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



Number 69- Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, April, 1902 



THE MICHIGAN CONFERENCE ON 
RURAL SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

This meeting, which was in form a joint ses- 
sion between tho 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. 

PINE PERSONNEL OF 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 technical 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 OP 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 



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 cuu- 
cation. 

PROP. 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- 
eluding 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.^ V 



2 



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Professor Adams emphasized the idea that the 
work of research carried on by the faculties of 
colleges and universities should always be included 
in the term "higher education," for such an insti- 
tution must extend knowledge as well as impart it. 

The topic was treated from the point of view: 
(1) Of those who seek an education; (2) of those 
who utilize the services of trained men; (3) of 
the political, social and industrial conditions which 
are in large measure the product of these higher 
institutions. 

From the first standpoint not much can be said, 
because it is not a social viewpoint; yet so much 
does prosperity of one class depend on that of 
other classes that the personal point of view is not 
the true one. It is worth noting, however, that 
in Michigan the highest in education lies open and 
practically free to all. Nothing is more demo- 
cratic than our educational system. 

From the second point of view we note that the 
expert is in the saddle. Yet, though the motive 
that leads a man to become an expert may be per- 
sonal advantage, his services extend to the public 
at large. Moreover, you cannot produce an expert 
unless you raise the general plane of excellence and 
efficiency of the whole class to which the expert 
belongs. Professor Adams instanced the pnysi- 
cian as an illustration of this fact. For instance, 
diphtheria used to be extremely virulent. One 
case out of every two was the rate of mortality. 
Now the rate is one in ten, as the result of the 
education of a class of experts and their valuable 
investigations. So the people at large are more 
interested in having experts than is the individual 
expert himself. His interest is in being a little 
bit better than his competitors; the public's in- 
terest is in having a body of expert knowledge at 
its service. 

From the third point of view Professor Adams 
suggested, first, the fact that industrial prosperity 
depends not only upon natural resources and se- 
curity of property and contract, but upon inven- 
tion as well. And modern invention is not the 
product of chance and ingenuity, but of pro- 
fessional work. That business men appreciate the 
importance of trained intelligence in commercial 
affairs is shown by their interest in our university 
course in higher commercial education. Take, 
again, the wonderful changes in rural life that are 
promised through the advent of the telephone and 
trolley line. The electrical expert, the trained in- 
vestigator, will some time be praised for having 
made these things possible. 

And finally let it be said that the worth of life 
does not depend upon conditions, but rather upon 
a high grade of intelligence; and the higher insti- 



tutions are, or should be, the guardians of this in- 
telligence. Indeed, the schools, and the churches, 
too, for that matter, should perform wider func- 
tions than they do. We are drowned in commer- 
cialism. We can meet it only by keeping open the 
door of opportunity, and this must come through 
our higher institutions of learning. 

This topic was vigorously discussed by Pro- 
fessor H. E. Pattengill, who emphasized roundly 
the need of keeping the culture aim in education 
to the front. 

Professor Charles H. Cooley, of Michigan Uni- 
versity, read a valuable paper on the subject of 

THE MOVEMENT OP RURAL POPULATION, 

which he modestly entitled, "Notes on the De-- 
crease of Eural Population in the Southern Penin- 
sula of Michigan." Dr. Cooley called attention 
to the well-known fact that the proportion of 
urban population in our country has rapidly and 
constantly increased, being 4 per cent, in 1800; in 
1880, 22.6 ; in 1890, 29.2 ; in 1900, 33.1. In Michi- 
gan the figures are: For 1880, 16.6 per cent.; in 
1890, 31.2; in 1900, 37.2. In both cases the per- 
centage of increase was less in the last decade. 

Tliis method of comparison is not wholly fair, 
because the census sets a lower limit of 8,000 to 
"cities," and a large number of towns are con- 
stantly breaking over that line and so coming all 
at once to be reckoned as urban. If we take the 
growth of 161 cities now having 25,000 people 
or mere, we find that the aggrandizement of cities 
is not so alarming as is sometimes supposed, nor 
so rapid as it was some time ago; also it is true 
that moderate-sized cities are increasing as rapidly 
as the big cities. 

Nevertheless, the general fact is that the popu- 
lation of settled rural districts in the Northern 
States is actually diminishing, and has been for 
twenty-five years. It may not be generally known 
that the census of 1890 showed that about 66 per 
cent, of the area of Illinois diminished in popula- 
tion from 1880 to 1890, while in Iowa the per- 
centage of decrease was 43, in Ohio 61, in New 
York 83, in Michigan 27 the Michigan figure be- 
ing due to the fact that previous to 1880 there 
was little agriculture except in the lower half of 
the southern peninsula. 

Now, going behind the census figures and study- 
ing Michigan especially, we find that twenty-three 
of the twenty-eight counties in the four southern 
tiers of the State show between '80 and '90 diminu- 
tions of rural population. The five counties form- 
ing the exceptions are Kent, Allegan, Ottawa, 
Wayne, and Berrien. North of this line only one 
county, Montcalm, showed a decrease in that uec- 
ade. Between 1890 and 1900 the four southern 




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3 



tiers still show a decrease, all but six having fallen 
off. Ottawa, Wayne, and Berrien still show an 
increase; Kent and Allegan have fallen off, while 
three new counties, Ionia, Van Buren, and Monroe, 
have increased. Dr. Cooley thinks that the gains 
are due to special causes, which can in general be 
classed as intensive agriculture, causing smaller 
farms. 

Ten counties in four lower tiers show a diminu- 
tion of population even with the towns reckoned 
in. Monroe is unique, as there the rural popula- 
tion has increased, while the towns Monroe and 
Dundee have fallen off. 

North of the row containing Kent, Montcalm 
continued to lose in rural population in the last 
decade, and several other counties are added to 
the list of losers, viz. : Mecosta, Newaygo, and 
Lake, Oscoda, Crawford, and Roscommon. The 
towns of Tawas, Oscoda, St. Ignace, Ludington, 
Muskegon, and even Saginaw have lost somewhat, 
while the counties losco, Mackinaw, Mason, Mus- 
kegoii, and Saginaw have increased. 

The growth or decline of small rural villages 
is of some interest. Of 165 incorporated 
places in Michigan having a population of less 
than 1,000 in 1890, 101 gained during the past 
decade, 63 fell off and one remained unchanged. 

A special study in Washtenaw county shows 
marked decrease in the exclusively rural township. 

The reasons for this diminution of rural popu- 
lation are not moral or social, but economic: (1) 
improvement of farm machinery, enabling the 
same work to be done with one-half or one-third 
the number of hands; and (2) facility of trans- 
portation and communication, enabling trade and 
manufactures to concentrate in the large towns. 

Indications are that the diminution will not 
continue. Figures show the movement to be slow- 
ing up. Farming is becoming more intensive. If. 
there is anything in political economy we must be 
about to enter upon a period of higher land values 
and more thorough cultivation. The attractive- 
ness of country life is increasing with electric 
roads, good country roads, the bicycle, the tele- 
phone, and rural mail delivery. 

CHANGES DEMANDED IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 
OP RURAL, COMMUNITIES. 

In a vigorous address the Hon. L. D. Harvey, 
Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wiscon- 
sin, fully convinced his auditors that the present 
rural school is inadequate to the needs of country 
pupils. In the first place, we find here the small- 
est schools and the small school is a dead school. 
Hundreds of Wisconsin schools have but five, eight, 
ten pupils. The existence of the small school leads 
to a second great evil that of the poor teacher. 
The authorities say, we have such a small school 



that we can't afford a high-priced teacher. So 
they get a cheap teacher and usually have a cheap 
school. 

Now, these two conditions are fatal, and reform 
must begin here. We must first wipe out of ex- 
istence the small school. The only way to do this 
is by consolidating the small districts into larger 
districts, abolishing the small school and trans- 
porting the pupils at public expense to and from 
school. Some farmers say it can't be done, but it 
is being done satisfactorily in many places. 

As to the poor teacher: When we have the cen- 
tralized school we pay better wages and can de- 
mand and secure better teachers. We have larger 
and more interesting schools, and teachers catch 
the inspiration. But, more than that, we need 
better training for our teachers. There are in 
Wisconsin seven good normal schools, yet scarcely 
a rural teacher in the State is a graduate of such 
a school. How can we change this condition? The 
Wisconsin plan is to organize a county training 
school for teachers. Two such schools have been 
in operation two years and are supplying enough 
graduates each year to fill all the vacancies, in the 
rural schools. Six such schools will be in opera- 
tion next fall. 

Another demand upon rural education is to pro- 
vide some means for carrying the children farther 
than they do. Practically all the pupils now are 
mere children twelve years old or younger. Nor 
are the older children attending village and city 
schools in any large numbers. Not over 4 .per 
cent, of the country school enrollment are pupils 
in higher schools. 

Another demand is for an education that will 
lead boys and girls to a successful, happy, in- 
telligent farm life. Superintendent Harvey does 
not think the movement to put the teaching of 
the elements of agriculture into the primary 
schools is likely to succeed. But he advocates 
county agricultural schools. Two such schools will 
be opened in Wisconsin this fall. They will take 
boys and girls from the country schools and give 
them two years of practical work, teaching the 
boys elements of agriculture, about soil and its 
properties, stock breeding and feeding, etc. And 
there will be courses for girls in cooking, sewing, 
and home-making. The schools will give a train- 
ing intended for practical use, but it will be of a 
character and value that will make such schools 
good places for anybody's children. The schools 
will become centers of agricultural interest in the 
county and will serve as local experiment stations. 

"So, to sum up the thoughts I leave with you 
for the improvement of our rural education, first, 
consolidation of schools; second, transportation 
of pupils; third, the county training school for 



509809 



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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 Fall, 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 middle 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 add,ed 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 hign 
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 
ior 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 auvocate of the policy 01 
providing the opportunity for a high school edu- 
cation for every boy and girl in Michigan, espe- 
cially in the country. 

THE GROWTH OF 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 Eoseommon 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 River 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 Sta(e 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 sufficiently 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 and 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 CHURCH AS A CENTER 'OF RURAL ORGANIZATION. 

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 me?ting 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 is the very insanity of history. 
Examples were found in commercialism, which, 
substituting competition for co-operation, sacri- 
fices the 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 aristocracy 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. 

' ' Dr. 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 eacli 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 one 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 



THE COMMONS 



of the theaters in the slums, etc., etc. "We must 
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 alike, 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 off the palm as the most entertaining orator 
01 the whole meeting in his address upon the above 
theme. His clear understanoing of the economic 
principles of educational, social, and political or- 
ganizations and institutions appealed strongly to 
the appreciation of the representative farmers 
and taxpayers to whom he spoke." 

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

DEPENDENCE OP AGRICULTURE ON TRANSPORTATION. 

Judge Prouty, of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission, had this theme, and his vigorous con- 
demnation of modern railway methods as to 
freight-rate making was fully 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 
been 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 Bur- 
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 brought 
about for the increasing of revenues. Revenues 
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 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 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 AGRICULTURE 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 
thmks that our country towns can manufacture 
lace, 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 
future. 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 PROVIDED FOR. 

A resolution was unanimously adopted asking 
the officials of the Agricultural College, th& 
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 crueler 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. Tfioreau 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, DIRECTOR 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 



g 



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 t 
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. MCCLURE, CHIEF CLERK, DEPARTMENT or 

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 Newaygo 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 FOE KURAL 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 Newaygo 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 



"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 may 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 cd-opera- 
tion of all the educational elements of the rural 
communities. As the movement took hold upon 
community life, the horizon lifted, and 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 CIVIC-CENTER 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 all that is best, all 
that makes for happiness, all that broadens and 
deepens life'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 OF PROGRESS. 

What do the philanthropical 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. I 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 life 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 TOR THE ASSOCIATION 
BY MAKY KINGSBURY 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 tftis season to getting up a lecture course 
with class features, and a course in elementary 
handicrafts. 

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

Morning Class, 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. (Repetition of morning 
course.)- Tuesday, April 1; Thursday, April 3; 
Monday, April 7; Tuesday, April 8; Thursday 
April 10; Monday, April 14. 

SYLLABUS OF COURSE. 

I. "lhe 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. 

II. ' ' 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- 
ity 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 
Neighborhood Ties, (6) Religion." 

VI. "The Settlement." An 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. 

REFERENCES. 

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 I. 
Warner, ' ' American Charities. ' ' 
II. Marshall "Principles of Economics," Vol. I., 

Part VT. 

Bliss, " Encyclopaedia of Social Reform." 
Articles on Education, Industrial Education. 
U. S. Labor Bureau, 1892, "Report on 

Technical Education." 

ill. Hobson, ' ' Evolution of Modern Capitalism. ' ' 
Trant "Trade Unions." 

Schajffla, *" Theory and Policy of Labor Pro- 
tection. ' ' 

IV. Kirkup, *" History of Socialism." 

Russell, "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. Ruskin, *"Unto This Last." 

Woods, "English Social Movements," Chap- 
ter III. 

Coit, ' ' Neighborhood Guilds. ' ' 
"Philanthropy and Social Progress." 
THE COURSES IN ELEMENTARY HANDICRAFTS 
are to be given at the School of Ethical Culture, 
105 West Fifty-fourth street. Ten lessons each 
in Basketry, Cord Work and Raffia, 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 Record 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 Record 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 editorial in the February issue 
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, Jf. 
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 
complaints 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 after 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 vslno 



12 



THE COMMONS 



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

CERISE CARMAN. 

New York Labor Notes. 

TWO BAD LABOR LAW AMENDMENTS. 

For three weeks past 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 DJ 
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 the 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 ir 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 from 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 interest 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 



n-ost 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, as 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 
bill is that the milk 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 against 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 lias 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, lie 
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 ray 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 
3Ir. 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 en- 
tire blocks, so that instead of a tree here and there, 
whole rows of trees will adorn ' ' the brick-walled 
.streets. ' ' 

ARCHIBALD HILL. 

