THE CHURCH AND 
 SOCIAL AND MORAL 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 American Section 
 Report of Commission_ III 
 to 
 
 THE UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN |;CONFERENCE 
 ON LIFE AND WORK 
 
 HELD IN STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 
 August 19-30, 1925 
 
 
 

 
 UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE 
 ON LIFE AND WORK 
 
 Commission Reports 
 
 I. The Church’s Obligation in View of 
 God’s Purpose for the World. 
 
 II. The Church and Economic and Industrial 
 Problems. 
 
 III. The Church and Social and Moral Prob- 
 lems. 
 
 IV. The Church and International Relations. 
 V. The Church and Education. 
 
 VI. Methods of Co-operative and Federative 
 Efforts By the Christian Communions. 
 
GENERAL PREFACE 
 
 A few words should be written about the inception of The Universal 
 Christian Conference on Life and Work. In the summer of 1919 the 
 International Committee of the World Alliance for International Friend- 
 ship Through the Churches met at The Hague. This was the first meet- 
 ing of an international character held after the signing of the Armistice, 
 if one excepts a small gathering of labor leaders. About sixty leaders of 
 the Churches were present, representing nearly all the Protestant Com- 
 munions and most of the countries of Europe. Ten or twelve delegates 
 were present from America. 
 
 The meetings at The Hague developed so sweet and reasonable an 
 atmosphere, at a time when great bitterness prevailed everywhere, and 
 the delegates present expressed themselves so strongly as to the un- 
 Christian character of war and the necessity of establishing a world order 
 on a new and Christian basis, that several of the delegates felt strongly 
 that the time had come for the Churches officially to get together and 
 say what these Churchmen semi-officially were saying. As a result 
 Archbishop Soederblom of Sweden, Dr. Charles S. Macfarland of 
 America, the Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Henry A. Atkinson and others 
 held an informal meeting to discuss the possibility of bringing the 
 Churches of the world together for a Conference, where the Churches 
 could utter their united conviction on international matters and all other 
 matters with which society would have to deal in the reconstruction of 
 civilization and the building of a new and better civilization on the 
 ruins of the old, which lay all about them. 
 
 This preliminary meeting was not altogether spontaneous for on two 
 separate occasions during the progress of the war, Archbishop Soeder- 
 blom had communicated with the Churches of Europe and America re- 
 garding the possibility of such a conference and the Federal Council of 
 Churches of Christ in America had suggested that a Conference of the 
 Federated bodies of Churches in all the countries might meet together 
 after the war. The unanimous opinion of the unofficial group at The 
 Hague was that a committee should be appointed to bring the leaders of 
 the Churches together with the aim of convincing them of the necessity 
 of such a world gathering of the Churches ,and asking them to take the 
 matter up with their respective denominations. This committee went 
 from The Hague to Paris and brought together as many of the leaders 
 of the Churches as possible upon such short notice. This meeting be- 
 came greatly interested in the project and requested Dr. Frederick Lynch, 
 Chairman of the Committee on Ecumenical Conference of the Federal 
 Council of Churches of Christ in America to arrange for a preliminary 
 ineeting of the Churches the following summer. 
 
 Dr. Lynch proceeded from Paris to London and had several inter- 
 views with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. F. B. Myers, Dr. Thomas 
 Nightingale, Dr. J. H. Shakespeare and others. Meantime, Archbishop 
 Soderbloom undertook to interest the Scandinavian Churches and Dr. Choisy 
 
 III 
 
the Swiss Churches. Sufficient interest was aroused to warrant the calling 
 of a preliminary Conference at Geneva in the summer of 1920. 
 
 As a result of the procedures recorded above, one hundred delegates 
 assembled at Geneva in August of 1920. A three days session was held 
 and the Conference gradually began to assume shape. Great interest 
 was manifested and all present expressed themselves to the effect that 
 the Church Universal had a great opportunity to exert a determining 
 influence upon the new order that must follow the war. Furthermore 
 the world was waiting for some great pronouncement from the Churches 
 upon such questions as war and peace, the industrial. order; such im- 
 mediate problems as those having to do with intemperance and vice 
 and upon all ethical and moral questions. It was felt that a positive 
 and commanding utterance of the Churches in these trying years would 
 do much to encourage a disheartened world and would make it much 
 easier for those who were trying to reconstruct the world on a Christian 
 basis to carry on this high task. There was much confusion in the world 
 as to just where the Church did stand on these great problems disturbing 
 the minds of men. The conviction was expressed that only as the rule 
 of life laid down by the gospels became the law of nations could any 
 hope for security and peace be found or the great sores of the world be 
 healed. 
 
 Furthermore it was felt by all that whatever new international ma- 
 chinery might be set up or whatever new industrial order might arise, 
 it was only as these were permeated by the spirit of Jesus Christ that 
 they would fulfill the high hopes of their founders. It was also strongly 
 felt that two great blessings might ensue from such a Conference. On 
 the one hand all individual communions would profit by this period of 
 common intercourse, especially those communions that had greatly 
 suffered from the war. They would be made strong in the conscious- 
 ness of the oneness of all Christ’s disciples. On the other hand the 
 coming together, if only for a month, of all the Churches of the world, 
 to cooperate in the common task of redeeming the world order, and to 
 make some great common pronouncement on the place of Christ in our 
 civilization would be a great object lesson to the world. 
 
 At Geneva a large International Committee was set up which was 
 divided into four groups, one for America, one for the British Empire, 
 one for the European Protestant churches and the fourth representing the 
 Orthodox Eastern Church. The International Committee appointed a 
 smaller Executive Committee, which held three meetings in successive 
 years, one at Peterborough, England, one at Zurich, Switzerland and 
 one at Amsterdam, Holland. In August, 1922, the International Com- 
 mittee itself met at Helsingborg, Sweden, and was very fully attended 
 by delegates from all the communions and nations. At this meeting 
 the programme for the Conference assumed final shape. It was voted 
 that the program for Stockholm should include the following groups 
 of subjects: 
 
 IV 
 
 — 
 
The Church’s Obligation in view of God’s purpose for the world. 
 
 The Church and Economic and Industrial Problems. 
 
 The Church and Social and Moral Problems. 
 
 The Church and International Relations. 
 
 The Church and Christian Education. 
 
 Methods of Co-operative and Federative Efforts by the Christian 
 Communions. 
 
 OV Si 4 pac 
 
 The reports which followed are in fulfillment of this vote taken at 
 Helsingborg. In April, 1924, the full Committee met again at Birming- 
 ham, England, in connection with C. O. P. E. C. and reviewed the 
 progress made upon the reports and dealt specifically with plans for the 
 Stockholm meeting. 
 
 This is in brief the history of The Universal Christian Conference on 
 Life and Work, and is the explanation of the reports which follow. 
 These reports have been prepared with great care by the leaders of the 
 Churches and by experts in the several questions discussed. They are 
 submitted to the Conference in the hope that the Conference will receive 
 them in the same spirit in which they have been written, i.e. in the 
 endeavor to find the common consciousness of the Churches upon these 
 subjects and to voice its united feeling. 
 
LIST OF COMMISSION MEMBERS 
 
 Joint-Chairmen 
 
 REV. F. W. BURNHAM, UL.D. 
 President, United Christian Missionary Society. 
 
 BISHOP JAMES CANNON, Jr., D.D. 
 Chairman, Executive Committee, World League Against Alcoholism. Chairman, 
 National Legislative Committee, Anti-Saloon League. 
 
 Secretaries 
 
 REV. ALFRED WILLIAMS ANTHONY, D.D., LL.D. 
 Formerly Executive Secretary, Home Missions Council. Member, Board of Mana- 
 gers, American Baptist Home Missions Society. 
 
 REV. CHARLES E. SCHABPFFER, D.D. 
 General Secretary, Board of Home Missions of Reformed Church in U. S. 
 
 Members 
 
 ALLEN, MRS. J. S. 
 Corresponding Secretary, Women’s Board of Domestic Missions, Reformed Church 
 in America. 
 
