Chapter IV: Part 4

Employers are to be allowed to deduct 1 per cent of the wages of employes and they must add to this sum one-half of 1 per cent of the pay roll, the entire sum to be paid into a state insurance fund. When ill, the employe is to receive 65 per cent of his wages during the period of his illness, but for not more than twenty-six consecutive weeks nor more than thirty-nine weeks in a single year. If the employe is sent to a hospital, his regular wages are to be paid to him weekly. The State Industrial Commission is empowered to enforce the provisions of the act in the event of its passage.

MUNICIPAL MINIMUM WAGE

A minimum wage of 25s. ($6.08) a week for all able-bodied men will henceforth rule, says _Life and Labor_, in the municipal service in Glasgow. It is now many years since the corporation of Glasgow acknowledged the principle of a minimum wage, the rate then introduced being 21s. ($5.11). Since that time improvements have brought the wages up to an average minimum of about 23s. ($5.60). so that the proposal for a minimum of 25s., which was carried in the town council, means an advance of about 2s. ($0.48 2–3) weekly to many of the lower-paid workmen. To give effect to the proposal an additional expenditure of $41,365 will, it is estimated, be involved.

The position in Manchester is better, from the workers’ point of view, than it will be in Glasgow even when the minimum weekly wage is raised to 25s. ($6.08). Seven years ago the Manchester city council raised the minimum wage to 25s. Early in the present year there was an agitation for an increase of 2s. ($0.48 2–3) a week in view of the increased cost of living. A special committee reported in favor of an advance to 26s. ($6.33) a week, and this the council agreed to. This sum is paid to all the laborers (as distinct from skilled workers in the several departments) throughout the city.

FULL CREW BILLS

An unusual publicity campaign on the part of railroads has resulted from the passage by the state Legislatures of the so-called Full Crew Bills in New Jersey and New York, regulating the number of employes on trains. In the New York newspapers for several days in succession the railroads used three-quarter page advertisements for a joint statement of their opposition. In this space they urged the governor to veto the bill, and the public to protest against its enactment. It is claimed by the railroads that the law will cost them $2,000,000 annually in the state of New York without bringing any increase in efficiency or safety. They point out that Governors Hughes and Dix both refused to approve similar measures on the ground that such questions should logically be decided by the Public Service Commission.

In their advertisements the railroads urged that the matter be left to the state Public Service Commissions, and promised to abide by their decisions.

The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, which is urging such legislation all over the country, insists that it is necessary to promote safety. _The Railroad Trainman_, organ of the brotherhood says:

“Today our men are asking for legislation that is no more of a departure from the beaten path than the safety device legislation of twenty years ago was. They have tried to regulate the car limit of trains and the number of men to be employed on them through their contracts. They have failed in the first instance altogether and for the most part in the other. They realize that, operated as trains are, freight train service is often performed under unsafe conditions. Two men for an unlimited number of cars is the rule for the most part. Because of it there are freight trains running today averaging between fifty and one hundred and thirty-five cars and two men are in charge with the conductor.

“There will be trains, perhaps, on which the extra man will not be needed, but if the companies had been forehanded enough to put men where they were needed they could have saved the ones not needed, but they did not and legislation does not find a way to discriminate as readily as the exercise of common sense does.”

The bills have been signed and have become laws in both New Jersey and New York.

CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Edited by GRAHAM TAYLOR

TERRE HAUTE’S LABOR PARLIAMENT

BENJAMIN B. TOWNE

Failure on the part of the churches of Terre Haute, Ind., to grasp the problems of its 11,000 workingmen led to the holding of a “labor parliament.” This parliament, convened last May, was directed by Harry F. Ward of the Methodist Federation for Social Service. There were three meetings in different churches, where the problems of industry and Christianity were discussed in an open and frank manner.

But the prime movers realized, early in April, that to make this parliament a success much local work would have to be done. As a stepping-stone, the ministers adopted an industrial creed, which was floated over the city, with the result that the laboring man discovered that he and the church had common ideals toward which to aim.

The local work in the churches was adapted to the particular condition of the locality, all efforts, however, being focused on the labor parliament to be held in May. Shop meetings were held, lantern slides of existing conditions were shown, and mass meetings for working men and girls conducted. Besides these features, the newspapers helped this most interesting scheme along, so that by the time set for the labor parliament, all Terre Haute was prepared for the co-operative discussion, which was to prove so beneficial to the church and organized labor. The Central Labor Union co-operated well with the movement and appointed a committee of three prominent labor men to help the ministerial committee.

The labor parliament was, indeed, a success. Dr. Ward chose as his subjects, Industry and Social Waste, Democracy in Industry, and the Industrial Problem of Christianity. In all his talks Dr. Ward opened the eyes of labor world and church. One, he showed, could not be of full benefit in its community without the co-operation of the other. And now, nearly a year after this industrial revival, what are the results? Are any permanent effects apparent from these efforts, or did the movement, swelling into the three days’ parliament, gradually fade away and become forgotten by the laboring man? A few pointed statements of those nearest the problem of both the church and laboring man will show the result.