(XOTE. 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 River 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, clubo, 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 polities. 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 York 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 essential 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 office 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 upon 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 office 
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 
office. 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 young 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 will hasten the time when politics shall 
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. SLICEK. 



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. Elias 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. 

"She 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 THE 
COMMONS. Ten cen t s per copy . 

The Hartley House Cook Bcok. 

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

Order from Hartley House, 413 West Forty-sixth 
Street, New York City. Sixty-nye cents per copy by 
mail. A special 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. Simkhovitch), 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 SCRIBNEE (Mrs. 

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

York City. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

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



EDITED FOE THE ASSOCIATION BY 

CAROLINE WILLIAMSON MONTGOMERY, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



RESIDENTS OF COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

At the meeting of the College Settlements 
Association, Oct. 12, 1901, Mrs. Helen Annan 
Seribner, 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 diffi- 
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 
life. 

"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 nximber, 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 affirmative, rendering the 'y es> emphatic in 
the majority of eases 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 economies and soci- 
ology 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 
on -seme 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 



ivas 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 
stiidy. 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 
number 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 
come 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 most 
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 Hiss Addams has so adequately expressed 
it, '* * * we 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 Rosenfeld 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 
Harvard University, introduced Mr. Bosenfeld. 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. 
Away with your Napoleons andyoiir 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. 

JENNIE MOTCH. 
412 W. North Ave. 



LAWN SWINGS 



MAY POLES 



W. S. TOTHILL 



Manufacturer 



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

126-128 West Webster Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. 



Church in Socia.1 Reforms 

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

l'i:STALOZZI-FROl;UKL. 
Kindrg jLfte r\ Training 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 HEQNER, 363 No. Winchester Ave. 

Chlcieo 



18 



THE COMMONS 



The Commons. 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and 
Labor from the Socia.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. 



EDITORIAL. 



THE ALDERMANIC 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 offices 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 
serva 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 
ease 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 survivors 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 in 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- 
munity 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 Republican alderman, John F. Smulski, 
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 aider- 
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 
irien 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 FOR 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 frienu 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 
life. 

"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 Eeview, 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 William English Walling and John K. 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 Returns Received 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 system 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 Mullenbach, 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 \vnvd 
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 
away ? 

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 ot view, It is published monthly at Chicago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.* Morgan St., 
Chicago. 111., and is entered at the Chicago Postofficeas mail 
matter of the second (newspaper) class. 

Tne Subscription Price Is Fifty Cents a Year. 

(Two Shillings, English; 2.50 francs, French foreign stamps 
accepted.) Postpaid to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one address for 42.50. Send check, draft. F. O. money order, 
cash or stamps, not above s-cent denomination., at our risk. 
Advertisements In the Commons During 1902. 
One Page. S25 00; Half Page, $15.00; Quarter Page, S!00; One 
Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 

Special Rates for Special Numbers of the Commons 

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. 
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 discontinued. In accord- 
ance with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscrib- 
ers, we continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified 
to the contrary. 



TKe Commons 

A MontHly Record Devoted to Aspects of LI and Labor from the Settlement Point s/ View. 



Number 70 Vol. VII. 



Seventh Year. 



Chicago, May, 1902 



THE LABOR MUSEUM AT HULL HOUSE- 

BY JESSIE LUTHER, CURATOR. 

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 the first report, 
is confined chiefly to the increased facilities for 



Greeks, Syrians, Russians, 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 ROOM. 



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 INDUSTRIAL 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- 
Jieved 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 
his 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 flaxr with the distaff, and the 
cultivation of flax along the Nile. 



THE COMMONS 




TIN!-: -TURING WHICH HVTO-.MTSDIX \VA5 TMT. QNEY FORM Of SPLN.MIAT 



WAS 



AL 



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 first bung- 
iingly applied to textile manufacture, coming 
in the latter half of the eighteenth century. 




TWO METHODS OF SYRIAN SPINNING AND EUROPEAN WHEEL. 



THE.. COMMONS 




Z, 
* 



I 




y. 



THE COMMONS* 





6 



THE COMMONS 



Many of the Italian women who came to the 
museum had never seen spinning wheels, and 
looked 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 one of the niost primitive 
forms known. 

If one could add the spider and the caterpillar 
to the exhibiting spinners, it 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 been 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 




WEAVING WITH XAVAJO 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 races of man doubtless 
wove in some crude fashion, and in the tombs of 
the ancient Egyptions woven material has been 
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 
small 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 



THE COMMONS 



space of 40x100 feet, and two rooms on 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 




SPINNING 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- 
tnr.ing the history of wood from the primeval for- 
est and appearance of the woodcutter, through all 
the processes of felling the trees, transportation, 
logging and sawing. The classes in sloyd, carpen- 



THE COMMONS 



try and wood-carving are very popular, not only 
with the girls 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 
history 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 influenced the long established classes in de- 
sign and drawing. Hull House has maintained 




METAL AND POTTERY 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 Russian, 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 OP GRAINS AND THEIR PREPARATION 
FOR FOOD. 

The next departmeu 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 



16 



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 Ihe 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 and 
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 hatehell, 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 the interest of the casual observer. This 
difficulty is met, as far as possible, by showing ex- 
amples of books 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 




THE BOOK BINDERY. 



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 



THE COMMONS 



general survey 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," "From 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," "History 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." 

INTERPRETATIONS OP INDUSTRY IN LITERATURE AND 
ART. 

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 Eevolution 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 Marner. 

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 Hull 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 edlucational advantages offered 
by Hull House, and some of the most intelligent 
students from the various Hull House classes and 
clubs have eared 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 Jiiteen 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 sixteeu-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 how?" 

Boys of twelve and fifteen years old begged to be 
allowed to join in the making of pasteboard chairs, 
tables and wagons. Dolls 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 
classes', 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 
Bloomfield, 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 
North End Industrial School, the Elizabeth Pea- 
body House and the Willard 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 alleys. 

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 



15 



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 Kindergarten 
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 aud settlement work workers at the 
South End, representing six denominations, who 
have organized for unseetarian 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 unseetarian 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. BUTAN. 

The Hartley House Cook Book. 

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

Order from Hartley House, 413 West Forty-sixth 
Street, New York City. Sixty-five 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, Gymnasium and Athletic Field 
Equipments. Write for anything you want. 

126-128 West Webster Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. 



New JTourth 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 THB 
COMMONS. Ten cpnts per copy. 



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Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social Set- 
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16 



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 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. 



We congratulate the City of Cleveland, Ohio, 
Goodrich 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. Eutan'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 effort. 

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 in 
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- 
concentrado 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 hell? What else do you ex- 
pect it to be?" 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 



THE COMMONS 



17 



at lower cost, eight hours to be a day's work for 
al! 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." 

. Robbing 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 
Eiis 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 relations, 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 td 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 EIIS." 



Among the features 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 *'. 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 Maea- 
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: MARY K. SIMKHOVITCH (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 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 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 opposition, 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 Eefuge, in particular, having an immense 
plant and excellent facilities for dealing with large 
numbers of boys, feeJs 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 come. 

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 
ana 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 delinquents from becoming criminals. 
It is the ounce of prevention which is far, fax 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 tueir 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 



19 



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 ,jn 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 un 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 
i 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 Roosevelt, in the Fortnightly 
Eeview. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOR THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MARY 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 prescription* 
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 grade 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 con- 
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 
curse 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. 

THE ARISTOCRACY OF 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 best natural geniuses born into a coun- 
try is born 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 sufficient 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. 

INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST INDUSTRIAL 
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 case 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 
collectivists. 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 less kernel of good, but that most 
of the trades union policy was liable to abuse. 
Being a necessary factor in modern 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 eon- 
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 tru'y 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 influence 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 Eev. 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. B. 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 this meeting, limited 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, B. W. Gilder, 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 Fast 
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. Besigning 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. Bobert Van 
Iderstine was elected president. On his resigna- 
tion shortly afterward, Mr. A. J. Boulton was 
ahosen, 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 Programme. 

The committee of the Association of Neighbor- 
hood Workers, on Child 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 



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, 
EGBERT HUNTER, Chairman. 

The Year 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 
1C 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 
baths, 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, Kussiau 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. 

KATHERINE 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 this wort, 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 
recommended to those who wish to live well at a 
moderate cost. 

PESTALOZZI.FR.OEBEL, 

Kindrga.rte rv Training 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 HEQNER, 363 N. Winchester Av.. 

Chicago 



24 



THE COMMONS 



May Festival at Chicago Commons. 
'10 give our neighbors and outside friends a 
little glimpse of what has been going on at 
Chicago Commons all winter, and for the benefit 
of our Bummer outing work, an exhibit is an- 
nounced for Friday and Saturday afternoons and 
evenings, 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, 111., 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. 

OUR 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 'a 
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 corner 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. 

SHELTERING THE MATHEON DAY NURSERY. 

To assure the continuance of the good service 
rendered our neighborhood 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? 

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

PUBLIC 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. SmulsM 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 Republican, 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 OP 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 University 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 as 
part of the curriculum in the Sociological depart- 
ment. 

Pressing Needs 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 



Of IMt 

UNIVEKSIU ot ILUNOIS 



TKe Commorvs 

A MorvtKly Record Devoted to Aspects of LI and Labor from the Settlement Point of View 



Number 71 Vol. VII. 



Seventh Year. 



Chicago, June, 190 



Chicago's Park Commission on River Ward 
Conditions. 

Supplementary 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. 

THE CHICAGO COMMONS DISTRICT. 

"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 platform, 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 brick 



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 250 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, whem 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 number 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 families. 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 buildings (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 small 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. 
Inj one block the death rate of all 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 most 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 livimg 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 
bsen 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 OF 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 OF 
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 lomg hours, the boys are left to roam at will 
in the tenement, street and alley. Eecreation 
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 any 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 nn increase of 00 per cent in 
juvenile arrests in the summer months. When 
children are not engaged in schools 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 hnve 
decreased fully 33 1-3 per cent.' " 

Note. 

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 what? 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 handa 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 jieau 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 knowing not for whom, or why, 

They fight, they fall, they sink into the night. 
From Hull House 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). Eev. 
Creighton E. 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. 
Bev. J. A. Eegester, 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. 

Eev. Harry Eansom, pastor of "St. Andrew's," 
and Eev. 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. Eev. G. H. Gaviller, 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, Eev. 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," 
Eev. 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, Eev. William 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 school. 

The mission of the Incarnation is connected 
with the Church of the Ascension, Eev. G. B. 
Eichards 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, Eev. 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 lustriet 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 this 
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. 

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

Trinity .House (1896), 258 Elk St.; Miss Alice 
Moore, he,ad 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. 

Bemiugton Hall (1900), corner Canal & Erie 
Sts. ; Miss Mary E. Eemington, head resident. 

These centers have activities common to all. 
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 Eem- 
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 COMMONS 



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, ehair-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 Bou- 
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 Eoman 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 Mndergartner, 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 aBd 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 



THE COMMONS 



church (of which Dr. S. 8. Mitchell is pastor), 
the directing power a council of men and women. 

Remington Hall is an independent settlement 
without backers or trustees. Miss Eemington, 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 ofto-i short-^oriod residents. 
A detailed account of her sple;iu:d work can be 
found in the Review of Reviews 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 Relief. 

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

The "Beilage zur Allgemeine Zeitung" of 
Munich, for October 26, gives a synopsis of a val- 
uable work by Munsterburg on "Foreign Sys- 
tems of Poor Relief" (Leipzig, Duneker and 
Humblot, 1901), from which we glean the follow- 
ing: There are three general methods of such 
relref: (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 
whola poor relief movement has gone in the direc- 
tion of prevention of poverty and sickness. This 
is the leading principle of modern dealing with 
pauperism. Russia 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 of 
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 for 
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 men 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 German 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, 
similar 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 all 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 



as it is called in Prussia, "provident education." 
English law, since 1889, continues such mental 
and moraJ training till the eighteenth year for 
both boys and girls. The authorities can inter- 
fere in any case where parents neglect their duty. 
Eeform and industrial schools care for neglected 
children, and those schools are under a govern- 
ment inspector. As industrial schools increase 
reformatories diminish. In 1898, only 5,460 youth 
were in the latter, a number less than that of 
1889. The cost is $562,700 per annum. The 
pupils in industrial schools were 21,426 in 1888, 
and 24,933 in 1898. The cost was $613,050 in 
1868, and in 1898 it was $2,113,725. Holland is 
also beginning compulsory education. In 1899 
France passed a law against cruelty toward chil- 
dren; and still more efficiently are England and 
America working toward the same end. In both 
lands are strong national societies "for the pre- 
vention of cruelty to children." The income of 
the English society in 1900 was $277,640. The 
average cost per child was $4.25. There are in 
America 157 similar societies, the largest being 
in New York. During the 24 years of its ex- 
istence it received 121,054 complaints and cared 
for 363,162 children. Of these 78,849 were taken 
from unsuitable homes and put in proper places 
by the society. A similar society has just been 
organized for Italy, with headquarters in Home. 
America has also started "Floating Hospitals" 
for sick children under six years of age. Six 
voyages a week are made. In 1900, 54 trips were 
made between July 6 and September 8, on which 
25,116 women, 36,292 children and 17,761 infants 
were given an outing. 

Democracy & Social Ethics 

BY JANE: ADDAMS, 
Head of Hull House. 

12 Mo. Half Leather - $1.2$ 

ti \t Mll.I, \>. COMPANY. 

Order through the Commons. 

A NEW STORY BY 

Charles 11). Sheldon 

ENTITLED 

THE REFORMER 

WILL COMMENCE IN 

THE ADVANCE, JUNE 19, 1902, 

and will continue about six months, and will then be issued in 
book form at $1.50. 

To induce a wide reading 1 of the story, which is said to be Mr. 
Sheldon's* bent literary production, and increase our subscription 
list, we will send THE ADVANCE from the time the order is re- 
ceived until January 1, 190:i, for the small sum of 8O Cents. Or- 



der early. 



THE ADVANCE, Chicago. 



Recent Publications of Social Interest. 

