USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Extracts from the minutes of the yearly meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia, 1921 > Part 7
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To a considerable extent all these considerations have operated in the past, especially in our schools, and we fear that they still dictate the prevailing practice.
Although we fully recognize the pressure resting upon the committees which control the financial policy of these institutions, we hope they will not satisfy themselves with paying current salaries and wages, but will try to as- certain what remuneration is actually needed to enable the various employees to live in that degree of comfort which is suitable to each group, remembering the intel- lectual and social needs not only of the cultured helpers, but of all the rest as well. We trust they will endeavor to determine what are reasonable hours of work and not let them be the greatest which experience shows the workers can endure. In providing housing and rooming accommo- dations let the real needs of the situation determine what shall be given. Let there be a chance to satisfy the natural craving for privacy and a home, and let everything tend to elevate the occupants.
We are aware that all this will require a greater outlay of money, but we are sure that the Friends of Philadel- phia Yearly Meeting do not desire that those who serve them in any capacity shall be underpaid or overworked, and that in one way or another they will see that sufficient means are provided for a generous and enlightened policy.
It will be in accord with the practice of many thought- ful employers to give the teachers and other workers some voice in the management of the institution.
If those considerations have any merit with reference to our corporate responsibility as a Yearly Meeting, they should command also our serious thought respecting our individual duties, especially as employers and stockhold- ers. Are we utilizing to the full the opportunities of our individual positions to help upward those who through no fault of their own have a less favored situation in the business world and in society?
To make the principles and spirit of the New Testament effective in industry and social life is not a short or easy task. But remembering the love which Jesus Christ bore and taught towards all men, let us set ourselves
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earnestly to this purpose. We shall need to seek God's guidance and learn more fully of the problems and of what may be done.
As an immediate step in this direction, we recommend that the Yearly Meeting address the following Queries to the subordinate meetings with the request that answers to them be sent up to the Yearly Meeting next year in the same manner as in the case of the regular Queries. These special Queries are suggested for the ensuing year only.
We suggest also that the first of these Queries be trans- mitted for consideration to the Yearly Meeting Commit- tees having charge of schools or other institutions and that they be asked to bear this concern in mind during the year.
The recommended Queries are:
1 .- Where schools or other institutions are under our care, are we watchful to fulfil our whole responsibility to those whom we employ, from managers and teachers to manual workers? Do all such persons have enough compensation and leisure to enable them to develop them- selves for the fullest service of which they are capable? Would it be desirable to make provision for our teachers to have greater representation at meetings of our com- mittees of management?
2. Are we, as employers and stockholders, mindful that (as the name of our Society suggests) we are called to be friends and brothers of all men, and are we vitally concerned that the conditions of work of those in our employ should be such as we would desire for our own brothers and sisters? Are we earnestly endeavoring to secure for our employees the wages and the leisure that will be sufficient for the comfort, education and full de- velopment of themselves and their families, to free them from the distresses of unemployment, and to give them opportunity for self-development in their work? In order to provide these advantages, are we willing, if necessary, to simplify our own lives, and accept smaller financial returns for ourselves?
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REVIEW OF ACTIVITIES.
General Social Order Committee:
The Social Order Committee has held regular monthly meetings throughout the year, with the exception of Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Months. These meetings have been well attended by the Committee members. As our custom has been, the winter's work was opened by a two to three days' conference. The officers of the Committee during the year have been: Chairman and Treasurer-Bernard G. Waring; Secretary-Morris E. Leeds; General Secretary-Edward W. Evans.
We have regretted to lose, by resignation, three members of the Committee. Eight new members have been added : these are Elizabeth H. Bacon, Ellen S. Brinton, Paul M. Cope, C. Willis Edgerton, Mary T. Haines, Rebecca Carter Nicholson, James G. Vail and Edward L. Webster. Mary B. Goodhue, a member of Baltimore Yearly Meet- ing now studying at Bryn Mawr College, has been asked to meet regularly with the Committee.
The Committee's expenses for the year ending Tenth Month 1, 1920, were about $1450. At the beginning of the new fiscal year, it was felt desirable to centralize the clerical work of the Groups in the main office, and to em- ploy a full-time assistant for stenographic and secretarial work. These changes increased our budget for the current fiscal year to the estimated amount of $3000. Our ex- penses have been met, as heretofore, by the contributions of interested Friends whose support and interest we gratefully acknowledge.