 BARNES, REV. LEMUEL CALL, D.D. 
 Secretary, American Baptist Home Missionary Society. 
 
 BENNETT, MRS. FREDERICK S. 
 President, Woman's Board of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in U. S. A. 
 
 BURTON, REV. CHARLES E., D.D. 
 Secretary, National Council of Congregational Churches. 
 
 DAVIS, REV. CARROLL, M., D.D. 
 Domestic Secretary, Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church. 
 
 EMPRINGHAM, REV. JAMES, D.D. 
 National Superintendent, Law Observance League. 
 
 FORSYTH, REV. D., D.D. 
 Corresponding Secretary, Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 YOUT, BISHOP HENRY H. 
 Bishop of United Brethren Church. 
 
 FRANKLIN, REV. JAMES H., D.D. 
 Foreign Secretary, American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 
 
 HAVEN, REV. WILLIAM I., D.D., LL.D. 
 General Secretary, American Bible Society. 
 
 HAYNES, PROF. GEORGE FE., Ph.D. 
 Former Director, Negro Economics, U. S. Department of Labor, Secretary, Com- 
 mission on Church and Race Relations, Federal Council of the Churches of Christ 
 in America. 
 
 HOLTZMAN, MRS. C. L. 
 President, Woman's Department, The Chicago Church Federation. 
 
 VI 
 
HUTCHISON, REV. R. A. 
 Secretary, Home Missions Board, United Presbyterian Church. 
 
 KITTELL, REV. JAMES S., D.D. 
 President, Board of Domestic Missions, Reformed Church in Ameriea. 
 
 KNUBEL, REV. FREDERICK H., D.D., LL.D. 
 President, United Lutheran Church in America. 
 
 LAWSON, REV. ALBERT G., D.D. 
 President, Baptist Education Society, State of New York. 
 
 LINDLEY, MISS GRACE 
 Active Secretary, Woman’s Auxiliary to Board of Home Missions, Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 McCOY, MRS. J. H. 
 
 MILLER, REV. RUFUS W., D.D. 
 Sahar and Editor, Publication and Sunday School Board of Reformed Churches 
 in U. S. : 
 
 MILLIKEN, HON. CARL ELIAS, LL.D. 
 Ex-Governor of Maine. Chairman, Commission on Temperance, Federal Council 
 of the Churches of Christ in America. 
 
 MOORE, BISHOP JOHN M., D.D., Ph.D. 
 Brazil Episcopal District, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 
 
 MORRIS, REV. S. LESLIE 
 Secretary, Executive Committee of Home Missions, Presbyterian Church in U. §S. 
 
 POLING, REV. DANIEL A., LL.D., Litt.D. 
 President, National Temperance Council of America. 
 
 RUSSELL, REV. HOWARD HYDE, D.D. 
 One of the Founders and first General Superintendent Anti-Saloon League of 
 America. One of the Founders and first American President, World League 
 Against Alcoholism. 
 
 SCOTT, EMMETT J., LL.D. 
 Secretary-Treasurer, Howard University. 
 
 SHEPPARD, SENATOR MORRIS, LL.D. 
 United States Senator. 
 
 SHRIVER, REV. WILLIAM P., D.D. 
 Director, City, Immigrant and Industrial \, ork of Board of Home Missions, Pres- 
 
 byterian Church in U. S. A 
 
 TALBOT, RT. REV. ETHELBERT, D.D., LL.D. 
 Senior Bishop, Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 WESTFALL, MRS. KATHERINE 5S. 
 Executive Secretary, Woman’s American Baptiat Home Mission Society. 
 
 WHITE, REV. LUKE ; 
 Rector of St. Luke’s Church, Montclair, New Jersey. 
 
 WOODRUFF, MRS. MAY LEONARD 
 Corresponding Secretary, Woman’s Home Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal 
 
 Church. 
 
 ZAHNISER, REV. CHARLES R., Ph.D. 
 Executive Secretary, Pittsburgh Council of the Churches -of Christ. 
 
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THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL AND MORAL PROBLEMS 
 
 The Christian Church of America has not given attention to social and 
 moral problems until within recent years, nor are all parts of that church yet 
 satisfied that these problems legitimately come within the range of the 
 church’s care and function. In its main streams and deposits the colonization 
 of America was a dissent from social responsibility, as it was a break 
 from control, religious and social, whether of church or state. The 
 standards of freedom, which the colonists were seeking, meant for most of 
 them pure individualism as a philosophy. As they believed in the right of 
 private judgment and the responsibility of the individual to his own con- 
 science alone, so also they believed that the mission of the Church was to 
 minister chiefly to individuals and that the message of the Gospel, preached 
 to every creature, would encompass the salvation of souls one by one, 
 plucking each out of a sinful and corrupt state for transference by a new 
 birth into citizenship in a new commonwealth, the Kingdom of God, in 
 
 which the rest of the world, carnal and of the flesh fleshly could have no 
 part. 
 
 Although the Puritans in their first compact, drawn up in the cabin of 
 the “Mayflower,” for the formation of a government, recognized religion as 
 obligatory in the realm of human relations, yet to the majority of the early 
 Christians in America there were no social and moral problems in the mod- 
 ern sense. All problems of every nature of religion, of man in this 
 world, and as he hoped for the next, were theological and doctrinal. 
 The most earnest Christian believers, the soundest theologians and ex- 
 pounders of the faith, stoutly maintained that all desired and prayed 
 for changes in the social fabric and its moral conditions, which were within 
 the scope of the divine dispensation for realization upon the earth, would 
 be secured through the process of preaching the Gospel to individuals, and 
 that as individuals became soundly converted to God, the Kingdom of God 
 would be established and built up among men. 
 
 The proclamation of the Gospel of individual redemption, which appeals 
 to the individual to seek the salvation of his own soul for an immortal and 
 blessed destiny, when successful among individuals, exerts a continuous 
 and effective influence toward social redemption and the reconstruction 
 of society through various social and moral reforms, for even one individ- 
 ual, when transformed, by a saving power within him, into a new creature, 
 alters by the full extent of his own influence and personality the society of 
 which he is a part, and the cumulative results of improving the individual 
 units of which ‘society is composed may profoundly change the whole 
 structure of society and solve most, if not all, of its moral problems. 
 
 The story of what the Christian Church in America has done, as she 
 has become aware of social and moral problems, is really a story of how 
 the men and women of the churches, without consciously realizing that there 
 is such a thing as a “Social Gospel’, and that they were in any technical 
 sense exemplifying an “Applied Christianity,’ were giving expression in a 
 natural and naive way to the principles of Jesus as they found them, almost 
 each for himself, in the New Testament and tried to incorporate them each 
 for himself in his own life and in society. 
 
 all Ye 
 
ea SE 
 
 Homes: 
 
 So-long as America was largely rural and chiefly agricultural, the home 
 was her social safeguard and her social center. 
 
 A home, then, consisted of one woman and one man, united in wedlock, 
 partners in the business of life, occupying a building, or a set of buildings, 
 separated by ample, and in some instances by long distances from neighbors, 
 and surrounded with numerous children, who, as they became large enough, 
 helped in nearly all of the tasks in which father and mother were engaged. 
 These were real social units, of the best sort, thrifty, frugal, self-contained, 
 independent, sharing each other’s experiences, finding sport and amusement 
 in wholesome relations with neighbors, or at the village, which might be 
 near or far. Even the larger communities, which might be termed cities, in 
 the earlier days, were characterized by similar habits of simplicity, economy 
 and virtue. The Sunday was then observed as a day of rest and worship. 
 Practically everybody went to church. Church services had social and 
 educational values, which everybody prized, and religion was regarded with 
 respect even by those who did not “‘profess”’ it. 
 
 .When America became industrialized and the population became chiefly 
 urban, these simple and rural traits became less common, and in large 
 sections entirely disappeared. 
 