A. M. Powers, president of the Central Labor Union, has this to say of its success. “The movement has been beneficial, as far as I can see, to both sides. When the church can show that the laboring man is not an insect to be placed upon a sociological dissecting table for amused speculations of theologians, but a man to be helped and to help advance the cause of the brotherhood of man through the church, then the antagonism will be replaced by a hearty co-operation because this spirit of brotherhood is the basis of the organized labor movement.

“I believe the churches of Terre Haute have shown that this is the spirit of their activity in their last year’s efforts, and as an individual I endorse the movement and think that as long as the same spirit is shown the labor unions will be willing to work hand in hand with the church.”

George W. Greenleaf, secretary-treasurer of District Lodge No. 72, International Association of Machinists, and city councilman, says:

“The labor parliament and the preceding church services held in Terre
Haute last winter were beyond the question of a doubt a benefit to
organized labor. The chief benefit derived, in my estimation,
consisted in the dispelling of the popular prejudice against our
organizations and the placing of our cause on a higher plane in the
minds of the public.”

TERRE HAUTE’S INDUSTRIAL CREED

_United we stand_:

_For equal rights and perfect justice to all men._

_For the principle of conciliation and arbitration._

_For the protection of workers from dangerous machinery, occupational
diseases, injuries and mortality._

_For the abolition of child labor._

_For such regulations of conditions of labor for women as shall
safeguard the physical and moral health of the community._

_For the suppression of “the sweating system.”_

_For a reasonable reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest
practical point with labor for all and a reasonable degree of
leisure._

_For release from employment one day in seven, and whenever at all
possible that this be the Sabbath Day._

_For the highest wage that each industry can afford and for the most
equitable division of the profits of industry that can be devised._

_For the recognition of the Golden Rule (Matt. 7:12) and the teachings
of Christ as the supreme law of society and the sure remedy of all
ills._

The ministers of the city feel much the same way about the effects of the parliament.

Rev. A. E. Monger, pastor of the largest Methodist church in the city and one of the promoters of the movement, says:

“Since the campaign there has been crystalized in the churches a
sentiment of responsibility for the welfare of the laboring man. The
laboring men have found that the gospel does have a message against
the great sins under which they are struggling.”

As a further evidence of the parliament’s lasting effect, Rev. John G. Benson, another of its promoters, may be quoted:

“We are getting requests from every quarter for a repetition of the
parliament.”

NEW RECOGNITION OF SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY

In religious periodical literature two high notes of social significance have recently been struck. The _Constructive Quarterly_ has appeared from the press of the George H. Doran Company in America and Hodder & Stoughton in England. It is planned to be a free forum where all the churches of Christendom may frankly and fully state their “operative beliefs” and their distinctive work, “including and not avoiding differences,” but making “no attack with polemical animus on others.”

The purpose of this undertaking is to afford opportunity for the churches, without compromise, “to re-introduce themselves to one another through the things they themselves positively hold to be vital to Christianity,” “so that all may know what the differences are and what they stand for, and that all may respect them, in order to cherish and preserve whatever is true and helpful and to discover and grow out of whatever is harmful and false.”

As it has no editorial pronouncements and no scheme for the unity of Christendom to promote, the _Quarterly_ will depend upon the catholicity and representative influence of its editorial board, selected from all countries and communions, to promote a fellowship of work and spirit. The middle term of the _Quarterly’s_ subtitle—a journal of the Faith, Work and Thought of Christendom—is likely to prove the basis for the correlation of the other two. For long before the faith and the thought of Christendom may be correlated, the churches will surely co-operate in their common work.

The _Hibbert Journal_, which for ten years has been the ablest technical quarterly review of theology and philosophy, announces a department of social service. This policy was foreshadowed by the editor as early as October, 1906, in a notably direct and able protest against the church standing aloof from “the world.” He stoutly maintained that

“the alienation from church life of so much that is good in modern
culture, and so much that is earnest in every class, is the natural
sequel to the traditional attitude of the church to the world.”

How false and unintelligible, as well as untenable, this attitude is appears in these categorical imperatives:

“If by ‘the world’ we mean such things as parliamentary or municipal
government, the great industries of the nation, the professions of
medicine, law, and arms, the fine arts, the courts of justice, the
hospitals, the enterprises of education, the pursuit of physical
science and its application to the arts of life, the domestic economy
of millions of homes, the daily work of all the toilers—if, in short,
we include that huge complex of secular activities which keeps the
world up from hour to hour, and society as a going concern—then the
churches which stand apart and describe all this as morally bankrupt
are simply advertising themselves as the occupiers of a position as
mischievous as it is false.

“If, on the other hand, we exclude these things from our definition,
what, in reason, do we mean by ‘the world?’ Or shall we so frame the
definition as to ensure beforehand that all the bad elements belong to
the world, and all the good to the church? Or, again, shall we take
refuge in the customary remark that whatever is best in these secular
activities is the product of Christian influence and teaching in the
past? This course, attractive though it seems, is the most fatal of
all. For if the world has already absorbed so much of the best the
churches have to offer, how can these persist in declaring that the
former is morally bankrupt?

“Extremists have not yet perceived how disastrously this dualistic
theory thus recoils upon the cause they would defend. The church in
her theory has stood aloof from the world. And now the world takes
deadly revenge by maintaining the position assigned her and standing
aloof from the church.”

