! - fro w? e \ O.S The i Taskof theChurch in the City 3 HERMAN F. SWAR' The Task of the Church Herman F. Swartz Associate Secretary of the Congregational Home Missonary Society THE CONGREGATIONAL HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY 287 Fourth Avenue, New York 1912 in By General Outline PAGE I. General Nature of the Task 3 II. Development of the City Problem 4 1. Key to the Modern City 4 2. Immense American City Growth 4 3. Method of Development 5 III. Working Men's Districts 7 1. Economic and Racial Factors 7 2. Effect upon the Church 9 S. Law of Church Survival 13 IV. Transient Population Districts 14 V. Districts of Substantial Families 18 VI. Suburban Districts 20 VII. Exceptional Districts 21 VIII. Recommendations 23 1. Recommendations as to General Policy ... 23 2. Recommendations as to Detail of Method 27 The Task of the Church in the City I. General Nature of the Task THE task of the church in the city is at heart not different from the task of the church elsewhere. The form of the task is in maiiy respects quite different. The work of the church in all places is to bring man into right relations with God and with man. In this labor the church seeks to show the world the beneficent presence of God and thus to " spiritualize " all human motives. Of this aspect of its service the church has never been forgetful. The other phase of its work, namely, the establish- ment of right relationships among men, has never been so clear nor so forceful. The church is con- stituted of men, and their conflicting self-interests have sought only truces, not decisions, when men gathered to worship. But the kingdom of God is a kingdom of righteousness. The modern city has produced conditions challenging the church to go on into the rest of the divinely given program. The form of service which this task may require is the still unanswered problem before the city church. The objective is now clear to all careful students, but the way to it is still unsurveyed. Possibly the situation may best be perceived by a view of the development of its most notable elements. 3 ir. Development of the City Problem 1 . Key to the Modern City. The type of great city now existing in the more civilized parts of the world is an extremely modern institution. The cities of antiquity were primarily military strongholds and seats of government. The medi- eval cities were centers of trade, supplemented by household industries. The modern city is prima- rily a monstrous factory, with commerce as its assistant, and military strength almost forgotten. Limits are no longer determined by fortifica- tions ; boulevards have ceased to be bulwarks and have become highways. Bounds are now measured by convenience of access to the huge common workshops and by the speculative values of land. 2. Immense American City Growth. In America the city growth has been on an amaz- ing scale, while its disquieting characteristics have largely appeared within the span of life of men still with us. The phenomena so portentous are yet so new that the wisest among us have scarcely had time to give them thought. A century ago America had not one city that would now be ranked as "second class," but in 1910 there were not less than 229 cities ranging from 25,000 to nearly 5,000,000 in population. This growth has been accomplished from only three kinds of material. First, the excess of births ; second, the rural-born moving to town ; and third, 4 the foreign-born flocking into our urban commu- nities. All three of these classes present new issues to the church. The first does so in that the child reared in the environment of the modern city is almost an abnormality in the human race. The second class presents all the anxiety incident to transplanting. The third group has not only the perils of change of home, but differences of lan- guage, customs, and racial characteristics. To these fundamental factors are added, in growing gravity : the burdens of modern indust- rialism ; congestion of populations, with the destruc- tion of home privacy ; the supply and distribution of food ; new standards of education, both general and specifically religious ; economic class con- sciousness ; Christians more jealous of what they are pleased to call their " conscientious convictions" than of love of men, with consequent denomina- tionalism; and in conclusion the enormous, un- manageable bigness of it all, in a purely physical sense. 3. Method of Development. Let us sketch the growth of a typical American city. To do so will reveal the presence and effect of each element of the problem. Our typical city two generations ago was an active, ambitious community of a few thousand souls. In the center was the public square. The municipal buildings stood beside it. The leading 5 highways converged there. The boat landings were within five minutes' walk. A railroad had newly come in. The leading retail shops were on or near the square. The more bulky and cheaper wares were marketed in stores located between the square and the harbor. Here, also, were the wholesale interests. Between the new railroad and the water front several little factories were in opera- tion, employing from ten to fifty or one hundred men each. The more prosperous families had pleasant homes " on the hill," possibly a half mile from the square. The bulk of the people built their homes nearer the square, or out toward the factories. Most of the homes had gardens and lawns. The churches were clustered on or near the square. At least four denominations were represented, and the two leading denomina- tions had two churches each, both because their constituents were numerous enough to justify it, and also because there had been some *' feelings " in the