 America, probably as no other country in the world, has been hospitable 
 to strangers, receiving within her gates men and women and children from 
 all corners of the globe, who brought strange tongues, different habits, and 
 other standards of living. They came at first by hundreds and were readily 
 accommodated and soon assimilated as integral parts of the communities 
 in which they settled. They took on American ways and usually delighted 
 in becoming Americans. But soon these foreigners came by thousands and 
 even by millions. They settled in communities by themselves, in many 
 instances crowding out former residents by the invasion of unfamiliar 
 speech and conduct and the economic pressure of their lower standards of 
 living. 
 
 Then the simple and wholesome ways became in many places wholly 
 impossible. Housing accommodations became inadequate; overcrowding 
 resulted ; the evils of tenements, of slums, of congestion, of unsanitary con- 
 ditions and of immoral practices appeared. What has been called the 
 “continental Sunday” crept in to take the place of the American Sunday. 
 The low dance-hall became too common. Gambling dives, dram-shops, 
 resorts for degrading amusements and similar evils made their bids for 
 patronage and in too many instances prospered. In the larger cities there 
 have not been wanting men who would exploit these new comers and by 
 disregard of law and decency prostitute them to servile political purposes 
 and to ends of benefit only to the demagogues themselves. 
 
 America’s rapid settlement and her great industrial development have 
 been augmented by her immigration policy, and while the blending of 
 national types has been an important factor in shaping the American char- 
 acter, yet her hospitality to immigrants has had its complications. Thereby 
 her social and moral problems have been multiplied and intensified many 
 times. There is a community of interests which every nation and race on 
 
seni us a! 
 
 the earth must share with America. The very cosmopolitan character of 
 her people makes hér problems of-concern to all the world besides. 
 
 The Christians of America have attempted to preserve the home. It 
 has not been an easy task. Better economic conditions are a help, but alas! 
 too frequently better wages and larger incomes have but resulted in greater 
 extravagance, a craving for more luxury and more excitement, and the 
 home has not benefitted. The inexpensive and easy means of transportation 
 into the suburbs have relieved to some considerable degree the evils of 
 overcrowding, and of tenements, and of slums. But unfortunately the high 
 cost of building has stopped the erection of houses and the resulting high 
 rents bring about a period of congestion and suffering, unsanitary, unsocial 
 and immoral. 
 
 The congested slum districts of the larger cities have received much 
 attention, increasing through the more recent years. Voluntary organiza- 
 tions have been formed for the purpose of first making investigations and 
 then of securing improvement. Legislation has been enacted limiting the 
 size of buildings in proportion to the land occupied, fixing the amount of 
 light and air to be provided, and prescribing rules and regulations for sani- 
 tary conditions and observances. Recently, protective legislation has dealt 
 with the economic side of the housing problem, seeking to prevent injustice 
 to tenants by high rentals, by unmerciful evictions, by lack of heating in 
 the winter, by hazard to life through faulty construction or lack’ of fire- 
 escapes. 
 
 In all of these movements the church, in some instances as an organi- 
 zation, but more frequently through her members as individuals, has mani- 
 fested interest and sympathy, and at times leadership. The church, how- 
 ever, is still cautious about directing her testimony and her ministries into 
 the channels of material comforts and economic conditions. 
 
 Generally the Christians of America have been resolutely set against easy 
 divorce,—many of the clergy standing for divorce solely on the one Scrip- 
 tural ground, of adultery. But the mixed conditions, of many peoples and 
 many standards, of which America is composed, have been too strong, and 
 some states of the American commonwealth have become notorious for the 
 ease and number of divorces granted. 
 
 In one state only, South Carolina, the laws make no provision whatever 
 for divorce. In all other states of the Union, with varying degrees of ease, 
 legalized separation, for a great variety of causes, is permissible and the 
 number of divorces has greatly increased. Through the officials of many 
 of the states and by representatives of Bar Associations a movement has 
 been in progress for several years looking toward uniform laws on the 
 subject or a possible transfer of authority to the Federal Courts, but no 
 real and definite conclusions have been arrived at in these directions. In 
 the meantime it is evident that there is a profound and widespread social 
 conviction taking shape, beneath the legal, religious and purely individualis- 
 tic considerations with which this subject is involved, that the family, as a 
 social unit, and society as a whole, are deeply concerned and that considera- 
 tions, greater than those which affect one man and one woman, must be 
 weighed and must be determinative in the final conclusion. It is perhaps fair 
 to say that the American Church, speaking of it as a whole, with as near and 
 
ahaa 
 
 impartial judgment as is possible, less and less regards the few N ew Testa- 
 ' ment injunctions upon this subject as final and more and more believes that 
 the spirit and principles of Jesus in the midst of modern conditions would 
 regard the whole subject more from the point of view of social welfare 
 than from the point of view of a single individual act, even though that 
 act be so serious as adultery. 
 
 The American conscience has been fairly successful in combatting the 
 Social Evil, at least as to outward show and public business. In no part of 
 America is prostitution licensed as a recognized trade; in not more than a 
 dozen American cities is there still a segregated vice district. Coincident 
 with the abolishment of segregated districts, provision has been made for 
 the care of infected persons and the restoration of prostitutes. In this 
 remarkable movement, which has taken place within a generation, the 
 Church has had a large part in the education of public opinion. In Cleve- 
 land, Ohio, for example, the entire effort originated with the Federated 
 Churches. The Chicago Vice Commission originated with church workers. 
 The laws of the United States deal severely with the conveying of women 
 for immoral purposes either into the country, or out of it, or between the 
 states of the Union. These laws are well enforced. 
 
 Within recent years there has been a pronounced movement toward 
 imparting to young people at an early age suitable and wholesome instruc- 
 tion in matters pertaining to sex so that they may acquire, at a time to be 
 of use to them, and prevent impure and perverted notions coming first, 
 ' knowledge of their bodies and their natures and of the divine way of 
 preserving and reproducing our own species. In this connection quite a 
 considerable list of useful books have been published and many public school 
 teachers are interested in teaching and in safeguarding their pupils. 
 
 Unfortunately recent fiction has over emphasized problems of sex,—per- 
 haps, however, not wholly without some good effects,—the moving pictures 
 have shown too many films depicting passion, lust and situations involving 
 sex, and the public mind has had more open knowledge of such subjects 
 as these thrust upon it, but certainly a reaction has set in. The public 
 conscience is demanding a more rigid, and at the same time a reasonable, 
 censorship and the tendency of American thought is positively in the 
 direction of giving adequate knowledge, preventing prurient displays and 
 of purifying social customs and ways. 
 
 It must not be overlooked that the sanctity and even the perpetuity of the 
 American home is seriously threatened. Marriage is deferred in all too 
 many instances until late in life for the sake of setting up a home, when it. 
 is founded, on a scale of luxury, not to say extravagance, comparable with 
 that of the parents. Marriage then becomes too frequently a matter “of 
 convenience,” The entrance of women into business and into the profes- . 
 sions, wholesome from the point of view of independence and self-realiza- 
 tion, nevertheless tends to make the home appear to many less desirable 
 and to give occasion more easily to disregard its claims and to set aside its 
 restraints. The course for the Church to pursue is not clearly perceived. 
 
 The problems of the home in America today are many and serious. 
 Among them may be named the following: 
 
eer 
 
 The emancipation of women, affecting the relations of the sexes, without 
 as yet furnishing an understanding of its meaning; 
 
 The high cost of living, with scarcely any abatement as yet in view, 
 accompanied with a passion for luxury, extravagance and display, all of 
 which deter people from entering into matrimony and of attempting to 
 keep a home together ; 
 
 Easy recourse to divorce proceedings, thereby losing the chastening and 
 purifying processes of forbearance and compromise ; 
 
 Time enough has elapsed to indicate that the free treatment given to 
 matters of sex in fiction, on the stage, in the moving pictures, in the daily 
 news and even in formal instruction has had a damaging rather than a 
 beneficial effect on the young and has been undermining the virtue and 
 stability of the home. 
 
 Problems of Youth 
 
 Efforts to surround children and young people with safeguards against 
 evil companions and vicious influence and inculcate in them at as early 
 an age as possible the principle of the Christian religion have been carried 
 as. far in America as in any country of the world. 
 