No better prospectus for the social work of either of these great quarterlies could be framed than the intention to demonstrate and bear home to the intelligence, conscience and heart of the churches these very affirmations. For, while enough of church leaders and followers thus face forward to warrant Professor Rauschenbusch in declaring that it has at last become orthodox to demand the social application of Christianity, yet there is a sharp reaction within every denomination, which threatens to retard this hopeful movement of the churches to serve their communities and thereby save themselves.

But the ultimate issue between those who are thus fearlessly facing the present and those who persist in backing up into the future cannot be doubtful. Social Christianity is not only demonstrably orthodox, but has won its recognition and its own place in any theological, philosophical, historical or experiential conception of Christianity that claims to be comprehensive, not to say intelligent. Without a much larger emphasis upon the social aims and efforts of Christianity in the thought, belief and work of the church, the need that is finding expression in every parish and community cannot be met—that which the _Constructive Quarterly_ well states to be “the need of the impact of the whole of Christianity on the race.”

THE FIRST ORPHAN ASYLUM IN THE UNITED STATES[8]
THAT OF THE URSULINE NUNS AT NEW ORLEANS

Footnote 8:

This account of the founding of our first orphanage in the quaint
language of the time was obtained for THE SURVEY from a friend of the
institution by Albert H. Yoder.

At the outset of the colonization of Louisiana by the French, ten Ursuline nuns of France, with noble generosity and self-sacrifice, volunteered to go to New Orleans, there to instruct the children of the colonists. They left Rouen in January, 1727.

After great difficulties and countless perils, they reached the mouth of the Mississippi whose waters they ascended in pirogues. They finally landed in the Crescent City on the morning of August 7, 1727, after a sea voyage of nearly six months. They had set sail from the port of Havre on February 23, 1727 after a month spent in Paris.

Arriving in New Orleans, they were met by Bienville, governor of the province of Louisiana. As there were no proper accommodations yet provided, the governor vacated his own residence and placed it at their disposal for a convent and school. Immediately was begun the erection of a new building which was completed in 1734.

The Ursuline nuns upon its completion took possession and occupied it till 1824 when they removed to their present home below the city. This structure, which is now the Archbishopric, or official place for the transaction of the business of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, is the oldest building in Louisiana and also in the vast extent of what was known as the Louisiana Purchase.

The Ursulines began their self-sacrificing work immediately upon their arrival on August 8, 1727 and opened a free school to which were added a select boarding school and then a little later a hospital. Moreover, in order to inculcate principles of civilization and, especially, of religion in the hearts of the wives and daughters of the Negroes and Indians, the nuns devoted one hour each day to their instruction.

Shortly after their arrival a new field of labor was open to their zeal in the shape of a poor orphan whom Father de Beaubois, had withdrawn from a family of dissolute morals. Although their lodgings at the time were insufficient, the nuns being still in Bienville’s house (their new convent, the present old Archbishopric, was not ready for occupancy until July 17, 1734), they adopted the child. This was the tiny mustard-seed from which sprang the flourishing orphanage which exists to the present day. It proved a real providence for the country, especially in colonial times, as may be gleaned from history’s record of the Natchez massacre, which took place on November 28, 1729.

After this frightful tragedy, so pathetically described by Chateaubriand, the Indians, who had spared only the young wives and daughters of their French victims, were forced to give up their hostages or to be massacred in turn. The generous Ursulines then opened their home to these unfortunate little ones and mothered them.

This act of disinterestedness and charity was truly heroic, considering the great difficulties usually attendant on the founding of a colony and was highly commended by Rev. Father le Petit, Jesuit, in a letter addressed, July 12, 1730, to Rev. Father d’ Avaugour, procurator of the American missions. Having given an account of the appalling massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie by the Natchez Indians, Rev. Father le Petit adds:

“The little girls, whom none of the inhabitants wished to adopt, have
greatly enlarged the interesting company of orphans whom the
_religieuses_ [Ursulines] are bringing up. The great number of these
children serves but to increase the charity and the delicate
attentions of the good nuns. They have been formed into a separate
class of which two teachers have charge.

“There is not one of this holy community that would not be delighted
at having crossed the ocean, were she to do no other good save that of
preserving these children in their innocence, and of giving a polite
and Christian education to young French girls who were in danger of
being little better raised than slaves. The hope is held out to these
holy _religieuses_ that, ere the end of the year, they will occupy the
new house which is destined for them, and for which they have long
been sighing. When they shall be settled there, to the instruction of
the boarders, the orphans, the day scholars, and the Negresses, they
will add also the care of the sick in the hospital, and of a house of
refuge for women of questionable character. Perhaps later on they will
even be able to aid in affording regularly, each year, the retreat to
a large number of ladies, according to the taste with which we have
inspired them.

“So many works of charity would, in France, suffice to occupy several
communities and different institutions. But what cannot a great zeal
effect? These various labors do not at all startle seven Ursulines;
and they rely upon being able, with the help of God’s grace, to
sustain them without detriment to the religious observance of their
rules. As for me, I fear that, if some assistance does not arrive,
they will sink under the weight of so much fatigue. Those who, before
knowing them, used to say they were coming too soon and in too great a
number, have entirely changed their views and their language;
witnesses of their edifying conduct and great services which they
render to the colony, they find that they have arrived soon enough,
and that there could not be too many of the same virtue and the same
merit.”

