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CONSTRUCTIVE BIBLE STUDIES

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ERNEST DE WITT BURTON

SOCIAL DUTIES

CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

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Social Duties
From the Christian Point of View

A TEXTBOOK FOR THE STUDY
OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

BY
CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON

$

Constructive Bible Studies
Advanced and Supplementary Series

CHICAGO
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
1909

Copybight 1909 By
The Univebsity of Chicago

Published March 1909
Second Impression December 1909

Mvb3S H38

Composed and Printed By
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A.

PREFACE
There was a memorable saying of the last generation:
Property has its duties as well as its rights. But our view
of property is this : The rights of property mean a con
centration of social duties. Our socialism rests in duty,
not in right. Duty is always plain; right is a verbal
mystification. A man can always and everywhere do his
duty. He seldom can get his supposed rights without
trampling on the rights of others, flfen wrangle inces
santly as to rights. They easily agree as to duties. The
performance of duty is always ennobling, a moral, a
religious act. The struggle for rights calls out all the
passions of self and of combat.1
These words of a high-minded writer of recent
times may serve as an introduction to the present
volume; but we must go farther; we must give
a distinctly Christian note to our treatment.
While most of what is written here has the
broadly human aspect, it is all intended for people
who are already inspired by the motive of love to
God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and who desire
to learn what the Master requires of men and
women of this generation.
The social teachings of Jesus and the Hebrew
prophets have long been the theme of scholars and
no attempt is made here to rival their work or
1 Frederick Harrison, National and Social Problems.

viii Preface
even summarize their studies. The man of affairs
may gain inspiration from the poets, seers, and
prophets; he may correct his narrow generaliza
tions by thinking out the universal principles of
life which were the theme of Plato and Aristotle
as well as of Hosea and Isaiah; but when he
comes to actual conduct he must know the present
world and what it requires. We live in a new
world, in many respects utterly unlike all others
yet heir of all the past. The problems of this
age are the most complex man ever faced, and the
principles of life are tested under conditions which
have been freshly created by the forces of modern
progress. The weapons of our warfare are no
longer bows and arrows but long-range cannon;
the self-binding reaper has made the sickle im
possible; the telegraph has displaced the fire
signals ; the city has urbanized the country ; "new
occasions teach new duties." The youth of our
churches who are ambitious to lead the conduct
of men must first become competent to mold
its thoughts. The treatment found in this textbook is brief,
even fragmentary; it is only a push and a hint.
Perhaps it is all the better that the paragraphs
contain so little matter; their chief purpose is to
start independent thinking and give it the right
direction. It is not predigested mental food,

Preface ix
offering a false hope of easy and cheap mastery
of vast and vital problems; it is a call to intel
lectual labor; it is a summons to patriotic and
religious toil. He who has honestly labored to
find his path of duty will be more likely to pursue
it persistently and bravely. The sluggard at the
study lamp is a coward in the battle. Great and
noble deeds grow out of serious and prolonged
reflection and communion with the highest.
We may cite the words of a^ great man of
science, as indicating our aim :
But the boys and girls for whose education the school
boards have to provide have not merely to discharge
domestic duties, but each of them is a member of a social
and political organization of great complexity, and has,
in future life, to fit himself into that organization, or be
crushed by it. To this end it is surely needful, not only
that they be made acquainted with the elementary laws of
conduct, but that their affections should be trained so as
to love with all their hearts that conduct which tends to
the attainment of the highest good for themselves and
their fellow-men, and to hate with all their hearts that
opposite course of action which is fraught with evil.2
The fundamental position assumed in this book
is controverted by men of worth and piety, and
this position would be here defended by argu
ment had this not already been done by such
2 Thomas Huxley, Science and Education, quoted by the
Outlook, August 8, 1908, p. 789.

x Preface
distinguished men as Gladden, Abbott, Rauschen-
busch, Mathews, Peabody, Strong, and numerous
others, and recently accepted by official action of
the principal denominations. Twenty years ago
such arguments were needed; now it is hardly
worth while to repeat them and it is difficult to
add to what has been written. Therefore the
principle is assumed as sustained by proof, that
the churches of Christ have a social duty and a
ministry in the service of mankind which extends
to all human needs, so far as the church has
resources to help.
Rev. Mr. Clow, the well-known Glasgow
United Free Church minister, states the aban
doned doctrine in a definite form, and just because
he is a man of capacity and character his words
may be taken as typical. In writing in the Scot
tish Review (as cited in the Dominion Pres
byterian, September 2, 1908) he said that social
service is good work but not for the church
to do.
The premiss of all its message is that the one urgent
need of men is to be brought into the faith and fear of
God, and when that has been done all else in life will
become pure and strong, and the relationships of man to
man shall be brotherly, helpful, true  The church's
first concern is not the relationship of man to man, but
the relationship of man to God, and, therefore, it has no
mandate from Christ to study the problems of poverty, or

Preface xi
of unemployment, or of single-roomed houses, or of the
relations of capital and labor.
He gives three reasons for this claim : that these
questions lie beyond the church's function, as
indicated by the example of Jesus; that social
betterment will be sooner and more wisely realized
through other agencies; and that the distinctive
work of the church is the most imperative need
of the time.
Without entering into a prolonged argument
we may here take enough space to remark that
we fully agree with the critic that the first com
mandment is not only faith but also love toward
God; that it is the primary function of the church
to proclaim this creed; that the highest social
service is the awakening of the religious life in
the full Christian meaning. But "the second com
mandment is like unto" this first, love to our
neighbor, and Jesus spent very much time, energy,
and thought on the physical well-being of men,
and the Bible in both parts covers every aspect
of human duty. Furthermore, on a review of
the facts of church history, we are obliged to
deny that Christian men have done their human
duties and inspired the life of the world without
being specifically taught, from childhood up, what
duty required. Many thousands of pious people
have gone on in flagrant and cruel neglect of

xii Preface
the needs of their fellow-men because their spirit
ual guides neglected to show them that one cannot
obey the first commandment without careful and
loyal obedience to the second great command
ment. Faith works by love.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. General Survey  i
II. Social Duties Relating to the
Family  22
III. Social Duties Relating to Material
Conditions of Family Life . . 52
IV. Social Duties to Neglected Children 77
V. Social Duty to Working-men 94
VI. Social Duties in Rural Communities 115
VII. Urban Life: Public Health . 138
VIII. Urban Life: Economic Interests 154
IX. Urban Educational Agencies . . 168
X. Duties of the Church in Urban Com
munities  189
XI. Social Duties of Urban Life: Munici
pal Government .... 204
XII. Charities and Correction . . . 224
XIII. Rights and Responsibilities of the
Great Corporations . . . 241
XIV. Social Duties Relating to the Busi
ness Class and the Leisure Class 265
XV. Social Duties in Relation to Govern
ment  277
XVI. Social Duties in International Rela
tions  300
Index  327
xiii

CHAPTER I
GENERAL SURVEY
I. INTRODUCTION
i. The present situation. — Many teachers of
young men and young women have discovered
that religious and moral instruction must be made
concrete and practical at the approach of majority.
About the sixteenth year the young person be
comes conscious of new powers and needs, and
often thinks seriously of the responsibilities of
husband, wife, citizen, manager of business, par
ent. The generative, creative impulses irradiate
and profoundly influence the entire life. The su
preme choices of life must be made at a time when
experience and knowledge are still limited. That
must be a dull youth who does not in some meas
ure consider what is involved in the selection of
a calling, a wife, a political party, a religious
creed, associations for business and pleasure, a
system of conduct. We notice at this epoch an
irritable restlessness, an impatience with intro
spection, with commonplace homilies, with teach
ing about ancient ways; for the young man
recognizes nothing akin to his problems in much
that goes under the name of religious instruction.
This impatience is part explanation of the general

2 Social Duties
exodus from Sunday school at the turn into
maturity ; not the sole cause, for passion, reckless
ness, frivolity, untamed animalism, eagerness to
be amused, press the more superficial into ques
tionable paths. But many even of the giddy
might become interested in a kind of teaching
which avoids repetition of traditions and monoto
nous adherence to consecrated dulness, and which
at every lesson suggests a work to be done,
organizes useful efforts, and presents the informa
tion which is necessary to make effort really use
ful. It has been discovered that youth who find
it simply impossible to follow the fortunes of
Saul, Samuel, and Peter for the fiftieth round,
will attend regularly where a practical leader
compels every member to confront at every lesson
some immediate task within his power. A person
old enough to choose for himself, and serious
enough to do any real thinking, demands science
and law, contemporary fact, rather than insipid
anecdote and threadbare exhortation. And this
demand of youth is unconsciously near to a prin
ciple of Christ himself : If any man is willing to
do, he shall know. The gate into faith is not
dreaming and meditating and analyzing virtues
alone, but right and wise action — action which
instantly follows the clear call of duty. It is a
pity that a good lad should come to associate

General Survey 3
Bible instruction with ideas remote from the
issues of his own life, when he hears some shrewd
politician, or saloon orator, or bright labor leader
discuss with fervor and intelligence matters with
which he must soon deal. At the moment when
the lad acquires liberty, and when constraint has
become impossible, he needs more than at any
other crisis a mature leader who represents not
only amiable sentiments, but reliable knowledge
of this world and of modes of acti^ty which offer
wholesome channels for the superabundant energy
of opening manhood. Not less desirable is the
training in reflection and self-restraint which
comes from comparing opinions with others.
Youth is rash and opinionated, more ready to act
than to think, sure of itself, and that because of
ignorance of the amazing complexity of social
life and its problems.
It is with a view to meeting this situation and
helping in the solution of problems thus presented
that the series of chapters on "Social Duties,"
of which this is the first, has been prepared. In
this introduction the immediate aim is to give
a general survey of the entire field of conduct,
and to suggest the breadth of this territory
rather than to take up any specific problem for
treatment. The articles which follow are intended
to furnish some hints for Sunday lessons for

4 Social Duties
groups of young people who cannot be held to
gether by the conventional methods of teaching
the Bible. They will demand serious study and
considerable knowledge on the part of the leader.
Yet an earnest man with modest equipment of
books can accomplish good results, if he will set
the entire group at work investigating the ques
tions, reading the books cited, and discussing
situations in the neighborhood which are of moral
interest and demand moral choices. Local pro
fessional men, as physicians, teachers, lawyers,
bankers, legislators, labor leaders, may be invited
to supplement the other sources of information.
Discussion should be encouraged, because the
mental effort to shape a question, to state a fact,
to urge an argument, has a high educational
value.1 1 Professor J. M. Coulter, who has had remarkable success
with just such a class as is here contemplated, writes of his
experience with discussions : "I have found that in my
class, made up of representatives from almost every form of
activity, the calling for personal experiences in reference to
any problem results not only in interest, but in a contribu
tion of most heterogeneous and contradictory material. This
not only provokes discussion, but illustrates the vast difficulty
of such subjects, and the necessity of taking many things
into consideration before such experiences can be harmo
nized. This has taught the men the folly of snap-shot judg
ments, and has made them appreciate that a subject must
be investigated with an open mind before any conclusion is
worthy of consideration."

General Survey 5
The Bible stimulates to right conduct, but does
not make study of our own situation unnecessary.
Each generation must work out for itself the
regulations of its life which correspond to its own
conditions of justice and well-being.2
These articles will not attempt by hortatory
methods to induce the inner and personal disposi
tions of the Christian character. What is sought
is to aid the personal influence of holy teachers by
directing motives to suitable expression. The
world itself is a witness to God a&d a field for
the training of Christian character. In the pur
suit of the right way to do good we find ourselves
in near companionship with our Lord. And many
a skeptical man has found his way unconsciously
back to certainty of faith by becoming interested
in some unselfish and Christlike work such as
Jesus himself would be doing in the same circum
stances. A true Bible class should be something
more than a debating club with a merely theo
retical and speculative end; it should become
responsible for one or more forms of practical
service — personal service for the neighborhood
and gifts of money for fields too distant for direct
labors of members of the class.3
The Bible is the supreme spiritual ferment and
2 See Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics, pp. 271, 272.
* A few citations from the writings of men of devout life

6 Social Duties
moral influence in the life of mankind, but it is
not, and cannot be made, a code of legislation.
It teaches, reproves, corrects, instructs in the
quality of righteousness by precept, biography,
poetry, and most of all by the story or Jesus;
but it does not furnish a substitute for hard study
of present duties. Some of the problems on
which students of social progress are busy toiling
relate to aims, others to institutions through
which social ideals are realized, and some to
and spiritual insight into the nature of Christianity may here
be suggestive :
"All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is
to do good." — Swedenborg.
"The Christian religion consists in performing worthily the
duties we owe to God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Christian
religion is plain and easy to understand by all such as are
desirous to understand it. The order to be observed in keep
ing God's commandments : Moral duties, where both cannot,
must be observed before positive injunctions ; 'I will have
mercy and not sacrifice,' saith our Savior. Works of charity
before works of piety. Religion of the end — namely, those
acts of religion, those virtues, which have an intrinsic good
ness in them — before religion of the means, namely, those
instrumental duties which are only means of attaining the
other." — Bishop Wilson, Maxims of Piety and Christianity.
"It is not his [Jesus'] words at all as such, but the morally
necessary, that must be obeyed, and his words only in case
they mirror the morally necessary for us and in our situa
tion  We are not confronted with the end of the
world but with an infinitude of tasks which the God of nature
and of history has set us." — G. B. Foster, The Finality of the
Christian Religion, pp. 464, 465.

General Survey 7
methods of individual action and social co-opera
tion. 2. The elements of the situation, (a) Condi
tions of welfare. — There are certain social con
ditions which must be provided by community
action and sustained by sentiment, government,
and united labor in order that personal character
and general welfare may be fostered. These are :
liberty for personal initiative, security and order,
and opportunity of every member of society to
act in the full range of his powerf. In the mind
of the revolutionist, chafing at hoary tradition
and angry with legal wrong, liberty promises all.
To the conservative, comfortable in possession of
a competence and identified with parties in power,
the word "order" has the more attractive sound.
To the ambitious proletarian, handicapped by
poverty and ignorance, equality seems the goal of
endeavor. In a wide view all these conditions
of welfare are recognized as legitimate, and all
must be harmonized.
b) Aims of social effort. — Man is an animal,
with all the wants and needs of the animal. He
must have food, shelter, recreation, air, light,
and all else that gives strength, vigor, ability to
act and endure. Since the material world supplies
standing-room and the materials and forces
through which artist, statesman, theologian, mis-

8 Social Duties
sionary, and philanthropist make ideals reality,
men must harness and utilize nature, by labor and
contrivance, by production of goods, and by regu
lation of division of the product. The physician,
the economist, the manufacturer, the merchant,
may be inclined to set wealth in too high and ex
clusive a position; may identify sanitation and
commerce with social progress ; may scorn ethical
and aesthetic elements in the social aim; but no
one, not even the most spiritual saint, can deny
the necessity for a material basis of life.
But the ultimate values of existence are those
of thought made systematic and complete in
science ; of beauty realized in the artistic works of
poets, painters, singers, actors, architects, sculp
tors, orators, and gracious homemakers with their
fine feminine touch upon all objects of daily use.
In the kindly fellowship of daily intercourse, in
the widening sympathies which sweeten contacts,
in the stern and austere assertion of righteousness
and honesty, and, highest of all, in the reverence
and love of man to God, do we come upon the
ultimate and self-justifying goods of existence.
In the degree in which all these factors of well-
being are diffused among men is there social
progress. To genius we owe most new begin
nings and positive additions to knowledge and
beauty and goodness, but only as the race moves

General Survey g
forward to universal possession and enjoyment
of all kinds of good can we claim advance in the
truest sense. In a clear view of these natural and
spiritual values do we discover our definition and
our measure of social progress.
c) Institutions and organisations. — But these
aims are realized only by personal activity in
connection with institutions created to facilitate
the common enjoyment of the achievements of
the best members of the community and the race.
Ascending from the most simple to the most
extended of social groups, we discover that hu
manity has produced, in the long past of its evolu
tion, the family, the rural community, the town
and city, the commonwealth, the nation, and is
now building up, under the name of international
law, a system of regulations for the conduct of
nations in relations with each other. Within
these larger communities, and crossing their lines
of division, men have produced voluntary associa
tions for all kinds of purposes, as economic
partnerships and companies, educational societies,
churches, and extended federations of these, some
of them wider than any kingdom or republic.
And if we look into any considerable group of
persons bound together in a large community, we
discover classes or strata of like persons whose
attitude to others becomes important in relation

io Social Duties
to progress in wealth, health, and culture; as the
criminals, the dependents, the industrials, the
leisure class, and perhaps others.
One fruitful method of classifying the various
forms of social effort which are now occupying
the attention and absorbing the energy of students
and practical workers is to isolate for the time
each group or class in turn, and discover the
points at which both thought and labor are being
most intensively applied. Only a few illustra
tions can find room here, and even these might
be expanded into an encyclopaedia.
II. PRACTICAL PROBLEMS
i. The family. — We begin where life begins,
with the family. Of recent years the sex and
domestic groups have enlisted a vast amount of
serious and valuable scientific study on the part
of anthropologists, ethnologists, psychologists,
physicians, historians, lawyers, and sociologists.
Only in the history of origin and development
do we come to a full understanding of the founda
tions of morality in the most vital relation of
persons in society. At this moment the whole
power of the government of the United States is,
for the second time, directed upon a scientific in
vestigation of the extent and causes of divorce,
and of the legal methods of regulating this evil,

General Survey ii
and the evils which lead to divorce. How helpless
the isolated individual is can be made sensible by
this undertaking on behalf of the home. Every
aspect of marriage and domestic life has signifi
cance for religion, righteousness, character, as
well as for material well-being. The regulation
of courtship, the publicity of announcements, the
registration of marriage, and education in the
physical and spiritual preparation of youth for
marriage, are vital questions, perhaps far more
important than divorce itself. On fll these prob
lems exegetical science helps a certain way; but
common-sense shows that the modern world faces
problems which could not even occur to Jesus
himself. The scientific and practical problems
relating to the protection and improvement of
domestic life are of supreme moment : the better
ment of the tenement house in cities and rural
hygiene for the country; public baths, parks,
playgrounds, outings, home libraries, child labor,
woman labor, and every effort to improve income,
encourage thrift, provide insurance when the
bread-winner fails — all these merely suggest the
wide field in which the entire power of the nation
is required to save and help the most modest
household. The National League for the Protec
tion of the Family and the National Child Labor
Committee are illustrations of this multiform

12 Social Duties
activity. Settlements, vacation schools, juvenile
courts, "institutional churches" among the poor,
associations to protect children from cruelty an,d
neglect, the federation called the National Chil
dren's Home Society, and a myriad local societies,
are witness to the awakened conscience in relation
to family and child-life.
2. The rural community. — The beginning of
scientific study of the cultural interests of the
rural community is only of recent date. Already
a splendid, literature has grown up concerned with
the science and arts of horticulture, agriculture,
chemistry of soils, botany and entomology in
application to rural industry, the economics of
agriculture, markets, wages, leases, and all such
matters; but now we are thinking much more of
the breeding and education of the people as modi
fied by the conditions of rural existence. The
activity of women in rural granges and institutes
is earnest of a larger attention given to the
aesthetic and sociable aspects of the new studies.
The tasks and difficulties and prospects of rural
churches are just now attracting attention, all the
more because many city people have begun to
spend much of their time in the country. The
necessity for co-operation between churches to
prevent economic starvation, and consequent
spiritual bleeding to death, has hastened the decay

General Survey 13
of sectarianism and promoted the dissolution of
mere doctrine as a basis of ecclesiastical tests and
organization. In the selection and education of
rural populations state and nation must combine
with individuals and voluntary associations. He
who advocates mere "individualism" as a remedy
for all ills and a solution of problems ignores an
essential condition of progress.
3. The city. — The problems of urban life have
received earlier and more general scientific and
practical treatment; for in cities the congestion
and friction of population have made investiga
tion and action urgent. A few years ago the chief
attention was given to the machinery of city
governments, and men talked and wrote much of
civil-service reform, primary elections, double and
single chambers, powers of mayors, charters, and
the like. These subjects are still interesting and
for a long time to come must be studied, and labor
must be consecrated to improve the forms and
methods of administration. But greater emphasis
is laid at present upon what the people wish to do
with all this administrative machinery. How far
can local governments go in protection against
local monopoly without hindering initiative and
retarding experiment? How far are municipal
trading and manufacture advisable? What can
the urban community do to provide for the

14 Social Duties
crowded multitudes of operatives fit dwellings,
clean streets, open spaces, playgrounds, schools,
baths, libraries, museums, lectures, and all the
incentives to a life of culture?
4. The state. — The commonwealth is coming
to receive more study and to assume wider func
tions. Most of the revenues of each state go to
education, charity, and repression of crime. The
state has not had hitherto a very large field for
direct administration of positive measures of
social advancement; and even in the future there
will be more or less rivalry with the federal gov
ernment in this matter. As soon as a business or
an interest grows large enough for state action,
it outgrows state limits and becomes interstate
activity, as railroads and insurance. Neverthe
less, the doctrine of state rights means state duties,
and in workingmen's protection and insurance we
see in the immediate future the probability of
considerable social enterprise for the state. The
co-ordination and improvement of schools depend
on extension of state activity, while many local
abuses in matters of charity and police must be
corrected by that expert supervision and control
which only a commonwealth can supply.
5. The nation.— -It seems ridiculous even to
mention so vast a subject as national social admin
istration in the brief space now at command; yet

General Survey 15
for the sake of the suggestion we may mention
the national demand for pure-food laws, meat
inspection, and regulation of the costs of trans
portation. Postal savings banks and parcels post
have often been asked for, but the movement has
thus far been defeated in this country, apparently
by interested commercial cliques. The national
Congress and the scientific departments for inves
tigation and publication are among our chief
agents of social progress.
6. International affairs. — International move
ments which are worthy of special mention
in this connection are those which aim to mitigate
the cruelties of battle, to diminish the occasions
of war, to determine disputes by -judicial process
without resort to arms, and the policing of un
civilized parts of the world without exploitation
of simple peoples who have not the arms and
organization of the favored nations. In this
connection should be considered the enterprises of
foreign missions, of the circulation of the best
literature of Christian culture in Asia and Africa
and of the establishment of Christian schools in
all parts of the earth.
7. Dependents and delinquents. — Some of the
social problems which await the instructions of
time and study relate to the anti-social or criminal
group of the population. Methods of prison

1 6 Social Duties
discipline and prison labor and the "indeterminate
sentence" occupy the minds of administrators;
but such preventive and educational measures as
can be applied by the philanthropic public, and
which diminish the need for costly penitentiaries,
command more sympathy than formerly. This is
true also of dealing with dependence in its various
aspects. Relief will continue to require the best
thought and large sacrifices of the people; but
economic, sanitary, and educational improve
ments will in great measure diminish the resort
to charity.
8. The leisure class. — We have not yet much
discussed the fate and fortunes of the recently
developed "leisure class" which has sprung up
in the path of a generation of successful men who
never knew what leisure meant; while some of
their children seem unable to find out its use and
opportunity. This is too large a subject for a
paragraph of hints.
9. The industrial group. — The industrial group
has a vitality of its own, and through the trade-
union has forced itself upon public notice. The
growth of cities is the growth of this group in
numbers and political power; and wage-workers
are conscious of this power and determined to use
it. From the standpoint of the student of eco
nomic politics the demand is for means of thrift

General Survey 17
and insurance, protection of workingmen against
the dangers of accident and disease in employ
ments, prevention of the exploitation of children
through premature labor without the advantages
of play and school, and the proper regulation of
the industries in which women are engaged.
Later will come questions of the effect of this new
political power among us on art, science, culture,
productive processes, morality, and religion.
III. social M0RALIT¥
The words "morality" and "immorality" are
quite generally used in a very narrow sense, fre
quently indicating nothing more than observance
or non-observance of the rules of sexual propriety.
Sometimes even strong writers intimate or dis
tinctly declare that morality has to do only with
personal motives of the unseen life of the spirit.
In the present work all this is included and much
more. It is taken for granted that the require
ments of sexual purity are known, and that all
good conduct must spring from good motives.
In the books on ethics all this has been urged a
thousand times. In this series of studies we are
to study social morality and social duties. By
social morality we mean that kind of conduct of
associated persons which, on the whole, tends to
promote the common welfare in the entire range

18 Social Duties
of meaning of the word welfare, as outlined in
this first chapter. "By their fruits ye shall know
them;" a good tree will bear good fruit, and good
conduct will further the common good. We can
not see the inner motives of men; we can see
and understand what they do.
Every word in each paragraph of this article
suggests reading and effort for many earnest
years. Life must be worth living so long as there
is so much danger and evil in the world, and
splendid opportunity for the men and women who
know and love and have faith in God. In subse
quent articles suggestions will be made for serious
study of some of these problems by Bible classes
of youth and mature persons.
The common problem, yours, mine, everyone's,
Is — not to fancy what were fair in life
Provided it could be, — but, finding first
What may be, then find how to make it fair
Up to our means. . . .
Make Paradise of London if you can.
— R. Browning, Bishop Bloughram's Apology.
SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
The following suggestions are intended for the use of
teachers who use this chapter as an introductory lesson
with a class which is gathered with the purpose to pursue
the general subject during the year at stated times.
i. The selected leader or teacher should ask each mem
ber of the class to give him at once written statements

General Survey 19
of social problems, or moral difficulties arising in his occu
pation and other experiences; of temptations which must
be overcome; of subjects on which good men are of
divided opinion in situations where action of some kind
is urgent and necessary.
2. For several meetings close attention should be given
to social aims. Aimless study and teaching is like the
blind leading the blind. The captain of a ship directs the
prow of his vessel toward the port he would reach. What
do men desire? What is of most worth and value? What
is proper to seek as means, and what is supremely valuable
as end of life itself? Some hints are given in this article,
but each person should strive to set before himself his
own goals and criticize them, test them, and try to fix his
purpose and effort on objects according to some scale of
reasonable value. Riches are good, but are they good
enough to buy at the price of honesty, purity, health, and
religion? Learning is good, and a college education is
desirable; but would we praise a young man who left his
aged mother to starve while he went to the university?
Turn these questions over in all thinkable ways,- and start
similar problems.
3. Discuss the use to the community of various familiar
institutions, offices, and private enterprises ; as, for example,
the courts of the county, the jail, the school, the township
trustee, various laws, an insurance company, a bank, a
collection of books and pictures, a church.
While the leader must not permit the discussion to
degenerate into idle gossip and speculation about things
not practical, he should not discourage honest and sincere,
even if awkward, attempts to enter into the study. If a
rather irrevelant subject seems to be dragged in by the
ears, and there is no time to consider it, let it be set

20 Social Duties
down for future notice. If some cranky person insists
upon monopolizing time by long-winded speeches, the
leader may announce a five-minute rule which must not be
trespassed without vote of the class. Even cranky people
with hobbies to ride sometimes serve a useful purpose in
stirring up thought. The leader must not be dogmatic, or
he ceases to be a teacher. The object is not to settle
complex questions, but to educate, instruct, inspire, and
find right ways of doing useful actions. It is not well
to bring questions to a vote of the class, for this makes
every speaker more a debater for personal victory than a
seeker after truth and duty. If all sides have been heard,
no harm is done if the members of the class part to think
over the whole discussion each for himself. These
chapters are to be used as fraternal helps, and are not
for slavish imitation. When a topic is of living interest
to the class, then is the time to discuss it. Local events,
tragedies of ignorance and sin, may furnish the best
starting-points for a new lesson.
4. It is not necessary that the lessons in this book should
be studied in the exact order in which they are printed. If
the leaders discover a very great local interest in a certain
subject it may be taken up at once. Yet the book should
be read carefully from the beginning to end by all the
class as soon as possible, because in the earlier chapters
fundamental principles are discussed, the whole pro
gramme is outlined and explained, and the lessons proceed
from narrower and simpler conditions to larger, more
complex, and intricate problems.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
The following books are recommended in the A. L. A.
Catalogue, a list of books published for the American

General Survey 21
Library Association by the Library of Congress, in 1904
That catalogue may be found generally in libraries. Only
a few titles of popular works can here be mentioned.
J. S. Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics.
Charles Wagner, Youth and Courage.
Small and Vincent, Introduction to the Study of Society
C. D. Wright, Outline of Practical Sociology.
F. H. Giddings, Elements of Sociology.
The same catalogue recommends C. R. Henderson,
Social Spirit in America, and Social Elements.
The Encyclopaedia of Reforms, edited by W. D. P.
Bliss (new ed., 1908), published by Funk & Wagnalls Co.,
will be found convenient. It contain* brief articles on
many aspects of social duties, and furnishes many useful
references for further reading.
J. Dewey and J. H. Tufts, Ethics, is a very important
recent work on the subject.
All the above are of a general character; in the suc
ceeding articles books will be mentioned for each special
subject.

CHAPTER II
SOCIAL DUTIES RELATING TO THE FAMILY
I. COURTSHIP
i. The scope and purpose of this section. — It
is impossible for any one person, especially in a
brief discussion, to bring to light all possible facts
in respect to any particular institution of society.
All that we can attempt is to induce groups of
earnest, thinking people to observe and reflect,
and to take into account, in forming their moral
judgments, all the essential elements of a situation
which should have influence on the conduct of
individuals and communities. Social conduct is
shown, not only in formal laws passed by legisla
tures and enforced in courts, but also in customs,
manners, fashions, language, rules of discipline
in churches, standards for receiving and rejecting
persons from social circles, and even in gestures
and facial expression.
In this study of the family, and in all the later
chapters, it is taken for granted that piety, love,
sympathy, purity, devotion, self-sacrifice, veracity,
courage, temperance, as qualities of individual
character, are recognized as supreme goods to be
cultivated and sought. To perfect the spirit, or
rather to give it perpetual impulse to expand in

Duties Relating to the Family. 23
every right direction, is the end and aim of all
right conduct.
What we have here to study is the situation
and conduct which are favorable or unfavorable
to the progress of the best life of each person, and
so also the regulations which public opinion and
law ought to lay down for the actions of young
people in a critical period of life.
2. The customs of courtship. — In our time and
country this part of conduct is left very free to
young people, and this gives alf the more reason
for teaching young people what is the meaning
of courtship, what are its ends and dangers, and
what duties are involved.
The first step is to set before the mind of all
concerned, and that at a very early period, the
facts relating to the subject; for adolescence is
full of illusions, delusions, fancies, errors, dreams,
and confusion. Plain language rather than senti-
mentalism is at once most pure and most helpful.
Briefly stated, some of the vital considerations
are such as these: With the rise of sex-feeling,
persons of both sexes are drawn to each other by
an influence they did not feel in the earlier years
of childhood, and at first they do not know what
the new force means. The fact that sex-appetite
awakens before knowledge of consequences is a
peril of youth, and calls for careful instruction

24 Social Duties
by parents, teachers, and physicians. From the
accidental meetings of youth friendships arise
which may hallow or blight all subsequent life.
Girls and boys of early youth are alternately
attracted and repelled, and instinct is a fallible
guide. It is the moment when mere childish in
nocence must be armed with information as to
the significance of sex; its moral possibilities of
honor and good, its dangers of shame and sin.
Friendship in a widening circle will not be hin
dered, and its freedom will be all the larger and
finer because the danger is known and guarded
against. Out of the circle of friends and com
panions of youth, in most cases, young men will
-finally select their wives and seek to win them.
Courtship therefore belongs to the period in which
the fortunes of marriage and the family are in a
great degree decided.
3. The dignity of courtship. — Courtship is a
recognition of the freedom and personal rights of
woman; for where marriage is decided by force,
or where the wife is bought from the parents
like a cow, or where she is compelled to marry to
secure a fortune from a rich fool, there her
personality is not respected. Compulsory mar
riage is a mark of low civilization, and in fashion
able society there is sometimes a return to
barbarism. The offer of a title as purchase price

Duties Relating to the Family 25
of youth and wealth is on this level of a lower
and earlier stage of culture. Our ancestors sold
and bought wives openly and without shame;
perhaps we may still observe what historians and
naturalists call survivals. There is a nobler way.
Tennyson has painted for us the fine picture of
King Arthur who at his Table Round gathered
the young knights and made them lay their hands
in his and swear —
To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,
To love one maiden only, cleave to her,
And worship her by years of noble deeds,
Until they won her; for indeed I know
Of no more subtle master under heaven
Than is a maiden passion for a maid,
Not only to keep down the base in man,
But teach high thought, and amiable words,
And courtliness, and the desire of fame,
And love of truth, and all that makes a man.
Young persons of both sexes should be taught,
for they will not otherwise duly think of it, that
the conscious effort of a young man to win a
young woman in courtship is a step toward
marriage, the union of one man to one woman for
life, with a prospect of rearing children. Many
a merry hour may properly be passed in the genial
society of others without any purpose of mar
riage; but courtship, if it is honest, upright, Chris
tian, is a series of acts intended to end in the

26 Social Duties
establishment of a family. If it is not that, it is
false, cruel, selfish, and must end in sorrow of
some degree and kind, perhaps in tragedy.
4. Errors and sins of courtship. — In the light
of the facts and of the ideal of courtship, one can
judge certain kinds of conduct which are only
too common, although they are not always
adopted with a deliberate purpose to injure or
deceive. "Flirting" is a too familiar mode of
attracting attention and winning love, perhaps
only to cast it aside. The cruelty of insincere
encouragement to declarations of love, whether
by man or woman, is unspeakable. Why should
a sacred tree be planted and made to grow until
its form is necessary to the mind and its roots are
deep in the earth, only to pluck it up, bleeding
away its life, and leave it to perish? Is there
anything honorable in the boast of "conquests"?
"Falling in love" is sometimes praised as a
virtue, and often considered natural and harm
less. And it is not to be denied that the mutual
admiration by which two young persons are some
times at their first meeting suddenly and strongly
attracted to one another may be the beginning of
a pure and permanent love. But such attraction
must be something more than a passing fancy
and have some better basis than physical attract
iveness or sensual passion. For "love" that is

Duties Relating to the Family 27
worthy of the name is not a sudden flame of
sense, but an unselfish principle of devotion, a
serious act of consecration. It is a pity that the
sacred word which we use as a synonym of relig
ious union with God should frequently be em
ployed to designate the acts of vice or the
impetuous outburst of animal appetite. This
confusion of language tends to confuse thought
and conduct to blind, impulsive action.
True, rational Christian love in married persons
includes a solemn purpose to perform the duties
of marriage, and to endure its trials in view of the
importance of marriage to society. A proverb
condenses in a brief phrase the wisdom of ages :
"Marry in haste and you will repent at leisure."
Extravagance during the time of courtship may
be checked by sensible girls. It may not be wise
for a young man to seek the companionship of a
woman whose demands upon his purse are more
than he can honestly meet. Not seldom are moral
lapses in business due to the temptation of young
men intrusted with money to use what does not
belong to them in purchasing flowers, paying for
carriage hire, and other expenses, while in pursuit
of a wife. Without attempting to answer them,
we may start these inquiries : Why should a girl
accept costly presents from one who is not her
husband? Is it not questionable taste? Is it not

28 Social Duties
something akin to begging? Does a wise woman
like to think that she is being hired with money
to give her love?
How young people should conduct themselves
during the period of courtship, after the promise
of marriage, is a problem to which too little care
ful thought has been given. It ought to be
seriously considered by parents, teachers, and
young people who value purity, unspotted reputa
tion, and religious obligation. Engaged persons
have made a serious vow, and ordinarily they
should hold themselves to keep it unless there is~
strong reason for breaking off the relation. But
engagement is not actual marriage, in reality,
morals, or law. Not involving the duties of
marriage, it cannot give the rights of marriage.
In some countries engagement is often regarded
as equivalent to marriage, especially among
workingmen in crowded tenements ; and this leads
to many scandals and liberties, from which the
woman suffers most of the evil without having
legal protection. Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan
leader of New England, found it necessary to
protest against the too great familiarities of
young people common in his day, when sin was
committed under the promise of marriage.
In all literature there is not a more beautiful
and pure speech of a wise father to a prospective

Duties Relating to the Family 29
son-in-law than that in Shakespeare's Tempest
where Prospero addresses the lover of his own
daughter, the beautiful Miranda: For I
Have given you here a thread of mine own life,
Or that for which I live 
Then, as my gift, and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter; but
If thou dost break her virgin knot before
AU sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be ministered,
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain, and discord 
Therefore, take heed
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.
Look, thou be true, do not give dalliance
Too much the rein; the strongest oaths are straw
To the fire in the blood; be more abstemious,
Or else, good night, your vow !
Modesty and dignity do not dampen strong
affection, but make the light burn brighter into
old age.
5. The value of courtship. — The period of
courtship is an opportunity for discrimination,
selection, reason. Hence it should not begin too
early in life. Sometimes a temporary time of
separation, for reflection and comparison, with
change of scene, may help the young people to
make the lifetime decision with greater wisdom.

30 Social Duties
The conclusion of this period is but a new begin
ning. "Love" has illusions; for it idealizes its
object; it transforms the shallow, pretty girl into
a creature of majesty and character; it causes
the mean scamp to loom up in the brilliant fancy
of a girl in a mist magnified a thousand diameters
of moral greatness. In the Midsummer Nighfs
Dream the great dramatist has pictured a queen,
under the spell of a magic potion, admiring a
donkey and praising its long ears — a satirical hint
of the deception which young people sometimes
practice on themselves. The lover, "of imagina
tion all compact," "sees Helen's beauty in a brow
of Egypt ;" the black Moor seems white to Desde-
mona. Courtship is made all the more frivolous by the
current mode of speaking and thinking of divorce.
If marriage can be lightly dissolved, then a mis
take in selecting a wife or accepting a husband,
it is imagined, will not prove very serious. But
a courtship which does not mean fidelity for life
is like a rose with a worm eating out its heart,
like a tree growing in scant soil. The very idea
of divorce, covert under all the outward protesta
tions of undying devotion, not only endangers the
stability of marriage, but degrades courtship itself
and turns the solemn vows of lovers into a heart
less hypocrisy. A tacit lie lurks in every word of

Duties Relating to the Family 31
affection, and robs the happiest and sweetest mo
ment of all the fresh bloom of sentiment. The
very phrase "trial marriages," recently made
popular, is rank poison. Marriages of criminals
are all "trial marriages," as those of brutes and
savages are. Even a hint of descending to those
nether regions for a rule of life is a disgrace and
a degradation. In the stage of courtship wise and good young
women have great educational power. Let us
have one generation of young women sensible and
self-possessed enough to think and to reject from
all friendly companionship young men who are
intemperate, unclean, guilty of "sowing wild
oats," profane, coarse; and the next generation,
if not so numerous, would reflect more luster on
the republic. The woman who marries a man to
reform him has taken a viper to warm at her
heart. The son of a millionaire is likely to
imagine that he need not be virtuous because he
can gain the hand of a good woman on account
of his riches. The divorce courts are witnesses
of tragedies arising from such blunders on both
sides. Alimony is a poor substitute for the happi
ness of a rational marriage.
6. Preparation needed for marriage. — Honest
courtship, the offer and acceptance of a friendship
which means marriage, should lead young persons

32 Social Duties
to prepare for marriage. For the young woman
this means in addition to the modesty, purity, and
chastity which every wise mother teaches her
daughter and casts about her as an angelic mantle
of protection, an acquisition of the knowledge and
training of a home-maker. This part of the
preparation includes all possible general culture
which makes a woman capable of sympathizing
through a long life with the broad industrial,
economic, and political interests of a man; it in
cludes all possible acquaintance with literature and
art which may give rational, worthy, and inspir
ing diversion and recreation to minds worried and
wearied with monotonous grind and rasping con
tacts; it means the power to keep a house whole
some, clean, tidy with a touch of beauty, and not
exceed the income of the man; it includes the
knowledge and the training which are necessary
to feed and care for the infant and young child,
the normal issue of a marriage formed for social
ends. If all this can be learned, in theory and
practice, at home, it may be well; but ordinarily
the help of schools, classes, and expert instruction
will be required in order to secure the best results.
The preparation of a young man for marriage
must be of body, mind, spirit. He must be pre
pared to earn an income sufficient to support a
wife and children. Personally he should be free,

Duties Relating to the Family 33
and should furnish reasonable proof from the
family physician, to the father of his fiancee, or,
if the father is dead, to her mother, that he is
free from all forms of communicable disease.
Some day this may be demanded by law, when
the general public becomes aware of the frightful
ravages of venereal and other contagious and
hereditary diseases, and acquires the moral cour
age to apply an effective legal remedy. But until
that law comes, and as one means of hastening
its coming, every upright and sensible man will
use his best effort to enforce such a requirement
by every means of instruction, persuasion, and
influence. TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
1. What are the customs of courtship in the locality
and community? What is faulty in them?
2. Has the church any rule of discipline on the
subject? 3. Does the law of the state offer any regulation of
the social relations of the sexes previous to marriage?
What immoral acts are forbidden by law, under
penalties ?
4. Can anything be done by the class to produce a
purer, more sober, and rational custom in the neighbor
hood? How can rakes be frowned out of decent society?
5. Would a fashion of "chaperonage" be advisable?
6. What aspects of the problem, not touched in the
lesson text, are worthy of consideration? What impor
tant facts are omitted? Send notice of serious omissions
to the writer of these lessons.

34 Social Duties
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Information which should be given to young persons
in regard to the anatomy, physiology, dangers, diseases,
hygiene, and duties relating to sex.
G. S. Hall, Adolescence, Vol. I, pp. 463-71- President
Hall complains that nearly all the books published hith
erto are too long and contain too many suggestive,
exciting, and morbid details. He has published (D.
Appleton & Co.) a smaller work entitled Youth.
Charles Wagner, Youth {La jeunesse).
As this is the period when the care of health and
strength becomes the duty and the charge of youth, the
school studies of physiology and hygiene may be con
tinued by reading substantial books, as :
Martin, The Human Body, or
Harrington, Practical Hygiene.
For young men: Winfield S. Hall, The Biology,
Physiology and Sociology of Reproduction.
Publications of the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene,
and of the New York Society of Moral Prophylaxis.
C. R. Henderson, Yearbook of National Society for
the Scientific Study of Education, 1909 ("Education with
Reference to Sex") ; for teachers and parents.
II. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
1. Presuppositions of this discussion. — It is
taken for granted throughout these studies that
the student is making himself familiar with the
teaching of the Bible on each topic and giving
them reverent heed. On the subject of marriage
and the family we have conflicting pictures and
customs; the polygamic family of the patriarch

Duties Relating to the Family 35
Abraham, the permission of divorce in the laws
of the Hebrews, the apparent prohibition of di
vorce by Jesus, the criticism of Paul that marriage
is a kind of inferior moral state over against his
almost sacramental view of the institution as a
symbol of spiritual union with God. We are not
attempting here to make a biblical study,1 but
rather to look straight at marriage as a present-
day social fact, and to discover what conduct is
required in view of the entire situation. After
directing attention to a few of ma«y important
considerations the class will be asked to think of
others and endeavor to weigh them.
2. Definition of marriage. — Marriage in our
time and land is the voluntary union of one man
and one woman for life-companionship. It is
assumed that both parties are old enough to
understand their act; that there is no compulsion
of either; that they are physically and mentally
fit for marriage. These conditions do not always
exist, but they are regarded in our country as
necessary to a right marriage. That which public
opinion generally approves as best has been in
1 Good helps in this field are afforded, and references sup
plied, by the reverent and earnest book, Social Significance of
the Teachings of Jesus, by Jeremiah W. Jenks, 1907. On this
special subject of the biblical teaching on marriage and
divorce, see the article of Professor E. D. Burton in the
Biblical World, February and March, 1907.