 The Sunday School, or Bible School, or School of Religious Instruction, 
 as it has variously been termed, has received the labors of some of the 
 ablest and most devoted members of the Church, both directly in and 
 through church organizations, and by means of outside, voluntary organiza- 
 tions, and branches and activities of which have reached into the smallest 
 communities, have spread over states, throughout the nation and into the 
 mission fields and the nations of the world. 
 
 Specialized organizations, like the Young Men’s Christian Association 
 and the Young Women’s Christian Association, have gathered the young 
 people of the two sexes and their friends into effective groups, working 
 each for its kind, with friendliness and assistance to help toward the 
 full development of the body, of the mind and of the spiritual nature. Upon 
 these organizations have been lavished great stores of wealth and of personal 
 devotion, under the sanction and with the approval of the Church. 
 
 The Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society and similar bodies of 
 young people have sought to mobilize and guide the consecration and 
 endeavors of young people themselves into the avenues of wholesome 
 Christian experience, sane and beneficial recreations and amusements, and 
 useful ministries to the Church and to society. 
 
 The Scout movement, both for boys and for girls has extended and 
 applied these efforts a bit further into sports and out-door activities and 
 into acquaintance with nature and her secrets. 
 
 The Church has been more than a sponsor for these movements. They 
 have originated, in almost every instance, within the councils of the Church; 
 they have never departed far from the Church; they have been fostered 
 by the Church,—not however without some misgivings in some quarters, it 
 is true, but, with a general endorsement and consent which has made them 
 at length real allies of the Church. 
 
 These organizations are large, well officered, generously financed, efficient 
 and among the most honored of any America possesses. 
 
6 
 
 The tendency of the American Church is to be less strict with its young 
 people than it formerly was, and to place more confidence in them. A 
 large number of congregations, constantly increasing, have parish houses, 
 or community houses, or buildings bearing a variety of designations, 
 designed almost exclusively for the use of young people, for their religious 
 education and services of fellowship and worship on Sunday, and for a 
 great variety of social and recreational purposes on the week days and 
 evenings. In these houses are the implements for many games and fre- 
 quently a well equipped gymnasium. Many other congregations, lacking 
 sufficient resources for separate buildings, devote the basement of the 
 meeting house, or some addition, or special space, to the same kinds of 
 uses, believing that pastimes and amusements, sane and wholesome, are 
 necessary for the normal boy and girl, and that these should be found under 
 the auspices and with the approval of the Church, rather than outside her 
 precincts and supervision. 
 
 There are several organizations whose aims and activities are directed 
 toward furnishing proper opportunities for and guiding the play instincts 
 of youth and providing programs in communities for the good use of leisure 
 time by adults. The Church is in sympathy with such organizations and 
 movements. 
 
 Among the outstanding problems concerning the youth of America may 
 be mentioned the following: 
 
 America is still experimenting in the field of secular education, as to 
 subjects to be taught, as to psychological and pedagogical-methods to be 
 employed, as to the relations of the sexes particularly in the upper grades 
 and higher institutions, as to the responsibility of State and Church and 
 their relations in the field of education and as to the ultimate ideals to be 
 sought throughout the entire process. 
 
 An adequate program of religious education is yet to be worked out and 
 agreed upon. 
 
 The youth movement in America, although stirring—as it must—in nor- 
 mal, developing minds, has not assumed political significance as in some 
 countries of Europe. College young people live for the most part, normal 
 lives in friendly relations in the community in which the educational institu- 
 tions are located. It may be that less attention is given to the various pur- 
 suits of study, and excessive interests and energies are consumed in 
 athletics and in competitions between colleges. There are, however, 
 operative influences, which promise to steady and bring to due propor- 
 tion these energies and interests. 
 
 Opportunities for amusement and recreation, sufficient in number, acces- 
 sible in location and suitable in character must be provided; this is not 
 
 always possible in modern cities, and is no less difficult to provide in many 
 rural districts; 
 
 How to preserve and cultivate the spirit of free initiative, through undi- 
 rected play and by means of some modern equivalent of the old apprentice- 
 ship system, when the son worked with his father and the novice was at 
 the side of the master-workman, is a serious problem. 
 
 The age-long problem faces the Church of keeping the forms of religious 
 expression fresh and vital, adapted to youth, renewed and changed, with 
 
iy ae 
 
 changing conditions, while at the same time the permanent spiritual con- 
 tent is preserved. 
 
 The Church and the Dependent, Neglected, Defective and Delinquent: 
 
 The Church has furnished the ideals and the incentives very largely for 
 the care of the unfortunate and the handicapped of every kind, but has 
 not, as a rule, herself, as an organization, undertaken to care for them. 
 The State makes provision for the feeble-minded, their education and their 
 custody, and for the insane, although there are some private institutions 
 serving both classes, chiefly, however, on a commercial rather than a 
 charitable basis. 
 
 In recent years the different states of the Union have made provision 
 for the education and industrial training of the competent blind. 
 
 For children, either orphans or those whose homes are inadequate, there 
 is a large number of homes and asylums, conducted according to a variety 
 of ideals and plans, but usually supported by private charity, springing 
 almost entirely from the Church. 
 
 Care is taken to prevent these refuges and asylums from becoming institu- 
 tionalized by customs and rules, which would crush out initiative and indi- 
 viduality. As fast as children become advanced enough in age and educa- 
 tion, it is more and more the policy to place them out in normal, private 
 homes, but still under the inspection and supervision of the central 
 administration. 
 
 Many homes for the aged and infirm have open doors for both men and 
 women, whose years and circumstances render them incapable of caring 
 longer for themselves and for whom no relatives can make provision. 
 These, too, usually rest upon private endowments and continuing gifts of 
 the living and are generally connected with or spring from the Church, 
 though not controlled by the Church. Roman Catholics, more than Pro- 
 testants, have these institutions under Church auspices and control. 
 
 As Society at large has become more humane, more merciful and more 
 thoroughly permeated with the spirit of Jesus, it has seemed as though 
 the service of the Church in these fields of ministry and care could under 
 ordinary circumstances be best rendered by cooperating with institutions 
 which have been established, and maintained, by the State. 
 
 Poverty and Pauperism 
 
 Christians have always been generous. Although they seek to save them- 
 selves, yet their earliest and most continuous teaching is that they shall 
 think of, shall serve and shall love others. The example of the Master is 
 ever before them; He “went about doing good”; He “was filled with com- 
 passion”; He “showed pity.” 
 
 In an individualistic way the Christians of America, under the teaching 
 and sanction of their churches have distributed food and clothing and help 
 of every kind to the poor. 
 
 But the systematic care of the poor has, as a rule, been delegated to 
 charity organizations and the State, or the Town; and “Poor Farms,” 
 
wl Bea 
 
 “Work Houses” and similar institutions have grown up, as the place of 
 refuge for those, overtaken by poverty, who have no friends able and will- 
 ing to care for them. The Church, having with good conscience freed itself 
 of this responsibility, has unfortunately given little further heed to these 
 needy people. Too often the feeble-minded, the lazy, the sick, the young 
 and the aged have been huddled together in conditions unsanitary, inhumane 
 and vicious, the only excuse for which has been inexpensiveness. 
 
 Gradually the generous and wiser impulses of the Church have been 
 aroused for the care of the very young and of the very aged, and these two 
 classes have been separated out from the other paupers and housed in com- 
 fortable and altogether suitable homes and asylums for them, provided in 
 many instances by voluntary offerings coming from the Church and its 
 people, or stimulated and controlled by them. 
 
 The better care of the pauper sick has been chiefly in hospitals maintained 
 by state and municipal governments; and yet in these recent years, many 
 of the Church communions have entered into this field of ministering to 
 the sick. 
 
 Some churches have undertaken to deal with the problem of unemploy- 
 ment and to find work for those who need it. The tendency, however, is to 
 render this social service either through private employment agencies or, 
 in times of special need, through temporary bureaus established by the 
 government. 
 