After giving details relative to the visit of the Illinois chiefs, who had come to condole with the French and to offer help against the Natchez, Father Le Petit adds:

“The first day that the Illinois saw the _religieuses_, Mamantouenza,
perceiving near them a group of little girls, remarked: ‘I see,
indeed, that you are not _religieuses_ without an object.’ He meant to
say that they were not solitaries, laboring only for their own
perfection. ‘You are,’ he added, ‘like the black robes, our fathers;
you labor for others. Ah! if we had above there two or three of your
number, our wives and daughters would have more sense.’ ‘Choose those
whom you wish.’ ‘It is not for me to choose,’ said Mamantouenza. ‘It
is for you who know them. The choice ought to fall on those who are
most attached to God, and who love him most....’”

The records make mention of Therese Lardas, daughter of a Mobile surgeon. After her father’s death, her mother brought her to the Ursuline orphanage, where she intended leaving her just long enough to make her first communion; but, when she came to take her home, so earnestly did the child plead to remain, that the mother could not resist her entreaties. At the age of sixteen, she entered the novitiate. She led the life of an exemplary lay sister, and died at the age of twenty-nine on November 22, 1786.

In testimony of the good education given to all classes by the Ursulines, the Rt. Rev. Luis Penalvery Cardemas said in a dispatch forwarded to the Spanish court, November 1, 1795:

“Since my arrival in this town, on July 17, I have been studying with
the keenest attention the character of its inhabitants, in order to
regulate my ecclesiastical government in accordance with the
information which I may obtain on this important subject.... Excellent
results are obtained from the Convent of the Ursulines, in which a
good many young girls are educated. This is the nursery of those
future matrons who will inculcate in their children the principles
which they here imbibe. The education which they receive in this
institution is the cause of their being less vicious than the other
sex....”

Up to 1824, that is, for well nigh a century, the Ursulines maintained their orphanage in what is now the old Archbishopric. At this period, New Orleans having spread considerably and become too densely populated to afford the advantages and charms of the country so necessary to a large boarding school, the institution was removed three miles lower down, to the magnificent place which the Ursulines hold to the present day. Owing to the encroachments of the great Father of Waters, they are to transfer again, within a year, to another site.

After 1824, several asylums having been founded for orphans of both sexes, the Ursulines received but thirty or forty poor children. In keeping with their sphere of life and future career, these children are taught English, French, geography, arithmetic, elementary history, and some housekeeping, sewing and laundry work. The nuns endeavor, above all, by religions instruction and careful training, to inculcate in the hearts and minds of their youthful charges principles of duty, so as to form for the future women of confidence, courage, self-sacrifice and devotion.

SOCIAL SERVICE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN CANADA

J. G. SHEARER

The Presbyterian church in Canada does social service work through its Department of Social Service and Evangelism. Efforts are directed along several lines.

Social surveys of both urban and rural communities are conducted, considering not only religious and moral, but also social and economic conditions. An expert is employed who gives all his time to the work. He secures the co-operation of a large number of volunteer helpers, many of whom are proficient in various phases of social service work.

The problems of the city are studied and practical solutions sought. This is attempted in the following ways:

By evangelical social settlements, of which there are one in Montreal,
one in Toronto and one in Winnipeg. Eight or ten others in the not
distant future are planned for various other growing cities in the
Dominion, especially where non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants are numerous.
Our organizer and supervisor of this work is Sara Libby Carson,
founder of Christodora House and various other settlements in New
York, St. Christopher House, Toronto, and Chalmers House, Montreal. We
also have established a training school for settlement workers, in
connection with St. Christopher House, Toronto.

By securing the co-operation of churches and sympathetic organizations
in every variety of general social betterment effort.

By establishing special redemptive and social missions on the crowded
thoroughfares. The first of these was Evangel Hall, Toronto, in which
evangelistic work, as well as various sorts of social work, is carried
on.

The department has taken up in a large way redemptive and preventive work in the interest of girls, and associated with that educational work along the line of sex teaching among boys and men. There are five homes which are called social service houses, in which girls and women requiring special help are taken care of. Fifteen trained Christian women give their time to this phase of the department’s endeavor, and there is also a large army of volunteer helpers. In connection with this work an educational campaign through pulpit and platform and the distribution of literature throughout the Dominion is carried on. From time to time legislation, federal or provincial, for the more adequate protection of girls and women is sought.

In co-operation with other interested bodies the department keeps up a steady campaign for the suppression of gambling, intemperance, sale of immoral literature, unclean theatricals, the social vice, and the promotion of the positive virtues, the opposite of these.

Special attention is being directed to positive effort and constructive work along all lines aiming at social uplift, and a good deal of legislation toward this end has been successfully put through.

The department has established a lantern slide and film service, and is endeavoring to supply through illustrated means elevating entertainment as well as information and inspiration.

All the evangelistic work of the Presbyterian church is done through this department, so that evangelism and social service are kept in close association in all effort undertaken.

SYNAGOGUE AND COMMUNITY

RABBI HORACE J. WOLF
Temple ‘Berith Kodesh’, Rochester, N. Y.

