The primary purpose of Mr. Tom- 
lins' work at the settlements is to furnish a 
working demonstration of what can be done 
everywhere to popularize a true musical cul- 
ture. Two choruses of 175 children each, 
from eight to fourteen years of age, will be 
conducted under Mr. Tomlins' personal super- 
vision by one of his most competent assistants 
who has been in charge of our chorus the past 
two years. Especial appointments will be 
made with small groups of the chorus for in- 
dividual voice training. 

Mr. Tomlins has stood conspicuously for 
many years not only in Chicago but through- 
out the country for two great principles. The 
spiritual interpretation of music as the in- 
stinctive expression of life finds in his teach- 
ing a profound psychological and ethical basis. 
But his influence has been still more excep- 
tional and powerful in the democratic applica- 
tion which he has given to his principles in his 
work among the common people. When leader 
of the Apollo Club he elicited the grateful ap- 
preciation of thousands of wage-earners by re- 
peating its concert programs at lower admis- 
sion prices in what he called "second night" 
concerts. As leader of the great World's Fair 
Chorus of 5,000 voices he deservedly won na- 
tional repute. These words express the spirit 
of his work with children: 

"It should be as natuml for a child to sing 
as it is for him to laugh. His joy of living, 
his sense of companionship find natural ut- 
terance in simple song forms. His will 
■plays' in rhythm, his mind 'plays' in melody, 
and" his heart 'plays' in harmony. These 
three, when coordinated, are capable of ex- 
pressing the innermost self. Song is the play 
of the soul." 



THE COM MONS 



The Wisconsin University Settlement at 
Milwaulcee. 

BY THE WABDEN. 




For a number of years the University of Wis- 
consin has been content to send her students 
for field work in sociology to the settlements 
established and maintained by other universi- 
ties. The feeling that Wisconsin should main- 
tain a point of contact for herself for labora- 
tory work in sociology has led to the establish- 
ment of the Wisconsin University Settlement 
in Milwaukee, since Milwaukee is the logical 
iield for Wisconsin students. Last year. a fel- 
lowship in sociology was contributed by Mil- 
waukee business men on condition that part 
of the Fellow's time be spent in Milwaukee in 
field work. Mr. B. H. Hibbard, now an in- 
structor in sociology and economics at the 
State University of Iowa, held this fellowship 
and did valuable work in a general survey of 
the Milwaukee field to determine the best point 
for locating the Wisconsin Settlement. During 
the summer the Wisconsin University Settle- 
ment Association was incorporated with fifteen 
directors, ten of whom are residents of Mil- 
waukee, while the remaining five are actively 
connected with the University at Madison. 
The officers of the association are as follows: 
President, Dr. E. A. Birge, acting President of 
the University of Wisconsin; Vice-Priesident, 
Dr. A. J. Peels, the Milwaukee Regent of the 
University; Secretary and Treasurer, Mr. G. C. 
Vogel, a Wisconsin alumnus of prominence in 
Milwaukee. Dr. Richard T. Ely is a director 
and has been most active in promoting the 
enterprise. The preliminary canvass for funds 
has yielded a good nucleus, so that the finan- 
cial outlook is hopeful, Milwaukee citizens re- 
sponding even more liberally than the Wis- 
consin alumni. 



After Mr. Hibbard's careful survey of the 
field it seemed altogether best to locate the 
settlement on the South Side, in the center of 
Milwaukee's greatest manufacturing district. 
The settlement is most fortunate in having 
leased, with option to purchase, the old Cole- 
man homestead. First avenue and Becher, a 
rambling country seat of generous proportions, 
standing in the center of a well-shaded vacant 
block and adjoining Kosciosko Park, one of 
the most beautiful of the city parks. The 
House of Correction is only two blocks away, 
and all about the settlement is a dense popu- 
lation of Poles, Bohemians and Germans. The 
glass works. Illinois Steel Co.'s works, the Kin- 
nickinnic harbor and many large factories are 
all within four or five blocks of the settlement. 
The Coleman house is near the center of the 
South Side, which has an industrial population 
of 100,000, one-third of the entire population of 
Milwaukee. 

Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Jacobs, both Wisconsin 
graduates, moved into the house in November, 
Mr. Jacobs as warden of the settlement. Miss 
Keman, of Minneapolis, is at present the only 
other resident apart from the half dozen ma- 
chinists who were boarding in the house and 
are staying on until after January 1st, when 
other residents, including a visiting trained 
nurse and a doctor, are expected. The house 
can easily accommodate twenty residents and 
still leave most of the first floor for clubs, 
classes, etc. By a very slight alteration of 
partitions rooms can be thrown together with 
a total seating capacity of more than two hun- 
dred. There is a fine basement under the 
entire house, with good rooms admirably 
adapted for manual training and general han- 
dicrafts work. The Settlement has a long list 
of talented non-resident volunteers, and, in ad- 
dition to the day nursery, kindergarten, poor 
man's lawyer, reading room and university ex-' 
tension, will open at once classes in English, 
sewing, cooking, manual training, etc. There 
is already a vigorous demand for these various 
classes. Work for boys is especially needed. 

There are more than 7,200 children under 
sixteen years of age in the factories of Wis- 
consin—most of them in Milwaukee. Of all the 
children in Wisconsin between five and four- 
teen years of age 26 per cent do not attend any 
school. Of the remaining 74 per cent, 13 per 
cent attend less than six months and 6 per cent 
less than three months. A fight will be made 
this winter for better compulsory education 
and child labor laws. Compulsory education 
will be very hard to get in Wisconsin after 



THE COM MONS 



our Bennett law experience of ten years ago. 
Mr. Jacobs is a State factory Inspector and a 
probation officer of the Juvenile Court, and is 
co-operating in arranging a joint meeting of 
representatives of all the labor organizations, 
the Consumers' League, the Children's Better- 
ment League, the Juvenile Court officers and 
the Wisconsin Federation of Churches in the 
interest of the proposed compulsory education 
law. This is part of the Settlement work for 
boys. 

By many free lectures, by occasional resi- 
dence, by contributions of money and by cor- 
dial sympathy the university professors lend 
their aid to the Settlement. The Settlement in 
turn maintains a fellowship at the university, 
known as the Milwaukee Social Settlement fel- 
lowship. Thus, although the Settlement has no 
official connection with the university, it is 
nevertheless affiliated in a spirit of cordial 
sympathy and co-operation. Situated in a 
crowded district in which juvenile offenders, 
criminals, destitution, infant mortality, over- 
crowding, basement living rooms and a dead 
level of stolid existence are 'alarmingly preva- 
lent, the Settlement feels the call of a great 
need. In the co-operation of the university, 
the generous financial support of Milwaukee 
people, the large number of efficient non-resi- 
dent volunteers and the well-appointed Settle- 
ment home there is ground for a great hope foi; 
this work. That it may succeed is the prayer 
of many good people in Milwaukee and Wis- 
consin. Friends from other Settlements are 
invited to visit the Milwaukee Settlement at 
any time. 



The Rhode Island Agricultural College is to 
be congratulated upon the acceptance of Its 
presidency by Mr. Kenyon L. Butterfield, who 
as contributor to these columns and other 
scientific journals, and as lecturer on Rural 
Sociologj' at the University of Michigan, has 
proven himself to be exceptionally well quali- 
fied for the position. He combines to a rare 
degree technical knowledge of the scientific 
and economic factors in agriculture with un- 
usual insight into the social and ethical con- 
ditions of rural life. 



"Cast forth thy Act, thy Word, Into the ever- 
living, ever-working Universe-, it Is a seed- 
grain that cannot die." — Sartor Resartus. 



"In torn boots, in soft hung carriages-and- 
four, a man gets always to his journey's end." 
— Chartism. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIQHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY, 

Edited fok the Association by 
Mary KiNGSBnKY Simxhovitch, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Departmental Progress Under the New City 
Administration in New York. 

THE DEP.VRT-MEXT OF CHARITIES. 

During this administration under the com- 
missionership of Homer Folks the Department 
of Charities has made great strides forward. 
A few of the many changes that have taken 
place may be enumerated from the quarterly 
reports of the Commissioner to the Mayor. 

On August 20, 1902, a schedule of uniforms 
for male officers and employes of all institu- 
tions in the department was adopted, to take 
effect October 1. 1902. The officers and em- 
ployes are divided into eight grades, for each 
of which a distinctive uniform is prescribed. 
Uniforms are provided by the department at 
its own expense for employes receiving salaries 
not exceeding $180 per annum and mainte- 
nance. These uniforms remain the property 
of the department. Heads of institutions are 
held responsible for the care of the uniforms, 
for requiring all employes to wear the uniform 
prescribed, and for seeing that all uniforms are 
kept in good condition. It is believed that the 
uniforms will materially assist in maintaining 
a proper standard of discipline by making it 
easier to detect any employe who is not doing 
his duty. 

A thorough examination of all the farms and 
gardens under the control of this department, 
including the County Poor Farm in the bor- 
ough of Richmond and also the dairy and herd 
"kept on Randall's Island for the benefit of the 
Infants' Hospital, was made by Mr. George T. 
Powell, director of the School of Agriculture 
and Practical Horticulture at Briarcliff, New 
York, in company with the Commissioner, on 
Sept. 22, 1902. Mr. Powell made several valu- 
able suggestions for improving both the quan- 
tity and the quality of the milk produced on 
Randall's Island and also for utilizing more ef- 
fectively the farms and gardens under the con- 
trol of the department. It is his opinion that 
the Richmond County Poor Farm, under proper 
cultivation, will produce all the vegetables re- 
quired for a population of three thousand per- 
sons. 

The number of applications for the commit- 
ment of children on account of the desertion 



THE COMMONS 



9 



or alleged desertion of the head of the family 
having increased to an alarming extent during 
the past few years, a plan has been Instituted 
for dealing with this matter more effectively. 
It had been ascertained that in many cases the 
desertion was simply a prearranged plan be- 
tween the husband and wife by which the hus- 
band would disappear from the neighborhood 
for a short time, only to return as soon as the 
children had safely been placed under the care 
of the city; in many instances the husband 
continued meanwhile to send money regularly 
to the wife and sometimes even visited the 
home regularly at unusual hours. A special 
list of families in which the husband was re- 
ported as having deserted was started in the 
Bureau of Dependent Children and these fami- 
lies were visited from time to time at hours at 
which a visit would not naturally be expected. 
In the early evening or on Sundays or holi- 
days. The result has been that in numerous 
instances the head of the family who had been 
reported as having deserted and as having been 
absent for many weeks was found by his own 
fireside with every appearance of having been 
there regularly and of enjoying the additional 
luxuries made possible by escaping the burden 
of supporting his children. Out of 71 cases of 
desertion under observation during the quarter 
ending September 30, husbands have been 
found in 22 cases. 

FEMAU: NURSES. 

In May the decision was made to replace 
male nurses in male wards of the City Hos- 
pital by female nurses, as is the custom in all 
the leading private hospitals. The various 
classes in the Training School for Male Nurses 
are to be allowed to finish their course of 
study, and as each class graduates its place Is 
taken by female nurses. The change was made 
in several wards on June 1, 1902, and the im- 
provement in the care of the patients in these 
wards since that date has been noticeable. A 
change occurred in a number of other wards 
on the graduation of the class on Sept. 1, 
1902, and the last class of the male nurses will 
graduate March 1, 1903. 

A list has been compiled of indentured children 
placed in family homes directly by the depart- 
ment who have not yet reached the age of 
eighteen years, and a system of oversight and 
visitation of these children is being estab- 
lished. In Brooklyn it was found that al- 
though the rules of the State Board of Chari- 
ties have for several years required an annual 
reacceptance of each child supported in a pri- 
vate institution at public expense, many hun- 



1 dreds of children were being so supported, the 
circumstances of whose parents had never been 
Investigated since the original commitment. 

All able-bodied male epileptics have been 
transferred from the Kings County Hospital 
and the hospitals on Blackwell's Island to the 

I Richmond County Poor Farm, consisting of 114 
acres, near New Dorp, Staten Island, and about 
fifty of the more able-bodied paupers from the 
Blackwell's Island Almshouse have also been 
sent there. This step has four advantages — 
outdoor lite and occupation for the epileptics, 
providing a "work test" for the able-bodied 
paupers (many of whom took their discharge 
rather than go to the farm to work), relief of 

i the overcrowding on Blackwell's Island, and 

i the production of vegetables on the Richmond 
County Poor Farm for use there and on Black- 
well's Island. 

THE DEP.VKTMENT OF HEALTH. 

The following improvements among many 
others, have been made in the work of the 
i New York City Department of Health since 
I the beginning of the new administration: 
j The first work of the new administration 

i upon taking office was to remove about 15 per 
cent of the employes. This resulted in a de- 
cided improvement in discipline and in the 
amount of work done, for the remaining 85 
per cent have done more work and done it 
more efficiently than did the entire 100 per cent 
in previous years. Moreover, the appropriation 
allotted to the Health Department by the Van 
Wyck administration was not sufficient to sus- 
tain for the year 1902 the number of men on 
the rolls Dec. 31, 1901. 

No efforts have been spared to extend the 
facilities of the department in the care of con- 
tagious disease. When the present administra- 
^tion came in it found all the contagious dis- 
ease hospital buildings of the city in wretched 
condition. Some of the scarlet fever patients, 
who could not be accommodated in the inade- 
quate buildings available, were housed in a 
cement shed at the foot of East Sixteenth 
street, while others suffering with various 
forms of disease were quartered in leaky and 
unsanitary pavilions on North Brothers Island. 
Steps were at once taken by the new adminis- 
tration to revolutionize the hospital service 
and extend its facilities. Representative phy- 
sicians were at once called in consultation and 
formed into an advisory board for the Health 
Department. The eleven men who now com- 
pose this board are the leaders in their pro- 
fession in this city, if not in this country. With 
their support the Commissioner of Health went 



10 



THE COM MON8 



before the Mayor and the Board of Estimate 
and stated what the city must do to improve 
the facilities for the care of contagious dis- 
ease. Upon the representations there made the 
sum of $500,000 was appropriated by the Board 
of Estimate for the work, of which amount 
$75,000 was allotted for repairs and improve- 
ments in existing buildings. The latter amount 
has been parceled out on existing buildings, 
with the result that practically every building 
in all three of the contagious disease hospital 
plants has been overhauled or is now in process 
of reconstruction to fit it for the reception of 
patients. 

When the new administration took oflSce a 
virtual epidemic of smallpox was in progress in 
this city. In spite of the fact that this disease 
had been running for more than a year, very 
little had been done to check it, the total vac- 
cinations performed by the Health Department 
in 1901 having been less than 375,000. This 
year, however, more than twice that number of 
vaccinations have already been performed, and 
by the close of the year the number will have 
considerably exceeded 1,000,000. As a result of 
this efficient work, cases of smallpox have been 
this autumn reduced to a minimum, and the 
hospitals at North Brother Island have been 
without a case of smallpox for the first time 
since the fall of 1900. 

More efficient Inspection and disinfection of .■ 
houses Infected with tuberculosis has also re- 
sulted in a decrease of about 10 per cent In 
the death rate from consumption. A special 
corps of physicians has been appointed to the 
work of inspection of tuberculosis patients, and 
the work of renovation of houses infected with 
tuberculosis has been increased by about 200 
per cent. 

The most Important feature of the autumn 
work on the medical side has been providing an 
efficient medical inspection in schools for children 
suffering from contagious disease. This work in 
previous years was largely nominal. This year 
nearly 50 per cent of the former number of inspec- 
tors were employed, but in the two months 
since schools opened they have inspected more 
than ten times as many children as in all 
of last year. One of the chief features of 
this medical work not hitherto carried out 
has been the exclusion from the schools of 
children suffering from contagious diseases of 
the eye. The disease is the fruit of unrestrict- 
ed immigration, but fortunately the Immigra- 
tion Commissioner now In office at this port 
Is co-operating with the Health Department In 
every way to keep aliens suffering from conta- 



gious eye disease from entering at this port. 

Of the sanitary work of the Department of 
Health the following features may be cited; 
The inspection of food, particularly meat, fruit 
and milk, has been greatly broadened with the 
result that in the borough of Manhattan alone 
from 30 per cent to 40 per cent more bad food 
has been condemned and destroyed than was 
so treated last year. Milk inspections have in- 
creased more than 25 per cent despite a smaller 
force of inspectors. Fines collected for the 
sale of impure milk upon conviction at the 
Court of Special Sessions show an increase of 
nearly 200 per cent, this fact being evidence of 
the laxity of the previous administration in en- 
forcing the law against fraudulent milk deal- 
ers. Meanwhile no effort has been spared to 
educate honest milk dealers with regard to the 
best methods to be used to improve their prod- 
uct, and the department's laboratories have 
been thrown open to all persons who may de- 
sire the examination of samples of milk. The 
education process has also been carried by 
Health Department inspectors into the country 
districts where New York City's milk supply 
originates. 

When the present administration took office 
it found the city's vital statistics, which are 
absolutely not to be duplicated, in a non- 
flreproof building, and without adequate pro- 
tection in any respect. Out of the appropria- 
tion above alluded to, contracts were let for 
installing these priceless records of the city's 
vital statistics in a fireproof vault in the base- 
ment of this building, which was formerly a 
swimming tank used by the New York Athletic 
Club. This is now being fitted with a steel 
roof set on its walls, which are about thr«e feet 
thick, and will protect the records from any- 
thing short of an earthquake. 



Qreenwich House. 

An informal opening reception was held at 
Greenwich House, 26 Jones street, on Saturday 
afternoon, Dec. 13. A stormy day did not pre- 
vent a large attendance of interested people, 
many of whom were neighbors who brought 
cordial gi-eetings and a hearty welcome to the 
neighborhood. The House is a three-story-and- 
basement dwelling built about 1840 and retain- 
ing a good deal of the dignity of the houses of 
that period. 

There is a deep extension that gives an un- 
usual within space for so narrow a frontage. 
Though very simple, the furnishings and deco- 
rations are beautiful and restful. The House 
accommodates eight residents, and the main 



THE COMMONS 



11 



floor and basement are commodious enough to 
allow the development of various neighborhood 
activities. A neighboring house on Grove street 
has been rented by a group of young men, who, 
engaged in their own professions or business 
during the day, devote their evenings to the 
neighborhood. These men breakfast and dine 
at the Settlement, and form an important ele- 
ment in the life and work of the House. 

Greenwich House is situated on the lower 
West Side, in a section of the city where no 
such neighborhood House has hitherto existed. 
The nearest Settlement is the West Side 
Branch of the University Settlement; other 
agencies carrying on class and club work of 
various kinds in the neighborhood are the Par- 
ish of the Ascension, the Judson Memorial 
Church and St. Joseph's Church. But the gen- 
eral need for a greater interest in the welfare 
of the neighborhood was instanced by the re- 
mark of a Bleecker street shopkeeper, who, 
surprised and delighted that the House was to 
open so soon, said: "Now, over on the East 
Side they have kindergartens, out-of-door 
sports, clubs and everything; but nobody seems 
to care whether we get anything over here or 
not. Now, you can just call on me any time 
you want anybody to help." 

The House is supported by an incorporated 
society with a board of managers, half of whom 
are residents of the House. The officers of the 
society are; Edward T. Devine, president; W. 
Franklin Brush, vice-president; Mary Sher- 
man, secretary; Meredith Hare, treasurer; Mrs. 
V. G. Simkhovitch, head worker. 

There are two ways of awaking ambition and 
inspiring one to do well a work for which he 
feels no attraction or the successful accom- 
plishment of which he considers, for him, an 
Impossibility. 

The first is to use the finest material, the 
newest methods, the best tools, and have the 
task performed, whatever it may be, with such 
perfection that it will arouse the indifferent 
and discouraged to a great effort and make him 
struggle toward the ideal. 

The other way is to prove that, even with 
Inferior tools, in surroundings that hinder work 
by their limitation, tasks may be made inter- 
esting and what has been regarded as a mere 
drudgery may be looked upon as an art. 

When housework and cooking are taught to 
tenement-house dwellers on porcelain-top ta- 
bles, the latest Boynton range, and with a 
1100 list of cooking utensils, then is the ideal 
held up as a model to look at. 

When domestic science is taught in spite of a 



stove that draws badly, in spite of the neces- 
sity of using a clothes line that never feels the 
sunlight and comes in too close contact with 
Xhe neighbors' lines; when, in the place where 
the lessons are given, there is never enough 
hot water, never enough space, and too few 
pans and kettles, then is housework taught by 
the second- method. The dulled housewife is 
made to acknowledge that any home may be 
made attractive and work well done is always 
interesting. 

A year ago last November a flat (one of 
twenty-four in a Henry street tenement) was 
taken and furnished as an object lesson. The 
idea was to make the rooms artistic, dainty, 
sanitary, and withal inexpensive. Although sit- 
uated in the most crowded part of New York, 
this flat is not in one of the worst tenements. 
To be sure, the clothes must needs be hung 
in the narrow air shaft; no ray of sun ever 
finds its way to any part of the flat. In this 
apartment there are four rooms and a. bath; 
the front windows face the street and even the 
back rooms can boast a shaft opening. The 
better flat was selected because the object was 
not to show the lazy, slovenly woman how she, 
her children and boarders might continue to 
live a little more decently in her unhealthy 
back tenement, but to help those who, con- 
sciously or unconsciously, are worthy of a 
home with charm and comfort, even though 
this home must be in a New York tenement 
house. Also it is desired to give to all children 
who come to its doors such a clear, definite 
picture of what a home can be, that never again 
will they be blind to squalor and ugliness. 

The front room of this model flat is used as 
parlor and bedroom. The narrow iron bed, in 
its habitual whiteness, does not seem out of 
place in the corner of this green-papered living 
room, and its occupant has the advantage of 
air and light. One bed being In the parlor, re- 
lieves the crowding of our one back bedroom. 
The iron washstand in the front room is hid- 
den by a screen made of a clothes-horse paint- 
ed white and covered with chintz curtains, 
which are easily washed and hung on tapes. 
The window curtains, of ten-cent muslin, reach 
only to the window sill and are intended to be 
a continual protest against the long, trailing 
lace curtain so beloved by the tenement-house 
tenant. A plain oak table, stained and waxed, 
serves as a desk, while wooden chairs, pleasing 
in their dull coloring, suggest cleanliness and 
yet comfort. The easily lifted rag-carpet rug, 
the chest of drawers, a larger oak table for 
books and work basket, complete the furnish- 



12 



TH E COM MONS 



Ing of the front room. And yet one can hardly 

say the parlor is fully described unless the 
stained pine shelf, holding the green pottery 
vase and Barye lion, the many plants on the 
window sill and the framed photographs are 
given a place in the picture. 

The dining room, back of the j)arlor bed- 
room, has but few features sufficiently novel 
to describe. The round second-hand table, the 
six plain chairs, the corner window seat (home- 
made of pine wood and stained) and the book- 
case are the only furnishings. The walls in 
this room are covered with yellow cartridge 
paper, while turkey-red cushions and the cop- 
per and brass candlesticks and dishes (found in 
the neighborhood) give color to the room. 

The two thoughts most emphasized in the 
bathroom and kitchen are that everything must 
be washable, from the walls to the uncovered 
shelves and table. And, second, that each ar- 
ticle shall have a place of its own, be it a nail 
on the wall or a spot on a shelf. Only the 
one bedroom remains. May it contain always 
only such furnishings as are necessary for a 
sleeping room, and be bare, as it is now, of all 
finery. Where space is scarce and time for 
dusting limited, finery is out of place. 

This flat is used not only as an object lesson 
to those who go in and out daily — drawing 
books, writing letters or playing games; but 
lessons are given every afternoon and evening 
— lessons that have no suggestion of school, but' 
are the natural help from one who is fortunate 
enough to know how to work well to those 
who not only are ignorant of how housework 
should be done, but in many cases have never 
seen a well-kept home. 

There are classes of children who know that 
if the stove is really well cleaned and black- 
ened, and the fire satisfactorily laid, cooking 
will follow as surely as the inevitable dish- 
washing. The bed-making, dusting and win- 
dow-washing are all done in the spirit of 
"keeping house," a natural love in every child. 
The older pupils, school teachers as well as 
factory girls, are many of them about to have 
homes of their own. They come to the flat 
with such a consciousness of their own igno- 
rance and such a respect for well-done work 
that they are as willing to scrub the bathroom, 
clean kitchen utensils and wash woodwork as 
they are to learn of the scientific preparation 
of foodstuffs. The mothers' cooking classes, 
instruction from a trained n«rse in the care of 
home and patient in time of sickness, are of 
the greatest importance; but above all the flat 
is a home, not a school. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

6TAKDINO COMMITTEE. 

President: K.\Tn.\RiNE Com.^^n, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Ch.\dwick Rand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 
York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City— 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia— 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



casa castelar. 



BY KATHARINE COM AN, PRESIDENT C. S. A. 

The first settlement west of the Mississippi 
river is that planted in February, 1894, at Los 
Angeles by the western branch of the Associa- 
tion of Collegiate Alumnae. The neighborhood 
chosen Is Sonoratown, the Mexican quarter 
and once the heart of the city. Here, huddled 
together in rapidly narrowing quarters, dwell 
Aztec Indians, Mexican half-breeds and people 
of pure Spanish blood. All speak the flexible 
Spanish tongue and cling to the leisurely, con- 
fiding ways of the Latin races. They are bap- 
tized, married and buried in the old mission 
church. La Reina de Los Angeles, and they sun 
themselves in the beautiful Plaza, a relic of 
the Spanish occupation. Sonoratown is a pic- 
turesque survival. The houses are built of 
adobe, broad and low, with heavy walls that 
afford protection against summer sun and 
winter chill. Wide porchlike eaves shade open 
door and window, and give a hospitable look 
to the otherwise stern exterior. Ruddy chil- 
dren play about the doorsteps and dark-eyed 
women lift their mantillas to answer your 
greeting. If you are on friendly footing you 
may penetrate to the court. It is shaded by 
eucalyptus and fig trees, and gay with flowers 
and strings of red peppers. Women are bend- 
ing over braseros preparing tortillas for the 
evening meal. The glow of the firelight on 
their dark faces is a picture worthy of Rem- 



THE COMMONS 



i:? 



brandt. The roomy old houses are fast being 
pulled down to make way for the more profit- 
able brick tenement, and modern filth and 
squalor are invading Sonoratown. In an open 
place shorn of all beauty, we found an en- 
campment of peons, Mexicans just brought 
over the border to work on the Southern Pa- 
cific Railroad. They have come far, from the 
City of Mexico, the women will tell you. They 
will soon be transferred to the barracks pro- 
vided by the railway management— a line of 
disused freight cars. The children playing in 
the shade beneath are sometimes killed when 
the train is shifted without warning, but what 
matters a greaser more or less? 

The Mexican is the under dog in Southern 
California. He is considered lazy and unre- 
liable as a workman, and as a citizen unpro- 
gressive. By contrast with American push he 
is all these, but he has virtues of his own not 
to be bought with gold. Easily outwitted by 
the shrewdness of the Yankee, he goes from 
bad to worse financially, but he cherishes the 
dignity and courtesy, the humor and savoir 
faire of the Spaniard. The poorest Mexicano 
will meet an embarrassing situation with a 
grace that should put his social superiors to 
the blush. He is generous to a fault, for in 
his estimation neighborly kindliness is more 
important than a bank account. 

Sonoratown is not a "city wilderness," but 
settlement work is nowhere more needed be- 
cause of the "great gulf fixed" between these 
light-hearted, improvident children of the 
South and the practical, uncomprehending 
Americans. Here is a promising field for the 
gospel of hygiene, and the district nurse, 
maintained in part by the city and in part by 
the settlement, renders most effective service. 
She not only looks after the sick in. their 
homes and sends serious cases to the hospital, 
but she carries on a crusade against disease, 
teaching the mothers how to care for their 
children, reporting unsanitary courts, etc. 
The health officer has repeatedly expressed his 
appreciation of the preventive work thus ac- 
complished. I»ublic baths, the gift of a friend, 
and well patronized, further the same end. 
Clubs for boys and girls, men and mothers, are 
carried on, not so much for the purpose of 
sociability, as for training in co-operation and 
self-government the traits that make for good 
citizenship. The classes are mainly industrial 
in character. The girls are taught sewing and 
cooking and housekeeping. The boys have in- 
struction in wood-carving, clay-modeling and 
the making of rope mats and baskets. The 



aim is not to fit for a special trade, but 
to train eye and hand and develop adaptability. 
Such work is very popular with this essen- 
tially artistic people, but facilities are greatly 
limited for lack of funds. Current expenses 
are sometimes met by club dues, and some- 
times out of the pocket of the instructor. 

The settlement residents must often act as 
an employment agency, and they bring all 
their influence to bear in behalf of industry 
and thrift. A stamps savings bank has been 
opened at the settlement, and it is patronized 
by young and old. The settlement lawyer 
often renders important aid in controversies 
where the Mexican's ignorance of law and 
property rights places him at a serious disad- 
vantage. The small fee charged puts the trans- 
action on a business basis. 

Casa Castelar is just now facing a tinancial 
crisis. To avoid being turned out of the house 
it is necessary to move it. Of the purchase 
price (?3,500) ?1,500 was raised at the outset. 
The remaining $2,000 was advanced by a friend 
and is secured by a mortgage on the property. 
The Board of Directors hope to clear this mort- 
gage within the year. Will not the friends of 
the Spaniard and the lovers of Southern Cali- 
fornia give aid? 

Contributions should be sent to Miss Mary 
H. Bingham, 1125 West Twenty-first street, Los 
Angeles. 



The Radcliffe Chapter of College Settlement 
Association, Cambridge, Mass. 

The work of the Radcliffe Chapter of the 
College Settlement Association is restricted to 
Denison House, Tyler street, Boston; Eliza- 
beth Peabody House, Poplar street, Boston, and 
Roxbury House, Dayton avenue, Roxbury. 
From a chapter of some eighty-five members 
committees are appointed by the elector to pro- 
vide for a monthly entertainment at Denison 
House— visually a play; and once a week girls 
pledge themselves to help in the game clubs 
for children. At Elizabeth Peabody House four 
entertainments throughout the year are 
planned, and here students also pledge them- 
selves to help in the daily industrial classes 
of small children. Elizabeth Peabody House 
is an endowed institution primarily for kinder- 
garten work, and has less demand for stu- 
dent help. One entertainment is usually given 
at Roxbury House during the year and several 
classes are conducted by volunteer students in 
English and German and travel study. 

Radcliffe College gives a play yearly for the 
benefit of the College Settlement Associa- 



u 



THE COMMONS 



tion. This year $61.71 net ina realized 
from Plnero's "Sweet Lavender." For each 
class organization, also — Graduate, Senior, 
Junior, Sophomore, Freshman and Special — a 
collector is appointed to take charge of the 
gratuitous sums from the students (none less 
than 50 cents), and this is forwarded by the 
treasurer of the chapter to the general treas- 
ury in New York before the end of the col- 
lege year. All sundry expenses of the chapter 
are met by assessments. 

Emily M. McAvity, 
Sec'y-Treas. Radcliffe Chapter of C. S. A. 



spirit and Interest which makes It possible to 
carry on the association's work. 

t REDHICA Lk FevRE, 

Undergraduate Elector of C. S. A., Bryn Mawr. 



The students of Smith College have inter- 
ested themselves, especially in Northampton, 
in the Home Culture Club, the name of which 
perhaps best expresses its aim. This year the 
club has over three hundred and fifty members, 
most of whom are working people. There is 
a small membership fee, $1 a year or 15 cents 
a month, the year lasting from October to 
June. As members of the club they are enti- 
tled to join any of the classes held at the club- 
house. 

There are classes in language, spelling, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, sewing, 
gymnastics, dancing and music besides classes 
for foreigners wishing to learn English, and 
the most of the teachers for these are college 
girls. There are now ninety girls giving up 
one or more evenings a week to the classes 
held at the clubhouse. Because a majority of 
the members are working people most of the 
classes are held in the evening, although there 
is an afternoon dancing class and music lessons 
are given then. 

The work done at the club might be called 
the college settlement work of Northampton, 
and while the girls can know very little of 
their pupils in their homes, much is accom- 
piished by the work at the club. 

WiNiKRKD Rend, 
Smith College chairman Home Culture Club. 



To the Bryn Mawr C. S. A. Chapter it has 
seemed necessary, in order to arouse the in- 
terest in social work, to make the need of it 
. felt So there has been an effort to make it 
as easy as possible for the girls to learn of 
existing conditions. The Economics Club was 
consequently formed so that those who deal 
with social problems can tell the girls of work j 
that is now being done, the need of future I 
effort and of the life of those who have few | 
privileges. From these meetings result the 



The New York College Settlement. 

The Settlement's summer home at Mt. Ivy 
was opened early in June, and until the middle 
of September parties of young men, women and 
children were constantly coming and going. 
The accommodations were considerably in- 
creased by the addition of three camps, two of 
them belonging to the young men's clubs, and 
the third a camp for little boys. Six groups of 
about twelve boys occupied it during the sum- 
mer. 

The work of the Settlement in the city went 
on as_ usual. There were a number of day pic- 
nics, although the weather was not very favor- 
able and the demand for outings not great. 
The yard was filled with children morning and 
afternoon, and the house was open every even- 
ing to the young men and women who came in 
often to sing or play ping-i>ong. 



The Philadelphia College Settlement. 

Last winter the Philadelphia College Set- 
tlement enlarged its work by the opening of 
Roosevelt House for residence. This house, 
formerly a tenement, is located at 502 South 
Front street, in the midst of a typical river- 
front population. The predominating nation- 
alties are Irish and Polish; saloons and sailors' 
boHrding houses abound. The chief resident 
at Roosevelt House since its opening has been 
the College Settlement Probation OflBcer, Mrs. 
Montgomery. She came here in order to be 
near the center of her district, and to live in 
close contact with those under her care. But 
her work has extended beyond those placed by 
law under her influence. The neighborhood 
from the first regarded Roosevelt House as 
the exponent of law and order, and the pre- 
ventive work accomplished both among adults 
and children has been large. 

The past winter was largely spent in getting 
acquainted with the neighborhood. In this end 
weekly socials were held. Several organiza- 
tions were also formed, a Stamp Savings Cen- 
ter, a working girls' club, a sewing class and 
several boys' clubs. One of the latter is called 
the Round Table Club, and has paid special 
attention to the King Arthur stories. These 
boys translate many of the old chivalrous 
terms into their own vernacular; for instance, 
knight is "guy," and when an interested lis- 



THE COM MONS 



15 



tener eagerly demands, "Well, what did that 
guy do next?" no disrespect is intended for the 
knightly hero of the tale. To the work of last 
year will be added this winter library and 
cooking classes, the latter made possible by the 
kindness of the Association of Collegiate 
Alumnae. 

The Chri-stian street house has been enlarged 
by the addition of the adjoining property, No. 
429, formerly a rather dirty tenement house. 
This enlargement will make possible for the 
first time an open reading room. The room 
is also to be used as a study place for school 
children, and help with lessons will be given 
when needed. Since many of the school chil- 
dren in our neighborhood belong to homes 
where no English is spoken, and where per- 
haps ten people are confined to one room, 
the need of such an evening study place is 
apparent. — College News, Wellesley. 



The eleventh annual report of the College 
Settlement, 95 Rivington street and 188 Lud- 
low street. New York, has just been issued. It 
contains reports by the head worker. Miss Eliz- 
abeth Williams, of the summer home by Miss 
Elizabeth D. Robbins, of the kindergarten by 
Miss Darling, and of the cooking school by 
Miss Beard, as well as reports of treasurer, 
lists of residents, workers, committees, etc. 
It is well printed and there are three excel- 
lent illustrations. 



The Christian Association of Vassar College 
enlists its members in varied social work by 
requesting each student to volunteer for one 
or more of the following lines of service: 

Missionary Work. — Collection of offerings, 
work in the missionary library. 

Philanthropic Work. — Dressing Christmas 
dolls, making of garments, collecting of old 
clothes. 

Work for Maids in the College. — Leading de- 
votional meetings, furnishing entertainments, 
teaching classes. 

Work in Poughkeepsle. — Sunday school 
classes, sewing classes, gymnastic and danclna: 
classes, friendly visiting, work at Old Ladies' 
Home, work in hospital, children's Bible 
classes, children's guilds and clubs. 



"To make soriie nook of God's creation a lit- 
tle fruitfuller, better, more w^orthy of God; to 
make some human hearts a little wiser, man- 
fuller, happier — more blessed, less accursed! 
It is work for a God."— Past and Present. 



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Send 60 cents to Thk Co.mmons for 
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The New Fourth Hditlon of College, Social 
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For the College Settlement Association, with 
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16 



THE COMMONS 



THE MQNrM AT CHICAGO COMMONS. 



A Fortnight of Christmas. 

The holiday cycle of festivities has been un- 
usually satisfactory in the simplicity, variety, 
and joyous reality of the occasions. Far prefer- 
able to large general gatherings we find the 
occasions arranged for single groups or for the 
combination of the groups having a common 
interest. Nowhere did the Christmas spirit 
find more spontaneous and unique expression 
than in the kindergarten celebration. As they 
marched into the auditorium, each child car- 
ried a spray of evergreen and each of their 
teachers a lighted taper. As they formed their 
circle around the Christmas tree they were 
encircled by a wider circle of mothers and 
fathers, sisters and brothers, neighbors and 
friends. In the language and gestures 
of all the nationaliti?s from Italy to Nor- 
way, the charm of the scene at the center was 
reflected around the circumference. 

The Boy's and Girl's clubs were held spell 
bound on another evening by the story of Ben 
Hur. realistically told and graphically pic- 
tured on the stereopticon screen. Many private 
parties were held by the little groups in their 
own way. Whatever gifts were distributed on 
occasions held at the house were either of the 
same kind or of equal value, leaving therefore- 
no such heart burnings as discrimination is 
sure to engender. Many tokens were taken to 
the homes of the children where there was 
special reason for it. The visiting nurse, for 
instance, took some of them on her rounds to 
her little patients. 

The last night of the Old Year was particu- 
larly interesting. The House was ablaze with 
light and cheer all over. On one floor a group 
of young girls gave a pretty little private party 
to a group of their boy friends. In the Com- 
munity Club rooms the men gave a Ladies' 
Night and presented one of their members, a 
resident of the House, with a beautiful token 
of their appreciation of his leadership in their 
victorious legislative campaign. The Choral 
Club gathered their friends around the hearth 
in the neighborhood parlor. In the midst of 
it air the neighborhood church had a whole 
floor to itself for its annual meeting, social 
reunion, and "watch night" service. 

The holiday spirit reached its consummation 
in the recital of the Oratorio of "The Mes- 
siah," generously rendered by Chicago's great- 
est chorus, the Apollo Musical Club, under the 
direction of Mr. Harrison Wild. 



Chicago Commons is greatly interested and 
encouraged in the social extension of public 
school work which has been successfully in- 
troduced this winter in the neighboring Wash- 
ington School House. The variety and success 
of the classes, clubs, craft work and social oc- 
casions are due to the energetic and public 
spirited principalship of Mr. William J. Bogan, 
who is at the head of both the day and night 
schools, and to the intelligent cooperation and 
liberal financial support furnished by the Mer- 
"•bant's Club of Chicago, which has also sus- 
tained with equal success a still larger work 
in the John Spry School at the heart of the 
Bohemian district. 



Free Floor Discussions for January. 

Jan. 6. — "The Rights of Man," by Dr. Lyman 
Abbott. 

Jan. 13. — "Music, Its Relation to Life and 
Labor," by Prof. William L. Tomlins. 

Jan. 20. — "The Limitation of Output," by 
representative employes and employers. 

Jan. 27. — "Pennsvlvania Coal Miners nnder 
Strike Conditions," as seen by Bishop Samuel 
Fallows. 

Debt Reduced $3,000 Last Hontb. 

Due on notes and current accounts 

Dec. 1 $12,187 

Contributed and paid during December 3,000 

Balance due January 1, 1903 $ 9,187 

Guaranteed by friends 4,450 

Remainder to be raised, due on notes 
of demand $4,737 

SIPPORT OF THE SETTLEMENT WORK IX 1903 NOW 
BEIXG SOLICnXD. 

Maintenance of building, $200 per 

month 12,400 

Day Nursery, rental and support, $100 

per month 1,200 

Full service of six paid residents, $325 

per month 3,900 

Summer camp, outing and playground 1,100 
Stenography, printing and periodical.. 760 
Unclassified and special expense ac- 
count 6^*^ 

$9,960 
Estimated expense for 1903, per month, $830. 



"Where the heart is full it seeks for a thou- 
sand reasons, in a thousand ways, to impart 
it How sweet, indispensable, in such cases, 
is fellowship; soul mystically strengthening 
soul!" — French Revolution. 



THe Commons 

A Montlily Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Ijibor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 79— Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicaso, February, 1903 



OUR WORKING CHILDREN IN ILLINOIS, 

BX MBS. HARRIET M. VAN DEB VAART, 

Chairman Industrial Committee of the Federated 
Women's Clubs. 

Every thoughtful and intelligent man and 
woman believes in labor, believes in work for 
man, woman and child; knows there is a very 
close relationship between the growth and 
progress of a nation or an individual, and their 
occupations. 

We are all cognizant of the fact that many 
of our greatest men have come from the labor- 
ing classes, and realize that the manual labor 
In their lives has been one of the potent fac- 
tors that has helped to develop them into re- 
liable, substantial citizens. 

But labor, though one of the greatest incen- 
tives in life, may be of two kinds. It may be 
educational and stimulating or it may be 
paralyzing and deadening. If the interest is 
taken out of it, if the worker is cut off from 
any relationship to the ultimate object or use 
of the work; if all possibility of working out 
an ideal is eliminated, the life principle is 
gone. 

A few generations ago the children of the 
community were getting a large part of their 
education from the industrial world, from the 
occupations that naturally fell to them. 
When the wheat was raised on the farm, 
ground into flour in the village, made into 
bread in the kitchen; when the shoemaker 
went from house to house with his kit of tools 
and made the shoes for the members of the 
family for the year; when sheep were raised 
on the farm, and the wool was cut, washed, 
carded, spun, dyed, woven into cloth, and then 
made into garments for the men and women 
as well as the boys and girls of the family, 
all on the same little farm. Meeting the ne- 
cessities and wants of the family and of the 
community was the object of work that was 
constantly held before the minds of the chil- 
dren. 

The demand then upon the public school was 
small compared to the demand of to-day. 
Reading, writing, arithmetic, largely met the 
need of the child. He learned the rules, ac- 



quired the tools, that he could put Into prac- 
tice in his every day work. His pleasures 
were largely the reward of tasks well accom- 
plished. There was a unity and harmony in 
the child's life that gave the opportunity for 
an all around development. The working child 
was the thinking child, the playing child. 
How is it with increasing numbers of our 
children today? 

Since the introduction of machinery our in- 
dustries have become so complicated that the 
educational factor and the intellectual stim- 
ulus have been almost entirely eliminated from 
the industrial world. One pair of shoes passes 
through perhaps one hundred pair of hands 
before they reach the feet of the wearer. 

The child Is exceptionally educated who as-  
soclates the sheep with the garment he may 
be wearing. The little girl in the soap factory 
works "on a score" — that is, she wraps in two 
wrappers three thousand cakes of soap a day 
to make three dollars a week. When this score 
can be easily accomplished, she takes the next 
until she reaches what is the present limit — 
six thousand cakes i>er day. 

One cannot watch her without realizing that 
every nerve and muscle of her body is under 
a strain to accomplish the greatest speed pos- 
sible. Of course the stimulant is constantly 
before her, to complete the score she is mak- 
ing and pass to the next. There is no edu- 
cational factor in the work, nor any intel- 
lectual stimulus. All physical energy is ex- 
hausted to increase rapidity of motion, and 
what is the object held before her — material 
gain — dollars and cents. 

The same conditions exist more or less in all 
factory life for children — the same physical 
waste, the lack of nourishment for the mental 
faculties (which means degeneration) and the 
elimination of the ideal. Physically, mentally 
and morally, is our industrial world to-day 
restricting the development of the larger num- 
ber of our working children. 

Think of the little boys working all night 
in the glass factories between a blazing fur- 
nace in front and two brilliant electric lights 
at the side. How long can we expect eyes un- 
der such a strain to remain perfect? Look 



THE COM MONS 



at tbe almost baby newsboys and girls on tbe 
streets of Chicago after dark. 

Think of the in-Quences surrounding our mes- 
senger service for both boys and girls. Visit 
our stock yards. Go into the canning and 
stuffing rooms. Look into some of the slaugh-, 
tering pits. See the conditions and influences, 
physical and moral, thrown around boys in 
knee pants and girls wearing short dresses. 

Find some of the small tobacco factories lo- 
cated in cellars and alleys, where there is lit- 
tle light, and fresh air is excluded, plumbing 
poor, sanitary conditions bad. Study the sal- 
low emaciated children found at work in these 
places. 

The one universal excuse for child labor 
always brought forward is the needed support 
for the widowed mother. 

Let us first know that some man is not hid- 
ing behind the widow's garb, and depending 
upon what he considers his legitimate means 
of a revenue — his child. It might be well to 
look even deeper and study the causes that 
have been the means of so wiping out the man- 
hood in the father, as to make him willing 
to depend upon his little child for support, 
for child labor is one of the results of deep 
seated wrongs. But evolution, growth, prog- 
ress are slow and go step by step and the 
child is farthest "under the load." 

I was in a court room a few weeks ago where 
a sickly mother was brought to the stand on 
a charge of a false affidavit; by her side was 
a delicate, white-faced little boy, through an 
interpreter (for she could not speak English) 
she confessed that the child was not fourteen, 
but said her husbeind was a cripple and she 
had consumption, and she did not know what 
else to do. 

If a person is starving it is hard to refuse 
bread even though it is known the bread con- 
tains poison. In sacrificing the child the 
mother is sacrificing a possible future sup{)ort, 
for a very inadequate one. In case the child 
should not be exhausted physically (which in 
this case was almost sure to happen) he would 
in nine cases out of ten become discouraged 
and disheartened and by the time he was 
twenty it is almost certain his earnings 
would amount to no more — if as much — as at 
twelve. In eight or ten years it is possible 
the state will have two to support, the mother 
in the poor house, the child possibly as a 
tramp or an, incapable because prematurely 
worn out. 

One's imagination looks into the future with 
wonder as to the men and women who will 



be developed from the childhood that is so 
largely moulded by machinery. Does it not 
become the duty of the citizens of to-day to 
seriously consider the question how we are 
to give to the children of the community the 
educational factor that has been eliminated 
from the industrial world? 

How are we to provide for the all around de- 
velopment necessary if the children of to-day 
are to grow into the citizenship that will pro- 
mote the progress and welfare of our country? 
There is but one medium, one avenue, through 
which all the children of the community may 
be reached, and that is: Our Public School. 
Expert educators are working out in private 
schools the thought that work and play and 
education should together constitute one har- 
monious result in the mind of the child. 
These school experiments often seem like 
child's play and very artificial, compared with 
the same results of meeting the necessities of 
every day living, as the children of a few gen- 
erations ago met them. But the old thought 
Is taking root again in the educational world, 
society must complement each other. 

It is as yet largely an intellectual percep- 
tion; it has not reached the conscience of the 
people that in the words of Dr. Dewey, "What 
the wisest and best parent demands for his 
child, that must the community demand for 
its children." When the intellect and the con- 
science of the people are thoroughly awake to 
the importance of this one avenue that lies 
open to all the children of the community, 
the public school may become the revolutioniz- 
ing factor that will eventually hold the in- 
dustrial as well as the educational forces sub- 
ordinate to the need and development of the 
child. 

The immediate duty is first to watch with 
a jealous eye any infringement on the fiexi- 
bility or freedom of the public school to see to 
it that more and more its doors are opened 
to the best educators and the most advanced 
thought To stand guard against any ten- 
dency of the school to fall in line with our 
present industries, to eliminate the ideal and 
to educate our children to be money mongers. 

The next near duty is to see that our laws 
guarding the working children are such as 
shall more and more compel children to take 
advantage of the school and shall allow them 
to enter the industrial world under as favor- 
able conditions as possible. Our present com- 
pulsory school and child labor laws are so in- 
adequate that they are not fulfilling the object 
for which they were created. 



THE COMMONS 



3 



Our compulsory school law In Illinois only 
covers sixteen weeks of the school year. A 
child past twelve years of age need not begin 
school until the first of January, which opens 
the temptation to the parent to take advantage 
of these early fall months when there is the 
greatest demand for child labor and put the 
child to work. Our child labor law says: No 
child shall work until he is fourteen, which 
leaves a part of a year when he cannot work 
and need not be in school. 

It is evident these two laws should be co- 
ordinated. If we say a child shall not work 
until he is fourteen we should say he must 
be in school until he is fourteen. The present 
clause of the child labor law, which prohibits 
children working under fourteen, is largely in- 
effective because of its Inadequate provisions. 
In order that a child between fourteen and 
sixteen may work, the employer must have the 
parent's aflSdavit that the child is fourteen, 
which affidavit may be secured from any no- 
tary. There seems to be a general feeling 
among parents that these affidavits only mean 
getting permission to work. One case where 
a mother brought a child before a conscien- 
tious notary, offering to make affidavit that the 
child was fourteen. When asked if she would 
swear before the living God that the child was 
fourteen, answered, "No, I cannot do that; he 
isn't fourteen." 

Often children are sent to some friend with 
the request to have the necessary paper made 
out, so that they may go to work. All work-- 
ing children know they must have this paper, 
and that they must say they are fourteen. 

The three other main points of the present 
. law are: First, prohibiting children working 
where there is danger from machinery. Sec- 
ond, prohibiting their working where they 
would be under immora.1 influences. And third, 
that they can only work ten hours In any 
one day. Very little thought has been given to 
the first, almost none to the second, the third 
has been fairly enforced. 

PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT IN LAWS. 

Two bills will be presented to the legisla- 
ture this winter one whose main point is to 
have the compulsory school law cover the en- 
tire school year. The other, a child labor bill, 
the substance of which is contained in the 
following points: 

To make it impossible for a child to work 
under fourteen at any gainful occupation, in any 
concert .hail, theater, or place of amusement 
where liquor is sold or at any mercantile in- 
stitution, store, office, laundry, manufacturing 



establishment, bowling alley, passenger or 
freight elevator, factory or work shop or as 
messenger or driver within this state. 

If a child wishes to work between the ages 
of fourteen and sixteen he must secure a cer- 
tificate from the school he last attended, giv- 
ing his school grade and age according to the 
school records. It provides that there be one 
central place (for connection with the board 
of education) where the affidavits can be ob- 
tained and -the child's age must be proved 
either by the birth record or church or school 
record or baptism certificate. In such cases 
where no records can be obtained, the parent 
or guardian may go before the juvenile or 
county court and obtain the affidavit from the 
judge of such court. The new bill also pro- 
vides that no child between the ages of four- 
teen and sixteen shall work before seven in 
the morning or after ten at night. 

No child between the age of fourteen and 
sixteen shall work unless he can read and 
write simple sentences in the English lan- 
guage or is regularly attending night school. 
The responsibility is laid upon the citizens of 
Illinois, both for the sake of the child and for 
its own future citizenship to see that these 
bills become laws. 

In our dealings with little children, our 
duty is to meet the need of the child. In 
meeting that need we are opening the way to 
the best possible future. 

In our homes, our schools, our charities, our 
industrial world, we need to have held before 
us the old beautiful vision of the child that 
comes to us through the artist and the poet. 
"Heaven lies about us in our infancy. 
Shades of the prison house begin to close upon 

the growing boy, 
But he beholds the light and whence it flares. 
He sees it In his joy. 

The youth who daily farther fr.om the east 
Must travel, still to Nature's Priest, 
And by the vision splendid 
Is on his way attended." 

Neighborhood House, Chicago. 



Denver, Colorado, opens the new year with 
its first social settlement well established and 
rapidly gaining in attendance and effective 
support. "Neighborhood House" was opened 
on Santa Fe avenue by the Women's Associa- 
tion of Plymouth Congregational Church, 
which now shares its privileges and opportuni- 
ties of service with several other churches of 
the city. Miss Semple, formerly a settlement 
worker in Chicago, is Head Resident. 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRAHAM TA.YI^OR.. 



Kditor 



Entered at Cliicago Postofflce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Piiblislied the llrst of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



£DITORIA.I<. 



Church Federation and the Settlements. 

In a sensible and suggestive article contrib- 
uted to The OiAlook, Lillian W. Betts writes of 
the settlement idea and small communities. With 
the rare descriptive and impressive style which 
characterizes her remarkable book, " The Leaven 
in a Great City." She demonstrates the social 
waste in the division and competition of the forces 
of righteousness in small towns and cities. In the 
friendliest spirit toward both she contrasts the 
divided efforts of the churches where there is the 
greatest need of uniting all the forces to help the 
resourceless people of the town, with the settle- 
ment's social unification of the people of the city 
centers in helpful co-operation with each other 
and outside agencies. She urges this settlement 
idea upon the churches in making of tliemselves 
or by their combined effort " centers that bring all 
the people together, that create common interests, 
form a bank of knowledge where heads and hearts 
work together to lessen suffering, to stimulate 
hope, and to arouse interest in each one who 
makes a demand on its capital. These are the 
opportunities of every church in a community 
which has social problems due to poverty and over- 
crowding, and the absence of social life to lighten 
the burden of labor." She assures them that " no 
surer method of reaching the unchurched exists 
than that of undenominational effort for the com- 
munity's good. And work for the children, as if 
to prove the truth of prophecy, ' A little child shall 
lead them,' wins the best that the best men and 
women have to give." If this be given, she ven- 
tures to prophesy, " Let the effort begin with 
work requiring personal service from those who 
have skill and knowledge. Slowly the barrier 
between the churches will melt away; needs and 
opportunities will not be separated by a name. 
There will come finally a community of interest 
representing the brotherhood which Christ's life 
epitomized for man's guidance in his life with his 
fellow-men." 



The Social Promise of Church Federation in 
New \orVi. and Chicago. 

Although still in its infancy, the Federation of 
Churches in the city of New York, under the able 
leadership of Dr. Walter Laidlaw, has already 
achieved such effective service as to give good 
ground for large social hope. It started with the high 
aim "to promote and assist the cooperation of the 
1500 churches, settlements, and charitable institu- 
tions of New York City, in teaching religion and 
morality, in improving social and sanitary condi- 
tions, in fighting vice, and in raising the walls of the 
city whose builder and maker is God." The social 
service which the churches of many neighbor- 
hoods might render to their localities, are declared 
to be beyond the ability of single churches. A 
district federation is most feasible for bringing 
its institutions into harmonious, systematic and 
effective working order. The neighborhood 
churches and social institutions may only thus 
work for the improvement of the schools of their 
localities, for playgrounds, parks and libraries, and 
by such special union outdoor and indoor relig- 
ious services as are determined among themselves. 
With such social aims this Federation has for- 
tunately from the start combined scientific spirit 
and method in its statistical research and tabula- 
tion. Its social analyses of the population of 
several assembly districts deserve to be classed 
with parts of Charles Booth's great w9rk on "The 
Life and Labor of the People of London." Its 
quarterly publication, '^Federation '' is a remark- 
ably solid and suggestive output. 



As the settlement movement spreads to the 
smaller cities and towns it may not only set the 
type of such co-operation, but if it maintains the 
relations it should vyith the churches, it may pro- 
mote their federation. Surely nothing could be 
more in line with the purpose and work of settle- 
ments than to render any possible help toward 
this consummation, which is more devoutly to be 
wished than almost any other. Auspicious to this 
end is the everywhere increasing friendliness and 
co-operation between the settlements and churches 
of every name. Whatever non-intercourse, much 
more antagonism may have ever existed between 
them, is now being considered as self -stultifying 
to both. What is bringing them into sane and 
self-respecting and reciprocally advantageous re- 
lationships is the twofold trend of the times 
toward giving an essentially religious sanction to 
the social movement, and an inevitable social di- 
rection to the religious movement. 



"Not what I Have, but what I Do is my King- 
dom." — Sartor Resartus. 



THE COM MONS 
A VISION OF PEACE. 

liV WALLACE KICE. 

Fitly one dies for Iiis eouutry, sweet is ttie death slie bestows; 
Glad is the red field of battle, gayly the bright trumpet blows; 
Forth as a bride to her bridegroom Death to the warrior goes. 

Bitter the long life of duty seeking no laurels nor pay, 
Striving with foes of the Nation grasping her honor as prey. 
Glanced at askance by his fellows, walking tlie long, narrow way. 

Gallant the charge and the onslaught cheering together to go; 

Silent and lonely the warfare 'gainst an insidious foe; 

Glory and death are the soldier's; hatred and life others know. 

Fighting America's battles whether by land or by sea. 

Who could be less than a hero under that Flag of the Free ? 

Read of, and cherish, and love them — such are the men all would be. 

Treason is death in the army, death 's for the enemy's spy: 
Think you no Andr6 nor Arnold dwells within sight of your eye? 
Perfidy to great ideals, that you must strike till you die ! 

Vigilance, ceaseless, eternal, ever was Liberty's price: 

If you are slaves 't was your fathers left you to slavish device; 

Would you make slaves of your children? Sleep for a time — 't will suffice. 

Truth is the right of your country: Lie, and she lies to your grief; 
Honor, and that is your country's: Bribe, and you bribe her as lief; 
Honesty, that is your country's: Thieve, and she, too, is a thief. ^ 

Too much the world thinks on Dives: IJearken to Lazarus, too — 
All of his sores are his country's: Heal them if you would be true — 
Heal them, or share an infection you and your children must rue. 

Never was minted a dollar equal in worth to a tear. 

Never success wort6 the having gained through another soul's fear: 

Smiles mark the highway to triumph when a man's title is clear. 

Still at the eye of the needle Selfishness struggles his fill. 

No man may serve God and Mammon: Love — Love alone — is God's will. 

Scourged were the changers of money — Greed stands the root of all ill . 

No end can justify evil— Piety, Culture and State 
Stand as accursed for ever, else on Jehovah must wait; 
Think you for "civilization" God will His Justice abate? 

Dear is the thought of the Nation ; dearer is Freedom to me ; 
Dearest of all through the ages. Truth, that alone makes us free: 
Verity, Liberty, Country, grant ns their union to see ! 

Plant high the Cross on the hlU-top, thither in humbleness strive ! 
Offer no children to Mammon — luxury lets no man thrive ; 
Feed not our bravest to Moloch— must the unflttest survive? 

Ever is war deed for savage, born of the ancestral taint. 

Slay? So do beasts that shall perish: Where is Man's godlike restraint? 

Leave them their teeth and their talons; leave him the fight of the saint 1 

Brave are the victors in combat ; brave were the conquered as well. 
Valor sits close by the dying; valor the living, too, spell. ' 
Courage far finer than carnage Peace, serene, smiling can tell. 

Beaten our swords into ploughshares, fortresses turned into schools, 
Cavalry tilling the prairie, infantry busy with tools. 
Navies deep laden with bounty — thus fair America rules. 

Throughout the breadth of the Union happiness all the day long. 

Ever a Hope fOr the nations, everywhere music and song. 

Always our Stars the World's Conscience, Stripes against tyrants and Wrong. 

Day of Good Will, speed your coming! Justice and Mercy, increase! 
Love for the loveless, grow mighty! Hate for the hatefullest, cease! 
So shall Man win his last battle led by the Christ who is Peace. 



THE COM M ONS 



LONDON CHILDREN OUT TO TEA. 

Though Percy Alden Is no longer warden ol 
Mansfield House or editor of the London Echo, 
evidently he is determined that he is not going 
to be lost to the cause and no action of his 
could be more characteristic than the use he 
has made of the columns of the Echo to raise 
a fund for giving a Christmas entertainment 
to thousands of the poor children of London's 
east end. One good meal, one evening's romp 
and jollity in a bright, warm room through- 
out the long, dark winter of privation — ^harder 
this year than for many previous — seems 
scant allowance to those whose childhood 
never lacked these things. But the reports of 
these entertainments in The Echo prove that 
they were great occasions to the recipients 
and not the least part of the satisfaction felt 
by Mr. Alden and those who contributed to his 
fund must lie in the expressions of gratitude 
received from public school teachers who are 
daily harassed by sights of the children's suf- 
fering and their oWn inability to relieve it, but 
who through this fund had been enabled for . 
once to have their hearts' desire In seeing the 
children have a good time. 

Here are some of the vivid scenes reported 
in the Echo: 

'"THE ECHO' Tea, Sir?" "Yes." "You're 
quite right, aren't the little rascals enjoying 
their selves?" When the door was opened. the 
kids began to sing, and I thought it was a 
sight fit to set before the King. There they 
were, seated at long tables, in a large room, 
decorated In true seasonable fashion. The 
hunger exhibited on the faces of the girls and 
boys was in striking fitness with the desire to 
administer relief. To them the outward and 
visible, signs of festivity stood for little until 
hunger and thirst had been coped with; then, 
and only then, did they condescend to note the 
work of other hands. And what a merry little 
crowd they proved to be after tea! In fact, 
that the industrial and educational factors in 
it took all the tact and energy of Mrs. Herbert 
Stead, to say nothing of her enormous bell, 
to manipulate with some degree of comfort 
these little children. 

OUT or WORK. 

"How did you manage to collect them?" I 
asked of Mrs. Stead. "Well, you see," said 
Mrs. Stead, "we sent round to the schools and 
asked the teachers to give the tickets to those 
children whose fathers were out of work. And 
this is the result. All these children have 
fathers who have nothing to do." "And is 



there much poverty in the neighborhood?" "Oh, 
yes, an extraordinary amount. Why, these few 
children here only stand for a very small sec- 
tion of Walworth." One case of a poor widow 
with three small children was distinctly in- 
teresting and indicative of the spirit with 
which many meet and endure their fate. She 
was presented with three tickets for "The 
Echo" tea, but during the week discovered 
some children worse off than her own, and 
promptly gave up her tickets to them. This 
was a noble act. 

FASCINATING THE LITTLE ONES. t 

It always refreshes the heart to see chil- 
dren play. But to see the eye brighten and 
sparkle, and note the gay trip of tiny feet 
that more often than not hastened to bed sup- 
perless was a sight fit for immortals. How 
the eyes wandered to the gigantic Christmas 
tree, surmounted by an ideal Father Christ- 
mas! What speculations were indulged in — 
during the games — as to, what present would 
fall to their lot! Even the huge rocking- 
horse failed to fascinate the boys when pre- 
sentation time came. Then all retired happy, 
laden with bags of sweets, nuts, and oranges, 
to remind them still further of the kind 
"Echo" subscribers. 

THEIR SENSE OP HUMO6. 

Oh for a poet with the sympathy and verve 
of Mrs. Browning! This is one of the needs 
of the age. To visit a children's merrymaking, 
where the youthful enthusiasm 'knows no 
bounds, and where appetite is not restricted 
by the cautious appeal of the suffering mother 
to take thought for the morrow, is to catch a 
glimpse of the true ministering value of wealth. 
And what an extraordinary life most of these 
little bairns live! After school hours there is 
no place for them at the fireside; there is the 
open door, and the cold, relentless street. One 
is ever struck by the manner in which they 
take their little problems and trials. 

CHILDREN'S STORIES. 

Extreme hunger never destroys their sense 
of humor. You might almost imagine that 
this quality expanded amid their depressing 
environment of poverty. Hungry or not, they 
, are always keenly alive to every passing event, 
and able to perceive in most things somewhat 
of life's incongruity. It is difficult to forget 
the quaint apology of the child who was late 
for "The Echo" tea because an uncle had taken 
her for an "exertion." And equally hard to 
refrain from laughing over the remark of the 
little girl who experienced some little difficulty 



THE COMMONS 



in performing a certain task, and was reminded 
by her aunt that Rome was not built in a day; 
therefore, she must persevere. Quick as light- 
ning came the answer, "Oh, aunty, how can 
you talk so? Don't you know that it took God 
only six days to make the whole world? and 
I don't suppose He spent more than half an 
hour on Rome!" 

HOMELESS AND SUPPEELESS. 

It is their ability to recognize the humorous 
as well as utilize it that makes life at all 
endurable, and prevents even worse disorders 
than at present prevail. But they must be fed 
and clothed! What man worthy of the name 
can retire at night feeling at all comfortable, 
when so many of these homeless and supper- 
less London children demand attention and 
thought? Have ye not met a 

Young barefooted child. 
Who begged loud and bold; 
And ask'd her what she did abroad 
When the wind it blew so cold? 
These 
Know the grief of man, but not the wisdom; 
They sink in man's despair, without its 
calm — 
Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom — 
Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm- 
Are worn, as If with age. 
Can we not do something to increase their ray 
of sunshine and disperse the coming gloom? 



Mrs. Barnett's Plea for the Children. 

Sir, — I am so glad that you are calling the 
attention of your readers to the joylessness of 
the lives of the children of the poor, whether 
they live in the waste of mean streets east of 
the Bank or south of the river. It is good 
news that your fund daily mounts upwards, 
but it would be still better news if your readers 
would offer to entertain, say, six or eight of 
these sad little ones by inviting them to tea 
and sharing with them quiet homestead joys 
and fireside pleasures that do not excite. Those 
who would thus entertain the poor would be 
much rewarded. 

In exceptional times of distress people think 
and talk much of the poor, and are wishful In 
their impatient kindness to aid hundreds of 
them by one meal. If they would be content 
to aid one by hundreds of meals it would be 
wiser, and by moulding even a few young lives 
into a nobler pattern these periods of sad dis- 
tress would touch fewer, for it is the un- 
skilled, the casual, and the degraded who 
specially suffer. 



It is not only at Christmas time that the 
children's lives are pleasure-barrpn. During 
the long, hot, sultry days they suffer, I think, 
even more than in the winter, and need mem- 
ory-making outings. So it is good. Sir, that 
you are giving your money to the Settlements, 
who have the poor always around them, and 
who can take small, drooping people to fresh 
air "a-Maying" or "a-nutting," as well as gather 
them around the candle-lit Christmas tree. 

"Don't you remember?" "How can you for- 
get?" I have been often asked by children 
whose joys are too few to pass out of their 
memories, and who live and relive every hour 
of these precious holidays over again. "I 
don't want to be here, it ain't fair, it should be 
mother, who's at work," sobbed one small 
maiden of eleven, whose righteous little soul 
had burst out in revolt against the inexplicable 
inequalities of social deserts. I am sure that 
much of the practice of pocketing cake arises 
from the desire to share the "lovely things" at 
home. So it is well to recognize the good in- 
tention underlying the bad action, and provide 
each child with a cake or food gift "to take 
home to mother." 

The choice of toys for the children of the 
poor has to be considered in relation to their 
lives, both child and parents welcoming round 
games — of skill, not of chance — which can be 
played on the small home table, and by all the 
family together. "It ain't no use to me — I 
can't play no game as I knows of, but I don't 
mind a drum or a whip, if you've got 'em," 
was the ungracious method of acceptance of an 
offered game by a toyless lad — and the pathos 
of it is that it is true — the children of the poor 
do not know parlor games.' 

I hope. Sir, that your readers will give you 

money, and invite the poor to their own nice 

homes, that they will each get to know one 

poor child intimately, and serve him or her by 

thought, word, and deed, in sorrow and joy. 

Henbeetta O. Babnett. 
Warden's Lodge, 

Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel. 

P. S. — If anyone cares to give little parties 
to little people, I can easily find them their 
guests — either in winter or in summer. Coun- 
try parties can always get tea at our rest 
house, Erskine House, Hampstead Heath. 



"Give us, oh, grfve us the man who sings at 
his work." 

"It is an everlasting duty, the duty of being 
brave." On Heroes. 



THE COMMONS 



The Chicago Visiting Nurses' Association. 

EXCKKPT8 FROM THE ANNUAL BEPORT OF THE 
SUPERINTENDENT, MISS HARRIET FULMER 

The nurses always do far more than the 
actual nursing work. They teach the poor to 
share each other's burdens. Poor crippled Mrs. 
B. is mending stockings for the children of 
Mrs. A., who is ill. And Mrs. B. says to the 
nurse, "Don't stay with me long to-day, I know 
Mrs. A. needs you more" — just the very spirit 
the nurse had so hoped to awaken in cross, old 
Mrs. B. In this family she certainly did more 
than the nursing, but it took weeks of gen- 
tleness and patience on the part of the nurse. 
Once in a while we find a criticism from the 
doctor, never from a patient, so our purpose 
is reached when we please the people we are 
employed to serve. The following will illus- 
trate how far we unconsciously influence both 
the sick and the well. A visiting nurse had 
been on her rounds since early morning. Three 
consumptives, font new babies, three typhoids, 
and a pneumonia case had received her care. 
It was six o'clock at the last case, when a 
neighbor came in and remonstrated at her 
leaving, saying: "You do be paid by the city 
and ye have no right to be going home at six. 
Ain't ye's one of them 'trimmed' nurses that 
can go without sleepin' and eatin'?" After 
watching the nurse for a week, however, she 
was one of our best friends, and her praise 
"that John Murphy would have died without 
that 'trimmed' nurse" has brought us many 
cases since in the same locality. 

We are called "visiting nurses" because we 
visit from house to house each day, and return 
the following day to repeat the service. The 
bitterest day in winter, the hottest day In 
summer, the pouring rain, are all alike to the 
visiting nurse. She must make her rounds 
fifteen minutes here, thirty there, an hour here, 
another there, down this alley, five floors up 
in the rear, through to the street, second floor 
front, then down to the alley and perhaps 
many miles across prairies to a little cottage. 
AH these places know her well, and not for 
one day or a week but for weeks and months 
at a time, day in and day out, year in and 
year out. There is not a nook or cranny of 
the city, from Pullman to Lake View, from 
Oak Park to the lake, that does not know 
her. 

IN CLOSEST CONTACT WITH THE PEOPLE. 

The Chicago Society stands for teaching the 
people in their own environment, the care' of 
their own sick and the right observance of 
sanitary laws; for meeting the great inade- 



quacy of city and county institutions, which 
are intended for the indigent sick; and for 
dealing with such cases for which no institu- 
tion provides, giving the same skilled nursing 
care as the rich may provide for themselves. 

No institution or organization caring for 
unfortunates in Chicago comes more in close 
and daily contact with its people than the 
Visiting Nurses Association. Kvery family 
visited does not need the nursing care only, 
but advice and help in hundreds of other 
ways. Cases that hospitals never hear of, that 
relief societies do not come to, are cared for 
by this association. No set of workers could 
better discover unsanitary conditions as they 
enter the homes in friendly relation to the 
people. No set of workers can possibly be bet- 
ter authorities on the inadequacy of hospital 
service both for children and adults in Chi- 
cago. This demonstrates the scores of cases 
brought by the visiting nurses to Dr. L.orenz's 
clinic. The nurses know from actual daily 
experience that little children are suffering for 
lack of care, both in contagious diseases and 
from deformity. 

OFFICIAL STATUS AND CO-OPERATION NEEDED. 

They were also instrumental, by permission 
of the Superintendent of Schools, in visiting 
every school in the city and distributing leaf- 
lets containing advice to the children for per- 
sonal cleanliness. To all the children who 
could afford it, the visiting nurse furnished 
soap and towel and tooth-brushes. In this way, 
according to the teachers, much good advice 
was circulated and the nurses became of ser- 
vice in the various families through the chil- 
dren. Buffalo and Los Angeles are the only 
cities in America where the nurses of the 
association are permanent inspectors. During 
the summer the fourteen nurses were volun- 
tary inspectors under the Department of 
Health. Closer co-operation than ever before 
has been maintained with all the organizations 
in the city. 

CONTAQIOUS-DISEASE SERVICE. 

The nurse's work on contagious diseases this 
year has been particularly satisfactory, though 
the work is largely that of instruction, be- 
cause she cannot with safety go from house to 
house. However, many families have had 
actual nursing service rendered in scarlet fever 
and diphtheria, when there was no one else 
to care for the patients. Large washable 
gowns and caps are provided for this especial 
work and every precaution against spread of 
infection is taken. 



THE COMMONS 



9 



DISTRICT LOAN CLOSETS. 

The loan closets, one in each of the twelve 
districts, have been kept well supplied through- 
out the year. The contents of these closets 
amount in money value to $69 each, and are 
replenished twice yearly, at great expense to 
the association. Their value is untold. Among 
the valuable articles in them are nightgowns, 
sheets, pillow cases, towels. These are loaned 
from case to case, laundered and replaced 
throughout the year. The nightgowns are 
loaned to the little B. girl, four sheets to the 
H. family with typhoid, four pillow slips to Mr. 
B., a paralytic, a pair of crutches here and a 
water bag there. Certainly no emergency could 
be of more value than this. The people are 
coming to consider it a privilege to borrow 
from the nurse, and feeling an obligation in 
returning the articles. The Scott Emergency 
Fund has paid for fifty-two weeks con- 
tinuous nursing service in the home, for 
eighteen cases, from a period of two to six 
weeks each. The plan of sending a woman 
to clean and put in order the homes has been 
most satisfactory, thus saving the strength of 
the nurse for actual nursing work, for which 
she is really employed. 

The visiting nurse work is not carried on in 
the country on a large scale, but forty-two 
societies are . in existence embracing not more 
than one hundred and fifty paid workers. In 
England the same work is done by the Queen 
Nursing Society, in every nook of the country, 
employing some nine hundred nurses. Else- 
where in America, the value of the work is 
given much greater public recognition than in 
Chicago. In New York and Philadelphia the 
nurses are part of the recognized medical in- 
spection in the city schools. In Buffalo and 
Los Angeles they are permanent unpaid De- 
partment of Health inspectors. In New York 
many of them serve on the tenement hospital 
inspecting committee. 

ANTI-TDBEECrUlOSIS CEUSADE. 

The visiting nurses are now putting forth 
plans to bring the attention of the public to 
the great need of taking organized step in a 
tuberculosis crusade as other cities have done. 
The new cases of consumption number 226 in 
one year. Of the deaths 60 were due to this 
disease. Few of the cases reported know any- 
thing of the nature of this disease. One man 
living alone, when reported to us, had been 
accustomed to spitting wherever he happened 
to be sitting. Literally, everything in the 
room was covered with the sputum. The milk- 



man who came to him every morning brought 
a bottle of milk, and took away the empty 
one covered with germs, left standing in the 
sink where the patient was apt to expectorate 
at any time. When the nurse had talked to 
the man about it, it came out that he had not 
realized that he had a communicable disease. 
This man's soiled Bedding, clothing, etc., was 
taken by a general laundry and washed with 
other clothes without any idea that disinfec- 
tion was necessary. Now this room has been 
thoroughly cleaned, the filthy bedding burned, 
and new things provided, and every attempt 
made to see that the patient carried out the 
instruction to prevent a further spread of con- 
tagion. Another case was a young man with 
tuberculosis of the hip and lungs as well. He 
had been changing his own dressings and be- 
ing able to get about the old dressing had 
been thrown in a corner to lie for days. 
Every possible precaution was given. Another 
case is a young German widow found sleeping 
with her children, three beautiful little ones. 
This was not from ignorance, but from neces- 
sity. They had but one bed. A separate bed 
has been provided for the children (new and 
clean). I cite these cases to show after all 
how far short we all come from real interest 
in the sanitary welfare of our city. If these 
cases were smallpox they would be ferreted 
out and immediately isolated, but when every 
evidence of this great white plague is right 
in our midst we dally and deliberate and death 
and infection still go on. Many people may 
discuss this question in a vague sort of way. 
They know from public statements that con- 
sumption claims so many victims every year, 
but the exact state of affairs they cannot con- 
ceive of. The visiting nurses do not guess at 
these things, they know from actual contact 
the exact conditions that exist, that 226 people, 
and that a small portion of the cases that 
really exist, are suffering with this disease. 
The nurses are trying as best they can to 
alleviate the condition, but after all their effort 
is but a drop in the bucket, compared to the 
real n6eds of the situation. They have nursed, 
cared for and instructed the cases that have 
come to us, but the state and the city should 
stand sponsor in a public way for a war 
against this disease, and the furthering of 
plans of giving adequate care to those already 
suffering. The association is in active co- 
operation with the Illinois Society for the Sup- 
pression of Consumption. 



"Wondrous Is the strength of cheerfulness." 



10 



THE COMMONS 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIQHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited foe thb Association bt 
Mary Kingsbctry Simkhovitch, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



The Prevention of Tuberculosis. 

In the course of lectures given last summer 
in the New York Summer School in Philan- 
thropic Work under the auspices of the Charity 
Organization Society, one of the addresses 
which made a most profound impression upon 
the students was that delivered by Mr. Robert 
W. de Forest, President of the New York 
Charity Organization Society. His subject was 
"The Scope and Purpose of a Charity Organiza- 
tion Society," and he said in substance that 
"everything is germane to a charity organiza- 
tion society which is needed in the community 
and is not already well done. There is no limit 
to the scope of a charity organization society 
effort except that made by concentrating your 
forces and refraining from doing what others 
are doing well. It must be a growing, develop- 
ing society, able to meet new needs and grapple 
with new conditions." In its endeavor to fulfill 
the ideal set by its President, the Charity 
Organization Society of New York has initiated 
from time to iime movements which to the- 
casual observer would seem to be out of the 
pale of the work of such an organization. Such 
a movement is the recently organized Com- 
mittee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis. The 
ravages of this disease, so aptly termed by 
Holmes as "the White Plague," and which Is 
the cause of one-seventh of the deaths of man- 
kind, has, 'tis true, of late years somewhat 
decreased. It still stands, however, at the 
head of the list of fatal diseases. It is esti- 
mated that in the whole world on an average 
two persons a minute die of the disease. 

With the discovery by Koch in 1882 that the 
disease was caused by a germ, the "Tubercle 
Bacillus," the way was prepared for the dis- 
covery of some method of destroying the germ. 
It has since been conclusively proved that sun- 
shine, fresh air, proper nourishment and the 
proper care of the body are the most destruc- 
tive agencies that can be brought to bear upon 
this enemy of man. It has also been proved 
very conclusively that the disease is curable 
and post mortem examinations have shown an 
immense number of cases where the disease 
had once existed but had been cured and was 
in no way the cause of death. 



Of late years there has, therefore, been or- 
ganized in European countries efforts to prp- 
vent the spread and make possible the cure of 
the disease. Anti-tuberculosis societies have 
been formed in England, Germany, France and 
other European countries, and a conference of 
the International Central Committee was held 
in Berlin the latter part of October. In 
this country societies have been organized in 
various states, notably in Pennsylvania. Id 
New York City no society for this purpose has 
hitherto been formed. An attempt was made 
last winter to form a society for the prevention 
of Tuberculosis, but certain difficulties pre- 
vented the matter from being carried through. 
The persons who signed the call for that so- 
ciety have endorsed the movement begun by tlie 
Charity Organization Society and the committee 
formed is a most representative one. Sixteen 
of the leading physicians of the city are mem- 
bers of it, as are also representative philan- 
thropic and charity workers. The work of the 
committee will naturally divide itself along 
three lines. 

First, that of investigation. Arrangements 
have been made for scientific researches. A 
trained statist! cian has been employed by the 
committee. Comparisons of death rate from 
consumption with the density of population; 
a study of infected houses; a study of occupa- 
tions and of nationalities in their relation to 
the prevalence of the disease, will be under- 
taken. The various city departments, such as 
the Department of Health, the Department of 
Public Charities and the Tenement House De- 
partment — the commissioners of all three de- 
partments being members of the committee — 
have placed at the disposal of the committee 
the facts in their possession concerning the 
extent of the disease in this city. Blanks con- 
taining questions which the committee desire«» 
to have answered have been given to the 
officials of these departments, who will obtain 
in this way the information desired. 

The second line of work will be that of edu- 
cation. Arrangements have been made for 
lectures to be held at various places in the 
city where audiences can be secured. The va- 
rious branches of the Young Men's Christian 
Association have given their cordial support 
to this movement; the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association has placed its hall at the dis- 
posal of the committee, and almost all the 
Settlements of the city and several of tbf» 
institutional churches have done the same. Dr. 
L«ipzeiger, who has charge of the Lecture De- 
partment of the Board of Education, is very 



THE COMMONS 



11 



much interested in the matter and will arrange 
for lectures in that course. The President of 
the Normal College will also arrange for lec- 
tures to the young ladies, 2,800 in number, at 
that institution. He says that he will recom- 
mend their talcing notes and reviewing their 
notes, as he considers the matter as of the 
greatest importance to them and to the homes 
from which they come. 

The third line of work will be that of applica- 
tion. A trained nurse and a visitor will be 
connected with the committee, and cases 
brought to the attention of the committee will 
be investigated by "them and proper relief sug- 
gested. In some cases, perhaps, exceptional 
relief will be given. 

It is hoped by these three methods to attain 
to a knowledge of the extent of the disease 
In the city and the localities, occupations and 
nationalities most susceptible to it. Also to 
spread by lectures and popular pamphlets 
written knowledge which will aim to prevent 
the spread of the disease, and, by giving sulEcient 
relief, effect cures where otherwise a cure might 
be too expensive for the individual. The pur- 
pose, in short, of the committee may be best 
stated in the following words, written by the 
editor of "Charities": "To prevent premature 
deaths, to preserve wage-earners to their fami- 
lies, to lessen the amount of human suffering, 
to obviate much of the existing danger of in- 
fection, is the end at which we aim." 



On the day Horace Mann left the presidency 
of the State Senate to become the secretary of 
the Board of Education he wrote: "Henceforth 
as long as I hold this office I devote myself to 
the supremest welfare of mankind upon earth. 
With the highest degree of prosperity results 
will manifest themselves but slowly. The 
harvest is far distant from the seed time. 
Faith is the only sustainer. I have faith in 
improvability of the race, in their accelerat- 
ing improvability. This effort may do ap- 
parently but little, but merely beginning a 
good cause is never little." His comment on 
the parsimony of the legislature that appro- 
priated only $1,500 to the support of his secre- 
taryship of the Board of Education, four-fifths 
of which were consumed by the expenses of 
the office, was: "Well, one thing is certain, I 
will be revenged on them. 1 will do them 
more than ?1,500 worth of good." 



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By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the International Congregational Council in 
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For the College Settlement Association, with 
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12 



THE COM MO NS 



COLLEQE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

6TAKDINO COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Maes. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Uand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Seeretwry: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 
York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City— 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The New York State Reformatory for Women 
at Bedford, N. Y. 

Some seventeen years ago the first reform- 
atory for women in the state of New York was 
opened. It was called the House of Refuge 
fo"r Women and was located at Hudson, about 
thirty miles below Albany. From time to time 
the laws governing commitments to it ha've 
been modified as circumstance or experience 
dictated. In the past it has received women 
as old as forty and girls as young as twelve 
years of age. At first the maximum term was 
five years. At one time women committed for 
short terms — three to six months — were re- 
ceived, and commitments could be made from 
any part of the state. Women convicted of a 
felony could not be sent there. As time went 
on it was found that few commitments were 
made from the western end of the state or 
from New York City. It was deemed advisable 
to place another similar institution in each of 
these localities, both because it seemed im- 
possible to overcome the objections magistrates 
seemed to feel against sending young girls to 
extreme parts of the state, and l)ecause it was 
thought that the best results could be obtained 
in comparatively small institutions. 

Accordingly, eight years ago the House of 
Refuge at Albion was opened, and in 1902 the 
State Reformatory for Women at Bedford was 
Incorporated. Later the state laws governing 
the three institutions were made uniform. 
The territory of the state was apportioned be- 
tween them, Albion receiving commitments 



from the western and central counties, Hudson 
from the northern and eastern counties and 
Bedford from Westchester County, Greater 
New York and Long Island. Territorially Bed- 
ford has a very small section of the state, but 
this section contains more than half the total 
population. 

In accordance with Chapter 546 of the L/aws 
of 1896, Article IX and subsequent amend- 
ments, women between the ages of fifteen and 
thirty years may be committed to these three- 
institutions from their respective territories 
by any magistrate or court having jurisdiction, 
as a common prostitute or a habitual drunkard, 
for frequenting disorderly houses, for petty 
larceny or any misdemeanor; by Chapter 114 
of the Penal Code, as amended in 1900, a 
woman between the specified ages may be com- 
mitted for any felony provided it be a first 
offense. The maximum term is three years and 
the Board of Managers have the power to 
parole at any time. 

The Boards of Managers consist of six per- 
sons, of whom two must always he women and 
one a practicing physician. They are ap- 
pointed by the governor of the state for terms 
of three years. This Board appoints the 
superintendent and the superintendent appoints 
the subordinate oflBcers and employees, subject 
to the Civil Service laws of the state. 

It has been said that Bedford was incor- 
porated in 1902. For a number of reasons, 
largely political, there were many troublesome 
delays and the grounds and buildings did not 
approach completion until the summer of 1900. 
A superintendent was appointed in the fall of 
that year who at once began the w^ork of push-, 
ing things to completion, furnishing the build- 
ings and selecting the officers necessary for 
opening. By April, 1901, work was so well 
advanced that the magistrates of our territory 
were notified that we were ready to receive 
inmates, and the first one came to us May 11. 
For the first six months our growth was very 
slow. The courts and magistrates of New York 
were accustomed to make commitments to the 
work house and the penitentiary, or to various 
private institutions, and in cases of felony to 
the State Prison at Auburn. It took some time 
for them to learn of our work and to become 
convinced of the desirability of the long term 
commitment with the possibility of parole, and 
the certainty of instruction and discipline 
rather than the customary fine or "three 
months at the Island." Now. at the end of 
twenty months, we are already confronted with 
the problem of insufficient accommodations. 



THE COM MONS 



13 



We have had 230 commitments and have a 
present population of 195. The original ca- 
pacity was 256, but this was cut down to 226 
by altering certain cells into rooms. This 
capacity is still further reduced by the insuf- 
ficient number of rooms provided for officers 
and who must therefore occupy some of the 
rooms intended for inmates. There are still 
sixteen months before sentences will begin to 
expire, and even with the greatest possible 
exercise of the parole power consistent with 
wisdom we shall probably be sadly over- 
crowded before legislative appropriations will 
be made to enable us to build new cottages. 

For the rest as to our material equipment, 
we are situated in a beautiful spot in pic- 
turesque Westchester County about forty miles 
north of New York City. We have 107 acres 
of land prettier to look at than to farm, though 
we do manage to raise our summer vegetables. 
Our water supply is of the best and our sewer- 
age excellent. We have plenty of delightfully 
fresh air, and in early June the most magnifi- 
cent wild strawberries ever picked — and in pro- 
fusion. We have a clear, cool trout stream 
running through a wooded valley and empty- 
ing into a pretty pond where we skate and 
cut our ice in winter. Even overcrowding, bad 
as it will be, cannot deprive us of these joys. 

The interesting feature of the institution, 
however, that to which everything else is 
subordinated and for which everything else 
exists is our girls. We call them all "our 
girls," no matter what their age. 

One of the primary interests In each College 
or Social Settlement is always the clubs and 
classes for young women. The settlement 
worker who has been connected with these for 
any length of time will learn, if she has a love 
for her work and an insight into human na- 
ture, much of the sort of girl who frequents 
the clubs; what her home life is like; what 
her associates have been; what the conditions 
are under which she earns her living; what 
opportunities she has for amusements and 
what for education; what her social and moral 
standards are and what has made them what 
they are; what temptations she must meet and 
what the forces are that make her try to live 
up to her standards. In short, she will learn 
a great deal about the genus girl in general 
and what differentiates the particular species 
of girl who comes under her Influence. The 
more she learns, it she is the right sort, the 
more influence she will have and the more 
valuable she will be as a settlement worker — 
the more valuable anywhere, in any com- 



munity, for that matter. And of very special 
value could she make herself if after this 
training she saw fit to devote her energies to 
the field of activity open in the reformatories 
for women throughout the country. 

A moment ago the problem of overcrowding 
was mentioned. Still more serious is the 
problem ever present of finding the right 
women to do the work. Just as within very 
recent years the belief that "any woman knows 
enough to teach little children" has been dis- 
credited and as the companion notion that any 
kind old lady who is willing to attempt it is 
fitted to take care of the sick has been re- 
placed by the conviction that a hospital train- 
ing is necessary for a professional nurse, so it 
is gradually coming to be recognized, in some 
quarters at least, that training of some sort 
is imperatively needed for those intrusted with 
the even more difficult and delicate task of 
moral cure, if results for the individual and 
thus for the state are to be attained in any 
way commensurate with the money and energy 
expended by the state. 

Consider for a moment the kind of girl who 
comes to Bedford. We can say "kind" only 
so far as all have come within reach of the arm 
of the law. The "kinds" are many. Convicted 
of almost every offense except murder, we have 
representatives from almost every country of 
Europe. Emotional Russian Jews, fiery Ital- 
ians, quick-tempered Irish, stolid Poles, voluble 
French, with Germans, Scandinavians, Rou- 
manians, Spanish, Hungarians and a mixture 
of colored and white native-born Americans, to 
all of whom a variety of adjectives might with 
propriety be applied. 

During the last fiscal year 21 per cent of 
those committed could not read or write Eng- 
lish, and a little over 10 per cent could not 
read or write any language. Nearly 10 per 
cent could not speak English. Six individuals 
were high school graduates. There were only 
35 out of 148 committed of native American 
parentage, and of these 17 were colored women. 
All but 21 were committed from Greater New 
York. 

When we investigate the causes which have 
brought these young women to us we find in 
a very high percentage of cases that the im- 
mediate cause is the desire to have a good 
time coupled with a distaste for regular work. 
The desire to have a good time is perfectly 
normal, and common to all girls. But when 
this is accompanied, as it is in most of our 
girls, by such factors of a bad heredity, as a 
weak will, lack of vitality, a depraved appe- 



14 



THE COMMONS 



tite, lack of moral sense or low mentality, the 
effects are disastrous. Almost always environ- 
ment has played an important part, and In a 
considerable per cent of cases we believe that 
under other circumstances these girls would 
have gone through life perfectly respectable 
and respected. 

Our problem Is to take this human material 
of such infinite variety and in three years at 
most so work with it as to undo the effects of 
the past; to strengthen and inspire with 
higher ideals, so that we may send the indi- 
viduals out to a self-respecting, self-supporting 
life. No educational work is easy. This work 
makes the greatest possible demands upon the 
minds and hearts — ^and incidentally upon the 
tempers — of those engaged in it. 

We have the ordinary school classes, reading, 
writing and arithmetic, drawing, geography, 
history and physiology, according to their 
needs, and these classes are attended half a 
day. The other half day is devoted to indus- 
trial training and the work of the institution. 
The girls are divided into two shifts, those 
who are in school in the morning having the 
industrial work in the afternoon, and vice 
versa. So far we give instruction in cooking, 
plain sewing and dressmaking, hand and steam 
laundry work and basket making. We require 
a half hour's gymnastic work each day from 
all who are not excused by the resident physi- 
cian. 

In all this work the Important factor is the 
way and spirit in which it is done. The indi- 
viduality of the instructors and particularly of 
the matrons of the cottages, who are brought 
most closely in contact with the girls, counts 
for most of all. They must have insight into 
human nature and some of that knowledge of 
the conditions from which these girls come — 
some of that kind of knowledge which I have 
said is gained by the settlement resident who 
has worked with the girls' clubs — if results are 
to be attained which even approximate to our 
ideals. No one should take up this work who 
wants an easy life, but among the college-bred 
and settlement-trained women who are looking 
for fields in which to make the greatest use of 
their talents there must be some to whom this 
opportunity for good work must appeal. 

KATHABINE BB3IENT DaVIS, 

Former Head Worker Philadelphia College 
Settlement. 



"A man shall and must be valiant; he must 
march forward and acquit himself like a man." 
— On Heroes. 



The Boston Settlements and Coal 
Distribution. 

BY A DENISON HOUSE RESIDENT. 

(In Boston Evening Transcript.} 
To meet the desperate needs of the case. 
Hale House, South End House and Denison 
House co-operated in the work of helping their 
neighbors. Coal, in all too limited amounts, 
was carted to Hale House from the dealers, 
bagged and sent around to the urgent cases, 
and to the other two settlement houses, for lo- 
cal distribution. 

At the very beginning, the settlement work- 
ers made such hasty survey of the field as 
they could, and told their neighbors of the 
chance to procure coal, without long and prob- 
ably futile waiting in the crowds at the coal 
wharves. As soon as the word had been given, 
the doors of the houses saw a constant stream' 
of boys with sleds, and men with wheelbarrows 
—or ready shoulders — come "after the coal," 
for the scarcity of It seems to have given it a 
right to the definite article. Not merely the 
old friends of a house, but the friends' friends 
came — "the lady that lives In the house with 
me" — and mothers and sisters and brothers 
without end. Kindly-disposed policemen, too, 
directed many an anxious searcher to "the 
house there"; and when the officers of the 
coal committee, in despair of filling their 
accumulated orders, sent their visitors to the 
same place, the labor Involved for the house 
became considerable. But extra steps and 
other inconveniences were of slight conse- 
quence to one who had sight of the suffering 
humanity met with at every turn. The pitiful 
stories of need were distressing, and it was 
hard to have to turn any of the worried faces 
away; and now and then, but with wide space 
between, there was a hint of ungraciousness, 
which was a bit discomforting. But in general 
the ready understanding of the case on the 
part of the coal seekers, their appreciation and 
gratitude, their interesting comments, and 
chief, their kindness toward each other — these 
made one feel like saying, with one of the new 
workers, "Well, if it had to come, I'm glad I 
could be down here to see all thIS!" 

One of the satisfying features of the affair, 
in the course of things, as watched at one of 
the houses, has been the scant number of de- 
mands for free coal. But after all, that is a 
satisfaction not unmixed with bitterness. It 
stings the self-respecting workman to be com- 
I)elled tO' tramp from one company to another, 
waste time standing in the lines at the gates, 
and yet have it in his power to pay even the 



THE COMMONS 



15 



present high prices. While the cold weather 
still held, the house was compelled to give out 
from its own private stock. 

It seems cruel to try to draw a line. There 
Is the couple who live In a basement, and base- 
ments in this part of town, reclaimed land as 
it is, are inevitably damp and rheumatism- 
breeding, bad enough even with a fire to take 
off their chill. There is the cabman who comes 
home at night half frozen. There Is the 
woman who supports herself and two children 
by laundry work at her house. No coal spells 
for her no work, no money. Her little boy 
came to ask for her coal. "How can you take 
It home?" he was asked. "Have you a sled?" 
"No, I did have; but mother burned It this 
morning." 

In the less pressing cases it is heartening 
to see how well people take their refusals. 
Single men who come after a hard day's work 
to ask for a little coal to warm their rooms, 
listen in silence to the explanations. "That's 
all right," they say at the end, "of course th« 
sick folks and the babies must have the first 
show." And off they go once again on their 
hopeless quest. There was a woman who came 
to ask for a bag of "the" coal. She had eight 
children and little fuel of any kind. When she 
heard that even her case was not hard enough, 
she said: "All right. Me an' the children can 
get along, I guess. But there's a sick lady 
next door to me needs It bad. Could you send 
her some?" Sometimes those who had ordered 
send word that their bags can be given to 
somebody else who needs it more; some kindly 
"boss" has provided for them, or they have 
obtained enough from a. wagon. 

Such rare exceptions as these are to this 
almost uniform spirit of good will and co- 
operation, are often more amusing than un- 
pleasant. One well-dressed citizen appeared 
with a complacent demand for coal at a crisis 
when the orders were "imperative necessity 
only." It seemed that he had a little coal, but 
not enough for two stoves. When refused, he 
indignantly stalked off in high rage. Then 
there was a woman who objected to the forty- 
fl\"e cents which was asked. "I know where I 
can get it for thirty," she cried; "pretty char- 
ity this is!" and muttered scathing things of 
the settlements individually and collectively, 
while she fumbled the door-latch. Some of 
those seeking coal came because the settlement 
price was lower than the dealers charged. 
They were sent away empty handed, unless it 
was plain that they could not afford the dif- 
ference. 



It Is interesting always to hear what people 
have to say on the situation In general. As 
a rule there is a firm belief that the dealers 
are holding back their coal for making money, 
and are therefore the ones to be blamed as 
immediate occasion of the trouble. But the 
operators are felt to be behind it all. "Do you 
think there's any heaven for the folks that are 
doin' this thing?" asked one old woman in a 
piteous voice. To test her sympathies, some- 
one said: "But you know some people blame 
it on the miners; it was their striking that 
began it all." "Sure, an' 't Is not them I'm 
blamin', poor cratures," came th? quick re- 
ply. "Small blame to them that's starvin' if 
they ask for more." "O, them anarchists!" 
one man grunted, between efforts to hoist his 
bag of coal to his shoulder. "They go and 
kill a good man like McKinley and let Morgan 
and them other fellows keep on livin'!" The 
women have a vague feeling that something 
is wrong with the country where such things 
can be. "'They needn't ever ask me to sing 
'America' again," one woman said. "A pretty 
country it is to treat us poor folks so!" 

The things which make one happiest in these 
busy and anxious days are the continual out- 
croppings of a most beautiful view of "gentil 
deedes." Many a case of need Is reported by 
some kindhearted neighbor, after he has done 
what he cSuld for the sufferers. The good 
Samaritan comes in various guises, sometimes 
desperately ragged and needy himself, but 
anxious to help out "a widdy woman" or a 
sick neighbor, or some poor, old, feeble folk 
of his acquaintance, by carrying home their 
coal. Perhaps the good Samaritan even counts 
out the necessary pence from his not too well- 
filled purse, and half-ashamed, but wholly hap- 
py, carries off the precious bag to his distressed 
friend. A man in need of work had been 
asked to come and help fill the bags and de- 
liver them, on the Sunday after the storm. 
When night came and he was paid for his 
hard day's work he. handed back some of the 
small coins. "Fifteen cents an hour Is all I 
get when I'm doin' this for my boss. He's 
makin' money out o' this, but youse ain't 
makin' a cent; I see that. Youse Is doin' a 
heap o' good, an' I couldn't take the extra pay." 
Most pathetic of all, perhaps — If there is a 
"most" here — was a man who had been given 
a bag of free coal. Some kind neighbor had 
reported his case. He had been working for a 
contractor on some building, whose failure 
caused him to lose his work and also his back 
pay — forty-five dollars. It was just after a 
little baby had come and the man had not been 
aljle to get other work. When a bag of coal 
was given tg him the grateful tears stood in his 
eyes. "I can't thank you enough," he said 
brokenly, "but if there's any coal to be carried 
to women or sick folks that can't come after 
it, I'd be only too glad to do it for nothln', 
whenever you want it." 



16 



THE COM MONS 



CHICAQO COMMONS JOTTINQS. 

For the first time in thirty years of contin- 
uous service the warden of Chicago Commons 
has been granted a leave of absence from pro- 
fessional duty for the last two months of the 
present academic year. To take advantage of 
this respite and spend the spring and summer 
abroad in needed rest and social observation, 
only one condition remains to be supplied. 
That is the subscription or guarantee of enough 
money to sustain the work of Chicago Com- 
mons, at least until he returns. So narrow has 
the margin been between just enough and 
worse than nothing that during all these eight 
years of gratuitous Settlement service the 
warden has never dared to intermit for a 
single month, his self-imposed burden of rais- 
ing money for the support and equipment of 
the Commons' work, nor remain any longer be- 
yond the reach of immediate recall. Duty to 
the Settlement not only but to the enlarged 
sphere of academic service awaiting him in the 
autumn, demands that fullest advantage be 
taken of this first opportunity for recreation 
and study abroad. 

The financial situation, upon meeting which 
before the middle of March, the proposed relief 
depends, stands thus to date: The payment of 
$1,000 upon the debt since January 15 leaves 
a balance of $8,000, of which $3,550 are guar- 
anteed and $4,450 are due and must be raised  
on or before April 1. The response received 
during January to our annual appeal for the 
support of the work during 1903, was not more 
than suflScient to meet the current expenses of 
the month, over and above the drafts made 
upon it to help pay the notes falling due dur- 
ing last month. The balance of the year's sup- 
port, $8,930, remains to be provided, $6,640 of 
which, covering the eight months of the 
warden's contemplated absence, must be fur- 
nished or guaranteed a month in advance of 
his going, if he shall be free to leave. 

In response to the offer of the Armour In- 
stitute of Technology to conduct courses in all 
branches of engineering, fifty - nine men en- 
rolled. They meet three instructors weekly, 
on Monday evenings, and have the combined 
advantages of correspondence work and the 
personal attention of expert teachers. 



Prof. William L. Tomlins' conditioned his 
leadership of our children's chorus upon hav- 
ing at least 150 boys and girls to start with, 
and 250 as the full number. When the doors 
were opened for the first rehearsal 515 young 



ones rushed in like the atmosphere, and from 
sixty to a hundred more were clamoring for 
admittance when the doors had to be closed. 
Two weekly choruses of 175 voices each were 
formed, with waiting lists of 100 each held In 
reserve as a healthful incentive to the regu- 
larity and fidelity of those so fortunate as to 
be listed. 