past. III. Working Men's Districts 1 . Economic and Racial Factors. It is a homogeneous community of English-speaking peo- ple. Suddenly the community begins to grow. The reason may be cheap power, by which the factories profit; or advantages of transportation, making it a particularly desirable place to produce goods ; or some natural source is revealed, as iron, coal, clay, etc.; or the city may be geographically placed to receive and work up the produce of a great agricultural region or lumber district ; or pos- sibly its commerce has drawn to its banks great surpluses of money and credits, making it easy for manufacturers and builders to secure funds ; or the bright genius of a group of able men may have focused upon this point ; or a tariff or special leg- 7 islation may have taxed the whole nation to the benefit of the inhabitants of this city. Whatever may be the cause, the owners of these factories find their business prosperous. If a little is good, more is better, but to enlarge their enterprises more " hands " are needed. Just then Ireland is suffer- ing a grievous famine. It is discovered that the Irishman can do some of the cheaper factory work, and that he, being hungry, is very willing to do it at a price lower than ever paid before. Let the Irish come ; it does them good and increases profits. The newcomers, being able to pay only the lowest rents, get the least desirable part of town — near the din and smoke of the railroad and factories. The native workmen move into new districts where modest homes are built. A Roman Catholic church is built on the boundary dividing the Irish section from the native working- men. The increase of population is very profitable for landowners, for, by putting several families in one house, rents are increased without additional out- lay. This movement rapidly enriches some of the older families, so that their children do not need to be made useful citizens in order to live. But the Irish will not labor as cheaply as the French Canadian, and the Italian is still cheaper. The Slavs come cheaper yet. Then the Jew of central Europe, having to flee for his life, will work under any terms. The scale of wages — in terms of purchasing power — can be reduced to a point 8 just sufficient to keep up a flow of Slavs or Polish Jews. And then the Oriental is discovered. He will work fourteen hours, live in barracks, and eat rice. At this point the nation wakes up and draws the line of restrictive legislation. Each new nation- ality of foreigner dispossesses his predecessors, new tenements are built, increasing the land values enormously, or the old, shabby houses are crowded more and more. Meanwhile, to care for the gross increase, new districts are opened up for the earKer nationalities of workingmen, while all land values increase by leaps. City rapid transit is invented, but it cannot balance the congestion, for the time occupied going to and fro is part of a man's working day, and he is not paid for it, while the cost of it is but another name for rent. All of this serves to crowd families closer together. First, the lawn is sacrificed, then the garden, then "upstairs" is rented to another family or boarders are taken. Then the old house is replaced by a huge tenement, for which the workingman pays from one third to one half his gross wage for the privilege of occupying three pigeonholes in a brick wall, there to sleep and suffocate until in the desperately congested regions, the children are in the gutter, the father is in the saloon, and the mother is in the blues. This is the history of the industrial sections of a hundred cities. 2. Effect upon the Church, What has been the fortune of the church in these districts ? 9 The early native- working families belonged to the churches on the square. They were officers and leaders in these churches. The Irish church was the first new thing, but it was looked upon kindly, and the native Protestants furnished the money for the Irish Catholic Hospital. But the immigrant displacement of the native- working class introduced the new factor of distance, and the radius of usefulness of a family church is measured by the length of a child's legs — say from one half to three fourths of a mile. Thus arose the call for new churches, and all the denominations duplicated their plants in these industrial regions. The moneyed people clung to the old places of worship, having not so many children and more horses. Thus the workingmen discovered the difficulty of financing their churches, and cheaper edifices and ministers were used. But the Italians drove out the Irish and took the riomes of the native stock, and the Italian does not want the Irish Catholic church, and the Irish has no use for the Protestant institutions. Then the Slav and the Hebrew make succeeding waves, while Chinatown takes possession of the bottom of the procession. The Protestants are more and more scattered, for the area of a circle increases as the square of the radius. The cost of successive new buildings, and the leaping cost of building sites, makes estab- lishment increasingly difficult. True, the old sites 10 have also increased in value, but in the working- men's districts this increase is seldom sufficient to offset the loss on the building. Thus the Yankee sells out to the German or Irish, he to the Italian, and he to the Jew, and the latter sells to give entrance to a joss-house. The alternative is to sell out for business purposes and quit. The entire process is generally profitable for the one below, and a loss for the one above. In many cases honest attempts have been made to maintain the church by converting the newcom- ing groups. There has been just enough success to show that it is exceedingly difficult. The