The changing relation of the synagogue and the community is proving the truth of the hoary platitude that history repeats itself. During the Middle Ages the synagogue was the heart of the secular as well as of the religious life of the community; it was a social center as well as a house of prayer. There the poor man found succor, the stranger acquaintances, the children their teachers, and the young people “their fates.” It would be almost impossible to list all the private and public interests which, clustering about the synagogue, bore witness to the vital part this institution played in medieval Jewish life.

This prominent role was due to the enforced isolation of the Jewish community; thanks to the Ghetto walls the Jewish group constituted a city within a city. Once the Jewish population was concentrated into separate quarters, the synagogue became to the segregated community what the home was to the individual family; it was not only a place of meeting, but also a clearing house for individual and communal joys and sorrows.

But the intimacy was broken down by the political emancipation that came to Jewry at the end of the eighteenth century. Slowly, as the old functions of the synagogue were taken over by special institutions housed in their own buildings, the synagogue began to be used purely as a house of worship; aside from this, its sole concern seemed to be the Sunday school. Applicants for charity were referred to the charity office across the street; social functions took place at the clubs; legal disputes were no longer decided by a rabbinical court. True, there were few large cities in this country in which the Jewish community did not point with pride to its magnificent house of worship; but in the majority of cases these gorgeous buildings (I am writing throughout of the synagogues of the reform wing) were dark six days and nights a week. In this respect, they differed little from the churches about them.

But the last decade, which has seen the rise of the institutional church, is witnessing the return of the synagogue to its former close relationship to communal Jewish life. The change is due to the same causes that made for the broadening of the work of city churches. The popular criterion of a social institution’s value, it was seen, is its working efficiency. Men who judged by concrete and tangible standards, and their number is legion, were becoming indifferent to religion because it appeared divorced from life. The leaders of American Judaism began to appreciate that it was insufficient to proclaim from the pulpit that religion included charity, social amelioration, good citizenship, as well as morality and reverence; they began to insist that the synagogue should “monument its claims.” It was urged that the synagogue should not only strive to touch the religious nature of the people with the conventional methods of prayer and praise and preachment, but should also bring to bear a system of institutional activities, social, educational and philanthropic which would bring it into contact with its members’ physical, mental and social nature as well.

As a result of this awakening there is hardly a synagogue in the United States which has not some form of institutionalism—be it only a sewing circle. A questionnaire sent out by the Committee on Social and Religious Union of the Central Conference of American Rabbis to its various members elicited ninety-seven replies. In these answers seventy-one report the existence of congregational libraries; eleven congregations conduct classes for the teaching of the English language and instruction in citizenship; six maintain settlements; two have labor bureaus; fifty list philanthropic activities, glee and choral societies, athletic clubs, kindergartens, industrial schools and dancing classes.

The committee in summarizing its report says: “The majority [of our colleagues] feel that all these institutional creations have helped to deepen the interest of the members in the synagogue and in each other; that they have helped to make the temple a center for Jewish communal life; ... that they religionize social functions; that they stimulate the Jewish consciousness; that they prevent disintegration....”

Once again the synagogue is playing a splendid role in Jewish communal life. Men are beginning to perceive that the ideal synagogue will be in use at practically all hours every day in the week, will never be dark and deserted. The impressive appearing edifice that was tenanted by silence and gloom on every day except the Sabbath is becoming an anachronism. Our hope is that the synagogues that continue to slumber may awaken before it is too late, and take their proper share in the work of communal uplift.

DR. HOWARD KELLY’S APPEAL FOR CHURCH CIVIC SERVICE

The demands for a better trained ministry and membership in the churches are being strongly emphasized by such statements of what the community expects of them as Dr. Howard A. Kelly of the Johns Hopkins University medical faculty recently made in an address at the annual meeting of the New York Probation and Protective Association. In giving his consent to print some of his remarks, he writes, with special reference to his efforts against the social evil:

“I feel as though my own work in this field were to bring the churches
together for neighborhood social interests. If we do not get the
churches actively to work, I believe all the social developments of
the last thirty years are destined to failure. I fully believe that a
few strong men, say five or six in a city like Baltimore, can
effectively put persistent effort into the work of amalgamating our
churches for the expression of the Christian life in the active
service of their fellow men.”

In his address in New York, after stoutly combating, from his professional and public points of view, the policy of segregating vice, he declared that the social work of the church is indispensable to progress, and that it is the duty and the opportunity of the church to fulfil the need in this direction. He spoke substantially as follows:

“The most effective of all agencies in breaking down the strongholds
of vice and in building up the national character is the church. For
some reason unknown and unfathomable, some of my associates in this
beneficent work who don’t go to church fight shy of discussing any
enlistment of the churches everywhere. Not a few who have never had
any personal interests in the church even stand ready to declare, with
a distinguished head of our public libraries, that the church
represents the largest outlay of capital for the smallest return in
interest the world has ever seen.

“The utility of the church in the social field is best defended
perhaps by citing an investigation of over 1000 social workers of all
kinds showing that over 90 per cent are church people, and I venture
confidently to affirm that if the inspiration of the church direct and
indirect is taken away from our various social movements, they will
die outright in short order. I can furthermore now aver what I could
not have said twenty years ago, of a group of splendid humanitarian
workers who have no church affiliations, that this indefatigable but
weary band has at last come to realize that unless the church comes to
the front and does her duty this great purifying work will never be
done.