LAST MOKTH'S FBEE FLOOE. 

The appearance of Dr. Lyman Abbott as the 
first speaker on the month's program was made 
the occasion of a delightful dinner party in 
his honor, at which guests who rarely or never 
met before, even at the bidding of Settlement 
hospitality, met and mingled in the freest fra- 
ternal fellowship. Prof. Tomlins held the in- 
terest of a very mixed crowd of men for over 
an hour with his flashes of wit and genius in 
expounding his theory of music in relation to 
life and labor. At the discussion of the limi- 
tation of output, which we will report and com- 
ment upon, besides the usual attendance of work- 
ing men, there were present a del)atinsr club of 
young men from the T. M. C. A. and twenty-live 
students from ftof. Vincent's class in the soci- 
ological department at the University of Chicago. 
The social extension of the public school system 
to comprehend a more complete education of the 
rank and file of tlie people was presented by Mr. 
T. Tsanofl of Toledo, Ohio, who is enthused and 
enthuses others with the possibilities of our Ameri- 
can free schools. 



February Topics and Speakers. 

Feb. 3.—" Medieval Cities," by Prof. George L. 
Scherger. 

Feb. 10.—" Law and Labor," by William Hard, 
of the Chicago Tribune. 

Feb. 17. — " Interest of Labor in Municipal Fran- 
chises," by Geo. 0. Sykes. 

Feb. 24. — "Workingmen's Interest in the Enact- 
ment and Enforcement of Local Legislation," by 
Fletcher Dobbins. 

NEIOHBOBHOOD PABTEES. 

For the freedom and heartiness of social 
intercourse characterizing the Saturday open 
house nights this winter, these simple and very 
genuinely joyous occasions are almost idyllic. 
We have never had anything approach them 
in these respects, which is due to the fact that 
time is ripening the neighborly relationships 
under a roof where all are equally welcome. 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlenaent Point of Vleir. 



Number 80— Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, March, 1903 



" Hullo." 

BY SAM. WALTER FOSS. 

Wen you see a man in woe, 
Walk right up and say "hullo!" 
Say "hullo" and "how d' ye do!" 
"How's the world a-usln' you?" 
Slap the fellow on his back. 
Bring your han' down with a w'haek; 
Waltz right up, an' don't go slow, 
Grin an' shake an' say "hullo!" 

Is he clothed in rags? O sho! 
Walk right up an' say "hullo!" 
Rags is but a cotton roll 
Just for wrappin' up a soul; 
An' a soul is worth a true 
Hale an' hearty "how d' ye do!" 
Don't wait for the crowd to go; 
Walk right up and say "hullo!" 

Wen big vessels meet, they say, 
They saloot an' sail away 
Jest the same as you an' me; 
Lonesome ships upon .a sea; 
Each one sailing his own Jog 
For a port beyond the fog. 
Let yer speakin' trumpet blow. 
Lift yer horn an' cry "hullo!" 

Say "hullo," an' "how d' ye do!" 
Other folks are good as you. 
Wen yer leave yer house of clay, 
'Wanderin' in the Far-Away, 
Wen you travel through the strange 
Country t'other side the range. 
Then the souls you've cheered will know 
Who ye be, an' say "hullo!" 



Juvenile Offetiders in the City of Detroit. 

By RicHAnu A. Bolt, *Uxiversxty of Michigax. 
The city of Detroit is, at present, In a very 
favorable position to take steps to prevent the 
growth of juvenile delinquency. The seeming- 
ly hopeless conditions which prevail in the 
congested districts of New York, Chicago and 
other great centers of population need never 
he repeated here if proper preventive measures 
are taken. Seeds of the tenement and slum, 
however, are already sown in Detroit and un- 
less their growth is nipped in the bud we may 
expect to reap a full crop of disease, pauperism 
and crime. No more fertile soil for juvenile 
delinquency could be found than the slum. 



The rank growth of tenements and slum can, 
in a large measure, be successfully prevented 
by providing better houses for the poor; by 
preserving ample open space; by laying out 
playgrounds and placing them in charge of 
competent instructors, and by supplying public 
baths. More careful attention should be given 
to the education of truant children, and more 
intelligent treatment to juvenile offenders in 
police courts and jail. 

At present a strong public sentiment is being 
arouse<l to the need of improved methods in 
the treatment of our juvenile offenders. A 
number of interested individuals are exerting 
their influence in this direction and several 
prominent clubs of Detroit have taken the 
matter into consideration. The daily press 
from time to time has expressed the growing 
sentiment. The National Conference of Cor- 
rections and Charities held in this city May 
28 to June 3 last gave an added impetus to 
the subject. After five months' careful study 
of the situation in Detroit it appears to me 
that the conditions will justify the establish- 
ment of some form of a juvenile court with an 
efficient probation system. 

After all the consideration the problem has 
received crime remains in the social organism 
as a source of much distress. It is a significant 
fact, if such eminent authorities on criminal 
matters as W. D. Morrison and Mr. Frederick 
Howard Wines are to be credited, that the 
total number of offenses against the criminal 
law is steadily on the increase, and in some 
places increasing in a greater ratio than the 
population. This should receive thoughtful 



•[Note.— The author ot this article received a univer- 
sity assignment to investigate juvenile delinquency in 
the city ot Detroit, with reference to the movement tor 
the establishment of a juvenile court in that city. He 
resided in the Franklin Street Settlement and also 
worked in connection with the Jpfferson Avenue Presby- 
terian Church. His article here published is condensed 
from his thesis in which he reported the results of his 
investigation. His work contributed material to enlist 
attention and effort in securing for Detroit the advan- 
tages enjoyed by other cities from the successful enact- 
ment and operation of a juvenile court law. The 
xiniversity's representative at Chicago Commons three 
years ago investigated and reported upon the working 
of the juvenile court in Chicago.] 



THE COM MON8 



attention, as the fetability and welfare of so- 
ciety depends largely upon its internal peace 
and prosperity. . 

JUVF.NILB DEI.INI^UENCY AND ADULT CRIME. 

When the causes of this increase are sought 
we are confronted with complex problems 
which reach down to the roots of individual 
character and to the foundations of the social 
order. Whatever the ultimate causes may be, 
It is reasonably certain that the rise and ex- 
tent of juvenile delinquency is closely related 
to adult crime. It is a fact supported by 
reliable statistics that, as a rule, the men who 
become habitual offenders begin their careers 
quite young. We must therefore look to the 
children — to their heredity and environment — 
if we wish to know something of the causes 
of crime, and give it intelligent treatment. 

As society becomes more and more complex 
a greater number of offenses come under the 
ban of the law. Opportunities for committing 
anti-social acts are multiplied. In taking pre- 
ventive measures society often enacts laws 
which increase the liability of a larger propor- 
tion of children being classed as juvenile 
offenders. This is readily seen in offenses 
against the legislative acts, "To Prevent Crime 
and Punish Truancy" and "To Provide for the 
Compulsory Education of Juvenile Disorderly 
Persons." In the city of Detroit a number of. 
standing regulations, known as city ordinances, 
have also been adopted which are designed to 
preserve the peace and promote the welfare of 
the municipality. Offenses against these ordi- 
nances are only semi-criminal in nature, and 
are disposed of in the Recorder's Court in a 
summary manner. Thus it is seen that not 
only children who violate the fundamental 
laws of society, but also those who commit 
numerous trivial offenses come to be classed 
as juvenile offenders. 

FACTS FKOM THE POLICE BLOTTER. 

In the Police returns for the city of Detroit 
it will be noticed that among the large number 
of different offenses with which juveniles may 
be charged that the greatest number fall under 
the heads of "simple larceny," "truancy" and 
"juvenile disorderly" respectively. With boys, 
"assault and battery" and "malicious injury to . 
buildings" also make up quite a number of of- 
fenses. With girls, on the other hand, the 
number of different offenses is much smaller, 
and, as one would expect, involve little or no 
physical violence. Of the total 688 juvenile 
arrests last year 571 were boys and 118 girls. 
The total number of arrests of boys for the 
past five years has been 2,598, and of girls 519. 



On the average between five and six boys are 
arrested each year to one girl. This, of course. 
Is only a rough index to the total amount of 
juvenile delinquency in the city. Not all the 
"bad boys" are, by any means, £,.i'ested; the 
"goody-goodies" are quite likely to fall into 
the hands of the police. Moreover, there are 
many dependent and neglected children on the 
verge of delinquency who cannot, in any real 
sense, be considered juvenile offenders. The 
fact, however, of such a large number of ju- 
venile arrests should cause every intelligent 
citizen to ponder the causes and exert an influ- 
ence for better treatment. 

THE .\«E FACTOR. 

The age of our juvenile offenders is closely 
related to the number and nature of the of- 
fenses. Boys usually begin their sinister ca- 
reer with truancy at eight, nine or ten years 
of age. "In the great majority of cases the 
boy is not to blame for his truancy. He is a 
lad with a distaste for school, a disregard for 
parental authority, and possible physical, men- 
tal and moral deterioration." It might be add- 
ed that this is largely due to parental neglect 
and insuflicient or improper nutrition. "The 
distaste for school" is sometimes engendered in 
the school itself. 

Truancy if not checked soon becomes habit- 
ual. From habitual truancy to vagrancy is an 
easy step. The next is to petty larceny. By 
this time the boy has probably been two or 
three times before the police court. Perhaps 
he has had his first experience behind prison 
bars. He is going through the hardening 
process. Gradually the boy evolves into an 
habitual offender. The largest number of boys 
arrested are between fourteen and fifteen years 
of age. Between these ages the largest number 
are committed to the Industrial School for Boys 
at Lansing. 

With girls the case is somewhat different. 
Very few arrests are made between eight and 
twelve years of age. After thirteen the num- 
ber of girls brought into the police court rap- 
idly rises until between sixteen and seventeen 
years we find the largest number arrested. 
Between these ages, as one would expect, the 
largest number are committed to the Indus- 
trial Home for Girls at Adrian. 

In dealing with the juvenile offender it 
should ever be remembered that on account of 
its immaturity the child bears an entirely dif- 
ferent relation to crime from that of the ha- 
bitual adult offender. A child is In the forma- 
tive period when impressions for good or bad 
are most easily made. What it does is mostly 



THE COMMONS 



the result of home surroundings and school as- 
sociations. It is true there seems In some 
children to be a predisposition to criminal ac- 
tions; but even in such cases much can be done 
to save the child by furnishing a wholesome 
environment and suitable education. 

Again, a child cannot understand the highly- 
complex relations which exist in modern so- 
ciety. It must attain a social life by a process 
of gradual development. Biologically speak- 
ing, the child is an animal working out the 
life history of the race in its own active life. 
It recapitulates certain phases in the life of its 
primitive ancestors. Accordingly, migratory 
and predatory instincts frequently manifest 
themselves. If a child happens to commit 
some offense against the laws of the more 
highly organized society in which it is living, 
it cannot, in any true sense, be considered a 
criminal; but rather that it is living in an age 
when migratory and predatory instincts were 
predominant. Through these stages of growth 
the child should have careful guidance. It 
does not, need punishment, or even reforma- 
tion, so much as it does formation. 

WHAT THE C.\PT.\.IN8 HAVE TO SAY. 

On a recent tour of the police precincts of 
Detroit the question was. asked the captains 
what in their opinion was the principal cause 
of Juvenile delinquency. Practically without 
exception the answer was "neglected childhood 
resulting from bad home surroundings and vi- 
cious street associations." Many others having 
to do with juvenile offenders have substantial- 
ly given the same answer. 

Two boys charged with precisely the same 
offense would be equally guilty in the sight of 
the law; but they might need entirely differ- 
ent treatment, depending upon their home en- 
vironment and education. With one the of- 
fense might be very serious; with the other it 
might indicate only a temporary lapse or prim- 
itive instinct which showed neither premedita- 
tion nor malice. Such a case comes to mind 
as I write. 

A bicycle had been taken from a rack in 
front of one of the summer gardens, and two 
boys, each 14 years of age, were arrested by a 
detective for stealing it. They were arraigned 
in the Police Court, and their case was set for 
the following Monday morning. Both were al- 
lowed to return to their homes with the assur- 
ance that they would appear when their case 
was called. During the week the boys were 
noticed loitering about the courts and jail with 
the hope of seeing a man then on trial for a 
horrible murder. When Monday morning came 



the boys Were again seen in front of the court 
house; but when their case was called in the 
Police Court they failed to appear. 

Later it was found that the boys had stolen 
two other "wheels" and had taken them to 
Canada, where they were sold for five dollars 
apiece. On returning to Detroit the boys weie 
afraid to go to their homes, so they lived iu 
cheap rooming and boarding houses downtown. 
They were arrested again and brought into 
court. This time both boys were confined in 
the county jail until the day of their trial. 
They were then found guilty and sentenced to 
the Industrial School for Boys at Lansing. 

Both boys were equally guilty according to 
law; but the causes leading to their offenses 
were essentially different. Billy had been to 
Lansing before. The stealing of bicycles was 
not his first offense. He was evidently "a very 
bad boy" and on the road to a criminal ca- 
reer. It was he who largely influenced the 
other boy to steal the first "wheel," and again 
to disappear on the day of the trial. Roy, on 
the other hand, was weak-willed and unfortu- 
nate. This was his first offense against the 
law. Previous to arrest he had been working. 
His father had a criminal record. Roy while 
quite young was placed in a house of refuge as 
a destitute child. Relatives of his mother, 
however, removed him to Detroit; but they 
cared very little for him. Naturally he drift- 
ed to the streets, where he was easily drawn 
into the offense for which he was arrested. 
What this boy needed more than anything else 
was a good home with some one to look intel- 
ligently after him. 

WHAT A B.\D HOME MEANS. 

Another case which well illustrates the per- 
nicious effects of a wretched home environ- 
ment is that of Willie K., a black-haired, 
bright-eyed little Polish fellow of nine years. 
Willie's father had been sentenced to the State 
prison at Jackson for five years. During his 
confinement the mother "took up" with an- 
other man, and in some ways sadly neglected 
her two boys and two girls. Just before thg 
father was released, in March, she ran away 
with the other man, leaving all the children 
with a neighbor. The father returned and 
found the children — but with reputation gone 
and no definite work in sight he could not sup- 
port them. So the two girls were placed in 
the Home for the Friendless and the boys had 
to shift for themselves. Where else had they 
to go but to the streets or to cheap lodging 
houses? The father could not afford to pay 
board for them where they were staying. 



THE COMMONS 



Willie, alert upon the streets, struck up an 
acquaintance with a boy who possessed a bi- 
cycle. It was not long before he obtained per- 
mission to ride. The ride was so exhilarating 
that Willie rode too far, and then did not think 
it worth while to return the wheel. The police 
were notified and he was arrested; but being 
so young, Willie was let off on suspended sen- 
tence. In the same week of the release he 
went into a neighbor's house, took a pocket- 
book, and spent the money. Another com- 
plaint was entered against him. While the 
truant officers were looking him up another 
wheel was stolen. He was brought up in the 
Police Court on Monday morning; but as there 
was no place suitable to send him, he was 
again let off. Willie, to complete his record, 
broke several car windows. While the truant 
officers were puzzling themselves what to do 
with the boy, a gentleman interested in this 
sort of boys took Willie to a farm near Jack- 
son. Since then, from all reports, he has been 
doing quite well. Perhaps all he needed was 
an opportunity to exercise his superabundant 
energies where little harm could be done. 

The cases cited above show how intimate is 
the relation between destitute, neglected and 
delinquent children. A distinct line can hard- 
ly be drawn between them. Imperceptibly 
they merge one into the other. A number of 
similar cases might be given, but these are 
suggestive enough. They well illustrate the 
fact that juvenile offenders are, in a large 
measure, the product of adverse social condi- 
tions. When police, court and jail officials, 
backed up by an intelligent public sentiment, 
fully realize this, much better treatment of 
our juvenile offenders will be assured. 

SCJUAKINO THK CITY TO 'IIIE ST.\TE's SlAND.MtD. 

It must be admitted that in the treatment of 
her neglected, dependent and delinquent chil- 
dren Michigan stands for some of the most ad- 
vanced and logical methods. The placing-out 
system in the State aims to reduce the number 
of children retained in large institutions and 
•place them in a more natural and healthy en- 
vironment. The appointment by the Governor 
of a County Agent for each county in the State, 
whose duty it is to look after all dependent, 
neglected and delinquent children is no doubt 
a step in the direction of a more thorough pro- 
bation system. At present the County Agents 
In large city districts have more eases than 
they can well investigate and conscientiously 
follow up. It Is also unfortunate that the of- 
fice is under political control. Too frequent 
change in Agents is not conducive to the best 



interests of the children whose friend and 
guide the County Agent should be. The Coun- 
ty Agent system with a few desirable changes 
could easily be made the basis for an efficient 
probation system, and with a separate ju- 
venile court in the large cities would place 
Michigan in the forefront in her treatment of 
unfortunate children. 

The State Public School at Coldwater has 
done good work in caring for and placing out 
numbers of destitute and dependent children. 
In both the Industrial School for Boys and the 
Industrial Home for Girls an effort is made to 
conduct them largely on the "cottage plan." 
AH high walls and fences, as well as unneces- 
sary bolts and bars, have been done away with. 
But there is still room for better treatment of 
delinquent children in the police courts and 
jails of the larger cities throughout the State. 

The conditions which prevail in Detroit for 
the treatment of juvenile offenders are subject 
to much improvement. A careful investiga- 
tion would convince any unbiased person of 
this. It is true that Act No. 110, . approved 
May 9, 1901, provides that "no child under six- 
teen years of age, while under arrest, confine- 
ment or conviction for any crime, shall be 
placed in any apartment or cell of any prison 
or place of confinement with any adult who 
shall be under arrest, confinement or conviction 
for any crime, or shall he permitted to remain 
in any 6ourt room during the trial of adults, 
etc." It also provides that "the trial of chil- 
dren under sixteen years of age for any crime 
or misdemeanor, before any magistrate or jus- 
tice of the peace, or in any court, shall be 
heard and determined by such court at a suit- 
able time, to be designated therefor by it, 
separate and apart from the trial of other 
criminal cases." 

An attempt has been made to adhere to the 
letter of the law by setting apart Monday 
mornings for the trial of juvenile offenders; 
but it was found practically impossible to keep 
them entirely apart from the contaminating 
influence of a criminal court. The cases are 
tried in the lower police court -by a justice 
jury in almost the same manner as adult of- 
fenders. Sometimes older offenders have been 
brought handcuffed to the wrist on an officer 
into the court room and arraigned while ju- 
venile cases were in progress. At the time set 
for juvenile cases it was my experience to 
usually find the court room crowded to the 
doors. It had all the appearance of a criminal 
court. A lack of decorum was noticeable on 
several occasions, the bailiff having constantly 



THE COMMONS 



to call the spectators to order. A number of 
young boys and girls, having apparently noth- 
ing to do with the cases, have often been seen 
present. 

The prosecuting attorney presents the case 
to the jury in the usual manner. Witnesses 
are brought in on both sides. The County 
Agent, who is supposed to have thoroughly in- 
vestigated the home surroundings of the child, 
is the only defense, if no lawyer is hired to 
take the child's part. Practically no defense 
is made by the County Agent during trial. It 
seems that he confers with the judge after the 
jury has disposed of the case, and recom- 
mends to him what disposition shall be made 
of the child. 

It should be noted that lately a change has 
been made from Monday to Saturday mornings 
for the trial of juveniles, and with some good 
results. At the end of the week the docket is 
cleared of most of the cases that accumulate 
over the previous Saturday night and Sunday — 
the inevitable drunks and disorderlies. There 
has been a marked improvement in other re- 
gards. However much improvement there may 
be, it is safe to say that there can be no per- 
manent good results so long as the children are 
exposed to the contaminating atmosphere of a 
lower police court without the kindly guidance 
of efficient probation oflScers. 

SEPARATE PLACE OF DETKNTION NEEDED. 

A word should be said as to the confinement 
of juveniles in the county jail. No doubt ad- 
vances have been made there in classification 
and treatment. The statute above noted pro- 
vides that juvenile offenders shall be kept 
apart from older criminals in the jail. That 
the juveniles are kept apart from older offend- 
ers is about all that can be said in favor of 
such confinement. After the children are 
found guilty in court and sentenced to the In- 
dustrial School they are taken immediately to 
the county jail and there incarcerated until the 
County Agent removes them. In some cases 
boys have remained in jail two weeks before 
being transferred to the Industrial School. 
Boys twelve and thirteen years of age who had 
never been in jail before are known to have 
been placed in a cage with fellows sixteen 
years old who had been to the Industrial 
School several times, and 'were then in jail 
charged with serious offenses. Is it not time 
that steps are being taken to provide a sepa- 
rate place of detention for our juvenile offend- 
ers? 

It was perfectly natural, therefore, that sev- 
eral bills providing for better treatment of 



juvenile offenders In the city of Detroit should 
have been placed in the hands of the House 
Committee on City Corporations of the present 
session of the Legislature. One of the bills in- 
troduced at the instance of the police justices 
of Detroit would, with some few changes, legal- 
ize the present method of doing things; the 
other is framed on the model of the Illinois 
Juvenile Court Law bill. It proposes "to regu- 
late the treatment and control of dependent, 
neglected and delinquent children under the 
age of sixteen years within the city of Detroit; 
to establish the Juvenile Court of Detroit; to 
regulate the practice in such court; to provide 
for the appointment of probation officers; to 
prohibit the commitment to any jail or police 
station within the city of Detroit of any child 
under the age of fourteen years; to impose cer- 
tain duties upon the State Board of Correc- 
tions and Charities and the Board of Inspect- 
ors of the Detroit House of Correction." 

The juvenile court idea is a natural out- 
growth of careful study given to the under- 
lying causes of delinquency and crime. It is a 
recognition of the fact that crime is largely 
the result of neglected or misdirected child- 
hood. By preventive measures it wisely aims 
to check the stream at its source. This is not 
an isolated idea. In business, in medicine and 
in our charities it has long been felt that pre- 
vention is always better, and much less expen- 
sive, than uncertain cure. 

III.IXOIS MODEI. FOR MlCHIO.\N LAW. 

The first comprehensive expression of the 
new idea was the Illinois Juvenile Court Law. 
Its framers were not radical, impractical "re- 
formers," but men and women of mature 
thought and legal insight. They simply em- 
bodied' in legal phraseology what students of 
penology and sociology had for some time 
been working out. The drafting of such a law 
reflects more humane and natural methods in 
dealing with unfortunate children. 

It gradually dawned upon tffose striving to 
solve the problem that if juvenile delinquency 
was to be checked the causes which produced 
it must be sought and, if possible, prevented. 
Mr. Henry M. Boies in his "Science of Penol- 
ogy" has recently laid down some general rules 
which well show the tendency of modern so- 
ciety in dealing with juvenile offenders. They 
are: 

"1st. Imprisonment of juvenile and first of- 
fenders is absolutely prohibited, except as a 
last resort for those convicted of flagrant 
crimes. 



6 



THE COMMONS 



"2nd. When a limited imprisonment is nec- 
essary it must be entirely by confinement. 

"3rd. Juveniles and first offenders should 
never be confined in jail with other prisoners 
while awaiting trial or under remand. 

"4th. The primary and supreme object of 
the sentence of a convicted juvenile or first 
offender is his rescue from a criminal life. 

"5th. The character and circumstances of 
the accused should be carefully investigated 
and allowed full weight and influence in deter- 
mining whether the juvenile or first offender 
should be tried and convicted or not." 

Along the above lines great advances are 
being made in the trial and subsequent treat- 
ment of juvenile offenders. Public sentiment 
is growing in favor of having probation officers 
in every court where children are tried, whose 
duty it shall be to investigate thoroughly the 
home environment of every child, and report 
such findings to the court. The probation offi- 
cer should act as friend and counselor for the 
child, and have it under his supervision both 
during and after trial. Where advisable the 
child should be returned to its home under the 
surveillance of such officers. Of course it is 
now recognized by enlightened officers of the 
law that juveniles should be kept entirely 
apart from more hardened offenders during and 
after trial. 

About fifteen States now have some form of 
the juvenile court with a probation system. 
It has been found under the new system that 
there are much fewer commitments to reform 
schools, and hence a direct saving to the State. 
Besides this, • the children are removed from 
the contaminating influence of criminal courts 
and jails and aided in living their normal lives. 

PRIKCIPLK VERSUS DKT.\11. OF THE lAW. 

It is to be hoped that the citizens of Detroit 
will adapt a juvenile court and probation sys- 
tem to the needs there. It is especially neces- 
sary to provide. some house of detention where 
children may be confined both before and after 
trial without undergoing the soul-blighting ef- 
fects of a county jail with its formidable bolts 
and bars. The trial should by all means be 
held entirely separate and apart from older of- 
fenders. The judge might bear more the rela- 
tion of friend and counselor to the child, and 
dispose of its case in a somewhat informal and 
summary manner. The officers appointed to 
look after the interests of the child should be 
removed as far as possible from political influ- 
ences. 

The Juvenile Court Law bill which will no 



doubt be considered by the Michigan Legisla- 
ture during its present session has unfortu- 
nately called forth opposition from several 
quarters. It is rather surprising that the op- 
position should have been led by men whom 
we expect to stand for sound principles of law. 
and penology. Perhaps there are a few flaws 
in what otherwise appears to be an admirable 
bill. The greatest opposition seems to center 
upon the clauses which relate to the establish- 
ment of an entirely separate court, and the ap- 
pointment of a salaried judge who shall give 
his whole time to juvenile cases. "In addition 
to his other duties the judge of said court 
shall, so far as may be, visit the homes of all 
the children who shall from time to time be 
subject to the jurisdiction of said juvenile 
court, secure employment and good homes for 
them as far as possible, etc." This it seems is 
too much to require of any judge, and the ob- 
jection to the clause may be well founded. 
But these few minor details should not ob- 
scure the real worth of the bill. They could 
easily be adjusted if the friends of both bills 
would confer and reconstruct the objectionable 
sections. Let us hope that the public-spirited 
citizens of Detroit will urge the passage of a 
bill which embodies the essentials of a juvenile 
court and probation system. 



THE SETTLEMENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 

The relation between the University of Mich- 
igan and Chicago Commons has become so typ- 
ical of that which other universities are as- 
suming toward the settlement movement, that 
all readers of The Commons will be interested 
in the latest expression of the educational 
value in settlement life and service given in 
the following articles. 

The first one, written by Prof. Henry C. 
Adams for the Michigan Daily News, is note- 
worthy because it bears the endorsement of the 
president and the dean of every department in 
the University. 

Faculty Appeal for the Students' Support of 
the Settlement Fellowship. 

A university is for the student largely what 
he cares to make it. Residence within the cir- 
cle of its influence will yield much or little, in 
character or in knowledge, according to the 
extent to which he is willing to avail himself 
of the opportunities offered. So far as instruc- 
tion is concerned, this truth is frankly ac- 
knowledged, but there is some reason to fear 
that students fail to appreciate its broader 
application. What is known as the University 



THE COM MONS 



Fellowship in Sociology— and it is of this we 
wish to speak — is a case in point. 

For the past six years a student has been 
sent from the University to pass the second 
semester as a resident at the Chicago Com- 
mons. The Chicago Commons is a social set- 
tlement under the direction of Professor Gra- 
ham Taylor of Chicago Theological Seminary. 
It is situated not far from the scene of the 
Haymarket riot and has gathered about it "all 
sorts and conditions of men." A social set- 
tlement has been fitly described as a place in 
which "to learn and to be learned of many," 
and certainly no place affords a better oppor- 
tunity, either for the renderipg of social ser- 
vice or for the analyzing of social forces, than 
Chicago Commons. The interest of the stu- 
dent in social settlements is found in the fact 
that they afford an outlet for the spirit of 
broad and discriminating brotherly kindness, 
which is one, of the choicest fruits of univer- 
sity life; they afford, also, an opportunity for 
observing at first hand the social conditions 
from which spring some of the most danger- 
ous tendencies of modern times. 

No one who believes in the University of 
Michigan can regard it as a misfortune that 
it is situated in a small town. It is, how- 
ever, something of a disadvantage that stu- 
dents are deprived of contact, at first hand, 
with some of the conditions respecting which, 
as good citizens and educated men, they will 
be called upon in after life to have an intel- 
ligent opinion. It is hoped that ultimately the 
University will be openly identified with set- 
tlement work in the city of Detroit. A be- 
ginning has been made in this direction. For 
the present, however, reliance is placed upon 
the Fellowship at Chicago Commons. The 
experiment has been well worth trying and 
the influence of those who have held this Fel- 
lowship, upon their return to the University, 
has been most helpful. It is felt, however, 
that this influence is limited to a relatively 
small circle. It is not alone students as mem- 
bers of Christian Associations who are inter- 
ested in social settlements, but students as 
citizens of a Christian nation; and he makes 
a sad mistake who limits his preparation for 
life to the technical demands of a professional 
or business pursuit. One may observe in our 
times a marked tendency toward what is 
sometimes called "social service." This is 
nothing more than the application of the spirit 
of Christianity to industrial, social and class 
relations. An important manifestation of this 
tendency, as has been said, is the social settle- 



ment, and one way by which the student body 

of the University of Michigan can come into 
touch with those influences which make for 
a noble character and social regeneration, is 
to interest themselves in this University Fel- 
lowship in Sociology. In appealing this year 
to the student body for contributions to this 
Fellowship, the main motive is to change 
somewhat the character of the Fellowship, and 
to make it truly representative of the Univer- 
sity. It is not so much an enlarged contribu- 
tion that is needed as an enlarged interest in 
the thing for which the contribution is made. 
An intelligent interest in the work of social 
settlements is a part of university life and an 
intelligent sympathy with this enlarged idea 
of a university is a part of education. 

Signed: 

H. C. Adams, 

C. H. Cooley, 

F. M. Taylor, 

Fellowship Appointment Committee. 
Endorsed : 

James B. Angell, 

President. 
Literary Department. 

R. Hudson, Dean. 

A. C. M'Laughlin, 
 Earl W. Dow, 

R. M. Wenley, 
Law Department. 

H. B. Hutchins, Dean. 

V. H. Lane, 

E. C. Goddard, 
Medical College (Regular). 

V. C. Vaughan, Dean. 
Medical College (Homeopathic). 

W. B. Hinsdale, Dean. 
Engineering Department. 

Chas. E. Green, Dean. 
Dental College. 

J. Taft, Dean. 
School of Pharmacy. 

A. B. Prescott, Dean. 
Woman's Department. 

Myra B. Jordan, Dean. 



Prof. Cooley 's Valuation. 

Prof. Charles H. Cooley, who, as instructor 
in Sociology has had more immediate direc- 
tion of the work of the fellowship incumbents, 
bears this witness to its value: 

"It is a common fling at university life that 
it is too much removed from the tough prob- 
lems of the real world. Any truth that there 
may be in this adds interest to the movement. 



THE COM MONS 



now becoming quite general, for American 
universities to take part in the work of social 
settlements, which are usually situated in the 
so-called "slums" of our large cities and deal 
face to face with such problems as are to be 
found there. 

"It is not so generally known as it should be 
that a part of the students of this University, 
with the co-operation of the faculty, are try- 
ing with some success to bring about an 
active relation with social settlement in Chi- ! 
cago and, perhaps, in Detroit. 

"About six years ago certain members of 
the Students' Christian Association, inspired 
by the lectures of Miss Addams and Professor 
Taylor, induced that body to raise money to 
send a student to live for about half the col- 
lege year at Chicago Commons, with the pur- 
pose of studying some social problem under 
the supervision of Graham Taylor, and report- 
ing it, by thesis, when he returned to the Uni- 
versity. At the request of the Association a 
committee of the faculty chose the Fellow, and i 
he was sent accordingly. The experiment 
worked well and has been repeated each 
year, the returning Fellow being expected to 
diffuse the benefits of his experience through- 
out the University, so far as possible, by 
speaking before various gatherings of students 
and others. In this way, the Fellows form- 
ing a nucleus, there has come to a growing 
body of students interested in settlements and 
desirous to share in their work, or to express 
in some similar way the social spirit aroused 
in them. In some eases the studies have 
proved of distinct scientific value, and one, 
on the Saloon Question in Chicago, by R. L. 
Melendy, was published, first in the American 
Journal of Sociologj-, and later incorporated 
into a volume called "Substitutes for the Sa- 
loon," (Houghton. Mifflin & Co.) 

"This enterprise was started and is kept up 
by students, and it would seem that 'it de- 
serves increasing support. 

Charles H. Cooley." 
The response to these appeals, received at 
and after the public meeting at University 
Hall, addressed by Professor Graham Taylor, 
on the Function of the University in Civic and 
Social Progress, warranted the appointment 
of a Fellow, Miss Inis H. Weed, who is already 
at Chicago Commons working upon her in- 
vestigation of Manual Training. 



The very flowers that bend and meet 
In sweetening others grow more sweet. 

— O. W. Holmes. 



COLLEQE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STAXDINU COMMITTEE. 

President: K.^thabine Comas, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Seeretarg: Sarah Grah.\m Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treamirer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 3olh St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Ann-US Scribneb (Mrs. 

Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 

York City. 

settlements. 

New Y'ork City— 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia— 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Associ.a.tion by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



••Americans In Process."* 

latest INVESIIGATIOS by south end HOt'SE. 

Once more the settlement is justified of its 
fruits in the new book by Mr. Woods and his 
associates of the Boston South End House. 
"Americans in Process"*. For the settlement 
stands for a point of view as well as for a 
method. It stands for the desire to under- 
stand the social situation in detail and as a 
whole, and for the desire to be oneself an 
effective working part of that whole. 

This book is everywhere proof of these two 
desires. It is in a sense a continuation of the 
earlier volume of five years ago, "The City 
Wilderness," being a study of the North and 
West Ends as that of the South End of Boston. 
But the different characters of the district here 
described gives the new book its especial char- 
acter. 

In the first place the situation Is given a sin- 
gular picturesqueness from the strong local 
color of the North End with its colonial and 
revolutionary associations. From Copp's Hill 
burying ground and "the Old North," to Paul 
Reveres house on North Square, this is the 
Mecca of the visitor to Boston, and Italian and 
Jewish residents, used to staring and question- 
ing strangers, never suspect that they them- 
selves are also objects of curiosity. 



•Americans in Process; A Settlement Study by Resi- 
dents and Associates of the South End House, edited by 
Robert A. Woods. Head ot the House. North and West 
Ends, Boston. Houghton, Mifflin & Company. The 
Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1902. 12mo JLoO. Ix. 3S3. 



THE COM M ONS 



9 



These historical associations give more than 
ordinary interest to the accounts by Mr. Woods 
and Mrs: Rutan of this district in the past and 
to Mr. Bushee's chapter on "The Invading 
Host." A fact which probably conies as a sur- 
prise to most readers is the distinct rise in the 
moral tone of this quarter brought about by 
the influx of immigrants. The long notorious 
North End dance hall is now a thing of the 
past and such vice as remains, and especially 
the presence of the saloons, is mainly due to 
outsiders, — to visitors from neighboring non- 
license towns and to the passing brought about 
by markets, railroads and waterside traffic. 

It is in the wards of the North and West 
here studied that newly arrived immigrants 
mainly settle, here if anywhere that they find 
America. So that a study of this part of the 
city is most truly a study of Americans in pro- 
cess. 

The chapter, "The Child of the Stranger," by 
Mrs. Atherton and Mrs. Rutan, gives a picture 
which falls below only the reality in interest, 
of the absorption of the little foreigners by the 
public school. It shows the relation of what 
the school is prepared to give to that which 
the boy and girl, especially the girl, is in need 
of. In schools where about seventy-five per 
cent never reach the English grade of the 
grammar school and where, in a recent year, 
of forty-two graduating from "The Master's 
Class," twenty-seven were born in Russia, and 
of these not one could speak a word of English 
five years before — in such schools the scant 
years of education are of the most vital impor- 
tance to the child and to the community, and 
every hour should be spent so as to tell most. 

It necessarily happens that various of these 
writers undertake appreciations of the differ- 
ent nationalities which live in this part of the 
town and everywhere is recognition of the reci- 
procity involved. "The immigrant nationali- 
ties are already adding variety and fresh im- 
pulse to the city's industrial and social inter- 
ests. * * * The motive should be to have them 
affected by the American spirit, but also to 
have the American spirit affected by what is 
real in them." 

Mr. Cole's chapter on "Two Ancient Faiths," 
is perhaps the most full of color in the book, 
but the deepest and most tragic interest and 
the most vital purpose pulsate in Mr. Woods' 
own chapters, especially in that on "Traffic in 
Citizenship," and in the concluding chapter, 
"Assimilation: a Two-edged Sword." 

Rumor relates that one of the local bosses, 
whose characters and methods are here ana- 



lyzed with a naturalist's painstaking, blustered 
and threatened suit; that Mr. Woods' friends 
were only too ready to face the expenses of 
such a suit ("It would be the greatest thing 
for the purification of politics that ever hap- 
pened in Boston"), and that the rival boss 
gibes his brother for having merely given the 
book its phenomenal sale, — with other stories 
of the self exposure of justification to which 
the quiet statements of the book provoked its 
victims. 

The moral of this merciless study is point- 
ed at the well-to-do. 

"It may be doubted whether evil communi- 
cations are much worse than no communications 
at all. There is a strange ever-increasing re- 
action upon the life of affairs and upon social 
morality in Boston as a result of the rift in so- 
ciety between native and immigrant stocks. 
* * * In Athens it was the mark of the aris- 
tocracy that they governed the city, while the 
newly enfranchised class attended to its pro- 
visioning. In this latter-day democratic city 
the situation is precisely reversed. This means 
that the large majority of those men in Bos- 
ton who are making the fullest use of Ameri- 
can economic opportunities are fast dismissing 
from their minds the civic responsibilities 
which form the just and essential balance to 
those opportunities. Considering the serious 
nature of our municipal needs the question 
may fairly be raised whether the average busi- 
ness man in Boston is any worthier pillar of 
a democratic municipality than is the average 
politician." 

Not only politically, but also in business and 
most seriously in religion, does this disastrous 
"rift in society" make itself felt. "There is a 
growing conviction that democracy is * * * an 
ethical philosophy. * • * It requires for its ex- 
istence a large measure of social coherence." 
"The reflex influence of these communities 
upon the city in its entirety is so pervasive 
as to challenge the collective efforts of c.ti- 
zens and the corporate action of the munici- 
pality and commonwealth." 

On this follows, in about a dozen luminous 
pages, what is in reality a definite program 
for constructive work. This might well be 
studied point by point to see how far its pre- 
scriptions are already carried out; how far im- 
mediately practicable; how far to be kept in 
mind as a goal. But this cannot be done here. 

It is hard to see how any reader can leave 
the book without feeling at once the gravity 
of the conditions and an immefnse hope in view 
both of the essential wholesomeness of the new 



10 



THE COMMONS 



life and of the many practical lines of co- 
operation opening to men of good will. 

Emily Green Balch. 



" Everyman." 

The 15th Century morality play, "Every- 
man," recently produced in this country, is one 
few people can see without being impressed. 
It teaches a great moral lesson in a beautifully 
artistic and dramatic way. Men may, or may 
not agree with its theology and feel a bit 
strange in its medieval atmosphere, but all 
are conscious that it has made them realize the 
seriousness of life as never before. The les- 
son coming with all the added force that re- 
sults from the acted word with its appeal to 
the eye, as well as the ear. 
. The clergy of St. Stephen's Episcopal church, 
realizing this, talked with Mr. Ben Greet, the 
manager of the company producing the play, 
and told him how much good they thought 
would result if a performance could be ar- 
ranged at the South End and the tickets dis- 
tributed among those who could not afford to 
see it at the regular theatre prices. The sug- 
gestion thrown out in a cursory sort of way, 
with scarcely a thought that it would be pos- 
sible, found instant favor with Mr. Greet,— 
who had an open date he could give us. The 
next problem was to find the money and the • 
place. But the plan appealed strongly to the 
various college settlements, who responded 
generously to St. Stephen's lead, and the neces- 
sary amount was soon raised. Some difflculty 
was experienced in getting a place and finally 
the "Grand," a cheap theatre, seating about 
2,000, and right In the heart of the South End, 
was secured. 

A conference of those interested was called 
to complete all arrangements. A finance com- 
mittee, composed of Rev. Ellis Bishop, Rev. 
Edward Everett Hale and Mrs. Mary Morton 
Kehen, was to raise the rest of the money 
necessary, and a committee of arrangements, 
on which were the Rev. Thatcher R. Kimball, 
Mr. W. S. Cole and Miss Lillian V. Robinson, 
was to look after the distribution of tickets and 
all other details. 

The centers taking the greatest interest in 
the matter, e. g., St. Stephen's church, Deni- 
son House, Lincoln House, South End House, 
the Ellis Memorial and the Women's Indus- 
trial Union, decided that the tickets should be 
distributed free to those the workers knew 
would appreciate the play, and none were to 
be admitted under 10 years of age, unless ac- 
companied by a teacher or settlement worker. 



There was a great demand for the tickets 
and more than 2,000 were distributed so that, 
on the night of the performance the theatre 
was packed and many had to stand. A mis- 
take made was to allow a reporter to take a 
flash-light picture of the audience from the 
st^ge before the play began. This introduced 
an element that detracted from the serious- 
ness of the occasion. The choir boys from St. 
Stephen's church came on the stage in their 
black cassocks and rendered very well three 
anthems, but this did not quite restore the 
quiet, broken by the amusement resulting from 
the flash-light. The audience evidently were 
expecting to be amused and so, when the pro- 
logue began there was much tittering and 
whispering among the younger people and 
Dethe's entrance caused an audible smile. 

Very little need be said about the play itself, 
as so many have seen it or read about it. But 
from the moment Everyman came on the stage 
the audience was held. Miss Mathison was so 
strong, her personality so winning and her act- 
ing so simple, sincere and direct that few could 
resist her power. It was a great triumph for 
her. The audience was difllcult — one which 
could not appreciate a large part of the artistic 
side of the production and unused to a per- 
formance so continuous, so unrelieved by hu- 
mor, and with an atmosphere so strange to 
them, and Miss Mathison, realizing the obsta- 
cles before her, put forth her best efforts and 
gave a rendering of the part which probably 
surpassed anything she had before done in 
Boston, and the audience yielded to her power. 

The results of the experiment were entirely 
satisfactory with a few minor exceptions. Even 
more care should have been taken in distrib- 
uting the tickets, and many think they should 
have been sold at a low price. Nor should 
there have been more given away than there 
were seats. Those standing grew tired and 
contributed to the spirit of restlessness which 
those too young, frivolous and unappreciatlve 
manifested during the evening. 

Yet in spite of that, the audience as a whole 
was interested and, we may well believe, deeply 
impressed. A few instances already reported 
show this. A former communicant, who had 
led an evil life for some years, saw it, came 
back to his priest to make his confession, and 
is making a fresh start. Another man, who 
had neglected attendance at church for many 
years, has already been for three Sundays. A 
shop girl in a downtown department store is 
reported as being very zealous in missionary 
work among her companions, and we are sure 



THE COMMONS 



11 



that there are many more cases of a like sort 
which if known would bear testimony to the 
influence that wonderful play has exerted. 

Thatcher R. Kimbaix. 
St. Stephen's House. 



The first of a series of conferences to be held 
at the various settlements in Boston was held 
at Denison House on Friday morning, February 
6. Miss Scudder gave the address of the morn- 
ing, "The Settlement Ideal." She laid empha- 
■sis on the danger of the settlemeat becoming, 
now that it Is an established feature of the 
social order, too highly institutionalized, and 
so losing the finer and more spiritual quality 
of the first beginnings of the movement. The 
settlement should hold firm and true amidst all 
the modern threatenings against democracy, 
the right democratic ideals. A mere institu- 
tion for clubs and classes cannot do this. The 
great need for the settlement of the new cen- 
tury is some infusion of that right dreaming 
spirit which sees the greater vision beyond the 
task. 

In the more general talk which followed 
Miss Scudder's address, one of the points most 
forcibly dwelt on was the desirability of get- 
ting the outside workers— those who come per- 
haps once or twice a week for some class or 
club work, and go away without ever seeing the 
general workings of the house— in touch with 
the ideal and the distinctive field of the settle- 
ment with which they are thus connected. 

Bkssie Main Waking, Resident. 



"Two men I honor, and no third. First the 
toil-worn Craftsman that with earth-made Im- 
plement laboriously conquers the Earth, and 
makes her man's. • * * A second man I 
honor, and still more highly: Him who is 
seen tolling for the spiritually indispensable, 
not daily bread, but the Bread of Life. » • • 
Unspeakably touching is it, however, when I 
find both dignities united; and he that must 
toll outwardly for the lowest of man's want, 
is also toiling inwardly for the highest. Sub- 
limer in this world know I nothing than a 
Peasant Saint, could such now anywhere be 
met with. Such a one will take thee back to 
Nazareth itself; thou wilt see the splendor of 
Heaven spring forth from the humblest depths 
of Earth, like a light shining in great dark- 
ness." — Sartor Resartus. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIOHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Association by 

Makv Kingsbuky Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



The only man who never makes a mistake 
is the man who never does anything. — Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 



Legislative Attack on the Tenement House 
Law. 

The Association of Neighborhood Workers 
of New York is at present deeply concerned 
in the tenement house problem. The problem 
was precipitated by a surprising dose of en- 
ergy expressed in the lobby at Albany by a 
considerable group of landlords, contractors, 
real estate agents, and the like. Even one or 
two trust companies lend a hand to the In- 
iquitous affair. This unseemly coalition re- 
sulted in a number of bills being presented to 
the legislature, any one of which would de- 
molish the safeguards of the present tene- 
ment house laws. The first bill, presented by 
Senator Marshall, would wipe out the legisla- 
tion of forty years at a single stroke! This 
raised such a protest from all New York, that 
he sent in his apologies and withdrew from the 
field. Others were at hand, however, with 
other bills which were practically as radical, 
though expressed with much more modesty. 

We soon discovered that behind all these 
bills there was a well-defined movement 
backed by a strong determination to impor- 
tune the legislature to modify the present laws 
greatly to the advantage of the landlords and 
speculators, and not at all to the advantage 
of the long-suffering mortals who would, per- 
chance, try to live in these buildings. Many 
buildings have been put up in violation to the 
present law. They want these legalized. Many 
old buildings are hardly fit for rats to live in. 
They want to rent these to human beings 
without any improvement. One man was ac- 
tually elected to the senate on that platform 
alone. The problem, therefore, is a serious 
one. 

Our first effort has been with the people 
who live in these houses. We have shown how 
dark, unsanitary rooms breed tuberculosis, the 
dread of the tenement house dwellers. We 
have further expressed to them that light, air 
and  proper sanitation are theirs by natural 
right; and that they would be deprived of these 
by the proposed legislation. The response was 
instantaneous and is becoming more and more 
effective. We hope to raise such a volume of 
protest from these people that no legislator 



12 



THE COMMONS 



will dare to sell their rights to any band of 
speculators. 

On the other hand, we want to assure the 
tenement people of the support of their "up- 
town" friends. "We not only have mass meet- 
ings downtown among the people who are di- 
rectly affected by the proposed changes, but 
also are organizing all the influential people 
in the other districts to help in the fight. 

Education is our watchword. When this 
struggle is over the people of New York, — of 
all classes, — will be thoroughly informed as to 
the present laws. They will appreciate more 
deeply than ever their interdependence, and, 
we are assured, will have registered their sol- 
emn protest against any legislation which 
places in jeopardy the lives of any of their 
fellows. 

The newspapers have proven invaluable aids 
to us in quickening the public conscience along 
these lines. Every bit of the proposed legis- 
lation has been properly aired and thoroughly 
discussed. In addition to their work, we are 
having 50,000 circular letters printed, which go 
more into detail and illustrate the things in 
the iJresent laws which are vitally essential. 

The significance of this is felt at Albany. 
Our representatives have been assured that no 
legislation, which sacrifices 'the present re- 
quirements for air, light, sanitation and in- 
spection, will be passed. We will keep on the 
alert until we know this is true. 

H. B. Krlbs, Chairman Committee. 



Inter-Settlement Games and Debates. 

A meeting was held April 28, 1902, at Gordon 
House, for the purpose of forming a baseball 
league. The place was romantic enough, — the 
hayloft of a stable, made into a clubroom 
through the enterprise of the boys of Gordon 
House. In this small room, reached by a nar- 
row ladder, delegates to the number of thirty- 
five bunched themselves, some in chairs, some 
sitting on an old pool-table, and many stand- 
ing up. The lights were not very brilliant, but 
the interest was keen. 

The matter which excited the greatest inter- 
est was that of Sunday ball playing. The dele- 
gates from five of the eight Houses repre- 
sented, preferred to play ball on Sunday. They 
gave in very frank and interesting testimony, 
much of it being of a personal nature, in favor 
of Sunday ball playing, usually under two 
heads: First, because they worked hard dur- 
ing the week; and, second, because they saw 
no barm in it; or, at least, it was less harm- 
ful than the way most young men in the 



crowded parts of our city were tempted to 
spend their time. 

It took three large gatherings and a dozen 
committee meetings before this and numerous 
other questions of organization were settled. 
Four of the clubs were allowed to play their 
games on Sunday during the early part of the 
season. Later in the summer all the boys had 
their Saturday afternoons and were able to 
play then. 

Altogether, barring forfeits, about seventy- 
five games were played. Naturally, the rivalry 
was keen, and not a few incipient fights called 
for a strong hand. On the whole, however, a 
spirit of good sportsmanship pervaded the con- 
tests. Each club brought a following of en- 
thusiastic "rooters."' Occasionally the scene 
was brightened by a little splash of House 
colors. 

At the conclusion of the season a banquet 
was held. About sixty players were present. 
Each lad paid for his own plate. After the 
presentation of the silver cup to the victorious 
nine, many of the captains spoke informally, 
all in praise of the winning team. There was 
no trace of bitterness or envy. An entertain- 
ment and dance followed the banquet, each 
club furnishing one or two numbers of the 
programme. 

Notwithstanding many drawbacks, we were 
suflBciently encouraged by this experiment to 
desire to form leagues in other sports. A meet- 
ing of Head-Workers, largely attended, was 
held at the University Settlement on Septem- 
ber 23d. There was considerable unanimity 
as to the value of these contests, but it was 
thought wise to report the plan to the Neigh- 
borhood Association. The plan was favorably 
received by the Association at its first meet- 
ing and an executive committee of five ap- 
pointed, with full powers to act. Sub-chairmen 
were appointed, by this committee to organize 
leagues for basket-ball, table games, debating, 
and for an indoor-meet. The work of organi- 
zation has all been accomplished. In the bas- 
ket-ball league these are three divisions, based 
on age and weight. Altogether, there are four- 
teen settlements participating in one or mora 
of these leagues, and the greatest interest is 
manifested in the standing of each house. 

The indoor-meet is likely to overshadow all 
other contests this winter, as the splendid ar- 
mory of the 7th Regiment has been secured. 
From present indications, at least twenty set- 
tlements will be represented in one or more 
events. In addition to individual medals, the 
liouse gaining the greatest number of i>oints 



THE COM MONS 



13 



will receive a banner, to be competed for from 
year to year. Rumor says that settlement 
youths are wildly excited, and may be seen 
dodging up side streets, with occasional greet- 
ings of "Stop thief!" strenuously cultivating 
good form for the sprints and long distance 
runs. I am also informed that vacant lots 
about settlements are in greater demand than 
ever and youngsters may be seen practicing 
the broad jump or "putting the shot." 

To organize these leagues and manage them 
successfully requires an enormous amount of 
patient labor; but those of us upon whom most 
of the burden has fallen, believe that the re- 
sults will more than justify the work. The 
traditions which gather about inter-college con- 
tests minister to the poetry and romance 
found in the heart of every normal boy, and 
even linger in the memories of old graduates. 
Through our inter-settlement contests we may 
likewise build up traditions, and produce some- 
thing very nearly akin to college spirit. Even 
now, most of the houses have a distinctive 
yell; and all I think have house colors. L*t us 
hope that with greater loyalty for the settle- 
ment may come greater sympathy for all the 
fine things for which the settlement stands. 

The point which is of the greatest interest to 
me in these contests is the moral opportunity 
which they present. The rivalry is so genu- 
ine that moral traits, or the lack of them, 
stand out in bold relief. Your moral theme 
is no longer academic, it is immediate, vital 
aggressiveness, and withal, fairness, — in brief, 
true sportmanship. 

One of the things which we need is an 
athletic field, — a plot of ground large enough 
for a half dozen baseball diamonds, tennis 
courts, bicycle and running tracks, and all the 
other features of a well-equipped athletic field. 
I think the time is coming when we shall have 
such a field for our New York settlements. 

In our endeavor to bring the young men of 
our various settlements together we have be- 
gun with contests, — athletic contests particu- 
larly. — because they represent lines of least 
resistance. We should be sorry to have our 
work end here. Doubtless, in the future, en- 
tertainments will be exchanged, one club will 
give a reception to another club, and many 
other courtesies will be exchanged. Best of 
all: I think it entirely possible, beginning 
with these inter-settlement games, that we may 
eventually bring our young men together in a 
large body several times during a winter, and 
create a sort of forum for the discussion of 
practical, social, economic and civic questions. 



Occasionally we may find it possible to unite 
for the accomplishment of certain good muni- 
cipal undertakings, strictly non-partisan in 
character. Inter-settlement games and debates 
for trophies are good in themselves, but still 
I hope we may go farther. 

WiixiAM A. Clark. 
Gordon House, February 16, 1903. 



It is the way in which hours of freedom. are 
spent that determines, as much as war or as 
labor, the moral worth of a nation.^Maurice 
Maeterlinck. 



Hold Up Your Heads Men. 

A LABOR SONG. 

Words and Music by Samuel Rastall 
A Chicago Trades Unionist. 

When will the day appear that cruel wars will 
cease. 

When we can gladly say all o'er the world is 
peace,' 

When justice sways our every act and our em- 
blem is the dove. 

All share earth's bounty equally, the only ruler 
love? 

Response: 
Hold up your heads, men, the time will come! 

When will the laboring man reap all that he 

has sown. 
When will we share alike and all in common 

own. 
When will we happy be and with a smile each 

other greet. 
Wealth, poverty and crime be words long 

obsolete? 
Response: 
Hold up your heads, men, the time will come! 

When will the nations all the golden rule 
observe, 

When we forget ourselves and others only 
serve. 

When win we learn that posterity to surety 
bless 

Self-sacrifice's the only key to human hap- 
piness? • 

Response: 
Hold up your heads, men, the time will come! 

Then hold up your heads, men; the time is 
coming soon 

When care will pass away and sunshine fol- 
low gloom. 

Let us keep up the struggle so long as we 
have breath 

For equality In^ life as It is in death. 

Response: 
Hold up your heads, men. the time will come! 



14 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commoris 

A Moathly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HAM TAYLOR.. • • 



Editor 



Entered at Chicago PostolHce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month f rom Ch ic ago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Are. & Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



The Function of the University in Civic and 
Sociai Progress. 
Every movement of real life has Its counter- 
part in education. It centers down upon the 
school for the conservation and reproduction of 
its energy. For education is the epitome of 
history and experience, reproducing, as does 
the child, the development of the race. Back 
to it we come as from the breakers to the 
depths of the seas, from the tingling nerves to 
the motor centers, from the flush of the life 
blood to the heart whence it flows and whither 
it returns. However removed from the world's 
life the school may be, it is really a part of Jt, 
and the very spring of its power. However un- 
recognized or ignored the teacher may be, the 
scepter of influence more nearly rests in his or 
her heart aud hand, the throne of power more 
nearly centers under the schoolhouse roof, than 
anywhere else, not excepting the domes of our 
Capitols or the chancels of our cathedrals. 



In America the public school system. Includ- 
ing the State university, is not only the paral- 
lel but the paradox of the national history. 
The history of the American democracy is the 
record of the extremest individualism the world 
has ever seen. Yet the free public education 
given by it as a right to every child, in every 
township of colony and State, is the greatest 
social extension of the function of government 
in the history of the modem world. Now that 
the tide begins to turn and flow back to the 
more interdependent relationship of individual 
and group, of class with class, craft with craft, 
we may well inquire what the university, as 
heading up the public school system, has to 
contribute to the new civic and social con- 
sciousness of the nation. 



To it the whole people have a right to look 
to impart to the body politic three elements 
from its own life and prerogative. 



Continuity, separateness, and community are 
essential to consciousness. These the univer- 
sity has a greater oppoi^unity to acquire, pos- 
sess and impart than any other group of the 
people. 

The time-sense of its geologists, historians 
and astronomers is most fatally lacking In the 
social movement of the people's life. From the 
university, therefore, society has a right to ex- 
pect men and women to enter its rank and file 
with the capacity both to study present prob- 
lems with history in mind, and history with 
present problems in mind. Nothing is more 
needed than the practical application of this 
capacity to our acutely strained industrial rela- 
tionships for the promotion of economic peace 
and justice. 

Separateness of the self from its surround- 
ings is another element of personal conscious- 
ness. To realize that I am "other than the 
things I see" is essential to the "rounding to a 
separate mind," as Tennyson teaches us. So 
the people in their tense "cosmic struggle" for 
existence need those who have had the leisure 
to learn the separateness of soul from sub- 
stance, of self from surroundings, to exemplify 
and teach the supremacy of men over things, 
of the human over the material value. The re- 
vival of interest in psychological and philo- 
sophical studies in our universities is trans- 
lating itself through pedagogical principles and 
practice into a more spritual ideal of life and 
conduct among the people. 



Community of interest is as much an element 
of personal as of social consciousness. With- 
out the comparison and contrast of common 
experiences, self-consciousness could hardly be, 
or certainly would be that of a far smaller and 
less worthy selfhood. More than anywhere else 
the common heritage of the race centers at, 
and is transmitted through, the university. In 
recognizing, if it does not create, a common 
standard of life in which each child is taught 
to share a part, to be one of many who share 
like rights and privileges, the public school and 
State university render a service which is as 
religious as it is socal. For, as President King 
of Oberlin recently well said. "Since the vital 
breath of Christianity is democratic, and we 
cannot learn to love in a vacuum, our public 
schools are rendering a distinctly religious 
service by establishing this common standard 
of life and educating every one to take his or 
her own share in it." 



THE COMMONS 



15 



Notwithstanding its great immunities and 
high prerogatives, culture tends to isolate itself 
from the race life by a narrow class conscious- 
ness. If, as Commissioner Harris defines it, 
"Culture is the rise of the individual into the 
life of the species," this isolation is not only 
self-stultification, but suicide. Only by push- 
ing back this sky line to let in the thought of 
another mind, the ideal of another age, the 
aspiration of another class or people, does any 
life widen its horizon and gain a larger world 
in which to live and move and have its being. 



To the privilege and duty of every one to make 
the most of self and the best of one's surround- 
ings, appeal is legitimately made for an ever- 
growing interest and participation in the social 
service of the common life. To that appeal 
there may justly be added the obligation in- 
curred by the possession of culture as a social 
trust. With great price to others, leisure to 
learn has been acquired by every one who en- 
joys it. At the cost of additional labor to 
many, every student is afforded that relief from 
toil which gives liberty to learn. In this re- 
spect, and in the buildings and educational 
equipment which the common industry taxes 
itself to provide those who are free to take ad- 
vantage of these educational opportunities, 
every one in public or private school. State or 
endowed university is a "charity student." 
Back to the common life he owes the service of 
that culture which has been made possible by 
the sacrifices of the many. To withhold from 
others what makes life best worth living to 
oneself is the gravest breach of that sacred 
social trust and of common honesty under the 
bonds of which society places every educated 
life. 

Tolstoy's iVIanliness. 

The manliness with which brave old Leo 
Tolstoy stands under the full consequences of 
his words and acts in the face of all the Rus- 
sias, inspires the respect even of his enemies. 
It likewise moves one to contempt toward those 
who speak from carefully sheltered positions, 
regardless of what happens to those who jeop- 
ardize their all in accepting and acting upon 
what they "say but do not." Witness this ex- 
cerpt from the latest letter of the old count to 
the Russian ministers of the Interior and Just- 
ice and published by the Vienna Arbeitor Zei- 
tung: 

After protesting against the persecution of 
his followers as incomprehensible, useless, 
cruel, and, above everything, unjust, the letter 
continues; 



"I alone am the guilty one in connection with 
the matter, for I write books containing ideas 
which are regarded as a danger to the state. 
If the government considers it necessary to 
suppress by force that to which it objects. It 
should strike direct at the origin of the evil; 
that is, at me, especially as 1 declare that I 
shall never cease to do that which the gov- 
ernment regards as harmful, but what is for 
me a duty to God and my conscience. 

"Do not, I beg you. imagine that I call on 
you to punish me instead of my followers, be- 
cause I believe my popularity and position 
would render it difficult for the authorities to 
treat me as others are treated. So far from 
thinking that I occupy a privileged position, 
I am convinced that if the government ban 
ishes or imprisons or otherwise punishes me, 
public opinion will not be stirred, but that the 
great majority of the people will say that the 
step ought to have been taken long ago. I con- 
sider it my duty that you should punish me 
instead of those who accept my teachings, and 
I beg you to mitigate your severity." 

The Arbeiter Zeitung. which is exceptionally 
well informed on Russian affairs, adds that on 
receipt of the letter the question of the arrest 
of Tolstoy was seriously considered, but it was 
finally decided not to molest him. 

B oys* Clubs 

By 'William A. ClarK, 

Headworker Gordon House. New York City. 

A descriptive and practically supgestlve booklet of 4s 
pages on tlie organization, mauageuieut and programs lor 
boys' clubs. 

Price 20 Cents. : : : Order of The Commons. 

Other monographs on "Games and Play," "Camps for 
Boys," "Schoolyards and Playrooms," •■ Vacation Schools," 
"The Lincoln House Play- Work System." 

Send 60 cents to The Commons for 
The Handbook of Social Settlements 

By Professor C. R. Henderson. The best single 
volume on the Social Settlement Movement. 

TKe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at (Jrand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, III., and is entered at the Chicago rostoltlco as 
mall matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price ift Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
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Changes ol Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
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a reasonable Interval after It Is due. 

Discontinuances. Plea.se notify us at once If for any reason 
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with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue The Commons to each address until notified 
to the contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



Social Significance of Church Federation. 

Aftt-r ten years of si-emiugly fruitless struggle. 
federation of churches has just become a fact in 
Chicago. Foarteeu denominations are already 
represented on the council of fifty. At its first 
session three practical line* of effort were entered 
upon with vigor and intelligence. Endeavor will 
at once be made to federate churches throughout 
the city that naturally group together within well- 
defined districts and which will most readily 
aflSiliat-e in religious fellowship and neighborhood 
co-operation. In the fortnight before Easter, 
which is always set apart by large bodies of 
churches for special religious effort, it is hoped to 
unite many other denominations in holding a 
" simultaneous mission " whereby the funda- 
mental tenets of common faith may, by concert- 
ed action, be pressed more deeply home upon the 
heart and i-onscience of the whole people. A 
bureau of information, research and publication is 
also contemplated which will serve as a "clearing 
house," where the diverse lines of religious and 
church work may exchange the values attained 
through observation, e.xperience and special in- 
vestigation. The collection of data directly tear- 
ing upon the life, aims, methods and relations of 
the churches in all their work for the community 
will supplement the already large collection of 
data in statistics and social economics which the 
John Crerar Library has already gathered. The 
committee in charge of this bureau, consisting ot 
Professors Charles IJ. Henderson of the Univers- 
ity of Chicago, and John H. Gray of Northwestern 
University, with Prof. Graham Taylor, president 
of the Federation as Chairman, will not only co- 
operate with the library in adding to its material, 
but will assist in bringing its valuable data to the 
knowledge and practical use of church and social 
workers. To the force of its e.xecutive oflBcers the 
federation has already added its first "S-minary 
Federation Fellowship" to which it has appointed 
a competent graduate student of university cul- 
ture and practical experience earned on city 
fields. 

The settlements of Chicago may as surely be 
depended upon directly to cooperate in this move- 
ment, as they have indirectly fostered its spirit and 
aided its initiative. 

It is a pleasure to add that the initiative to 
church federation in Chicago originally came 
from .the theological seminaries in and near the 
city. For a dozen years, si.\ of the seven of them 
maintained a " Faculties' Union," meeting twice a 
year for fellowship and discussion around the din- 
ner table. Their students' Inter-Seminary Banquet 
annually centers and spreads abroad the federative 
spirit. 



Chicago Commons Items. 

The warden has postponed his leave of ab- 
sence from professional duties until the autumn 
period of the academic year and expects to go 
abroad about the middle of May to remain un- 
til November. 

His needed respite from the incessant care and 
continuous toil which have crowded out almost all 
leisure from the past ten years of his life, is still 
dependent upon the success of the effort which he 
and the trustees of Chicago Commons are now 
making to provide for the financial support of the 
settlement during his absence. At least i!6,500 must 
be subscribed or guaranteed within the next six 
weeks for current expenses during the six ni'mths 
of his absence. Over $.5,000 are still due before 
the building can stand clear of debt. 

A SETTLEMENT SKMIS.\R. 

An inter-academic seminar on "Social Obser- 
vation and Research" is being held for the 
spring quarter by Professor Taylor at Chicago 
Commons. Each member outlines the plan 
and purpose for a proposed investigation, after 
which an investigator details the method and 
the results of an investigation actually in pro- 
cess or already completed. 

CITY POLITICS AT THE SETTLEMENT. 

Chicago Commons will l>e a center of po- 
litical activity for all parties in the spring elec- 
tion. The traction issue overshadows partisan 
interests and, by introducing the economic and 
industrial elements into the city politics of 
Chicago, has furnished an educational oppor- 
tunity which we are trying to improve to the 
utmost. A series of political mass meetings 
will be. held during this month at which 
the mayoralty and aklertnanic candidates will 
be heard and questioned. Each meeting -is 
. held under the auspices of the settlement with the 
cooperation of the party organizations of the ward. 
Great interest is manifested in the uoique feature 
of having all parties and candidates present their 
claims in succession at one place. While the House 
remains independent in the mayoralty con- 
test, each resident is free to follow his own 
predilections in party affiliation and work. The 
Community Club, composed of citizens of the 
ward, is using its utmost endeavor to se- 
cure the best possible aldermanic nominations 
from both parties, reserving the right to en- 
dorse the one whose election is considered most 
desirable or to nominate an independent can- 
didate by petition. This club has been the de- 
termining factor in wielding the "balance of 
power" by which three elections hand-running 
have been won. 



THe Coxnmoiis 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Asperts of Life and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 8i— Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicago, April, 1903 



Angel-Court. 

In Angel-Court the sunless air 
Grows faint and sick; to left and right 
The cowering houses shrink from sight. 

Huddling and hopeless, eyeless, bare. 

Misnamed you say? For surely rare 
^lust be the angel-shapes that light 

In Angel-Court! 

Nay!— the Eternities are there. 

Death at the doorway stands to smite; 

Life in its garrets leaps to light; 
And Love has climbed that crumbling stair 
In Angel-Court! 

— Dobson's Miscellanies (Dodd, Mead). 



EVILS AND REMEDIES OF OUR INDUS- 
TRIAL SYSTEM. 

DISCrSSKD BY PROF. JOHX H. GRAY, NORTHWESTERN 
UXIVERSITY. 

The large and influential Co-operative Class 
of the First Congregational Church in Evans- 
ton. 111., has devoted its sessions this winter to 
discussing the application ot Christian ethics 
to the most urgent present day issues. As it is 
largely composed of employers in the forefront 
of industrial struggles, the rights and wrongs 
between employers and employes have received 
the most marlved emphasis. Prof. John H. 
Gray, of the department of political economy in 
Northwestern University discussed " Wh«t are the 
most glaring evils of the present social and indus- 
trial system and what the remedies in sight ? " 
The somewhat imperfect report of hir wholly 
conversational talk in the Evanston Press provoked 
such widespread interest that with his permission 
we reproduce it in our columns. Prof. Gray's 
recent investigation of the industrial situation 
in England for the United States Department of 
Labor lends special significance to his treatment 
of this topic. The article which follows his is by 
anotlier expert observer. 

PROF. GRAY'S ADDRESS. 

"The most hopeful remedies in sight, said the 
speaker, are collective bargaining and labor 
unions. With all their murders and violence, of 
which all good citizens heartily disapprove, the 
unions still have more good than bad in them. 
The labor interests are not striking simply for 
wages — they are striking for life. The labor 
unions in Chicago, said Prof. Gray in reply to 



a question, are the worst in the world, but even 
they are beginning to learn that violence and 
lawlessness defeat their own aims. 

THE HEART OF THE LABOR QUESTION. 

The heart of the labor question is that, under 
the modern competitive system, with the great 
development of machinery, the endless and al- 
most universal combination and ownership of 
capital, and the tremendous concentration and 
ownership of wealth, the trade unionists do not 
get a share of the products corresponding to 
their contribution toward the production of 
them. And until they get such a share and be- 
lieve that they are getting It, there will be so- 
cial unrest and agitation, and the interests of 
the community require that there should be 
such agitation. This is the heart of the ques- 
tion of the organization of labor, it is the very 
essence of the question why the masses of work- 
ingmen do not come near the church. The 
working man does not respect, and it is unde- 
sirable that he should respect, any religious 
system or any ecclesiastical organization which 
does not seem to him to be seriously concerned 
with eternal, old-fashioned, simple justice. 

THE REAL LABOR QUESTION. 

All of the economic discussions in the Co- 
operative class, whatever the nominal subject 
and whatever the language of the texts, have 
come back to one and the same point, a point 
which, however concealed and disguised here- 
tofore, is bound to come to the front and must 
be wrestled with fairly and squarely by our 
children. It must be wrestled with as it 
never has been before, by us, or our children 
will have no opportunity to wrestle with 
so mild and peaceful a question as this. We 
have heard endless quibbling in the attempt to 
refute the proposition that the rich are growing 
richer and the poor poorer. As an intellectual 
speculation that is an interesting problem. As 
an issue of practical importance it does not ex- 
ist. Another phase of the same thing is, that 
with the increase of wealth and prosperity 
wages have increased, and a large part of the 
population has assumed that if you can prove 
that wages have increased in the last genera- 
tion, you have done what ought forever to si- 
lence the labor agitator and the workingman 



THE COMMONS 



in general. Now it is not an unimportant ques- 
tion as to whether the statement that wages, 
nominal and real, have increased in the last 
generation is true or not, but the bearing of 
that question on the dissatisfaction of the 
laboring element and on the demands of labor 
organizations is just about the same as that 
of the question of how many angels can dance 
on the point of a needle. 

If I were a laboring man and my employer 
attempted to convince me that my wages had 
increased every year for decades, that would 
have absolutely no influence on the demands 
that I should consider myself entitled in justice 
to make upon him. No laboring man concerns 
himself primarily or chiefly any longer with 
these questions. What he ought to ask, and 
what he does ask and what he will continue to 
ask until there is some degree of simple justice 
accorded him, is, whether or not he gets a share 
of the good things produced by human effort 
corresponding, that is, proportional, to his con- 
tribution toward that production. This is the 
gist of the whole matter; it is an ethical ques- 
tion connecting itself closely with economic 
facts and conditions. 

PBOSPERITY BE.\CHES THE LABOBEB SLOWLY. 

The speaker named two phases of the injus- 
tice of the present industrial organization that 
seemed to him to go farther than anything else 
to make the laboring man dissatisfied, hostile 
to the present organization of society, hostile 
to the church. The laboring man realizes a 
good deal more than we do that, having been 
shut out from training and opportunity such as 
we have enjoyed, the burden of initiative and 
the moral obligation to bring in eternal justice 
in governmental and society affairs rest first, 
foremost and chiefly on some other than the 
wage earner. He observes that in this country, 
rich beyond all others, possessed of an econom- 
ic productive power beyond the greatest dreams 
of a generation ago, such economic pressure is 
brought to bear on him as to deprive his chil- 
dren of that degree of schooling and education 
which would give them a fair chance in life. 
In the city of Leicester, England, many young 
children were burned to death, largely at open 
fires, in 1899, because their mothers were, for 
the most part, out working and they were left 
in the care of other small children. The aver- 
age length of life in Massachusetts, where the 
conditions are far better than in most of the 
other states, is as follows: Farmers, 65 years; 
craftsmen, 50.8 years; factory workers, 36.3 
years. The infant mortality in England is as 
follows: Higher classes, 1 death to 4% births; 



middle classes, 1 death to 2Y2 births; laboring 
classes, 1 death to 2 births. . The workman is 
under the stern necessity of putting his child- 
ren to earning something at the age when they 
ought to be in school if they are to have a fair 
chance in life with the other classes of society. 
He finds the state organized and the most promi- 
nent church members, if not the church as an 
organization, endorsing a system by which 
those children are permitted to go into the 
mine, the factory and the workshop, and are de- 
liberately used as a means of cutting down 
his own wages. Having been deprived of 
their natural birthright in this free land, name- 
ly, such an education as would enable them to 
compete on equal terms with the other classes, 
they are driven so hard and are subject to such 
long and exacting labor as to break them in 
health, and to make it highly improbable that 
they will ever be able to maintain even as 
high a position in life as their parents. Then 
what does it avail to talk about the land of 
the free? WhaX does it avail to talk about the 
great prosperity, which is unquestioned, to a 
man who sees his own children ground down 
in mind, body and soul? And more than a 
quarter of a million of little children are thus 
ground down in factories, mines and work- 
shops of this country today. Does he rejoice in 
the prosperity? No, he rankles with the sense 
of injustice, and by his vigorous opposition he 
does society a service. 

INJUSTICE OF MACHIXERT TO LABOR. 

If you ask the average non-laboring man, and 
especially the employer of labor, the effect of 
consolidating companies and improving the organ- 
ization of industry or introducing new machines 
using that term in the widest sense, he will tell you 
that these improvements mean greater employ- 
ment of labor, will denounce the opposition of 
the laborer to such changes, and clearly inti- 
mate that the laborer in protesting is not only 
marvelously stupid but hopelessly brutal and 
depraved. Yet the merest tyro of labor union- 
ists, although he may be unable to read, knows 
that what the employer says in regard to in- 
creasing the demand for labor may be entirely 
true and yet have no bearing whatever on the 
case toward which it is directed. The fact is 
that the laborers are not opposed to machinery 
or even to the organization of trusts, although 
they frequently strike on account of the intro- 
duction of a machine, and but a few years ago 
frequently burnt and smashed the machine it- 
self. What they are opposed to is any change 
which throws, them out of their jobs and is 
likely to prevent them ever getting on their 



J 



THE COMMONS 



feet economically again, no matter how many 
people the change may give employment to in 
the future or how much wealth it may enable 
the world to produce for somebody else. The 
whole objection of the labor union, whatever 
may be said of it in the past, is today directed 
not toward preventing improvements in the or- 
ganization of industry or in the character of 
the machines used, but by means of collective 
bargaining to insist first, last and all the time 
that the laborer shall get some share in this 
genuine progress of the world, namely, the in- 
creased power of producing commodities. 

JIACIIINEKY THROWS MEN OUT OF WORK. 

Take, for instance, the turning of all of our 
horse railroads into so-called trolley lines. It 
has, beyond doubt, required more men to run 
the street railway systems than were required 
before. It has enabled a lot of young fellows, 
supple, keen, alert, to find jobs on the street 
railways that could not have found them in the 
earlier period. It has just as certainly and in- 
evitably thrown many of the middle-aged men 
who drove the horses, out of employment, and 
enabled the companies to get rid of them with- 
out compensation, and In a multitude of cases 
permanently destroyed the income of these 
men. 

This type of case is one of the great causes 
of the discontent of the laboring man and of 
his feeling that with all the boasted progress 
of the world, a progress in economic produc- 
tion almost beyond description, it has been for 
the benefit of others and not for him. Such are 
some of the fruits of an age of machinery and 
of an almost unlimited power of producing 
commodities. The laborer is entirely right 
when he insists that whenever he is thrown out 
of his job in such a case in order that by im- 
proved methods of machinery the world may 
produce more commodities, the world has 
gained at his expense; and, while the laborer 
is not less patriotic or less altruistic than the 
rest of the world, he objects to paying all of 
the fare for the rest of the world to ride to 
the picnic and having no opportunity to attend 
the picnic himself. The economist Mill was not 
wide of the mark when he suggested that it was 
questionable whether all the improved methods 
of production and introduction of complex ma- 
chinery had lightened the day's toil of a single 
workman, and remarked that it was much more 
likely that it enabled a part of the population 
to live in very much greater luxury at the same 
time that it enabled a very much larger total 
population to exist. It is coming to be a well 
recognized maxim that in an age of rapid im- 



provement in machinery, so long as society per- 
mits that machinery to throw large masses 
of men out of employment, the great gain 
in productive power is made at the expense 
of, and not to the benefit of, the man thrown 
out of employment. 

It is further coming to be recognized, first, 
that it is entirely unjust that this burden 
should be put upon the laboring population, 
and, next, that it is impossible in an age of uni- 
versal adult male suffrage, a free press and 
free speech, to put it there much longer. 

OUR APPALLIXG INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS. 

This is one phase of the injustice of the ex- 
isting industrial organization. The other phase 
is an appalling thing that ought to make every 
American hang his head in shame and look up 
with admiration toward the most tyrannous, 
medieval and class-ridden government in west- 
ern Europe. That is, that the citizens of this 
great republic are the only people in the world, 
commonly referred to as civilized people, that 
have made no considerable compulsory rules, 
regulations and statutes for compensating 
workmen for industrial accidents. We have 
made no adequate provision either legally or 
voluntarily for meeting what is probably the 
most tremendous evil and the most appalling 
hardship in the industrial world of the twen- 
tieth century, and in that particular we stand 
absolutely alone. We are notoriously reckless 
of human life, more so than any other civilized 
or semi-civilized nation. 

The enormous loss of life which comes from 
this recklessness is perhaps the price we pay 
for the prosperity of which we hear so much, 
day in and day out; but, unfortunately, one 
class of society pays the price and another class 
enjoys the prosperity. In round numbers, there 
were as many people killed on the American 
railroads during the Boer war as were lost by 
the British army in South Africa, including 
those who died of disease as well as in battle. 

ACCIDENTS BEYOND CONTROL OF VICTIMS. 

There may be some question as to whether 
or not the increasing complexity of machinery 
in general increases the rate of accidents. There 
can be no question, however, to a keen observer, 
that the growing intricacy of modern ma- 
chinery increases enormously the number of 
accidents entirely beyond the control of those 
who suffer from such accidents. Virtually all 
of continental Europe, years ago recognized 
this fact, and provided compensation for such 
cases under the name of insurance. England 
has finally, within the last two year, comes 
to a complete revision of the law, providing 



THE COMMONS 



uiuler the name of employers' liability that the 
industry, and not the poor workingman. shall 
bear the burden of the unavoidable accidents 
of mechanical industry. 

Under the English common law the employer 
was held responsible for accidents resulting di- 
rectly from his fault or the fault of his agents 
whose orders the injured person was in duty 
bound to follow. In the day when there was 
no machinery this was a reasonably adequate 
provision, for it put the burden of the employ- 
er's faults on himself when the fault could be 
proved, and it placed on the workingman the 
burdens of any accidents caused by his own 
fault or by the fault'of his fellow employe, as 
well as all accidents in fact due to the fault 
of the employer but beyond legal proof. Under 
the system of hand labor it was perfectly easy 
in the great majority of cases to tell to whose 
fault an accident was due. But when many 
workingmen in the midst of compie.x ma- 
chinery ,work together, vast numbers of acci- 
dents happen which are in fact not the fault 
of any individual. Where they are the fault 
of some individual, it is usually impossible to 
prove the case, while the attempt to apply the 
fellow servant rule falls but little short of 
idiocy, although that is the rule which with 
few exceptions prevails in America today. 

The theory that a workingman takes the 
risks of negligence, carelessness and incom- 
petence on the part of his fellow servants un- 
der a system of machinery production, is fool- 
ish. It turns on. the arch fallacy, to a large 
extent still current in the great republic but 
long since rejected and despised by the effete • 
monarchies of the old world, great and sinall. 
that, in proportion to the disagreeableness and 
dangerousness of the work, wages will be high 
and that one has a compensation for the risk 
in the wages paid. Every important European 
nation except Great Britain, which has solved 
the problem in another way, has come fairly 
and squarely to base its state action on the 
theory that personal accidents in the industrial 
army are so far not' due to the fault of em- 
ployes, as to make it the duty of the state to 
provide compensation just as fully and just as com- 
pletely for accidents and deaths as the United States 
government undertakes to i)rovide comj)ensation 
for life disaster to the members of her military 
force. Each is considered, save by us, to be a 
necessary concomitant to national life and hu- 
man progress. 

These burdens fall naturally and necessarily 
in the first instance on the workmen, but they 
are incurred for the sake of human progress 



and the whole community. Every considera- 
tion of justice and fair play requires- that socie- 
ty as a whole, which gets the benefit of this 
progress, should relieve the working classes of 
tliese burdens by paying compensation for deaths 
and injuries thereby incurred. 



Who is Responsible for Limiting Output in 
England ? 

1!Y AN EXPERT OBSERVER OK ECONOMIC 
CONDITIONS. 

The question as to whether or not trade 
unions limit output is assuming a considerable 
importance in these days. The London Times 
in its issue of November 18, 1901. began a 
series of articles, or, rather, attacks upon the 
unions for this alleged offense. The Times' 
articles and editorials were so biased as to be 
practically worthless, but the discussion got 
into the magazines, tlie Economic Journal and 
the Contemporary Review, the Engineering 
Review and others. So important has the sub- 
ject appeared that the United States Depart- 
ment of Labor has an investigation on foot, 
and sent Prof. John H. Gray of the North- 
western University at Evanston, Illinois, to 
England to look into it. Another agent has 
been sent to Belgium, one to France, another 
to Germany. In the United States Prof. John 
R. Commons will look after New York and 
have general supervision of the work, while 
special agents of the department gather in- 
formation in New England and in the Middle 
West. 

There may be a few instances where unions, 
by limiting the day's work, restrict the out- 
put; there have been instances where directors 
of combinations have voted to restrict output. 
But in all the articles so far published there 
does not seem to be anything said about union 
men that is not just as true of non-union 
men. That laboring men, whether organized 
into unions or not, will do just as little work 
as possible for just as much pay as possible is 
no less true than tliat tlieir employers will sell just 
as little of labor's products for just as much 
money as they can get. That workmen will 
resort to trickery to evade work is just as true 
as that paper soles are sometimes put on 
shoes. But , the system of political economy 
without a glimmer of morality or glimpse of 
God in it, for which the London Times stands, 
is more responsible for all this than all things 
else, even its pet abhorrence — trades unions. If 
labor is a commodity to be bought and sold 
for what it will bring, the laborer who can 
get the most for the least is the highest type 



"0^3!;73T^rar7?riin»S3rrr^ 



THE COMMONS 



of economic perfection. If English employer? 
have been fooled by having this commodity 
mal^e a market for more of itself through a 
tacit understanding to "go easy" so as to make 
more work for others, it shows that labor 
understands better than English employers the 
economic doctrines said employers have been 
promulgating and paying for ever since Adam 
Smith. The English capitalist wants nothing 
so much as market for his wares. If he can 
not get this because the laborer has mar- 
keted his commodity and got too much for 
too little, apply your "survival of the fittest" 
fetish to him. He is your superior, off with 
your hats. The London Times pleads the baby 
act when it talks of "morality" or immorality 
in connection with economics. The political 
economist of England, and the Times is tlie organ 
of tliis school, apotheosizes selfishness. " To buy 
in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market " is 
the maxim of trade and commerce. The price of a 
thing "is what you can get for it," absolutely 
without regard to quality. "No friendship in 
business," no sentiment in trade. Now to do 
an honest day's work for an honest day's pay 
is sentimentalism. It smacks of Jesus, rather 
than Ricardo. The Times cries like a whipped 
puppy because the commodity it wants to buy 
can get so much money for so little of itself 
that "British industries are threatened." But 
what a yell would go up from the Times if 
some one should say "the steel rail manufac- 
turer should give an honest amount of steel, 
both quantity and quality, for every pound 
sterling he gets in exchange." No, no, no, the 
Times would yell; the market price fixes that, 
and the market price means all you can get, 
and as to quality, "let the purchaser beware." 
The "go easy" laborer who restricts his out- 
put to make work for others is simply taking 
all he can get for his commodity and increas- 
ing the market for it. A political economy that 
ignores the humanities, that sneers at the 
"brotherhood of man." has advocated an "every 
fellow for himself" and "dog eat dog" philos- 
ophy until it has made dogs of us all. This 
political economy has at last got British in- 
dustry into a pretty bad fix. 



"Of the people, when they rise in mass in 
behalf of the Union and the liberties of their 
country, truly may it be said: 'The gates of 
hell cannot prevail against them.' " — Lincoln. 



"Stand with anybody that stands right. 
Stand with him while he is right, and part 
with him when he goes wrong." — Lincoln. 



Summon the Wee Battalions. 

Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid 

them not; for of such is the kingdom ot God.— Luke 

xviil, 16. 

Out of the lanes and alleys. 
Out of the vile purlieu, 

Summon the wee battalions. 
Pass them in long review. 

Grimy and ragged and faded- 
Say, if you choose, with a tear: 

"These are the ones of His kingdom. 
And thus do I keep them here." 

Here, where the tenements breed them. 

Gather them, gather them in, 
Heirs to the kingdom of Heaven, 

Bound in the maze of sin. 
What have ye done to uplift them. 

These whom He loved so well? 
Oh. tiny and worn, unkempt and forlorn. 

Us of your heritage tell. 

The faces, the wee, weary faces. 

Old ere their time, so old' 
Who from His kingdom tore them. 

And into this bondage sold? 
Folk of the stately churches, 

Here is the baby host, 
Heirs to a Father's glory. 

Marked with the grim word, "Lost!" 

The faces, the old, old faces. 

On bodies so wee,' so wee. 
Whose is the hand that crushed them 

And made them the dreg and the lee! 
"Suffer the little children"— 

Is this the answer we bear? 
That they live their lives in the haunts and hives. 

The children of dumb despair? 

—Alfred J. Waterhouse, In New York Times. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Association by 
Mary Kingsbuky Simkhovitch, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



THE CHILD LABOR MOVEMENT IN NEW 
YORK. 

It is not yet a year since Dr. Felix Adler 
appealed to the Settlements of New York to 
disclose to the public the child labor conditions 
in New York and to declare whether Northern 
criticism of the South in regard to child labor 
could be complacently indulged in. 

The Settlements, through the Association of 
Neighborhood Workers, responded to Dr. Adler 
and appointed a committee for the purpose of 
discovering what steps could be taken to re- 
strict the exploitation of the working children. 
Robert Hunter was made chairman of the com- 
mittee and subcommittees were appointed to 
report on the various phases of child labor. 



THE COMMONS 



The investigation, however, was not undertaken 
tintil the latter part of August and the form of 
attack was not determined until October. 

One of the plans held tentatively was that 
an investigation should be instituted by the 
association and carried to a point which would 
prove the necessity for a child labor commis- 
sion appointed by the state. The ultimate aim 
of this plan, as of all others, was to secure 
legislation which would more effectively pro- 
tect the children already within the law and to 
extend legislation to children now entirely un- 
protected. After a full consideration of the sit- 
uation it seemed the wiser plan to work direct- 
ly and immediately for legislation. This, as it 
was said, was the psychological moment. A 
realizing sense of the child labor evil seemed to 
be sweeping the country. Public apathy, the 
stumbling block to reform, had shifted for the 
lime to other questions. It was now unmistak- 
ably the,children"s turn. As the legislature was 
to convene in January, the time for campaign 
work was extremely limited. It was realized, 
furthermore, that the committee should be in- 
creased so as to include men whose influence 
would be felt at Albany when the time came for 
presentation of the bills. An Executive Com- 
mittee was formed consisting of Felix 'Adler, 
George W. Alger. W. H. Baldwin, Jr., S. B. 
Donnelly, John H. Hammond, Robert Hunter, 
Florence Kelly, W. H. Maxwell, V. Everett 
Macy, Thos. H. Mulvy, J. K. Paulding, Charles 
Sprague Smith, W. Enligh Walling, Lillian D. 
Wald. Mr. F. S. Hall was secured as secretary 
and given the administration of the campaign, 
which consisted in securing not only support 
for the measure in New York City but through- 
out the state. A Finance, an Investigation, a 
I.«gislative and a Publication Committee were 
appointed. The- most important and difiBcult 
piece of work fell to the Committee on Legis- 
lation. After numerous meetings of this com- 
mittee, covering several weeks, three bills were 
drawn up which presented in rough form what 
the committee considered at once the most im- 
portant and possible goal to attain. With the 
approval of the Executive Committee the most 
important provisions in the proposed bills 
stood as follows: 

(1) In order to secure a certificate allowing 
emplojTuent In factories and mercantile estal)- 
lishments the parent of a child must file with 
the Board of Health incontrovertible evidence 
that such child is actually 14 years of age or 
upwards. The forms of evidence specified in 
the bills are: A transcript of the child's birth 
certificate or of its baptismal certificate or 
some religious record or passport. In addition 



the school record of the child, called for under 
the present law, must now include a statement 
of the child's age as entered on the school 
records. The only evidence of age called for 
under the present law is the affidavit of the 
parent. 

^2) The existing laws prohibiting the em- 
ployment of children under 14 years of age in 
mercantile establishments, and regulating the 
hours of employment of such children, between 
the ages of 14 and 16, are extended to cover 
children employed in or in connection with 
telegraph, messenger, delivery or other offices, 
and hotels, restaurants and places of public 
amusement. 

(3) The provision in the existing law is 
repealed which allows vacation work in fac- 
tories to children 14 to 16 years of age, who 
have not had the full schooling required for 
securing employment throughout the entire 
year, and the corresponding provision is. re- 
pealed which allows vacation work to children 
12 to 16 years of age in mercantile and other 
establishments named in (2). This latter re- 
peal, however, applies only to cities of the first 
and second class. 

(4) The employment of children between 14 
and 16 years of age more than 9 hours in any 
one day is prohibited in factories, mercantile 
and other establishments named in (2). The 
existing laws place a 10-hour limit, but add as 
an exception that such children may be em- 
ployed more than 10 hours in any one day if 
this is done in order to make a shorter work 
day of the last day of the week — an exception 
which makes the laws almost impossible of 
enforcement. 

(5) No child under 12 years of age shall 
work as a bootblack or street peddler in cities 
of the first class, and no child 12 to 14 years 
of age shall so work later than 9 o'clock in 
the evening. No child under 10 years of age 
shall work as a newsboy in cities of the first 
class, and no child 10 to 14 years of age shall 
so work later than 9 o'clock in the evening. 

The enforcement of the factory law remained 
in the new bill as of old, in the hands of the 
State Labor Bureau; the enforcement of the 
mercantile law, extending not only to stores, 
as heretofore, but to offices, hotels, etc., was 
placed with the Boards of Health; the street 
trades bill, relating to peddlers", newsboys and 
Ijootblacks. was to be enforced by the Board of 
Education. 

^The rough draft of the bills received careful 
and expert legal revision. The State Labor 
Bureau, the local Board of Health in New York 
City and the Superintendent of Public Schools 



THE COMMONS 



■were consulted and the co-operation of all was 
secured. The Labor Bureau and the Board of 
Health had indeed contemplated new legisla- 
tion and bills of their own on the same lines, 
but less extensive. The committee's bills, were 
adopted instead, by both. 

Before any public step was taken Governor 
Odell was interviewed and the case the com- 
mittee had developed was laid before him. 
He promised his entire support and recom- 
mended in his message to the legislature that 
the child labor bill receive its consideration. 
The governor's message was the first public 
announcement that the child labor question 
had become an issue. 

The committee at once began its campaign 
of education and endorsement of the proposed 
measure was secured throughout the state. 
The response was immediate and widespread. 
Not only individuals but all philanthropic 
organizations and humane societies, with one 
notable exception, endorsed the bills. The daily 
press of- New York City also, without excep- 
tion," generally gave its support. 

Strangely the one society that stood conspicu- 
ously apart in this humane effort was the So- 
ciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children 
in New York City, popularly and locally known 
as the "Gerry Society." This society attacked 
the street trades bill on the ground that the 
classes of children under consideration were 
adequately provided for in the Penal Code, also 
that the work of these children was not harm- 
ful, but on the contrary commendable. It 
characterized the bill as "vicious" in its at- 
tempt to restrict these workers. The sections 
of the Penal Code referred to have for their 
object the prevention of cruelty and of pauperizing 
or immoral influences where children under 
16 are concerned. To send a messenger boy 
under 16 years to a disorderly house is declared 
to be a misdemeanor, but with this exception it is 
left to the discretion of the court to decide what is 
cruel, pauperizing or immoral. The Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is empow- 
ered by these sections to make arrests and to 
take charge of the children after a trial. It 
cannot be said that the society has shown 
much appreciation of the modern attitude to- 
wards children and their childish needs. It is 
characteristic that they look upon the child 
labor movement as "sentimental" and then 
"vicious." The issue between this society and 
the Child Labor Committee was clearly drawn. 
The committee took the stand that mental and 
physical detpriorizatidii resulted to children 
regularly employed at an early age or for long 
or at late hours, and they demanded that this 



position endorsed by the intelligence of the 
community be finally expressed in legislation. 
The opposition was indicated early in the his- 
tory of the movement, but it was not clearly 
stated until the time of the second hearing of 
the bills; that was the hearing before the 
Senate Committee. 

At the present writing the difference in point 
of view is still unsettled and undetermined by 
the legislature. The committee has, however, 
recommended two important amendments to its 
bill, the first of which it is fair to say the 
Gerry Society pointed out as a serious omis- 
sion. This amendment prohibits girls under 
16 from selling newspapers on the streets. 
This concession the committee of course gladly 
made, but the second amendment which the 
committee was forced to make, that is, the 
omission of peddlers from the bill, is a distinct 
loss. Peddlers are specifically mentioned along 
with beggars in the Penal Code, but so far as 
the public has been able to discover these ped- 
dlers under 16 have never been dealt with 
unless their peddling was carried on as a beg- 
gar's subterfuge. With these alterations and 
a few minor ones the committee is in hopes 
of a speedy passage of their bills. 

The investigation into conditions was insti- 
tuted about the first of September. It covered 
all kinds and conditions of employment in 
which children were known or suspected. It 
extended to children regularly employed and 
not attending school, children at work before 
and after school, factory children, children in 
stores and oflices, children delivering goods or 
messages, to newsboys, bootblacks and peddlers. 

Children were found not only at work for 
the traditional "widowed mother,"but in support 
of fathers and brothers, and indeed of relatives 
of all denominations. On the other hand, chil- 
dren were found at work early and late 
throughout the day or after and before school 
whose fathers were earning wages sufficient 
to maintain the family in the necessaries of 
life. Some of these children were at work to 
satisfy some paltry family ambition — a child's 
schooling was sacrificed to possess an article 
of furniture. But the widowed mother and 
family sustenance plea made in extenuation of 
child labor by such apologists as the "Gerry 
Society" was not disproved so much by the 
cases of so-called "family greed" as by the 
cases of poverty. The discovery of little boys 
and girls' futile attempts to support a family 
or to support themselves were the tragedies 
the investigation unearthed and should relegate 
for all time the plea of the apologists to the 
region of out-of-date theories. 



8 



THE COM MONS 



The average earnings of 250 newsboys did 
not reach fl.50 a week. The demoralization, 
the reversion of a good order which results 
from adult dependence on little children was 
constantly demonstrated. "My mother can't 
say nothin' to me. Me and my brother, we 
pays' the rent," a child of ten observes. Chil- 
dren as young and younger are told they can- 
not return home until they have made enough 
on the street to pay — the bread and beer bill, 
for instance. 

The Commissioner of Charities of New York 
said in this connection: 

"The objection that is offered most fre- 
quently, and perhaps with most effect, to fur- 
ther restriction of child labor, is the alleged 
fact that ih a great many instances the earn- 
ings of these little children are needed to sup- 
plement the incomes of widows, of families In 
which the husband and wage-earner may be 
either temporarily or permanently or partially 
disabled, and that without the small addition 
which the earnings of these little boys and 
girls can bring in, there would be suffering 
and distress. It would be easy, I think, to 
overestimate the extent to which that is true. 
. . . So we should not admit that that side 
is more serious than it is, but do let us cheer- 
fully, frankly, gladly add that there would be 
many cases in which the proposed legislation 
(for the restriction of child labor) would de- 
prive many families of earnings from their 
children, and that we propose ourselves to step 
into the breach and provide that relief in good 
hard cash that passes in the market. . . . 
If larger means are necessary to support these 
children so that they need not depend on their 
own labor, by all means let us put up the 
money and not push the children for a part of 
their support before the time when they should 
naturally furnish a part of their support. 
. ... In the long run it is never cheap to 
be cruel or hard. It is never wise to drive a 
hard bargain with childhood." 

If the child labor movement in New York 
is the occasion for this new attitude towards 
the children of the poor it has marked an 
epoch in social progress. This contribution to 
the future is perhaps even of greater import 
than the immediate passage of the bills now 
before the legislature. 

Helen Mabot. 

New York, 17th March. 

"I have never had a feeling politically that 
did not spring from the sentiments embodied 
in the Declaration of Independence." — Lincoln. 



THE TENEMENT HOUSE LAW AND ITS 
REVISION. 

The tenement house agitation continued dur- 
ing the past month has furnished one more 
illustration of the fact that "all of the people 
can not be fooled all of the time." Through 
the diligence and activity of Commissioner 
DeForest and of his deputy, Laurence Veiller, 
helped and urged on by the settlements of the 
city and the press of all parties and all kinds, 
our legislators have been brought to realize at 
last that the people can not be fooled any 
longer and that their attacks on the present 
DeForest tenement house law are absolutely 
opposed to the public sentiment of the com- 
munity and dangerous to their own tenure of 
office. And so the various bills which have 
been introduced at Albany at the instance of 
well-organized and perhaps unscrupulous build- 
ing interests in Brooklyn, with the plausible 
pretext of merely seeking to reanimate the 
building trade in that borough, which, it was 
claimed, had been brought to its present well- 
nigh lifeless state as a direct result of th5 too 
stringent provisions of the DeForest law, have 
some of them, like the notorious, so-called, 
"Marshall Bill," been abandoned to their fate 
even by those who had originally stood spon- 
sors for them, or they are of such a preposter- 
ous character that their serious consideration 
by the legislature seems now to be an impos- 
sibility. 

For some time, however, the people in Brook- 
lyn did not seem to perceive the real danger 
to themselves lurking in these bills; they lost 
sight of the fact that just before the passage 
of the DeForest law plans for very many new 
houses were filed in order that the speculative 
builder might thus avail himself of the quicker 
profits possible under the old law, and of the 
fact that to this over-building and to the great 
increase in the cost of building materials since 
that time, the present condition of the build- 
ing trade in Brooklyn was due, rather than to 
the more expensive methods of construction 
required by the DeForest law. Not having had 
the terrible experience of Manhattan previous 
to thp passage of the DeForest law, they were 
slow to realize the possibility of similar con- 
ditions ever confronting them should that law 
be rendered largely nugatory ; and so, through 
a systematic perversion of the facts and a 
happy inexperience, the Borough of Brooklyn 
for a while bid fair to furnish the spectacle 
of "some of the people who can be fooled all of 
the time." 

Although Senator Marshall has disclaimed 



THE COMMONS 



personal responsibility for the bill which he 
introduced at the request of his constituents 
and has refused to move its consideration in 
the Senate Cities Committee, of which he is a 
member, the fight has centered around it. Tliis 
is due principally to the fact that the other bills 
subsequently introduced are but poor imitations 
of this one which shows the advocates of a 
revision of the law in their true light, and 
because it Is the one which is the result of 
(iareful and protracted study on the part 
of those who have been seeking the best 
method to most effectually emasculate the De- 
Forest law. The true character of this bill 
may be gathered from the fact that it proposes 
to change the definition of a tenement house 
so as to exempt from all supervision by the 
Tenement House Department all buildings 
which contain less than five families. Thus 
at one stroke it repeals all the tenement house 
legislation affecting four-family dwellings 
which has been In force since 1867, together 
with all the tenement house laws passed since 
1887 affecting three-family dwellings. As to 
new buildings, the Marshall Bill proposes to 
permit the erection of four-story tenements 
containing as many as sixteen families without 
the present provisions for fireproof construc- 
tion of stairways, halls and cellars and the 
former foul and unhealthy, unventilated alT- 
shaft is restored to its pristine glory. Simi- 
larly, as to old buildings, the bill proposes "to 
leave them as they are and repeals nearly 
every section of the law which requires any 
alteration in an. old house that costs money." 
Old buildings may cover the entire lot, leaving 
no space available for light and air, and mak- 
ing possible the continuance of the dark, in- 
terior bed-rooms and the unmentionable con- 
ditions of the sink and privy vault. 