The Conference of All Friends, held in London in Eighth Month, was of special interest to our Committee, particu- larly the sessions dealing with problems of the social order. . The Statement of the Conference on these ques- tions embodied in its Minute 27 was printed by our Com- mittee and distributed to some 2200 members of the Yearly Meeting; it was also sent to our affiliated Groups with the request that their discussions be conducted in the spirit which it expresses.
The Committee was more directly connected with the
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Conference on social problems held at Oxford, England, immediately after the Conference of All Friends. The Oxford Conference was arranged by the Committee on War and the Social Order of London Yearly Meeting. Our Committee co-operated in bringing the Conference to the attention of American Friends and several of our members made short addresses. As a result of this Con- ference, a Committee was appointed by the American Friends present to carry on the work among Friends in this country.
Six special Groups have been carrying on work during the year in particular fields in conjunction with the General Committee.
Business Problems Group:
The Business Problems Group is composed of 101 mem- bers most of whom are employers or connected with em- ployment problems. The Group has held six meetings during the year. At the first meeting this winter, Edward W. Evans described his visits to the plants of certain British Friends and one or two others, and D. Robert Yarnall spoke of industrial conditions in Germany and Central Europe. The subjects and speakers at other meetings have been: "The Operation of the Rochester Clothing Industry Agreement," by William M. Leiserson, Impartial Chairman of the Labor Adjustment Board of the Rochester Clothing Industry; "Unemployment," by John B. Andrews, Secretary of the Association for Labor Legislation, and Morris L. Cooke, Consulting Engineer; "The Industrial Mix-up and 'Some Ways Out," by Whiting Williams, author of "What is on the Worker's Mind?" The meeting on Third Month 22nd was addressed by Henry S. Dennison, President of the Dennison Manu- facturing Company, well known for its progressive plans for employees' participation in profits and management.
Farmers Group
The Farmers Group has a membership of sixty-two. The chief undertaking of this Group during the year has been a Farm Survey carried on in co-operation with the Inter-
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church World Movement, which furnished an investigator to determine wages, living conditions, and reasonable living requirements of farm laborers. The Survey covered nearly 100 farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, some of which are owned by non-Friends. The Report of the Survey has been given consideration by the Farmers Group at meetings this winter. One specific result, interesting though small, was the establishment of a summer school for the children of Italian farm workers at Cinnaminson, carried on by three teachers paid by the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions.
Property Group
The Property Group of eleven members has given its main efforts to a study of the railroad situation in the United States and has prepared a paper on the subject which it proposes to publish if practicable.
Women's Problems Group:
The Women's Problems Group, with 242 members on its list, has held four meetings during the winter. The sub- jects and speakers at these meetings have been "The Training of Young Children for the New Social Order," by Hugh Hartshorne of Union Theological Seminary; "Household Problems and Child Training," dealt with by five members of the Group; "Co-operation, " by Mary C. Stengel of the Benjamin Franklin Co-operative As- sociation, and "The Purchase of Food," by Jennie G. Hammitt, of Wilmington. At the final meeting, Dorothy Canfield Fisher gave an inspiring address on the training of children in which she contrasted the many advantages and resources possessed by the modern mother with the limitations of our grandparents in such respects.
Educators' Group:
The Educators' Group consists of sixty-five teachers engaged in schools and colleges carried on by Friends. One of the meetings last spring which was especially in- teresting dealt with the problem of teaching Friends' principles in schools. This was exceptionally well presented
+
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by Anna Pettit Broomell. Other meetings, held this winter, have considered the following subjects: "Some Impressions of English Schools," by Irvin C. Poley; " Religion and Social Theory," by Walter W. Haviland; "The Teaching of Democracy in the Secondary Schools," by Gertrude R. Sherer; "Human Relationships-A New Emphasis in Education," by Agnes L. Tierney.
Social Workers' Group:
The Social Workers' Group, composed of twenty-three members engaged in social work or having had experience in such service, has devoted itself mainly to two tasks. It has prepared a Census of the membership of this Yearly Meeting, classifying our members according to occupations and showing the number in each class. This Census has been published in The Friend. The Group has also made a Survey of charities in and near Philadelphia under the management of Friends; it has presented to the General Committee an interesting Report on this subject.