By Jane Addams, "Democracy and Social 
Ethics." (Macmillan.) 

By Josiah Strong, "The Next Great Awakening." 
(Baker & Taylor Co.) 

By University Settlement Society of New York, 
Fifteenth Annual Keport, containing also reports 
of local investigations of "The Inherent Cultural 
Forces of the Lower East Side"; "The Yiddish 
Stage"; "The Public Dance Halls of the Lower 
East Side"; "Child Ethics in the Street and Set- 
tlement"; "Police Court Probation Work" ; "Trades 
Unions and the Settlement," and "Tendencies in 
East Side Boys' Clubs." 

By William A. Clark, "Social Work Mono- 
graphs," No. 6 and 7, on "Boys' Clubs" (to be 
procured at twenty cents a copy of Morris M. 
Brent, 116 Shawmut Avenue, Boston). 

By W. E. B. DuBois, "The Negro Common 
School, ' ' a social study by the Sixth Atlanta Con- 
ference. (Atlanta University, Ga.) 

By Vida D. Scudder, "A Hidden Weakness in 
our Democracy." Atlantic Monthly, May 1902. 

' ' Democracy in Education. ' ' Atlantic Monthly, 
June, 1902. 

"College Settlements and College Women." 
The Outlook, April 19, 1902. 

By Elizabeth McCracken, "The Play and the 
Gallery," Atlantic Monthly, April, 1902. Repub- 
lished in The Outlook May 17th, 1902. 

By Prof. A. C. Armstrong, "Thought and Social 
Movements," noting the influence of the social 
movement upon psychology, ethics and religion. 
Hartford Seminary Record, May, 1902. 

By James S. Dennis, D. D., "A Statistical Sup- 
plement to 'Christian Missions and Social Prog- 
ress,' " being a conspectus of the achievements 
and results of evangelical missions in all lands 
at the close of the Nineteenth Century. (Fleming 
H. Revell Co.) 

By Denton J. Snider, "Social Institutions," in 
their origin, growth and interconnection, psycho- 
logically treated.. (For sale by A. C. McClurg 
& Co., Chicago.) 

By the Committee of Fifteen, "The Social Evil," 
with special reference to conditions existing in 
the city of New York^but valuable for its treat- 
ment of the effort to regulate the vice in all times 
and countries. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.) 



He who begins by loving Christianity better 
than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect 
or church better than Christianity and end In 
loving himself better than all. 

Coleridge. 



8 



THE COMMONS 



i Monograph on Boy's Clubs. 

Numbers six and seven of "Social Work" mon- 
ographs published in one pamphlet by Lincoln 
House, Boston, and edited by Win. A. Clark, now 
of Gordon House, New York, are devoted to the 
discussion of boys' clubs. For a practical under- 
standing of the different types of clubs and the 
work done by various clubs the description is 
very helpful. 

In Chapter I "Typical Large Clubs," are de- 
scribed. "The first boys' club in America was 
started in 1876" in New York city. In 1884 Rev. 
John C. Collins organized a club in New Haven. 
"This club has been the model of many of the 
the large clubs, particularly in New England. 
. . . Any boy in the city could be admitted to 
the club. The paid workers consisted of the door- 
keeper, the librarian and superintendent. Owing 
to the large numbers present during the club ses- 
sion, the superintendent, of necessity, walked 
about the room as a moral policeman. Occasion- 
ally visitors from the various churches came to 
assist by playing games with the boys. Later a 
few industrial classes, such as carpentry, wood 
carving, cobbling, type-setting, etc., were added. 
A penny savings bank was one of the leading 
features of this sort of club. . . . The plan has 
the virtue of being clean cut, practical and inex- 
pensive. . . . It is possible to have an ex- 
ceedingly large membership." 

The Fall River club with its $85,000.00 building, 
is briefly described and also the Boys' Club, of 161 
Avenue A, New York city, with an enrollment of 
7,000 boys and a $150,000 building. 

The "Boys' Free Heading Room," 112-114 Uni- 
versity Place, has 500 members, and is under the 
auspices of the Loyal Legion Temperance Society. 
Its chief features are the library, PennyProvident 
Fund 8,nd an employment bureau. Entertainments 
are given every Saturday night. "On Sunday even- 
ings a short religious service is held, consisting 
of a brief talk and plenty of good singing and 
whistling." 

"St. George's Church, New York city, has a 
large and well-conducted boys' club. The club is 
composed entirely of boys from the Sunday school." 

"At St. Bartholomew's farish Houpe in New 
York city is a boys' club of over 600. . 
Boys of all creeds are received." 

"The New York School Clubs, of which there 
are several, are placed in school buildings, usually 
in the more crowded and neglected neighborhoods 
of the city. . . . The plan has served to 
strengthen a conviction' already growing that our 
school buildings ought to serve a manifold social 
and educational purpose." 



CHAP. II. GROUP CLUBS. 

"With the advent of the University Settlement 
a new plan of club came into being. . . . 
The majority of boys' clubs throughout the coun- 
try are now being formed on what may be termed 
the 'Settlement Club Plan,' or on some modifica- 
'tiou of it. It differs from tho old plan radically 
in that the club is always very much smaller. 
The plan is this: A group of boys, from seven 
to ten in number, sometimes more, ordinarily of 
the same gang, therefore of about the same age, 
all coming from the immediate neighborhood. 
Such a group usually meets once a week in charge 
of a leader. The group club depends for its suc- 
cess, simply from its lack of machinery, upon the 
personality of the leader. The legitimate aim of 
the large club is to keep as many boys as possible 
off the street. The aim of the Settlement is more 
personal, to form a small group and through a re- 
fined, tactful leader, 'with a social soul,' as one 
man expressed it, moralize these boys by the power 
of friendship." 

CHAP. III. THE COMBINATION CLUB. 

"The institutional, or club room, type of club 
has features of strength which should be clearly 
recognized in any study of boys' clubs. 
A combination of the -big club and group club, 
therefore seems the wisest form of organization. 
* * * It seems hardly wise and in the long 
run hardly good for the boy himself, to organize 
with him alone in view. The father, the mother, 
the sister in short, the family should be taken 
into account. Boys' clubs have frequently been 
criticised as weaning boys from their homes. This 
principle of making the family the unit of organ- 
ization meets this criticism, and is growing into 
a fairly clear and strong conviction in the social 
settlement movement." 

HANDICRAFT WORK. 

"The making of baskets, hemp-rope mats, ham- 
mocks, fish nets, scroll-saw work, wood carvng 
and many things of a handicraft nature have been 
taken up with more or less success in numerous 
group clubs." 

Part II. Chapter I, on "Moral and Religious 
Teaching," Mr. Clark holds that there should be 
no formal religious instruction', but he says, "I 
feel more or less keenly that this boys' club work 
is, or should be, moral in its motives and results." 

CHAP. II. "PROGRAMME. " 

A very helpful list, arranged in order of popu- 
larity, of different club occupations is given. They 
are games, manual occupations athletics, excur- 
sions, public entertainments and intellectual pur- 
suits. 

CHAP. m. "SELF-GOVERNMENT." 

"In the majority of clubs which I have studied 



THE COMMONS 



9 



there is partial self-government, but there are no 
genuinely self-governed clubs that I know." The 
detail of the government is taken up constitution, 
rules of order, penalties, officers, dues and meet- 
ings. 

CHAP. rv. "HOLDING OUR OLDER BOYS." 

"Graduate" clubs are advocated as a strong way 
to hold the older boys. Some boys drop out of 
club life because they have better places to go, 
but many drop out for lack of interest. We must 
emphasize something beside the amusement idea. 
The co-partnership idea must be emphasized; "the 
club is properly a boys' democracy, with benefits 
to be shared and obligations to be met." As for 
the spirit "if we enjoy social service, if life is 
richer to us for what we do for our boys, be it 
little or much, why should we not share this 
motive force with them, give them a chance to 
feel the fascination of it all?" "We cannot ex- 
pect to hold our older boys by pampering to them." 
We can utilize the older boys as 'helpers' in 
the younger clubs in every way that is practicable 
and persuade them to take an interest in seeking 
fellows ini the neighborhood, outside their circle, 
who stand in need of just such opportunities as 
the club offers." We can interest the club in muni- 
cipal affairs. 

An appendix is given, illustrating self-govern- 
ment with accounts of "Trial by Jury," and ex- 
perience in Group Clubs. (Maurice M. Brent, 116- 
122 Shawmut Ave., Boston, Mass., 20 cents.) 

Communication. 

In a report in April Chicago Commons, of the 
recent joint meeting of the Farmers' Institutes and 
the Political Science Association, which the under- 
signed furnished for that paper, the following 
paragraph appears: 

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

In the above paragraph, the use of the word 
"program" was unfortunate, for it has appar- 
ently misled some into thinking that the co-opera- 
tion of the Institute was meant to be ignored. 
The sentence should have read, "the credit for 
crystallizing into a program the idea of a federa- 
tion of all the forces that make for rural progress, 
belongs chiefly, etc." The actual program was 
mutually arranged by Professor Smith and Pro- 
fessor Adams. It ought also to have been stated 
emphatically that the large attendance of repre- 
sentative farmers was due almost wholly to the 
drawing powers of the Institute. I regret that 
any misinterpretation should have arisen from 
infelicitous phrasing. 

KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD. 

Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Our Boston Letter. 

Last week closed two interesting series of meet- 
ings; those of the National Municipal League, 
which had held its annual meeting in Boston; 
and the delightful stereopticon lectures given by 
Prof. Zueblin, of Chicago University, at the Wells 
Memorial Workimgrnen's Institute. The former 
brought good speakers from different parts of the 
country, the latter good ideas. I wonder if it is 
true that Boston people are self satisfied; they 
are certainly astonished when the conviction is 
forced upon them that other parts of the coun- 
try are excelling them in municipal institutions. 
It is with a gasp that the rank and file, the 
uncritical among us, have our eyes opened to the 
architectural defects of a new railway station, 
01 which it had seemed to be sufficient to say 
that it could contain countless small ones within 
its vast area; and it is with sensations beyond 
my power to describe that we become convinced, 
through Prof. Zueblin 's crisp, pleasant and indis- 
putable showing, that while our new public library 
is probably one of the finest in the world out- 
wardly, we may still have the pleasure of work- 
ing toward the improvement of its adminis- 
tration, if it is to live up to the inspiring 
legend over its front: "Dedicated to the ad- 
vancement of learning." Long may Prof. Zue- 
blin continue to give his stereoptieon lectures, and 
may Boston be annually shocked and delighted 
by his suggestions! 

Speaking of our public library reminds me of 
a statement the head of the children's department 
recently made to me. 1 have the pleasure of 
being a member of the notorious "Fiction Com- 
mittee," and books for juveniles are my special 
charge. It is more difficult than the casual critic 
realizes to decide positively whether a book that 
at once seems to contain nothing harmful and 
yet to have no special merit is to be placed on 
the shelf for children to select at will. My own 
judgment has been that, whatever we may do in 
the selection of books for adults (for again we 
have to remember the Legend over the door, "Built 
by the people,") we are not justified in placing 
the mediocre in the hands of children; and this 
opinion has been confirmed by the children's li- 
brarian's remark, concerning the children's own 
selection: "There are three books we cannot 
supply the demand for among the children: Miss 
Alcott's Little Women, John Jacob's Fairy 
Tales," (and these consist of several volumes of 
the oldest folk lore) "and Uncle Tom's Cabin." 
If that is the child's uninfluenced choice, it seems 
indeed a pity to corrupt it by forcing upon him 
loads of stuff that merely clutter the mind. 

ihe provision of reading for children has been 



10 



THE COMMONS 



almost taken out of the hands of the Settlements 
in Boston by the spread of branch public libraries, 
every section in which there is a Settlement hav- 
ing one of these branches which it encourages 
the children to attend. The South End House, 
indeed, entirely ceased the loaning of books after 
the establishment of the public reading room 
almost under the eaves of the neighboring cathe- 
dral. The question of entertainment for young 
people, however, is one that will last as long 
as settlements do, and every Settlement resident 
or club leader must have Had many anxious mo- 
ments over prospective entertainments, and some 
bad ones over remembered "shows." My own 
settled conviction that only the very good, if pos- 
sible only the classic, should be given in dramatic 
entertainment of the clubs, begins to seem not 
quite so much like conviction since my attending 
one Settlement play and hearing of another, this 
spring. The one I attended was given to an 
audience of the performers' friends, a rather 
youthful, distinctly hilarious audience whose free- 
dom of speech and action reminded me forcibly of 
the gallery or what we call "The Grand Dime." 
Two facts were undoubted: the play was well 
done, showing good training, faithful work and 
some dramatic ability, and the audience was in- 
terested and felt it had received its money's 
worth; more than that, local pride was intensely 
gratified. A third fact was equally clear at the 
time to my mind : the play was common, as com- 
mon as it could be and not escape the reproach 
of distinct vulgarity; indeed I was not sure it 
did escape it. I went away saying what a good 
time those people had, how splendidly the boys 
and girls did their parts, and what a pity the 
same interest could not have been turned toward 
really good dramatic art. A few days later I 
was told of another Settlement club that had 
given a play of Shakespeare before the members 
of a near-by college. I was delighted. I inquired 
how it had gone off, and how the audience en- 
joyed it, meaning to treasure the answers and 
report to my first set of friends. "I never saw 
anything so funny in my life," was the unex- 
pected reply. "We simply screamed with laugh- 
ter." And the play was a tragedy! 