36 Social Duties
varying degree expressed in the laws of states and
the interpretations of courts.
The legal definition of marriage is based on
the social belief that certain actions, habits, and
customs are necessary for the common welfare,
and the definition already given to describe the
customary thought is substantially that which we
find in laws. Marriage legally begins with a
voluntary act of both parties to the contract; but
after that act the union cannot legally be dis
solved without the permission of the proper
judicial authorities. The lawyers say that mar
riage begins with a free act, but that it becomes a
"status." The social reasons for this will appear.
From most contracts the parties may be freed
simply by mutual consent, and ordinary business
partnerships may be dissolved by agreement in
private and without notice to others. But mar
riage is a legal contract like no other. There are
a few eccentric persons who declare that marriage
ought to end at any time when both members of
the union agree to have the relation end ; and their
reasoning is specious. We can answer them best
by showing what are the consequences of mar
riage — how far-reaching, enduring and profound ;
that these consequences are not merely personal
and private, but also social and affect the entire
community in all its interests.

Duties Relating to the Family 37
3. Effects of marriage — economic. — What are
some of the effects of the marriage union ? First
of all there is at once a mutual interest in the
work and business which are to furnish support
for the family formed in marriage. The labor
or business activity of a man has for its purpose,
not merely his own support, but that of his wife
and children. "Self-support" includes mainte
nance of wife, children, and the aged or infirm.
Leaving out of account a comparatively few per
sons who have inherited estates *and can live
without work, the vast majority of men must
receive for the service they render to society re
turn enough to maintain one, two, or more other
persons. When the employer pays a workman, he
must on the average include enough to support
parents and young children. When a farmer
tills the soil, he wins a product for the support of
the entire family. If wife and children help in
the labor, the reward must go to a common fund
in which all share according to their needs.
Property in lands, machinery, merchandise, rail
roads, and all else is essentially family property.
When a man dies, he usually gives his accumu
lated wealth in parts to his widow and children
and nearest family relatives. All the results of
savings, effort, thrift, and commerce flow to the
family.

38 Social Duties
An important modification of this statement
must be made in respect to those great fortunes
which fall into the hands of a very few fortunate
masters of industry and commerce, and which
are not in any proper sense earned by the owners,
but which are built up largely by the services and
sacrifices of all industrious members of a com
munity. In such cases, even when the acquisition
has not been promoted by fraud and oppression,
the duty to share the wealth with the entire com
munity, and not to leave it all to the family who
have done nothing to earn it, has come to be
recognized in large gifts and legacies to public
uses, in inheritance taxes, and in the moral de
mands of enlightened teachers of morality. But
even in these exceptional cases all admit that the
family has the first claim.
Mr. Andrew Carnegie has clearly and explicitly
taught the world, by books and by action, that
accumulated wealth, after the family is reason
ably provided for, is morally, if not legally, public
property and should be redistributed as com
munity wealth. The amazing gifts of other own
ers of colossal fortunes are sometimes accom
panied by a modest and high-minded confession
that the gift was a recognition of the common
ownership of exceptional wealth and of the stew
ardship of all possessions. This does not imply

Duties Relating to the Family 39
a confession that fraud or other conscious in
justice was a part factor in the acquisition.
4. Effects of marriage on health. — Usually the
health of the members of the little community de
pends on the conduct of that circle. The prepara
tion of food, the proper care of the household,
the condition of the place of rest, the recreations,
the social atmosphere of the residence, are factors
bearing on vitality and industrial efficiency. The
health or sickness of a child is a factor in the wel
fare of the commonwealth and rfation, as Presi
dent Roosevelt has wisely and strongly insisted.
When parents act in a way to jeopardize the
physical well-being of each other or their off
spring, the national life bleeds from one of its
arteries. 5. Sociable needs. — The satisfactions of the
desire for companionship are in great measure
dependent on the home. Husband and wife are
companions on most intimate terms and with a
great variety of undivided interests. Suspicion
and distRist can be endured between persons who
live at a distance, but they make purgatory where
human beings must occupy the same rooms and
eat daily at the same table. One can let the neigh
bor churl pass him with his surly mien and hard
salute or averted eye, but in the home even a slight
is felt as a dagger's thrust. The social virtues,

40 Social Duties
which are so necessary to the comfort and happi
ness of a community, are cultivated, if at all, in
the home.
In this connection should be studied the effects
of all kinds of limited-marriage schemes, every
one of which, however cunningly disguised under
specious phrases, is a return toward savage and
animal unions. Among animals, and even among
some of the lower races of men, with their fre
quent marital changes, physical modesty is
rudimentary or unknown. Modesty has been
developed as a protection to chastity, purity, and
health. The tendency of frequent and easy di
vorce, or even of indulgence of a thought of the
possibility of divorce and remarriage while a
spouse is living, is to brutalize both man and
woman. Monogamous marriage tends, if per
manent, to cultivate and refine that modesty which
stands with flaming sword to guard the paradise
of chastity. Mrs. Browning's expression is none
too strong, that "God is sad in heaven" when he
sees how "all our towns make offal" of our
daughters. Prostitution, which is a return in
extreme form to the casual sexual relations of
brutes, causes not only the spread of loathsome
physical disease among guilty and innocent alike,
even to the third generation, but it transforms the
guilty into cynical skeptics in regard to the very

Duties Relating to the Family 41
possibility of clean living. What must be the
insidious paralysis of the finest feelings of man
hood and womanhood to meet in street and
assembly a number of previous consorts still
living !
6. Birth of children. — Normally and naturally
the consequence of marriage is the birth of chil
dren. It is this which seems to historical students
to have first created the family,2 and family life
is always incomplete without children. Children
are for a long time dependent on adults for
physical care and support, and for education.
Who are required by the facts of life to provide
this maintenance and fitness for existence? The
central and decisive fact here is that both father
and mother, having entered marriage by free
contract, and having agreed to perform the duties
of that relation, are the sole persons responsible
' Numerous studies of domestic groups of primitive races
of men seem to indicate that the earliest permanent groups
were of mother and child, the father having little to do with
them after the child is born. But the very helplessness of
infant and often of mother gradually compacted and cemented
the union. A temporary sexual union is not a family in any
true sense, and hence it seems none too much to say that
"the child created the family." It is interesting to note, as
a result of recent statistical studies of vast numbers of
families, that those marriages which produce children tend
to be more permanent than childless marriages. (See Henry
Drummond, The Ascent of Man.)

42 Social Duties
for the entrance of the child into life. It is in
accordance with this fact that our civilization, by
custom, sentiment, and law, requires both father
and mother to carry this burden.
What would be the consequence of permitting
parents to desert their children and cast the bur
den of support on others? The first result would
be that infant mortality would be frightfully
increased ; for we already have enough such cases
to teach us that a mother who abandons her babe
or refuses to give it nature's food, greatly in
creases its chance of death, no matter what may
be done by others. The effect on mother and
father of desertion of children is disastrous both
to physical health and to character. Parents need
the children for their own sake as truly as children
need parents, though not in the same way. Na
ture has provided instincts of affection in adults
so that, when a babe is born, these affections
begin to develop in all normal and healthy per
sons. Unless impeded by false and artificial
conditions, ideas, and customs, parental love
grows with the child and provides for it without
legal pressure. The conduct and character of
parents are the earliest and most essential factors
of the education of the child. This point requires
special discussion at another time; its importance
.cannot be over-estimated. Children are imitative

Duties Relating to the Family 43
and their affection and respect induce them first
of all to imitate their own parents.
The support and education of children by the
family is a public and not a merely private con
cern. If the little ones are left by parents to
starve, then the country loses its laborers and
citizens; and if they are fed at public expense,
then some persons must carry an unjust part of
the burden. The expenses of the public for char
ity are already enormous, and much of this is
due to neglect of children by unfit parents. If
the children grow up ignorant, dishonest, thievish,
feeble, lying, unclean, diseased, obscene, profane,
they are pests in the community. While the
family has a private life of its own, the whole
community has an interest in its permanence, its
purity, and its morality, and must insist that the
family perform its task faithfully.
7. Social action to defend social welfare. —
Since personal advice is inadequate here, the
community is compelled to find a method of social
action which will protect the public interest.
Public teaching, church discipline, social criticism,
newspaper publicity, are among the ways in which
society secures obedience to its requirement that
parents must maintain and properly educate their
own offspring. But where such means fail, more
severe and forceful measures are adopted. In

44 Social Duties
some states the parents are made to appear before
the judge of the juvenile court, if they have by
negligence contributed to the misery or immor
ality of a child, and they are punished if they
refuse to perform their duty to the utmost limit
of their ability. If through ill-health and poverty
they cannot provide for the physical and moral
needs of the children, private and public charity
are called upon to assist. •
Divorce laws rest upon this fact, that the con
duct of married persons, especially where children
are involved, is a public and not a merely private
concern. If a man could desert his wife at any
moment he pleased, the result would frequently
be cruelty to the woman. She might be aban
doned at the hour when she became burdened with
the care of a child of which the deserting husband
is father. This would mean either that an exces
sive load would be cast upon her in a time of help
lessness, or that neighbors should work to support
one who ought to have been cared for by her
husband. As marriage has consequences of public inter
est, and ill-advised marriage carries with it results
of the greatest injury to the community, it is the
right and duty of the community to surround it
with all necessary safeguards to prevent such
marriages and to secure that only they marry who

Duties Relating to the Family 45
are fitted to enter into this relation. "Easy mar
riage," for which many clamor, is the fruitful
source of endless evils. Among the safeguards
against unwise marriage none perhaps is more
effective or salutary than publicity, through the
requirement that no marriage shall be entered
into without due public notice. This notice has
in some lands and times been given by announce
ments in the church for several weeks before the
wedding ceremony, by publication in print, by
registration in a public office. Secret marriages
frequently end in misery and shame. Designing
and unscrupulous men often induce ignorant and
foolish girls to marry them, only to find that the
men have already been married several times and
have deserted their wives in the hour of extreme
need. An immoral young man will sometimes
persuade a girl to elope with him secretly, because
he knows that, if the event were public, his true
character would be exposed and the woman would
refuse him. This publication should be given
some weeks before the wedding, in order to give
time for all necessary inquiries and for suitable
reflection. The consequences of marriage are
so serious and complex that it should be preceded
by full knowledge and abundant time for con
sideration. Much can be said for the plan of having the

46 Social Duties
same county officer act as the authority to issue
licenses, for performing the act of legal recogni
tion, and for registration of the marriage. At
present many marriages are performed in secret,
without previous publicity, and ministers often
forget or neglect to have the celebration registered
afterward. A civil marriage should be the only
legal essential in forming the union, but parties
would still be free to have a more solemn celebra
tion at home or in church, with all the ceremonies
and sacred associations which are customary and
hallowed. In this view a minister would not have any of
the rights or obligations of a civil officer; and in
a country where church and state are separate,
as with us, this seems logical and proper. A
minister frequently feels obliged to refuse to
solemnize a marriage even when the parties come
to him with the license of the state, on the ground
that one of them has been improperly divorced.
But, if he is a state officer, it does not seem proper
for him thus to refuse to honor the document
issued by the state; he seems to reflect upon that
same law-making power under which he accepts
a public office.
8. Attitude of the church to divorce. — The
church. is not obliged to accept the divorce pro
nounced by the courts of a state as final and

Duties Relating to the Family 47
satisfactory. For example, a divorced man who
has married while the first wife lives may ask for
membership in a church on the ground that he has
been legally divorced from this former wife. But
many things are legal which are not moral, much
less on a level with the morality required for
membership in a church. On the other hand, the
church cannot insist that its rule should be made
the law of the commonwealth. It may be that
divorce is civilly desirable, "for the hardness of
their hearts," to prevent worse evils, while not
moral according to the standards of conduct set
up for themselves by religious men. The law
permits and countenances many acts which a per
son of high honor will not permit himself, nor
countenance in his familiar associates.
Some legal provision must evidently be made
for the protection of married persons to whom
the marriage itself was a wrong. Thus the law
very properly annuls the marriage of a young
child who is in development of body and mind
utterly unfit. The law rightly releases a woman
from the legal control of a man who gained her
consent to marriage by base and brutal conceal
ment of some physical imperfection or loathsome
disease. Probably it would have been still better
to provide legal methods of preventing such mar
riages in the beginning; but annulment of the

48 Social Duties
marriage is under such conditions a partial rem
edy. An innocent woman ought to have the help
of a court to release her from any legal control
of a man who after marriage becomes cruel and
dangerous through low vice and inveterate habits
of drunkenness or use of drugs. It is sometimes
the duty of a woman, especially when the life,
health, and morals of her children are at stake,
to make use of the legal protection offered by the
courts. After all this has been said, many personal
problems will remain for which no law can be
framed. If a woman should secure protection
from a vicious husband by a divorce, should she,
as a Christian woman, regard herself at liberty
to marry again ? Or should she endure her cross
and try to save her husband by long-suffering
patience ? In a similar situation, what is the duty
of a man ? There is the story of Hosea, used as
a parable of the amazing pity of God to sinners.
There are the teachings of Jesus, never intended
for enactment into law to be enforced by penalties.
We come here upon one of those questions which
cannot be answered in a legalistic temper by a rule
imposed from without. In the spirit of Jesus the
individual must decide for himself and cast his
burden on the Almighty, praying for help to know
and do that which is highest and most worthy.

Duties Relating to the Family 49
9. The duty of kindness. — In the Scriptures
wives and husbands are commanded, and in the
ancient English marriage service they promise to
"love" each the other. It is sometimes asserted
that no person can honestly promise in advance
either to obey or to love another person, and their
argument is plausible. It is impossible to know
many years in advance whether it will be right
to "obey" a human being, or whether affection
can be commanded at will under circumstances
yet unknown. What is possible and also reason
able is that married people can show kindness and
faithfulness, can endure and sacrifice; then if
affection and respect are possible they will arise
naturally. We can school ourselves to act
upon principle, to endure in silence, to put
forth our best endeavor to win the heart and
purify the character of child or parent or spouse,
even in return for contempt, insult, and in
justice. In this sense we can even learn to "love"
our enemies, and in multitudes of instances evil
has been overcome by goodness, the jealous and
bitter soul has been ennobled and made worthy
of respect and attraction by grateful and respon
sive conduct. In this sense of the word "love,"
it can be commanded as a duty and can be
promised in all honesty. Kindness does not, how
ever, require either child or parent or spouse to

50 Social Duties
continue in a legal status which promises nothing
but persistent meanness in the party which is in
the wrong. TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
i. What is the law of marriage in your own state?
2. What license is required, and how is it obtained?
3. What record is made of marriages in the county?
Have a member of the class ask the registering clerk of
the county how many marriages are not recorded, and
how he knows. Ask him how many ministers and
others officiating neglect to return certificates for record.
4. What persons and officials are authorized to per
form the legal ceremony?
5. What are the advantages of a public religious cere
mony? 6. On what grounds can a man or woman obtain a
divorce in your state?
7. What reasons are given in ordinary society for per
mitting divorce on each of these grounds? What do
you think of these reasons?
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
G. E. Howard, A History of Matrimonial Institutions,
especially Vol. III.
Felix Adler, Marriage and Divorce. (A noble book,
though, we think, not quite fair to the Christian church
at some points.)
C. F. and C. F. B. Thwing, The Family — a historical
and social study.
Report of the United States Department of Labor on
Divorce Laws, 1889. The government is now (1909)

Duties Relating to the Family 51
publishing a special report on Marriage and Divorce.
(1867-1906) — an exceedingly useful work.
See Bulletin 96, Bureau of the Census, 1908 on Mar
riage and Divorce, iiiy-igo6.
Reports of Dr. S. W. Dike (Auburndale, Mass.),
National League for the Protection of the Family.

CHAPTER III
SOCIAL DUTIES RELATING TO MATERIAL
CONDITIONS OF FAMILY LIFE
In the first chapter we considered the objects
of social life in general, and we have seen that
human beings cannot advance in culture without
a sufficient supply of food, clothing, and other
goods necessary to maintain the body. We are
now to take up these material conditions of the
higher life and discover how a community ought
to act in relation to these facts.
I. THE MINIMUM STANDARD OF SOCIAL DUTY
There is a very common and traditional belief
that the income of a family of a workingman
should be measured by what its bread-winner can
earn in the competitive labor market. The "law
of supply and demand" which actually fixes
wages like the price of wheat or meat, is treated
as a part of the moral law, the will of God, or the
decision of fate, and any attempt to seek any other
basis is regarded as a foolish and futile struggle
with dark destiny, or as an impious attempt to
circumvent Providence. Stripped of all ornament,
this theory means that whatever is, is right. This
belief is rarely questioned among those who are
successtul, and the prosperous are inclined to seek
5*

Duties Relating to Family Life 53
in vice or idleness the only sources of failure to
provide support. If a laborer cannot earn income
enough to give his family decent means of sub
sistence, he is despised or pitied for his weakness,
or coldly rebuked for his incompetence or wrong
doing. Job on his heap of ashes still finds himself
surrounded with "comforters" who have a ready
explanation of extreme poverty in sin. If the
wages which are actually paid as a result of the
competition of employers and employees with each
other in the labor market are the proper measure
of what ought to be paid, then we have no right
to inquire further for social duty; the "going
rate" is the precise measure of social duty.
There is another and very different view which
is gaining a hearing in the modern world: that
society ought to discover the cost of living a
reasonable human life in a certain time and area,
and make that cost the minimum standard of in
come for a faithful and competent workman.
According to this view, those who can earn more
than this lowest measure would be permitted to
do so, and all would be encouraged to become as
efficient as possible. Nor may this idea of a legal
minimum standard of wages, foreign as it is to
our customary thought, be rejected without ex
amination, even if we do not see clearly as yet the
particular methods by which the principle can be

54 Social Duties
applied in practice. It may be suggested even
now that the traditional doctrine is modified by
the practice of poor-relief, since each community
admits that it is under moral obligation not to
permit the means of living to fall below a defined
level. And even in business many employers will
admit that they must as far as possible modify
the rate of wages somewhat by the cost of living.
We shall see later what this implies.
What elements must enter into the minimum
standard of family support? It is not difficult to
answer this part of the question. In every civ
ilized country, in every part of each land, in town
and in rural communities, certain things are neces
sary to the life of moral beings. These things
may be roughly classified under the heads : food
and drink, shelter, clothing, light and fuel, furni
ture and furnishings, means of transportation
(car-fares), provision for sickness and accidents,
dental, surgical, and other cafe of health, recrea
tion, and incidental but unavoidable expenses. In
order that these material means may be continu
ously supplied even during periods when the
bread-winner cannot work and earn, as in sick
ness, unemployment, and old age, there must be
some kind of a savings or insurance fund. Not
one of these elements can be left out; and, if any
one is omitted, life ceases, or degrading alms must

Duties Relating to Family Life 55
eke out the income. When some of these factors
are wanting or inadequately supplied, we discover
slow wasting of strength, lowered vitality and
industrial efficiency, high rate of mortality among
infants, and reduction of expenditures for spirit
ual culture. The stunted children in such homes
are excluded from school and shop, and turn
mendicants or thieves. Ultimately society pays
heavily for its denial of a primal duty, and cannot
escape its punishment. Nature sends#in a bill, and
has its own way of collecting interest and princi
pal. In the list just given nothing is included for
artistic enjoyments, for education, for religion,
for participation in philanthropic and political
activities, but only what is absolutely necessary
to supply animal wants, give strength for common
labor, and keep up the reproduction of labor force
by supporting children. Of preparation of good
citizens fit to take part in electing representatives
in government, and passing judgment on measures
influenced by votes, no account is taken ; but such
elements must be included, if our republican in
stitutions are to continue. Men living on the
animal level will inevitably descend to brute con
ditions. Can we measure the cost of these necessary
means of family life? This is not an easy task,
but harder problems have been solved. We must

56 Social Duties
indicate a way of studying this part of our prob
lem. Let the following facts of the situation be
considered : The material means of existence will
vary in quantity and cost with the size of family,
the price of commodities in the community stud
ied, with the fluctuations of prices in different
years and seasons. General averages for the
whole country are of little value ; we must study
the cost of living in each community. With this
information before us, we can readily calculate
the wages which must be paid in a particular com
munity to maintain existence, working capacity,
children, and the higher forces of civilization.
Several attempts have been made, with some suc
cess, in the cities of this country to discover the
actual cost of the items mentioned in the list
already given. In this quest charity workers
among the poor and visitors of churches have
rendered valuable service. But only trained
officers of the state, having public authority, can
make these investigations thoroughly and at fre
quent and regular intervals. The first social duty
is then to secure the establishment of boards hav
ing the legal right and duty to furnish the com
munity with a minimum standard of the cost of
living, which standard is found by analysis of the
prices of goods in the market and the actual ex
penditures of many families that are barely able

Duties Relating to Family Life 57
to support themselves without depending on poor-
relief. Some of the estimates made by careful observ
ers may be cited as illustration of local conditions.
Thus Dr. E. T. Devine said :
Recognizing the tentative character of such an esti
mate, it may be worth while to record the opinion that
in New York City, where rentals and provisions are,
perhaps, more expensive than in any other large city,
for an average family of five persons the minimum
income on which it is practicable to remain self-support
ing, and to maintain any approach to a decent standard
of living, is $600 a year.1
Later he wrote, in view of further investigations :
"Probably the earlier estimates of the cost of
living, including that made by the writer, are now
too low."3
It must be remembered that, in a rough way,
we already accept a standard in practical life for
each grade of workmen and in each community.
Thus in fixing the wages of unskilled laborers the
employers make a rough calculation of what it
costs a workman to live, and they feel that they
are doing something base if they offer less. Most
employers think they should pay something more
'¦Principles of Relief.
'Charities and Commons, November 17, 1906; Ryan, A
Living Wage, chap. vii. The latter work is an interesting
analysis of the problem ; no writer has yet solved it.

58 Social Duties
than the bare cost of living. It is true that girls
and women are often paid less than the cost of
their living, but in such cases the earnings of the
men are supposed to be the main source of income
for the family, or charity may supplement wages.
In giving charity itself the visitor rapidly makes
a guess at the minimum cost of necessities, and
seeks to discover the sources of income; then re
lief is given to make up the deficit. Experienced
visitors acquire skill in making these estimates
even where deception obscures the facts.
II. SOCIAL METHODS OF MAINTAINING THE
MINIMUM STANDARD
All the methods to be mentioned have some
where been tried, and are not merely inventions
or suggestions of the imagination.
i. Society is bringing pressure to bear on negli
gent men and women to induce or compel them to
support their families by steafly individual indus
try and faithful devotion of earnings to proper
uses. Thus public opinion chastises the loafer, the
shirk, the deserter of wife and children, the
vicious, the spendthrift, the drunkard, and the
vagabond. If teaching, preaching, ridicule, per
suasion, advice, and warning fail to secure eco
nomic and domestic virtue, the law inflicts fines
and imprisonment, with the object of securing

Duties Relating to Family Life 59
support from the persons responsible. These laws
are made more and more exacting.
Fortunately such extreme measures are neces
sary only for exceptional cases; ordinarily the
motives for industry are sufficient to keep most
men at work regularly, at least among races which
have for generations been trained to regular in
dustry, and where the desire for many kinds of
goods urges men to work without ceasing.
2. When parents, with children to^naintain and
educate, are disabled by sickness, accident, old age,
unemployment, or misfortune, and cannot supply
the necessities of life to dependent children and
the aged, society comes to their aid with private
charity or public relief. The poor-law is a recog
nition by the people of a state of the moral rule
that we ought not to permit any citizen, no matter
what his previous history, to perish from hunger
and cold, and that we ought not to permit any
child to grow up without education on account
of poverty. Frequently the relief given is un
wisely administered, excessive or deficient in
amount; but the moral obligation to maintain a
certain standard of life for every member of the
community is distinctly implied in both public and
private relief. This relief must ever remain ex
ceptional; it cannot become a regular means of
support without degradation of the working popu-

60 Social Duties
lation. In the case of the able-bodied adult, relief
can be safely given only in return for productive
labor; and where dependence is due to sickness the
relief must be so administered as to restore the
capacity to earn the means of living.
The objection to this method of meeting the
minimum standard is that it degrades the re
cipient, tends to make him indolent and morally
feeble, reduces the wages of the industrious, lays
an undue burden on tax-payers and generous
citizens, and so injures all.
The methods of administering charity in ex
ceptional and necessary cases cannot be discussed
here, but must be reserved for another time.
3. Measures relating to the industrial group or
the wage-earners. At this point we may barely
mention some of the methods by which working-
men are helped to maintain and raise their stand
ard of living and means of support: bureaus of
employment, industrial education and training, co
operation in purchase of commodities and con
struction of homes, savings schemes to encourage
thrift, provident loans, industrial insurance, legal
minimum wages, and many others which will be
discussed later.
Two of the social movements are so closelv
related to family welfare that they must be men
tioned here — shelter and food.

Duties Relating to Family Life 61
III. SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO SUITABLE
HABITATIONS
Residence in towns and cities reveals the abso
lute impossibility of meeting our moral duties by
individual action. In the rural communities, on
the other hand, where each family lives in a
separate dwelling, far removed from other habita
tions, the condition of the home is chiefly de
termined by the character and ideals and means
of the family, without considera^on of the
condition of other persons outside the home. But
let one of these families take up residence in a
city where land is so dear that few can own a
separate dwelling, where most of the houses are
rented by the month or year, and where many
families are crowded closely together under the
same roof, where all are compelled to jostle each
other in the halls and are totally ignorant of the
character of their neighbors, though affected by
them in health and morality; add poverty to
crowding, and then imagine how little the ordi
nary workingman can do to prevent evils in
physical and moral conditions. Under such cir
cumstances one has the conviction that appeal
must be made to some general law which com
mands the landlord, and which restrains the selfish
tenant and guards the purity of childhood. Moral
suasion will not secure action from reluctant

62 Social Duties
avarice; only the "big stick" of law enforced by
inspectors, that "sword of the magistrate" of
which Paul said that it was not borne in vain,
will tame the beast of greed and of ignorance.
What does the duty of a city require in rela
tion to the control of sanitary and decent habita
tions? (i) Since houses must be built every
year to replace old ones or to provide for grow
ing population, the government must secure
through legal regulations that every dwelling
conform to the necessary conditions of health and
propriety; (2) old houses which are unfit for
residence must be altered and improved, if pos
sible, to make them conform to the minimum
standard of health and decency; (3) the govern
ment must condemn and destroy houses which
are a menace to health and morality; (4) the
administration must provide adequate super
vision of present and future tenement houses so
that they shall be properly kept. In the minimum
standard of a human dwelling experience has
taught that the following items must be included :
sufficient light and air; space about the dwelling
to secure ventilation and sunshine ; such construc
tion of walls, partitions, and stairways that the
home may not become a death-trap in case of fire ;
separate water-closets and washing facilities to
guard modesty and purity; a certain space for

Duties Relating to Family Life 63
each person; partitions so constructed that the
sexes may be separate and boarders be kept apart
from the family; cellars and courts clean and
open to air and light. Experience and expert
study have developed a code of building con
struction which has been adopted by the leading
cities, covering the minute details of all such
points. In the city of Liverpool it was found that
private enterprise was not ready to build houses,
and rent them at a rate which poor workingmen
could afford to pay, and the city bought ground
and built decent habitations of simple style, and
rented them at cost to laborers who were living
in houses unfit for human life. The moral effects
of these changes were soon apparent ; the number
of drunken and riotous men brought before the
police courts was reduced; sexual purity was in
creased and prostitution diminished; rents were
promptly paid; cleanliness was enforced until it
became a pleasant habit; mortality of children
was reduced; less time was lost from work
through vicious indulgence; and in every respect
the conduct and character of the people were im
proved. There were, of course, theorists who
shook their heads because all this public solicitude
for the welfare of the poor contradicted their
theories of government functions, and they called

64 Social Duties
the policy hard names, as "socialism," "paternal
ism," and the like; but that good came of the
scheme no one can deny. In order that persons
able to pay higher rent should not take the new
houses, it was wisely ordered that only families
driven out of the unfit dwellings could rent the
new houses. Other cities have failed at this
point, because they neglected this precaution and
rented to any bidder.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
i. What laws of your state regulate the building of
dwelling-houses? If you live in a city, get a copy of
the building ordinances. Are such regulations part of
a moral code?
2. Learn whose duty it is to enforce these laws, as
officers of health, state inspectors, police, fire marshal,
etc. 3. Are these laws complete and reasonable, and are
they well enforced? If there is neglect, who is to blame,
and how can he be officially brought to account?
4. Do you know of any dwellings which are unfit for
human habitation? Discuss ways of improving the con
ditions. 5. Has your community any ideal of duty on the sub
ject of dwellings? What evidence have you for your
opinion ?
6. Can you trace any good or evil spiritual conse
quences of the physical surroundings of particular
families? Bring these to the attention of the class.
7. How is the whole question of habitations related
to social duty and hence to Christianity?

Duties Relating to Family Life 65
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
DeForest and Veiller, The Tenement House Problem.
C. D. Wright, Practical Sociology (last edition).
IV. SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO FOOD AND
DRINK
"Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye
do, do all to the glory of God" (I Cor. 10:31) ;
"Or know ye not that your body is a temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
from God? .... glorify God therefore in your
body" (I Cor. 6:19, 20). We assume in this
discussion that the biblical teaching in respect to
the body is familiar even from childhood. We
proceed at once to outline topics for a discussion
which may lead to clearer knowledge of what our
duty is in respect to the treatment of the body.
The information must be sought by consulting
physicians, and books on anatomy, hygiene, and
sanitation, some of which are mentioned at the
close of this chapter.
1. The influence of the body and the spirit
upon each other. — The body affects the spirit,
and, in turn, the state of the mind affects the
health. Jesus healed the body as part of his re
deeming work. Gluttony depresses the soul,
weakens moral courage, excites animal passions,
produces diseases, so reduces usefulness and

66 Social Duties
efficiency and shortens life. Bad physical habits
in parents cause their children to inherit their
weakness and faults. On the other hand, insuf
ficient and improper food injures the body and
impairs the spiritual forces and character. A
few persons overcome feeble health by strong
effort, but weakness of the physical side of our
nature easily passes over into the soul. We do
not know exactly the connection between these
two sides of our being, but the fact that they
influence each other is known by all. Upright
judges, after a dinner which is not digested, have
been tempted to throw the scales of justice out of
balance. Preachers in ill-health, or imperfectly
fed, show it in peevish, whining, or scolding
sermons. Toothache makes bad temper. Rheu
matism cripples a good man in the race for the
prize of righteous living. Ague chills the ardor
of devotion. Neuralgia unfits for social fellow
ship. Many diseases are due to unscientific
feeding. These facts show that food, which is
absolutely essential to life, is also an important
factor in right living. No man can put forth
more energy in song or prayer or charitable
labor than he gets from food consumed and as
similated. It is our duty each day to have just
as much force as we can possibly get out of what
we eat, and then to direct that force according to

Duties Relating to Family Life 67
the laws of social well-being, the law of love to
God and man.3
2. The necessity of education in reference to
food and drink. — It is a duty which each per
son owes to society to acquire all possible knowl
edge of food and drink, and it is our duty as
members of state and nation to use the powers of
government to educate all citizens in this matter,
and to protect the people against fraud, adultera
tion, and poison. •
o) What is the use of food and drink? The
purpose of taking food and drink is to build up
the structure of bones, nerves, muscles, and all
tissues of the body; to repair the waste of the
system which goes on constantly; and to produce
energy which may go out in the activities of life.
If men were to stop consuming food, all the in
stitutions of society would soon fall into ruin
with the utter destruction of all life. Religion
8 "Every man has lain on his own trencher."
"Men dig their graves with their own knives and forks."
"Public men are dying not of overwork, but of their
dinners" (Mrs. Ellen H. Richards).
"The seat of courage is the stomach" (Frederick the Great).
"We are fed, not to be fed, but to work."
"Courage, cheerfulness, and a- desire to work depend mostly
on good nutrition" (Moleschott).
"The destiny of nations depends on how they are fed."
— Quotations from Lake Placid Conference on Home Eco
nomics, 1905.

68 Social Duties
itself would disappear from the world more ef
fectually than by the murder of all believers.
Saints turn nutrition into prayers as wicked men
transform it into curses.
b) What are the essential elements of food
and drink? The authorities tell us that three
kinds of organic materials are necessary to health
and life: proteids, fats, and carbohydrates, with
certain acids, and also inorganic materials, in
cluding water and mineral salts. The proteids
are composed of various chemical elements, are
found in both vegetables and meats, and are
necessary to life, while if taken in excess they
produce disorders of many kinds. Fats consist
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; nitrogen is
supplied by the proteids. The carbohydrates
include starch, sugar, and cellulose. Some of
the salts needed are sodium, potassium chlorides,
potassium, magnesium, calcium phosphates, and
compounds of iron.
c) Quantity of food and drink required:
For the maintenance of a proper degree of health and
strength the individual must ingest an amount of food
sufficient to meet the daily loss of nitrogen and carbon.
This must necessarily vary according to circumstances,
and hence no rule can be laid down to fit all cases. The
best that can be done is to make general rules based on
the amount of work performed; for the greater the
amount of work done, the greater the amount of food

Duties Relating to Family Life 69
required to meet the necessary consumption of fuel and
to replace the tissues  It has been estimated by
Voit .... that a man weighing 70 to 75 kilos (154 to
165 pounds), and working at moderately hard labor 9 to
10 hours a day, requires 118 grams of proteids, 56 of
fat, and 500 of carbohydrates (Harrington).
Some later writers 4 think that the amount of
proteids may be considerably reduced with ad
vantage to health. The measure used is called
a calorie, which means the amount of heat neces
sary to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of
water, 1 degree Centigrade, and this energy is
able to lift 425.5 kilograms one meter. Voit
thought that it was necessary for a man at work
according to his standard to consume food enough
to create 3,054.6 calories in a day. Beginning
with this measurement, scientific students are
working out the quantities necessary for all
classes of persons — infants, boys and girls,
women, and persons in all occupations and cir
cumstances of climate, age, health, weight, etc.
These interesting studies will result in great
economy of food and in improved health. But
it would be impracticable and undesirable to
weigh viands every time we eat, and this is un
necessary. Nature will aid in finding the limit
of quantity by the indications of appetite, though
4 R. H. Chittenden, Physiological Economy in Nutrition
(1904).

70 Social Duties
this is not infallible and may be morbid. It has
been found, as by Gladstone, that by very
thorough mastication of food one is satisfied
with a smaller quantity and at the same time is
more perfectly nourished.
Food must be agreeable and varied in order to
perform its task; and the pleasures of the table
aid digestion. The satisfaction of food is part of
nature's way of assuring the perpetuation of life
and of all that should go with life. Further
details must be sought in the books cited, or in
others equally reliable.
3. Alcoholic drinks. — It is in connection with
this subject that we come upon the use and abuse
of alcoholic drinks. Fluids are necessary to
health, and agreeable drinks have direct value in
connection with foods. The danger of drinking
intoxicating fluids has been made familiar in the
temperance campaigns of the past generation,
although with much ignorance and exaggera
tion. A few maxims may be sufficient to start
discussion in the right direction. If alcoholic
fluids are required for health, they should be
prescribed by a reputable physician, just as quin
ine, strychnine, and arsenic are prescribed. Alco
hol is a powerful remedy, and even in its diluted
forms lurk perils to health and character. Very
few persons actually need alcohol in any form,

Duties Relating to Family Life 71
since thousands of men have done hard work and
accomplished the highest results in all occupa
tions and all climates without such stimulants.
Ordinary food supplies all the alcohol that is
really necessary, except in disease or, perhaps,
old age. All the nutritive value that is in alcoholic
drinks can be bought at much less expense in
foods which are not dangerous.
4. Social customs. — Banquets and feasts must
be judged by their effects on healtjj and their
cost in waste. Not only in commercial, political,
and fashionable circles do people sin against the
canons of hygiene and economy, but even in
church meetings, both in country and city, glut
tony and waste are not unknown. "Tell it not
in Gath." While hundreds of thousands of
children go hungry to bed, the waste of food
cries out to heavenly pity and justice. The
miserable falsehood that the waste of rich men
is the good fortune of the poor, by increasing
trade, has caused many a death — death by surfeit
and death by starvation.
5. Adulteration of food and medicine. — Com
merce and trade deal out food and drink, and
they must be brought under the rule of moral
principles. From ancient times complaints have
not ceased in respect to short weights and meas
ures. The temptation is ever present in each

72 Social Duties
of billions of sales to get pay for a pound when
only fifteen ounces are delivered. The thrifty
housewife keeps in the kitchen her own scales,
but it is a shame she must do so.
Adulteration of food has become a subject of
discussion all over the civilized world. By in
vestigations carried on by private parties, and
then by governments of nation and city, the extent
of this wrong has been made public. Setting
aside the exaggerations and misrepresentations
of sensational writers, we have left in the official
reports and in the confessions of meat-packers,
wholesale grocers, retail dealers, and disclosures
of boards of health, a picture of unscrupulous
neglect, combined with ignorance and reckless
ness of human life, which is humiliating and dis
couraging. Nor are merchants alone guilty, for
the "honest farmer," guileless and simple, has
been known to ship his hogs and cattle to market
as quickly as possible when he found them
threatened with some disease which might soon
carry them off.
How can social righteousness become effective ?
Some tell us by individual honesty, by preaching
the gospel, and by conversion of sinners. All
this is right; but even converted men need to be
taught their duty by the law, since many of them
think the parson and Sunday-school teacher are

Duties Relating to Family Life 73
not familiar with business. Some adulterators
of food stand high among friends of missions.
They never think they are doing wrong until they
are threatened with exposure by a government
inspector. The interest of the individual will not
protect the common interest; the community
must protect the public welfare by law. Self-
interest needs both enlightenment and punish
ment to make it serve the public. The public
must have scientific and upright; inspectors
wherever food is prepared, whether on ranch and
farm or in packing-houses, storage warehouses,
or grocery stores. In this connection it might be
well for the class to make an inspection of the
places in which the animal food of the town or
village is prepared ; they are likely to find things
in the slaughter-house which will remind them
of the Chicago and Kansas City scandals.
The pure food laws recently enacted by Con
gress to regulate interstate commerce in foods,
and the improvement in methods of inspecting
the preparation of meats, are examples of the
value of appeals to government against private
neglect or greed of gain. It is hoped that not
only will these kinds of business find a better
market in all civilized lands, but that at home we
shall have more just weights and purer diet.
Incidentally the great merchants themselves will

74 Social Duties
be made better men. The magistrate and Presi
dent are ministers of God for this very thing,
just as truly as pastors and deacons.
Patent medicines, only too frequently adver
tised in religious papers, through ignorance and
neglect of careful inquiry, have become one of
the more important causes of inebriety. Persons
are induced by these advertisements to swallow
stuff recommended by ministers of the gospel,
who of course never made chemical analysis of
the contents ; and since it makes them "feel good"
for a time, they imagine they are cured by it.
Meantime some form the habit of depending on
dangerous stimulants. Many medicines, as sooth
ing syrups, contain opium, and the druggist does
not always give notice to mothers who ignorantly
drug their children to death. There is a long
series of these immoral practices which might be
brought out in many communities with the help
of honest druggists and physicians.
6. The duty of society to the ignorant and the
young. — Social duty must not ignore the poor
and the ignorant in all our towns who perish
from hunger, or become feeble and pauperized
from food unsuitable in kind or improperly
cooked. Food is at the basis of civilization, and
cooking is an art which ought to be taught every
where in schools. Private philanthropy and in-

Duties Relating to Family Life 75
dividual effort will never be able to train the
hundreds of thousands of girls and young women
for household duties.
The duties of society in relation to drinking
customs should be taught in public schools as a
natural part of the study of human anatomy,
physiology, and hygiene. This should not be
done in special hours and classes. There is much
complaint among both scientific men and teachers
of high rank that the books used irksome states
are not accurate and reliable, and that the method
of instruction required by law is frequently
monotonous and repetitious. Want of accuracy
and interest in method of teaching will destroy
all the good influence of such instruction and
cause a reaction against the whole movement.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Mrs. E. H. Richards, Cost of Food, and Chemistry of
Cooking and Cleaning.
Mrs. M. W. Abel, Practical Sanitary and Economic
Cooking. Mrs. E. Ewing, The Art of Cookery.
J. S. Billings (ed.), Physiological Aspects of the
Liquor Problem.
H. N. Martin, The Human Body.
J. Rowntree and A. Sherwell, The Temperance Prob
lem and Social Reform.
C. Harrington, Practical Hygiene.
Florence Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through Legisla
tion, chaps, vi, viii.

76 Social Duties
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
i. Members of the class who know of adulteration oi
food and drugs can report.
2. See if improper advertisements of patent medicines
are found in secular and religious newspapers, and dis
cuss facts discovered.
3. What is gluttony? When does a man come under
the influence of alcohol enough to be "drunk?" Is in
toxication the worst evil of using alcohol?
4. What are some of the inherited effects of gluttony
and use of alcohol?
S. Analyze the Pure Food Law of Congress.
6. What are the duties of health officers of state and
city in your own community?
7. Why cannot the regulation of food and drink be
left to individuals? Why is law necessary?

CHAPTER IV
SOCIAL DUTIES TO NEGLECTED CHILDREN
If we read the Bible with our eyes open to its
meaning we gain a strong conviction that God
cares for children. Nowhere in literature are
there more touching and commanding words
than those in which Jesus claims the protectorate
of all the little ones on earth in the* name of the
Heavenly Father. If we walk through the streets
of a modern town, or visit factories where chil
dren are employed, or hospitals where the victims
of sin languish, we are startled and awakened by
the spectacle of wrongs done to the innocent and
helpless. But before a large community of com
fortable people can actually be made to observe
and think, many must be personally annoyed,
vexed, injured, or shocked by some inhuman
barbarity. Without standards of judgment kind
persons have actually visited work-places and
prisons where the young have been ruined in
health and morals without being stirred, be
cause they did not understand the consequences
of such conditions. For centuries Christians have
permitted immature persons by the million to
bear prematurely the burdens of long days of
toil simply because they thought it was only
77

78 Social Duties
natural and inevitable. More than a century of
agitation in Christian England was necessary to
abolish legally the employment of boys in sweep
ing out the long, crooked, suffocating chimneys,
in which many were murdered after brutal tor
tures. Even tragic facts do not always move
good men to act until they are induced to trace
out the full consequence of social neglect. Ob
servation is feeble and blind without imagination
and judgment applied to the entire situation.
The evils of child abuse sometimes require sev
eral generations of gradual degeneration to reveal
themselves; and at the very moment a child is
being destroyed it may be gay and buoyant. The
dead tell no tales, and fresh victims conceal the
insidious effects of social wrong. No one is so
hopelessly blind as he who will not see and who
curses the philanthropists for interfering with a
profit in human lives. And where there is profit
in oppression of the speechless and cost in their
redemption the great mass of the public is slow
to move. Hence they who undertake to right
the wrongs of childhood must delve below the
surface of appearances, must gather facts from
all sources, must see the entire situation in all its
play of causes and effects.