The opposition to this bill and those of a 
similar nature which followed it has become 
so strong, and the support given to Commis- 
sioner DeForest has been so pronounced that 
it is now felt that no bill except the one drawn 
up by the commissioner himself and lately 
introduced by Senator Marshall and Assembly- 
man Agnew, will by any possibility receive the 
approval of the Cities Committees or the sup- 
port of the legislature. 

This bill is not in any sense a compromise 
measure, for Mr. DeForest must surely feel 
t! :>t in his fight for them all of the people are 
nov,- solidly with him. It is the result of care- 
ful investigation and accurate knowledge of 
actual conditions gathered by experts and has 
for its sole object the bettering of the condi- 



tion of the tenement house dweller, being a 
solace to the tenement house builder only in 
so far as, without danger to the health, com- 
fort and safety of the community, it will pro- 
mote the building of the small Brooklyn type 
of house-T-the three and four-story, front-to- 
rear tenement, with two families to a floor. 
In these houses, which are usually built on the 
regular twenty-flve-foot city lot, as in three- 
story frame houses in the outlying districts of 
the city, the required size of the courtyard has 
been reduced somewhat from that considered 
necessary in the larger tenements prevailing in 
Manhattan and the strict fire-proof provisions 
of the present law are also to a degree relaxed. 
In advocating these changes Mr. DeForest has 
no doubt felt, as did the Tenement House Com- 
mission, when too late to remedy the defect, 
and as all have felt who have personally exam- 
ined the fundamental differences between the 
situation as it is in Manhattan and as it is in 
Brooklyn, both as it exists now and as it will 
remain for very many years, that the present 
law has a real tendency to restrict the building 
of smaller houses and that this is a serious 
detriment to the community at large. 

It will no doubt result, therefore, that the 
bill drawn up by the commissioner and ap- 
proved of by Governor Odell and Mayor Low, 
as well as by nearly all those who have been 
working for the defeat of the other tenement 
house bills, will make it possible for the build- 
ers to build the "Brooklyn type" of tenement 
at some profit to themselyes; add whether 
these builders be "skin builders" or otherwise 
is beside the question, if, while seeking a 
profit, legitimate or otherwise, to themselves, 
they are then the means of housing a con- 
siderable portion of our population in small 
dwellings, and provided these srpall dwellings 
shall remain, as now proposed, under the direct 
supervision of the Tenement House Depart- 
ment. Paul Ken.n'aiiay. 

Greenwich House. 



"With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right, as God gives 
us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the 
work we are in; to bind up the nation's 
wounds; to care for him who shall have borne 
the battle, and for his widow and his orphans 
^to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
jttst and lasting peace among ourselves and 
with all nations." — -Lincoln. 



"It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any 
one." — Lincoln. 



10 



THE COM MONS 



The Eighth Ward Settlement, Philadelphia. 

FRANCES R. BARTHOLOMEW, HEAD RESIDENT. 

The Eighth Ward Settlement began its exist- 
ence about seven years ago in an architecturally 
crooked little house at the corner of a morally 
crooked little street and was the result of a 
desire on the part of one of Philadelphia's 
good citizens to better the sanitary and social 
conditions of the particular district it took for 
its own. 

This district extends north and south from 
Walnut street to Spruce street, and east and 
west from Eighth street to Twelfth street, and 
is one of the most degraded in the city, having 
for its main population negroes of the lowest 
type. The alleys which go to make up this 
section hide themselves around unsuspected 
corners or dodge the larger thoroughfares in 
such a manner that the passer-by might never 
be aware of their existence. Yet there they 
are, their inhabitants living their lives in their 
own world quite as oblivious of Quality avenue 
as Quality avenue is of them. 

In the early days of the House there were no 
residents — save the rats and the ghost of 
Granny Hall, well known to the colored neigh- 
bors, and justly feared by them, for Granny 
had been a good woman and had come from 
shadowland to denounce the wild 'orgies of 
those who lived in the house immediately after 
her death. 

The first work of the settlement was the im- 
provement of sanitary conditions. This was 
accomplished by persistent pressure brought to 
bear upon careless city officials and indifferent 
landlords, and by the organizing of a broom 
brigade consisting of a dozen boys who, headed 
by their indefatigable leader and armed with 
"Sago" brooms, went three times each week 
into all the alleys too small to allow . the 
entrance of a horse and wagon and conse- 
quently neglected by the city. The improve- 
ment in sanitary conditions is marked. Elec- 
tric lighting has succeeded darkness, asphalt 
has replaced the dirt or cobble stones of the 
small streets, underground drainage has taken 
the place of surface drainage, and the houses 
as well as the streets are kept in better repair 
for the neighbors report all defects to the 
"board of health lady," as she is called, and 
she rests not until the responsible person is 
found and made to fulfill his or her responsi- 
bilities. Cooking and sewing classes for both 
girls and boys were then started, and finally a 
resident was procured who took the position 
of head worker. This immediately gave the 
House a new tone and made possible more and 



better neighborhood visiting. A kindergarten 
was added with a kindergartner in residence; 
other classes in basket weaving, hammock 
making, etc., were developed, and a branch of 
the Theodore Starr Savings Bank was opened. 
Later on, during the early summer, baths were 
opened and well patronized, for in spite of 
traditions to the contrary we find that the col- 
ored person's standard of bodily cleanliness 
compares very favorably indeed with those of 
other races. We must confess that his zeal is 
apt to slacken during cold weather, but even 
then he goes ahead of our little Jewish friend 
who remarked as she undressed her small 
sisters that "of course they would not have 
any more that season, but she did want to give 
them one bath to freshen up their blood before 
winter set in." 

As time went on the need for a new and 
larger building became very evident, and in the 
spring of 1900 the settlement family moved 
into temporary quarters across the street, while 
the old house and the adjoining property were 
torn down to make a site for the new house. 
This was ready for use in the early fall, and 
during the following winter new clubs were 
started and the settlement influence was ex- 
tended to a considerable degree. 

A laundry with stationary tubs and filtered 
water is one feature of the new house which 
always has been much appreciated by the 
neighbors who earn their living by washing 
and ironing and do so under hardest condi- 
tions. 

During the past year we have reached out in 
many ways, endeavoring always to develop 
along industrial lines, but numbering among 
our successes some social ventures such as our 
Women's Club and our dancing class for older 
girls and boys. We hope for better things in 
the future, as all settlements do — better new 
things and old things made better — but this 
brief sketch gives the external history of our 
settlement to the present time, and, like all 
external history, is not the true history at all! 
For true history is eternal and consists not of 
deeds but of the cause of deeds, the strug- 
glings, the hopes, the failures, the little tri- 
umphs and the solving of problems. And in 
sharing its life with the colored people, our 
settlement has its unique problem, for it deals 
not with a race that is intellectually hungry, 
but with a race at the sensation stage of its 
evolution, and the treatment demanded is very 
different. 

But we talk too much of problems. Like 
family skeletons they should be kept in closets. 






THE COM MONS 



11 



The way to live and to wor^ Is with a song 
in one's heart, and the way to keep the song 
in one's heart is to feel underneath the ripple 
of each day's circumstances the deep, strong 
undercurrent of an eternal purpose that sees 
and is finding its goal. 



QERTRUDE HOUSE. 
A Kindergarten Home. 

During the French Revolution the Swiss re- 
former Pestalozzi wrote a village romance by 
means of which he attempted to point out to 
the common people that women were the first 
eJiucators, and that every mother should be 
able to educate her own children to a certain 
extent. He named the ideal mother of his 
story Gertrude, after the holy and worthy St. 
Gertrude, of Catholic history. This romance 
was called "Leanhard and Gertrude," and the 
story is an account of the detailed efforts of 
Gertrude to make over a degenerate village, 
so that her own children might be provided 
with the right social environment. The great 
contribution which Pestalozzi made, therefore, 
to nineteenth century education was that of 
honoring women as the teachers of the young. 
We can scarcely imagine society to-day without 
the schoolma'am, and yet she is quite a re- 
cent development in the order of evolution. 
The assertion was made by Pestalozzi that 
given a mother and children, every house may 
be a true school, and the ordinary surrounding 
of a simple living room may be the text for a 
liberal education. School and teaching have, 
in the last decades, become far more formal 
than homelike, and teachers have only too 
often driven to other than motherliness. The 
kindergarten work pushes the ideals of Pes- 
talozzi still further, and would have all little 
children, even those under school age, play and 
work with women who are motherly and edu- 
cational, even if it is necessary to take the 
children out of their own homes, until that 
happy generation of educational mothers ar- 
rives. The training of kindergartners as 
home-makers as well as teachers has been the 
peculiar experiment of Gertrude House, which 
takes its name from Pestalozzi's ideal woman. 
The house was founded in 1894 by the Chicago 
Kindergarten Institute, for the home accom- 
modation of its students. Life In the house 
is somewhat as follows: Teachers and stu- 
dents live together as a family; surroundings 
and lite are simple and unpretentious; some 
household duties are shared in common, such 
as the following: Once daily either setting a 
table, serving same, or assisting either in the 
washing or drying of silver, glasses, china, etc. 



The groups assigned to these duties are 
changed every two weeks, which occupy twenty 
minutes to half an hour daily. Each duty Is 
light, but as it causes great discomfort to many 
If left undone, or if illy done, it teaches the 
importance of being faithful and responsible 
in small matters, gives the student a definite 
Idea of the relation of the individual to the 
whole and the whole to the individual, and 
adds materially to her equipment as a prac- 
tical kindergartner or as a social settler. 

The members have a share in government 
through fortnightly house-meetings, where so- 
lutions are offered by the students themselves 
of their owa social and domestic problems, 
and where ideals of home-making and daily 
living are discussed, to be followed by the daily 
effort to apply the same and test their practi- 
cability. This leads to a sense of individual 
responsibility on the part of the student, gives 
her an opportunity to solve actual problems, 
and tends toward a broad-minded judgment of 
people and affairs. 

This life in the House, combined with the 
class work of the Institute, not only educates 
young women as kindergartners and home- 
keepers, but furnishes them with the best kind 
of a basis for other lines of educational work, 
for home and foreign missionary work and for 
social settlement work. From twenty-five to 
thirty of the students have been resident work- 
ers at the following settlements: Chicago 
Commons, Helen Heath, Northwestern Univer- 
sity, Clybourn Avenue, University of Chicago, 
Willard Settlement, Eli Bates House, Gad's 
Hill and Maxwell Street, all of Chicago; Hiram 
House, Cleveland; Franklin Street Settlement, 
Detroit, and Neighborhood House, Rlvington 
street. New York City. 

The family has grown, like the house itself, 
from year to year, and the testimony of par- 
ents, as well as of students, has encouraged the 
directors of the Institute to feel that it is no 
longer an experiment. 

Gertrude House has now secured the build- 
ing known formerly as the Kirkland School, 
40 Scott street. The ample testimony given as 
to the merit of the work at Gertrude House 
warrants the effort to secure this building per- 
manently. With this end in view, by means of 
a generous gift, Gertrude House has been able 
to remodel the building to suit Gertrude House 
requirements, so that now, building, location 
and environment are ideal for the work. The 
building is rented with the option of buying. 
If the purchase can be made the House may 
be incorporated permanently, at rates within 
reach of the student with limited means. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



While Gertrude House places Its strongest 
emphasis upon the ethical side of home-mak- 
ing, it now offers a course of study for young 
women who do not wish to enter the profes- 
sion of teaching, but who do wish to obtain 
some knowledge of the characteristic work of 
kindergarten training, as well as some practical 
education in the art of home-making. 

Such subjects as the following are included 
in the course: 

The Right Environment of Growing Chil- 
dren. 

Training of Children Through Games, Nur- 
sery Plays, Stories, Songs and Playthings. 

Study of Children's Instincts and Activities. 

Clothing, Food and General Care of Young 
Children. 

Household Management and Hygiene. 

Principles of Art Applied to Household Dec- 
oration. 

In addition to this the usual lines of profes- 
sional kindergarten training are carried on by 
the Institute, including a class in the regular 
two years' course; a class for kindergartners 
who wish supplementary study, and a post- 
graduate normal course. The directors of this 
work during the eight years of its history have 
been Mrs. Mary B. Page, Miss Frances E. New- 
ton, Mrs. Ethel Roe Lindgren, Miss Caroline 
C. Crouise, Miss Amalie Hofer. 



An artist friend sends us the following: 
What meaning has the old phrase to-day, 
"Rejoicing in his portion under the sun"? Is 
it not the divine right of every soul that's 
born, and that is most of all unforfeited by 
the children who are to some of us as the stars 
and running streams, singing of the Spring? 
And so we bear this eternal debt to the child 
for its power of goodness in the world — by its 
very helplessness and trust in the greatness 
of grown-up people bringing out all that may 
be divine in us — for contempt of a little child 
is a thing not to be borne. 

To think of children at all in the great throb- 
bing machine of London is to think of the 
vain attempts of a bird with clipped wings to 
rise and see the sky.^ London Echo. 



"Our highest Orpheus walked in Judea, 
eighteen hundred years ago: his sphere-taelody, 
flowing in wild native tones, took captive the 
ravished souls of men; and being of a true 
sphere-melody, still flows and sounds, though 
now with thousandfold accompaniments and 
rich symphonies through all our hearts, and 
modulates and divinely leads them.— Carlyle. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDrXG COMMITTEE,. 

President: K.\th.\rine Com.\n', Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. II. 

Secretary: Sakah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsoxs (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 3oth St., New York City. 

Fiflh Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Sirs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 
Y'ork City. 

settlements. 

New York City— 05 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited for the Assocl\tion ijy 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The thirteenth annual report of the College 
Settlements' Association, October 1, 1901, Oc- 
tober 1, 1902, has just been received. Besides 
the usual lists of committees and reports of 
head workers and secretary, a partial report 
of the C. S. A. Fellow for 1901-02, Mary Buell 
Sayles on "An Investigation of Housing Con- 
ditions in Jersey City" has been published in 
full. 



Roxbury House. 

SARAH PERKY BROWNING, RESIDENT DIRECTOR. 

Roxbury House, situated at the corner of 
Mall street and Dayton avenue, in that part 
of Boston known as Roxbury, is now in its 
third year of systematic work under its present 
management, and in its eighth if we include 
those years in which it was called Ben Adhem 
House and was under the direction of Mr. and 
Mrs. Ashton. In the summer of nineteen hun- 
dred it passed out of their management and 
c^me under the control of a corporate body 
called "The Roxbury House Association." 
which is composed of a president, five vice- 
presidents, a secretary, a treasurer and eight 
directors, all of whom are from the representa- 
tive and leading families of Roxbury. They 
meet as a body once a month to consider the 
best methods of developing the settlement, of 
securing money for its continuance and of solv- 
ing the many other problems that constantly 
arise. 

Upon coming into office they engaged at once 
a resident director and a kindergartner who 



iiife.. .,v''^^;'.;^ii.'is^,d^UL 



'^^^m^W'^^c^.. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



are still holding the positions. At first they 
hoped to secure residents who were able to 
pay a small board and who were also enough 
interested in settlement growth to talce charge 
of one or more classes or clubs, but they have 
met with disappointment in their efforts, and 
consequently the House has been hampered by 
the lacic of residents who could devote any 
appreciable time to the worlt. Of course there 
is much to be said in favor of the workers 
coming from outside, as they will probably 
stay with their classes a longer time than the 
ordinary resident of a few weeks; they may 
also be more familiar with the habits and 
thoughts of their own city; but the best ar- 
rangement would be a combination of both 
kinds of workers, residents and non-residents. 

But though small in its residential force, it 
has nearly fifty volunteer workers coming not 
only from Roxbury and Boston proper but also 
from Beverley, Brookline, Cambridge and Dor- 
chester. Trained in different schools, and rep- 
resenting different nationalities and religious 
creeds, they have strengthened the work by the 
very variety of their thought and expression. 

The House has not deemed it expedient to 
take active interest in the broad problems with 
which many settlements are struggling, such as 
the school questions and municipal affairs. 
These we shall take up later, as the House gets 
better acquainted with its constituency and 
with the needs of the neighborhood. 

Instead we have contented ourselves with 
working out the problem of Roxbury House 
from the standpoint of the home; that is, we 
endeavor to give to those who come to us some 
of the advantages that people in better circum- 
stances enjoy in their own homes. We have 
games and amusements to keep children off 
the streets, we have educational and industrial 
classes in almost every line for which any one 
has shown aptness, and we have entertain- 
ments and parties where our neighbors can 
meet together for social enjoyment, as they can 
not in their own cramped quarters. As we deal 
with hundreds instead' of the usual number in 
a family we can not always study taste and 
needs as carefully as we might wish, though 
when one examines the variety of the oppor- 
tunities that are open it would seem that every 
one might be satisfied. 

The work of Roxbury House, as far as it can 
be scheduled, has included this year as last, 
apart from the regular kindergarten: sloyd; 
drawing and painting; singing; sewing, pri- 
mary and advanced; darning and patching; 
embroidery; cooking, three classes, one for 



children, one for young women, and one for 
mothers; millinery, crocheting, stenography, 
boys' dramatics, boys' gymnastics; current 
events; Shakespeare; lessons on' piano, violin, 
and guitar; private tutoring in geometry, 
Latin, Greek, French, and German; also social 
clubs, clubs for reading and games, Saturday 
morning kindergarten, nursery hours, fort- 
nightly mothers' meetings, and fortnightly 
neighborhood parties. In addition the follow- 
ing have been started this year: Classes in 
typewriting, cane seating, basket weaving, lace 
crocheting, shirtwaist making, fancy work of 
all kinds, and two social clubs for girls, one of 
which is also interested in doing Indian bead 
work. A debating society for young men has 
been organized, and a second class started in 
sloyd, the violin and the piano. 

No group is more interested in its work than 
the twelve that constitute the millinery class, 
which is made up of women of all ages. The 
class has a leader, and also a professional mil- 
liner in charge of the work, for which the ma- 
terials have been most generously supplied by 
friends of the House. The members of the 
class are allowed to buy at rummage sale 
prices any of the hats which they make. 

Considerable work is carried on away from 
the House, though under its flag; the class in 
Chandler's stenography and in typewriting 
meeting at their headquarters on Columbus 
avenue, and the private tutoring being done 
usually at the home of the tutor. 

The stamp saving work has flourished this 
year, though we have had in all only one hun- 
dred and forty-five depositors. We have finally 
succeeded in persuading a young man to trans- 
fer his account to a real bank. The amount 
of any single deposit ranges from one cent to 
a dollar and seventy -five cents; yet it fre- 
quently happens that the small depositors have 
the most in the end, the old story of the hare 
and the tortoise. For instance, two big boys 
were starting an account, one with two cents, 
one with seventy-five plus the announcement 
that he could bring more next time. The lat- 
ter ran his account quickly up to a dollar and 
eighty cents, as quickly withdrew it, and has 
not been seen at bank hours since. The two- 
cent depositor slowly increased his savings, 
has constantly kept pegging away at it, and 
recently has brought money to deposit for a 
bigger brother. 

In our library there are about seven hundred 
volumes, but as some are for reference, and 
many not of the popular stamp, and as our 
readers are of all ages, the selection is never 



u 



THE COMMONS 



wide in any special line. The demands range 
from history through fiction to fairy tales. 
While one is asliing for the "History of Tokio" 
another is -waiting 'twixt hope and fear to 
leam if the latest copy of "Mother Goose" has 
arrived. 

The fortnightly socials of Roxbury House 
are quite a prominent feature of the life and 
are very popular among its people, and for the 
very good reason that the entertainments are 
always good, sometimes excellent. For this 
many thanks are due to the praiseworthy zeal 
of those who have had the responsibility of 
the affairs. They have come from the various 
clubs and churches in town and from the 
schools and colleges. 

But the best work of any settlement cannot 
he put into figures, nor is it written on the 
calendar. As I have looked into the faces of 
these children, I have been reminded of the 
legend of the king, who, in his zeal to perfect 
the ^olian harp, had the steep banks of the 
river near which his castle stood lined with 
masonry, and then had wires of the finest 
material and of greater weight than had ever 
been used for that purpose stretched across by 
the most skilled of workmen. You know how 
he waited, and how others waited for the 
music. And you know that the breezes failed 
to elicit a sound. And the storms failed and 
the sunshine failed, until at last the place be- 
came known as the King's Folly. But had you 
heard that years after there swept through that 
valley a storm such as had never been in the 
memory of man, and that suddenly above the 
howling of the wind and the dash of the waters 
were heard strains of beautiful music, and lo: 
it was the King's Folly? Best of all, the wires 
once put in motion responded ever after to the 
slightest zephjT. 

The wires we have been laying are invisible, 
and it may be that some have said, Nothing 
hut folly; but who dare deny that sometime, 
somewhere in the battles of life, there will be 
sweeter music because of these months' labor 
at Roxbury House? The king builded better 
than he knew. 



Denison House, Boston, has printed a com- 
pact little directory of clubs and classes, to- 
gether with a brief history of the House. 



The conferences of settlement workers in 
Boston on Friday mornings in February and 
March discussed the following topics: 

February 6— Denison House, 93 Tyler street, 
•Settlement Ideals," Miss Vida D. Scudder. 



February 13 — South End House (at the 

South Bay Union, 640 Harrison avenue), "The 
Settlement and Municipal Government." 

February 20 — Hale House, 6 Garland street, 
"The Settlement and the Home." 

February 27 — Civic Service House, 112 Salem 
street, "The Settlement and Civic Education." 

March 6 — Elizabeth Peabody House, 87 Pop- 
lar street, "The Settlement and Industrial Edu- 
cation." 

March 13 — Epworth League House, 36 Hull 
street, "The Settlement and Public Health." 

At the Social Science conferences in Boston 
at Denison House the Rev. Edward Everett 
Hale, D. D., gave the address in February, and 
in March Mr. John Graham Brooks spoke on 
"Problems Raised by the Recent Coal Strike," 
and the ReV. Edw. Cummings on the "Ethics 
of Trade Unionism." 

On Tuesday, February 10th, the Roxbury 
"Women in Council" devoted an hour to four 
speakers who represented different houses or 
places of settlement work in Boston. Miss 
Mabel Gair Curtis spoke for the College Set- 
tlements' Association and for Denison House. 
The second speaker was Miss Brown, the head 
worker of Elizabeth Peabody House, who stated 
that the ideal of the residents was "home-mak- 
ing" and showed that the House was making 
a great fight for good citizenship. Mr. Whit- 
man represented South End House with its 
three centers and the South Bay Union, whose 
work, especially along the lines of handicraft, 
he described in a most interesting manner. The 
fourth speaker was Miss Browning, of Roxbury 
House, who furnishes an article for The Com- 
mons this month on the work of the settlement 
of which she is head resident. 



Denison House. 

The second of the series of Friday morning 
conferences of settlement residents was held at 
the new South End Club House — The South 
Bay Union — on February thirteenth. Mr. Rob- 
ert A. Woods siK)ke on the Settlement in Relation 
to Municipal Affairs. He emphasized the need 
— for practical results — of securing the co- 
operation of political leaders of the district in 
striving for improved local conditions. The 
part of the settlement should be to see the 
need and to plan the work, then to let the 
local politician find out that it is for his 
interest to put the matter through and gain 
easy glory. The discussion which followed 
took the practical turn of considering actual 
accomplishments of settlements along the line 
of municipal reform. 



THE COMMONS 



15 



The third conference at Hale House was 
addressed by Mrs. Lillian Betts, on The Set- 
tlement and the Home. She dwelt on the dan- 
ger of letting the settlement become the means 
of breaking up the home. The frequent plan 
of beginning with the younger members of a 
family may too often result in causing them 
to look down on the things of home and to 
be uneasy or dissatisfied. Another opinion 
expressed by Mrs. Betts — that, after all, there 
was little indication that settlement work had, 
as yet, gone very deep in affecting the stand- 
ards of life of the neighborhood, aroused a 
good deal of discussion. 

At the fourth conference, held at the Civic 
Service House in the North End, Mr. Bloom- 
field and Mr. Davis spoke. Mr. Davis enlarged 
on the need of connecting the settlement vitally 
with the trades union movement. A great oppor- 
tunity for this settlement lies in this direction, 
as the Civic Service House has shown. Not 
only should the settlement strive to become a 
sympathetic center of organized labor as it 
already exists in the district, but it should be 
active in the formation of new unions where 
they are needed and desirable. 

Elizabeth M.vixwauixg. 

Resident Denison House. 



Bishop Brent's Social Settlement. 

FliOM THE jrAXIl.A T13IES, OCT. 22, 1902. 

Among the many agencies which have been 
suggested for the betterment and elevation of 
the Filipino, few would seem to commend 
themselves more than the institution which 
has just been started by Bishop Brent. While 
differences of opinion exist as to the advisabil- 
ity of proselyting and spreading religious in- 
struction among the natives at this time, yet 
it would seem that no hint of objection can be 
raised to such a movement as the Social Set- 
tlement. 

During a recent conversation with General 
Bell, that officer stated that one of the great 
stumbling-blocks in our efforts to promote the 
welfare of these people and prove to them not 
only the goodness but also the cordial sincerity 
of our intentions, is the lack of harmony which 
exists between us socially. We are in, but not 
of, the Philippines. And so long as we give 
these people only of the precepts and prin- 
ciples of our civilizatidn^ and not of its life — 
that is, so long as we meet them only on mat- 
ters of business and do not mingle with them 
on other than formal occasions — a true spirit 
of harmony and a community of interest can 
never exist. 



The Social Settlement, as we understand it, 
will endeavor to inculcate in the lower class of 
Filipinos not only the externals^ and outward 
expressions of our civilization, but also its real 
and inherent characteristics. As our news col- 
umns put it: "A group of people who will live 
among people of different and inferior class 
and share their hardships with them, will be 
taken into the home, the object being the so- 
cial, mental, and moral elevation of the less fa- 
vored element." That such a mission must 
prove most helpful and productive of practical 
and paying results would seem to need no as- 
sertion. 

Among the detailed features of the scheme, 
one which appears to us most commendable is 
the provision of a dispensary for free treat- 
ment of the poor. In some measure this feat- 
ure anticipates a plea which we had intended 
making for institutions of this kind in Manila. 
Just recently a case came to our notice where a 
Filipino boy had suffered for one whole year 
from an injury to the eye which impaired the 
sight and rendered him unable to work. When 
asked why he did not seek medical treatment 
the characteriSitic reply was made: "Mucho 
pobre." The American who interested himself 
in the case had the boy taken to the Civil Hos- 
pital. It was there stated that while the hos- 
pital was not intended for such cases, yet pa- 
tients who were poor and deserving and could 
not be treated elsewhere, were never turned 
away. 

The only hospital, it seems, where free dis- 
pensary treatment such as we know in the 
states, is given, is the San Juan de Dios; but 
even its service is not generally made use of 
by poor Filipinos. 

What would seem to be needed is a number 
of dispensaries scattered throughout the city 
and maintained at the city's expense — places 
where, during certain hours of the day, poor 
natives may be treated gratuitously. 



"I know that the Lord is always on the side 
of the right. But it is my constant anxiety 
and prayer that I and this nation should be on 
the Lord's side." — Lincoln. 



"Let us have faith that right makes might; 
and in that faith, let us to the end dare to do 
our duty as we understand it." — Lincoln. 



"That we have resolved that * » * this 
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom, and that the government of the peo- 
ple, by the people, and for the people, shall not 
perish from the earth." — Lincoln. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



Chicago Settlements Against the Dance Halls. 

Chicago Commons Is glad to line up with 
Northwestern "University Settlement and Hull 
House, the great St. Stanislaus Polish Roman 
Catholic Church and the moral sentiment o£ 
the West Side, under the lead of Alderman 
Smulslji of our own ward, for the suppression 
of the saloon dance halls. In "The Neif:hbor," 
for February, published by the Northwestern 
University Settlement, Alderman Sumlski thus 
gives his reasons for introducing his ordinance 
to the City Council: 

"My reasons for introducing this resolution 
are the following: There are a number of sa- 
loons in this city that make the practice of 
holding dances in halls (if they may be so 
called) in rear of their saloons, or in base- 
ments under the saloons. Usually these dances 
are held on Saturday nights, and they are held 
merely for the purpose of attracting young 
boys and girls, who otherwise would not be 
permitted by their parents or their elders to 
attend any such functions. These dances are 
never attended by older persons, and are run 
by the saloonkeeper under the guise of raffles.- 

"In my estimation, these dances work a great 
deal of harm to the young people of Chicago, 
especially in districts populated by the work- 
ing class, where the young boys and girls are 
anxious to have some recreation or entertain- 
ment, and easily fall in the trap of unscrupu- 
lous men, who, for the purpose of personal 
gain, use their saloon and dance hall as a 
means of making money, caring little as to 
what influences these dances have upon the mo- 
rality of the young people who attend the 
same. 

"I have frequently heard young people re- 
turning from these saloon dances, at all hours 
of the morning, especially Sunday mornings, 
usually in a state of intoxication, and it is a 
demand in the interest of decency and good 
order that the Council should pass such an 
ordinance. The saloon dance hall offers in- 
creased facilities for the young people of our 
city to be debauched and degraded. Some of 
these dance' halls are merely adjuncts to the 
saloon and are maintained and managed for the 
purpose of making money. The efforts of all 
well-meaning and decent citizens should be 
united in demanding that some similar action 
be taken by the Council, and thereby add one 
step towards the redemption of our city from . 
the gradual down-grade in the. moral decline 
of our young generation." 

In summarizing the situation about Hull 
House, Miss Julia C. Lathrop concludes; 



"It is certainly desirable to protect social 
gatherings in any part of the city from the 
necessity for patronizing a bar; but at present 
a suppression of resorts 'run for the good of 
the bar,' and the typical wide-open Sunday 
afternoon dances, would doubtless contribute 
more to sobriety and decorum than any gen- 
eral measure forbidding a bar in connection 
with halls where dances are given. It is to be 
feared that such a measure would as yet seem 
only a mysterious and unreasonable interfer- 
ence with personal freedom to most of thoss 
who would be affected by it." 

In an interview. Father Spetz of St. Stanis- 
laus Church, which has 30,000 communicants 
and is said to have the largest parish in the 
world, is reported as saying: 

"The hall with its separate buffet, away from 
the saloon proper is an improvement of the 
older form of halls; a few still survive, and 
their influence is distinctly and entirely bad. 
The saloonkeeper gets his proflts from the sale 
of liquor, and so he wants to sell liquor as 
fast as possible." 

St. Stanislaus Parish plans are on foot to 
organize a joint stock company to put up an 
oflice building with dance and lodge halls in it, 
the building to be under competent manage- 
ment, which should lease the halls only to re- 
spectable organizations, the hours also to be 
regulated. These halls would be primarily for 
the use of the numerous organizations of St. 
Stanislaus Church, which often give dances, 
etc., and are compelled to use the other halls 
in the district. In addition to these, Father 
Spetz felt convinced that there would be a large 
number of reputable societies ready and will- 
ing to patronize such an establishment. 

By the kind permission of The Neighbor, we 
reprint what the Warden of .Chicago Commons 
contributed to its columns on the situation in 
Its ward: 

If it were left to the vote of all the residents 
of the Seventeenth Ward over twenty-one years 
of age to decide whether the dance halls should 
be closed, they would be promptly shut up by 
an overwhelming majority, and never reopened 
with the consent of the adult population. 

Why do we think so? Well, here is one 
reason. About seven years ago, when the men 
of the old Seventeenth Ward got together for 
the first time on a nori-partisan and non-sec- 
tarian basis, the very first thing they did was 
to close the "Trocadero," the infamous saloon 
dance hall on Milwaukee avenue near Halsted. 
by demanding that the police enforce the law 
against it. This led to closing all the resorts 



i I'iiTiMminiia 



THE COM MONS 



17 



of the same character in the eastern halt of 
the ward for several years. 

This is what the people did when they had 
the chance. Why would they do it again? 

One reason is that such dance halls depre- 
ciate property all around them. They are such 
a public nuisance that people who have self- 
respect and want to have a quiet home in a 
decent neighborhood will not live near the 
noisy place that draws disreputable people 
from far and wide. So landlords soon find out 
that they either cannot rent their tenements, 
or must take into them a less reliable class of 
tenants, if indeed they must not rent them for 
immoral purposes or let them stand vacant. 

Vfp on Ashland avenue a whole block of 
stone-front houses stands deserted and in ruins, 
because years ago a few tenants of immoral 
character were admitted to one or more of the 
houses. For years that block has stood as a 
warning of what will happen to other house 
owners if they do not safeguard the reputation 
of their property and its neighborhood. 

Another reason is that these dance halls de- 
moralize the young. Parents know and dread 
this. No mother or father who has self-respect, 
and also love for a child, wishes a boy or girl 
to go to them, or to be tempted to. It is safe 
to say that few children are found in them 
with their parents' knowledge and consent if 
they have fathers and mothers worthy of re- 
spect. Some parents may not know what goes 
on in them. Others weakly let a child be led 
into temptation, and then, when it is too late, 
wake up to their own fatal mistake. Still oth- 
ers, who have lost control of their children, 
vainly forbid and protest, and hopelessly suf- 
fer with their wayward son or daughter the 
long-drawn-out misery that is almost sure to 
follow. This is especially true of many for- 
eign families whose children were dutiful and 
pure in their own fatherland, but cannot resist 
the temptations and break-up of habits that 
come with their immigration to the new coun- 
try. Many a mother or father, with tears in 
their eyes and sobs in their voices, have said 
to me, "My children minded me and were all 
right in the old country, but here I can do 
nothing with them. Can't you help me?" 

Well, the whole community could, and 
should, help every family, and itself too, in the 
passage and enforcement of laws closing such 
death-traps as these dance halls are. 

Let an eye-witness show us how bad they 
are: 

"At a masquerade ball I have seen over 200 
dancing on the floor at once. The balcony and 
side.s of the hall were crowded with spectators. 



There is in one of the halls a bar not only on 
the first floor but just in the rear of the dance 
hall. Tables for serving beer are placed all 
along the sides of the floor. There is no at- 
tempt at modesty on the part of many. Girls 
sit in men's laps and men in girls' laps. The 
prostitute is among the number. You cannot 
enter the hall without seeing her drinking and 
smoking in the saloon proper. 

"The masquerade balls are probably the most 
glaring in vice. At least this has been my ob- 
servation. I have seen not less than 1,000 
people at these dances. Dancing does not begin 
until about 12 o'clock Saturday night. It is 
broken only by the breaking of day. At the 
masquerade I have seen old men and women, 
young boys and girls and little children as 
young as eight years, dancing in the same 
great push. 

"At the highest class of these balls I even 
saw the only man in 'full dress' on the floor, 
in less than two minutes after being intro- 
duced to a young woman, kiss her, very much 
to the disgust of the woman. 

"As the night rolls on, drunken men and 
women have to be carried home." 

Fortunately we have such an inspector of 
police at our station that the people of our 
ward have only to make their will known In 
order to have it carried out within the limits 
and to the letter of the law. 

There is less excuse than ever for tolerating 
such public nuisances. When at social settle- 
ments and under the auspices of reputable 
clubs, opportunity for dancing may be afforded 
without the surroundings and temptations that 
promote druukenn<'ss and sexual debauchery, not 
only among the vicious and criminal but among 
the young and unwary. 



"Remember now and always that life is no 
idle dream, but a solemn reality based upon 
eternity, and encompassed by eternity. Find 
out your task; stand to it; 'the night cometh 
when no man can work.' " 



Boys* Clubs 

By 'William A. ClarK. 

Headworker Gordon House. New York City. 

A descriptive and practically siipRestlve booklet of 48 
pages on the organization, inanagemeut and programs for 
boys' clubs. 

Price 20 Cents. : : : Order of The Commons. 

Other monosraplis on "(lames and Play." "Camps for 
Hoys," "Sclioiilyards and Playrooms." " Vacation Schools," 
" The Lincoln House Play- Work System." 

Send 60 cents to The Commoks for 
The Handbook of Social Settlements 

By Professor C. R. Henderson. Tlie best single 
volume on the Social Settlement Movement. 



18 



THE CO M'M O N S 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point o< View, 



GRAHAM TAYLOR., 



Editor 



Entered at Chicaijo I'ostofRce as Second-Class Alatter, and 
rublished tlio lirst of every month from Ch rcAGO Commons. 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAI^. 



The newspaper report we give on our first 
page of Prof. John H. Gray's conversational 
discussion of evils and remedies inherent in 
our industrial situation, though not in the 
form in which he would have written it, is none 
the less true to his incisive insight, broad out- 
look, and fearless fidelity to facts. He, as we, 
could say much more of the abuse and irre- 
sponsibility of trades unionism which employ- 
ers justly complain of, but one cannot say 
everything at once. Yet the facts he states 
need to stand out by themselves just as bold 
and hard as they are. For only thus will many 
learn that they exist and be prepared to reckon 
with them as we all must. The article dis- 
tributing the responsibility for limiting the 
manufacturing output in England which sup-, 
plements Prof. Gray's discussion, comes from 
the entirely independent and uniquely advan- 
tageous viewpoint of another expert observer 
of economic conditions. 

Shall the Settlements Merge into School 
Extension ? 

The question whether the settlements would 
not enlarge their sphere of influence, and, at 
the same time, economize pecuniary and per- 
sonal resource by merging their life and effort 
in the social extension of the public school is 
raised in the following letter. The fact that 
it comes from the esteemed leader of the Chi- 
cago Society for Ethical Culture, who has long 
been identified with our settlements and is one 
of their warmest advocates and best friends, 
gives great emphasis to the inquiry he so point- 
edly makes: 

"To the Editor of The Commons. 

Dear Sir: In view of the possibilities of 
what is known as the school extension move- 
ment, is it not proper that settlement workers 
should reconsider the question of the function 
of settlements? Will you and the readers of 
The Commons consider and answer such ques- 
tions as the following? 



Cannot all the class and club work now being 
done in settlements be transferred to the 
schools? If so, what specific work remains for 
the settlements? Instead of building up set- 
tlements, should not the effort be to enlarge 
the scope of work of the public schools? If 
the classes and clubs are transferred to the 
schools, should the leaders be salaried just as 
the regular teachers are now, or should they 
be volunteer, as most of the workers in set- 
tlements now are? All this does not affect the 
desirability of having men and women of edu- 
cation and means, or of education without 
means, take up residence among the poor and 
identify themselves as neighbors and friends 
and citizens with the neighborhood; but is 
there any call for an institution, or any justi- 
fication for calling on the public to support it, 
save as support may be necessary for the 
persons of education without means referred 
to'.' I am by no means clear about these questions 
and make tlicm as colorless as pussiblo. 

The" <)uestion is a practical one for us of 
the Ethical Society, since the building in which 
Henry Booth House has been housed is to be 
torn down incident to the plan for a small city 
park for which the House has been working 
and which is to take in its site. We must 
soon decide what sort of^ a building we shall 
put up. The settlement has led in school ex- 
tension efforts in our ward. As our problem is 
that of all settlements so far as they have not 
. invested extensively in brick and mortar, I 
venture to hope that a general exchange of 
views will be given in the columns of your 
paper, to which settlement workers owe so 
much. Sincerely yours, 

WiiLiAM M. Sai.ti;i;." 

In opening the discussion of Mr. Salter's 
query, which we hope may be followed up in 
successive numbers by representative settle- 
ment workers, let us admit first of all that it 
is a fair question that he raises. To be true 
to their motive and record settlements, more 
than any other organized effort, should be capa- 
ble of squarely and dispassionately facing an 
issue involving their own existence. The "in- 
stinct of self-preservation,'' however legiti- 
mately it may be "Heaven's first law" of other 
life, is so far conspicuous by its absence fronl 
all settlements worthy of the name. They are 
singularly free from institutional self-con- 
sciousness. They have not lived unto them- 
selves or existed for their own sake. Most of 
them have been so poor and have exacted such 
service that they have offered small tempta- 
tions to the self-seeking spirit. Those of them 



THE COMMONS 



19 



which have more prestige and attractive build- 
ing equipment have in such large part depended 
upon the gratuitous service of volunteer resi- 
dents that place-keeping has had very little, 
if any, influence upon the free development of 
the worlc. 



Settlements have found it one of their chief 
functions, moreover, to risk the initiative and 
experimentation which lead other agencies to 
adopt and carry on what they demonstrate to 
be needed or desirable. Nothing that the 
municipality can be induced to take up have 
they been reluctant to give up. Libraries, 
baths, playgrounds, vacation schools, work for 
truants and juvenile delinquents, district nurs- 
ing, and many other such extensions of public 
or private social activity have thus been made 
possible by settlements. With the schools of 
their districts, if not with the boards of educa- 
tion of their cities, most of them have main- 
tained particularly close and helpful co-opera- 
tive relations. Not only have they been allied 
with their regular and vacation-school work, but 
especially with the extension of their privileges 
and the use of their buildings to the life of 
the whole community. Are the settlements 
thus losing their lives to find them in the larger 
sphere of neighborhood influence which could 
be made to center at the public-school build- 
ing? If it were only a question of sacrificing 
their life to save school extension, they would 
promptly and unanimously do it. But it may 
be doubted whether the movement for school 
extension might not lose much of its inspira- 
tion and support if it lost the outside help 
which it has all. along had from the settlements 
as its principal allies and promoters. 



The larger question remains whether the set- 
tlements have not social functions that far 
transcend either their own neighborhood work 
or even the far larger scope for local influence 
which public-school centers might command. 
It is well worth while for the settlements to 
take this occasion to bring their life and work 
to this self-exacting test of their raison d'etre. 
The Commons will welcome contributions to 
the frankest discussion of the settlements' right 
to be and room to work as affected by public- 
school extension or any other change in the 
conditions of life and service. 



"Many free countries have lost their liberty, 
and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it 
my proudest plume, not that I was the last to 
desert, but that I never deserted her." — Lin- 
coln. 



Business Basis for "The Commons." 

This journal now begins the eighth year of 
its service. It was started without capital and 
according to its introductory word "without 
promise for the future, except in the statement 
of our desire that it shall be helpful in ex- 
plaining to those whom it may concern the mo- 
tive and the progress of social settlements in 
general and of Chicago Commons in particular." 
It was aimed still more broadly "to present a 
view of work for the humanizing and uplifting 
of social conditions in the river wards and 
other industrial sections of Chicago and other 
cities." Published not for profit and always 
far below cost, the subscription price for the 
first year was placed at the nominal sum of 
twenty-five cents, to make sure that the paper 
might "reach the hands of those having sym- 
pathy with their fellowmen of every class and 
condition, and especially of every person who 
stands ready to help in the effort toward the 
betterment of the conditions of our common 
human life." Obliged by the increasing interest 
to double the number of pages, we raised the 
subscription price to fifty cents when we began 
our second year "with a good deal of regret 
and no little embarrassment." 

The Chicago Commons settlement has thus 
for these seven years not only gratuitously 
contributed all the labor of editing and making 
up the paper, but also has borne most of the 
expense of publishing it. Until recently there 
has been little hope of securing regular 
lines of advertising, because our paid subscrip- 
tion list is so widely scattered over the whole 
country, yet it has steadily grown until 
our average circulation. Including compli- 
mentary copies, numbers 4,500 per month. 
The low subscription price is also said to stand 
in the way of the kind of advertising open to us. 

Meanwhile The Commons has become less 
and less the organ of this one settlement and 
more and more the representative of every 
other one, and of the whole settlement move- 
ment. Since the Association of Neighbor- 
hood Workers and the College Settlements 
Association opened their departments under 
their own editors, this paper has still more 
exclusively served the interests of others and of 
the whole social-service cause. The refer- 
ences to the Chicago Commons settlement have 
been restricted to the minimum, consistent 
with the fact that these columns have all along 
been its only medium of communication with 
its supporting constituency which is scattered 
over many states. 



-20 



THE COMMONS 



The time has now come when we can re- 
duce this use of the paper usually to a single 
page, which may be conceded by all to lae more 
than offset by the general editorial labor and 
financial responsibility wholly borne by Chi- 
cago Commons. It seems only fair to this set- 
tlement and true to the growing interests which 
The Commons serves, to put this publication 
upon a business basis. This can be done only 
in two ways, by securing advertising or by 
increasing the number and price of subscrip- 
tions, i)erhaps only by both. For only by in- 
creasing the subscription price can we meet the 
slowly decreasing deficit and provide for a busi- 
ness management that will secure both adver- 
tisers and subscribers. By our growing con- 
stituency in the east we are urged to raise the 
subscription price to $1.00 a year. If accom- 
panied by special announcements of the en- 
largement and improvement of the paper, the 
price may safely be raised upon all subscrip- 
tions beginning with the January number. 

We cordially invite correspondence from our 
readers and all interested in the service and 
perpetuity of The Commons that we may have 
their frankest and freest suggestions regarding 
the conduct and the prospects of the journal, 
which may and should represent the entire set- 
tlement movement as no other publication has 
as good an opportunity to do. 

Our Second May Festival. 

On the eighth and ninth of May we are to re- 
peat the May Festival, which was so success- 
fully inaugurated last springy The interest 
awakened by this opportunity to see some re- 
sults of the winter's work and to gain a glimpse 
into the actual social life of the house was as 
marked among our neighbors as among our 
outside friends. Our next issue will be pub- 
lished in time to give due notice of the many 
interesting things in store for that occasion. 
Meanwhile we serve this requisition on all our 
friends within reach for some share of their 
time on Friday and Saturday afternoons and 
evenings. May 8th and 9th. 



FORTH-GOISOS. 

The warden has responded to frequent calls 
of late to speak to influential groups of em- 
ployers and representatives of commercial in- 
terests upon the ever-pressing question of ad- 
justing the strained relation with their em- 
ployes. Before the co-operative class at the 
First Congregational Church in Evanston he 
spoke to the question, "Are labor unions as at 
present constituted worthy of the support of 
Christian people?" With the Chicago Bankers' 
Club he discussed, "A Clearing House for the 



Industrial Situation." In the Merchants' Club 
symposium on "Things Chicago May be Proud 
of,'' he treated the "Hopeful Aspects in Our 
Industrial Life." At a banquet of leading man- 
ufacturers, business and professional men, in 
Milwaukee. Wis., he spoke and was questioned 
on industrial conciliation and arbitration, and 
how the settlements can contribute to their 
success. 



P. S. A. 

Our Pleasant Sunday Afternoons, which 
closed with last month, have had their most 
successful season, thanks to the large number 
of public-spirited musicians, readers, artists and 
speakers. The programs have been more varied 
and of a higher quality than ever. The neigh- 
borhood audiences, in the attendance of large 
numbers of adults and whole family circles, 
as well as in the keen enjoyment shown by all. 
proved how truly each occasion was appreciated 
and how large a place the Pleasant Sunday 
Afternoons filled in the laboring life all about 
us. 

SUMMER COTTAGES FOR RENT. 

At Tower Hill, Wis. 

Thirtj-flve miles west of MaUison on C. >l. & St. P. R.K. 
Small cottage furnished for two occupants. Two wide 
porolies. Located In the woods with outlook on the Wis- 
lonsln Kiver. Summer School under Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 
.July 15 to Aus. 15. Terms, $40 for season from July 1 to 
sept. 15. Board obtainable at dining hall, $4.00 a week. 
Apply to K. A. Waugh, ISO Granil Ave.. Chicago. 

At Mscatawa, Mich. 

Seven hours by daily steamer from Chicago. "Near 
Shore " Cottage on Lake MicliliSin shore within easy reach 
of Black l>ake. Seven rooms, furnished. Double porch on 
two sides.. Safe, healthful, interesting place for children. 
Terms $150 for season from June to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Cottage "Camp Slethuen," six rooms, fine porch, on 
crest of wooded hill near the shore and overlooking liike 
Michigan. Deliahtful summer home for family. "Terms. 
Sl.'K) for sejison. June to October. 

Apply to The Communs. ISO Grand Ave.. Chicago. 

THe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement jioint of view. Itis published monthly at Chicago 
Conunons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago PostolBce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
Shillings, English; 2..50 francs. French— foreign stamps ac 
cepted.) 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 denum inalion, at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page, $25.00; Half Page. Sl.i.OO; 
Quarter Page, SS.OO; One Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates lor Special Numbers of Tbe Conunons. Any 
number imder twenty-five copies, five cents e^ioh; over 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
one hundred, two and one-half cents each. 
Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
change of address, or of failure to receive the paper withto 
a reasonable Interval after It is due. 

Olscontinaances, Please notlfv us at once if for any reason 
you desire your subscription discontinued. In accordance 
with cnstorii. and the cNpressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue The Commoss to each address imtil notified 
to tho contrary. 



HULL HOUSE INVESTIGATION OF TYPHOID EPIDEMIC. 

THe Commons 

A HonthJy Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and LAbor from the Settlement I'olnt of View. 



Number 82-Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicaso, May, 1903 



A Settlement in City Politics. 

The fourth successful political campaign 
hand-running, In which Chicago Commons has 
taken effective part, was won last month. As 
the settlement experience and civic significance 
of the three victorious years may prove sug- 



struggle for the redemption of the ward and 
city. 

It was no less significant in the fact that the 
regular nominee of the Republican ward organi- 
zation was elected in a Democratic ward and 
with a Democratic victory for the mayoralty 




gestive and encouraging to others as to our- 
selves, we let our readers have the story with- 
out misgiving even for Its local coloring. 

The election of Lewis D. Sltts as alderman of 
the Seventeenth Ward scored perhaps the most 
marked success which the Municipal Voters' 
League of Chicago and our Seventeenth Ward 
community have yet attained in their joint 



and most of the city ticket. For to overcome a 
majority of nearly a thousand votes and have 
381 to spare proves again that the balance of 
power is in the hands of the independent vot- 
ers. The fact, too, that one party heeded their 
wishes and lined up Its ward organization be- 
hind a man who commanded the non-partisan 
respect and support, is proof that independent 



THE COM MONS 



voters may succeed, and even the better, with- 
out forming an Independent party. The defeat 
of the opposing candidate Is also corroborative 
of this. For when the independents' protest 
against his nomination, because of his incompe- 
tence, was disregarded by the mayor, it cost 
him nearly 1,000. votes, which he could illy af- 
ford to lose In the closely contested election. 
The occurrence of this warning for the second 
time, with the demonstrated success of the oppo- 
site policy in between, ought to be a word to the 
wise sufficient for all time to come. For the 
retiring republican alderman, Mr. Smulskl, was 
elected two years ago by nearly 1,300 votes in a 
Democratic year, and succeeded in being elected 
city attorney in the last campaign by running 
over 8,000 votes ahead of his party ticket. 
Meanwhile the reputable and able Democratic 
aldermen now so efficiently serving the city and 
the ward took his seat a year ago with a major- 
ity of over 1,800 behind him. 

Between these elections came the legislative 
campaign of last autumn into which the inde- 
pendents entered for the first time with a can- 
d^ate of their own — because both parties not 
only ignored their protest but gave them no 
choice. In the election of their, aggressively 
public-spirited representative they filed an ex- 
ception to the ruling of both parties, which^of- 
fered only three candidates for three offices, 
and presented only one worthy of support. Chi- 
cago Commons has taken great satisfaction in 
these results. For while it could by no means 
haye achieved them alone, yet it is openly ad- 
mitted by all the candidates and the press that 
without the work of the Community Club, 
backed by the Settlement, under whose roof it. 
has' its headquarters, neither the Municipal 
Voters League nor the party "organizations" 
could have possibly won these victories for good 
go'vernment. ,' 

Very practical were .the polities played by 
these allies. To the Com'munity Club thll the 
work of supporting the nomination of Mr. Sitts 
by the caucus and at the primaries; eliciting 
answers from both candidates to questions per- 
sonally and publicly. put to them by the club 
as to their policies on the civic issues of the 
campaign; publishing the records of each in 
circular letters to the 13,400 registered voters 
and securing the support of the metropolitan 
and local press. In some of the campaigns the 
club, including all our men residents, have ta- 
ken the most active part as watchers and chal- 
lengers at the polls, while the House supplied 
thetn with lunches at the seat of war and had 



hot dinners awaiting them on their triumphal 
return at night. 

A pleasant and remarkable feature of the 
last campaign was the ability of Chicago Com- 
mons to maintain its neutrality in the mayor- 
alty issue, while backing the citizens' Com- 
munity Club in the fierce aldermanic struggle. 
Each of the six candidates for mayor was in- 
vited to meet his ward organization at the Set- 
tlement dinner table and present his claim to 
be elected before mass meetings. Nothing 
whatever occurred to mar the pleasure of these 
social occasions, which were very successful in 
securing their principal guests, or to impair 
the success of the political meetings which 
crowded our auditorium. At the very crisis 
of the aldermanic fight, when the Community 
Club's headquarters in the basement was the 
center of the struggle for electing the success- 
ful candidate, the lithographs of his then for- 
midable competitor lined the walls of the audi- 
torium overhead, and his party associates were 
heard by hundreds of our neighbors. 

The occasion on which the victory was cele- 
brated was one of the heartiest responses Chi- 
cago Commons ever received to its proffered 
hospitality. At the Settlement dinner table 
were gathered the official representatives of the 
ward and the Municipal Voters League, to- 
gether with other prominent guests, to meet the 
newly elected alderman of our own and the ad- 
joining Sixteenth Ward. At the Community 
Club's congratulatory reception the same even- 
ing bright speeches were made by Prof. John A. 
Hobson, the eminent English, publicist, the al- 
dermen and their Democratic colleagues, by 
Father Spetz, of St. Stanislaus' great Polish 
Catholic parish, which led the overthrow of one 
of the most dangerous bosses by electing Alder- 
man Jozwiakowski. Walter L. Fisher and Gra- 
ham Taylor spoke for the Municipal Voters 
League. Over a hundred invited guests gave 
the most enthusiastic response and made merry 
in social festivities until late in the evening. 
For charming freedom of speech and neighborly 
intercourse the occasion was simply idyllic. 

While the battle is still to be fought over and 
over again, a vantage ground of immense strat- 
egic value has been gained in only three years 
in a most cosmopolitan ward of 68.000 people 
that used to be considered the most forlorn of 
hopes even by those accustomed to work for 
better things against great odds. The initial 
struggle with violence and fraud fwr freedom to 
vote and a fair count was fought to. a finish at the 
outset. It is not likely to be repeated, as it cost 
the imprisonment of two election clerks for three 



THE COMMONS 



years in penalty for altering- the returns so as to 
count out tlie independent wlio was nevertlieless 
seated. 

A central source of leadership and supply for 
the city-wide campaign is the first essential to 
such success, and is furnished most effectively 
by the Municipal Voters League. But the Set- 
tlement with its non-partisan free-floor for the 
co-operation of independent voters of all parties 
provides the "live wire" which bring to bear the 
forces at the center upon the men who do 
things in the wards. To some degree the Set- 
tlement has superseded the saloon as the deter- 
minative center whence the balance of power is 
wielded. While the saloons are still to be reck- 
oned with and must be visited as the only 
places of resort the men have, yet they have 
ceased to be the candidate's only reliance. For 
the last two men who depended exclusively 
upon buying their way in by subsidizing the 
bar were signally defeated. The word has gone 
out that "the 'saloon canvas' is played out in 
the Seventeenth Ward, and that the parties 
must nominate decent men if their candidates 
are to have any chance of election." When this 
word has been accepted and acted upon the 
Settlement clubs need endorse no candidate, and 
will with much more satisfaction devote them- 
selves to offering all sides the freest hearing 
and fairest chance in substantiating their claims 
to the best political principles and municipal 
policies. 

AN INQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE 

RECENT EPIDEMIC OF TYPHOID 

FBVEK IN CHICAGO. 

BY HULL-HOUSE RESroE:«TS. 

During July, August and September of 1902 
there was an unusually severe epidemic of ty- 
phoid fever in Chicago, which raised the death 
rate to 402 from this disease alone, as against 
212 during the same three months of the pre- 
vious year. 

In discussing the causes for this outbreak 
of typhoid Dr. Reynolds, Commissioner of 
Health, speaks as follows: 

"There was no sewer-flushing rainfall during 
the entire period from October, 1902, to March, 
1903, and the city sewer-flushing, always inad- 
equate, was wholly suspended in January on 
account of the lack of funds. The sewers were 
congested with filth, of which typhoid stools 
formed a component part, and the surface of 
the earth, in city and country alike, was cov- 
ered with the five months' accumulations. * * • 
From March to July inclusive was the wettest 
season on record. The sewers were repeatedly 



flushed out. and the accumulated surface fllth 
was washed away into streams, ponds and the 
lake. * * * In August a succession of high 
variable winds set in, the strongest being from 
the west. The lake bottom was vigorously 
stirred up by high- wave action, the sewage was 
drifted to the intakes, and the water-supply 
from all sources became so contaminated that 
it averaged only 38 per cent, good for the 
month." 

This pollution at the water-supply was un- 
doubtedly the grestest causative factor in the 
epidemic of the past summer, bat there are one 
or two subsidiary factors "whicfc are not 
brought out in the report of Oe Board of 
Health and which may serve to explain the 
peculiar localization of this epidemic. The 
mortality statistics of the Board of Health 
show that a comparatively small area on the 
West Side was the region most severely af- 
fected. Within the limits of the Nineteenth 
Ward, which contains only one thirty-sixth of 
the total population of the city, there were be- 
tween one-sixth and one-seventh of all the 
deaths from this disease. This part of the 
city is inhabited largely by working people. It 
contains one of the largest Italian quarters, 
most of the Greek colony, a small Bohemian 
colony, the northern end of the Jewish quarter, 
and the western part is chiefly American-Irish. 
As far as the general intelligence of the inhab- 
itants is concerned, their knowledge of the laws 
of hygiene, their general housing conditions, 
cleanliness, overcrowding, etc., this part of the 
city does not differ from the other semi-foreign 
quarters, yet it suffered much more than any 
in this epidemic. Evidently there must have 
been some locai conditions which favored the 
spread of the infection. The drinking-water 
alone could not be responsible, for this part of 
the city is supplied from the Chicago avenue 
and Fourteenth street tunnels, the same water- 
supply as that for the whole region between 
Forty-seventh and tiake streets, Canal street 
and Western avenue. Nor could the milk be 
chargeable, for though in this neighborhood the 
milk is often badly diluted, yet it averaged 
quite as good as that supplied to a prosperous 
residence district to the west, as shown by anal- 
yses made of the milk of both districts by the 
University of Illinois in 1898. 

To those who studied the distribution of the 
cases of typhoid fever it soon became evident 
that the number was greatest in those streets 
where removal of sewage is most imperfect. 
This is an old part of the city; the sewers 
in many of the streets were laid before tho 



THE COM MONS 



great lire, at a time when the neighborhood 
was more sparsely settled, and when usually 
not more than one family occupied each house. 
Adequate at that time, they are far from ade- 
quate now, and it takes only "a moderate in- 
crease in the rainfall to make the sewage back 
up Into vaults and closets, while clogging is 
of common occurrence in dry weather; The 
yards and closets are often below the level of 
the street, and are therefore easily overflowed. 
Last spring during the flooding rains it was 
no uncommon thing to see one of these yards, 
from six to fourteen feet below the level of 
the street, covered with several inches of foul 
water which in the neighborhood of the privy 
was distinctly sewage-contaminated. In this 
way the earth of the yards and that under the 
basement tenements became soaked with di- 
luted excreta. 

This condition of things is made possible by 
the primitive arrangements for the disposal 
of dejecta which prevail in this part of the 
city. Two of the residents of Hull House, 
which is situated almost in the center of the 
typhoid district, made a careful house-to-house 
investigation, noting the conditions as to drain- 
age in each house and also the number of cases 
of typhoid fever which had appeared in each 
during the three months in question. Two 
thousand and two dwellings were thus investi- • 
gated. A few extracts from the notebooks of 
the Hull House residents will give an idea of 
some of the conditions found: 

DeKoven street (Jewish) : Vault, said to be 
connected, but full; basement full of sewage- 
contaminated water from backing-up of sewer. 

Law avenue (Greek) : Seventy six persons 
using three small closets under the house; very 
filthy; apparently no sewer connections. 

Bunker street (Bohemian and Polish): Un- 
connected vaults; very foul; ten cases of ty- 
phoid with four deaths in this tenement; six- 
teen families. 

Law avenue (colored) : Connected, but out 
of order; full to the floor; boards at back are 
broken away so that cesspool is quite exposed. 

Ewing street (Italian): Cesspool, said to 
have sewer connection, but full and running 
over, so that stream of sewage runs down the 
yard. 

.Taylor street (Italian): Old-fashioned privy; 
no sewer connection; one of six privies in a 
yard between a four-story front tenement and a 
three-story rear tenement. While we were in- 
specting it, a woman came down with a vessel 
filled with discharge from a typhoid patient. 



which she emptied into the vault. No disin- 
fectant was used. 

Aberdeen street (Irish): One large vault 
used by sixteen families; very foul-smelling; 
unconnected. This was cleaned by a scavenger 
during August, and the filth left Standing in 
an opep barrow in the alley between two houses 
for a week. It was so offensive that the ten- 
ants in these two houses were obliged to keep 
their windows on that side closed. Complaints 
to the Health Department and Garbage In- 
spector were fruitless, and finally the personal 
Influence of a physician prevailed over the land- 
lord and he removed it, but not until it had 
stood there during a week of warm weather, 
when, naturally, the place swarmed with flies. 
There were five cases of typhoid fever in each 
of the two houses next to the alley. 

Blue Island avenue (French, German, Irish 
and Greek): One vault for ten families; over- 
flows into the yard at every heavy rainfall, so 
that the yard is impassable for two or three 
days and tenants must reach the closets from 
the alley. 

It was found that only 967 dwellings, or 48 
per cent, of the whole number investigated, had 
modern sanitary plumbing, as was made ob- 
ligatory for all buildings by an ordinance 
passed in 1896. One hundred and forty-eight 
dwellings, or 7 per cent, of the whole number, 
had plumbing so badly out of order as to bo 
a menace to health. Four hundred and thirty- 
three, or 22 per cent., had out-of-door water- 
closets supplied from the waste water from the 
kitchen sink and the rain-water from the 
roof. Two hundred and eighteen dwellings, or 
11 per cent., had privy vaults with sewer con- 
nection, but without water-supply; vaults 
which are cleaned either by a scavenger or by 
means of a hose connected with the hydrant, 
and which, if not frequently cleaned, cannot 
be distinguished from the undrained, old-fash- 
ioned privies which form the fifth variety, and 
of which there are still 236 in this neighbor- 
hood, or 12 per cent, of the whole number. 

Now, if there is any causative relation be- 
tween the conditions described above and the 
distribution of the cases of typhoid fever, it 
must be largely through the agency of flies, 
since we know that typhoid Infection cannot 
be breathed in but must be taken in through 
the mouth. It is true that germ-laden dust 
blown by the wind may also be a mode of con- 
veyance of the infection. The typhoid bacillus 
has been shown to retain its vitality in dry 
soil for over sixty days. However, it was only 
after the middle of August that this agency 



H»ii5 



■MMk^wriTf'^-'' r-vi».TiB«,^»;»5^_^';'»"i?->v'?»«««i-v 



THE COM MON S 



could have come into play to any great extent, 
for up to that time there had been constant 
rains, and there was practically no dust. 

The importance of the common housefly in 
the spreading of typhoid Infection was empha- 
sized by Majors Reed, Vaughan and Shakes- 
peare in their report on the "Origin and Spread 
of Typhoid Fever in the United States Military 
Camps during the Spanish War of 1898." They 
state that in many of the camps "flies were un- 
doubtedly the most active agents in the spread 
of typhoid fever. Plies alternately visited and 
fed upon the infected faecal matter and the food 
in the mess-tents. More than once it happened, 
when lime had been scattered over the faecal 
matter in the pits, flies with their feet covered 
with lime were seen walking over the food." 

Various laboratory investigators have shown 
that flies which are made to feed on cultures of 
typhoid germs will carry these germs on their 
legs and proboscis, and, if made then to walk 
upon sterile culture medium, will deposit the 
germs there. It seemed very probable, there- 
fore, that the germs contained in the faecal 
matter from typhoid patients might adhere to 
the legs of flies which had frequented open 
privies containing such discharges and might 
be carried by them into the houses and shops 
and deposited upon food. This would seem to 
explain the connection between undrained 
vaults and typhoid epidemics. To settle this 
question a large number of ordinary houseflies 
were captured iu two imdrained, full and filthy 
privies, upon the fences and walls of the houses 
near them, and in a kitchen in which a typhoid 
patient lay. These flies were put into culture 
tubes and subjected to the usual methods of 
bacteriological examination at the laboratory 
of the Memorial Institute for Infectious Dis- 
eases. In five out of eighteen tubes the bacillus 
of typhoid fever was discovered. 

When conditions such as those described 
above exist in any part of a city, they form a 
lasting menace to the health of the community. 
The danger is not over with the ending of 
warm weather and the subsidence of the epi- 
demic. Experiments have shown that the urine 
and faeces of recovered typhoid patients con- 
tain living bacilli for many weeks after every 
trace of the illness is over. The winter cold 
does not kill the bacilli: they have been found 
living in sewage-polluted soil 315 days after 
they were planted there, although In ordinary 
non-polluted soil they soon disappear. There 
is every reason, therefore, to fear a recurrence 
of the epidemic next summer, and it was in the 



hope of inaugurating preventive measures that 
this investigation was undertaken. 

The residents of Hull House who made the 
house to-house visits found only a hearty co- 
operation on the part of the tenants. In the 
houses containing several cases of typhoid there 
was a touching eagerness "to have something 
done about it." They encountered a general 
feeling of anxiety and helplessness, and in 
some instances bitterness and indignation that 
life had been needlessly endangered and lost. 
Among the latter at least two fatal cases had 
occurred in houses which were scrupulously 
clean and sanitary, but in close proximity to 
illegal and uncared-for vaults. 

This district is, of course, subject to the 
same provision by the Board of Health which 
obtains all over the city, and which is perhaps 
entirely adequate iu neighborhoods where the 
population is accustomed to modern sanitary 
plumbing and able to afford it and to keep it 
in order. In this region, however, it is at once 
plain, when careful house-to-house visits are 
made, that the powers and supervision which 
may appear sufficient in a prosperous neighbor- 
hood in the newer parts of town do not secure 
wholesome conditions or even full compliance 
with the city ordinances here. It seemed, ac- 
cordingly, a natural feature of this inquiry 
to endeavor to learn the scope of the Board's 
powers and the methods it employs. 

As it was frequently stated that complaints 
received no attention, the manner of ' dealing 
with them was first examined. 

When the Board of Health receives reports 
which are properly signed and authenticated, 
these are distributed by the receiving clerk to 
the boxes of inspectors according to districts. 
Thus each Inspector receives every morning 
the complaints of the day before. A complaint, 
however urgent, unless made in person at the 
office before 9:30 a. m., cannot be acted upon 
in the regular way until at least the day after 
it is made. Complaints by telephone and anon- 
ymous communications are disregarded. 

The inspector each morning looks over his 
allotment of complaints. He may decide, for 
one of many reasons, that a complaint does not 
deserve a visit, in whfch case he so informs the 
clerk, who does not enter it on the record. 
Otherwise, the case is entered by the clerk in a 
permanent record, giving the address of the 
house to be visited, violation claimed, and name 
of inspector. The complaint inspectors' dis- 
tricts are large. One district, for instance. In- 
cludes the territory between West Madison and 
Twelfth streets, and stretches from the river 



« 



THE COM MON8 



on the east to the city limits on the west. Al- 
though the complaint inspectors receive aid 
from the inspectors who combine complaint 
work with the inspection of plumbing in new 
buildings, yet one can easily credit the state- 
ment that there is no time for "pick-up-work," 
meaning violations which they themselves may 
discover. The force is small, usually from 
seven to nine men, and the inspector seldom 
succeeds in making an immediate report. Some 
delay is, therefore, inevitable, although one 
man recently turned in thirty-nine reports un- 
der one date, having given in nothing for four 
days before and none for eight days after that 
date. Of the thirty-nine reports a surprising 
number were marked "no cause for complaint." 
Such an instance, apparently unchallenged by 
the department, suggests a condition of irregu- 
larity much more damaging than the inevitable 
delay of an overworked force. 

If the inspector's first report shows a viola- 
tion of ordinance, a notice is sent from the de- 
partment ordering changes. Three or four such 
notices may be sent. If no attention is paid to. 
the notices, suit is instituted theoretically; in 
practice this occurs rarely. The records show 
an "abatement" column, in which is set a date, 
presumably that on which the inspector called 
and found the nuisance abated in accordance, 
with notice. This "abatement" column contains 
no details, nor^ does it give the essential facts 
of the violation. If suit Is brought, there is no 
entry in the "abatement" column. 

On the testimony of the inspectors themselves 
they are often satisfied with a mere "clean-up." 
or they become convinced that nothing can be 
done. It is Impossible to learn the actual state 
of property from the records. For instance, the 
city ordinance has forbidden open privy vaults 
since 1896, but when complaint Is made of such 
a vault the record "nuisance abated" frequently 
means merely that the inspector has ordered 
the owner to order the scavenger. Having done 
this, the inspector may report to the office that 
the "nuisance is abated," although the most 
revolting conditions still prevail and the situ- 
ation itself— the very existence of the vault- 
is illegal. There Is absolutely no method of 
determining from the records In the case of 
specific tenements whether or not any effort 
has been made to enforce the ordinance of 1896. 

It is well to reiterate that the services of a 
scavenger, if secured, would not meet the legal 
requirements, as the very existence of these 
vaults has been Illegal since the passage of or- 
dinance No. 1122 in 1896. The figures for the 
Board of Health for recent years as to these 
vaults are as follows: 



1900 1901 1902 

Vaults cleaned 4,049 3,365 2,466 

Vaults abolished 1,247 1,404 1,164 

Comparing the statements as to numbers of 
vaults cleaned and abolished, it would appear 
that there still exist 1,302 vaults. This assumes 
what Is by no means uniformly true, that each 
vault is cleaned once a year. The residents of 
Hull House who made the Investigation con- 
stantly encountered rumors of inspectors who 
made visits to places obviously illegal and dan- 
gerous to health, but who reported to the de- 
partment "no cause for complaint." The ex- 
planation rife in the neighborhood is that the 
inspector is "fixed." 

The unfortunate discretionary power lodged 
in the Inspector is often used In favor of the 
landlord, who urges that the returns from the 
property do not warrant the expenditures neces- 
sary to comply with the law. As the purpose of 
this inspection is solely In the interests of pub- 
lic health and sanitation, on what grounds have 
the Inspectors a right to consider private real- 
estate interests when these public Interests are 
at stake? 

There Is no doubt that the influence of poli- 
ties or wealth often Intervenes in favor of the 
landlord, who does not wish to incur the ex- 
pense of sanitary plumbing, and the Board of 
Health gives as an excuse for the existence 
of many of these illegal vaults that their pros- 
ecutions have been non-suited, although here 
again the Board of Health records show noth- 
ing. The following instances show the results 
of such influences: 

There are only open vaults attached to cer- 
tain houses on Jefferson street, owned by the 
brother of a well-known politician.* 

When these vaults were overfilled during the 
last summer and the tenants were unable to 
secure the scavenger from the landlord, they 
made two complaints to the Board of Health, 
but with absolutely no result, save the visit of 
an inspector. Another case of politician's own- 
ership is found on Forquer street, where, in a 
row of ho.uses sheltering sixteen families, there 
Is provided only one large open vault. Repeat- 
ed complaints have been unavailing to secure 
anything beyond the mere visits of an inspector. 

In another instance a tenement was owned 
by an ex-alderman. The main waste-pipe of the 
building was broken for more than five months. 



•For obvious reasons, the exact locations of 
hou&es mentioned are not given, but full and 
exact details have been obtained and axe pre- 
served at Hull House. 



 T LtiWWM MBan 



THE COMMONS 



to the knowledge of the investigator. The base- 
ment was flooded with filth for that period. At 
the same time the closet on the second floor, 
separated from the living-rooms of a tenant by 
a loose-hanging door, was clogged, so that on 
the floor there was a puddle which the woman 
daily swept down the front stairway. This liq- 
uid filth also seeped through the ceiling and 
dripped down on the fioor below, occupied by a 
Greek. The condition of this building has been 
reported to the Department of Health at least 
five times during this period, as can be proved 
by affldavits. Yet nothing was done, and the 
records of the department show no complaints. 
In the meantime the water-supply pipe was 
broken, so that for the last three weeks of this 
period water could not be drawn on the second 
floor for any purpose. Finally a personal ap- 
peal to the head of the department secured the 
visit of an inspector, whose report was truth- 
ful and showed the need of instant action. 
Nothing was done, however, until ten days 
later, after repeated inquiries over the telephone 
and a threat of publicity, a suit was begun. ' It 
has been found that suits of this character fre- 
quently result either in a trifling flne (which 
it is much cheaper to pay than to make re- 
pairs) or in an appeal which may postpone the 
matter for two years or longer. At this point 
the corporation counsel was appealed to per- 
sonally, and under his vigorous orders the suit 
was pressed and repairs were at once made on 
the one house in question, but of so flimsy a 
character that, although the requirements of 
the law were ostensibly complied with, in a 
month the condition was worse than before. It 
remains to be said, further, that the owner has 
adjacent property, also in shameful condition, 
which is untouched. This property is in liti- 
gation and, as the title is uncertain, there is a 
point of view from which it seems a hardship 
that a nominal owner may be compelled to pay 
heavy repair bills for which he may be unable 
to secure reimbursement. From this point of 
view, also, a certain leniency at the City Hall 
may seem only a decent courtesy. On the other 
hand, the tenant keeps on paying full rent in 
advance. His little business is established at 
this point and would be injured or destroyed by 
removal, as it is constantly injured to some de- 
gree by the bad state of the building. He pays 
for what he does not get, his interests are prej- 
udiced, his health and that of his family are in- 
jured, and he has no redress. The law, oflicial 
courtesy, and oflicial supervision are all exerted 
in favor of the owner of the real estate as 
against the tenant and against the third and 
most important interest, the public health. 



The law's delays, the carelessness, or worse, 
of Inspectors, the indifference of landlords, each 
alone or combined, may put oft the most essen- 
tial repairs for months and even for years, as 
is frequently seen. Yet, in fact, the city ordi- 
nances are full and explicit in affording to the 
Department of Public Health complete power 
to summarily abate nuisances and adequately 
protect the health and lives of tenants, so far 
as they are threatened by unwholesome sanitary 
arrangements. 

As the investigation showed, occupants of 
property where there is the most scrupulous 
compliance with sanitary ordinances cannot 
safeguard their own health or their lives if 
near them are such nuisances as have been de- 
scribed above. What is thus true of this dis- 
trict is true of the whole city. The river wards 
cannot be isolated from the other resident por- 
tions of the town. In this district are the sta- 
bles of various large firms whose delivery wag- 
ons are sent throughout the city and suburbs; 
many of the teams doing city contract work 
are kept here; the peddlers' carts which carry 
fruit and vegetables in every direction within 
a day's journey start in large numbers from 
this region and their supplies are stored here. 
With all these go the houseflies, hearing, as we 
may believe, the typhoid germ. 



THE SOWER. 

Who is it coming on the slant brown slope, 
Touched by the twilight and her mournful 

hope — 
Coming' with Hero step, with rhythmic swing, 
Where all the bodily motions weave and sing? 
The grief of the ground is in him, yet the power 
Of the Earth to hide the furrow with the flower. 

He is the stone rejected, yet the stone 

Whereon is built metropolis and throne. 

Out of his toil come all their pompous shows. 

Their purple luxury and plush repose; 

The grime of this bruised hand keeps tender 

white 
The hands that never labor, day nor night. 
His foot that only knows the field's rough floors 
Sends lordly steps down echoing corridors. 

Yea, this vicarious toiler at the plow 
Gives that flne pallor to my lady'si brow. 
And idle armies, with their boom and blare. 
Flinging their foolish glory on the air- 
He hides their nakedness, he gives them bed. 
And by his alms their hungry maws are fed. 

Not his the lurching of an aimless clod. 
For, with the august gesture, of a god — 
A gesture that is question and command — 
He hurls the bread of nations from his hand; 
And in the passion of the gesture flings 
His fierce resentment in the face of Kings. 

— E.\(>er|)ts from Kdwiii Markham's i)oem, written after 
seeinK Millet's painting, ' Tlie Sower," and contrllnitedlto 
the New York .Journal. 



THE COM MONS 



THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE COUNTRY 
CHURCH. 

BT joh:^ J. MABTrS. 

Social service in rural districts as every- 
where is most fascinating in its nature and 
boundless in its influence. The only requisite 
to stir the depths of any social servant here is 
for him to thoroughly identify himself with the 
actual needs of the society in which he lives. 
This identification of oneself which stirs one 
to enthusiastic activity compels also the recog- 
nition of certain features of service which can- 
not be overlooked without serious hindrance to 
social progress. My own identification with 
country parishes has revealed to me certain 
functions of social service which I think the 
country pastor and his church cannot ignore 
without serious loss to the purpose for which 
they exist. 

The first of these functions of service relates 
to the matter of roads. We do not always re- 
member it, and yet the subject of roads is very 
vitally connected with social progress and spir- 
itual development. The Kingdom of God does 
not come up out of the earth; it comes down 
out of heaven from God. It is to be realized 
through the preaching of Christ. Now, how- 
ever much we may be willing to embody in this 
term, it is patent to every sane person that 
unless men come together for worship, for in- 
struction in holy things, for the purpose of 
having their finer natures quickened, their con- 
sciences become hardened, their ideals low and 
sordid, their living corrupt. But what have 
roads to do with this? The answer is not dif- 
ficult The leisure season for country folk is 
the winter. It is then that the social servant 
most work most ardently to accomplish his 
ends. In planting and harvesting times the 
people are neither physically, mentally nor 
spiritually fitted to develop their higher selves, 
even if they had the time. The matter then re- 
duces itself to this that if they are to be min- 
istered to and to minister to one another they 
must do so in the winter months chiefly when 
they have the time at their disposal and are 
not overworked. But it is then that the roads 
militate against every suggestion that looks to- 
ward social progress and social perfection. Peo- 
ple are not likely to drive long distances In the 
cold when driving is not only slow but also ag- 
gravating, and when carriage and horse and 
health are Jeopardized. The consequence is 
that people stay at home and do not get that 
necessary inspiration for symmetrical living 
suggested above. WTien roads are good, people 
turn out. Driving is then a pleasure. They 



are then not detained by storms. Mingling to- 
gether in the atmosphere of holy communion, 
they gain the spiritual impetus for life's duties, 
are prevented from living isolated and profitless 
lives, and are moved to sympathize with their 
neighbors. Let the country church, therefore, 
agitate the question of good roads. Let the 
trained mind of its pastor show the advantages 
of this in its relations to the saving in trans- 
portation and to general convenience as well as 
its benefits to the moral and spiritual develop- 
ment of the people. Christian men must subdue 
the earth and make it tributary to the King- 
dom of God. 

A second matter in which the country church 
can serve the community is in regard to its ed- 
ucational interests. The separation of Church 
and State has had the general tendency on the 
Church to feel that all it had to do was to see 
that Divine worship was conducted in the com- 
munity and to minister in those things which 
are directly religious, leaving the affairs of the 
community which grow out of religion to be 
guided by whom they may. This has been a 
mistake. The result has been disastrous, and 
especially so in our rural districts. Here, not- 
withstanding all that our educationalists have 
attempted to do and have accomplished in the 
past decades, in almost every instance the coun- 
try school is furthest from what it should be. 
The condition is this: The vast majority of 
patrons have actually no intelligent interest in 
the school. A teacher is hired, set down in the 
school house, must get her board and lodging 
where she can, is seldom if ever visited in her 
work'by directors or parents, and the result is 
that, unless she is exceedingly and conscien- 
tiously devoted to her work, under the dall 
monotony of a rural school and the unreason- 
able criticism of criminally careless patrons, 
she slumps into commercialism, beats time 
through her term, and is never awake to the 
fact that she is dealing with, and shaping, .im- 
mortal beings — beings that constitute the State, 
indeed, as we hold, beings that constitute 
Heaven. 

The country^ church cannot be indifferent to 
this condition. It cannot without loss to its 
cause say that this is purely a matter for the 
State. It can serve the community in this re- 
spect and it must. The clergyman should be 
intimately identified with this interest. His li- 
brary should be stocked with the best pedagog- 
ical literature and should be accessible to the 
teachers. The teachers should be made to feel 
that they are co-workers with the church and 
the families in the community in which they 



THE COM M ONS 



9 



labor in society's most constructive work. On 
the initiative of the pastor and the leading men 
in his church, there should be meetings ar- 
ranged in which directors and teachers and 
patrons shall be made to feel their mutual ob- 
ligation and their mutual dependence in their 
momentous work. And when the church so 
identifies herself with this life-interest of the 
neighborhood, it can with greater boldness and 
authority speak of those things in which life 
itself is rooted. 

Not only, however, should the rural church 
minister to the community's educational inter- 
ests througt the schools; it should further 
serve it by providing such education and 
amusement as the lives of the young people 
call for who have passed through the schools. 
If the country church fails to do this, one of 
three things happens. The young people of 
its constituency will either become recluses; or 
they will gather in some place where the very 
air is polluted, and where the brain becomes 
puddled, and the conduct corrupted; or else 
they will flock to towns where sadly enough 
only vile company seems open to take them tn. 
The eyes of the country church must not be 
closed to these things. It is incumbent upon 
it to furnish the community witfi such forma- 
tive agencies as will produce the most perfect 
and symmetrical manhood. If it does not do 
this it is recreant to its trusts. The pastor 
should bind the leading men of his church and 
community so closely to himself that he can 
lead them in providing lectureships, entertain- 
ments, social gatherings, and the general items 
with which the play Instincts of life are prop- 
erly developed and are made to contribute their 
quota to the realization of the highest self. 
This will not detract from the spirituality of 
the church's ministrations; it will rather inten- 
sify them. Being identified with the life-inter- 
ests of the neighborhood, the church with its 
pastor will thus, if they are so disposed and 
know how, be better able to identify tl)e neigh- 
borhood with God. 

In the third place, the rural church should 
serve the community by working to discourage 
what looks like the genesis of a new Irish 
Landlord System. The economic condition In 
many of the richer parts of our farming states 
is anything but conducive to social progress. 
Farmers stay on their farms until they have 
a good competence. While they are doing this, 
they do not feel very public-spirited, and when 
they have obtained their desired competence, 
they leave the farm and move into town. A 
renter is put on the farm to work it on shares 



or for cash rent. This renter does not expect 
to make it his permanent home. There Is no 
hope that he will ever be privileged to buy the 
farm, and he is not sure of living on it for 
more than one, two, or (say) five years. At 
all events he does not as a rule become a bur- 
den-bearing, burden-sharing constituent in the 
community any further than he is obliged to 
become by laws. The condition then in our 
country parishes becomes like this. We have 
two different parties living directly off the 
land — one is a resident without any great sense 
of community interest; the other is a non-resi- 
dent getting his living out of the community, 
and contributing nothing to it, and perhaps in 
many instances never has contributed anything 
to it. Thus our country districts are impover- 
ished and their social interests are made to 
lag. And indeed this situation would not be 
so serious socially, if when our farmers 
moved to town they became a social force in 
the communities in which they entered. But 
as a rule they do not become so. Nor are they 
altogether ■blameworthy that they do not be- 
come so. They are unfitted to be. Men who 
have always lived on a farm cannot feel at 
home in a city any more than a fish on land. 
The problem is an intricate one, and it may be 
better not to attempt a solution here, but one 
thing is very certain, that the influence of the 
country church is being thrown in the right 
direction when it works to save its own men to 
the country where they are men of influence, 
and when it works to prevent them from be- 
coming non-producers and idlers in some little 
city. The social conscience of our country folk 
needs to be cultivated, and this is the social 
function of the country church whose Master Is 
Jesus Christ, and whose spirit therefore must 
be social. 

A fourth social function that the country has 
failed to recognize as it ought to do, and in 
many instances has failed to recognize alto- 
gether, is its relation to the foreign population 
which is so inevitably possessing our rural 
sections. A fallacious temper seems to pervade 
our Protestant churches in this country, which 
makes them feel that they have no mission ex- 
cept to men who speak the English language. 
The refuge of ease in which they reside is that 
the second generation of these immigrants will 
come along and join the church. What a trav- 
esty of the spirit of Christ whose Body is the 
church! The difficulties in reaching the peo- 
ple, and shepherding them, are indeed rooted 
in the most fundamental principles of social 
life — the principles of likeness and unlikeness. 



10 



THE COMMONS 



THE SETTLEMENT AND THE PUBUC 
SCHOOL, 

BY MABY K. SIMKHOTITCH. 

The question has been raised, is not the Set- 
tlement becoming superfluous? Cannot the pub- 
lic educational system take over all the func- 
tions of the settlement? 

This question involves a consideration of the 
nature of public education and of settlement 
work. 

The work of the public school may be classi- 
fied as educational in the narrower sense, as 
recreational, and as ethical. Education In its 



These difficulties culminate in language, that 
greatest of social bonds and social forces. But 
because these difficulties, inhering as they do 
in the very structure of society, are so great, 
must the Church surrender, and must the coun- 
try church make no attempt to overcome them? 
This is contrary to the Spirit that dwells in the 
Church. If men of other tongues and customs 
cannot be brought to respond to the same stim- 
uli that we respond to, it is our business as 
priests in the Kingdom of God to furnish the 
stimuli to which they will respond, and to care 
for sheep which may not chance to belong to 
the same flock as ourselves. What about the 
sympathies of these hearts? What about their 
hungerings and thirstings? What about their 
spiritual needs? Have they none? Are they 
not Christ's own purchase? These hearts form 
the field of the country pastor and of his 
church, and once that field is occupied, these 
same hearts become the force of the country 
pastor and his church, and a power In their day 
and generation. It is a difficult field to occupy, | 
but it must be occupied, for it contains rich 
treasure, aye, in many instances it contains the 
precipitant of the Reformation. If the pastor 
cannot occupy it by means of the English lan- 
guage and customs, let him do it by other 
means. Let him import help occasionally, if 
needs be, such as can furnish the proper stim- 
uli to which the best in these people must re- 
spond. His church should support him. Or 
perhaps better still let him master the language 
and customs of these people himself. He can 
then minister to them himself. Must this be 
thought a thing too hard? Foreign mission- 
aries do It. Why should not the home mission- 
ary? It would quicken his mental activity, en- 
rich his linguistic powers, and furnish him the 
instrument by which he could communicate the 
bread of life to hungering hearts for whom 
Christ died. 
Chicago Theological Seminary. 



narrower sense is yet far broader than educat- 
ors of only a decade ago could have fancied 
possible. It includes both the ordinary aca- 
demic instruction and the wider field of nature 
study and manual work that demand the train- 
ing of those powers of observation and creation 
which the ordinary instruction ignores. Manual 
training is now of course everywhere recog- 
nized as an integral part of a real education 
that aims to bring out the latent powers of 
the child. The reason that manual work is able 
to accomplish this result is because the child in 
seeing and working at the actual processes of 
construction perceives a sequence, and the en- 
tire reasoning and perceiving faculties of the 
child are thereby developed. This result of a 
trained nature it is practically impossible to 
attain without the aid of manual instruction, 
although of course the need for this method is 
far greater for certain children than it is for 
others. This method, valuable as it is, cannot 
be used as extensively as an educational ideal- 
ist would like, as the majority of children have 
to go to work at an age that allows of but a 
limited kind of training of any kind, and a 
sort of equilibrium has to be maintained be- 
tween the clerical and manual method. 

All this manual work is properly a part of 
the educational system, a deep and integral 
part — not a faddish frosting of the good old 
plain cake of arithmetic, writing and reading. 
Any manual training work that the Settle- 
ment undertakes therefore must be regarded as 
temporary, or as experimental, to be under- 
taken to show what the public schools should 
adopt. But the Settlement cannot undertake 
even this experimental work satisfactorily; for 
not being systematically coordinated with the 
other elements in public education, it will be 
regarded as something outside the system and 
not as an integral part of it. 

But while manual training is really a man- 
datory part of public education, there are other 
functions the public school may properly per- 
form and the extension of which is desirable, 
such as the use of the school for games, for 
the organizing of excursions, and even, as may 
happen, for social evenings in which the par- 
ents of the children may share. 

The organizing of clubs is another perfectly 
proper function of the public school. At pres- 
ent the lack of good club leaders and the bare 
and unsuitable accommodations of public school 
buildings render the school clubs unattractive 
in comparison with settlement clubs having 
homelike influences arid surroundings. But 
there is no reason in the nature of things why 



■.A.-^fM^tlUi,, 



tmM 



^iiAiiiiiiiJtiiJi— 



TH E COM MONS 



11 



schools should not be built with this more lib- 
eral idea of education in mind. For the educa- 
tional value of the club lies in its development 
of ethical relationships in society. To learn to 
live well in a club means how to live well in all 
thos« larger religious, political and social re- 
lationships to which the citizen is later intro- 
duced. 

All these larger functions of public education 
are bound to be developed. The narrower inter- 
pretation of education is an inheritance of the 
older village conditions where the family life 
provided in a larger measure for the all-around 
development of children than the crowded, hur- 
ried life of the masses of our city population 
can afford. 

But while it is true that the enlarged func- 
tions of public education will very likely make 
it unnecessary for the Settlement to continue 
the larger part of its club and class activities, 
this by no means involves the disappearance of 
the Settlement, but rather brings out to clearer 
view its more permanent functions.. 

The Settlement's true value consists in its 
becoming the local center of neighborliness, of 
the interpretation of neighborhood needs, and 
of civic influence. ' These functions of the Set- 
tlement follow in a natural sequence. The 
foundation of knowledge lies in the daily give 
and take of neighborly kindness and confidence. 
To know "conditions" one must know persons; 
for "conditions" are no economic entity unre- 
lated to individuals. To hunt for "data" with- 
out the knowledge of the deep springs that un- 
derlie daily action is as unscientific as it is un- 
pleasing. 

But neighborliness alone won't do. "It must 
be unpleasant to be paid for being a neighbor," 
a headworker was told on the East Side. And 
there is something revolting and self-righteous 
about being a "neighbor" unless it leads to 
something further. The next step is the inter- 
pretation to the city and to society at large of 
those lives so unlike the life of the well-to-do 
and yet so fundamentally the same. Here is 
where the test of one's democracy comes in; 
does one truly believe that in the lives of the 
down-most is to be found the springs of per- 
sonal greatness and of civic beauty and that 
what society has to do Is only to recognize this 
fact and working on this basis to uplift the 
whole? Or is one skeptically to feel that so- 
ciety is to be regenerated from the top by the 
imposition of beneficent "improvements"? The. 
Settlement if it stands for anything stands for 
this, that the seeds of a perfect society are to 
be found in the lives of the humblest, and that 



under more favorable conditions the people at 
the bottom will have a chance to take their 
place at the table of life. 

And then the Settlement, after its interpre- 
tation through its daily knowledge of the ac- 
tual, must see to it that its protest against so- 
cial mistakes gets recognized by society; that 
ts, not only that laws get enacted, but that the 
social conscience rises to a higher plane. 

Is the Settlement then to develop in this way 
alone — as a group of people working for the 
uplifting of the city and the averaging-up of 
social conditions? Has it no institutional char- 
acter to look forward to at all? One cannot be 
doctrinaire in these matters, but it is safe to 
predict that for a long time to come one insti- 
tutional development will be useful and in fact 
necessary; and that is the establishment of lo- 
cal buildings to be used as centers for local or- 
ganizations. Clubs like to have permanent 
quarters. The public school cannot provide for 
this need. Organizations political, social or eth- 
ical need homes of their own. The Settlement 
will fill a great need by establishing such cen- 
ters. This function too of the Settlement 
may disappear, for this movement for the es- 
tablishment of local halls may well be under- 
taken either by a private corporation or by the 
city itself. 

In the long run, then, the Settlement will 
find its real value in the three ways pointed 
out: first, as a neighborly group, second, as an 
interpreter to the public of the life and condi- 
tion of the neighborhood, and, third, as an ac- 
tive protest against social errors and a positive 
force for social betterment. Naturally this is 
a somewhat academic conclusion. For commu- 
nities differ in their ripeness for the enlarged 
functions of education and municipal undertak- 
ings in general. And the Settlement worker who 
amounts to anything is not going to follow a 
platform but is going to work under the given 
conditions. So we are not to condemn the in- 
stitutional settlement or to give unstinted 
praise to the settlement of the other type; for 
it may well be that the activities of one may 
have a great temporary value (and values have 
to be measured in terms of time), and that the 
interpretation and protest of the other are 
valueless on account of the inefficiency of those 
who make up the band of workers. Neverthe- 
less the Settlement on the whole should look 
forward to the second type as the more perma- 
nent. 

For institutions and institutional activities 
one type vt person is desirable: for the lasting 
type of Settlement another sort of person is 



12 



THE COMMONS 



needed; and, let us confess it, the right per- 
sons for effective work of this kind are very 
Tire. If such persons be found, they should not 
be allowed to be diverted from this life for 
lack of a private income. To endow persons 
■would often be a better investment than to en- 
dow activities that may turn out to be of 
doubtful value. If a man be found with this 
rare gift of sympathetic insight, of effective- 
ness in making people listen to what he has to 
say, and in getting the public to want some- 
thing better and to insist upon it, must he be 
driven to an uncongenial occupation in order 
to support his family? This is social wasteful- 
ness. And this brings ui to the consideration 
of settlement work as a profession. 

There are only a few who are fit to be lead- 
ers, and besides these those who live in settle- 
ments and who do the best work are most like- 
ly to be professionally engaged in other allied 
occupations. This leaves room, however, for 
those who voluntarily come and give their lives 
to the simple daily round of neighborliness 
which is the foundation on which the whole 
structure rests. In this relation mental train- 
ing is subordinate to that training that comes 
from life Itself. 

But to the average young man or woman who 
thinks of entering settlement work as a profes- 
sion one can only say, "Fit yourself for some 
work of definite use to society entirely apart 
from the settlement, and then you will be most 
useful- there. Be a nurse, be a teacher in the 
public school, fit yourself to be a club director 
in the play center schools, be a lawyer, be an 
artist, be a public official — but be something 
definite, and then live among your fellowmen 
and for them, using your profession for that 
social uplift which is at once the inspiration 
and reward of those who have once caught the 
vision of the City Beautiful." 

Greenwich House, 20 Jones St., New York. 



An Appeal to American Women in the Phil- 
ippines by the Ladies at the Head 
of Settlement House. 

Through Bishop Brent the women at the head 
of Settlement House, Harriet B. Osgood, Mar- 
garet B. Spencer, Eliza Maria Staunton, Clara 
Thacher and Margaret Waterman, have Issued 
a strong appeal to the American women in the 
Philippines. It is as follows: 

The Transports and Liners are bringing to 
Manila scores of American women. Some stay 
in Manila, some go to the provinces. Many re- 
main but a few weeks; a large numb«r are the 
wives and relatives of ofl5cers of the army, or 



officials in the civil service whose probable 
term of duty will keep them here for a period 
of years. A few even now announce their de- 
termination to make the Philippines their per- 
manent home. Altogether, many American wo- 
men are coming to these islands, and we want 
to ask what is to be the effect of their coming? 
and this seriously, not with mawkish sentimen- 
tality. We love America not merely because 
we honestly believe her to be enlightened and 
advanced in the path of true progress beyond 
the other nations of the world. The women, 
the wives, the mothers and daughters of Amer- 
ica are her pride and glory. They have stood 
with American men in every movement where 
patriotism was Involved. Intelligence and moral 
valor are their characteristics, and now their 
help is needed in the Philippines. 

The only rational view of our relationship to 
these islands is that they constitute a grave re- 
sponsibility; this is the view which is winning 
its way slowly but surely among the men of 
our land, both here and at home. It has to 
encounter a lazy conservatism and a selfish 
commercialism, but it is superior to both and 
will conquer. We women can help in the shoul- 
dering of this responsibility and we ought to 
do it. 

N«ver were more difficult problems proposed 
to a nation. It will need our finest qualities, 
the best that is in us, to solve them. The prob- 
lems are racial, educational, religious, econom- 
ic, sanitary, therapeutic — a longer list might 
be made. Looked at in the largest sense the 
prospect seems discouraging, overwhelming. A 
prime requisite is patience — the patience which 
begets continued individual effort. 

It is important to emphasize the value of In- 
dividual effort. In the long run the natives 
will know us to be what we are, man for man, 
and woman for woman, in our personal and in- 
dividual relationship toward them. Corporate 
and institutional work will do much, of course. 
But the truest Christian philanthropy results 
when Christ is born in a human heart to the 
needy one. And not only this individual effort, 
but continued effort. Narrow the sphere of our 
activity as much as we may, the prospect is 
still likely to seem almost hopeless for a long 
time to come. This should not cause us to 
draw back. One woman, isolated, can do some- 
thing. 

An instance — a letter — has come to us from 
an American woman, wife of an official of a 
town. We quote a part of it: 

"* • » There is so much" need here of the 
most simple assistance, and the people not only 



■L Ui: >;U !ULllL.ll!!iMU9« 



■VBCww.aaK?.'^-?;:.'*^;*'^':?? ?■*>? ■• 



THE COM MONS 



13 



do not know how to render It to each other but 
they seem too ignorant even to apply for medi- 
cal aid where it might be obtained. Just one 
little instance made me thinlv that if even one 
person were willing to devote a part of his 
time to the work, a great deal might be done. 
There is a family across the street in which is 
a baby two months old. The people are not of 
the poorest class, as I found out later, but ig- 
norant beyond everything. I heard the baby 
crying almost constantly for two days and I 
could not stand it any longer. I went over and 
took my house-boy to interpret for me, and 
when I asked the mother if the baby were sick 
she said 'No,' but at the same time asked me 
if I would not come up and see the baby. I 
went up, and, on looking at the child, found 
it covered with sores, some of the dreadful na- 
tive skin diseases. I had no real knowledge of 
the disease, but I at once took over some sim- 
ple remedies I had in the house, with plenty 
of clean bandages, and after the baby was 
washed and wrapped in them, with an ointment 
to allay the inflammation, she went to sleep and 
rested all the afternoon. There is a very good 
native doctor here, but the people never send 
for him, or anyone, unless they recognize that 
the trouble is really fatal. * * • There is a great 
similarity in all these skin diseases and they 
are the particular bane here; the same reme- 
dies would serve for many cases. I have an 
abundance of time, and a house where the chil- 
dren could be brought and looked after while 
their mothers were given the necessary things 
— and really the help is so needed. Perhaps it 
would not be practical, but if you can see how 
I can help to extend in any way, even the most 
limited, the work of your social settlement, I 
shall be so very glad to be of some use. Ameri- 
cans have no place out here unless they can do 
some good.  * *" 

A letter like this suggests possibilities and 
it is just because we believe the idea is entirely 
practical that we wish to propagate it. Our 
"Settlement House" in Manila has been started 
not for purposes of proselytism but that Its 
workers, living among the natives, may exem- 
plify the Christian life in its spirit of helpful- 
ness. We shall try to get into close touch with 
the common people, learn their language, know 
their difficulties, see things as they see them. 
We shall have a well-equipped dispensary, with 
assistance of skilled physicians, native and 
American. A kindergarten is provided; other 
agencies of ministration will doubtless be de- 
veloped as time goes on. We particularly wish 
to have it understood that the use of any equip- 



ment which may be gathered here and any ex- 
periences which we may acquire we shall gladly 
share with others. 

To sum up and apply — our circular Is thus 
an appeal to American women: 

1. To enter upon their residence in the Phil- 
ippines, whether it is to be brief or protracted, 
under a sense of responsibility. Our mission 
here is not to pass a holiday or to kill time. 
It will be easy in certain circumstances to al- 
low social engagements so to tyrannize over 
one that both physical and moral health will 
suffer, or placed otherwise, time will hang heav- 
ily from lack of enough to occupy the days. 
In either situation, well-directed effort to help 
others will react beneficially upon one's own 
life and strengthen character. 

2. To beware of adopting a prejudiced or 
despising or despairing attitude toward the peo- 
ple of the land. Their blood, their tempera- 
ment, all their antecedents are different from 
ours. It will take a very long time at best be- 
fore we can understand them. We must be pa- 
tient, studious and prayerful. We may easily 
allow ourselves to think that the problems are 
most difficult; true faith forbids us to think 
them incapable of solution. 

3. That each American woman should make 
some definite and individual effort for the bet- 
terment, the well-being, of some Filipino neigh- 
bor; this In a persistent, intelligent way. The 
letter above quoted will afford a hint. We ex- 
pect to be able to furnish from Settlement 
House, upon application, such remedies and ap- 
pliances as will be most frequently needed, and 
we invite the visits or correspondence of those 
who are interested. 

4. To take advantage of any opportunity to 
train and teach the natives. We know the case 
of a woman of means, whose husband's occu- 
pation placed her in an isolated position, with- 
out enougli to do. She gradually gathered the 
children of the natives around her, gained their 
confidence and affection and taught them much 
useful knowledge of a practical sort. There 
are doubtless many opportunities of a similar 
nature. 