As the warm weather becomes settled, we all 
talk playgrounds, window boxes and bicycle trips. 
While the last meeting of the Associated Charities 
was partially given up to a report upon "The 
Teeth of the Poor, ' ' that of this week was devoted 
to the spread of playgrounds and baths, and 
the increased demand for window boxes in the 
region we call the New York Settlement, because 
some half dozen streets, leading off the thorough- 
1'are Harrison avenue, are named after the classic 



New York towns, Oneiua, Oswego, etc. These 
streets are within the district of the interesting 
Settlement, the Louisa Alcott House, whose advan- 
tages, and they are uncommon ones, are planned 
for Hebrew children. This house, which has been 
in existence some years, and another just come 
into existence are too important to pass over in 
a few lines, and I shall hope to make their work 
the subject of a later letter. The second is a 
social centre which has been established this spring 
in a colored neighborhood, near the South End 
House, and is known as St. Martin's House. It 
has begun its activities with a kindergarten in- 
dustrial work and some social and religious gather- 
ings. The South End House has joined with the 
Episcopal clergyman, Father Field, in establishing 
this work. 

As for the bicycle, it is with us with all its 
splendid possibilities for summer outings. The 
South End House has a bicycle club which uses 
wheels owned by the House, but kept in repair 
by the leader, Mr. Whitman, and the members 
of the club. The members are being specially 
roused to the need of well kept alleys, since disas- 
ter from broken glass has come to their machines. 
It seems as true just now that all roads lead to 
street cleaning in Boston, . as the older proverb 
once was said to be. 

Elizabeth Y. Eutan. 



LAWN SWINGS 



MAY POLES 



W. S. TOTHILL 

Manufacturer 

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

126-i28 West Webster Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. 

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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 Nurses' 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 
frouj 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 
of articles that he himself wished 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 formed itself, 
whose members, with those of the two most regu- 
larly attended classes, have the promise of a 
summer camping trip this year. These boys have 
also had the pleasure of going to the circus, 
Buffalo Bill, to the navy yard and the Bronx, 
not as rewards of merit for attendance, but be- 
cause their regularity 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 different 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. 

SUSAN 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 discugsion 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 1 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 sufficiently 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 



13 



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 
us 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. 
Prom 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 wofk 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- 
mitted 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 
nd, 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 home the models 
upon 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 mo.dels 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 to 
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 whether 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 student 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 her 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 the 
Settlement children choose those things which 
would be useful at home. Further experiment 
will 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 will 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 pedagogues 
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 
in their scheme. CAROLINE 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 beem 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 thfr 
courses 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, Registrar, Madison, Wis." 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: KATHARINE COMAN, "Wellealey, Mass. 
Vice President: MARY K. SIMKHOVITCH (Mrs. 

Vladimir G. Simkhcviteh), 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. Seribner), 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 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 life. 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 
park purposes. It went seven blocks away into 
the section of the city from which most of its 
clientele was drawn. In the new location there 
were 12,000 children enrolled in the schools in 
a radius of four blocks from the Settlement. The 
school houses were so overcrowded that three 
children are sometimes seen occupying one bench. 



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 well as for resident sleeping apart- 
ments. Including the residents living at Boose- 
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 roll 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 of 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 Roosevelt 
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 cooking-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 not 
only take part in it, as they do in temperance 
and missionary acivities, but that these houses, 
founded by the colleges, actually depend on the 
colleges for existence. Were there any tendency 
on the part of the higher education to draw women 
away into an arid pursuit of scholarship, or to 
isolate them in a fancied superiority of culture, 



the settlement movement would prove the best 
possible corrective. The inspiration of the move- 
ment is doubtless largely the same as that which 
has quickened 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. Residence 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, ne 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 
haud, 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 
Ihey furnish a means that is proving month by 
month its rare effectiveness, by which the indus- 
trial population may be drawn into unity with 
the rest of the nafton." 



New Fourth Edition f College. Social 
and University Settlements Bibliography. 

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



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, 

For 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 his 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 burn. 
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 a 
fool. 

Some village speaker who, with a bold voice, 

Comes here on politics 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 
for?" 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 all 
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. 



PES T A LO ZZI-F R OEBE L. 
KindrtfaLfte n Tra.ining 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, 363 N*. Winchester Av. 

Chlcaco 



New Cottage at Haeatawa 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 
Macatawa, will be ready for occupancy July 1. 
Any family desiring to inquire about this safe, 
comfortable, 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 



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 Post Office as Second-Class Matter, and 
Published the first of every month from CHICAGO COMMONS, 
a Social Settlement at Grand Ave.t Morgan St., Chicago, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



Miss Jane Addams' Authorship. 

The reading public did not need to await the 
appearance of Miss 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 1 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 agree in 
claiming "Democracy and Social Ethics," (Mac- 
millam & Co.), as the demonstration of the raison 
d'etre of the Settlement motive and method, and 
in recognizing Miss Addams' personality and serv- 
ice as the clearest and truest expression of both. 
For nowhere more than in her and her book does 
"the identification with the common' lot which is 
the essential idea of Democracy," become "the 
source and expression of social ethics." 

Mayors and Strikes. 

Eugene E. Schmitz, mayor of Sam Francisco, 
has just given the greatest object lesson of the 
right relation for the executive branch of the 



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 am 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 officials 
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, and 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 always 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 is 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 hearts 
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, 
shower 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 to hear 
how welcome their representative is all uxound 
Chicago Commons. 



KINDERGARTEN MAY 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. 



20 



THE COMMONS 



To Supporters and Friends of Chicago 
Commons. 

The time has come when the warden and resi- 
dents of Chicago Commons should cease to be 
so seriously handicapped in their settlement service 
and the development 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 sevem 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 overburdening 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. 

First, 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- 



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 OP THE MAY FESTIVAL. 

So great was the success of our May Festival 
that by common consent, it is already recognized 
to be thoroughly established as the chief annual 
occasion 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 CEmes 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 ASSDKED. 

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 Eev. G. 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 ACTIVITIES 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 Math eon Day Nursery 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 Devoted to Aspects of Ufe and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number yz-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, July, 1903 



The Charities Convention. 

BY WILLIAM HARD. 

Other people besides Charles Lamb have the 
litlk-ulty about which the whimsical little Lon- 
doner used to complain. They cannot describe a 
tiling. They describe the impression the thing 
has 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 
this 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 x 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 down- 
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 eharity-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 con- 
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 reporters, and 
its position with regard to the possibility of con- 



T H 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 liberal 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. E. 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, owing to the labors of the Executive 
Committee, of which Mr. Bicknell, 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 
Segregation of Defectives in Colonies, Vagrancy, 
Sanitary Inspection, Disease and Dependence, Mu- 
nicipal Institutions, and Psychopathic Hospitals. 
There is one attraction, an unofficial 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 traffic- 
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, like 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 ajl 
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?" 

I do not know what Miss Converse means. 
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 
1 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 Bay 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 Bibbon,' 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 God." 



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 necessary 
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. LINCOLN. 



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 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 traffic 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 officers of the Amal- 
gamated Association of Street Railway 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 cases, 
compromises were made, honorable alike to each 
side of what otherwise would surely have been 
a struggle fateful to both and to the city. 



Organization versua Personality in Settle- 
ment Work. 

This old problem has received a trenchant re- 
statement at the hand of Mr. E. J. TJrwick, 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 omissi6n and of commission find them 
out. 



But Mr. TJrwick '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 
ana 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 
t \\iis 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 

M At >!II.I. % >> COMPANY. 

Order through the Commons. 



LAWN SWINGS 



MAY POLES 



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Manufacturer 

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

126-i28 West Webster Avenue, CHICAGO, ILL. 

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to the contrary. 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: KATHARINE COMAN, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: MART K. SIMKHOVITCH (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 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 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 Julius 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 
thg combined efforts of the director of the club 
and four or five other residents. 

It is a marked characteristic of the Celt that 
his 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. Tiie 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 believes that 
it is real. When a fifteen-year-old boy, 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 ttiing, 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, Radcliffe, 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 fof 
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 
difficult 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 Radcliffe 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 Launeelot 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." BieheJieu 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 Russian Jew, or the Italian, or 
the German, or the Syrian, will thrive and develop 
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. 

Por 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. 

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 



truth 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 hav>3 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 degree, 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? 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, 

Kindrs^rten Training 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 HOFBR HEQNBR, 363 N. Winchester Av. 

Chicago 



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." 
She 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 instructors and 
to the Settlement. 

"A Schedule foJflhe 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- 
tion, 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 worthji of trust than thee : keep 
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 FOR THE ASSOCIATE 

MARY KINGSBURY SIMKHO 

248 East 34th Street, New *ork. 



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 mean- 
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 called the 
Alliance house. This house is in the neighbor- 
hood of 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 Recreation 
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 Eecreation League felt that its work was 
done; that as the public demand for play- 
grounds had been created and the promise to 
provide them had 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 Fi~h Park. But the Park Commis- 
sioner, Mr. Walleox, says that although the ap- 
paratus can tye sent to the Park there is no 
money for care-taking and maintenance. It is 
impossible for the Board of Estimate and Ap- 
portionment, 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 ease it 'is not pleasant to reflect 
that so serious an oversight took place when 
the budget was made up. Another fact not very 
ngroeable to 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 office 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 Belle-rue 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? 

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. Kobbins' 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 were Richard Watson Qjlder, Jacob Riis, and 
Edward King. Perhaps the most interesting 
speech was that of Mr. Gino Speranza, who spoke 
in the warmest way of Dr. Robbins' 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 old 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 summers 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 KINGSBURY SIMKHOVITCH. 



Social Movements in Kansas City, Mo. 

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 "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, being 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 Ehodes 
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 Russian 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 
Auxiliary of the Manufacturers' Union conducted 



a Sewing School every Saturday and the residents 
maintained the Boys' and Girls' Clubs, the Night 
School, the Penny Provident Fund and Reading 
Room. 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 "Oetavia Hill 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 jail 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 known 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 being taken now for the organization 
of a "Help to Self -Help Society," which shall 
stand in the relation of friendly adviser to those 
in any sort of trouble. One department of their 
work will be to conduct a Chattel Mortgage Loan 
aud Pawn Shop, always discouraging the borrow- 
ing of money by the applicants if other plans 
can be devised for them. J. M. HANSEN. 



Howeli'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. 
Naively 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 you 
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 my 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 gf ground which we own 
here." 

He then outlined his plan to "give the married 
men sanitary homes to live in, with pretty gardens 
and all 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 sufficient 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 B.ox 
12, Macatawa, Michigan, or ' ' The Commons, ' ' 180 
Grand avenue, Chicago. 

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. 



12 



THE COMMONS 



FROM THE SETTLEMENTS. 

A new Settlement has been started by Mr. and 
Mrs. Charles F. Weller in their own home, 456 N 
street, S. W., Washington, D. G., 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. Bichard 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 
THE COMMONS. 



FEDERATION 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 co-operation of the office of the City's 
Commissioner of Health. It will be distributed 
from at least four settlements and the Central Dis- 
trict Bureau of Charities. 



CHICAGO COMMONS.* 

The opening 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 
every 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, 111., 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 Eev. 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 alumnae 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, Rev. James 
Mullenbach 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 Monthly Record l>evoted to Aspects of L,if e and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 73 -Vol.. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, August, 1902 



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'ervvorked, how fare 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! 
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 Settlements it has 
been considered necessary to dwell upon the day 
nursery, the industrial school, the kindergarten, 
the clubs, the music, the games, the drawing, th 
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 action V 
If the Settlement's 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 house 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 their 
evenings and other spare time in neighborliness 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, 



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 eireumstances, 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. Not to make a living profit 
would defeat the purpose at both ends; the work 
would fail' from insufficient support, and reduced 
rents would tend -to pauperize the tenants. Care 
is taken to have no crowding in the place. About 
one hundre;! and seventy people live there, and 
for these chiefly the work is carried on. The 
popula'.ion is made up of laborers, mechanics, 
factory girls, clerks, waiters, milliners, office 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 and 
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,- 
O.OQ.OO ; 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 keep this machinery running 
could be better employed in touching simply and 
directly without plan the life-springs cf 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 the 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 while 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 service can be commanded 
without financial outlay. 

The Value of an Economic Library. 

BY HELEN MAROT. 

In the spring of 1897, the Free Library of 
Economies 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, recog- 



THE COMMONS 



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 servers 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 ^ibrary 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 Library 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 politics 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 thoughtful 
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 instill life into the whole body. 

It is undoubtedly too true for our national 
weliare 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 
.1 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 political 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 hia 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 with 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. 

On 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 '-iot be overestimated. It would furnish val- 

.ole 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 
the hands of experienced librarians, who are 
trained not only in library methods but the sub- 
ject with 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 
reading 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. 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. 



PES TALOZZI-FR.OEBEL, 
Kindrga-rte rv Tra.ining 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 HEQNER, 363 N. Winchester Ave. 

Chicago 



THE COMMONS 



Chautauqua's Social Settlement Week. 

BY JANE E. ROBBINS, M. D. 

Twenty workers from a clonen Settlements gath- 
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, of Chicago Commons; Mr. Cadwallader, of 
Goodrich House, Cleveland; Mr. Daniels, of Neigh- 
borhood House, Philadelphia; Miss Holmes, of 
Westminster House, Buffalo, 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 Eeligion, " "Belation 
to the Neighborhood and to the City," and "The 
Personnel and Management." Mr. Taylor gave 
the address on "Settlement Mediation in Politics 
and Eeligion." 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 
be 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. 

Miss 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 descriDing 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- 
Raphaelite 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 Social 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, III. 



50 Cents 



A Year. 



EDITORIAL. 



We congratulate the Tjniversity of Michigan, as 
well as the farming communities of that great 
state, upon the appointment of Mr. Kenyon L. 
Butterfield, 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 
ability 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 
column. 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, Bermondsoy and Passmore Edwards 
House. His estimate of the American settlements 
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 
cur 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 
officer'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 ilillhill 
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 out-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 River 
Forest one of the guests of the Woman's Club de- 
clared, ' ' It was the happiest Aay 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 Universalists 
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 
halls and bats, besides more for camp expenses. 
Several Protestant pastors have taken like initia- 
tives, while 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 the 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-telling, and most strange and extrav- 
agant are their descriptions of people and things. 



8 



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 has 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 object 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 
order 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 office 
service, 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. 
Cordial relations are established between people 
of different 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 th 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 cts.) 1,455.00 



Price by the quantity. 