 There is a decided tendency in America for the churches of all Protest- 
 ant communions to enter into these fields of service, particularly through 
 establishing homes for children and for the aged, and hospitals for the sick. 
 
 Temperance and Prohibition 
 
 The first efforts at reforming the drunkard and removing the curse of 
 drink were aimed at the individual in an effort to get him to sign the pledge 
 of total abstinence. Many strikingly successful campaigns were held. The 
 Church, if not the originator of these movements, was nearly always a close 
 and sympathetic cooperator, and her edifices were open and her services 
 given over to these efforts. Great good was accomplished by these appeals, 
 and some of the most eminent people of their times were the apostles of 
 these temperance movements, advocates of “moral suasion” and of “signing 
 the pledge.” 
 
 By a hard tutelage and a slow process, the lesson was learned that the 
 individual could seldom stand alone in his fight against appetite, the pull of 
 bad companions and the corrupt practices of a nefarious business. The 
 evils of intemperance were discovered to be almost wholly social, and many 
 people became convinced,—though but slowly and with seeming reluctance 
 —that the only effective remedy possible was also social. 
 
 Women, at first as praying bands, which later became organized into the 
 Women’s Christian Temperance Union, were the pioneers in attempting 
 to close the liquor saloons and tippling places and dealing with the evil in 
 a social way and as more than an individual wrong. They succeeded in 
 having introduced into the laws of practically all the states a requirement 
 for. the compulsory teaching of the evils of the use of alcohol. This instruc- 
 
mat ies 
 
 tion, doubtless, had a very large part in developing an intelligent public 
 opinion leading up to the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment. The rec- 
 ord of their achievements and continuing influence inspired other move- 
 ments and the formation of other associations of men as well as of women. 
 The Good Templars became conspicuous at one time. 
 
 In the way of legislation against the manufacture, the transportation, the 
 sale and the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, the State of Maine 
 became a beginning almost three quarters of a century ago. A third of a 
 century later, Kansas and other States of the Middle West ventured upon 
 the experiment, at first timidly and with some vacillation. Then the prin- 
 ciple of “local option” gained sway, and towns and counties in all parts of 
 the country, essayed prohibition within their boundaries, only to find after 
 a time that the “wet border” of a neighboring community was their undoing. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to bring the question into partisan 
 politics; but the larger national parties have been unwilling to espouse the 
 cause. Then it became the platform of a “Third Party,” with varying ups 
 and downs, but with no pronounced success. For more than forty years a 
 Prohibition Party, usually with a scant but zealous following, has en- 
 deavored to win the support of the electorate and make prohibition the 
 policy of the nation. Loyal and consecrated people went throughout the 
 land proclaiming the doctrine of prohibtion by statutory law and by 
 amendment to the constitution of the states. Much literature was printed 
 and distributed. As an educational force the party method was of value. 
 Gradually and steadily the conviction was spreading and strengthening 
 that “the saloon must go” and that the power of the whiskey ring, in the 
 politics of the cities and of the nation, must be broken. States and coun- 
 ties and towns placed themselves under the prohibition standard and the 
 extent of “dry territory,” at first gradually, and later rapidly, increased. 
 
 When the Anti-Saloon League was organized in 1893, it declared its 
 purpose to unite all persons opposed to the beverage liquor traffic in an 
 “Gnter-denominational and omni-partisan” fellowship, and while not co- 
 operating with nor antagonizing any party as such it bent all its energies to 
 elect to public office the candidates of all parties favorable to progressive 
 legislation and its enforcement and to keep the records of public officials 
 impartially before their constituencies. The Anti-Saloon League received 
 the support of nearly all of the communions and was recognized as the 
 agent of the churches. Under its direction the policy of prohibition made 
 steady advance, gaining towns, counties and states, until the XVIIIth 
 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was adopted, providing 
 the means whereby the Nation, as a whole, became subject to total pro- 
 
 hibition of the traffic of intoxicating liquors as a beverage. 
 The Christian conscience of the Church of America is largely respon- 
 
 sible for this result. The War had brought the issue into bold prominence. 
 Labor must be efficient, but labor was being demoralized by drink. Every- 
 where the effect of drink upon the Negro race and others was feared. The 
 tremendous economic loss had become apparent. East and West, North 
 and South, with surprising unanimity, called for the Amendment, and the 
 laws and their enforcement; but the one dominating factor throughout the 
 entire country was the sentiment of the churches, crystallized in the action 
 of the Anti-Saloon League. 
 
MSs Gee 
 
 The Christian Church realized that the enactment of laws and the em- 
 bodiment of a principle in the constitution of the land do not at once 
 produce sobriety and virtue. Arrayed against the enforcement and seeking 
 in every possible way its discrediting and ultimate overthrow are many men 
 and many motives,—those who wish to do business for gain, those. whose 
 appetites and passions crave indulgence, those who are heedless of moral 
 ends and in a spirit of bravado like to violate law as in itself a kind of 
 mental stimulant, those who would use and debauch the natures of men 
 for their own political purposes. Vast moneyed interests are at stake. 
 the Christian Church and the moral people of America have upon 
 their hands a warfare for righteousness which will not be slight and may 
 not be brief. America is attempting a great moral reform, of world-wide 
 significance, and in it she needs the support of the moral and religious 
 influences of all lands. 
 
 We are aware that other nations of the world are involved with us. 
 From them come now much of the liquor which the smuggler and the boot- 
 legger sell. The convictions and sentiment of other nations help to weaken 
 or strengthen the determination of our own people. The success or failure, 
 which we secure in America, will have a bearing upon the legislation and 
 upon the habits of all of the world. ‘ 
 
 The prohibitory law is undergoing a severe trial. Three States, New 
 York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, either by legislative enactment, or by 
 act of the Chief Executive have openly set at naught the Constitution and 
 the laws of the Federal Government. There are good people, some in lead- 
 ing positions in political life, some prominent as educators and in other high 
 callings, and even some clergymen, who do not hesitate to deplore, if not 
 to denounce the Amendment and the laws, averring that they are too drastic 
 and untimely and predicting that they can never be enforced. And yet, in 
 the midst of the controvery, the officials at Washington, both in the Admin- 
 istration and in Congress, defend and stand by the law almost unanimously. 
 The conclusion is irresistible that the astute politicians of both parties are 
 convinced that the conscience of the majority of the people of the United 
 States has gone into the enactment of these policies and that the people are 
 determined to carry them through. 
 
 It may fairly be said that the opposition to the policy of prohibition is 
 strongest and most vociferous in the larger cities on the Atlantic seaboard, 
 while the South, the Middle West, the Far West and the Northwest are 
 stoutest in favor of the laws and their enforcement. Another way of 
 stating the division of sentiment is this:—where the native born stock is 
 the prevailing population, prohibition is in favor and in those sections where 
 the foreign-born are the most numerous the opposition is pronounced. In 
 some aspects then, the problem in America is due to a conflict of ideals from 
 opposite sides of the ocean. 
 
 (In view of the world-wide interest in the operation of the American 
 National Prohibition Law, of certain widespread misconceptions concerning 
 the same, and of the desire on the part of many to have the latest available 
 accurate information bearing upon that question, an authoritative supple- 
 mentary statement will be issued for distribution at the Conference in Stock- 
 holm, concerning the principles underlying that law, the factors which 
 
Body ho 
 
 Operated to secure its enactment, the immediate results which followed its 
 adoption, and the probable ultimate effect upon the social order, not only 
 in the United States, but in other countries of the world.) 
 
 Prisoners and Crime 
 
 One of the darker pages in the social history of the Church is that in 
 which its seeming indifference to all classes of misdemeanants and all sub- 
 jects connected with crime, penology and reformation is written. This is a 
 record of neglect. Jails and prisons have been left almost entirely to poli- 
 ticians and to government agents. 
 
 Society has been permitted to struggle with various experiments,—with the 
 Pennsylvania System of solitary confinement in idleness, with the Auburn 
 System of group control and employment, with the Elmira System of 
 attempted reform and parole,—while the Church has continued to preach 
 an individual sin and salvation only to those who came within her walls. 
 A pamphlet describing prison systems in operation in the United States at. 
 this time is in process of preparation and will be published and distributed 
 at the time of the conference. 
 