5. To consider whether some sort of asso- 
ciation with our Settlement work would not 
help them and us alike to a better fulfilment of 
our common responsibility. 



"I have not willingly planted a thorn in any 
man's bosom." — Lincoln. 



"I do not impugn the motives of any one op- 
posed to me."— Lincoln. 



14 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEQE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thayer 
, (Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Sirs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New Yorlj City. 

Fifth Member: Helen Annan Scribner (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43rd St., New 
York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New Yorls City — 95 "Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia — 433 Christian Street. 
Boston — 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



Edited- for the Association by 

Caroline Williamson Montgomery, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



The Visiting Nurses' Settlement, 24 Valley 
St., Orange, N. J., has sent out a circular giv- 
ing the character of the worlt, and schedules. 
Miss Margaret Anderson is head worlter. 



The first annual report of the Ridgewood 
Household Club has been received. The club 
is situated at 333 Bleecher St., Broolclyn, and 
the head worlter is Miss Ethel R. Evans, who is 
■v^ell Ijnown as a former resident of the New 
Yorlc College Settlement. 



The eleventh annual report of the Bermond- 
sey Settlement, London, by J. Scott Lidgett , 
(warden) emphasizes the greater need for the 
settlement extension In his neighborhood ow- 
ing to the withdrawal of so many of the up- 
lifted forces of the neighborhood to the sub- 
urbs, and above ail institutional methods and 
features places the spirit embodied in the Set- 
tlement as its most essential part. 



The Philadelphia Society for Organizing 
Charity has published the report of special com- 
mittee of the board of directors on Wife Deser- 
tion. They state that out of 6,664 cases dealt 
with during the past year in 211 families the 
distress was due wh6lly or in part to desertion 
of the father of the family. There is no ade- 
quate provision in Pennsylvania to deal with 
such situations by law. Accordingly the report 
follows these lines: 

1. The present situation in Pennsylvania 
and how to better It. 

2. A resume of laws and opinions in other 
parts of the United States. 

3. Notes on some types of deserters. 



The Work Done by Vassar Students. 

Among the students of Vassar College a large 
number are engaged in social work of some 
kind or other. In connection with the Chris- 
tian Association of the college, many of them 
help in the Sunday schools of Poughkeepsie, 
and in the Young Women's Christian Associa- 
tion. Many, also, are doing regular friendly 
visiting in connection with the churches in 
•town. An effort is now being made by- the 
College Settlement Association of Vassar to 
start a settlement on a small scale in the poor- 
est portion of Poughkeepsie. A small group of 
children of a class not reached by any other 
organization in town has been gathered Into 
the rooms of the Young Women's Christian As- 
sociation by Miss Fannie Marens, a Vassar sen- 
ior. The club thus formed has proved very 
successful, and has met regularly all winter. 
The rooms of the association were small and 
inadequate, and the need of larger accommo- 
dations was evident. The question of renting 
a few rooms came up and the idea of a small 
settlement grew. In connection with the Vas- 
sar students a committee of town people are 
acting and are endeavoring to help the enter- 
prise along in a financial way. It is hoped 
that in the fall it will be possible to get a 
small house in the section of the city where the 
work is most needed, and to have some one 
person resident there. This house will then 
be open to all, and a kindergarten and clubs 
will be started. In the meantime, some clubs 
are to be organized this spring, in order to 
have a nucleus with which to start. Expedi- 
tions will be made with the children into the 
country about Poughkeepsie. In the summer, 
if it proves possible to obtain rooms in the 
public school, a six-weeks' kindergarten will be 
organized. Many of the students and of the 
townpeople have promised their help in the 
clubs which will be formed. It is, of course, 
necessary to start on a small scale, but great 
enthusiasm is being shown, and it is to be 
hoped that the plans will prove successful. 

In the college itself for several years work 
has been done by the students with the maids, 
of whom there are over a hundred constantly 
employed. Educational classes, dancing classes, 
and entertainments have been held by the stu- 
dents each week, and have proved successful. 
A club house for the use of the maids — the 
need of which is keenly felt by all those who 
are interested — will be started as soon as 
enough money is raised. The whole cost, in- 
cluding an endowment fund, will be $20,000. 
Of this, flO,000 is necessary before the build- 



THE COMMONS 



15 



ing can be begun, and between four and five 
thousand of this sum has been raised. The 
building will contain a large sitting room, a 
library, club rooms and a kitchen on the first 
floor. On the second floor, a matron's room, 
some rooms for clubs or classes and bathrooms. 

In order to have some form of organization 
to control the management of this building, the 
maids have recently been organized into a 
club. They have chosen their name, elected 
their ofBcers and drawn up their constitution 
themselves. Interest is shown by many, and 
the weelily meetings for social purposes are 
well attended. The maids are enthusiastic about 
the club house, and are themselves planning 
an entertainment, with the view of raising 
money toward the fund. It is hoped that It 
will be possible to build it soon, as the college 
is growing, and the need for it is to be felt 
more and more. Among the students there Is 
a growing interest in all matters of a social 
nature, and the increasing willingness on their 
part to give of their time and their help is 
proof of this. In the fall, slips are circulated, stat 
ing those things in which a student may help. 
These are signed by those wishing to engage 
in work of this nature, and from the lists thus 
formed assignments are made by the commit- 
tees in charge of the different branches of the 
work. Lea D. Taylor. 

Vassar College. 



Boys* Clubs 



By IVilliam A. ClarH, 

Headworker Gordon House, Sew York City. 

A descriptive and practically suggestive booklet of 48 
pages on the organization, management and programs for 
boys' clubs. 



Price 20 Cents. 



Order of The Cummons. 



Other monographs on " Games and Play," " Camps for 
Boys," " Schoolvards and Playrooms." " Vacation Schools," 
" The Lincoln House Play- Work System." 

Send 60 cents to The Commons for 

The Handbook of Social Settlements 

By Professor C. R. Henderson. The best single 
volume on the Social Settlement Movement. 

The Church in Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the International Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Twenty-five cents. 

The New Fourth Edition of College, Social 
and University Settlements Bibliography 

Compiled by Caroline Williamson Montgomery. 

For the College Settlement Association, with 
much new material. Now ready. Order through 
Thk Commons. Ten cents per copy. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIQHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Association by 

Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Review of Prof. Zueblin's Lectures. 

Prof. Charles Ziieblin, of tlic Iniversity of 
Chicago, has just completed two courses of lec- 
tures before the Association of Neighborhood 
Workers of New York City on the "American 
Municipality" and "English Sources of Ameri- 
can Social Reform." This is according to the 
plan of the Association to have a course of lec- 
tures on social topics for social workers each 
winter, and follows Mr. Robert A. Woods' lec- 
tures of last spring. 

In the first course, the "American Municipal- 
ity," Prof. Zueblin in six lee ures discussed 
charters, franchises, municipal ownership, 
finance, the civil service and Democratic ad- 
ministration. 

Though wonderful strides in civic improve- 
ment have been made in the last decade, our 
municipal government remains undemocratic. 
The reasons for this are manifold, but arise 
chiefly from the interference of the state in lo- 
cal affairs, "bossism" and the dominance of na- 
tional political parties, the illiteracy in cities 
as well as the ignorance and indifference of 
many educated people in civic affairs, and the 
desire to shift the responsibility of city gov- 
ernment on one man, the mayor. 

To remedy this it is necessary to have bet- 
ter governing machinery, by which a more di- 
rect relation with the people can be obtained In 
the simplest possible manner. The number of 
elected oflScials should be reduced, perhaps, to 
the mayor and council; the functions of the 
council should be extended and made more im- 
portant; the initiative and referendum should 
be encouraged; and intelligent citizens should 
unite in an independent municipal party. Too 
often the municipality is the creature of the 
state, regulating conduct and serving the mass 
of the consumers as the agent of the state, 
when it should be in itself an organization of 
the consumers. The frightful municipal cor- 
ruption in so many of our cities In connection 
with granting franchises might be overcome by 
having all franchises drawn up by the city 
council, not by the corporation desiring them; 
then granted on the basis of competition and 
advertisement, and approved by the council 
and by a popular referendum. "Every fran- 
chise should include the privilege of municipal 



10 



THE COMMONS 



ownership" — should the city desire it. Prof. 
Zueblin believes that municipal ownership pro- 
motes good citizenship, civic pride and private 
initiative. "The most important question at 
issue to-day," he says, "is the lack of initiative 
among the American people." 

Yet the movement for civic improvement in 
the last decade has been most encouraging. It 
has already created a new civic spirit, has 
trained the citizen in administration, as well 
as remade the government of many of our cit- 
ies. What we still n^d in municipal govern- 
ment is more simplicity, directness and pub- 
licity. In order to serve Jhe consumers the mu- 
nicipality must be democratic, representative, 
provide a civil service and control its electo- 
rate. Municipal administration will be demo- 
cratic as we realize the "public will" behind it. 
The people can generally be trusted in regard 
to conscience. When we have learned to trust 
the iteople, we shall have made a great moral 
and economic advance. 

In the course on "English Sources of Ameri- 
can Social Reform" Prof. Zueblin gave five lec- 
ture studies" on the men who were the proph- 
ets of our modern social ideals — Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Will- 
iam Morris and Thomas Hill Green, with a final 
lecture on "The Legacy of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury." These lectures have been an inspiration 
to all who were able to hear them, and have 
shown clearly the distinct place which each of 
these men held in reference to his time, as 
well as to our present "practical idealism." 

The "Christian Socialism" ol Coleridge was 
an outgrowth of the German philosophy, relig- 
ious controversy, political reform, industrial 
evolution and the social distress of his day. The 
introduction of the factory system gave indi- 
vidual opportunity, and from it men began to 
work out economic laws. In the confusion of 
thought of his time. Coleridge saw clearly that 
the responsibility of the old feudal system was 
gone, and no new responsibility was put in its 
place. He had no conception, however, of our 
modem idea of organized social responsibility. 
He did not believe in democracy, nor in popu- 
lar liberty, in the modern sense. His doctrine 
of "Social Service" was his greatest contribu- 
tion to the social reform movement. 

In "Carlyle's Attack on Laissez Faire." we 
find another great advocate of personal respon- 
sibility. Carlyle's teachings were largely nega- 
tive. He was the great protestor of his time, 
the Jeremiah of the ninete nth century. He 
not only protested against the "I^issez Faire" 
philosophy, he also condemned the growing 



faith in democracy, criticized the religious in- 
dividualism of the churches, and denounced 
social shams. On the other hand, he believed 
in a feudal kind of industry, in which not only 
the "captains of industry," but organized in- 
dustry itself, should have certain definite 
rights. He was far in advance of his time in 
demanding a universal system of education. 
His idea was that education should remake 
people by remaking their environment, the 
same theory that we are at present trying to 
work out by means of our model tenements, 
small parks, public baths, playgrounds, etc. 
Carlyle was not scientific, but his plea was al- 
ways human. 

John Ruskin was a greater man than Car- 
lyle and his teachings were more positive. 
His theory of "Benevolent feudalism" was 
based on merit, as opposed to our modern so- 
cial and industrial feudalism, which is based 
on money. The "cash relation" was almost as 
revolting to him as to Carlyle. He also felt 
deeply the need of personal responsibility, but 
his was the responsibility of the Baron. He had 
no share in the evolutionary and democratic 
ideas of the day. He was not a believer in lib- 
erty, as we understand it, but was an advocate 
of justice and a lover of men. He was one of 
the great men of Oxford who stimulated Toyn- 
bee and others to live in East London and orig- 
inate social settlements. It was Ruskin who 
gave the first piece of ground for public play- 
ground purposes. As a man of wealth his doc- 
trines of the ethics of wealth carried weight. 
He said, "There is no wealth but life," and he 
lived his philosophy. 

Like Ruskin, William Morris was a rich man 
and an aristocrat, but he believed in "the com- 
mon blood." He was more democratic than any 
of his predecessors. "He was the most versa- 
tile man of the nineteenth century." says Prof. 
Zueblin. As an architect, poet, designer and 
decorator, lecturer, teacher, organizer ar-.d mas- 
ter workman he made a marked impression on 
his time. In his work his aim was a "realiza- 
tion of art made for the people and by the peo- 
ple, a joy to the user and the maker." This 
artistic social instinct led to his "Romantic So- 
cialism," which he thus defines: "It is right 
and necessary that all men should have work 
to do. work worth doing, work of itself pleas- 
ant, work done under such conditions as would 
make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anx- 
ious." The characteristic note of Morris' whole 
life was "fellowship." He puts his own belief 
in the words of his hero, John Ball. "Forsooth, 
brothers, fellowship is life and lack of fellow- 



THE COMMONS 



17 



ship is death, fellowship is heaven and lack of 
fellowship is hell, and the deeds that ye do on 
the earth, it is for fellowship's sake that ye 
do them." 

Thomas Hill Green was more of a practical 
politician than any of his great predecessors. 
An Oxford professor, a philosopher and a lec- 
turer on Greek ethics, he was at the same time 
a man of activity in all political and human 
affairs — a member of the municipal council 
from Oxford, and a strong Liberal. He early 
expressed an earnest sympathy with the people, 
and with great breadth of mind and intelli- 
gence, opposed all oppressions and advocated 
reforms. His conception of the state was to 
"make it possible for people to realize them- 
selves by obtaining a good which is a common 
good." This makes the first aim of the state a 
moral one. Green's ideal of the "common good" 
had a profound influence on English thought, 
and brought him a number of followers, of 
whom David G. Ritchie is the most conspicu- 
ous in social writings to-day. 

The work and influence of Coleridge, Carlyle, 
Ruskin, Morris and Green was a part of the 
great industrial, democratic, economic and hu- 
manitarian movements of the last century. The 
results have been the organizing of trade unions 
and great co-operative societies, founding of 
trade and technical schools, development of rep- 
resentative municipal government, so that 
Great Britain has to-day the best city govern- 
ment in the world, civic and political reforms, 
and all kinds of humanitarian work which 
form such an integral part of our modern so- 
ciety. Modern philanthropy requires not only 
a sympathy with but a knowledge of humanity, 
and this is the great work of the social settle- 
ments. Education has become more democratic 
and is producing a broader culture among all 
classes than has been known before. The great 
ideal of the nineteenth century which has been 
given to us is liberty for the worker, equality 
for the- citizen and fraternity for men and wo- 
men. 

Louise E. Bolard. 

Greenwich House, New York. 



Four Labor Laws for the Better. 

Since April 1st four bills have been passed 
by the legislature at Albany that mark a dis- 
tinct advance in labor Icjifislation in ttie state, 
especially with regard to children. These bills 
are the three child labor bills and the compul- 
sory education bill and the points of chief im- 
portance made by them are as follows: 

1. In cities of the first and second class no 
child under 14 years of age is to work in any 



mercantile establishment or factory at any 
TIME. Hitherto children from 12 to 14 years 
of age could work in stores during the school 
vacation. 

2. Children from 14 to 16 years of age can 
work in mercantile establishments or factories 
but nine hours a day or 54 hours a week, in- 
stead of ten hours a day or 60 hours a week, 
as was allowed by the old law. 

3. "Mercantile establishment" is defined to 
include besides stores, offices, restaurants, tele- 
phone, telegraph and messenger ofllces, express 
and delivery offices and the delivery depart- 
ments of these same and of stores. 

4. The requirements for securing working 
papers are made more rigid and include a birth 
certificate, school record and sound physical 
condition. 

5. The children delivering for factories, 
laundries, bakeries, etc., are included in the 
action of the factory law. 

6. No boy under 10 and no girl under 16 
years of age shall sell newspapers on the street 
and no boy between 10 and 14 years shall do so 
unless he has a permit and badge and no such 
child shall sell papers after It) p. m. 

7. The age for school attendance is from 7 
to 14 years of age instead of from 8 to 12. Boys 
from 14 to 16 that have not finished the com- 
mon school course may attend night school in- 
stead of day school if they are at work. 

The passage of these bills is the result of the 
combined effort of the departments concerned 
and the child labor committee reinforced by all 
the organizations interested in children and in 
social progress. 

Susan W. FitzQebald. 

phatalozzi-froebel ~ 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 
Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, 1903. 
Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development em|ihaslzed. Includes 
opportunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars address 
BERTHA HOFER HEaNER, 
Chicago Commons. i8o Qrand Ave., Chicago 

CHICAGO 

THEOL^OGICAL. 

SBMINARY 

Opens It.s 4i;tli year Sept. 30, 1903. for collcg" (inuliiates. 

Tliorouiili trolnl' n for pastoral. nilssloDary, edueatlODal 
and evaniielistic service. 

Specialized cour. es lu pedaKogy. sociology, missions, 
music and expression. Merit scliolarshlps. university 
fellowships, (i»l(l work, social settlement observation and 
research. Address 

Prof. H. M. SCOTT, 520 Adams St., Chicago, ill. 



18 



THE COM MONS 



THe Commoris 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Lalrar 
from tlie Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HAM TA.YLOR.. 



E.ditor 



Entered at Chicago Postofllce ^s Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Are. & Morgan St., Chicago, 1 11. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



Arbitration of Trade Agreements. 

The enormous growth in the number and 
power of industrial organizations now taking 
place is increasing the demand for arbitrating 
differences over trade-agreements. As the rap- 
idly growing labor unions and the mutiplying 
employers' association more nearly match each 
other in strength, there will be less dictating 
of terms upon the part of either and more ne- 
cessity to come to agreement with each other, 
either directly or through boards of arbitra- 
tion. The mutual respect begotten by nearly 
equal power will add new sanction to the in- 
violability of the contracts entered into between 
employers and employes, upon which the pub- 
lic as the great third party will have more and 
more to say and do. 

The umpire, or third man, in these courts of 
coneiliation, represents the public very much 
as the judges do the commonwealth in the law 
courts. The demand for men of good judgment 
and impartial attitude, who are enough in the 
confidence of both sides to give carrying power 
to their decision in either direction, ia far greater 
than the available supply. 

A Compromise on Unionizint:. 

Called upon to break a dead-lock between the 
Wholesale Drug House Association and the 
union of their employes, the writer faced this 
situation. The employes insisted, as the con- 
dition of accepting the otherwise completed 
agreement, that there should be an article pro- 
viding that two weeks after entering the service 
of any drug house every employe must join the 
union. The employers were equally determined 
in their decision not to discriminate for or 
against membership in the union in the hiring 
or discharging of employes. The fact that all 
the drug houses were included in the associa- 
tion and all their employes except from three 
to five per cent were members of the union 
made it possible for the umpire to propose and 
for the representatives of both sides unani- 



mously to accept the following alternative to 
their respective ultimata, as the first article 
of the agreement: 

"By signing this trade agreement it is un- 
derstood that each party recognizes the full 
contract-right, responsibility and independence 
of the other; that both parties give preference 
to dealing only with each other's members; 
that neither party shall be estopped hereby 
from contracting with other individuals and or- 
ganizations; but that it either party hereafter 
enter into contracts with others it shall in no 
case be on any other terms than are hereinafter 
specified, and shall only be for cause, which 
upon the demand of either shall be submitted to 
an umpire to be selected by the four arbitrators 
first provided for," i. e., by two representatives 
of either side. 

These considerations may be urged in the in- 
terest of both parties for this attempt to flank 
the main point of attack and defense, around 
which the battle is on as nowhere else. It 
miakes it far easier for them to deal with each 
other than with others outside their respective 
memberships. It makes it more difficult to dis- 
criminate against the claims which each has 
upon the other by virtue of entering into con- 
tract relations together. It requires cause to be 
shown why either should be justified in deal- 
ing with others in the judgment of a disinter- 
ested umpire. It leaves both parties free to 
enter into contract relations with others when 
the cause therefor is thus adjudged sufficient. 
Thus neither is forced to drive men into each 
other's ranks. But. in any event, all abroga- 
tion or evasion of the terms of the agreement 
between them as to conditions of employment 
are expressly prohibited. Why are not the in- 
terests and self-respect of both employers and 
employes provided for and safe-guarded by 
this agreement? What is there to hinder other 
labor unions and employers' associations adopt- 
ing it, especially when either side embraces so 
nearly the whole constituency tributary to each 
organization? 



Jolin Graham Brooks' Mediation. 

It may well gratify Mr. John Graham Brooks 
to learn that arguments from his volume on 
"Social Unrest" are being quoted in boards 
of conciliation and arbitration for the 
settlement of industrial disputes. It is 
the most fundamental and practically 
helpful contribution ever made in Amer- 
ica to the literature of industrial media- 
tion. Its strength lies in the avowed recogni- 
tion of the rights and wrongs on both sides of 



JJUUiJUMLMKB'^ 



jwy .vu-ivV-uiLBi ' aK 



THE COMMONS 



19 



the complex situation, and in its reportorlal 
mission to present the reader with the facts as 
seen through the eyes and sensed by the intu- 
itions of each of the great contestants in the ti- 
tanic struggle for industrial freedom and jus- 
tice. The author's wise insistence that trades- 
unionism is the conservatism of the labor move- 
ment is the best antidote to the Indiscriminate 
and Incendiary onslaught of such ranters as 
Parry. Employers, even in the National Asso- 
ciation, which he is so unfit to lead, will not 
be slow to choose between the American Fed- 
eration of Labor and the rampant political rad- 
icalism into whose ranks the conservative ma- 
jorities of trades unions would be drawn by any 
successful policy of economic repression, much 
more of attempted legal suppression. 



Public Indebtedness to Hull House. 

For the summary of the Hull House investi- 
gation of the responsibility for the typhoid fe- 
ver epidemic, from which the tenement house 
wards of Chicago suffered so great a loss of 
of life and family resource last year, our read- 
ers are indebted to Dr. Alice Hamilton, whose 
expert investigations contributed invaluably to 
the result. By this fearless and scientific ser- 
vice the City of Chicago is again more than re- 
paid for all its citizens have ever done to co- 
operate with Miss Addams and her capable col- 
leagues in making Hull House possible. It has 
really become a center of such civic importance 
that it deserves to be considered an extra-of- 
ficial department of the municipality. The ef- 
fect of its impartial inquiry into the reasons 
for the continued existence of unsanitary con- 
ditions has already borne the first fruits of a 
greater harvest. A "stay book" has been un- 
earthed at the office of the Commissioner of 
Health, containing the signatures of the of- 
ficials whose "pull" was suflScient to suspend, 
if not nullify, the enforcement of the law 
against the specified properties which, on com- 
plaint, the inspectors reported to be In danger- 
ous condition. 

The cartoonists have begun to caricature the 
situation. The newspaper protest is unani- 
mous. The mayor is moving toward a general 
investigation of the department through the 
civil service commissioners. And, best of all, 
something is being promptly done when com- 
plants are lodged at the City Hall. 

Next month's issue will be largely devoted 
to the report of Miss Gertrude Palmer to her 
instructors in sociology and economics on the 
"Savings and Spendings of Children," which 
she investigated while resident at Chicago Com- 
mons on the Michigan University Settlement 
Fellowship. 



Chicago Commons Events. 

The Warden has successfully conciliated three 
important industrial struggles within the past four 
months. In a long and hard-fought shoe-shop 
complication, involving evidence on the conditions 
of labor in thirty factories, scattered across the 
whole continent, his decision was accepted as final, 
after a four months' contest. 

The hitch between the Employers' Association 
and the Employes' Union of the Chicago Whole- 
sale Drug Houses was cut by substitution for the 
ultimatum insisted upon by each side, the compro- 
mise on unionizing, discussed on the editorial page, 
the unanimous adoption of which carried with it 
the acceptance of the entire agreement. The scale 
of wages and hours of the carriage and wagon- 
makers in Chicago was settled without difficulty 
or delay. In all these cases he was accepted by 
both as the disinterested third party. In the first 
he was nominated by the union, in the second by 
the employers, in the third his name was on both 
lists of nominees. 

The dinner parties given to the six political 
party chiefs arid the members of their respective 
ward "organizations", together with the citizens' 
mass meetings at which each of the mayoralty 
candidates were heard and questioned, were re- 
markably successful and are of strategic value in 
the policy of the settlejnent. The congratulatory 
occasions reported in the first article were the 
simplest and most cordial ever held in the house. 

Professor and Mrs. Graham Taylor go abroad 
the middle of May for their six months' leave of 
absence. It is their first prolonged absence from 
settlement work in their eight years residence at 
Chicago Commons. A strong group of residents 
will maintain the full service of the house, and its 
outside friends should so provide for its support 
that the long-needed rest of the Warden should 
not be broken by solicitude for the finances. 

The house-parties of residents at the War- 
den's cottage on the Macatawa shore of Lake 
Michigan during the kindergarten vacation 
every spring have been among the pleasantest 
experiences and memories of the many tired 
workers who have rested and refreshed them- 
selves there. This year added the pleasure of 
a reunion with two former residents, who re- 
turned from a distance to share 'the fellowship 
once more. 

Notifications of arrearage are being sent to all 
delinquent subscribers to The Commons,, and no 
names will be gratuitously carried on the mailing 
list after Sept. 1, except those of the settlements, 
all of which receive complimentary copies. This 
is the first step toward placing this paper on a 
business basis. 



20 



THE COMMONS 



Second Annual May Festival 

FOR CHICAGO COMMONS' NEIGHBORS 
AND FRIENDS, 

Illustrating Industrial, Art, Musical and Gymnastic Class and Club Work. 

Friday and Saturday, afternoons and evenings, May 8 and 9. 



EXHIBITS. 

Both Afternoons and Evenings, Free Admission. 

Cookings, Manual Training, Girk' Qub Work, Weaving, Sewing, Kindergarten, 
Handwork of Washington and Montefiore Schools. 



ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMS. 

Friday and Saturday Afternoons at 3:30 o'clock. 
Boys' and Girls' Gymnasium Classes. 

Children's Chorus, Elocution and Piano Pupils. 

Kindergarten Plays and Maypole Dance. 

Friday Evening at 8 o'clock. 
Cantata, "The Twin Sisters'* - - - - by Girls' Qubs. 

Saturday Evening at 8 o'clock. 

Men's Gymnasium Work. 

Songs by the Choral Qub. 

Stereopticon Views of Camp Commons. 



ADMISSION. 

FOR ALL FOUR ENTERTAINnENTS, ag Cent*. (Transferable.) 
SINGLE TICKETS, 10 Cents. 

PROCEEDS FOR THE BENEHT Of CAMP COMMONS AT ELGIN, ILL. 



SUMMER COTTAQES FOR RENT. 

At Tower Mill, Wis. 

Tblrty-flTe miles west of Madison on C. M. & St. P. R.R 
Small cottage furntsbed for two occupants. Two wide 
porches. Located In the wootls with outlook on the Wis- 
consin River. Summer Sehivol under Jenkin Lloyd Jones, 
July 15 to Aug. 15. Terms, $tO fur season from July 1 to 
8ept. 15. Board obtainable at dining hall, $4.00 a week. 
Apply to K. A. Waugh, 180 Grand Ave.. Chicago. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Seven hours by daily steamer from Chicago. "Near 
Shore " Cottage on Ijike Michigan shore wlthlu easy reach 
of Black Lake. Seven rooms, furnished. Double porch on 
two sides. Safe, healthful, Interesting place for children. 
Terms tlBO for season from June to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Cottage " Camp Methuen,'" sli rooms, fine porch, on 
crest of wooded hill near the shore and overlooklDE IJake 
Michigan. DeliEhtful summer home for family. Terms, 
tlSO for season, June to October. 

Apply to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 



TKe Commons 

Is devoted to .\spects of Life and I.abor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, Hi., and is entered at the Chicago Postoffice ai 
mall matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
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Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Coaunons. Any 
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Discontinuances. Please notify us at once if for any reasoa 
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»B«»T*«r-^'*V<«' ..}» 



^^t^ •,i*\:-£!'-i,'tk3;'LC'lrfal 



The Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects ot L.lfe and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 83— Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicago, June, 1903 



EARNINQS, SHENDINOS AND SAVINGS OF 
SCHOOL CHILDREN. 

♦Investigation of the Social Settlement Fel- 
lowship of the University of Michigan 
at Chicago Commons. 

BT GERTBUDE E. PAIMEB. 

With all that has been said and written re- 
garding the employment of children in stores 
and factories, little attention has been paid to 
the financiering of the child who is not a reg- 
ular wage-earner. How his odd pennies are 
picked up, what they mean to him and to his 
parents, how he spends them and what his in- 
clinations are toward saving, seem as yet to 
have aroused comparatively little interest. 

Mr. Will F. Monroe, of Boston, has made an 
interesting report on the "Money Sense of Chil- 
dren," in the Pedagogical Seminary, vol. 9. He 
based his report on the answers to the follow- 
ing questions which he submitted to the chil- 
dren of some of the public schools of Massa- 
chusetts; "If you had 50 cents a month to 
spend as you liked, what would you do with 
it?" "For what would you save?" He asked 
100 boys and 100 girls of eleven years of age, 
"What would you do with ?1,000?" This, as 
he says, was to ascertain "the mental effect ot 
a large sum of money," and the result was the 
statement from 98 per cent of the boys and 72 
per cent of the girls that they would save it. 
He found by the answers to the question re- 
garding the 50 cents a month a uniform growth 
in thrift tendencies with increase in years. He 
notes also that in all cases the tendency to save 
is stronger in boys than in girls, and sub- 
stantiates his statements with results obtained 
from a similar investigation by Miss Anna 
Kohler, of California published in Barnes 
Studies in Education, Stanford University, 

Mr. Monroe was intimately associated with 
the public schools when he wrote and his in- 
quiries were thus prompted by an interest in 

•We take pleasure In presenting as full a sum- 
mary as our space allows of Miss Palmer's report of 
her Inquiry to the University department ot econom- 
ics, which deserves to be rated> with Mr. Melendy's 
on "Social Substitutes for the Saloon" and .Miss Clark's 
on "Juvenile Delinquency In Chicago." 



child study. For purposes of psychology these 
suppositional cases are quite sufficient. 

For this report I have asked the children 
not only "What would you do?" but "What are 
you doing?" And I have supplemented the 
answers I have received with actual observa- 
tion on my own part. Personal acquaintance 
with the children through clubs and classes at 
Chicago Commons and calls on the parents in 
the neighborhood suggested facts to be dem- 
onstrated by other means, and gave an abun- 
dance of illustrations for the principles I saw 
at work there. By visiting the stores and 
school shops I noted facts regarding their 
spending. At the juvenile court I witnessed 
the trial of cases in which the desire for money 
or its equivalent seemed the root of the evil. 
Different boys' clubs and savings bank sta- 
tions gave hints and suggestions. But the 
most definite knowledge of the facts of the 
case was gained from a questionaire presented 
to the children of some of the public and pri- 
vate schools of the city and suburban towns. 
Answers were received from 1.339 children be- 
tween the third and eighth grades, inclusively; 
1,062 of these from the poorer quqj-ters of the 
city, 54 from a private school in which the 
most cultured if not the wealthiest families 
are represented, and 223 from public schools 
of neighboring towns. 

Three large schools were chosen with refer- 
ence to the encouragement each gave to saving, 
and also with reference to the nationalities 
represented in them. One was in a neighbor- 
hood predominately Scandinavian, one largely 
Italian and another Russian and Polish. One 
had a very prosperous school bank, one a 
meagre one and one none at all. 

The utmost care was taken in presenting the 
questions that the children should answer them 
carefully and truthfully. The fact that their 
names were not asked for was emphasized to 
encourage their telling the whole truth. On 
the whole the children worked earnestly on 
the questions, and I have every reason to feel 
that their answers embody their sincere be- 
liefs and that the errors in them arise from the 
very nature of the questions and the limita- 



THE COM MONS 



tions of the children's minds. The questionaire 
asks for sex, age and nationality, as well as in- 
formation regarding money. 

The questions are: Boy.... Girl Age.. 

Nationality 1. If you had 15 cents a 

week to spend as you chose what would you do 
with it? 2. What would you do with $1,000? 

3. Are you saving any money? If so, for what? 

4. About how much money do you spend a 
week and lor what do you spend it? 5. How 
do you get the money you have to spend? 6. 
How often do you go to the theatre? How 
much do you pay for a ticket? 

Many of the papers give evidence of a very 
clear money sense. This is especially true 
among the poorer children who have not only 
experienced inconveniences and suffering from 
the lack of money, but have known from actual 
efforts the difficulties in earning it. One little 
boy sagely remarks in this connection, "We 
must work to earn money." 

IDE.VS ox INVESTMENT. 

Many of these children have very definite 
ideas of investing money. For example, one 
lad says regarding the $1,000, "I would put it 
in the bank and get 3 per cent interest." An 
Italian boy says, "I would invest it, because you 
get interest on it, and you save more money 
than if you had to keep, it in a trunk." Still 
another Italian boy of 13 says, "I would keep* 
what I needed and send the rest to earn more, 
by loaning them to other people and pay me in- 
terest." A German boy of 12 says he w^puld 
"buy a house and lot and have people to rent 
it." Several references are made to govern- 
ment bonds as the best way to invest large 
sums, and some suggest that they would buy 
houses and "rent them for money." 

THE PUBPOSE OF MONEY. 

That money is but the meanfe to an end an;l 
not an end in itself is granted by a large num- 
ber of the children. Most of those who would 
save the $1,000 have some definite purpose in 
mind for saving it other than mere hoarding. 
This purpose is often charitable, either for the 
support of their parents when they are old, or 
for the poor or unfortunate. A Danish girl 13 
years old says, "If I had $1,000 I would save it 
for Fourth of July and I would like to keep a 
hospital." (Perhaps the connection between 
the two Is not wholly accidental in the child's 
mind.) Another young philanthropist says, "I 
would put it in the bank to bear interest so 
that by the time I grow up to be a woman it 
would be a great sum. With that I would es- 
tablish a 'home for the homeless.' " However, 
the end for which money stands as a means, in 



the child's mind, is not always so sublime. An 
Italian boy of 12 says, "If I had $1,000 I would 
buy the best suit. Then if I had some more I 
would make some presents to my brother and 
s;ster. Then, with the other money I make 
myself a sport." Again, a boy of 11 says, "I 
would give my mother the $1,000 and she would 
give me some of it. I would be a sport and 
buy me a hat, a suit, a shirt and everything I 
need." A Jewish girl expresses this same 
sense of the utility of money when she says, "I 
would spend it, for when I would die I would 
leave it behind." 

Some of the children have divided up the 
sum very carefully in some such way as this: 
"If I had $1,000 I would invest $800 in the 
Milwaukee Avenue State Bank and give $175 
to my mother as a present, and with the rest 
of it I would buy shoes, clothes, etc.," or "If 
I had $1,000 I would save $500 till I get old 
enough to go into business, give $300 to my 
mother for board and keep $200 for my own 
expenses." Still another says, "I would give 
$100 to poor, $800 to my pa and ma, $50 for 
clothes and a bicycle, some books and the rest 
I would spend." 

CORBECT ESTIMATE OF VALUES. 

Most of the papers show a reasonably cor- 
rect idea of $1,000. Where there is deviation 
the tendency is to overestimate the value of 
large sums rather than to underestimate it. 
This is especially true among the poorer chil- 
dren. An illustration of the overvaluing of the 
sum is this answer which a. German boy gave 
to the second question. "I would buy a farm, a 
house, shoes, clothes, books, gun, watch, chain, 
ring and pencils." In striking contrast to this 
is the answer of the little Italian boy who said 
he would buy a hat- if he had $1,000. These 
cases of underestimating the value of money, 
however, are very few — not more than 3 or 
4 per cent of the whole number. 

DEi'IXITEXESS IX THE PLANS TO USE MONET. 

On the whole the children from the poorer 
schools have a much more definite idea of the 
use of money than those of the wealthier class. 
Only 20 per cent of this latter class were more 
definite in their statements as to what use they 
would make of $1,000 than that they would 
save it or give it to the poor or to their parents. 
Eighty-one per cent of the poorer children had 
very definite notions of just what they would 
do with it. This, of course, is most natural. 
They feel circumscribed at every turn by lack 
of means, and $1,000 to spend as they choose 
suggests at once relief from some of the anx- 
ieties they feel in regard to food, clothing and 



THE COMMONS 



homes. Thus it is that even their philan- 
thropic aspirations take very definite forms, as 
the establishment of 'orphanages,' or hospitals, 
or the support of "poor old people." The 
wealthier children, with no anxiety regarding 
the means of living, and with many of their de- 
sires already satisfied, have no special end In 
view for which they would save or spend. And 
when the children of this class do mention 
definitely any thing they would buy they enum- 
erate luxuries rather than necessities, and that 
without much reference to their cost. Thus a 
boy of 14 says he would buy himself "a small 
electric plant," while a little girl of 9 has as- 
pirations toward "a black silk coat, ,a pair of 
pink slippers, a pink parasol, pink gloves, pink 
dress and a bicycle." 

MONEY SEXSE. 

The harder the life of the street boy the 
keener his money sense becoriies. Some of the 
little newsboys who are self-supporting, or aro 
practically supporting the family, develop the 
shrewdest of business heads. I know of a little 
Italian boy of about 11 living down in the 
heart of the city, who was making about |10 a 
week selling papers. He had a bank account of 
$50 and was helping to support the family, yet 
he was dressed as wretchedly as any boy on the 
street. The leader of a boys' club in that part 
of the city consulted him one day about the ad- 
visability of putting in baths and charging tor 
the use of them. The iDoy replied. "Sure! let 
'em in free for a month or two and den charge 
'em deir odds; sure dey'd payl Dey go to de 
theatre and pay!" Then he added by way of 
suggestion, ''Why don't you have a restaurant 
and sell bread, coffee and red-hots — charge a 
cent or two for bread. Sure dey'd come!" 
ALTRUISM. ; 

The philanthropic spirit is remarkably strong 
among these children, and especially among th^e 
girls from 12 to 14 years old. The great majority 
of the papers have some reference to money 
spent for parents or sisters or brothers; while 
a great many of the children think that a 
large part of their $1,000 would go for charity. 
Of course it is very much easier to be unselfish 
with an imaginary sum than with one already 
possessed, and so the second question has 
brought out this spirit to the greatest extent. 

Some illustrations of this have already been 
given. Others are: German boy. 14, "I would 
put it ($1,000) in a home for the old people 
of Chicago." Swedish girl, 12. "If I had $1,000 
I would invest $500, give $300 to my mother 
and give $200 to charity." Italian girl. 12. "J 
would give it to my ma and pa to buy clothing 



and food for our family and poor people." Ger- 
man girl, 13, "I would give $500 for sufferers 
near Mt. Pelee and the other $500 I would rent 
a home for my parents." As that calamity oc- 
curred but a short time before these ques- 
tions were asked, it furnished a centre for the 
philanthropic speculations of several of the 
children. 

The altruism of the children in money mat- 
ters will receive further consideration under 
the "Spendings," and especially under the topic 
"Savings," where it will be exhibited less as a 
theory and more as a reality. , 

EARNINGS. 
"How do you get the money you have to 
spend?" This question elicited some very in- 
teresting facts — and some very significant 
ones. It drew a line more distinctly than any 
other question that was asked between the ch'l- 
dren of the rich and the poor. On the one side 
the answer is, "It's given me," and on the other 
"I earn it." The following table, compiled from 
tlVe papers, expresses the facts quite accurately, 
I believe. 



Class. 


r 

E.iKN Money.- 


BeoriVk in 

(iKATIS. 


AMnici'fius 

ANRWKliS. 




Hoys. 


(ilrls. 


Boys 


Ghls. 


Boys. 


(ilrls. 


TiMir 

Uicli 


71 % 
18.W 


U.S% 


26«' 


SS8X 1 
85.!?: 


3 f! 
7.W 


-; 



The idea of earning what is received is much 
more prevalent among the poorer children than 
among the wealthier. This is evident from the 
fact that 42.5 per cent of those in the poorer 
class who say that they earn their money are 
earning it by working for their parents. The 
child of poorer parents sees a very close rela- 
tion between money and service, and makes the 
receipt of one dependent on the performance of 
the other. On the other hand the idea is quite 
as deeply rooted that they can't afford to work 
for nothing. "What is there in it?" is the 
spirit in which they are apt to regard any- 
thing which they are asked to do. 

While a regular allowance of spending mon- 
ey Is a very usual thing among the more for- 
tunate children, it is almost unknown in the 
poorer class. Forty per cent of the boys and 
30 per cent of the girls of the former class say 
that they have a regular amount given them. 
In the latter class only three mention such an 
allowance. 

MEAXS OF EARNING. 

(In treating this subject only the children 
of the poorer class will be considered.) 



THE COMMONS 



Of the work of the girls 56 per cent is for the 
parents, and consists of errands, houseworic, 
care of children, etc.; 36 per cent of it is doing 
errands for other people, and 3 per cent house- 
work outside of the child's own home. The 
remaining 5 per cent represents the dozen-and- 
one special ways in which individual children 
earn tneir money. 

From 365 boys who are regularly earning the 
following data were procured: Thirty per 
cent of them were working for their parents: 
28 per cent doing errands; 15 per cent selling 
papers; 8 per cent selling ice; 4 per cent doing 
some sort of store work; 3 per cent were caddy 
boys on the golf links; 3 per cent were boot- 
blacks; over 3 per cent sold junk, and the re- 
maining 5 per cent either gave ambiguous an- 
swers or indicated some way too special to be 
classified. 

The same thing that was said of the girls re- 
garding helping the parents will apply to the 
boys. To the list of errands and housework 
may be added, however, the fetching of coal 
and wood from the yards and helping the fath- 
er in his shop or store work. 

ERBANDS. 

The errands which these boys run are nu- 
merous and never without pay. As a shop 
keeper In one of these crowded districts said, 
"Boys won't turn around for less than a nickel,'" 
and as If for proof she added, "When I wanted 
some ice the other day I had to pay a boy 10 
cents for getting it and 10 cents for the ice, 
which cost 5 cents." Such fancy prices as these, 
however, are not always to be had. As a rule 
a child will do an errand for a regular cus- 
tomer for one or two cents, while a stranger 
will have to pay him a nickel for the same 
thing. These errands are generally referred to 
by the boys as "going to the store for a lady," 
but many of them consist in what is popularly 
called in those parts "rushing the growler." 

NEWSBOYS. 

The hustling newsboy can make more money 
selling papers than in any other legitimate 
way. This is especially true, of course, of the 
children who are not regularly in school. From 
the leader of a boys' club near the corner of 
State street and Van Buren I got some very in- 
teresting information regarding the receipts of 
newsboys in that quarter. He tells of one boy, 
a lad of 9 years, who has a news stand on a 
street corner and makes from |1.50 to $1.75 a 
day. This boy says he gives his mother $1 and 
keeps the rest himself. During the summer 
races he got one of the other boys to deliver the 



papers to his regular customers for a month 
while he went down to the race tracks to sell 
papers there. He made |40 during the month 
and kept his business going in the city at the 
same time. In talking to the leader about it 
he proudly informed him that he "didn't lose a 
customer." Another boy from the same club 
makes 75 cents a day selling papers on the 
streets. Still another makes from |1 to |5 a 
day selling papers and carrying grips and pack- 
ages for people who come in on the train. 
These boys either are not in school at all or at- 
tend very irregularly. 

One newsboy used to deposit from one to two 
dollars a week very regularly. He told me that 
he made all the way from two to four dollars 
a week, which he gave to his mother. Then 
the mother would give back all she could spare, 
and this he put in the bank. That is, he gave 
his mother all he earned except a few "odds." 
amounting to thirty or forty cents a week, 
which he spent every night for candy. Later 
in the spring he told me he had stopped spend- 
ing his "odds," and gave them instead to his 
little sister for her bank. 

The children in school, according to the an- 
swers to my questions, make from 20 cents to 
?4 a week. One dollar and fifty cents seems to 
be the average receipt. One boy, an Italian, 16 
years old, who is still in school, greatly ex- 
ceeds this. He says he makes $7 or |8 a week 
selling papers on the street. There is more 
money in the "regular customer" method of 
selling papers. When the boys buy the papers 
outright, without the privilege of returning 
what are not sold, they get them for from 50 
per cent to 60 per cent of the selling price. 
When they sell on commission with the privi- 
lege of returning what are left, they have to 
pay as high as 75 per cent. The wholesale 
prices and commission vary, however, with the 
different papers, especially among the higher 
priced ones. 

ICE SELLING. 

Eight per cent of the boys say they earn 
their money selling ice. This they get "down 
to the tracks." as they say, buying it from the 
train men for a nominal sum and selling it out 
for two or three times what it costs them. 
Some of them have regular ice customers whom 
they keep supplied during the summer months. 
One boy says he makes 30 cents a week in this 
way; another makes 50 cents. (I didn't get 
sufficient data on this point to say what the 
average earning is, tho' I think it depends en- 
tirely on the "hustling" propensities of the 
boy.) 



THE COM MONS 



STORE WOBK. 

The classification "store work" includes a va- 
riety of tasks and a great diversity in the 
■amounts earned. A Hungarian boy of 10 years 
says, "I work in the bowling alley and I get 
%3 a week." An Austrian girl says, "I work 
on Saturdays at a department store and only a 
few hours. I receive 35 cents, which I gave to 
my parents." A Polish boy of 14 says, "I 
work on a Saturday in a plumber shop and get 
50 cents." An 8-year-old German boy sweeps 
the floor of a saloon and an American boy of 11 
runs errands after school for a wholesale to- 
bacco store, but neither of them say how much 
they make. (I might add right here that 
while the amount earned was not asked for in 
the papers, it was asked for orally in connec- 
tion with the fifth question.) A Polish boy, 
13 years old, says, "I work in a clothing store 
for cash boy and get 50 cents every Saturday." 

CADBYING. 

The caddy boys — 3 per cent of the number 
•earning — are all from one school. One of the 
golf clubs of the city sent to a settlement near 
the school for some boys to come out on Sat- 
urday and Sunday to caddy. About 70 boys 
were sent and it furnished a most delightful, 
as well as lucrative, outing. I was surprised 
at their boundless enthusiasm for the rolling 
hills and growing flowers. They were given 
•opportunity to go into the woods near by 
picking wild flowers, and they took the great- 
est delight in learning, for the first time, the 
names of bloodroot, cowslips and trillium. 

They were given 15 cents an hour while they 
were caddying, and some of them made as much 
as 90 cents a day. This means of earning is 
unfortunately too ideal to be possible for many 
of the boys who need it most. 

BOOTBLACKINO. 

We are so in the habit of thinking of news- 
boys and bootblacks as the infantile business 
men of the streets that there may be some sur- 
prise at the low percentage given to bootblack- 
Ing in the above table. As a matter of fact, of 
514 school boys from the laboring and the poor- 
est classes, only 11 said they blacked shoes. The 
increase of shoe-shining parlors and depart- 
ments for the same purpose in the barber 
shops and the corresponding decrease within 
the last few years of individual "shiners" in tho 
street, bear a close relation to each other. Ob- 
viously the growth of one has brought about 
in some way the decrease of the other. The 
fact is that these shops have not merely drawn 
an the trade of the street boys by a natural and 



slow-growing process of absorption, but their 
owners have diminished the number of boot- 
blacks by more direct methods. Barbers, hotel 
proprietors and the owners of these "shining 
parlors" have been instrumental in getting the 
city to require a license of the boys for boot- 
blacking. This practically forms a sort of 
union, by which the number engaged in the 
business is controlled and limited. 

JUKKISG. 

Junking involves the most serious problem 
of any of the above means by which children 
earn money. While the mere picking up of 
scraps of metal and old rubbers in the alleys 
is not only legitimate but praiseworthy, the op- 
portunities it offers for thieving are so great 
and so generally improved that efforts are be- 
ing put forth to stop it altogether. An assist- 
ant in a charity bureau situated in the midst 
of several junk shops said to me: *'Being 
brought in daily contact with the poor boys in 
the district, we cannot help feeling that a large 
majority of the boys get their initial lessons in 
crime from their relation with Junk dealers. 
That they steal brass, copper, pewter and lead 
pipe, even committing burglary in order to 
get these goods to sell them to the dealers for 
a few cents, is a fact which faces us every 
day. It is not a rare occurrence if one keeps 
his eyes open to find small boys in alleys, in 
empty lots and around garbage boxes intently 
searching for bits of metal. They know that 
the junk dealers are willing to buy it and It is 
an easy means of satisfying some of their nat- 
ural desires, for candy or perhaps for bread. 
For it is no unusual thing for boys to stay 
away from home for days and nights. They 
must eat. If they can pick up the metal, well 
and good; If they can't, there are other means. 
We have known cases where, for a few cents, 
the boys would, during the protecting dark- 
ness, cut out lead pipes, thus committing a 
grave offense." An ordinance in this direction 
is already in existence, but with questionable 
efficiency. It provides that no junk shall be 
bought from a person under 18 years of age 
under penalty of a fine of from JS to |50 for 
each violation. The police say they are doing 
all they can to enforce this ordinance and they 
in turn place a large share of this youthful 
stealing on the parents, who take the articles 
brought home by the children to the junk deal- 
ers and secure money for them. 

On the other hand the authority quoted above 
says she thinks most of the children carry on 
junking without the consent or knowledge of 
the parents. Wherever the blame may be 



6 



THE COMMONS 



attaclied, with tlie junk dealer, the police, the 
parents or the child himself, or with all, as is 
probably the case, the fact still remains that 
thieving from this cause is rife among the 
boys in the poorer districts of the city. This 
statement is well borne out by Judge Tuthill 
of the Juvenile Court. He publicly stated that 
during a period of two and a half years fully 
300 boys had been before him charged with 
stealing junk, and he adds that he has found 
that junk dealers have invariably encouraged 
these youthful offenders to steal. 

There are three steps at least in the solution 
of the problem. The ordinance governing the 
junk dealers is strong enough to put a stop to 
the buying of junk from children, if it is prop- 
erly enforced. This should, however, be sup- 
plemented by another measure. The junk 
dealers should be compelled to keep a record of 
all junk bought, and from whom it was bought, 
this list, of course, to be officially inspected. 
Wherever it can be shown that the parent en- 
courages the boy to steal the parent and not the 
boy should be punished. 

Very frequently the children are quite ig- 
norant of any stigma attached to" junking. Two 
bright little boys of exceptional refinement, 
6 and 8. years old, used to deposit in the bank 
a few cents about twice a week, and tell me 
wi.th the utmost frankness that they got it sell- 
ing junk. 

The amounts earned in this way are very 
small.. The boys quite generally agreed that 
15. to 20 cents was a very fair "haul" from one 
"Junk hunt." Some of the more adept make 
very much larger sums. One boy told me he 
made.fl In one evening: another that he had 
m^de $1.10 a day qr two before, before three 
o'clock. Still another said he had made as 
much as $5 at one time. I very much doubt 
the truth of this last statement, although the 
principal of the school this boy attends told 
me that if there was a boy in that school who 
could do it, he was the one. 

THE BEM.\INIXC. 5 PER CENT. 

The miscellaneous tasks by which school 
children earn money are varied. One enter 
prising German boy. 17 years Old, says, "I re- 
screen screens and screen doors, file keys, put 
in locks and do a little electrical work." A 
Jewish boy of 13 says. "Work for it. I sing in 
church." An Italian boy "plays in a band on 
Saturday." and another draws pen-and-ink 
sketches. .\ German girl, 10 years old, says 
she "crotchets for a shop to get her money." 
Another, an Italian girl, says she sews pants 



week days for her mother, and then her father 
pays her. 

Several references are made to earning money 
by some special act of merit. A Russian girl, 
13 years old, answers the question regarding 
the way money is earned with "My parents ?ive 
it to me when I obey them." An Italian boy of 
11 says. "I get it by being good and I deserve 
it." Another "When I get excellent in deport- 
ment I get 15 cents." A little Irish boy depos- 
ited $1 in the bank at one time and told me he 
had gotten it 5 cents and 10 cents at a time for 
taking his medicine when he was sick. 

A\'hile begging can hardly be classed as earn- 
ing, it may perhaps be appropriate to briefly 
mention it at this time. Of course there is no 
child in school who would coldly state that he 
begged for his money, and few opportunities 
are given to really learn much about this class. 
I did learn of one little boy who gets his money 
this way, and through" an infirmity takes ad- 
vantage of the pitying public. He lost his right 
leg flipping street cars; and of course, being a 
cripple the people naturally pity him. When 
he or a crowd of boys want some money, he 
tells them to stand back while he gets it. Then 
he goes to the Auditorium or some place where 
there is a large number of people passing in 
and out all the time, and begs. Often he cries' 
bitterly and makes up a pitiful story, which 
brings still more money. He sometimes gets 
large amounts in this way in a short time, and 
then he takes all the boys to some cheap 
theater, treats them to candy and ice cream, and 
has a good time generally. 

CAUSES op W.\GE E.^RXISG .\MOXO SCHOOL CHTL- 
DREX. 

The immediate cause of the wage earning 
among school children is hard to determine. It 
sometimes is the result of the extreme poverty 
of the parents, who feel forced by circumstanfe=! 
to get some assistance from the children, an I 
yet wish, or are compelled by the truant officers. 
to keep them in school. If the cause is in the 
parents, it is still hard to determine whether 
the financial help of the children is really neces- 
sary or whether it is merely a means of satis- 
fying greed or warranting laziness. Whatever 
the financial condition of the parents may be, 
however, it is known that they often compel 
their children by the fiercest threats to brin.? 
hortfe. by some means, a certain sum in the 
evening. One who is very familiar with the 
boys in the down-town district — perhaps the 
worst quarter of the city — has no hesitancy in 
saying that this demand of the parents is the 
greatest cause for so many "kipouts," or "s'.ee? 



THE C.Q M M O N S 



outs" among the boys. If the boys lose their 
money or fail for any reason to earn the re- 
quired amount, they are afraid to go home, and 
so sieep out on sidewalks or on the lake shore, 
in 'damp basements or any place they can find. 

On the other hand it will be evident from the 
illustrations already given, that in many cases 
the earning is due to the direct wish and will 
of the child. This fact, however, does not pre- 
vent it from being fraught often with dangers, 
sometimes with the grossest evils. Physically 
the child is overstrained by too hard work out 
of school after five or six hours of study. 
Morally the boy cannot but be corrupted by the 
ever present and obvious evils of the street. 

An article on ' School Children as Wage Earners" 
occurs ill tlie Nineteenth Century, vol. 40. The 
article is based on the returns from an inquiry, 
ordered by the House of Commons in April, 
1S9S. into the number of school children in Eng- 
land and Wales who are known to be working 
for wages. The means of earning and per- 
centage engaged in each are quite similar to 
those reported in the present paper. The 
writer says of the 144,026 children known to be 
employed, "Selling papers on the streets, which 
is generally, but not exclusively, the work of 
boys, occupies 13,182; while employment in 
shops or running errands for shopkeepers, also 
usually done by boys, occupies 76,173 children. 
Most of the girls are said to be employed in 
minding babies and other housework." 

Another article, based on the same reports 
irom the government's investigation, is pub- 
lished in the Forum, vol. 33, and is called 
"Wage Earning School Children in England." 

Both of these articles decry the evils of child- 
labor vehemently. Mr. Burke, the author ol 
the article in The Forum, writes, "With admir 
able common-sense the Commissioners state, 
'Even on the lowest grounds of financial inter- 
est it is not cheap to work a child so as to cause 
him to be prematurely worn out. It is more 
economical to start him in life after a healthy 
childhood with powers that will last longer, 
and keep him to a later age from being depend- 
ent on others for his support.' When to this 
is added the certain loss of character to the 
street trader one might have expected that the 
total prohibition of such work would be recom- 
mended. Occupations which ruin the soul and 
the body ought surely to be stopped by law." 

SPENDINGS. 

A comparison of the various schools in the 
matter of children's spendings shows a remark- 
able uniformity. There is a difference between 



the two classes of only 17, in the number of 
those who said they were not spending any 
money at all. Nine per cent of the poorer and 
10 per cent of the wealthier answered the 
fourth question in this way. 

The following table shows the amounts spent 
by each. 








1-10«. 


10-2S«. 


25-63e. 


50e. 


ImmlgraDt Dls- } Boys 

tilctSfliools. ,. »<iirls 

Private and Sub- < Boys 

urban Schools. \ Girls 


9* 
10-(-S 


«o s 


28.6^ 
19 % 

23 % 


9* 

10* 
6% 


1-f* 
-t 

i* 



The excess of the spendings of the boys over 
those of the girls is a natural consequence of 
the difference in their earnings. The greatest 
variation that occurs between classes is in the 
amounts between 5 and 25 cents, and this is 
so slight that it may be accidental. About the 
same proportion of both classes spend over 25 
cents a week. 

SCHOOL SHOPS. 

The most evident proof of the extent to which 
children spend money is the number of little 
shops and stores grouped around a school 
house. In one of the poorer districts, in an 
area two blocks wide and five blocks long, 
made up of stores and tenement houses, there 
are 25 places where candy can be bought. With- 
in two blocks, in this same area, are two large 
schools each with a school shop very near it, 
a third half way between them. Some of these 
little stores are crude affairs, small, dark an! 
dingy, and one I have in mind a couple of feet 
below the pavement, not quite a basement nor 
quite on the street level. On one side of the 
room are school supplies, and on the other 
candy, pop and trinkets of various sorts. It is 
on this side of the store that most of the busi- 
ness is done. During 20 minutes one day in 
one of these shops, there were 30 children pur- 
chasers. One bought a book, one a tablet, and 
all the rest bought candy and toys. The candy 
that was in special favor that day was "roll 
butterscotch," 3 rolls sold for a cent. The 
special toy in vogue was an imported balloon, 
which was sold for 3 cents. About 25 of these 
were sold that morning, and the day before the 
sale had been 6 dozen. There was an American 
make of a balloon, but it was not popular. It 
was not quite so durable, and then, too, children 
like imported things quite as well as some of 
their elders do. There are styles in candy and 
toys as well as In other things, and the chil- 



8 



THE COM M ONS 



dren dictate regarding them. A shopkeeper, 
with the welfare of the children at heart, could 
most insistently urge that home-made molasses 
candy was in vogue; but if the children said 
"chocolate babies," she would have to sell them 
"chocolate babies" or nothing. A shopkeeper 
told me that the children kept asking all one 
day for ice cream sandw^iches. She didn't 
know what they were, and tried to satisfy them 
with something else. But nothing else would 
do, and she saw if she kept her trade she must 
have tee cream sandiciches. They proved to 
be two Nubisco wafers with a layer of ice cream 
between them, and they sold for a cent apiece. 
These were great favorites with the children. 
During a few minutes spent in the store while 
they were having their rage, 12 out of the 31 
children who came in bought them. 

Six shopkeepers, all in this same neighbor- 
hood, told me that they sold much more candy 
than anything else. At one store, during the 
half hour before school in the morning 19 chil- 
dren bought candy, 1, gum; 7, pens and pencils, 
and 1, transfer pictures. At another shop dur- 
ing a few minutes after school 15 children 
bought ice cream; 12, candy; 8, "prizes;" 3, 
toys; 2, transfer pictures, and 1, gum. Of 
course the temperature decides to a great ex- 
tent the sale of ice cream. Those who buy it 
are the ones who buy candy if it is cool, so its 
sale never seems to affect that of toys in the 
least. Some data were collected from the chil- 
dren in school. In one room of first and sec- 
ond grades where there were 31 present, 22 
said they had spent money that day; 11 had 
bought candy; 5, marbles; 3, jacks, and 3, toys. 

In another room, 15 had bought candy; 5, 
pickles; 8, ice cream; 4, marbles, and 4, school 
supplies, during the day. The shop that keeps 
home-made candy sells more of that than of any 
other kind, especially to the younger children. 
The older ones buy a good many "chocolate 
creams." The home-made candy sells for one 
cent an ounce, and the children think they are 
getting more for their money by buying this. 
They invariably — the younger ones at least — 
consider quantity rather than quality in buying. 

Most of the candies are quite inexpensive. 
The prices of some of the most popular ones 
are: 10 little caramels, 1 cent; 10 chocolate ba- 
bies, 1 cent; 12 licorice drops, 1 cent; 2 "pa- 
pers of buttons," 1 cent; (These are long strips 
of paper with two rows of little colored can- 
dies pasted on them, 60 on a strip) ; 7 cara- 
mels, 1 cent; 10 candy cigarettes, 1 cent; 5 
"taffy on a toothpick," 1 cent The chocolate 
creams are a cent apiece. The profit in candy 



is about one-half. The shopkeepers realize 
that some of the children buy too much cheap 
sweets and the more conscientious of them try 
to check it. One of them told me that a little 
boy, 10 years old, who had recently died after 
an illness of only two days, had been in the 
habit of buying 10 and 15 cents worth of candy 
a day. One can see from the prices just quoted 
how much that would amount to. She believed 
that "his constitution could not withstand the 
sickness because it had been undermined by so 
much sweet stuff." 

There is a diversity of opinion among the 
sellers as to whether boys or girls buy the more 
candy, but the weight of authority rests on the 
side of the boys. One says she thinks they 
spend about the same amount of money on it. 
for though the girls spend less when they do 
buy, they buy oftener. All agree that boys buy 
in nickels, while girls buy in pennies. In some 
"gangs" the boys, after they get to be 8 or 10 
years old w^on't spend anything less than a 
nickel if they can help it. From my own ob- 
servations, I should say that not only in 
amounts, but in frequency, the boys spend 
more for candy than do the girls. During five 
minutes at recess time one day, 1 girl bought 
candy and 1, Ice cream; and 7 boys, candy and 
1 ice cream. At another time and another shop 
the ratio was 6 girls to 20 boys who bought 
candy and ice cream, and 9 girls to 4 boys who 
bought some toy or trinket. Still another case 
I have noted gives 19 boys and 7 girls who 
bought ice cream or candy. The only observa- 
tion I made which reversed this proportion 
gave during a half hour 16 girl and 11 boy 
purchasers, 11 girls and 9 boys buying candy. 

Shopkeepers often enlarge their trade by 
offering some old commodity, slightly changed, 
perhaps, under some new name. One day about 
one-third of the children who came in the 
store asked for "lunch bags." I was curious to 
know what this new fad might be, but it proved 
to be only a little sack of a few kernels of pop- 
corn and still fewer pieces of candy. 

The children take a great deal of interest in 
all chance schemes. There is one which con- 
sists of a box of very small parcels, all exactly 
alike, twisted up in tissue paper. The children 
pay one cent for these; and after drawing one 
out of the box they undo it eagerly to find a 
small candy heart and a number. These num- 
bers correspond to numbers on "prizes" dis- 
played behind the counter, which they wait 
breathlessly to receive. The first one I watched 
got a dilapidated looking orange, another a 
cheap stick pin and a third a very small skein 



THE COMMONS 



9 



of worsted yarn, containing, perhaps, two 
yards. They all looked disappointed, but prob- 
ably did the same thing over again the next 
day. 

There is another scheme by which the chil 
dren drop the penny they are about to spend in 
a slot machine; and if, in its zigzag course 
downward between pegs which alter its course, 
it finally stops at a place marked 2 or 5, they 
get the value of that in their purchase for the 
one cent spent. I noticed that the shopkeeper 
never seemed curious to know the result, al- 
though the children watched for it eagerly. 
They say that the penny sometimes stops on the 
2cent spot. If there is one of these machines 
in the store the children almost always use it, 
for there is nothing lost and there viay be 
something gained. 

One cent is the ordinary amount spent at 
one time except in the cases of children 12 
years old and over. I noticed very few excep- 
tions to this rule. One peculiarity of their 
buying is, that when they have a nickel to 
spend they generally ask the shopkeeper to 
change it for pennies. When the change i.s 
made they proceed to spend them, one cent at 
a time, till the five are gone. 

The average receipts of these stores seem to 
be between $2 and |3 a day. One woman said 
that before the "penny savings" was put in 
the schools she used to take in as much as $8 
some days — $5 in pennies and the rest in 
nickels and dimes. At that time, however, she 
was taking in only $2 or $3 a day. Another 
told me she took in about $3.50 a day, and' a 
third said $2 on week days and sometimes $5 
on Sunday. Sunday is a holiday in these quar- 
ters and consequently a great day for spending. 
Another reason for it is that the fathers, many 
of them, get their wages Saturday night, and 
the children get some of it the next day. Then, 
too, the stores very often catch the pennies that 
are started toward Sunday school. Reference 
to Sunday as the spending day occurred often 
in the papers in such answers as, "Save it till 
Sunday and then spend it," or "I spend 10c 
on Sunday." 

ICE CREAM WAGOXS. 

The shops have a rival in their ice cream 
trade in the shape of a small hand-cart which 
goes through the street selling it. The wagon 
is really a large box on wheels, filled with ice 
in which the pail of cream sets (and having a 
cover). It is generally surrounded by a group 
of children, and especially if the day be warm. 
The cream is sold out — a large spoonful for 



one cent — on pieces of paper which serve a.? 
both dish and spoon. 

SMOKINO. 

One way in which the boys spend money, and 
which is not referred to on the papers in a 
single instance, is in buying tobacco. Most of 
the boys in the neighborhood I have been dis- 
cussing smoke some, and some of them a good 
deal. There is a state law against selling them 
tobacco but they get it just the same. As one 
boy said, "Au! a kid of 'leven or twelve can get 
tobacco. The storekeeper won't sell it out and 
out, but he'll t'row a package on the floor an' 
youse kin pick it up and drop your nickel." 

GAMBLING. 

The boys seemed less reticent in speaking of 
gambling than of smoking. Several references 
are made to it on the papers, especially in 
answering the question regarding their spend- 
ings. One boy answered the first question with. 
"If I had fifteen cents a week I'd say 'I pass 
for fifteen cents.' " The same boy says he 
spends "twenty-five cents a week on gambling."' 
Crap shooting seems to be the most prevalent 
form, but the boys are pretty sly about this, as 
the police are watching tor it. One of the old- 
est residents in the neighborhood told me he 
had seen the boys "shooting" with as much as 
$10 on the board at a time. A few days before 
our conversation he had seen the police get 
$3.60 from some crap shooters ten to fifteen 
years old. 

THEATERS. 

The cheap theaters afford one of the most 
common forms of amusement among the chil- 
dren, and catch a considerable amount of their 
spending money. Among those who answered 
the question, "How often do you go to the 
theater?" 414 boys and 244 girls in the poorer 
quarters indicated that they were in the habit 
of attending. Only 86 boys and 201 girls said 
they never went. This is not an occasional 
pastime for some of the children, but a very 
frequent one. Several of the boys told me they 
went three or four times a week, and a few 
go almost every day. The result is that by the 
time these boys are twelve or fifteen years old 
they are so saturated with "blood and thunder" 
and the commonest vulgarity that everything 
else seems tame and commonplace to them. 
Several different boys told me that they used 
to go to the theater very often, but that they 
had gotten tired of it — it was all alike. Oh! 
these blas6 boys of fourteen that are unat- 
tracted by the modern stage. 

The frequency with which they attend is , 



10 



THE COMMONS 



indicated by the following figures: Eighteen 
boys. 17 girls, twice a week; 97 boys, 66 girls, 
Once a week; 36 boys, 42 girls, two or three 
times a week; 110 boys. 52 girls, once a month; 
70 boys, 78 girls, several times a year; 35 boys, 
37 girls, once a year, and the remaining number 
less frequently and irregularly. 

The usual price paid by the boys for a ticket 
is 10 cents. One hundred and nineteen boys 
and 41 girls pay this. The tickets which most 
of the girls buy cost 25 cents, and 94 girls and 
86 boys give that as the price they pay. About 
30 of the children pay over 50 cents, biit the 
greater number of these go only a few times a 
year. 

The children of the better cliass go with their 
parents and the price of the ticket does not 
concern them. 

SPIRIT OF SPEXDIXG. 

It occurred to me, both from the spirit in 
which the children spent and from their ten- 
dency to speak of saving as "buying stamps" — 
which are used as certificates of deposit — that 
their craze to buy something was not so much 
their desire for the article as it was to handla 
money. This spirit, so general among boys and 
girls alike, is quite contagious, and parents 
moving into the neighborhood from small towns 
say that their children who rarely asked for 
money before "are now in a perfect fever for 
spending." One mother told me that she felt 
sure it was not the candy that her children 
wanted, but to buy it. She. had tried offering 
them maple sugar, but that would not satisfy. 
They must have a penny — and then very often 
the candy it bought was thrown down half 
eaten. 

If this is the reason for so much spending 
among the children of these crowded districts, 
the remedy which will be not only a cure for 
the evil, but a positive virtue in itself, is the 
penny savings system. By this means not only 
will their spirit of commercialism be allowed 
a wholesome expression, but they will find that 
by a postponed spending, in the shape of saving, 
they can do more than a penny business with 
their money. 

SAVINGS. 

ACTU.\L THRIFT TEXDEXCIES. 

'\^ith a view to ascertaining just how general 
this virtue might be, I included in my question- 
aire submitted to the school children of Chicago 
the question, "Are you saving any money? If 
30, for what?" The replies from 1,339 children, 
show that 75.87 per cent of the boys and 74.89 
per cent of the girls are actually saving money. 



The utmost care was taken in presenting this 
question that no hint as to the kind of an 
answer desired should be dropped. 

COMPARISON OF CLASSES. 

From schools in the poorer districts 74.4 per 
cent of the boys and 72.66 per cent of the girls 
are saving: from the wealthier class 82.6 per 
cent of the boys and 82.5 per cent of the girls 
save. This apparently shows a difference of 
from 87 to 107 in the thrift tendencies of 
the two classes. I feel, however, that this 
exaggerates the true conditions. By carefully 
questioning the children from the wealthier 
families. I found that very often their "sav- 
ings" represented large sums given by their 
parents tor that very purpose, and not their 
own "spending money" which must be the in- 
strument of the child's own financiering. And 
so while the real tendency to save may be 
stronger in the children of the more prosperous 
class — due to the training of careful parents — 
I believe the difference between the two of 
10 per cent represents the actual facts of sav- 
ing, rather than the psychological bent, and 
that the many needs of the poorer children 
and the small amounts they possess, lower the 
rate of their actual savings below that of their 
inclinations toward thrift. 

While saving is always more general among 
boys than girls, the difference between them in 
this respect seems greater in the poorer class, 
where it is nearly 2 per cent. This difference 
is probably not merely in the figures, or acci- 
dental. It is the result of conditions just re- 
ferred to, and the facts mentioned under the 
subject "Earnings." that poor boys have more 
opportunities of earning small sums than do 
poor girls; while the boys and girls of the 
other class, getting their money almost entirely 
from their parents, share quite equally. 

COMPARISON OF AGE.S. 

A comparison of ages in respect to "savings" 
shows among the boys a rise of 10 per cent in 
thrift tendencies from the seventh to the 
eleventh year: a drop of 6 per cent in the 
twelfth, and a gradual Increase from this age to 
fifteen, when it reaches a maximum of 84 per 
cent. Among the girls there is a gradual rise 
to a maximum of 80 per cent in the eleventli 
year, and a decline to 50 per cent in the 
fifteenth year. These variations are probaibly 
to some extent accidental, as there seems to be 
no logical reason for any such difference as 
that existing in the boys between the eleventh 
and twelfth y^ars. There is- more chance tot 
Inaccuracy in the tables after the twelfth year," 
as the number of children in school — and con- 



THE CO M M O N S 



11 



sequently the number of answers received — 
greatly diminishes after that age. In fact, only 
about one-quarter of the papers are from chil- 
dren over twelve years old. 

The following Is the tabular form of the 
results of the question on saving. The per- 
centage given represents those wljo are saving: 







Bovs. 


qiRLS. 




CSS 

75* 

78* 

72*  

76.8* 

77.!)* 

84* 


78.8* 
76* 


10 


11 


80^ 


12 










14... 

15 ... , 


06% 




; 





Although the figures may not represent the 
conditions absolutely, they are at least sug- 
gestive of the trend of things. There is un- 
doubtedly an increase in the thrift tendency in 
the boys after the twelfth year, and a like de- 
crease among the girls at this age. The boys 
with the awakening of manhood begin to feel 
its responsibilities and prepare to meet them 
by earning and saving money. The girls at 
this age, following their instincts, take a special 
interest in dress, and spend their money to 
adorn themselves. There is both proof and 
result of these changes in the fact that of the 
whole number saving, the number of boys 
planning for the future is not only greater 
than the number of girls, but very much 
greater in proportion to the numher saving for 
present needs. 

cojn»ARiso:N- of nationalities. 

For the study of thrift habits from the point 
of view of nationality only those schools were 
taken which were situated in the immigrant 
districts. Were the other schools, which repre- 
sent the middle and wealthier classes, included 
In this consideration, the proportion of Ameri- 
can children saving would be greater than the 
facts Avarrant, for the mass of the children here 
are American, and here, too, the actual "sav- 
ings" are greater. There are still enough 
American children in the schools chosen, who 
are brought up in the same environment and 
under the same unfavorable conditions as tho 
foreign children, to give an estimate just to 
both native and immigrant. 

The statistics show a difference of 27 per 
cent in the thrift of the German children and 
the improvidence of the Italian. The Germans 
lead with 81.5 per cent of their number saving. 
The American children are second to their 
Teuton cousins with 77.7 per cent saving. The 
Sca^ilinavian and Slavonic children follow with 



76.2 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. And 
the Italians who are saving number only 54.2 
per cent. 

The following table gives the averages for 
the boys and girls separately, and, also, in 
parentheses the percentage for each nationality 
when all of the schools are included. 

Number who are saving: 



Nationality. 


Boys. 


GlHLS. 




83 (84)* 
79. G (78)* 
70 6 (30)* 
77 (76 )< 
70 (70)* 
54 1.-4)* 


80 (82)* 

73 (73)* 

78 (82.0)* 

74 (74)* 

79 (79)* 
f.6 (.-)5)* 


ScamllnaviiiD 

American 


Slavonic 


.lewlsh 


Italian 



AMOUNT S.V'N'ED. 

These savings represent for the most part 
small amounts, from 1 to 15 cents, deposited 
quite irregularly. In one school I had 124 
infantile financiers directly under my super- 
vision. From April 4th to June 9th these chil- 
dren deposited with me $58.53. During this 
time two weeks were lost by vacations and 
other interruptions, so the saving covered oniy 
seven weeks. The deposit for this length of 
time averaged 47 cents for each child. The 
greatest amount saved was $3.85. Two saved 
$3.50 each, and ten saved between $1 and $2. 
In another school 30 children deposited with 
me during four weeks in April and May, $12.58, 
or an average of 42 cents for each child. This 
average is undoubtedly lower than it would be 
earlier in the year, for the coming of summer 
is one of the severest tests of a child's power 
to save. Then the children begin to take car 
rides to the parks; lee cream and cold drinks 
are especially tempting when the warm days 
come; and the shop windows are full of 
marbles, jacks and jumping-ropes. 

In one of the schools just referred to five 
intermediate rooms, consisting of about 200 
pupils, deposited from Nov. 20 to Dec. 19, 
$131.48; from Jan. 2 to Jan. 31, $76.37; from 
Feb. 3 to Feb. 28, $85.20. The large deposit 
in December is easily explained by the ap- 
proach of Christmas. 

In another school, located in a rather poor 
quarter of the city, $1,021.85 was deposited from 
the time school began until the first of June. 
This represents about 1,000 different depositors, 
about 700 of whom deposited regularly. During 
the year $150 was transferred from the school 
bank to the big bank. 

Reports from six other schools scattered over 
the city show various degrees of success. From 
each school a pack of stamp-cards about to be 



12 



THE COMMONS 



withdrawn was taken indiscriminately, and 
from these I made the following deductions: 

School 1 — Ghetto district: Twenty-seven 
cards, showing total deposit of $27.71, with an 
average of five months between the issuing and 
withdrawal of the card. Smallest amount saved 
on any one card, 10 cents. Largest amount 
saved, $5.90. 

School 2 — Ghetto district: Eleven cards. 
$47.15 deposited. Average length of time, 6 
months 2 weeks. Smallest amount represented, 
23 cents (this card had been issued but 10 
days). Largest amount, $11. 

School 3 — Near Lincoln Park: Twenty -eight 
cards, $43.75 deposited. Average length of time, 
5 months 2 weeks. Smallest amount, 4 cents. 
Largest amount, $9.50. 

School 4 — In Englewood: Twenty-six cards. 
Total deposit, $62.52. Average time, 5 months. 
Smallest amount, 24 cents. Largest amount, 
$8.24. 

School 5 — Ghetto district: Nineteen cards. 
Total deposit, $14.13. Average length of time, 
4 months 2 weeks. Smallest amount, 10 cents. 
Largest amount, $1.65. 

School 6: Eighteen cards, $9.64. Time, 6 
months. Smallest deposit, 6 cents. Largest 
deposit, $2.25. 

I find the amounts saved do not depend so 
much on the financial condition of the neigh- 
borhood as on the interest which the one hav- 
ing it in charge has in the project. However, 
there is more uniformity in the deposits of the 
well-to-do neighborhoods than in those of the 
really poor, although this uniformity is never 
very marked. More elements enter in to hinder 
the poor from saving, and more varying de 
grees of success naturally follow. 

The diversity in the amounts saved is shown 
more clearly by a glance at the cards them- 
selves. I will give the first three on each 
pack — that is, the dates of issue and with- 
drawal of each, and the amount saved during 
that time: 



Issued. 


WiTHDBAWS. 


Amount. 


Not. 21, 1901 


June 19. 1902 


$1.72 


April 8. 1902 


.lune 19, 1902 


.50 


Not. 0. 1901 


June 18, 1902 


.52 


Oct. 8, 1901 


June 12, 1902 


10. 2S 


Oct. 7, 1901 


June 12, 1902 


lo.ao 


Feb. 6, 1901 


June 12, 1902 


8.95 


.May 10. 1901 


June 12, 1902 


.29 


Jan. 31. 1902 


June 12, 1902 


.16 


Oct. 23, 1901 


June 12. 1902 


9.50 


May '20, 1902 


June 12, 1902 


.35 


.May 6, 1902 


J tine 12. 1902 


.37 


Feb. 7, 1902 


June 12. 1902 


.24 



Issued. 


Withdrawn. 


Amount. 


Jan. 28. 1902 


June 17. 1902 


$ 1.00 


Jan. 4, 1902 


June 17, 1902 


1.40 


Jan. 30, 1902 


June 17, 1902 


.50 


Not. 5, 1900 


June 12. 1902 


.06 


Sf pt. 30, 1901 


June 12. 1902 


i.oo 


Oct. 30. 1901- 


June 12. 1902 


.25 



In one of the schools in a very poor district 
two brothers have each saved $100 through the 
penny bank. 

During the year 1901 the Chicago Penny 
Savings Society gave out to its various stations 
stamp certificates to the value of $33,000. The 
amount of money withdrawn during the same 
year was $20,000, and the amount placed in 
trust by the society for the children was $1,455. 

The whole amount saved through the Chicago^ 
Penny Savings Society from June 15. 1897, to 
Jan. 1, 1902, was over $166,000, and this repre- 
sents largely the savings of children. 

The ready response with which the banks 
have met, is the strongest testimony to the 
tendency toward thrift in children. The ex- 
pression of a desire to save, written on a slip 
of paper, is one thing; the deposit of $166,000 
by school children of Chicago is quite another. 
These figures represent not a mere passive wish, 
but an actual tendency asserting Itself, in spite 
of obstacles, in concrete facts. 

"ideal" thrift texdexcies. 

While one might expect the intention to save 
money to exceed the actual practice, the papers 
really show theoretical thrift to be weaker than 
the actual. Data from the questions involving 
suppositional cases show a difference of from 
10 to 40 per cent among different classes, ages 
and nationalities, in the number who say they 
would save and of those who are saving. In re- 
ply to the first question. 39.6 per cent of the 
boys say they would save the entire sum; 24.4^ 
per cent would save a part of it, and 36 per cent, 
would spend it all. Or, in other words, only 
64 per cent think they would save any money 
if they had a regular allowance of 15 cents a 
week, while as a matter of fact 74.4 per cenc 
of these same boys are saving. This difference- 
of 10 per cent does not argue necessarily for 
any discrepancy in the boys' statements. It 
is easily made up by the numljer of boys who- 
are, though saving at present, spending 15 
cents or more a week; and facing the questioa 
squarely they think they would still spend the 
same amount, if it were all they had. 

The percentage of the girls who would save 
on the allowance stated is. on the whole, larger. 
Forty-one per cent would save all of it; 2& 



THE COMMONS 



\3 



per cent would save some, and 31 per cent 
would not save any of it. This proportion of 
those who would save 69 per cent is a little 
nearer that of the 72 per cent who are saving. 
This is quite consistent with the reason just 
given for the slight fall in the "ideals" below 
the "actual" in matters of saving, for the num- 
ber of girls spending more than 15 cents a week 
is much smaller than the number of boys. • 
From the three schools in the poorer districts, 
57 boys and 35 girls who are not saving are 
spending over 15 cents a week. 

There are a few children who do not men- 
tion saving in their answers to the first ques- 
tion, who nevertheless infer it in, "I would buy 
clothes," "I would buy good books," etc. 

The number of those who would save the 
supposed $1,000 is still smaller. Only 33.5 per 
cent of the boys and 30 per cent of the girls, 
of the poorer districts, say they would save the 
greater part of it. There are two other kinds 
of answers which might be interpreted as sav- 
ing, however. Fifteen and five-tenths per cent 
of the boys and 17 per cent of the girls would 
give the money to their parents; and 25 per 
cent of the boys and 15.8 per cent of the girls 
would buy property. In some cases where the 
amount was to be given to the parents it was 
inferred quite plainly that this was for the 
purpose of saving it; again it was stated that 
the sum was for them to spend for living ex- 
penses — food, clothing, or fuel — and still more 
often the purpose in the answer is very doubt- 
ful. So with the "property" answers; some 
were evidently matters of investment, and 
others were meant for homes. 

If these purposes are reckoned as saving, the 
percentage is increased to 74 for the boys and 
69 for the girls, which tallies very well with the 
rates of the actual expressions of thrift. 

There are naturally a few discrepancies on 
the papers in the matter of saving. Some of 
the children who are not saving, and yet are 
spending more than 15 cents every week, say 
that if they had 15 cents a week to spend as 
they chose they would save at least a part of 
it. As a matter of fact, however, these cases 
are very few. Only 25 boys and 18 girls out 
of the whole number of 1,339 show this incon- 
sistency. 

PURPOSES OF SAVING. 

The purpose of their saving, as given by the 
children, is for the most part for some present 
need or pleasure. From the poorer schools 286 
boys and 348 girls are saving for the very near 
future, while only 45 boys and 26 girls are 



saving for an indefinite future. The excess of 
girls over boys in the first case and the excess. 
of boys over girls to the extent of almost double 
the number in the second, is another result of 
the facts mentioned under "Age Comparisons." 
The boys, especially after the age of eleven, are 
looking forward to business life and its re- 
sponsibilities; the girls are occupied to a 
greater extent with dress and present pleasures. 
In the one case it is the expression of the 
man's instinct, just developing, of self-assertion 
and care for others; in the other the woman's 
willingness to trust the future to some one 
else. ' 

While the boys exceed the girls in their re- 
gard for the future the girls exceed in unsel- 
fishness — and perhaps their very "care f ree- 
ness" just referred to is one reason for this. 

Among those saving for present needs 80 per 
cent of the girls and 92 per cent of the boys 
have "self" in mind. These purposes, with the 
number expressing each, are: Clothes, 126 boy.?, 
182 girls; wheel or horse and carriage, 63 boys, 
13 girls; outings and recreation, 39 boys, 19 
girls; books, 6 boys, 12 girls; jewelry, 3 boys, 
13 girls; music, 1 boy, 8 girls; "confirmation," 
3 boys, 4 girls; miscellaneous, 19 boys, 27 girls. 
Among the unselfish ends for which the chil- 
dren save are: Family needs, 4 boys, 4 girls; 
gifts, 15 boys, 54 girls. Four girls' are saving 
to "fix up" their parents' graves. 

In the wealthier class 73 boys and 111 girls 
have the present in mind in their saving, and 
11 boys and 12 girls are looking toward the 
future. Eight of these girls are saving for "old 
age." 

In the first case 91.7 per cent of the boys 
have selfish ends in view. Of the girls only 
77.5 per cent are selfish. 

The differences between the two classes in 
their purposes in saving are what might nat- 
urally be expected. Comparatively few of the 
rich are saving for clothes, where fully one-halt 
of the poor had that end in view. About one- 
third of the former class are saving for a 
bicycle or a horse and carriage, and almost as 
many are saving for outings and recreations. 
"Gifts" constitute the sole unselfish end, of 
present interest, in this class, with the excep- 
tion of two girls who are saving for "family 
need." 

Of those planning for an indefinite future, 4 
boys and 6 girls from the poorer class, and 2 
boys from the wealthier, are saving for an 
education. Fifteen boys and 2 girls from the 
first class and 4 boys from the latter are saving 
for business. The prospects of "old age" is an 



u 



THE COMMO NS 



incentive for 25 of the poorer children and for 

10 of the wealthier to save. 

The unselfishness of the poorer boys and 
girls in their money matters is sometimes al- 
most pitiful. The little boy of thirteen "wh.i 
said, "Yes, 1 am saving 'cause I will buy a 
little dress for my sister," was probably ragged 
himself. Two brothers, eight and thirteen 
years old, used to deposit money in the penny 
bank, arid always gave as their reason, "Oh, 
mudder may need it some time." Another told 
me he was saving for a shawl tor his mother, 
and a German girl said she was saving to send 
her mother home to the old country. I T*emem- 
ber one time two brothers about eight ani 
ten years old deposited, one 8 cents and the 
other 13 cents, with the remark that they had 
"kept ^ome of it a week, already." I asked, 
rather indifferently, "And haven't you spent 
any?". and the older one burst out in surprise, 
"Why! no ma'am! mudder ain't got no teeth — 
only five!" as if that were reason enough for 
their saving. He afterward assured me that 
they were going to save their money and buy 
her some. 

While the poor are often mentioned as shar- 
ers in the child's "supposed" wealth, only 3 
girls from the poorer district and 2 girls and 1 
boy from the wealthier give any philanthropic 
purpose to their actual saving. And yet this 
seems a large number when we remember the 
many needs of the poorer children especially, 
and the vagueness with which all charity work 
is conceived in the child mind. It is quite in 
place in the suppositional cases of having 
money, because it itself is as much a dream to 
these children as the idea of having $1,000 for 
their very own. But when the real money is 
actually in sight, philanthropy vanishes before 
their ever present wants and' wishes. 

PUaPOSES IX SAVING $1,000. 
As has already been remarked, comparatively 
few of the children said definitely that they 
would save the $1,000. Of the number who 
did do so, so few of them stated their purpose 
in saving it that no exact conclusions can be 
drawn from them. A very large number of 
them, however, would save it for a home, for 
living expenses, or the support of the parents. 
A few would save it to engage in some business 
when they are older; and others, for an educa- 
tion. Two or three seemed to have a very 
gloomy view of life. One ,of these, a German 
girl of twelve, said, "I would save it for my 
mother's, father's, sister's and brother's burial." 
An Irish girl of fourteen said, "I would save it 



and Insure myself, and when I would die I 
would leave it to my parson." 

PURPOSELESS SAVING. 

Great care should be taken that children do 
not mistake hoarding for saving. Mere accumu- 
lation of money without a definite idea of its 
use is more demoralizing than uplifting. 1 
found that some of the children who were 
laving had very little notion of what they were 
saving for. Here is the opportunity for the 
one having the bank in charge to press the 
lesson home that thrift is merely postponed 
consumption. Some of the boys, too, gave no 
other reason for making a deposit than "de 
udder guys are." Here, too, a lesson in the 
value of providence should be taught. These 
cases were very rare in my experience, and 
are, I believe, in all the stations where the 
proper care is taken in introducing the subject 
to the children. For the most part the de- 
positors have pretty definite ideas about their 
object in saving, even if that object be nothing 
more tangible than that of the American boy 
who said, "X am saving so I'll be used to saving 
when I am grown up"; or of the German who 
is saving "so when 1 grow to be a man 1 won't 
have to beg." 

INSTRUMENT OF SAVING. 

Reference has been made several times to 
the Chicago Penny Savings Society and to indi- 
vidual penny banks. These banks are all sta- 
tions of the one organization which came into 
being June 15, 1897. The society is purely 
benevolent, as no one receives any financial 
advantage from it except the depositors. It is 
under the management of and direct super- 
vision of a board of trustees, representing some 
of the most influential men of the city, who 
give their services without compensation. 

The object of the society, as stated by them, 
is "to encourage and make attractive the saving 
of small sums, from one cent upward," and to 
extend the opportunity of doing this as far as 
possible. It is the desire of the trustees to aid 
in the forming of habits- of thrift and provi- 
dence and to teach in the most practical way 
the truth of the old saying, "Take care of the 
pennies and the pounds will take care of them- 
selves." 

The plan pursued by the society is very 
simple. Stamps, serving as certificates of de- 
posit and having representative values of 1, 
5, 10, 25 and 50 cents, are sold out to the 
various stations. When a child wishes to open 
a bank account he is given a card folded double 
and bearing on the outside his name and ad- 



THE eOMMONS 



15 



dress. The name and address of the station 
and the date of issue. On the inside he pastes 
the stamps corresponding to the value of each 
deposit. These are redeemable at any time. 
No interest" can be paid on deposits since the 
expenses of the society, office rent, printing, etc.. 
must be met by the accruing interest of the 
aggregate. "When the amount on the card be- 
comes large enough to make it practicable to 
' do so, the depositor is urged to and helped in 
opening an account in some safe bank, where 
his money will draw interest. 

Stations have been placed in settlements, 
public schools, charity bureau offices, stores and 
Sunday schools. There were at the end of 
June, 1902, 68 stations in the city schools, 16 
in county schools and 51 miscellaneous stations, 
giving a total of 135 banks where deposits may 
be made of 1 cent and upward. 

VALTJES. 

The results of the penny savings system are 
various and far-reaching. Its value to the child 
and through him to economic conditions gen- 
erally may be indicated by a few examples. 

ECONOMIC. 

One little girl with her small savings bought 
a ton of coal, the first full ton the family had 
ever had. In this way she saved almost half 
the price usually paid for it when purchased 
by the basket. Another girl. Who had saved 
$12.50 in the school bank, said to me quite 
proudly when she withdrew it, "P^i's sick and 
I'm going to pay the rent." In one school it 
was suggested to the pupils that they help 
their parents by saving for their text-books. 
As a result, the whole class bought their own 
books for the next grade. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

As Mr, Oulton puts it, "Scjiool banks are to 
the lessons in thrift what pen, ink and paper 
are to lessons in writing." Many of the chil- 
dren have little idea of the value of money 
until they begin to save it, and little idea of 
the value of thrift until they have watched 
their penny deposits grow and known the joy 
of owning and spending a fairly large sum. 
A new inspiration for saving comes to the 
parents through the children, and the virtue 
spreads. 

One little girl, who became interested in sav- 
ing, found by the end of the year that she had 
a bank account of $60. This greatly surprised 
the family and was a lesson to them of what 
could be accomplished through small and reg- 
ular deposits. 

But thrift alone is not all the children arc 



taught by the system. They are given ex- 
perience in banking, especially when their de- 
posits are transferred to the large banks, and 
are taught the first principles of business. Op- 
portunity is given, through the stations, to 
teach the children discrimination in the matter 
of banks, and this knowledge also spreads to 
the parents. This is a lesson which has to be 
urged again and again upon the poor and inex- 
perienced. They dread the complication of a 
large and reliable bank, and deposit and often 
lose their meager savings in small, unreliable 
concerns. Last but not of least importance Is 
the lesson the banks should teach, and do under 
careful leaders, in the wise use of money. It 
transpired in one station that the nickel which 
a little Jewish boy was depositing every aay 
had been given in the morning by his father 
for his lunch. He had gone without his noon 
meal to save the money, and had yet to learn 
that spending may be wiser than saving. 

ETHICAL. 

Many examples of the unselfishness developed 
by the practice of saving have already been 
given. Still another is furnished by the little 
boy who withdrew bis bank deposit to buy his 
"mudder" a cloak. Wishing to be encourag- 
ing, the agent said: "My, that will be fine, 
won't it?" And the boy replied: "Shure! It'll 
be the finest one she ever had! It's going to 
cost $4.98." "We see results in self-respect and 
worthy pride, when children can hold up their 
heads with- a just satisfaction in a new dress 
or suit or hat which their own small savings 
have purchased. Self help is learned by the 
. children when they find that the pennies which 
used to go for candy, once accumulated, will 
buy their books and-clothes, pay the house-rent 
and help support the family. All except three 
of the withdrawals in one school during two 
months were for clothing or the actual needs 
of the family. 

Many boys and girls have broken the habit 
of gum chewing, etc., by learning to save. The 
children recognize the opportunity it offers in 
this direction and are generally glad to take 
advantage of it. "When the introduction of the 
Provident was first discussed in one school a 
seventh-grade lad went to the principal and 
said: "I wish I could save my money here, for 
I believe if I could I could quit smoking. My 
change will go for cigarettes." The bank was 
put in and at the end of the first week he had 
saved $1.10. 

It is said that the only enemies of the sav- 
ings system are the keepers of small shops 
where the children buy candy and trinkets. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



The agent of one of the school banks felt no 
hesitancy in saying that the amount deposited 
there had come directly out of the candy store 
next door. This statement was substantiated 
later by a conversation I had with the shop- 
keeper. She said she used to support her 
family of seven very comfortably by means of 
her shop, and that occasionally she "could buy 
a dress or something for one of the children." 
But since the banks were put in the school, 
they had taken away just about half of her 
receipts and now she could hardly make ends 
meet. She was unable to do any heavy work 
and the prospects seemed pretty dark. 

Her anxiety and discouragement brought me 
face to face with the other side of the story, 
and for the moment I was almost ashamed of 
the bank books I had in my hand and thankful 
that she did not know what they were. 

I had been two or three weeks winning her 
confidence to the extent that she would tell me 
her financial difl[iculties, and at the end of that 
time I saw very clearly the seriousness of the 
injury the bank was doing her and her family. 
However this is only one more case in the 
general truth which social scientists are con- 
tinually facing, that social progress Involves 
the sacrifice of the few for the many. In this 
case, fortunately, the few are very few com- 
pared to the great number benefited. 



What the earnings, spendings and savings of 
the children mean to the home has already 
been illustrated by many typical cases. Their 
significance in the life and character of the 
child can hardly be over-estimated. 

The dangers associated with his money which 
confront the child are threefold. First, the 
possibility that his moral nature may be 
stunted and actually corrupted by some of the 
means of acquiring money. Second, that reck- 
lessness and improvidence and even harmful 
indulgences may become fixed habits through 
his spendings. Third, that avarice and the love 
of money for its own sake may be encouraged 
by the wrong kind of saving. These are all 
too individual in their nature to attempt to remedy 
them by general, hard and fast rules. Some sug- 
gestions, however, have been made throughout 
the paper of the wrongs in which these evils may 
be met. 

The disadvantages which accompany the 
child's dealings with money are overshadowed 
by the benefits he may derive from them. There 
is, first, the development of self-reliance and 
independence which comes with his earning — 



as well as an appreciation of what money 
costs; second, wisdom in its use, and the proper 
estimate of values which are gained by the 
spending of it; and, third, the realization of 
the importance of small sums and the habits of 
thrift and providence which inevitably follow 
careful and purposeful saving. 



The Church in Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion, 
at the International Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Twenty-five cents. 

SUMMER COTTAQE FOR RENT. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Seven hours by daily steamer from Chicago. "Near 
Shore " (Jottage on Lake Mlchliian shore within easy reach 
of Black Lake. Seven rooms, furnished. Double porch on 
two sides. Safe, healthful, interesting place for children. 
Terms $150 for season from .June to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 

Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, 1903. 
Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes 
opportunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars address 
BBRTHA HOPER HBONER. 
Chicago Commons, iSo Qrand Ave., Chlcaza 

OHIOAGO 

THBO LOGICAL 

SEMINARY 

Opens Its 46th year Sept. 30, 1903, for colleg- graduates. 
Thorough tralnl' g for pastoral, missionary, educationa 
and evangelistic service. 

Specialized cour es in pedagogy, sociology, missions, 
music and expression. Merit scholarships, university 
fellowships, li'-ld work, social settlement observation anil 
research. Address 

Prof. H. M. SCOTT, S20 Adams St., ChicaKO, III. 



THe Commoris 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It Is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, 111., and Is entered at the Chicago Fostolflce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
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Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
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Discontinuances. Please notify us at once If for any reason 
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THE COM MONS 



17 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects o< Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR.. 



Editor 



Eutpred at Chicago Postofflce as Second-Class Matter, ancf 
Published the first of every moDth from Chicac.oCommons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents <^^^gfe»t A Year 

ED ITORI AL. 

Mr. Raymond Robins is in editorial charge 
of The Commoss, during Professor Taylor's 
absence abroad. Under the title "View Points 
Afield," the latter will cdbtribute descriptive 
<>omments on the social life and movements 
with which he comes in contact in England 
and on the continent. 



University Fellowship Settlement Studies. 

The University of Michigan Social Settle- 
ment Fellowship at Chicago Commons has 
amply justified the students in contributing its 
modest expense and the faculty in granting 

. academic credit for the original research of its 
incumbents. While only such subjects and re- 
sults have been possible as undergraduate stu- 

• dents could undertake, yet what is being 
achieved has a practical value which is recog- 
nized by the University, the settlement and the 
public. The reflexive influence upon the uni- 
versity life is proportionate to the marked di- 
rect effect of settlement residence and work 
upon each Incumbent, who upon returning to 
Ann Arbor has abundant opportunity to inform 
and inspire. The subjects of inquiry have all 
had intrinsic value to the investigators and for 
the published results of some of them there has 

'been a public demand. Mr. Rdval 1^. Melendy's 
contribution to the Committee of Fifty's "Sub- 
stitutes for the Saloon," was also published by 
the "American Journal of Sociology." Miss 
Edith I. Clark's description of "Juvenile De- 
linquency in Chicago," is still called for from 

 our files. Miss Gertrude E. Palmer's painstaking- 
inquiry into the money sense of school children, 
to the summary of which this number of The 
Commons is largely devoted, is sure to awaken a 
wide and interested reading. The present Incum- 
bent of the fellowship. Miss Inis H. Weed, is 
midway in her first hand study of "The Social 
Influence of Manual Expression." 



ASSOCIATION OP NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited kok the Absoci.\tion by 

Mary Kingsbuky Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



The Society for the Protection of luiian 
Immigrants. 

This society, incorporated March, 1901, is 
not intended to encourage immigration, but 
to elevate the character and neutralize the evils 
of the immigration which comes to us under 
our present laws. It was formed to meet cry- 
ing needs for protection, for education and 
for elevation to good standards of citizenship 
on the part of a very large and increasing 
number of Italians who are emigrating to this 
country. In 1901 over 140,000 landed at the 
port of New York; for the year ending June 30, 
1902, the number reached 165,631. 

Many of these foreigners are not only un- 
educated, but lack all knowledge of the habits, 
customs and language of this country, and their 
difficulties begin from the moment they are 
landed at Ellis Island; these arise both from 
conditions which would be harmless to a person 
acquainted with life in this country, and from 
the practice of evilly disposed persons who sys- 
tematically victimize these poor and simply 
immigrants. 

It is the definite aim of the Society to rem- 
edy these abuses and in this effort both the 
emigration and the police authorities are now 
heartily co-operating. Since October 1, 1902, 
the police have submitted the names of all 
applicants for runner's licenses to the Society 
for investigation and its report in each case 
is considered in determining whether to grant 
a license or not. 

The Labor Bureau is satisfactorily supplying 
Italian labor to employers throughout the coun- 
try, and will, it is hoped, become the chief sup- 
ply of Italian labor in this city, with the re- 
sult that the laborer will not be robbed, as 
formerly, of his wages; the system of the pad- 
rone being to appropriate to himself as much 
of the laborers' hire as it was possible to do, 
in which he was helped largely by the laborers' 
ignorance. 

The society has arranged that immigrants can 
obtain comfortable accommodations at the rate 
of 50 cents per day, including meals and lodg- 
ing, at the home of the Italian "Beneflcenza," 
in West Houston Street. 



"Come what will, I will keep my faith with 
friend and foe." — Lincoln. 



18 



T.HE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

Pretident: Kath.uiise Comax, Wellesley, JIass. 

Vice Pretident: IIklex Chadwick Rand Thayeu 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Guaham Tomkins, 1004 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East t5th St., New York City. 

Fifth Memhtr: ScsAS E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

standikg committee on subcuapteks. 

Chairman: Louise H. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New Y'ork. 

LOCAL committees. 

Boston— Bertha Scripture, Chairman; Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia— Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Gerinautown, Pa. 

settlements. 
New York City— 96 Kivini^'ion Street. 
Philadelphia— 483 Christian Sireet. 
Boston-y3 Tyler Street (Uenisou House). 