$7,887.00 
. 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 BAND 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 SCRIBNEK (Mrs. 
Arthur H. Scribner), 10 West 43d 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 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 
Curtis, who has served the association with un- 
tiring devotion, 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 Band 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 OF 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. 

"MY 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 
alumnte increase yearly by hundreds. 

"Wellesley has 1,860 alumnse; only 454 alumnse 
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 wilderness.es of modern life 
shall become fit for human habitation f 

"Full membership in the College Settlements 
Association costs five dollars a year. Partial mem- 
bership of a dollar and upwards is possible in the 
alumnte as in the undergraduate chapters. 

"VlDA D. SCUDDER." 



THE WAY AT WELLESLEY. 

The inventor of a novel and effective way of 
presenting his begging-bowl to the benevolent pub- 
lic should be hailed as a mendicant sage indeed. 
The Wellesley AlumnsB Chapter, however, can claim 
no such proud distinction; it employs the time- 



10 



THE COMMONS 



worn methods of eliciting interest aud 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 
Wcllesley 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 tue 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 vjce-elector, 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. 8* 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. 

EMILY BUDD SHULTZ, 
Wellesley Alumnae Elector. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 

WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOB THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MARY 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 Playgrounds. 

As a result of having the equipment of the Out- 
door Eecreation 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- 
lic Parks will be one in Hamilton Fish Park and 
one in the DeWitt Clinton Park. Commissioner 
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 an'd 
caretakers for the Park Department. 

The Outdoor Eecreation 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 



a 



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 Eivington 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 
ity 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 Improving 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 years. 



A New Cooperative Settlement. 

The Co-operative Social Settlement Society of 
the city of New York has just been incorporated. 
The purposes of the society are stated in the char- 
ter as follows: 



' ' The particular objects for which the corpora- 
tion 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 OT 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, manual 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 
ol the halls adjoining saloons for the lack of 
anything better, and demoralizing results have 
naturallv followed. 



THE COMMONS 



Although prompted by the desire to benefit the 
neighborhood, the association has been organized 
mi 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. 

SABA STRAUS. 



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 1 trust in a 
few weeks I shall be able to present to my loving 
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 new 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. Lovingly, 

"SAMUEL M. JONES, Mayor. 

"Toledo, O., July 8, 190:1." 

We take the liberty of sharing with the many 
friends of Mayor Jones among our readers the 
words of good cheer from a letter just received: 
' ' After fifteen days in the Wilderness I rejoice 
in new life. Life! I have found it 'more abund- 
antly.' 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." 



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 Tax 
COMMON- ~~~- c*"ts per copy. 



Democracy & Social Ethics 

BY JANE ADDAMS, 

Head of Hull House. 

\Z Mo. Half Leather $i.2s 

M tt'MlI.I. \> CO9IPAMV. 

Order through the Commons. 

HAND SEWING LESSONS. 

A graded course in a popular method, arranged 
by experienced ti-achors. Printed directions ex- 
plicit, with over one hundred illustrations of 
models of 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 home? Price, 
cloth-bound. 35 cents; by mail, 40 cents. 

Order of The Thomas Training and Normal 
School. 552 Woodward avenue, Detroit. Mich. 



The Commons 

A Monthly Kerord I>e voted to Aspects of Life and I .:i tun from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 74-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, September, 1902 



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 very ancient history, and 



rective legislation seeking to compel the able- 
bodied vagabond to industry is an interesting 
chapter in legal lore. The affirmative 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 
tlian reformatory. The Solons of the past, intent 



THE COMMONS 



upon punishing results, inquired little into causes. 
The day has been in merry England when to 
be an able-bodied vagrant was punishable with 
death. Of Britain in these good old times it haa 
been said that "the hangman was her Minister 
of Justice, and the gallows the symbol of her 
.civilization." But from the vagrancy provisions 
of the New 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 piles 
and workhouses, the other indiscriminate charity 
and free soup. The one has looked for deliver- 
ance by the rigid enforcement of barbarous stat- 
utes, the other has expected a solution in indus- 
trial and political revolution. The debate still 
goes on, but the 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. 

BEGINNING OF 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 Association, 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. McCormicfc 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 up 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 Recreation Grounds in the 
crowded areas of Chicago. The labors of the 
Small Parks Commission of the City Council in 
selecting sites, were greatly facilitated by the 
investigations and counsel of the specialists of 
the City Homes Association. 

INVESTIGATION BY THE CITY HOMES 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 that "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 
buLuing centrally located was leased and equipped 
to house, bathe and feed 200 men a night. The 
police stations were closed to vagrants, and the 
"-unicipal Lodging House opened its doors on the 
evening of the 21st of December, 1901. 

MUNICIPAL 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 officer in charge separates this group 
into two lines, "first nighters" and those pre- 
viously sheltered. As the newcomer steps up to 
the desk the registration officer, with a pile of 
blank cards before him, begins his questioning. 

REGISTRATION 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. Entering the first room upon the second 
floor and sitting down upon a wooden bench be- 
fore a phfin 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 
by 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 he 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 taken to the fumigating 
room and subjected for some eight hours to the 
fierce destroying fuines of ten pounds of rolled 
brimstone sulphur, burning out all life within its 
walls. 

COMPULSORY 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, 
oach 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 the 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 his excuse, 
if the tale sounds "fishy" he is put through 




his fellow sojourners for the night, is sent to the 
office 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 
tales 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 he varies from his original story he 
is promptly brought to book, and checked into the 
street gang for throe hours' labor with a hoe. 

DISTRIBUTION. 

As the cases 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, aro 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 supervision of an officer 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 Municipal Lodging 
House, as a clearing house for the indigent, en- 
deavors to secure the final disposition oi each 
case. 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 cf 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-eip-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 city, 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 cars, 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 thait 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 



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 tho 
worthy stranger or displaced wcrkingman, the 
Municipal Lodging House has sent over 1,700 men 
to paid employmenj since the first day of January. 
1902. 

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! " 
all but four replies answer yes, with empnasis. 
To this query the Chief of Police of one of 
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 United States 
enclosing a list of questions upon "Vagrancy 
and Municipal Correction." Replies 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 alive 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: 

"Railroads 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 authorities 
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 citiee, 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 House? 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. R. 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 J. 
wish you would give my regards to all the officers. 
Respectfully 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 applicants is such that a person does nut 
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. Respectfully, 



CHICAGO, May 24th, 1902. 

Mr. Robins: I take the liberty to write you 
expressing my opinion, also my thanks for the 
kindness 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. Bobins, Supt. M. L. H.: 

Dear Sir. Please accept my thanks for hos- 
pitality and other kindness shown me at the lodg- 
ing house for the past few days. I was surprised 
and comforted at the cleanness 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 efficient 



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. 

Eespectfully yours, 

(Signed) GLASER, KOHN & Co., 

D. A. McNeill. 

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 ot "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: 

ULASEH, KOHN & Co., 

West Randolph and Green Sts., Chicago. 
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, Chairman. 

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 COMMONS 



Raymond 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, 
insufficient 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 a,cute 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. 
When 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 OTHER 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 t 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 well-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 
foun.d 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 and 
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 
above and a mother's love and a mother, too, 
who was the friend, an associate of the farmer's 
wife. These, with the debating societies, the spell- 
ing match, the revival, and a Saturday in town, 
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 song 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 corn 
of Illinois and husk the maize proves that there 
is an army of men who have no regular employ- 
ment but have a regular habit of going hungry 
and sleepy. 

A familiar sign in Chicago is "Wanted 200 
men for B. E. work. We ship tonight." There 
is something sinister in the idea of shipping men. 
It sounds all right for hogs or corn, 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 empty stomachs 
willing 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- 
less, homeless happy-go-lucky tramp, whose joy, 
like the miller's, is "to wander, to wander." 
The man is a legitimate 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 him? He is ours. Society 
has no more right to spurn or mistreat him than 
a mother would have to neglect her ioUotic or 
cripple child. Fortunately, there is evidence at 
hand that the vagrant and the criminal will 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 began 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 incorrigibles 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 ot 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. 

MR. WRIGHT ON LABOR IN LAW. 

United States Commissioner of .babor 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, 
itli 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 privilege of weekly 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 LABOK 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 employer of labor for many 
years. I am not a novice at that. I know men 
pretty well. But I know another i^hing 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 degree would 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 their 
employer's presence to ask consideration, how 
much would be shown them? Not much. There- 
fore, when they band together in an organization 
for their own benefit and which will furnish them 
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 this? 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? 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 ti, criticize the evii 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 development 
for the future. 

' ' Our experience has shown that of the men who 
are associated with our organization (the National 
Civic Federation) on the part of labor, twelve of 
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 their 
treatment of this matter as the other side. 
Eecognize 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 you 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." 



Russia has in her student class a set of fine, 
brave men. These in time will unfold a richer 
Russia 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 them. Tolstoy. 



THE COMMONS 



13 



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: man 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; 
Give 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 Poems. 



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 treatment 
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 and 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 men 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 
discuss 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 corners 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 the public school 
system. By opening attractive quarters in every 
crowded block and following 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 NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOR THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MART KINGSBURY SIMKHOVITCH, 
248 East 34th Street, New York. 



POPULAR 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 as 
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 the 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 01 Edu- 
caion are more thoroughly organized and much 
attention is being given to industrial work, es- 
pecially 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 the 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 
should 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 th work of preparing the ground, planting 
and caring for the flowera 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 G. 
Crawford, Morean Delano, John H. Denison, Win- 
throp E. Dwight, James S. Gilbert, William E. 
Jelliffe, Louis A. Eipley, Willet C. Eoper, Frances 
L. Seymour, Walter S. 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-FR.OEIJEL 

Kindergarten Training School 

at Chicago Commons. 

Opens Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1902. 

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

BERTHA HOFER HEQNER, 

Chicago Commons, 180 Orand Ave., Ch cago. 

She New Fourth Edition?/' College. Social 
and University Settlements Bibliography. 

Compiled by Caroline Williamson Montgomery/! 
For the College Settlement Association, with much 
new material. Now ready. Order through TUB 

^"~ c>nts per copy. 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: KATHARINE COMAN, Wellesley, Mass. 

Vice President: HELEN CHADWICK BAND THAYEK 
(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 BY 

CAROLINE WILLIAMSON MONTGOMERY, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



Relation of Colleges to Social Service. 

ABSTRACTS PROM A REPORT PREPARED TOR 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 modern 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 utterly 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 
has 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 college 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 confines 



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 Economies 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' residence 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. 

(e) 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 
charge 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 case 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 offering, 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 and 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 officials, 
both in public offices 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, "Will 



you outline a college course especially adapted to 
prepare workers for^your distinctive work!" 

Economies, Theory and Practical Investigation. 

Sociology, Theory and Field Work. 

Civics: Municipal Problems, Anthropology and 
Ethnology. 

History: Industrial Crises and Development, 
Laves of Reformers, Poor Laws. 

Psychology: Education, Aesthetics, Ethics, prac- 
tical and theoretical, Comparative Religions. 

Music, Chemistry, Physical Science. 

In The House Beautiful for June, Wallace Bice, 
in an illustrated article on "Miss Starr's Book 
Binding," at Hull House, 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 hqr 
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: 

' ' Thia 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 effort 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 
dross. 

"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. "Les Miser- 
ables." 



18 



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 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. 



Too few American settlements have had the 
advantage, which many settlement houses in Eng- 
land 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 civic service. 
CHICAGO COMMONS is glad to give and get the 
advantage of having one of its residents in the 
superintendency 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 
testify. 



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 Chautauqua 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 
i;i their judgment of those at issu and of the 
ou*some of tho titanic struggle. No man to wnum 
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- 
lic issues at stake. But the seriousness of the 
situation and the fact that no one knows anj 
single solution, either ready at hand or in plain 
sight, should paralyze the hope and effort for 



an outcome worthy of the American democratic 
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 Relation 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 ana 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 politics, 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 will 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 well be cautiously considered, but 
not always avoided. For a fatally short-sighted 
view of the function of a Settlement, as well as 
the relation of local politics to it, is seriously in- 
volved. Settlements must not be blind to the fact 
that the arbitrarily superimposed party lines, 
which are so irrelevant to all real interests at 
stake in local politics, are hopelessly divisive. 
They net only introduce to 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 argument 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 dispossess 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. 

(Reprinted 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 Deuison 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 



THE COMMONS 



human history has evolved are at play among the 
people gathered on our shore. Bacial 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. Baffling 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 eo-operate all he can with 
those 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 com- 
mon life in common. 

Miss Seudder'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 offices. 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. 

OUK 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 acd 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 winter 
the commissioner of public works has 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 Settlements and the city 
health department, lias been eagerly sought, has 
brought us in friendly contact with many families. 

DISTRICT VISITING NURSE IN EESIDENCE. 

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. 



The Commons 

A Monthly Kfrnnl I>cviit'l to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 7 6-VoI. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, November, 1903 



THE NbW PROMETHEUS. 

I!Y .IO1IN FINI.KY. 

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 Pr.ometheus 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 The 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. Gillillan, 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 PABT RECOGNIZED. 

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 wpuld 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. In 
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 quarters 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 of 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 accepted, 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 COMMONS 



UKOl'l'lMi 01-' SUBJECTS AND SPEAKERS. 

The program 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 Labor 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, Commissionei 
of the Bureau of Immigration. 

E. J. Gainor, 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 Federation 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- 
sumers' 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 F. 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; 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. 
KVKM.NG SESSION, 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, Philadelphia. 

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 F. 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 Great 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. 

5. "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 COMMONS 



7. "The Higher Industrial Life, or the Golden 
Rule in Business" (Illustrated), William H. 
Tolman, Secretary of the League for Social 
Service, New York. 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25. 

MORNING SESSION, 10:00 A. M. 

1. "The Relation of the Public to Capital and 

Labor," Charles Zueblin, 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. IB 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 ate 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 
cause 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 
occasioned by the necessity of earning a reason- 
able profit, not on actual capital, but on Inflated 
and watered capital. 



This Vlll 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 flnd 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." 