Duties to Neglected Children 79
I. DISCOVERY OF SIGNIFICANT FACTS
A Bible class may render service to Christ by
taking up such a study in the state ; but its mem
bers must go about the quest for facts with
intelligence. 1. Classification. — Aimless groping in the dark
discovers nothing; our inquiry must be syste
matic and directed to the subject. He who is
looking for flowers finds them; he who seeks
shells goes to the beach; the deer-hsunter travels
to the forest glades; the fisherman casts his bait
in the stream.
a) We must look for the neglected infant. In
all cities of considerable size may be found un
scrupulous men and women who keep so-called
hospitals, or baby-farms, where young unmarried
mothers take refuge to hide their shame and then
give over their unwanted babes into the hands
of harpies who let them die of slow starvation or
hasten death with drugs. These miserable people
are in Germany grimly called "angel-makers,"
because they are supposed to send so many inno
cents to heaven by a short route. In these secret
places of cities are often found betrayed girls
from distant villages and country places ; for not
all human sin originates in cities. Many neglected
infants remain with ignorant and often careless
parents. Ignorance and extreme poverty are

80 Social Duties
usually the cause of neglect and death of infants
of poor married people. Usually the mother
loves her babe if it remain with her, but destitu
tion makes one hopeless and almost relieved when
the little one passes away and there is one less
mouth to feed.
b) Those who seek may find parents who are
actually cruel; who hire their children out to
wandering beggars or send them on the street to
sell papers in wintry nights and beat them if they
return without money. Many are hot-tempered
and strike their children through caprice, while
alcohol benumbs the moral sense and lets loose the
beast in man. Children so treated become vaga
bonds, beggars, thieves, or prostitutes.
c) We have already spoken of young children
sent too early to work in factories before educa
tion is advanced, the bones strong, the muscular
development complete.
d) We may also find defective children — the
crippled, blind, deaf.
e) Here and there in every state are the sub
normal and abnormal — feeble minded, idiots,
imbeciles, epileptics.
2. How are zve to extend our knowledge be
yond the narrow bounds of personal observation?
— We may travel to other places and widen the
area of observation, or we may send inquirers.

Duties to Neglected Children 81
In fact, however, this is not necessary, for the
government is now making investigation which
will bring out most of the essential facts through
out the nation; and such noble philanthropies as
the Sage Fund will follow up these wide investi
gations with very careful and minute studies of
particular .localities.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Mortality Statistics, Bureau of the Cen%us, 1905.
Child Labor in the United States, Bulletin 60, Bureau
of the Census, 1907.
Insane and Feeble-minded in Hospitals and Institu
tions, Bureau of the Census, 1904.
John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of the Children, 1906
(with many references).
3. With the help of all these sources of in
formation the student of social duties who will
have ground for an independent judgment must
consider, as fully as possible, all the facts relating
to neglected children in the neighborhood, or state,
or nation. The next step is to study with all
completeness the causes of the conditions dis
covered; that is, what there is in the situation,
earnings, habits, surroundings of the families
which has led to such cruelty and harm. It is
also necessary to consider the consequences of
neglect : the preventable mortality of infants, the

82 Social Duties
crippling and dwarfing of body, the want of
education for life, the suffering which comes
from thwarted desire of children to play and be
happy without too early care, the consequent loss
of vigor, earning power, and disposition to labor
in later years, and the revolt against social order
which inevitably arises where childhood is noth
ing but misery and grind. Such reflections upon
facts observed or learned from any reliable source
will surely start a desire to know what good
people have learned by experience as to the best
methods of curing the evil and preventing the
wrong. To this we now turn attention.
The man of science believes in law, not in
chance, fate, guesswork, blundering without
guidance of principles. Kind intentions are not
a substitute for knowledge; gentle emotions are
not full equipment for the service of neglected
childhood. During hundreds of years of philan
thropic activity the world has discovered certain
methods of dealing with such needy ones and
has learned that other methods are harmful and
to be rejected. Success is not a matter of acci
dent but of scientific method carried out by com
petent and earnest administrators. What are
examples of such principles of guidance?

Duties to Neglected Children 83
II. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF CARE OF
NEGLECTED CHILDREN
It is here taken for granted that every child has
a right to conditions favorable to health, educa
tion, morality, and, therefore, to food, play,
parental love, maintenance, and good example.
If every child has such rights then society has a
duty to enforce them against the failure of par
ents or to supply the place of parental mainte
nance and education where these far any reason
fail. The old English law more or less clearly
implied this obligation and provided, though im
perfectly, for the supervision of children. To
deny this social obligation would be to dissolve
the moral bond itself. If this duty of the com
munity cannot be made clear none can. The best
method discoverable is the form of the social
duty; it expresses the moral law for conduct in
this field. We may here give some examples of
such principles, and the student can find the proof
of their wisdom and soundness in the works of
reference cited.
1. Principles relating to neglected infants. — It
is universally taught by the competent authorities
that the mother who can do so should give her
babe its natural nourishment, for thereby, on the
average, the chances of life are greatly increased.
In extreme cases, where nature's provision fails

84 Social Duties
or is insufficient, cow's milk, properly prepared
and pure, may be fed under careful medical
advice. To carry out this principle various or
ganizations have been effected. Societies have
been formed to encourage mothers to nourish
their own infants; and where the mothers must
go out to work these societies pay a pension to
enable her to perform her duty at home. In great
cities the government inspects the dairies and
places of sale to prevent the distribution of milk
which, owing to the presence of hurtful bacteria
or lack of nutritious elements, is more poison
than food.1 This movement to supervise the
milk supply of large towns came none too soon,
for the slaughter of innocents went on with a
ferocity beside which the murder of children by
Herod was mercy. Philanthropy has established
associations of trained nurses who go from house
to house giving instruction to mothers in relation
to the methods of preserving the lives and vigor
of their children. Ignorance is more frequently
the cause of disease and death than cruelty or
carelessness. Physicians have also opened free
dispensaries for poor mothers to supply them with
artificial food, where it is necessary, and to teach
mothers how to maintain the life and energy of
the young citizens. Experience has shown that
1 See John Spargo, The Common Sense of the Milk Problem.

Duties to Neglected Children 85
it will not do to leave this delicate task to the
ignorant impulses of poor mothers. The pity
of it is that young women so frequently go at
once from factory and shop to wifehood and
motherhood without. ever having any instruction
in the preservation of their own health or in the
care of infants. Such information as they pick
up by chance from mothers and midwives is often
misleading. The method of helping the infants of un
married mothers must be studied. First of all,
asylum should be afforded such unfortunate girls
in their hour of misery. Experience has shown
that usually an unmarried mother will take refuge
and care for her babe if she is not unduly ex
posed to shame. She ought to be taught that to
abandon the babe is equivalent to multiplying
the probabilities of its death ; desertion is murder ;
she should nurse her babe for one year at least.
Whether after that she should have the control
of the child must depend on her nature, educa
tion, character, and situation. Good homes can
generally be found for such young mothers if
they are able and willing to do household work.
An open door of refuge for the disgraced and
terrified girl, victim of passion, folly, and wicked
ness, prevents despair and suicide or infanticide,
proves that the pity of Christ to the fallen is a

86 Social Duties
reality, and opens a vision of a merciful God.
Vice brings to such a very severe punishment and
the sinner needs not further rebuke and unpity-
ing retribution. "He that is without sin let him
first cast a stone at her." In any case the infant
is innocent and has full right to social protection
— just as much right as the offspring of lawful
marriage. In infancy such a child has right to
proper physical care, and when it grows up has
right to be free from humiliation and ostracism
which is only too often visited on the helpless
victim of sin by irrational public opinion.
2. Principles governing the right treatment of
children morally abandoned or cruelly treated. —
Cruelty is ingenious and inventive in ways of
torture. Sometimes cruelty is seen in partial
starvation, or in administering doses of drugs to
keep the child still, sometimes in whipping and
beating with physical injury. The animal wants
may be met fairly well, and yet the soul of the
young creature may be assailed by odious and
defiling examples of uncleanliness, profanity,
theft, riot; and that means it is morally aban
doned. For all such cases each community ought
to provide protection by humane societies, juvenile
courts backed by laws which provide punishment
for parents who contribute by their neglect to
the downfall of their offspring. Here again the

Duties to Neglected Children 87
best-known method is the standard of social duty.
Of recent years this obligation of the state has
been more clearly expressed in compulsory-edu
cation laws, in according to juvenile courts the
power to call before them not merely the delin
quent child but parents and other adults who in
any way have contributed to the moral hurt of
the child. If parents are shown to be too poor to
give adequate maintenance and supervision to
their children then the community ought, through
public or private charity, to supply what is essen
tial. 3. Principles regulating, suitable care of de
fective children. — Social statistics of the blind,
deaf and crippled are by no means complete and
satisfactory, but they reveal a very serious num
ber of these classes in all countries. Blindness
has many causes, some of them diseases which
can be traced to the sins of fathers. In many
forms loss of sight is due to accident and sickness.
Deafness also is due to many causes, some of
them preventable. Crippled children are those
who have weak spines or hip disease, or are
victims of violence and accidents.
The first principle for social duty is prevention,
where causes are known; and the next is cure,
to the extent to which this is possible. Surgery
and medicine are doing wonders for all these

88 Social Duties
unfortunates, and if cure is not possible, life in
thousands of cases is at least made tolerable and
useful. In the education of the blind and of the deaf
we have technical problems too complex to discuss
here. There are special treatises on methods of
teaching the deaf and the blind to communicate
with each other and with the outside world. The
stories of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller are
full of encouragement and interest. Boarding-
schools are provided by most states for deaf and
for blind children. But it has been found that
many of both classes may be taught in ordinary
schools by special teachers, and without sending
them away from home. So far as this is possible,
as in cities, it has the advantage that the children
are not deprived of home and its natural affec
tions and care, so necessary to development of
character. It is also an advantage that the chil
dren early learn to take care of themselves and
live independently in mixed society.
4. Duty of the community to abnormal chil
dren. — Any human being who cannot be educated
and trained to be capable of self-support and
self-control, by reason of imbecility, idiocy, epi
lepsy, or insanity, should for his own happiness,
for the sake of the family, and for the protection
of society, be placed and maintained in cottage

Duties to Neglected Children 89
homes in separate villages apart from all other
human beings, under the gentle but firm care of
teachers, physicians, and superintendents. They
cannot succeed in competition with normal chil
dren, and the attempt to do so brings nothing
but misery, poverty, and humiliation. These
isolation colonies should be so arranged and
administered that when the children grow up in
youth and maturity they will not be permitted to
marry or to have children of their own. Boys
and girls must be kept in separate places. With
proper surgical treatment, which is painless and
harmless, and even necessary to their health, they
will never under any circumstances become par
ents of similar miserable creatures.
Epileptic children and adults are so unlike
idiotic persons that they ought never to be placed
with them; special villages of epileptics are now
established by the most advanced states, and also
colonies of the feeble minded. The mode of life
and the treatment of these two classes of un
fortunates is so dissimilar that it is impossible
properly to care for them under the same admin
istration. Every human being has a right to the most
complete education which he can receive, and
therefore it is the duty of the state to provide
means for such education, and to appoint com-

90 Social Duties
petent and specially trained teachers and physi
cians for this task.
5. Provision for idle children. — Attention
must here be called to methods of dealing with
children in a crowded neighborhood, or even in
villages and towns where idle groups are left to
their own resources and are almost sure to get
into mischief. It is a safe principle to act upon
that every child should be kept busy every waking
minute. Indeed every healthy child will take care
to be busy at something. An old proverb hits
the truth : An idle mind is the devil's workshop.
But hands busy with destruction may also dig
the grave of character. Children must have room
to grow; a hill of corn must have space to pro
duce grains, and civic virtue will not flourish in
a sand lot covered with dirty cans and refuse.
Boys and girls cannot thrive in health or mor
ality if their only playground is the street or alley,
and they are left without older persons to teach
them how to play.
We now know that regulated, supervised, edu
cational play is nature's way of character-build
ing. Through plays and games the human race
first learned to work. A child who never has a
free chance to jump, spring, shout, laugh, com
pete, dance, run, throw, swim, shoot, wrestle, box,
build and make things, can never develop all
faculties.

Duties to Neglected Children 91
Homes of the poor are too crowded for all the
play children require, and parents seldom have
either the leisure or knowledge to teach children
how to play. Policemen are still more unfit ; it is
not their business. Playgrounds must be pro
vided by the community, one playground for
every schoolhouse at least, where children "learn
love's holy earnest in a pretty play, and get not
over-early solemnized." When children of school
age are not in school or at home, let them be with
wise teachers who know how to make play a
path to productive work to the sound of laughter
and music. Play directors have already formed
a national association and are establishing special
normal schools for training teachers for this new
and desirable form of education. Long ago
Froebel with his kindergarten revealed the value
of play in education, but his ideas are now ex
tended in directions and ways of which he did
not dream.
Boys and girls like to use tools and enjoy the
triumph of skill in making pretty and useful
articles. Art classes in drawing and color paint
ing are attractive. Almost any occupation, except
reading books, can with healthy and vigorous
children be made play.
Part of the time there should be "free play,"
as with marbles, tops, ball, without any direct

92 Social Duties
drill or useful purpose; enjoyment is itself use
ful, as all beauty is. In games, properly super
vised by sympathetic teachers, children are
socialized, civilized, Christianized; they learn to
"play fair," to obey rules, to check selfishness, to
be urbane and patient, and bravely to take hard
knocks without whimpering.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
Members of the class may wish to pursue these sub
jects still farther, and by means of the books cited in
references they will be able to do so. Such topics as
these may be considered and discussed:
i. What are the physical conditions of defective and
abnormal children of all the classes mentioned?
2. What causes have been at work to produce these
defects ?
3. Are any of these causes capable of being diminished
or removed, and by what means and methods?
4. What are the best methods of educating children
in these various special schools?
5. Is there need of having special classes in the com
munity where members of the class reside?
6. Are school physicians or nurses appointed by your
school authorities to examine little children when they
enter school and discover whether they are diseased,
defective, feeble minded, too slow and stupid to keep
up with others in classes, and so exposed to jest and
insult by other children? Is any attempt made to treat
children who are made stupid by growths in the nose
(adenoids), obstructions of hearing, defects of vision,
which might be corrected by proper treatment? Are

Duties to Neglected Children 93
there children who have crooked backs or deformed feet
who might be made stronger by treatment in a hospital
and by proper apparatus? Have you a corps of district
nurses moving about among the poor to discover chil
dren thus affected with deformity or disease long before
they are discovered by school authorities? Have the
physicians established, schools where mothers can be
taught how to feed and bathe their infants, and in all
ways rear them in health and strength? Do you know of
any little children with flat or deformed feet who might
be made whole if taken to a hospital while their bones
are pliable?
7. Has your state provided colonies for* the feeble
minded and for epileptics? Where are they? What is
the law governing them? Are they able to accommodate
all for whom admission is sought? Can you help im
prove conditions at this point?
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
C. R. Henderson, Dependent, Defective, and Delin
quent Classes.
See especially, Homer Folks, The Care of Destitute,
Neglected, and Delinquent Children.
W. B. Forbush, The Boy Problem.
Work with Boys, a magazine ($1.00 a year, Thomas
Chew, Fall River, Mass.).
Playground, a magazine ($1.00 a year, The Playground
Association of America, I Madison Ave., City of New
York). Annual Reports of Chicago Special Park Commission,
and also of Chicago South Park Commissioners.
C. Zueblin, American Municipal Progress.
Articles by Sadie American and Charles Zueblin,
American lournal of Sociology, September, 1898.

CHAPTER V
SOCIAL DUTY TO WORKINGMEN
I. THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM1
I. Who are the "workingmen" ? Do not all
honest folk work? "Workingmen," in the mean
ing of the word used in this lesson, are those
members of the community who, with their
families, depend chiefly or entirely on wages for
their living, who do not own the materials and
machinery with which they labor, do not have a
voice in government of mill or factory or shop,
and have no right at law in the profits made.
Formerly there were comparatively few of this
social class ; now they constitute a majority of the
population of cities and are rapidly growing in
numbers. In the country the "farm hands" be
long to this class, but they are not yet relatively
so numerous. Closely connected in interest with
industrial wage-workers are those who are em
ployed in mercantile establishments, minor offi
cials who live on small salaries, and even
1 If the leader of the class desires to have inspiring biblical
messages directly in the spirit of this lesson, he will find plenty
of them in both Old and New Testaments; for example, in
Jas. 5:1-6; Am. 2:6-7; 5:10-15; Zech. 7:8-14; Isa. 3:13
-15; 10:1-2; Deut. 24:10-15. 94

Duty to Workingmen 95
school-teachers, many of whom receive lower in
comes than unskilled laborers at rough work.
2. Why does society owe any special duty to
members of this particular group? Because they
are in a dependent position ; they do not own and
control the factories, machines and raw materials ;
they cannot give orders; they are subject to dis
charge at any moment, with or without reason,
by the employer; they have no power, unless
strongly united, to affect the rules which govern
the conditions of health and treatment; meir very
bodies and minds have become subservient to
managers of business. In the case of the un
skilled laborers, who are the largest sub-group in
this class, the wages are barely sufficient to main
tain a meager existence when work is plenty and
regular; without margin for books, recreation,
times of sickness, accident, old age, widowhood,
and unemployment.
3. The health, income, and culture of this vast
and growing multitude are a national concern.
If these people are sickly or weak, and industrial
efficiency is lowered, the production of goods is
diminished, and the nation is poorer. If some
of them are left without income on account of
accident, sickness, old age, death of the bread
winner, or unemployment, they must be supported
by public or private charity, the cost of which is

96 Social Duties ¦
great and the effect morally degrading. If,
through defective education, the children grow
up criminals, as many do, the cost is still heavier,
and the moral evils wrought by vice, prostitution,
and criminal associations poison members of all
social classes.
Then the much-discussed "industrial efficiency"
of economists, though desirable to the employer
and to the entire people, is not the final and high
est purpose of any man. The "workingman" is
first of all just a man, and his power to produce
commodities is not the object of his existence.
He has a right to leisure, recreation, family affec
tion, companionship with wife and children,
worship, art, literature, music, and all else that
is necessary to a human life. And since his
relatively dependent position in industry makes
his hold on genuine human life insecure, it is the
duty of society to help guarantee his rights as
a man. The right to liberty is a mockery if it
does not carry with it the possibility of leisure
and spiritual enjoyments.
4. What are the chief elements of a "social
policy" in relation to workingmen? It is the
systematic, general, and purposeful plan of a
whole community to do its duty to the families
in this group. This social purpose is of the es
sence of the idea. Many things incidentally

Duty to Workingmen 97
benefit workingmen which are designed for all
citizens, as civil and penal law, ordinary business
for profit, sanitary regulations. But this is not
a social policy in the meaning of the phrase here
used. A "social policy" is the systematic plan
and purpose of a whole society, not merely of
exceptional philanthropic individual employers
and capitalists, here and there. Philanthropy is
a very noble sentiment but experience shows that
it is capricious, unreliable, uncertain in practice,
and may at any moment be withdrawn. That
moral purpose of a whole people which is ex
pressed definitely in law is most worthy of the
name of a social policy. That is the highest moral
achievement which is accepted by all the people as
their will, as expressed through their chosen
representatives. Philanthropic action of rich individuals and
limited voluntary associations or corporations
may well lead the way in a general movement and
may be adopted into the wider scheme. Some
remarkably generous employers will often go
farther than it would be wise to require by law,
but it is still true that such unusual action does
not mean a social policy. Just here we are able
to see in a concrete situation the difference be
tween mere individual morality and the larger
and highest social morality. That which a rich

g8 Social Duties
man gives may exhibit his own individual virtue;
but only the act and sacrifice of all citizens in
bearing a common burden proves solidarity, a
really socialized goodness.
5. A social policy is needed to supplement,
regulate, and direct individual and voluntary
acts of generosity. Individual power has always
tended to become arbitrary and selfish. Vested
interests are jealous of change and reluctant to
accept burdens which may possibly lower divi
dends. The effort is to shift burdens of cost
from one to another ; the last man is the working-
man, and he cannot shift his load to others. He
is at the bottom. Each class of society is natu
rally inclined to think, and with clear conscience,
that a situation in which they have become pros
perous and happy must be in all respects wise,
reasonable, and right. This is just as true of
wage-workers as of capitalists. It is human na
ture. Each person is tempted to regard facts,
laws, customs, and results from the standpoint
of self-interest.
If this be a reasonable statement of the essen
tial facts of human nature, society cannot afford
to give over the common interest wholly to the
sway and control of private interest, and leave
private parties to fight out their differences.
Society can organize institutions above and inde-

Duty to Workingmen 99
pendent of the self-interest of individuals and
classes ; in a legislature all interests may be repre
sented and reconciled. The legislature places the
universal interest over the prejudice and greed
of persons and classes by establishing laws which
are of benefit to all alike and by establishing
courts for the settlement of disputes without
private war. Civilization brings all clashing acts
of egoism before the common tribunal of a social
conscience; lynch law and mobs are indications
of a reversion to barbarism and the ctmfusion of
frontier ways.
No single man, even if he be at once rich and
good, can accomplish much alone. A private
association lacks the power to make a good
method wide as the nation or state. We must
learn to cultivate a higher form of morality, a
sense of social obligation and co-operation. This
morality demands not only a finer sentiment, but
a deeper thought, a wider knowledge, a nobler
subordination of selfishness to the largest good.
The "individualism" of which many boast, often
means no more than "die you, live I ;" "every man
for himself, and the devil take the hindmost."
This, in its extreme form, is the morality of
beasts of prey who hunt alone. Each man ought
to make the most of himself, educate himself,
care for himself and his family, it is true; but a

ioo Social Duties
man who does no more than that and who does
not enter into the wider sweep of social goodness
never makes much of himself; he remains small
and lives in a little world. The typical "individ
ualist" who remains egoistic is a criminal. He
cannot be trusted abroad.
II. ELEMENTS OF A SOCIAL POLICY
I. Protection against accidents and disease. —
A "social policy" must begin with protection of
workingmen against accident and disease and
temptations to immorality in factories, mills, and
workshops. At this point we simply summarize
facts of experience in all modern lands. When
most of the people were farmers, and tools were
simple, the employer and his "hired hand" toiled
as companions side by side; accidents were rare
and few causes of disease arose from the nature
of the occupation.
All this has changed with the introduction and
rapid increase of dangerous, complicated, steam-
driven machinery; with the use of live wires
charged with deadly currents of awful electric
power; with ponderous and swift trains; with
lofty buildings where men labor at a dizzy height
on frames of steel and walls of stone; with
bridges spanning swift rivers and dark gorges;
with huge mills filled with dust, particles of steel

Duty to Workingmen 101
and stone, the air choking men with poisonous
vapors; with pitiless lathes gripping the hands
and merciless saws mutilating fingers and arms;
with huge hammers falling with the force of
many giants on the helpless workman, while
swinging cranes and bursting crucibles spread
death everywhere.
Many kind people do not know these dangers,
and the law often permits their concealment.
But we ought to know. It is the business of
consumers to learn what their good* things cost
the men who make them.2 How many good and
comfortably pious people have ever thought of
such facts as these:
We are proud of our President for the part he took
as international peacemaker in the late war between
Japan and Russia; but it can be shown that without
doubt the industrial army of the United States suffers
50 per cent, more casualties every year than all the killed
and wounded in both Russian and Japanese armies,
and our government has taken no action in the premises,
2 Here is a field for investigation for the class. Members
may visit rolling-mills, mines, quarries, factories, and
study the dangers of these places. When they are halted
before the usual sign "No admission," they can make their
inquiries of the families of workmen who have been hurt, of
physicians who practice among them, of pastors and nurses
and charity visitors who are familiar with the situation. In
the second place, they can read the descriptions given in
magazines and books. Reports of state factory inspectors are
useful for this purpose.

102 Social Duties
no public meetings have been held, no relief subscrip
tions have been raised, and no societies have been formed
for the education of public opinion with a view to putting
an end to this slaughter. And all this is true notwith
standing this blood-letting is on our own soil. In these
times of profound peace there are in the United States, in
the course of four years, 80,000 more violent deaths than
were suffered by both armies during the four years of our
Civil War  Facts are given which indicate that the
7,086,000 persons engaged in manufacturing and in me
chanical pursuits in this country suffer no less than
344,900 accidents in a year. If the remaining gainful
occupations in which some 22,000,000 are engaged should
prove to be only one-tenth as dangerous, we should
have to add to the above list of casualties upward of
100,000 more.1
When we add the 94,000 casualties in a single
year, which the Interstate Commerce Commission
reports, it swells the grand total to nearly 550,000.
But this is not all. Many diseases are inevi
tably caused by the process of industry, from dust,
microbes, infection, close confinement, exposure
to tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.
This means another source of frightful waste
of strength and time and death of the bread
winners. Even this is not all. On the average two or
three persons, wife, children, aged parents, when
•See Social Service, August, 1906; and Bulletins 75 and
78, of Bureau of Labor, 1908.

Duty to Workingmen 103
thus deprived of their natural support, fall soon
into mental and physical distress, and many of
them would perish did they not take refuge in
begging from house to house or by hiding their
heads in the poorhouses. All the numbers must
be multiplied by two or more to set forth the full
extent of misery caused by these casualties of
labor. Workshops in hazardous industries re
semble battlefields.
A "social policy" must include first a scheme
of protection against accidents and diseases, so
far as this is possible by law, and then indemnity
or source of income when accidents and diseases
which cannot be prevented have deprived the
workman and his family of the means of sub
sistence. In this article there is room only for
a brief outline of measures of the first kind, pro
tection.4 A complete system of labor laws would cover
all the dangers here indicated ; but, as a matter of
fact, the regulations in many of our states include
only a small part of these. Some states are far
more backward than others. Naturally the laws
and regulations ought to vary in adaptation to
' The actual laws already in force in the United States may
be found in the volume entitled Labor Laws of the United
States, Tenth Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor
(Washington, 1904), and in the later Bulletins of the Bureau
of Labor.

104 Social Duties
the circumstances of each district. For example,
if a state has no mines of coal or metal ores or
quarries of stone, it does not need mining laws
and organization of inspectors of mines. In
general, the following points need to be covered
and provisions made for their enforcement.
2. The labor contract. — The labor contract, by
which workmen enter service for wages, ought
to be carefully guarded by law. There is need of
free employment agencies everywhere to make it
easy for workmen to discover quickly and with
out cost the places where they are needed, without
having to pay large fees to private concerns which
cheat them and do not help them. Private em
ployment agencies are sometimes respectable, but
they require careful supervision and must be
licensed by the authorities. Probably the ma
jority of such agencies in cities are evil, some of
them active in promoting vice.5
The law should define such matters as the
length of a day's work and the rate of wages,
where there is no explicit contract; so that the
legal claim of the wage-earner may be fixed in
case of dispute. The duties and liabilities of
both parties in case of cessation of employment
by leaving or discharge should be defined by law.
3. Payment of wages. — The workingman
' See Francis A. Kellor, Out of Work.

Duty to Workingmen 105
needs legal protection in respect to payment of
wages. Employers have at times sought to op
press the hireling by paying wages in inferior
money, or in "truck," or by orders on stores in
which inferior goods are sold at excessive prices.
Ordinarily, the wages should be paid in lawful
money. The place of payment is also important.
It should never be in a saloon or other resort
where there is a temptation to immorality and
excess. The poor man needs his pay at frequent
intervals, for he cannot wait long arffi his credit
will not endure a great strain. The law should
require payment at least once or twice a month.
Self-interest has introduced frauds in the meas
urement of work done and the pay awarded; and
so laws must be made to provide checks against
these indirect methods of stealing earnings. An
other device of selfishness is to get the workman
into debt, charge him heavy interest, and prac
tically take back much of his earnings under
cover of claims as creditor. Fines are often
imposed and are sometimes necessary for shop
discipline, but they must be carefully restricted
by law. In order to secure the payment of wages
the mechanic is frequently given a prior right, a
lien, on the building or commodity, so that he
must be paid whether his employer is solvent or
not.

106 Social Duties
4. Protection of working children. — Working
children6 must be protected in a very special way.
They are young and ignorant as well as depend
ent; manufacturers are everywhere found willing
to employ them because they do not demand high
wages and will take what is offered, and ignorant
or lazy or poverty-driven parents will send them
to the factory for the sake of their little earnings.
This is evil and unnecessary. Young children
need to grow strong by play, and to secure an
education at least of an elementary character
before they are set at the steady, exhausting, and
dangerous tasks of the shop. The more en
lightened and humane peoples in Europe and
America have already guarded against these
perils, which would destroy the nation in its
weakest members if not arrested, by enacting laws
which forbid parents to permit their children to
leave school until they are fourteen years of age,
have reached a certain weight and height, and
have enjoyed the privileges of school with the
acquirement of ability to read and write and use
their minds. From some employments children
are properly excluded under all circumstances, as
in occupations immoral or dangerous, as acro-
a Send for the latest information on the protection of chil
dren to O. R. Lovejoy, secretary of the National Child Labor
Committee, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City.

Duty to Workingmen 107
batic exhibitions, street begging, selling of alco
hol. Night work has been found destructive of
the health and morality of children. When chil
dren are permitted to work for wages, as during
school vacations and after the fifteenth year or
earlier, it has been found necessary to restrict the
length of the work-day, to compel employers to
permit them to rest at noon, to prohibit under
penalty the appointment of foremen whose char
acter is unfit for contact with children, and to
prescribe the physical conditions which surround
the young worker.
5. Protection of working women. — The women
workers in factories and other public places are
increasing in numbers in this country, and will
be still more numerous in the future. They are
exposed to dangers to which men are not liable
and for which men are often to blame. They
cannot protect themselves, and the law of our
country is their proper defense against the greed
of employers, the demands of an unreasonable
public, and the rude selfishness of unprincipled
men. In order to care for children to whom they
will give birth, many girls and women need to be
protected even against the consequences of their
own ignorance and folly. On the average, women
cannot work so many hours a day nor so many
days in the year as men, yet they may be driven

to8 Social Duties
by custom and by competition to consent, even at
cost of health, to work long hours beyond their
strength. This is at the cost of the national
health and must be prevented. Law is the only
method open. The hours permitted must be
prescribed by legal direction, the pauses for rest
must be fixed for various employments, night
work in public places prohibited, and proper
facilities provided for those who are fatigued to
lie down in a decent room for temporary rest.
Before and after the time of the birth of children
the mothers should be prevented by regulations
of inspectors from working under conditions
ruinous to their own health and to that of their
offspring. It is a necessity of public welfare that the
character and conduct of foremen in control of
women and girl workers shall be suitable and
moral; that women be forbidden to sell alcoholic
liquors, or be in attendance in dancing-halls and
theaters where vice is fostered by the very condi
tions. For a long time, largely due to the energy
and devotion of the great Christian statesman
and friend of the oppressed, the Earl of Shaftes
bury, women have been forbidden to enter coal
mines and such places where the situation tended
to degrade them and the men. Our more ad
vanced states require mercantile establishments

Duty to Workingmen 109
to provide seats for girls in their employ and to
permit their use when it is not quite necessary to
stand up in order to serve customers. Health
and morality, as well as aesthetic considerations,
require that halls be lighted, and that separate,
tidy, and sanitary retiring-rooms be provided.
The best employers have done this voluntarily,
and are glad to do more than any law will
demand; and that which a good employer will
ingly does, all others should be compelled to do
or go out of business. There are eifough bright
and capable, decent men in this nation to make
all its goods and sell them.
Only passing mention can be made here of the
desirability of regulating the labor contracts of
foreigners, the employment of convicts so as to
avoid competition with free workmen, and the
special duty of cities and states to set an example
to other employers by humane treatment of their
own employees. It may be interjected that hu
manity and justice do not ask of public officers
that they permit the servants of the public to
become idle and negligent, and so cheat taxpayers
by drawing salaries without return in service.7
7 Members of the class may inquire and observe how some
clerks in city halls, state houses, and other similar places
do not work.

no Social Duties
6. Factory and workshop regulations.8 — A
complete modern system of regulations will cover :
requirements relating to preserving health; the
important matters of the soil over which the
workplace is built; the space for air within the
room, and of light in the openings of the wall;
proper sanitary arrangements for decency and
cleanliness; guarding against the breathing of
poisonous vapors and dust, by means of exhaust
fans, veils, and other devices; places for bathing
in shops where the skin is exposed to poisoning;
suitable care of heat, cold, and ventilation; and
where the occupation is exhausting, a limitation
of time for each period of labor, so that the body
may recover after each period of strain.
It is also necessary to command employers to
provide and workmen to use devices to defend
their eyes from injury and their limbs from mu
tilation, as by eye-covers, guards at dangerous
points of machinery, protection against fire, so
lidity of buildings, and convenient fire-escapes,
elevators, and staircases.
In the best codes of state laws may be found
the regulations for the protection of life and limb
8 Good examples of such laws are those of Massachusetts,
New York, Minnesota, and some others ; found in Labor
Laws (1904), published by the Bureau of Labor. The British
code is still more complete.

Duty to Workingmen in
in particular industries, as in mines, on railroads,
and in tenement houses. It is the duty of every
citizen, man and woman, to know enough about
the best codes and the code of his own state that
he may help in securing the best regulations for
every state, and help see that they are enforced.
The same principle holds in respect to mercantile
establishments and domestic helpers, -the work
men on farms, and those engaged in building
operations. J. Protection of legal rights'. — Another part
of the social policy of a state must include the
protection of workingmen and working women
in their right to assemble, form unions to ad
vance their interests, just as capitalists always
have done, by peaceable and lawful persuasion
and instruction ; and at the same time defend the
non-union workers from assault and the property
of all from injury.
In case of disputes over the interpretation of
the wages' contract, there is great need of boards
of conciliation and arbitration, and courts with
simple procedure and without cost to the parties,
for decision of questions which constantly cause
irritation and hatred. We have outgrown the
frontier method of settling disputes by fighting in
the street, and such methods cannot be tolerated ;
therefore an impartial and public tribunal is neces-

112 Social Duties
sary to arbitrate between the interested parties,
who are apt to be blinded by self-interest.
A civilized, not to say a Christian, community
will insist on weekly periods of rest for all classes
of workers as a condition of national health.
After long neglect Germany and France have at
last introduced rather strict regulations on this
subject in order to promote national vigor and
power. 8. Industrial insurance. — The subject of insur
ance of workingmen and the provision for sup
port in times of sickness, accident, unemployment,
invalidism, and old age, or death of bread-winner,
cannot be more than mentioned in this place.
For a hundred years modern peoples tried to
depend on individual initiative to secure the
poorer workmen in such situations, and every
effort has failed. Nothing short of state regula
tion and organization has succeeded in any coun
try. America has been very slow to recognize this
fact, but seems just now to be awakening to the
demand for a form of insurance required by
persons on small and uncertain incomes, and
cheap enough for them to buy. There is a move
ment in the United States to promote this needed
agency of the public welfare, for it will not do
to leave the laborers to their fate and to offer
them alms when they ought to have a just claim

Duty to Workingmen 113
on a fund to which they have contributed and can
use in need without shame or disgrace.
9. Provisions for the higher life. — This social
policy in the interest of the workingmen includes
far more than protection of life, limb, and health.
If the reader will turn back to the first chapter
in this book, he may find there proof that hu
manity demands, not only health and income, but
the goods of highest civilization — culture, art,
religion. Social morality is not satisfied until '
every member of the community has a chance to
enjoy every kind of good which the richest can
enjoy. And this is quite possible. The best
goods are not costly, for automobiles and display
of jewels are not at all the best things in life;
while love, pictures, music, and religion are of
the highest, and by co-operation of all may be
brought so near to every citizen and youth that
they will provoke desire to possess them all. It
is the moral and religious duty of a city, of a
state, and of the nation to furnish the agencies of
such co-operation ; for it is utterly impossible for
any individual to secure them for himself without
joining hands with all others. In this lesson we
have considered chiefly those measures which are
absolutely necessary to protect life itself; but we
must proceed to consider methods by which the
entire community ean act together to enrich life

ii4 Social Duties
thus preserved, and to make it grandly, nobly
human. This part of the subject is so wide that
it must be reserved for special discussion. Man
cannot live without bread, but he cannot truly live
by bread alone.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
These have been sufficiently indicated by the titles
of the sections of this chapter. But in some classes dis
cussions may arise over trade-unions, injunctions, treat
ment of non-union workmen, a just wage, Sunday rest,
and many others. Probably, however, the topics suggested
in the chapter will be enough for the discussions of
many meetings. The class should remember the adage:
"Truth is a precious pearl which divers can find only
in calm water." When temper comes in, reason departs.
A Christian should be willing to hear all sides fairly
and soberly.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
J. G. Brooks, Social Unrest.
W. E. Willoughby, Workingmen's Insurance.
C. R. Henderson, Social Elements, and Industrial In
surance in the United States.
C. Gide, Principles of Political Economy (or some
other elementary work on the subject, as R. T. Ely,
Outlines of Economics).
G. L. Bolen, Getting a Living.
Florence Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through Legisla
tion. Hodder, Life of Shaftesbury.
Bulletins of Association for Labor Legislation, J. R.
Commons, Secretary, Madison, Wisconsin.

CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL DUTIES IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
I. CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL PROBLEMS
Most of the discussions familiar to readers of
literature of social problems relate chiefly to the
conditions of city life. The reasons for this fact
are obvious. Authors and journalists generally
reside in cities or large towns an<k they write
about the experiences which immediately affect
them. The more startling and sensational evils
are revealed in cities; there poverty is most dis
tressing, vice most hideous, crime most terrible,
class struggles most fierce, the contrast of luxury
and want most alarming and exasperating; there
colossal fortunes tower above mean beggary,
there monumental office buildings look down on
crowded warrens of toilers and immigrants. The
rapid growth of cities in recent times has thrust
innumerable and vexatious problems of govern
ment and industry into our faces and brought men
to a crisis where questions cannot be adjourned,
where issues of life and death must be met by
instant action. Therefore social problems are
generally supposed to be only those of huge
aggregations of population.
And even of late, since the improvement of
us

116 Social Duties
conditions in the country has become the object
of more general interest, the problems of rural
society are not always worthily stated for con
sideration. This judgment is the result of an
impression made by the reading of a very large
number of volumes and documents issued by the
great government departments of agriculture, by
institutions of education, and by writers of high
authority on rural subjects. We need, in further
discussion of social duties under rural conditions,
to give a larger and worthier place to the ultimate
values of life in relation to agriculture.1 The
defect in much that has been written about social
life in the country is the relatively too great
emphasis placed upon the wealth interest, on the
industry of the farmer; he is treated too much
as if he were merely a producer of certain com
modities, merely a beast of burden like his patient
oxen. It is too often assumed that the only
scientific interest is in the larger production of
corn, of milk and meat, of wool and cotton.
Therefore, in studying the moral obligations of
a rural neighborhood, we must begin with the
conception that the chief task of the farmer lies
in the development of human personalities, in the
cultivation of spiritual powers, in enriching the
1 Here again, to avoid repetition, the reader is requested to
keep in mind the analysis of social ends in the first chapter.

Duties in Rural Communities 117
permanent self, and in sharing the highest goods
of civilization on the widest possible scale. It
is here assumed that the student has gained and
holds this point of view, has already come to
believe that a farmer has right to a full human
life, to all that is essentially good, and that it is
his duty to further this kind of life in the com
munity. The worth and value of these ends being
assumed for our purpose, we have here to con
sider some of those modes of conduct and those
forms of institutional activity which are adapted
to promote the accepted ends. This is the kind of
conduct which alone can deserve the name of
social morality. Exhaustive treatment is not here
possible; the aim is limited to provoking. investi
gation and indicating the way in which sound
moral judgments can best be formed.
II. SOCIAL CONDITIONS OF RURAL WELFARE —
ORDER, LIBERTY, AND OPPORTUNITY
1. Order. — It is too generally admitted to re
quire proof, that civilization cannot move for
ward where life and property are insecure, where
the strong-armed robber snatches away from the
toiler the products of peaceful toil, where selfish
and sensual men can gratify base appetites with
out restraint, where each man must go armed to
his work and fortify his home. Obviously the first

n8 Social Duties
duty of a community is to establish and maintain
order. And since the local hamlet or township
or isolated neighborhood is often unable to guard
its fields, houses, treasures, and merchandise, the
commonwealth must come to its aid with superior
force. In some civilized countries a body of
mounted police, under the direction of the chief
officers of the state, patrol roads and lanes, while
detectives follow thieves and other suspected per
sons and bring them to justice. Here let the
student consider whether a rural police patrol
would not make the life of farmers, especially of
the women, more secure. What is the duty of
the people of a state to the scattered persons who
are kept in constant dread of vicious tramps and
vagabonds, both white and black, who fill many
rural homes with terror? When the police and
courts fail to protect life and property, men are
driven to resort to some form of lynch law, and
this is wasteful and demoralizing. The class
might well discuss this word of Professor Fairlie
and test it by further inquiry into the facts :
A long line of judicial decisions has clearly estab
lished the rule of law in this country, that locally ap
pointed police officers are not, strictly speaking, local
officers, but are agents of the state governments for the
maintenance of the public peace and order. In spite of
this legal theory, there has been developed no effective
state administrative control in this important branch of

Duties in Rural Communities 115
local government. Some occasional and haphazard steps
have been taken in many states but no systematic and
permanent machinery has been established  Some
supervision could be easily established by making the
sheriffs more clearly responsible for police conditions in
the local districts within their counties and requiring
them to make regular reports to the governor or to some
other state officer. To this might be added a regular in
spection of the sheriffs in each state  Like the state
supervision established in other lines, they would im
prove the work of local authorities. In a few states
there have been established small bodies of state police
for service throughout the state.
2. Liberty. — The maintenance of order should
be discriminating or it will repress freedom. The
soul of man must have room to think and his
body room to act. An entire community some
times becomes narrow, bigoted, selfish, blind, and
in the name of order turns tyrant and puts out
the light of science, chokes its best prophets.
Only immoral and injurious citizens should walk
in chains, and even they should be taught grad
ually to use liberty wisely. We boast of being
"the land of the free" because our fathers have
fought the battle of religious, civil, and social
freedom for us. No longer is a man imprisoned
or burned for his opinions in politics or theology.
Yet many are not aware that in this very home
of liberty there are large districts where a young
physician dare not speak or write what he has

120 Social Duties
learned in schools of science without incurring
a boycott of the church and consequent starvation,
and where the teacher of biology in a high school
is tempted to play the hypocrite to retain his
chance to earn his living. There are many ways
by which pious men suffocate the life of the Holy
Spirit in man, and think sincerely they are doing
God service, and this condition is more frequently
found in villages than in cities. An intellectually
dead hamlet knows more ways of tormenting a
man who is too big for it than the Inquisition of
Spain ever devised. This does not stop discus
sion, but it forces young men and women of talent
to fly from the country and take refuge in towns
where they are free even if poor. Many of the
most relentless persecutors in past ages have been
conscientious and religious. Criminals disturb
order, and saints sometimes are foes to liberty,
and the majority of good folks seem to care more
for quiet than for truth.
3. Opportunity. — It is the duty of a com
munity not only to protect order and grant reason
able freedom but also to furnish opportunity for
all citizens to enter into life. A boy may be free
to go where he will, but if he is not educated he
remains a dwarf and starveling. Let members
of the class look about them and discover in
stances of children growing up mutilated in soul

Duties in Rural Communities 121
as they may be starved in body. There are entire
townships where not one family has any incentive
to do more than satisfy animal wants, although
the soil is rich and the climate favorable. This
is because they are cut off from centers of culture,
as schools, churches, and means of information.
There must be equality of opportunity in
respect to rights before the law, right to influence
legislators, to serve the public according to ability,
to move about in public places, to enjoy sanitary
conditions of living, to have means of recreation
and culture, to send children to free schools, to
be protected in relations of employer and em
ployed, to be treated with courtesy, whether rich
or poor, and to share in general good will.2 In
this connection may be studied the value of a
state system of free public schools, under central
direction and supervision; of federation and co
operation of churches in a state in order to pre
vent waste of means, and to provide educational
facilities for all citizens; of the national postal
system as a means of extension of means of
knowledge; of means of transportation, electric
lines and improved roads.3
' Giddings, Elements of Sociology, p. 328.
s Problems of government in rural townships are ably
discussed by J. A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties,
Towns and Villages.