“The difficulty has been that our churches have been too much
afflicted with myopia, seeing little beyond the confines of their own
four walls. They have also one and all slipped into the easy ways of
formalism, and worse still, the laity have thrust the burden of their
religious obligations onto the shoulders of a groaning, overladen
clergy, trusting to discharge their own personal responsibilities on a
cash basis by check. I am sure that the clergy are well aware that
there is much to be desired in the social relations of the church to
the community and I believe no set of men will show themselves more
ready to advance on new lines if they can see that the movement is
really a spiritual one and that a large service can thus be
inaugurated.

“There are many reasons why the churches must be depended upon as the
backbone of any morals movement:

They are ideally distributed among the people.

They have the intelligence and the means.

They have a source of continuous inspiration needed in dealing with
chronic distressing problems.

They alone can guarantee perpetuity of effort.

“In utilizing the church, the minister must be the organizer and
leader of his people. A new relationship between pastor and layman
will ensue, and laymen, once drawn into a local work, will soon branch
out into all forms of civic work for the weal of the community. Again,
the churches possess the community buildings so much needed. The only
other similar institution capable of a similar co-operation on a large
scale is the public school which, while valuable and necessary in this
movement, has not the independence and lacks the great inspiration.

“What, then, is the specific program for the church? First, of all,
she must not abate but rather increase her dependence upon God. She
must never yield to temptation to abandon the one really valuable
quality she possesses by relegating to the background the living
fountains of inspiration she holds in God’s word, for a mere mundane
horizontal social Gospel which makes a religion of the human
activities which are but its appropriate outward expression. First a
glance upward, then outward to God for the life, and to the human
arena for the sphere in which the life must be manifested. This does
not hinder but quickens the impulse to effective service.

“The profounder my faith, the more am I able to work in affectionate
association and harmony with the many who do not see eye to eye with
me here on earth; I cannot, however, continue to work with any who
demand as the price of their help that I shall stifle all outward
expression of my faith. He who walks in the light must sing of the
light lest the light he has shall fade into darkness, and he too shall
be left to flounder along the dead level of merely human self-guided
impulses.

_A PRAYER FOR EFFICIENCY_

_O God, as to an earthly father, we bring thee each our yearning
confession of failure to realize to the full the powers thou hast
given us as laborers in thy kingdom on earth. May we learn through
this, our mutual prayer, to be charitable to one another’s
shortcoming. Teach us, by love if it may be, by bitter rebellion, if
it must be, that our prayer may be answered only as we are firm to
lend a hand in mutual aid and sympathy to the less fortunate. Let each
in strength supply his neighbors’ weakness, and build up in him the
efficiency which is his birthright._

_Thus, in humility of heart, we pray for justice to our overstrained
and blighted brothers who never catch up, who grind their lives into
sieves of despair and deficit, each grist the harder because there is
less of life to spare. Think upon the handicapped in body and in soul,
for whose backwardness we are jointly responsible through our
inefficiency. May we give them health and leisure and knowledge and so
joy and inspiration so that, restored to themselves, they may in free
good will repay them a hundredfold, in deeds of brotherly gratitude
and justice to others, for thy sake._

_And chiefly we pray for those in whom we have put our trust; that
their strength may be equal to the temptations of the power we have
given them from thee. May they realise that not their own gain, but
social justice, must measure the efficiency of their efforts. Bring
home to their minds and hearts the far-reaching power, for evil and
for good, of industry and government, of church and press; let them
remember vividly the remote effects of indifference and negligence in
the web of modern life._

_May the getters of gold give justice to its producers; may its
earners have charity toward its spenders; may the givers of gold be
gifted with wisdom and courage; and may all social workers feel the
weight of an especial responsibility; that the surplus wealth of which
they are guardians may be husbanded for its true purposes and not be
betrayed, nor delayed, nor wasted in their hands; that thou mayst have
gratitude in turn toward all, for thy children’s sake. Thus may thy
kingdom grow on earth into fuller and more abundant life for each and
all.—AMEN._

“The church must be a great, perennial fountain of spiritual and moral
energy to the whole people in all the avenues of human interests. She
must realize her obligation to champion the cause of the oppressed,
whatever the cause and whoever the oppressor, whether in her fold or
out of it. She must watch to prevent the rich from grinding the faces
of the poor. She must when necessary provide for every legitimate
desire of the people. If politics are corrupt, then she must enter
aggressively into the field of politics, only for purity and not for
party. She must fight all saloons and organize neighborhood opposition
to their continuance, but provide too for some form of social life to
replace them.

“The rich churches most be big sisters to the poor, providing means
and sending talented workers wherever they are needed. If the church
needs money for neighborhood enterprise, let her lop off her choirs
and stained glass windows and bells, expensive altars, and put the
money saved into human lives. She must discourage all extravagances
which give the poor just cause for bitterness and arouse envy and set
up unworthy standards. Let the church make a map of neighborhood
conditions. This will serve as an object lesson and as a basis for
action. In weekly classes she should then study such social problems
as:

Social teachings in the Bible.
Tuberculosis in our city.
Prostitution.
Housing the poor.
Amusements.
Wages paid in department stores and factories.
Near town places of recreation.
Hotels, saloons and rathskellers.
The laws of city and state affecting social questions.
Our prison system—what help have the men?
Our various relief agencies—how far do they co-operate?”