U. S. 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 difficulties 
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 
raany 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, but 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 COMMONS 



sary reduction of wages consists in the spirit 
of suspicion engendered. The worker 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 struggle 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 cure. 
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 religion 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. 

ARBITRATION. 

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 gravity 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 clergyman 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 aVe 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 employment, 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 problem 
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 



\vi ll-.^irn. .1 national virtue, common sense, and 
the boasU-d quality of our race, the spirit of 
fair play." 

ILLINOIS 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 of 
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 
the 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 least 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 
fettled 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- 
ploye 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. Prom 
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 to 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 men's forming unions for the betterment of 
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 1m- 
l">rtant 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 
n-sults. 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 half-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 study the labor ques 1 - 
tion there. 

PROF. J. B. CLARK OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, N. Y. 

In perhaps what was the most important 
paper of the conference Prof. Clark called at- 
tention to the changed industrial conditions of 
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 weaken 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 between 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. The injury that it 
causes goes far beyond the area of dispute. 
This increases the need of some measure for 



THE COMMONS 



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; and 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 thw 
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 for themselves. 

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 difficulties. It has 
been thought that in announcing to a corpora- 
tion what would he 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 them, 
'You must take this amount and actually work, 
Whether you wish to or not,' which would be 
a clear interference with personal liberty. This 
kind of compulsory arbitration would encounter 
practical as well as legal difficulties. If, on the 
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 option 
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 non- 
union men whom the employing corporations 
may bring in to break up the movement at it* 
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 terms 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 an- 
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 compulsory 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 come 
rearer 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 COMMONS 



DISCUSSION OF ARBITRATION FROM THE FLOOR. 

The discussion from the floor on the general 
subject of 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. 
Oainor, 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 CONDITIONS. 

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: 

"Tke 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 
the 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 of 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 
-and of the committee to devote the principal 



part of the evening to the Eight-Hour Day and 
its discussion. A great interest in this quee- 
. 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 Vow- 
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. T%ie 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 worker 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 eigtot-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 working 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 daily production will be maintained and 
little or no change will result in the long run 
in the effects upon wages, profits, the unem- 
ployed, and foreign commerce." 

Prof. J. B. Clark discussed th'e 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 lifetime, you will have to reduce his 
hours of labor to eight each day." 

The closing paper on the program was given 
by Mr. W. P. Wiman, vice-president of the 
John Deere Plow Company of Moline, HI. 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 employer 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 sufficient consideration to make 
them binding on the part of the employer 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 ijiy 
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. 

MB. STICKNEY VERSUS MISS ADDAMS. 

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 exceptiomal 
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 law na- 
ture enforced without mercy. Nothing cold 
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 COMMONS 



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 a.* 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 universe rules the 
economic affairs c-f mankind by the silent law 
of cause and effect with a merciless hand. It 
recognized 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 hy 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 be an abundance for all. There will 
be no idle men, no idle capital, no overproduc- 
tion or under-consumption." 

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. Stickney's 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- 
curing increase in wages. 

Miss Addams declared that only U 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 been 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 
hekl 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 
i 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. 

JIBS. FLORENCE KELLEY ON THE CONSUMER'S RE- 
SPONSIBILITY. 

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 sweatshop 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 
insistahce 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 
by 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- 
lic 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 life; 
that the postmaster in a city does not rise from 
the ranks, but is appointed from outside the 
department, \vhile the same thing, he said, was 
true of all other departments. This, he argued, 
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 pass 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 fi*ee- 
dom." 

NATIONAL 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- 
dows 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 its 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. Even 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 settle*. 
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 FOR THIRTY YEARS. 

The Wednesday evening session brought t 
the conference the experience of a manufac- 
turer who in a period of thirty years had never 
had a strike. This paper was read by Col. J. 
P. Kilbourne of the Kilbourne-Jacobs Com- 
pany, of Columbus, Ohio. The manly position 
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 upon 
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 hare 
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, aad 
I hope to live to see the time when eight hours 
will be the limit of a day's work for manual 
labor in this 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 would quickly follow. 
Just men, whatever their position in life, will 
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. ZUEBLIN ON THE RIGHTS OF THE PUBLIC. 

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 reasos 



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. 

LABOR LEADER'S OPTIMISM. 

Mr. W. C. McEwen, the secretary-treasurer 
of the Minnesota Federation of Labor, followed 
im an address on the "Future Relations of La- 
ber 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 
such 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. 

FBBJCANENT ORGANIZATION AT CHAUTAUQUA NEXT 
TEAR. 

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 
Eleven to take up the matter of organization. 
The nominating- committee, consisting of Mr. 
\T. D. Wiman, Prof. Frank L. McVey and Mr. 
K. E. Clark, presented the following names as 
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 
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 
was taken up in its disposal. The conference 
finally refused to pass any specific resolutions 
and adjourned sine die. 

WEIGHING 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 rule, money is 
doing all for toil that civilization can expect, 
and that toil is fulfilling every just demand. 
Even the notable meetings held in eastera 
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 
officers 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 



THE COMMONS 



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 rational life of generations. 

And no less reason for such seriousness was 
advanced by the first speakers 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 hig-h. 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 floor. It is booed, 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." 



HAND SEWING LESSONS. 

A text book for normal classes, public schools and homes. 
It presents the popular methods in print, \\illi explicit in* 
structions. 

Cloth, price 35 cents; by mail, 4O cents. 

Order of The Thorns Norm.il Training School, Depart- 
ment S, Detroit. Mich. 



THE RESERVED SEC T 'N. 

["The rights and interests of the 'boring man 
will be protected and cared for, ot by labor 
agitators, but by the Christian rn^n to whom 
God in His infinite wisdom has ven control 
of the property interests of the c untry." Mr. 
Baer.] 

In the prehistoric ages, when th irorld was a 

ball of mist 
A seething swirl of something in >\vn in the^ 

planets' list; 
When the earth was vague wit, vapor, and 

formless, and dark, and void 
The sport of the wayward comet the jibe ^ 

the asteroid r 

Then the singing stars of morning chanted sofl 



"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 at 

her baby tears, 
When still she was swaddled softly in clumsily 

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 be 

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, and 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. Nesbit, in Baltimore American. 



e 



"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 



13 



IMPRESSION;* OF MISS ADDA/MS' " DE- 
MOCKA ' AND SOCIAL ETHICS." 

iv JANE E. ROBBINS. 

"Democracy and Social Ethics" is distinctly 

a book of le lership; many of its thoughts 

may have ber 1 dwelling for some time in the 

obscure corni ; of our brain, but they come 

oat for the ' t time into the clear light of 

day under th ifluence of its pages. The book 

j delightfu 'written and it expresses the 

3St that is i -culiar to American thought and 

Deling. There are many men and women 

ontified with the progressive movements in 

" country to whom the ideals of a larger and 

re satisfying democracy have become almost 

1 -eligion, 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 difficulties will vanish, because they never 
ware 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 lus fellow-men." 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 Fullerton 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. 



SUn/lER 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 may 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 agricul- 
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, 
Mau partly is, and wholly hopes to be." 

Hobert Browning. 



14 



THE COMMONS 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOB THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MARY KINGSBUHY SIMKHOVITCII, 
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 in 
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 too 
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 
Miss Wald and her associates. The experience 



of the nurses in the settlement was, that tke 
medical inspection was deficient from tke 
standpoint of the child, in that it excluded hint, 
but did neither advise nor treat him, neither 
was he looked after. Their practical sugges- 
tion was that a nurse should work with the 
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, or 
skin trouble; seeing that they received medical 
attention, teaching the mother, when this 
should be necessary, and keeping a record of 
the time the child was absent, not allowing t 
to remain out of school longer than necessar*. 
At present, while the truant officer has tte 
oversight of delinquent children, he has mo 
jurisdiction over those who have been seat 
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 the 
Settlement, being the one selected to initiate it. 

Miss Rogers has a group of schools in tke 
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, such 
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 protection 
to the rest. She then visits those who hare 
been sent home, and keeps records of them. 

The teachers have received her in the most 
cordial and helpful spirit, and the medical in- 
spectors have made the most careful and 
definite effort at thorough co-operation, that the 
work may be effective, and proceed without 
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, and 
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 Moffett, 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 Dinwiddie 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 
of 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 City, 
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 wi> 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. 
Lippiucott, 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 $1,000,000 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, 
and is one of the finest buildings, architectural- 
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." 



16 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STA-NDING COMMITTEE. 

Preniilt-nt: KATHARINE ('OMAN, Wellesley, Ma>?. 
Vice President: HELEN CHADWICK RAND THAVI i; 

(Mrs. Lucius II. Thajvr), Portsmouth, N. n 
Secretary.- SARAH GRAHAM TO.MKINS, Marion, 

.Mass. 
Ti-Kixturr; KI.SIE CLEWS PARSONS (Mrs. Herbert 

Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York City. 
Fifth Member: HELEN ANNAN SCKIBNEK (Mrs. 

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

York City. 

STANDING COMMITTEE ON SUB-CHAPTERS. 

Cli airman: LOUISE 15. LOCKWOOD, 441 Park Avo. 
New York. 

SETTLEMENTS. 

New York City 05 Rivingtoii Street. 
Philadelphia 433 Christian Street. 
Boston 91 Tvler Street (Denison House). 



EDITED FOR THE ASSOCIATION i;v 

CAROLINE WILLIAMSON MONTOOMEUY, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



College Settlement Sub-Chapters. 

BY LOUISE B. LOCKWOOD. 

The systematic work of establishing sub- 
chapters among the schools of our country was 
begun 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 ia 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 Ri-v- 
ington Street. 

What have these organizations done for the 
work? Perhaps the hundreds of dolls that have 
come to us at Christmas, dressed 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 



17 



women who give personal work and entertain- 
ments 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 
188 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 playground. A 
horse 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 we were able this year to build a tank at 
Mt. 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 through the assistance of Miss 
Davies the interest of the schools 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 Christian Street 
House, besides the general Christmas cheer, 
mentioned 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 of 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. 

Friend's Select School, 140 North 16th St., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Miss Kimball's Sub-Chapter, Worcester, 
Mass. 

Ossining, 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. 

BKYN MAWR SUB-CHAPTER. 
Miss Shipley's Schobl, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 
SMITH SUB-CHAPTEK. 

Burnham School, Northampton, Mass. 

WELLS SUB-CHAPTER. 

Wells' Preparatory, Aurora, N. Y. 

SWARTHMORE SUB-CHAPTER. 

Swarthmore Preparatory. 
Junior League, New York. 
Miss LeBaron Drumm, 40 West Seventy- 
second St., New York. 
Flushing Seminary, Flushing, New York. 
Rogers Hall, Lowell, Mass. 

BARNARD SUB-CHAPTERS. 

Catherine Aiken School, Stamford, Conn. 
Barnard Classes, 430 West 118bh St., New York. 

Bennett School, Irvingtonon-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). 

Leggett Sisters' Memorial, Miss Botsford 
School, Staten Island. 

Brooklyn Heights Seminary, 138 Montague St. 

WELLESLEY SUB-CHAPTERS. 

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 COMMONS 



The Commons 

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



GRAHAM TAYLOn, - 



Cditor 



Entered ;it Chicago Postoflice as Second-Cl:iss Matter, and 
Published the first of every raontli from CHICAGO COMMONS, 
a Soi-ial Settlement at Grand Ave. & Morgan St., Chicago, 1 11. 



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 eaus 
at the White House was so country -wide and 
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 tke 
Public as the third party in every issue betweem 
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 with 
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 ef 
all, to the self-control under great provocation, 
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 head 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." 



University of Wisconsin Settlement at 
Milwaukee. 

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 Hanover Street Congregational Church 
and in other lines of social and civic service. 
An old three-story mansion, strategically lo- 
cated in the heart qf 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 bv 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 ln 
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 NON-PARTISAN 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 J150 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 
St., Chicago, 111., anil is entered at the Chicago Postofflce as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
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Advertising Rates. One page, $25.00; Half -Page, Sis.00; 
Quarter Page, $8.00; One Inch, $2.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Commons. Any 
number under twenty-five copies, five cents' each; over 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
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Changes of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
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a reas uable interval after It is due. 

Discontinuances. Please notify us at once If for any reason 
you desire your subscription discontinued. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified 
t > the contrary. 



20 



THE COMMONS 



Encouragement 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 $1,000 of 
our total indebtedness. This leads us to in- 
clude 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 YEAR. 

Building fund notes ; $11,227 

Mortgage on new lot for men's club 

house 1,500 

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 $12,332 



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" fom 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 appointing a 
strong advisory committee and pledging at 
least five hundred dollars a year toward the 
expenses. We have rented suitable quarters in 
a* first-floor flat 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 
pottery, Principal William J. Bogan 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 under 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 this is purchasing success too dear." 

Duer. 



TKe Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlement Point of View, 



Number 77 Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, December, 1902 



[ \Yritten for The Commons. | 
A PAUPER'S PLEA. 

BY JOHN P. GAVIT. 

"Forgive us our debts." The Lord's Prayer. 

Forgive me. Lord, my countless debt to him 

Who tolls 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 IMPROVEMENT- 
1893-1902. 




President Charles Zueblin'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 the 
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 the 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 1872, 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 CIVIC 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 t.hfi 
performance of public duties such as had not 
seemed to exist to the young American of the 
former 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 n 
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. 
Alung with the development of democratic edu- 
cation there has taken place a most 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 officials. 
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 1895. Many of the 
American cities now have police and fire de- 
partments strictly controlled by civil service 
regulations, and scores of them porform 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 all those which have preceded. 
During that time thu 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 $2,500,- 
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 communities 
in the provision of water, the disuosition 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 known 
as the "Harrisburg Plan" and the "Impro^ve- 
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 which 
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 the 
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'Enfant's 
plan, in brief, took into consideration the 
topography and the supposed necessity of a 
water approach to the city, and th-en located 
the streets on the plan of two sets of wheel 
spokes laid on a gridiron with 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 feet 
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 SQ 
located that its dome diverts attention from, 
the all important majesty of the Capitol. 