nationalities and religions view each other here with the suspicions inherited from across the seas. So far it has been practically impossible to find ministers capable of mediating. This is not only true between Protestant and Catholic, but the Polish priests are at war with the Irish bishops, and the orthodox Jew views all Romanists with a perfect hatred. Consequently, the group below cannot rear the mediating ministers in sufficient numbers to affect the case, and, alas, the Protestant churches, at least, have not set aside men to be trained in speech, ways of thinking, and manner of serving to meet the newer arrivals. Furthermore, the growing congestion of popu- lation, with its destruction of complete and genuine home life, has made the long-established tradition 11 of the typical family church a mere memory in such communities. Through all this there runs an economic condi- tion, based upon the present capitalistic system, that makes a self-supporting, growing church of the evangelical type a logical impossibility in many situations. The reason is this: A church is an investment. To build it requires relatively much money ; to operate it requires consecutive expenditures of time. But in the denser workingmen's regions the people own nothing but a few clothes, and, possibly, a wee savings account equal to a few days' wages. They cannot own anything else. The land they live on, under our present form of tenure, is made impossible for them by the mere fact of their presence. Their wages are reckoned on the basis of what it costs to keep up a sufficient supply of labor, and, with unrestricted immigration, this is about the cheapest thing in America, for even air in the city is not free ; you have to stand in some place to breathe it, and that costs money. Therefore, the laboring man cannot become a holder of wealth. Consequently, he cannot own the very tools making his employment possible. He has no vested interests. It would be passing strange were the church to be an exception to this ^rim rule. By the irony of God, those churches which have so often been special pleaders for the present order, are being strangled by their client. 12 This is just as true of the Roman Catholic church and of the synagogue. 3. Law of Church Survival. All this can be expressed in a formula of such constant truth- fulness that it may, with show of accuracy, be termed a law. With the increase of population, there arrives a ratio of density where the membe/ship of the church decreases relatively to the population. With further increase of density, there arrives a point where church-membership decreases actually, and, ultimately, a density is attained where the church is completely extinguished; first, the Protestant church, then the Roman church, and finally the synagogue. It would be a grievous misapprehension to sup- pose—as is so often done — that the workingman has become irreligious, or even that he has aband- oned his interest in the church. The English- speaking wage-earners, with their foreign-speaking Teutonic brothers, constitute the overwhelming majority in Protestant city church-membership, but they do not now have the resources of either money, time, or training to maintain churches of satisfactory vigor. Missionary aid is a large factor in the life of most of them. We have the choice of three ways out: ( 1 ) Give aid of money and leaders sufficient to guarantee the churches. This is no real solu- tion — such churches are exotic growths. 13 (2) Improve the economic condition of the workingman, so that he may have both money and time for organized religion. This is just, but it probably cannot be done without some profound changes in the social order. (3) Enlist into active membership the vast num- bers of the unchurched. This is best of all, but there will have to be some searching changes in the traditional operations of the church, as well as of society as a whole, before this can be done. It is probable that when the second is attained, the third will be much easier, but meanwhile the first is Hobson's choice, and we must do the best we can with it. IV. Transient Population Districts Let us now return to our public square. Concurrent with the manufacturing prosperity already sketched, we observe a steady enlarge- ment of both the retail and wholesale trade. The laboring population is also a purchasing population, while the prosperity of the group of owners like- wise shows itself in the demand for wares. Early, therefore, the sites near the square be- came very valuable for trading purposes, and, inci- dentally in part, for office uses*. The invention of electric transportation permits the whole city to do the bulk of its shopping, its banking, and its occa- sional business in a central location. The perfection of the elevator makes possible the skyscraper, and the values of central business 14 sites soar to fabulous heights, and the end is not yet. The tendency of the higher grade business is to move slowly out along the avenues, leading toward the better residence districts. A consequence of the displacement of families from the commodious old homes down-town, just ahead of the arrival of high-grade business, is to turn many of the earlier mansions into hotels and boarding-houses, with occasional large apartments interspersed. Here dwell the members of one of the most significant groups in the whole city. They are substantially American, being either those who have nursed hopes without success, or, and this is the significant part, the young, ambitious, unsettled incomers from the farm and the smaller town. Religiously, they are in, or just emerging from, the age of unrest. Their moral interests lie with those who seek to win their way by mental and nervous effort rather than by accumulated wealth on the one hand, or by manual labor on the other. They furnish much of the salaried class. Their moral and religious training has generally been conscientiously provided in the " old home," but the process of transplanting has imperiled the puri- tanism of that training. The relationship of these aspiring young people to the old down-town churches, and, indeed, to all organized religious interests, is most ticklish and profoundly interesting. 