ONE OF DAYTON’S MENACES

A heap of dead horses awaiting skinning and rendering at the
fertilizer plant
]

HEALTH

SANITATION AT DAYTON

[_The widespread flood disaster in Ohio during the last week of March
led members of the Pittsburgh Flood Commission to study the situation.
Morris Knowles, a member of the Engineering Committee of this
commission, has had two assistants in the field for this purpose. One
of these, M. R. Scharff, who had previously been employed by Mr.
Knowles in making a sanitary survey of the coal-mining camps in
Alabama, paid particular attention to the sanitary conditions
resulting from the flood. The present article embodies observations
made on this trip._—Ed.]

Following in the wake of great disasters which descend from time to time upon our cities, paralyzing the public services that make crowded city conditions possible, is the outcropping of disease that may, if unchecked, prove more disastrous even than the catastrophe itself. This tendency was discernible in the first reports of the floods that have recently devastated Ohio, Indiana and adjoining states, due to the heavy rains of March 24–28. Nearly every flooded city reported that its water works plant had been put out of commission, or the water supply polluted, which with the increased chance of infection, and the general lowering of vitality presented a situation of unusual menace and one demanding complete and immediate handling.

The most serious situation is Dayton, for here every sanitary problem presented at any other point was involved. The complete, immediate and effective organization to handle the situation which was formed there was typical of the effective work now done at such emergency periods.

At Dayton the water works plant was incapacitated by water that reached ten feet above the boiler grates; there was unknown damage to water distribution and sanitary sewerage and drainage systems; storm sewers and catch basins were clogged with filth and debris; dead animals were strewn on every side; the population was at high nervous tension, their vitality lowered by shock, exposure, cold, and lack of food and drink; hundreds of people were crowded for days in single buildings or dwellings; thousands, probably, had been exposed to intestinal infection by drinking the dirty flood water as it swirled through the streets; hundreds had only wet cellars and rooms to return to, if their homes were not altogether destroyed; and everywhere on everything—walls, ceilings, floors, furniture, streets and sidewalks—was a thick coating of the black, sticky, slimy mud left by the retreating waters. This in a measure pictures the situation at Dayton as the flood waters receded. And Dayton knew at once that the toll of the flood would be as nothing compared to the pestilence, unless attention and energy were directed to these problems.

This appreciation of the paramount importance of sanitation was a striking revelation of the success of the campaign of sanitary education that has characterized the last century. In every phase of the work of recovery, in the warning signs and directions on almost every post, in the placards on the automobiles of the sanitary department stating that “This car must not be stopped or delayed day or night,” in the daily exhortations in the free newspapers distributed throughout the city, in a thousand ways, Dayton declared again and again:

“Sanitation first and foremost. Then everything else.”

Such was the spirit of the members of the Dayton Bicycle Club, when they met as the waters receded from their club-house to consider what service they could best render to their stricken city, and volunteered to remove the dead animals strewn it the streets. Such also was the message reiterated by the Ohio State Board of Health, the city health officials, the representatives of the national government, the Red Cross, the Relief Committee, the Ohio National Guard, and every one of the splendid organizations that are working shoulder to shoulder to clean up Dayton and to prevent conditions more costly in toll of life than the deluge itself.

One of the remarkable features of the handling of the relief work at Dayton was the entire absence of red tape, the lack of conflict, and the universal evidence of harmonious co-operation between the various organizations at work, notwithstanding that there was no complete centralization of direction and that some of the organizations were proceeding practically independent of the others. “Results, not credit,” was the watchword, and the results were such as to reflect the most lasting credit upon all engaged in the work.

The Dayton Bicycle Club showed wisdom in volunteering to remove the dead animals from the street. Nearly every horse in the more than seven square miles of the city that was under water—and this area contained all the important livery stables—was drowned, and quick action was needed to remove the bodies to prevent serious results. A sanitary department was organized, and as rapidly as automobile trucks and wagons were volunteered, they were pressed into service. Over 100 vehicles and about 600 men were engaged on this work. A rendering company, which handles all the garbage collected in the city, agreed to take care of the horses and did so as fast as they came for a time. When the carcasses came so rapidly that it was necessary to heap them up on the grounds of the plant, and then on a vacant field nearby, the plant was a grewsome place indeed. Up to the night of March 31, 1,002 had been received. A number were picked up the next two days, so that the final total was probably in the neighborhood of 1,100.