The Annual Meeting ot the College Settle- 
ments Association. 
Hkij> at 5)5 HiviNciToN Street, New York 
York Ciiy, May 2, lUi3.  

The annual meeting of the Electoral Boar 1 
of the College Settlements was held at the New 
York Settlement on the first Saturday In May. 
The roll call showed electors present from 
Wellesley, Smith, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, \Vells, 
Packer Collegiate Institute, Swarthmore, El- 
mira, Barnard and Mount Holyoke, who, with 
the Associate electors, members of the Stand- 
ing Committee, Head-workers and delegates, 
made a total ot 30 present. Miss Cowan, Pres- 
ident of the Association, presided. 

The Secretary reported the following 
changes in the Board since October, 1902: 
Miss Sarah F. Sheppard succeeds Mrs. Hill as 
Vassar Alumnae Elector; Miss Marjorie His- 
cox succeeds Miss Upton as Vassar College 
Elector; Miss Ella K. Truesdale succeeds Miss 
Knipe as Wells College Elector; Miss Stella 
Foreman succeeds Mrs. Bretz as Packer Alum- 
nae Elector; Miss Charlotte H. Crawford suc- 
ceeds Miss Butler as Cornell College Elector; 
Miss Margaret Craig succeeds Miss Clothier as 
Swarthmore College Elector; Miss Gertrude D. 
Seely succeeds Miss Dexter as Elmira College 
Elector; Miss Caroline E. Wilson succeeds 
Miss Kerr as Woman's College of Baltimore 



College Elector; Miss Winifred A. Saunders 
succeeds Miss Grevstad as Mount Holyoke Col- 
lege Elector. 

Mrs. William Gammell, of Providence, Rhode 
Island, was elected to membership on the Board 
and Mrs. Arthur H. Scribner, the retiring fifth 
^member of the Standing Committee, was made 
Associate Elector. The election of officers for 
the coming year resulted in the re-election of 
the officers of the past year with the exception 
of Mrs. Arthur H. Scribner, who was obliged, 
under the pressure of other duties, to with- 
draw from the office of fifth member. Miss 
Susan E. Foote. who has served on the Board 
as Smith Alumnae Elector, was elected to the 
office. 

Other routine business was the reading of 
tlje report of the Standing Committee and the 
report of the General Treasurer. The Standing 
Committee report contained two items of gen- 
eral interest. One was in regard to the pub- 
lication last January of the entire result of 
Miss Mary B. Sayls's investigation of housing 
conditions in Jersey City, made during her 
year as College Settlements Association Fellow. 
1901-1902. The American Academy of Political 
and Social Science issued the report as a sup- 
plement to the January number of the Annals. 
Copies of the monograph may be obtained from 
the Secretary of the Association. The other 
item of the Standing Committee report referred 
to the outlook for a chapter of the Association 
in the Women's College at Brown University 
sometime in the near future. Miss Dudley of 
Denison House was able to arouse some enthu- 
siasm among the students there by a recent 
address on the work of the Association an;l 
its settlements, and on invitation of the Stand- 
ing Committee a representative of the Brown 
students was present at the annual meeting?. 
Miss Chace. one of the two Association Fellows 
for the year 1902-1903, is a graduate of Brown 
University, class of 1900. 

Following the reading of the Treasurer's re 
port of income, and the apportionment of the 
usual funds for the work of the three settle- 
ments, for committee expenses, etc.. the dis- 
cussion of the morning was directed mainly 
into two important channels and resulted in 
the forming of several committees to carry on 
work during the summer and report at the 
autumn meeting of the Board. The need for 
present educational activity on the part of th^ 
Association and the line along which the Asso 
elation shall extend its future development 
were topics of special moment brought up for 
consideration. 



THE COMMONS 



19 



The need is felt at this time by electors who 
are working in college chapters and by those 
who are working more directly in the outside 
world, of educational literature which shall 
set forth clearly and forcibly the aim of the 
settlement movement aside from its practical 
visible accomplishment in the day by day work 
at the settlements. Great interests are at 
stake besides this practical achievement and 
it is necessary that every worker should grasp 
this fact and then turn to help in the task of 
imbuing whole neighborhoods and people with 
the idea of what settlement work really is. 
The association plans a revival of propaganda 
and at this annual meeting a committee was 
formed, two members of which are Mrs. Helen 
Maud Thayer and Professor Vida Dutton 
Scudder. which will at once set about the prep- 
aration of some pamphlets or leaflets to help 
meet the required need. 

The taking up of a new settlement, the in- 
creasing of present appropriations to its three 
settlements, or the extension of expenditure 
along the line of fellowships were the three 
questions confronting the Board when the sub- 
ject of special appropriations came up for con- 
sideration. The remoteness of many of the 
college chapters, notably Smith and Mount 
Holyoke, from any one of the three college 
settlements makes the advantage of a new 
settlement in one of the college neighborhoods 
seem particularly obvious. Electors at the 
meeting were unanimous in their feeling that 
the settlements are the definite stimulus of the 
college chapters and that where the colleges 
are distant interest is likely to flag. Discus- 
sion as to .the increasing of present appropria- 
tions centered about the present situation at 
the Philadelphia Settlement, where work and 
opportunity are developing with gre^t rapidity 
and where local support is rather more diffi- 
cult to secure than in New York or Boston. 
The consideration of the matter was put into 
the hands of a committee. The discussion of 
extension along the line of more fellowships 
to be offered by the Association resulted in'the 
appointment of a committee to undertake the 
work of providing scholarships and fellowship.^ 
in relation with the colleges, and in the ap- 
propriation of $200 to be expended at the dis- 
cretion of this committee. 

The Board voted a non-competitive Fellow- 
ship for the coming year to be given to Miss 
Prances A. Kellor, who has been one of the 
Association Fellows for 1902-1903. Miss Kellor 
made an informal report to the Board of her 
work during the past year. She has 'been in- 



vestigating employment bureaus for women in 
New York and Chicago, and is at present in 
residence at Rivington Street, New York. Her 
work has been developing in opportunity and 
interest and promises to be valuable in its re- 
sults. Official reports, growing out of her in- 
vestigations and the investigations of others 
along the same line, will probably be made to 
the cities in which she lias worked. Miss Kel- 
lor is also making a collection of laws govern- 
ing employment bureaus and it is hoped that 
these, used in connection with facts gathered, 
may lead to legislation on the subject at some 
future time. 

The Board also voted an appropriation of 
$300 for an open competitive scholarship which 
will be offered by the Association. 

Miss Davies of the Philadelphia Settlement 
and Miss Williams of the New York Settlement 
presented, informal reports of the work of the 
past winter at the two settlements. The Elect- 
ors from the colleges present at the meeting 
then spoke of their special difficulties or made 
helpful suggestions to the Board, after which 
the Board adjourned and were the guests of 
the New York Settlement at luncheon. 
- The first hour of the afternoon was spent by 
the members of the Board in visiting the Lud- 
low Street house and the new gymnasium on 
Orchard Street. At half past three o'clock ad- 
dresses were made by Mr. Robert Hunter of 
the University Settlement on the recent child 
labor agitation in New York City, and by Mrs. 
R. Y. Fitz Gerald on New York Tenement 
House Reform and the opposition with which it 
has met. 



THE MONTH AT CHICAGO COMMONS. 

The departure of the Warden and Mrs. Taylor 
for H six months' tour of England and the continent 
was the cliief happening of the past moijth. This 
vacation is many times the longest absence of the 
Warden from the settlement since taking up his 
residence at the "old Commons" nearly eight 
years ago. 

The loss our household suiTers through this pro- 
tracted break in the family circle will be met by 
the brave and generous spirit of mutual lielpful- 
ness and good will which has been stored within 
and about Chicago Commons by the unremitting 
service of seven years. 

Refreshed and strengthened by the greatly 
needed rest, and bringing a goodly heritage of 
observation and suggestion for solution of the 
many problems of our common life, the return of 
our travelers will be awaited with happy anticipa- 
tion of sharing in all the pleasures and benefits of 
their long voyage. 



20 



THE COMMONS 



THE STAT FESTIVAL. 

The annual Commons May festival, held on 
the afternoons and evenings of May 8th and 
9th. brought to its close a very successful win- 
ter's work among the clubs and classes, the 
handiwork of more than 1,000 children being 
on exhibit. 

A miscellaneous display of raffia work, 
passepartout, bead chains, crocheted slippers 
and lace, aprons, belts, etc., represented much 
patience and persistent effort on the part of the 
members of the Girls' Clubs. The operetta ren- 
dered on Friday night to an audience that 
packed the auditorium hall was also a feature 
of the regular club work. 

Manual work was exhibited made by the 
boys and girls working in the shop, who did 
great credit to themselves and their instructor 
by their bench work, burnt wood work, carv- 
ing and staining. 

The sewing school, made up of children 
under twelve years of age, showed an inter- 
esting collection of sample books and garments. 
The woman's embroider}- class had an exhibit 
of Mountmelllc work in silk and linen. 

The cooking school had the usual inviting 
display, that made by the Housekeeper's Club 
being especially attractive, consisting of the 
national dishes of the different members. 

Our neighboring Washington and Monteflore_ 
Schools co-operated with the Commons, and 
made an excellent and praiseworthy display, 
the rooms alloted them being filled to over- 
flowing with hand-work in sewing, carpentry, 
weaving, burnt-wood work, sloyd, paper-folding, 
painting, drawing, etc., etc. The exhibit of the 
Washington School was largely constructive 
work, an especially fine display being made in 
bent-iron work and pottery. This school, owing 
to the untiring energy of the principal, pos- 
sesses several potters' wheels and a kiln of 
their own and do most original and artistic 
work. ^ 

An exhibit shown by the" Montefiore School 
from kindergarten to eighth grade was 
noticeable for the high standard of its literary 
work, the lessons for the year being artistically 
illustrated and arranged in books with hand- 
decorated covers, all showing the faithful and 
conscientious work of principal and teacher. 

The beautiful collection of pictures loaned 
through the generous interest of Mr. W. Scott 
Thurber were greatly enjoyed and became one 
of the chief centers of interest. 

Programs were given afternoon and evening by 
pupils of the ek>cution, music and gymnasium 
classes, assisted by Prof. Tomlins' children's 
chorns and the Chicago Commons Choral Clnb. 



The beautiful bronze tablet presented by 
Mrs. Charles D. Blaney to the memory of her 
father has been placed on the vestibule wall 
to the right of the front door. Its inscription 
reads: 

John Mabshaix Williams, 

Residexce Halt. 

Chicago Commoxs 

1901. 

The Tabernacle Church of our neighborhood, 
which shares with the settlement the use of 
the Chicago Commons building, is slowly but 
surely building up from within, under the pas- 
torate of Rev. James Slull^nbach. Numerical 
increase Is slow, owing to the fact that the 
trend of church-going families is away from 
its parish and the incoming population is not 
to its manor born. But the depth, breadth, 
and essential value of this church's direct and 
reflexive influence are far greater than can 
be estimated at any stated gatherings, or by 
any statistical test. The farewell reception 
given by its members to Prof, and Mrs. Tay- 
lor and their presentation of steamer rugs in 
token of affection contributed one of the freest 
and simplest occasions of the year. 

HELP NEEDED FOB PLAT-GEOUXD. 

With the co-operation of the Vacation Schools 
and Play-Ground Committee we gladly re-open 
the public play-ground for the children of our 
two great neighboring schools, under a com- 
petent resident-director. It needs new eqtilp- 
ment at $200 cost and support at the rate of 
$50 per month additional to the $25 monthly 
rental. Our Washington school gives its prin- 
cipal to the superintendency of the summer 
vacation schools. 

RELIKVING THE WARDEN FUOM SOLHI TIDE. 

To relieve the warden during his absence of 
the financial care which he has so long borne 
all alone, a finance committee has generously 
assumed the responsibility for the support of 
the Chicago Commons work until he returns 
next November. The five busy people who 
should receive, without personally soliciting it, 
the $3,000 or more needed are: 

Alexander B. Scully, Halsted and. Fulton Sts. 

Edward L. Ryerson, 18 Milwaukee Ave. 

Miss Jane Addams, Hull House. 

Frank O. Lowden, The Temple Building. 

Edwin Burrltt Smith, First National Bank 
Building. 



"I have no ambition so great as that of be- 
ing truly esteemed of my fellowmen. by ren- 
dering myself worthy of their esteem." — Lin- 
coln. 



The Commons 

( A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number S-i-Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicago, July, 1903 



THE LORDS OF LABOR. 

To be sung by the National Cooperative 
Festival Society's Great Choir, at the Crystal 
Palace, London, July 11, 1903. 

They come! they come in a glorious march! 

Tou can hear their steam-steeds neigh. 
As they dash through skills triumphal arch. 

Or plunge 'mid the dancing spray. 
Their bale-fires blaze in the mighty forge. 

Their life-pulse throbs in the mill. 
Their lightnings shiver the gaping gorge. 

And their thunders shake the hill. 
Ho! these are the Titans of toil and trade. 

The heroes who wield no sabre; 
But mightier conquests reapeth the blade 

That is borne by the Lords of Labor. 

Brave hearts, like Jewels, light the sod — 

Through the mist of commerce shine — 
And souls flash out, like stars of God, 

From the midnight of the mine. 
No palace Is theirs, no castle great. 

No princely pillared hall; 
But they well can laugh at t'he roofs of state, 

'Neath the heaven which is over all. 
Ho! these are Titans of toll and trade. 

The heroes who wield no sabre; 
But mightier conquests reapeth the blade 

That is borne by the Lords of Labor! 

Each bares his arm for the ringing strife 

That inarslials the sons of the soil; 
And the sweat-drops shed in their battle of life 

Are gems In the crown of Toil, 
And prouder their well-won wreaths, I trow. 

Than laurels with life-blood wet; 
And nobler the arch of a bare bold brow. 

Than the clasp of a coronet. 
Then hurrah for each hero, although his deed 

Be unsounded by trump or tabor; 
For holier, happier far Is the meed 

That crowneth the Lords of Labor. 

— Macfablan. 



"I appeal to you again to constantly bear in 
mind that with you [the people], and not with 
politicians, not with presidents, not with office- 
seekers, but with you. Is the question: Shall 
the Union and shall the liberties of the country 
be preserved to the latest generation?" — Lin- 
coln. 



WOMEN'S CLUBS vs. CHILD LABOR. 

TO THE GENEBjLL FEDER.^TIOX OF WOMEN'S CLUBS! 

During the past year marked advance has 
been made in securing Child Labor legislation 
throughout the states of the Union. Women's 
Clubs have been active in this movement, which 
has consisted both in enacting new laws and 
amending old ones. The argument against this 
legislation, which has been most universally 
encountered, has been that the earnings of lit- 
tle children are needed to support widowed 
mothers. The Committee on Child Labor of the 
General Federation of Women's Clubs is con- 
vinced that the argument has been unfairly - 
used, that the number of poor widows in any 
community is limited, and that among the lim- 
ited number there are comparatively few whose 
oldest children are between the ages of ten and 
fourteen years, the time when the temptation to 
use the premature labor of children is strongest. 
Nothing could be more valuable to the cause of 
Child Labor than to lay this ghost which has 
so long frightened many of the sincere friends 
of little children, and has furnished the basis 
of the emotional appeal so often used against 
sober argument. 

Your committee therefore earnestly requests 
that the Women's Clubs throughout the country 
aid the cause of Child Labor by securing infor- 
mation as to the number of working children 
between the ages of ten and fourteen years 
whose mothers are widows; and then the num- 
ber of those mothers who are in any wise de- 
pendent upon the earnings of their children 
and also, the amount of the wages of the child, 
so far as it may be ascertained. The Commit- 
tee would advise the City Federations of Wo- 
men's Clubs to meet and partition the manufac- 
turing districts of each city among the clubs, 
using as the basis of their investigation the 
records of the public and parochial schools, the 
factory inspector's office and charitable socle- 
ties. In the smaller towns and villages the 
problem will be much simpler; and, if a number 
of communities are investigated the informa- 
tion thus secured will be most valuable. 

The Committee requests those Clubs who 



2 



THE COM MONS 



wish to do more than investigate to take the 
following action: Whenever possible to per- 
suade the children thus employed to return to 
school, undertaking to pay the amount of the 
weekly wage which the child formerly earned to 
his widowed mother every Saturday night, upon 
presentation of a certificate signed by the 
child's teacher, testifying to his regular school 
attendance the entire five days of the previous 
week, the money to be called and regarded as 
a scholarship. This plan greatly resembles one 
in successful operation in Switzerland for 25 
years, where it is carried on by the state author- 
ities. 

The Committee is convinced that the Club 
women realize not only their traditional re- 
sponsibility towards the children of the com- 
munity, but the fact that, as women are so 
largely the purchasers of materials for food 
and clothing, they are thus indirectly employ- 
ers of children and constantly utilize their 
labor. Such action will tend to show interest in 
the welfare of mill operatives by the Club 
women and should in time help to establish per- 
manent home-keeping among those who have 
so largely formed a floating element in the pop- 
ulation, especially in the new mill towns of the 
South. 

It is hoped that the Investigation will be 
undertaken during this coming year and that> 
the facts collected will be sent to the Chairman 
of the Child Labor Committee before March 
1st, 1904. They will be incorporated into a re- 
port for the St. Louis biennial, and form the 
basis for future recommendations. 

Caroline D. G. Granger, 
(Signed) Florence Kelley, 

• Jane Addams, Chairman. 



Civic Centers: Tlieir Importance and Utility 
to the Citizen. 

BY J. G. PHELPS STOKES. 

The proposal to establish . throughout the 
city, as need and opportunity arise, groups of 
municipal buildings each in harmonious archi- 
tectural relation to the group as a whole, and 
each in wise social or utilitarian relation to the 
requirements of the neighborhood in which the 
group is situated, is worthy of the thoughtful 
consideration of citizens. Each year sees vast 
sums of money expended on municipal improve- 
ments; parks and playgrounds are laid out, pub- 
lic libraries and baths are erected, new schools 
are built, and thus, gradually, the municipality 
Is spreading objects of greater or less beauty 
at intervals throughout the community. But 
these buildings and parks and playgrounds. 



placed each in isolation by itself, and bearing 
no group relation the one to the other, fall of 
their fullest usefulness. If there is any virtue 
in beauty, if the enjoyment of beautiful build- 
ings, or parks, or pictures, or beautiful object^ 
of any kind affects life and character in any 
way whatever, whether for better or for worse, 
then it is clearly desirable that we consider 
the nature of those effects and their relation to 
the kinds of enjoyment which produce them. 

It is evident that the enjoyment of beautiful 
things is sometimes associated with intense sel- 
fishness and with much that is "fashionable" 
or "aristocratic" and unsocial or even sensuous. 
The enjoyment of beauty that has characterized 
the court life of many periods is illustrative of 
this, as is also the social narrowness that char- 
acterizes most "collectors" and owners of pri- 
vate museums. The selfish enjoyment of beauty 
is apt to be demoralizing, or at least socially 
narrowing, whenever and wherever found, just 
as is the selfish enjoyment of anything. Where, 
on the other hand, beauty is quietly enjoyed In 
common, by large numbers of people together, 
there the selfish elements are subordinate, and 
socializing, humanizing influences prevail. So 
long as those who have things to enjoy, enjoy 
them selfishly, each by himself, just so long 
will the community remain unsocial and self- 
seeking, and In a large measure regardless of 
the interests and welfare of the whole. The 
advancement of the common welfare should 
be the aim of every citizen; and every move- 
ment set on foot that seems destined, if suc- 
cessful to affect the common welfare, should be 
frankly and freely discussed, and when defect- 
live, as frankly opposed or corrected. 

It has been recently proposed that when the 
municipality plans the construction or creation 
of several municipal buildings and a park or 
playground, in any given locality, such build- 
ings and park or playground should, in so far 
as may seem likely to best promote the com- 
mon welfare, be grouped together in such man- 
ner as to form a harmonious whole, in which 
the various architectural and park features 
would be so correlated that a beautiful "civic 
centre" would result. At the present time per- 
sons in municipal positions of authority are ad- 
vocating the early erection or creation upon the 
lower East Side, of a new school house (to be 
the largest in the city), two new public libra- 
ries, and a new public bath, a large auditorium 
for public meetings and concerts, a new court 
house and four new small parks or playgrounds, 
the latter to be equipped with outdoor gymna- 
sium apparatus. Shall these much needed im- 



THE COM MONS 



provements be scattered helter-skelter through- 
out the district, or shall they be so placed In 
groups that each element shall reinforce the 
usefulness and beauty of another? Obviously, 
it is desirable, for instance, from the standpoint 
of mere utility, that the playgrounds should be 
near the schools, and that the new libraries 
should be easily accessible to students and pu- 
pils. Why not place public baths also near at 
hand, and add to them large and well equipped 
public gymnasia? And why not group the 
buildings that are thus so naturally related In 
function to one another, around open park 
spaces — however small — where grass and flow- 
ers can be suitably protected and enjoyed, and 
where benches can be provided, and where on 
frequent summer evenings outdoor music can 
be enjoyed? Behind the school houses, which 
would perhaps form the central features of 
such groups, ample playgrounds for boys and 
girls and little children could be provided. II 
the proposed municipal auditorium were also 
so placed as to face upon such a group, say 
from the opposite side of the street, a social, 
educational and recreational centre of great use- 
fulness and beauty might result. It would cost 
no more to the municipality to group the build- 
ings and the small parks and playgrounds than 
to scatter them about indiscriminately, and 
much would be gained to the community aside 
from the mere beauty. For by gathering such 
public buildings into groups around open spaces 
larger numbers of people would come together 
to enjoy them, and by such coming together 
and by such enjoyment in common, mutual 
pleasures would be more widely shared and 
broader mutual interests would arise. When we 
enjoy things together we for the time being 
feel and think together, and the more often we 
share the same thoughts and 'emotions the 
more unified in thought and feeling we be- 
come. It is only when we think and feel for 
and by ourselves alone that social injustice 
spreads, and with it the bitterness and ill-feel- 
ing that are its natural consequents. 

Heretofore, opportunities for the enjoyment 
of beauty and of rest have been provided quite 
lavishly in the more wealthy sections of the 
city; but in the less wealthy sections such op- 
portunities have been few and far between. A 
moderately beautiful building here and there 
is not enough; such buildings if crowded in 
narrow streets with no park or other open 
space adjoining awaken but little social inter- 
est, for there is no place from which they can 
be enjoyed in common. If placed surrounding 
a little park, with benches and walks and grass 



and flowers, not merely their aesthetic but also 
their social usefulness is obviously greatly en- 
hanced. From the standpoint of mere social 
fairness the municipality should give more at- 
tention to the need of beauty on the lower East 
Side. Obviously the city should expend larger 
amounts of money on beautiful buildings and 
open areas in the sections where beauty Is rar- 
est than in those where it is most frequently 
seen. The placing of beautiful buildings Iso- 
lated from one another and where few can en- 
joy them is unwise. Public schools and libra- 
ries and baths and other public buildings should 
when practicable be so gathered and grouped 
about public squares or other open areas as to 
produce centres of beauty and social usefulness 
that large numbers of people can enjoy simul- 
taneously and together. The social element 
to be found in such communal enjoyment is 
needed to prevent the development in us of 
those desires for indulgence of merely selfish 
kinds, which lead so dangerously near to sen- 
Buousness and social apathy. — From The Jewish 
World, N. Y. ^_^ 

SOCIAL MUSEUMS. 

BY PKOF. H. M. SCOTT. 

Here is a new field for private or public 
beneficence. A social museum is a central place 
in which everything that can Illustrate social 
improvement shall be on exhibition. Espe- 
cially are the needs of workingmen to be con- 
sidered, and books on better methods of labor, 
protective agencies, the dwelling house prob- 
lem, public health, strikes, labor unions. Infor- 
mation about various trades, alcoholism, nu- 
trition and food, conferences, arbitration, ques- 
tions of wages, division of profits, etc., should 
be at hand, with all needed diagrams, models, 
etc., to illustrate the text. In Munich, Paris, 
Vlejina, and Amsterdam such museums have 
been provided by private citizens. The Ger- 
man government long declined to help such 
an institution, though it had long provided for 
less important things, such as war museums. 
But at last, in 1901, the German Parliament 
voted a sum for this puVpose. In Hungary, 
too, similar action has been taken. The gov- 
ernment has voted to establish, 1903, in Buda 
Pest, a social museum after the pattern of that 
in Paris, where the first such appeared, and 
that only seven years ago. These museums 
take up at first such important subjects as pro- 
tection against accidents, public hygiene, pure 
food, proper dwellings; but soon, as in Vienna  
and Paris, widen their scope. The Musee So- 
cial, of Paris, founded by Count Chambrun, in. 



THE COMMONS 



honor of his wife, with an income of |20,000 a 
year, Is a model. Many exhibits were given 
it from the Paris exposition of 1889 and from 
the last exposition. It offers "the people plans, 
proposals, sources, models, outlines, communi- 
cations, statutes, etc., without cost, bearing on 
all social efforts;" also, "to elevate the mate- 
rial and moral condition of workingmen, under 
exclusion, however, of all religious and polit- 
ical questions." It oilers a splendid exhibit of 
models, tables, busts, portraits, etc., bearing on 
industry; also a selected expert library of over 
16,000 volumes, and thousands of magazines in 
the chief languages of Europe, with large read- 
ing and working rooms. There are lectures, 
■courses of study, a bureau of information, trav- 
eling commissioners to seek instruction in 
■other countries, publication of books and maga- 
zines, bestowal of prizes, and appointment of 
correspondents in all lands as sources of in- 
formation. This museum is in charge of a 
governing director, a committee of control, a 
secretary, a librarian, a "delegate for industry 
and labor," and a "delegate for agricultural 
matters." The "Christliche Welt," No. 24, from 
which we gather this information, tells us that 
these delegates must correspond with labor 
unions, lecture before them and arrange lec- 
tures for them, attend all national and in- 
ternational social-political conventions, an* 
read the organs of labor unions in order to 
glean the best from them. There is a third 
"delegate for press relations." Besides these 
there are a legal committee, a keeper of ar- 
chives, and seven commissioners, who are spe- 
cialists in (1) agriculture, (2) labor organiza- 
tions, (3) insurance of laborers, (4) provident 
arrangements and division of profits, (5) law, 
(6) missions, studies and inquiry, and (7) on 
relations to learned and other societies. Per- 
haps the chief benefit of the museum hitherto 
has been its work as giver of information and 
advice. In the first five years of its history it 
gave written advice in 1,200 cases, and oral in 
more than 3,200 cases, in all fields of activity. 
Its next great work is giving printed informa- 
tion. Its monthly magazine, Le Musee Social, 
is given largely gratis to artisans, unions, etc. 
Reports of its traveling commissioners have 
been published already on the labor problems 
in America, Italian associations and credit 
unions, the German agrarian question, the com- 
mercial and industrial revival in Germany, the 
Westphallan labor population, Australian state 
socialism, etc. The Paris museum, also, takes 
a friendly initiative in all acute labor ques- 
tions. It seeks to forecast and educate. Con- 



sequently, it Is fast gaining the national confi- 
dence. It has given ?lo,000 in prizes already 
for the best essays on "Division of Earnings," 
"Insurance of Laborers," and "Labor Unions 
and Owners' Associations." These essays have 
been published by the museum. A beautiful 
custom is to hold labor festivals, with prizes 
for able and true workingmen — up to date 
fifty-six have been thus rewarded — and prizes or 
medals worth from |200 to |400 to the most 
eflicient labor unions. All these extra expenses 
have been met by Count Chambrun himself; 
it is hoped the museum may be able to con- 
tinue such good work. May some patriotic 
American soon arise to plant in New York or 
Chicago a thoroughly equipped social museum. 



A Tour Among Boys' Clubs. 

BY WINFRED J. SMITH, SUPERINTENDENT BOTS' 
CLUB, BRICK CHURCH INSTITUTE, ROCHESTER, 
N. Y. 

Beginning at Boston the first place visited 
was the Bunker Hill Boys' Club in Charles- 
town. 

It is near Bunker Hill Monument. Mr. E. 
L. Hunt is the director. It was incorporated in 
1899. The Club occupies an old and Interesting 
residence in the most congested district in that 
portion of Boston. It has a large membership, 
with an average attendance of 125 boys each 
night. Mr. Hunt and his wife live in the house 
and devote their entire time to the work and, 
considering their facilities, it would seem that 
their plant is being worked to its utmost ca- 
pacity. They need a new building very much 
and are trying at the present time to raise 
money to build. 

The Club is a combination of what is known 
as the "mass" and the "group" clubs, resem- 
bling our own in this respect also. The Print- 
ing Club and the Free-Hand Drawing Club are 
very successful. The reading room is unique 
in its furnishings with Its old fashioned Are 
place and its cheerful fire, and is used very 
freely by the boys. It had a large number of 
books and many periodicals. 

In all of the settlements of Boston, boys' 
work has an important place, but it is entirely 
in "group" clubs, meeting perhaps once or 
twice each week in charge of a director and In 
every case taking up special lines of work. 
There Is no doubt but that the chief interest 
of the boys is centered around the gymnasium 
and all athletics. 

The building for the Boys' Club at Fall River 
was given by Mr. M. C. D. Borden, of New York 
City, and was opened Deeember 25, 1897. The 



THE COMMONS 



club was organized February 1, 1890. The lot 

cost $5,000, and the building $90,000. It was 
the first building built especially for a boys' 
club in this country, and although two others, 
one in New York and one in Pawtucket, have 
since been built, we think the one at Fall River 
is still most suitable for the work. 

It has fine libraries of more than 2,500 vol- 
umes, an attractive entertainment hall, seat- 
ing 540, with fine stage and scenery, two gym- 
nasiums, two bowling alleys, two shower and 
three tub baths, a swimming pool, class room, 
game rooms, printing establishment, in sum- 
mer a vacation school of 200 children, a large 
farm, upon which 80 to 100 boys spend a week 
each, a membership of about 2,000 boys and an 
average attendance of about 250 each evening. 
Suitable times are set apart when men and 
women can use the gymnasium and the swim- 
ming pool. 

Here again we find the combination of the 
"mass" and the "group" clubs. At noon men 
and boys are provided with a place to eat their 
dinners, or read, free. Gymnasium and out- 
door athletics have their full share of attention. 
There is a law school with law library, a nat- 
ural history society, a loyal temperance legion, 
and the young men's Hebrew Association Club 
meeting Sunday afternoons. 

Mr. Thomas Chew is the superintendent and 
has been since its organization. He devotes 
his whole time to the work. He was an operator 
in one of the cotton mills for seventeen years. 
This being the chief industry of Fall River, it 
enables Mr. Chew to understand perfectly the 
needs of the boys of his city and he certainly 
is doing a splendid work. 

Pawtucket Boys' Club, situated in a city of 
about 40,000 population, has a building opened 
in 1902 and is called by some a model building. 
It was built by Col. Lyman B. Goff, a wealthy 
manufacturer. The cost of the building is not 
known, but it is probably worth more than 
$100,000. The swimming pool is as fine as can 
be built, as are also the three bowling alleys. 
The gymnasium and entertainment hall are so 
arranged that they can be thrown into one 
room. The library is large, handsomely fur- 
nished, and well equipped with books, periodi- 
cals and pictures. The game room is large and 
will accommodate easily 250 boys at one time. 

It is the intention of Mr. Geo. O'Niell, the 
superintendent, to introduce the "group" sys- 
tem as rapidly as possible; but his plans are 
not matured, the club having been opened for 
so short a time. It will be interesting to note 
the development of this new enterprise. 



The Avenue A Club in New Tork City, which. 

is exclusively for boys, was built by Mr. E. H. 
Harriman, and although opened one year ago 
at an expense of $150,000, is to be increased 
with a large addition this year in which will 
be a swimming pool and bowling alleys and an 
entertainment hall. This club is twenty-five 
years old, its present superintendent, Mr. Tabor, 
having been in charge for about five years. 

This is another combination of the "mass" 
and "group" club. It would be impossible to 
outline the work being done by the small clubs, 
as there are probably forty or more of them. 
Here again we find the gymnasium and outdoor 
athletics occupying a large amount of time and 
attention. We can get but little idea, even by 
reading the club's reports and records, of the 
vast amount of work that is being done. 

In New York, as in Boston, a great amount 
of work is being done for boys by the various 
settlements, almost entirely upon the group 
plan, believing that they get in closer touch 
with the boys. This is undoubtedly true; but 
we believe that the very best work is done by 
the clubs which combine both the "mass" and 
the "group" system, because a much larger 
number of boys can be under good influence 
and not all boys care to take up special lines 
of work every evening. Therefore they only 
get together once or twice each week, and the 
balance of the time are upon the streets and 
in their little gangs, without the influence of 
pleasant surroundings, social games, and the 
direction of people who are interested in trying 
to make them better citizens. However, most 
of the settlements have not the facilities neces- 
sary for caring for boys in large numbers at 
one time, which accounts for their work being 
confined wholly to the "group" system. 

The Boys' Club, Brick Church Institute, 
Rochester, N. Y., maintained by the Brick Pres- 
byterian Church, is an illustration of what can 
be done by a city church for the betterment of 
the social condition of the neighborhood. 

This club has a membership of over 650 boys, 
divided into two clubs, known as "A" and "B," 
the former under thirteen years of age, the lat- 
ter thirteen and over. Each club meets two 
evenings each week. The members of "Club 
A" pay dues of 5 cents per month, those of 
"Club B" 10 cents per month. Any boy without 
regard to race, creed or color may become a 
member. The boys may draw books from the 
circulating library. 

A "Penny Provident Fund" teaches the boys 
to save money. The reading room is well 
stocked with papers and periodicals and la 



THE COM M ONS 



freely made use of. The gymnasium is the 
great center of attraction, in fact, the chief in- 
terest in a Boys' Club gathers about athletic 
exercise. 

The game room furnishes Its full share of 
amusement and is a source of great improve- 
inent to boys, if they are supervised by older 
persons, who seek, not only to amuse the boys, 
but to teach them good manners and "fair 
play." The personal contact with persons of re- 
finement soon has a marked effect upon most of 
the boys. 

Educational work, or rather "play work," Is 
not forgotten; the larger or "Mass" clubs are 
divided into "group" clubs, these are named and 
taught by competent teachers. A few may be 
mentioned. "The Indians" are weaving bas- 
kets, "The Saws and Hammers" are learning 
the use of carpenters' tools. "The Young Amer- 
icas" and "The Stars and Stripes" are being 
told about history, by stories, maps and pic- 
tures. "The X Rays" and "The Lightening 
Bugs" are having fun with electricity. "The 
Boy Travelers" are skipping about the world 
at a more rapid pace than even Jules Verne 
imagined. "The Warblers" test the patience 
of the singing teacher to "the limit"; they only 
wish to sing the popular song^ of the stage and 
street, but their voices are sweet and clear and 
worthy of cultivation. 

When all our city churches take up the social 
betterment of their neighborhoods, always be- 
ginning witH the children, it will not be long 
before the "slums" will cease to be known. 



It is not enough to be industrious; so are 
the ants. What are you industrious about? — 
Thoreau. 



Don't worry about your work. Do what you 
can, let the rest go, and smile all the time.— 
Anonymous. 

Send 60 cents to The Commons for 

The Handbook of Social Settlements 

By Professor C. R. Henderson. The best single 
volume on the Social Settlement Movement. 

Boys' Cltibs 

By 'William A. Clark, 

Headworker Gordon House, New York City. 

A descrtptire »nd practically suftgestlve booklet of 48 
pages on tne organization, management and programs for 
boys' clubs. 

Price 20 Cents. : : Order of The Common*. 

Other moDograplis on "Games and Play," "Camps for 
Boys,"  Scboolyards and PlajTooms." " Vacation Schools," 
'• The Lincoln House Play-Work System." 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEK. 

Pruident: Kath.\rine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vies President: Helen Ch.\dwick Rand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clkws Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 85th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Scsas E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

STANDING COMMITTEK ON SUB-CHAPTERS. 

Chairman : Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

LOCAL COMMITTEES. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

JUass. 
Philadelphia — Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City— 95 Rivlngton Street. 
Philadelphia-433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 93 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



The New York Settlement Summer Home. 

Ridge Farm, the summer home of the College 
Settlement at Mt Ivy, New York, was opened 
for the season on June 11th, when a party of 
sixteen kindergarten children with their teach- 
ers began a happy week there. Several young 
married women with their babies and a few 
working girls completed the party, filling the 
house to its utmost capacity. 

These were by no means the first visitors to the 
farm this season, for on every Sunday since the 
middle of April, parties have spent the day 
there, each of the older clubs enjoying the 
privilege and inviting friends or combining 
with other clubs. Sometimes they went upon 
Saturday night, and Decoration Day coming 
at the week's end gave a long holiday to a 
favored few. 

At that time two clubs of young men or old- 
er boys pitched their tents and began prepar- 
ations for their summer camp life. They have 
been saving money all winter, resulting in a 
very nice equipment for each camp, and they 
have elaborate plans for the future. 

The members spend their Sundays there and 
every holiday and vacation time, but as they 
depend entirely on their own resources, their 
presence is no burden to the house. 



THE COMMONS 



After the first of July a camp for a dozen 
small boys will be opened in charge of the 
same competent director who looked after 
them last year. Some improvements will have 
been made, such as a roof over the dining 
room and kitchen, and the boys are eagerly 
anticipating all the joys of camp life. 

Indeed, the days at Mt. Ivy are eagerly 
sought after by all the Settlement's adherents. 



Philadelphia Settlement Notes. 

THE CHALKLEY HALL COTJNTEY CLUB. 

The club will open for its second summer 
July 1. It is in the first place a household 
made up of "residents" and "visitors." All 
who stay longer than one month are classified 
as residents. Board charges range from $2 to 
$3 per week. In some cases of poverty, sick- 
ness or large families provision is made for all 
or part of the club charges by friends of the 
Settlement or the beneficiaries, or by the 
Country Week Association. It Is a self-evident 
proposition that no man earning less than $15 
per week can take a wife and five children to 
the country for fl4 per week, keep up his rent 
in town, pay car fare to get to his work and 
meet the incidental expenses that must also 
be reckoned in. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wetherill are doing the great 
service of lending Chalkley Hall rent free. 
The work of house and garden and lawn Is or- 
ganized on a co-operative plan. The cooking 
is paid for, but beyond this all labor is done 
by the residents and visitors. The cost of 
domestic service last summer was less than 
130. The household had regularly from 25 to 
30 members, while for over Sunday we fre- 
quently ran up to 50 for lodging and meals, 
with 20 to 30 more for irregular eating; if we 
count the picnickers providing their own food 
we must record some days as bringing to the 
club from 150 to 200 people. 

We have been frankly asked: "Do you do 
the work necessary for the decent conduct of 
such a household, or do you live like pigs?" 
We reply, "Come and see." Some of our visi- 
tors last summer said it seemed like Paradise, 
others that it wasn't so bad as they expected ; 
some stayed all summer and were as faithful 
and unselfish as saints, others made short vis- 
its, elevated their noses at the idea of dish- 
washing, refused to pick up what others had 
thrown down and were so generally lavish In 
manifestations of their swinish natures that 
their departure was hailed with joy — even of- 
ficially hastened in one or two cases — and 



their return discouraged. As in so many cases, 
"them as likes that sort of thing, why that's 
the sort of thing they likes." 

The material side of life at the club is held 
to very simple lines. The floors are bare, the 
rooms are furnished in meager camp style, the 
fare is by no means daintily luxurious. In 
some spots we should rejoice to spend a con- 
siderable sum of money to improve things. We 
should like, for example, to spend fifty dollars 
in whitewashing and to quadruple our bathing 
facilities; we should be glad if the Board of 
Health would experiment in Frankford in the 
extermination of mosquitoes — which would be 
a very expensive job. Take it all in all, how- 
ever, with all the work, the financial limita- 
tions and what not that may wear on some, 
there are always others, a goodly company of 
us, who count the Chalkley Hall Country Club 
a chief blessing and delight. 

—Among the Settlement Clubs the interest 
in the Country Club is great. Two evenings of 
Minstrel Show in our own rooms netted f20, 
and Lend Me Five Shillings given at the New 
Century Drawing Room, $120, both sums to be 
applied to the expenses of the summer outfit. 
Shower baths and tennis courts are first choice 
among the many objects desired. 

— In connection with the Juvenile Court 
work carried on at the Settlement, two proba- 
tion officers have been appointed. Miss Jones 
and Miss McCurdy. Both have had excellent 
preliminary experience. We place the heavy 
emphasis in all the probation work on the de- 
velopment of methods for the training and en- 
lightenment of the probationer after he has 
been placed under the care of the officer by or- 
der of the Court. The probation boy usually 
."knows his world" in a very real and amazing 
way. Too often he has had no introduction to 
the world of saner and more wholesome ideals 
and practices. The term "ideals" in this con- 
nection is not ill-advisably used; for the small 
boy is the idealist par excellence, If he be care- 
fully analyzed and understandingly interpreted, 
and by no means the matter-of-fact little beast 
apparent on the surface. The problem is to put 
right standards into forms which will appeal 
to him and command his loyalty, and to see 
that contact is maintained. The strongest ap- 
peal is made when these new standards are em- 
bodied in a person — it is the appeal of the In- 
carnation. We need the widest co-operation in 
applying this method to our probation boys— 
and their unnumbered "friends," like them in 
all but the evil fortune of getting caught. 



THE COMMONS 



BOOKS AND PICTURES. 

Because of the repairs on 429 Christian 
street, both the book and picture libraries were 
much delayed in opening this winter. When, 
however, late in January the new reading and 
study room was opened, an almost unlimited 
number of books would have gone into use 
had they been at hand. Unfortunately our 
shelves held only 200 volumes, and even these 
were not a picked 200, but only the well-worn 
remnants of last winter's library w^ith the ad- 
dition of a few volumes which had come to us 
by gift through the summer. 

About 30 veteran volumes fell in the first 
few charges, but the remaining 170 have served 
gallantly during the short but active campaign 
of this season. These few books have made more 
than 700 neighborhood visits in five months, 
and when we consider that in all probability 
they were exchanged among the neighbors and 
friends during their week's visit, perhaps 
doubling our record of use, we can scarcely 
wonder that they are a dilapidated company, 
much in need of recruits. 

We are especially In need of juvenile bi- 
ography and the standard poets. It is scarcely 
necessary to add that juvenile fiction is always 
needed. 

The total circulation of 414 pictures, a 
marked Increase over last year's record, is due " 
to the more attractive class of pictures we have 
been able to offer and we hope to further in- 
crease the library from time to time by the ad- 
dition of really good photographs and prints. 

A picture library on similar lines has been 
started at Front street. It promises to give 
quite as much pleasure to the people of that 
neighborhood as the older library, though as 
yet we have only 36 pictures to circulate. Ma- 
donnas are eagerly sought by the Polish and 
Irish children and probably because of their 
sea-faring brothers and friends, pictures of the 
sea, of ships or ofsailors are the most popular. 



QESEKAI, ASSOCIATION NOTES. 

Some important work is to be carried on 
In the special committees during the summer. 
As stated in the general account of the May 
meeting of the Association, a committee Is con- 
sidering the advisability of increasing appro- 
priations to present settlements; another com- 
mittee has under consideration the preparation 
of educational literature to aid in emphasiz- 
ing the real aim of the settlement movement; 
still another committee is at work on plans for 
the proTision of more Fellowships in relation 



with the colleges, while the committee on 
Western extension is in charge of tentative 
plans for forming chapters of the Association 
as occasion may offer in some of the Western 
colleges. 

It has been deemed advisable to get the 
Bibliography of Settlements into as wide a cir- 
culation as possible while it is up-to-date and 
valuable. Hence it is advertised for free distri- 
bution. A notice to that effect in a recent 
number of Charities has already brought re- 
quests for the pamphlets from many and vari- 
ous sources. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fob thk Association bt 
Mart Kixgsbukt Sijckhovitch, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Another Independent Settlement in New 
York City. 

The council of the University Settlement So- 
ciety has decided that in consequence of its 
heavy financial responsibilities it will have to 
discontinue the West Side Branch, whose houses 
are in King street and McDougal street. Those 
members of the Council, however, that 
have been most closely connected with 
the work of the branch, together with some of 
the residents, feeling that the work of the 
lower West Side is extremely important and 
that the ground gained by three years' work is 
too valuable to be relinquished, have formed 
a temporary organization to be perfected short- 
ly which will carry on the Branch as an In- 
. dependent settlement after September 1, 1903. 
The University Settlement Society is pleased 
with the possibility of having the work con- 
tinued and will give to the new settlement, to- 
gether with its good will, the present equip- 
ment and the use of the two houses of the 
branch until the leases expire next May. The 
new settlement will thus start its work 
under the most auspicious circumstances 
and is already assured of the sympathy and fin- 
ancial assistance of several of the old friends 
of the "Branch." 

The new settlement will, doubtless, have to 
curtail some of its organized work for econ- 
omy's sake, as the financial burden will neces- 
sarily be heavy until the house is well es- 
tablished in its independence. 

The house at 28 McDougal street will be the 
headquarters of the new settlement which will 



THE COMMONS 



9 



probably be named after Aaron Burr's estate 
of Richmond Hill, which was located there. 

The committee on organization will doubt- 
less add other members, but at present it is 
made up as follows: 

Members of the Council of the University 
Settlement Society— Prof. Franklin H. Gidd- 
ings, Mr. J. G. Phelps Stokes, Mr. W. Kirkpat- 
rick Brice, Mr. Seymour L. Cromwell. 

Residents of the West Side Branch — Mrs. 
Richard Y. Fitzgerald, Miss Elizabeth R. Barth- 
olow, Miss Mary Kate Starkey, Miss Elizabeth 
Romer, Mr. Howard H. Nieman. 

Mrs. Fitzgerald will serve as head worker. 



FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NA- 
TIONAL CONSUMERS' LEAGUE. 

If anyone wants to read an interesting ac- 
count of what a determined, energetic associa- 
tion can accomplish in four years, let them 
send to 105 E. 22nd street. New York City, for 
the fourth annual report of the National Con- 
sumers' League. 

The credit for the rapid growth of the Na- 
tional League is largely due to the exiraordinary 
personal effectiveness of its general secretary, 
Mrs. Florence Kelley. But this is not the whole 
story. Even Mrs. Kelley could hardly leave such 
a long trail of leagues in her path as she takes 
her meteoric course across and about the United 
States if it were not for the fact, that the pub- 
lic is beginning to be anxious everywhere to do 
its larger duty in demanding that the goods it 
daily consumes should be produced and distribu- 
ted under conditions which are fair to the pro- 
ducer and satisfactory to the consumer, who 
has a right to know what he is buying. 

This baby organization, only four years old, 
now embraces 53 leagues in 18 states. There 
are also foreign leagues at Paris, The Hague, 
Rotterdam and Amsterdam. 

The main work of late years has been the 
building up of new leagues, and creating an in- 
creased demand for the consumers' label, now 
being used by 43 manufacturers, controlling 47 
factories in 11 states. 

It is still true that a majority of the recom- 
mended factories are in New England — 27 out 
of 47 — while 22 are in Massachusetts. This is 
due to the excellence of the factory legislation 
of Massachusetts and the faithfulness with 
which it is enforced; and of the habit of obedi- 
ence to the law which distinguishes the manu- 
facturers of that state. There is less change 
needed to bring an average factory up to the re- 
quirements of the Consumers' League in Massa- 
chusetts than in any other state. 



"The task of the Consumers' League In New 
York City is the greatest of all its tasks, and 
is yet scarcely begun. To make the label so 
valuable commercially that manufacturers will 
gladly abandon the practice of giving out work 
is one part thereof. The other part is to pro- " 
mote such legislation and such enforcement of 
existing legislation as will make tenement 
house work less desirable for manufacturers 
than it now is. 

"The enforcement of the law is deplorably in- 
sufficient and incompetent. There are but 39 
inspectors for the whole state of New York; 
and the work of the corps is pitifully ineffect- 
ual when judged by the results embodied in the 
latest report. The report of the Factory In- 
spectors in the state of New York is compiled 
by the statisticians of the State Department of 
Labor; and there is a startling contrast be- 
tween the brilliant technical work of the com- 
pilers and the deplorable results chronicled by 
them on behalf of the Inspectors. 

"Thus the report says: 'To hold every licen- 
see fully up to the standard of the law would 
require almost constant surveillance, while un- 
der the most favorable circumstances the de- 
partment cannot, with its present force of In- 
spectors, make more than two inspections an- 
nually of the 30,000 licensed places.' 

"Of the 62,390 persons licensed to work in the 
garment trades In tenement houses, 46 persons 
were fined in a year for violations of the law. 
This Is a trifle more than one person for each 
of the 39 inspectors, and a trifle less than one 
in a thousand of the licensed persons. 
As it is notorious that the law is more honored 
in the breach than in the observance, particu- 
larly in the streets in which the licenses are 
most abundantly granted — in Mulberry, Mott 
and Elizabeth streets — this record of incompe- 
tence in the enforcement of the law by prose- 
cution indicates an urgent need of radical 
change either in the methods or the personnel 
of the Factory Inspection Department. 

"In New Jersey, as in previous years, the use 
of the label is greatly hindered by lax laws and 
laxer enforcement thereof. The past year has 
produced no direct improvement in the enforce- 
ment of the law of 1892, known as the Fifty- 
five Hours Law, in the state of New Jersey. 
When this law was enacted it placed New Jer- 
sey in advance of the other states in statutory 
care of working women and children, by pro- 
hibiting for them all work after' 6 o'clock at 
night, before 7 o'clock in the morning and after 
1 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunate- 
ly it has never been enforced and young chil- 



10 



THE COMMONS 



dren have been required to work all night In 

the glass works precisely as if there had never 
been any legal enactment for their protection. 
All efforts of the Consumers' League to induce 
the State Factory Inspector, John C. Ward, to 
• test the constitutionality of this law, which has 
never been decided, although a case has been 
pending before the Court of Errors and Appeals 
of the state of New Jersey since October 31st, 
1894, have failed. 

"The Legislature which has recently ad- 
journed enacted a statute probably unique In 
the history of factory legislation. This statute 
authorizes the governor of the state to remove 
from office the State Factory Inspector. The re- 
sponsibility for the future enforcement of the 
labor laws will, therefore, devolve upon Gov- 
ernor Francis Murphy even more explicitly 
than has been the case hitherto. 

"This Legislature has also raised the age at 
which boys may be employed in manufacture 
to fourteen years, making the age limit uniforjn 
for boys and girls; and abolished the discre- 
tion formerly reposed in the Deputy Factory 
Inspectors to exempt from the provisions of 
the child labor law children in families so poor 
that in the opinion of the Deputy Inspectors 
they needed the earnings of the children. 

"These steps in the direction of the better 
care of the working children, although halting, 
and insufficient, are the most important which 
have been taken since the death of Factory In- 
spector Lawrence Fell several years ago. They 
are largely due to the persistent effort of the 
Consumers' League of New Jersey, which has 
kept the subject to the fore undiscouraged in 
the presence of very great cause for discourage- 
ment; and to Mr. Hugh F. Fox, whose article 
on 'Child Labor in New Jersey," published in 
the Annals of the American Academy of Politi- 
cal and Social Science, in July, 1902, marked 
the beginning of a new era for working chil- 
dren in New Jersey. 

"In Pennsylvania the result of the winter's 
work is most disheartening. A bill regulating 
the hours of work of children in manufacture 
and commerce, drafted by the best legal coun- 
sel to be had in the state of Pennsylvania, and 
approved by the State Federation of Women's 
Clubs, the state and local Consumers' Leagues, 
and by the New Century and Civic Clubs of 
Philadelphia, not only failed to become a law, 
but was allowed to die in the committee of the 
Legislature to which It was referred, without 
even a hearing before the committee being se- 
cured by its friends. No other effort on behalf 
of the working children, from New York to 



Oregon, failed so Ignominiously as this. Indi- 
rectly, however, the factory children may profit 
from a new law secured by the exertions of 
the miners' union, providing that children are 
no longer permitted to work underground In 
any mine, anthracite or bituminous, under the 
age of sixteen years; or in breakers under the 
age of fourteen years. This law will not only 
directly protect the mine working children; it 
will deprive the Pennsylvania factory Inspec- 
tors of their long-lived and hard-worked ex- 
cuse that it was impossible to enforce the age 
limit for work for boys in factories because, 
when dismissed from a factory under the legal 
age of thirteen years, the boys went at once to 
a mine where they might legally work at the 
age of twelve years. 

"Wretched is the condition, however, of the 
little girls who, at the age of thirteen years, 
may be regularly and legally employed twelve 
hours at night in the textile mills. For the de- 
cision of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania 
In the case of Beatty vs. the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, legalizes the employment of women and 
children twelve hours in twenty-four, and does 
not specify that these twelve hours shall not 
be at night. This will continue until the next 
meeting of the Legislature in 1905, by rea- 
son of the failure of the factory bills of 1903 
to become laws. 

"In the Southern States, the Legislatures of 
Alabama, North and South Carolina, Texas and 
Virginia have passed child labor laws during 
the winter of 1902-3; while Kentucky, Mary- 
land and Tennessee had already enacted initial 
measures in previous years. (See the report of 
the Consumers' League of Kentucky, elsewhere 
In this report.) Moreover, the last named three 
states have the advantage of possessing officials 
whose duty it is to enforce the provisions of 
their laws. So far as it has been possible to 
learn the contents of the new laws, none of 
them provides for inspectors, and their enforce- 
ment seems, therefore, likely to be far from 
effectual. Viewed as indications of the public 
sentiment of the states in which they have been 
enacted, they are, however, valuable and signifi- 
cant. 

"Alabama and South Carolina have prohibit- 
ed the employment of children under the age of 
ten years. Arkansas and North Carolina pro- 
hibit the employment of children under the age 
of twelve years, but with wide reservations In 
favor of the employment of children even 
younger if they have widowed mothers. Texas 
seems to have made an approach to the statute 
of Massachusetts, but it is not possible to se- 



THE COMMONS 



11 



cure at this time the text of the new laws of 

Texas and Virginia. 

"On the Pacific Coast, Oregon and Washing- 
ton have made a long stride, having gone from 
the group of states with no restrictions into 
the topmost group which prohibit children from 
working until they are full fourteen years old. 
The Legislature of Washington has enacted a 
law forbidding children under the age of four- 
teen years to work in factories, mills, mines, 
stores, except when given a permit by 
a judge of the Superior Court. If in the opin- 
ion of the court the support of the family or 
of an invalid parent depends upon the children, 
he may grant such children a permit, which is 
revocable at any time, subject to the discretion 
of the court. The employment of girls under 
eighteen as public messengers is forbidden. 

"In the Middle West, the longest step of the 
year seems to have been taken by the adoption 
of a workable compulsory education law in 
Wisconsin, largely due to the efforts of the 
State Consumers' League in co-operation with 
the Children's Betterment League of Milwau- 
kee and the trade unions throughout the state 
of Wisconsin. The efforts of the League are 
elsewhere set forth in this report in the brief 
and lively report of the present President, Mrs. 
B. C. Gudden, of Oshkosh, to which the reader 
is referred. 

*"In Illinois, the sad plight of the Legislature 
renders it doubtful whether the compulsory 
education law or the child labor law can be 
passed. This is the more deplorable because Illi- 
nois rivals Pennsylvania in the insufficiency of 
the laws on both subjects; and as in Pennsyl- 
vania, the Legislature meets but once in two 
years. 

"This fragmentary view of the subject indi- 
cates with sufficient clearness that the effort to 
protect the children of all the states according 
to the standard of Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts will require, to achieve success, effort on 
a national scale for several years to come." 

Write It In your heart that every day is the 
best day of the year. — Emerson. 

The one eternal lesson for us all is how 
better we can love. — Henry Drummond. 



"No men living are more worthy to be trust- 
ed than those who toil up from poverty — none 
less inclined to take or touch aught which they 
have not honestly earned." — Lincoln. 



THE ONCOMINa TIME. 

And slow and sure comes up the golden year 
When wealth no more shall rest In mounded 

heaps. 
But smlt with freer light shall slowly melt 
In many streams to fatten lower lands. 
And light shall spread, and man be Uker man 
Thro' all the seasons of the golden year. 
Ah! when shall all men's good 
Be each man's rule, and universal Peace 
Lie like a shaft of light across the land, 
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea. 
Thro' all the circle of the golden year? 

— Alfhed Tennyson. 



* Both of these bills were passed and are now law, plac- 
ing Illinois in the front rank of States prohibiting child 
labor and providing compulsory education.— JEdWor. 



NOTES FROM THE SETTLEMENTS. 

At Toynbee Hall a course of lectures upon 
"Natural History of Decorative Art" was re- 
cently delivered by Dr. Haddon. Upon the suc- 
cess of these lectures and the need for such 
instruction, the Toynhee Record says: 

"The numbers in attendance have been fair, 
and there is no question of the interest they 
have taken in the lectures. They are JBSt what 
is wanted to bring out the significance of the 
everyday things which we pass by as insig- 
nificant or commonplace ; in other words, they 
do just what good teaching ought to do — make 
the common things and events of life mean 
more to us. And if History, Literature, Art, 
or other subjects which belong to the "Human- 
ities" were more often treated in this way, 
there would, perhaps, be less difllculty in per- 
suading people to be learners. 

"There is a reason for dwelling on this sub- 
ject. The Educational arrangements for next 
winter are being drawn up, and much time has 
been spent in considering what new classes and 
lectures should be offered. The old University 
Extension Society, now become the Local Lec- 
tures Branch of the London University, is ready 
to give its help if a workable scheme is pro- 
posed either for East London, or for a wider 
area. Canon Barnett has written an article in 
The Westminister Gazette, explaining in out- 
line what sort of scheme may be possible. 
There is a growing feeling that it is high time 
to make a determined attempt to put the "Hu- 
manities" in their proper place, a place at least 
equal to that held by technical teaching. 



A PARTING AND A WELCOME. 

On Friday, May 1st, a meeting was held in 
the Guildhall, at Cambridge, to take leave of 
the retiring Head, the Rev. W. Falkner Bally, 
and welcome his successor, the Rev. W. J. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



Conybeare. The Provost of King's presided 
over a large and representative gathering. 

The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, 
referred to the great meeting held in that Hall 
seven years ago to inaugurate the beginning 
of Cambridge House. They had on that oeca- 
sion speakers who were representative of the 
highest aspirations of Cambridge men in the 
present Prime Minister, Bishop Westcott, and 
Bishop Ryle. The Bishop of Rochester brought 
with him the fullest knowledge of South Lon- 
don's needs, and under such auspices it was Im- 
XMSsible for Cambridge House to fail. Today 
the lines of a great work had been securely 
laid. Cambridge was no longer a strange name 
or word to South London, and whatever they in 
future did to bring help and sympathy and 
light to the people in that place would be read- 
ily and cordially welcomed. The people expect- 
ed it of them now; they would not, he thought, 
disappoint these expectations. He hoped that 
they would all carry away the thought that 
'What was wanted in South London was their 
personal help, their presence if it might be, 
from time to time; that some of them at any 
rate shoula go there as opportunity offered and 
prove to the people who had not had the ^- 
vantages, the privileges and the happiness of 
life such as had been enjoyed by his hearers, 
that they were willing to do what in them lay" 
to bring the light, the education, and the other 
blessings being enjoyed in Cambridge to the 
people of South London. — Cambridge Houte 
Magazine. 

The recently Issued annual of WhitUer House 
contains an instructive report upon tenement 
conditions in Jersey City, by Miss Mary B. Say- 
les. College Settlement Association fellowship 
resident. 



Kingsley House, Pittsburg, has lately been 
presented a beautiful Summer Home for use 
by the Settlement in its outing work. Prob- 
ably no more effective contribution to the sum- 
mer service of that needy district could have 
been made. 



The pioneer work of the Northwestern Uni- 
versity Settlement in distributing pasteurized 
and modified milk at cost in some of the tene- 
ment districts of Chicago has resulted in the 
establishment of a permanent plant to supply 
the whole city. The work of installation is 
now in progress at the Hoyne School, from which 
center of manufacture it will be distributed to 
all needy portions of the population. 



Accompanying the interesting 1902 annual 
report of the University Settlement Society of 
New York, which is otherwise noteworthy for 
containing an address by Miss Jane Addams de- 
livered at the annual meeting, is an important 
report upon the "fake" installment business as 
operated on Manhattan Island. After an an- 
alysis and classification of installment trading, 
Mr. Henry R. Mussey concludes his suggestions 
for remedial legislation as follows: 

"What then is to be done? We have about ex- 
hausted the list of palliative measures proposed 
and have dismissed them all as insufficient for 
the comprehensive reason that where a vicious 
system exists amid social and economic con- 
ditions that give wide opportunity for fraud, 
the ways and means of its workings are mere 
matters of detail, and those who work it will 
invent new methods to meet changed condi- 
tions. Only two possible alternatives, then, re- 
main. Either put the business under the 
strictest possible public regulation and so re- 
duce its evils to the lowest limit, or better, if 
possible, abolish It altogether. The immediate 
and practical way to accomplish this last high- 
ly-desirable result is to abolish the right to the 
body execution in installment cases where the 
amount involved is less than $50, or possibly 
$75, if such action can be constitutionally taken. 
The first figure would include more than 80 
per cent of all the cases in which arrests have 
been made, while the second would take in 
more than 90 per cent. I should be inclined 
to favor the $75 limit because of the not incon- 
siderable trade in sixty dollar watches. The 
lower limit would, however, accomplish the re- 
sult aimed at, in my opinion, an opinion in 
which I find myself in substantial agreement 
with most persons who have studied the mat- 
ter carefully. 

NOTICE. 

Copies of the fourth edition of the Bibliogra- 
phy of College, Social, University and Church 
Settlements, compiled by Caroline Williamson 
Montgomery for the College Settlements' As- 
sociation, may be had free of cost, postage pre- 
paid, on application to the secretary of the as- 
sociation, Miss S. G. Tomkins, 1904 Walnut 
street, Philadelphia, Pa. 



"I have a wom'an's element in me. I hate 
the incessant struggle and toil to cut one an- 
other's throat among us men, and I long to be 
able to meet with some one in whom I can 
place implicit confidence." — Huxley. 



"This country, with its institutions, belongs 
to the people who inhabit it." — Lincoln. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



WAYMARKS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

Percy Alden Is Labor candidate for member 
of Parliament from Tottenham at the next 
general election. 

Under the general caption of "Religious In- 
fiuences" the third series of published results 
from the extraordinary investigation into the 
life and labor of the people of- London, directed 
by Mr. Charles Booth, is now on sale. (Booth 
& Co., 88 Gold St., New Yorlc City.) 



In the annual report of the Chicago Police 
Department, General Superintendent Francis 
O'Neill, speaking of the municipal lodging 
house experiment in that city, says: 

"The work accomplished by the Municipal 
Lodging House during the past year has dem- 
onstrated the wisdom of those who originated 
and established the institution. It has served 
a double purpose: First, by relieving the Po- 
lice Department of the necessity of annually 
caring for the flotsam and jetsam of humanity 
at the different police stations; and, second, by 
aiding the needy without pauperizing and rob- 
bing them of their self-respect. A gratifying 
diminution in the number of tramps who in- 
fest our city every winter is plainly evident 
under the new conditions. Employers of labor 
have also come to recognize that fac^, that the 
people accommodated at the Municipal Lodg- 
ing House are not entirely of the 'hobo' ele- 
ment, but that many of them are laborers and 
artisans in temporary difficulties and are wor- 
thy of consideration." 



SOCIAL FABLKS — XI. 

A citizen of a republic once went a traveling 
to improve his mind. He crossed the ocean and 
visited a certain country, where he saw a boy 
spending his young years under exceedingly 
careful tutelage. Wise and well trained teach- 
ers looked after his intellectual development; 
physicians and athletes and scientific experts 
watched over his food, and sleep, and exercise, 
and recreation, and saw that he had enough of 
everything. The citizen of the republic asked 
"who is this boy, of which such exceptional 
care is taken?" and they answered, "this is the 
future sovereign of the country." 

Then the citizen of the republic went home 
to a great industrial city where he lived, and 
this is what he saw for one week: 

Sunday — A future sovereign selling papers 
in the rain. 

Monday — A future sovereign serving a big 
department store as cash boy at f 2 a week. 

Tuesday — A future sovereign testifying that 



he worked as a breaker boy in a coal mine, 
though two years younger than the legal age. 

Wednesday — A future sovereign working in a 
Kensington mill, locally known as the "Kinder- 
garten." 

Thursday — ^A future sovereign, with a mes- 
sage in his pocket addressed to a house of ill 
repute, holding a gory novel in one band and a 
cigarette in the other. 

Friday — A future sovereign playing craps on 
the curbstone because the politicians had not 
provided school houses enough. 

Saturday — A future sovereign coming out of 
a saloon, carrying a "growler." 

And the citizen thought, and thought, and 
thought. — The Monthly Leader. 



On the summit of a little knoll in the pleas- 
ure garden of the FamilistSre at Guise, France, 
is the tomb of Jean Baptiste Andr6 Godin. On 
one face of the monument is a portrait bust of 
Godin in bronze; to the right is a moulder in 
his working dress; on the left a young woman 
is pointing out the portrait of Godin to a little 
child whom she carries in her arms; above the 
bust, a figure symbolical of Immortality seems 
to spring upwards; on the stone are engraved 
these words, addressed by Godin to his fellow 
workers and found among his papers after his 
death: 

COME TO THIS TOMB 

WHEN TOU HAVE NEED TO BE BEMINDED 

THAT I FOUNDED THE PAMILISTERE 

FOE BBOTHERLY ASSOCIATION AND PARTNERSHIP. 

REMAIN IGNITED BT THE LOVE OF HUMANITY. 

PARDON THE WRONGS WHICH OTHERS DO TO YOU. 

HATRED IS THE FRUIT OF EVIL HEARTS: 

LET IT NOT ENTER AMONG YOU. 

LET THE REMEMBRANCE OF ME BE FOB YOU A BOND 

OF BBOTHERLY UNITY. 
NOTHING IS GOOD OR MERITORIOUS WITHOUT THE 

LOVE OF HUMANITY. 
PROSPERITY WILL ACCOMPANY YOU IN PROPORTION 

AS CONCORD SHALL REIGN AMONO YOU. 

BE JUST TOWARDS ALL AND YOU WILL SERVE AS AN 

EXAMPLE. 



A man who dares to waste an hour of time 
has not learned the value of life. — Charles Dar- 
win. 



"Suspicion and jealousy never did help any 
man in any situation." — Lincoln. 



The Church in Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the InternationHl Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Twenty-five cents. 



14 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commoris 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the £oclal Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HA.M TAYLOR. 



Editor 



Entered at Chicago PostofBce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



We wish to call particular attention to a let- 
ter sent out by the Committee of Child Labor 
of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, 
and published in this issue of The Commons. 
We heartily endorse the recommendations of 
this letter, and believe that a faithful prosecu- 
tion of the plan outlined will yield important 
humanitarian and scientific results. 



View-Points Afield 

ON TAKING FIRST SIGHT OF THE SETTI.EMENT 
FROM A DISTANCE. 

Taking a leave of absence is an experience 
to one who has never had one nearly akin to 
leaving the world. Bringing one's life-work to ' 
a full stop for a long while is almost like pre- 
paring to end one's life itself. But it is worth 
all it costs not only in actually insuring life 
and renewing one's lease upon it, but in the 
perspective it gives to the work of life. To get 
away from everything with which one has been 
in range-less close quarters, far enough to gain 
the sense of proportion, plays no small part 
in promoting the sanity and effectiveness of 
service. .To be better able to distinguish the 
less from the greater, the form from the sub- 
stance, the transient from the permanent, and 
the relatively important from the absolutely 
essential, surely equips any one the better for 
playing even the most minor parts in every 
life's great mission. Settlement work suffers 
more than almost any other from the lack of 
this sense of perspective. This is necessary 
in order to give and maintain that high social 
and spiritual ideal, without which residence 
loses significance, and the daily routine of de- 
partment work, so all important to the neigh- 
borhood, easily becomes either so trivial as not 
to seem worth the sacrifice, or so deadly dull 
as to deal death to the worker's spirit. 

On this account each resident should have 
a month's vacation every year, with change of 



scene and point of view. And throughout the 
remaining months this sense of proportion 
should be reinforced by private reading, house- 
hold vespers and enough association with oc- 
casions and people outside the settlement house 
and district to maintain a normal balance and 
sustain the social Ideal. Upon the head-resi- 
dent must devolve most of the responsibility 
and effort involved. It is as important a fac- 
tor as any with which this oflSce is in- 
vested. It can be fulfilled only by keeping his 
or her own personality keyed up, as uncon- 
sciously as possible, to the truest and highest 
tone, and by a real personal influence upon 
fellow residents, more directly than designedly 
exerted. For equipment for this delicate duty 
toward the household and the neighborhood 
every opportunity consistent with consecutlve- 
ness of service should be taken by the head- 
resident to broaden his or her own point of view 
and deepen the life by persistent study, cease- 
less heart-culture and occasional travel. Such 
is the first retrospect taken of the hidden heart 
of the settlement household, disclosed as never 
before to the writer by the little mail bag full 
of letters from his fellow residents, opened 
daily at sea. Their estimate of the value to 
their work of every such personal touch upon 
their lives places far mightier emphasis than 
was ever received before upon the vital re- 
lation between the interior life of the students 
and their service in the community. «. t. 



Enforce Child Labor Laws. 

Many important amendments to existing 
statutes, and some original legislation prohibit- 
ing and protecting child workers, have been 
recently enacted in the several states. Illinois 
heads the list in substantial progress toward 
the abolition of this industrial and social curse. 

Nevertheless, no one should be deceived into 
thinking that the siege is over. All effective leg- 
islative reform results from three progressive 
steps. Awakening public opinion is the first. 
Next is the enactment of adequate legislation. 
The third and by far the most difficult is the en- 
forcement of such legislation. 

To this great task the brave and faithful al- 
lies in the battles lately won — the Labor 
TTnlons and the Women's Clubs — should now 
bend with unfaltering zeal. The state author- 
ities must be encouraged and supported by 
public opinion, and to this end a campaign of 
education must be steadily waged. 

The vital provisions of the new statutes 
should be printed upon cards with full instruc- 
tions regarding the report of violations of the 



THE COMMONS 



15 



law to Factory Inspectors, etc., and distributed 

through unions, clubs and societies. Publicity 
can be made as mighty an ally for humanity as 
it has been for trade. 



Book Reviews. 

The Place af IndastrleH In Elementary Ednoatlon. 

By Kathekixe Elizabeth Dorr. University of 
Chicago Press, Chicago, 111. Net, $1.00; postpaid, $1.10. 

This work will be read with much interest 
by all who feel the need of reform in our ed- 
ucational methods. • 

Miss Dopp seems to have absorbed the best 
that Darwin, Froebel and Professor Dewey 
have given to the educational world, and after 
several years' teaching has made an attempt to 
supply the need which Miss Jane Addams and 
many others have so keenly felt of giving a 
historic background to the great mass of work- 
ers in an industrial society daily growing more 
complex. "As the end becomes farther and 
farther removed," she writes, "the workers no 
longer being able to perceive the whole process 
of production, has need of a greater conscious- 
ness of collective life" In order to maintain 
the quality of his life and work. 

The main content of the book is devoted to 
showing the parallel between the industrial 
activities of society from primitive times to 
the present and the psychical attitudes of the 
child. She points out that our industrial de- 
velopment does not differ organically from that 
of the past, but in its complexity. In simple 
social groups industry has been the matrix 
holding the other interests of life, as art and 
science, until they were strong enough to stand 
alone, and because industry is the very sub- 
structure of society conditioning all other ac- 
tivities it should have a place in the education 
of the young. The psychologists have found 
that just as society has passed through the 
different industrial, epochs, first, the period of 
domestic economy, including the hunting, fish- 
ing, pastoral and agricultural stages, the ages 
of metals, travel, trade and transportation, the 
city, state and the feudal system, second, the 
period of town economy or the handicraft sys- 
tem, and third, our own period of national 
economy or the factory system, so the child 
passes through the same physical attitudes in 
relation to industry. 

It is out of the question to add more to our 
already overcrowded school curriculum. In- 
stead, a reconciliation must be brought about 
between the child and the subjects already 
there. The introduction of industry in an or- 
ganic way would do this, each new study being 



taken up as the content of life is reached 
which gave rise to it. One chapter in particu- 
lar, the outgrowth of her endeavor to carry out 
this method in her teachings is rich in sug- 
gestions. This working up through the more 
fundamental processes of life and finding out 
how the need for each science, art and industry 
arose and their consequent development will af- 
ford a measurement by means of which the 
child can interpret the materials of the pres- 
ent which are presented to him in less direct 
ways. "Practical activity which is an expres- 
sion of the child's interests and capacities, so- 
cialized by racial experience, is not only the 
best means, but the only means thus far dis- 
covered by which the child can organize the 
subject matters of education. It finds its justi- 
fication in the race parallel, in the fact that it 
is the way the child learns before he comes to 
school, the way he can lay the best basis for 
the later activities of life and the way he will 
continue to learn after the walls of the school 
rooms are left behind. Isis 11. Wked. 



Who hath among least things an under-sense 

of greatest; 
See the parts as parts, but with a feeling of 



the whole. 



— Wordsworth. 



CHIOAGO 

THEOLOGIOAL 

SEMINARY 

Opens Its 46th year Sept. 30, 1903, for college graduates. 
Thorough training for pastoral, missionary, educational 
and evangelistic service. 

Specialized coures in pedagogy, sociology, missions, 
music and expression. Merit scholarships, university 
fellowsliips, field worl<, social settlement observation and 
researcli. Address 

Pro(. H. M. SCOTT, S20 Adams St., Chicago, III. 

The Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and I.abor from the Social 
SettltMneiitiX)iiit of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at (irand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago i'ostolUce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents  Year. (Two 
Shillings, English: 2.,')0 francs. Frencli— foreign stamps ao. 
cepted.} I'ostpalil to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one address for $2.r.O. Send check, draft, P. O. money order, 
casli or stamps, nut abuve 5-ctnt detwmination, at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page, $35.00; Half Page, $15.00; 
yuarter Page, $8.00; One Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Commons. Any 
number under twenty-live copies, five cents each; ovef 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents eacii; ovef 
one hiiudi ed, two and one-half cents each. 
Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
cluingo of address, or of failure to receive the paper within 
a reasunabie interval after it is due. ^ 

Discontinuances, Please notify us at once If for anyreason . 
yo\i desire your subscription discontinue<l. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue Tub Commons to each address until notified 
to tlie contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



cmcAao coviMONS happenings. 

The- outing season Is on in earnest and park 
parties and picnics are the order of tlie day. 



Latest news from our travelers in distant 
lands briDgs assurance of health and good 
cheer. 



The opening of the playground under the 
skilled and effective direction of Mr. Clarence 
W. Haddon has been the great event of the 
month among our little people. Scores flock 
dally to this one spot of common ground de- 
voted to the joy of little children in our crowd- 
ed ward. 



June 25th was commencement day for the 
Pestalozzi Froebel Kindergarten Training 
School at Chicago Commons. The exercises of 
the afternoon included an address by Miss Jane 
Addams and the presentation of diplomas to the 
graduating class. A dinner to the alumni, grad- 
uating class, students and residents of the Com- 
mons, with an evening reception and dance 
concluded a most enjoyable occasion. 



Children's Day exercises at the Tabernacle 
church were marked by one of the prettiest ser- 
vices we have ever witnessed. Some three 
hundred boys and girls dressed in their "very 
best" marched in single file up the central aisle 
of the auditorium and each received a potted 
plant to take home and care for and bring back 
for exhibit on next Children's Day. The love 
of ownership was never more beautifully min- 
gled with the sense of obligation to add to the 
common fund of joy and beauty in our little 
world. 

Camp Commons in the Penny meadow near 
Elgin, has begun its fourth season of blessed 
ministry to the children of the neighborhood. 
The first group of older boys are now reveling 
in the sunshine, woods and quiet freedom of 
that beautiful little valley among the Fox river 
hills. 

Many applications in excess of our present re- 
sources have already been made by children 
that greatly need the country air and this sim- 
ple wholesome touch with nature. Four dollars 
will send a child for two weeks to Camp Com- 
mons. 



The Kitchen Garden class was convened In 
October, 1902, with the full number of 24 
children. There were 30 lessons in all; the 
class was well attended, the average number 
being 20 girls. The object of the Kitchen Gar- 
den is to teach the children to do housework 



1 properly, and so if possible to make them more 
helpful in their homes. The girls sing, have 
an occupation and game, ending the lesson by 
marching away, bowing good-bye to the teach- 
ers. The work is done with toys that are very 
complete in their likeness to real things, and it 
would be hard to tell which the children enjoy 
most, the work or the games, each one of which 
teaches something. At May commencement, 
when the lessons ended, there was an exhibition 
given, that the children called "a party," where 
the parents were invited to come and see and 
hear what the girls had learned. There were 
the regular two tables of twelve girls each. 
They looked very pretty dressed all alike in 
white aprons, caps, and kerchiefs, which were 
made for them to wear at their exhibitions by 
Mrs. Victor F. Lawson, who has supported the 
Kitchen Garden for a number of years. They 
sang, marched, made beds, set the dinner table, 
and played the game that teaches them to "wait 
on the door," much to the delight of those who 
looked on; and then, as "little waiting girls," 
served their parents and other guests with ice 
cream and cake. We were very much pleased 
at the appreciation and gratitude expressed by 
the fathers as well as the mothers, at the 
amount the children had learned. And the 
girls themselves, even the youngest, just eight 
years old, thanked us so heartily that we felt 
more than repaid for our winter's work. We 
start again next. October, and hope to have 
just as good if not a better class than ever be- 
fore. I. B. 

Set your shoulder joyously to the world's 
wheel. — Havelock Ellis. 



Let us never doubt. Everything which ought 
to happen will happen. — Harriet Beecher Stowe. 

SUMMER COTTAQE FOR RENT. 

At Mscatawa, Mich. 

SeTen lioiirs by daily steamer from Chicago. " Near 
Shore " Cottage on Lake MicliigaD shore within easy reach 
of Black Lake. Seven rooms, furnisiied. Double porch on 
two sides. Sate, liealtliful, interesting place for children. 
Terms $160 for season from June to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

PESTALOZZl-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 

Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, 1903. 
Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes 
opportunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars address 
BBRFHA HOFER HEaiSER. 
Chicago Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 



TKe Commons 

A Monthly Reciird Devoted to Aspects of Life and I>abor from tlie Settlement Point of View. 



Number 85-Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicaeo, August, 1903 



The Future Church. 

Doubtless his Church will be no hospital 

For superannuate forms and mumping shams, 

No parlor where men issue policies 

Of life-assurance on the Eternal Mind, 

Nor his religion but an ambulance 

To fetch life's wounded and malingerers in. 

Scorned by the strong; yet he, unconscious heir 

To the influence sweet of Athens and of Rome 

And old Judea's gift of sacred fire, 

Spite of himself shall surely learn to know 

And worship some ideal of himself. 

Some divine thing, large-hearted, brotherly. 

Not nice In trifles, a soft creditor, 

Pleased with his world, and hating only cant. 

And, if his Church be doubtful, it is sure 

That, in a world, made for whatever else. 

Not made for mere enjoyment, in a world 

Of toil but half requited, or, at best. 

Paid in some futile currency of breath, 

A world of incompleteness sorrow swift 

And consolation laggard, whatsoe'er 

The form of building or the creed professed. 

The Cross, bold tye of shame to homage turned. 

Of an unfinished life that sways the world, 

Shall tower as sovereign emblem over all. 

— James Russell Lowell. 



WHAT THE SOCIAL MOVEHENT MAY NOT 

FAIRLY EXPECT FROM HISTORIC 

CHRISTIAMTY. 

BY BtSSELL J. WILBl R, HE.VU- WORKER NORTH-. 
■WESTERX U:JiIVERSITY SETTLEMEXT. 

Everyone who is interested in social progress 
would feel, it to be a great gain I am sure and 
a happy omen if a more cordial understanding 
existed between those who in whatever meas- 
ure are representatives of the social movement 
and the clergy of the Roman Catholic, Luth- 
eran, and other more or less conservative and 
dogmatic churches. The need of such friendly 
understanding and of the co-operation which 
would be its inevitable accompaniment is deep- 
ly felt surely by very many or nearly all set- 
tlement workers. 

Every practical matter such as this really in- 
volves and finally resolves itself into the con- 
sideration of certain fundamental principles, 
and a treatment of those principles in a 



short space is bound to appear somewhat 
abstract, academic and doctrinaire. If the pre- 
sent short article is faulty in that respect, the 
writer asks his readers' indulgence, and as- 
sures them that he is both restricted in time 
and space and confident that those who read 
The Commons are more than able both to illu- 
strate concretely for themselves the principles 
discussed and to apply them practically if they 
are theoretically convincing and valid. 

It is well to remind ourselves at the outset 
that we are not trying to find out what the 
Social Movement may not fairly e.xpect from mod- 
ern Liberal Christianity from the religion of 
Harnack and the Ritschlians, or to take more 
popular and accessible exponents, the religion 
of Lyman Abbott and President Hyde. By 
their own professions the Social Movement 
may expect everything from them, for in their 
systems the lines of religious duty and priv- 
ilege are practically coincident with the lines 
of social expediency and opportunity. Nor all 
the more are we asking what social workers 
may not expect from those even less theolofrically- 
minded persons whose religion is professedly 
social "morality touched with emotion" and for 
whom true theology is simply sociology suf- 
fused with sentiment. 

We are trying to find out. what we may not ex- 
pect from those who still believe the Bible to 
be the Word of God in a unique, peculiar and 
exclusive sense, inspired not only in a supreme 
degree but with an absolutely unique kind 
of inspiration. Such a belief has been the one 
common characteristic of anything which may 
fairly, lay claim to be a form of the religion 
which nineteen centuries have known. 

We are not assuming in this short paper that 
Historic Christianity is either truer or more 
false to the mind of Christ than modern Lib- 
eral Christianity. It might very well be for 
the purposes of our modest investigation that 
the religion of Jesus was corrupted by Peter, 
Paul, and John and rediscovered by the his- 
torical sense and critical method of the nine- 
teenth century. We are simply concerned with< 
the fact that' dogmatic Christianity is still an 
immense force in the world, that very many 



THE COM MONS 



excellent people who might be — many of them 
are — socially very useful, are devoted to their 
religion above all things, and that it is de- 
sirable to secure their sympathy and co-opera- 
tion as far as possible in the activities of the 
social movement. The writer is convinced that 
this very desirable end may be attained most easily 
if we try to understand dogmatic Christianity and 
do not expect and demand frcm it in the name of 
religion an abandonment of its own principles and 
surrender of its own position. 

In the first place we must not expect con- 
sistent adherents of Historic Christianity to 
abandon their dominant and peremptory "other 
worldliness." We have only to read our New 
Testament through — not merely our favorite 
passages — to see that it everywhere assumes 
that man's primary and ultimate concern is 
with an Infinite and Eternal Person who trans- 
cends all the manifestations of His immanence 
in this present world and who calls us to 
spend an everlasting future with Him — a 
future which cannot be prepared for merely 
by ignoring it or taking it for granted and 
turning our attention away from it to the more 
obvious demands, however just and valid in 
their own degree, of this present world. 

We may think that this "other worldlinsss," 
is anti-social — many opponents of Historic 
Christianity have thought so from the days of 
Celsus to the days of Comte — but it is at any 
rate derived from the New Testament. Surely 
we have to admit that the New Testament con- 
ception of "'saving one's soul" or one's "life" 
transcends the most complete conception of 
self-culture, however rich and harmonious, 
combined with the most thoroughgoing 
altruism. Old-fashioned Christians cannot abandon 
their "other worldliness" without abandoning 
their belief in the correctness and tinality of the 
teaching of Scripture. 

It is true that Christianity is essentially so- 
cial, it is the Gospel of a Kingdom. But the 
Founder of Christianity said that His kingdom ' 
was not of this world, nor does Scripture con- 
template that it will ever be set up here until 
after a supernatural cataclysm. In the light 
of these Bible principles the Church must ever 
regard her primary business as the gathering 
of men into a kingdom which can never be 
realized in the present order, and she must 
ever regard what we call Christian civilization 
as a mere by-product and side issue of Chris- 
tianity, which is bound to grow and progress 
as far as large numbers of men lead consistent 
Christian lives, but which cannot be the m»ln 
■concern either of the Church and her ministers or 



of individual Christians as such. It may be said 
that this introduces a certain dualism into 
thought and life, and that the modem vy^orld 
hates dualism and is enthusiastically monistic 
This is true. I am merely concerned to point 
out that Scripture is dualistic. even to the 
point of suggesting that the Evil One has a 
certain claim over the "present world" or at 
least did have it until the accomplishment of 
the redemptive work of Christ. There is a 
certain dualism even in Christ's own words 
which so sharply distinguish between "the 
things which are God's" and "the things which 
are Caesar's." Every reader of the New Test- 
ament must have been struck with the sharp 
antithesis which is everywhere made between 
the Church and the World. "Be not conformed 
to this world" says S. Paul; "whosoever will 
be the friend of this world" says S. James, 
"is the enemy of God." "Love not the world 
neither the things that are in the world" says 
S. John, "if any man love the world the love 
of the Father is not in him." Such language 
is not adequately interpreted if it is taken as 
directed merely against selfishness. It is just 
as bad from the Bible standpoint to "love the 
world" for others as to love it for one's self, to 
love it collectively as individually, to love it al- 
truistically as egoistically. 

The truth is that the Bible and Historical 
Christianity everywhere assume that man is 
created for two distinct and separate ends, a 
natural and supernatural end, and also that 
the attainment of the natural end is always to 
be subordinated to the attainment of the super- 
natural end which is of primary and supreme 
importance. Taking men individually their 
natural end is self-culture, the harmonious and 
perfect development of all the natural powers 
and gifts of the self; taking men collectively 
their natural end is the perfection of that 
splendid thing we call civilization, which has 
been defined as "the perfect humanization of 
man in society." On the other hand, taking 
men individually their supernatural end is the 
salvation of their souls (whatever that may 
mean) and collectively the consummation of 
the supernal Kingdom of Heaven. According 
to the view of historical Christian philosophy 
be the philosopher Calvin or Aquinas we are 
placed in the sphere of nature, reason, the 
State and cosmic law for the attainment of 
our natural end. and for the attainment of our 
supernatural end, in the sphere of grace as 
transcending nature, faith as transcending rea- 
son, the Church as transcending the State, and 
miracle as transcending cosmic law. We are 



THE COMMONS 



not saying that such a view is true, we are not 
saying that it is congenial to the modern mind 
but we are saying that it has been the view 
more or less explicitly of organized Christian- 
ity for nineteen hundred years, and that it is 
the view implied in the New Testament taken 
as a whole. It is the view which underlies 
the distinction between sacred and secular so 
distasteful to most of the best men and wo- 
men engaged in the social movement, but so 
indispensable to the consistent adherent of old- 
fashioned Christianity. It is the ground of 
that incorrigible "other worldliness" often ap- 
parently at least so anti-social. 

In view then of what we have just consid- 
ered we cannot ask the Church to make the ad- 
vancement of civilization her first work, her 
chief anxiety. It is not fair to expect her to 
stultify herself. All we can fairly ask is that 
she be true to her own principle that "every 
good and perfect gift is from above and 
Cometh down from the Father of Lights," the 
gifts of civilization included, and that she 
teach her children to use and develop the gifts 
of civilization for all they are worth, though 
we must not be impatient if she take the tone 
of S. Paul, saying, "Covet earnestly the best 
gifts; and yet show I unto you a more excellent 
way." We have no right to be irritated if 
she keeps repeating "The things which are seen 
are temporal, the things which are unseen are 
eternal" and we have no right to be angry if 
at certain times and seasons when the world 
clamors for works of physical or political heal- 
ing the Church like her Founder in like circum- 
stances is withdrawn upon the mountain top con- 
versing with Moses and Ellas, spending a season 
in vigil or meditation, or quietly training in re- 
tirement her elect disciples. 

For instance many persons regard the great- 
est evil of the day as wage-slavery, and they 
think the Church inconsistent with her own 
priociples because she does not directly attack it. 
Do they remember that literal slavery was incom- 
parably the most crying evil of the Graeco- 
Boman civilization into which the Church 
was born, and yet that the New Testament 
contains not one word either explicitly or by 
unmistakable implication against it. Nay 
more S. Paul sends back Onesimus a slave to 
Philemon his owner, bidding Philemon cherish 
him as a brother, but not so much as hinting 
that the whole relationship of master to chat- 
tel was wrong in itself. 

Quite as striking as Historic Christianity's 
"other worldliness" is its scale of value for 
estimating the difference between good external 



works and the internal condition of the in- 
dividual soul. 

"The Church regards this world, and all that 
is in it, as a mere shadow, as dust and ashes; 
compared with the value of one single soul. 
She holds that unless she can, in her own way, 
do good to souls it is no use her doing any- 
thing; she holds that it were better for sun 
and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth 
to fail, and for all the many millions who are 
upon it to die of starvation In extremest agony, 
so far as temporal affliction goes, than that 
one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but 
should commit one single venial sin, should tell 
one wilful untruth, though it harmed no one, 
or steal one poor farthing without excuse. She 
considers the action of this world and the ac- 
tion of the soul as simply incommensurate, 
viewed in their respective spheres; she would 
rather save the soul of one single wild bandit 
of Calabria, or whining beggar of Palermo, 
than draw a hundred lines of railroad through 
the length and breadth of Italy, or carry out 
a sanitary reform, in its fullest details, in 
every city of Sicily, except so far as these great 
national works tended to some spiritual good 
beyond them." 

So spoke Cardinal Newman for the Roman 
Catholic Church, nor would Moody or Spur- 
geon differ in principle or in general substance 
from him, and the three may surely be allowed 
to speak for Historic Christianity. 

It is plain then to us who are interested 
so deeply in the social movement that we may 
hope for the cooperation of religious people 
such as these only so far as we can unmistak- 
ably prove to them that our activities tend to 
some spiritual good beyond their own immed- 
iate ends, some good that perchance may last 
when the earth has melted with fervent heat 
and the heavens rolled up like a scroll. 

At least we may be sure that we may not fair- 
ly expect the present day representatives of the 
Christianity of history, if they remain true to 
their own principles, to regard the social move- 
ment as of supreme importance for religion. Some 
of us may think that this conclusion amounts 
to a demonstration that those principles are 
wrong, but it at least relieves us of the pain- 
ful necessity of regarding our old-fashioned 
Christian brethren as men who are false to the 
religion they profess. 



"The way for a young man to rise is to im- 
prove himself every way he can, never sus- 
pecting that anybody wishes to hinder him." — 
Lincoln. 



THE COMMONS 



THE SOCIAL ASPECTS OF PRATT INSTI- 
TUTE WORK. 

BY CAROLINE B. WEEKS', 
Keglstrar Prait Institute. 

As an educational institution, Pratt Insti- 
tute differs radically from, the type of school 
which went before it and differs, also, from its 
contemporaries In that it is the product of an 
individual and personal experience, rather than 
the development of any generally accepted 
theory of education. 

Charles Pratt, its founder, was a self-made 
man, and the work was well done. The circum- 
stances of his life were such that, with the 
exception of one year of study at Wilbraham 
Academy, he had no opportunity for definite 
school work, after he was fourteen years old. 
He was industrious, thrifty, oljserving, and 
ambitious. His earnings, — over and above the 
amount needed to meet his own living ex- 
penses and to contribute to the family needs, — 
were either saved or expended for good books. 
He was not an omnivorous reader, but he read 
thoroughly the best literature that came his 
way, and made it his own. The books in the 
library which he began to collect as a boy and 
to which he added constantly, during his life- 
time, were his tolls: and he used them with 
marked skill. 

His life was the rich reward of a long^ 
series of right choices. When there was the 
opportunity to waste or to use time; he chose 
to use it. When there was the temptation to 
disregard a chance for self-improvement, he 
chose to regard it. By industry, fidelity to his 
work and to his employer, and by thrift he 
advanced himself rapidly. He was the man 
to understand and grasp the opportune mo- 
ment, and, at a time when in the business his- 
tory of the United States it was especially true 
that wealth was easily made and easily lost, 
it was not to be wondered at that he accumu- 
lated a large fortune. 

His altered circumstances never made any 
change in his attitude toward life or toward 
people. He met with his ready sympathy all 
young men and women and especially those 
who were struggling to get an education as 
he had struggled; and, when his financial posi- 
tion warranted it, he determined to endow a 
school which should meet their needs. He 
realized that it would be impossible to give 
assistance along all lines of work, and, as his 
keenest Interest was in the world's hand- 
workers, he confined his scheme to technical 
and industrial educatioai in its broadest inter- 
pretation. 



PLANNED FOR THE AVERAGE MAX. 

He planned to organized courses of study 
which could be entered upon by men who had 
not had the opportunities for much formal 
preparation: and he intended to have these- 
courses so taught that such men could get 
something out of them. 

His was a very simple pedagogical theory,^ 
which, briefly stated, was this:— 

Show men how to do something, and in- 
sist that they do it as well, as hon- 
estly, as economically, and as beau- 
tifully as it can be done. This rule 
covers the conduct of all shop work. 
Show men why certain definite combina- 
tions of effort and material always 
secure certain definite results; and 
insist that they grasp these simple 
fundamental principles and apply 
them for themselves. This rule 
covers the conduct of all the scien- 
tific and theoretical work that under- 
lies the practical work. 
He put into his original plan his enthusiasm, 
his sound judgment, his common sense, and 
the results of his practical experience as a 
mechanic and as a business man. 

In the year 1887, ground was broken for 
the buildings which were to contain the school. 
They were constructed substantially, but plain- 
ly, with the thought that, if the enterprise did 
not succeed, they could be used for factory 
purposes. 

When the work was completed, Mr. Pratt 
opened an office on the first floor of the main 
building and let the public come in and register 
for such work as it wanted. After which, he 
formed classes, so far as it was possible to do 
so, according to this registration. 

FROM 14 TO 3485 STUDENTS. 

Only fourteen students made their appear- 
ance on the first day, and it was with a feel- 
ing of disappointment and anxiety that the 
head instructor reported the small attendance 
to Mr. Pratt. "Excellent, excellent," he is re- 
ported to have exclaimed. "Do the absolutely 
sgiiure thing by them, and we shall have 
twenty-eight by the end of next week." 

On such a basis and out of such an exper- 
ience Pratt Institute began life sixteen years 
ago. Since then, it has carried out the policy 
of its founder and has never started work 
which did not meet some real demand; and It 
has never undertaken work which it did not 
do thoroughly and well. 

The result has been an Increase in apprecia- 



THE COMMONS 



•tion on the part of the public, as is shown by 
the growth in the enrollment, during the six- 
teen years of its existence, from 14 to 3485 
students. 

SEVEN DEPARTMENTS. 

After various experiments, — Mr. Pratt was 
never afraid to "try" things and never unwill- 
ing to own himself in the wrong;- — the Insti- 
tute work has settled down to the activities of 
seven departments: — 

A High School, offering manual train- 
ing in addition to the usual sub- 
 jecls of an academic course. 
A Department of Fine Arts, offering a 
normal course In art and manual 
training, as well as instruction in 
architecture, design, clay-modeling, 
wood carving, art metal work, draw- 
ing, painting, and composition. 
A Department of Domestic Art, offering 
a normal course; professional train- 
ing in dressmaking, millinery, sew- 
ing, art needlework, and costume de- 
sign; and supplementary work for 
home use in dressmaking, millinery, 
sewing, and art needlework. 
A Department of Domestic Science, of- 
fering a normal course; professional 
training for housekeepers and dieti- 
tians; and supplementary work for 
home use in cookery, serving, and 
laundry work. 
A Department of Science and Technol- 
ogy, offering full-time day courses 
in steam and machine design and ap- 
plied electricity; evening technical 
courses in physics, chemistry, 
mechanism, steam and the steam 
engine, applied electricity, mechani- 
cal drawing, and strength of ma- 
terials; and evening trade courses in 
carpentry, plumbing, machine-shop 
practice, fresco painting, and sign 
painting. 
A Department of Libraries, offering a 
course in library economy, and con- 
ducting a free circulating and refer- 
ence library. 
A Department of Kindergartens, offering 
a normal course and conducting a 
model kindergarten. 
The school hours are long and work is con- 
ducted continuously during five days a week 
and on Saturday morning, with evening classes 
from October to April. 

The courses offered appeal to everyone. The 



Institute is the most cosmopolitan place in the 
world, since no questions are asked of an appli- 
cant, save whether his character be good and 
his ability and training equal to the work in 
hand. 

INDrSTRIAL AND SOCIAL IDEAL. 

Recognizing the position of machinery in the 
industrial world, Mr. Pratt still emphasized 
the value of the workman. He believed that in 
his development and increased skill was to be 
found the hope of the future. He was confi- 
dent that the drudgery of most tasks could be 
turned to enjoyment by an efficient worker, and 
he had the work of the Institute conducted in 
such a way as to reveal to the students the 
possibilities for development, service, and real 
culture which lie in the most commonplace 
tasks. He believed that much of the thought- 
lessness of the employer came from ignorance 
of conditions, and he thought that the same 
shop and laboratory which opened a new world 
to the workman would reveal to his employer 
the possibilities and the limitations of labor; 
and that, working thus together, some real ad- 
vance toward social and industrial betterment 
would be made. 

He opened a school where such conditions 
for work could prevail and waited for results. 
He never forced a situation, he never attempt- 
ed to solve a specific social or industrial prob- 
lem, he simply gave a chance to men who 
were willing to work out their own salvation 
' and to help toward the working out of the 
salvation of the community. 

DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION. 

From time to time, there are signs that the 
leaven is working. An attractive young girl 
in one of the day classes in laundry work stop- 
ped in the office on her way out of the building 
to declare that she was going home to rip all 
the double ruffles off her petticoats. "I never 
knew until to day," she said, putting her hand 
on her back to cover the "area of pain," "what 
it meant to iron one of them, and never, as 
long as I live, will I ask a woman to do such a 
piece of work for me!" 

Complaint was made, one fall, by an art stu- 
dent who was rather proud of her claims to 
social distinction, that the easel of a young 
colored woman had been placed next to hers 
in the studio. No attention was paid to the 
complaint, other than to give the girl a little 
friendly advice. Later in the spring, the per- 
son to whom the complaint was made was show- 
ing the building to some guests and came with 
them into the room where the two women were 



6 



THE COMMONS 



working. Stopping beside the chair of the one 
who had made the objection, she commented 
upon her noticeable improvement in color 
work. "Yes, it is better," was the response, 
"but it isn't half as good as Miss S.'s," indicat- 
ing the colored girl by her side. "Do you sup- 
pose I shall ever do such work as that?" All 
differences between them had been forgotten in 
their wholesome competition in work which 
they both loved and understood. 

She was a very little lady with scarce ten 
summers to her credit, and she and her mother 
joined the same afternoon class in basketry. 
"I think Pratt is the best school," she is report- 
ed to have said, " beciiuse you can be in tlie same 
class with your mothtr, and sometimeg the teacher 
likes your work better than she does hers." 

RESISTS ARISTOCRATIC TENDENCIES. 

When it came to the development of the tech- 
nical work for men, Mr. Pratt remained true to 
his convictions. Great as was the temptation to 
invade the realm of advanced technological 
training, he resisted and the Institute Trustees 
have continued to resist. The entrance require- 
ments for the admirable courses in architec- 
ture, steam and machine design, and applied 
electricity have been kept simple. An appli- 
cant must be at least seventeen years of age 
and must be able to pass an examination in 
arithmetic, — proving that he has an available^ 
knowledge of the subject; and an examination 
in English grammar. Such conditions are 
essential to the conduct of the course, but are . 
not so difficult but that they can be met by any 
boy who is forced to leave school early to go 
to work, provided he has sufficient ambition 
to study by himself or to enter one of the city 
night schools. Then, too, the length of these 
courses is not prohibitory. They cover but 
two years of work, and many a man, who could 
not stop work for the four years required to 
take an engineering course in one of the col- 
leges, can take tw« years out of a busy life in 
consideration of the bettered condition in 
which he will find himself, after he has com- 
pleted his course. 

WORKING MEN STUDENTS. 

Some men have been able to do the work, 
even while carrying on some regular occupa- 
tion. A student in one of the evening classes 
in architectural drawing, who showed especial 
ability in his work, was advised to enter the 
day course in architecture, since it offered 
more opportunities than could be offered by 
evening work. After a day or two of delibera- 
tion, he accepted the advice, and the transfer 
was made. The man was a good student and 



his improvement was rapid. One night, dur- 
ing the latter part of the second-year of his 
course, one of the Institute teachers, returning 
to Brooklyn on a late bridge train, recognized 
the motor-man on the train as the student re- 
ferred to. In the talk which they had to- 
gether, the instructor discovered that the man 
had been employed on the bridge and had taken 
up evening work in architectural drawing with 
the hope of working himself into some better 
position. The recognition of his ability on the 
part of his Instructors pleased and encouraged 
him; and, because he could not afford to give 
up work, on account of his family, he arranged 
to be transferred to night service, in order to 
get the advantages of the day course. For al- 
most two years he had been doing the work 
of two men without mention of the fact, and 
grateful only to find that his health was hold- 
ing out and that he Was able to do good work 
under such a strain. A well-paying position of 
responsibility with a New York firm is now his 
adequate reward. 