122 Social Duties
III. CARE OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN RURAL
COMMUNITIES
i. Conditions of health. — These are generally
more favorable in the country than in the city:
the light may fall into every room, and at work
sunshine plays over the body. The air is purer,
and exercise outside walls is part of the daily
order of work. There is freedom from unnatural
and perpetual excitement, noise, strain, close and
superheated theaters, enticements to low vice, open
saloons, and gambling-places.
But even in rural neighborhoods there is much
preventable disease due to removable causes : im
proper food, neglect of ventilation, exposure to
contagious and infectious disease, pollution of
water and milk, injection of fever germs by
insects, drains from kitchen reeking with poison.
And there are causes of sickness which are only
in part under human control : the hardship of
labor especially at certain seasons, exposure to
severe weather and extremes of temperature,
worry incident to uncertainty of crops, the de
struction of growing crops and cattle by the
enemies of the farmer. To this one must add
distance from physicians in emergencies, the want
of nursing, and occasionally the improper physical
habits of ignorance and the vices of human
nature.

Duties in Rural Communities 123
2. Ameliorating methods. — These may be
found, and it is the duty of each community to
discover and adopt such methods as experience
approves. Illustrations may give hints to spur
members of the class to further inquiry.
a) In the best schools instruction is given to
children in relation to the structure and functions
of the human body, anatomy, physiology, hygiene,
house sanitation, cooking, foods, and first aid to
the sick and injured.
b) But the instruction of childffood is not
enough, and young people need to continue their
studies by means of lectures, classes, and books
carefully chosen by experts and not recommended
by traveling peddlers. In several states the meet
ings of farmers' institutes, under. the direction of
experts in state agricultural colleges and with the
aid of competent physicians, have done a valuable
service. The talk and practice of the farm neces
sarily touch upon laws of health of animals, and
occasionally greater care is given to domestic
animals than to the family itself.
c) A significant movement is that to secure
better hospital facilities and nursing in the coun
try. In at least the chief county town there
ought to be a public hospital for the treatment of
medical and surgical cases which cannot so well
be treated at home. These local hospitals also

124 Social Duties
become training schools for nurses, the supply
of whom is woefully scant in many parts of the
land. It seems entirely possible to provide visit
ing nurses who may go from house to house
showing mothers and daughters how to care for
their sick, to make beds, prepare special diet, dress
sores and wounds, feed infants, and a thousand
things for which a physician has no time and
which only a carefully trained nurse knows how
to do. In cities such nurses are sent by benevolent
societies among the poor with great advantage.
The only difficulty is that too many people are so
ignorant of modern nursing that they imagine
there is nothing to learn, and in that state of mind
nothing is learned. Telephones and trolley lines
are gradually improving medical service outside
the towns.
d) There is more and more need of extending
the authority and activity of the state boards of
health into every township of each state. There
ought to be a systematic supervision of the condi
tions of health and the causes of disease by some
central authority so that not one district can be
overlooked. Examples of what may be accom
plished may be cited : the notification of conta
gious diseases, as scarlet fever, diphtheria, mea
sles, etc., by placarding and prohibition of sending
to school without medical permission. The disin-

Duties in Rural Communities 125
fection of houses and clothing ought to be insured
by vigilant officials responsible to the state. The
means of transportation, now becoming more
public, should be brought under systematic con
trol. Vaccination must be made certain and not
left to the whims and superstitions of the ignor
ant. Careful supervision of persons afflicted with
tuberculosis should be part of the duty of local
officers responsible to the state. It is important
that dairies should be inspected and made sanitary
not only in the interest of town cuttomers but
even more in the interest of dairymen and farm
ers. The bacteria which kill customers are not
apt to spare the owners of a filthy stable. If the
water used to wash the milk vessels or to dilute
the milk for weak city stomachs is from a foul
source it may punish the culprit who carelessly
and wickedly uses it to wrong another. In the
inspection of adulterated foods and medicines
kept for sale to farmers it is not difficult to dis
cover the advantage to the farmer.
Perhaps it may be to the immediate financial
advantage of farmers to send young calves to
market before they are fit for human food, or
even to ship diseased chickens, hogs, and cattle;
but no community can long tolerate such dis
honesty and injurious conduct without inward
debasement of character. And since local and

126 Social Duties
personal agents cannot be trusted, every man who
sincerely desires to promote morality should
endeavor to secure complete state supervision and
control of all food materials. In the long run no
community can secure the best prices in the
market if it once gains reputation for indiffer
ence to the health of customers, if it becomes
known for its dishonesty and recklessness of
health and life. If its evil ways are due more to
. ignorance than to meanness, then a community
should import experts competent to show what
is right and wrong in the occupation which affects
the physical welfare of the nation and its credit
in foreign markets.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
I. P. Roberts, The Farmstead, chaps, vi, x, xii, xiv.
H. B. Bashore, M.D., The Sanitation of a Country
House. Also books on hygiene already mentioned.
[V. DUTIES OF RURAL COMMUNITIES IN RELATION
TO INDUSTRY AND WEALTH
i. Decisive factors in the situation. — To dis
cover moral obligations men must not merely
inspect their inner selves, but the real facts out
side; must study not merely ancient wisdom but
the stern teachings of present experience. What
are some of the facts which determine the direc-

Duties in Rural Communities 127
tion of activity in farming regions? Only a
brief hint here is possible.
a) The population of the nation depends on
agriculture and its products — farmers, urban
dwellers, merchants, professional persons — all.
The primary industry, basis of all other social
life, is that of farming. If the rural population
went on a general and sympathetic strike for one
season, famine would stalk in the cities. Assum
ing that life is good, and to support existence a
primal duty, we have the foundation of obliga
tion in this situation.
b) Agriculture rests most obviously on na
ture's gifts, or, speaking with the religious accent,
on the direct gift of God. The soil, climate, and
seasons fix the limits of possible production in a
nation. But as this is a matter which man cannot
control we may more profitably turn to facts
which rest on human conduct and for which men
are responsible.
c) We have seen above that health is a duty
and here we come to the connection between pro
duction of good things and the vital energy which
springs from health. A strong, well-fed, clean,
sober people can and will do more to feed and
clothe the nation, and make family, school,
church, and government prosperous, than a feeble
and sickly folk.

128 Social Duties
The social conditions of production are se
curity of person and property, freedom to move
and act, and opportunity to make the most of
our powers. The intelligence of the rural popu
lation is a national asset, and especially that kind
of intelligence which is concerned with the sci
ences and arts which quicken thought, train
observation, and prepare the tiller of the soil to
make it yield the largest possible product.
The life of the nation depends on the industry
of those who occupy the tillable land. He who
knows and yet stands idle will forget where he
hid his talent in a napkin. Disposition to work
steadily must be a social trait, common as hunger,
or again famine snarls at the door. We might
as well dwell on Sahara sands as on fertile
prairies, if the people are loafers. Fortunately
for idlers, most men are willing to toil. Industry
is not merely a habit which benefits the worker;
it has a social aspect and thus becomes moral.
2. Value of natural and social science. — At
this stage of our study we come in sight of the
vast field of natural science and of the social
sciences. No men are so dependent for their best
success and usefulness on a wide range of knowl
edge as farmers, unless it is editors. To take
only a few illustrations: successful discharge of
duty on the farm depends on knowledge of the

Duties in Rural Communities 129
elements of soil on which plants are nourished,
and this means chemistry. Stock raisers deal
with various kinds of animals and must learn
about selection of stock, nutrition, health, and
disease, heredity and habit; and this means biol
ogy) botany, physiology, hygiene. The making
of roads, ditches, bridges, dikes, buildings, in
volves laws of physics. Even to make a catalogue
of the kinds of knowledge a farmer needs would
require a pamphlet.
It follows as day follows night, that it is the
duty of a rural community to educate itself, and
as the soil wears out with bearing crops to make
modern science perform for us the miracle of
rendering worn-out soil more productive than
virgin soil. The great Lincoln saw this need,
and in the throes of civil war moved to establish
agricultural colleges whose growth has been a
blessing to mankind. Under the next head we
shall attend to the agencies of education in rural
communities. REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Wilcox and Smith, Farmers' Cyclopedia of Agricul
ture (1905).
L. H. Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 4
vels. This work treats agricultural regions, organiza
tion of farms, environment of the life of animals and
of men, crops, animals, and the social aspects and human
interests of farmers.

130 Social Duties
F. W. Woll, Handbook for Farmers and Dairymen,
gives numerous references to the rich literature of the
agricultural professions.
H. C. Taylor, Agricultural Economics, gives the eco
nomic principles of agricultural industry and trading.
G. T. Fairchild, Rural Wealth and Welfare.
L. H. Bailey, The Principles of Agriculture, and The
State and the Farmer.
The sociological literature is meager.
The intimate relation between morality and daily prac
tice is suggested by the following circular:
farmers' co-operative demonstration work u. s. depart
ment of AGRICULTURE
At an early period it was found necessary to evolve from
the mass of ethical teaching, a few general rules for living,
called "The Ten Commandments," by which a man could be
moral without going through a course in theology. Just so, in
order to instruct the average farmer how successfully to
conduct his farm operations so as to secure a greater net
gain from the farm, it is necessary first to deduce from the
mass of agricultural teachings a few general rules of pro
cedure. They are called "The Ten Commandments of
Agriculture," by the practice of which a man may be a good
farmer in any state without being a graduate from a college
of agriculture. The Ten Commandments of Agriculture
1. Prepare a deep and thoroughly pulverized seed bed, well
drained; break in the fall to the depth of 8, 10, or 12 inches,
according to the soil, with implements that will not bring too
much of the subsoil to the surface (the foregoing depths
should be reached gradually).
2. Use seed of the best variety, intelligently selected and
carefully stored.

Duties in Rural Communities 131
3. In cultivated crops, give the rows and the plants in the
rows a space suited to the plant, the soil, and the climate.
4. Use intensive tillage during the growing period of the
crops. 5. Secure a high content of humus in the soil by the use
of legumes, barnyard manure, farm refuse, and commercial
fertilizers. 6. Carry out a systematic crop rotation with a winter cover
crop on southern farms.
7. Accomplish more work in a day by using more horse
power and better implements.
8. Increase the farm stock to the extent of utilizing all the
waste products and idle lands of the farm.
9. Produce all the food required for the men and animals
on the farm.
10. Keep an account of each farm product, in order to
know from which the gain or loss arises. S. A. Knapp
Washington, D. C.
July, 1908
V. DUTIES OF A RURAL COMMUNITY IN RELATION
TO SPIRITUAL CULTURE
We have spoken of agriculture and now we
must give heed to the greater matter of human
culture, which is after all the ultimate form of
all culture. Man makes himself better by improv
ing the earth if he uses science as means and
morality as way.
1. Education in the family. — Here we may
refer to those works on education which treat of
the development of young children. We may
note the fact that in the country family life has a

132 Social Duties
relatively larger place in education than in the
city where other influences play upon the child
very early. In the country home parents have
their children much to themselves without ex
ternal distractions, and children soon begin to
imitate and assist in the serious occupations of
their elders. No city child has such a chance
through infancy and early life to come into con
tact with nature in all her moods and aspects.
All crafts are plied in simple form, domestic ani
mals are about the home, plants are the constant
subject of conversation, birds sing in the trees,
flowers blossom everywhere, and the muscles of
the body are called into exercise without artificial
apparatus. But to make the best use of these fine
advantages the community must furnish to par
ents instruction in the principles of education, so
that each father and each mother may become an
efficient teacher.
2. The rural school. — The problem of the kind
of school that a rural community needs has re
ceived of late the" attention its importance de
serves. One of the most attractive and inspiring
books thus affirms the ideal of a practical organi
zer of better methods :
If I were to formulate an educational creed for the
country school, it would contain but two articles namely:
(1) the country child is entitled to every whit as good

Duties in Rural Communities 133
an educational opportunity as that enjoyed by the most
favored city child attending the American public school;
(2) to secure this right for the country child the country
people must expend more money on the country school
and expend it in a better way.
Only a few points can be suggested for study :
The rural school should furnish careful and
modern guidance in the care of health ; it should,
as all admit, teach thoroughly the arts of reading,
writing, and keeping accounts, and#so give the
key to all treasures of knowledge ; it should open
the eyes of the children to the myriads of inter
esting and beautiful objects which surround them;
it should lead them to become interested in the
arts of agriculture; it should awaken their artistic
interest and enable them to express that interest
in drawing and in color; it should give them a
taste for literature and enable them to live a life
of solitude without weariness and with the ability
to deepen life by study and thought; it should
prepare them to defend their rights and perform
their duties as citizens of a republic and give
them a large and just notion of duties in relation
to international affairs. The school should be
a center of the best influences of culture not only
for children but for all citizens.
In order that the rural school may perform its
high task it should be large enough to bring

134 Social Duties
together enough children and youth to make
school life enthusiastic and interesting to pupils
and teachers, and to warrant the expenditure of
sufficient money to secure good teachers. Small
schools should be united in larger schools and the
children who are too far from the school to walk
should be carried in vehicles provided as a neces
sary part of the school system.
It would hasten this movement for improve
ment if the central school authorities of the
commonwealth were required by law to give more
thorough supervision and direction especially to
schools in backward districts, and furnished with
the necessary means.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
The book of Mr. O. J. Kern, Among Country Schools,
is itself a charming treatment of this subject, and on
pp. 302-8 it gives a long list of books and magazine
articles which need not be repeated in this place, since
Mr. Kern's book is indispensable for anyone who seri
ously wishes to study the matter.
3. The rural church. — The duty of the rural
community to its church is fixed by the nature
of the work of the church. Religion is a uni
versal need; communion with God is the heart
of culture. The ideals of religion are the inspira
tion of science and the essence of morality. Life

Duties in Rural Communities 135
is not fully human without prayer and faith. Sin
needs rebuke, righteousness must be enforced and
interpreted in terms of daily tasks, and for all
this every community needs the church.
But a church cannot perform its task unless it
has ministers who are intelligent, sufficiently edu
cated, spiritual, devoted to their work, and who
give themselves earnestly and constantly to this
one thing.
The chief enemy of religion in the country is
the diversion of forces. Each denomination feels
required to keep a minister of its own kind in
each locality; and the result is that salaries are
small; the minister is starved physically and the
people are starved spiritually. We have touched
upon the wisdom of consolidating country schools
so that teachers may be properly supported and
suitable buildings and appliances be furnished;
now we need to consolidate rural churches to
avoid the deplorable and sinful waste which
makes religious enterprises languish until the
church itself brings religion into contempt. Im
proved country schools are making it impossible
for the church to employ untrained and incompe
tent ministers; the young people simply will not
listen to untaught preachers. Old people may go
to sleep if the sermon is dull and meaningless, but
young high-school pupils will slip away.

136 Social Duties
VI. FEDERATION OF FORCES
All social interests are woven together; a com
munity whose income is too small cannot carry
out common enterprises, provide good schools
and churches, support teachers and ministers, and
rise in civilization. The most vigorous and ambi
tious youth will take their chances in the large
towns and cities and life will become stagnant
in the country. Hence it is desirable to bring
together the members of the community who have
some desire to improve conditions of industry,
health, and culture. The ministers, lawyers,
physicians, teachers, and county superintendents,
county officers, and farmers of light and leading
may well form a federation of farmers' institutes,
churches, schools, county fairs, literary clubs, and
make studies of the entire field of health, indus
try, rural arts, domestic science, legal rights and
duties, moral education, literary inspiration, read
ing, and spiritual life. Such federations are
forming under various names in various parts of
the country. An annual meeting may be held at
which addresses are given by men and women
who have studied the needs of rural conditions
on the ground and have constructive suggestions
for improvement to make. Grumblers dissipate
energy. No person should be invited to speak

Duties in Rural Communities 137
more than five minutes who is not known to have
a practical plan for betterment.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
Suggestions for study of local conditions are fur
nished by the titles of each paragraph in this chapter;
but others will grow out of these, out of reading the
books recommended and out of references of the pro
gramme committee of the class.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
In addition to books and articles mentioned in con
nection with preceding paragraphs we may refer to the
two papers on the "Rural Community," by Weber and
Butterfield, in the Report of the Congress of Arts and
Science, Vol. VII, and K. W. Butterfield, Chapters in
Rural Progress.

CHAPTER VII
URBAN LIFE: PUBLIC HEALTH
We have seen that the duties of the members
of a community are the modes of conduct re
quired by conditions of general welfare in that
community. The conditions of modern city life
are exceedingly complex and the duties of respon
sible citizens are correspondingly intricate and
difficult to understand. A few general maxims
about virtue and honesty are an inadequate
equipment for one who would helpfully take part
in helping men to better life in a huge town.
At first glance the superficial observer dis
covers nothing but a multitude of people scurry
ing in all directions, each intent on some private
scheme; the general welfare is not in all his
thoughts. Further reflection offers apology for
this concentration of interest in self; each man
must earn his living by assiduous industry or fall
a burden on the city as pauper or thief. For the
most part the common good is increased as every
individual does the best he can for himself and is
faithful to his own duty. There is so much
eternal truth in the old-fashioned doctrine of
individualism and liberty. Even yet there are
able thinkers who believe and teach that nothing
138

Urban Life: Public Health 139
more is needed than freedom for each man to go
his own way, "hoe his own row," and provide
for his own wants; that the social well-being is
the certain result of the sum of the enjoyment
and satisfactions of all individuals; that the
selfishness of millions works better than deliberate
co-operation. And we admit that nothing will
ever make personal initiative, energy, industry,
and thrift needless. When a man depends on his
neighbors to bring him material support and pro
vide him with pre-digested ideas, he soon becomes
a parasite and his powers fall to decay.
But individualism and liberty are words which
represent only one aspect of human life; for each
person is a social being, owes much to society,
cannot live alone, cannot ignore the rights of
others, cannot produce all the commodities he
requires, cannot walk on a pavement without
regard to his fellow-citizens, cannot judge his
own cause fairly, cannot cure his own diseases or
dress his own wounds, cannot defend himself
unaided against epidemic, burglary, or riot, can
not furnish his children with schools, cannot
enjoy the highest forms of art and religion. And
even individual virtue — if such there be — is at its
best only when enforced by social opinion, criti
cism, or law, and encouraged by social praise and
honor. "No man liveth to himself."

140 Social Duties
It is in the city that we find human solidarity
in its most impressive forms, for there each citi
zen is enmeshed in a network of relations, in
fluences, and obligations unknown to the isolated
farmer or dweller in a village. This labyrinth of
conditions can here be outlined only in a general
way: The moral ideal involved in social life presents itself
.... in the three forms of institutions to be main
tained, duties to be fulfilled, and a type of life to be
realized. At different stages of development, and in
different races of mankind, it tends to present itself more
distinctly in one or other of these forms. Thus the
Jews thought chiefly of Commandments, the Greeks
chiefly of Virtues, and perhaps the Romans attached
most importance to the maintenance of social institutions.
But, in whatever form the moral life is conceived, the good
citizen may be said to derive from these general con
ceptions of its nature the principles by which his life is
guided.1 Before we can know what duties grow out of
urban conditions we must know what those con
ditions are. Hence we must make :
I. AN ANALYSIS OF THE STRUCTURE OF A CITY
i. The plan of the city streets. — No two cities
are alike, as a glance at maps of New York, Phil
adelphia, Washington, Chicago, St. Louis, San
Francisco, New Orleans, and of European cities
1 Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics, p. 370.

Urban Life: Public Health 141
will quickly show. The curve of a lake or ocean
shore, the steep hills, the narrow island, the
extended marsh or plain determine the direction
of growth and the arrangement of ways; while
the fancy of architects and engineers, as at our
national capital, seeking beauty and impressive-
ness, may fix the lines of streets for centuries to
come. The streets are lined with buildings for all
purposes — private residences for tlje most part,
warehouses for storage, factories, mills, mercan
tile establishments, parks, museums of art, public
edifices for education and justice. In variety
there is unity and all cities have certain essential
features in common.
2. Arrangements for transportation and travel.
— The street itself is made for the free move
ment of human beings, and goods for manu
facture, sale, and consumption. No individual is
permitted to own and control a street ; it is always
public property and devoted to community uses.
Whatever be the goal of the moving citizen he
must reach it by walking or riding over a public
way, whether at a level with the surface, or above
or below it. When one leaves the door of a pri
vate home and steps upon a sidewalk he is in
another world, a world of the common rule.
"Keep to the right as the law directs," for law

142 Social Duties
is one method of telling the individual to observe
the convenience of all. On a rural highway
pedestrians may safely walk; in a city the road
and pavement are separated to avoid danger;
vehicles have right of way on the road and
pedestrians on the sidewalk. Crossings are de
batable ground and when crowded are full of
danger. In cities the means of transportation are more
socialized than in farming districts where each
family has its own means of conveyance. Only
the rich can have carriages and automobiles;
most of the people use public carriages driven by
electricity. These means of transportation are
rarely owned by individuals, but generally by
corporations, occasionally by the city. The com
munity must make regulation to protect various
interests by means of contracts in granting fran
chises. Private interest has never yet been ade
quate protection for the rights of the public; the
community must guard itself with utmost vigil
ance and by the best methods.
3. Means of communication must be main
tained for the inhabitants of a city, because
industries, recreations, medical service, trade,
spiritual intercourse depend on them. Hence the
creation and maintenance of postal routes, tele
graphs, telephones, and messenger service.

Urban Life: Public Health 143
4. Standards of precision. — Through ignor
ance, negligence, or fraud customers may suffer
loss and injury in purchase of commodities;
hence the need of public scales, inspectors of
weights and measures used by tradesmen, public
clocks, inspection of the purity and good measure
of medicines, milk, and foods. Morality of
action becomes more exact with improvement in
weights and measures, and mathematical preci
sion is an ideal of conduct. #
5. Protection. — On the frontier and on isolated
farms each man must in some measure guard his
own person, property, and family. In cities this
is impossible in the same degree. For extinguish
ing fires we must organize trained and profes
sional men in fire departments; for detecting and
arresting criminals cities must have a police de
partment ; while general ordinances forbid selfish
individuals to jeopardize the public by building
with wood where stone, brick, and iron are
necessary to restrict the ravages of conflagration.
The whim and caprice of individual liberty are
restrained in order that all may be free from
danger and fear. On a farm, decaying matter
left exposed may not be very offensive or danger
ous, and it may even be made useful as fertilizer
by covering it with earth; but in a crowded city
such conduct would be deadly, for there life

144 Social Duties
depends on quick removal of all organic matter.
If a person pleads his right to live as he did on
his farm, and to do what he pleases with his own
property, he injures his neighbor and soon finds
himself in the grip of the law. Streets, alleys,
and courts must be lighted all night to facilitate
movement and to make attacks of thieves more
difficult and rare.
II. SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO PUBLIC
HEALTH IN CITIES
Public health is affected by the customary con
duct of individuals, by social conventions and
fashions, by legal requirements enforced by pub
lic administration. Assuming that it is the duty
of each citizen to refrain from, injurious actions
and positively to promote the conditions of
physical well-being, since these belong to the
primer of morality, we proceed to map out some
of the main lines of conduct required by urban
life. It will soon be evident that upright motives
alone are not all of duty : that "hell is paved with
good intentions," that virtue is a poor ghost until
it takes bodily form in customs, institutions, laws,
and agencies.
i. The first duty of the good citizen is to study
under the best teachers the laws of hygiene and
sanitation. If we cannot say that knowledge is

Urban Life: Public Health 145
part of duty we surely can assert that an earnest,
persistent, and life-long study of the laws of
health is a duty we owe ourselves, our children,
and our neighbors. Ill-health undermines personal
usefulness and industrial efficiency, and is trans
mitted in some defect to offspring; while com
municable disease hurts or kills our neighbors.,
Disease, therefore, is no mere individual interest,
but affects the welfare of the community.
Elementary instruction in anatomy, physiology,
and hygiene is now generally given to children
and youth in our public schools. But the knowl
edge acquired at so early a period is necessarily
limited; its principles make slight impression on
heedless youngsters who fancy they have ex-
haustless stores of vitality ; while many important
problems of public methods of guarding against
disease and accidents cannot be understood until
judgment has been matured by longer experience.
Furthermore, only adults can proceed from such
studies to associated action, and new knowledge
is constantly coming to light through the investi
gations of scientific men in practice, in hospitals,
and in laboratories.
We can here attempt nothing more than to
set forth a series of topics for discussions in a
class of adults. The fundamental facts and princi
ples, as well as practical maxims, should be given

146 Social Duties
by physicians or cited from books.2 In no case
should such general information as can be
gathered in these ways lead one to neglect the
advice of reputable physicians in illness; and for
the administration of public measures specially
trained medical men ought to be elected or ap
pointed. Through all these discussions we may
reverently remember the profound interest which
Jesus manifested in the health and the sickness
of men, and the affectionate title which Paul
applied to Luke, "the beloved physician."
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
1. Reasons for bathing; means for taking baths;
methods of bathing.
2. Diet: the constituents of food and drink; kinds of
vegetable and animal foods, adaptation to age, sex, con
dition of health, occupation. (See chaps, iii, iv of this
series for further topics and references.)
3. Sleep, quiet, recreation: the physical need, the ways
of securing what is required.
4. Physical exercise: various effects on body; adapta
tion to various classes of persons.
5. Clothing: materials, uses, adaptation to climate,
seasons, and personal peculiarities.
6. Sexual hygiene : Secure circulars from the Society
of Social Hygiene, Chicago, or Society of Moral Prophy
laxis, New York (see chapter on "Family," above).
Printed matter on this subject should not be used with
2 See, for instance, H. N. Martin, The Human Body, and
Charles Harrington, A Manual of Practical Hygiene.

Urban Life: Public Health 147
children and young persons; they should be taught by
parents or be taken to a high-minded physician to be
instructed how to take care of themselves. None should
be left to seek the coveted knowledge from unclean lips
or from mercenary advertising quack doctors.
With the aid of lectures by physicians, factory in
spectors, commissioners of health, and books cited, the
following social measures may well be discussed in
church classes of adults, men or women, and co-opera
tion with health authorities should grow out of the
discussion :
7. Legal measures for preventing the adulteration of
food, milk, water, and other beverages, as mentioned
already in chaps, iii and iv; inspection of grocery stores;
pure-food laws; rules and work of boards of commis
sioners of health; control of dairies and milk stations
by authorities.
8. Legal measures for keeping the air free from dust,
smoke, noxious and disagreeable odors; municipal ordi
nances, enforced by the police and board of health.
9. Public methods of keeping the soil free from con
tamination, as by excessive moisture in cellars, neglect
of drainage and sewers, accumulation of heaps of decay
ing matter, garbage, and refuse from factories; duties
of commissioners of health, police, and mayors; duties
of school board in relation to schools; inquiry whether
the officials do their duty.
10. Agencies of the community for providing a plenti
ful and cheap supply of pure water, for preventing the
pollution of springs, lakes, and streams; national and
state laws, city ordinances. Inquire how well these
agencies perform their functions.
11. The class may well study the various methods used

148 Social Duties
by cities for harmless disposal of sewage and inquire as
to the working of the local system.
12. What are the various methods of disposing of gar
bage; what is the best method; and what are the facts
about the local methods?
13. In cities great care must be taken to provide public
control by experts of disinfection of houses, clothing,
bedding, sleeping-cars, etc.
14. It is well known that insects, as common house
flies, mosquitoes, fleas, bedbugs, are the means of con
veying the germs of disease, as yellow fever, malaria,
typhoid fever, etc. Domestic animals, as cats and dogs,
may carry the germs from house to house, and rats are
guilty of homicide in a similar way, though not regarded
as pets.
15. Vaccination is ignorantly opposed by a few fanati
cal persons, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of its
value in suppressing smallpox; and the use of antitoxin
in averting or curing diphtheria is antagonized on the
same grounds.
16. Quarantine methods are chiefly of interest in sea
port cities and they are in the hands of national authori
ties; but municipal health authorities are under obli
gation to prevent the spread of disease by isolating
houses where there is scarlet fever or diphtheria, and
posting notices of warning on the doors to protect visit
ors from exposure.
17. State and municipal authorities have yet before
them a wide field of usefulness in which they will need
the support of public opinion in discovering and pre
venting the diseases which are caused by occupations:
air vitiated by respiration in closely packed workrooms ;
irritating and poisonous gases and fumes, dust-laden

Urban Life: Public Health 149
atmosphere, charged with deadly germs; work-places
where the laborer passes quickly from extremes of heat
to extreme cold, where the place is damp and dark, where
the air pressure is so strong, as in tunnel construction,
as to destroy or impair the organs of hearing and even
heart action; occupations unfit for women or children.
This is the place for frank speech about the
"Christian Science" movement in which many
estimable people are interested. Toward those
who have committed themselves to this cult in
good faith we have none but the kindest attitude ;
and we are aware that many sincere men and
women have found in the creed of the new
church a real satisfaction of their spiritual
hunger. We do not pretend to judge the motives
of the members of their congregations, and so far
as the topic of this chapter is concerned we have
nothing whatever to do with interior and invisible
qualities of mind and heart. We are seeking an
entirely objective standard of testing conduct by
its tendency to hinder or promote public health.
Space will not permit the writer to offer the
evidence for his personal conviction that much of
what goes under the name of "healing" among
these people is mere quackery and should be
brought under legal control. Preventive and
curative medicine, in the really scientific sense,
requires prompt diagnosis of abnormal conditions
by a trained medical man, and in case of con-

ISO Social Duties
tagious diseases quarantine, notification, isolation,
disinfection, vaccination, employment of anti
toxin in certain instances, and thorough control of
the patient by competent persons. Certainly it
is not too much to demand that anyone professing
to be a "healer" should pass a medical examina
tion and give proofs of being competent to act
in accordance with the best light of modern sci
ence, and severe penalties should be providedfor
violation of such laws made for the protection
of the ignorant and of the general public. This
is admitted by "scientists" for dentists and
surgeons, but it is far more necessary for those
who claim to heal nervous diseases where an
early and accurate diagnosis is essential to suc
cessful treatment and where the trouble is com
plicated and obscure. Now the authoritative
sacred books of "Christian Science," if I can make
out their meaning, expressly forbid the faithful
to do any of the things mentioned which modern
science requires. It is true that in extreme pain
and danger the faithful are often illogical and
contradict their creed by seeking competent med
ical help, but this is often too late; the mischief
is done; the disease has advanced too far or has
spread deadly contagion to others. Since this
paragraph is intended only to open a large prob
lem and not at all to close discussion, the question

Urban Life: Public Health 151
is left with the reader whether it is too strong
language to call this part of the conduct of
"Christian Scientists" immoral in the sense in
which that word is used throughout this volume,
that is as relating to conduct which tends to im
pair the physical and spiritual health of the
community. That "mental therapeutics" ought
to receive larger consideration from medical men,
and that the new cult has compelled physicians
to give the subject more adequate treatment,
medical men themselves seem generally ready to
admit. Experiments in this field, however, since
they involve dangers to the most delicate struc
ture of the body, that is, to the nervous system,
should, like vivisection, be permitted only to
thoroughly trained professional men. If the
"healers" can furnish men of this kind of equip
ment they should be left free to advance science
and the healing art under the guarantees required
by the wisest laws of all civilized lands.
Tuberculosis is a very common disease, rarely
inherited but often communicated from person
to person by contact, kissing, or through the air.
The germs of this disease are coughed up by the
patient and after being dried are carried in dust
to the lungs of others, or left on the rims of
drinking cups. During recent years this linger
ing, impoverishing, fatal plague has been some-

152 Social Duties
what reduced by effective measures to destroy the
germs.8 Health depends very much on economic well-
being and on intelligence and morality. For
example, a working man with consumption may
have good medical advice, and know that to get
well he must have expensive rich food, rest, and
easy life in the open air. But he feels that his
family must be supported and so he works on in
desperation until he can no longer lift his hand,
meantime exposing his mates to infection. If, as
in Germany, all working men were required by
law to pay a few cents each month out of wages
into a fund, and if employers were required to
add a substantial sum, a fund would be created
which would pay for support and medical care
for all the sick; families would not have to go
begging, relief societies would not be over
whelmed as now, and thousands of useful men
would be restored to health and self-support. To
secure such legislation intelligence on the subject
must be made universal. Here we find an illus
tration of our principle that social duties are
8 The class secretary or leader should correspond with
Professor J. Pease Norton, New Haven, Connecticut, secre
tary of the American Health League, and seek to increase the
membership and influence of that society which seeks means
of promoting public health. A local advisory council might
well be formed to co-operate with the national organization.

Urban Life: Public Health 153
defined by the sum of all the elements which are
necessary to the common welfare. This chapter
is, therefore, incomplete in itself and should be
studied in connection with all that precedes and
follows. REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
J. F. J. Sykes, Public Health Problems.
J. A. Fairlie, Municipal Administration.
M. N. Baker, Municipal Engineering and Sanitation.
Campaign against Tuberculosis in the United States,
and other books on the subject, published by Charity
Organization Society, New York.
S. A. Knopf, Tuberculosis as a Disease of the Masses.
The Social Evil, Report of the Committee of Fifteen,
1901. J. Lee, Preventive and Constructive Philanthropy.
De Forest and Veiller, The Tenement House Problem.

CHAPTER VIII
URBAN LIFE: ECONOMIC INTERESTS
The supply of the material means of existence
and of culture is fundamental, and social moral
ity is here put to the most severe tests.
i. There are certain old-fashioned industrial
virtues which have been taught from ancient
times by sages and moralists and which never in
this world will be obsolete — the duty of useful
work and of thrift. The idler and the spendthrift
have always been recognized as pests. We do
not wish to diminish respect and zeal for these
very respectable virtues; but they are already
honored sufficiently, at least with lip service and
pen service, enforced by cold and hunger, and we
are now occupied with duties which demand
social organization of modern types and full co
operation of great communities. All pulpits and
Sunday-school leaflets reiterate millions of times
the duty of labor and saving, but they have
hardly begun as yet to teach the nature of moral
obligations which arise out of recent organiza
tions of urban enterprises.
2. In the case of common wealth in cities it is
not necessary to have actual ownership of desir
able objects of certain kinds in order to enjoy
154

Urban Life: Economic Interests 155
them. Numerous examples may be cited. Thus
all men walk on public pavements or ride on
streets which are not controlled by any particular
person. The rapidly extending areas devoted to
parks are better than private grounds fenced in
and burdened with interest and taxes. In each
school district is a public building with its grounds
owned and kept in good condition by the city,
while teachers and janitors serve rich and poor
alike. The city hall, the courts o,f justice, the
public library, are common wealth; they are not
ostentatious marks of selfish distinction which
set apart a rich person from his kind and awaken
envy, but they minister to the needs of all.
Men complain that taxation becomes heavier
every decade, and this is true. It is unfortunate
when the money thus collected is stolen by "graft
ers" or squandered by inefficient officials. But
such waste is not necessary and will not occur
when more men and women apply their con
sciences and intelligence to the accounts of
municipal officers. But in spite of abuses urban
communities are acquiring enormous amounts of
this community wealth.
There is much common wealth which is nom
inally owned by private associations but actually
used by the public. Thus millions of dollars are
pouring into the endowments of universities, col-

156 Social Duties
leges, art museums, scientific museums, libraries,
orchestra halls, music halls, settlements, old
people's homes, day nurseries, summer vacation
colonies and camps for city children and their
weary mothers, hospitals and asylums of all
kinds. Property held by churches is usually freely
open to the public and its ministries are given
without price to those who cannot or will not
pay for them, although some churches are too
much like private clubs of pew-holders who desire
to travel to heaven in private cars. More than all
other buildings, a church should be treated as
common property, and it is freed from taxation
on this ground. A church whose doors are not
open freely and frequently is morally bound to
pay taxes ; and in addition, to be honest, it should
cease to pretend to be a Christian church; it uses
the name of Christ in vain ; it is lying.
Thus in many ways our cities are coming
rapidly into possession of a vast amount of
material wealth which is at the service of all
citizens, rich and poor. The tendency to increase
this desirable social possession may be promoted
by teaching rich men that investment in goods
accessible to all is morally better than what they
spend in personal luxury; and this lesson may
properly be enforced by taxation on the basis of

Urban Life: Economic Interests 157
personal expenditures. It is true that the power
to tax may be abused, may so burden and cripple
industry as to reduce the sum of wealth annually
produced. The rich man who invests his money
in business and directs useful production is serv
ing his country as truly as when he gives liberally
to libraries, colleges, and museums of art. The
annual appropriation of private income for public
uses has strict limits, and this is expressed in the
old adage that it is poor policy to "kill the goose
which lays golden eggs." Taxation on the visible
and ostentatious expenditures of wealthy persons
would not discourage production so much as our
present methods of taxation. For example,
automobiles are properly required to pay an
annual license fee. Mr. Andrew Carnegie recom
mends a rather heavy inheritance tax and enforces
his view with the hint that a city or state should
not hinder the bees while they are at work but
take a good share of the honey when the hive is
full. 3. Taxation is the method by which private
property is devoted to immediate or permanent
social uses.1 We have elsewhere shown that
present methods of taxation in cities are a direct
occasion of fraud, inequality of burdens, and
1 This subject receives special discussion in another
chapter.

158 Social Duties
injustice. Radical reformation is called for by
social ethics.
4. The care of health is an economic duty.
The vigor, efficiency, and productive power of the
working people depend primarily on their free
dom from disease and the favorable physical con
ditions of home, street, shop, and work-place.
These favorable conditions cannot be secured
without intelligent city government supported by
the public well instructed in the laws of hygiene.
Here we see and appreciate the vital connection
of health and economic welfare with the courses
of study in public schools, night schools, and
popular lecture courses. We may cite a few
sentences in illustration from the "Public Health
Catechism" of the American Health League :2
Because of the deplorable ignorance and indifference
of the general public on health problems, which permits the
ravages of preventable disease and the misery arising
from unhygienic methods of living, protection is neces
sary  It has been estimated that the waste from
sickness and death amounts in dollars alone to more than
$3,000,000,000 annually, of which a large amount — over
one billion dollars — is undoubtedly preventable.
Several diseases have either been extinguished or
reduced to small proportions: as leprosy, by iso
lating patients ; small-pox, by vaccination ; scurvy,
2 Other publications may be had from the office of the
League, 69 Church Street, New Haven, Conn.

Urban Life: Economic Interests 159
by supplying sailors with lime juice; yellow fever,
by quarantine; diphtheria, by antitoxin; typhoid
fever, by public water filters and other means;
tuberculosis, by sanatoria, anti-spitting ordi
nances, and education of the public. The statistics
of mortality show progress through science and
general education and improved sanitary arrange
ments. In London in the seventeenth century the
death rate averaged 80 per thousand, as against
24 today. In the eighteenth century the death
rate in Boston was 37 per thousand as against
25 today. In New York, when Colonel Waring
kept the streets clean in 1896, the death rate was
2ij4 ; in the previous decade it averaged 25, the
minimum being 23. Since 1896 it has risen. The
introduction of a water filter in the town of
Lawrence, Mass., in 1893, was followed by a
reduction in deaths from typhoid to one-sixth the
previous number. The death rate from tubercu
losis has been reduced in fifteen years to less than
two-thirds its former amount in many localities.
The same catechism shows that much remains
to be done. Tuberculosis could be exterminated
in a comparatively short time if the public could
be prevented from spitting out infection, and
induced to live and sleep with proper ventilation.
Trichinotic and ptomaine poisoning could be
escaped by avoiding the use of diseased meat

160 Social Duties
from our slaughter-houses. Typhoid fever could
practically be abolished by improving our milk
and water supplies and by the prevention of the
pollution of our rivers. Alcoholism and the
other evils of intemperance are avoidable by
temperance; sexual diseases, by improvement in
social hygiene; heart and kidney diseases, by
adopting the "simple life." Experiments with
nine healthy students showed that by dietetic care
and thorough mastication, muscular endurance
could be doubled in less than half a year.
These are some of the facts which determine
the duty of each city to systematize the campaign
for increasing economic power through improv
ing the knowledge and conduct of the people in
regard to health.
5. Efficient and thrifty city administration. —
Corrupt, venal, and stupid administration takes
the earnings of a hard-working population, wastes
them, steals them, enriches schemers at the ex
pense of the people, and finally gives little service
for excessive expenditures. Every young man
and woman of education should give all possible
study and attention to the city-hall servants of
the public ; should try to learn what are the legal
duties and powers of their elected officers and
what they accomplish.3 Vague general charges
" See W. H. Allen, Efficient Democracy, for arguments and

Urban Life: Economic Interests 161
do no good and are very apt to be ignorant and
unjust ; for even as it is city officials usually render
valuable service. To reward and punish with
discrimination and effect we must find out and
publish exactly what every form of service costs
and what it accomplishes, and the precise persons
who are responsible for success or failure. A
false charge is met with resentment and a true
charge not proved destroys the influence of the
man who accuses the public officer.
6. Public utilities. — Wherever there is reason
able prospect of profits private interest will find
capital and organize a business.4 There is no
necessity of setting the ponderous machinery of
city government to work wherever any consider
able number of persons offer money, on profitable
terms, for the supply of the satisfactions they
crave, whether it be houses, food, water, pictures,
songs, dramas, books, temples, railways, aero
planes, lighting, luxuries, or even vicious indul
gence. Competitors can always be found, those
who for mercenary motives will offer their ser
vices, no matter how degraded the office. Money
devices. The Bureau of Municipal Research in New York
City is a recent organization of private citizens, with expert
accountants and lawyers for advisers, who are determined to
discover and correct abuses in various departments of urban
administration. ' T. Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise.