Extension Committee:
The Extension Committee has been the agency of the General Committee for carrying on educational work through meetings and the use of literature. This winter the work has been conducted in conjunction with Friends of the Fifteenth and Race Streets Meeting; the five mem- bers of our Extension Committee combining with five Friends appointed by the Peace and Service Committee of the Fifteenth and Race Streets Meeting. The joint committee is known as the Social Order Extension Com- mittee of Philadelphia Friends. Two lectures in Phila- delphia have been held, as follows: One in Twelfth Month, "The European Revolutions-Their Meaning for Ameri- cans," by Lincoln Steffens; and one in Second Month, by Whiting Williams, following his address at the meeting of the Business Problems Group.
Effort has been made to bring useful books and pam- phlets to the attention of Friends. A leaflet describing a few books and pamphlets has been prepared, and at recent Quarterly Meetings literature tables have been
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arranged at which Friends can inspect and purchase recent books on subjects which challenge Christian thought. Articles have been inserted from time to time in The Friend, and sent also to The Friends' Intelligencer and The American Friend.
A letter has been sent out addressed to groups of Friends in both branches in various localities near Philadelphia, calling attention to the Statement on Social and Industrial Life, issued by the All Friends' Conference, and inquiring whether meetings, study groups, reading circles, or forums, might be arranged in the various places. This letter went to groups of Friends in fifty-six different localities including about 180 individuals.
A number of local meetings have been held at which subjects in our field of work have been presented. At most of these, the speakers have been members of our Committee. The localities where these meetings have taken place include New Garden, London Grove, Kennett Square, Wilmington, Swarthmore, Coatesville, Morris- ville, Haddonfield and Moorestown. .. The Social Order Committee of Haverford Monthly Meeting arranged for speakers at eight meetings of the Christian Forum held in the Haverford Meeting House on First-day mornings during First and Second Months.
Signed on behalf of the Social Order Committee.
BERNARD G. WARING, MORRIS E. LEEDS, EDWARD W. EVANS.
PHILADELPHIA, Third Month 25, 1921.
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REPORT
OF THE CHARLES L. WILLITS COMMITTEE FOR THE DISTRIBU- TION OF RELIGIOUS AND MORAL LITERATURE AMONG COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES AND LIBERIA.
To the Representative Meeting :-
The Charles L. Willits Committee has continued to publish the African's Friend during the past year. The Representative Meeting authorized one hundred dollars to be paid from its Treasury to help defray the increased cost of printing. It was decided to issue an eight-page paper, quarterly, beginning Fourth Month 1, 1920, until such time as the funds will warrant more frequent issues.
The Committee was informed of three individuals who expected to visit Liberia; they were furnished with mail- ing lists of the African's Friend so that they might revise the list to include some who may not now be reached and other names omitted where no longer beneficial.
In the Southern States the interest in receiving the paper is increasing beyond the means to satisfy the de- mand, as but one-half of the fund can be used there. In Liberia, however, the situation appears different; there, books suitable for teaching purposes would be more ap- preciated.
The Committee hopes to investigate conditions there more fully as to the needs which might be met under the very limited range stated in the will of Charles L. Willits.
On behalf of the Committee.
WILLIAM BISHOP, Clerk.
PHILADELPHIA, Second Month 14, 1921.
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REPORT
OF COMMITTEE ON RECORDS AND CHANGES IN MEMBERSHIP.
To the Representative Meeting :--
The Committee on Records and Changes in Member- ship made a report, accompanying it with the usual tabulated statement in regard to membership statistics.
Particular attention was called to the fact that the death rate. of members of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is far in excess of the births.
The two papers are as follows:
Our report last year gave 4,45 1 as the total membership. Corrections made by two recorders, indicate that the total should have been 4,457, which is the membership assumed in this report.
The changes have been:
Gains-
Births. 33
Certificates 114
Requests. 35
Losses- 182
Deaths .
85
Certificates . 80
Resignations 12
Disowned or dropped. I
178
Apparent gain for the year-4.
Membership Twelfth Month 1, 1920, 4,461.
Signed on behalf and by direction of the Committee on Records and Changes in Membership.
WATSON W. DEWEES,
Clerk.
PHILADELPHIA, Third Month 25, 1921.
TABULATED STATEMENT showing the changes in membership in the different Monthly Meetings for the year ending Twelfth Month 1, 1920:
MONTHLY MEETINGS.
TOTALS
Births
Certificates
Requests
Deaths
Certificates
Resignations
Dis'd or Drop'd
Net Gain
Net Loss
Twelfth Month 1, 1920
Adult-Males
Adult-Females
Minors
Philadelphia
|| 303| 2|
3| 5|| 7|11| 1| ||
| 9| 294| 111| 135|
48
Phila. West. Dist.