During the last week, a man has applied for 
entrance to the electrical course, who has night 
work on a New York paper. His school work 
will last from nine o'clock in the morning until 
half-past four in the afternoon. His work on 
the paper lasts from six o'clock, in the evening, 
until two o'clock the next morning. 

A PRACTICAL UNION OF HEAD AND HAND. 

The three technical courses for men, above 
referred to, are eminently practical and have a 
direct bearing on the work which they are fit- 
ting students to do. The practical work is 
done directly in well-equipped shops, and the 
supplementary work in . science and mathema- 
tics is presented from the standpoint of its con- 
nection with the practical work, and is taught 
in such a way as to be immediately available. 
No text books in either mathematics or sciemce 
thoroughly meet the needs of these students, 
and several series of lesson sheets have been 
prepared by the instructors for these classes 
to use in connection with reference books. 

The wonderfully definite, simple, and brief 
presentation of these various fields of work 
has made the courses attractive to another class 
of men from that for which they were primar- 
ily intended. One or two men with college 
training have already been enrolled in these 
classes with the idea that such a course would 
take the place of a number of years of practi- 
cal experience and would make their college 
work in the sciences more valuable by making 
it more available. And it looks as though 
these courses, too, would become a common 



THE COM MONS 



meeting ground for men of different conditions, 
different view-points, and different aims, who, 
nevertheless, can find in the work as given a 
great deal to meet their different needs. 

The attitude of the Institute toward the com- 
munity has always been that of a helper. If 
a person has in mind the building of an indus- 
trial school, he comes to Pratt Institute for 
help in planning his courses of study and in 
designing and equipping his buildings; and 
the assistance is always gladly and freely 
given. If a school wants technical teachers, 
Pratt Institute is called upon to furnish them. 
In fact, there are very few wants which the 
Institute may not be called upon to supply, as 
the following letter would indicate: — 

• July 8, 1903. 
Pratt Institute: 

Gentlemen — Please send me immediately a 
good Chinese cook. If you cannot supply one, 
tell me where one can be found. 
Very truly yours, 



Though the Institute was inadequate to meet 
the demand for the cook, it was equal to sup- 
plying the address of a place where such a per- 
son "could be found." 

Pratt Institute is not especially remarkable 
or wonderful as an educational institution. It 
fails often to meet the ideas of many of the 
great educational thinkers. It hastens too 
slowly to suit the more radical reformers. It 
is simply a place where everyone is given a 
"chance"; and those who know it best and be- 
lieve in it most have faith that its cordial, hon- 
est, helping hand Is doing more than any one 
school's share in helping to bring about the 
world's redemption. 



To make Cities — that is what we are here for. 
To make good Cities — that Is for the present 
hour the main work of Christianity. For the 
City is strategic. It makes the towns; the 
towns make the villages; the villages make the 
Country. He who makes the City makes the 
world. — Henry Drummond. 



If anyone wishes to know what he can do 
to help on the work of God in the world, let 
him make a City, or a street, or a house of a 
City. Men complain of the indefiniteness of 
religion. There are thousands ready in their 
"humble measure to offer some personal service 
for the good of men, but they do not know 
where to begin. Let me tell you where to be- 
gin — where Christ told His disciples to begin, 
at the nearest City. — Henry Drummond. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STAKDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katii.\rixe C'oma.n', Wellesley, Slass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thayer 
 (Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. U. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkixs, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

I'reasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsous), 112 East fcuth St., New York City. 

Fifth Mernlxr: Susan E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

standing committee on sub-chapters. 

Chairman .- Louise H. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

LOCAL committees. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia — Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

settlements. 
New York City — 95 Rivingion Street. 
Philadelphia— 433 Christian Street. 
Boston — 93 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



THE SOUTH PARK SETTLEMENT, SAN 
FRANCISCO. 

BY KATHERINE COMAN. 

The material equipment of the San Francisco 
Settlement seems all that could be desired. Two 
four-story brick houses thrown together afford 
commodious residents' quarters. The space of 
the back-gardens is filled In by the Shaw gym- 
nasium. The basement of the whole establish- 
ment has been converted into child's and class- 
rooms and work-shops, well-lighted and airy. 
The houses were remodeled and furnished and 
given to the Settlement by Mrs. Phoebe A. 
Hearst, a woman whose wise philanthropies are 
known from the Pacific to the Atlantic. 

The Settlement neighborhood is surprisingly 
pleasant. South Park is a tree shaded square, 
flanked by substantial-looking houses. A few 
blocks away there are foul alleys and rear tene- 
ments where dirt and disease run riot, but less 
than twenty-five years ago this sunny square 
was a fashionable residence quarter, and though 
most of the old mansions are now occupied as 
lodging houses, there Is little to suggest the 
need of settlement work. The ruddy-cheeked 
boys who preempt street and sidewalk as a 
playground give evidence of full chest develop- 
ment, and the old man who brings his tidy 



8 



THE COMMONS 



grandchildren to play on the lawn seems pla- 
cidly content. The climate makes out-ofdoors 
a pleasure the year round and relieves city life 
of much of its sordid discomfort. There is no 
severe cold, no coal smoke, and but little rain. » 

THE CITY SETTING. 

San Francisco Is in the heyday of prosperity. 
The Golden State is the principal American 
port on "the world sea of the future." Busi- 
Tiess enterprises multiply with unexampled 
ease. Work is abundant and wages good. The 
metropolis of the Pacific Coast is the paradise 
of the workingman. The men in blouses who 
board the street-cars night and morning are 
hale and hearty. The clerks and cashboys one 
encounters on the street have far more physical 
energy than can be found in the shops of east- 
ern cities. There is little need of relief work 
except for the ne'er-do-well and the incapaci- 
tated. The function of the San Francisco Set- 
tlement differs in consequence from that forced 
upon social workers in the slums of older cities. 

I.E.\BERSHIP AND FIXCTIOXS. 

The liead-worker. Miss Lucile Eaves, is well- 
equipped for her task. A graduate of Stanford 
University and post-graduate student and uni- 
versity extension lecturer of Chicago University, 
she spent two years as instructor in American 
history at Stanford University. Leaving at the . 
time of the Ross embroglio, she entered npon 
this more direct form of social service. The 
work of the house includes the usual clubs and 
classes for boys and girls, men and women. 
The characteristic feature of these San Fran- 
cisco clubs is that they are actually self-govern- 
ing and to a considerable extent self-support- 
ing. The training in self-respect and in regard 
for law is thought to be more important than 
any other element of success. Loyalty to the 
Settlement and its aims is another significant 
trait. Several of the clubs have contributed to 
the working equipment. A club of young 
women gave $70 toward fittings for the cooking 
school, while a club of young men provided 
stage curtains and scenery for the gymnasium 
platform. 

The Settlement further serves as a center 
for the social life of the neighborhood. A dis- 
tinct effort is made to bring young men and 
young women together on terms of wholesome 
intimacy. The special feature of these neigh- 
borhood entertainments is the illustrated lec- 
ture. The house possesses two good stereopti- 
cons and hundreds of slides, most of them pre- 
pared by Miss Eaves and her residents. These 
women have a breezy western way of accom- 



plishing the impossible. The day before my 
lecture on the labor problems in Hawaii, I hap- 
pened to mention that I had with me interest- 
ing photographs of the cane-fields, etc. "We 
must have some slides." said i'liss Eaves, and 
within twenty-four hours fifty were ready for 
the lantern. The residents have given careful 
attention to the art of story telling. 

STORY TELLING .VXD LECTURES. 

Every Sunday afternoon finds from one to 
two hundred eager little listeners seated in the 
gymnasium. The interest of the story is en- 
hanced and its lessons emphasized by appropri- 
ate pictures. All the masters who have told 
stories with pencil and brush are brought into 
requisition. Annual stories are illustrated 
from Landseer and Seton Thompson. The joys 
and sorrows of childhood are bodied forth in 
Murlllo's beggar-boys. Sir Joshua Reynolds' 
aristocratic maidens and Brown's street gam- 
ins. Madonnas and holy families and Dutch 
interiors picture to childish minds the spiritual 
meanings of family life. The stories are not 
merely entertaining. They follow a well-devel- 
oped plan and purpose to train these young 
thinkers in the ethics of the home, the school, 
the playground and the larger community life. 
Biographical lectures are used with the older 
clubs as incentive to intelligent patriotism. Of 
equal significance is the course of historical lec- 
tures designed for adults. They aim to famil- 
iarize these raw citizens with the evolution of 
the new West. The follow^ing subjects indicate 
the plan of the course: "California Before the 
Coming of the Americans," "The Rush to the 
Gold Fields," "Life in the Forty-niner Mining 
Camps." "The Fur Trader in the History of the 
West," "The Cowboy in the History of the 
West," "The Buffalo in the History of the 
West." It is quite evident that Miss Eaves 
must have utilized her historical training in 
the preparation of subject-matter and illustra- 
tions. 

TRADE rXIOX AND SETTLEIIEXT COOPEBATIOS. 

San Francisco is the stronghold of trade- 
unionism. Every skilled trade is fully organ- _ 
ized and "collective bargaining" has reached a 
stage not elsewhere realized East or West. Po- 
litically as well as industrially, the working 
man has waxed exceeding strong. From the 
days of Dennis Kearney the labor vote has been- 
of prime importance in the city and in the 
state. The need of the hour is for disinterested 
men and women with scientific training and 
sjTnpathetic comprehension of the labor move- 
ment who will put their brains at the service 



THE COMMONS 



of the leaders. This Miss Eaves has under- 
taken to do. She is a regular contributor to 
the Labor Clarion, the ofiicial organ of the San 
Francisco Labor Council and State Federation 
of Labor. Her articles on the history of the 
typographical union, the pioneer labor organi- 
zation of San Francisco, and on the legislative 
basis of the writ of injunction, are the fruit of 
much careful research. She met with the legis- 
lative committee of the Labor Council while 
they were preparing the measures for the last 
meeting of the State Legislature, and repre- 
sented that body at Sacramento in the hearings 
on the Child Labor Bill, and assisted in pre- 
paring thfe arguments for other measures. Once 
a month the gymnasium, converted into a lec- 
ture room, is at the disposal of the labor 
unions. Last year's program shows an inter- 
esting series of addresses from labor leaders, 
lawyers, business men, etc., on various phases 
of the labor problem. Each address is followed 
by discussions, wJaen diverse opinions are 
freely aired. 

XEED FOR SOCIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS. 

The crying need of San Francisco is not 
higher wages or shorter hours, but intelligent 
public opinion. The Settlement should be a 
source of accurate and unsensational informa- 
tion as to child-labor, sweatshops, tenement- 
house conditions, etc., that may serve as basis 
for wise legislation, and, more important still, 
for the effective enforcement of existing laws. 
Miss Eaves has appealed for fellowship foun- 
dations sufficient to attract trained investigat- 
ors to this interesting field. The value of such 
inquiries is so evident that the appeal cannot 
fail of response. 



Thou art descending, O city of God; I see 
thee coming nearer and nearer. Tongues are 
dead; prophecies are dying; but charity is 
born. Our castles rise into the air and vanish; 
but love is bending lower every day. Man says, 
"Let us make a tower on earth which shall 
reach unto heaven"; but God says, "Let us 
make a tower in heaven which shall reach unto 
the earth." descending city, O humanitarian 
city, city for the outcast and forlorn, we hail 
thee, we greet thee, we meet thee! All the 
isles wait for thee — the lives riven from the 
main-land — the isolated, shunted, stranded 
lives. They sing a new song at thy coming, 
and the burden of its music is this. "He hath 
prepared for me a city." — Matheson. 



"Revolutionize through the ballot-box." — Lin- 
coln. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Associ.'ITIon by 

JIaky Kixgsbukt Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 

A te.xant's manual. 

"The Tenant's* Manual," the first of a series 

of publications to be issued by Greenwich 

House, New York, is now in preparation. 

The purpose of the pamphlet is to give in 
convenient form the substance of the laws and 
regulations of especial importance to those who 
live in tenement and apartment-houses. Infor- 
mation will be given as to the practical appli- 
cation of these laws and the organization of 
the departments and officers which enforce 
them, together with simple household direc- 
tions as to sanitation and the care of sickness. 
A directory of savings and educational agen- 
cies, and of resources for recreation, will be 
added. 

The table of contents as mapped out is sug- 
gestive: 
L — Health. 

Preventing the spread of infectious dis- 
ease. 
Care of children. 
Pure food. 

Sanitary conditions of houses. 
Cleanliness of streets and public places. 

n. — SxVVINGS. 

Penny provident stamp stations. 
Savings banks. 
HL — What the Law Is, 
In regard to 
Dispossess. 

Desertion and non-support. 
Usury. 

Instalment sales. 
Child labor. 
Hours and conditions of work for older 

persons. 
Sweatshops. 



III!, stuais's aduKess before the summer 

SCHOOL. 

The sixth session of the Summei' School in 
Philanthropic Work is now in the second week 
of its course. Judging by the large registra- 
tion, which has enabled group work to be at- 
tempted in certain fields (organized charity, 
child saving, etc.), judging by the representa- 
tive coterie of lecturers and the brief but well- 
knit summary of the field which they are put- 
ting before the class, and judging by the spir- 



10 



THE COM MONS 



Ited discussions wliich, under tlie leadersliip of 
Dr. Bracltett, have brought out sueh a deal of 
sound suggestion and graphic personal narra- 
tive of experience from a score of different 
sources — judging by these things, this year's 
session is to prove an excellent successor to 
those which have gone before. 



HAnTLEY HOUSE INCORPORATED. 

Hartley House, which was founded in Janu- 
ary of 1897, and has since been maintained by 
the New York Association for Improving the 
Condition of the Poor as one of its activities, 
is now entering upon an independent existence. 
It will be remembered that Hartley House 
is named for Robert M. Hartley, first gen- 
eral agent of the A. I. C. P. The association 
first rented the residence at 413 West Forty- 
fifth street in which the settlement was started, 
and afterward the late Marcellus Hartley ac- 
quired it and the two residences adjoining, 
building a gymnasium above the three houses 
and providing in all a very adequate equip- 
ment for a neighborhood center. Two of the 
buildings were deeded to the association by 
Mr. Hartley, the deeds of gift containing per- 
mission to sell with the restriction that the 
proceeds of the properties should constitute 
two funds to be known as the Robert M. Hart- 
ley fund and the Grace Hartley Stokes fund, 
the income of these two funds to be expended 
as the board of managers of the association 
should determine. Mr. Hartley's heirs, Mrs. 
George W. Jenkins and Marcellus Hartley 
Dodge, have now purchased the two buildings 
from the A. I. C. P., and Hartley House has 
been incorporated as a sepal-ate organization 
with the following board of trustees: Helen 
Hartley Jenkins, J. G. Phelps-Stokes, John 
Seeley Ward, Jr., Lilian D. Wald, Elizabeth S. 
Williams, Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Robert 
Hunter and Helen F. Greene, the latter, head- 
worker at Hartley House. Mrs. Jenkins and 
Mr. Dodge will continue the largest financial 
contributors. It will be noticed that the board, 
who are likewise the incorporators, are half 
of them practical settlement workers. 



To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little and 
spend a little less, to make upon the whole a 
family happier for his presence, to renounce 
when that shall be necessary and not to be 
embittered, to keep a few friends, but these 
without capitulation, above all, on the same 
grim condition, to keep friends with himself — 
here is a task for all that a man has of forti- 
tude and delicacy. — Robert Louis Stevenson. 



THE STORY OF A WOHAN'S CLUB. 

IIY M. EMERETT COLEMAN. 

A woman who had given much thought and 
study to social conditions once said, "I know of 
no existence outside prison walls which may so- 
fittingly be described by the adjective 'color- 
less' as that of the wives and mothers in a 
crowded city center." Chicago Commons had 
celebrated its first anniversary before work for 
wives and mothers was successfully inaugu- 
rated. The neighborhood was cosmopolitan, the 
women burdened with home cares, there was a 
diversity of religious faiths and there was that 
wide chasm which divides the interests of the 
cultured and college-bred woman from those 
of her sister who literally was trained in noth- 
ing but the use of the implements of household 
industry. 

In the face of such obstacles to unity and 
harmony of action, a meeting of the neighbor- 
hood women was called, and on December 5th 
thirteen met in the parlor of the old Commons, 
to consider the organizing of a club. Miss 
Mary McDowell told how helpful sueh an or- 
ganization had been to the women meeting at 
the University of Chicago Settlement, and how 
it had grown from small beginnings. After 
several preliminary meetings the Chicago Com- 
mons Woman's Club was organized January 13, 
1896. Ten nationalities were represented by the 
charter members. There were Catholics, Lib- 
erals and three denominations of Protestants. 
The first president was a woman of wide repu- 
tation as a public speaker, trained in college 
and theological seminary, a national officer of 
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The 
first vice-president, to use her own words, was 
"a graduate of nothing unless it be the disli pan 
and wash tub." 

SOCIAL POWER IN NATION.AL TR.AITS. 

The work began in a most informal way. The 
very conditions which would naturally divide 
the interest of the group were seized upon to 
contribute to sisterhood. Scotch songs and 
Scotch "scones" emphasized a member's own 
recollections of Scotland. A talk on the Land 
of the Midnight Sun, given by several Norwe- 
gian women, created an interest in that coun- 
try, and samples of the sewing done in school 
by one in her girlhood gave an idea of educa- 
tional methods. Personal reminiscences of Ger- 
many made the Fatherland a reality to all. A 
talk on Iceland by the sister from that little 
isle was illustrated by pictures she had her- 
self secured. The customs of the Isle of Man 
were told by one who had spent her girlhood 



TH E COM MONS 



11. 



there, and the little woman from Paris gave 
glimpses of life in France. Stories of the home- 
land, real experiences, served to bring the mem- 
bers together in a sisterhood which has devel- 
oped beautifully with the growth of the club. 
A noted club woman when addressing the 
women once said that one of the great benefits 
of women's organizations was they taught wo- 
men to differ gracefully, and this has been ex- 
emplified in the Commons Club. One member 
says it has taught her how to get along with 
other women. 

GOIXO TO CLUB FOR VACATION. 

When the first summer drew near and vaca- 
tions were being taken by more favored clubs, 
many of the women said, "we have nowhere 
else to go," so the meetings which had been held 
every two weeks became weekly during that 
first hot period. There still linger in the minds 
of early members recollections of the pleasant 
talks on the front porch of the old Commons, 
when each used a club fan while there and car- 
ried a boquet home at the close of the meet- 
ing. 

The stories one member tells of her experi- 
ence when first called to preside are most amus- 
ing. She says she knew absolutely nothing of 
motions or of parliamentary phraseology and 
usage. But she persevered, bravely repeating 
aloud in a tremulous voice what the secretary 
whispered in her ear. From the first the mem- 
bers, though timid, took an active part in the 
discussion of practical questions, such as "How 
to Please our Neighbors," "What Books and 
Periodicals Shall we Read?" and "What Can we 
Women do to Improve the Ward?" From the 
first, one social meeting has been held each 
month. Besides there were frequent opportu- 
nities to hear men and women of wide reputa- 
tion. 

The Club outgrew room after room in the old 
building and it now often uses to their full ca- 
pacity the four beautiful rooms in the new 
building. The Club has done much toward fur- 
nishing these rooms. 

SOCIAL SERVICE AND STUDIES. 

Interest is taken in philanthropy. Among 
the objects to which contributions have been 
made are the Playground, the Chicago Vaca- 
tion Schools and the Day Nursery. Thus have 
the members been made more thoughtful of 
others' needs. 

The Study Class, led by Mrs. Sheridan, of 
Oak Park, is wonderfully helpful. Women 
whose hair was white when they entered have 
learned to prepare and read essays. One mem- 



ber says she has learned "that a college edu- 
cation is not necessary to prepare a paper." 

There is a Musical Chorus led by one of the 
members. A calling committee looks after the 
sick and absent sisters. ' The club has a library 
of its own which takes the place of the travel-, 
ing library formerly used. 

The first president was Mrs. Katharine Lenta 
Stevenson, then Corresponding Secretary of the 
National W. C. T. U. She was followed by 
Miss M. Emerett Colman, a resident of the Com- 
mons. Mrs. Emily Conant, of Oak Park, a 
prominent member of the Chicago Woman's 
Club, has gi,ven five years of her best efforts. 
Under her leadership the members have in- 
creased to 130. Many helpful features have 
been introduced, and the Club passes into the 
hands of Mrs. Arnold, of Winnetka, full of en- 
thusiasm and in good working order. 

The women say they have been helped by 
this sisterhood to become better wives, mothers 
and home-makers. Some say that but for the 
Club they would not know there was anything 
but toil and trouble. They look at life with 
different eyes; they have learned things they 
had never even thought of till they came to- 
gether in the Club. One writes, "Some of us had 
left homes in small country villages where we 
knew everybody and everybody knew us. We 
came to this large city and found ourselves 
shut up in our homes as if they were jajls. We 
were afraid to speak to our neighbors and our 
neighbors were afraid of us." But by these 
friendly associations heaven, with its eternal 
harmony, is brought near, to bless, brightea 
and give hope to "colorless" lives. 

Life and Light. 

Our lives absorb the freely given light, 

Yet prism-like disperse Its rays; 
For few there are we call the purple born. 

Whose days are ever cloudless days. 

some rest content in pastures that are green. 
While others scenes far distant view. 

Around them, close, the dull black shadows fall 
And keep from sight the good and true. 

Yet find we lives among the favored few 
Not white nor free from all that Is vile; 

While often from some nook quite in the shade 
Come deeds without a trace of guile. 

A life Is good or ill despite Its station- 
Foul thoughts-, wrong acts, or motives dire, 

Of darkness are the true expression. 
Come they from lowly rank or higher. 

— Cornelia Shipman.. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and l^bor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR, 



Editor 



Entered at Cliicayo Postoflice as Secoml-Class JIatter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Comjioxs, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



SO Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



Collective vs. Individual Ethics. 

There can be little doubt but tbat we are now 
in the midst of a great moral conflict in the 
practical administration of the industrial 
world. This conflict is not between higher 
and lower ethics judged by the same, standard 
but a battle for supremacy between two ethical 
standards — the collective and the individual. 

Our industrial system is daily becoming 
more socialized and its growing sanctions are 
those of a collective ethic. It is making new 
demands in the name of whole classes in in- 
dustry and its logic leads to the obliteration of 
all race and national lines, ultimately embrac- 
ing the whole social order within the sanctions 
of an iflternational standard of social moral- 
ity. 

Our political order and heritage of law com- 
ing down from an Individualist age knows 
nothing of this collective ethic and mistrusting 
its purpose, cries out for the suppression of its 
demands by blood and iron in the name of law 
and order, the rights of property, free con- 
tract and the sanctions of civilization for a 
thousand years. 

The extraordinary spectacle is now being 
presented on every hand of honest and earnest 
purposed men clashing to the point of bitter 
denunciation and sometimes violent assault, 
in obedience to the sanctions of these opposing 
codes. 

The storm center for the hour Is the problem 
of the "open shop." For the average citizen of 
the professional and employing classes there is 
no problem admitted in this controversy. It 
Is for such men a clear case in which one party 
Is wholly right and the other wholly wrong. 
The mere suggestion that there may be any 
doubt as to the right of a man to hire who he 
pleases, or to work for whom he will, angers 
many usually quiet and generotis men to the 
point of heated denunciation. What honest 



man can doubt the right of an employer to 
hire any honest and healthy laborer he 
chooses? What citizen of a free Republic can 
question the right of a working man — union or 
non-union— to labor without molestation for his 
daily bread? The right of the individual to do 
what he will with his own — the ancient heri- 
age of free contract — who will dare question? 
Judged by the individual standard of both law 
and morals the case is plain. 

Listen for a moment to the other side. Free 
contract in the individualist sense has not e.xist- 
ed in the industrial world for a generation. 
Free contract is impossible between the in- 
dividual laborer and the superintendent of a 
corporation. The superintendent makes the 
terms, the laborer accepts or starves. The 
freedom of the individual laborer resembles 
that of a cat in a tub on a lake. The cat does 
not have to stay in the tub, it is free to jump 
into the lake. All that the laborers have gain- 
ed for a hundred years has been won by the 
trades unions. That workmen in many trades 
now enjoy a fair wage and more reasonable 
hours of service is due to the struggle and suf- 
fering of countless men, women and children 
loyal to the principle of unionism. Shall we 
now permit men who refuse the social obliga- 
tions of their age — industrial freebooters who 
would enjoy the fruits won by their fellow 
craftsmen, without obedience to the protective 
demands of the union — to take the bread from 
the mouths of our wives and children? Shall 
we let these selfish social and industrial trai- 
tors disorganize our trade and render possible 
at the first breath of an industrial panic, a re- 
turn to the miserable wage and long hours of 
a generation ago? Slowly have we won an 
advance in the standard of wages that makes 
possible better food, better clothes, and more 
schooling for ourselves and our families. Shall 
this personal and communal gain be lost for 
the sake of maintaining ancient individual 
rights which the world has outgrown, and the 
unrestrained exercise of which would pauperize 
our families and injure the whole common- 
wealth, including the industrial freebooter 
himself? Judged by the collective ethic this 
position seems equally self-evident. 

It is not our purpose here to take sides in 
this conflict of ethical standards. What is 
sought is to call attention to moral sanctions 
behind the points of view of the opposing par- 
ties. That equally honest men are bitterly 
divided in opinioji here is the important fact. 
To know and to acknowledge this, to honestly 
meet the just demands of each and to fearless- 



THE COM MONS 



13 



ly resist the excesses of both, is the duty of the 
hour. R. R. 



Improvement Needed in the Health Depart- 
ment. 

The report of the Civil Service Commission 
on the health department investigation shows 
that the community is under deep obligations 
to Hull House for bringing and prosecuting 
the charges against the department. If any 
reform is to take place it will be because the 
people who are interested with Miss Aduams 
in her work are exceptionally gifted with the 
civic spirit and well equipped for organized ef- 
fort. There was little or no help from any 
other source, and this was natural, since prop- 
erty owners are not prone to seek for the en- 
forcement of regulations that may pinch them, 
while the tenants of the congested districts 
are trained by custom to accept their environ- 
ment hopelessly or carelessly. It is clear that 
nothing could have been accomplished with- 
out the interposition of the disinterested third 
party. 

Through that interposition it was proved, 
however, not only that there were revolting 
and flagrant violations of the health ordinances 
which were tolerated by the department, but 
that' the loose methods of the department con- 
tinually invited a disobedience of the law. 
The best-kept records were fragmentary many 
cases never reached the records; stay orders 
procured by the property owner were equiva- 
lent to a final judgment in his favor, the in- 
dividual inspector acted according to his own 
jweet will wUhotit stspervlslon. Hence, owing 
to their general lack of discipline and order, 
the commission arrived at the conclusion that 
"there is either an unintelligent direction of 
the important work of the department or else 
there is an intentional effort to leave the 
records in such an incomplete condition that it 
may be impossible to place the responsibility 
where it belongs." 

The fact is, apparently, that the business 
of the department has been conducted with 
more than the usual slovenliness of the politi- 
cal office, and without any adequate apprecia- 
tion of the superiority of public to private in- 
terests. It is probable, however, that the very 
suggestive hints contained in the report will 
lead to an improvement of methods even if 
there is no change of men. — Editorial, Chicago 
Record Herald. 



"I authorize no bargains [for the presiden- 
cy], and will be bound by none." — Lincoln. 



SETTLEMENT COOPERATION IN EDUCA- 
TION. 

An interesting and important venture toward 
popular technical education' is the establish- 
ment of classes in engineering known as Ar- 
mour Technical Clubs in the various Social Set- 
tlements throughout Chicago. Over 500 stu- 
dents are now enrolled in these clubs. 

Courses have been started at Hull House, 
Gad's Hill, Chicago Commons, Eli Bates House, 
Forward Movement, Association House and the 
Chicago University Settlement. Other settle- 
ments also are arranging for similar classes. 
This line of work as outlined has never before 
been attempted, not because of lack of inter- 
est in technical subjects so much as the want 
of teachers to take hold of the work and make 
it a success. 

Mr. A. E. Yerex, a settlement worker, con- 
ceived the idea and realizing that much good 
would result from the introduction of help- 
ful studies of this kind into the settlements, 
interested Dr. P. W. Gunsaulus, president of 
Armour Institute of Technology, and Mr. R. 
T. Miller, Jr., president of the American School 
of Correspondence. Through these means 
courses in a large number of engineering sub- 
jects have been offered to the young people at 
the settlements by these educational institu- 
tions, the instruction being directed by the 
members of the faculty of Armour Institute of 
Technology. 

The work is in keeping with the broad policy 
conceived by Mr. Armour in founding Armour 
Institute and is happily carried out by the 
"University Extension" work of the Institute. 

A number of large universities, notably the 
University of Chicago, have made this experi- 
ment with respect to other subjects along the 
lines of "university extension" work through 
correspondence and have found it successful, 
but Armour Institute is the first in this coun- 
try to enlist members of its faculty in pro- 
viding correspondence education in engineer- 
ing branches which is accepted at the Insti- 
tute when the student takes up his resident 
work. 

This particular method of teaching was taken 
up about the beginning of the present college 
year, when through an arrangement, between 
the management of Armour Institute and that 
of the American School of Correspondence, In- 
struction could be given advantageously under 
the guidance of the Armour instructors. The 
real value of such an arrangement comes to- 
be appreciated more and more when one stops: 



14 



THE COMMONS 



-to realize that instruction from Armour In- 
stitute through the medium of the American 
School, thus goes to every needy and deserv- 
ing person seelting an engineering education. 
By this arrangement the professors and in- 
structors of engineering of Armour Institute 
constitute a board of instruction, revision and 
examination of the American School and it is 
aimed to mal^e this worl£ co-ordinate with the 
■wer'k. of the resident school. 

It might he well to explain something of 
the manner and method of conducting corre- 
spondence worl:. Unlike the student who en- 
ters a resident course the man talcing up cor- 
respondence work has to pass no entrance ex- 
amination, nor is there any limit in regard to 
age or ability, except that each applicant must 
be able to write and read English and ought 
to be able to devote at least three hours per 
week to his studies. Nothing beyond this is 
taken for granted. Upon being enrolled the 
student receives the first Instruction and ex- 
amination papers, together with full directions 
how to begin work, etc. Immediately upon 
receiving his books (not the ordinary college 
text books, often difficult and technical, but les- 
sons carefully written by skilled teachers with 
a knowledge of the student's needs), he care- 
fully studies the work allotted, and, upon mas- 
tering it, answers the questions and solves the 
problems of the accompanying examination pa- ' 
per, and mails his work to the school. If, how- 
ever, any question arises which he cannot an- 
swer he has recourse to the teacher, whom he 
meets at the various social settlement houses 
on certain evenings, who give him every possi- 
ble aid. The examination is corrected, criticised 
and credited by the members of the faculty of 
Armour Institute and is then returned to the 
student. The resident instructor corrects all 
papers nqt only in regard to facts and figures, 
but in punctuation, capitalization and gram- 
mar, when the student does not happen to be 
well equipped with a knowledge of these sub- 
jects. 

Added to this are many helpful explanations 
and suggestions which the instructor gives 
the student in the same manner as if he were a 
member of his class in the Institute. Indeed, 
the correspondence student actually receives 
more personal attention than in the average 
college; and undoubtedly he makes quite as 
rapid progress in proportion to the number of 
hours spent in study. As an illustration of 
this, a student in a class room will oftentimes 
allow a point to go unexplained owing to reti- 
cence in asking further explanation of a ques- 



tion which has been under discussion. The 
case is different, however, with the correspond- 
ence student; in order that there may be no 
misunderstanding each point is gone over thor- 
oughly and pains are taken to remove every 
possible chance of difficulty in making the ex- 
planation clear. This is done by the school's 
unique blackboard method, by drawings and 
by little side talks showing how the principles 
may be applied to practical work. In this way 
each lesson is a combined text book, lecture 
and blackboard exercise, and thus the student 
is in constant touch with his teacher and re- 
ceives the benefit of personal aid. 

One of the benefits of home study is in cre- 
ating and constantly encouraging the habit of 
careful reading and thinking. It is necessary 
that the student understand every point in his 
text book before he can pass the examination, 
and it has been the experience of those con- 
nected with correspondence work that the stu- 
dents engaged in this line of study are diligent 
and earnest workers, and form habits of study 
which prove invaluable to them when engaged 
in practical work or in residence study. 



SETTLEHENT NOTES. 

Settlements Association Conference. 

The newly-formed Settlements Association 
recently held its first conference in London, 
at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, Tavistock 
Place. Professor Graham Taylor, introduced 
by Mrs. Humphrey Ward and Mr. Percy Alden, 
spoke on "The Relation of the Settlement to 
the City," with special reference to American 
settlements, Hull House and Chicago Commons. 
A reception preceded the lecture, and the fra- 
ternal relations which quickly unite social 
workers throughout the world were in evidence. 
Professor Graham Taylor, with a great deal of 
humor as well as power and earnestness, gave 
a vivid account of the share the Municipal 
Voters' League has had in the raising of the 
standard of municipal and civic morality. 
Hearty applause interrupted his speech and his 
references to different forms of work done at 
Hull House. One of the speakers who followed 
spoke of the inspiration and enthusiasm that 
had been given them by Jane Addams on her 
last visit to England. Both Mr. Percy Alden 
and Mrs. Humphrey Ward referred to the help 
that has come so often from the other side of 
the Atlantic, and Mr. Taylor began his speech 
by tracing the settlement movement in Amer- 
ica to the Initiation of Arnold Toynbee of 



THE COMMONS 



sainted memory, and other originators of settle- 
ment work. 

A CONFEKEXCE OF SOCIAL WORKERS. 

In connection witli tlie newly-formed Settle- 
ments Association, a conference of social work- 
ers from university settlement, college mis- 
sions, etc., is to be held in London in the month 
of June. Professor Graham Taylor of Chicago 
will read a paper on "The Relation of the Set- 
tlements to the City," Mrs. Humphrey Ward 
being in the chair. The Settlements Associa- 
tion, which has been formed by Mr. Percy Al- 
den, is an unobtrusive step in the direction of 
federation long desired by him. 

THE LEAVEX IX NEWARK. 

Preliminary steps have been taken toward 
the establishment of a social settlement in New- 
ark. It is understood that funds for its estab- 
lishment and partial maintenance have been 
promised, and efforts are being made to secure 
a head-worker with the right sort of equipment. 
"With a broad, capable man in charge of such 
work, the Newark public can be educated up to 
a good many reforms," writes Secretary A. W. 
McDougall, of the Newark Bureau of Charities. 
The bureau itself has many philanthropic prob- 
lems on its hands, and the need seems to be for 
a center about which movements for civic and 
social betterment may center. — Charities. 



NOTICE. 

Wanted — An experienced settlement worker 
to take charge of a settlement in a small city. 
N. H. W., Care The Commons. 



The River of Dreams. 

The river of dreams runs silently down 
By a secret way that no one knows; 
But the soul lives on while the dreamtlde 
flows 
Through the gardens bright, or the forests 
brown ; 
And I think sometimes that our whole lite 
seems 
To be more than halt made up of dreams. 

For its changing sights, and its passing shows. 
And its changing hopes, and its midnight 

fears. 
Are left behind with vanished years. 
Onward, with ceaseless motion, 
The life stream flows to the ocean. 
And we follow the tide, awake or asleep, 
Till we see the 'dawn on love's great deep. 
Then the bar at the harbor mouth is crossed. 
And the river of dreams in the sea is lost. 

— Henry Van Dyke. 



Provisional Program of the Seventh Congress 
About Boys. 

To be held in the Auditorium of the Cen- 
tral Department Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation, Chicago, Nov. 4 & 5, 1903. Under the 
auspices of the General Alliance of Workers 
for Boys. 

TOPIC: THE GROIT IX.STIXCT OP BOYS. 
WEDNESDAY EX^EXIXC, NOV. 4. 

President's Address. "A slwdy of Boys To- 
gether," W. B. Forbush. 

TIirRSDAY' MORXIXO, NOV. 5. 

Sub-Topic: The Group Instinct and Its 
Significance. 

I. Origin and Development of the Gang In- 

stinct. 

II. The Street Gang. 

III. Boys' Voluntary Clubs and Societies. 
One hour will be given to each of the above 

topics. Papers will be limited to 20 minutes. 
Discussion will be opened by two speakers, 
each limited to five minutes. 

THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 

The Relation of the Group Instinct to Work 
with Boys in: 

I. Correctional Institutions. 

II. Schools. 

III. Camps and Summer Outings. 

IV. Street Boys' Club and News Boys' 

Homes. 

V. Associations and Settlements. 

VI. The Home and Church. 

Twenty minutes will be allotted for a paper 
on each of the above topics, which will follow 
each other in close succession. An hour for 
discussion will be given after the reading of 
the last paper. The discussion will be opened 
by four speakers, each limited to five minutes. 

THURSDAY EVEXIXG. 

Address: The Gang and Juvenile Crime. 
The Religious Life of Boys. 



"Let none falter who thinks he is right." — 
Lincoln. 

SUMMER COTTAQE FOR RENT. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Seven hours by daily stpamer from Chicago. "Near 
Bliore " Cottage on Lake Michigan shore within easy reach 
of Hlack tjikc Seven rooms, furnished. Double porch on 
iwo sides. Safe, healthful, Interesting iilace for children. 
Terms $150 for season from .lune to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

The Church in Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the International Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Twenty-five cents. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



THE nO.NTH AT CHICAQO COMMONS. 

For the fifth summer the Noyes Street 
Mothers' Club with the help of their friends 
and Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. McCulloch, enter- 
tained most hospitably a large group from our 
neighborhood at the lake-side in North Evans- 
ton. Over three hundred mothers and children 
went by special cars on the Milwaukee & St. 
Paul railroad. Their arrival on the ground 
found swings and hammocks hung, and the 
preparations for the mid-day meal almost com- 
pleted. After romping in the grass and rang- 
ing up and down the lake shore, all enjoyed an 
ample meal and a good rest. A new feature 
this year' that added a great deal of enjoyment 
was the furnishing by the Evanston ladies of 
suits that enabled a large number to go in 
bathing. The large group made the excursion 
without mishap of any kind, and many expres- 
sions of the good time enjoyed were heard.. 
One mother remarked at the lake side: "I 
have been up here once before. It must have 
been five years ago. I was carrying him in 
my arms," pointing to her sturdy boy. She 
spoke with feeling of the good time she had 
had then, the memory of which lasted through 
four years. 



Friends at Milton, Wis., who have other sea- 
sons entertained a group from our locality, are 
entertaining through the last week of July- and 
the month of August, twenty-five children from 
off the crowded streets. Milton is a long ride 
from out of the city and five weeks is a long 
vacation. Those who went last year enjoyed 
this outing thoroughly all the time they were 
away; and the children who go this year are 
counting themselves most fortunate. An at- 
tendant goes with them and remains through 
the five weeks,' the guest of the Milton ladies. 

R. E. T. 



side has broke loose — feel an see what is de 
matter." 



CAMP ITEMS. 

July 24th the last of three groups of-boys re- 
turned from a two weeks outing at Camp Com- 
mons. One hundred and two boys have spent 
their vacation at the camp this season varying 
in ages from 9 to 17 years. Next week the girls 
will take possession for the remainder of the 
Summer. 



A little boy trying to dive into the swimming 
pool in the creek cried out, "My did ye see that 
belly whopper." Then suddenly the little fel- 
low came to the bank saying between sobs, "It 
feels like I got hit wid a brick — something in- 



An Italian lad on being asked what part of 
Italy he came from quickly replied, "Chicago." 

H. F. B. 



A NEED. 

The boy's work at Chicago Commons is be- 
coming hampered for lack of room. Until the 
Men's Club House is built the boy's work will 
suffer if we do not secure larger winter quar- 
ters outside of the present buildings. Adjoin- 
ing the Commons on Grand Ave. is a very suit- 
able store room which can be rented for ?17 per 
month. All last winter a cheap pool room was 
run in this building and some of our own boys 
for lack of room elsewhere have begun to 
spend their evenings there. If some person 
would guarantee the rental of these quarters 
for the winter season, the boy's club could 
raise th,e money to fit up the building and we 
could provide its superintendence and care. 

IIEXRT F. BL'BT. 
DIRECTOB OF BOY'S WORK. 



"This government must be preserved in spite 
of the acts of any man, or set of men." — Lin- 
coln. 

PESTaLOZZI-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 
Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, '903. 

Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 

Practice. A course in home makiog. Industrial 

and Social Development emphasized. Includes 

opportunity to become familiar with Social S-t le- 

ment Work. For circulars and | articiilars address 

BERIHA HOFFR HEQNER. 

Chicago Commons, iSo Grand Ave., Chicago 

THe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life ami Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It Is piiblislieil monthly at riiicago 
Commons, a Suclal Settlement at tiranil Ave. anil Morgan 
St., cnica.sio, III-, ami is entered at the Chicago rostonico as 
mail matter of tlie secoud (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price Is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
Siiilliims, English: i.M francs. French— foreign stamp? ac 
cepted.) I'ostpald to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one adilress for $2.-"-0.. Send check, draft, 1'. O. money order, 
casli or stiimps, nut above 5-ceut denomination^ at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page, $25.00; Halt Page, $15.00; 
Quarter I'age, $8.00; One Inch, $2.00. For each msert ion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Commons. Any 
numhcr under twentv-iive copies, five cents each; oveF 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
one hiindied, two and one half cents each. 
Chanzes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
change of suldress, or of failure to receive the paper within 
a reas.,nahle interval after It Is due. 

Dl.tcontinuances, Please notify ns at once if for anjrreason 
you desire vour subscription discontinued. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscrll)ers, 
we continue The Commons to each address until notlfled 
to thu contrary. 



tMM) 



TKe Comxnons 

A ATonthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Ldibor from the Settlement I*oiut of View. 



Number 86 -Vol. VIII 



Eigtath Year 



Chicago, September, 1903 



MY COUNTRY. 

ROBT. WIIITTAKEK, SAX FKANCISCO " STAK ' 

My country Is the world; I count 
No son of man my foe, 

Whether the warm life-currents mount 

And mantle brows like snow, 
Or red or yellow, brown or black. 
The face that into mine looks back. 

My native land is Mother Earth, 

And all men are my kin. 
Whether of rude or gentle birth. 

However steeped in sin; 
Or rich or poor, or great or small, 
I count them bpothers, one and all. 

My flag is the star-spangled sky. 

Woven without a seam. 
Where dawn and sunset colors lie, 

Fair as an angel's dream, 
The flag that still, unstained, untorn. 
Floats over all of mortal born. 

My party is all human-kind, 

My platform, brotherhood; 
I count all men of honest mind 

Who work for human good, 
And for the hope that gleams afar. 
My comrades in this holy war. 

My heroes are the great and good 

Of every age and clime, 
Too often mocked, misunderstood. 

And murdered in their time. 
But spite of ignorance and hate 
Known and exalted soon or late. 

My country is the world; I scorn 

No lesser love than mine. 
But calmly wait that happy morn 

When all shall own this sign. 
And love of country, as of clan. 
Shall yield to world-wide love of man. 



THE MEN OF THE LODQINQ HOUSES. 

To a fortunate few in the world of work 
comes the opportunity to choose the kind of 
work they would do, or for which they are 
best fitted. As against these few there are 
thousands who must take not the work of their 
choice but what they are fortunate enough to 
find and are able to do. 

For the common laborer, so-called, the un- 
skilled workman, proving his right to exist- 
ence by tolling with his hands, the world of- 



fers but a precarious, uncertain living. In the 
great industrial centers, even in summer time, 
the supply of unskilled labor Is in excess of 
the demand. During the winter months the 
cities harbor a great floating population that 
breaks up and melts away with the coming of 
spring. Where they all disappear with the 
coming of the warmer months is an open ques- 
tion. A certain per cent are absorbed in the 
awakened activities of spring work in the city; 
these as a rule are the most active physically 
and the least inclined to beg or continue to 
exist on charity, and as a class the most enam- 
ored of city life and the attractions it offers. 
They take the first job that comes to hand, 
whether for a day or a week, or a month, liv- 
ing in the hope of striking it "steady." An- 
other, and probably a larger per cent, take to 
the road as soon as the weather permits of trav- 
eling in comfort. Some of the men of this 
class are the true Hobo of the road, possessed 
of the wanderlust, who scorn work of all kinds, 
and travel for the sake of seeing the country 
and the excitement of constant change of en- 
vironment. From this class comes the back 
door, food begging, freight train riding tramp 
and social parasite. Others of those who leave 
the city with the coming of spring are the ones 
who go honestly forth in search of employment 
on the farms of Illinois, Iowa and the middle 
west. The work of getting the crops in the 
ground may be over before he finds steady em- 
ployment for the summer, but he usually has 
no difficulty about this, for the farmer is anx- 
ious to secure his help before the rush of the 
work begins. The "hurry" season is marked 
usually from the time of the coming up of the 
corn, the last of May, varying somewhat with 
the different sections of the country. After the 
preliminary harrowing the corn must be 
plowed through two, three and if possible four 
times before it gets too big and has to be "laid 
by" for the summer; as a rule this Is soon 
after the "Fourth." Haymaking and the har- 
vesting of the early grains, rye, barley 'and win- 
ter wheat, come almost simultaneously; oats 
fortunately ripen later, but the farmer Is kept 
busy with all these until well into August, 



2 



THE COM MONS 
* 



■when farm work as a rule "lets up," and the 
farmer has leisure to attend to the repairing 
of fences and the making of a little late hay. 
He can then dispense with his "extra hands," 
who not infrequently go to the wheat fields of 
the Dakotas, by this time ready for harvest, 
and from there, if he is industrious, he will, 
not infrequently, go to the lumber camps of 
Michigan, Wisconsin or even Canada, return- 
ing in the late fall to Illinois or Iowa for the 
husking of com, and back to the city again 
by the holidays, whither has come already his 
prodigal brother from his tour of the smaller 
towns. Few of these men who have toiled hard 
all summer are able to save enough to keep 
them through the winter; their earnings are 
filched from them in drinking, gambling and 
carousing, and long before the winter is over 
they are either objects of charity, or else en- 
tirely dependent upon chance jobs. 

, THE UNDERTOW. 

Throughout the long winter they live as it 
were from hand to mouth, able perhaps to find 
work one or two days out of each week, earn- 
ing barely enough to pay for the cheap 10- 
cent or 15-cent bed in a lodging house, and the 
even cheaper food which, while it fills the stom- 
ach, falls to nourish the body, and they wel- 
come the coming of spring that heralds the re- 
turn to work and the healing influence of the 
country. Hard work, with clean air and whole- 
some food, brings renewed health and strength, 
but another winter leaves them in worse con- 
dition than the preceding spring, and at last 
comes a springtime that finds them disinclined 
to leave the city for the work of the country; 
they stay to take their chance with other worn- 
out veterans of the road, at the occasional jobs 
of house and yard cleaning; this point marks 
the beginning of the end. The cheap food and 
vile liquor continue their work of destruction. 
Drunken sprees are more frequent, the recov- 
ery slower, until sooner or later the end comes 
-while on one of the periodical drunks, or else 
more slowly, a wasting disease completing its 
course at the County Hospital. 

Added to the demoralizations of the life they 
lead, during each winter, is the growing fas- 
cination that becomes fixed upon their minds 
for the attractions of the city. The stimulus 
of the crowd, the companionship found on the 
street corners and in the saloons, the sensuous ' 
music of the low vaudeville and music halls, 
with their coarse jokes and ribald songs— these 
have become a part of their life — the country 
has lost its charm, and they are content hence- 



forth to drag out an existence amid the human 
offal of the great city. 

THE LAST RALLY. 

The last legitimate work that many of these 
men seek, as the downward path grows steep- 
er, is that of deck hand on the lines of lake 
freighters; the loading and unloading of these 
carriers of the great inter-lake commerce. They 
will complain bitterly of its hardships, but 
driven by want they return to it again and 
again, until it is in the main their only means 
of support. During the winter just passed, 
these shipping companies were constantly tele- 
phoning to the Chicago Municipal Lodging 
House for laborers, leaving a standing order, 
that any men who would take the work should 
be sent to the warehouses and they would be 
employed at once. Many of the lodgers who 
sought the accommodations offered at the Mu- 
nicipal Lodging House, had worked on the 
boats, and when told of this call for men would 
'have none of it, stating very briefly and em- 
phatically their objections. Driven to it some 
would accept the job, but they were back again 
in a few days, with tales of poor food, vermin 
infested, comfortless bunks, and long hours. 
Their stories seemed exaggerated to me, and I 
determined at the earliest opportunity to inves- 
tigate and satisfy myself as to their truth. 

THE STORY OF A DECKHAND. 

One morning early in May, with a letter of 
introduction from the Superintendent of the 
Chicago Municipal Lodging House, I applied at 
the warehouse of one of the freight lines run- 
ning between Chicago, Racine and Milwaukee. 
The foreman merely glanced at the note I bore, 
then said, "Get a truck and go to hauling out 
that freight." My rough clothing, unshaven 
beard and general seedy appearance were suf- 
ficient disguise; he scarcely looked at me when 
I proffered my request, though I was fearful 
of recognition, having talked with him a num- 
ber of times when I had brought grangs of men 
down from the lodging house during the win- 
ter. The boat was to be unloaded that day, 
reloaded and return that night to Milwaukee, 
stopping to discharge and take on freight at 
Racine. The freight deck of that boat held a 
cargo perfectly inconceivable to me. Sixteen 
men beside myself were engaged in getting out 
that freight, most of us using great trucks, 
weighing from 150 to 200 pounds. Just out of 
curiosity I weighed mine, and when there was 
added to that, big boxes and barrels, weighing 
anywhere from 300 to 800 pounds, it made a 



THE COMMONS 



very good load for men with muscles much 
stronger than were mine. It was 7 in the 
morning when we started to work; we stopped 
at 12 for dinner, work being resumed again at 
1 o'clock. The dinner was an episode. From 
the little cubbyhole of a kitchen the cook's 
helper brought out a great pan containing a 
beef stew and gravy, a pan of potatoes boiled 
in the jackets, and a second stew of cabbage, 
carrots and parsnips; loaves of bread, already 
sliced, were arranged on a shelf. We took tin 
plates. Iron knives and forks and tin cups from 
racks, and then ate where we saw fit. There 
was no dining room nor table. The men sat 
on the freight still piled around. I was for- 
tunate enough to confiscate a soap box that 
answered every purpose of chair and table. 
The food itself, sufficient in quantity, was poor- 
ly cooked; the meat of unmitigated toughness, 
and inclined much t-o gristle; the vegetables 
had evidently seen better days; then there was" 
coffee, or tea, I am not sure which; possibly 
they made coffee in that pot for breakfast and 
had forgotten to throw out the grounds; It 
tasted too much like either one for me to dif- 
ferentiate, and for dessert there was a badly 
scorched, underdone pan of sago pudding, to 
which had been added, whether for flavoring, 
or to disguise the burnt taste, a gelatin-like 
substance called, for courtesy's sake, "jelly." 
I ate because I was half-famished, but I did 
not eat the pudding. 

The work of the morning had given me no 
opportunity for conversation with my mates, 
but, full fed, they turned to the comfort of to- 
bacco and were inclined to be social, and con- 
versation once started all joined in. Some had 
evidently worked together before on the boats; 
only one man, beside myself, was a stranger to 
the work. No one told the tragedy that brought 
him to that kind of a life, some subtle under- 
standing seemed to say what words would have 
failed to do, that they had all traveled over the 
same road. They said what they thought of 
the boat and its officers, of the bunks, of which 
I was to know more later, in which they were 
expected to sleep, of the food they were forced 
to eat, the long hours, broken sleep ^nd miserly 
pay. The talk shifted to town and the familiar 
scenes of the city. The saloon and its victims; 
they spoke almost feelingly of companions who 
had gone down into the dark valley. Not the 
drinking was to blame, but the awful whiskey, 
liquid fire, they called it, that had been the 
direct cause of their "finish." "They get you 
beastly drunk and then kick you out," was one 
of the comments; brutal beatings were told 



about at the hands of bartenders and saloon 
thugs. It was a vivid picture of their life 
ashore; I no longer wondered at the scars of 
knife and club that nearly all wore on head or 
face or neck. One young fellow sitting next 
to me said his old man (referring to his fa- 
ther) had died the previous year, and that he 
got 1850, and while it lasted he lived high. The 
cheerful optimist of the crowd was a big, 
brawny Irishman, over six feet tall and broad 
In proportion. At dinner he had eaten but lit- 
tle, but drank several cups of the tea-coffee 
mixture. He told me he was just getting over 
,a three weeks' spree and couldn't eat; his stom- 
ach had "gin out," and he was going to stick 
to the lakes until he got over it. He was rem- 
iniscent with song. One that seemed fixed most 
firmly in his mind dwelt on some future era, 
when "Hinky Dink is Mayor," when the "rich 
would all have to walk, and the bums all get 
free rides." There were also free drinks in 
this miscellany, for "de bums." 

All the afternoon we hurried the great piles 
of freight from the warehouse into the boat, 
stopping for a half hour at 6 to eat supper, 
and then on again until after 8 o'clock before 
the last piece was stored away and the boat 
cast off her lines and started on her trip across 
the lake. Long before night every muscle in 
my body was aching and the starting of the 
boat brought to me welcome relief. I asked 
one of the men, who was moving some sacks 
to afford him a comfortable bed, where the 
bunks were; he looked at me for an instant as 
he replied, "In the Focs'le, but I reckon you 
won't want to sleep with them." I had heard 
of "them" before, but I wanted to see for my- 
self. I crawled down a damp and slimy ladder 
into the "Focs'le," below the freight deck, a 
triangular-shaped room, in the immediate bow 
of the boat; around its three sides were ar- 
ranged two tiers of shelf like bunks, fitted with 
what might have been once the semblance of 
mattresses; no quilts, blankets or pillows, only 
the indescribably filthy mattress in each bunk. 
I touched its greasy, dirt-sodden covering; It 
was damp, with the gathered moisture of a 
room that never receives sunlight, and is en- 
tered only by a trap door overhead. I held a 
match to the Interior of a bunk — the vermin 
crawled everywhere. I climbed back to the 
deck again to find such comfort as I might on 
top of the piledup freight, sick at heart that 
human beings should compel other human be- 
ings to seek such a foul place in which to find 
rest. 

At midnight we were awakened. The lights 



THE COMMONS 



of Racine were in view. A luncli of hot coffee, 
bread and butter and cold meat awaited us, 
and then for nearly three hours we hauled 
freight in and out of the warehouse before we 
were ready to continue on our way to Milwau- 
kee. Once more under way the men weire too 
wide awake to sleep the remaining hours of 
the trip, and sat or reclined on the piled-up 
freight and talked until called to breakfast 
The talk turned on the cities, Chicago, St. 
Louis, and some had been as far as New York; 
one or two to San Francisco. But "Chi" was 
the favorite theme. Halsted street. South 
State and West Madison were the familiar sec- 
tions. The saloon of a well-known alderman, 
on Van Buren street, was frequently referred 
to, and the quality of the liquor served to the 
"bum" was condemned in a way that left little 
doubt as to the sincerity with which they 
spoke. "The rottenest booze in town" was the 
mildest epithet it received; the rest is unprint- 
able. 

They talked of the Municipal Lodging House, 
and the views expressed were exceedingly in- 
teresting. They conceded its cleanliness, con- 
demned the compulsory baths, the meager fare, 
the red tape and the strict questioning of the 
Registrar as to their life and habits. Their 
brief comment that the Superintendent was a 
"wise guy," was their concession to the fact 
that the place could not be worked for an easy 
"graft." 

At Milwaukee there Is a heavy up-grade from 
the boat to the floor of the warehouse, and I 
soon found that the work of the day before 
would be play as compared with what this was 
to be; unused muscles sent up an indignant 
protest against the demands made upon them, 
and it took all the nerve I could muster to 
keep at the work. Dinner was a repetition of 
the day before, without the scorched pudding. 
Our boat was loaded and ready to start on the 
return trip at 8. We were at Racine by 11, 
and away from there by 1 o'clock, Saturday 
night the freight for Chicago being light. I 
found a huge gunny sack filled with wool hair, 
which. In spite of its dirt and the possibility 
of its being vermin Infested, I chose for my 
bed, and the finest pillow that ever my head 
rested on brought not one-half the balm to a 
weary body as did this old sack. I slept until 
we were within the outer breakwater, then ate 
a hurried breakfast and as soon as the boat 
made fast, told the first mate I was through 
and ready to quit. He directed me to the 
purser and two of my companions joined me 
as I sought his office. We passed oft the boat 



together. For the two days', and for that mat- 
ter, two nights' work, I drew $1.20. My com- 
panions, having made the trip twice, were en- 
titled to twice that amount. One of them, a 
fine-looking fellow, about thirty years old, ac- 
companied me across the river to the city prop- 
er, telling his story as we walked. Drink. The 
one word told the tale. He was a cabinet- 
maker, a finisher of mahogany and the finest 
hard woods. A few social glasses had sent him 
on a spree lasting for several weeks; sober, but 
his money all spent, he had gone on the boat 
to steady his nerves, and, perhaps by hard 
work win back his self-respect. It was the last 
time, henceforth he was going to "stick to the 
water cart." Did he? I have often wondered. 
He told me his name as we parted, and I have 
thought of him many times, and looked for his 
face in the hurrying crowds of the city streets, 
but we have never met since parting that Sun- 
day morning. 

I had gained the information I sought as to 
the truth of the things they had told me across 
the desk at the Chicago Municipal Lodging 
House. I had found for myself that the food 
was unfit to eat, poor in quality and but half 
cooked; that the place provided for the men to 
sleep in was unhygienic, and filthy beyond de- 
scription with dirt and vermin; not unlike con- 
ditions told in tales of medieval dungeons, or, 
more aptly, Dickens' description of the Fleet 
prisons. The hours of sleep were broken into 
in the dead of night, when after the hard work 
of the day the men should be sleeping sound- 
est; and even at the best they could not get 
over three or four hours of actual sleep, a life 
that no man can stand for more than a few 
weeks and continue in health and bodily 
strength. The men who follow this life more 
or less continuously are practically at the bot- 
tom of the scale in the world of work. They 
are the played-out engines on the great road of 
life. No longer capable of running on the main 
line they are shoved to one side to push and 
haul where men command. They are "all in," 
their life work done; for them there awaits 
only the scrap pile of life's wrecks, and then 
what? Who knows? 

SOME SUGGESTIONS. 

The pity of it is that this condition is reme- 
dial, but no attempt is made to improve it. The 
food could be better at a cost almost minimal. 
The hours so changed that sleep sufficient 
could be had by each one. And above all else, 
clean comfortable .beds, and a place to wash 
and be self respecting provided. But dividend 



THE COM MONS 



hunting boat owners are looking not for men, 
but machines. The principle is that it is 
cheaper to hire wrecks and work them to 
death than to pay for a man and have to treat 
him as such. 

As our civilization grows with years, we will 
arrive at different standards for farming. 
There Is much wasted land on the farms of this 
great middle west, that conservative farming 
will some day utilize. Large crops that now 
spread over many acres will give way to better 
crops on a much smaller acreage. The lax, 
open-handed methods of farming will yield be- 
fore scientific methods, and methods that will 
require men not two and three, or at best four 
and five months a year, but the year round. 

In the city there are things that demand not 
evolution, but revolution; not reforming, but 
weeding out, evils that have grown worse not 
better with the years. One of the worst of 
these evils Is the saloon-restaurant, that offers 
free food with the price of a drink. Either the 
food or the liquor or both are unfit for con- 
sumption, or else they would not be offered for 
the price of one. 

The music hall attached to the saloons charge 
no admission for the entertainment; It is pro- 
vided by girls, who, their part in the cheap 
vaudeville through with, join the men seated 
at the tables and Induce them to buy the drinks 
at exorbitant prices, for from the proceeds of 
every drink bought in their company they re- 
receive 10 per cent. Hardly could a worse con- 
dition be conceived either for the victim who 
pays for the drinks or for the one who makes 
a human sewer of herself for the sake of the 
percentage she wins. 

The cheap lodging house is a fitting counter- 
part to the noisome forecastle of the boat. Ill 
ventilated, if at all; the beds in many of the 
places supplied with blankets that go un- 
changed through a whole season, reeking with 
vermin year in and year out. Here for ten 
and fifteen cents the homeless men of the street 
find shelter, breathing over and over the poison- 
laden air; too often sodden with drink and un- 
mindful of the attacks of vermin that swarm 
the bed. Sanitary regulations that will either 
clean these places, or clean them out, should 
be enforced. 

The saloon and the lodging house do not 
stand alone in their deteriorating effect upon 
the morals and health of the great floating pop- 
ulation of the city each winter. The cheap 
restaurants provide food, attractive in name, 
and generous in quantity, but wholly unfit for 
use as nourishment. A proper inspection and 



due regulation of the sale of meats and vege- 
tables would mean much to the health of those 
dependent upon the cheaper restaurants for 
their dally meals. 

If a carefully-organized and thoroughly-sys- 
tematized labor agency could be developed that 
would be in touch with both those seeking em- 
ployment and those desiring to employ manual 
laborers, it would be a worthy undertaking, 
and help in a great measure the solution of the 
problem of those who wander up and down the 
streets of Chicago through the bitter winter 
days in a vain search for work. The failure of 
the State Employment Bureau to meet this de- 
mand is an evidence of the need of an effective 
agency. The report of the Chicago Municipal 
Lodging House for the past year Is convincing 
proof of what can be done. Out of a total of 
11,097 lodgers accommodated, of whom 7,509 
were unskilled laborers, 2,397 were sent to paid 
employment. If this recently organized depart- 
ment of the police service was enabled to find 
employment for over 20 per cent of those it 
accommodated, surely an organization that 
had for its work this one thing, could accom- 
plish much more. 

The active enforcement of the vagrancy law, 
prohibiting begging and mendicacy on the 
streets of Chicago, would bring about a marked 
change in the personnel of the floating popula- 
tion, and at the same time relieve the citizens 
from the importunity of beggar and pauper. 

0. D. Wescott. 
Hull House, Chicago. 



To-day is your day and mine, the only day 
we have, the day in which we play our part. 
What our part may signify in the great whole 
we may not understand, but we are here to 
play it, and now Is our time. This we know; 
it is a part of action, not of whining. It is a 
part of love, not cynicism. It Is for us to ex- 
press love in terms of human helpfulness. This 
we know, for we have learned from sad experi- 
ence that any other course of life leads toward 
decay and waste. 

— David Starr Jordan. 



Why should a man care about things? About 
all sorts of houses and furniture and pictures 
and clothes and jewels? I can understand a 
man caring about love and joy and aspiration. 
But things! I can understand a child's caring 
about things, or a fool's caring; I see millions 
of such! But an artist? A thinker? A Man? 
— From "The Journal of Arthur Stirling." 



THE COM M ONS 



THE SOCIAL PRICE. 

BY ETHELBBST STEWABT. 

If the price paid by the individual consumer 
of a commodity was the full and only price at- 
taching to it, society could strike a balance- 
sheet each night like a bank. Unfortunately, 
too much of our production and commerce adds 
to the output an intangible social expense not 
carried to the price-lists nor paid by the con- 
sumer. Years, and sometimes generations, may 
pass before this running account against the 
Social Whole is presented for payment in a tan- 
gible form. Even then it comes through a col- 
lection agency so remote from the source of 
the original expense that society is likely to 
forget all about it, grudgingly pay the bill it 
does not believe it owes, and charge it up to 
incidentals. 

Most of our taxes go to pay the social price 
of commodities individually consumed long 
.since by those who may or may not now be tax- 
payers. This was palpable when, under the 
Poor Laws of England, the wages of laborers 
were deliberately reduced by manufacturers 
and farmers alike, so that general taxation 
might be compelled to pay in poor-rates a part 
of the cost of production of all commodities. 
Social price is very apparent when Congress 
pays the sugar-producers two cents a pound 
bounty out of the Federal treasury, leaving the 
individual consumer to pay a first installment 
and take the goods. It is Just as real though 
not so apparent when child-labor and old-age 
limits to employment throw upon society 
droves of morally and physically mal-developed 
adults, and still greater droves of practically 
blacklisted persons charged with the new 
crime of having gray hairs. 

"Squeeze the lemon and throw away the 
skin" was said to be the motto of the railroad 
wreckers of the Erie school. When the famous 
engine 999 of the Empire State Express was 
made a switch-engine after six years of record- 
breaking service, the general surprise called 
out an interview with an American railroad 
manager. He said that while English and Ger- 
man roads coddled and repaired their engines, 
keeping them in service sometimes for forty 
years, and as "switchers" for twenty more, the 
American plan is to "hammer the road life out 
of an engine in five or six years, use it as a 
switcher for five or ten more, and then scrap- 
iron the whole engine at once. We believe it 
pays better." 

At a recent milk-dairymen's convention the 
policy of milking cows to death in the shortest 



possible time was discussed from a purely busi- 
ness point of view. It was claimed that by 
means of milk-producing foods the quantity 
could be trebled. To the objection that such 
milk-forcing shortened the life of the cow. It 
was replied: "It does not pay to look to long 
life for a milker. If the life energies of a cow 
represent one hundred units of milk, and these 
can be marketed in five years under high-pres- 
sure feeding, why should the cow be kept ten 
years? If the milking possibilities of a cow 
can be gotten out of her in three years, it does 
not pay to keep her five." 

With lemon-peels and engines society need 
not concern itself, nor will we sentimentalize 
over the application of humane ideas to milch 
cows; but when the economic doctrine embod- 
ied in these three illustrations is applied to 
men, society has much to do with human en- 
gines sent to an early scrap-pile. The "age- 
limit to employment" is now practically univer- 
sal, and ranges from twenty-five to thirty-five 
years. Most concerns prefer to employ youths 
of twenty years when taking on new help. "Old 
men cannot stand the pace," says the employer, 
but neglects to add that a pace in any industry 
which a man of forty is too old to stand is one 
that puts a large element of social price in the 
product. Where the "premium plan" of in- 
creasing the pace has been adopted, it too fre- 
quently, though happily not always, happens 
that workmen who do not earn premiums are 
discharged. In reducing the number of em- 
ployees, those who do not earn premiums or 
bonuses are always the first to go. A conven- 
tion of bankers, ministers and university presi- 
dents is called for Chicago to discuss the oppo- 
sition to piece-work in the Machinists' Interna- 
tional Union. Piece-work is the lemon squeezer 
of most approved pattern. It is believed to be 
the quickest way to "hammer the life out of 
a human engine and scrap-pile it all at once." 
It is the foundation of sweatshopism. 

Taking the ages of gangs of men employed 
at street-cleaning and park labor in various cit- 
ies recently, it was found that only three per 
cent were young enough or physically strong 
enough to obtain employment in private estab- 
lishments. Most of these men would have to be 
supported out of the public funds directly if 
they were not employed by the public on public 
work. If half their wages represents charity 
disguised, it is in reality the social price of 
commodities produced by them years ago "at 
a pace old men cannot stand." After all, is it 
charity to the old men that we are giving in 
our street departments and old people's homes. 



THE COM MONS 



or is it subsidies to the "cheap commodities 
and high profits" mania with which we are fool- 
ing ourselves? The shoplifting which as "bar- 
gain-hunting" "lifts" only the social price, 
proudly paying the "marked down" one, is un- 
consciously perhaps, second cousin to the shop- 
lifting which takes all. Public or private -con- 
tracts let to the "lowest bidder" merely post- 
pone to a future day to be paid as social price 
the difference between the lowest and the fair- 
est bidder. Especially is it disastrous when ar- 
ticles of export are endowed with a large ele- 
ment of social price. 

The glass bottle manufacturers appeared be- 
fore the Illinois Legislature in opposition to a 
child labor bill with the statement that "glass 
bottles cannot be manufactured and sold on the 
market without child labor." Possibly the so- 
cial price of glass bottles exceeds the net price 
to consumers. Silk from silk-mills "utilizing 
the labor" of children in the anthracite fields, 
and sold by child clerks in department stores 
where "cash girls" run for change and bundles, 
may accumulate a social price on the way that 
might render boycotts moral. Reform schools, 
houses of rescue, penitentiaries, are some of 
the large ways in which we pay the social price; 
night schools, social settlements, fresh-air funds, 
indicate some of the smaller ways. As inti- 
mated above, the circumlocution of the collec- 
tion agency frequently obscures the origin of 
the debt. Half of our drunkenness, most of 
our social vice, much of the insanity, and all 
the general letting down of social status in 
mining and manufacturing centers will be 
charged to social price when the tangles in our 
bookkeeping are straightened out. The Federal 
pension-roll convinces even political economists 
that we are still paying for the war of genera- 
tions ago; but their blindness to pension-rolls, 
growing out of their pet economic fetich of 
competitive industry and commerce, is hopeless. 
If profit and price could be net and actual in 
each transaction, society could afford to wait 
until these Kilkenny cats were gone and the 
last echo of their expiring yells had died away. 
But what profit cannot unload upon price, or 
price snatch away from profit, is by both 
dumped upon society and forms the Social 
Price. Before the days of political economy the 
Hanseatic League was obliged to include the 
cost of its navy in the selling price of its goods. 

Old-age workingmen's pensions, a plan to 
which every commercial country must come In 
some form, are, in any form, a subsidy to non- 
self-supporting industries and the commerce 
growing out of such. In countries where old- 



age pension laws have been boldly and openly 
passed as such, they serve to show in bold re- 
lief the element of social price attaching to our 
system. But we in America will probably keep 
on doing things by indirection, put our old men 
on street-cleaning gangs, and growl at the cost 
of public work. It serves to disguise the real 
cause of the trouble, and as a Chinaman would 
say, it "saves our face." — From The Chicago 
Socialist. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEiaHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fob thf. Association by 

Maby Kingsbuby Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



A city garden for city children. 

At the foot of 53d street, in one of the most 
neglected tenement house districts in the city, 
there is being carried on a most interesting 
experiment in social Improvement. Near the 
water's edge are several acres condemned some 
time ago for a park, but occupied In part now 
by a farm garden. This land is divided into 
about two hundred plots, which are farmed 
by the children of the neighborhood. Here, 
while the fresh breezes from the river blow 
over the open, boys and girls dig, weed, rake 
and talk over crops. It is a delightful set of 
little workers and a free, clean occupation 
that is almost strange in this particular com- 
munity. But this is not all. Close by the 
garden is a little cottage of one room, a kitchen 
with dishes and utensils for the little house- 
wives. Here they learn cooking and serving, 
and often prepare lunches and teas to be served 
to the mothers in the adjoining pavilion. Two 
girls are taken each day from the list of house- 
keeper pupils and this experience in the cun- 
ning little house is enough to take any little 
girl's fancy. 

Of course there is a mover and a motive be- 
hind all this, and the mover is Mrs. Parsons. 
She is always about the place, her voice carry- 
ing directions and encouragement to the little 
farmers, and withal supplying the spirit with- 
out which there can be neither institution nor 
home. Mrs. Parsons began this with the par- 
tial co-operation of the city departments, but 
the work is hers from beginning to end. The 
transportation of the soil, the building of pa- 
vilion and kitchen and the regulation of the 
farmers and housewives are all Mrs. Parsons' 
own ideas. The whole scheme represents a 



8 



THE COMMONS 



return to nature, a reaction from the evil so- 
phistication of tenement house life and the 
opportunity for play of the most healthful and 
exhilarating sort. 



In a recent issue of Charities, Mrs. Florence 
Kelly, secretary of the National Consumers' 
League, presents an informing analysis of child 
illiteracy as revealed by the census of 1900. 
There are 579,947 such children in the United 
States between the ages of ten and fourteen, 
and of these 20,775 are in the six great "pro- 
gressive" and industrial States referred to, as 
follows: Massachusetts, 1,547; Ohio, 2,049; 
New Jersey, 2,069; Illinois, 5,044; New York, 
4,740; Pennsylvania, 6,326; total, 20,775. 

The largest contributions to the total come 
from the cotton manufacturing States of the 
South, as follows: Alabama, 66,072; Georgia, 
63,329; Louisiana, 55,691; South Carolina, 51,- 
536; North Carolina, 51,190; Mississippi, 44,- 
334; Tennessee, 36,375; Texas, 35,491; Virginia, 
34,612; Arkansas, 26,972; Kentucky, 21,247, and 
Missouri, 11,660. Indian Territory surpasses 
Missouri, with 12,172. 



You will hear every day the maxims of a 
low prudence. You will hear that the first 
duty is to get land and money, place and name. 
"What is this Truth you seek? What is thip 
Beauty?" men will, ask, with derision. If, 
nevertheless, God have called any of you to 
explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be 
true. When you shall say, "As others do, so 
will I; I renounce, I am sorry fqr it, my early 
visions; I must eat the good of the land and 
let learning and romantic expectations go, 
until a more convenient season" — then dies 
the man in you ; then once more perish the 
buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they 
have died already in a thousand thousand men. 
The hour of that choice is the crisis of your 
history, and see that you hold yourself fast by 
the intellect. . . . Why should you renounce 
your right to traverse the starlit deserts of 
truth, for the premature comforts of an acre, 
house, and barn? Truth also has its roof, and 
bed, and board. Make yourself necessary to 
the world, and mankind will give you bread, 
and if not store of it, yet such as shall not 
take away your property in all men's posses- 
sions, in art, in nature, and in hope. 

— Emerson. 



It is difficult to be emphatic when no one is 
emphatic on the other side. 



COLLEQE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Co.man, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chauwick Rand Thayer 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East £5th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Susan E. Footb, Port Henry, 
New York. 

standing committee on sub-chapters. 

Chairman: Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

local committees. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia— Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

settlements. 
New York City — 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphla-483 Christian Street. 
Boston— 93 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



THE MARYLA^D CAiWP FOR BOYS. 

"Boy nature is full of crooks, and you never 
know when you're coming up against one un- 
less you've been there yourself," said John 
Mann, "but they're easy enough to manage 
when you know them through and through." 
John Mann is a striking exponent of his own 
theory. When twelve years of age, he ran 
away from home because he could not get on 
with his school teacher. He had the reputation 
of being a bad boy, but cherished moral stand- 
ards of his own none the less. He was willing 
to take a whipping when he had done wrong, 
but nagging and undue chastisement he re- 
solved not to endure. When these things were 
impending, he played truant. When threat- 
ened with the reform school he ran away from 
home. He trudged all the way to Newport, 
went down to the wharf and watched his 
chance to jump aboard a steamer bound for 
New York. The little stowaway was roughly 
handled by the ship's officers, and once on 
shore ran plumb into a policeman, who cud- 
gelled him "on general principles;" but some 
one had tossed him a nickel, and he fell In 
with a gang of friendly newsboys, who gave 
him sound advice as to his first business ven- 
ture. Selling the Daily News proved to be a 



THE COMM ONS 



9 



profitable employment, and the boy was In a 
fair way to earn his living when he inadver- 
tently trespassed on the territory pre-empted 
by a hostile gang. He was driven from the 
field, and barely escaped bodily hurt by jump- 
ing onto a moving freight car. It was a Dela- 
ware and Hudson train, and it carried him to 
Albany. The brakemen bought his papers and 
gave him food. 

Greatly encouraged by his success in coping 
with the great world, he set out for California. 
Walking sometimes, sometimes stealing a ride 
on a west-bound train, selling papers, peddling 
fruit, begging food when he had no money, 
this twelve -year -old made his way to Buffalo, 
where he saw Niagara Falls more thoroughly 
than most tourists, and to St. Louis, where he 
was temporarily adopted by some private de- 
tectives, who used the child as a blind. Then 
to Denver, where he served as water 
boy for parties of prospectors and got 
a taste of camp life. Finally he set out to 
cross the mountains. On the train from Og- 
den to Corinne was a party of Cherokee braves 
returning from an embassy to Washington. 
The old Chief Lone Knife saw that the boy had 
no ticket and heard the conductor order him 
to get off at the next stop. Through the in- 
terpreter in charge of the party he questioned 
him and finally offered to adopt him as a son. 
The proposition was eagerly accepted. No bet- 
ter luck could have offered itself to the ad- 
venturous boy. Lone Knife tucked his charge 
away under his blanket, and the conductor was 
never the wiser. Arrived at Corinne, the In- 
dians overruled the interpreter's objections, re- 
fusing to return to the reservation without 
their protege. 

So John Mann spent some years among the 
Cherokees as the adopted son of Long Knife. 
He learned their language, lived their life and 
came to understand their attitude toward the 
whites. As interpreter and go-between, he was 
able to render valuable services to both parties, 
averting many a bloody feud by tactful nego- 
tiations. Finally word was brought him that 
iis mother was on her deathbed. He returned 
to Boston in time to comfort her last days. 
Once in touch to civilization, the wild life grew 
•distasteful to him. He fell in love with a 
former schoolmate, married, and settled down 
to the business of junk-dealer. 

An anti-climax this? Not in John Mann's 
•case; for he has a larger business — the care of 
rough, ventursome, tempted city boys. He is 
responsible for several of the Denison House 



Clubs and is full of ingenious devices for di- 
recting youthful energies into wholesome chan- 
nels. His great opportunity, however, is the 
summer outing. 

At Wayland, on the Sudbury River, an ideal 
camping ground has been placed at the dis- 
position of the boys' clubs of Boston. Deni- 
son House sent fifty boys this summer in 
charge qf Mr. Mann. Life in camp is as in- 
formal as may be. The big boys get into 
sneakers and sweaters, the little fellows con- 
tent themselves with jumpers and bare feet. 
What with bathing in Baldwin's pond and fish- 
ing in the river, there is plenty to do. There is 
not much to catch but turtles and pond lilies, 
but a whiting may turn up any day. Walking 
back into the country is usually discouraged. 
"Boys and apples don't agree," according to 
John Mann. "I don't blame a boy for taking 
apples. They don't seem like private prop- 
erty, being made up of air and sunshine and 
juices drawn from the soil. A boy knows it's 
wrong to steal a penny, but it would be hard 
to convince him that apples are not treasure 
trove. However, the farmers can't see it that 
way, and we want to avoid trouble, so we keep 
the bpys busy in camp. When I see they are 
spoiling for something to do, I take an ax and 
go off to fell a tree. They follow to see how 
its done, and before long they all want a try 
at it. Each boy has his turn. We are cleaning 
up the grove, getting in wood for the cook- 
stove and the bonfire, amusing the boys, and 
teaching them something worth knowing all 
at once." 

The boys elect a captain from their number, 
who is responsible for the discipline of the 
camp, and who appoints the squads for the 
various chores. There is a waiters' squad to 
set the tables and serve the food, a breakfast, 
dinner and supper squad to wash dishes after 
their several meals, a dining-room squad to 
keep the pavilion tidy, a blanket squad to sun 
and shake out the bedding, a wood squad and 
a water squad who must keep the cook sup- 
plied with these necessities. Systematic co- 
operation calls out the spirit of helpfulness in 
every boy. There is little bickering. Shirking 
is not allowed. "I'll stand any amount of mis- 
chief, but I won't stand meanness," said John 
Mann. "Every boy must do his part or there's 
an end to all comfort in the camp/' 

It is Mr. Mann's darling ambition to throw 
the boys entirely on their own resources and 
make them shift for themselves — pioneer fash- 
ion. This is hardly feasible in New England, 
where game is scarce and timber has a market 



10 



THE COMMONS 



price. But the journey to and from camp 
might be made in primitive caravans. A wagon 
would be necessary to carry tents and pro- 
visions, but all the able-bodied boys would go 
on foot. The stages should be short and halts 
frequent, for city boys are not equal to forced 
marches. All the work of the expedition, set- 
ting up of tents, cooking, foraging, etc., should 
be done by the boys. 

No one who has Hot experienced this method 
of travel can realize how much of pleasure and 
profit can be got out of such a journey. There 
is an amount of satisfaction to be derived from 
coping with and mastering difficulties beyond 
all that civilized existence, fully equipped 
with ready-made comforts, has. to offer. Our 
forefathers whetted their wits on such diffi- 
culties as these. The energy and resourceful- 
ness characteristic of the Yankee is" not so 
much a matter of inheritance as of training. 
The city boy has little opportunity to develop 
these highly prized American traits. Reversion 
to the conditions of pioneer life would do far 
more toward fitting him to make his way in the 
world than the most luxurious of summer out- 
ings. Kathakixk Com an. 



ITALIAN LABOR IN AMbKICA. 

The New York Evening Post of July 29 
strikes a more truthfully appreciative keynote 
regarding the immigration of Italian laborers 
than is heard almost anywhere else — except in 
Social Settlements. 

Of the half million Italians who emigrated 
from Italy in 1901, over half registered them- 
selves as seeking temporary employment, mean- 
ing to return to Italy. But the bulk of these 
went to European countries, while the Ameri- 
cans, North and South, received almost all of 
those who declared their intention to establish 
new homes and citizenship. The prosperity 
of those settling in the South American repub- 
lics is shown to be extraordinary. With refer- 
ence to Italian labor in the United States, the 
Evening Post has these significant comments 
to make: 

"What is much more remarkable is the ex- 
traordinary penetration of the life of this north- 
ern nation by the Italian, and the general pros- 
perity of a class of immigrants which it has 
been the custom to regard as detrimental. If 
you wish to have your door yard tidied up 
within the suburban radius of any of our great 
cities, you must appeal to a member of this 
'backward' race. Ride or drive among the 
truck gardens to the north of this city, and the 



language and costume of Italy are everywhere 
in evidence; not only the smaller shops in this 
region, but even the saloons, bear Italian names 
and the mandolin is commoner than the concer- 
tina or other indigenous instrument. Mean- 
while you may find your friend building his 
summer home on a Massachusetts hillside 
almost exclusively with Italian labor; and the 
forest camp in Maine, twenty miles from the 
nearest railroad, is not forgotten by the ba- 
nana man. 

"It is remarkable indeed that the Italians 
have shown but little disposition to settle in 
restricted localities. They are as pervasive 
today as the Irish were a generation ago, and 
they are certainly destined to have an equal 
material success. 

"It is too early to see the assimilation of this 
largely new element far advanced, but one 
can hardly forecast anything but good, both 
for the Italians and for ourselves, from this 
contact. They bring great physical vigor, in- 
dustrious habits and naturally alert intelli- 
gence — besides a remarkable amiability and 
adaptability — to their new conditions. In civ- 
ilization, so far as that means the graceful 
and kindly conduct of all human relations, 
they are generally the superiors of the people 
among whom they find their homes. In order- 
liness and civic sense they have something to 
learn here, and they are learning it. In the 
composite which the American of the future is 
sure to be they will have undoubtedly an im- 
portant part. 

"One must expect Italian immigration to this 
country to slacken almost as suddenly as it has 
grown. Italy should be an enormously rich 
and prosperous country, and this she will be 
whenever her lawmakers reform her tax sys- 
tem and the agrarian syndicates bring some 
kind of order out of the abuses of the general 
system of farming on shares. When real pros- 
perity comes to the kingdom, emigration to the 
United States will become unimportant, and 
the United States will then have as much rea- 
son to thank the hard times in the Peninsula 
which contributed a valuable element to its 
nationality as Italy will have to regret a dis- 
pensation that cost her millions of her sturdiest 
children." 

Most significant are the facts that Italian 
emigration to America has become important 
enough to have its own review, Revista Italo- 
Amencano; and that in Italy lovers of their 
fellow-countrymen have organized the Dante 
Alighieri Society to safeguard the material and 
moral interests of Italians in foreign lands- 



THE COM MONS 



n 



Settlements can do no better service than to 
cultivate acquaintance with their Italian neigh- 
bors and their language and customs, in order 
to interpret them to other nationalities and 
the American ideal and spirit to them. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



Father Dolling : A Memoir. JosBrn Clayton. 
Londou: Wells Gardner, Uarton & Co. 

In the years 1897-1898 an English clergy- 
man, known as "Father Dolling," traveled 
through the United States preaching and lectur- 
ing, delivering, in fact, over 600 sermons and 
conducting several missions and conferences, 
drawing large audiences wherever he went. All 
who heard him could not fail to be struck by 
his remarkable personality and the story of his 
work; and not only these but all who labor for 
social betterment would be deeply interested in 
the short biography of him which has recently 
appeared. 

He seems to have been a very "candid friend" 
of settlements, criticising them to the point of 
saying that he did not believe in them at all. 
We are told that he saw in the standpoint of 
the University Settlement the tacit assumption 
that it was a place of residence in a strange, 
uncivilized, unenlightened land. This may be 
true in some cases but the instances are not 
few of men going down into the slums with 
this view of their superiority and coming to 
feel that the poor had much more to teach them 
than they could ever hope to teach the poor. 
Dolling's methods were, at any rate, almost 
those of the settlement at its highest pitch; 
his open house with the common meal table at 
which rich and poor met together on terms of 
perfect equality offers much for the encourage- 
ment and emulation of the settlement worker. 

Over and over again the biography speaks of 
the fallen clerics who came to Dolling as the 
only one who would receive them, the only one 
to whom they felt they could go in their degra- 
dation. It is a terrible commentary on the 
prevalence of the drink habit in England. 

Though Dolling was a ritualist of a rather 
extreme type, holding the Church of England 
to be a divine society and the validity of its 
sacraments to depend on its Apostolic Succes- 
sion, he seems to have had much more use for 
the Baptist minister who labored alongside him 
among the poor of Portsmouth than for the 
high functionaries of his own church who 
criticised from a distance because he invited 



a Christian Socialist to preach In his pulpit. 
"It makes me oftentimes sick at heart," he 
writes, "to hear the way in which the newly- 
ordained, strong in the orthodoxy of his High 
Church collar and of his grasp of doctrine, 
speaks of these Nonconformist class leaders, at 
whose feet he is unworthy to sit." 

No one could love the people as he did and 
live among them, working for the fuller devel- 
opment of man, and be silent upon vital polit- 
ical questions. We are not surprised, therefore, 
to find him an ardent radical from the begin- 
ning, taking advanced ground on the questions 
of national education. Poor Law administra- 
tion and Temperance. One incident related is 
too good to be passed by. He was a member of 
the Board of Guardians at Portsmouth and in 
pursuance of his duties visited the Workhouse. 
"Once he found the children at tea, and taking 
this liquid in the same mugs that had done 
duty at dinner-time for soup. At the Board 
meeting Dolling complained indignantly of this 
neglect, but the Board refused to order any 
washing up after dinner. At the next meeting 
of the Board Dolling arranged for a child's mug 
with the tea and fat to be placed before each 
. member. The Board was taken by surprise; 
but it had to confess that the liquid looked 
loathsome, and from that day the children had 
clean mugs for tea." 

Some quotations from Canon Scott Holland's 
preface shall end this sketch. "Dolling had 
glimpses into the secret of the soul, which dis- 
closed the amazing heart of goodness and of 
sacrifice and of pity that can be found behind 
all the sinful disguises of Publican and Harlot. 
It is in this that he taught us most and gave 
us his best." "He shocked us out of our ner- 
vous proprieties, and taught us to plunge and 
hazard and dare on behalf of those of whom 
we despair." "He proved to us how much could 
be done if only we committed ourselves heart 
and soul to that which we profess." "He de- 
manded first place for the poor; he bent his 
ministerial charge to their primal needs; he 
strongly claimed for them their right to social 
and civic amelioration." 

A. K. Maynabd. 



This is the best day the world has ever seen. 
Tomorrow will be better. — R. A, Campbell. 



A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any 
market. — Charles Lamb. 



Seen in their true relations, there is no ex- 
perience of life over which we have a right to 
worry. — Anna Robertson Brown. 



12 



THE COM MONS 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR, - - - Kaitor 

Entered at Chicago Postoflice as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



Monotonous Industrial Service. 

There is a great deal of humdrum work to 
be done in the world. All of us have some of 
It and some of us have too much of it to do. 
Our philosophies of life, or our theories of so- 
cial or industrial order cannot save us from, 
however they may account for, the exactions of 
the humdrum. Probably no range of life en- 
tirely escapes its imperious , demands. But it 
is especially in industrial life that its thrall- 
dom is felt and endured. Machinery that prom- 
ised so much by way of liberty from the ty- 
ranny of the monotonous has only Increased 
the drudgery of the commonplace. The work- 
man has sometimes become a mere cog — not 
infrequently a very small one — in the mighty 
machinery of production. Such sameness and 
littleness attach to his portion of the product 
that he comes to have no interest in the opera- 
tion or the outcome. 

It is difficult to conceive, for instance, how 
a burr-filer in a machine shop, or a young 
girl who pastes labels on boxes or bottles, or 
a glue-dauber in a piano factory can be en- 
thusiastically interested in the work of their 
hands for eight or ten hours a day the year 
'round, and as long as the job lasts, and they 
live. 

Now these all render genuine service. They 
render necessary, unavoidable service to the 
whole community, but that service is for them 
almost as unavoidably stale and monotonous. 
There appears to be small prospect that un- 
interesting elements can be very, much less- 
ened, much less to say excluded, from the 
process of production. From the facts of human 
nature and our present social and industrial 
organization, there must be considerable serv- 
ice rendered which offers slight opportunity 
for skill and continuous expertness, and thus 
draws out Jittlp or no mechanical and artistic 
interest either in the process or the product. 



None of us may regard this feature of our 
industrial existence without Interest in and 
sympathy for those who thus stand and serve 
In multitudinous, monotonous ways. Moreover, 
whether we share in the toil or not, we accept 
the benefits. In a certain sense, every one is 
a beneficiary of humdrum service, and is or 
should be interested in the conditions of that 
service. 

Now, though our sympathy may be aroused 
and is certainly not misplaced when directed 
toward this phase of our common life, yet it is 
much more to the point that our sympathy be 
an intelligent one, regarding and understand- 
ing more than the superficial aspects of the 
subject, in order that where we can we may 
mitigate or even overcome the tyranny of 
monotony in our own lives and In those of 
others about us. 

Some relief is given to the situation when 
we remember that promotions on one hand, 
and change of occupation to more satisfactory 
or less simple and mechanical employment on 
the other, produce a certain shifting in the 
personelle engaged in monotonous industrial 
service, so that the same persons are not al- 
ways doing the same work. This, however, is 
only a minor consideration, for many have to 
continue at the same job year out and year In 
without change or cessation. 

The crux of the matter lies, as it seems to 
me from observation and experience, in the 
following facts: We are to remember that the 
mastery of routine means the formation of a 
habit, and with the formation of habit there 
always comes liberty. "Habit," says Prof. 
James, "simplifies our movements, makes them 
accurate, and diminishes fatigue." All of 
which means freedom. Our filer of the shop 
doe^f his work and knows not that he does it. 
Training has begotten in him a mechanical 
autonomy. He thinks np more of his filing 
than he does of the beating of his heart. For 
all practical purposes he pays as little atten- 
tion to one as to the other. Not to have to 
pay attention is in so far to be free. He may 
attend to something else. His mind is at lib- 
erty to roam from the fiy on the window sill, 
to the stars in their courses. Nor will his 
work suffer. It will be done quite as efficiently 
without his conscious attention. 

Now it Is just this capacity of our nature 
to master routine and obtain new liberty that 
the way of escape is opened from' dull and 
dread monotony in Industry or elsewhere. 
Everything depends on whether the new lib- 
erty is used and how it is used. If the one 



.!-. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



concerned lives a meagre or trivial life outside 
the shop then the hours spent Inside of it are 
apt to be irksome, because the new liberty 
finds no worthy or steadfast object for its em- 
ployment. Time hangs heavy. If, however, 
one lives a large enough life outside the shop, 
with wide, varied or worthy interests, the 
tedious tyranny of mechanical routine will be 
broken, if not destroyed. Indeed, one single, 
noble interest outside the work-a-day life will 
fill the latter full of meaning. Doubtless many 
of my Italian neighbors, most of them young 
men lately arrived, work all day cheerfully 
with a tamping bar on the railroad section, 
upborne by the fine prospect of earning and 
saving enough money to bring the rest of their 
"folks" to America. Any worthy interest in 
life, whether it centers in the home, the 
church, politics, the public library, the labor 
union, or baseball and a score of others that 
might be mentioned, provided it is a living in- 
terest, will prevent the sacrifice of personality 
as threatened by the mechanical routine of 
much of the work in the modern shop, store 
and factory. 

To the creation of fresh and helpful interests 
and impulses in life for those who feel the 
wearing pressure of daily monotonous toil, 
the social settlement and social worker with 
all who recognize their social obligations in 
view of present conditions contribute or can 
contribute in three ways. (1) The settlement 
can furnish an opportunity for contact with 
all wholesome elements of the community life, 
which is indeed one of the ostensible objects 
of the settlement. (2) By the general influ- 
ence of the settlement on the collective life of 
the neighborhood in the family, social, recrea- 
tive features, e. g., moving toward better 
housing and hence better homes, and toward 
more wide-reaching, democratic education. (3) 
Best of all, by intelligent personal touch be- 
tween the resident and the one who needs In- 
spiration, a new view of and a fresh contact 
with life other than as he finds it merely in his 
work. 

It were a splendid thing and shall doubtless 
come to pass one day upon the earth, that each 
one shall do his work however tedious, trifling 
or monotonous as unto God and the people, 
• but that day is not yet come, though we look 
to it as the fulfillment of our ideal of hu- 
man life and service. Meanwhile we have the 
facts of our social and industrial existence to 
meet. Not that in meeting the facts we are 
to deny our ideal. Could that ultimate pur- 



pose he put into every life, it would glorify the 
commonplace. No one may be excused from 
the rightful claim of that purpose upon his 
life, however onerous the conditions of his 
daily existence; no one may be excluded from 
the privilege of that purpose, however severe 
present demands upon his patience and forti- 
tude may be. But the appeal of the obligation 
and privilege of common service must be fol- 
lowed up and sanctioned by personal human 
interest in the one to whom the appeal is' made, 
endeavoring to help him into as rich and full 
a life as possible. J. M. 



The " Spent Alan." 

"Spent man." There is aching pathos in that, 
phrase. How did sociology ever manage to 
wander so far from arid intellect and come so 
near to damp emotion? 

"Spent man" is the classification they em- 
ploy at the municpal lodging house for the 
man whose vital spark has sunk so low that 
there is little hope of its ever being revived. 
This does not mean that the man will die. He 
may live many years. But he will live as the 
ship lives that, with no coal and no steam, 
drifts to meet its last storm. 

What makes "spent men"? "The chief as- 
signed cause," says Mr. Robins, superintendent 
of the municii>al lodging house, "is child 
labor." 

Read two of the entries in the lodging house 
record : 

" , 21 years old. Began work when 13 

for the Queen City Cotton Company; worked 
steadily for five years. Seemed discouraged. 
Low vitality. Worked as common laborer two 
days. Gave up. Passed on. 

" _ 22 years old, Pennsylvania. Be- 
gan work at 9, dog in glass works; steady four 
years; gave out; restaurant work three years; 
tramping since; power gone; passed on." 

There are many more records like these. 
They confirm what Jane Addams said long ago 
about the connection between a certain kind 
of child labor and a certain kind of vagrancy. 
Exhaust the child. You may have to feed the 
adult. Exploit the boy laborer. The man 
tramp may exploit you. "Be sure your sins 
will find you out" is an admonition which in- 
cludes social sins as well as personal ones. 

Is there any more piteous figure in the 
world than that of the "spent man," who can 
never enjoy even the personal satisfaction of 
cursing some individual human being for his 
ruin, who can only feel in a blind, hunted way. 



14 



TH E COMMONS 



that society, human beings in general, has 
been against him; and who is last caught sight 
of when the lodging house record says: "Passed 
on." 

Reflect on this "spent man" and reflect on 
child labor. — Editorial Chicago RecordrHera'd. 



New Points Afield. 
ENQLISH SETTLE/VIENTS FEDERaTINU. 

BT GBAHAM TATLOB. 

The spontaneity of the Settlement move- 
ment is well illustrated by the fact that here 
in London, where it first found expression, the 
residents of the several houses are only be- 
ginning to federate, after twenty years of serv- 
ice in longer or shorter terms. Had it been 
the concerted action of some "school" of theor- 
ists or some cult of mere idealists it could 
scarcely have avoided taking on a more com- 
pact form of organization. Being the spontane- 
ous movement of life, to life that it has proved 
itself to be, the settlement went to work first, 
and with remarkable faith and self-forgetful- 
ness left In indefinite abeyance all form, or 
even thought of organizing to aggrandize or 
perpetuate itself. As we have long since felt 
in America, the settlement residents in LiOndon 
and vicinity are beginning to realize that the 
effectiveness of their kindred, yet often very 
distinct work, requires some central point of 
contact both for personal fellowship and the 
comparison of view, as well as for occasional 
concert of action. Two years ago the pro- 
vincial settlements at Liverpool, Sheffield, Man- 
chester, Bradford and elsewhere began to meet 
annually and with great profit Their third 
session has just been held at the Women's 
Settlement In Birmingham. 

Its house is well located in one of the needi- 
est districts of the city, the appearance of 
which is not indicated by the name given the 
street, "Summer Lane." It was once a friary, 
the high brick garden wall of which, with its 
porter's lodge, still stands. The building, 
which had been divided into three dwelling 
houses, is stlU connected by subterranean pass- 
age ways. Hpre a little group of cultivated 
and practically capable college women live and 
effectively labor. Eight or nine of the twelve 
or more affiliated settlements responded to the 
call for the conference. The attendance of 
delegates and others numbered perhaps 50 per- 
sons, and included representatives of interests 
as widely separated as the Church of England 
clergy and the Friends First Day Societies, the 



I working people of Birmingham and the uni- 
' versity. 

XHE PBOVI.NCI.VL SETTXEME-XTS .\T BrBMIXGHAM. 

In convening the conference Mrs. Beal, who 
represents one of the principal families and the 
most influential social circles of the city, said 
the settlement had come to be "an educational 
agency, without which the equipment of no 
large town is to be considered complete." In 
discussing the religious influences of the set- 
tlement it was agreed that whatever else might 
be included in religion, from the social point 
of view it must embrace the ideal of personal, 
national and social life and be the sum of in- 
dividual influence. Realizing the wholeness of 
life, we are to make our religious convictions 
apparent in the affairs of common life, but 
must avoid giving decisive ecclesiastical expres- 
sion to our religious predilections. As the 
fundamental motive of settlement life and serv- 
ice was recognized to be religious, the discus- 
sion turned on the cultivation of the spirit of 
religion among the workers and in the neigh- 
borhood. Among the endeavors to this end 
the Manchester Settlement's late Sunday even- 
ing conference of resident and non-resident 
workers was mentioned and the daily vesper 
half-hour at Chicago Commons. The co-opera- 
tion of the settlements with one or more 
churches of their districts was reported to be 
both general, cordial and reciprocally helpful. 

THE TRAISIXG OF SOCIAL WORKERS. 

The afternoon session of the conference was 
devoted to a very responsive and helpful in- 
terview on the training of residents for service. 
It ranged all the way from the thoroughly 
elaborated two years' course laid out by the 
Women's Settlement of London to the sug- 
gestively practical and incidental policy of that 
at Liverpool, which is adapted to the smaller 
settlements. The head-resident emphasized the 
valuable courses of .training open to us, which 
did not require conscious effort to attain it. 
The more self-resourceful neighbors, for in- 
stance, who do not need us so much, can best 
train us to help those in trouble or special 
need. Hopefulness, too, is borne in upon us 
by the success of those who are actually solv- 
ing the difficult problem of their own lives. 

The training offered by the settlements, it 
was urged, should reach the non-resident work- 
ers far more effectively, as well as those whose 
philanthropic inclination leads them to enlist 
for social service. The efforts of the charity 
organization societies in New York, London 
and elsewhere were highly appreciated and are 



THE COMMONS 



15 



to be used and aided by settlements as centers 

for effective popular training in social service. 
Professor Asliley, recently of Harvard and now 
dean of the School of Commerce in the Uni- 
versity of Birmingham, confessed with shame 
the little help given and received by econo- 
mists to and from social workers. For they 
can supply facts on the commercial side and 
the settlements on the labor side of the com- 
plex economic problem, both of which are 
necessary to its solution. Between them a 
system of under-studies could be arranged 
which would invaluably supplement the work 
of each. The university connections of some 
of the Chicago settlements were referred to, 
and the plans for systematizing inter-academic 
studies in social observation and research at 
Chicago Commons were alluded to. 