162 Social Duties
will buy anything of someone; and in fact com
panies of men will fight, secretly or openly, buy
votes, and bribe senates or courts, if possible, for
the chance of catering to the lowest appetites of
mankind. Therefore we might leave lucrative
trades to ordinary commercial motives. But
from all this we cannot conclude that the city
government should always refrain from attempt
ing to deal with the questions of supply of services
and material goods.
In the first place some of the material needs
of the inhabitants of cities cannot be supplied in a
way which will bring profits to private contract
ors. For example, in every urban community
sewage and garbage must be removed and dust
laid or prevented ; and since these processes do not
offer a profit, the people must require the service
of its government, although even here contractors
may sometimes be employed. The motive of
profit will bring organized capital into lively
action, but that motive cannot be relied on to
protect the public against dishonest, avaricious,
and unscrupulous contractors. Hence the neces
sity of supervising, regulating, and controlling
the firms or companies which furnish transporta
tion, gas, water, or light to a city. In connection
with its own agencies of police, fire department,
public schools, and libraries a city government

Urban Life: Economic Interests 163
must transact business on a large scale, as also in
the supply of fuel, lights, vehicles, care of build
ings and parks. City administration cannot es
cape financial transactions.
Many political writers and even practical men
of affairs go much farther and advocate a great
extension of municipal activities in connection
with public utilities and monopolies. Thus there
cannot conveniently and economically exist in the
same territory two water companies, two gas
companies, and an indefinite number of electric-
lighting and telephone companies; for each will
tear up the streets, hinder traffic, lay out expense
for which consumers must pay, and finally annoy
the public by their duplication and conflicts of
systems. Since there cannot be more than one
system of public utilities in the same area, that
system is necessarily a monopoly, and, in the
absence of competition or regulation, will charge
consumers all they will endure, and continue- to
buy the service or commodity on a profitable scale.
The business motive is profits, not public service
or philanthropy.
Out of this situation has arisen a controversy
in Europe and America which has grown exceed
ingly bitter and partisan, so that even the most
intelligent and honest students find it difficult to
get at the facts. All we can here attempt is to

164 Social Duties
open the subject and give references to works
which seem worthy of consideration. As every
voter is called on in some way to pass judgment
on this controversy, it is his duty to make his
voting power felt with as full knowledge and as
sober a mind as he can command. It is evident
that some forms of public utilities are more
easily managed by city officials than others, be
cause they are more simple, regular, and certain.
For example, a city administration can conduct
water works fairly well and yet fail in directing
the more complicated machinery of street rail
ways. The student may exercise his moral judgment
by impartially weighing the arguments for the
two policies in controversy. The general con
siderations urged in favor of the private owner
ship and management of such public utilities as
lighting and transportation are such as these:
Public ownership and administration are more
expensive, because private business managers are
more alert, skilful, active, and economical than
public officials, especially where, as in American
cities, the officials so generally secure their places
through party influences, rather than by special
fitness and training. The directors of profit-
seeking enterprises, having their own investments
at stake, will not tolerate waste, indolence, and

Urban Life: Economic Interests 165
neglect, where public officials are frequently care
less and easy-going with employees who have
votes to consider. It is also claimed that the
administrators of public works are slow to intro
duce new inventions while private managers are
quick to avail themselves of the best devices.
Again it is asserted that public ownership tends
to introduce socialism and thus to suppress the
energy and initiative of private enterprise. It is
further asserted that when a city government con
ducts a business at a loss it can compel taxpayers
to make good this loss; and this means that the
losing business is partly supported at the expense
of well-managed and profitable private business.
Thus there is an annual deficit in the United
States Postal Department, much larger than is
generally known or published, since in accounts
nothing is said of interest on buildings; and this
deficit must be met out of the income of persons
engaged - in agriculture, transportation, manu
factures, and other employments. It is also
affirmed, with much evidence, that the accounts
of municipal bureaus are often so confused and
juggled that taxpayers never can find out how
much the loss really is.
On the other hand, we must consider argu
ments in favor of enlarging the economic activi
ties of city governments. It is asserted that the

166 Social Duties
people of a city ought to be supplied with objects
of universal utility, necessities of life, without
dependence on monopolies, at bare cost, without
paying profits to private parties. It is said that
the employees of a city will be more humanely
treated and better paid, will have shorter hours
and less intense and exhausting labor, than if they
are controlled by private corporations. It is said
that we shall get better government when the
cities undertake great enterprises and make it an
object for capable and ambitious business men to
seek the responsibilities of the public service.
If private ownership and management of pub
lic utilities is the system chosen by a city, there
are certain interests which must be guarded in
some legal way. In making contracts or granting
franchises the city government should protect
consumers from exorbitant prices and defective
service, and should make regulations which will
protect the employees of the companies from
abuse and injury.
It must never be forgotten that public funds
are not unlimited; that there is no source of
means for parks, schools, playgrounds, fine build
ings, except the product of industry and business ;
that cost must be considered; and that the most
severe sacrifices must be borne by the smaller
taxpayers in the form of higher rent for houses

Urban Life: Economic Interests 167
and greater cost of food and clothing. Every
common laborer pays taxes on the necessities of
life, even if he does not know it, and he pays
taxes just where they hurt most.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
FAVORABLE TO MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES
R. T. Ely, Monopolies and Trusts.
E. W. Bemis, Municipal Monopolies.
F. C. Howe, The British City, and The City the Hope
of Democracy.
D. F. Wilcox, The American City.
Report of the Civic Federation Commission, 1907.
Article on "Municipal Ownership,'' in Bliss, Encyclo
pedia of Social Reform (1908).
OPPOSED TO MUNICIPAL MANAGEMENT AND FAVORING PRI
VATE MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES
Hugo R. Meyer, Municipal Ownership in Great Britain.
DESCRIPTIVE OF MUNICIPAL METHODS
Albert Shaw, Municipal Government in Continental
Europe, and Municipal Government in Great Britain.

CHAPTER IX
URBAN EDUCATIONAL AGENCIES
I. THE ENDS HERE TO BE SPECIALLY CONSIDERED
i. Diffusion of knowledge. — It is the duty of
every city to provide means for the discovery
and diffusion of knowledge useful to the people.
o) The duty of discovering new truth is rarely
recognized; it is an aspect of morality which has
,only of late received any general consideration,
and in some circles, especially in some parts of the
church, in respect to the highest and most im
portant subjects, it is often regarded as something
nearly wicked to suggest that humanity has any
thing yet to learn. We have as a people been
too contented to ship hogs and grain to Ger
many and import ideas. The love of truth has
meant to many chiefly a sort of blind loyalty
to tradition and primary instruction in the
"three R's." Happily we are entering on a
new era. Cities are beginning to establish labo
ratories for the discovery of the causes of
disease; they are inviting expert statisticians,
economists, and masters of administrative sci
ence to utilize the records of their experience
for the promotion of science, just as eminent
physicians utilize the clinics of public hospitals
1 68

Urban Educational Agencies 169
for increasing knowledge of the causes and
laws of sickness and health. The Bureau of
Municipal Research in New York City has dem
onstrated the value of scientific investigation of
public accounts. Practical business men can form
reasonable judgments of methods of officials only
when they are furnished the facts. Before knowl
edge can be popularized it must be acquired by
way of scientific research. Most of the investi
gative work of this kind has thus far been done
by private societies; part of it might well be done
by public officers chosen for the purpose. In this
field the federal government has done admirable
work, as in the Department of Agriculture. Each
city should form an alliance with experts in Uni
versities for the promotion of research.
b) Our public-school system is the chief social
means of communicating to youth the knowledge
already acquired by men of science. There is
general agreement that at least the elements of
education should be offered to all children; and
the tendency is to open freely to all who have
capacity the advantages of higher education
without cost for tuition in state supported insti
tutions. Our generation has inherited a rich
spiritual legacy from all the past, the estate of
science, the fund of thought about the worlds of
nature and of human life — astronomy, chemistry,

170 Social Duties
physics, geology, botany, zoology, biology, psy
chology, and the social sciences, as well as the
sciences dealing with language, literature, and re
ligion. The great social problem is to divide
equitably this spiritual estate so that no heir shall
be robbed of his share.1
2. Art education is part of the task of our
public schools. The end of this form of instruc
tion is appreciation of the beauty in the world, the
attainment of critical standards of judgment and
selection, the awakening and training of creative
power in born artists among the people, the taste
ful adornment of persons and homes, and the
improvement in the quality and price of the pro
ducts of industry, as well as increase of satisfac
tion in work itself. With advance of aesthetic
culture more persons will find themselves in a
nobler and more attractive world ; drawing, paint
ing, modeling, sculpture, architecture, engraving,
music, eloquence, poetry, will arouse higher inter
ests and elevate the plane of living.
3. Fellowship. — The nation, said Gladstone,
is divided into two hostile camps. It is increas
ingly difficult for employers and employees, bank
ers and mechanics, clergymen and trade-unionists
to understand each other. The air is full of sus
picion, distrust, envy, hatred, malice, grudge,
1 See L. F. Ward, Applied Sociology.

Urban Educational Agencies 171
revenge, and these passions are inflammable and
explosive; the peace, order, and unity of city,
state, and nation are always in serious peril.
"Class consciousness" has taken possession of a
large and growing part of the wage-earning
world and set it in hostile array against the
employers and their associates. In American
cities the economic differences are embittered
by racial prejudices and by sectarian pas
sions. We may reasonably hope# that in the
future, in some way not yet clear, these rancors
may be abated; but just at present the outlook
has many suggestions of evil. To us who believe
that the normal attitude of man to man is not that
of tiger or wolf, but of brother and citizen of a
commonwealth, this social hostility, this disinte
gration of fellowship, this persistent misunder
standing is a threat and a source of sorrow and
misgiving. It grieves us to see that a multitude
of our fellow men carry their resentment and
enmity against the employing class into their
relations to the church.
Therefore the church, along with the respon
sible directors of industry, and representatives of
art, science, and patriotism, is interested in any
methods which promise to further sincere, cordial
and wholesome friendship between citizens. This
can never be through any form of philanthropy

172 Social Duties
with a taint of charity; it must come in a form
which will recognize the sense of justice, fairness,
and self-respect of the workingmen as having
of right a secure place in the republic; it must
come from a common view of the universal and
highest interests of humanity which will lift us all
above the petty, mean, and inhuman passions of
cliques, castes, and classes.
4. Morality, patriotism, and religion are ends
of education; and all worthy schemes of culture
will advance goodness, justice, love of fatherland,
and faith in reasonable religion.
II. THE INSTITUTIONS AND AGENCIES OF
EDUCATION IN CITIES2
1. Each city now has its own system, under
state laws: kindergartens, elementary schools,
secondary or "high" schools, and in New York
City and Cincinnati even a college or university.
2. In most cities there are private and parochial
schools of all grades, from kindergarten to uni
versity and professional schools. The policy of
our government is to grant full liberty in the field
of education, and this freedom has led to abuses
1 Full statistics relating to urban and other schools are
found in the reports of the United States commissioner of
education. Various state and city reports of school authorities
may also be obtained.

Urban Educational Agencies 173
which call for correction. Any person, group of
persons, corporation, or church is permitted un
hindered to establish and maintain schools for
children and youth. Sectarian convictions have
induced the members of some denominations to
maintain institutions where their peculiar views
can be impressed on the rising generations, and
as the public schools are frequently forbidden to
teach even unsectarian religion, those who regard
piety as an essential part of general culture make
sacrifices to have their children brought up under
church influences. Frequently this conviction
demands great sacrifices of them, for they must
pay a double tax for schools, one for public
schools and another for parochial schools. This
is particularly true of our Roman Catholic and
Lutheran neighbors. By many citizens this is
thought to be unjust, and it is often urged that,
as in parts of Canada, the church schools should
have a share of funds raised by taxation, or that
the taxes collected from Catholics should go to
their own schools. It does appear to be desirable
that some mode of relieving conscientious citizens
from an unequal burden might be found without
jeopardizing the free public schools. When the
private and Church institutions fall below the
standard required by state laws, they should be
compelled to raise their standards by means of

174 Social Duties
public inspection and control. To this those who
maintain parochial schools would not object.
3. Museums, libraries, and laboratories for the
promotion of scientific investigation are receiving
attention in cities and in some cases their build
ings, collections, and appliances attract students
from afar.
4. Education in art is promoted in public
schools by lessons in drawing, modeling, painting,
and artistic workmanship in various crafts. Spe
cial art schools are usually founded and main
tained in the larger urban centers by private
associations which provide for instruction in
drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, music,
drama. The collections of casts, engravings, and pic
tures are growing more extensive and valuable as
auxiliaries to art instruction as well as means of
increasing the aesthetic enjoyments of the people.
5. Among the important privileges of city life
are the libraries and reading-rooms which throw
wide open the doors of learning to all who are
eager to extend their knowledge in any direction.
6. Of theaters it is difficult to write in church
circles without misunderstandings, and the case
cannot be argued in a brief paragraph. This,
however, may be suggested as honest, fair, and
hopeful of good results: the class should frame

Urban Educational Agencies 175
its judgment of actors and plays at first hand and
on the basis of ascertained facts, just as they do
in relation to works of fiction. The church can
not afford to calumniate an entire profession
which contains so many worthy artists, on the
ground that many of its members are immoral
and even most of the plays presented are poor or
vicious. Judgments should be formed and ex
pressed only upon the basis of ascertained facts.
The only way to truth on this subject is long
and difficult, as is all literary and aesthetic criti
cism. Why should there not be in each city a
group of men and women of literary training
and high moral standards to secure and publish
materials for a censorship of the theatrical exhi
bitions offered? The facts could be collected by
such a group from the librettos of operas and
plays, from the descriptions furnished by com
petent newspaper critics of the highest class, and
by visits made by mature persons whose minds
are not full of prejudices. In every city there are
journalists familiar with actors and playwrights
who would welcome the co-operation of a really
capable and representative association of fair and
high-minded citizens. The influence of discrimi
nating citizens would be very great. With only
a slight effort in this direction some of the gross
immorality of theaters has already been abolished.

176 Social Duties
The palpably obscene and vicious can be sup
pressed by ordinary police action.
7. Among the most potent educational agencies
in cities are the churches and their Sunday
schools, to which a special chapter is devoted.
The student is urged to write out from reports the
essential facts about the educational agencies of the city
or town in which he dwells : especially the number of
schools, pupils, teachers in all grades, the value of
property; the duties and powers of the school board and
of the administrative officers. This preliminary study
may be enlarged with further discussion and thought
about special points.
III. METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT OF THE SYSTEM
OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
1. The first condition of improving the work
ing of our public schools is to learn what they
are already doing and what they fail to achieve;
and this knowledge must be as accurate as pos
sible.3 We may here select a few questions by way of
illustration. s For details the class may well study School Reports and
School Efficiency, by D. S. Snedden and W. H. Allen, published
by Macmillan, 1898, especially the questions on pp. 118-27.
It would be good training for members of the class to take
the reports of the superintendent of schools in the city where
the class meets and try to answer as many of the questions
of this book as possible, and then inquire of the superintendent
why he did not give information on the other points.

Urban Educational Agencies 177
a) Attendance : We wish to know how far the
schools, public and parochial, actually have the
children and youth under their instruction.
Therefore we seek in the reports of the boards of
education answers to such questions as these:
How many children are there in the town of
school age (seven to fifteen), and how many are
in the compulsory-attendance group? Of these
how many actually attend school, in what grades
and how many days in the year? What are the
causes of failure to be present, as illness, slow
development, defects of senses, adenoid growths?
How many truant officers are there? How many
cases have they investigated? How many have
been restored to school by them?
b) We wish to know about the health of the
pupils, and we inquire: How many medical in
spectors and nurses are employed to examine
children and see that they and their parents are
doing what is necessary to care for their physical
soundness? Are the children weighed and meas
ured, so as to observe the effect of school life on
growth? How many children are kept out of
school on account of sickness? Could some of
these be taught in special classes and ought some
to be sent to special institutions, as for the feeble
minded or epileptic? Are there facilities for
play and are there competent play teachers?

178 Social Duties
How many enjoy these facilities and how many
are deprived of them? What are the results of
exercise and recreation, as shown in the physical
records of the children?
c) We wish further to know about the success
of the pupils in their studies, and this interest
constrains us to seek in school reports for
answers to such questions as these: How many
children are in each grade,. by age and sex? How
many youths are in high schools and in night
schools? What is the influence of manual training
on the attendance of boys in high school after
the compulsory age? What is the effect, as
shown in records, of irregular attendance or
low scholarship on continuance in school ? What
evidence is there that school training has prepared
children for industrial efficiency? Is the high
school merely a preparatory department for
colleges and universities — for a few — or is it
honestly trying to educate youth for life? Does
the high school merely weed out and expel boys
who dislike Latin and French, or does it patiently
teach them, carrying them along at a pace suited
to the average mind, not compelling them to try
to run with the swift? Is the high school aristo
cratic or democratic?
d) We need to know as much as possible about
the influence of the school on morality, on char-

Urban Educational Agencies 179
acter, and we can get some indications if we
study the records of deportment, regularity, and
punctuality of attendance, the methods of disci
pline and the number of punishments and suspen
sions. e) As tax-payers we naturally desire to know
whether our money is expended with economy
and efficiency and whether it goes without pecula
tion or waste to the right place. Therefore we
have a right to seek in the published reports of
our boards of education light on sftch questions
as these: What school buildings and grounds are
owned by the city? What is their value? What
is their condition ? What is the number of rooms
or sittings provided? What provisions are under
way for congested districts? Which buildings
are without kindergartens and kitchens, work
shops for older pupils? What is the relation of
the accommodations provided by the buildings of
various districts to the number of children of
school age in the district, or to the number of
children applying for admission? What is the
number of vacant sittings, and to what ages of
children do they correspond ? What has been the
annual cost for a series of years of the school sys
tem as a whole ? What has been the total amount
expended for such items as salaries, administra
tion, fuel, building, repairs? What has each

180 Social Duties
school, and each special kind or grade of school
cost, in totals and per pupil? What is the cost
of fuel per pupil each year, and why does one
school pay more for fuel than another? Is the
waste due to carelessness, theft, or defective heat
ing apparatus? What does medical inspection
cost per pupil per year ?
Many other questions need to be asked, and
only when they are clearly answered can the sup
porters of the school system really know how to
praise or blame or criticize the institution to
which a vast sum is contributed out of public
taxation. To this kind of information the voters
have a right ; and they cannot go on paying taxes
with genuine zeal and patriotism without having
such information. Vague appeals to sentiments
of patriotism and eloquent declamation about
"our glorious school system" can never sustain
the burden of expense, so long as we remain
ignorant of the actual work done, the results
achieved, and the cost of each particular form of
service rendered.
It is unfortunately true that our schools suffer
from lack of public support; that teachers' salaries
are shamefully low; that in many districts there
are not enough accommodations for seating many
children of compulsory school age; that play
grounds are often lacking ; that kindergartens and

Urban Educational Agencies 181
industrial departments are not supplied. But all
these evils will be most swiftly and completely
corrected by a clear, full, and readable descrip
tion of the exact resources and results of the
system. The public must be taken into the confi
dence of the administrators; all the newspapers
must be furnished with a steady stream of reliable
facts. The public should be constantly provoked
and incited to ask questions. Under our demo
cratic form of government this kind of scientific
publicity is essential to sustained popular interest
in the schools and adequate support.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
E. P. Dutton, Social Phases of Education.
J. Dewey, The School and Society.
2. Co-operation of teachers with parents. — In
connection with each public school there should
be an association of parents and teachers at whose
meetings at least the more enlightened fathers and
mothers would confer with those who are aiding
them in their parental duty of developing the
powers and character of the children. At such
meetings topics of common interest could be
treated by specialists with an opportunity for free
discussion. Teachers could tell their aims, their
difficulties, and their hopes, while parents could
ask questions and offer information and sug-

"ifo Social Duties
gestions. If there is need of playgrounds, gar
dens, equipment for domestic arts and trade
training there would be a considerable number of
voters ready to co-operate in securing the means
for extending and. adopting the facilities of the
school. 3. Citizens' clubs and their discussions. — In
most cities there are clubs of men and of women
for social and civic purposes. It is desirable that
each one of these have a standing committee
whose duty it will be to study the requirements of
the public schools and report to the whole mem
bership. By a standing committee on education
composed of delegates from all the clubs a policy
could be defined and persistently worked out with
the aid of thousands of citizens in many callings.
In such a central and federated committee it
would be just and wise to have representatives of
the trade unions, because these men would know
most of the probable effect of any measure on
their facilities and their material interests. The
persistent and general tendency to ignore all
associations of wage-earners is an insult which
is deeply and justly felt; in a democratic country
it is folly.
4. Settlements. — The social settlements, so far
as they are directed by educated and capable resi
dents, deserve the sympathy, co-operation, and

Urban Educational Agencies 183
assistance of the churches. They have often suc
ceeded when it has been found impossible to
continue what is called "missions." They have
become, in many urban districts, the chief meet
ing-place of persons of all social classes and inter
ests who desire to provide means of culture for
working people, and to promote their material
interests as well. Many conservative persons
stand aloof from them or regard them with sus
picion because they manifest an appreciation for
trade-unions and socialists, because they do not
conduct revivals and Sunday schools, because
they do not attempt to make proselytes to Protes
tant churches, because the residents often become
quite radical themselves, and because free discus
sion is tolerated and encouraged. Thorough
acquaintance with the surroundings of the settle
ments in the crowded quarters of immigrant popu
lations would at least teach critics patience and
kindly understanding of the residents. It is very
easy, cheap, and unprofitable to find fault; it is
much more difficult and more useful to do con
structive and educative work. Before condemn
ing the settlements let the class of men try to do
some of this work themselves.
5. Better systems of taxation to supply funds.
— The Federation of Teachers in Chicago set out
to improve the schools and secure decent salaries ;

184 Social Duties
they confronted an empty treasury ; they made an
investigation and found millionaires perjuring
themselves to escape just assessments, corpora
tions enjoying valuable franchise privileges with
out paykig for them — public officers diverting
funds to improper uses. They went to the legis
lature, the courts, and the council, and secured
redress and improvement, and incidentally made
bitter enemies of powerful men who ought from
the first to have worked with them without com
pulsion from the courts. It is an illustration of
the obstacles encountered by the friends of educa
tion. In the chapter on "Taxation" these matters
are discussed. There is plenty of money in this
country for better schools than we now have, if
we are properly taxed and our funds are honestly
administered. IV. SOME SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENTS
There is space in this chapter only for a few
examples of recent improvements and experi
ments in the direction of fulfilling the social pur
pose of the public schools.
A lad of sixteen years was asked by an investi
gating committee what he had learned in the
schools which helped him earn a living, and his
answer cuts to the quick: "Nothing; because I
earn my living with my hands." The schools had

Urban Educational Agencies 185
never educated his hands ; they did not offer man
ual training. Untrained hands are held out to
beg or become nimble in petty theft.
Many careful observers have sought the causes
of failures of our public schools and have tried
experiments. After a long struggle with tradition
and prejudice the kindergarten has vindicated
its right to existence and support; the sloyd and
manual-training schools have attracted attention
and are rapidly being established ^jn urban sys
tems. To reform, deformed boys the correctional
schools always employ these methods; but it is
more economical and effective to shape the habits
aright before vicious paths are entered. On the
flinty surface of narrow lots in New York City
little gardens have been cultivated and with them
a finer life has been evoked in the children of
tenements. The vacation school is a recent invention of
friends of children who could not endure to see
the poor creatures driven about aimlessly, falling
into danger and mischief during the long summer
weeks when the school buildings are closed. It
is found that for every vacant place there are
many applicants, for the children enjoy activity;
they are glad to escape from their dingy, close
dwellings and from the dirt and danger, the sti
fling heat of the streets, to play and sing and work

1 86 Social Duties
with tools under genial teachers. All the better if
the benign influences of Bible stories, hymns and
reverent prayer can be mingled with play and tool
practice, and long walks in parks and romps in
shady places. Here is large opportunity for co
operation of classes of men with the school
authorities and special associations of philan
thropic persons.
The educational significance of play has been
studied more in recent years than formerly. The
outdoor playground calls for a special training of
teachers to direct the sports and amusements of
the young and to prevent bullying by big boys. A
national association, with an organ, has under
taken to champion the cause ; cities are vying with
each other in the purchase of small parks, the
provision of gymnastic apparatus, the mainte
nance of trained instructors. From play to work
is only a step, because the plays of children are
largely imitation of the serious tasks of adults.
The indoor amusements of children and youth
are educative, sometimes for good, sometimes for
evil. Repression is impossible. In all cities cheap
popular amusements have had an astounding
growth. In New York City the nickleodeon alone
entertains nearly one hundred thousand children
daily. Millions of dollars are being invested in
dance-halls, skating-rinks, melodrama, vaudeville,

Urban Educational Agencies 187
burlesque, moving-picture variety shows, penny
arcades, anatomical museums, beauty shows, and
perhaps others, to all of which fine people are sup
posed to be strangers. Philanthropic persons
have sought legislation to prevent abuses; have
asked for higher license fees and direct control
by police ; proper ventilation and arrangements to
prevent fire; exclusion of school children from
nickleodeons during school hours and after eight
o'clock at night, except when accompanied by
guardians. But these are merely negative meas
ures. We should positively organize agencies for
providing sane, wholesome, and elevating amuse
ments at prices within the reach of families of
small means. These amusements may be made
vehicles for cheerful humor, enjoyment of art
and travel, music, biography, history, and the
wonders of science, and the occasion for kindly
meetings of families and neighbors.4 Finally, all
instructed friends of public schools are urging
improvement in methods of ethical culture, the
development of character as the crown of educa
tion. Thus the most competent leaders of the
school system have declared :
We earnestly recommend to boards of education,
principals, and teachers the continuous training of pupils
' See article by John Collier in Charities and The Com
mons, April 11, 1908, p. 73.

188 Social Duties
in morals and in business and professional ethics, to the
end that the coming generation of men of affairs may
have a well-developed abhorrence of unfair dealing and
discrimination." 5 National Education Association platform.

CHAPTER X
DUTIES OF THE CHURCH IN URBAN COM
MUNITIES
I. THE DUTY OF THE CHURCH
The characteristic duty of the church is to pro
mote worship, to further religion — with us of
course the Christian religion. Religion has sev
eral aspects. It is hearing the word of God sent
through man to mankind. It is S. response in
worship to the voices of God. It is also in
spiring and directing religious motives to the
good of humanity, the outflow of faithful love in
varied ministrations, the precise form of minis
tration being always defined by the need of the
people where the church is planted. Hence the
particular duties of a Christian congregation in
a city must be discovered by a careful, even a
scientific, study of the city itself and its problems.
II. AGENCIES OF THE CHURCH
The Christian church is responsible for its vast
and growing resources. It has the local congre
gations of all denominations with their real estate,
regular incomes, meeting-houses, halls, members
with varied talents and social influence. The
churches have created and now support various
societies, with their equipment : The Young Men's
i8q

190 Social Duties
Christian Association, the Young Women's Chris
tian Association, and others. The churches have
built up parochial schools, academies, colleges,
universities, and invested in these many millions
of money. There are the endowed publication
houses and their rich annual income from sales.
There are also numerous hospitals, charitable and
reformatory associations, and educational agen
cies directly or indirectly under church control or
influence.
III. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE EMPLOYMENT
OF THESE AGENCIES IN URBAN COMMUNITIES
In our theological schools the arts of preach
ing, pastoral service, church administration, re
ligious teaching and missionary labor are taught ;
and the teaching has been embodied systematically
in a large number of books. It is not to be ex
pected that we should attempt to repeat this
instruction here. We shall seek only to bring to
consciousness certain factors which are too much
overlooked and neglected by church workers in
cities. 1. Of the moral necessity of "making dis
ciples" of men of all nations there is in theory no
doubt. All Christian churches admit the duty,
and a Christian man who can remain quite easy
in mind without at least doing a little to proclaim

The Church in Urban Communities 191
the gospel throughout the city is a rarity, let us
hope. The command of the Lord is plain; the
need of the people is apparent; all the value we
set on our religion makes it imperative to share
our best treasures with our less-favored neigh
bors. Few of us have quite forgotten that we are
saved by Him who seeks the lost.
2. We must pass with bare mention the tradi
tional and ordinary methods of evangelization :
the family life, the Sunday school, the church
services. We are acquainted, at le^st in well-to-
do neighborhoods, with the "attractive" methods
of securing attendance, the eloquent preacher, the
popular music, the lighted audience room, the
genial welcome. Then, when we discover that
many refuse to be attracted, we go out aggres
sively to "compel them to come in." Street
preaching is practiced, at least by the Salvation
Army and by some regular ministers whose zeal
burns hotly. Here and there we invade a theater
or popular concert hall and touch a new
audience. Recently the Young Men's Christian Associa
tion has secured a brief hearing for a kind and
genial message at the noon hour in shops. Multi
tudes hear the gospel; alas! multitudes are indif
ferent. The statistics of Protestant work in our
larger cities are depressing.

192 Social Duties
IV. MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH TO THE GENERAL
WELFARE OF URBAN POPULATIONS
We have already indicated the service of the
church in respect to the highest, noblest, most
enduring element of welfare — the life of'worship.
Whatever the church does or leaves undone it
must help men to love God.
But is preaching the only way to persuade man
kind to love God? How do we teach our own
children to love us? Merely by catechisms on
filial duties ? Chiefly rather by caresses, by food,
by comfort, by all sorts of deeds and sacrifices
through the years. God never breaks the silence
with mere words ; he speaks in perpetual gifts of
fruitful earth and kind human nature. He gave
his Son, and only after Calvary was the gospel
reduced to a written word. The church must
learn the divine way to men's hearts, and must
show its faith by its works of love; and so in all
its best ages it has done; only now the task is
more difficult.
1. The settlement method. — The common
ground of friendship and sociability is first of all
to know our neighbors in cities. We must have
at least some representatives of the churches who
live in daily, friendly, sympathetic contact with
the people. The Protestant churches are very
generally a long distance from the colonies and

The Church in Urban Communities 193
districts of immigrants and laborers, and there
fore our pastors, teachers, and members have a
very dim notion of the hopes, fears, anxieties,
ambitions, tastes, beliefs, sufferings, prejudices,
sacrifices, and character of the multitudes who
come from other lands, bringing their customs
and faiths with them. Stupid blunders are com
mitted by kind people because they wound feel
ings of persons whose springs of conduct are
different from their own.1
The tendency of immigrants to father and re
main in cities, especially cities of the northern
states, creates a situation which makes church
work extremely difficult and also exceedingly
important. Something can be learned from books
and magazine articles, but more from residence
near the people to be helped.
Any family can establish a settlement. Whether
it is wise to take young children into a doubtful
neighborhood each man must judge for himself.
Many a district of poor people is quite as virtuous
as a boulevard, if not so fine. But a young physi
cian, lawyer, skilled artisan, teacher, business
man, can make his residence for a few years in a
neighborhood of wage earners and make friends
1 The Church and the Immigrant in Cities; Howard B.
Grose, Aliens or Americans? ; John R. Commons, Races and
Immigrants in America.

194 Social Duties
among them. If he is democratic and tactful he
may acquire political influence among them and
help them secure more efficient administration of
city government.
Cities must have an agency to mediate between
the immigrants and the religious, educational, and
political institutions already established. A Pro
testant church in a colony of Catholics or Jews is
hated; a "mission" is despised; the form of ser
vice is repulsive ; the crude music of the Salvation
Army jars on the nerves of the Italians. With
the kindest intentions our church methods often
collide with the feelings of people we would win,
because we do not know them. They do not
understand us nor our language; our creed is
heresy to them; all attempts to proselyte are re
garded as devilish enticements to disloyalty to
ancestral faith.
Between hostile camps we need a common
ground for meeting under a white flag of truce.
The public school is one such place, for there
partisanship in politics and creed is forbidden.
But the public school has its limitations. The
social settlement in American cities is intended to
do what "missions" cannot do. To offer a
foreign colony a mission is to brand them aliens
and godless, as well as inferior. This is resented ;
for the immigrant becomes democratic, equal of

The Church in Urban Communities 195
all, when his toes touch Ellis Island. The settle
ment has an open door and permits free discus
sion which few churches can tolerate. If a
workingman cannot express his own ideas on an
equality with others he turns his back on the place
in contempt, and warns his comrades to keep
away. Many of the dingy halls, where services
are conducted by ill-trained leaders, are felt to
be an insult. The settlement has very often
broad-minded, educated residents who are genial
and patient with people who differ from them in
many ways. He who goes among workingmen to
"convert" them to his own economic, political, or
theological creed soon finds that his neighbors
prefer to convert him; at least they will not give
him more than half the time. A dogmatist or
revivalist of a common type does more harm than
good, and in all our cities the churches and mis
sions have steadily retreated before the immigrant
flood. The settlements are sometimes overrated;
they are few and feeble in resources; but they
have a use and perform an indispensable service
as interpreters of citizens to each other.
In a great city an economic or political revolu
tion may ripen before college professors or
preachers even know of its beginnings. The
settlement residents of the best kind act as out
posts and observers and warn us of the danger of

196 Social Duties
our neglect. In our comfortable homes and lux
urious churches, especially when we dodge taxes
and duties in suburban residences, we know the
Bohemian, Lithuanian, and Polish laborers no
better than if they were still over sea. We need
settlements to discover the facts and illumine
our ignorance and correct our provincial conceit
and Phariseeism.
Many earnest Christians will have nothing to
do with settlements, count it a sin to give them
money, because they do not hold revival meetings
or Sunday schools. This is unreasonable ; for the
same persons pay for the support of public
schools, parks, art galleries, and other public
means of good with which prayer-meetings are
not connected. Has anyone heard of an evan
gelical deacon or minister who refused a 10 per
cent, dividend in a bank or gas company because
the directors did not say grace before they voted
payments on shares ? Let us be consistent. Some
of the most vital and important methods of church
work have been suggested by experience in settle
ments. 2. Philanthropic activities. — The social serv
ice of members of the church will ordinarily be
applied most economically and fruitfully through
other organizations. It is unwise for each church
to establish and maintain its own institutions,

The Church in Urban Communities 197
hospitals, child-saving societies, newsboys' homes,
day nurseries, custodial asylums for the feeble
minded, playgrounds, free baths, schools, wage-
earners' societies, insurance companies, political
reform societies, and scores of others.
There are cases, of course, where an indi
vidual church may have the wealth and power to
erect an institution of some importance, and it
may be duty to take advantage of the opportunity.
But all the really great social work can be done
only by co-operation of all well-disposed people in
the city. But will not the church fail to get credit
for its charity if it joins forces with citizens in
general, many of whom may be heretics and
agnostics? This fear is frequently expressed.
But is the church so poor in good works that it
needs to stand apart from its neighbors? Is the
first consideration a reputation? Is not the pri
mary duty to do good in the wisest way and leave
to God and man the care of reputation? Is the
principle of Jesus not applicable to churches as
to individual Christians that one must lay down
his life, even bury it as good seed is covered, in
order that life may be abundant? That church
which manifests all the traits of a frank, vigor
ous, sensible, and co-operative neighbor will have
all the credit it deserves for its generous deeds,
while if it shrivels into a petty representative of

198 Social Duties
schism and sect it loses touch with all the
large-minded men who are trying to establish
philanthropic enterprises on modern scientific
foundations and on a scale worthy of the city and
adequate to its demands. In division and selfish
ness there is weakness ; in union there is strength.
A few examples will illustrate the meaning, and
they will be given in connection with an analysis
of the philanthropic, educational, reformatory
and political movements which call for a vast
number of zealous, able, and persistent-workers.
Familiar acquaintance with the people of a
city will reveal more or less distinct groups or
strata, each with its own problems and require
ments, each calling for a different and suitable
kind of social service.
The depressed. — Under this designation we in
clude for the present discussion : ( 1 ) Dependents ;
(2) defectives; (3) abnormals; (4) the anti
social, vicious and criminal.2 The work of the
church to the members of these groups has of late
years been called the "Inner Mission." This field
is so wide, its problems so complex, and the co
operation of the commonwealth outside of cities
so necessary that it is given a special chapter in
this series. At this point we may ask considera-
2 See Introduction to the Study of the Dependent, Defective,
and Delinquent Classes, by C. R. Henderson.

The Church in Urban Communities 199
tion for certain principles which should govern
the relation of the church to charities and correc
tions. The church should regard all its charity as only
a part of the philanthropic system of the city and
of the commonwealth. If it gives relief to needy
families in their homes it should be in full knowl
edge of what is done by other agencies for the
same families. Every church should have a rep
resentative in the district committee «f the charity
organization society, by whatever name that or
ganization may be locally known. Generally the
members of a church can do more effective service
by co-operating with some existing charitable
society, and carrying into it the fervor and zeal of
religion, than by adding another feeble agency to
the multitude already existing.
The organization of municipal charities is not
a function of a church, and it must be under the
guidance of experts. No doubt a group of young
Christians or of benevolent women may accept
from a charity organization society a specific task
to be carried out in harmony with what other
groups are doing, under the trained directors ; but
it is wasteful and selfish to work without regard
to the general plan, ignore others, and almost
certainly interfere with wise and comprehensive
plans.

200 Social Duties
For defectives — the blind, the deaf, the crippled
— the churches, as such, have no proper facilities
for education ; but they ought not to neglect and
forget the municipal and state schools which train
such children. In cases of destitution churches
may well supplement the public schools by gifts
and by personal friendly attentions. At present
comparatively little is done for crippled children,
and yet there are many of them, and their need of
protection is often very great.3
The abnormals (feeble-minded, idiotic, imbe
cile, insane, epileptic) are a state charge and
require public care and custody. The church has
no call in this country to erect and maintain
hospitals and colonies for their proper treatment ;
but here again representatives of the church
should visit the state institutions, study their
methods and results, help to prevent abuses and
aid the authorities in securing grants of legisla
tes for needed improvements.
The antisocial — vicious and criminal — must be
watched and disciplined chiefly by the state, by
counties, and by cities. Churches can help mem
bers of these classes best through "Howard
Associations," refuges for erring girls, prisoners'
aid societies, etc.
3 Write to editor of Children's Charities, 79 Dearborn St.,
Chicago, for information about an institution for crippled
children.

The Church in Urban Communities 201
3. Co-operation with wage earners. — The sec
ond great group is composed of wage earners
and their families. They only occasionally need
charitable relief, when individuals drop down
out of the wage earners' group into the group of
the depressed. It is a fatal mistake of many well-
meaning church leaders to offer charity to mem
bers of this group. The offer is felt as an insult.
The demand of industrial men is for justice, a
fair chance, not for philanthropy afid patronage.
The elements of a social policy affecting the inter
ests of this group, especially in cities, have been
discussed elsewhere.4
4. Attitude of the church to the rich. — There
is another group which requires quite as serious
study and earnest effort of the church — the busi
ness class, the captains of industry, and the leisure
class, which seems to be emerging from the busy
group. Indeed there are very marked evidences
that a considerable number of Americans are kill
ing themselves by excessive devotion to business
in order that their children may vegetate in the
next generation as parasites on the industrious.
This is not true of all rich people ; but it is already
a notorious evil and is rapidly increasing.
5. Education. — The opportunity of the church
in relation to education is indicated in another
4 See chap, v, "Social Duties to Workingmen."

202 Social Duties
place. It is vastly better for the church to help
create intelligent interest in the public schools
than to duplicate the buildings and grounds and
maintain parochial schools, leaving the public
schools to suffer by neglect or even by enmity.
6. Political life in cities sadly needs the aid of
the church ; but not by alliance with parties. This
is discussed in other places.
"And I saw the holy city  And I saw no
temple therein" (Rev. 21:2, 22). The most
sacred city needs no sun because God is its light,
no sanctuary because all is holy. This is the ideal
toward which the church in a city works, the
sanctification of streets, alleys, shops, parks,
recreations, government, business.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
Learn the number of persons and families of various
races and nations in the city, or in the county. Discover
to what religious denomination they belong and how
many have abandoned all churches. Make a map of the
district showing the distribution of foreigners, the loca
tion of their churches and parochial schools. Learn
something of the country of their origin; its laws, cus
toms, faiths.
Learn about the industries, dwellings, education,
political activities of the foreigners of the district What
is their attitude to the saloon? What good qualities do
they manifest?
Inquire at the post-office how much money they send

The Church in Urban Communities 203
each year to their relatives abroad, and for what pur
poses. REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
W. Gladden, The Christian Pastor and the Working
Church. G. W. Mead, Modern Methods of Church Work.
C. R. Henderson, Social Settlements.
Mrs. F. H. Montgomery, Bibliography of Settlements.
J. Strong, The Challenge of the City.

CHAPTER XI
SOCIAL DUTIES OF URBAN LIFE: MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT
In order to know our duties in relation to mu
nicipal government we must first learn what that
government actually does; for the conditions
define duties, when taken in connection with the
essential values of human life. The determina
tion of the duty of a city government is the result
of a most complicated calculation of probabilities,
reasoning from past experience and from the
consequences of experiments in all the cities of
the world. There is no short cut and easy path
to a judgment. A wise and valuable decision
must rest on a consideration of all the needs of
the people, physical, economic, and spiritual; on
a consideration of all the possible means and
methods of supplying these needs — individual
effort, voluntary association, private corporations,
municipal management and administration.
I. RELATION OF MUNICIPAL TO STATE GOVERN
MENT
I. The modern city derives all its powers
from the state, these powers are defined and
limited in an instrument vested by the state
legislature and called a "charter." The activities
204

Duties of Urban Life 205
which a municipal administration may legally
conduct are carefully enumerated in this docu
ment, and beyond this particular list of activi
ties the council and mayor cannot pass. This
is the general tendency in this country; in
some European countries cities can undertake
almost any local enterprises which do not clash
with state laws or agencies of administration. It
is now generally believed by competent authori
ties that cities should have a larg€r measure of
liberty and "home rule," so far as purely local
interests are involved.
2. The city government is an agency of the
state government for certain general purposes,
such as the maintenance of order and security,
the care of public health, and public education.
Laws regulating the liquor traffic, gambling, vice,
and crime, are made by the state legislature, and
officers of a city are bound by their oath of office
to enforce these laws, whether they approve them
or not. Even if state laws are locally unpopular
the city officials perjure themselves when they
neglect any practicable means of making them
effective. Because of this close dependence of municipal
upon state government the city administration
must, at least in certain fields, be carefully super
vised and controlled by the higher authorities,

206 Social Duties
yet not in such a way as to cripple, impede, and
corrupt local enterprise. -
II. THE BUSINESS OF A CITY GOVERNMENT
i. First and before all else, a municipality must
preserve order and protect life, person, and prop
erty. Without a sense of security industry is
paralyzed, wages cease, capital hides, enterprise
is checked, progress is stayed. The power of a
city government to maintain order is severely
tested in the case of a strike attended by violence,
especially when a large part of the public is in
sympathy with the strikers in their effort to better
conditions. Another crisis comes when a negro
attacks a white woman, as in Springfield, Illinois,
in 1908, and public indignation breaks down the
barriers of legal authority and demands instant
vengeance. Strongly as we detest the brutal
assault we must submit our cause to the courts
of justice rather than to the blind fury of a mob.
If courts are dilatory we must correct their pro
cedure, not set them aside and return to social
chaos and barbarism. Lawlessness breeds law
lessness. 2. Municipal administration must care for the
conditions of physical health. The general laws
which are sufficient to protect health in the open
country, with houses far apart, are utterly inade-

Duties of Urban Life 207
quate in crowded towns and large cities. The
individual citizen cannot protect himself under
urban conditions; he is compelled to rely on
municipal officials to provide sewage, drainage,
pure drinking-water, means of detecting and pre
venting the sale of impure milk, spoiled meat, and
vegetables, and the placing of decaying matter
where it will poison the air. These are interests
which cannot be left to individuals and corpora
tions and to the motive of private profit.
The commissioner of health of Chicago, Dr.
W. A. Evans, publishes a bulletin for all citizens,
on which he prints the saying of an eminent legis
lator : "Sanitary instruction is even more import
ant than sanitary legislation." When we see how-
many lives are filled with pain, how many chil
dren and useful adults die every year because of
ignorance of hygiene, we can understand how
a health officer must secure the co-operation of
citizens, not only by giving orders and making
arrests, but also by opening the eyes of the
people to their perils and their duties.
Parks, playgrounds, and public baths are estab
lished and administered by city governments or
local boards. They are not only necessary for
promoting the physical well-being of the inhabit
ants, but they are also desirable as means of
refinement of taste, as resorts for sociability and

208 Social Duties
as substitutes for drinking-halls. It is now known
that energetic play in the open air, when under
the direction of properly trained teachers and
freed from positive temptation of perverted per
sons, is one of the most valuable means of pre
venting the sexual degradation of boys and girls.
But young persons cannot safely be permitted
to run wild in public parks; they must be under
the vigilant eye of proper guardians and directors.
3. It is now generally admitted that city gov
ernments must be charged with the duty, under
state laws, of establishing and maintaining free
public schools and other agencies of education
and culture. It is easily possible for cities to
provide a more complete system of schools than
the rural districts can yet supply, because taxable
wealth and population are more concentrated in a
relatively crowded area. Urban populations also
require much more varied forms of instruction
than is necessary in the country. Therefore cities
are permitted by law to extend and maintain
their own schools, since they not only meet but
surpass the average requirement for the state at
large. Under our constitution, institutions, and politi
cal beliefs, municipalities have no direct task to
perform in connection with religion and churches,
except to afford the protection to which all legiti-

Duties of Urban Life 209
mate associations are entitled and to extend such
exemption from taxation as is due to agencies
which work self-sacrificingly for the common
welfare without hope of pecuniary profit.
4. Whether city governments should undertake
any business enterprise which private corpora
tions are prepared to carry on is a separate prob
lem which must not be hastily passed over. It
seems to be the final verdict of experience that the
enterprise of supplying water to the public is so
closely connected with control of the conditions
of public health that it cannot safely be entrusted
to corporations whose end is profit. The argu
ment is not so clear and opinions are not so
united when we come to such public services as
lighting, transportation and telephones.
III. THE ORGANIZATION OF CITY GOVERNMENT
In order to transact the business of an urban
community a municipal government must have a
legal organization in which each citizen and
official is responsible for a defined duty and is
authorized to act in a certain way. This organi
zation is fixed by the terms of the state-granted
charter. 1. There is the electorate, the body of voters
who have the legal right to elect their officers
and so control the administration.