15 We note, first, that they too have, no " vested interests " in material w^ealth ; hence, no fixity of place or attachments. Secondly, w^e observe that they have no family history running back to the earlier days when the old church was the home of their parents. When they do attend its services they are most literally " strangers." Thirdly, the social and the active instincts are at this age much more pronounced than the philosophical, meditative, and conservative. It is with this group, and almost exclusively with this group, that the typical city Young Men's Christian Association scores its success. But the Young Men's Christian Association is often pro- hibitively expensive. In a city of a half million people, the budget of one association will aggre- gate not far from that of twenty average churches. The Young Men's Christian Association is indis- pensable, but it is not the solution. The down-town churches now rest their support on certain of the prosperous hill families who still either come or give, while the active management is, in considerable measure, in the hands of old families whose removal from the neighborhood has been belated. Both these elements want just the kind of ministrations maintained by the church for an earlier generation, now vanished from the neigh- borhood. In consequence, the community is un- churched, even though the churches are there. Then either of two things is done: 16 1 . The site is sold for a vast sum, and the pro- ceeds are used to build a sumptuous church in the midst of the finest family community. In spite of the critical talk about such removals, in the major- ity of cases the program is both financially wise and religiously most commendable. It is not the edifice but the congregation that makes the church. An empty edifice miles from a congregation, and a people miles from an edifice, is absurd and wicked. 2 . But there is a sharp limit to this process of removal. A wisely determined portion of the church plants should remain " down-town," and the work there conducted should be in fearless harmony with the changed environment. The godly men left over from the former order, who plead for a continuation of just the services . so delightful to them of yore, should be reproved, regardless of their personal piety, for the grievous iniquity of obstructing the chariot of the King. But these members of longer standing control both the policies and the finances of the church. If their policies are flouted, their gifts cease. The " unwise " minister has to go, and another church removes. But in our typical town there is one pastor who had a vision, and who had it early enough. In the days of strength, he perfected the equipment of the church, with parish house, architectural changes, a ministerial staff, and an endowment 17 wisely apportioned to the varied functions of the church. A gradual and subtle change of accent in the message was manifest. ' The pulpit became the rostrum for righteousness for the city as a whole. The social message took its place beside the no less emphatic call for personal religion. And the day of that church never waned. A church of this character never seems to suffer seriously for lack of money. Experience shows that this can be accomplished if undertaken soon enough, but if once a church has given itself over to dusty death, it appears to be impossible to give it life again, certainly by means of resources within the church. It is most significant to note that the ministers of the very first order of genius — from Beecher's day to this^ — ask no finer field of service than is offered by these down-town churches, provided only that in their inner life the churches are adaptable to their duties. V. Districts of Substantial Families The continued prosperity of our typical city gives its most agreeable evidence in the consider- able number of families who have gathered to themselves a disproportionate part of the accumu- lated wealth of the community. It is true that getting rich is no measure of excellence, but only of kind. Nevertheless, it is also true that the pos- session of material abundance in the hands of a sturdy and fundamentally virtuous stock, supplies 18 resources for the blossoming of many beautiful characters. These families have located largely in the upper part of the city, building homes of beauty and price, amid trees and green stretches. The financial and executive strength of the old churches has moved into this delightful land, and, when in time the church sites were sold, the abundant proceeds of the sales were converted into worthy houses of worship in this more fortunate district. It is still true that " that to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly." These, however, are the churches that furnish not only the financial backbone of the religious and philanthropic body of the city, but strangely enough, it is from these churches that in large part goes forth the leadership of the movement for social justice. But in candor it must be admitted that these churches fall far short of bearing their just share of responsibility in the city's moral and relig- ious life. They clearly do more than the rest, but it is not so clear that they do in proportion to their