Professor Muirhead of Birmingham Uni- 
versity, who was in the chair, tersely summed 
up the results of the session thus: "The ques- 
tion whether training can come before the 
trainers is the same old puzzle as to which 
comes first, the egg or the hen? Both must 
come together. It is better to have women 
and men at work in the same settlement as 
in America, than in separate groups as in Eng- 
land. Candidates for residence from the neigh- 
borhood should be enlisted and trained. To 
get in touch with oneself is one of the first, 
as it is one of the highest, qualifications for 
service. Professor Ashley could easily relate 
the department of commerce to the settlement, 
if he would offer himself as a resident in this 
settlement! Seriously, why not, when schools 
of mining, engineering and metallurgy are be- 
ing located at the mines? Definite investiga- 
tions shouldbe undertaken with scientific spirit 
and method and for practical purposes. To 
succeed we must dare to fail, for they who 
make no mistakes make nothing else." 

The fellowship of the occasion was as charm- 
ingly free and cordial as the spirit was high 
and earnest. 

LONDON'S FraST SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

The twenty or more settlements in or within 
easy reach of London, having been in corre- 
spondence regarding a proposed federation, 
met for the first time as the "London Settle- 
ments Association" in June. Passmore Ed- 
wards House offered its hospitality, and Mrs. 
Humphrey Ward was hostess. Nearly all the 
settlement houses were represented, and the 
head-residents of South End House, Boston, 
the University Settlement, New York, and Chi- 



cago Commons were also guests of the occa- 
sion. 

"The Settlement and the City" was the sub- 
ject of the discussion, and by previous request 
was illustrated by the experience of the Chi- 
cago settlements, especially with regard to 
their relation to municipal administration and 
to their political influence and activities. Mrs. 
Humphrey Ward, who was in the chair, sug- 
gested, in conclusion, that the settlements 
unite to secure larger provision for the edu- 
cation of crippled children by the Ix)ndon 
school authorities. The efforts of Passmore 
Edwards House in this direction had demon- 
strated both the need and encouragement of 
greatly enlarged help to bring to self-help this 
otherwise most helpless class in the com- 
munity. 

The invariable English "afternoon tea" 
proved to be a pleasant introduction to the 
company, the most of whom were strangers 
to each other. 

Mr. Percy Alden is the secretary of the new 
Settlements' Association, and its headquarters 
are at his office, Pitzalan House, Arundel 
street, Strand. 

A LONDON settlement's INDEPENDENCE DAY. 

Robert Browning Hall, in Walworth, well ex- 
emplifies the democratic spirit, attention to 
the commonest neighborhood needs and the 
broad outlook of its founder and resident- 
warden. Rev. F. Herbert Stead, M. A. The 
work centering at the old Non-Conformist 
Church, where Robert Browning was baptized, 
and to which his parents were devoted, is a 
very real incarnation of the unity between. soul 
and sense, fiesh and spirit in the great poet's 
verse. The restaurant is not above the means 
or manners of the poorest laborer, and the 
Dale Memorial Library is not scaled below the 
student of social and religious evolution. The 
Men's Club has sufficient local influence to have 
one of its members elected Mayor of South- 
wark on the labor ticket, and yet is broad 
enough in its outlook to hold, on our American 
Independence Day, an annual rally of those 
"who seek the unity of the English speaking 
race." At this meeting on the Fourth of July 
an English army officer did not hesitate to 
affirm that the scepter of the world's greatest 
influence is passing from the nations of the 
old world, who sought to rule by conquest, to 
the people of the new world, whose sway is 
to be wielded by colonization, until its "para- 
mountcy" on the Pacific and over China will 



16 



THE COM MONS 



soon be recognized by every nation. To the 
writer's appeal for an inter-dependence which 
will lift labor and all life to a higher level even 
than Independence the audience of worliing 
people gave hearty assent, which voiced itself 
in impassioned protest against an imperial 
war-spirit, and in manly appeals for interna- 
tional peace by two labor men, one of them 
Tom Bryan, Mayor of Southwark. 
London. 



The Month at the Chicago Commons. 

New swings for the little people, and a 
merry-go-round for everybody have added 
greatly to the joy of the many children whose 
only vacation during the long summer are 
the hours spent in the Commons play ground. 



August is the girls' month at Camp Com- 
mons. The Penny meadow and the Fox River 
hills have never been more beautiful, and the 
"little mothers " of our neighborhood report 
a glorious outing. Bathing in the creeli, long 
walks over the hills, wholesome, simple food, 
and over all that indescribable zest of tent life 
in the country, makes the two weeks spent at 
the Camp the great event of the- year in the 
lives of many children. It may be added that 
the simplicity and directness of contact there 
possible between settlement residents and the 
children, make this service at once the most 
fruitful and bewitching in the settlement cal- 
endar. 



The distribution of pasteurized milk to the 
babies and sick of the neighborhood has 
reached high water mark this summer. The 
milk commission of the Children's Hospital 
Society has made commendable progress in 
supplying this great need of the tenement dis- 
tricts. 



From distant California in response to the 
need for another permanent Boys' Club room, 
as explained in the August issue of The Com- 
mons, came a check for $100. 

This generous gift justifies another adven- 
ture of faith and we have rented the quarters 
described in our last issue, which will be ready 
for the boys by October Ist. 



There ain't no hole so deep can't somebody 
pull you out. — Alice Hegan Rice In "Lovey 
Mary." 



It is something new, it is a phenomenon pos- 
sessing its own interest and demanding its own 
study, when beyond Christian Souls you have 
a Christian City — a whole community inspired 
with the feelings and acting under the motives 
of Christianity. It may not embody Itself in 
laws or institutions; it may or may not be rec- 
ognized in terms of the constitution or charter; 
— that is of little consequence. But a city as 
well as an individual is capable of a Christian 
experience and character. It is more than an 
aggregate of the experience of the souls within 
it, as a chemical compound has qualities which 
did not appear in either of its constituents; it 
is a real, new being, with qualities and powers 
of its own. — Phillips Brooks. 

PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 

Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, 1903. 
Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes 
opportunit3' to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars address 
BERTHA HOFER HBQNER, 
Chicafo Commons, 180 Qrand Ave., Chicago, 

SUMMER COTTAGE FOR RENT. 

At Macatawa, Mich. 

Seven hours by daily steamer from Chicago. "Ne«r 
Sliore " Cottage on Lake Michigan shore within easy reach 
of Black Lake. Seven rooms, furnished. Double porch on 
two sides. Safe, healthful, interesting place for children. 
Terras $150 for season from June to October. 
Apply early to The Commons, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

The Church la Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the International Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Trtentj'-five cents. 

THe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement ix)lnt of view. It is published monthly at Cliii'ago 
Commons, a Social Settlemi'nt at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St., Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago PostoHice as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
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cepted.) I'ostpain to any state or Country. Six copies to 
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Special Rates for S|>ecial Numbers of The Commons. Any 
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Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
change of address, or of failure to receive the paper within 
a reasonable Interval after it Is due. 

Discontinuances. Please notify us at once if for any reason 
you desire your subscription dlscontlnueil. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue The Coxuons to each address until notified 
to thi' contrary. 



TKe Commoris 

A Monthly Reciird Devoted to AspecU of Life and l4lbor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 87-Vol. VIII 



Eighth Year 



Chicago, October, 1903 



Questionings. 

Have ye heard, unstirred. 
The sobbing of the night. 

When moon-forsaken; 
When stars refuse their light 

Joy to awaken? 
When Earth, from hill and dale, 
Peers through a misty veil — 
Dark, cold, and dimly pale. 

And spirit-shaken; 
Have ye heard? 

Have ye heard, unstirred. 
The sobbing of the sea. 

When winds are lashing; 
When ships in misery 

Are shoreward dashing; 
The shrieking in the gloom; 
The wailing o'er their doom. 
When to their ocean-tomb 

The ships go crashing: 
Have ye heard? 

Have ye heard, unstirred. 
The sobbing of the soul 

When frenzy-driven; 
When faith— the Master's dole- 
Has vainly striven? 
When love's extinguished fires 
Leave naught but cold desires. 
When every Hope expires 
That man was given: 
Have ye heard? 
lliivK ye heard f 

--Val Ormond. 



THE FREE PLATFORM. 

■BY AIXBN B. POND, TRUSTEE O'F Htn.L HOUSE. 

The very corner stone of the American the- 
ory of government is that the people may be 
trusted to rule, and that for practical purposes 
the will of the majority of the voters shall be 
held to be the will of the people. In the appli- 
cation of this theory not only may the people 
through their representatives make and un- 
make laws within the limits set by the consti- 
tution, but may at will by an orderly process 
amend the constitution itself, and in pursuance 
of this process may eventually substitute for 
the constitution that we now have a totally 
•different document. The sole prerequisite to 



this result is a consistent purpose of an ade- 
quate majority. Such a total remodeling of our 
political organism, if it should some time take 
place, might come by way of changes so grad- 
ual as to amount to an evolution whose drift 
was hardly seen by the careless citizen ; equally 
well, so far as its legality is concerned, it 
might come by way of changes so sweeping and 
so swift as to amount to a veritable revolution. 
The forefathers, differing widely among them- 
selves on almost every point touched on by 
the constitution, made no effort to prevent such 
a recasting of the fundamental law, but united 
in providing an orderly method of effecting 
changes, merely hedging about the process in 
such a way as to prevent hasty and ill-consid- 
ered action by a majority, swept along by some 
sudden emotional spasm, before the issue had 
been thoroughly thrashed out in the forum of 
unhampered public discussion. 

THE METHOD OV DE.MOCRACY. 

The very essence of this conception of gov- 
ernment is that every proposition affecting the 
political organism shall be brought out into the 
open; that the full glare of publicity shall be 
turned on it; that it shall be met squarely and 
criticised freely. If it can make headway in 
the face of this free discussion, it is entitled 
to make headway. If it can win to itself a 
majority of the voters, it is entitled to be made 
effective as legislation; or, if it be of an essen- 
tially radical and fundamental nature, to be In- 
corporated in the constitution as organic law. 
Freedom of criticism carries with it freedom 
of affirmation. 

THE METHOD OF DESPOTISM. 

If honest men assert their belief in a radical 
economic or governmental proposition repug- 
nant to organic law, the Russian way, the Turk- 
ish way, the way of despotism everywhere, — 
whether it be the despotism of majorities or 
of autocrats, — is to overwhelm the advocate of 
the unwelcome proposition by force, to whisk 
him away to Siberia or to ostracize him social- 
ly. — to forbid to discuss the proposition pul>- 
licly and to hustle it out of sight. — leaving it 
to burrow its way silently and secretly, uncom- 



2 



THE COM MONS 



bated because unseen and unheard. The Amer- 
ican way, on the contrary, is to invite the ad- 
vocate to bring his unwelcome proposition out 
into the open arena wliere it can and must fight 
for its life, but where likewise we can get at 
it. The Russian way, — the despotic way, — adds 
bitterness to discontent, converts constructive 
criticism into destructive enmity, and makes 
nihilists of those who best love their fellow 
men. The American way laughs the proposi- 
tion out of court, if it be empty; kills it by 
ridicule, if it be absurd; or, having given it a 
well-lighted hall and a free platform, goes off 
and leaves il to talk to empty benches, if it be 
inopportune. But if. however, the unwelcome 
proposition wins its case in the open forum 
and proves to be the thing for which the major- 
ity of people are ready, the American way says: 
Some of us have our doubts; time will tell; 
anyhow we must trust the people with the 
right to try it on. , 

THE L.VW OF PROGRESS. 

There never has been a form of organized 
society under which great injustice was not 
habitually done to large numbers of indi- 
viduals and to groups of individuals. There 
is no such society to-day. The patient 
moujik and the hardy Finn in Russia, the 
stunted peasant in Italy, the ignorant vil- , 
lagers of Spain, the sulphur miners of Sicily, 
the bedeviled inhabitants of the Balkan pen- 
insula, the working girl in the great cities of 
western Europe, the Jew in many lands, all 
bear witness to the truth of this charge. In so 
far as America is an exception, it is an excep- 
tion only in degree, not in fact. Howsoever 
righteous and just may be the warp and woof 
of our political and economic society, every 
close and thoughtful observer knows that the 
fabric is interwoven with threads of greed, of 
injustice, of iniquity. Some of this injustice 
and iniquity seems to inhere in the very nature 
of man and to admit of no rectification except 
through the regeneration of the race. Put 
this to one side. There remain wide areas of 
injustice frankly admitted or strongly claimed 
to be within the scope of the action of organ- 
ized society. Between us and the bringing of 
society to apply a remedy, stand; the con- 
tented ignorance of those unintentionally self- 
ish ones who are fenced about by walls of priv- 
ilege and prosperity; the indifference of those 
whose strength and skill enable them to pro- 
tect themselves; the hostility of those who, 
consciously or unconsciously, fatten on the in- 
justice; the inertia that commonly circum- 



scribes the ^feeble efforts of the well meaning. 
The first and indispensable step toward the rem- 
edying of a social wrong is to shatter the con- 
tent of the ignorant, to pierce the indifference 
of the strong and to conquer the inertia of the 
well-meaning. On each man who feels the 
burden of some specific social wrong and who 
has a firm conviction that he sees the remedy 
that will meet the case, rests an obligation to 
urge his belief vigorously and to proselyte in- 
dustriously. Free speech, instead of being a 
privilege to be grudgingly accorded, is a duty 
resting on the citizen of the free sttite; and 
only as he conscientiously exercises this duty 
is social progress possible. There is no room 
in the body politic for doctrinary preserves. 
No laws, no institutions of one age can be al- 
lowed to be erected to the position of res adju- 
dieatfe conclusive on all times to come. There- 
will never be any set of men in America to 
whom we can safely entrust the power to fix 
the limits of free speech, and to decide what 
are and what are not "dangerous" doctrines. 
Any attempt in America by affrighted political 
and economic orthodoxy to forestall by the clo- 
ture the free public discussion of laws and in- 
stitutions will be futile. If it could conceiv- 
ably succeed, its success would sound the death- 
blow of organic social evolution. Those who 
cry for such a cloture would better purge their 
minds of rubbish and hysteria or emigrate to 
the interior of China, where a petrified society 
is said to guarantee unbroken calm to con- 
tented conservatism. 

THE ANARCHIST AND HIS GENESIS. 

There are in America a few people, — coming 
mainly from under the tyranny of Russia or the 
militarism of Germany, — who. stung by the op- 
pression under the forms of law that they have 
undergone or have witnessed, have convinced 
themselves that, if the brute force of coercive 
law were removed, man's better nature would 
assert itself and that each and all would vol- 
untarily submit themselves to the law of love 
and the golden rule in a state of society with- 
out formal organized governments. Full of this 
belief they preach the doctrine of anarchy. To 
forbid them public utterance of their belief 
and thus to drive them to clandestine meetings 
for the profession of their political faith, is, 
in the first place, to confirm them in their be- 
lief that the tyranny of the law exists in Amer- 
ica not otherwise than in Russia. In the next 
place it is to lend to their creed the fascination 
and the power that have attended a persecuted 
doctrine from the beginning of history. If 



THE COMMONS 



every anarchist in the United States were to be 
given the use of a well-lighted public hall and 
encouraged to talk eight hours a day, it is a 
safe prediction that at the end of ten years 
of agitation, the number of anarchists in the 
United States would be a negligible quantity. 
Per contra, to drive such men to clandestine 
meetings in the rear of some saloon, where the 
discussion is all on one side and the bitterness 
of ostracism adds fuel to the already inflamed 
mind, is to put a weight on the safety valve 
and to tempt a repetition of the Haymarket 
massacre. Bring our friend the anarchist into 
the open, and let him have it out with our other 
friend the socialist, — his antipode on every 
proposition. 

THE COLLECTIVE ELE.VIE.NT IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION., 

As for socialism, it is of every possible vari- 
ety and degree from the faint tinge in the 
laissez faire democrat, who nevertheless ad- 
mits that the government would better run the 
postoflice and the public school, through the 
republican who hungers for protective tariffs, 
to the man who believes ,that government 
should control sources of monopolizable raw 
materials, and on to the out-and-outer who 
wishes government to own all land, conduct all 
industries and be the initiative force in human 
.society. At what point in the process the "dan- 
ger" point shall be fixed and further discussion 
be tabooed, who shall decide? Frequent thor- 
oughgoing public discussion of socialism, so 
far from being a menace, is quite as likely to 
prove a preventive or an anti-toxin. The coal 
famine of last year, coupled with the overbear- 
ing attitude of the mine owners and the coal- 
railroad presidents, caused a great wave of 
indignation to sweep over the country. On 
every side men who had given no thought to 
the subject of socialism loudly proclaimed their 
belief -that the government ought to oust the 
mine owners and conduct the coal mines for the 
people. Such waves of anger are a menace to 
the orderly growth and to the stability of a 
body politic only in proportion as the people 
are ignorant or have given no thought to the 
matters involved. Does anyone suppose that 
frequent, vigorous, public, pro and con dis- 
cussion of socialism would not have inoculated 
against extreme socialism hundreds of people 
who were swept from their moorings by this 
tidal wave of resentment and who loudly pro- 
claimed their conversion to a main socialistic 
tenent? They would, on the contrary, , have 
known, had they given heed to the discussions 
of socialism, that there was no eafy stopping 



with coal mines; and that government owner- 
ship and government operation of sources of 
supply involve their own problems by no means 
simple to solve or to see through to the end. 

A FACTOR IN SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

The social settlements, in so far as they fur- 
nish open forums for the full discussion of all 
sides of economic, social, and governmental 
questions, are doing a service of incalculable 
value to the community. One of the most re- 
grettable tendencies of the present time is the 
growing tendency to speak of workers and em- 
ployers as being arrayed against one another 
in inevitable class hostility. Against this un- 
true conception the social settlements take a 
firm stand; their drawing rooms are places 
where all sorts and conditions of men meet on 
a footing of social equality and in friendly 
comparison of notes on economic and social 
topics; their lecture halls and auditoriums 
offer a forum where both sides have their* say 
and where question and answer bring home to 
the speakers and to the auditors the sincerity 
and the good will that on both sides are deeper 
than dogmas and isms. The social settlements 
are mediatory forces; they are, if one may so 
put it, educative forces in the conservative 
camp and conservative forces in the camp. I 
know whereof I speak, for I have watched 
closely the working of the leading Chicago 
settlements ever since their foundation. 

HYSTERICAL CKITICLSM. 

A certain Chicago newspaper, the responsi- 
bility resting on which should be a guarantee 
of the sobriety and stability of character of 
its editors, has been having hysteria for a fort- 
night past because the Hull House (neighbor- 
hood) Woman's Club recently invited Eugene 
V. Debs to deliver before it his lecture entitled, 
"Emancipation." Debs will be remembered as 
the man who some ten years ago was the leader 
in a sympathetic railway strike that failed be- 
cause it ought to have failed. Latterly he has 
been lecturing to anyone who wished to listen, 
his itinerary recently including, for example, 
the Chautauqua at Aurora, 111., the State Nor- 
mal School at Normal, 111., and the Young 
Men's Christian Association at Jacksonville, 
HI. So far from this being ground for a panic' 
it should seem that one could hardly imagine 
the redoubtable Debs employed in a ]ess dan- 
gerous business than lecturing to Chautauqua 
circles and addressing Woman's Clubs. So far 
from taking this reassuring view of the matter, 
the hysterical editor perceives in Hull Houso a 
hotbed of those most impossible bedfellows. 



THE COMMONS 



anarchism and socialism. Whether or no there 
was ever a "philosophical anarchist" in resi- 
dence at Hull House, I do not now recall; had 
there heen it -n-ould not have mattered. From 
time to time there have been socialists of vari- 
ous shades in residence. If the editor had 
cared to find out the present status, he could 
have spared himself a few paroxysms by learn- 
ing that there is not at the present time a 
single socialist among the thirty residents of 
Hull House, each one of whom, however, un- 
doubtedly knows more about socialism, past 
and present, than the horrified editor will ever 
learn. 

THE REAL DANGER. 

The plain fact of the matter is, whatever 
blunders she may make, America has com- 
paratively little to fear from any propagan- 
dism in the open; and that such danger as 
there is lies in two quite other directions — 
namely, rash or ill-considered action from the 
lack of thoroughgoing public discussion, and 
argument by threat or persuasion by force. In 
view of the first danger, that man is a public 
enemy who advocates the suppression of free 
speech or who seeks to discredit full discussion 
of public questions in the public forum. He 
should be overwhelmed with ridicule and 
shamed into silence. In view of the second • 
danger, that man is a public enemy who, de- 
spairing of gaining a working majority to his 
doctrine by argument and persuasion, uses, 
threatens or directly incites to violence in or- 
der to bring about a change in usages, in leg- 
islation, or in the organic law. Every such 
man should be summarily and rigorously dealt 
-with — no matter what his occupation or stand- 
ing, or under what auspices he makes the ut- 
terance. 

Free speech is the comer stone of liberty and 
carries with it the right openly to agitate for 
the making or unmaking of any law or even 
for the complete peaceable reconstruction of 
our institutions. To make of free speech a 
cloak for provocation to violence transcends the 
limits of freedom and is the subversion of lib- 
. erty. 

Our day of dependence, our long apprentice- 
* ship .to the learning of other lands, draws to 
a close. . . We will walk on our own feet: 
we will work with our own hands; we will 
speak our own minds. ... A nation of 
men will for the first time exist because each 
believes himself inspired by the Divine Soul 
which also inspires all souls. 

— Emersox. 



HULL HOUSE AND FREE SPEECH. 

BY WILLIAM HARD. 

EDITORIAL STAFF, CHICAGO TRIBUNE. 

Nothing in the sentient universe shall remain 
inarticulate! This is the demand of the society 
of to-day, with its catholic literature and its 
catholic sociologj', with its novels and poems 
written to voice the sentiments of all conceiv- 
able persons and its reports and articles writ- 
ten to lay bare the living conditions of all con- 
ceivable social groups. If there is any principle 
which our age has adopted as a working hy- 
pothesis it is the principle that every atom of 
the universe shall find utterance and that not 
until every atom has expressed itself can a 
synthesis be established. 

« In literature this change shows itself in the 
shift from the standpoint of the writer to the 
standpoint of the person written about. Brown- 
ing did not discuss Bishop Blongram and 
Sludge the Medium. He made Bishop Blon- 
gram and Sludge the Medium speak for them- 
selves. Kipling does not, like that poet of a 
former time. Goldsmith, tell the public what he 
thinks that lovelv' woman should do when she 
has stooped to folly. He lets lovely woman 
express her own feelings in "Mary, pity 
women." 

Sociology follows, the same path. It has re- 
solved to bring to the surface every submerged 
fact of life. It investigates everything. It 
records everything. Those facts of daily exist- 
ence, — wages, hours, dimensions of rooms, sex 
of workers, height and weight of child labor- 
ers, etc., — which former ages considered in- 
significant and negligible this age considers 
weighty and invaluable. 

The consequence is that society at the present 
time i^ intensely conscious of itself and in- 
tensely curious about itself. It is examining its 
parts, its bone, its blood and its tissue with 
circumstantial particularity. Sometimes, as in 
the case of most slumbering parties, it conducts 
this examination with the naivete of a child 
picking its toes. Usually, however, it rises to 
a higher spiritual level and seems to the observ- 
er to be diligently searching its heart and peni- 
tently confessing its faults to the end that it 
may know itself and escape from the wrath to 
come. 

This position of modern society has been out- 
lined because people need to have it explained 
to them that in the fight between Hull House 
and its newspaper critics Hull House is not the 
under dog. The newspaper critic is the under 
dog. All the forces of the age are with Hull 



THE COMMONS 



House. The stars In their courses are fighting 

for Hull House. In the whelming tide of free 
speech the attack on Hull House is a pitiful 
little back eddy. The men who object to free 
speech may be philosophically right but they 
are chronologically wrong. 

They would also be negligibly wrong were 
it not for the literary interest that attaches to 
the practical joke which history has played on 
them. The newspaper which began the attack 
on Hull House stands for the principles which 
made the French Revolution. These principles 
are personal liberty and individual political 
equality. Bear this point in mind for a mo- 
ment while considering the immediate cause 
of the Hull House episode. 

"Eugene V. Debs was invited to speak at Hull 
House. Eugene V. Debs is a follower of Karl 
Marx. The opinions of Karl Marx are subver' 
sive of society. Therefore such opinions should 
not be disseminated. Therefore Hull House 
should not have invited Eugene V. Debs to 
speak." This was the course of argument fol- 
lowed by the most enthusiastically Jeffersonian 
paper in Chicago. 

Would that this paper could be transported 
(o London and that the year 1903 could be 
changed to the year 1820! The argument fol- 
lowed by the enthusiastically Metternichian 
authorities of that time would then run some- 
thing like this: "The morning Jeffersonian is 
disseminating the principles of the French Rev- 
olution. The principles of the French Revolu- 
tion are subversive of society. Therefore the 
morning Jeffersonian must be suppressed and 
the editors of the morning Jeffersonian must 
accompany Leigh Hunt to the Surrey jail." 

What would the Jeffersonian political demo- 
crats of a hundred years ago have thought if 
they could have foreseen that their successors 
would be attempting to scourge the Marxian 
social democrats with the same rod with which 
their own backs were then bloody? Are the 
opinions of Karl Marx subversive of society? 
Certainly. Were the opinions of Thomas Jeffer- 
son subversive of society? Certainly. And the 
word subversive will have to be used in exactly 
the same sense in both cases. 

This does not mean that Ivarl Marx is right. 
It does not mean that Thomas Jefferson was 
right. Perhaps both Thomas Jefferson and Karl 
Marx will finally be seen to have been wrong. 
It means simply that if opinions which were 
called subversive of society were always guaran- 
teed by the authorities the newspaper which 
began the attack on Hull House would never 
have come into existence. 



The fact is that the impetus which Jeffer- 
sonianism gave to free speech has not yet ex- 
pended itself. On the contrary, it has gathered 
force as it proceeded. Society is more than 
ever determined to study all its parts and to 
give every cell of its whole structure a tongue. 
Therefore it protects not only principles but 
opinions, uot only philosophies but vagaries, 
not only argumentations but maunderings. 
Nothing shall remain submerged. Nothing shall 
remain unexpressed. Everything shall reveal 
itself. Nowhere shall there be concealment. 
Nowhere shall there be silence. Everywhere 
shall there be light and sound. This is modern 
society's working hypothesis. ' People who do 
not like it are to be commiserated. In their 
next incarnation may they light upon a more 
congenial era! This incarnation cannot but be 
very unpleasant for them. 



SIMPLICITY IN SETTLEMENT CAMPS. 

1!Y IIENHY F. BUBT, DIBECTOR BOYS' WOBK, CHICAGO 
COMMONS. 

Much discussion is being carried on by people 
interested in Summer Outing Work, regarding 
the type of camp equipment and daily pro- 
gramme best suited for settlement service. 

There can be.no doubt but that the Family 
Outing as a type is the ideal. It is equally 
clear that at present this ideal is not possible 
for the average settlement. Camp Commons, 
which we have directed for the past four sea- 
sons, has divided its service between the boys 
and girls, giving six groups of forty children 
each a two weeks' outing. 

There is one element which is fundamental to 
Camp Commons and which we believe should 
be the first element considered in all settle- 
ment outings. This element is simplicity — 
simplicitj' in equipment, daily programme and 
service. To take a child into a luxurious home, 
cottage or camp is to be unfair to both the 
child and the home from which the child came. 
A mother once said to us: "I won't let Helen 
(a girl of four years) go away from me again. 
Last year she didn't want to come back home." 
This child had been won by luxury from her 
own mother, who, to be sure, could provide 
but meagerly for her family of Ave girls, but 
who had a true mother's heart. Luxury Is 
not in keeping with the outing spirit, even did 
it work no ill feeling. The tent life offers a 
complete change from the home. There is no 
ground for comparison. In tent life the child 
is iH'Ought into the closest contact with na- 



6 



THE COMMONS 



ture and in a manner that is impossible in a 
cottage. 

A SIMPLE CAMP. 

Camp Commons has nine tents, an office, a 
kitchen, a dining and six sleeping tents. Were 
it possible to mal<e a change we would build 
a pavilion with an office, store room, kitchen 
and a large dining hall, w^hich could be used 
as a play hall on rainy days. We prefer to 
sleep in the tents. For table equipment all 
that is needed are knives, forks, spoons, plates, 
saucers and bowls. The kitchen equipment is 
composed of a gasoline stove and a minimum 
of utensils. For dining tables we use three 
twelve-inch, sixteen-foot boards nailed together, 
placed on wooden horses and covered with 
white oilcloth. The sleeping arrangements are 
very simple. A large canvas mattress filled 
with oat straw is spread on the tongue and 
grooved floor of each sleeping tent covering 
about half of the floor space. Long pillows 
similarly constructed and a plentiful supply of 
blankets complete this equipment. 

Some camps attempt to provide a bill of fare 
equal to good boarding houses in variety. This 
is both expensive and unnecessary. Out door 
life demands an abundance of good food, well 
cooked. It does not demand great variety. Our 
bill of fare may seem meager, but we point 
to the results of four summers as proof of its 
sufficiency. 

BreaA-fa-s'— Oatmeal, bread, sugar, milk. 

Supper — Bread, milk. 

Dinner — (1) Pork and beans, bread and but- 
ter, cold slaw, apple pie. 

(2) Tomato soup, bread or crack- 

•ers, prunes. 

(3) Potatoes, bread, salt pork, 

gravy, radishes or beets, apple 

sauce. 
We have extras, such as fruit, cake, watermel- 
on and ice cream, at different times.. Our boys 
gain in weight an average of 2 pounds in two 
weeks, while the girls gain 3 pounds. The 
greatest gain this year among the boys was 
4 1-2 pounds and among the girls 6 1-2 pounds. 
Very Utile meat is used in the camp. Milk 
is our largest expense. This we get fresh from 
the cows. 

CAMP UISCIPUSE A.\D STl DV. 

The question of the Daily Programme is 
commanding much attention. We plead for 
simplicity In the programme. If a camp 
stands for anything it stands for freedom. 
.\nd freedom does not mean that boys should 
"run wild."' Every camp must have a recog- 
nized head, who has the executive force »o be- 



come a czar if the occasion demands. But we 
do not consider the camp the place for set 
rules, book study, class work, or anything cf 
the kind. 

When we ask a boy to go to camp he does not 
think of going to school. He thinks of a free, 
romping life. If we portion out the day and 
expect a boy to spend two hours or more each 
day in work of the class-room sort, we are false 
to the spirit of the camp life. Our city chil- 
dren have all too little to do with nature to 
spend their time in class work while in camp. 
We have carried on our study in the following 
manner: The children are divided into two 
groups. The groups thus formed, with their 
leaders, leave the camp at the same time, going 
in different directions for a six-mile walk 
through the woods. Bach group gathers as 
many species of wild flowers as the children 
can find. On one such walk one group gathered 
forty-two varieties, while the other group 
secured forty-one. On comparison we found, 
much to our surprise, that we had about sixty 
different flowers. The interest in counting, 
comparing and naming the flowers was intense. 

We believe that the religious and moral teach- 
ing in a camp should be conducted as freely as 
the lessons in botany. We- have only one time 
in the day when the camp gets together in quiet. 
B^ch evening after supper we gather on Vesper 
Hill for our camp service. The stillness, un- 
broken except by the cows cropping the grass 
as they return from the dairy barn, the last 
glow from the setting sun. the solemnity of the 
young oak trees as they stand in silence, in fact 
ail nature seems to be in deep meditation doing 
reverence to a mighty Power. In this environ- 
ment, every member of the camp, seated on the 
carpet of grass, with uncovered head, listens in 
silence to an appropriate story, sings with in- 
spiration. "Abide With Me." or "Nearer My God 
to Thee." and bows in real reverence when a 
prayer is offered. This vesper service is appre- 
ciated, and is as much in keeping with the 
spirit of camp as the rousing time which fol- 
lows around the camp fire. The greatest thing 
we can do for the city child in camp is to teach 
him the beauty and sweetness in nature and 
help him to adapt himself to his surroundings. 

SIMPLICITT VEnsVS EXPENSE 

The simplicity in camp is exceeding impor- 
tant from the standpoint of the camp's service. 
Our simple bill of fare does not necessitate an 
experienced cook. Tt is difficult to secure paid 
help around a camp which is in keeping with 
the spirit of things. There should be no men 
\ 



THE COM MONS 



In the camp who are not men of sterling worth 
and character. With a plain bill of fare a 
young man can be secured, who Is not simply 
a cook but is first of all a man and a companion 
for the children. The children should do all 
the work of the camp. Around the cook tent 
and dish washing table the chef must reign. 
There is no place in camp where greater oppor- 
tunity for studying and helping the child is 
given than when he is at his work. When all 
the work is divided between the camp members 
there is little confusion and no need for what 
might be called "paid help." Three men have 
been able to conduct our camp of forty boys. 
When the girls are in camp two men remain 
(director and cook) and four ladies care for 
the girls. 

We do not claim that Camp Commons is an 
ideal camp. We do believe that the element of 
simplicity underlying our whole work should 
be fundamental in all camps E^nd outings, and 
■especially in settlement work. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIOHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited fok the Association by 

Mart Kingsbdky Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



The Summer Outings of the New York 
Settlements. 

The summer outings of the New York Set- 
tlements may be divided into two classes: those 
given by the Settlements that have their own 
houses in the country, and others which are 
made possible only by co-operation with out- 
side agencies, such as the Charity Organiza- 
tion Society, the Association for Improving the 
Conditions of the Poor, the Children's Aid So- 
ciety, etc. 

To the former class belongs the Union Settle- 
ment, which has a house at Shrub Oak. New 
York. This house was open from July 4th to 
September 12th, and 355 people were enter- 
tained there during that time. Of these 220 
stayed from one to' three weeks, 25 went up 
for over Sunday, and 110 for one day. Chil- 
dren under twelve paid $1.00 a week, those 
from twelve to seventeen f2.00, and adults 
13.00. This included the railroad fare. Two 
miles from the house, on Lake Mohegan, was 
a. boys' camp where 150 boys and young men 
were received during the summer at the same 
rates. Through the Tribune Fresh Air Fund 
the Settlement was able to send 475 people 



away for outings of a week or longer and 1,300 
on one day excursions. 

The Hudson Guild had, through the Young 
Men's Union of the Ethical Culture Society, 
the use of a house at MountainvUle, New York, 
for a month. This house accommodated 150, 
and several different parties were sent there, 
without any charge for board. The car fare 
was partly paid by the Settlement in cases 
where it was necessary. 

Hartley House has the use of a farm at 
Pawling, New York, where 175 children have 
been entertained during the summer. Thirty 
children at a time went for two weeks. They 
paid only their car fare. In addition to these 
there were some Sunday parties of older boys 
and girls. The boys' clubs of Hartley House 
have a camp at Greenwood Lake which is inde- 
pendent. The boys own the outfit and pay dues 
to support the camp. The house has sent about 
200 children on picnics, usually to Midland 
Beach or Staten Island. 

The West Side Settlement of the Y. W. C. 
A. has had the use of a place at Claverack, New 
York, through the Tribune. Four parties of 
twenty-five were sent there for two weeks each 
without any charge. Also through the Tribune, 
parties were sent to Shokane and to Ashford 
Hills, making in all about 300 who were given 
outings of two weeks. The Settlement had, 
during the summer, the use of the grounds of 
the Ely school on 85th street, with their tennis 
courts and basket ball field. Thirty children 
were taken up there each day, and an excursion 
was given by the school to 900 mothers and 
their children. Altogether, outings of one day 
were given to over 3,000 people during the 
summer. 

The Warren Goddard House, on 34th street, 
has a place at Spring Farm, Connecticut, where 
it sent parties of about 50 children for two 
weeks each from June 5th to September 7th. 
The children under sixteen paid for the two 
weeks 13.50, which included the railroad fare. 
Those over sixteen paid $7.00 for the same 
time, but there was also a free list. Besides 
this tlie Warren Goddard House, through the 
Children's Aid Society, sent 50 boys to a farm 
at Kensico for over Sunday and gave one-day 
excursions to over 500 other children. 

Christodora House has two summer cottages, 
one at Woodmont, Connecticut, on Long Island 
Sound, and the other at Dalton, Massachu- 
setts. Parties of fifteen children were sent 
to Woodmont for two weeks, and parties of ten 
to Dalton for the same length of time. The 



8 



THE COM MONS 



children paid $3.00 a week and their car fare. 
Through the Tribune, Christodora House gave 
one-day outings to 600 mothers and sent 200 
children to Branchville for two weeks. The 
house also found places for a number of Its 
club children in private families for outings 
oi two or three weeks. 

The University Settlement had a house at 
Leonardo, New Jersey, from July 6th to Sep- 
tember 7th, where 103 girls were entertained 
over Saturday and Sunday, and 86 for a longer 
time. Members of the Settlement clubs were 
charged $3.50 a week, other girls $5.00. During 
July and August three parties were sent to the 
parks each week. Some of the children paid 
their own car fares, but more often these were 
paid by the Settlement. Six hundred and forty 
children were taken out in this way in parties 
of about 20. 

The College Settlement owns a house and 
farm at Mt. Ivy, New York, about forty miles 
from the city. Every club member connected 
with the Settlement is given an opportunity to 
go to Mt. Ivy at some time during the summer, 
and this year over 1,000 tickets were sold. The 
car fare is fifty cents and there is a charge of 
from twenty-five cents to a dollar and a quarter 
a week for board, varying with the age of the 
child. Not far from the house at Mt. Ivy there • 
are three boys' camps, two of which are run 
independently by two of the older boys' clubs. 
The boys go up for their vacations and for over 
Sunday, taking their own provisions. The 
third camp is used for younger boys and is un- 
der the supervision of one of the residents. The 
College Settlement has also sent a few chil- 
dren away through the outside agencies and 
has had many one-day excursions, the chief of 
which was the annual picnic at Vassar College. 

The Nurses' Settlement has two places at 
Grandview on the Hudson. One of these is a 
convalescent home and is open through the en- 
tire year. There are ten beds for the use of 
patients who are guests of the house. The 
other place is called "River House." and over 
250 people have been sent there during the 
summer, most of them for one week, although 
a few have stayed for a longer time. The price 
of board varies, as at Mt. Ivy, with the age of 
the child, but never exceeds $1.50 a week, and 
the youngest children pay only their car fare. 
Besides these houses the Settlement has a farm 
at Huguenot, on Staten Island, where mothers 
and their children are sent. It is also used 
for one-day parties. About 2,000 people have 
been there during the summer. There are 
three boys' camps besides the farm house. Two 



of these are managed by older boys' clubs and 
are self-supporting. The third is for younger 
boys who go in parties of 14 for one week each 
and pay from $1.00 to $1.50. There have also 
been many picnics from the Settlement at Sea- 
bright and at the city parks. 

Greenwich House, Richmond HIU House and 
the West Side Neighborhood House have no 
country places of their own, but they have sent 
out children through the other fresh air agen- 
cies. Six hundred children went from Green- 
wich House, 500 from the Richmond Hill 
House, and about 250 from the West Side 
Neighborhood House. 

It may be interesting to summarize the out- 
ings given by these twelve Settlements. The re- 
sult is as follows: Nearly 4,000 people have 
been sent to the country for one week or more, 
the great majority for two weeks ; 9,000 for one 
day or for over Sunday, and 450 boys have had 
outings at the (?amps. 

These camps are a comparatively new feature 
in the summer outings of the New York Settle- 
ments, and they are becoming more and more 
popular as the people realize the value of the- 
training involved in their management. 

Marion B. Doo little. 

The College Settlement, New York. 



'Tis Plodding Wins. 

Many a song would be unsung, 

Many a sermon unprepared, 
Many a harp would be unstrung. 
Many a loving act unshared, 

If "feeling like it" was the key 
That waked the heart to minstrelsy. 
And if in thy life on earth, 
In the chamber or by the heartn, 
'Mid the crowded city's tide. 
Or high. on the lone hillside. 
Thou canst cause a thought of peace. 
Or an aching thought to cease, 
Or a gleam of joy to burst 
On a soul in sadness nurst; 
Spare not thy hand, my child; 

Though the gladdened should never know 
The wellspring amid the wild 
Whence the waters of blessing flow. 

—Forward. 

"A man is simple, when his chief care is to- 
be what he ought to be; that is, honestly and 
naturally human. We may compare existence 
to raw material. What it is, matters less than 
what is made of it." — From Charles Wagner's 
"Sim~ple Life." 



"I am full of faults, but I am real and true, 
and the whole devotion of an earnest soul can- 
not be overprized." — Huxley. 



THE COMMONS 



» 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STAKDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Tiiayeu 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 113 East! ?5th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Susan E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

ST.tNDING committee ON SUB-CHAPTERS. 

Chairman : Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

LOCAL committees. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia— Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

settlements. 
New York City — 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia-433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 93 Tyler Street (Denison House). , 



♦edited UY SARAH CKAItAM TOMKINS. 

The Summer at the New York Settlement. 

The summer has been a busy one for the 
College Settlement, both in town and country. 
The house and camps at Mt. Ivy have been 
filled to their utmost capacity and when the 
happiness of the guests in the simple country 
life, be they children or young people or moth- 
ers with their babes, is seen, one is almost 
tempted to be content with this one phase of 
summer work. But when it is realized that this 
week or two in the country is only a small por- 
tion of the summer, and that the rest must be 
spent In the close, crowded streets of the east 
side, and that most of its inhabitants never get 
even that breath of fresh air, one feels that it 
is only a beginning, and that the life in the 
city itself must be made more endurable. , 

The yard at 95 Rivington street has always 
been open to the children as much as possible. 
Last summer a kindergarten was held at the 
Ludlow street house, and this year, in addition 
to these, the gymnasium, the Settlement's most 



•Waylaiid Camp, not  Maryland." was dpscrilxMl In this 
department in ttie SeptemluT issue.— Kihtok. 



recent acquisition, was open for two hours ev- 
ery morning and afternoon as a playground for 
the younger children. Frequent picnic parties 
were sent out, for of course the most desirable 
thing after all is to get the children out of the 
city even for a short time. The library and 
bank went on at their appointed times. In the 
evening the gymnasium was given over to the 
younger boys for ping-pong, which is still the 
fashion with them, crokinole and other games, 
with a chance at the one very popular shower- 
bath, while the residents at the main house 
were "at home" to any of the older ones who 
might wander in, and sometimes there was a 
quiet, cosy evening and at others a merry dance. 
So the summer has indeed been a busy one for 
the unusually large number of residents, some 
of whom came to stay and others to make but 
fleeting visits, but all of whom found much to 
interest and occupy them. 

Larger forces than the small efforts of an 
occasional Settlement are touching the lives of 
the people of the more crowded districts in 
New York at many points and one of the most 
interesting to watch is the development of the 
work of the Vacation Schools and Playgrounds, 
and the increase of playgrounds in the public 
parks. In addition to the attractions offered 
the children in the schools in the morning and 
afternoon, band concerts were given in three 
schools in the immediate vicinity of the Set- 
tlement every evening. In the case of two the 
roofs were used, while in the third, where the 
roof was not available^ the concert was given 
in the indoors playground, and the proximity 
to the street attracted great crowds, but five 
flights of stairs did not prevent the attendance 
at the others from mounting to a thousand or 
fifteen hundred. The large numbers were 
handled very well; a few seats were provided 
for the mothers, and many older men strayed 
in to watch their children dancing. 

The East side has been much interested in 
the equipment of Seward Park, and rejoices to 
see the thousands of people enjoying its bene- 
fits — children on the swings or in the sand 
piles; boys and men on the splendid gymnastic 
apparatus, running races or playing basket 
ball. Once a week, in the evening, a band con- 
cert is given in the park. 

As one goes about from one of these centers to 
another, one feels that the entire population 
must be at one or the other of them, until one 
walks back through the streets and finds them 
as crowded as ever and stumbles over the ba- 
bies and children as one goes. 

Elizabeth S. Willia.ms. 



10 



THE COMMONS 



VIEW POINTS OF LABOR ABROAD. 

BY GRAHAM TAYLOR. 

The educational value ot a reasonable law 
effectively enforced is well exemplified in Na- 
ples. A society for the protection of animals 
was instituted by an Italian princess and is 
supported largely by tourists, principally to 
protect horses from the shocking cruelty of 
the drivers. Within only three or four years 
the law. enacted at the suggestion and urgency 
of this society, has wrought a very great change 
for the better at the cost of very few pros- 
ecutions. To the cheery chirp of the drivers, 
emphasized by the harmless crack of the whip, 
both horses and men give readier and happier 
response. 



But a society for the protection of children 
is needed sadlj* in southern Italy to do the 
same work of mercy. Boys of light frame and 
fourteen years of age or less were found car- 
rying large baskets full of stone or mortar as 
masons' helpers, and working under the heavy 
tasks of the mountain quarries. In olher 
places growing girls were seen bent low under 
the huge burdens of transporting material or 
of carrying the hay and grain from the har- 
vest fields. The astonishing number of dwarfs 
one meets on the streets and highways of Italy 
may thus be partly accounted for. 



Out-of-door work for women in the gardens 
and harvest fields when properly regulated does 
not appear so objectionable in practice as the 
statement of it may sound to those not ac- 
customed to it. It may be far better for a 
man and his wife, or the grown brothers and 
sisters of the family, to work side by side, divid- 
ing the burdens according to their strength 
as they almost always do, than to suffer the 
loss of this common bond and constant com- 
panionship by dividing the interests and sep- 
arating the sexes in the workaday life. Some 
of the large country houses of England are 
opening fine opportunities to "lady gardeners" 
trained in floriculture and landscape gardening, 
which are being eagerly improved by cultiva- 
ted women. To find women street-sweepers and 
scavengers at work in Bern, Switzerland, was 
hardly as agreeable as to see the shepherd- 
esses with their flocks on the mountain slopes 
and lovely valleys. But they handled the 
brooms better than the men, who did the shov- 
elling and carting all the better for the 
good example and self-respecting bearing of 
the women. 



The Swiss Women's "£k;onomical Society" 
has firmly established In the towns strict com- 
pulsory education and an absolute prohibition 
of the labor of all children under sixteen years 
of age. Their enlightened public policy needs 
to be made effective in country districts, and 
in other less advanced or humane lands. 



The peaceful regulation of competition which 
the Venetian gondoliers have arranged among 
themselves through their union, far more cheap- 
ly and effective'.y controls the difficult situation 
on the canals of Venice than the city could 
command it by the most expensive police force. 
The severest test of this self-imposed restric- 
tion and discipline was imposed by the Munic- 
ipal Serenade. Then the suspension of the 
legal tariff put a premium upon cupidity and 
extortion. A host of foreign tourists sharp- 
ened competition to the keenest edge. But 
with all the rivalry between the hundreds of 
gondolas on this biennial harvest-day and their 
deft steering for the places nearest the illumi- 
nated concert kiosk as it floated down the 
whole length of the Grand Canal, there was no 
violent or even rough action and scarcely more 
than momentary outbursts of impatient speech. 
Every approach to disorder was quickly si- 
lenced by the sharp warning cry to each other 
which accompanied the first notes of every part 
of the evening's musical program. While po- 
lice-gondolas were in the flotilla they were very 
inconspicuous both in number and show of au- 
thority. It seems incredible that this pictur- 
esque but slow and cumbrous method of the 
'•street" transportation of passengers and 
freight can long fail to be superseded by the 
power launches which have begun to make their 
appearance among the gondolas. But the gon- 
doliers will be sure of tourists' patronage for 
man}' a year. For Venice would lose much of 
its unique charm without them. 



The pace of labor everywhere established in 
Ameiica is far more rapid and intense than 
in Europe or England. Our hours are some- 
times shorter and our wages often higher, but 
the production of output is always faster and 
greater. And yet one hears in England far 
les9 complaint of the limitation of output than 
is charged up in America to the account of 
the declining English competition, for which 
there are many other causes. 



With the far lower wages paid in the old 
world more of the necessities but less of the 
luxuries and privileges of family life can be 



TH E COM MONS 



11 



procured than in America. Summer fruits, 
for instance, and ice in hot weather, are so 
expensive as to be out of the reach of the av- 
erage wage-earning family. The majority of 
the people travel less than with us. But more 
of the better paid workingtneu take a two or 
three weeks holiday every year with their fam- 
ilies at some inexpensive seashore or hillside 
resort. Parties of workmen frequently go, or 
are sent by their employers, abroad, for the 
observation of industrial methods and condi- 
tions. Labor unions occasionally arrange large 
excursions to pay visits of fellowship not only 
to neighboring cities but across the border. 
Nearly a thou.=and Dutch trades unionists from 
The Hague in Holland thus spent a day or two 
in Brussels, Belgium, this summer as guests 
of the Socialists of this city. 



"La Maison de Peuple," or the House of the 
People, at Brussels is probably the best 'and 
most effective social enterprise initiated, sup- 
ported and conducted by worklngmen to supply 
their own needs. Built up from a capital so 
small as a sack of potatoes by the Socialists of 
the city, the plant now includes a great build- 
ing occupying half of a central block and cost- 
ing $250,000; co-operative bakery, department 
store, cafe, clothing manufactory, coal yard, do- 
ing the large business demanded by 19,000 co- 
operating families and giving the profits of 
these agencies to their patrons, reserving only 
the profits of the cafe as the sinking fund for 
the payment of the building debt which is rap- 
idly being cancelled. A large hall seating 2,500 
people and smaller assembly rooms provide for 
the regular meetings of all the trades unions 
and the occasional mass meetings held there. 
This greater house of the people supplements 
the equipment and "rainy-day" precautions of 
the family home life. Not only are educational, 
musical and social clubs of many kinds organ- 
ized and centered here, but a medical dispen- 
sary and pharma^ furnishes the services of 
thirteen physlci<|0 and a well equipped and 
capably served (ftltg-store free of cost to all 
co-operators of one year's standing. A sick 
and death benefit society with 8.000 members 
provides them a fair amount of insurance. The 
employment bureau has become the greatest 
exchange in the city to adjust the supply to the 
demand for labor. The National Socialist party, 
which has its headquarters here also, has had 
such growth, leadership and discipline that it 
has elected thirty-three members of parliament, 
and held its own against the reaction from the 
great country-wide strike two or three years 



ago which threatened its power and checked its 
progress. 



This kind of constructive and progressive or- 
ganization of the radical workingmen in Bel- 
gium is in commendable and suggestive con 
trast to the spasmodic and destructive move- 
ments of the French Communards in those 
fearful tempests of passion which have 
time and again devastated Paris. From 
the insurrection of 1792 to that of 1871 
these appalling explosions are to be ac- 
counted for by the abnormal conditions preva- 
lent long before each crisis. Unjust repression^ 
and a suicidal separation of the classes which 
left no human tie between them, settled de- 
spair, crazed by the starvation and strain of 
the long German siege of the city, distorted 
the vision and perverted the judgment of thou- 
sands of sincere men so that they followed the 
desperate leadership of a few fanatics or des- 
perados to the very death. With the more nor- 
mal conditions now prevalent under the French 
Republic this destructive type of communism 
is said to have disappeared even from Belle- 
ville. The still dangerous separation of classes 
and sections in Paris is beginning to be 
bridged practically by such movements as the 
 Universite Populaire" and by the scientific 
study of conditions at the well equipped, ably 
manned and well endowed "Musee Social." 



Do Thy Part. 

Here in the living day, as did the great 

Who made the old days immortal! So shall 

men, 
Gazing long back to this far-looming hour. 
Say: Then the time when men weie truly men. 
Though wars grew less, their spirits met the 

test 
Of new conditions; conquering civic wrong; 
Saving the state anew by virtuous lives; . 
Guarding the country's honor as their own. 
And their own as their country's and their 

sons' ; 
Defying leagued fraud with single truth; 
Not fearing loss, and daring to be pure. 

—Richard 'Watso.n Gildeb. • 



"If any man thinks that I am capable of for- 
warding the great cause in ever so small a way, 
let him just give me a helping hand and I will 
thank him, but it not, he is doing l)0th himself 
and me harm in offering it, and if it should 
be necessary for me to find public expression 
to my thoughts on any matter, I have clearly 
made up my mind to do so, without allowing 
myself to be influenced by hope of gain or 
weight of authority." — Huxley. 



12 



THE ' COMMONS 



THe Gommons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRA.HAM TAYLOR.. 



Editor 



Entered .it Chicago Postoffice as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of eyery montli from Ch icagoCommoss, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Cliicago, 111. 



A Year 



EDITORI A.L. 



Free Speech. 

An apology may be due our earlier readers 
for re opening a discussion of the free speech 
policy which has been one of the most service- 
able and long established relationships between 
the settlements and their communities. 

A belated Chicago daily paper has seen fit to 
attempt a censorship over the free platform of 
the most ably couducted and most highly esteemed 
American settlement. The well understood 
animus of the Cliicago Chronicle renders un- 
necessary a consideration of its utterances in 
these columns. 

Nevertheless a restatement of the principles 
of settlement policy in dealing with radicals , 
and radicalism may not be out of place. . We 
commend to the thoughtful consideration of 
our readers the able contributions upon this 
subject appearing in this issue. 



Prejudice Which Must Qo. ! 

Separation and deportation as a solution of I 
the race problem are presented in a graphic 
manner to a Chicago audience by John Temple 
Graves, the Atlanta editor. This address from 
a southerner at least has the merit of dealing 
with the negro as a man entitled to the political 
and other rights which the white man demands 
for himself. The argument rests upon the pre- 
sumption that these rights and the equal oppor- 
tunity for development can never be the negro's 
in the midst of a white population. If they 
are to be his at all he must fiocii by himself in ] 
a state or nation of his own; and this he 
should do, in Mr. Graves's opinion, and the 
government of the United States should be 
ready to help him to any extent needed. 

This was Thomas Jefferson's answer for the j 
race question, and in his day it presented com- | 
paratively small obstacles. To-day it has to 
deal with 10,000,000 of people and a third of 
the population of the southern states. Where 



is the negro state to be established? Mr. Graves 
suggests various places — Africa as' more senti- 
mental than practical, the Philippines as pos- 
sibly providential, and a great tract of land in 
the far southwest of the United States, to be 
acquired by the government and turned over 
to the younger colored people, as perhaps the 
most practicable or economical scheme of all. 

It may be said as to these suggestions that 
the Philippine plan is wilder than the African. 
That land is already much more thickly popu- 
lated than our own, it is far more remote than 
Africa, and its people have race prejudices of 
their own as well as the southern whites. No- 
one but a dreamer would ever think of It. 
As a practical matter, the separationists are 
brought to consider one suggestion alone — that 
of creating a negro state, or states, of the 
American Union, on land somewhere in the 
southwest, which the government, at a cost of 
hundreds of millions of dollars, must acquire 
and turn over to the colored people at a price 
which they can pay. We shall wait awhile be- 
fore coming to the serious undertaking of such 
a project on the part of the government; and 
meantime the mixture of races is extending to 
occupy this suggested region of territory more 
and more closely. There would then be a white 
race to deport as well as a black, and deporta- 
tion for the lordly white — whatever would he 
think of it? 

But this whole talk of separation will strike 
anybody who stops to think over it as wholly 
idle, except in so far as it may be confined to 
the creation of exclusively colored communities 
in the states where the colored population is 
large. The white South would resist a general 
colored exodus to the utmost, for that would 
mean the loss of a third of its population and 
a nearly proportionate shrinkage in the value 
of all southern property. The supposition that 
northern whites would move in as fast as the 
negro moved out is a hope, and not an assur- 
ance — something remotely possible, but not 
probable until at least the available country 
northward into British territory has been 
crowded full, for the whole present drift of the 
northern races of Europe and America is north- 
ward, rather than southward. The industrial 
South simply cannot spare the negro, and 
knows it, and will resist his general going to- 
the uttermost — and that ends the deportation 
or separation discussion as a serious and prac- 
tical matter. 

What then? We shall always come back to 
the same point from every desperate voyage. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



for discovery of a solution of the race question 
— and this is, that the black is here to stay, 
that the white must live with him at peace or 
-at war, that he cannot live with the negro at 
war and be at peace with himself, that he can- 
not live with the negro at peace and deny to 
him the rights and opportunities of a- man. and 
that therefore the only way out is to smash the 
-assumption which the John Temple Graveses 
■sot up as a rock of everlasting truth, namely, 
that race prejudice is as fixed and ineradicable 
as the very structure of the human body. It 
is not so. To affirm it is to affirm that man is 
incapable of growing out of the narrow and 
miserable little inheritances from his cave- 
dwelling ancestry. 

The real truth is that race prejudice is an 
acquired and not a natural possession. Man, 
and not God, is responsible for it, and igno- 
rance knd provincialism, and not enlightenment, 
are the soil in which it lives and grows. It is 
greatest where the human life is smallest and 
narrowest and meanest and least where life is 
largest in knowledge and experience. This is 
simple fact, and the Gentile in the presence of 
the Jew or the Yankee in the presence of the 
Celt, or the white man in the presence of the 
negro, will do well ever to keep the fact in 
mind. That way, and that way only, lies the 
solution to the race problem. Education is the 
word — but education for the white quite as 
much as for the black. It is race prejudice, 
and not the negro, which "must gol" — The 
Springfield Hepiibliean. 



, The Dead Hand. 

The artless letters from the dead hand of 
Cecil Rhodes, in favor of what have now come 
to be known as "Mr. Chamberlain's Proposals," 
are psychological documents of some value, but 
we are not sure that they will greatly aid the 
cause which the Times and Dr. Jameson have 
at heart. At length we know from whom Mr. 
Chamberlain has drawn his inspiration. It has 
come from the same brain which conceived the 
Jameson Raid. As Mr. Chamberlain's war was 
a continuation of Mr. Rhodes's raid, so Mr. 
Chamberlain's "proposals" are the outcome of 
an agitation which the same practical dreamer 
started ten years ago. It has, indeed, the 
spiritual hall-mark of all Mr. Rhodes's concep- 
tions. Mr. Rhodes went straight to his object, 
and he generally found that the short cut led 
to a precipice. Impatient, masterful, limited 
in his mental horizon, he could never under- 
stand that the means are often much more 



important than the end. He wanted to win the 
Boers for the Empire, and straightway he made 
the raid which alienated them — possibly for 
ever. He wanted to pacify Cape Colony, and 
straightway he proposed to destroy the Consti- 
tution which is the whole basis of whatever 
loyalty it has left. The Zollverein scheme came 
from the sam.e brain. It is a plan to create a 
great commercial federal Empire, by destroying 
the very basis of its commercial and maritime 
prosperity — free trade. Mr. Rhodes complains 
of the short sight of British politicians. To do 
him justice, he was not near-sighted. He had, 
indeed, a mania for immensity in any form. 
The disease of vision from which he suffered 
was rather that he could only see in a straight 
line. He was blind to everything but the one 
distant spot in which he had fixed his gaze — a 
peculiarity that led to some very tragic stum- 
bling. 

In another way, which is quite as character- 
istic, Mr. Chamberlain's proposals betray their 
origin. The masterful mind which has hypno- 
tised him during the latter half of his career 
was a mind of singular limitations despite its 
power. There was a side of life which this 
half-trained intellect could never grasp. He did 
not understand the ties of sentiment, which 
mean as much in politics as in home life. He 
had formed his knowledge of men among the 
cosmopolitan crowd of a diamond field and a 
stock exchange. He had a theory that money 
would buy everything. He confused mankind 
with the men without a country or a conscience 
who were his friends and his satellites. The 
money tie was the only bond he believed In, 
and, patriot though he was, he did not know 
what love of counlry means. Mr. Stead in giv- 
ing his will to the world revealed the man. He 
had a scheme for annexing Spain to the British 
Empire, and evidently he imagined that Span- 
iards would be only too proud to be absorbed 
in a bigger and more flourishing "concern." 
Nor was that all. He had another scheme for 
annexing these islands to America, as though 
we, too. would be only too thankful to sink our 
history and our national existence. His deal- 
ings with the Boers were the most disastrous 
application of these views. Such a man in- 
evitably misunderstood the Colonies. "Future 
generations," he writes, "will not be born in 
England," a phrase which seems to imply that 
the tie which rests on community of Ideals will 
not survive the strain of emigration. Distrust- 
ing sentiment, he looked to business as the 
foundation of the Empire. There he was 
wrong. The Barnatos and the Beits — men who 



14 



THE COMMONS 



have never had a country — are not the types 
of mankind. All history is against him. A 
century which has seen the resurrection of 
nationalities in Italy and in Greece might have 
learned that patriotism is a force which can 
surmount obstacles more formidable than an 
ocean. 

The appeal to business motives is, in fact, 
an appeal to something which sunders even 
more effectively than it binds. We in this coun- 
try are attached to our Colonies, but we cannot 
sacrifice to them the interests of our working- 
classes, whose prosperity depends upon cheap 
food. They in their turn have economic inter- 
ests which they must put first. The Daily Mail 
publishes a most aiguiiicant telegram from Austra- 
lia. Australia is bent on building up her own manu- 
factures. She will not lower her tariffs to admit our 
exports. The utmost she will do is to raise her 
barriers to keep out foreign goods. On these lines 
of conflicting and competing interests there is no 
prospect of unity. The real corner-stone of 
Empire is that sentiment of nationality which 
these hasty builders have rejected. — The Lon- 
don Echo. 



THE SERVANT PROBLEM. 
A Quild of Home Training Suiigested. 

In all one's work among our poorer heigh- 
l)ors in South London nothing so powerfully 
appeals to my own sympathies as the needs of 
the growing girls. Their parents are too poor 
to apprentice or give them "time" to learn any 
trade or business; as soon, therefore, as she 
leaves school the girl must add her tiny earn- 
ings to the family income and as nearly as 
possible "keep herself." Thife necessitates her 
taking up some branch of unskilled labor, such 
as tin-cutting, wood-chopping, rag-sorting and 
packing or pasting in cocoa or jam factories. 
This class of work is most precarious; the firm 
gets "slack," and the newer, slower or worst 
hands are turned off. Then another few weeks 
maybe of work and again weeks or months of 
idleness. Under these circumstances the girl 
and her mother reluctantly turn their thoughts 
to "service"; they will try that, all else having 
failed, and the mother says she "cannot keep 
so many at home idle." So haif-unwillingly, 
half-hopetully, the girl comes to our registry 
office to "get a place." Training Homes there 
are, it is true, but neither the girl nor her 
mother like that prospect. They do not un- 
derstand the value of the training given; they 
will rarely consent to any really useful amount 
of time being spent there because no wages are 



gained, and they feel that after all it is a 
school, only without the alleviations of living 
at home. On the other hand, to a "good" girl 
the Training Home offers small advantage. As 
a rule, the possible insight into housework and 
cookery is not more elaborate than at home, the 
work being divided among so many does not 
afford any real idea to the girl of what she 
would have to do in a "place," and, greatest 
drawback of all, she mixes with the unsatisfac- 
tory ones, not those from whom she is likely 
to get much good, for we all know that it is 
the girls who have not done well whom we send 
to Homes in hopes of their doing better in the 
future. 

The demand for servants is as great as ever, 
it is a trade in which "slackness" rarely occurs, 
but the supply gradually grows smaller and is 
drawn from a more inefficient class than here- 
tofore. Here, it seems to me, is "woman's op- 
portunity." And my suggestion is that ladies 
should band themselves into a guild or associ- 
ation to help both their own class and their 
poor little sisters, by taking a girl regularly 
into their houses to train. I would propose that 
the girl should be provided with a proper out- 
fit of clothes, to be hers at the end of her train- 
ing, that the 

TRAINING TIME SHOULD LAST SIX MONTHS 

and during it no wages should be paid, unless 
a few pence were given as pocket-money, that 
at the end of the time the mistress might retain 
her at a wage for another six months, but that 
after that she should get another place. There 
are many houses where a second pair of hands 
would be useful if no wages need be pa^, and 
now I know of a lady who has always two in 
training, but, as she cannot afford proper 
wages, they pass on to other places, knowing 
their work, having, as it were, a trade in their 
hands, and therefore saved from helping to 
flood the unskilled labor market. The advan- 
tages on either side would be: , 

Ore the Girl's Part — (1) Learning the ways 
of a family differing from her own; (2) learn- 
ing good manners; (3) being under the influ- 
ence of some one who cared she should do 
well; (4) having a six-months' character; (5) 
becoming possessor of a proper outfit of decent 
clothes and having a penny or two of pocket- 
money. • 

On the Mistress' Side — (1) Having a girl to 
lighten the work of the house for no wages; 
(2) knowing that her "general" who would oth- 
erwise have a very dull life had young compan- 
ionship, also the knowledge that by this "per- 



THE COMMONS 



15 



sonal service" she was helping a class who 

would otherwise have little chance of rising. 

Bermondsey Settlement Magazine, London, 
April, 1903. 



We can not always be living in the full vision 
of this City of God, or living at the level of 
any of our highest and grandest thoughts. We 
get glimpses and lose them again, but it is 
these when they come to us that are the nour- 
ishment and the strength and the inspiration 
of our lives. — James Orr, D. D. 



The Kingdom of God begins within, but it is 
to make itself manifest without. It is to pene- 
trate the feelings, habits, thoughts, words, acts, 
of him who is the subject of it. At last it is to 
penetrate our whole social existence, to mold 
all things according to its laws. , 

So there will be discovered beneath all the 
politics of the earth, sustaining the order of 
each country, upholding the charity of each 
household, a City which has foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God. — Frederick Denison 
Maurice. 



We are still busy making the Republic out 
of the children in our homes; out of the races 
which were here before us; out of men from 
all the completed countries whose doors -open 
towards our long seaboards; we are steadily, 
surely, making a people, with one language, one 
liberty, one virtue, one purpose. The world has 
no loftier ideal. There can be none loftier than 
our highest thought, that here may be the holy 
city. New Jerusalem, rising up from earth to 
heaven. — Alexander McKenzie, D. D. 



If we can only come back to Nature to- 
gether every year, and consider the flowers and 
the birds, and confess our faults and our mis- 
takes under the silent stars, and hear the river 
murmuring in absolution, we shall die young, 
even though we live long; and we shall have a 
treasure of memories which will be like the 
twin-flower, a double blossom on a single stem, 
and carry with us into the unseen world some- 
thing which will make it worth while to be 
immortal. 

— Henky Van Dtke. 



"A worker I must always be — it is my nature 
— but it 1 hHd £4tO pounds a vear I would never 
let my name appear to anything I did or shall 
ever do. It would be glorious to be a voice 
working in secret and free from all those per- 
sonal motives that have actuated the best." — 
Huxley. 



Our life should be an fncessant apostolate — 
in word, in deed, in example — of .that which 
we believe to be the truth. He who sets 
bounds to that apostolate denies the unity of 
God and of the human family; he who de- 
spairs of the intellect of the people denies his- 
tory, which shows us the unlearned ever the 
first to seize and comprehend, through the 
heart's logic, the newest and most daring truths 
of religion. 

— Mazzini. 



You were flrst slaves, then serfs. Now you 
are hirelings. You hav-e emancipated your- 
selves from slavery and from serfdom. Why 
should you not emancipate yourselves from the 
yoke of hire, and become free producers, and 
masters of the totality of production which you 
create? Wherefore should you not accomplish 
through your own peaceful endeavors, a revo- 
lution which, accepting labor as. the commer- 
cial basis of human intercourse, and the fruits 
of labor as the basis of property, should abol- 
ish the class distinctions and tyrannical do- 
minion of one class over another. And by pro- 
claiming one sole law of just equilibrium be- 
tween production and consumption, harmonize 
and unite all the children of the country, the 
common mother. 

, — Joseph Mazzim. 



BY EIIWI.N MABKHAM. 

Authcr of "The Man with the Hoe, and other poems." 

Written after seeing Millet's great painting with this 

title. 

Soon will the lonesome cricket by the stone 
Begin to hush the night; and lightly blown 
Field fragrances will 1111 the fading blue — 
Old furrow-scents that ancient Kdon knew. 
Soon In the upper twilight will be heard 
The winging whisper of a homing bird. 

This is the Earth-god of the latter day. 
Treading with solemn joy the upward' way; 
Strong to make kind the grudging ground, and 

strong 
To pluck the beard of some world-honored 

Wrong — 
A lusty strength that In som^ crowning hour 
Will hurl Gray Privilege from the place Of 

power. 

This is the World-Will climbing to its goal, 
The climb of the unconquerable Soul — 
The strong, inevitable steps that make 
Unreason tremble and Tradition shake — 
Democracy, whose sure Insurgent stride 
Jars kingdoms to their ultimate stone of pride. 



16 



THE COM MONS 



The Month at Chicago Commons. 

September is a month of "endings finished 
■of beginnings unbegun," for settlement work 
and workers. The summer resident has taken 
flight and the winter residents have not all re- 
turned. There is movement everywhere — here 
a tear of regret and there a laugh of welcoming 
gladness — as departures and arrivals go and 
*ome. 

In accordance with established precedent, the 
Tabernacle Church held its rally for the fall 
and winter work Sunday, September 20. Be- 
ginning with the sunrise prayer meeting, an 
■excellent spirit was manifest at the well-attend- 
■ed gatherings of the day. Pastor and people 
feel much encouraged and are entering with 
greater confidence into the service of the 
approaching season because of this gathering 
together of their forces. 



 The Domestic Science Department opened 
this yea.- in better condition than ever before'. 
About seventy-five girls from last year's classes 
returned to the cooking school to form a senior 
class, which will be graduated In the spring, 
■while fifty new girls gained admission, taxing 
the entire capacity of the room and necessitat- 
ing a waiting list, which grows longer each 
day. In connection with the department two 
housekeepers' clubs have been formed, one of 
Italian mothers and one of Norwegian. Also 
a. "rug club," which meets every 'Wednesday 
morning, the members dyeing as well as sewing 
the rags, and taking turns in weaving their 
rugs on the Eureka loom. A normal class for 
the kindergarten training school will also be 
lield one day in the week. 



The boys' clubs will begin in their new quar- 
ters October 5. The gift of $100 almost pays 
the rent for one year. The receipts from the 
boys' minstrel show, given last widter, were 
sufficient to paper the walls and ceiling and 
paint the woodwork. One of our neighbors pre- 
sented the club with pictures to decorate the 
w^alls. A small circulating and reference library 
and the Penny Savings Bank are already in- 
stalled in the new room. Our games from last 
year will be sufficient to begin the work. 'We 
shall hope to make some games in the manual 
training department. One need yet remains: 
a pool table for the older boys. This winter's 
work promises to be the best in our experience. 



■While the Commons has been supplying to its' 
■community for the past several years oppor- 



tunity for musical study, it is only this season 
that an organized effort in this direction will 
be made. Taking up residence at the Commons 
this fall, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Gordon will 
devote their entire time to this work, and an 
attempt will be made to combine the various 
musical interests into a regular School of 
Music. Arrangements have already been made 
for giving instruction in piano, voice, violin, 
mandolin and guitar. A children's orchestra 
and a mandolin and guitar club are contem- 
plated. The adult chorus begins its season with 
an enthusiasm unequaled in the past. Contrary 
to its custom, rehearsals were held throughout 
:he summer months, and as a result the club 
will present the sacred cantata, "The Father- 
hood of God," by Schnecker, with the assistance 
of soloists and orchestra, early in October. The 
children's chorus, 200 strong, will again be 
under the able direction of Miss Sprague. This 
body of singers is perhaps one of the most 
interesting features of the Commons' musical 
work. It is well worth any one's while to hear 
these children from the neighborhood sing. 

PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 

Commons 

Opens Oct. 1, 1903. 
Two years' course in Kindergarten Theory and 
Practice. A course in home making. Industrial 
and Social Development emphasized. Includes 
opportunity to become familiar with Social Settle- 
ment Work. For circulars and particulars address 

BERTHA HOFER HEGNER, 
Chicago Commons, i8o Orand Ave., Chicago 

TKe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and I.abor from tlie Social 
Settlementpolnt of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St., Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chlc;igol*ostoQlce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents a 'Vear. (Two 
Siiilliugs, English: 2.50 francs. French— foreign stamps ac- 
cepted.) Postpaid to anv 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 denmn inatioit, at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page. $'r..OO; Half Page, $15.00; 
Quarter Page, $8.00; One Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Coounons. Anf 
number under twenty-flve copies, five cents each; oveF 
twentv-five and under one h\mdred, three certs each; over 
one bundled, two and one halt cents each. 
Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
cluinge of address, or of failure to receive the paper witliln 
a reasi nable Interval after it Is due. 

Discontinuances, Please notify us at once If for anyreason 
you desire your sul>sirJptlou discontinued. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscritiers, 
we continue The Commons to each address until uotilied 
to the contrary. 

The Church in Social Reforms 

By Graham Taylor. An Address and Discussion 
at the International Congregational Council in 
Boston, 1899. Twenty-flve cents. 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of lilfe and lAbor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 88— Vol. VIII 



Elfdith Year 



Chicaso, ^ove^lber, 1903 



THE STORY OF RUSKIN AND THE KES- 
WICK SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL ARTS. 

AS TOLD BY ITS FOUNDER, REV. H. D. RAWNSLEY, 
CANON OF CARLISLE. 



INITIATIVE GIVEN BY PROFESSOR RUSKIN'S TEACH- 
INGS. 

One of the many rememberaWe talks with the 
professor in old Oxford and Hinksey digging 



"Why don't the bishops," he said, "admonish 
their clergy to see to it that side by side with 
parish church and parish mission room there 
shall be a parish workshop, where the black- 
smith and the village carpenter shall of a win- 
ter evening teach all the children who will be 
diligent and will learn the nature of iron and 
wood and the use of their eyes and hands. 

"I would have the decoration of metal and 




days turned on the question of how to add hap- 
piness to the country laborer's lot. His eyes 
flashed and his voice rose with its earnest sing- 
song as he urged that it was the simple duty of 
every squire and every clergyman to see that 
Idle hands should have something found for 
them to do by other than the Devil ; and that it 
was a scandal that the church had neither rest 
homes nor recreation rooms nor public houses 
where the poor might find cheer and solace 
without the necessity of drink on the long win- 
ter evenings. 



wood brought in later, and these children as 
they grow shall feel the joy of adding orna- 
ment to simple surfaces of metal or wood; but 
always they shall be taught the use of the peo- 
cil and the delight of close observation of flower 
in the field and bird in the hedgerow and ani- 
mal in the wildwood. We must bring joy, the 
joy of eye and hand skill to our cottage homes." 
In some such words did the professor talk, 
and his words were not forgotten. It had been 
my fortune to come under the teaching of Ed- 
ward Thring, himself a student of Ruskin's 



- ii-i  Nr ■■^"'-' - 



THE COM MONS 



theories. I had learned at Uppingham that It 
a boy was not gifted with power of language 
or mathematics, nor likely to prove a good 
classic, he was not on that account to be de- 
spaired of by his head master. At least he 
might be clever with his hands, and I once 
heard Thring say that one of the proud mo- 
ments of his life was when he saw the old 
archdeacon's schoolroom, that had done its clas- 
sical work since the days of great Elizabeth, 
turned into a carpenter shop and lou5 with the 
hammer and saw. 

TBANSITION IST THE LAKE CXJUNTBY LIFE. 

It was not to be wondered at that when one 
came into the lake country and settled down 
to the care of the little village of Wray on 
Windermere, one of the first things one should 
seek for was to find how to help the joy of 
the winter evenings in the cottages. There were 
really no poor among the people, but there was 
plenty of time for training hands to the wood 
carver's art. Song was already one of the fea- 
tures of the village life; the postmaster was a 
musician. The old spinning wheel days were 
spoken of tenderly by the village grandmoth- 
ers, but the thought of reviving that industry 
never occurred to one as possible. Wood carv- 
ing was possible, and friends at Grasmere were 
as keen for it as we were at Wray; some al^o 
at Ambleside were wishful to learn. To make 
a long story short, a lady was engaged to come 
down from South Kensington to give a course 
of lessons in the three villages, and our hum- 
ble home industry in the lake district was set 
on foot. 

The last winter we were at Wray my wife 
began to make experiments in metal repoussfi 
work, stimulated by the amateur efforts of a 
friend who chanced to call one day — and in 
the hope of turning such knowledge to ac- 
count in our own village or elsewhere. There 
hangs before me as I write the first dish she 
made, her tools being, I think, a hammer and a 
French nail. 

We were encouraged in the possibility of 
teaching this art to unskilled hands by the 
efforts made by a Swiss butler at Croft, my 
mother-in-law's house, who after one or two 
lessons set to work on an Intricate pattern my 
wife gave him of a scroll from a Florentine 
"scaldino" and who produced an effective bit of 
decoration. I like to think of this man's ex- 
periment as part of the seed from which our 
Keswick School of Industrial Arts sprang. 

Circumstances brought us over the Raise gap 
Into Cumberland in 1883; we left behind the 



wood carvers in Westmoreland, but not the 
sense of brightness in their cottage homes 
which the interest of this simple handicraft had 
added. We left behind the presence of the 
master, and the possibility of going over the 
Hawkshead Hill to talk with him at Brant- 
wood from time to time of the work. We car- 
ried with us his wishes and his hopes for the 
evangel of home industries. The Langdale spin- 
ning wheels had just begun to hum; we had 
none to help Cumberland homes in this way, 
but at least we knew something of the elements 
of wood carving and metal repouss6 work, and 
we were amongst a people who must necessa- 
rily have little work to do, out of the tourist 
season, and were in a town which had none of 
the excitements of the "three-penny theater" or 
"penny-gaff" to act as counter attraction. Be- 
sides the town was a Viking town. Town of 
the wyke of Ketel the Dane; and these Vikings 
were living here still with probably the same 
aptitude for wood carving and wood shaping 
and with that same love of ornament that their 
forefathers had brought with them who came 
with Ingolf and Thorolf from over the sea — sup- 
plemented, as I suppose, by the love of it that 
the German colony of miners in the days of 
Queen Elizabeth had in their hearts. It was 
true that there was no evidence of its existence 
in the cottages, unless the raddle mark and 
whitening pattern on hearth or door stone 
might be looked upon as survivals of a day of 
Scandinavian ornament; but some one had evi- 
dently been fond of wood carving of old, for not 
a settle nor high "seat post" nor meal-ark or 
kist in the old farms but had careful scroll and 
vine-roll ornament upon them, dating some of 
these from King James' time, and the later 
Restoration down to the middle of last cen- 
tury. There was evidence here that the love 
of wood carving detail was cared for in Cumber- 
land homes. Some of the patterns on these 
meal-arks were clearly Norse, the linked ser- 
pent was sign of it; others showed an earlier 
origin and told of the time when the fore- 
fathers of these dalesmen were still dwellers 
in the land of the palm, Aryans in their east- 
ern home. The conventionalized palm-roll on 
the Cumberland furniture has often set me 
thinking of the permanency of traditional or- 
nament among a pastoral people. But this is 
by the way. 

FAVORING CONDITIONS AT KESWaCK. 

Here, then, at Keswick was just the place for 
an experiment in home industries. A little 
country town, dull enough in winter evenings. 



THE COMMONS 



3 



lacking enough in work and wages of all year 
round besides, and full enough of tourists in a 
summer season to insure a sale for the goods 
made. So we set to work in the winter of 
1883-4, called a committee together, enlisted the 
help of a gentleman in the neighborhood who 
was an artist and designer, and engaging a 
teacher of wood carving from the South Kens- 
ington School, offered her services to the ladies 
of the neighborhood on such terms during the 
day as enabled us to hold a class free of charge 
for workingmen and lads during the evening. 
We met in the parish room three nights a week, 
my wife superintending the brass repouss6 
work and a clever local jeweler making experi- 
ments as to the manipulation of the sheet 
metal in the matter of beating it up into shape 
from the flat. Within a month of the start we 
could produce very simple brass or copper fin- 
ger plates for doors which found a sale. Our 
expenses of that first session of five months 
amounted to £181, but we had produced work 
which we estimated to be worth £118. Our ex- 
penses were kept as low as possible. The parish 
room in which for the first ten years the classes 
were held was lent us, and, though it was a 
very considerable trouble to have to clear away 
all benches and tools at the end of each even- 
ing's work, the workers cheerily undertook this, 
for the room was quite certain to be needed for 
parochial work on the following day. For the 
second winter session we engaged a clever 
wood carver to come once a week from Carlisle, 
and the sum of £9 — the only sum ever asked for 
of the neighborhood to help to defray expenses 
— was collected. The working expenses of this 
second season was £147. A local exhibition of 
work done was held at Easter in the Town 
Hall, and I remember well the astonishment 
on the faces of some of the townsmen who 
found that this work had been done in their 
midst by men and lads whom they knew well 
enough in any capacity but that of wood or 
metal worker. 

SELF-SUPPORT SOON REACHED. 

At the third session, 1886, we found appli- 
cations were so numerous for admission to the 
school that we could afford to be careful in our 
selection, and could impose such rules as that 
no lad should be admitted to work till he could 
prove by attendance at the drawing class his 
ability to trace his pattern for himself on to 
the metal or wood. From the first we had 
wished to see each metal worker finish his 
work throughout, but the difficulty of having 
proper accommodation in a smith's shop pre- 



vented this. Nevertheless, as time went on we 
fitted up an iron room, hard by the parish room, 
with concrete floor, blow pipe, anvil, vises and 
the like; and one of the cleverest of our school 
hands thenceforward undertook to teach him- 
self as he went along and to teach others as he 
worked. At the end of the third session we 
found ourselves with our expenditure doubled, 
but our sales had doubled also, and we were 
possessed of assets that showed us we were £131 
to the good. The experiment so far has shown 
itself entirely self-supporting, and from that 
day to this it has not looked back. 

BEAUTIFt.L HOME FOR THE WORK OF BEAUTY. 

For ten years we worked in the parish room 
under great inconveniences. Then our com- 
mittee determined to obtain a site and build 
workshops and show room, office and designer's 
room in one, and, while the school itself out of 
its earnings contributed £300 and the county 
council £200, friends to the enterprise con- 
tributed the balance of the £800 necessary, and 
in 1894 we entered into possession of as com- 
pact and picturesque a school of art as may 
be found in Great Britain. For the design of 
the school we were indebted to Messrs. Paley & 
Austin of Lancaster. Amongst those who had 
helped us were Walter Crane, Holman Hunt and 
that truest champion of the whole movement, 
our dear old frien(^, G. F. Watts, the Royal 
Academician. 

But the spirit that had made the whole ven- 
ture possible was the spirit of him whose face 
hangs now upon its wails, the spirit of John 
Ruskin. 

Most visitors go to see the pencil works near 
Greta Hall, some are glad to see Southey's 
home upon the tree-clad hill hard by; it is but 
a step beyond in the direction of Crosthwaite 
Church, and the eyes of all who cross Greta 
bridge will light on a pleasant building swathed 
in flowers, with balcony such as might be wel- 
comed by the spinners of old time, with chim- 
neys Just such as those round chimneys on their 
square pedestals which Wordsworth so much 
admired, and which Ruskin himself delighted 
to draw. Beneath the balcony runs a legend: 
"The loving eye and skilful hand 
Shall work with joy and bless the land." 

I once heard a tourist spell it out to his 
friend, and say: "Oh, yes, it's the Keswick eye 
hospital, you know." And truly it is an eye 
hospital, if by that is meant an institution for 
getting men to use their eyes and see beauty 
in living design and the worth of a springing 
curve. 



Enter the garden gate, climb up the round 
of stone steps, pass along the balcony and we 
find ourselves at a door leading into the show 
room of the Keswick School on Industrial Arts, 
upon whose front is a tablet with the words 
from Browning: 
"Oh, world as God has made it, all is beauty. 

And knowing this is love, and love is duty"; 
as one lifts one's eyes to the hills from that 
balcony or entering into the show room and 
crossing to the further side one gazes out upon 
the ample mead, the winding river, the dis- 
tant hills, the flashing lake, one feels, unless 
one's heart Is stone, that Browning is right. 

Here is the ideal craftsman's home of work, 
and here in the winter months the windows 
gleam as one passes, one hears above the sound 
of Greta swirling by, the sound of the anvil 
and the chink of the hammers, and, passing on 
may find a set of men as proud of their school 
as they are well behaved and courteous. Men 
who scorn all that is meant by the word drink, 
and men who, though many of them live labo- 
rious days, will not miss if they can help it, 
crowning the labor of the day with the rest 
of this complete change of work for hand and 
eye. 

You will find the lady who started it all 
faithfully at her post no matter what the 
weather is, noting and criticising each piece 
of work and deciding if it shall be passed ajid 
have the school stamp, a lozenge with the in- 
itials K. S. I. A. upon it. You will find an- 
other lady the friend and confidante of all the 
workers from the first, giving out or taking in 
the work and paying for it its just value to the 
worker. You will see the art director planning 
with sure hand how this or that metal prob- 
lem is to be met. You will pass into the next 
room and mingle with the wood carvers round 
their teacher, or on another evening you will 
watch the men with pencil in hand doing what 
they may to reproduce a branch of wild rose 
upon their drawing boards, or modeling a cast 
of a leaf in clay beneath the direction of their 
drawing teacher. You will open the door and 
find yourself in another room odorous with 
pitch and hissing loud as the redhot bowl is 
tempered for its twentieth time. This is the 
abode of Vulcan and .^olus pro tem. The 
stithy is being arranged for outside. Iron work 
has in this last year of the century been added 
to the copper and brass work. Passing through 
this room you will enter the workshop where 
silver work goes forward, and beyond may 
chance to find an enameler's gas stove red hot 
and a worker in enamel busy. 



But in summer you will note that the chief 
attraction is the show room, and, as you gaze 
at the varied wares of wood, of brass, of cop- 
per, of silver and of electro-plate, you will not 
be surprised to learn that the amount of work 
turned out annually is estimated at £1,700, and 
that the difficulty is rather not how to dispose 
of the work done, but how to keep customers 
in good temper while they are waiting for their 
work in its due rotation to be executed. 

THE WORTH OF THE WOKK. 

And what really is the worth of the school 
work? It cannot be estimated in pounds. Go 
to the homes of any of the workers. Ask their 
wives or their brothers and you shall learn. 
Go to any of the workers themselves and you 
shall learn that the good of the school to them 
has been that they now have always some- 
thing to turn to on a dull evening and some- 
thing that has opened their eyes to see what 
they used to pass by without notice in flower 
life and bird life and beauty of light and shade, 
of cloud and sunshine, upon the fellside of 
their native vale. 

But if you were to ask the art director I 
think he would say that he is astounded at the 
natural refinement that has come upon the 
men ; a coarse word, a vulgar suggestion, is not 
known in the school. He would say further 
that he realizes here in this little school at 
Keswick, something of the guild camaraderie 
of the olden time. If a man finds out any se- 
cret in working metal he does not care to keep 
it to himself, it is at once at the service of all 
his fellow-workers. It is this spirit that is 
better than rubies, whose price is above silver 
and gold. 

And if you were to inquire of the townsmen 
what they thought of the institution I believe 
the more thoughtful would answer: "We know 
nothing of the ideal before the mind of the pro- 
moters. This we know, that it is the grandest 
temperance agent in the place." 

Now to whom is this owed? Whose is the 
spirit that inspired it? There is only one 
answer possible. It is the mind and spirit of 
John Ruskin. How well I remember the day 
when we took our first little results of brass 
repouss6 over to Brantwood to talk about the 
work in the spring of 1884. How pleased he 
was to hear about it all. How grieved he was 
to think that we should allow our workers to 
work in a mixed metal. Copper, yes; gold, 
yes; silver, yes; but this brass was neither fish, 
flesh nor good fresh herring. It was a base 
alloy. And yet though he clapped his hands 



THE COMMONS 



over It, and vowed It waa shockingly immoral, 
he admitted the work was careful and true, and 
was forced to allow that much of the sunshine 
that dazzled the eyes of the heroes of Homer's 
song was just this base alloy on shining thresh- 
old and on glittering helm. Ruskin was too 
enfeebled in health to admit of our troubling 
him afterwards with details of our work, but he 
knew of our progress and rejoiced in it, and 
from time to time sent tender messages to the 
school. 

A aUlLD FOR SOCIAL WORK AND ITS 
MESSAGE TO SETTLEMENTS. 

BY FBANCIS H. M'LEAN, ASSOCIATE WORKER, NORTH- 
WESTERN TTNrVERSITY SETTLEMENT. 

The University Settlement of New York City 
has not been entirely a stranger to achievement 
during its years of growth. Its Influence upon 
the local conditions existing in the great East 
Side of New York has been exceedingly power- 
ful. It has succeeded in becoming a great cen- 
ter for labor unions. Its workers have in 
pamphlet and report and verbal speech given 
striking and clear expositions of social sores 
and their cure. So much more might be said. 

But if one were looking for that achievement 
which, above all others, has been remarkable 
and unique in the history of this settlement, 
he would And it — not among these things which 
are chiefly spoken and written about. If he 
were wise and accustomed to look beneath the 
surface he would discover that which he sought 
in what brought about a meeting recently held 
in the Settlement when the Neighborhood Guild 
Alumni Association was organized. That As- 
sociation is the last fine flower of a develop- 
ment which has been going on ever since the 
early beginnings of what is now the University 
Settlement, a development which has brought 
to the young men and young women of the 
settlement clubs a fine sense of social responsi- 
bility, which has resulted in their becoming 
efficient directors and leaders in the work of 
other social centers. No more significant de- 
velopment has ever appeared in the annals of 
the settlement movement in America, and it Is 
certainly worthy of more careful study and at- 
tention than has ever been given to it. For 
what other settlement in America can point to 
three of its "boys" in charge of three other 
settlements? What other settlement can point 
to the organization of a new social center en- 
tirely through the efforts of a number of its 
"boys" and "girls" now young men and women. 
Can anyone fail to see the tremendous im- 
petus and strength which will be given to the 



settlement movement when not one or two or 

three, but many more centers are developing 
young men and women, who in their turn will 
establish or direct other new centers? In a 
very modest way the writer will endeavor 
in the present article to describe what con- 
ditions, methods and policies are responsible 
for this development. For what has been ac- 
complished In the University Settlement may 
be accomplished in a greater or less degree by 
other centers. 

To Dr. Stanton Colt belongs in a large share 
the honor for having so directed the work and 
energies of the social center which gradually 
grew up about him, when he went to live on 
the East Side some seventeen years ago, as to 
bring forth such remarkable results. The broad 
Ideals which Dr. Colt had in mind have been 
embodied in his book on neighborhood guilds. 
Though the Neighborhood Guild which grew 
up on the East Side of New York, and which 
has since been Incorporated In the University 
Settlement, does not by any means attain to 
Dr. Colt's Ideals and standards, still in a very 
forceful and strong way it has demonstrated 
the value of his theory and practice. It Is 
hardly necessary to here summarize Dr. Colt's 
ideals beyond saying that they simply meant 
that social centers should not be developed 
from the outside, but from the inside. In 
other words, that the people themselves in any 
particular community should be the great work- 
ing force in a social center and that the as^ 
slstance, material and otherwise, which came 
from the outside should be merely Incidental. 
Perhaps a certain amount of leadership is neces- 
sary, as he led the old Neighborhood Guild, but 
if the whole spirit of a place does not Impose 
responsibility and ihutual duty upon all who 
become a part in this life, then certainly it 
fails signally, judged from the guild standpoint. 
Responsibility and mutual service, these are 
the keynote of the guild ideal. It was undoubt- 
edly Dr. Colt's hope that in time the Neighbor- 
hood Guild would grow up into active, flour- 
ishing life, continually extending its sphere 
of activities, perhaps through encouraging the 
growth of other local centers, and that the 
greater share of responsibility for its main- 
tenance and support and work should be upon 
the people of each particular community where- 
in it worked; in other words, it should be not 
only for the people, but from and hy the peo- 
ple. As time has gone on, the necessities of 
many crises and other influences have ma- 
terially changed the growth of the Guild, espe- 
cially since the incorporation in the Univer- 



6 



THE COMMONS 



sity Settlement. Nevertheless^ though Dr. Colt 
himself may imagine that In a very large de- 
gree it has failed to grow up to his Ideals, still 
even In partial success it has shown remarkable 
achievement. 

Without attempting to be exact and historical 
In a description of the career of the Neigh- 
borhood Guild, it is possible to trace the line 
of development with a fair degree of precision. 
As indicated above, at the start, upon the young 
people who gathered around Dr. Colt was placed 
a large share of responsibility for carrying on 
the Guild. This does not mean, of course, that 
there were not so-called "up town" workers 
who assisted Dr. Colt both financially and 
otherwise. It did mean, however, that in gen- 
eral charge of the Guild there gradually grew 
up a Guild Committee composed of delegates 
from the other clubs. This committee had gen- 
eral responsibility, subject, of course, to large 
executive power on the part of Dr. Colt himself. 
But this committee was the governing body 
of the Guild; it managed its flnances, it ar- 
ranged for the use of rooms, it settled the 
policy of the Guild in many matters. In other 
words, behold then a local aggregation of clubs 
managing their joint affairs and conducting 
many activities through the Guild house. Cur- 
tailed as the responsibilities of the Guild mem- . 
bers have been since that time, the great prin- 
ciple has never been lost sight of, and to the 
spirit which it engendered may be traced the 
great amount of native leadership which has 
come from the ranks of Guild members. 

As time went on and the activities and in- 
terests of the Guild grew, it became more and 
more difficult to secure the money necessary for 
the payment of expenses. So in the end, the 
direct responsibility for the Guild work was 
assumed by the University Settlement Society, 
and, of necessity, the responsibilities of the 
Guild committee and of the Guild itself toward 
the House became somewhat more limited. The 
Settlement Society, of course, assumed all finan- 
cial responsibility, and in doing so likewise be- 
came responsible to its members for the man- 
agement of the house and its relations to the 
neighborhood. For a number of years there 
was more or less dissatisfaction. Having lost 
some of its more serious duties, it looked for a 
time as though the Guild itself would decline 
and would disappear as a separate organization. 
This was the time when minor shreds of au- 
thority were assumed and held on to with 
dogged grasp by the representative of the Guild 
Clubs, that is, the Guild committee. This was 
the time when a mere matter of routine, for in- 



stance, like the assignment to rooms — was a 
continuous bone of dissension between the head 
worker and the Guild committee. Was there, 
after all, a place for the Guild in this settle- 
ment, with its general council and with its head 
worker, with its activities constantly increas- 
ing, activities in which the Guild itself might 
be little interested and of little value? 

Fortunately, there were always wise hands 
at the helm who realized that it would be a 
serious loss indeed if all the spirit of mutual 
service and responsibility which the Guild had 
brought into existence on the part of all who 
were connected with it should entirely die out. 
So, for a long time there was doubt and un- 
certainty, but finally sufficient light broke in 
for the old Guild itself to see just what part 
it should play in the advance of the Settlement 
House. 

Without going over the growth step by step. 
It may be well to describe just what the Neigh- 
borhood Guild Is to-day. The Neighborhood 
Guild is an integral part of the University Set- 
tlement House. There are certain Settlement 
activities which do not come within its pur- 
view. For instance, library, kindergarten, the 
use of the public hall by labor unions, the use 
of the roof by gymnasium classes; in fact, aU 
activities which do not directly result from the 
initiative of the clubs themselves do not logic- 
ally belong to them for management. On the 
other hand, under its constitution and with the 
general approval of the Settlement authori- 
ties, it is always possible for the Neighborhood 
Guild to enlarge its own activities. For a more 
comprehensive view of the Guild, it may be 
best here to incorporate the constitution under 
which it is now working. This may be of bene- 
fit also to those who are interested in trying 
like experiments: 

CONSTITUTION OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD GUILD. 

Article I. — Name. — This association shall be 
known as the Neighborhood Guild. 

Article II. — Objects. — The objects of this as- 
sociation shall be the intellectual and social im- 
provement of its members and of the people of 
the neighborhood. The means of attaining 
these objects shall be such as the following: 
Self-governed business meetings, educational 
classes, lectures, literary meetings and debates, 
social meetings and dances, a reading room and 
circulating library, choral and dramatic so- 
cieties, friendly and sick-benefit societies and 
athletic clubs. 

Artici-e III. — Sec. 1. ^ Membership. — The 
Guild shall consist of the Tenth Ward So- 



THE COM MON8 



cial Reform Club, the Out Ward Club, the Im- 
provement Club, the S. E. I. Club, the Dolly 
Madison Club, the Neighborhood Civic Club, the 
Wads worth Literary Circle; and Sec. 2. Other 
clubs, for both social and intellectual purposes, 
now formed and yet to be formed, which may 
be admitted to full representation upon the 
Guild Committee in accordance with the terms 
of Section 3, Article IV. 

Article IV. — Sec. 1. — OfUcers and Guild Com- 
mittee. — The general business of the Guild shall 
be managed by the Head Worker and a Guild 
Committee. 

Sec. 2. — The Guild Committee shall consist 
of: 

(o) Two representatives, who shall be elected 
for a term of one year, from each Guild Club 
whose members average seventeen years of age. 

(b) The adviser or manager of every other 
club not admitted to full membership. 

(c) The Head Worker as Chairman, and 
such residents of the University Settlement as 
may be actively associated with the work of a 
Guild Club. 

Sec. 3. — Every club admitted to the privileges 
of the Guild House shall be entitled to repre- 
sentation upon the Guild Committee after six 
months' probation, provided its application be 
approved by the Guild Committee and the 
Head Worker. 

No club shall be allowed the privileges of the 
Guild House after one year from the date of its 
admission, unless it applies for and is granted 
representation upon the Guild Committee. This 
provision shall not apply to any club formed 
of Guild members for special purposes. 

Sec. 4. — Every club admitted to the privileges 
of the Guild House shall be expected, during 
the period of its probation, to send one dele- 
gate to the Guild Committee, but such delegate 
shall not be entitled to a vote in said Com- 
mittee. 

Article V. — Sec. 1. — Government. — Each one 
of the clubs constituting the ^Neighborhood 
Guild shall be self-governed, and shall disci- 
pline its own members, subject to appeal to the 
Head Worker. 

Sec. 2. — The Head Worker shall be the exec- 
utive head of the Guild, shall administer dis- 
cipline and make general and house rules. 

Sec. 3. — The Guild Committee shall act as the 
social center of the Guild. It shall discuss on 
its own initiative all matters of interest to the 
Guild generally or clubs particularly, all ques- 
tions referred to it by the Head Worker or the 
clubs, and make suggestions as to all such 



matters to the clubs and the Head Worker. It 
shall act as an advisory council to the Head 
Worker. 

Sec. 4. — The Guild Committee shall have 
power to form and supervise, with the consent 
of the Head Worker, clubs, classes and organi- 
zations which may tend to further the objects 
of the Guild. 

Article Y1.— Revenue — Every club shall con- 
tribute a certain portion of its income from 
dues, to be fixed by the Head Worker, towards 
the expenses of the Guild.  

Article VII. — Conferences. — A conference to 
consider the general affairs of the Guild shall 
be held semi-annually, in the second week of 
May and October, at which shall be submitted 
reports from the Head Worker, the Guild Com- 
mittee and the various Qlubs and classes. All 
members of the Guild Committee and of Guild 
clubs represented by two delegates shall be 
entitled to a vote at a conference. 

Article VIII. — Associates of the Guild. — Upon 
the admission of the Guild Committee and the 
confirmation of the Head Worker, such persons 
as may have been honorably connected with 
clubs represented upon the Guild Committee 
may be made Associates of the Guild. Such 
Associates shall have all the rights and privi- 
leges of a member of a Guild Club except , the 
right to a vote at a Guild conference. 

Article IX. — Amendments. — This constitu- 
tion may be amended at any conference by a 
two-thirds vote of those present, provided that 
the proposed amendment shall be included in 
the notice for such conference. 

BY-LAWS. 

1. The Head Worker shall be the Chairman 
of the Guild Committee. 

2. The Guild Committee shall meet regularly 
once a month from September to May inclusive. 
Special meetings may be called at any time 
upon notice by the Head Worker, 

3. The clubs, in rotation, upon a schedule 
prepared by the Guild Committee, shall have 
full charge of the monthly Guild socials. The 
Committee shall have power to frame rules gov- 
erning the socials and in the event of any club 
not giving the one assigned to it by the Com- 
mittee itself shall take such charge. 

4. Each conference of the Guild shall be 
held upon notice given to each club by the Guild 
Committee at a regular meeting of such club, 
held at least six days prior to the date set 
for the conference, which notice shall be accom- 



8 



THr COM MONS 



panied by a copy of agenda for such conference. 
The business covered by the agenda must first 
be acted upon at such conference, other busi- 
ness may then be discussed, but shall not be 
acted upon except by a two-thirds vote to pro- 
ceed to the consideration of the proposed busi- 
ness. 

5. A special conference shall be called by 
the Guild Committee within seven days after 
receipt of a requisition therefor from a ma- 
jority of the clubs represented by the Commit- 
tee, provided that each of such clubs shall have 
"voted in favor of such conference, and no busi- 
ness shall there be considered except such as is 
stated in the notice. 

6. A quorum at any conference shall con- 
•sist of a majority of the Guild clubs. Each club 
shall be deemed to be sufficiently represented 
whenever there are two delegates present at 
such conference. 