573| 2|
6| 9|| 10|10| 2| 1||
| 6| 567| 217| 245|
105
Muncy
112|
1|
3| 2|
1
| 4|108
37
48
23
Haverford
| 226| 2|
2| 1||
1| 6| 1|
| 3| 223|
82|
85
56
Totals for Quarter
||1214]
I
1.
1192|
447| 513| 232
Abington
17| 1|
| 1||
2|
17
4|
ยท 7|
6
Frankford
87
3| 4|
N
80
48|
21
11
Gwynedd
46
46
14
22
10
Germantown
497| 2| 10| 3| 7| 3| 2|
3|
6.43|
236| 240| 167
Chester, Pa.
263| 5| 10| 5||
5| 7|
8|
271|
79| 130|
62
Goshen
44
44
15
19
10
Concord
29
1
1|
28
10|
12|
6
Wilmington
84| 2|
1|
1|
2
84
31
35
18
Birmingham
277| 3|
7|
7|13
10| 267|
71|
149|
52
Lansdowne
187| 1|
1||
3| 5|
6| 181|
56
60
65
Westtown
2| 57| 2||
61
61
14
21
26
Totals for Quarter
11
884
936| 276
421|
239
Caln Quar.
Bradford
153| 1|
|4|| 2|1|1|
1|
154|
66
57
31
Uwchlan
II
42
| 5| !/
3|
2|
44
15
19
10
Totals for Quarter
195
198|
81
76
41
Kennett
85|
1|
1|
85|
37
33
15
New Garden
165| 1|
| 1|
1| 6| 1|
| 6| 159|
67
68|
24
London Grove
38|
1| 1|
2|
36
12
11
13
Totals for Quarter
288
280|
116|
112
62
Burlington
90|
2|
3|
1|
89|
36
41|
12
Chesterfield
60
60|
25|
22
13
U. Springfield
19
2
2|
17
8|
5
4
Falls
132| 1|
1|
2
132|
41
50
41
Haddonfield
204
7| 7|1|
|15| 189|
60
86/
43
Chester, N. J.
431| 5| 7| 2||
8| 3| 1|
2|
433|
121|
182| 130
Evesham
56
3
| 3|
53
19|
23
11
U. Evesham
163|
1| 1||
3|
| 1|
162|
57
57
48
Woodbury
50| 3|
3|
53|
19
22|
12
Salem
24
1
24
6
7|
11
Totals for Quarter
|| 928
914| 282| 377| 255
TOTALS
(4457|33(114|35|| 85|80|12| 1|| 80|76|4461|1548|1857|1056
Burlington and Bucks
Totals for Quarter
301|
298|
110| 118|
70
Haddonfield and Salem
Twelfth Month 1, 1919
GAINS
LOSSES
TOTALS
Phila. Quarter
Abington Quarter
Totals for Quarter
647
500| 170| 190|
140
Concord Quarter
Western| Quarter!
Apparent gain for the year, 4. Membership Twelfth Month 1, 1920, 4461.
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REPORT
OF THE BOOK COMMITTEE.
To the Representative Meeting :-
The Book Committee conceives that its most import- ant duties at present are to spread among thoughtful people everywhere those aspects of the Truth which it has been granted to Friends to see with especial clearness, and to stimulate in our own members an interest in read- ing such religious and other good books as will really build us up as individuals and as a society.
In the distribution of literature we may report that carefully selected packages of books have been sent to individual schools or other institutions in Jamaica, Mexi- co, Africa, India, China, Japan, as well as to places in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Michigan and Alabama. Friends' books were also given to the Oberlin (Ohio) College Library, to ten theological schools in this country, and arrangements have been made to co-operate with English and other Friends in placing a representative set of Friends' books in the various universities of Ger- many, to meet in some measure the interest in Quakerism created by the relief work Friends have been doing there. Small gifts of books have been made to a number of young married couples, which will form a solid nucleus for the volumes later to be collected in the newly-established homes, and the appreciation of the recipients has been encouraging.
In addition to the above, we have financed the publi- cation in Korea of several pamphlets, in the native lan- guage, of the lives of George Fox, William Penn, Stephen Grellet, and some others, at the request of the General Secretary of The Christian Literature Society of Korea, who wished to have concrete illustrations of how Chris- tianity works out in individual lives. Five thousand
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copies of the Message to Friends and Fellow-seekers issued by the 1920 All-Friends' Conference, translated into Spanish, are being circulated, largely in Mexico. In Ger- many we have been responsible for the following pam- phlets in German: Ten thousand copies of "Friends and War," the new statement of the Quaker position on war, adopted by the London Conference, two thousand copies of Max 1. Reich's "Echo and Voice," and ten thousand copies of Rufus M. Jones' Swarthmore Lecture, "Quaker- ism : A Religion of Life," referred to in our report one year ago as in preparation.