ability. In this part of the city, denominational competi- tion is at its maximum. Every denomination that hopes to operate with any vigor in the city must have one or more churches among these people or it is doomed to starve, both in funds and in lead- ership. This competition calls for vast expenditures only remotely related to Christ's work, though esthetically most admirable, and physically most comforting. These churches furnish almost no 19 candidates for the Christian ministry. The task of these churches is to awaken such consecration in their members that they may serve God and man by means of that one thing which distinguishes them from their fellow citizens, namely, their wealth. When they give in proportion to their incomes as well as do the Christian workingmen, the church in the city will have a different story to tell of its accomplishments. Their problem is stewardship. VI. Suburban Districts The process of growth in population pushes the city structure with steady thrust out into the open country. The outposts of growth are held by the young families, while the characteristics of the newer reg- ions are in general determined by the contiguous settled territory lying citywards. Bearing back with tremendous force against this pushing from within, is our method of holding land rights. Around every city is a band of terri- tory occupied by a very sparse population, where the land values are figured, not on the basis of any possible present employment of the land, but on a purely speculative valuation discounting the un- earned increment due to the approaching city. This automatically adjusts itself on the principle of " charging all the traffic will bear." Consequently, suburban development is always a gamble. The missionary societies run great and costly hazards in meeting it ; the suburban families 20 are taxed to the limit in buying a foothold for their homes, and consequently they can do but little financially for the young churches. From which it follows that the suburban work is the most expen- sive enterprise in the religious extension of most cities. Yet this work must be done, for some of these suburbs will in time be the strong sections of the growing city, repeating the story of the district just previously discussed. The denomination dies that does not provide for its suburbs. VII. Exceptional Districts Our typical city has a great educational institu- tion, with a district tributary to it. There is also a Ghetto, whose streets, with doubtful art, are col- onnaded by rows of neatly pressed, second-hand pantaloons. Just on the edge of the corporation limits, a great manufacturing concern has built a town of its own, yet truly a part of the metropoli- tan unit. These are all exceptional cases, and the limit of space in this brief treatise permits only their mention. Not less interesting is the fact that the growth of the city has caused the creation of several minor business centers at some distance from the old square. Here, in miniature, are re-enacted the events attendant upon the growth which proceeded from the original center, the chief difference being the accelerated rate of change and the shorter radius of effect. 21 To summarize this study, we may observe that a typical city arranges itself in zones, irregular in shape in consequence largely of natural conditions, but roughly arranged in about the order of the sketch. In the city as a whole, how does the church fare? The statement is widely made that the church in the city is rapidly losing ground, certainly that the Protestant body is surely succumbing. The Federal Census shows that the Church in cities is steadily gaining on the population. The figures include, however, the Roman Catholic Church and the Synagogue. The writer has made a careful tabulation of the work of his own denomination in fifteen great cit- ies, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Los Angeles, etc. He finds that in New York his denomination is growing distinctly faster in proportion than the city, and that in the whole fifteen great cities the Church body is only five per cent, behind the average growth of these cities. Remembering that city growth in America is in large part from non- Pro- testant sources, it is just to maintain that the evan- gelical churches are fairly holding their own con- stituency and gaining substantially in other direc- tions. The distressing thing is that these results are not attained where the need is greatest. The churches " down-town " and the churches in congested reg- 22 ions and the churches among the transplanted for- eign-speaking peoples are very qualified successes. VIII. Recommendations There is as yet no clear program covering the entire city field. This does not mean that we can- not make some very plain recommendations bearing upon the aspects of the task, for there is a fairly clear line of progress toward further light. These recommendations may roughly be divided into two groups : First, those of general policy ; and second, those of detail in method. 