7. The Head Worker shall be Chairman of 
"every conference. In his absence the Assistant 
Head Worker shall be Chairman. The Secre- 
tary of the Guild Committee shall act as Sec- 
retary of the conference. 

8. At all conferences the parliamentary au- 
thority shall be Reed's Manual. 

Now, like the constitution of all bodies, 
there is much more ground covered in the arti- 
cle on objects than has actually been brought . 
to pass. Section 3 of Article V. does in the 
main, however, indicate in just what ways the 
Guild and its representative body has been help- 
ful. It is true that some classes and clubs have 
been organized and managed by the Guild. It is 
true that very helpful social life has been fos- 
tered by it. It is true that its parental body has 
acted as an advisory committee for the Head 
Worker. It is true that though the Guild has 
not been officially connected with the many out- 
side investigations made by residents, still in- 
dividual members have been of great assistance 
and in more than one case they have made 
contributions themselves. It is true that the 
attitude of club members towards the Settle- 
ment has been very different from that ob- 
served by the writer in other settlements. The 
old Guild spirit is one which does not fight 
for equality, but simply assumes it as an axio- 
matic fact at ihe very start. In the Guild world 
it is not necessary to claim equality, because 
your very presence there means that you have 
assumed equality. Equality of responsibility, 
equality in service. That is what the Guild has 
always signified. When one views the old Guild 
and the new there does, of course, appear a 
serious discrepancy in the amount of power and 



responsibility. In that comparison the present 
duties of the Guild may appear curtailed and 
limited, and such they are; yet, as has been in- 
dicated before, with all this curtailment there 
has been possible all the way through, such an 
encouragement of the spirit of self-reliance and 
social service as has borne much good fruit. 
At times there has been severe criticism of the 
Guild Committee within the Guild itself. There 
have not been wanting statements that the old 
Guild scheme had outlived its usefulness so far 
as the Settlement was concerned. Yet the Guild 
and its Committee have persisted through all 
discouragements, and there is every reason to 
believe that it will increase in influence dur- 
ing the years to come rather than decrease. 

Indeed it would take a good deal of an icono- 
clast to attempt to put the Guild upon the shelf, 
in view of the striking results which have come 
from its existence. Slight allusion has already 
been made to some of the achievements, but 
they deserve fuller mention. As years have 
gone by, many old members of the Guild have 
moved to Harlem. The colony there has now 
become so large that a Harlem Guild has been 
organized which opened up quarters in the fall 
of 1902. In the last report of the University 
Settlement Society, it is stated that at present 
there meet in this Guild five boys' clubs, two 
girls' clubs, a reading class for small girls and 
a manual training class for boys, a drawing 
class, a dancing class and an elocution class; 
and there are also on foot plans for using the 
room during the day for a kindergarten. De- 
tails of the management of the Guild are in the 
hands of a committee of three, which is elected 
every four months from the members. All of 
its work is looked after by the young men and 
young women who started it. The Guild is sup- 
ported by the dues and contributions of its 
originators, with some assistance from members 
of the council and from outside persons. An 
old member of the Guild is Head Worker for 
this Settlement. The Harlem Guild certainly 
is a most striking and interesting outgrowth of 
the old Neighborhood Guild. In the way of 
leadership the Guild has sent forth, as before 
indicated, three Head Workers for other Set- 
tlements. Besides that, it has had more than 
one recruit in the work of playground centers 
and public school clubs. For a long time one of 
its young women was director of junior girls' 
work in the University Settlement, and is now 
gone to a similar position with another society. 
Indeed, it would be extremely hard to set down 
in order, in just how many clubs and societies 
the Guild members have organized or have been 



THE COMMONS 



9 



interested. It would be hard to estimate just 
how much their contribution has been to the 
social work now carried on in New Yorlc City. 
The last fine flower of the growth, as indicated 
in the beginning of this article, was the or- 
ganization of the Neighborhood Guild Alumni 
composed of old workers in and members of 
the old Guild clubs. That is, the Association 
is meant to include workers who were no longer 
connected with the Settlement and also mem- 
bers of Guild clubs which have gone out of 
existence, but who still desired to maintain 
their interest in the Guild. There were drawn 
together at the preliminary meeting of this 
association men who had been residents and 
men who had been Head Workers, and besides 
them, other young men and wonlen who had 
come up from the clubs and who had done 
their service also in connection with the growth 
of the Settlement. It is interesting in this con- 
nection to note that in the roster of workers 
in the University Settlement published in the 
Annual Report of 1902, it appears that out of 
the total of 69 workers, 18 are old members of 
the Guild or members of present Guild clubs. 
At the very first meeting of the Association, 
the question of what service it could perform 
to the Neighborhood Guild came up. It had 
been suggested that something in the way of a 
fellowship might be particularly appropriate for 
an association of this sort. Sooner or later 
there is. every reason to believe that some proj- 
ect of this sort will be carried out, for there 
is an evident intention on the part of the Guild 
Alumni to keep the association in vital touch 
with the Settlement through some definite and 
specific activity. It should be stated in this 
connection that many members of the Alumni 
Association are now performing services of dif- 
ferent sorts individually for the Settlement. 
The Alumni Association has been largely the 
means of bringing together and solidifying the 
Alumni body, and thereby, perhaps, increasing 
the present interest of many old members of 
the Guild who might fall away from it if there 
were no definite opportunities for their re- 
assuming touch with it. Such an opportunity 
is furnished through this association. 

To the mind of the writer the Neighborhood 
Guild has several lessons to teach to Settlement 
workers. In the first place, it has succeeded so 
well in developing native leadership because it 
has put into actual existence without equivoca- 
tion or fear, that absolute democracy which 
should be the ideal of every settlement. It has 
not confined the interests of the member of a 
club to that club or to any set of particular 



activities. Rather it has from the start, as 
soon as his actually childish days are gone, 
assumed and considered that he is part and 
parcel of the house or Guild and that his opin- 
ions are entitled to just as much grave consid- 
eration as that of any resident in the house. 
Rather the resident has been considered as be- 
longing to a particular class of Guild members, 
and a class, be ye careful to observe, which 
has its limitations! There have been times In 
the history of the University Settlement when 
residents have been freely and frankly criti- 
cized and when the general management of the 
house has been freely and frankly criticized. 
Some of this criticism has been just — some 
unjust. It has been irritating and exasperating 
at times. There has more than once been dis- 
played an obstinacy which has been absolutely 
senseless. But no minor irritation or series of 
minor irritations can weigh for a second against, 
that marvelous bringing out of the best in 
scores of young men and women for which 
the democracy of the Neighborhood Guild Is 
responsible. Right at this point a distinction 
should be made. It cannot be too plainly stated 
that other settlements have succeeded better 
than the University in Interesting men in local 
affairs. Other settlements have also been more 
successful in developing the spirit of co-opera- 
tion among young women. But nowhere else 
has there been developed so great a power for 
leadership and for extending and spreading the 
best ideals of the settlement movement as 
here. The Neighborhood Guild has shown the 
lasting social value of settlement clubs when 
rightly organized. Not in the mere social (us- 
ing the word in its narrower sense) and edu- 
cational advantages may their chief value lie, 
but in adding materially to the ranks of those 
who are thinking and working for social bet- 
terment outside of merely local lines. Clubs 
have come and gone in the Neighborhood Guild. 
But they have not gone without leaving behind 
strong and active workers in the University Set- 
tlement and without contributing strong and 
active workers to other centers. 

The inarticulate message of the Neighbor- 
hood Guild to other centers is apparently as 
plain. Give to your young people power and 
responsibility, and a very large share of it, in 
shaping the policy and activities, not of their 
respective clubs only, but of the whole house. 
Mayhap if you do not feel the absolute neces- 
sity for growing very fast, you may even suc- 
ceed better than the University Settlement, 
which has grown to such large proportions. If 
it is given to you to remain a comparatively 



10 



THE COM MONS 



modest and simple social center, then indeed 
your opportunities are the greater. You can 
then even give large financial responsibility to 
those who should have it. A head worker re- 
cently installed in a Chicago settlement beau- 
tifully said to the assembled representatives of 
the house clubs: "This is your house to do 
with as you will. We are your servants to 
carry out your serious purposes, and you can 
make this house just as strong and powerful 
for good as you wish." With a strong Guild 
and a strong Guild spirit developed that can 
come to pass with a greater fulness and com- 
pleteness than is possible under other condi- 
tions. 

To anyone attempting something along this 
line there should be given the caution, Never 
be discouraged. Foolish things will be said and 
done. There will be periods when it will all 
seem a delusion and a snare. But be assured 
that wisdom will come with experience and 
that bye and bye some of your best advisers 
and workers will be among those club members 
who have come into a larger realization of their 
responsibilities and their opportunities. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited for the Association by 

Mart Kingsbury Simkhovitch, 

26 Jones Street. New York City. 



Playgrounds and Public Parks. 

June 30th is a red-letter day in the history of 
the development of the social conscience of 
New York, for it was on that date that New 
York City for the first time saw a playground 
in a public park, operated by the Park Depart- 
ment. Previous to this time the Board of Edu- 
cation had maintained playgrounds during the 
vacation period, and also for several years the 
Outdoor Recreation League had maintained 
at private cost small playgrounds in pub- 
lic parks as well as in other lots. But the pur- 
pose of the Outdoor Recreation League from 
the start was to urge before the city as rapidly 
as possible the duty of maintaining play- 
grounds and outdoor gymnasiums under the 
jurisdiction of tho Park Department. Commis- 
sioner Willcox could have appointed no one 
who was so well fitted to carry out this plan 
as is Mr. Charles B. Stover, identified with the 
Outdoor Recreation League from the beginning, 
and now, for two years, its president. It is 
to the credit of the present administration that 



the Park Department has at last vigorously 
taken hold of the idea that playgrounds are an 
integral part of decent municipal park sys- 
tem, and it is to the credit of Mr. Stover that 
this attitude of the Park Department has be- 
come an effective reality. There are now in 
operation six playgrounds, where there is also 
an open-air gymnasium. These are the play- 
grounds in: Tompkins Square, Seward Park, 
De Witt Clinton Park, the John Jay Park, Ham- 
ilton Fisk Park, and the park at Corlear's 
Hook. 

Playgrounds (without the gymnasium) are 
maintained at the Battery Park, at Hudson 
Park, at Seventeenth Street and East River, 
and at the East River Park. 

In making up the budget for next year the 
department is asking for $38,450 for the main- 
tenance of these ten playgrounds. Next year, 
also, will probably see the opening of a park 
on the East Thirty-fifth Street site, selected by 
the commission of 1897 and since that time 
urged by the citizens of that district. 

The work of the playgrounds has so far been 
hampered by the fact that the Civil Service 
Commission has taken so long to furnish lists 
of eligible attendants. But that difficulty has 
been met, and now we have in New York ten 
splendidly equipped playgrounds, with appar- 
atus tor the boys, with croquet, swings, etc., 
for the girls, and engaging little swings for the 
babies. The one "but" to these playgrounds 
is their relative scarcity in proportion to the 
density of population. The "result is that these 
playgrounds are overcrowded. This is only a 
beginning; when we get really civilized we'll 
have enough playgrounds so that all can have a 
chance at them. These playgrounds are to be 
operated all the year round. Of course when 
school is in session the playgrounds cannot 
be used by school children. But the grounds 
are open to school children after school till 
dark. — Mary K. Simkhotitch, Oreenioich Houite. 



Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Hill have returned 
to their work at West Side Neighborhood 
House. They are living, however, in a tene- 
ment nearby. Mr. Hill has regained his health 
and is welcomed back to New York most 
heartily. 



Mr. R. G. Fitzgerald, of the Richmond Hill 
House, 28 Macdougal, has begun his work as 
attendant or truant oflScer of the Board of Edu- 
cation, being the first one on the eligible list, 
over 300 persons hdving taken the examination. 
The Richmond Hill House has two especially 



THE COMMONS 



11 



interesting features to be noted: One is a 
series of lessons to Italians to prepare them 
for naturalization, and the other is instruction 
in hand-spinning. Richmond Hill House is 
right on the edge of a large Italian district, 
ever pushing Its frontiers westward and north- 
ward. 



Mr. Paul Kennaday, of Greenwich House, Is 
the newly appointed secretary of the Tubercu- 
losis Committee of the Charity Organization 
Society. The campaign of this committee is a 
vigorous one. It is not only educational, but is 
also making itself felt in effecting changes 
through co-operation with state and city agen- 
cies that deal with the tuberculosis question. 



A recent number of the Review of Reviews 
published an article by Mr. Edward T. Devine, 
of the Charity Organization Society, which has 
attracted widespread attention. The article 
showed what the present city administration 
has done through its great city departments, 
which most closely touches the daily life of 
working people. The Tenement House Depart- 
ment, the Charities Department and the Board 
of Health are conspicuous examples of what 
such departments can be when headed by such 
able men as are now serving as commissioners. 



On the first Saturday evening of October the 
alumni of the Neighborhood Guild of the Uni- 
versity Settlement tendered a reception at the 
settlement to the new head-worker, Professor 
Hamilton, recently of Syracuse University. 
Professor Hamilton brings to his new position 
a cultivated mind, broad sympathies and rip- 
ened judgment. He is a man who will under- 
stand the art of going slowly, but who will not 
flinch from a positive point of view when there 
is occasion for it. A man of mature years, 
who has known the business as well as the 
academic world. Professor Hamilton enters 
upon his work under favorable auspices. 

Mr. Ernest Poole, of the University Settle- 
ment, who last year contributed to magazines 
interesting articles on child labor, and who, 
later in the year, brought out a valuable and 
interesting study of what is called "The Lung 
Block" — so infested is the block with tubercu- 
losis — is this year devoting his attention to 
New York sweat-shops. 



COLLEQE SETTLEMENTS ASSOC! ATION. 

8TANDINO COMMITTKK. 

President: Katharine Coman, Wellcsley, ilass. 
Vice President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thatkr 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), PorUmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: Sarah Graham Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 85th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: Susan E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

STANDING COMMITTEE ON BUB-CHAPTERS. 

Chairman : Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

local committees. 
Boston— Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia— Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New Y'ork City— 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia-433 Christian Street. 
Boston— 93 Tyler Street (Oenison House). 



EDITED BY SARAH GRAHAM TOMKINS. 



A great sorrow is a great opportunity. This 
world is never dark when it is seen in the light 
of God's countenance. — Rvfus Ellis. 



SETTLEMENT CO-OPERATION IN VACA- 
TION SCHOOLS. 

BY MARY H. DANA, CHAIRMAN BOSTON VACATION 
SCHOOL COMMITTEE. 

The Tyler Street Vacation School was started 
in 1894 by Ward Eleven of the Boston Associ- 
ated Charities acting In conjunction with the 
College Settlement, Denison House, and has 
been carried on each year since by Denison 
House assuming the responsibility and the As- 
sociated Charities raising the money. 

The classes are held in one of the public 
school buildings with the exception of the 
sloyd and cooking departments, which are in 
rooms adapted for the purpose in other build- 
ings. We have found that it is wiser to have 
trained and paid teachers, and that the chil- 
dren's interest in manual and nature work la 
so great. It Is best to give them those, 
studies entirely during the short session ot 
six weeks. We reach the children by having 
about five hundred circulars distributed In tl^e 
near-by public schools the last of June, ai^d 



12 



THE COMMONS 



these circulars tell them that the school will 
open on the Monday after the Fourth of July, 
and that there will be kindergarten, primary, 
sewing, cooking, sloyd, cobbling and nature 
classes for children of from four to fourteen 
years of age; also that tickets may be obtained 
by parents applying at Denison House during 
certain hours. 

We often feel that the parents do not ap- 
preciate the value of the school, excepting that 
it keeps Mary or John "off the street," but there 
Is certainly no lack of enthusiasm on the chil- 
dren's part, and this year many more applied 
than could be accommodated. Many of the 
children did not miss a day, and it seems as if 
each year they came more regularly from their 
interest in their work, rather than be on hand 
for a possible excursion. We had an average 
dally attendance of 212, the superintendent dis- 
charging children who were absent without 
good cause and substituting those on the wait- 
ing list. 

The kindergarten had an average attendance 
of 40, our most efficient teacher being helped 
by one of the nurses from the Day Nursery 
near the school. The children were much in- 
terested in the finger work, clay molding, paper 
cutting, etc., and the exhibition showed how 
much can be accomplished in six weeks. 

The most satisfactory excursions for these , 
little ones were the trips made In the after- 
noons with small parties of four to six children. 
We feel that of all departments these afford the 
best opportunity for knowing each child and 
giving lessons in courtesy and kindness. 

The primary department is always crowded 
and we divide it into two sections. This year 
the first section studied about Japanese and 
Chinese life, making many interesting articles 
to illustrate their work. The second section 
had for its subject United States history, giv- 
ing much time to Indian life. The hand work 
was devoted to making wigwams, canoes, snow- 
shoes, etc. 

One of the busiest rooms was the dress- 
making department. The interest never seemed 
to lag, and the older girls finished twenty-five 
mohair shirt waist suits and six shirt waists, 
besides several minor articles. The little girls, 
many of whom were in the primary grade 
last year, made sixteen gingham dresses and 
many aprons. 

The teacher of the cooking class tried to se- 
lect dishes which the girls would be able to 
prepare in their own homes, and several dishes 
■were voluntarily made by the girls at home 
ttor the exhibition. One laundry lesson was 



given each week, and scrubbing and dish- 
washing were taught every day. The ignorance 
about dish-washing was quite appalling. 

The sloyd work is always successful, the 
girls enjoying it almost as much as the boys. 
The addition of walnut stain to the articles 
made for the house added to their attractive- 
ness. A class of older boys were glad to work 
before and after school in pyrography and color 
study. 

The cobbling class was a new department this 
year and proved very popular. About 250 pairs 
of tops and heels were completed during the 
ten half days of labor. First the boys took off 
their own boots and mended them, and then 
brought from home those of their brothers, 
sisters and neighbors. 

We have, perhaps, been the most interested 
In the growth of the nature work. Through 
the generosity of one of the committee, we 
have been able to send classes of from fifteen 
to twenty children, with a competent teacher, 
to the seashore or country nearly every day. 
The interest in nature this has aroused, as 
well as the cultivating influence it has had, has 
been of great value. 

This year we added gardening to the field and 
class work, and both the boys and girls were 
intensely interested in their little plots of 
earth. Many plants were transplanted into 
boxes and taken home at the close of the term. 
The children learned the systematic care of 
their gardens and their powers of observation 
were very much sharpened; then, too, respect 
for the rights of property ownership was in- 
stilled and the labor gave the boys a chance 
to work off their superfluous energy. 

The mothers' teas, held every week, were well 
attended, and both the parents and children 
who came seemed to be more self-possessed and 
more capable of mingling and talking together 
than they used to be. 

The school cost about $800 this year, the 
nature work adding nearly $200 to the total 
expense. We plan each year to buy some casts 
and pictures for decoration and leave them in 
the rooms, so that the children may enjoy 
them in winter also. 



numility. 

The bird that soars on highest wing, 
Builds on the ground her lowly nest. 

And she that doth most sweetly sing. 
Sings in the shade when all things rest. 

In lark and nightingale we see 

What honor hath humility. 

—Montgomery. 



THE COM MON8 



13 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects ol Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GICA.HAM TAYLOR., • • 



Eaitor 



Entered at Cliicago Postoffice as Second-Class Matter, and 
Publislied the first of every montli from Chicago Commons, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



The Keswick School of Industrial Arts. 

To catch a glimpse of Canon Rawnsley on 
his field is to have a new assurance of the 
possibility not only, but of the practicability 
also, of Identifying the spiritual and social 
motive, and the historic spirit with the most 
intensely practical purpose. At the old Crosth- 
waite parish church in Keswick there is on 
every hand the evidence of his reverence for 
every detail of its antique art and storied his- 
tory, and in the announcement of its services 
all over town there is equal witness to his 
"present miud." Equally at home in the na- 
ture, life and literary associations of the Eng- 
lish lake country as he is in the pulpit, recog- 
nized to be not more in his place when admin- 
istering parish affairs than in awarding prizes 
at the agricultural fair and in directing the 
school of industrial arts, this citizen-minister 
fulfills John Ruskin's ideal of the parish priest 
in trying with his people to "make earth heaven 
by doing certain fair deeds." Not more, if as 
much to him as to Mrs. Rawnsley are due the 
home art industries for which Keswick is be- 
coming far-famed. To the courtesy of both the 
readers of The Commons are indebted for the 
good Canon's story of their work and its in- 
spirer. G. T. 



Graft and Boodle. 

Just now there is no word so common in our 
political gossip as "graft." While we may be 
better able to define the term after the Com- 
mittee of Nine concludes its investigation of 
the administration of the city of Chicago, we 
know, at least in a general way, what we mean 
when we use the word. We may get a clearer 
idea of it by comparing it with its malodorous 
companion, "boodle." 

Boodle is wholesale, graft is retail corruption. 



Boodle is bribery on a grand scale, graft is 
petty bribery. The briber by boodle is the 
master of millions, the briber by graft may 
be only a "land poor" single cottage house- 
holder. The boodler is boss of the gang, the 
grafter is a comparatively obscure official. 
Boodle is the fruit and reward of bossism, graft 
may exist without close organization. Boodle 
finds its opportunity in the legislative, graft 
in the administrative department of the gov- 
ernment. The boodler and the grafter are alike 
in making private gain out of public office. The 
only difference between them is the difference 
in the size of the "swag." The grafter is only 
an abridged, manifold edition of the boodler. 

If we accept StefEen's optimistic interpreta- 
tion of the Reform movement in Chicago, that 
the city has overthrown boodling, we may find 
an explanation for the retirement of this once 
much-used term. The word is now without 
local significance, the thing itself being a back 
number. We know this because we see public 
service corporations bargaining in the open 
before our council committees for franchise 
privileges that they formerly bought or boodled 
from the boss of the gang in his own room. 

Having checked, possibly overthrown boodling; 
— a fact we accept with wary trustfulness — 
the next forward step of the people will be to 
eliminate grafting from its civic administra- 
tion. A good beginning has been made in the 
Hull House investigation of the sanitary con- 
ditions in the Nineteenth ward, culminating in 
the searching report of the Health Department 
by the Civil Service Commission. What the 
outcome of the present investigation by the 
Committee of Nine will be remains to be seen. 
One thing is certain, graft is getting a pub- 
licity that is likely to be unhealthy for it. The 
people can eradicate graft as they have elimin- 
ated boodling. All that is needed is the same 
kind of persistent faith and discriminating, 
independent judgment that has won the first 
notable advance in the reform and the redemp- 
tion of the city from corruption. 

To be sure there will be some faithless, un- 
believing ones who will maintain that grafting 
cannot be eradicated. We know them. Tliey 
spoke after the same manner seven years ago 
when the assault on boodle began. Neverthe- 
less, we have a "clean" council to-day, and 
boodling is out of style. The same catastrophe 
will happen to graft. When the spirit of the 
people is once aroused to sustained antagonism 
to grafting as we believe it is now to boodling, 
grafting will become disreputable, unfashion- 
able, out of date. J. M. 



u 



THE COMMONS 



VIEW POINTS AFIELD. 

BY GRAHAM TATLOR. 

Social Conference of the Friends in England. 

No finer or more practically effective social 
work is done in England than by members of 
the Society of Friends. Their newer meeting 
houses resemble social settlement buildings 
with the most ample quarters and best equii>- 
ment for varied educational, industrial, social 
and religious work. The First Day Adult 
Schools, which we plan to describe with illus- 
trations in an early number of The Commons. 
are the most popular religious agency and the 
most effective social endeavor at work among 
men in England. Some members of the so- 
ciety, who have become captains of the large 
cocoa industries, are marshaling their resources 
for the social betterment of conditions in and 
all about their great plants with an ethical in- 
sight, a public spirit and a vision of the ideal 
far ahead of their times. Some account of the 
Cadbury's Model Works near Birmingham, to- 
gether with the Boumville Village Trust, and 
of the Rountree's liberally designed and man- 
aged plant at York, with the scientific investi- 
gation of conditions which father and son are 
making, may be expected later in these col- 
umns. It is of the summer school and confer- 
ence on social questions to which these practical . 
endeavors have led that this introductory article 
is devoted. 

An old family country house with beautiful 
grounds at Woodbrooke, near Birmingham, has 
become the seat of this new educational enter- 
prise which has the promise of a unique de- 
velopment. Here a select circle of rare spirits 
has gathered for six weeks about expert lec- 
turers and teachers in science, language, litera- 
ture, Biblical criticism and philosophy, with 
such success that Professor J. Rendel Harris, 
the eminent scholar, prefers leading the move- 
ment to build up a permanent school here, 
rather than to accept the professorship in the 
University of Leyden, to which he has been 
elected. The social conference which followed 
was conducted on the same high plane and 
made place for its branch of inquiry in the 
curriculum and teaching force being provided 
for. 

MB. KOGNTRKE OX £^'GLAND'S LIQUOB PROBLEM. 

The first place on the programme was given 
to Mr. Joseph Rountree's discussion of "The 
Present Critical Condition of the Licensing 
Question." As joint author with Mr. Anthony 
Sherwell of "The Temperance Problem and So- 



cial Reform." this manufacturer is regarded as 
one the highest authorities on the liquor prob- 
lem among English investigators. 

Through his courtesy the syllabus of "Propo- 
sitions," to the discussion of which Ms paper 
was devoted, follows: 

(1) That the consumption of alcohol in this 
country is excessive, and ought to be reduced. 

(2) That the consumption of alcohol in a 
country can be enormously affecte^ by the force 
of law and of social arrangement. 

(3) That the ever-present obstacle which 
temperance reformers have to encounter is the 
power and unslumbering hostility of the trade 
to any changes whatsoever that are calculated 
to lessen the consumption of alcohol. 

(4) That after legislation and restrictive 
agencies have done all that can reasonably be 
expected from them, there will for a long term 
of years be a great volume of drink traffic still 
existing in the country. 

(5) That that portion of the trade which 
cannot be suppressed should be placed under 
effective control. 

(6) That an effective control of a character 
calculated to effect a great reduction in con- 
sumption is not likely to be brought about so 
long as the publtc-house trade remains in private 
hands. 

(7) That it is altogether improbable that 
the nation will long permit the monopoly 
profits of the retail trade to pass entirely into 
private hands, and that public management on 
a large scale in the near future is inevitable. 

(8) That the benefits of taking the public- 
house trade out of private hands will be largely 
neutralized if it means merely replacing the 
private interest of the publican by the collective 
interest of the ratepayers; yet this result is 
likely to come about if the question is allowed 
to drift, and if the temperance party fail to 
formulate a clear positive policy -with regard to 
that portion of the traffic which comes under 
any form of public management. 

(9) That when the public-house trade is 
taken out of private hands and is conducted 
either by municipalities or by controlling com- 
panies, it is essential: 

(o) That the general conditions under which 
such bodies work shall be determined by statu- 
tory law, and especially 

(6) That the appropriation of profits shall 
be determined by law and be such that locali- 
ties can have no inducement either to stimulate 
or to continue the traffic for the sake of the 
profit which it yields. 

The difference of opinion centered about the 



THE COMMONS 



15 



contention of Mr. Rountree, supported by Mr. 
Sherwell, that public appropriation of the 
liquor trade would necessarily involve the ques- 
tion of compensation to the manufacturers and 
dealers for the loss of the value of their plants 
and facilities for distribution. Thus only, they 
claimed, could the inseparable charge of injus- 
tice be removed from the path of progress to- 
ward this end. The validity of this objection 
to state appropriation and the public policy of 
proposing any compensation whatever were 
sharply challenged and stoutly denied by Mr. 
Arthur Chamberlain, brother of the retired 
Colonial Secretary. As a manufacturer and 
magistrate in Birmingham he saw enough of 
the damage and danger of the private liquor 
traffic to warrant the state in suppressing and 
assuming control of it. 

CRISIS IN POCK LAW ADMISISTIIATION. 

The poor law and its problems were discussed 
with rare wisdom and wit by Mr. A. L. Smith, 
fellow and tutor of Balliol College, and for 
many years poor law guardian in the city of 
Oxford. He drew his eminently practical sug- 
gestions as to methods and his weighty conclu- 
sions as to results from his personal knowledge 
of Arnold Toynbee's pioneer investigations in 
East London, and his own long experience in 
administering the law and studying the causes 
and treatment of pauperism. 

The present extent of pauperism in England 
* was indicated by these statistics of the past 
decade: 

London population, 4,201,875 in 1891; 4,520,- 
490 in 1901. 

Per cent of paupers to population, 1891, in- 
door 1.23, outdoor 2.13; in 1901, indoor 1.28, 
outdoor 2.13. 

Total poor law expenditure in 1891, £2,435,- 
164, a rate on every £1 of assessable property 
of Is 6%d; in 1901, £3,770,926, a rate of Is 
ll%d on £1. Yet the growth of London's 
wealth was twice as great as that of its popu- 
lation. 

The decline in pauperism during the past 
forty years from 5.6 to 2.5 of the population 
was offset by the increase in the prosperous 
year 1901-1902 to 2.6. Under the pauper taint 
there were reported 36,000 able-bodied men, 
76,000 able-bodied women, and 218,000 children. 
In England and Wales in 1863 there were 
1,142,624 paupers, of whom 134,113 were indoor, 
968,040 outdoor, and 253,499 able-bodied. In 
1903, with an increase of over twelve and one- 
half millions in population, there were 847,480 
paupers, 217,319 of whom were indoor, 514,206 
were outdoor, and 106,412 were able-bodied. 



The increasing ratio of pauperism to popula- 
tion the speaker attributed mostly to a new 
system of outdoor relief, which has sprung up 
under the discretion recently given the guar- 
dians that is threatening to equal the ahuse 
prior to the enactment of the law in 1834. This 
contention was strikingly illustrated and attest- 
ed by an array of figures showing the fluctu- 
ations in the policy of the guardians to corre- 
spond with the increase or decrease of pauper- 
ism. Ten unions were cited which incnsased 
their pauperism over 15 per cent, among them 
such as Kensington, which increased its out- 
door pauperism 28.5, St. George's 50, Poplar 52, 
St. Olave's 70.1. Among the six unions which 
decreased their outdoor pauperism over 40 per 
cent were Whitechapel's decrease in outdoor 
61.5, St. Giles 57.1, Woolwich 56.5. The de- 
moralizing influence of the casual labor and 
light jobs offered by the university population 
in Oxford was noted. Tramps invariably re- 
appear with the opening of the term. One of 
them, when informed by some wag that the 
term's opening had been postponed, immediately 
left town. Oxford, with a population of only 
22,994, provided in 1902 for 6,999 vagrants' 
night lodging. 

Outdoor relief was condemned as bad public 
policy because it undermines self-respect, tempts 
to take alms, is not more humane, should not 
be claimed as a rate payee's right, does not 
prevent the breaking up of homes, renders in- 
vestigation impossible, and its increase does not 
decrease indoor relief. 

The poor law judges only of the fact of des- 
titution, leaving charity organization to follow 
and supplement it by dealing with the poor 
themselves. 

The only salvation of democracy is to har- 
ness society to the state and make public duty 
fall on private individuals. 

Other parts in the conference were taken by 
Mr. G. H. Perris of Loudon, who delivered ii 
severe arraignment of the sordid "economicii 
of empire" in England, and by Professor Graham 
Taylor, who defined "the social function of the 
church." 

"All sensuality is one, tiiougb it takes many 
forms; all purity is one." — TiioBEAt;. 



"No man can choose what coming hours may 
bring 
To him of need, of joy, of suite ring; 
But what his soul shall bring unto each hour 
To meet its challenge — this is in his power." 
— The OtmooK. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



THE MONTH AT CHICAGO COMMONS. 

The usual activity along musical lines during 
the past month gives every evidence of a most 
profitable winter. As was noted in last month's 
issue, all of the musical work of the Settlement 
is organized this year into a regular School of 
Music. Already the advantage of this change 
has become manifest. There has been a de- 
cided improvement in regularity and prompt- 
nesa' at lessons, as well as a large increase in 
enro' Iment. The capacity of our piano and 
vocal classes is now taxed to the limit, and 
there are large waiting lists. An unsurpassed 
opportunity for musical friends of the Com- 
mons to do effective non-resident work is here 
presented. 

The Children's Chorus has begun Its fall 
work under more favorable conditions than any 
time heretofore. A plan of work will be fol- 
lowed this season which will give Miss Sprague 
and her assistants a much closer and more 
personal contact with each of the 150 ctiildren 
comprising the group. 

Another and entirely new musical feature 
of the Commons is the Mandolin and Guitar 
Club. Already twenty persons are enrolled, 
with new applications coming in all the time. 



The Shakespeare Club in its opening is for-. 
tunate in having again this season for its lead- 
er the young lawyer whose active Interest has 
meant so much to the Club. At the first meet- 
ing fifteen members began the reading of Mac- 
beth, following an outline study course of the 
greatest plays of Shakespeare, prepared by Pro- 
fessor MacClintock of the University of Chi- 
cago. The plan of work for the year includes 
lectures by University professors and others, 
explaining the work and helping to make it 
most helpful to the members. They are expect- 
ing to have a monthly lecturer from the Univer- 
sity of Chicago's Bureau of University Exten- 
sion. The fellowship in the class has always 
been of great interest and help to the members, 
and has been increased by the giving of a social 
every month or two. 



The same lack of teachers in the sewing 
school Saturday mornings is felt this year that 
has always prevailed. With no announcement 
whatever oi; the sewing classes, the number of 
children now in them is over 125— quite the 
limit unless more teachers can be found. A 
new feature this season is the holding of the 
game period in the gj'mnasium, immediately 
after the close of the two boys' classes there. 



The first gathering of the mothers' meeting 
this fall was unusually large and interesting. 
They had quietly prepared among themselves 
a pleasant surprise for some of the residents 
and their president, in recognition of her re- 
turn as Mrs. Todd. After a light supper was 
enjoyed by all, there were a few speeches and 
a short musical program. Mrs. Hegner, who 
began the mothers' meeting, was present, and 
pleasantly recalled the early days at the old 
building. Three of the mothers present were 
of the original seven who were present at the 
first meeting eight years ago. 



Thursday Evening's Gymnasium Class for 
young women has enrolled forty-six, and, under 
the leadership of Miss Lambkin of the Jewish 
Manual Training School, the members are sure 
to find the recreation and help they expect. 



The first of the Tuesday Evening Free Floor 
Meetings will be held November 10. The pro- 
gram for the first four meetings will probably 
be: "Proposed Legislation Regarding News- 
boys." The facts secured in the newsboys in- 
vestigation that has been going on this summer 
are nearly ready for publication, and will 
awaken a good deal of interest in the question 
of the sale of papers and of boy life in the 
streets. "The Work of the New Child Labor 
Law," by State Factory Inspector Davies; 
"How to Deal with Truancy," by Principal 
MacQuery of the Parental School, and Mr. 
Bodine, Superintendent of the Compulsory De- 
partment of the Board of Education. "The 
Juvenile Court," by John J. McManaman, Head 
Probation Officer. Early in December Dr. James 
B. Herrick will speak on "The Economic Aspect 
of Tuberculosis." 



TKe Commons 

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TKe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of I^lfe and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 89— Vol. VIH 



Eighth Year 



Chicaso, December, 1903 



HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD. 
'^His Passion for the Better Social Order. 

BY J.VNE ADDAMS. 

In the. few minutes at our disposal I should 
like to speak of the 
passion for a better 
social order, the 
hunger and thirst 
after social right- 
eousness which Mr. 
Lloyd's life em- 
bodied beyond that, 
perhaps, of any of 
his fellow-citizens. 

Progress is not 
automatic; the 
world grows better 
because people 
wish that it should 
Und take the right 
steps to make it 
better. Progress 
depends upon mod- 
iflcation and 
change; if things 
are ever to move 
forward some man 
must be willing to 
take the first steps 
and assume the 
risks. Such a man 
must have courage, 
but courage is by 
no means enough. 
That man may 
easily do a vast 
amount of harm 
who advocates so- 
cial changes from 
mere blind en- 
thusiasm for / / • 

human better- yV-^Tv-w^^^ 
ment, who •"-w^^^.^'w 

arouses men yy 

only to a smart- ^-^ 

ing sense of wrong or who promotes reforms which 

•Address delivered at the Memorial meeting In tribute 
to the life and p\ibllc services of Henry Demarest Lloyd 
at the Auditorium. Chicago, November 29, 1903. 




are irrational and without relation to his time. To 
be of value in tlie delicate process of social adjust- 
ment and reconstruction, a man must have a knowl- 
edge of life as it is, of the good as well as of the 

wrong; he must be 
a patient collector 
of facts, and fur- 
thermore he must 
possess a zeal for 
men which will in- 
spire confidence 
and arouse to ac- 
tion.- 

I need not tell 
this audience that 
the man whose pre- 
mature death we 
are here to mourn 
possessed these 
qualities in an un- 
usual degree. 

His search for 
the Accomplished 
Good was untiring. 
It took him again 
and again on jour- 
neys to England, 
to Australia, to 
Switzorland,where- 
ever indeed he de- 
tected the begin- 
ning of an. attempt 
to " equalize wel- 
fare," as he called 
it, wherever he 
caught tidings of a 
successful democ- 
racy. He brought 
back cheering re- 
ports of the 
"Labor Co- 
partnership" 
in England , 
through which 
the working 
men own together farms, mills, factories and 
dairies, and run them for mutual profit; of the 
people's banks in Central Europe which are at 




2 



THE COM MONS 



last bringing economic redemption to the hard- 
pressed peasants; of the old age pensions In 
Australia; of the country without strikes be- 
cause compulsory arbitration is fairly en- 
forced; of the national railroads in New Zea- 
land, which carry the school children free and 
scatter the unemployed on the new lands. 

His new book on "The Swiss Sovereign" is 
not yet completed, but we all recall his glow- 
ing accounts of Switzerland, "where they have 
been democrats for six hundred years and are 
the best democrats," where they can point to 
the educational results of the referendum, 
which makes the entire country a forum for 
the discussion of each new measure, so that 
the people not only agitate and elect, but also 
legislate; where the government pensions 
fatherless school children that they may not 
be crushed by premature labor. The accounts 
of these and many more successful social ex- 
periments are to be found in his later books. 
As other men collect coins or pictures, so Mr. 
Lloyd collected specimens of successful co-oper- 
ation—of brotherhood put into practice. 

He came at last to an unshaken belief that 
this round old world of ours 16 literally dotted 
over with groups of men and women who are 
steadily bringing in a more rational social or- 
der. To quote his own words: 

"We need but to do everywhere what some 
one is doing somewhere." "We do but all 
need to do, what a few are doing." "We 
must learn to walk together in new ways." 
His friends admit that in these books there 
is an element of special pleading, but it is the 
special pleading of the idealist who insists that 
the people who dream are the only ones who 
accomplish, and who in proof thereof unrolls 
the charters of national and international as- 
sociations of working men, the open accounts 
of municipal tramways, the records of co- 
operative societies, the cash balances in peo- 
ple's banks. 

Mr. Lloyd possessed a large measure of hu- 
man charm. He had many, gifts of mind and 
bearing, but perhaps his chief accomplishment 
was his mastery of the difficult art of com- 
radeship. Many times social charm serves 
merely to cover up the trivial, but Mr. Lloyd 
ever made his an instrument to create a new 
fascination for serious things. We can all re- 
call his deep concern over the changed atti- 
tude which we, as a nation, are allowing our- 
selves to take toward the colored man; his 
foresight as to the grave consequences In per- 
mitting the rights of the humblest to be In- 
vaded; his warning that if in the press of our 



affairs we do not win new 'liberties that we 
cannot keep our old liberties. 

He was an accomplished Italian scholar, ik)S- 
sessing a large Italian library; he had not only 
a keen pleasure in Dante, but a vivid interest 
in the struggles of New Italy; he firmly be- 
lieved that the United States has a chance to 
work out Mazzini's hopes for Italian working 
men, as they sturdily build our railroads and 
cross the American plains with the same en- 
ergy with which they have previously built the 
Roman roads and pierced the Alps. He saw 
(hose fine realities in humble men which easily 
remain hidden to dull eyes. 

I recall a conversation with Mr. Lloyd held 
last September during a Chicago strike, which 
had been marred by acts of violence and 
broken contracts. We spoke of the hard places 
into which the friends of labor unions are often 
brought when they sympathize with the ulti- 
mate objects of a strike, but must disapprove 
of nearly every step of the way taken to attain 
that object. Mr. Lloyd referred with regret 
to the disfavor with which most labor men 
look upon compulsory arbitration. He him- 
self believed that as the State alone has the 
right to use force and has the duty of sup- 
pressio"n toward any individual or combina- 
tion of individuals who undertake to use it for, 
themselves, so the State has the right to insist 
that the situation shall be submitted to an ac- 
credited court, that the State itself may only 
resort to force after the established machinery 
of government has failed. He spoke of the 
dangers inherent in vast combinations of la- 
bor as well as in the huge combinations of 
capital; that the salvation of both lay in abso- 
lute publicity. As he had years before made 
public the hidden methods of a pioneer "Trtist" 
because he early realized 'the dangers which 
have since become obvious to many people, so 
he foresaw dangers to labor organizations if 
they substitute methods of shrewdness and of 
secret agreement for the open moral appeal. 
Labor unions are powerless unless backed by 
public opinion, he said; they can only win pub- 
lic confidence by taking the public into their 
counsels and by doing nothing of which the 
public may not know. 

It is so easy to be dazzled by the combined 
power of capital, to be bullied by the voting 
strength of labor. We forget that capital can- 
not enter the moral realm, and may always be 
successfully routed by moral energy; that the 
labor vote will never be "solid" save as it ral- 
lies to those political measures which promise 
larger opportunities for the mass of the peo- 



THE COMMONS 



pie; that the moral appeal is the only universal 
appeal. 

Many people in this room can recall Mr. 
Lloyd's description of the anthracite coal 
Strike, his look of mingled solicitude and In- 
dignation as he displayed the photograph of 
the little bunker boy who held in his pigmy 
hand his account sheet, showing that at the 
end of his week's work he owed his landlord- 
employer more than he did at the beginning. 
Mr. Lloyd insisted that the simple human ele- 
ment was the marvel of the Pennsylvania sit- 
uation, sheer pity continually breaking through 
and speaking over the heads of the business 
interests. We recall his generous speculation 
as to what the result would have been if there 
had been absolutely no violence, no shadow of 
law-breaking during those long months; if the 
struggle could have stood out as a single ef- 
fort to attain a higher standard of lite for 
every miner's family, untainted by any touch 
of hatred toward those who did not join in the 
effort. Mr. Lloyd believed that the wonderful 
self-control which the strikers in the main ex- 
erted, but prefigured the strength which labor 
will exhibit when it has at last learned the 
wisdom of using only the moral appeal and of 
giving up forever every form of brute force. 
"If a mixed body of men can do as well as 
that they can certainly do better." We can al- 
most hear him say it now. His ardor recalled 
the saying of a wise man, "That the belief that 
a new degree of virtue is possible acts as a 
genuine creative force in human affairs." 

Throughout his life Mr. Lloyd believed in 
and worked for the "organization of labor," 
but with his whole heart he longed for what 
he called "the religion of labor,'" whose mis- 
sion it should be "to advance the kingdom of 
God into the unevangelized territory of trade, 
commerce and industry." He dared to hope 
that "out of the pain, poverty and want of the 
people there may at last be shaped a new lov- 
ing cup for the old religion." 

Let us be comforted as we view the life of 
this "helper and friend of mankind" that haply 
we may, in this moment of sorrow, "establish 
our wavering line." 

"O strong soul, by what shore 
Dost thou now tarry? * * * 
Somewhere, surely, afar. 
In the sounding labor-house vast 
Of being, is practiced that strength. 
Zealous, beneficent, firm!" 



"The key-word of scientific democracy is not 
rights, but reciprocity." — Henby D. Lix)yD. 



" 'How is the strong staff broken and the 
beautiful rod!' We never had greater need of 
him. But he has done a great work; a work 
that will endure. The new America will b« 
different from what it would have been — 
better in much than it would have been — if 
he had not lived." — Washington Gladden, or 
Henbt Demaeest Lloyd. 



"If people want to do right they will find 
leaders of righteousness. Democracy never 
came by the good will of the few." 



"Democracy makes a people where there was 
only population." 

"The progress of events has eyes the eye ol 
man has not. So far are we along that to com- 
prehend the destiny we are creating we need 
visions no longer; only vision. The morning 
stars once sang together. On the day the 
truth breaks upon man that these myriads ol 
worlds are but one world, and that the lesser 
commonwealths of home, town, are members of 
a great commonwealth, all men will shout to- 
gether for joy: Thy will is being done on 
earth." 

"We are to become fathers, mothers, for the 
spirit of the father and mother .is not in us 
while we can say of any child it is not ours, and 
leave it in the grime. We are to become men, 
women, for to all about reinforcing us we shall 
insure full growth and thus insure it to our- 
selves. We are to become gentlemen, ladies, 
for we will not accept from another any service 
we are not willing to return in kind. We are 
to become honest, giving when we get, and get- 
ting with the knowledge and consent of all." 



"It- is not a verbal accident that science Is 
the substance of the word conscience. We must 
know the right before we can do the right 
When it comes to know the facts the human 
heart can no more endure monopoly than Amer- 
ican slavery or Roman empire. The first step 
to a remedy is that the people care. If they 
know they will care. To help them to know 
and care, to stimulate new hatred of evil, new 
love of the good, new sympathy for the victims 
of power, and by enlarging its science, to 
quicken the old into a new conscience, this 
compilation of fact has been made. Democracy 
is not a lie. There live in the body of the 
commonality the unexhausted virtue and the 
ever-refreshened strength which can rise equal 
to any problems of progress. In the hope of 
tapping some reserve of their powers of self- 
help this story is told to the people." 



THE COMMONS 



FOOD PRICES AND POVERTY IN ENQLISH 
POLITICS. 

DISCUSSED BY EMISEKT MEN BEFORE IX)NDON 
SKTTIJEMENTS. 

The new Settlements Association of London 
and vicinity is rapidly winning prestige for 
the way in which it rallies the ablest men and 
commands the widest hearing for the discus- 
sion of public questions. Its autumnal session 
at Passmore Edwards House was a great suc- 
cess. Not only were many settlements repre- 
sented in the audience, but its large hall was 
crowded by eager listeners to hear the discus- 
sion of "Food Prices in Relation to Poverty." 
Of course the bearing of the question upon the 
most critical political Issue before the English 
people whetted the popular desire to hear and 
read the utterances of the three well known 
and eminent authorities on the subject. In 
stating the object of the meeting, Mr. Percy 
Alden, the honorary secretary of the associa- 
tion, explained that it was not a political gath- 
ering. Nevertheless the inevitable drift of all 
the speeches landed all the speakers into the 
discussion of the way Mr. Chamberlain's pro- 
posed preferential tariff tax on food would bear 
upon the wage earners' standard of living and 
upon the poverty of the casual workers and 
the unemployed. It illustrates also how Inev- 
itably the settlements' interest in and duty 
toward improving industrial conditions and re- 
lationships force them to take their stand on 
political issues, however non-partisan they are 
in so doing. For the first time in all their 
history many of them are obliged to depart 
from their non-committal inactivity in politics, 
ami take what hand they can in the pending 
struggle. Some of them have long since led 
the way to this, but many more are sure to 
follow before this campaign on first principles 
ends. For, as Mr. Alden said, "the increase of 
a penny a day on the price of bread was more 
than the majority of family workingmen can. 
bear, and extending the tax to meat would be 
intolerable." The churches, too, are facing in 
advance the dire distress at hand already, and 
registering their protest against any fiscal 
policy involving the "dear loaf." 

To interpret and emphasize the Identity be- 
tween economic issues in politics and the very 
problem of existence with which all settlement 
and social workers have to do, the speeches on 
this occasion are quoted at length. They 
should re-impress upon all our resident work- 
ers the Importance and public value of their 
persistent study of and continuous familiarity 
■with the cost of living in relation to wages, to 



be determined by accurate information regard- 
ing the family budgets of the neighborhood. 
The misinformation and misuse of partially 
true information on this subject, in the inter- 
ests of employed or employees when at vari- 
ance, or of contending political parties, will be 
the more readily checked, and truthful efforts 
to sense or solve the real situation correspond- 
ingly promoted, by every bit of demonstrably 
trustworthy knowledge on file or at command 
in any settlement. 

LORD GOSCHEN'S FAB-FAMED ATTACK. 

As the first utterance of the ex-Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, and one of England's most 
authoritative experts In finance, the address 
here summarized was widely published at once 
and became an issue between Mr. Chamberlain 
and his opponents in the pending campaign. 

"What I should wish to be able to do is to 
analyze some of the economic facts connected 
with this question. I have always been an 
analyst of economic facts rather than an as- 
simllator of any cut-and-dried doctrines of the 
past. I shall address myself to the subject so 
far as it touches the taxation of food. What 
is the situation broadly? We live in a little 
Island of forty millions of inhabitants, depend- 
ent for nearly four-fifths of the supply of our 
food stuffs upon over-sea supplies. In that 
respect it seems to me that we differ from all 
the other countries which are continually men- 
tioned as examples partly for us to follow — as 
examples of other fiscal methods. Germany 
depends only for one-third of her wheat sup- 
plies upon foreign countries, and France only 
2 per cent. We require 280 pounds weight per 
head of wheat to feed our population from for- 
eign sources; Germany requires about 85 per 
cent of wheat, though rye stands outside; and 
the case of Germany is not so easy to under- 
stand, therefore, as that of France. France 
Imports only 2 per cent of the total wheat she 
consumes, against our 22 per cent; and in 
many years she imports much less than 2 per 
cent; in fact, it is almost a minimum quantity. 

OVEB-SEA SUPPLIES. 

"We depend upon our over-sea supplies. It 
these supplies fail us, we know the situation 
In which this country would be, and therefore 
the more than any other country must see to 
It that the channels which bring us those sup- 
plies are kept open and free from obstruction, 
and are well dredged if there is any symptom 
that they are silting up, and that those supplies 
will not come to us. (Hear, hear.) There Is 
a somewhat extraordinary fact — that Is, that 
while we are not a corn-growing country, while 



THE COM MON8 



we depend upon the foreigner and upon our 
colonies for so large a proportion of our over- 
sea supplies, the price of wheat in this country 
is infinitely below the price of wheat in the 
other countries which I have mentioned. It Is 
generally about 7s. a quarter less than the price 
in Germany, and from 8s. to 12s., and some- 
times even as much as 13s., below the price of 
wheat in France. Why is that? Because they 
have protection and we have freedom. 
(Cheers.) So we, with our dependence upon 
over-sea supplies, are better off in that respect 
than other countries which grow their ,own 
corn; and there one may see how, in France, 
for instance, protection works, that with only 
2 per cent required from foreign countries, 
there is a difference of from 8s. to 12s. in the 
price of wheat as compared with this country, 
which has no protection. That is the situation, 

BRITISH WORKMEN- GET THEIR FOOD CHEAP. 

"The British workingmen can be fed more 
cheaply than the French or the German work- 
ingman. (Cheers.) But it is not only as re- 
gards bread. Sugar and many other groceries 
are all infinitely cheaper in this country than 
they are in France and in Germany; and a 
French authority has lately published a state- 
ment that he has made inquiries with reference 
to forty-six different articles of groceries, and 
that he has discovered and calculated that the 
English housewife is able to buy as much for 
100s. in England as the French housewife is 
able to buy for 130s. in France. (Cheers.) We 
must be very careful before we assimilate, at 
all events as regards imports of food, our sys- 
tem to that of our continental neighbors. It 
is proposed now to put a tax upon bread. Two 
shillings is the present proposal. I accentuate 
the words 'present proposal.' (Laughter and 
cheers.) Further, it is proposed to put a tax 
upon meat, upon cheese and dairy produce of 
5 per cent. How that will affect the budget of 
the workingman has been calculated. (Cheers.) 

"The closest calculation that I have seen 
comes out at a loss to the workingman of not 
1G\^ farthings, but 19 farthings, while the gain 
Is 15 farthings, giving a difference of one 
penny a week upon that which the blue-books 
call the typical or normal laborer or urban 
worker's family. And so it comes in that way 
to a loss of one penny a week, after the re- 
missions have been made. I want to ask you 
whether the remissions of taxation on sugar 
and tea is equivalent to a tax imposed on meat, 
and especially upon bread. (Cries of 'No, no.') 
I hold that it is not. (Cheers.) One is more 
the staff of life than the other. (Hear, hear.) 



Existence can be prolonged on bread; it cannot 
be prolonged upon tea and sugar. I should 
desire that the taxation upon tea should be 
reduced as far as it can be, because one knows 
the comfort which it is. There may be fami- 
lies on the verge of starvation. Therefore, it 
seems to me that such a tax of 2s., with the 
taxation imposed upon meat, dairy produce, 
cheese, butter and other things which you 
should wish to have is not compensated for by 
the taxation which is to be taken off. (Cheers.) 

W.\GES DO NOT RISE WITH FOOD PRICES. 

"And do not run away with the idea that 
the greater cost of food is compensated for by 
higher wages. No; the wages of the workman 
in Germany, according to the blue-book, are 20 
per cent lower than the wages in this country; 
and, therefore, in this fiscal paradise the Ger- 
man workman pays more for his food and geta 
much less for his wage. Before this country 
consents to accept a fiscal policy under which 
that has been developed, they will, I think, con- 
sider twice, and perhaps three times. (Cheers.) 
The burden will fall upon the consumer in one 
form or another. The new duty proposed of 
2s. is more than the present freight on a quar- 
ter of corn from New York to Liverpool. From 
New York to Liverpool during the last two 
years the freight has been under Is. a quarter, 
and in the year before it was about 2s. a 
quarter. Therefore the imposition of this tax 
is more than double the cost of bringing wheat 
from New York to Liverpool. Look the matter 
in the face and say whether these proposals of 
taxes on food products are likely to redound to 
the prosperity of the masses of this country." 
(Cheers.) 

SIR JOHN GORST ON FAMILY BUDGETS. 

Sir John Gorst said that the proposal which 
was now before the country was perfectly plain 
and intelligible. It was that the masses of the 
British people should consent to pay a higher 
price for their food for the purpose of estab- 
lishing the imperial character of the empire. 
They must first ask whether the people were 
capable of bearing the burden which they were 
invited to undertake. He quoted at length 
from the evidence of the blue-books to show 
the average earnings and expenditure of dif- 
ferent classes of laborers, urban and rural. He 
held that a very large proportion of these 
people had very little margin indeed for the 
food of . themselves and their families, after 
rent, fuel, clothes and other necessaries had 
been provided for. For instance, the average 
agricultural laborer received 18s. 6d. (|4.44) 
per week, while those in Essex got only lis. or 



6 



THE COM M O NS 



128. per week (?2.64 or $2.88). The average 
cost of food for a man and wife with four chil- 
dren is 13s. 6d. per week, leaving a balance 
from the average wages of only 5s. (?1.20) per 
week to cover the cost of rent, fuel, clothing 
and all the other necessities of life, to say 
nothing of any provision for accident, slckneae, 
old age or death. He had often asked the wives 
of Essex farm laborers, "How do you manage 
to bring up your family on lis. weekly?" The 
reply had invariably been, "God only knows." 
Thirty shillings per week is the average 
wage received by the mass of urban workers in 
the building trades and railway service. More 
than half of the total wage, 15s. 6d., goes In 
the average family budget for bread and meat 
only. 

CHDJJREN SUFFER MOST FBOM DEAB FOOD. 

The Royal Commission on the need of phys- 
ical drill to counteract the deterioration of 
children in Scotch schools investigated the 
health of 600 richer and poorer scholars in 
Edinburgh. It found 70 per cent diseased, 35 
per cent seriously, and 30 per cent suffering 
from insufficient nutrition. 

Of all taxes imposed on the people of this 
country, the taxes on food fell the lightest 
upon the rich, heavier on the workmen, and 
the heaviest of all on the poor. The per- 
sons who suffered most from a rise in the price 
of food were the children, upon whose health 
the future character of our country depended. 
(Hear, hear.) A full-grown man might starve 
for a week, a month, or longer, and yet recover 
when better conditions came. But with chil- 
dren the mischief could not be undone. If they 
starved a child in the early years of its life It 
was never such a citizen, it never could fur- 
nish the strength to the country, which it 
could have done if properly nourished. The 
question of the starvation of children and the 
general health of the population was a much 
more important question than this fiscal ques- 
tion. It transcended every other public question 
which was before the people of this country at 
this time. Those who lived amongst the people, 
and had some Influence over the votes that they 
would give at elections, ought, Irrespective ol 
party, to urge upon the i)eople that under no 
circumstances ought they to take upon their 
backs a burden which they were no more able 
than their fathers had been to bear. (Cheers.) 
Therefore he did not believe that it was fair 
and just to attempt to Impose upon people of 
this kind any more sacrifice even for the pres- 
ervation and welfare of the empire. (Hear.) 



ROWHTRKE ON THE POVERTY LINE. 

Mr. C. Seebohra Rowntree, of the great cocoa 
works at York, whose scientific study of pov- 
erty in that typical provincial city is a com- 
panion to Charles Booth's great analysis of 
London's Life and Latwr, brought the results 
of his investigation to bear upon the issue. 

He said ten per cent of the families in 
York were found to be in such poverty that 
their total earnings would not be suflBcienfto 
maintain them in merely physical efiiciency. 
Eighteen per cent were living in poverty caused 
by drink, gambling or thriftlessness, which, 
however, were in no small part due to the con- 
ditions under which the people live. The diet- 
ary by which the standard of "physical effi- 
ciency" was estimated is ten per cent lower in 
cost than the workhouse per capita allowance 
for the food of its inmates, and was verified by 
the experts on food requirements for prison 
labor. 

While the servant-keeping class are often 
overfed, and the artisans adequately nourished, 
the household budgets of unskilled laborers 
proved 25 per cent of them to be less than 
sufficiently fed, 27 per cent to be on a lower 
dietary than the pauper inmates of the work- 
houses, and 30 per cent on lower fare than la 
allowed the prison convicts. Their growing 
children and child-bearing women suffered 
most. These, and many other facts which he 
most effectively massed from the arsenal of 
his investigation, were argued to be an over- 
whelming claim for the exemption of food from 
taxation. G. T. 



"The welfare of all Is more than the welfare 
of the many, the few, or the one. * • • If 
all will sacrifice themselves none need be sac- 
flced, but if one may sacrifice another, all are 
sacrificed. That is the difference between self- 
interest and other-self interest." 



"Though it is the human nature of the Indi- 
vidual to seek monopoly; it Is the human na- 
ture of the many to defeat it." 



"Men of almost every race have united to 
form the politics and society of these United 
States. Why can they not unite to reform 
them? And as for the isolation of New Zea- 
land, that is a fortunate incident for the weak, 
but the United States has a nobler kind of 
isolation in its might and wealth. It can 
stand alone for any cause it chooses to es- 
pouse." — Henry D. Lj,oyd. 



THE COMMONS 



ASSOCIATION OF NEiaHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

Edited kor the Association by 
Mary Kingsborx Simkhovitch, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



The New York City Election. 

Why fusion was so badly defeated in the 
recent election is not an absolutely unprofit- 
able inquiry. For confession is good for the 
soul, and if anything is clear about the defeat 
it is the certainty that the blame cannot be 
placed upon the so-called enemies of good gov- 
ernment, but rather upon those who are ordi- 
narily classed as "the better element." If 
those who presumably would have voted for 
Low had all registered, and those who regis- 
tered had all voted, the result would have been 
different. It is therefore quite idle to blame 
the "ignorant vote" for the result. 

Fusion was defeated for several reasons. 
First, because of the usual lightness of the 
"uptown" vote; second, because of the oppo- 
sition to the recent enforcement of the excise 
law ( " 'Twas the can that done it," said a 
neighboring butcher) ; third, the feeling broad- 
cast that the present administration did not 
properly represent or come from "the people;" 
fourth, the opposition of all those who felt 
restive and under restraint — a partly criminal 
element and partly only a free-and-easy element 
objecting to any kind of restriction; fifth, and 
most important, the real conviction that fu- 
sion is only Republicanism in disguise. In 
other words. New York is normally a Demo- 
cratic city and a city that doesn't want to be 
so very good. In times of great moral stress 
it will revolt and turn evil out, but it isn't so- 
keen on keeping good in. And as it has had 
so little knowledge or understanding of non- 
partisanship, it normally reverts to a Demo- 
cratic administration. 

And how can we expect it to be otherwise? 
The Citizens' Union's strength is also its weak- 
ness. It is strong because it declares for a 
standard of municipal business efficiency as 
against party issues which really have no bear- 
ing on city affairs. But at the same time, 
being composed as it is of both Republicans 
and Democrats, it Is not a regular party with 
primaries and other party machinery, and it 
therefore lacks stability and that necessary 
daily intercourse and friendly relationship 
which lie at the basis of successful politics. 

We can therefore only expect a Citizens' 
Union and fusion movement to succeed when a 



great moral Issue is raised. It will never suc- 
ceed by going before the people on its record, 
no matter how able that record has been. The 
people of New York do not care yet about the 
decreased death rate, the additional number of 
parks, or the introduction of nurses into the 
public schools. But they will not stand a too 
evident police corruption or the moral degra- 
dation of young children or the complicity of 
the administration with a rise in the price of 
ice. 

What, then, is the course for the lovers of 
good city government to follow? 

First, get out the uptown indifferent vote; 
second, change the liquor law to meet the re- 
quirements of this big foreign city; third, 
eradicate the superstition that there Is a "bet- 
ter element" except the really better element 
of honesty and faithful social service; fourth, 
develop, if possible, city parties with city is- 
sues. But how this is to be done is another 
question. Perhaps it is impracticable entirely. 
If so, there would seem to be no prospect of 
anything except a spasmodic putting out of 
office of the dominating political party. Even 
with this alternative one need not be too pes- 
simistic. New York reaches in many ways a 
higher standard of municipal housekeeping 
with each reform administration, and these 
improvements do not go for nothing. They get 
to be fixed habits and a part of the popular 
expectation. 

And it is also true that even the best and 
most disinterested of administrations makes 
some mistakes which are more easily seen un- 
der defeat than would be the case under con- 
tinued power. M. K. S. 

A Day'5 Wage. 

Love wore a suit of hodden gray. 
And toiled within the fields all day. 

Love wielded pick and carried pack 
And bent to heavy loads the back. 

Though meagre fed and sorely lashed. 
The only wage Love ever asked, 

A child's wan face to klse at night, 
A woman's smile by candle light. 

— Margaret E. Sakosteb, 



Wanted Wherever Women are Employed. 

1. Plenty of good light. 

2. Plenty of fresh air. 

3. Forewoman over women. x 

4. Chairs with backs. 

5. Separate toilet rooms. 

6. Lunch room. 

7. Place to warm lunch. 



8 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOC!AriON. 

STAKDING COMMITTEE. 

President: Katiiarixe Comax, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vict President: Helen Chadwick Rand Thatkr 
(Mra. Lucitis H. Thaj-er), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Seoretary: Sakah Grahax Tomkins, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: Elsie Clews Parsons (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St^ New York City. 

Fifth Member: SosAX E. Foote, Port Henry, 
New York. 

STANDING committee OS SUB-CHAPTERS. 

Chairman : Louise B. Lockwood, 441 Park Ave., 
New York. 

LOCAL COMMITTEES. 

Boston — Bertha Scripture, Chairman, Lincoln, 

Mass. 
Philadelphia — Isabel L. Vanderslice, Chairman, 

436 Stafford Street, Germantown, Pa. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New Y'ork City — 95 Rivington Street. 
Philadelphia— 433 Christian Street. 
Boston — 93 Tyler Street (Denison House). 

EDITED BY SARAH GRAHAM TOMKINS. 



THE FALL MEETING OF THE COLLEGE 
SETTLEMEN IS ASSOCIATION. 

The fall meeting of the College Settlements 
Association was held at Denison House, Bos- 
ton, on Saturday, October 24. Twenty-nine 
members of the Electoral Board were present, 
representing most of the colleges on the board 
and the three settlements. The president. Miss 
Coman, presided, and the business of the entire 
day was marked by full and intelligent dis- 
cussion, resulting in action significant for the 
futurie policy of the association. 

The first motion to come before the meeting 
was for the amendment of the clause in Article 
V, Section 1, of the by-laws, which limits the 
number of members on the Electoral Board to 
forty-five. The growth of the association 
brings the present board up to this aggregate, 
and wiih the formation of other college chap- 
ters in prospect it seemed wise to propose that 
the limiting number, forty-five, be struck out 
from the clause, leaving the number of mem- 
bers to be guarded by the classification which 
follows in Article V. Attion on this amend- 
ment will be taken at the annual meeting in 
May, 1904. 

The secretary read the report of the Electoral 
Board, containing a somewhat detailed account 
of the work of the various undergraduate and 



alumnae chapters of the association. In each 
of the fourteen colleges represented on the 
board work has been going on during the past 
year which, in many cases, shows increasing 
results in " interest and financial response. 
Wellesley College reported the largest subscrip- 
tion in its chapter history. The Bryn Mawr 
elector speaks of the growth in personal en- 
thusiastic interest on the part of her members. 
Mount Holyoke has started a reading club 
where papers on social questions and the set- 
tlement movement will be read and discussed, 
and the elector expresses a hope that some 
future day may see a college settlement among 
the mill people in the town of Holyoke itself. 
Under the auspices of the chapters, addresses 
have been made on social and settlement work 
before many college audiences, and Miss Davies 
of the Philadelphia settlement has been partic- 
ularly successful in arousing enthusiasm 
through the description of the Philadelphia 
work illustrated by a complete collection of 
lantern slides prepared from photographs taken 
by the residents. 

Following the report of the treasurer. Miss 
Adeline Moffat of the Home Culture Club of 
Northampton, Mass., was elected to membership 
on the board. The Speakers Committee, of 
which the association president is chairman, 
reported plans for an active campaign during 
the coming year, and particularly this fall, 
when Miss Williams, Miss Dudley, Mrs. Sim- 
khovitch. Miss Coman, Miss Lockwood and 
other C. S. A. workers will speak in numerous 
colleges. 

The Committee on Increased Appropriations 
to Settlements, Mrs. Fitz Gerald, chairman, 
presented a full report, definite action on which 
was deferred until the May meeting of the 
board. For some years it has been felt by a 
number of members of the board that the 
appropriations to New York, Philadelphia and 
Boston are uneven in division. New York re- 
ceiving by far the largest amount. The com- 
mittee appointed last May to consider the mat- 
ter now recommends a decrease in the New 
York appropriation and would endorse the 
policy of putting surplus money into educa- 
tional work, thus throwing the support of 
the three settlements more and more on the 
local committees. In the discussion which fol- 
lowed. Miss Scudder urged th& board to bear 
in mind its responsibility towards its existing 
settlements which now represent the associa- 
tion. She would oppose a policy which bound 
the board not to increase the Boston and Phila- 
delphia appropriations at some future time. 



THE COMMONS 



9 



It was pointed out by other members of the 
board that at this time, when settlements are 
rapidly multiplying and trained workers are 
in demand, a high standard of salaries should 
be set for work which demands high efficiency. 
The college electors were divided in opinion as 
to whether the work of a definite settlement 
house appeals more strongly to a college con- 
stituency than a work being done more along 
educational lines in the appropriation to fel- 
lowships and scholarships. 

The Committee on the Extension of Fellow- 
ships, Mrs. Simkhovitch, chairman, presented 
to the association the following recommenda- 
tion: "The appropriation of one-third of an 
annual fellowship of |400 (or annual scholar- 
ship of |300) to each college represented in 
the College Settlements Association; the As- 
sociation of Collegiate Alumnae, the Alumnae 
Association of the colleges, or others inter- 
ested in the carrying out of this plan, to make 
up the balance necessary for such fellowship 
or scholarship; and, further, this committee 
recommends to the Association of Collegiate 
Alumnae the appropriation of not more than 
11,000 to cover one-third of such fellowship in 
the seven colleges of the A. C. A. represented 
In the C. S. A." The committee also reported 
that from the |200 appropriated for Its use in 
May, 1903, it had voted to appropriate |133 as 
one-third of a proposed fellowship to be offered 
to the Columbia Committee on Social Settle- 
ments, to be used for the establishment of a 
joint fellowship with Columbia for this ensu- 
ing year. This appropriation was made on the 
proviso that the award of the fellowship and 
the direction of the work of the fellow be left 
to a joint committee of the Columbia Univer- 
sity Committee and the C. S. A. Fellowships 
Extension Committee. No report of action had 
been received from the Columbia University 
Committee at the time of the October meeting. 
The Wellesley alumnae at their meeting in June 
voted to raise their needed one-third of $400. 
Smith has appointed from its alumnse a com- 
mittee to investigate the matter and make 
definite recommendations. The Association of 
Collegiate Alumn» had not taken action on 
the recommendation, as its annual meeting 
takes place subsequent to the October meeting 
of the C. S. A. 

(At its annual meeting, held later, the A. C. 
A. appointed a committee with power to de- 
cide on its contribution to the joint fellowships. 
The president of the C. S. A. is a member of 
this committee.) 

Discussion on this report was opened by Miss 



Goldmark's motion to approve the plan pre- 
sented by the Fellowships Extension Commit- 
tee and to empower that committee to continue 
its work. The chair pointed out that if the 
board endorsed this policy of the report, and 
if the colleges accept their part, it would 
amount to an appropriation from the associa- 
tion of about $1,000 — a question which touched 
very closely the association's financial policy. 
After a full expression of opinion from mem- 
bers of the board the motion was carried, and 
a subsequent vote authorized the Standing Com- 
mittee of the association to act with power in 
the matter in case any action must be taken 
before the May meeting of the board. 

The Committee on Western Extension, Miss 
Myrta L. Jones, chairman, reported unfavor- 
ably as to the present advisability of forming 
chapters of the C. S. A. in the western colleges 
or universities. Apart from the geographical 
objection — the tremendous distances which 
separate the colleges of the West — there is the 
fact that many of the universities and colleges 
are interested directly in some particular set- 
tlement, and that in the colleges and in the 
settlements themselves there is a strong feel- 
ing against federation or any complication of 
machinery. The board voted to accept this pol- 
icy of not extending organization to the West 
at the present time. 

The Committee on Educational Publication, 
Mrs. Thayer, chairman, reported the prepara- 
tion of a pamphlet for use by electors, explain- 
ing the aims and methods of the College Set- 
tlements Association. The board voted that this 
committee should continue its work. Miss 
Scudder (a member of the committee) sketched 
a plan for keeping more settlement literature 
in circulation through the reprinting of vital 
articles, etc. Reference was made to the course 
of study for social workers to be conducted at 
Denison House this winter by Miss Emily 
Greene Balch of Wellesley College, and it was 
suggested that the valuable bibliography for 
this course prepared by Miss Balch might well 
be placed in more general circulation. 

At this point the board adjourned, and was 
entertained at luncheon by the Boston Local 
Executive Committee. 

At half past two the president called the 
meeting to order, and Miss Williams of the 
New York Settlement, Miss Dudley of Denison 
House, and Miss Davies of Philadelphia pre- 
sented their headworkers' reports, which will 
appear in full in the annual report of the as- 
sociation this month. Miss Vida D. Scudder 
followed with an inspiring and memorable ad- 



10 



THE COM MONS 



dress on the traditions and ideals of the settle- 
ment movement, which it is hoped she will 
prepare for early publication. 

At five o'clock the board adjourned until the 
annual meeting in May, 1904. 

Sarah Graham Tomkins, Secretary. 



NOTICES. 

Miss Frances A. Kellor, C. S. A. fellow, 1902- 
1903, will continue her investigation of em- 
ployment bureaus for women as C. S. A. fellow 
for 1903-1904. 

Miss Myrta L. Jones, 996 Prospect street, 
Cleveland, Ohio, has been elected editor of the 
College Settlements Association columns In 
The Commons. 

Copies of the Bibliography of Settlements 
may be obtained on application to the secre- 
tary of the C. S. A., Miss S. G. Tomliins, 1904 
Walnut street, Philadelphia. 

The annual report of the College Settlements 
Association for 1903 will be issued on Decem- 
ber 1. It contains an article on "The Settle- 
ment Fellowships" by Miss Katharine Coman. 



Finances of British "Municipal Trading." 

A comprehensive return of the financial 
worltings of the "public utilities" undertakings 
in British towns and cities has just been given 
to the public through a Government board. It 
covers the four years ended March, 1902. The 
principal undertakings carried on by 299 corpor- 
ations were: 

Markets 228 

Waterworks 193 

Cemeteries .• 143 

Baths 138 

Electricity 102 

Gas Works 97 

Tramways 45 

Harbors 43 

Summarized, the return shows that the total 
capital provided by these towns and cities, 
with a gross population of 13,093,870, was 
£121,172,372 ($589,675,348), of which £100,- 
786,404 ($490,476,035) was borrowed money. 
Originally, £117,032,923 ($569,540,720) was bor- 
rowed, but £16,246,519 ($79,063,684) has been 
repaid. The average annual income was £13,- 
040,711 ($63,462,620) and the annual working 
expenses £8,228,706 ($40,045,098). 



The benefits we receive must be rendered 
again, line for line, deed for deed, to some- 
body. — Emebson. 



Dying. 

The one remains, tlie many change and pass; 
Heaven's light forever shines. Earth's shadows 

flee; 
Life, like a dome of many-colored glass. 
Stains the white radiance of Eternity, 
Until Death tramples it to fragments. Die, 
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost 

seek. 

—SHELLEY. 



They never die who MI 

In a great cause. The block may drink their gore. 

Their heads may sodden in the sun, their limbs 

Be strung to city gates and castle walls. 

But still their spirit walks abroad. Tho years 

Elapse and others share as dark a doom. 

They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts 

Which overpower all and turn the world 

At last to Progress. 

— J. Howard Moore. 



RICH MEN'S SONS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

[From the Chicago Tribune.] 

Time was not so long ago when "Bud" Flana- 
gan and "Buck" Jones of the grammar grades of 
the Chicago public schools took their social re- 
venges upon Clyde Montmorencies and the 
Fauntleroy Astorites by looking over the high 
fences of the private schools and hooting at 
them. 

To-day "Bud" and "Buck" have the privilege 
more than ever in the history of the Chicago 
schools of getting astride the necks of Clyde 
and Fauntleroy in their common playground 
and rubbing their tresses in the dirt — if they 
can. For it is beyond dispute that Clyde and 
Fauntleroy are growing harder than ever to 
down In a "wrastle" and that in the process of 
"mixing" the "Buds" and the Clydes are finding 
a common ground without having to wait for 
it, unprepared, until each shall have drifted 
so far from the other as to make world "mix- 
ing" almost Impossible. 

"It is something that simply had to come," 
said Superintendent Cooley of the Chicago 
schools. "Out of our material age the value of 
being able to 'mix' in the world has been grow- 
ing upon parents. To mix has become a ne- 
cessity to the man of the world, and the best 
time for him to learn the art is in the public 
schools. You cannot put a boy aside with a 
private tutor, or in the walls of a more or less 
isolated private school and not at the same 
time train him toward unfitness to take the 
world as he must find it when he goes into it. 

"He has more to learn than books, but at the 
same time I think it has become evident that 
the boy in the public schools of Chicago may 



THE COMMONS 



11 



learn more of books in the public schools than 
elsewhere. Somewhere between the growing 
excellence of the public schools and the associa- 
tions which the man of the world counts as 
valuable to the boy, this growth of attendance 
of children of the rich in the public schools 
may be accounted for. 

"Every day the feeling of the rich man to 
 the school system which he must support must 
change in its favor. It is his school as much 
as it is the school of anybody else paying taxes. 
He has, found it good for society at large and 
of his experience he is learning that it is good 
for him and for his. It is a movement and a ten- 
dency which must be applauded as the best 
for all concerned." 

To show just how the schools of the United 
States that are free rank with the private 
schools of all classes, it may be shown 
that in 1900 the attendance in the schools 
of the country numbered 17,223,270, of 
which only 1,503,927 were in private schools. 
To show how this public school attendance has 
increased throughout the United States, $197,- 
281,603 was spent on these schools in 1900, an 
increase of more than $60,000,000 In ten years 
In the cost of the institution. 

Why should not the child of the rich man 
attempt to avail himself of the result of these 
colossal millions? 

A member of the Board of Education of the 
' Chicago schools suggests another reason for the 
increase of the patronage of the rich in the 
city schools. 

"The private school has not always been 
above distrust on the part of the rich parent," 
he says. "When a father is sending his check 
regularly to a school whose sole support is in 
the form of checks there is a feeling that per- 
haps a disposition on the part of his boy to 
shirk may not be too sorely pressed home upon 
the lad as a bad thing. His humors may be re- 
garded with too much leniency; his examina- 
tion papers may be marked with a free hand. 

"But in the Chicago public schools the same 
father is certain that there will be no favoring 
circumstances in the shortcomings of his boy. 
The same scale of merit will hold for the rich 
and the poor and in all respects there will be 
the application of the spirit of democracy. I 
believe with Daniel Webster, who said that If 
he had as many sons as P>riam had he would 
send the whole fifty to the public schools." 

There are a thousand men in Chicago to-day 
who are suffering disadvantages that came to 
them in the tutelage of the private school and 
at the hands of the private instructor. Just 



as there are thinking men bred in the city who 
wish they might have had the advantages of 
the farm in their youth, so these men of private 
instruction are wishing for the advantages that 
might have come to them in the public schools. 

Setting off this view of the public schools 
in the United States and in Chicago, a recent 
flurry in Putney, one of the large suburbs of 
London, may point to the radical difference In 
the educational views of the two countries. It 
chanced a short time ago that in one of these 
Putney schools the master discovered that his 
pupils were dropping out without cause. He 
could not understand, but the boys from the 
best families were going, and it was not until 
most of them were gone that he found the 
cause. That cause was in the person of a small 
boy who was the son of a tea merchant. Not 
by any manner of means could the boys of the 
select school tolerate the son of the man who 
furnished their fathers' houses with the morn- 
ing beverage at table. 

Vigorously and to the point the Edinburg 
News took up the case, pointing out the dog in 
the manger spirit which the British owner of 
the private school had assumed toward the pro- 
posed and necessary enlargement of the public 
school system in England. It says: 

"The master of the private school no doubt 
is entitled to the British privilege of deciding 
for himself who shall and who shall not be ad- 
mitted to his classes. His school is as much his 
castle as is his home, and his will is the su- 
preme law of both. 

"But in that case he cannot justly complain 
if those who have no right to his hospitality 
are otherwise provided for. Yet that is exactly 
what the masters of English private schools do. 
They are up in arms against an attempt to pro- 
vide higher grade public schools in their vicin- 
ity. The consequence is that in a London sub- 
urban district, with a population of 22,000, a 
man bearing the brand of trade cannot get his 
son into any school suitable to his age and at- 
tainments. He is willing to pay whatever fees 
are charged. But that matters nothing. He la 
in trade; and the suburban stock broker who 
gets rich by swindling simple clients will not 
tolerate the contamination of his son by con- 
tact with the son of an honest tradesman. Put- 
ney has no public secondary school, because it 
would be an invasion of the rights of a few 
third-rate scholastic snobs, and the tradesman's 
son must go without his educational rights be- 
cause the seedy curate cannot brook the idea 
that his son should be associated with the smell 
of the shop." 



12 



THE COMMONS 



THe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 



GRAHAM TAYLOR. 



- Editor 



Entered at Chicago Postofflce as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from Chicago Commons, 
a Soiial Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 111. 



A Year 



EDITORIAL. 



This number of The Commons has been de- 
layed a few days in order to secure the tribute 
to our lamented friend Henry D. Lloyd and to 
allow the editor to resume the conduct of the 
paper after his six months' leave of absence 
abroad. The interest and co-operation of many 
settlements and social workers in England and 
Scotland were enlisted, and all our readers may 
expect to share with the residents of American 
settlements occasional contributions to the col- 
umns of The Cosimons from social workers at 
the best English points of view. 



To Mr. Raymond Robins the readers and 
editor of The Commons are indebted for edit- 
ing the last six numbers of this journal. He 
carries with him to the headworkership of the 
Northwestern University Settlement (Augusta 
and Noble streets), Chicago, the best wishes 
and hopes not only of his fellow residents at 
Chicago Commons but of all who know of his 
noteworthy achievement at the Municipal Lodg- 
ing House of the city of Chicago and his new 
work as secretary of the City 'Homes Associa- 
tion. 

The editorship of the College Settlements 
Association department in The Commons falls 
to the capable hand of Miss Myrta L. Jones of 
Cleveland, Ohio, who has long been identified . 
with settlement work In that city, as well as 
with this association of college women organ- 
ized to promote and sustain their settlements 
in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and 
to Inspire and train the interest of undergradu- 
ates at women's colleges in social service and 
literature. Both the association and The 
Commons have profited by Mrs. Caroline Wil- 
liamson Montgomery's initiatory work in so 
successfully establishing this department, and 
also by the intermediary service of the present 
secretary of the association. . 



In addition to several occasional contributors 
to our columns from the social settlements and 
kindred lines of service in Great Britain, we 
are happy to announce as a regular correspond- 
ent from London, Mr. P. Herbert Stead, M. A., 
warden of Robert Browning Settlement, Wal- 
worth. Not only by his long and efficieht 
labor in that densely populated industrial dis- 
trict, but also by his exceptionally wide contact 
with men and movements making for social 
betterment, he is very advantageously situated 
and especially qualified to render most helpful 
service to his fellow workers everywhere, par- 
ticularly on this side of the sea. His author- 
ship and contributions to the periodical press 
emphasize the importance of his acquisition to 
our regular staff of gratuitous workers. He 
begins his social survey for us in the January 
number. 



The People's Tribute to Henry Demarest Lloyd. 

It falls to the lot of very few men to receive 
such a tribute as was paid in Chicago to the 
memory of Henry Demarest Lloyd. It was the 
tribute of the people, though not quite the 
whole people, only one class — or, better, fac- 
tion — was conspicuous by its silence and its 
absence. Nothing was seen or heard from the 
predatory few whose pecuniary interesfs in- 
volve private gain at public expense. But rep- 
resentatives of every other class in our great 
cosmopolitan community composed the vast 
audience of four thousand people who assem- 
bled in the Auditorium on the memorial Sun- 
day afternoon. The diversity of the assembly 
was the more significant because of Mr. 
Lloyd's radically pronounced position upon 
deeply divisive Issues. It was to have been ex- 
pected that the great majority would be gath- 
ered from among the common people and the 
rank and file of organized labor. For they 
knew he had crossed the barricade of wealth 
and culture to their side of the struggle, and 
they met him on their own ground. Prominent, 
therefore, among the organizations under whose 
auspices the occasion was arranged was the 
Chicago Federation of Labor. From the bi- 
tuminous coal fields of the west and the an- 
thracite mines of the east came delegations of 
the miners with their rare leader, John Mitch- 
ell, as their spokesman, to pay their tribute 
of gratitude to the champion of their right to 
an American standard of life and labor. The 
Carpenters' Council were there because he had 
settled a strike for them. The Typographical 
Union claimed him to be of their craft by vir- 
tue of his thirteen years of editorial service on 



THE COMMONS 



13 



the Chicago Tribune, and his still more pro- 
tracted authorship of books. From labor union 
treasuries $650 were contributed toward the 
expense of the meeting, poor miners' locals 
contributing liberally. Mr. Edwin D. Mead 
fittingly voiced the appreciation of Mr. Lloyd's 
literary fellow craftsmen in Boston and New 
York, where he was taken into the Inner 
circles; in Chicago, where he was one of the 
founders of the Literary Club, and in England, 
where Robert Louis Stevenson's opinion is 
shared by not a few: "He wi^ites the most 
workman-like article of any man known to me 
In America, unless it should be Parkman. Not 
a touch in Lloyd of the amateur." The United 
Turner and Singing Societies made response 
not only for the German, but for many other 
foreign peoples, of whose labor and life Mr. 
Lloyd was a sympathetic student. The Henry 
George Association and the Municipal Owner- 
ship Convention stood forth, perhaps, most 
prominently of all, as those most committed to 
the economic ideals which inspired Mr. Lloyd's 
writings and to the cause of public ownership 
of municipal monopolies, in the fight for which 
at Chicago he laid down his life. The village 
council in which he organized his Winnetka 
neighbors for the practice of the referendum 
principle in their home suburb, was a center 
of a much larger group from the highest pro- 
fessional, business, literary and society circles 
of the city. A judge of the Chicago Bench pre- 
sided, an attorney of the county bar was one 
of the spealiers, and the mayors of the two 
principal Ohio cities — Cleveland and Toledo- 
were foremost in eulogy. Hull House and Chi- 
cago Commons also Joined in issuing the call 
to which the people thus responded in token of 
Mr. Lloyd's far-sighted social vision and pre- 
eminent service of that better social order for 
which the settlements stand, to Mr. Lloyd's 
passion for which Miss Addams gave such true 
and fitting expression in the address which 
we are privileged to share with our readers. 

The popular estimate upon his personal char- 
acter was well expressed by the counsel who 
was associated with him In pleading the case 
of the miners before the President's arbitra- 
tion commission: 

"He was rich, but uncorrupted by wealth. 
He was an aristocrat, but unsullied by aris- 
tocracy. He was a scholar, but he still retained 
sentiments and feelings straight from human 
nature which bind man to his fellow-man. He 
was a man whom gold could not corrupt, and 
whom learning could not destroy; and these 
men are rare upon the face of earth." 



In our judgment, which ripened through ten 
years of ever-increasing friendship and deep- 
ening admiration, Henry Demarest Lloyd, and 
no less truly the lady to his manor born, so 
personified a self-exacting devotion to the eth- 
ical ideal of Christianity and a truly racial so- 
cial consciousness as to set a prophetic type of 
the America that is yet to be. 



Arbitration vs. War. 

Along with the reports of the distressful and 
disgraceful outrages in Macedonia, and the oft- 
repeated rumor of war in the Far East, appear 
two fair harbingers of the better day when 
men shall learn war no more; namely, the 
award of the Alaskan Boundary Commission 
and the treaty between England and France, 
to submit hereafter all disagreements of politi- 
cal and commercial significance to a tribunal of 
arbitration. 

The Alaskan award, being on the whole In 
favor of the American contentions, has, indeed, 
aroused considerable ill-feeling among our 
neighbors over the border. To see 30,000 
square miles of coveted coast land passed over 
to her rival is surely no slight matter, and the 
display of feeling may be easily understood. 
Nevertheless the permanent good secured by 
the decision in removing an ever-fruitful source 
of friction between the two peoples will be 
acknowledged also in time by the Christians. 
One may remark in passing that the use of 
many of our newspapers of such military and 
belligerent expressions as that the United 
States, possessing the two outer islands, can 
still "dominate" and "command" Port Simpson, 
is not calculated to alleviate the feeling of our 
neighbors. 

The award brings to a close a long series of 
disputes with Great Britain concerning the lim- 
its of our northern boundary. Those disputes 
in some instances awakened intense feeling — 
particularly the one concerning the Oregon 
frontier — but were all settled by diplomacy 
or arbitration. The record constitutes a testi- 
monial to the political good sense, national self- 
control and popular appreciation of the might 
of right and reason, such as the Anglo-Saxon 
and the Anglo-American may well be proud of. 
It is a notable fact of history that the two 
land-hungry peoples have settled all differences 
involving territorial Integrity without resort to 
the sword. (The War of 1812 had other 
grounds.) The Alaskan award is the latest 
chapter in this commendable record. It is un- 
likely that hereafter disagreement will arise 
as to the limits of our northern frontier. 



14 



THE COM MONS 



In its larger and more far-reaching signifi- 
cance, tlie award is a fresli testimony to tlie 
practical value of the principle that the appeal 
to reason and justice is more effective and much 
less costly than the appeal to force. It will 
increase the confidence of the men in the feasi- 
bility of arbitration, or, as in the present case, 
of adjudication. It will confirm old and 
awaken new faith that patriotism does not 
mean prejudice, that men can rise above the 
solicitation of time-serving interests, even when 
of national import, and view the facts and esti- 
mate the evidence according to the Eternal Law 
of Righteousness and the Rights of Humanity. 

J. M. 



Notes. 

The special features of The Commons for 
next month will be articles on "International 
Peace Movements," by Edwin D. Mead, of Bos- 
ton, on "Training for Social Service," reporting 
what is being attempted and projected at 
London, New York, Boston and Chicago, and 
"An Interview with a New York Truant 
Officer." 

Mr. John Graham Brooks' reportorial accu- 
racy and economic insight, which so remark- 
ably characterized his volume on "Social Un- 
rest" (Macmillan Company), make that faith- 
fully truthful and fearlessly just volume a 
timely handbook of facts and experiences 
amidst the industrial strifes which are now so 
damaging to our progress and so dangerous to 
the public peace. It is attracting deservedly 
wide attention and use on lx)th sides of the 
Atlantic. 

Mr. Riis' "Battle with the Slum" (The Mac- 
millan Company), encouraging as is its good^ 
cheer from the scene of action in New York, 
reads like the report of a skirmish, contrasted 
with the general engagement into which the 
full force of British municipalities are entering 
for the demolition of the slum and the rebuild- 
ing of its area with municipal dwellings and 
other necessary provisions for decent family 
life. But the book is cur best bugle-blast to 
rally our cities to prevent conditions with 
which England is in a life-and-death struggle. 



The increasing reference value of Charities, 
the vital and able monthly of the New York 
Charity Organization Society, is emphasized by 
its issue for November 7, principally devoted 
to "The Juvenile Court, a Campaign for Child- 
hood." The remarkably interesting and accu- 



rate accounts of the child-saving service ren- 
dered by these courts and their probation of- 
ficers in Baltimore, Denver, Chicago, New 
York and St. Louis, with touches of personal 
experiences of the official representatives con- 
tributing the articles, make this number of 
Charities invaluably helpful to all at work for 
the prevention and treatment of juvenile de- 
linquency. 



By one of those slips which are as annoying 
as apparently unavoidable, credit failed to be 
given in our last number to Messrs. MacLehose 
& Company, the Glasgow publishers, for per- 
mission to reprint from their volume on Ruskin 
and the Lake Country, Canon Rawnsley's story 
of the Keswick School of Industrial Arts. The 
courtesy extended us, both by the author and 
his publishers, was so graciously given that it 
makes the error all the more mortifying and 
our apologies most sincere. 



English Free Church Scheme for Social Work. 

The General Committee of the National Coun- 
cil of the Evangelical Free Churches has 
adopted a scheme of social work which in- 
cludes the following points: 1. That one Sun- 
day in the year be specially devoted throughout 
the country to social questions; the second 
Sunday in October is suggested. 2. The issue 
of literature upon Christian social topics. 3. 
That all prisoners be met on their discharge at 
the expiration of their sentences and brought 
into touch with the churches. 4. Individual 
churches to be encouraged to take greater in- 
terest in soldiers in garrison towns, apart from 
the work of the chaplains who are appointed 
and sanctioned by the government. 5. The or- 
ganized visitation of workhouses by Christian 
workers, holding religious services, etc. 6. To 
arrange for the weekly gathering of crippled 
children on the lines laid down by the Crutch 
and Kindness League. 7. To take concerted 
and organized action for the suppression of 
impurity. 8. To encourage the churches to 
support, wherever possible, the Sunday School 
Union scheme of forming institutes for keeping 
in touch with young people after leaving 
Sunday school, of whom it is estimated that 
90 per cent are lost to the churches. 



In connection with the autumnal session of 
the Congregational Union at Bournemouth a 
meeting in the interests of settlements sup- 
ported by churches of that fellowship was held. 
Representatives of Mansfield House and the 



THE COMMONS 



15 



Woman's Settlement o£ Canningtown, Lanca- 
shire College Settlements, Manchester, and 
Robert Browning Hall, South London, pre- 
sented the work on their fields, and Prof. Gra- 
ham Taylor spoke on the general relation 
between the churches and the settlements. 



The General Alliance of Workers with Boys. 

The increasing emphasis placed on the 
"Child Study Department" in our public 
schools, the work of the church in its different 
organizations, the boys' department in the Y. 
M. C. A., state and private schools for boys, 
boys' clubs, settlement work with boys, and 
literature both for boys and about boys, indi- 
cates the growing interest in boys, as such, 
and also demonstrates the need of special work 
with and for boys. 

To correlate all these existing agencies for 
studying and carrying on boys' work, to cre- 
ate, publish and distribute literature in the 
subject and for the mehtal benefit derived from 
a personal exchange of ideas and acquaintance- 
ship, "The General Alliance of Workers With 
Boys" was founded in 1895. The ofiScers and 
directors of the "Alliance" are men and women 
actively engaged in boys' work. The president, 
William B. Forbush, author of "The Boy Prob- 
lem" and editor of "How to Help Boys," the 
official organ of the "Alliance," is known to all 
students of boys. 

The value of such an organization cannot 
be mistaken. It corresponds in its own sphere 
to "The National Conference of Charities and 
Corrections." The meetings are held annually, 
in the fall of the year. The subjects discussed 
are taken up both theoretically and practically. 
The subject of the meeting held last year In 
New York City was "The Working Boy." Two 
years ago in Boston "The Boy and the Home" 
was discussed. This fall in Chicago the sub- 
ject was "Boys' Groups, Gangs, Clubs." 

The success of the "Alliance" is assured. Its 
membership is scattered throughout the United 
States and in the several foreign countries. All 
persons interested in boys' work should co- 
operate with this organization, not only for 
the personal profit, but also for what they may 
add from their own experience to enlarge and 
strengthen the work of the Alliance. 

THE CHICAGO CONKKRENCK. 

Eleven states were represented and sixteen 
different types of boys' work. Judge B. B. 
Lindsey, of the Juvenile Court of Denver, Col., 
showed what an important part the "gang" 
plays in juvenile crime. In speaking on "The 
Gang and Religion," Prof. George E. Coe, of 



Northwestern University, said: "The feeling 
for men as such grows out of deepening and 
purifying the 'gang' impulse." In the discus- 
sion the "gang" was recognized to be a factor 
in society that must be faced and dealt with 
judiciously and sympathetically. Prof. Charles 
R. Henderson, of the University of Chicago, 
made a strong plea for the boy in the home. 
The great progress in the treatment of boys in 
correctional institutions was forcefully demon- 
strated by Mr. John J. Sloan, the wise-headed 
and large-hearted superintendent of Chicago's 
John Worthy School, connected with the House 
of Correction. This conference was thought to 
be the best which has yet been held. 

The complete report of its proceedings Is to 
be published in "How to Help Boys." (Single 
copies 25 cents; yearly subscriptions %1. Mem- 
bership in the alliance, including this sub- 
scription, |2. Address Wm. B. Forbush, 14 
Beacon street, Boston.) 



SPECIAL 
... THE 



NUMBERS 
COMMONS... 



O F 



Reporting Investigations on "Social Aspects of the 
Saloon," ".Jnveuile Delinquency and the .Juvenile Couit," 
"School Children's Earultigs. Spendlngs, and Savings." Boy 
Problem Number. Uoliert A. Woods on "Settlement 
Achievements " Hull House Labor Museum, Illustrated. 
Chicago Settlements number, illustrated. Orders filled by 
mail for Ave cents a copy. 



An Accomplished Teacher of Italian 
Lancfua^e and Lriterature 

Offers his services at reasonable rates to schools of 
private classes or pupils. Apply to Sig. A. Monteleone 
care of Th»Conimons. 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

FORBUSH'S BOY PROBLEM 

AT 75 CENTS PER COPY 

Order of The Commons, (iraiul Avenue and Morgan Street, 
Chicago, 

THe Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Mfe and I.abor from the Social 
Settlomcnt point of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
('ouiiiM)iis, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgaa 
St.,( l^icago. 111., and is entired at the Chicago PostolUce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price Is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
Sl.iiliugs, Ejiglish: 2.:a) frauds. French -foreign stamps ao- 
ceptod.) J'ostpaid to any state or Cotintry. Six copies to 
one address for $'2.."0. Send check, draft, 1'. O. money order, 
cash or stamps, nut abitve 6-ctnt deni'minatunt, at our risk. 
AdverttsInK Rates. One page, $2r..no; Half Page, $ir,.O0; 
Quarter Page, $8.00; One Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates tor Special Numbers of The Conmions. Any 
muulier luider twcuty-llvo copies, live cents each; over 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
one liundi ed, two and one halt cents each. 
Changes of Address. Phase notify tho publisher of any 
cliMiign of address, or of f dlure to receive the paper within 
a reas .nable interval after it is due. 

Di.scontlnuances. Please notify us at once If for any reason 
you Oesiie vour subs«:ripti'm discontinued. In accordance 
with ciistorii, and the expressed wisli of many subscriber^ 
we continue The Commons to each address until notified 
to the contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



The Month at Chicago Commons. 

UPON THE warden's RETURN. 

Last summer, for the first time in nine years' 
work at Chicago Commons, the warden was 
justified in dropping his gratuitous adminis- 
trative and financial care long enough for much 
needed rest and recreation abroad. He Is 
happy to report the neighborhood work never 
to have been better in hand or more promising 
than it is found to be upon his return. This 
is entirely due to the efficiency, economy and 
unflagging fidelity of the resident workers. 
Financially the work was barely tided over the 
six months of his absence. The effort kindly 
volunteered to relieve him from incessant so- 
licitude for the support of the settlement was 
assumed by all too few men without public 
appeal. Funds are immediately needed to meet 
current accounts. Prompt renewals and early 
payments of subscriptions for the support of 
the work during the ensuing year are necessary 
to prevent deficit in the treasury and serious 
embarrassment to the warden while under the 
burden of accumulated work. 



Our neighborhood Tabernacle church is for- 
tunate in having such a well established event 
as the New England supper annually. It has 
long served as the reunion of the year for the 
many who have been attendants at the church. 
The fostering of old associations, both histor- 
ical and personal, is invaluable in a commu- 
nity so diverse and changeable. More than 
usual interest and pleasure were attached to 
the event this year by the fact that it was the 
welcome-home of Prof, and Mrs. Graham Tay- 
lor after, their six months' absence abroad. 
Speeches and singing accompanied the recep- 
tion. More than three hundred guests gath- 
ered around the tables, thus contributing ma- 
terially to the financial support of the church. 
The Tabernacle Ladies' Aid and Missionary 
Society and the Chicago Commons Woman's 
Club joined for the first time in making the 
occasion a greater success. The club imprbved 
the opportunity to make its annual gift in com- 
memoration of the settlement's birthday, con- 
tributing fine table linen to the equipment of 
the house. 

The concert of the Choral Club proved to be 
the best work of the organization thus far. 
With a spirited chorus of fifty voices and the 
help of excellent soloists,- the cantata "The 
Fatherhood of God" was very creditably given. 
They start on their next work, "The Rose 
Maiden," by Cowen, with a larger chorus and 
an enthusiasm which is good to see. Several 



of the members are taking private vocal work 
on another evening at the settlement. A junior 
mandolin club has been organized under Mrs. 
Gordon's direction. We have twenty more ap- 
plicants for piano lessons than we can provide 
for. We greatly need additional help in the 
teaching force. 

The 250 people who were present at the first 
Pleasant Sunday Afternoon of the season en- 
joyed the unusually good stereopticon pictures 
of the English lake country, presented with 
delightful description by Mrs. Jean Sherwood, 
one of the first and best friends of Chicago 
Commons. On the following Sunday the Chi- 
cago Commons Choral Club rendered selections 
from Schnecker's "The Fatherhood of God." In 
the long list of musical privileges offered 
through us to our community none have been 
more enjoyable than the concert given by the 
Schubert Madrigal Club. 



By the opening of the new Boys' Club Rooms 
in the store next to the settlement building on 
Grand avenue, it has been possible to offer in 
the settlement a meeting place five nights a 
week to an Italian Men's Club. About fifteen 
have joined. Their purpose is to be self-govern- 
ing, and conduct the club as a social self-im- 
provement, reading circle. 



The principal and teachers of the neighbor- 
ing Washington public school extended their 
friendly greetings to the Warden and Mrs. 
Taylor at an informal little reception in the 
school building. The average attendance at the 
night school held here has been over 900 so 
far this season, chiefly grown men of many 
nationalities. 

The Illinois state factory inspector, Mr. E. T. 
Davies, admirably explained the new child 
labor law, how it was enacted, why it was 
needed, and how it is worked. Many questions 
and hearty approval indicated the interest 
awakened by this efiicient oflBcer. 



The neighborly socials in our neighborhood 
parlor every Saturday evening are greatly ap- 
preciated by the larger or smaller groups of 
family folk, who enjoy the relief and recrea- 
tion they afford. An evening of dialect stories 
was an especially happy one. 



Under the leadership of Mr. A. P. Laughlin, 
one of the best high school manual trainers, 
our normal class is now engaged in wood 
working, having taken other instruction in 
basket weaving and clay modeling. 



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