The recommendations of the American Inatl-. 
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 L' Enfant, projected at the 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. F. 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 for 
improvement. The same tendencies are in 
evidence in the plans for rural improvement 
such as those of the Massachusetts trustees of 
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 NATIONAL UNIFICATION OF IMPROVEMENT 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 of im- 
provement forces throughout the land. We be- 
lieve the brief experience of four years of 
pioneer effort with inadequate financial support 
and notable sacrifices on the part of the leading 
workers sufficient to warranfthe 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 i.he most significant advances in 
the public life of America. 



St. Paul Convention of American League for 
Civic Improvement. 




BY E. <!. ROUTZAHX, 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 string words found interesting war- 
rant in the evident enthusiasm and deep- 
seated convictions of the speakers and audi- 
ences, at the annual meeting of the American 
League 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 vested 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. 

VARIED INTERESTS REPRESENTED 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' League; 
E. J. Parker, of the American Park and Outdoor 
Art Association; Dr. Justus Ohage, of 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 Waterworks; Charles Zueblin, 
of the University of Chicago; W. W. Folwell, 
of the University of Minnesota; C. M. Loring, 
of the Minnesota State Forestry Association; 
Miss M. Eleanor Tanant, of Louisville 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 League of America; Kenyon L. 
Butterfleld, of University of Michigan, and 
others, sent papers and greetings. 

TYPICAL CITY AND COUNTRY MOVEMENTS. 

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 and 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 League'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. 

.HEADQUARTERS REMOVED 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- 
chin^ry. 



THE COMMONS 



The greater 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 Fullerton 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 $125,000 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 on 
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 public 
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. When 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 eastern rival in this best of 
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 chairman. 






THE COMMONS 



Mr. John Weja. Two most interesting ad- 
dresses were given. The 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 goocj. 
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 of 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 
agitation, 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 office, 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 of 
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 



8 



THE COMMONS 



a lecture on some subject of interest or Im- 
portance. Besides they have their gymnastics 
(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. WHELPLET, DIRECTOR IN CHARGE. 

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: 

FOR ONE 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 RESULTS. 

Professor Atwater gives as a standard for 
one-fourth day's ration for children between 
two and six years (kindergarten age), the 
following: 

Proteid. Pat. 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, 2^4 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 wich 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 working 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 COMMONS 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 Tolstoy'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 cannot be other- 
wise, because natural love is the fundamental 
law of human life. From Tolstoy's "Resur- 
rection." 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOK THE ASSOCIATION BY 

MARY KINGSUUKY SIMKHOVITCH, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Municipal Adoption of Trained Nurse Service 
for Schools, 

The experiment of placing trained nurses in 
the public school service of New York City, 
which was reported in the last number of THE 
COMMONS, 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 Schools. 

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 COMMONS 



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 Room 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 Uoddard 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 Girls. 

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. Thy 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 COMMONS 



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. Prom 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 students 
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 in 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 SCUENCK WOOI.MAN. 

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 Europe. 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 and her organizing power of a 
high order. 

The officers are: President, Miss Virginia 
Potter; vice-presidents, Mrs. Theodore Hell- 
man, Mrs. Henry Ollesheimer, 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. 



COLLEGE SETTLhAtENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: KATIIABINE COMAX, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: HELEN' CUADWICK RAND TIIAYEH 
(.Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. II, 

Secretary: SAKAH 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. 

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. 
Philadelphia 433 Christian Street. 
Boston 91 Tyler Street (Denison House). 



EDITED FOR THE ASSOCIATION BY 

CAROLINE WILLIAMSON MONTGOMERY, 

5548 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago. 



Fall fleeting of the College Settlements 
Association. 

HELD AT 433 CHRISTIAN STREET, PHILADELPHIA, 
OCTOBER 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 
Tannahill (Smith, 1904) to succeed Miss 
Weeden, Miss Fred erica ' Le Fevre (Bryn 
Mawr, 1905) to succeed Miss Cornelia Camp- 
bell, Miss Emily Richardson (Radcliffe, 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, Radcliffe Alumnae 
Elector. 

The resignation of Mrs. E. Kent Hubhard 
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. 

The 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 Denison 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 (both 
will appear 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 sub-chapters, 
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 
will 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 Keller 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 the 
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 among 
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 TOMKINS, 

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 Denisor 
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 be 
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 I arithmetic 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 by one of the students, who gives 
an informal talk, which is intended to be of 
an interesting and practical nature, and to 
present to the maids those things which will 
broaden their interests. The attendance this 
year has been better than ever before, there 
being as many as sixty at the good-time meet- 
ing. A small room siven 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 
they may meet for classic recreation and rest. 
Permission has been granted by the trustees 
^or such a house, and quite 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 UPTON, 
Vassar 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 Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the Social Settlement Point of View. 

GRAHAM XAYLOU., ... Eaitor 

Entered at Chicago Postofflce as Seconcl-Cl;iss 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. 



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 devoted wholly to its work. 
In broadening the scope of THE COMMONS to 
include the interests of nil 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 co-operating 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 TKE 
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 Significance. 

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 TKE 
COMMONS. Bishop 8palding, 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 netj. 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 influence 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. 1 ' 
(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., $1.25 
net.) "The Church and Its Social Mission" la 
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 books, "The Next Great Awakening" (The 
Baker and Taylor Co. 12 mo. 75 cents), Rev. 
Wilber P. 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 
McClurg & 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, mediaeval, 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 romances 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," tlie 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." 

The Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It is published monthly at Chicago 
("ominous, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. ruicano, 111., and is entered at the ChicagoPostoillceas 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
The Subscription Price is Fifty Cents a Year. (Two 
Hi illiiiKs, English: 2.50 francs, French foreign stamps a<* 
ivptc.i.) Postpaid to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one address for $j.r,0. Send check, draft, 1'. O. money order, 
cash cr stamps, nut abuve s-ctnt denomination, at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page, $2fl.OO; Half Page, $ir,.00; 
Quarter 1'age, $8.00; Cue Inch, $'-'.00. For each insertion. 
Special Rates for Special Numbers of The Commons. Any 
uumiier under twenty-live cop.t-s. five cents each; ovef 
twi'iityflvf and under one hundred, three cents each; over 
one kuiid. ed, two ami one half cents each. 
Chan?e.s of Address. Please notify the publisher of any 
cM.inu'i' f addri>-s. or of failure to receive the paper within 
a rca liable interval alter it is due. 

Discontinuances. Please notify us at once If for any reason 
you desiie your subs, r.ptlon discontinued. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue TMK COMMONS to each address until notified 
to tli contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



CHICAGO COMMONS 

r -ss Its Work 

for the 

Ninth 

Winter 

19O2-19O3. 

Grand Avenue and Morgan Street. 




Social Clubs for men and women, boys and girls. 

Gymnasium Classes and Baths for all. 
Choral 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 Library, cards and catalogues. 

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. 



'What it is and How Supported. 

Chicago Commons is a "Social Settlement." located at the corner of Grand Avenue and 
Morgan Street. It was founded in May, 1S94. 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, its political, civic and personal duties and pleasures. They offer their home as a 
social center for the neighborhood, where they desire to be friends, fellow citizens, neighbors 

By the service of tne residents and other friends, who volunteer 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 for the rooms. 

By the gifts of the friends of the work toward the cost of the summer camp and outings, 
support of assistants, printing and other incidental expenses. 

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 COMMONS 17 



Clubs, Classes and Social Occasions 

OCTOBER 1902 to JUNE 1903 



DOriESTIC SCIENCE: Miss BOND, Director, 

COOKING: 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 be 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. Miss HAMILTON 
MANUAL TRAINING: MR. LAUGHLIN AND MR. MCLEAN. 

BOYS: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 7 130 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; 

Wednesday, Young Men; Friday, Young Women. 

Class 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 nominal 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) Wednesday4 p. m. 

Working Boys Class: Thursday 7:30 p. m. 

Italian Boys: Saturday, 9 a. m. 

Girls: (8 to 14) Tuesday, 4 p. m. 

Fees: 10 cents per month, 25 cents for working boys. 
SOCIAL CLUBS: 

Woman's Club: Tuesday 2 p. m. MRS. CONANT, President. 

Mothers' Meeting: Friday evening. Miss STONE. 

Shakespeare Club: Tuesday, 8 p. m. MR. CRAWFORD. 

Progressive Club of Young 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. 

Weeklj- meeting Thursday, 8 p. m. 
Young Men's Club: Thursday, 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 THECOMMONS 



Children's Chorus, Wednesday 4 p. m. Miss SPKAGUE. 

Stringed Orchestra training will be given on demand by MR. NEWELL. 

Piano, Wednesday afternoon and evening. Miss HAWKINS. 

Saturday afternoon and evening. Miss HYKES. 
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 10 lessons, in advance. 

ITALIAN-ENGLISH: Every evening at 7:30 p. m. Miss PHILIPS and 
MRS. 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 classes or correspondence 
courses by the Lewis Institute, Madison and Robey streets, the Armour Institute of 
Technology. 33d and Armour streets, The Athenaeum 18 Van Buren 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 SCHOOLDaily, 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 
IXGLIS 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, 3:3011. in. 

Varied and interesting program, musical, literary, stereopticon, 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 12 admitted only with adults. 

FREE FLOOR LECTURE COURSE AND DISCUSSIONS: Every 
Tuesday evening, 8:15 to i o 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 boused on 
application to MRS. CARR. 

VISITING NURSE Miss McPHEETERs, representing the Visiting Nurse 
Association of Chicago. Calls for her services will 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 patient 
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- 
served on Saturday evenings for free entertainments and social occas- 
ions. Everyone 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 expense of maintenance is expected. 

THE NEIGHBORHOOD PARLOR is open all day and evening for the 
free use of the neighbors, who are invited to come in to read or rest 
and meet each other or the residents. 



P. F. PETTIBONE 4 CO. PRINTERS, CHICAGO 



20 



THE COMMONS 



CHICAGO COMMONS PROSPECTS. 
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 orguaranteed by friends. 7,450 
Remainder of debt to be raised in Dec 4,737 

FOB THE [SUPPORT OP THE SETTLEMENT 
"NEXT YEAR.;* 



Maintenance of building, $200 per month . . . $2,400 
Day Nursery, rental and support, $100per mo. 1,200 
Full service of six paid residents, $325 per mo. 3,<JOO 

Summer camp, outing and playground 1,100 

Stenography, printing and periodical 760 

Unclassified and special expense account. . . 600 
Estimated expense for 1908, per month, $830.$9,9l0 



Besides the gratuitous services of twelve resident 
and many non-resident workers, and tlue receipt of 
$1,300 annually toward the maintenance of the 
work from all 4 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 country. ~ 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 stands for by an illustrated descrip- 
tive souvenir of the building and the social 
service of which It is the center. 

BURYING THE POLITICAL 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 the 
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- 
Bentative 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 GIVING8 OF THANKS. 

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 QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS. 
O HICAQO COMMONS FREE FLOOR! 

Grand Ave. and Morgan St. 
EVERT TUESDAY EVENING, 8:15 to 10 o'clock sharp. 



; 



TOPICS AND SPEAKEKS FOB DECEMBER. 

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 REGULATIONS 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 still. Don't 
think you know it all. Be fair. Trust the truth 



I All freely welcome. 



THe Commons 

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



Number 78-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, January, 1903 



THE CRY OF THE AGE. 

BY ItAMUX OAKLAND. 

What shall I do to be just? 

What shall I do for the gain 
Of the world for its sadness f 
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? 
Shall 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-born 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. 



SPOKY OF A WOMEN'S LABOR UNION. 

BY M \KY K. M'DOWKI.L. 

The 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 
for 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 North 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 sufficient 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 Irish girl, announced at the union's meet- 
ing, "Sieter President, a colored sister asks ad- 



THE COMMONS 



mission. Shall we admit her?" The President, 

another Irish girl, obeying a higher law than 

that found in "Robert's," answered, "Admit 

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 and 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- 




OFFTCEKS OF LOCAL UMOX NO. 133. 



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 Internationa], 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. 



vative policy of the executive of the Meat Cut- 
ters' Union, and has in turn given to the set- 
tlement 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 
enabling them to talk over special problems of 
the organization. 
University of Chicago Settlement. 




I.OCAf, UNION NO. 183 IX CHICAGO LAHOK DAY I'AKADE. 



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- 



"Infinite 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 Social Settlement Point of View. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR., ... Editor 

Entered at Chicago Postoffice 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. 



Spirit of the Settlement House. 

The 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 strength. 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 
self 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 he permitted to speak 
out of our own experience. 

Having a group of from twelve to twenty- 
five 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 
Bung. 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 
Coit'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 Ne\y 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, 1 ' 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 Prayer, 
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. 



a 



THE COMMONS 



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, possibU' 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 ENGINEERING. 

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. 



NEW DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN'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 natural 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 COMMONS 



The Wisconsin University Settlement at 
Milwaukee. 

BY THE WAKDEN. 




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 
field 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-President, 
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 
Kernan, 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 



8 



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 for 
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 
Sociology 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 NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOK THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MARY KINGSBUKY SIMKHOVITCH, 
26 Jones Street, New York City. 



Departmental Progress Under the New City 
Administration in New York. 

THE DEPAKTMENT OP 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 
lor 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 



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. 

FEMALE M'liSKS. 

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 vho 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- 



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 
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 life 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 
the overcrowding on Blackwell's Island, and 
the production of vegetables on the Richmond 
County Poor Farm for use there and on Black- 
well's Island. 

, THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. 

The following improvements among many 
others, have been made in the work of the 
New York City Department of Health since 
the beginning of the new administration: 

The first work of the new administration 
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 COMMONS 



before the Mayor and the Board of Estimate 
and stated what the city must do to improve 
the facilities for the care of contagious di&- 
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 office 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- 
fireproof 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 three feet 
thick, and will protect the records from any- 
thing short of an earthquake. 



Greenwich 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 greetings 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- 
era! 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, headworker. 