1 . Recommendations as to General Policy. Inasmuch as the new features in the Church's work, introduced by the modern city, are primarily econ- omic, the first elements in a promising program would involve consideration of this cause. The Christian who is interested in the welfare of both the city and the Church should undertake a careful study of the significant facts of social science, and be willing to approach these facts, wherever they touch the realm of his religious convictions, with an open and unprejudiced mind. The regions in which the Church is having the hardest fight to live are fairly seething with the agitation of economic theories and the proclamation of social programs, whereby it is claimed that the fundamental difficul- ties of the workingman will be solved and he will be given a measure of liberty from which to draw strength and opportunity to cultivate the more valu- able and fragile spiritual interests. Whether the 23 Christian student may conclude that these advocates of a new social order are right or wrong, it is cer- tainly true that the churchman should be as intel- ligent upon them as the man whom he wants to reach through the Church. Yet, unfortunately, the typical church-member is an ignoramus upon this subject. He who would spread his Christian convictions among the people who need them must obviously have convictions which those people really need. This means that the church in the crowded sections must have a very positive religion, and that this re- ligion must be so expressed in word and deed as to meet the experiences of those for whom it is intended. This does not mean for us the construc- tion of a new religion, but it does clearly call for an intense religious conviction wisely adapted in its manifestations to the exact situation in which it is proposed to minister. The inability to express Christianity in terms of a class of people whose experiences from childhood have been so different from that of the Christian leaders in the past is pitiably evident in these crowded communities. And, unfortunately, when some man who under- stands the situation undertakes to conduct a church with due regard for these conditions, he immedi- ately encounters sharp criticisms from many of the pillars of the church whose lives have been lived in different environments. With them the demand for the " old gospel " becomes very insistent. 24 People do not readily go into the church build- ings nor attend services for which they have no traditional attachments. It is necessary, therefore, that the church establish as many points of physical contact with its community as may be possible. This may mean one church with a dozen meeting- places scattered through a certain section of the city. It may mean street preaching, shop meetings, the calls of deaconesses, and the development of a number of other agencies for putting the message of the church right against the people for whom it is intended. Instead of the people going to church, it means the church going to the people. The brewer has discovered that it is not wise to invite all those who would buy his wares to come to his great central brewery, but instead he is putting his small " brewery extension " shops on three corners in every neighborhood. The tobacco trust, the restaurant keeper, and every other kind of business which lives by the patronage of the many of small means have long ago learned this lesson and acted upon it. This is not said with a view to what the people may render to the church, but with regard to the church's ability to reach the common man. The word "co-operation" expresses remarkably well the spirit of the city. In the congested reg- ions, people do not know each other, and yet they co-operate with noteworthy faithfulness. In this respect, the contrast with the rural population is astonishing. In the countryside, everybody knows the business of every one else to its most minute 25 details. Yet the church fails because farmers have hitherto refused to do team work. But the city itself lives and is possible because its inhabitants can be counted upon to co-operate faithfully and persistently on the ground of common interests. The trade unions, the socialist clubs, political organi- zations, and even the crowds in the public convey- ances, suffering by each other's presence a host of discomforts, prove the co-operative sense of the city dweller. Of all organizations in history, the church should be the very flower of this spirit, but, alas, it is not! It is consequently fair to say that to suc- ceed where the crowds live, the church must learn, " Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ," and not be afraid of the law of Christ when it grips causes. The church must not fear to preach the most thoroughgoing co-opera- tion doctrine, and it must live it visibly before the eyes of those whom it would reach. There is no essential reason why the church cannot do this. And if the church learns this great thing, we may say that the city has done for the church as much as the church has done for the city. It may be very hard to preach from the same pulpit, at the same time, a fundamental message of co-operation to the man who is exploited and to the man who exploits him. The doctrine would be very unpal- atable for one or the other auditor. This doctrine of co-operation must also be applied between churches. No man has yet devised a plan by which the church among propertyless peo- 26 pie can be adequately financed by those to whom it ministers. The cities of Europe used to solve this problem by supporting the churches as we maintain the schools, from the general civic income. This is, of course, impossible in America. The alternative is better. The churches of a whole city should voluntarily stand for one another's interests in such a way that those who are more fortunately situated should bear in good part the expenses of those whose needs are greater. In some small measure, this has already been accomplished through the organization of missionary societies — city, state, and national — but no sufficient interpre- tation of this obligation has been accepted by the followers of Christ in any large city. Because of the very great expense of the work in these popu- lous regions, the extravagance of denominational duplication and rivalry is particularly iniquitous. The Christian denominations will have to co-oper- ate as willingly and steadily as do, for example, the different trades unions. The Christian who reads this will recognize that he can contribute his share for the accomplishment of this object, for it is such people as the reader who have thus far prevented it, 2- Recojnmendal/ons as to Detail of Method. A large volume would be required to contain at all fully a statement of method for the varied kinds of city work. There are several steps, however, not generally considered, whose import- ance is so great as to justify mention in even so brief an account. 