 Here and there individuals, members of churches, but acting chiefly 
 upon their own responsibility and initiative, have seen the need of this class 
 of unfortunates and have given unstinted and invaluable service to their 
 care. 
 
 Tardily even the Commission on Church and Social Service has taken 
 up this form of service and brought the Federal Council of the Churches 
 of Christ in America into contact with the problems and a sane and rational 
 attempt at their solution. 
 
 Several large and important questions loom up in this connection. 
 
 To what extent is the violator of law responsible for his acts? Is he 
 a victim of heredity? Was he properly cared for in youth? Was the 
 environment in which he grew up itself a breeder of crime? What influences 
 surrounded him at school, or in the years when he should have been at 
 school? Is he the unfortunate sufferer from some physical or mental dis- 
 order which predisposes him in wrong doing? To what extent is the 
 Church responsible for his wrong doing? 
 
 On what basis should criminals be classified and segregated? 
 
 What are the proper social motives for the punishment of crime? 
 
 How should prisons and jails be constructed? Who should be respon- 
 sible for the care, administration and inspection of them? 
 
 What should be done for the discharged prisoner’s social reassimilation 
 and rehabilitation? 
 
 Whether capital punishment is ever justifiable has become an open, moot 
 question with many people in America. Juries are less liable than formerly 
 to bring in verdicts which have the death penalty attached ; judges and other 
 court officers tend toward leniency in urging punishment and in sentencing 
 the convicted; the public frequently shows a disposition to become sen- 
 timental in the face of a great crime and of a daring criminal. It would 
 almost seem at times as though the craze for sensations and for notoriety 
 were moving causes in the minds of the degenerate and ill-balanced for the 
 
> 
 
 commission of an outstanding, appalling crime. In this connection the 
 responsibility of the newspapers, which spread abroad the noisome details, 
 is pointed out and they are noted as the makers of opinion and, by sug- 
 gestiveness, the schoolmasters in crime. 
 
 The Day of Rest and Worship— 
 
 The place of Sunday as the day of rest was at first unchallenged in 
 America. In many of the colonies and in most of the states it became 
 hedged about by laws, that prohibited many of the activities which are 
 now regarded as absolutely essential to the comfortable existence of Society 
 under modern conditions. Yet in most cases the old laws, known as 
 “Blue Laws,”—stand upon the statute books. No one wishes to change 
 them, because no one seems quite ready to indicate how they should be 
 changed so as to preserve that which is important and let go the outgrown 
 features. We have, then, in America an abundance of law to protect and 
 preserve Sunday as the day of rest and worship. The day is generally pretty 
 well observed; but there is considerable disregard of Sunday laws as such. 
 
 There are four pronounced influences in the country, which make it 
 very difficult for us to determine the kind of day we should have and how 
 to secure it:— 
 
 The Jews are more numerous in America than in any other country in 
 the world. They would observe Saturday as the Sabbath, and yet, because 
 Sunday is the legal day of rest, their tendency is to observe no day or at 
 least not so to observe it as to make themselves influential in social customs, 
 save to break down the observance of Sunday. 
 
 There are Christian sects which seek to restore Saturday as the holy day 
 of rest and worship on Scriptural grounds, They and the Jews are entitled 
 to religious freedom, and consequently the practice in America has been 
 tolerant with both groups, when they have substituted one day for the other, 
 and lenient even when there has been desecration of one without honor- 
 ing the other. 
 
 The practice of Roman Catholics, after faithful attention to religious 
 obligations in the forenoon, then to devote Sunday afternoon to pastime and 
 in some instances to secular pursuits, has had a confusing and disturbing 
 influence upon the observances of the day, which might otherwise be main- 
 tained under Protestant and Puritan sanction. 
 
 Into America have come a host of people from other lands, where some 
 other day, or no day at all, has been observed with religious significance ; and 
 in communities in which the newcomers have predominated, naturally the 
 rest day disappeared, or became prostituted to other purposes. 
 
 Then as the population of the country has become more and more urban- 
 ized the need of complete change from city to country, has stimulated flight 
 to the parks, to the woods, to the seashore, to the golf links, and to all sorts 
 of pastime and sport, with a consequent commercialization of the day be 
 cause it offered large financial gains to systems of transportation, to hotels 
 and restaurants, and to all purveyors of pastime and amusement. 
 
 There are large and long established organizations for the protection 
 of the day of rest, which are making careful investigations of grounds 
 
eS fa 
 
 upon which the day may be ‘justified and the ways of securing its better 
 abservance. These organizations are for the most part distinctly created 
 and sustained by the Church. 
 
 The Use of Leisure 
 
 We have not, however, explained the social and moral problems con- 
 nected with the use of leisure, when we have dealt with the day of rest 
 and worship. It is necessary to go further. 
 
 There was a time when lotteries were authorized by state governments 
 and were permitted to send their printed matter through th mails to all 
 parts of the country. Those times are past. But betting, gambling and the 
 playing of various kinds of games of chance, frequently with various kinds 
 of devices, have become all too common and threaten to be a national vice. 
 Travellers on steamships and by railroad trains wager money or set up 
 pools, on trifling matters, whether it be the day’s run of a vessel, the quick- 
 ness of a porter in making up a berth, or the speed of the train between 
 stations. The national sports, yachting, horse racing, baseball, football, 
 tennis, golf, all become occasions for the placing of long bets, which the 
 papers do not hesitate to publish as news gratifying to the public. Students 
 in some colleges and high schools are carried away with this distemper as by 
 a mania. At election times the chances of candidates to win at the polls 
 are often estimated by the amount of money which partisans are willing to 
 wager. Bets at some times are quoted as stock market prices are quoted, 
 to indicate the condition of the country. 
 
 Problems of this kind are arising in threatening aspect. Too long the 
 fashionable part of American society has dabbled in the lesser forms of 
 betting and gambling,—making small ventures in games at parties and social 
 functions. Even the Church has been known to permit questionable affairs 
 at sales and other gatherings under her auspices, selling chances on dolls 
 and cakes, and watches, and automobiles, permitting grab-bags and other 
 schemes, which savored wholly of chance and naught of skill or industry or 
 of any honest equivalent for the object sought. 
 
 The American conscience as a whole has not yet been awakened to the 
 peril of these evils, nor to the insidious way in which they are making 
 inroads into the habits of the people. 
 
 These are evils of far reach, throughout many lands and among many 
 peoples and call for the united efforts of the Christians of all churches. 
 Sound principles of economy and ethics fortify those who seek to make 
 men more honest, more thrifty, more frugal, more conscientious in toil 
 and in exchange. 
 
 The right of leisure in America has many advocates with divergent views 
 and varying motives and is threatened with many perils. 
 
 Labor organizations have generally insisted upon one day in seven for 
 rest, and the Church and Labor have worked together for this object, gen- 
 erally with success. Recently some of the great industries of the country, 
 
 like iron, steel and paper plants, which on economic grounds seemed 
 obliged to keep the continuous operation, have conceded the eight-hour 
 
eld ph 
 
 shift and the weekly day of rest to their employees. Certainly workmen in 
 all industries should receive for six days of labor adequate compensation 
 to maintain themselves and their families for the seven days of the week. 
 
 The great national game, baseball, has long insisted that it should be 
 permitted to entertain the people on Sunday. In some cities and in some 
 states this is allowed, and the largest crowds of the week attend the Sunday 
 ball games. Even in communities in which it is not legally permitted, it is 
 played upon the vacant lots and in the not distant suburbs, so that the quiet 
 of the day and the peace of mind of many church worshippers are disturbed. 
 Other amusements and sports clamor for like recognition and toleration, in 
 some parts of the country horse racing, in all parts of the country—golf, 
 automobiling and resorting to amusement parks by the sea, the rivers and 
 lakes. The evils of these places arise not from what nature offers, but from 
 the crowds and the vices which have been introduced, because profitable to 
 the vendors of them. There are organized movements, even great corpora- 
 tions, having large vested interests, which undertake for proft to pander 
 to the lower appetites of men in their hours of leisure. 
 