210 Social Duties
2. The council has not only limited legislative
powers but considerable work in actual adminis
tration. The legislative work is done by passing
general ordinances controlling the conduct of
citizens in many ways; and the administrative
activity of the council is through committees
charged with specific tasks, with the obligation
to report to the council, unless given power to act.
3. The executive and administrative work of
a municipality is carried on by the mayor, council
committees, and by officials and departments.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
a) The mayor.1 — The powers of the mayor
differ in various cities according to their char
ters. The tendency in this country is to increase
the authority of the mayor, give him the power
of appointment and discharge, make him inde
pendent of the council and make him responsible
for the success or faults of departments.
It would be well for the class to appoint a member to
bring in an abstract of the chapter of Goodnow's City
Government in the United States, on the "City Execu
tive" (chap. viii). With his argument before it, the
class might weigh the arguments for and against: (1)
long and short terms of the mayor's tenure of office;
(2) the British system of securing amenability to public
opinion, with efficiency by means of unpaid council com-
1 F. J. Goodnow, City Government in the United States,
pp. 176 ff. ; J. A. Fairlie, Municipal Administration.

Duties of Urban Life 211
mittees having as agents professional and salaried ex
perts for details of administration; (3) separation of
local from national politics; (4) the merit system of ap
pointment and retention of salaried officers in subordi
nate positions ; (5) organization of boards rather than
one-man power by heads of departments; (6) adminis
tration of public schools by a board having under it a
professional expert as superintendent, the board fixing
general policies and the superintendent being responsi
ble for carrying them out.
It would also be profitable to discuss the suggestion
that a large city should be divided into districts, each
with a neighborhood center, with its offices for courts,
elections, police, fire department, and dignified buildings
near school and recreation grounds. A special study of
the government of Paris would be useful.
b) Police department.2 — It is the duty of this
department to maintain order, carry state laws
into execution, enforce municipal ordinances, co
operate with the health authorities, and perform
various tasks assigned them by the municipal
government. c) School department3 and other agencies of
culture and .recreation. — This department is
sometimes almost independent in its administra
tion. Its members may be appointed by the
mayor or elected by popular vote. Its duty is to
maintain and improve the system of common
2 Goodnow, op. cit., pp. 204 ff.
* Goodnow, op. cit., pp. 262 ff.

212 Social Duties
schools and adapt them to the needs of the people.
The direct administration is usually intrusted to
a professional educator, the superintendent of
schools. d) Physical conditions and public works.4 —
These include the fire department, the health de
partment, streets and bridges, means of transpor
tation and communication, lighting, sewers and
drains. e) Care of dependents and delinquents.5 — In
some cities the municipal government does not
offer relief to needy families in their homes, but
confines its charity to giving relief in institutions.
In Chicago the benevolent operations of the
people are administered by the county and not by
the city authorities.
The control and correction of law-breakers
must be in the hands of public officials ; although
in case of reformatory schools for youth the
municipality may subsidize private institutions.
/) City finances.6 — Elsewhere we have con
sidered the principles of revenue from taxation.
Modern municipalities with numerous depart
ments have frequently permitted their accounts
4 Goodnow, op. cit., p. 274.
5 Goodnow, op. cit., pp. 248 ff.
e Goodnow, op. cit., p. 286 ; W. H. Allen, Efficient Democ
racy.

Duties of Urban Life 213
to become so confused that dishonest men easily
plunder the treasury without much danger of
detection, and the taxpayers are unable to learn
what each form of service costs them and what
they receive in return for their expenditures.
One of the important reforms most urgent now is
that of introducing a system of records and re
ports which will enable business men to see
clearly the working, efficiency, and cost of every
department, and know just what person should be
praised or punished.
IV. PUBLIC CONTROL OF CITY GOVERNMENT
I. The nature and necessity of public control.
— City government is created and supported by
the people, at immense cost, to administer certain
kinds of affairs, to render definite services. Too
often the men elected or appointed, as soon as
they are in office, resent any inquiry from citizens
about their conduct, and even conspire to keep
information from the electorate.
It must be evident that it is the right and the
duty of the people to know what their servants
are doing with their money and with the power
intrusted to them. It is one of the plainest les
sons of history that men are inclined to abuse
power unless they are held to strict account. The
best public men are glad to have their adminis-

214 Social Duties
tration thoroughly scrutinized. It is also mani
fest that each individual citizen cannot for him
self discover the facts about the administration
of many municipal offices. It would introduce
endless confusion and obstruct public business if
every man could at any moment insist upon ex
amining the books of the various departments to
see what was done with his money paid as taxes.
Few citizens have the skill in accounts which
would make their investigations of any value to
themselves or to others. Hence there is need of
some recognized legitimate and yet independent
method of maintaining public control over city
officers. 2. Method of public examiners. — Provision is
made for auditing the accounts of officials who
have charge of public funds; and much depends
on the fidelity, honesty, ability, and training of
such public examiners and auditors.
3. Method of voluntary associations of citizens.
— Outside of the officers themselves there is
needed an alert society of citizens whose constant
business it shall be: (a) to provide expert ac
countants who shall make themselves familiar
with the methods of keeping municipal records
and accounts; (b) who will make suggestions to
the officers of the city in respect to correction of
abuses and improvements in administration; and

Duties of Urban Life 215
(c) who will, when amendment is refused or
persistently neglected, expose the defects, neglect,
or fraud to the electorate through the press, after
giving the delinquent officers a fair opportunity
to mend their ways. In case of palpably criminal
conduct the prosecuting authorities are to be
informed. The Bureau of Municipal Research,
of New York, already mentioned, is the best type
of such a society.
But municipal administration* requires for
its best service that the electorate itself should be
intelligent and alert in respect to the policy which
the government should pursue and the results
which are expected. No amount of examination
of accounts will take the place of an enlightened
public demand for broadening the activities of
the administration. The people cannot attend to
details, but they can understand whether their
government is increasing their well-being and
diminishing their loss and suffering. For ex
ample, the people of Chicago were capable of
judging of the necessity for a drainage canal,
and they could appreciate the fact that after its
completion typhoid fever almost disappeared.
Efficiency and economy in building public works,
in conducting hospitals and schools, can be tested
by records and reports.

216 Social Duties
4. Civil-service reform; the merit system. —
It is evident to any competent person who will
study the facts that the only qualifications for a
position in public service are mental, physical, and
moral fitness for it, and faithful and efficient
labor in it. It is just as evident that any man who
has taken time to learn his professional duties
should be secure in his position, as he is in private
business, so long as he renders satisfactory
service; that he should not be discharged arbitra
rily nor because of his political or ecclesiastical
creed. Up to this time our cities have been saddled
with the "spoils system," thus designated because
it was believed by politicians that when a party
was victorious the city offices belonged as spoils
of war to the victors. Under this iniquitous
system men are appointed to positions by the
favor of "bosses," not by their own personal
merit and fitness. Mr. Cleveland taught a great
truth in his happy phrase "a public office is a
public trust." The very word "office" implies a
social duty.
The right test for appointing or retaining a
city official is his usefulness to the public, not to
a ring of partisan managers. During the past
quarter of a century the federal and local govern-

Duties of Urban Life 217
ments, with steady opposition, secret and open,
from many politicians, have been urged by en
lightened patriots to place all administrative
offices under the "merit system ;"that is to make
appointments to such places from candidates who
have proved that they are capable of performing
the duties of the offices. In this reform move
ment reliance has been placed largely on "civil-
service examinations," the candidates being tested
by the requirement to answer certain questions
relating to matters which the candidate ought to
know. Other tests must be added to this aca
demic examination, in order to prove the skill and
training of the candidate as well as his knowledge
of facts and ability to express his ideas in written
form. Thus a mechanic should prove by testi
mony that he has served an apprenticeship,
and acquired skill; an engineer or physician or
nurse should show a diploma or certificate of
successful service in a similar position to the one
for which the person is candidate.
In cities like those of England, where the spoils
system is not very strongly intrenched, the city
boards have considerable freedom and discretion
in appointing and discharging; but a good officer
need not fear discharge on account of his political
views.

218 Social Duties
V. INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN CITY
GOVERNMENT
The political parties are organized and main
tained to make effective certain principles and
policies of national government, as tariff methods,
interstate commerce regulations, foreign rela
tions, the army and navy. The issues are very
different from those affecting local administra
tion, such as sewers, parks, schools, public utilities,
and similar matters. Therefore it would seem
that men may properly vote for president and
members of Congress on the party ticket and for
candidates of different parties or no party for
members of the city council and mayors . Prac
tically it is very difficult to make this separation.
But at least the candidates for municipal offices
may be required by associations of voters to
pledge themselves to definite lines of policy
touching local interests, no matter what their at
titude may be to the issues of national parties.
VI. THE INFLUENCE OF CITY GOVERNMENT ON
MORALITY AND CHARACTER
The ultimate purpose of the Christian church
is to promote righteousness, the will of a good
and holy God in the nature and life of men. This
purpose it pursues at immense expenditure of
money, time, toil, and sacrifice. Although there

Duties of Urban Life 219
is much that can be said, with only too great a
degree of truth, of the indifference, mistakes, and
waste of Christian effort, no fair-minded and
intelligent man can deny that the church has
steadily, and with increasing effect, labored
toward this high end.
But the redeeming influence of the church and
its ministry is thwarted at every step by mal
administration and corruption in city politics and
government. Often the men elected or appointed
to repress vice and crime form alliances with
depraved and unscrupulous offenders and line
their own pockets with the spoils of shameful
compromises. The example of dishonest council members
growing rich by bargains with corrupt corpora
tions or by partnerships with saloons, brothels,
and gambling dens, instigates youth to follow
these illustrious models. "Success" too often
means the winning of wealth without regard to
the means of acquisition, and it fires the imagina
tion of the morally immature and debases them.
While faithful deaconesses, missionaries, Salva
tionists, and pastors toil through the years to
rescue a few of the perishing, an inefficient or
dishonest administration will actually make gain
out of methods which deprave and ruin multitudes
of innocent children and ignorant youth. In the

220 Social Duties
very nature of the case the church is at unceasing
war with a wicked municipal government, and to
compromise would mean a base surrender, an
inner spiritual defeat.
It is tragic to think of the pulpit and Sunday
school saving a few precious souls out of a tene
ment-house district while an inefficient and un
scrupulous city government permits depraved
women and men to turn whole blocks of resi
dences of poor families into haunts of low vice
and schools of depravity.
VII. THE DUTY OF CHRISTIAN CITIZENS IN RELA
TION TO MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
Let us carefully discriminate, (a) We are not
inquiring at this point what is the duty of the
church as an association. It may well be that the
church has no call to enter into the strife of par
tisans, to pronounce upon the qualifications of
candidates for office, to criticize authoritatively
the conduct of officials, to pass resolutions favor
ing particular policies or measures. The church
has no fitness, no organs for such tasks. It is
almost certain to blunder if it attempts to go into
this field, (b) Nor do we here assert that min
isters should hold office or conduct movements for
amelioration and reform which demand legal
knowledge, skill in debate, and information about

Duties of Urban Life 221
officials and their duties. We may be inclined to
think them too emotional and inexperienced for
such work. We may think of the peril to their
reputation and usefulness in being mixed up in
the conflicts of litigation. We may have good
reason to anticipate neglect of their higher duties.
The minister is, we deny not, a citizen and a man
before he is a parson, and he cannot be refused the
rights of a citizen. There are, perhaps, situations
so desperate, when no other can be found brave
enough, when a pastor may risk the danger and
sacrifice much for a great and imperiled cause.
But, generally, better instruments can be found
for such reform movements, (c) The Church
and its ministry can and ought to help create in
the minds of citizens such a definite sense of
obligation as will secure and support not only
leaders of ameliorative effort but a substantial
and intelligent support everywhere by men and
women. Here we return to the principle advo
cated throughout this volume, that the church and
ministry must provide for education of the moral
sense in the actual and concrete problems of life.
The church is not the only school of political and
administrative morality, but it is one of the most
important because it alone can effectively set in
motion the forces of religion and it is independ
ent of party and faction. Any minister who

222 Social Duties
attempts to lead a fight with vice without first
securing the co-operation of brave and wise busi
ness men will spend his strength in vain. General
Grant did not win his great battles by flourishing
his sword and shouting on the firing-line, but by
animating the whole army with his spirit and
working out the idea of the campaign. It is
better for a minister to educate and inspire a
thousand men and women than to try to do the
work of a thousand men and women.
It should not be difficult for the church to set
apart, consecrate, dedicate certain of its members
to the Ministry of Political Action — men of
sound sense, energy, public spirit, business and
legal training, acquaintance with men and affairs.
The church need not be responsible for all their
opinions and measures; indeed, men of different
parties may be chosen, if they are at once consci
entious and careful students.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
F. J. Goodnow, City Government in the United States.
D. B. Eaton, The Government of Municipalities.
J. A. Fairlie, Municipal Administration.
W. H. Allen, Efficient Democracy.
J. Strong, The Challenge of the City.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
I. Members of the class may make a large wall chart
of the municipal organization of their town or city, the

Duties of Urban Life 223
titles, duties, and salaries of all officers; to whom each
one is responsible; how elected or appointed, and for
what terms; what reports or records they are legally re
quired to make; what are the means of knowing their
efficiency as measured by results.
2. Try to find out in regard to several departments
just what they are legally required to do and how
far they have done it, what it cost the people, and in what
respects they failed. Did the board of health diminish
sickness and death? Did the public hospital cure patients,
as many as it might, at reasonable cost? Did the school
board provide instruction for all children and secure their
attendance? 3. Let some members of the class, if they know
enough and are brave enough, go to the bottom of these
questions : "Who appraises the property of the gas
company, the street car company, the electric companies,
the railroads, the banks and bankers, the big mercantile
houses, for taxation? What assessors, taxing boards,
auditors, have such power? Are they growing rich out
of these offices? Who helps to get them into office?
Who bribes them and how? Who pays the cost of gov
ernment which great corporations avoid? What are the
relations of the "bosses" in politics to the public-service
corporations? Who are the local "bosses" in each party,
and by what means did they acquire power?
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
F. C. Howe, The City, pp. 4 ff.
E. A. Ross, Sins of Society.
J. L. Steffens, Shame of the City.

CHAPTER XII
CHARITIES AND CORRECTION
In a Christian community familiar with the
Bible there is no need to show that kindness to
the weak, the unfortunate, and the wicked is a
duty. The disposition to help may well be taken
for granted. But the wisest methods of helpful
ness do not come to us from intuition and amiable
impulse; we must learn them from experience,
by hard study, and by diligent labor. Many
gentle and generous persons ruin the poor and
increase crime by ignorant methods.
I. SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO THE VICIOUS
AND CRIMINAL
First of all it is the duty of Christian people to
learn what they can of the important facts of
dependence, vice, and crime. Some of these facts
can be learned from public records. When offi
cials charged with administering relief give aid
to needy families in their homes or to helpless
persons in hospitals, asylums, and almshouses, a
record is usually kept of the persons and what
has been done for them, and a report is made to
city, state, or national authorities.
Charity, justice and reason require that we
should carefully distinguish the various groups of
224

Charities and Correction 225
those who call for charitable or reformatory
service. This classification is based on the char
acteristics and nature of the wards of society,
on the causes which produced the unnatural con
dition, and on the measures required to relieve
their distress and control their conduct.
1. Abnormals. — It is possible to distinguish a
considerable number of persons who have either
been born with imperfect nervous structure or
through shock, disease, or waste have become so
diseased that they cannot act normally and associ
ate safely with ordinary people. Thus we have
idiots and imbeciles of all grades, epileptics, and
the insane of many types.
Idiots and imbeciles, for the most part, are
offspring of parents whose nervous system is im
perfectly developed. We have here a case of
direct inheritance too plain to mistake. In the
plant, in the animal, and in human beings, like
produces like. The proof of this law can be made
plain to children, best of all by nature-study, by
watching the growth and division of cells with a
microscope under direction of a scientific teacher,
by observation in poultry yards, in flocks and
herds, in gardens and cages, in zoological muse
ums, and in human families. Not only bones,
muscles, nerves, hair, height, color of skin and
eyes, but also abnormal conditions are transmitted

226 Social Duties
from parents to children, and even traits of
character and disposition. A smaller number of
the feeble-minded have not inherited their defects,
but these are due to accidents and disease. The
use of alcohol and narcotics in excess, on the part
of parents, sometimes is shown in the offspring.
2. Defectives. — This word is here used in a
specific sense to describe persons more or less de
pendent on social aid and care on account of some
physical handicap not seriously affecting the brain
and central nervous system, as the cripples, the
blind, and the deaf. Cripples are sometimes born
without hands or feet, though otherwise natural
and healthy; more frequently their condition is
due to accident or disease. A child may be
burned, scalded, thrown upon the floor, have its
hand or leg crushed or cut; or some disease like
tuberculosis may attack the spine or hip and make
the person lame and deformed. These are not
seriously "abnormal," although they lack some
limbs, organ, or members, and thus are in a de
gree "defective."
3. Under the name impoverished we may con
veniently group a large number of persons who
need charitable relief or support chiefly on account
of some social misfortune : as orphans, abandoned
and neglected children, families where sickness or
misfortune have taken away normal support,

Charities and Correction 227
homeless men out of employment, invalids, friend
less aged men and women.
The causes of deep poverty are numerous and
complicated, many of them reading back to gen
erations long since dead. Thus we may discover
infants abandoned by mothers, left upon the door
step of house or asylum for strangers to care for ;
or born in a hospital and made motherless by
death. Orphans become dependent in consequence
of the death of parents. In such cases we impute
no fault to the victim of calamity, tSough disease
may sometimes be traced to misconduct in an
cestors. From ancient times the widow and the
fatherless have been cast by religion and morals
on the mercy of the faithful ; for it is easily seen
that when war, accident, pestilence, or sickness
has removed the husband and father, the mother
has to bear an extraordinary burden at once to
care for and earn a support for the children. Yet
when we go back far enough we may occasionally
discover that the father brought premature death
on himself by some form of misconduct. The
object of seeking causes, however, is not to place
blame so much as to be able to cut off the supply
of evil in future.
Disease is one of the most prolific causes of
impoverishment of individuals and families, for
sickness not only diminishes or destroys earning

228 Social Duties
power but frequently undermines even the will
ingness to put forth effort. Any relief agent can
cite numerous instances where a family has been
reduced to beggary by the prolonged sickness of a
once industrious father. Diseases themselves are
effects of causes as numerous as can be imagined,
as drunkenness, gluttony, low vice, indolence, use-
of narcotics and other harmful indulgences ; or to
malaria, to typhoid germs in water, milk, or vege
tables, to venereal diseases, to tuberculosis, to
pneumonia. Tuberculosis is one of the principal
enfeebling and impoverishing diseases. It is not
true nor fair to say that the individual is to blame
for his sickness without knowing all his history;
for much illness is due to social conditions over
which the individual has no control. Think of
the risks miners must take in order that the rest
of us can have the cheerful light and warmth of
coal; every hour they toil in darkness, in damp
and poisonous atmosphere, exposed to the falling
rocks and the explosion of powder, dynamite,
and gas. Think of the perils to life and limb of
the railway engineers, firemen, and switchmen,
the price they must pay that we may enjoy travel
and the transportation of commodities from
distant places of production. Think of the illness
due to crowded tenements, undrained cellars, hot
workshops and a thousand conditions which

Charities and Correction 229
the worker cannot change. All of this causes
poverty. Men quite willing to work for their living are
often turned into the street by the hundred thou
sand by employers. It is not true to say that any
honest and steady man can secure wages any time
he is willing to labor. Every year multitudes are
thrown out of occupation unwillingly and in some
years some of the most important factories, mills,
and mines are closed for a long period. It is
useless for those thrown out to seek employment
in another branch of industry, even if they had
the skill required, because in periods of depression
all industries may be closed together. This study
of causes ought to be extended in many directions
so that we can realize how complicated are the
conditions of life in modern cities, learn the lesson
of charity, and also consider what large social
remedies are demanded.
4. Under the title vicious and delinquent may
be grouped those who manifest an anti-social dis
position and who must be held in some kind of
restraint in the interest of social order and
security. There are many grades and kinds of
delinquents, from the mischievous lad who plays
truant and steals green apples to the hardened
murderer. With youthful offenders we cannot
use the epithet "criminal" with any propriety.

230 Social Duties
Remove the abnormal imbecile to suitable segre
gated colonies and the young persons left may
safely be treated by educational methods. The
starting-point of lawless conduct may be in some
physical infirmity which unfits a child for school
and drives him as a truant in sullen discontent or
open rebellion to woods and stream or vicious
company. Recently the appointment of trained
medical visitors and nurses as examiners of
schools has revealed the fact that truancy is fre
quently the result of physical inability to see or
hear clearly or to do the required task; and that
when surgical and medical aid has been given, the
child succeeds and is happy in school. How often
harsh judgments, due to the ignorance of parents
and teachers, have turned children into tramps,
vagabonds, and delinquents.
When we inquire carefully into the physical
conditions under which multitudes of children are
brought up in cities the chief wonder is that so
few are ruined, that so many live honest and use
ful lives. It is heartbreaking to look into the
crowded quarters in New York, Chicago, and
other cities and know that decency and modesty
must have deep roots indeed to survive where
men, women, children, families, boarders, stran
gers, live like beasts in cages.
As for the rest the temptations to vice and

Charities and Correction 231
crime are on every hand. The desire for food
and clothes is a temptation to theft, burglary,
fraud, deception, unless the necessities of life can
be earned by skill or won by industry. Even
among respectable people crime often occurs, not
to get food and comforts, but to heap up wealth
and make a parade of power and riches. A cer
tain part of legal talent is consecrated to the
task of showing strong men how to steal without
punishment. II. SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO THE
DEPRESSED AND DEPRAVED
1. General maxims. — Of individual duty we
cannot here say much directly ; for what any per
son ought to do will be determined by his wealth,
faculties, abilities, experience, training, and oppor
tunity. We have here to do chiefly with social
duties, that is, with the methods which com
munities ought to use in dealing with the pauper,
the distressed, the vicious, the delinquent. Within
a brief chapter no systematic and complete presen
tation is possible; we suggest a few vital prin
ciples and give references to extended treatises
for those who can take time to study the problems
more thoroughly.
a) It may be accepted as self-evident, upon
clear statement, that the social methods of dealing
with delinquent, depraved, and distressed members

232 Social Duties
of the community should aim at the permanent
welfare of the object of charity and correction,
not merely at the temporary alleviation of pain
and misery. This is a maxim of prudence and
wisdom which we employ in respect to ourselves
and our children, and it is applicable to all. This
means that physical needs, as hunger and cold,
should be met, so far as possible, in a way to
help build up character, habits of industry, a sense
of independence and social responsibility.
b) It must be accepted as a result of a rational
view of life that the methods of charity and cor
rection must tend to improve and not degrade
the race. The individual is only one factor in
society ; the common good is paramount.
c) It follows that momentary impulses must
be judged and controlled by science, and not fol
lowed blindly. The impulse to give instantaneous
relief may spring from a good motive, generous
sympathy; but it requires rational control in
order that the gift or service may really tend to
the permanent well-being of the recipient and to
the general well-being of the human race.
d) The duty of organization and rational co
operation is made clear by all that precedes. No
man, no church, no benevolent association has a
right to give relief as if no other philanthropy
were in existence. Join a genuine fervor of good-

Charities and Correction 233
ness to ignorance and obstinacy and you have
a combination perilous to society. The policy of
a benefactor must take into consideration the total
situation or it is sure to become anti-social, that is,
immoral. e) The social duty of securing full informa
tion can be established by widest induction. It is
a perfectly fair statement that a charity worker
should no more give relief without inquiry than a
physician should administer a powerful remedy
without a diagnosis.
/) Another maxim of very wide validity is
that our charity and our correction ought to be
thorough; ought to move to the end ; that relief,
for example, should be adequate and enough to
restore the beneficiary to self-support if possible;
that the treatment of a criminal should never
cease so long as he is unfit for freedom and re
mains an enemy of society.
2. Particular regulative principles appliable to
classes of the depressed or depraved. Dependent
children. — The following summary statements of
principles which should control social methods
with dependent children may be discussed and
criticized in the light of further reading and ex
perience. The best place for a homeless child, if normal
in body and mind, is a good home in a family.

234 Social Duties
Institutions like receiving homes and orphanages
are temporary makeshifts. Children should not
be kept in large establishments ; they need the close
and intimate and brooding care of real fathers
and mothers. If a widow or forsaken wife is fit
to care for her children they should not be wrested
from her, but she should be given means to keep
them together and perform her mother's duty to
them. It is more economical to pay her for rear
ing her own children than to hire an institution
to do it poorly and compel her to neglect her
household to earn a living outside the house. A
mother can earn more money for society in edu
cating her own children than in any other pursuit.
Abnormal children and adults — idiots, epi
leptics, and insane — cannot be treated as if they
were normal. They cannot, if the nervous sys
tem is deeply and permanently disturbed by he
reditary defect or by disease, be trusted with free
dom and made responsible for self-support in
competition with normal persons ; nor are they fit
to become parents, because their infirmities are
transmitted to their offspring and their misery is
perpetuated. Into details of organization and administration
we cannot go. The farm colony is the best type
of institution for all abnormals; but separate
colonies, administered on separate plans, are

Charities and Correction 235
required for the feeble-minded, the epileptics, and
the insane. Persons of these three groups should
not be mingled. This is also true of diseased and
degenerate vagabonds and confirmed inebriates.
They must have special colonies fitted up for the
suitable hygienic, industrial, and moral training
and custody required for their own welfare and
the protection of society. These colonies should
be under state control and should not be admin
istered by county or city officials.
3. Charity organisation societies. — In some
form every city, town, and county should have a
central office of charity for the following pur
poses: (1) to secure and keep on record all
necessary information relating to needy persons
and families in its district; (2) to provide capable
visitors to study and relieve those who require
any kind of assistance; (3) to bring all benevolent
individuals, churches, and associations into co
operation, so that all their resources may be avail
able and so that adequate help can be found for
any distressed person; (4) to keep a register of all
charitable institutions and agencies, with full and
reliable information, and to publish a directory
of charities, so that any citizen may learn where
he can give his contributions of money or service
to the best advantage; (5) incidentally, to dis
cover and expose fraud and imposture, and so

236 Social Duties
save the benevolent fund of the community for
use where it can accomplish its purpose without
waste and without disappointment to those who
make sacrifices; (6) to set in motion measures
for preventing misfortune, sickness, and distress,
and warn the public against crazy schemes of
selfish or incompetent persons. All the measures
included in a social policy and discussed in other
chapters of this volume can be promoted by such
a charity organization. In a village or rural
county a general improvement society may in
clude a special bureau or standing committee
charged with the functions of a charity organiza
tion society for the district.
4. State supervision and control. — In the last
analysis the people of a commonwealth must bear
the consequences not only of pauperism, vice, and
crime, but also of misdirected private philan
thropy. It is therefore the duty of the common
wealth to exercise such a kind and degree of
supervision and control of all charities and cor
rection as will protect the welfare of the whole
people in the present and future.
This needs no argument in respect to the insti
tutions established by each state itself, as hos
pitals and asylums for the insane, the feeble
minded, the epileptics, schools for the blind and
the deaf, reformatories, and prisons. For these

Charities and Correction 237
general institutions two forms of oversight are
necessary, administration and supervision. These
are entirely different functions and should never
be performed by the same officials. The govern
ment never asks the administrators of a national
bank to audit its own accounts and make decisions
as to its conduct, but sends an examiner who
works independently of the administration. The
state must have one board of control for all its
institutions, or one for each institution, or a board
for each group of similar institutions; and the
board, acting through expert superintendents,
should govern and administer the affairs of the
institution. In addition to these boards of control
and administration, each state should have a board
of charities and correction, composed of eminent
citizens who work without pay, to visit, examine,
and report their findings and recommendations
to the people through the governor. The argu
ment for this plan is too extended to be made use
of here, but it is sustained by the best authorities
in this country.
In addition to the state institutions there are
those of counties and cities which exist by virtue
of state laws. In the best system of supervision
county and city almshouses, poorhouses, jails, and
lockups are inspected, supervised, and controlled
by officers of the state. They are sure to be the

238 Social Duties
scene of neglect and abuse if left altogether to
local officers.
Of late more attention has been given to the
desirability of bringing private charities under
the inspection and control of the state. Experi
ence has taught civilized nations that the insane,
the feeble-minded, the wayward, and helpless
children cannot be handed over to private associa
tions, even of the churches, without providing for
visitation and for control of abuses. Shocking
scandals have arisen in the absence of such visita
tion and of power to remedy evils. If a charitable
agency is doing excellent work and keeping honest
accounts it need not fear the state visitor; his
approval will help to secure funds from benevolent
citizens, because he is independent of the manage
ment. An inefficient or dishonest superintendent
may well dread such inspections.
TOPICS FOR LOCAL INQUIRY AND METHODS
OF SERVICE
1. Appoint committees of two sensible and careful
members to visit the county (or town) poorhouse or
almshouse, the city lockup, the county jail, the various
hospitals, the charity organization society, dispensaries,
city missions, lodging houses, state institutions for the
insane, epileptic, feeble-minded, blind, deaf, crippled,
reform school, reformatory, prison.
2. Consider whether religious services may not well

Charities and Correction 239
be held in some of these places. Confer with the super
intendents in responsible charge.
3. Inquire of officers of charitable and relief societies
what kind of help is needed, in money, goods, personal
service, and try to provide this aid as far as possible.
4. If the committee thinks errors, faults, or abuses are
discovered do not rush into print with an attack, but
bring the matter to conference with the responsible
officials. Frequently they will receive thoughtful and
humane suggestions and correct the wrong. Only in
case of criminal misconduct, and abuses which the re
sponsible authorities refuse to set aside,# should officials
be publicly criticized; and they should always have a fair
hearing before condemnation. Amateur visitors are likely
to be in error themselves, and should be careful.
5. Invite representatives of various charities and insti
tutions to speak to the class or to furnish statements of
their work and needs.
6. Help charity workers and officers of institutions to
make known to the public their efforts and their needs.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Articles in Bliss, Encyclopedia of Social Reforms.
E. T. Devine, Principles of Relief, and Practice of
Charity. C. R. Henderson, Introduction to the Study of the
Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes (list of
books in appendix).
A. G. Warner, American Charities (new ed., 1908).
M. E. Richmond, Friendly Visiting, and The Good
Neighbor. F. H. Wines, Punishment and Reformation.

240 Social Duties
Proceedings of National Conference of Charities and
Correction, and of the American Prison Association.
Reports of boards of state charities in Massachusetts,
New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,
Ohio, New Jersey, etc.
C. R. Henderson, Modern Methods of Charity.

CHAPTER XIII
RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE GREAT
CORPORATIONS
A new version of the story of the Good Samari
tan is ready for publication. In the beautiful
old story, spoken at a time when government was
above the people, the charitable man who found
the stranger dying in his blood, took care of him
and paid for his healing. In the mdMern version
the good Samaritan not only takes the robbed and
wounded man to a hospital, but immediately goes
after the robbers and brings them to justice; and
for this he must have the help of other useful
citizens and of government itself; hence now-a-
days the good man goes into politics.
What we now call "democracy" and "soli
darity" are just the ancient Christian virtues of
kindness, brotherhood, and justice adopted into
national morality and made into laws, courts, and
administration. Christianity has not disappeared ;
it has become incarnate in wider and powerful
political and economic organizations and institu
tions. Hence a Christian man, to find his duty,
must not only study his Bible but also his econom
ics, politics, and sociology; and in the world's
actual life he will discover his religion at work,
241

242 Social Duties
demonstrating its truth and goodness by deeds.
If religion is not dominant in business and law
it is powerless in the petty circles of individual
relations. Smoke from a factory chimney pours
into the open windows of the church and blackens
the very sanctuary.
I. THE NEW FACT OF THE PRESENT
The new fact of modern times is the organiza
tion of industry on a vast scale and in impersonal
corporations. In manufactures, transportation,
and trade economic organization has assumed
colossal proportions, especially in America and in
recent years. There have been distinctions of
rich and poor in the past, and combinations of
capital have not been unknown in former ages;
but the huge aggregation of capital under the
control of corporations is the distinctive mark of
our economic order.
II. CAUSES OF THIS TENDENCY TO CONCENTRA
TION OF LARGE CAPITAL IN FEW HANDS
1. There are usually extensive economies in
cost of production where manufacture, sale, and
transportation are carried on upon a large scale.
It is easy to illustrate this fact from making
candles by the dozen to manufacturing them by
the car load ; from weaving coarse cloth by hand
to the looms where a girl does more work than

Duties of Corporations 243
many men could formerly turn out; from cart
to freight train ; from sailing ship to ocean trans
portation companies. Everywhere cost per unit
diminishes, product per worker increases; but
only on condition that people work in large num
bers under strict discipline.
2. Since the cost of producing, transporting,
and selling goods is lower, in consequence of these
economies, the price at which they can be sold
to the consumer is less. This is always true if
there is competition, and if the advantage to the
capitalist cannot be retained altogether in his own
hands. When women, who are the principal
shoppers, seek bargains they soon find the places
where prices are lowest, and there they buy.
Generally it is the department store which offers
the greatest variety of wares at lowest cost, and
there the shoppers gather. It is the consumers
who build up the great corporations; it is they
who starve out the little shops, petty manufactur
ers, and merchants.
3. It is true that there is often an illegitimate
force at work to produce concentration of pro
ductive agencies and capital ; as when the capitalist
secures advantages over competitors by fraud,
by bribing public officials, by making secret terms
with railroads and other transportation com
panies, and by other immoral and illegal methods.

244 Social Duties
It has not always been easy for the general public
to discover these unjust and hurtful methods of
securing control and undue advantage over com
petitors and consumers, for such measures are
naturally carried out in secret; when they are
discovered there is indignant denial; and not
seldom the charges made are false, resulting from
disappointed greed or envy or ignorance.
It is true that extraordinarily large fortunes
generally go with unusual commercial ability, and
to this extent genius is a cause of concentration
of wealth. But immense fortunes often go to
men who may be financially efficient, yet danger
ous citizens; sometimes wealth results from a
series of accidents; sometimes it is inherited by
incompetents and held together by trust com
panies. There is not much difference in ability
between financiers of this generation and those
of past generations; but there are enormous dif
ferences in riches. Therefore great wealth can
not be in any sort of ratio to the ability of
possessors, and evidently is not uniformly the
reward of virtue.
III. MODE OF APPROACH TO THIS PERPLEXING
PROBLEM OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
OF MANAGERS OF GREAT INDUSTRIES
The reader is earnestly requested carefully to
study again the contents of our first chapter, the

Duties of Corporations 245
analysis of the ends and elements of social wel
fare. What is right, what is duty, what is good,
and what is the moral obligation of the com
munity in relation to these new forces of concen
trated wealth and industrial activity? We must
remember that what is good is -the welfare of all
men, women, and children in the nation, not
merely the welfare of a class, however large; that
welfare includes physical, material, and spiritual
good; and that order, liberty, and opportunity
are the necessary social conditions for the com
mon realization of welfare as thus described. All
these facts must be held together in the mind
and balanced there. This is not easy; it is diffi
cult and some think impossible ; but if one element
of welfare is left out, or one citizen, .however
humble and vicious, is ignored, action of the com
munity is by so much immoral, unjust, unreason
able. The more weighty, complex, and difficult the
problem is, the more necessary is it to suspend
judgment until all facts are in, and to use all
possible diligence and care to discover the facts
just as they are. Reality will avenge itself on
falsehood, whether intentional or not. This is
true of a scholar's book, of a preacher's sermon,
of a law enacted by Congress, or a decision of a
supreme court. A traditional, conventional, fash-

246 Social Duties
ionable lie can never do the work of truth.
Majorities do not change reality, and some of the
worst wrongs have been perpetrated by the voice
of the people. One of the chief moral tasks of
our age is to teach the people what is just and
right, especially in vast affairs.
Let us take some illustrations of the complexity
of considerations of right and wrong in relation
to industry and trade. From the standpoint of
a director of an urban electric-lighting company
the test of success might be the profits which flow
into his own bank account; but this test is not
final. There are the interests of stockholders who
have, some of them out of meager means, furn
ished the capital for the enterprise ; and there are
the interests of consumers of light; and beyond
that the interests of the employees, the security
of order, life, and property in the city, the danger
of corrupting the city council, and a hundred
other considerations. It is precisely because some
strong men have regarded only their own personal
interests and have ignored the sufferings and
rights of others that we witness the rise of so
many colossal sins and iniquities.
In the manufacture of iron and steel America
has won splendid triumphs, and the prices of steel
wares have been lowered for the multitudes of
consumers. Yet both manufacturers and the pub-

Duties of Corporations 247
lie have enjoyed these enormous advantages
largely at cost of the workmen in the mills,
thousands of whom have been tortured, maimed,
killed, and their widows and fatherless children
left to pauperism and vice, because safety appli
ances were neglected in the hot pursuit of cheap
iron and large dividends, and because American
employers have not provided accident insurance
for their employees, as is done in all other Chris
tian lands. The fact is that this rich and pros
perous country has been willing to enjoy the
results of toil and agony, and throw the chief
cost upon poor immigrant workmen.1
This article will not solve any problem nor set
any question at rest; but it is to be hoped that it
will lead many to avoid snap judgments, and show
students of social morality what hard and pro
longed thinking it will cost to form an opinion
which has any value.
In a simple rural community, such as were
those in which our ancestors lived, it was not
usually very difficult to see the right way. If a
1 See article by W. Hard, in Everybody's Magazine, Novem
ber, 1907; and September and October, 1908; Charities and
Commons, February, 1901, and December, 1907, and January,
February, and March, 1909; various articles in the American
lournal of Sociology, 1907-8, by C. R. Henderson, on "Indus
trial Insurance," these articles being also published in a
volume (The University of Chicago Press, 1909).

248 Social Duties
man stole a pig or a load of grain the plain fact
could be proved and the wrong was clear to
anyone. But who can be quite sure that a great
corporation or a ring of politicians is stealing
from him in excessive prices for goods, in tariffs,
or in taxes? Men are not likely to call attention
to themselves with a megaphone at a moment
when their hands are deep in public funds; and
even if they are discovered, they look innocent
and shout out against "agitators" and "dema
gogues" and "muck-rakers." Still more curiously
such plunderers are frequently sincere when they
complain of the criticisms of the public. First
they hide the facts and then berate their critics
for ignorance of business !
Thought and action are inevitable and neces
sary. There is a crisis. The nature of the moral
crisis may be stated in several propositions : Ex
perience shows that arbitrary and unquestioned
power in the hands of private men of ability is
sure to be abused, if there is money to be made
by the abuse. The transfer of property to a small
group of irresponsible persons without just
equivalent means hardship and ruin for many
thousands. The use of arbitrary power over cap
ital, labor, and commerce, secretly, without criti
cism and publicity, tends to paralyze the moral
nature of those who exercise it, until they actually

Duties of Corporations 249
call darkness light, and black white. Such evils
only in part correct themselves, for commercial
and political corruption is not a "self-limiting dis
ease." Most of the abuses of extraordinary power
are so closely connected with valuable public serv
ices that they can be corrected only with the
greatest wisdom and care. Thus, for example,
speculation in stocks, bonds, grain, oil, etc., is
hard to regulate without destroying the business
of dealing in these commodities. In the manage
ment of manufactures, railroads, and commerce,
the business requires ingenuity, energy, central
administration, and interference must be ex
tremely wise if it does not injure public interests.
Examples of the complaints of abuses of power
by privileged corporations may here be cited, not
to create prejudice but to direct thought upon
specific problems.
In more than a few instances it can be shown
that small groups of astute directors have estab
lished railroads by favor of the state giving
bounties in land and money, by giving valuable
franchises amounting to monopoly without any
return; then the directors have so manipulated
the road that the stockholders have been cheated
out of their investments, that the inside "ring"
might become enriched; and then the rates have
been so arranged as to favor selected customers

250 Social Duties
and towns at the expense of other customers and
towns. At every turn only one interest has con
trolled all action — the interest of the little group
of directors who were in the secret of manage
ment. The manufacturers of steel and steel products
have been arraigned for alleged misconduct and
selfish policy ; and it has been asserted specifically
that they have secured from Congress special
tariffs on imported steel and then charged Ameri
can customers higher prices than they charged
foreign customers ; that they have ruined competi
tors by unfair means; that they have exploited
their workmen by working them inhumanly long
hours, subjecting them to unnecessary perils of
life and limb, and leaving them to starve when
they were disabled in the course of their occupa
tion. Other large corporations dealing in sugar,
flour, oil, and other necessary commodities are
charged with suppressing competition and then
raising the price of the goods beyond what it
would be if competition prevailed; that they have
corrupted legislatures and courts to gain their
ends ; that they have burdened every poor family
with an excessive charge for their services; and
that the successful manipulators spend much of

Duties of Corporations 251
the fortune in luxury and waste and to the moral
degradation of their heirs left without a motive
for industry.
It is constantly affirmed by men who have
studied specific cities that the privileges of fran
chises giving the exclusive use of public property
in streets to private persons for street cars, gas
pipes, water works, telephones, etc., have often
been secured without adequate, if any, return to
the people by bribing members of city councils to
be untrue to their constituents.
It has been discovered that selected taxpayers
have bribed or brow-beaten assessors and so hid
den millions of personal property from taxation,
thus throwing the burden of supporting govern
ment and schools upon others much less able to
bear this burden. A business which does not
carry its part of taxation has a great advantage
over those whose managers willingly or unwill
ingly pay the full sum due. If a rich merchant's
goods and house are worth one million dollars
and are assessed for taxes at five hundred thou
sand dollars, while a poor grocer's property worth
two thousand dollars is assessed for taxes at
eighteen hundred dollars, there is a huge injus
tice ; and such inequality is only too common.