In the matter of new publications very little has been attempted this year, as costs of labor and material have been almost prohibitive. The fifth volume of the Penns- bury Series, Rufus M. Jones' "A Service of Love in War Time," appeared last spring and it will in all probability remain as the chief record of the unusual opportunity that came to our Friends during the great war. Of the five numbers of the Pennsbury Series, 490 volumes have been sold during the year. The Rotary Fund contributed by interested Friends for financing this series has received additions to the amount of $1,062.50, and it is hoped that additional volumes may be published later.
The bi-centenary in 1920 of the birth of John Woolman was the occasion for issuing a twenty-four page study of the life of that ancient and modern worthy, under the title of "John Woolman: A Pioneer in Labor Reform." of which many hundred copies have been distributed, car- rying the lesson of the life of that apostle of pure-hearted- ness and practical Christian love.
The stimulating effects of the London A|l-Friends'Con- ference last summer are being felt here in the attitude toward Friends' literature as well as in other ways. The activity of English Friends in writing books and pamphlets, and their wide-spread habit of reading religious and other good books made a deep impression on the American visitors, who came home more than ever convinced that the development of the habit of thoughtful reading is not only desirable but is essential for the real growth of any; body of Friends.
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One of the practical results of the close association with English Friends last summer has been the formation,by the various Friends' book committees and bookstores in this country, of an American Friends' Literature Council of which our Secretary is the head. This is to act as a clearing-house for information about Quaker publications, to co-operate in the production and spread of such lit- erature and to keep in close touch with the similar organi- zation in London. It is believed that this move will not only bind Friends in England and in this country more closely together, but that it will prove a strength to all concerned.
The Book Store at Fourth and Arch Streets has con- tinued its work as heretofore. Apparently it has put into circulation as many of the standard Friends' writings as at any time in recent years and it has also handled some hundreds of copies of the more recent Quaker publications and other good books. An increasing number of Friends are using its facilities as a general book store and it is gradually learning to give the service which it is our de- sire to furnish. The output for the year has been 2,693 volumes and 2,841 pamphlets, and the total receipts were $2,686.81. The pamphlets and booklets for use abroad, in addition to those which passed through the Book Store, make a total circulation of such literature of about 30,000 copies.
At the last session of the various Quarterly Meetings our Secretary called the attention of Friends to the im- portance of the practice of careful, serious reading, and it is desirable that committees be appointed in the Quar- terly Meetings to encourage the circulation and reading of good books.
One year ago at the time of Yearly Meeting, book talks were arranged at the Arch Street Centre on two of the afternoons. One was by Anna C. Evans on some in- teresting new books worth knowing, the other by the late Allen C. Thomas, at that time the veteran librarian of Haverford College. Professor Thomas gave a most in- teresting talk on important Friends' books, old and new, presenting the topic with freshness and a breadth of
101
knowledge of Quaker literature that delighted his hearers. We are glad to keep in mind this last contribution of one who was so staunch a Friend and who was acquainted with Friends' literature as are few now living.
At the time of the approaching Yearly Meeting, a table in the lobby is to be loaded with the treasures of Quaker literature, old and new, and we would urge Friends from all parts to devote a few minutes' time to seeing what is there and to carry home with them a book, a pamphlet, or even just a leaflet as food for fresh thought. Only by habitual reading and thinking of things that are worth while can a lay body like the Society of Friends hold up a high standard of intellectual and spiritual life.
For the Committee.
WM. F. WICKERSHAM, Clerk. PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Third Month 18, 1921.
102
REPORT
OF YEARLY MEETING SECRETARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
To the Representative Meeting :-
The Committee in charge of the Secretary's office, in reviewing the work of the past year, finds a healthy growth along many lines. Our Secretary, William B. Harvey, has been closely occupied with his increasing duties, among which we note the co-operation with English Friends in the spread of literature, a rapidly growing work, also the attention to Federal and State legislation, the work in connection with various committees and with subordinate meetings, also many Conferences and a large amount of correspondence on matters at home and abroad, by which the office, in addition to its other duties, has become a Bureau of Information for Friends and the pub- lic generally.
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