27 ( 1 ) In the less resourceful city sections the church should be made — as it well can be — the true cen- ter of every worthy social interest. What the social settlements are seeking to do, generally without avowed religious motive, can be done by the church, and it can be done better. There is an element of a spiritual character altogether too valuable in the moral nature of men to be overlooked or set aside, and the church is in a peculiar way the agent of this spiritual factor. (2) This interpretation of the church's ministry immediately reveals the necessity for a larger pro- fessional working force attached to each local insti- tution. Where now a pastor, with possibly an assistant, an office woman, and a visitor combine to do the work, a full dozen trained laborers should be constantly occupied. Few churches run their plants to capacity because they are sadly short- handed. Special mention should be made of trained women. Probably no other expenditure of equal modest amount will yield results as great as those afforded by trained women. (3) The typical city fields call for Specialists. The seminaries give all their men substantially the same training. One graduate gets a call to Podunk, another to the lower East Side of New York City. The calls are not determined by their training, but by their inclinations. For the more difficult city work, the " general practitioner " in religion must give way to the specialist. May the day soon come ! 28 (4) The best ministers for the non -Teutonic immigrants are probably American-born. The denominations should train large numbers of young men of long American ancestry to master the foreign languages and customs for lifelong min- istries to the different peoples assembling now upon our shores. The results will be speedily and glori - ously visible among those of the first generation born here. (5) Adequate church plants are of the utmost significance. City realty comes apppallingly high. The churches are overpowered by the cost ; consequently, except in the neighborhood of the well-to-do, the edifices are built as cheaply as pos- sible, and with a minimum of accommodations to meet the traditional uses. Churches for foreigners are often mere storerooms or little chapels, yet these people come from the cathedral cities. A real parish house with worthy equipment is most rare, but is practically almost a necessity. This is not commended for the sake of display in towers and gorgeous glass, but simply for housing great activities. (6) Until we reach a social order greatly im- proving the conditions of large portions of our population, outside help will long be needed in regions where religious work is most called for. Endowments are a well-known method of making provision for this great need. But endowments have often been a curse rather than a blessing. 29 We recommend that different departments of work be endowed separately rather than the institution as a whole. Let the condition of the endowment be the maintenance of the work at a specified standard of activity, with the provision that it revert to the denominational missionary societies in case of inefficient management. (7) There should be developed a new science of the church in the city. We are perfectly cog- nizant of this scientific advance in the other lines of human endeavor, while but few people have ever been audacious enough to think of it in connection with this most serious religious undertaking. Let " experiment stations " be established in typical situations in many different cities. Man these with ministers of scientific mind, capable of exact observation, true recording, and freedom from the personal equation, due to the desire to make a good showing. In a few years we should thus be able to solve the church's problems in places which are now most perplexing. (8) Survey of the fields is very desirable. A detailed examination of every parish should be made at frequent intervals. Charts and tabulations should reveal systematically the data thus secured. (9) City Church Extension Societies are rec- ommended for the different denominations in all large cities. These organizations bring into action local resources of men and money otherwise often 30 lost, while the common interests of thea^different parts of the city bear advantageously upon each other. ( 1 0) Possibly city church progress is burdened more by the curse of denominational rivalry than by any other cause. The fields that are resource- ful are overchurched, while each denomination feels under obligation to cover the entire city with its parishes. This results in much unfortunate duplication, which, in view of the great expense of city work, serves to keep the powers of all upon a constant strain. We recommend that in every considerable city there be established an interdenominational council, auxiliary to the Federal Council of Churches, which shall serve to allot zones of influence and responsi- bility to the constituent denominations, to the end that each denomination may have a just and clear- cut responsibility, and that, in meeting it, interfer- ence from other quarters may be faithfully elimin- ated. This is specially important with regard to missionary enterprises. 31