252 Social Duties
IV. WHAT IS SOCIAL DUTY IN VIEW OF
SUCH FACTS?
1. Individual virtue goes but a little way in
such a situation; the only effect of being a virtu
ous taxpayer is to be robbed by tax-dodgers who
make lying and even perjured returns to assessors.
It does a family little good to be fionest when
transportation and lighting companies are laying
enormous charges upon them in monopoly prices
for goods and services. We must find a way
to educate the conscience of the great managers
or compel them to do justly.
Unfortunately the obligation of the managers of our
corporations to the public is not yet as clearly recognized
as their obligation to the stockholders. Some of those
who are most scrupulous about doing all that they can
for the stockholders make this an excuse for doing as
little as they can for the public in general, and disclaim
indignantly the existence of any wider trust or any out
side duty which should interfere with the performance
of their primary trust to the last penny. There is many
a man who in the conduct of his own life, and even of
his own personal business, is scrupulously regardful of
public opinion, but who, as the president of a corporation,
disregards that opinion rather ostentatiously. Personally
he is sensitive to public condemnation, but as a trustee
he honestly believes that he has no right to indulge any
such sensitiveness. He is unselfish in the one case, and
selfish in the other.2
aA. T. Hadley, Standards of Public Morality, pp. 84 ff.

Duties of Corporations 253
2. It is evident that no wise and salutary action
can ever be taken in the dark by citizens who are
excited to indignation over stories of their wrongs
but who do not know the facts from trustworthy
and reliable sources. If a private citizen asks a
corrupt manager for facts he will be kicked out
of the office; indeed he can never secure an inter
view with the person really responsible.
Public corporations must have public accounts,
for publicity alone will enable the citizens to act
justly both to the corporations and to the com
munity. For the nation is really served by cor
porations and with great efficiency, and it is only
abuses that require correction. An honest directo
rate will have nothing to conceal; and brigands
should be forced to show their accounts. The
necessity for publicity has been acknowledged
officially by one of the greatest corporations the
world has known :
I say with the utmost frankness that I now believe the
policy of silence which the company maintained for so
many years, amid the misrepresentations which assailed
it, was a mistaken policy, which, if earlier abandoned,
would have saved the company from the injurious effects
of much of that misrepresentation."
When the multitude of consumers, whose pain
ful daily economies compel them to give attention
3 John D. Archbold, vice-president of the Standard Oil
Company, in Saturday Evening Post, December 7, 1907.

254 Social Duties
to all that affects their interests, seek for light on
the conduct of quasi-public corporations, they
are baffled by conflicting reports and rumors ; they
are virtually compelled to pass some sort of judg
ment and seek relief. If the only persons who
know all the facts refuse to make statements, an
adverse judgment is inevitable and, if uncontra
dicted, will surely find expression in legislation.
The people must finally be trusted with the truth,
and they will insist on having it.
The leaders of the great industries are usually
selected from our most capable men; the repre
sentatives of government are frequently incapable,
if not dishonest and corrupt; and it has been
natural that strongly individualistic "captains of
industry" should despise officials and resent their
interference. But not all public officials are weak
and wicked; and if they were the leaders of cor
porations should be the first to help secure better
men for office ; for, after all, corporations are but
creatures of government and have no rights ex
cept what they have been conditionally given by
government of the people and for the people.
Success in amassing wealth may blind arrogant
business men to this commonplace fact, but blind
ness is not a good qualification for facing reality,
and the people "cannot be fooled all the time," as
Lincoln said.

Duties of Corporations 255
In the words of President Hadley, who, as a
conservative and instructed economist, is entitled
to respectful hearing :
The constitution guarantees that no man shall be de
prived of his property without due process of law; that
no state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of
contract; and that a corporation has the right of a per
son in the sense of being entitled to fair and equal treat
ment. The conservatism of the American people goes
farther than this. It supports a business man in the
exercise of his traditional rights, because it believes, on
the basis of the experience of centuries^tthat the exer
cise of these rights will conduce to the public interests.
It puts the large industries of the country in the hands
of corporations, even when this results in creating cor
porate monopoly, because it distrusts the unrestricted ex
tension of government activity, and believes that busi
ness is on the whole better handled by commerical
agencies than by political ones. But every case of failure
to meet public needs somewhat shakes the public in this
confidence; and this confidence is not only shaken but
destroyed if the manager of a corporation claims im
munity from interference as a moral or constitutional
right, independent of the public interests involved. Those
who fear the effects of increased government activity
must prove by their acceptance of ethical duties to the
public that they are not blind devotees of an industrial
past which has ceased to exist, but are preparing to
accept the heavier burdens and obligations which the
industrial present carries with it.
In the long run business men, courts, legisla
tors, governors, and presidents, will do what the

256 Social Duties
people believe ought to be done; and what the
people think and will comes from the wide diffu
sion of knowledge of facts and principles. There
fore when the Christian young men of the nation
band together for years, part of every Sunday,
to learn what is right in great affairs, the tend
ency will be to make corporations more regardful
of alert and educated public opinion. The church
as an organization can take no partisan position,
cannot enforce laws nor make them, cannot have
a political policy or programme; but it can and
should help to educate men and women who
know what is right and will have the moral cour
age as citizens to demand and enforce reasonable
laws. 3. Even as it is we can expect much from
resolute and intelligent action by executive of
ficers of government and from courts in the
enforcement of law as it stands now. For ex
ample, a sturdy and honest president has brought
to their knees rich men who were literally stealing
lands and mines and timber which belong to
the nation. Without partiality the national con
science demands of public leaders that they punish
and repress tramps, thieves, robbers, and burg
lars, whether the property stolen is a paper of
pins, or a coal mine, a railroad, an insurance fund,
or a forest of valuable trees.

Duties of Corporations 257
The revolution in the corrupt management of
certain great life-insurance companies is an ex
ample of what may be done by an enlightened
public opinion acting through capable and upright
executives. 4. Short of socialism there are various meth
ods by which the public can protect its rights
against the encroachment of corporations which
it has created and which have grown under be
nign protection of law to such huge proportions.
The courts have already so interpreted the laws
and applied them in particular cases as to prevent
selfish and unscrupulous use of power and wealth
and commercial organization. Courts are human
in character and judgment, and they cannot go
beyond constitutions and laws made within con
stitutional limits; and often they are under the
hampering influence of traditions which no
longer fit modern industrial conditions. But
with all their limitations the courts of our land
are the best representatives of a wise, careful, just
judgment of the common welfare.
Next to courts of law come the commissions
which are appointed by states and federal govern
ment to regulate the action of corporations and
see that they conform to the law. The most
conspicuous and well-known example of this
method of public control is the Interstate Com-

258 Social Duties
merce Commission, whose chief task is to regu
late the conduct of the railroads in matters of
rates. When a corporation is created and given a
franchise the state or city may control its conduct
in the future by making it a condition that a
certain part of the profits go to the community
treasury, or that streets be kept in good order,
or that fares are reduced, or that workingmen
are humanely treated in matters of hours and
wages. The granting of a franchise is an oppor
tunity for the public to restrict the selfishness of
a corporation and to oblige it to respect various
common rights.
Another method of control is public ownership
of plant, as of tracks and cars of a street railway,
with leases to corporations on fixed terms which
protect common interests during the life of the
contract. In the last resort, and when all milder measures
fail, the city, state, or nation always reserves the
right to purchase and control any kind of busi
ness, and so manage it that the profits shall go to
all and the employees shall be treated as the con
science of the people requires. In its extreme
application this would be socialism, a system
under which all capital, all instruments of pro
duction, would be owned and managed by the

Duties of Corporations 259
community. For reasons already indicated the
people of America and other modern nations
never resort to this method until all others fail.
Examples of such public management may be seen
in caring for the sewerage of cities, rivers, and
harbors, the federal post-office, city water works,
and some other public utilities.
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
At the conference on trusts and combinations held in
Chicago, October, 1907, under the leadership of the
National Civic Federation, the following Subjects were
considered: Should the federal government, alone or in
harmony with state governments, regulate interstate
commerce ? In relation to corporations : How should
they be constructed? Should there be national corpora
tions as well as those created by the state? What should
be the basis of capitalization of corporations? of their
internal control? the provisions looking to the protection
of investors and stockholders, as well as fair dealing
with the public? Should there be a distinction between
public-service and other corporations? Should quasi-
public utilities, like gas, electric lighting, and street rail
ways, be considered natural monopolies to be regulated
by the municipality? What is the just and practicable
limit of restriction and regulation, federal and state, of
combinations in transportation, production, distribution
and labor? Shall the Sherman anti-trust act be amended?
If so, how?
From the highest official in our nation, Presi
dent Roosevelt, we have clear, strong, and distinct
declarations of the moral principles which are at

260 Social Duties
the heart of the recent movement to protect honest
corporations, to punish criminals in high places,
and to protect the just rights of stockholders,
employees, consumers, and all members of the
community. Perhaps we cannot find a more
accurate statement of the general drift of edu
cated public opinion, although considerable differ
ences of opinion exist in respect to particular
points, than in the following utterance by the
President :
Experience has shown that it is necessary to exercise
a far more efficient control than at present over the
business use of these vast fortunes, chiefly corporate, in
interstate business.
There is no objection in the minds of this people to
any man's earning any amount of money if he does it
honestly and fairly, if he gets it as the result of special
skill and enterprise, as a reward of ample service actually
rendered. But there is a growing determination that no
man shall amass a great fortune by special privilege, by
chicanery and wrong-doing, so far as it is in the power
of legislation to prevent and that the fortune shall not
have a business use that is antisocial.
Every honest manager of a great corporation
will desire the enactment and enforcement of
laws which prevent the unscrupulous from hav
ing an advantage in the struggle for wealth.
President Roosevelt also said :
One great problem that we have before us is to preserve
the rights of property; and these can only be preserved

Duties of Corporations 261
if we remember that they are less in jeopardy from the
socialist and the anarchist than from the predatory man
of wealth. It has become evident that to refuse to
invoke the power of the nation to restrain the wrongs
committed by the man of great wealth who does evil is
not only to neglect the interests of the public, but also
to neglect the interests of the man of means who acts
honorably by his fellows. The power of the nation must
be exercised to stop crimes of cunning no less than
crimes of violence. There can be no halt in the course
we have deliberately elected to pursue, the policy of
asserting the right of the nation, so far .as it has the
power, to supervise and control the business use of
wealth, especially in its corporate form.
Those who object to this language must do so
on the ground that private interests ought to be
permitted a free field, even with numerous special
privileges, without any right on the part of the
great public even to ask how their conduct affects
the people. That would be slavery, and sub
mission would be a confession that the nation
was not fit to live.
Legal and social responsibility must be fixed
on responsible persons, not on underlings. Stock
holders of corporations are scattered over the
world and ask only for dividends on investments.
To fine the company has no effect so long as it
is cheaper to pay fines after long litigation than
to correct abuses. It is unjust to punish sub-

262 Social Duties
ordinates who may even have protested against
the wrong, but have been overruled with threats
of dismissal by the men at the head. If the public
desires to secure its welfare it must strike at the
top, it must hit the men who direct or profess to
direct the policy of the corporation. If a few di
rectors were sent to the penitentiary for long peri
ods for arrogantly defying the law, there would
be fewer rich men who pretend to belong to the
boards of dozens of corporations and know really
little of any one of them except the balance sheets.
It is said that we have no right to criticize the
managers of corporations ; that such criticism in
jures credit and brings on crises and serious dis
turbances in the financial world. But while there
is much criticism that is ignorant and misdirected,
are not the dishonest directors most to blame?
It is notorious that the very greatest insurance
companies were nests of robbers, as is shown
by the reorganization after exposures which
brought a useful business and our nation into
contempt. Business men of unquestioned integ
rity and intelligence have found in various cities
that in securing franchises the honest men had
no chance of success in competing with thieves
who were not too scrupulous to bribe councilmen
and fix primaries. Demagogues are to blame for
a great deal of mischief, and labor leaders some-

Duties of Corporations 263
times excite class hate and prejudice; but they
derive their keenest arguments from statements
made by competent lawyers, judges, and business
men who lay bare the actual deeds of corporate
wrong-doers. Resistance to the legal require
ment of life-saving devices on railroads, guards
to dangerous machinery, and to the prohibition
of child-labor in mills and factories is not a secret
but is known to every wage-earner and social
student in the nation. And until this selfish
policy is openly and resolutely fought by man
agers of corporations, and until they cease sup
porting costly lobbies at state capitals to defeat
humane and reasonable laws, the innocent ma
jority must suffer with the minority of directors.
It is idle to affirm that all this antagonism to
corporate mismanagement is without ground. It
is bad enough to do wrong to millions; it is na
tional moral ruin to suppress discussion by threats
of panics. A panic would be a blessing if it
would sweep away all the gigantic corruption and
robbery which have slain millions of children,
debased political life, set wage earners into a
separate class against all others, made virtue seem
the badge of weaklings, taught the masses to re
gard the church and college as the ally of strong
public enemies, used the press to throw sand in
the eyes of the public, and made men feel that

264 Social Duties
their very souls were the slaves of some unseen
power, and not "that which makes for righteous
ness." REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
R. T. Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, and Monopo
lies and Trusts.
Ernst von Halle, Trusts and Industrial Combinations
and Coalitions in the United States.
J. W. Jenks, The Trust Problem.
Reports of the Industrial Commission.
E. A. Ross, Sin and Society.
G. P. Watkins, The Growth of Large Fortunes.

CHAPTER XIV
SOCIAL DUTIES RELATING TO THE BUSINESS
CLASS AND THE LEISURE CLASS
Since the only alternative of having a class of
capitalist managers at enormous salaries ("prof
its") to direct industry and commerce is some
form of collectivism or socialism we may prop
erly consider these together. It is not the hope
or purpose of the writer to attempt <any so-called
"solution" of this problem, . but only to direct
attention upon its essential factors, and to stimu
late independent and fair-minded discussion.
I. SOCIALISM, SOMETIMES CALLED COLLECTIV
ISM, WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION
There is nothing essentially antagonistic to
Christianity in the economic and political theory
of socialism; so that a Christian man can study
the proposed measures of socialists without re
gard to the materialistic, atheistic, and immoral
notions which sometimes accompany the popular
movement. It is our duty to distinguish certain
metaphysical assumptions of leading writers from
their actual economic principles.
Socialism nowhere exists as a working system.
In all. civilized countries the actual economic and
political system is that of private property in the
265

266 Social Duties
instruments of production, administration by
owners and by business managers, free contract
between employers and employed, payment for
services in rent, interest, salaries, profits, or
wages according to the kind of social service
rendered. Socialism is an ideal, not yet a reality any
where; it is a philosophy, not an actual political
organization having constitutional and legal
foundation; it is a programme of a movement
urged by millions of workingmen and their
leaders; it is a party which urges revolutionary
changes, but a party which has in no country
been intrusted with entire control, although in
several European nations it holds the balance of
power and can effectively demand many measures
short of complete socialization of industry.
i. The definition of socialism should be taken
from its friends, not from its enemies. These
definitions vary considerably, yet they converge
upon one point: the public control of all lands,
machinery, and means of transportation, as con
trasted with control by private owners and mana
gers. 2. Classic creeds of socialism. — It is proper to
speak of creeds in this connection because social
ism has with many taken the place of religion and
because it is a set of articles of faith in a future

The Business and Leisure Classes 267
social state on earth, rather than a description and
explanation of an actual social system.
3. Dangerous doctrines of some of the Social
ists. — Certain influential leaders of this party have
advocated the abolition of the family, or such
radical reconstruction of it as to destroy it. Lax
notions about "free love," easy divorce, excuses
for sensuality, have been promulgated in the name
of socialism; but they are not a necessary part of
its economic and political principles. #
Occasionally a violent and destructive assault
on the present institutions of government, with
wholesale murder and confiscation, has been urged
by hot-headed revolutionists of collectivism; but
in general the party seeks to attain its ultimate
ends by gradual and peaceful changes in the con
stitutions and laws.
4. Why society hesitates to establish a social
istic government. — Only a few hints on this large
subject can here be offered. Perhaps the follow
ing reasons, if properly expanded with illustra
tions and proofs, may be regarded as influential
in Europe and America.
It is believed that each man will be most in
dustrious, ingenious, inventive, energetic, and
hence produce most for social needs, if he is left
free and responsible for his own support. It is
thought that individual enterprise is more fruit-

268 Social Duties
ful than state enterprise. Practical men fear to
increase beyond necessity the army of civil officers
and employees of nation, states, and cities, lest
they should control all activities and practically
enslave all others. It is said that most public em
ployees become lazy, negligent, and mechanical,
and combine to reduce their productivity and to
increase their income at public expense. If the
state were the only employer of labor and talent
there would be but one market and the income of
each man would be determined by popular vote
or by administrative rules. Lurid pictures are
painted of the monotony, slavery, stagnation, per
haps extinction, of a society so organized.
Rather than risk these imagined, perhaps prob
able, evils, society at present prefers to accept the
evil with the good of the capitalistic system;
prefers to intrust the management of business
to men selected by severe competition as the most
capable for the purpose; prefers to give them
as profits all that is left after wages, interest,
taxes, insurance, and other expenses have been
paid ; prefers to give them a free hand and almost
absolute control of better machinery, men, and
product, rather than meddle too much with their
plans and conduct.
Under this system, it is true, comparatively
few men become enormously rich, sometimes

The Business and Leisure Classes 269
within a few years; that is, they pay themselves
fabulous sums for the service they render, or they
simply plunder the public while the public prop
erty is intrusted to them. Yet, so great is the
dread of socialism, and of its supposed conse
quences, that most men in modern countries hesi
tate to exchange the known inconveniences for
others which may be far greater; and they hope
to tame, control, and utilize the men of genius
and talent, rather than lose the value of their
gifts by asking them to work in chains.
5. Duty of the church to Socialists. — Mani
festly it is our duty, first of all, to try to under
stand them and their teachings, to treat them
fairly in word and deed, to correct their errors
by offering a larger truth and a better way, if
possible. So far as their political and economic platform
is concerned, the church has no more reason to
attack or defend it than in case of the proposi
tions of any other political party.
If Socialists point out evils in our present
system we ought to heed them, and if they sug
gest a practical plan of improvement we should
hear them without prejudice, remembering that
their leaders are either sufferers or on intimate
terms of confidence with the sufferers. It is not
safe to stop up the vent of an escape valve when

270 Social Duties
steam pressure approaches the bursting tension.
It is dangerous to suppress free speech when dis
contented men express the grievances of a multi
tude of voters. The answer to a heresy is truth,
not a dungeon or a scaffold.
II. SOCIAL DUTIES TOWARD THE CLASS OF
BUSINESS MANAGERS
It is altogether probable that some men of this
class will resent any, even the slightest suggestion
that they are a "social problem," that their morals
require public attention. A popular piece of
profanity is supposed to express the ordinary con
tempt of successful men for public opinion.
We lack thus far any satisfactory investigation
of the conduct of the leaders of commerce and
industry, and we should express general criticism
with careful reserve. Much as they are before
the public, thoroughly as they are advertised, they
have their secrets and guard them with jealous
care. What is written in this chapter, therefore,
is intended to start questions, to direct observation
and inquiry upon vital points, and to command
not only that charity which is due to all, but also
that judicial fairness which it is sometimes so hard
to maintain toward successful neighbors. No
where is it more desirable to keep our judgments
of men well within the limits of ascertained facts,

The Business and Leisure Classes 271
and to refrain from any damaging assertion
which cannot be proved by competent testimony.
Indeed the primary social duty to business
managers is to ascertain the facts so far as they
bear on the conduct of the community, upon criti
cism, upon legislation, upon the decisions of
juries, the discipline of churches, and any actions
which may affect the comfort and honor of a
large number of our fellow-men. That business
men need such defense as comes from a fair and
intelligent public opinion may be shown by the
treatment often accorded them by juries in the
courts. Here again we cannot pretend to offer
statistical proofs ; we do not know, perhaps could
not discover, what proportion of trials involving
rich men and corporations before juries have
been unfairly decided. But judging by numerous
testimonies of lawyers, judges, newspapers, and
business men, and by the current talk about courts,
we are safe in affirming that juries of men in
ordinary circumstances often give verdicts which
are not sustained by facts or by law.
That there is often provocation for juries to
wreak revenge when they get a chance we may
affirm on the ground of the same kind of evidence.
But should not public opinion condemn verdicts
which show a manifest bias of class envy and
revenge? Will not a thoroughly enlightened con-

272 Social Duties
science seek to right wrongs through change in
laws rather than in making the courts the instru
ment of vengeance and class passion?
If the "business managers" as a class are, as
Socialists affirm, bloodsuckers and parasites, if
they really are useless members of society, if they
reap where they do not sow, if they spoil the
people and render no equivalent in services, then
let us find a substitute for their leadership in
salaried officers and declare their places vacant.
But if the business manager does render a ser
vice to all of us by the invention of methods,
by hard work of administration, by able and eco
nomical organization of mills, mines, factories,
railways, and telegraph companies, then let us
not object to his paying himself out of the profits
of business. It is either the business manager or
socialism; there is no other alternative.
If the business manager takes more than society
thinks he earns there are various legal ways of
restricting his exploitations and securing a larger
share of the product for other classes, as by trade-
unions, co-operative societies, inheritance taxes,
income taxes, state commissions, contracts in let
ting franchises, and other methods of legal
control. But so long as society chooses, on the whole, to
leave to business managers the responsibility of

The Business and Leisure Classes 273
directing manufactures and trade, it is neither
wise nor just to make courts into instruments of
petty persecution or means of satisfying envy.
The meanest passions of mankind, as envy, hate,
revenge, are not good counselors in a democracy.
If fortunes have been made by reckless or dishonest
management of large corporations, the obvious remedies
are, reform of our corporation laws and the cultivation of
higher standards of business morals  New legisla
tion will be needed, but the relentless enforcement of
existing laws against such old-fashioned ojlenses as con
spiracy and theft would probably go far to accomplish
the desired result. Make it as dangerous to mismanage
a transcontinental railway as to hold up a transconti
nental express, and you will speedily reduce one class
of swollen fortunes. Make it as perilous for an officer
to plunder an insurance company as for a clerk to ap
propriate a few hundred dollars from its funds, and you
will reduce another class. Punish the financier who loots
a street railway as you punish the hungry man who robs-
a bakery, and you will reach a third class of fortunes.1
The same author further urges that laws to pre
vent railways from favoring rich customers by re
bates and otherwise will give competition a chance
to protect the public. When the protective tariff
has built up fortunes at the cost of the public their
modification or repeal would drain the superfluous
wealth which was ill-gotten. The exploitation of
1 Professor C. J. Bullock, State and Local Taxation, pp.
234. 235-

274 Social Duties.
franchises has been a dishonorable source of
riches to certain men, and effective control of
public-service corporations would correct this evil.
III. THE LEISURE CLASS
The "leisure class" includes the second crop of
the children of the "business managers." It is a
new phenomenon in American life. It has been
supposed that money-making was the American
disease, a form of insanity which attacks all our
business men. But now we begin to hear com
plaints that our fertile soil of new fortunes is
producing a leisure class of "busybodies who do
nothing at all." Here again really scientific col
lections of facts are wanting. We have no right
to accuse a whole class of wrongdoing which may
be confined to a minority or to exceptional cases
of persons disliked and condemned in their own
circles. But while we are waiting for some competent
student of social science to accumulate, arrange,
and interpret the facts about the leisure class,
we are safe in seeking the meaning of certain
tendencies, fashions, and conduct which are not
only notorious but are ostentatiously and insult
ingly thrust into our faces. Our condemnation
must not be taken to go one inch beyond the per
sons actually guilty, and they do not sweepingly

The Business and Leisure Classes 275
cover the whole area of any section of population.
Even in many of the homes of luxury there are
acts of devotion, self-denial, charity, patriotism,
religion. The very rich live so far away from
most of us, up there in another world, on Olym
pian heights, that we never hear of many of the
good deeds which they do though they are usually
not hidden from reporters.
Professor G. H. Palmer, of Harvard Univer
sity, a man of wide observation and calm philo
sophic judgment, voices a general truth when
he says :
It is now acknowledged that the most questionable
advantage of large wealth is its influence on children.
Those who acquire it are likely enough to grow with its
pursuit, and the control over the world which it brings
to its vigorous accumulator is not unfavorable to enjoy
ment or to still further advance. But children who have
never known want get few deep draughts of joy. Who
ever prizes human conditions in proportion to their tend
ency to develop powers must commiserate the children of
the rich and think of them as our unfortunate classes.
They associate less with their parents than do others;
their goings and comings are more hampered; they are
not so easily habituated to regular tasks; . . . and when
tempted to vice or mediocrity they have little counter
compulsion to support their better purpose. Wise rich
parents know these dangers and give their anxious
thought to shielding their children from the enervating
influence of wealth.3
2 Professor G. H. Palmer, p. 21.

276 Social Duties
TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
Let the class make a list of all the sons of wealthy
men of whom they can learn, and ascertain whether
wealth has been to them a help or a disadvantage.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
T. Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise.
 , Theory of the Leisure Class.
J. B. Spahr, Distribution of Wealth.
J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy (Appleton
ed.), on "Spendthrifts."
C. R. Henderson, Social Elements, chaps, vii-ix; Social
Spirit in America, chaps, vii-x.
J. B. Clark, Philosophy of Wealth.
R. T. Ely, Socialism and Social Reform.
J. G. Brooks, The Social Unrest.

CHAPTER XV
SOCIAL DUTIES IN RELATION TO GOVERNMENT
Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers :
for there is no power but of God; and the powers that
be are ordained of God  For this cause ye pay
tribute also; for they are ministers of God's service
(Rom. 13:1-7)-
I. THE CHIEF FORMS OF GOVERNMENT
(1) The national or federal government, with
its central offices at Washington, is that agency
through which the entire nation executes its will,
defends every citizen and every part of territory
from foreign attack, and secures unity and law
for every state. (2) State governments consti
tute another form, with their constitutions and
laws, their courts and administrative officers.
(3) Lastly, we have local governments, as of
counties, cities and towns, or townships.
II. WHAT IS THE USE OF GOVERNMENT?
Government in this country is not something
imposed on us nor given to us, but it is an institu
tion which has grown with the needs of men and
is maintained by the will and means of the people.
Modern democracy, the rise of the people to power,
has put into the hands of the doer of good and the
righter of wrongs a tool the reformer in Wesley's time
had not. That tool is the free democratic republic,
277

278 Social Duties
through which the power of all can be used for the
benefit of all. Democracy is the use of all the resources
of nature by all the faculties of man for the good of all
the people. The reformer today is thrice-armed ; to per
sonal effort he can add political effort. He can socialize,
organize the doing of good. He can institutionalize the
Golden Rule  Our central problem is to regenerate
the individual, and the proof that an individual has been
regenerated is that he proceeds to regenerate things about
him — and that's Democracy, and that's the Religion of
Labor.1 1
The people of a land or of a town can do some
things for the common welfare better through
government than in any other way. Some illus
trations will make this clear and show what a
people can accomplish by means of a good gov
ernment. ( 1 ) The first condition of life is public
order, since we could not make plans of business
or pleasure or worship if we were exposed to
interruption and disturbance by persons who
chose to act selfishly. There are always men
ready to enjoy their lives in a way to annoy and
injure others unless there is a power to restrain
them: and in order to have rules of conduct for
all we must have a law made by consent of all.
No private individual can be trusted to make
regulations for all others. (2) Protection is
-needed against the attacks of rude, selfish, dis
honest, and criminal men. Without law and
1 H. D. Lloyd, Man, the Social Creator, p. 273.

Duties in Relation to Government 279
courts and police, strong and bad men will rob or
hurt children and women and the sick or aged.
We sleep in greater security only because the
policemen walk the street at night and watch
lawless men. The firemen defend our houses
against fire, often at risk of life. (3) Laws and
rulers guard and regulate liberty of speech and
action so that the equal freedom of all is not
hindered. There is no liberty without law. The
very word "rights" has no reality under it in the
absence of government. (4) It is through gov
ernment that health is protected. Only by law
can ignorant and careless persons be prevented
from leaving foul and decaying matter to poison
air and water. Boards of health in states and
cities enact and enforce regulations which pre
vent the spread of diseases like cholera, smallpox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, and consumption. At the
seaports all immigrants are examined to see that
they do not infect others with dreadful diseases.
Hospitals are frequently erected or paid for heal
ing the sick; and scientific men are kept busy
studying the causes of illness and means of pre
vention. (5) Ways of travel and transportation
are either furnished or improved and regulated by
governments. Over the entire land is a network
of roads, paths, and highways which have been
provided by laws and improved by officials elected

280 Social Duties
by the people. (6) The postal system is a fine
illustration of means of communication open to
rich and poor alike and kept from private control.
This system reaches every nook and corner of the
land; it serves many humble villages and homes
which could not afford to send and receive letters
if they were compelled to depend on private enter
prise. In Europe the telegraph and telephone, as
well as the postal system, are managed cheaply
and efficiently by state governments. (7) Men
need frequently to have a peaceable and impartial
means of defining their rights and duties, and
when "self the wavering balance shakes, 'tis rarely
right adjusted." Men bring such disputes before
the learned and impartial courts and, without
violence, accept and act upon the lawful decision.
The alternative would be fighting, in which the
strong and cunning rather than the upright would
have the advantage. (8) Few citizens have taken
the pains to learn what our governments are doing
for knowledge, for that science which enables us
to navigate the seas, discover the riches of mines,
increase wealth and civilization by culture of the
soil and rearing of animals. The agricultural
experiment stations alone add to the national
wealth billions of dollars beyond their moderate
cost. (9) Inventions are fostered by the national
patent office which secures the inventor his rights

Duties in Relation to Government 281
and encourages new experiments by its method
of rewards. (10) The most important work of
governments is that of education. No nation has
yet avoided the disgrace and danger of support
ing an ignorant and degenerating class if it left
education to private enterprise. There are always
many who are too poor to send their children to
school, and many too lazy or stupid or cruel. An
ignorant class is a national peril, a menace to
health, wealth, and morals. Where all citizens
have the franchise our very government itself is
threatened by the presence of a horde of stupid
voters who cannot understand the effect of their
use of suffrage. Further than this every child
has a right to education, and only through public
schools can these rights be secured to all. There
never was nor can be universal education which
is not compulsory education.
The illustrations just given might be greatly
extended in all directions. Indeed as society
grows in numbers and civilization it is inevitable
that the government shall have more duties,
simply because in no other way can the people get
things done which they believe it is their duty and
interest to have done.
An honest judge, in charging a jury, thus
urged the supreme value of the government to all
citizens :

282 Social Duties
Do you know there is no other friend you have that
is as good a friend to you as the law? It made pro
vision for you before you were born; it enables you to
wear that coat which you have on your back, the shoes
on your feet, or someone stronger would take them away
from you.
It is a guard over your house. It protects you from
burglars; it stands guard over your property, your repu
tation, your life; and if . you are sick and friendless it
will take care of you in the hospital; if you are dying
it will protect your body. No labor union has ever been
the friend to you that the law has been. You ought to
have respect for the law above any other institution.
III. HOW ARE GOVERNMENTS SUPPORTED?
Sources of revenue. — The government cannot
render all these services without means, that is,
money and services. The chief means of support
come from taxes upon the property, industry, and
incomes of citizens. It is true that where a city,
for example, carries on an enterprise like gas-
making, water supply, street transportation, it
may support these works from the income of the
business. It is a grave question of our times
whether and how far this kind of business is wise.
At present we pass over this factor. (1) The
principal sources of income for the support of
the federal government are the internal revenue
from liquor and tobacco taxes, taxes on imported'
goods (tariffs), stamp duties, and, in times of

Duties in Relation to Government 283
special need, income taxes. (2) The state and
local governments are supported by direct taxes
levied on real estate and on all kinds of personal
property, and fees for services of public officers,
licenses, and others. Further details for each
state must be studied in the local laws, as well as
in books to be cited. That it is the duty of all
citizens to support their government, and thus pay
for the good that is done and received, in propor
tion to the ability to pay, is theoretically admitted
by all except an immoral or an eccenrric minority.
This is one of the conclusions about social duty
which the moral sense of this nation will not per
mit to be set at defiance. But there are grave
wrongs which tend to corrupt morality and call
for earnest co-operation.
IV. ETHICAL PROBLEMS OF ASSESSMENT AND
TAXATION. WHAT IS RIGHT TO REQUIRE
AND DO?
1. Problems of national support. — The actual
support of our federal government comes largely
from taxes on imported goods, on alcholic liquor,
and on tobacco. What is the duty of upright
citizens in this matter, so far as they have influ
ence? A few questions will show that only pro
longed and careful study will justify any man
in exerting his political power actively on such

284 Social Duties
subjects. What is the effect of a tariff imposed
on goods brought from Europe, as books, cloth
ing, furs, machinery, wines, furniture, pictures,
glass ware, and other articles? Does this tax
make our people pay higher prices for the goods
they consume ? Does the higher price benefit few
or many? Are manufactures improved and
enlarged by this policy? Is the collection of this
tax at ports fair and honest? What are the
wrong acts provoked by the modes of collection ?
How do travelers and merchants seek to evade the
import tax and what immoral acts arise from
attempts to cheat the government? What is the
duty of importers if they think the law itself is
wrong and unjust? In voting for members of
Congress and for the President, what responsi
bility has the citizen in reference to the methods
of national revenues? What should one do who
thinks it morally evil for the government to seek
support from the profits on intoxicants and to
bacco? The student should try to learn all the
consequences of this system in every direction
and on all classes of the community. This is
not an easy task, yet many speak with dogmatic
confidence on such themes without giving them
prolonged study, merely showing the opinions of
party leaders. If some thousand of young men
were reading the best books on the subject and

Duties in Relation to Government 285
discussing their contents, the leaders of the nation
would be more carefully and wisely chosen.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
Books on taxation.
W. M. Daniels, Elements of Public Finance.
R. T. Ely, Taxation in American States and Cities.
T. G. Shearman, Taxation of Personal Property.
C. H. Adams, The Science of Finance.
E. R. A. Seligman, Essays in Taxation.
C. E. Merriam, Report on the Municipal Revenues of
Chicago, 1906.
C. C. Plehn, Introduction to Public Finance.
D. A. Wells, Theory and Practice of Taxation.
National Tax Association, State and Local Taxation,
1908. 2. Problems of support of state and local gov
ernments. — (a) The present methods. While
there are many variations in different states, the
essential elements in general are these: assessors
are appointed according to state law to make
lists of the amounts and values of all kinds of
property of all citizens, and a rate of taxation is
fixed according to which each owner of property
is required to pay each year about one cent (more
or less) for every dollar assessed, no matter what
kind of property it may be. When this money
is collected in the public treasury it is divided
among the various public governments as re
quired by law. If all the property were listed

286 Social Duties
at its true value, then all would contribute to the
support of government according to their ability,
or practically so, and this would be nearly fair.
If the property of a citizen is a farm or houses
or other visible things the assessors can see it
for themselves and judge its value. If they are
intelligent and honest this kind of tax will be
collected justly. But in recent years very much
wealth has been created which is not easily found,
such as that represented by bonds, mortgages,
stocks, and franchises.
b) Evils in this system. Members of the
class, by talking with assessors and business men,
as bankers, may find more evils than can be dis
cussed briefly here. They will learn, among other
things, that there is a direct temptation for tax
payers to hide stocks, bonds, notes, and other
securities in vaults, and, where an oath is required
to confirm their statements, to perjure themselves
by reporting values much less than they actually
own. In most towns and even in the country a
majority of persons report to the assessors much
less than the true amounts. But there are some
who will not lie about this matter, and they tell
the assessor all that they own, even when he could
not otherwise find out. These more honest per
sons must therefore pay more, often many times
more taxes than rich but unscrupulous neighbors

Duties in Relation to Government 287
who are willing to lie in order to save money.
The estates of widows and orphans are often
placed in the control of courts where all the
property is recorded in public books and cannot
escape assessment. Thus the tendency of our
system is to reward the cheat and liar and compel
the honest and the widows and orphans to bear
too heavy a share of the cost of government. All
the great authorities on finance condemn this
method which is common in all parts of our
country. Thus Professor Seligman* one of the
highest authorities, says of this kind of tax :
Practically, the general property tax, as actually ad
ministered, is beyond all doubt one of the worst taxes
known in the civilized world. Because of its attempt
to tax intangible as well as tangible things, it sins against
the cardinal rules of uniformity, of equality and univer
sality of taxation. It puts a premium on dishonesty and
debauches the public conscience; it reduces deception to
a system, and makes a science of knavery; it presses
hardest on those least able to pay; it imposes double
taxation on one man and grants entire immunity to the
next. In short, the general property tax is so flagrantly
inequitable, that its retention can be explained only
through ignorance or inertia. It is the cause of such
crying injustice that its alteration or its abolition must
become the battle cry of every statesman and reformer.2
How much of this inertia and ignorance is due
to the neglect of the churches and adult Bible
2E. R. A. Seligman, Essays in Taxation, 2d ed., p 61.

288 Social Duties
classes ? How many of the moral teachers of the
nation have even studied this gigantic wrong?
How guilty are the theological seminaries ? How
many will still claim that it is not a proper subject
for Sunday study? "Evil is wrought by want of
thought as well as want of heart."
c) Have the authorities who condemn the
present system any better method to substitute
for it ? From the purely financial standpoint the
modes of raising revenues for the federal govern
ment are generally satisfactory. It is thought
that the incomes for the state should be separated
from those of the cities, counties, and towns;
that the state should derive its revenues chiefly
from corporation and inheritance taxes ; that local
revenues should come from real estate and from
other elements of wealth ; that a carefully devised
method might properly reach notes secured by
mortgage without taxing the same wealth twice;
and that other revenues might be taken from the
visible resources of persons with income as indi
cated by their expenditures for consumption and
enjoyment, such as residences, vehicles, etc. The
tax on inherited wealth is collected at the moment
when the heirs receive in large bulk property for
which they have not labored. The tendency in
our country is to extend the use of the inheritance
tax as a source of revenue for the state. Society

Duties in Relation to Government 289
tolerates, and at great sacrifice protects great
fortunes of individuals, partly on the ground that
those" who are most competent to manage capital
are the most productive agents of control. But
this reason does not hold good in case of heirs;
for children do not always inherit ability and
energy, and often become indolent from absence
of motive to work, and persons in the second
generation of wealth are far removed from sym
pathy with those who by their toil make capital
reproductive.- Hence the income tax and the in
heritance tax have come to be demanded as means
of returning to general social possession a large
part of the accumulations of men of vast industry,
thrift, initiative, and power of organization and
direction. The sifting process of each generation
comes by redistribution of estates.
V. SUPPORT OF GOVERNMENT BY PERSONAL
SERVICE
The citizen in a nation with universal suffrage
and free speech owes many duties to government
which are not included in payment of taxes. One
of these duties is to know, as far as possible, the
nature, functions, history, and needs of the politi
cal institutions which our forefathers improved
and intrusted to the present generation.
On important matters which are proposed for

290 Social Duties
legislation each voter is under obligation to seek
the best possible information and to assist by
voice and vote those policies which seem to him
to promise the highest results to the material and
moral interests of the entire people. There are
enough men who will secretly and often cor
ruptly try to secure legislation that will enrich
a few at the expense of many ; but under our laws
each citizen is rightfully bound to study and pro
mote laws which will benefit all. Some of these
policies are mentioned elsewhere in this series.
In the choice of representatives in city councils,
state legislatures, and Congress those men should
be nominated in all parties who have proved that
they are intelligent, educated, and honest, and
who will give their best study to the questions on
which they are called to frame and enact laws.
For judges should be chosen lawyers known to be
upright, just, clean in life, and learned in law.
For administrators of law, as governors, members
of state boards of health and charity, mayors,
trustees of towns, all citizens should insist upon
one single principle — that of fitness by nature,
character, and special training. In positions which
require knowledge of medicine, only competent
medical experts should be favored for election
or appointment; for administrators of schools,
only educated and experienced teachers ; for legal

Duties in Relation to Government 291
direction, only trained lawyers; for policemen,
only those who have proved physical and mental
fitness, and who merit advance by fidelity to duty ;
and thus throughout. That a man has been loyal
to his party or has helped an incompetent man to
be elected congressman or mayor, or has delivered
the vote of clients of a saloon, or has done any
sort of partisan political work, ought not to be
once considered. Every administrative office
ought to be open to all competent citizens with
out regard to party, on proof of fitness, and then
the officers should be promoted in the line of their
skill after faithful labor for the community as
a whole. This is the merit system as contrasted
with the spoils system ; the first being based on the
welfare of the community, the other on selfish,
private, or party interests; the first is moral, the
second is distinctly immoral.
Military service, that is the offer of life itself
to defend the unity, integrity, safety, and honor
of the nation, is the sacrifice which may be law
fully and rightly required of every strong man.
Membership in the militia is training for such
service. The grounds and reasons for these de
mands should be discussed in Christian circles.
It is tragic when the nation or state requires its
citizens to fight for an unjust cause, when patriot
ism is made to conflict with the sense of justice
and humanity.

292 Social Duties
Many kinds of civil service are rendered with
out pay or with only small reward : as the service
on juries in courts of justice, committees and
councils of cities, school boards, boards of state
institutions of charity. In all countries much of
the best work is done for commonwealth and
nation without money ; the reward being enjoyed
in a good conscience, a sense of usefulness, and
the esteem of the public.
VI. DUTIES OF THE LEGAL PROFESSION IN
RELATION TO GOVERNMENT AND TO
THE COMMUNITY
The members of a particular profession are
more familiar with the conditions, opportunities,
temptations, and duties of that profession than
are others; and it is their duty to maintain its
standards. This obligation is clearly recognized
and ably stated by a committee of the American
Bar Association, in a recent report recommending
the adoption of a code of ethics to govern the
professional conduct of its members. At the 1905
meeting of the American Bar Association, the
chairman of the executive committee presented a
resolution, which was adopted unanimously, pro
viding for a special committee to report upon the
advisability and practicability of the adoption of
a code of professional ethics by the association.