 Moving picture shows have spread through the country almost like wild 
 fire. Scarcely a hamlet is without one at least. Their tendency in the 
 past has not been on the whole wholesome, but an improvement has set in. 
 Educators, parents, social workers and municipal governments have been 
 aroused, and, while legal censorship is not common, nevertheless a kind 
 of public censorship has become effective in many communities. In some 
 people there has developed a kind of mania for attending shows, which 
 presents some aspects of intoxication or of the drug habit. Yet better 
 pictures and pictures used for higher purposes are becoming the rule. 
 
 The tendency in America is for the Church to raise the ban upon social 
 dancing and for municipalities to regulate and restrict the places for public 
 dancing with greater care. 
 
 Libraries, reading rooms and museums are open more hours on work- 
 days in the evenings and on Sundays than in the past and are frequented 
 by more people with every passing year. There is a very gratifying tend- 
 ency, fostered by many organizations, to return to nature, to get out into 
 the open, to take hikes, to botanize, to study animals, minerals, antiquities. 
 This urge for knowledge, more or less tinged with the scientific spirit, is 
 one of the most wholesome and notable influences making for the right use 
 of leisure in the American life. 
 
 The use of the radio, perhaps, to be regarded as a temporary fad, has 
 become, at least for the present, almost a national passion. If it be claimed 
 by some that there is a tendency to substitute the listening in on sermons 
 for actual attendance at church, yet to others experience has shown that the 
 message of the Church can be carried through this medium to those who 
 could not, or would not, come to her services. ; 
 
 In all parts of the country local churches and some denominations as 
 a policy, are establishing, under various designations, parish houses, neigh- 
 borhood houses and community houses, which are employed for the 
 recreation, the entertainment and the social purposes of the neighborhood 
 or community. 
 
1s 
 
 There is an increasing disposition to regard the furnishing of wholesome 
 recreation as a legitimate function of the church, and the gospel more and 
 more is conceived of and proclaimed as a purifying, energizing and con- 
 structive message to the whole of man. 
 
 Race Relations 
 
 The presence of many races and nationaliities in the United States 
 has produced serious problems in human relationships that create un- 
 usual tasks and opportunities for the churches. Some of these problems 
 are incidental to a process of adjustment, as group after group assimilates 
 itself to the general pattern of western culture and civilization, a process 
 already advancing towards a realization of national harmony. Other 
 problems, derived from more deep-seated inter-racial attitudes, have their 
 roots in historical antagonisms and marked physical differences. Both 
 types of problems in varied forms confront the home mission efforts and 
 introduce complications into the whole structure and activities of the 
 churches. The following population figures will give a clue to the basic 
 facts: According to the last Census, there were in 1920, in a _ total 
 population of 105,700,000 
 
 10,460,000 Negroes (including all degrees of mixed white and 
 Negro blood) ; 
 350,000 American Indians; 
 500,000 Asiatics (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Per- 
 sians, Armenians) ; 
 14,000,000 other foreign-born and speaking foreign languages; 
 21,000,000 American-born children of foreign-born; 
 4,000,000 Jews. 
 
 Not all the foreign-born groups present the same problems. In the 
 case of the European-born immigrants and their children, assimilation 
 on the whole is completed with the use of the English language for 
 ordinary intercourse, adoption of American customs and manners and 
 acquisition of American citizenship with a full regard for its duties and 
 privileges—a process usually taking from two to three generations. 
 Special home mission treatment is required more especially for the 
 immigrants of the first generation and their children. 
 
 There has been a gradual change of emphasis in the work done by the 
 churches on behalf -of the Jewish population. While the Jew 
 pers himself quickly to American ways, socially and economically, 
 
 € remains separate racially and culturally, no matter for how many 
 generations he has been in America. Intermarriage between Jews and 
 Gentiles is on the increase. Generally, however, there is evidence in 
 their relations of a sense of difference, if not actual prejudice, wherever 
 Jews are found in considerable numbers. Efforts at evangelization have 
 not been very effective; mission work among the Jews usually meets 
 with open hostility. The antagonism of Jews against Gentiles is chiefly 
 religious and racial, and resentment against various forms of special 
 discrimination ; that of Gentiles against Jews is more largely social and 
 economic—though the religious animosity survives—and is due to the 
 ‘Tapidity with which Jews acquire prosperity as against the slowness 
 with which, in common with other groups, they grasp and share the 
 
prevailing cultural habits and ideals. In these circumstances, the 
 churches more and more direct their program to the disarming of pre- 
 judice on both sides rather than immediate proselytism. There is every 
 evidence that these newer efforts are effective in countering prejudicial 
 propaganda on both sides. 
 
 The Christianization of the American Indian has been rendered dif- 
 ficult by neglect and exploitation. While progress has been made in 
 some sections, it is hindered in others by the dispersion of the Indians 
 in small settlements. On the other hand, owing to this isolation and to 
 their relatively small numbers, the Indians do not meet with as much 
 antagonism on the part of whites as might be anticipated from their 
 strangeness in appearance and customs. For example, there is no legal 
 restriction on the intermarriage of whites and Indians, and any Indian 
 who wishes to do so may become an American citizen. 
 
 The half million Asiatics in the United States constitute not only a 
 domestic problem but also a problem for foreign policy because of the 
 national complications involved by their presence. More especially the 
 relations between tthe United States and Japan have been embarrassed 
 more than once by the race antagonism stirred up against the Japanese 
 on the Pacific Coast. The home mission agencies have a definite 
 program not only for evangelizing and adjusting these Asiatics but also 
 for the creation of good-will between them and their white neighbors. 
 
 The outstanding American problem in race relations is, of course, that 
 between whites and Negroes, with its heritage from the days of slavery. 
 The emancipation of four million slaves during the Civil War, yet within 
 living memory, did not permanently ensure for them and their descend- 
 ants equal citizenship rights. On the other hand, the exercise of the 
 franchise in the years immediately following the war, by former slaves 
 unprepared for the responsibilities of citizenship, left their mark on the 
 attitude of the white South. With the aid primarily of the churches 
 and of northern philanthropists, and in recent years also with that of 
 progressive and well-disposed Southerners, the Negroes have made rapid 
 progress in economic, cultural and religious development. Their afforts 
 for self-improvement have won the admiration and active assistance 
 of white Americans. 
 
 In this growing appreciation for the Negro, an increasing migration 
 of the race from the country to the cities and from the South to the 
 North has played its part. The world war, with its sudden demand 
 for an increased industrial labor supply, greatly accelerated this migra- 
 tion. Unfortunately, the demand for Negro labor has not as yet become 
 constant but is fluctuating; and even in those centers where Negroes 
 have made their homes in large numbers, the provision of adequate 
 housing, educational and other facilities for them has remained an ex- 
 ception, with the result that opportunities to earn higher wages have 
 not yet brought commensurate advantages. Of course, the depletion 
 of the supply of cheap colored labor in the South has had the effect of 
 improving also the appreciation of Negro workers who have remained in 
 the South. The number of lynchings and other attacks upon life, health 
 and property has decreased. In the matter of social intercourse, the old 
 dead line between the races practically remains unbroken; and it must 
 be chronicled that the increase of the Negroes in the North has brought 
 with it sharper discrimination in this respect than existed formerly. 
 The increase in the number of industrially employed Negroes is generally 
 
al Yr a ee 
 
 regarded unfavorably by white wage-earners, and advancement from 
 the less to the more skilled forms of employment is difficult. 
 
 In all this advancement, the churches have taken a conspicuous part. 
 The religious care of the Negro population is, to a large extent, a home 
 mission obligation, more especially because the social cleavage between 
 white and colored is so great that the two races rarely worship in the 
 same congregation. By far the larger part of the Negro population is 
 attached to the Baptist and several branches of the Methodist Episcopal 
 churches. For some decades there has been a marked growth of independent 
 Negro church bodies, which now embrace nearly nine-tenths of Negro 
 church members. 
 