At about the time this work was started, a reconstruction department was organized, under the Citizens Relief Committee, with divisions, each under an engineer, assigned to street cleaning, sewers and drains, streets, and levees. By March 31, the removal of dead animals had been practically completed, and the organization and equipment of the sanitary department were merged with those of the street cleaning division of the reconstruction department. Sanitary notices directed that all mud and rubbish be deposited at the curb, the city was divided into districts and collection progressed rapidly, considering the wagons and trucks available. More wagons could have been put into service, but horses were lacking. All mud and rubbish was hauled to one of the half-dozen city rubbish dumps located in low outlying sections, or was dumped off bridges into the river. The employes of the city water works department were able to get into the pumping station on March 28 and the following day pumping was resumed. Dayton’s water supply comes from a number of deep drilled wells along the Mad River. It is pumped direct into the mains without storage, by means of a Holly vertical, triple-expansion, crank and fly-wheel engine. This pump has given rise to the local name of “Hollywater” applied to the city supply. It was feared at first that the distribution system had been badly damaged, but investigation showed that only three small mains had been broken. Water, at reduced pressure, was therefore possible, except in one or two small sections.

AN IMPROVISED COMFORT STATION
]

Dayton water is exceptionally pure, but it was feared that there might have been leakage of flood water into the pipes while the pressure was cut off and so notices to “boil all water, even the Hollywater” were posted. Samples were promptly taken for analysis from various portions of the distribution system by the chemist of the National Cash Register Company, the bacteriologist of the city Board of Health, and by the State Board of Health, but the injunction to boil water was continued, even though the first analysis was favorable.

The catch basins and storm sewers throughout the city were badly clogged with wreckage and filth, and early cleaning was imperative. The city was divided into seven drainage districts, and gangs of men and wagons assigned to shoveling out catch basins and hauling the rubbish to the dumps. At the same time systematic inspection of the sanitary sewerage system was begun. It had been expected that the sewers would be clogged, like the storm drains, and the early sanitary notices issued contained these warnings:

IMPORTANT

Sanitary Notice

FOR YOUR OWN HEALTH

(1.) Do not use Sanitary sewers and Closets until notified by the
Board of Health. Even if the hollywater system is on, the sewers are
full of mud and will clog. Burn or bury all excreta garbage and filth.
Add lime and bury deep. Use disinfectant in out-door trenches also.

(2.) Thoroughly scrub, clean and dry your cellar. Keep your cellar
windows open. Remove and burn or bury all rubbish. Sprinkle lime
around cellar, especially in damp places. Sprinkle floor with
disinfectant sent herewith (two tablespoons-full to one quart of
water.)

(3.) Thoroughly clean your in and out door premises.

(4.) Place concentrated lye or a tablespoon of disinfectant in each
sink or trap in toilet, basement and kitchen. Allow to stand over
night. Do this every evening.

(5.) Boil all water, even holly water, and thoroughly cook all food.
Boil all cooking utensils. Do this for months to come.

(6.) Do not enter houses which have been flooded until thoroughly
cleaned and dried.

(7.) Keep your own self clean.

Do these things to avoid pestilence and sickness.

Do it for yourself.

Do it for Dayton.

Take care of yourself and you will take care of Dayton.

=Maj. L. T. Rhoades,
U. S. Army.=

ONE OF THE EARLY NOTICES

“Do not use water closets. Contents will reach cellars. Use vessels,
disinfect, and bury in back-yards. Disinfectants: carbolic acid,
chloride of lime, bichloride of mercury, and creolin.”

“Do not use sanitary sewers and closets until notified by the Board of
Health. Even if the “Hollywater” system is on, the sewers are full of
mud and will clog. Burn or bury all excreta, garbage and filth. Add
lime and bury deep. Use disinfectant in out-door trenches also.”

Inspection showed a much better condition than was anticipated. In all but three districts, the sanitary sewers were running freely and the warnings were replaced by new notices:

“Sewers are open and ready for use. If the water supply is not
sufficient for flushing, fill the tank of the closet with a bucketful
of water, and flush as usual.”

Wooden public convenience stations were also established over sewer manholes in the business sections and in residential sections without sewer connections.

The three sewer districts that were out of commission were the St. Francis, the North Dayton, and the Riverdale low line. The St. Francis sewer is a gravity line, and a manhole at the lower end was completely choked up. It was necessary finally to dynamite this manhole in order to open the line. The two latter lines are both low, and sewage has to be pumped into the river by pneumatic ejectors. The air lines from the compressor plant in the water works pumping station were laid in the levees which were washed out and at one point about 200 feet of pipe was lost. This was difficult to repair, and these districts had to be left without sewerage until April 2, when a by-pass on each line into the storm drains was opened, and the backed-up sewage lowered sufficiently to clear most of the cellars and to permit the use of water closets.

While this work was proceeding the organizations devoting their energies to control of infectious disease, inspection, and administration had been far from idle. The State Board of Health had three sanitary engineers and two physicians, trained in public health work, in the city before the waters receded. The city Board of Health was one of the first in the field, and the medical corps of the Ohio National Guard promptly took up the work. Co-operating with one another, under the direction of Major L. T. Rhoades of the United States medical corps, who was appointed chief sanitary officer, and with the assistance of local doctors and nurses and those furnished by the Red Cross, these organizations soon established control of the entire city in a comprehensive and effective manner.

The Ohio State Board of Health engineers were assigned to assist in the water works, sewerage, and general cleaning up. Then, in co-operation with the city board and Major Rhoades, the city was divided into sixteen sanitary districts, with a physician in charge of each. These physicians inspected their districts, reported to headquarters, conditions requiring particular attention, instructed people in sanitation and followed up all reported cases of illness to guard against contagion.