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 
$100 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 
the 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 Wind 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 



THE COMMONS 



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 fci the picture. 

The dining room, back of the parlor 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 nurse 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. 

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 (Mrs. Herbert 
Parsons), 112 East 35th St., New York City. 

Fifth Member: HELEN ANNAN SCHIBNER (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 COMAN, 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 Rein- 



THE COMMONS 



13 



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- 
gressrve. 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. Public 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 indusfrial 
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. , 

C'asa Castelar is just now facing a financial 
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 
Roxbufy 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 usually 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- 



14 



THE COMMONS 



tion. This year $61.71 net was realized 
from Pinero'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. McAvixv, 
Sec'y-Treas. Radcliffe Chapter of C. S. A. 



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 t called 
the college settlement work of Northampton, 
and while the girls can know very little of 
their pupils in their homes, much is accom- 
plished by the work at the club. 

WINIFRED 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 
that is now being done, the need of future 
effort and of the life of those who have few 
privileges. From these meetings result the 



spirit and interest which makes it possible to 
carry on the association's work. 

I'REDHiCA LE FEVRE,- 
Undergraduate Elector of C. S. A., Bryn Mawr. 



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-pong. 



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' 
boarding houses abound. The chief resident 
at Roosevelt House since its opening has been 
the College Settlement Probation Officer, 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 Us-. 



THE COMMONS 



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 Christian 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 Poughkeepsie. Sunday school 
classes, sewing classes, gymnastic and danclnc 
classes, friendly visiting, work at Old Ladies' 
Home, work in hospital, children's Bible 
classes, children's guilds and clubs. 



"To make some nook of God's creation a lit- 
tle fruitfuller, better, more worthy 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. 



FORBUSH'S BOY PROBLEM 

AT 75 CENTS PER COPY 

Order of "THE COMMONS." Grand Ave. and Morgan 
Street, Chicago. 

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 
THE COMMONS. Ten cents per copy. 

PESTALOZZI-FROEBEL 

Kindergarten Training School at Chicago 

Commons 

Opens Wednesday, Oct. 1, 1902. 
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, 180 Grand Ave., Chicago. 

The Vanguard 

Edited by J. M. A. 5PBNCE, 
is an independent and vigorous exponent of 
CONSTRUCTIVE SOCIALISM 
PRACTICAL PSYCHOLOGY 
and NEW THEOLOGY 

To Introduce this bright up-to-date magazine the publishers 
will send it f.ir four months for ICC. Order NOW before the 
offer is withdrawn. Address, 

THE VANGUARD fV.TE.SS, 
Box C. Green Bay, Wisconsin. 

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 
St., Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago Postottice as 
mail matter of the second (newspaper) class. 
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t:> the Contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



THE MONTH 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. Par 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 nationalities 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 grpup 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 all 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- 
"hant'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 emp!6yers. 

Jan. 27. "Pennsylvania Coal Miners under 
Strike Conditions," as seen by Bishop Samuel 
Fallows. 



Debt Reduced $3,000 Last Honth. 
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 

SrPPOttT OF TIIK SETTI.KMEXT \VOKK IN 1903 NOW 
I1KI.NU SOLICITED. 

Maintenance of building, $200 per 

month $2,400 

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 60 

$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 Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 79 Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, February, 1903 



OUR WORKING CHILDREN IN ILLINOIS. 

BY MRS. HAKKIET K. 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- 
sociates 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 per 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 COMMONS 



at the almost baby newsboys and girls on the 
streets of Chicago after dark. 

Think of the influences 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 husband 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 support, 
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 flexi- 
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 objecf 
for which they were created. 



THE COMMONS 



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 affidavit 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 immoral 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. 

I'ROPOSED 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 hall, 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 from 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 TAYLOR., ... Editor 

Entered at Chicago Postoffice 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. 



Church Federation and the Settlements. 

In a sensible and suggestive article contrib- 
uted to The Outlook, Lillian W. Belts 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 
c5f 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 themselves 
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 York 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 socialhope. It started with the high 
aim "to promote and assist the co-operation 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 work on "The 
Life and Labot 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 with 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 COMMONS 
A VISION OF PEACE. 

HY WALLACE KICK. 

Fitly one dies for his country, sweet is the death she 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 the 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^oldier's; hatred and life others know. 

Fighting America's battles whether by land onby 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 Andre 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: Hearken to Lazarus, too 
All >if his sores are his country's: Heal them if you would be true 
Hea.1 them, or share an infection you and your children must rue. 

Jfever was minted a dollar equal in worth to a tear, 

Ni-ver success worth the having gained through another soul's fear: 

Smiles mark the highway to triumph Mien 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-r-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 makesHis free: 
Verity, Liberty, Country, grant us their union to see! 

Plant high the Cross on the hill-top, thither in humbleness strive! 
Offer no children to Mammon luxury lets no man thrive; 
Feed not our bravest to Moloch must the unfittest 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! 

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 (iood 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 COMMONS 



LONDON CHILDREN OUT TO TEA. 

Though Percy Alden is no longer warden of 
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! I,n 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 OF -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. 

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 OF HUMOR. 

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 SUPPERLESS. 

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 

Yoang 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? 



Airs. 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-barren. 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. 
HENRIETTA O. BAENETT. 

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, give 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. 

EXCERPTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
SUPERINTENDENT, MISS HARRIET FULMEB. 

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 pa.tience 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, four 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. 
All 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. Every 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. Lorenz'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. 

CONTAGIOUS-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 heen 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-TUBEBCULOSIS CRUSADE. 

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, a.re 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 needs 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 NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED FOK THE ASSOCIATION BY 
MARY KINGSBDKY SiiUKHOvrrcH, 
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 ume 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 miiiute 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 pre- 
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. In 
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 the 
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 tho 
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 tb< 
institutional churches have done the same. Dr. 
Lieipzeiger, who has charge of the Lecture De- 
partment- of the Board of Education, is very 



THE COMMONS 



11 



m Crested 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 taking 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 sufficient 
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." 



"What is the use of health, or of life, if not 
to do some work therewith?" Sartor Resartus. 



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Send 60 cents to THE COMMONS for 
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12 



THE COMMONS 



COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION. 

STANDING COMMITTEE. 

President: KATHARINE COMAX, Wellesley, Mass. 
Vice President: HELEN CHADWICK RAND THAYEK 
(Mrs. Lucius H. Thayer), Portsmouth, N. H. 

Secretary: SARAH GRAHAM TOMKINS, 1904 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia. 

Treasurer: ELSIE CLEWB 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 
for Women and was located at Hudson, about 
thi-rty miles below Albany. From time to time 
the laws governing commitments to it have 
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 1 
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 because 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 c -ei.t n 

from the northern and easte- ,ies and 

Bedford from Westchester v , Greater 

New York and Long Island. 1 . aorially Bed- 
ford has a very small section the state, but 
this section contains more tha. half the .tot 
population. 

In accordance with Chapter 0^6 of the Icav , 
of 1896, Article IX and subsequent ame* i, 
ments, women between the ages of fifteen u 
thirty years may be committed to these tl 
institutions from their respective territdi 
by any magistrate or court having jurisdictio i, 
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 be 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 officers 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 work 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 housa 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 COMMONS 



13 



Wuchin ''"230 commitments and have a 
present 'on of 195. The original ca- 

pacity vf&t. "but this was cut down to 226 
by altering ain cells into rooms. This 
capacity is st. further reduced by the insuf- 

ient numbe rr<f rooms provided for officers 

d who mus\, therefore occupy some of the 

>nis intendeu for inmates. There are still 
^ieen months before sentences will begin to 

>;re, and even with the greatest possible 

cise of the parole power consistent with 

iom we shall probably be sadly over- 

cisiwded 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 le'arn, 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, if 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. 

KATHARINE BEMENT 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 dealeri, 
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 arid 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 tnen, 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- 
pelled 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 flre 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 the 
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- 
five 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 the 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 could 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 
able to get other work. When a bag of coal 
was given to 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 COMMONS 



CHICAGO COMMONS JOTTINGS. 

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 sufficient 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, an'd 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 MONTH'S FREE FLOOR. 
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 debating club of 
young men from the Y. M. C. A. and twenty-five 
students from Prof. 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 the people was presented by Mr. 
T. Tsanoff 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. C. Sykes. 

Feb. 24. " Workingmen's Interest in the Enact- 
ment and Enforcement of Local Legislation," by 
Fletcher Dobbins. 

NEIGHBORHOOD PARTIES. 

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 Ijife and I>abor from the Settlement Point of View. 



Number 8o-Vol. VII 



Seventh Year 



Chicago, March, 1903 



"Hullo." 

BY *AM. WA1.TKR 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-usin' you?" 
Slap the fellow on his back. 
Bring your nan' down with a whack; 
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 
Hair 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; 
I'.arh 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 Offenders in the City of Detroit. 

BY RICHARD A. BOLT, *UNIVKRSITY OF MICHIGAN. 
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 
be 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, her 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 
aroused 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 of this article received a univer- 
sity assignment to investigate juvenile delinquency in 
the city of Detroit, with reference to the movement for 
the establishment of a juvenile court in that city. He 
resided in the Franklin Street Settlement and also 
worked in connection with the Jffferson 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 
iitlrntion and effort in securing Tor Detroit the advan- 
tages enjoyed by other cities from the successful enact- 
ment and operation of a juvenile court law. Tin- 
university's representative at Chicago Commons three 
years ago investigated and reporled upon the working 
of tne juvenile court in Chicago. 1 



THE COMMONS 



attention, as the stability and welfare of so- 
ciety depends largely upon its internal peace 
and prosperity. 

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND ADULT OKI. ME. 

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 couie 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 KHOM THE POLICE 1SLOTTEK. 

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, arrested; 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 A(iK FACTO K. 

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 insufficient 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 CAPTAINS 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 were 
afraid to go to their homes, so they lived in 
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. 

WHVT A BAD 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 the 
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. 

SQUARING THE CITY TO THE STATE'S STANDARD. 

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 I 
a step in the direction of a more thorough pro- 
bation system. At present the County Agents 
in large city, districts have more cases 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." 
All 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 be permitted to remain 
in any court 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 officers. 

SEPARATE PLACE OF DETENTION 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. 

IILIXOIS MODEL KOR MICHIGAN 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 those 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. 

PRINCIPLE VERSUS DKTAIL 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 COMMONS 



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 rendering 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 incumbent?, 
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 COMMONS 



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 
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 cases 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 Sociology, 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. 



COLLEGE 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 (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. 



"Americans in Process."* 

LATEST INVESTIGATION BY SOUTH END HOUSE. 

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 
Revere's 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 o the House. North and West 
Ends, Boston. Houghton, Mifflin & Company. The 
Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1902. 12mo $1.30. ix. 383. 



THE COMMONS 



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 citi- 
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 immense 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 GREKN BALCII. 



" 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 difficulty 
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 
stage 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 difficult 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 unappreciative 
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. KIMHAI.L. 
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 settlement 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. 

BESSIE 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 toiling 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 
toil 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. 



The only man who never makes a mistake 
is the man who never does anything. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. 



ASSOCIATION OF NEIGHBORHOOD 
WORKERS, NEW YORK CITY. 

EDITED KOK THE ASSOCIATION BY 

MAHY KINGSBUKY SIMKHOVITCH, 

26 Jones Street, New York City. 



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 ha>ve 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 present 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. Kribs, 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 harm 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 
sufficiently 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 
house gaining the greatest number of points 



THE COMMONS 



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 
(lodging 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. Let 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. 

WILLIAM 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 wo 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 will we learn that posterity to surely 
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 Commons 

A Monthly Record Devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor 
from the 5ocial Settlement Point of View. 

GRAHAM TAYLOR., ... Editor 

Entered at Chicago Postoffice 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. 



The Function of the University in Civic and 
Social 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 it, 
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 and 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 extremes! 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 modern 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 opportunity 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. Prom 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 commoa 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 Manliness. 

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 Arbeitcr 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 I 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. 

Boys' Clubs 

By William A.. ClarK, 

Hcadworker Gordon House, New York City. 

A descriptive and practically suggestive booklet of -is 
pages on the organization, management and programs for 
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 (louse I'lay-Wj>rk S\stem." 

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 Commons 

Is devoted to Aspects of Life and Labor from the Social 
Settlement point of view. It is published monthly atChlcago 
Commons, a Social Settlement at Grand Ave. and Morgan 
St.. Chicago, 111., and is entered at the Chicago PostorHce 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. 
cepteil.) Postpaid to any State or Country. Six copies to 
one address for $2.r,o. Send check, draft, 1'. O. money order, 
cash or stamps, nut above s-ceitt dennmtnatinti, at our risk. 
Advertising Rates. One page, $25.00; Half Page, $15.00; 
Quarter 1'age, $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; over 
twenty-five and under one hundred, three cepts each; over 
one Imndied, 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 within 
a reasonable interval after it Is due. 

Discontinuances. Please notify us at once if for any reason 
you desire your subscription discontinued. In accordance 
with custom, and the expressed wish of many subscribers, 
we continue THE COMMONS to each address until notified 
t;) the contrary. 



16 



THE COMMONS 



Social Significance of Church Federation. 

After ten years of seemingly fruitless struggle, 
federation of churches has just become a fact in 
Chicago. Fourteen denominations are already 
represented on the council of fifty. At its lirst 
session three practical lines 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 
affiiliate 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 1 ' whereby the funda- 
mental tenets of common faith may, by concert- 
ed action, be pressed more deeply home upon the 
heart and conscience 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, experience and special in. 
vestigation. The collection of data directly bear- 
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 of 
Professors Charles R. 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 executive officers the 
federation has already added its first "Seminary 
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 toco-operate 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, six 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 $6,500 must 
be subscribed or guaranteed within the next six 
weeks for current expenses during the six months 
of his absence. Over $5,000 are still due before 
the building can stand clear of debt. 

A SETTLEMENT SEMINAR. 

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 he 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 altlerinanic 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 unique 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.