Duties in Relation to Government 293
At the 1906 meeting the committee reported fa
vorably upon both points, and at the 1907 meeting
the association directed the committee to prepare
a draft for the proposed canons of professional
ethics, requesting suggestions and criticisms of
all members of the American bar. In its report
the committee says :
The foundation of the draft for canons of ethics is
the code adopted by the Alabama State Bar Association
in 1887. This draft represents our best present judg
ment after a most careful consideration of the subject.
In America, where justice reigns only by and through
the people under forms of law, it is essential that the
system for establishing and dispensing justice not only
be developed to a high point of practical efficiency, but
so maintained that there shall be absolute confidence on
the part of the public in the fairness, the integrity, and
the impartiality of its administration; otherwise there can
be no permanence to our republican institutions.
Our profession is. necessarily the keystone in the arch
of republican government, and the future of the republic,
to a great extent, depends on our maintenance of the
shrine of justice pure and unsullied. It cannot be main
tained unless the conduct and the motives of the mem
bers of our profession, who are the high priests of justice,
are what they ought to be.
No code or set of rules can be framed which will par
ticularize all the duties of the lawyer in the varying
phases of litigation or in all the relations of professional
life. The following canons of ethics are adopted by the
American Bar Association as a general guide, yet the

294 Social Duties
enumeration of particular duties should not be con
strued as a denial of the existence of others equally im
perative, though not specifically mentioned.
The canons deal with many problems confront
ing the lawyer in his professional conduct.
Among the most important recommendations are
the following :
Defending one whom advocate believes to be guilty.
— A lawyer may undertake with propriety the defense of
a person accused of a crime, although he knows or be
lieves him guilty, and having undertaken it he is bound
by all fair and honorable means to present such defenses
as the law of the land permits, to the end that no per
son may be deprived of life or liberty but by due pro
cess of law.
How far a lawyer may go in supporting a client's
cause. — Nothing operates more certainly to create or to
foster popular prejudice against lawyers as a class and
to deprive the profession of that full measure of public
esteem and confidence which belongs to the proper dis
charge of its duties than does the false claim often set
up by the unscrupulous in defense of questionable trans
actions, that it is the duty of the lawyer to do whatever
may enable him to succeed in winning his client's cause.
A lawyer owes entire devotion to the interest of his
client, warm zeal in the maintenance and defense of his
cause, and the exertion of the utmost skill and ability,
to the end that nothing may be taken or withheld from
him, save by the rules of law, legally applied. Never
theless, it is steadfastly to be borne in mind that the
great trust is to be performed within and not without the
bounds of the law. The office of attorney does not per-

Duties in Relation to Government 295
mit, much less does it demand for any client, violation
of law, or any manner of fraud or chicanery. No lawyer
is justified in substituting another's conscience for his
own. A lawyer should not do for a client what his sense
of honor would forbid him to do for himself.
Treatment of witnesses and litigants. — A lawyer should
always treat adverse witnesses and suitors with fairness
and due consideration, and he should never minister to
the malevolence or prejudices of a client in the trial or
conduct of a cause. The client cannot be made the
keeper of the lawyer's conscience in professional matters.
He cannot demand as of right that his counsel shall
abuse the opposite party or indulge in offensive person
alities. Improper speech is not excusable on the ground
that it is what the client would say if speaking in his
own behalf.
Advertising, direct or indirect. — The most worthy and
effective advertisement possible, even for a young lawyer,
and especially with his brother lawyers, is the establish
ment of a well-merited reputation for professional
capacity and fidelity to trust. This cannot be forced, but
must be the outcome of character and conduct. The
publication or circulation of ordinary sized business
cards, being a matter of personal taste or local custom,
and sometimes of convenience, is not per se improper.
But solicitation of business by circulars or advertise
ments or by personal communications or interviews, not
warranted by personal relations, is unprofessional.
Stirring up litigation, directly or through agents. — It
is unprofessional for a lawyer to volunteer advice to
bring a lawsuit, except in rare cases, where ties of blood
relationship or trust make it his duty to do so. Not only
is stirring up strife and litigation unprofessional, but it

296 Social Duties
is disreputable in morals, contrary to public policy, and
indictable at common law. No one should be permitted
to remain in the profession who hunts up defects in
titles or other causes of action and informs thereof in
order to be employed to bring suit, or who breeds liti
gation by seeking out those with claims for personal
injuries or those having any other grounds of action,
in order to secure them as clients, or who employs agents
or runners for like purposes, or who pays or rewards,
directly or indirectly, those who bring or influence the
bringing of such cases to his office, or who remunerates
policemen, court or prison officials, physicians, hospital
attaches, or others who may succeed, under the guise of
giving disinterested friendly advice, in influencing the
criminal, the sick, and the injured, the ignorant, or others,
to seek his professional services.
Responsibility for litigation. — No lawyer is obliged to
act, either as adviser or advocate, for any person who
may wish to become his client. He has the right to
refuse retainers. Every lawyer must decide what busi
ness he will accept as counselor, what causes he will
bring into court for plaintiffs, what cases he will contest
in court for defendants. The responsibility for advising
questionable transactions, for bringing questionable suits,
for urging questionable defenses, is the lawyer's responsi
bility. He cannot escape it by urging as an excuse that
he is only following his client's instructions.
The lawyer's duty in its last analysis. — No client, cor
porate or individual, however powerful, nor any cause,
civil or political, however important, is entitled to receive,
nor should any lawyer render, any service or advice
involving disloyalty to the law whose ministers we are,
or disrespect of the judicial office, which we are bound

Duties in Relation to Government 297
to uphold, or corruption of any person or persons exer
cising a public office or private trust or deception or be
trayal of the public. When rendering any such improper
service or advice, the lawyer lays aside his robe of office,
and in his own person invites and merits stern and just
condemnation. Correspondingly, he advances the honor
of his profession and the best interests of his client when
he renders service or gives advice tending to impress
upon the client and his undertaking exact compliance
with the strictest principles of moral law. He must also
observe and advise his client to observe the statute law,
though until a statute law shall have beeiu construed and
interpreted by competent adjudication, he is free and is
entitled to advise as to its validity and as to what he
conscientiously believes to be its just meaning and extent.
But, above all, a lawyer will find his highest honor in a
deserved reputation for fidelity to private trust and to
public duty, as an honest man and as a patriotic and loyal
citizen. Finishing its report, the committee commends
for adoption the following oath of admission to
the bar as containing clearly the general principles
which should ever control the lawyer in the prac
tice of his profession :
I do solemnly swear:
I will support the constitution of the United States and
the state of  .
I will maintain the respect due to courts of justice and
judicial officers.
I will counsel and maintain only such actions, pro
ceedings, and defenses as appear to me legally debatable

298 Social Duties
and just, except the defense of a person charged with a
public offense.
I will employ for the purpose of maintaining the causes
confided in me such means only as are consistent with
truth and honor, and will never seek to mislead the
judge or jury by any artifice or false statement of fact
or law.
I will maintain the confidence and preserve inviolate
the secrets of my client, and will accept no compensation
in connection with his business except from him or with
his knowledge and approval.
I will abstain from all offensive personality, and ad
vance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a
party or witness, unless required by the justice of the
cause with which I am charged.
I will never reject, from any consideration personal to
myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, nor
delay any man's cause for lucre or malice. So help me
God. TOPICS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION
1. The class may properly take up the Constitution of
the Union and the constitutions of one or more of the
several states. These contain definitions of the chief
branches of government, the powers and duties of officers,
the rights of citizens, and express the fundamental prin
ciples of law.
2. Members of the class may find out and report what
is done by the officers of their township, school district,
city, county, state, for poor relief, for constructing and
maintaining roads, bridges, parks, and for other pur
poses not here mentioned. Interviews with policemen,
justices of the peace, township trustees, school superin-

Duties in Relation to Government 299
tendents or inspectors, councilmen, jailers, superintend
ents of poorhouses, and others, may reveal to the class
the aims, difficulties, usefulness, temptations, and defects
of public administration. Officers are made more earnest
and faithful if they are made aware that their work is
inspected; that if they are negligent they may be rebuked
and if they are faithful and efficient they will be praised
and rewarded.
REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
P. S. Reinsch, Colonial Government, and World Politics.
Alexander Johnston, History of American Politics.
Jesse Macy, Political Parties in the United States.
J. A. Woodburn, American Politics.
Charles Nordhoff, Politics for Young Americans.
F. J. Goodnow, Politics and Administration.
John Fiske, Civil Government in the United States.
A. B. Hart, Actual Government as Applied under
American Conditions.
A. W. Dunn, Community and Citizen.
Albert Shaw, Political Problems of American Develop
ment. "The American State Series," 8 vols., The Century Co.

CHAPTER XVI
SOCIAL DUTIES IN INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS 1
At first thought the ordinary modest Christian
in humble private station, remote from the diplo
matic circles of Washington, is inclined to imag
ine that affairs of international magnitude do not
concern him, that they belong to the secrets of
state, that his ignorance and lack of political in
fluence excuse him from responsibility in such
high and complicated matters. But morality has
no national boundaries, and the claims of neigh-
borliness are valid between kings and republics.
The rulers of men are servants of God and history
shows that they are better men and governors if
watched by an intelligent people who love right
eousness and hate iniquity. President Nicholas
Murray Butler has well said :
One of the chief problems of our time is to bring the
nations' minds and the nations' consciences to bear on the
moral problems involved in international relations. This
is a step in the moral education of the world.2
And at the same meeting Rear-Admiral C. F.
Goodrich stated an important truth :
1 Biblical passages which may well be read at the beginning
of this study are : Matt. 28 : 18, 19 ; Ps. 72.
2 Proceedings of Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Lake
Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration, 1907.
300

International Relations 301
When the people want peace, they will have peace ;
when they want war, they will have war, and they are
likely to want that of which most is sung and written
and spoken. The more we talk about peace, the less our
chance of war  You must labor with these gentle
men of the press, that they use their mighty powers
toward allaying race hatred and toward sweetening and
brightening international relations, that they report the
graces and virtues of men of alien blood and speech, not
their supposed defects of character, and so shall they
bring all nations of earth together in that perfect under
standing and sympathy in which war can l|ave no place.
There is not a person of intelligence so obscure
in the republic that he can escape responsibility.
Women may not vote but they have not lost the
faculty of speech, and they have much to say
about admitting or excluding newspapers of the
"yellow" sort which go screeching rumors of
war and plots to kill through streets and homes.
The tone of conversation at the fireside in rela
tion to foreigners helps to shape the phrases of
congressmen on the floor of the House at Wash
ington; for men ambitious of place are quick to
imitate the accents of the "dear people" in the
rural districts. Many a time in the past a small
clique of merchants, eager to sell goods to sav
ages or furnish munitions of war, and cabals of
capital, have involved a nation in bloodshed and
debt before the people knew why they were sud-

302 Social Duties
denly plunged into the awful maelstrom of con
flicting forces.
As in previous parts of this study we now
attempt to bring before us some of the most im
portant facts of international relations that we
may see the grounds for popular interest in these
large duties and for the formation of public senti
ment based on principles of reason and justice.
I. INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES BETWEEN PEOPLES
IN TIMES OF PEACEFUL INTERCOURSE
i. Commerce. — Men trade with each other for
mutual advantage, and each man offers the com
modities or services of his trade or profession in
return for other kinds of goods and services.
The farmer produces grain, fruits, and meat for
a market and exchanges them for the goods of the
merchant, the services of the dentist, the song
of the musician, and all parties to the exchange
are benefited by the dealings. So one nation
living in a warm climate can produce bananas,
oranges, rice, cotton, and hard, fine wood, which
it is eager to exchange for steel implements, cot
ton and woolen cloth, kitchen utensils, and
watches made by a people dwelling under colder
skies having advantage in peculiar forms of skill.
America has food supplies more than can be here
consumed, while Germany, France, Italy have

International Relations 303
fine wares which we cannot yet make so well or
so cheaply ; and those lands have collections of art
in galleries and museums which we are glad to
pay to enjoy.
Commerce, however, is often competitive, as
where Germany, France, England, and the United
States all desire to sell goods in China or Africa.
Competition gives rise to conflict of interests, and
these require settlement by treaties, agreements,
adjustments. "Tariff wars" are carried on in
times of peace, a form of retaliation* to secure a
basis for better bargains under new treaties. Just
as there is a conflict of interests between laborers
seeking the same chance to work for wages, be
tween merchants soliciting the patronage of the
village or town, between employer and employee
in dividing the product of their united efforts, so
there is conflict among competitors of different
races and lands ; and those conflicts sometimes are
carried in both instances even to bloodshed.
2. International migration gives rise to serious
problems of duty. — Our citizens desire to travel
securely in foreign lands for trade or pleasure
or health or learning. During many years this
country had vast areas of unoccupied lands which
produced nothing because there were not enough
people to till the fields and work the mines and
sail the lakes. Our ancestors came across the

304 Social Duties
ocean to improve their condition; and we are all
foreigners except the Indians, and the red men
are not "Indians." For a long time our nation
felt sure that we had "space about the hearth for
all mankind." But space does not increase and
the people of old countries swarm in limited terri
tory; the farm which supported a family will not
support five families and the children must emi
grate or starve. Persecution in Russia makes
thousands of Jews homeless and they seek a hos
pitable and tolerant shore. Ancient cities weary
of bearing with criminals and of supporting
paupers and defectives sought to relieve their
troubles by shipping these undesirable persons to
America. Are we bound to receive all that come
or are sent to us ? Even if there were room and
soil to till, we have come to believe that national
duty would lead to some measure of restriction
of immigration. Most intelligent citizens who
have considered the matter seem to reach the
conclusion that we cannot maintain our type of
life and the vigor and health of our stock if we
adulterate blood with that of degenerates im
ported from the prisons and asylums of Europe.
We believe that our best service to mankind can
not be rendered if we suffer our working people
to be dragged down to the level of the half-
starved laborers of other countries and especially

International Relations 305
if we admit debased and diseased men and women.
Further, we think that if we permit other coun
tries to ship the results of their social neglect,
excessive taxation for war and courts, low wages,
imperfect care of the poor, and free multiplica
tion of the sickly, those nations will not correct
such evils at home. So long as England could
transport her criminals she postponed the im
provement of her prisons, popular education, and
agencies of saving children and youth from vice
and ruin. When her failures were sent back she
sought to dry up the evil at its spring.
3. There are the facts of interchange of ideas,
inventions, publications, spiritual commerce of
various kinds, which give rise to treaties and
agreements. Of recent years the rights of invent
ors and discoverers have been more clearly recog
nized than formerly, and thus we have come to
admit that a man who has introduced a new idea
or written a valuable work, or invented a useful
machine or composed a piece of music, should be
protected in his property for a term of years even
if he belongs to another nation. Perhaps this
recognition arises partly from the desire to stimu
late invention by rewarding it, and partly from
the knowledge that if we do not protect the in
ventors of other nations they will not protect
ours. At any .rate we have in these relations a

306 Social Duties
field of international morality which requires
study. The class at this point should endeavor to collect and
discuss other facts relating to the intercourse between
peoples in time of peace, and try to discern what duties
they involve.
II. INTERESTS OF PEOPLES IN TIMES OF WAR
Unfortunately modern peoples have not yet
become civilized enough to cease considering the
possibilities and relations of war.
I. Occasions of war — that is of attempts at
coercion by armed force. It is almost universally
admitted that a man has a right to defend his own
life, his family, and his property against assail
ants. Perhaps we should except those who believe
in the duty of non-resistance; but there are cir
cumstances under which even a good Quaker
would not feel qualms of conscience after taking
the life of a miscreant, and where he would feel
himself a cowardly poltroon if he stood by and
permitted deeds which he might by force prevent.
And so there seem to be times when a people must
either lie down and permit a king to step upon
its neck, invade its territory, and rob its wealth,
or must arm for battle. If a foreign navy or
army should attempt to burn our cities and levy
tribute upon us, few men would hesitate to join
the army or navy. ,

International Relations 307
Invasion of foreign territory has for its object,
conquest of territory, opening of markets for
goods, revenge for injuries or insults, or "glory"
which we find it hard to define. Most of our
citizens have come to see that, while we have no
right to conquer weaker peoples for gain or to
exploit them by taxation when subdued, the
civilized nations have a right to keep up a strong
police to repress piracy, brigandage, and the mur
der of travelers and merchants in countries with
out orderly government. It is true this position
is denied by a limited number of citizens; but
the outbreak of the Spanish war showed that our
people could not endure the story of outrage in
a near country where we had power to interfere.
It seems inevitable that commerce and the ideas
of civilized nations must reach every part of the
globe, and, incidental to the process, the use of
protective police, where local government does not
exist or is inefficient, must be occasionally invoked.
It is at this point that every American citizen of
intelligence feels himself under moral obligations
to form some opinion and assume some attitude
in relation to the problems connected with our
dealings with the peoples of the Philippine
Islands, Hawaii, Guam, Cuba, and Porto Rico.
Appeals are frequently made to us to protest
against the abuses of government in Africa by

308 Social Duties
the Belgians, the British, and the Germans; and
not infrequently voices are heard condemning
the methods of British government in India.
This means that there are other ways of affecting
the actions of great powers than by direct inter
ference of a government with threat of war.
The class may well discuss the right and wrong and
the various arguments heard on the subject of "im
perialism," ''expansion," "colonies."
2. What war means. — Painters, statisticians,
and apostles of peace have vied with each other
in the attempt to make men realize what war
means. The artist depicts upon canvas the
mangled bodies, the looks of horror, fear, hate,
agony, despair. Poets and orators set forth in
language which burns into the imagination the
miseries of the soldier, the sorrows of widows
and fatherless children, the waste of harvest
fields, the burning of homes and temples, the
passions of vengeance, the feuds which remain
like smoldering embers for generations after war
has ceased. Economists tell the cost of war in
money, in cessation of useful production, in
diversion of capital and labor to the manufacture
of means of destruction; they have shown how
peaceful measures of progress, as workingmen's
insurance and old-age pensions are delayed be
cause of national expenditures upon war.

International Relations 309
3. Can war be diminished? — Moral obligations
are affected by the possibility of finding means of
remedy. Even now forces are at work among the
peoples of the earth to diminish the frequency of
war. o) Workingmen the world over are organiz
ing a sentiment adverse to war. They are awake
to the fact that little cliques of merchants, desir
ing to extend profitable trade, rings of courtiers
and ambitious kings, and officers of army and
navy eager for promotion, may plunge a nation
into scenes of bloodshed and make the wage
earners carry the cost and become "food for gun
powder" to gratify avarice or vanity. They are
aware that "glory" is often a mere cloak for
base passions of men in high place and that a
pretense of honor may easily hide most dishonor
able deeds. Hence trade unions and socialists in
Europe and America are massing their forces to
prevent conflicts of nations. They declare that
at least workingmen are brothers the world over,
and their interests are hostile to bloody methods
of settling disputes.
b) The influence of commerce is, perhaps, gen
erally in favor of peace between nations; but
sometimes merchants of an adventurous and un
scrupulous type, wishing to control a traffic with
partially civilized tribes, are known to involve

310 Social Duties
their agents in trouble with such tribes and then
call on the home government for help or even
revenge and conquest. There can hardly be a
doubt that commerce in the widest view of it tends
to call for peaceful relations.
c) Christianity, when its meaning is apprecia
ted and its spirit felt is a force working for
truth, righteousness, fair dealing, conciliation,
reason and peace. III. INTERNATIONAL LAW
International law, in a strict sense, is that body
of rules by which the civilized nations of modern
times have actually agreed to regulate their deal
ings with each other in peace and in war. This
body of rules is not identical with absolute justice;
it does not always tend to promote the welfare of
mankind, and still contains traces of the assertion
of the right of the stronger to rule the weaker
without security for the latter; and perhaps some
of the rules look more to the advantage of those
already in possession of power than to any sort
of justice. It is simply a set of precepts generally
accepted by advanced peoples for settling debated
questions between them or any of their citizens.
International law tends on the whole toward
justice, because agreements which are reached
by comparison of views by the capable representa-

International Relations 311
tives of many nations are more apt to exclude
selfish considerations than rules made arbitrarily
by a single dominant government. No body of
law of any kind is entirely just, for imperfect
humanity will show its defects of knowledge,
wisdom and character in all its institutions; but
always the spirit of reason and humanity moves
in the actual codes and modifies them in the direc
tion of the common welfare, that is toward right
eousness. All human institutions are growfng, never en
tirely finished, since they must be molded to the
changing needs of new situations; and all laws
and customs are improved by a constant process
of trial and criticism. Criticism is the process by
which higher and broader considerations of well-
being are brought to bear on the actual rule at a
given time, so as to show that it somehow falls
short of the demands of welfare and that a better
rule can be framed. This criticism is carried on
in controversies, trials, discussions by teachers
of the science, textbooks, journals of experts,
popular discussions, until it leads to a restatement
of a rule in treaties and other international agree
ments. Christianity has had a profound influence
on international law.
Christianity wrought, with its other changes, a great
change in public law. The spirit of Christian brother-

312 Social Duties
hood found its way into cabinets and camps. The citi
zen of another state or the subject of another king was
yet a brother in Christ and the barriers which separated
nations were, in part at least, thrown down. The influ
ence of the Christian church upon the public law of the
world cannot be overestimated. As soon as the brother
hood of man came to be accepted as a religious tenet, it
was inevitable that the old doctrine of the natural antipa
thy of nations should, sooner or later, disappear. In the
earliest ages the stranger had been accounted an enemy,
and even the victim of shipwreck might lawfully have
been plundered. Such barbarities fell before the gospel."
International law differs materially from other
laws. Thus the laws of a nation or of a common
wealth are framed by legislators chosen by the
methods customary in that nation or common
wealth; while the rules of international law are
merely agreements made between nations, since
there is no legislature representing various
nations and having authority to make laws gov
erning their action. Again, each nation or com
monwealth has a supreme court which defines,
interprets, and applies the laws to particular
questions as they arise; but there is no supreme
court to interpret the rules of public law whose
decisions are binding on all parties concerned.
In the case of ordinary federal or state, laws
there is some executive person or authority to
see that the laws are made effective; but there
* T. S. Woolsey, in Universal Encyclopedia.

International Relations 313
is no executive sitting over the nations and com
pelling their observance of the rules of inter
national law. The rules of public law arise out
of disputes between nations; they are defined in
treaties and interpreted by diplomacy or com
missions as occasions arise; they are enforced
only by the sense of honor, justice, and loyalty
to veracity and good faith, although they may in
the last resort be enforced by war. But war is
simply a trial of force, not of reason^
What is the relation of international law to
social duties? International law is in its essence
an effort to define the conduct most conducive
to common welfare in the relations of peoples in
peace and war; it is one chapter in the system of
thought about social duties. International law
seeks to protect the integrity of nations, the right
of each nation to its own government and to its
own way of managing its affairs, so long as it
does not trespass on others. It seeks to protect
the peaceful control of its property and territory
by each state. It defines the rights and duties of
foreigners while they are residing or traveling
among foreign peoples. It provides for diplo
matic correspondence by means of ministers, am
bassadors, consuls, as agents of states. It pro
vides for contracts and agreements in the form of
treaties.

314 Social Duties
Even when war has been declared and the
dreadful appeal to force has been sounded abroad,
still international law intervenes and seeks to
mitigate and minimize the horrors which it can
not altogether prevent. Under its beneficent rules
prisoners taken in battle must be humanely treated
in relation to food, lodging, and medical care.
Non-combatants, as women, children, the aged,
and all persons pursuing their peaceful callings
without taking up arms, are to be respected by the
soldiery in person and property. If private prop
erty is taken or destroyed, through military neces
sity, a receipt is given the owner and he is
afterward reimbursed for his losses. In former
ages of barbarism women were ravished, children
were enslaved, property was the spoil of the
conquerers, and the fury of passion was let loose
on all the inhabitants of the invaded territory.
The tendency of international law has been to
confine the carnage of battle to persons and
places actually employed in hostile acts.
On the field of battle the surgeons and nurses,
and the tents where the flag of the Red Cross
waves, are held sacred; hospitals are sanctuaries,
even in the heat of conflict. Public buildings and
works of art are not wantonly to be destroyed.
Some restraint, though not much, is placed upon
pillage and destruction in the storming of fortified

International Relations 315
places; there the ferocity and brutality of war
still reveal their true nature in excess of horrors.
Heralds from an opposing army and bearing a
flag of truce, if received, are to be treated with
respect and their lives are safe.
In the case of war with savages who do not
recognize international law, Dr. Woolsey says:
"The simple rule of humanity is all that can be
required of the civilized combatant. The parties
being unequal, and one of them ignorant, dis
trustful, and perfidious, there can be tio law of
nations to govern their intercourse." This means
that such wars should not be forced upon an
inferior people without the strongest proof of
necessity. International law seeks to regulate the treat
ment of neutral nations in time of war. "A
neutral is a state which is a friend to both the
belligerents and takes no part in the war" (Wool
sey). With the immense growth of commerce
in modern times it has become vastly important
that innocent parties should not be ruined by the
conflict of warring nations. A principle now
generally admitted is that neutral nations should
treat both fighters impartially and not be injured
in trade by acts of hostility.
It sounds almost like mockery to speak of rules
for war, that is rules for murder and slaughter,

316 Social Duties
and yet even a moderation of carnage is a gain,
perhaps a movement toward the abolition of such
bloodshed. Woolsey tells us that —
the principles of a humane and yet efficient war-code are
especially these : that war is a way of obtaining justice
when other means have failed; that it is waged between
governments; that quiet inhabitants of a country are to
be treated with humanity and with as little severity as
will allow of the effective prosecution of the conflict;
that as soon as justice can be secured, armed contest
ought to cease; and that retaliation, if necessary on
account of the inhuman or deceitful conduct of the adver
sary, cannot go to the extreme of justifying that which
is morally wrong.
For example, weapons, and missiles which in
flict agony without corresponding efficiency are
condemned. Troops employed in war must be
such only as can be kept under military discipline.
Perfidy and solicitations to commit crime are not
allowable. Military necessity admits of such de
ception as does not involve the breaking of good
faith. Men who take up arms against one an
other in public war do not cease on this account
to be moral beings, responsible to one another
and to God. Military necessity does not admit
of cruelty — that is, the infliction of suffering for
the sake of suffering or for revenge — nor of
maiming or wounding except in fight, nor of tor
ture to extort confessions. It does not admit of

International Relations 317
the use of poisons in any way, nor of the wanton
devastation of a district. It admits of deception,
but disdains acts of perfidy.
It has more than once been sneeringly declared
by cynical enemies of the nobler way that the
whole movement to secure judicial settlement of
disputes is a sign of weak sentimentalism, cow
ardice, and folly ; that the great nations will never
cease to fight when they think they have the
advantage ; that the Hague Conference, represent
ing the various governments in consideration of
methods of reducing liability to war, ended with
hypocritical talk. But there are those well en
titled to respect who take a quite different view
of this recent development of rational and judicial
agencies for avoiding appeal to brute force.
Under the leadership of members of the Society
of Friends the Lake Mohonk Conference has for
several years met and labored over a programme
of progressive action, and this was its platform
at the thirteenth annual conference on interna
tional arbitration, 1907 :
We urge as the most immediate and important action
to be taken by this second Hague Conference the fol
lowing measures : (1) a provision for stated meetings
of the Hague Conference; (2) such changes in the
Hague Court as may be necessary to establish a definite
judicial tribunal always open for the adjudication of
international questions; (3) a general arbitration treaty

318 Social Duties
for the settlement of international disputes; (4) the es
tablishment of the principle of the inviolability of inno
cent private property at sea in time of war; (5) a
declaration to the effect that there should be no armed
intervention for the collection of private claims when the
debtor nation is willing to submit such claims to arbitra
tion. We commend, in accordance with our resolution of
last year, the consideration by the Hague Conference of
a plan for the neutralization of ocean trade routes.
The Hague Conference of 1907 was not wholly
fruitless, although the advance made was not so
great as many of us might wish.
Even in regard to a purely international court supple
menting the present diplomatic body, while the details
are not settled, the foundation of such a court is now
definitely laid through the adoption by the Conference of
the underlying principle of permanent, paid judges, who
shall not be allowed to occupy any other position, as is
permitted to the present judges on the Hague list of the
court erected in 1899  As distinguished from the
present Hague Tribunal, it will be called the Hague
Court of Arbitral Justice. The first court will exist for
adjustment of political disputes; the second for those of
a more judicial nature.*
The conference of 1907 adopted the principle
of prohibiting the use of force for collection of
debts until after the justice and amount of the
debt, its time and manner of payment, and the
security to be given shall be fixed by arbitration,
if demanded by the debtor.
4 Outlook, November 9, 1907, p. 309.

International Relations 319
It is always the way of the cynic to belittle any
argument which does not make direct appeal to
force; and he asks with bitter contempt, What
is the sanction of such a court ? The sanction of
the decisions of an international court is public
opinion. Professor J. B. Moore, a high authority
on international law, said:
What sanction would there be for the enforcement of
arbitral decisions? We answer, the most efficient of all
sanctions, public opinion. It is a great mistake to sup
pose that the peace and good order of society are pre
served by the penalties prescribed in the criminal codes.
And so far as such penalties exert an influence, it is by
the disgrace attending their imposition, rather than by
the physical inconvenience that attends their infliction.
Let him who is doubtful as to the execution of the judg
ments of international arbitration, reflect upon the fact
that in most cases such judgments have been scrupulously
observed, and that in no case have nations, after having
agreed to arbitrate a dispute, gone to war about it Arbi
tration has brought peace, and "peace with honor."
He cites the advantages of a permanent court
of international arbitration: it would (1) avoid
disputes; (2) prevent popular excitements; (3)
afford opportunity for deliberation; (4) be the
means of developing international law by estab
lishing a consistent system of principles and
precedents. International opinion is the consensus of individual
opinion in the nations. The most certain way to pro-

320 Social Duties
mote obedience to the law of nations and to substitute the
power of opinion for the power of armies and navies is,
on the one hand, to foster that "decent respect to the
opinions of mankind" which found place in the great
Declaration of 1776, and, on the other hand, to spread
among the people of every country a just appreciation of
international rights and duties, and a knowledge of the
principles and rules of international law to which national
conduct ought to confirm; so that the general opinion,
whose approval or condemnation supplies the sanction for
the law, may be sound and just and worthy of respect.
There is no civilized country now which is not sensi
tive to this general opinion, none that is willing to sub
ject itself to the discredit of standing brutally on its
power to deny to other countries the benefit of recognized
rules of right conduct. The deference shown to this
international public opinion is in due proportion to a
nation's greatness and advance in civilization. The near
est approach to defiances will be found among the most
isolated and least civilized of countries, whose ignorance
of the world prevents the effect of the world's opinion;
and in every such country internal disorder, oppression,
poverty, and indebtedness mark the penalties which warn
mankind that the laws established by civilization for the
guidance of national conduct cannot be ignored with
impunity.* Our honored ambassador at the court of Berlin,
Dr. David Jayne Hill, has also said :
It has demonstrated, first of all, not only that a uni
versal congress of this character is possible, but that cer
tain great principles — or postulates of constructive action,
"Elihu Root.

International Relations 321
as we may call them — are now beyond dispute. Among
these are the propositions that peace is the normal and
war the abnormal condition of civilized nations; that the
relations of sovereign states are properly based on prin
ciples of justice, and not upon force; that really sovereign
states should have equal right before the bar of inter
national justice, independently of their size or military
strength; that disputes between governments should be
settled, as far as possible, by judicial methods, and not
by war; and that war, if inevitable, is an evil whose
disastrous consequences — especially as regards neutrals,
non-combatants, the sick and the woundfed — should by
general agreement be reduced to a minimum.1'
IV. A WORLD-WIDE POLICY OF DUTY FOR A
CHRISTIAN PEOPLE
Deeper than all law is national character of
which law is but one expression.
1. Our best protection against wrong is our
own righteousness, fairness, kindness to all men
in all relations. The most powerful means of
overcoming evil is goodness. To conquer the
heart of a man or a nation is the only enduring
conquest. To be secure in universal good-will
is the most impregnable fortress. Let me quote
the words of a soldier and statesman, Carl
Schurz :
The old Roman poet tells us that it is sweet and
glorious to die for one's country. It is noble, indeed.
But, to die on the battlefield is not the highest achieve-
6 Review of Reviews, December, 1907, p. 727.

322 Social Duties
ment of heroism. To live for a good cause, honestly,
earnestly, unselfishly, laboriously, is at least as noble and
heroic as to die for it, and usually far more difficult.
I am confident our strongest, most effective, most trust
worthy, and infinitely the cheapest coast defense will
consist in "Fort Justice," "Fort Good Sense," "Fort
Self-respect," "Fort Goodwill," and if international differ
ences really do arise, "Fort Arbitration.''
Why should not the class review the cases decided
against Canada by agreements with Great Britain and
by tribunals of arbitration, and open them up again for
reconsideration? With honorable men a debt is never
outlawed, and a legal decision which was unfair, or
which justly wounded the self-respect of a helpless per
son is never regarded as the end of debate. Why should
our great nation insist on keeping territory which belongs
to Canada merely because, under stress of danger, per
haps, or in the ignorance of her diplomatists, the mother-
country gave an adverse decision against one of her de
pendencies? It is not at all likely that Canadians will
ever bring up these settled matters again; but they can
not forget, and if we are wrong the fact that we are
strong is only a reason why we should even yield a point
for the sake of convincing our noble neighbors that we
are not mean and unscrupulous. (See the textbook, The
Story of the Canadian People, by David M. Duncan, pp.
395-404.) 2. It is the duty of the Christian ministry and
of the church everywhere to make known the
history, the principles, and the moral foundation
of the modern method of deciding international
differences by judicial methods. If ever it were

International Relations 323
proper to give the full and unquestioned sanction
of religion to duty it is here.
Long ago a Christian jurist spoke the word :
Though public tribunals do not proceed from nature,
but from the act of man, yet equity and natural reason
dictate to us that we must conform to so laudable an
institution, since it is much more decent and more con
ducive to tranquillity among men, that a matter should be
decided by a disinterested judge, than that men, under the
influence of self-love, should right themselves according
to their notions of right?
And in recent days another Christian leader,
diplomatist, scholar, and university president has
lent the authority of his name to this principle:
Let us stand before the world, prepared to defend our
selves, if need be, with our good right arms, as becomes
those who believe that there are calamities more dread
ful to a nation than war. But let us make no claim on
other nations which are not just claims. Let us show
our confidence in the justice of our demands by our will
ingness to submit to a properly constituted tribunal all
such questions as we and they agree may be proper for
submission, provided that in no case shall the question
involve our independence, or the substantial integrity of
our country.9
We may cite the words of another great uni-
* Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pads, Lib. I c. 3. i (Vol. I, p.
95). 8 President J. B. AngelL

324 Social Duties
versity leader of thought, President C. W. Eliot,
of Harvard :
Never should we advocate the extension of our insti
tutions by force of arms, either on sea or on land.
Never should we attempt to force another nation to
adopt arbitration or any other doctrine of peace 
Let us teach the children what is the rational, sober-
minded, righteous mode of settling international difficul
ties. Let us teach them that what is reasonable and
righteous between man and man should be made reason
able and righteous between nation and nation.
General U. S. Grant, whose courage and mili
tary genius are beyond question, said :
Though I have been trained a soldier, and have par
ticipated in many battles, there never was a time when,
in my opinion, some way could not have been found of
preventing the drawing of the sword. I look forward to
an epoch when a court, recognized by all nations, will
settle international differences, instead of keeping large
standing armies, as they do in Europe.
Let the church teach its congregations to pray
for peace and righteousness and that the Father
of all may hasten the day when
All men's good shall
Be each man's rule; and universal peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams across the sea,
Through all the circle of the golden year.
3. Worldwide missions. — It is not enough to
remain at home and be negatively, passively just ;

International Relations 325
we are debtors to all men, and our Lord bids us
go into all the earth and proclaim the glad tidings
to all peoples, peace and good-will through all
lands and in every tongue.
Let a certain type of socialism proclaim the
union of one class, inspired by "class conscious
ness," among all men; be it ours to take up the
fragment of truth which they assert with enthusi
asm and proclaim the union of men, not merely
the union of wage-earners. Only when men of
all races and ranks have come to be one in the
kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed shall
we have the final and enduring pledge of peace by
righteousness. REFERENCES TO LITERATURE
T. J. Lawrence, The Principles of International Law.
T. D. Woolsey, Articles on "International Law," in
Universal Cyclopedia.
Charles Sumner, oration on "The True Grandeur of
Nations." Works on international law by Wheaton, Woolsey,
Phillimore, Manning, Hallack, Bluntschli, Hall, Dana, etc.
Proceedings of the American Conference on Interna
tional Arbitration.

INDEX

INDEX

Abnormals, 200, 225
Abnormal Children, 80, 88, 225, 234
Accidents, 100, 228
Activity necessary to youth, a
Administration of cities, 160
Adulteration, food, drink, medicine 71
Agriculture, 126 ff.
Aims, social, 7
Alcohol, 70
American Health League, 152, 158
American Bar Association, 292
Amusements, 186
Angel-makers, 79
Anti-social, 200, 224
Art education, 170, 174
Assessments. See Taxation
Attendance, at school, 177
Baby-farms, 79
Bacteria, 125
Banquets, 71
Bible, inspires, 6
Birth of children, 41
Blind, 88
Body and spirit, 65
Business class, 265, 270
Calories, 69
Capital, concentration of, 242
Carnegie, A., 38, 157
Chastity, 25
Charitable relief, 59; of church, 198
ff., 224, 231
Charter, of city, 204
Charity Organization Societies, 235
Child labor, 77 ff., 106
Children, duty of parents, 43 ff.;
neglected, 77, 86; morally aban
doned, 86
Children, dependent, 233
"Christian Science " (so-called) 149
Christianity, in international law, 310,
311
Church, rural, 134; property in cities,
156; in education, 176

Church, its function, x; duties in city
life, 189 ff., in politics, 221
City, 13; structure of, 140; govern
ment, 209; control, 213
Citizens, duties of, 220
Civil marriages, 46
Civil service, reform, 216, 291
Clow, Rev. x
Communication, in cities, 142
Commerce, 302, 309
Common wealth, in cities, 154
Commandments, the great, xi
Commonwealth, 94
Commissions, 258
Consumers, influence, 243
Conversation, a power, 301
Co-operation, teachers with parents,
181
Copyright, 305
Corporations, 241
Correction, 224
Cost of living, 53
Courtship, 22
Country life, 115
Coulter, Professor J. M., 4
Courts of law, 257
Crime, in high places, 243
Criminals. See Delinquents, 200
Criminals. See Anti-Social, 224; rich,
273
Crippled Children, 87
Cruelty to Children, 80
Culture, 113; in country, 131
Death from accident, 102
Deaf, 88
Defective, 80, 86; 200; 226
Demonstration work, agriculture, 130
Depressed, classified, 108
Dependents and Delinquents, 15, 212,
229
Desertion of family, 59
Discussion, mode of learning, 4
Disease, 65, 100, 227

329

330

Social Duties

Divorce, 34 ff., 44, 47
Drink, 65
Drummond, Henry, 41
Dwellings, 61
Economic interests; in cities, 154
Education, in cities, 168, 201; by the
state, 2S1
Edwards, Jonathan, 28 (on courtship)
Efficiency, in education, 176
Epileptics, 88
Ethical code, of lawyers, 293
Evangelism, as social service, 100
Extravagance, 27
Factory laws, 6
Facts, how to find, 79
Falling in love, 26
Family, 10; National League for
Protection of, n; 22 ff.; support
of, 37; in country 131
Farm colonies, 234
Farmers, morals, 125; institutes, 136
Farm life, 115 ff.
Federation of moral forces, 136
Feeble-minded, 225
Fellowship, 170
Finances, of cities, 212
Flirting, 26
Food, 65
Fortunes, great, taxed, 38
Fortunes, large, 244
Foster, Professor G. B., 6
Foundlings, 79
Government, influence on character,
218; problems of, 277
Habitations. See Dwellings
Hague Peace Conference, 317
Harrison, FM vi
Health in home, 39; in country, 122;
boards of, 124, 127; in city, 138,
144, 158; in schools, 177; care of
state, 279. See Hygiene
Higher life, 113
Hospitals, in country, 123
Howard Associations, 200
Husband, duties, 49
Huxley, T, ix
Hygiene, to be taught, 74, 145; pub
lic, 122; 206

Idiots, 88, 225
Idle children, 00
Immigrants, and the church, 193, 304
Impoverished, 226
Individualism, 99, 139
Industrial efficiency, 96
Industrial groups, 16 {See Working-
men); 93; education, 184
Industrial Insurance, 112, 152 (in Ger
many)
Industries, organization, 241
Inebriates, 235
Infancy, 41, 79, 83
Inheritance tax, 157
Insane, 88, 225
Institutions, 9
International affairs, 15, 300; law, 310
Interstate Commerce Commission, 102
Inventions, 165
Inventions, patents on, 280
Justice, social, 24s
Juvenile Court, 44
Kern, O. J., 134
Knowledge, diffusion of, 168
Labor laws, 103
Labor contracts, 104
Lawyers, duties, 292
Legal protection, 256
Legal rights, in
Leisure class, 16, 265, 274
Liberty, 7, 119, 279
Libraries, 174
Liverpool, dwellings, 63
Love of sexes, 25
Machinery, dangerous, 100, 246
Marriage; purpose, 27; preparation
for, 31; defined, 35
Mayors, of cities, 210
Merit System, in politics, 216
Migration, 303
Milk supply, 84
Minimum wage and income standard,
53
Ministry of Political Action, 222
Missions, in cities, 104
Missions, 324
Modern problems, vii

Index

33i

Mohonk Conference 317
Monopolies, 166
Morality, defined, 17
Mothers, unmarried, 85
Municipal Research, Bureau of, 161,
163; accounts, 165, 214
Municipal activity, 162, 209; govern
ment, 204
Museums, 174
Nation, 14
National Child Labor Committee, n
National Children's Home Society, 12
Night work, 107
Nurses, visiting, 84; rural, 124
Observation of facts, 80
Officials, qualifications, 290
Opportunity, 120
Order, 7, 117, 206, 278
Organizations, 9
Packing houses, 73
Parents' associations, 181
Parties, in city politics, 218
Patent medicines, 74
Peace, 301
Philanthropy and labor, 97; of church,
196
Physical needs, 7
Play, educational, 90, 186
Playgrounds, 90
Police, rural, 118; city, 211
Political life, 202
Postal Department, U. S., 165 280
Poverty, 227
Preparation for marriage, 31
Principles of care of children, 83
Prisoners, 200
Property, rights and duties, vi
Protection of workmen, 100; in cities,
143
Public opinion, 255
Public ownership, 258
Public schools, 169
Public utilities, 161
Publicity, 253
Pure-food laws, 73
Registration of Marriages, 46
Relief. See Charity

Religion, and life, 6, 189
Revenue, 282
Rich people, attitude of church, 201
Roosevelt, T., 101
Rural community, 12, 115
Sage Fund, 81
Saloons, 105
Sanitation, 159, 207
Science, economic value of, 1 28 ;
aided by state, 280
Schools. See Education, 172, 208, 211
Schools, rural, 132
Schools, parochial, 173
Secret marriages, 45
Security. See Order, social
Service, of the state, 290
Settlements, 1827192
Sexual hygiene, 146
Shaftesbury, Earl, 108
Shakespeare, Tempest, ProsPero, 29
Sickness. See Disease
Sociability, 39
Socialism, 265
Social policy, g6
Spiritual needs, 7
Spoils system, in politics, 216
Stables, condition, 125
Standard of life, 54 ff.
Standards of precision, 143
State government, 204; supervision,
236
Street trades, 107
Sunday Schools, revolt of youth, 2
Support of family, 58
Swedenborg, 6
Tariff, 283, 303
Taxation, 155, 157, 183, 251, 283
Temptations, 230; of children of rich,
275
Tennyson; King Arthur, 25
Tests, of school work, i77-79
Theatres, 174
Trades, teaching, 185
Transportation, in cities, 141, 279
Trial marriages, 31, 40
Truck payments, 105
Truth, new, 168

332

Social Duties

Tuberculosis, 125, 151, 228
Unemployed, 229
Vacation schools, 185
Vaccination, 125
Values, highest, 18
Vicious, 229
Voit, standard of food, 69
Wages, 104
Wage-earners, 60, 201
Wants, human, 7
War 306

Wealth, social control of, 249
Welfare, conditions, 7
Wilson, Bishop, 6
Women, influence of, 31; working,
107
Workingmen, 93 ff.; opposed to war,
309. See Industrial group and
Wage-earners
World-wide policy for Christians, 321
Young Men's Christian Association,
191
Youth, its problems, 1

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