 As a result of these influences, the Negro race is producing not only 
 its own religious leadership but also its own leadership in other con- 
 cerns, so that further internal progress of the Negro group in America 
 and their relations to the white group is largely bound up with the future 
 _ of the Negro churches and the growing strength of Negro leadership. 
 
 The home mission boards of the country have taken the initiative 
 in providing Negroes, as well as immigrant populations, with oppor- 
 tunities for social and health education. Large sums are expended by 
 them in maintaining schools, colleges and seminaries for the training 
 of Negro teachers, physicians, lawyers and other professions as well 
 as ministers. The public school authorities and schools supported by 
 Negroes themselves are now providing educational facilities for a rapidly 
 increasing proportion of the colored population, thus setting home mis- 
 sion resources in part free for other services. Very little provision is 
 as yet made for higher education of Negroes throughout the South, 
 so that the major burden of providing for it falls upon the churches. 
 
 In regard to all the problems mentioned in these paragraphs, there is 
 a noticeable increase of efforts to create a better uunderstanding and 
 cooperation between the different groups. There is a decided trend 
 of policy to work with these various groups rather than for them. Old 
 established discriminations are sharply challenged by the churches, and 
 practically every denomination is in process of enlarging and refining its 
 educational program for applying Christian principles to race relations. 
 
 Health and Sanitation: 
 
 The physical welfare of people has not received from the Church consist- 
 ent attention until very recent times. Too long has “the flesh” been asso- 
 ciated with “the world” and “the devil” for it to be regarded by the 
 theologians as the source of any good. But common people did at length 
 learn through experience that the conditions of the body did affect condi- 
 tions of mind and spirit, and they discovered that the best estate of man 
 and woman must rest upon health and sound physical conditions. These 
 lessons, however, came very slowly. Volumes could be written upon the 
 folly of attempting to improve the souls of men, while their lungs were 
 diseased, or their bodies were shivering with cold and starving for lack 
 of food. 
 
 Crowded tenement districts, reeking slums, inadequate sewerage, impure 
 water, foul air, epidemics, contagious diseases,—these are still but phrases, 
 devoid of a religious content to most church members, and yet the Church 
 is beginning to take notice of these things, through specialized workers, by 
 means of committees and commissions and as a part of the expanding pro- 
 
Bee f28 
 
 gram of those churches which have awakened to the social needs of a city 
 environment. . 
 
 The Church has always believed in prayer for the sick, and in some 
 instances in anointing by oil and the laying on of hands. But when the 
 Christian Science cult arose a few years ago and so speedily won its thou- 
 sands of adherents, many citurches began to realize that they had been 
 leaving out of their message a part of the Gospel meaning for the bodies 
 and physical environs of men. 
 
 America has suffered from a multitude of weird and fantastic notions 
 respecting health and healing, some of them promoted by people who pro- 
 fess a religious faith and claim to accomplish marvelous results through the 
 assistance of a divine power. The earnest sincerity of some and the reli- 
 gious formule which they employ make it very difficult to disclose and deal 
 with those who are charlatans and imposters. Probably no greater frauds, 
 costing so much in money, in disappointed hopes and in aching hearts, have 
 ever been practiced upon the American people than those offered in many 
 plausible guises to the sick, the lame, the halt and the blind. 
 
 There is suffering in the world, and more and more Christian and scien- 
 tific sanity are being applied. The need, however, is great. Hospitals, 
 dispensaries and charities are merciful remedies; but Christian zeal and 
 consecration are discovering and applying preventive measures. 
 
 Alliance with Charity and Philanthropy 
 
 It is well to remember that the social consciousness is a result of Christ’s 
 coming into the world. Where His gospel has not gone it does not exist. 
 
 In addition to her own direct ministrations in the field of charity and 
 philanthropy, the American church is in intimate fellowship and coopera- 
 tion with many societies and movements which seek the amelioration of the 
 hard conditions under which a large part of the race lives and works. Chari- 
 ties and philanthropies of many forms, which spring up outside of the 
 Church, receive continuing support from the Church by the contributions 
 of sacrificial workers and of large sums of money, without which these 
 organizations could not exist. If ever there has appeared hostility between 
 these organization and the Church, it has been due to the fact that the 
 Church, in some quarters, has been slow to understand the language and 
 the methods of an applied Christianity as it departed somewhat from the 
 older forms of Christian individualism. These misunderstandings have 
 largely disappeared and cooperation in most instances has become intimate 
 and cordial. If there were more of social justice in the world there would 
 be less need for charitable and philanthropic measures. 
 
 The Church recognizes the American Red Cross as an arm of its own 
 benevolence and ministry unto sufferers from disaster of any kind, and 
 the Salvation Army as a branch of its service to the “down and outs,” who 
 may be shy of the more orderly methods of the Church itself. 
 
 The Church sets its approval upon and gives its support to a great multi- 
 tude of homes, asylums, retreats, hospitals, reformatories and institutions 
 for the help of almost every misfortune which can befall mankind. 
 
 The Church believes in and promotes good music, and expressive architec- 
 ture, and harmonious decoration. The Church fosters art in all of its forms, 
 including painting, sculpture, landscape gardening and civic planning. 
 
ges (9 BLS 
 
 The Church encourages wholesome amusement and recreation and ex- 
 presses in recent days an approval of all things normally human as a part 
 of the divine harmony intended in that “Kingdom of God” when all things 
 become Christ’s. 
 
 Social Science 
 
 About thirty-five years ago, when the scholars of all the world began 
 to recognize that there was a science of human society, the Church of 
 America welcomed the new discipline into its colleges and into some of its 
 theological seminaries, and began to tell her clergy that communities, and 
 groups, and human institutions of every kind must be studied with scientific 
 accuracy and care in an effort to discover, analyze and classify causes and 
 forces so that the principles of Jesus Christ might be applied to the begin- 
 nings of difficulties and might intelligently encourage every form of good 
 and check and repress every form of evil. 
 
 Now the colleges and universities of America have asa rule departments 
 of sociology conducted by staffs of competent, and in many instances emi- 
 nent, scholars who are studying, analyzing and interpreting social condi- 
 tions and social forces, seeking to bring to bear from all sources of human 
 knowledge data which will permit the formulation of some of the laws of 
 social life and social conduct. Similar endeavors are being made in the insti- 
 tions of other lands, and America is part of this world-wide fellowship of 
 research, investigation and anticipated discovery. 
 
 Most of the theological seminaries of America have departments of in- 
 struction in social science in its applied forms, and candidates for the 
 ministry are equipped at least with a sympathetic understandimg of what 
 most of the social problems are and are supplied with something of contact 
 and ministry unto the communities of which their parishes may be a part. 
 _ Several denominations employ Social Service Secretaries, whose func- 
 tions are to interpret to the churches the meaning of social service and 
 to help these churches to become dynamic factors and forces in their 
 communities for the improvement and betterment of every kind of social 
 and moral condition. The number of denominations having such secretaries 
 is increasing. 
 
 The American Church has produced not a few great leaders in this de- 
 partment of study and in the practice of this Christian social art. The 
 books which they have produced have exerted a wide influence. To name 
 but a few, and those who have passed into the Great Beyond, one needs 
 to remember such as Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong and Walter 
 Rauschenbusch. The living apostles of this order are a multitude. 
 
 The movement toward Christian unity, which has found expression par- 
 ticularly within the last twenty-five years in such organizations as the Federal 
 Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the Home Missions Coun- 
 cil, the Foreign Missions Conference, and the Council of Church Boards of 
 Education, with allied bodies, has been a great factor, not simply in mak- 
 ing plain a vast body of common interests belonging to all churches 
 and to all Christians, but also in focussing attention and concentrating effort 
 upon social and moral problems which fall to the Christian Church to solve 
 and, by the processes of her Christian life, remove. 
 
ey () sere 
 
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Da PM | Sule 
 
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