USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Extracts from the minutes of the yearly meeting of Friends held in Philadelphia, 1923 > Part 7
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Preparation for Life's Greatest Business What is The Christian Faith? The Faith To Live By Family Bible Reading
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The Power of His Resurrection Why Read or Study the Bible ? Friendship
During the first year of our appointment our work was financed primarily with funds supplied by the Book Com- mittee and five hundred dollars granted from the Treasury of the Yearly Meeting and supplemented by the gifts from a few interested Friends. During the year just closing we have depended almost entirely upon donations from those interested in our work amounting to $4,754.50 to which were added a two hundred and fifty dollar grant from the Book Committee and fifty dollars from the Book Association of Friends toward the purchase of 1000 vol- umes of Christian Life, Faith and Thought, being volume 1 of the Book of Discipline of London Yearly Meeting. The total receipts from all sources have been $5,054.50; balance on hand, $276.13.
The devoted service of our Yearly Meeting Secretary has tended greatly to efficiency and economy in forwarding our work.
If our Committee is re-appointed, we ask for no Yearly Meeting appropriation, but for a continued and increased interest of our membership generally, which we hope will result in a more wide spread and greater financial support.
Our activities seem small compared with the increasing opportunities before us in this Country, and as yet we have done but little in foreign lands.
As we view the world's conditions with its moral break- down we are again impressed with the words presented at the time of the appointment of this Committee ;
"Christianity is the hope of mankind. Nothing can save the world but the Saviour of the World. Nothing can permanently stabilize it but the religion revealed through Jesus Christ."
On behalf of the Committee,
JAMES M. MOON, Chairman.
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Report of the Committee on Race Relations for 1922-1923
Your Committee on Race Relations has no fixed dates tor meeting, but convenes at the call of the chairman when there is business of interest or importance to claim our attention. Despite our rather infrequent gatherings, we believe that such a committee is of value, as it brings to- gether for helpful discussion a group of people strongly interested in one of the great problems of our day. The fact that we approach it from somewhat different angles we believe gives a certain breadth to our viewpoint, and we hope that our usefulness to the Yearly Meeting may grow and should be glad to have our committee continued.
There are several sub-committees reporting, but the most of our work is done individually. Our members have spoken to two Negro audiences at Newport, R. I., to one in Philadelphia, to one at Moorestown, N. J., and one at Atlantic City ; to a Friends' group at Haverford and West Grove, to each one of the Quarterly Meetings of this Yearly. Meeting; to two Friends' Meetings at Richmond, Indiana, as well as to a Women's Federated Missionary group, a Colored Community Centre, a com- bined Inter-Racial and Fellowship of Reconcilation sup- per meeting and the student body and faculty of Earlham College, all, also of Richmond, Indiana.
One of our members closely in touch with the Negro section of Philadelphia, tells of terrible housing condi- tions, and of her discovery of a family of four living in one room with three boarders, seven in all, consisting of an old grandmother, her daughter and two children, two young men and a young woman. The Society for the Protection of Children was applied to, and gave prompt assistance. One First-day evening she also found a large audience of Negroes witnessing a boxing match between
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members of their race. She paused and looked over the crowd and soon the boxing stopped, and the people quietly vanished in all directions. Later in the evening an earn- est and helpful gospel meeting was held there in the street with the Negroes of the vicinity, led and addressed by her.
Through other members, the committee has indirectly come into contact with the aspiring, restless, radical Negro of our day, dissatisfied with almost all the conditions of his surroundings, critical and suspicious of earnest efforts for his help, and leading large numbers of his people to share his bitterness and his suspicions.
Three of the committee enjoyed the great privilege of attending the annual meeting of the Commission on Inter- Racial Co-operation in the Southern States, held at Blue Ridge, N. C. It was inspiring to hear and see this splendid group of white and colored men and women, representing all but one of our Southern States. They are facing their difficult problem with much earnestness and courage, and despite many difficulties, the few years of their existence have shown a strong and enlightened growth. One of the Negroes present, a prominent leader of his race, said with much emotion that he had heard and seen things at that conference that he never expected to hear and see in his lifetime, and that he felt a new heaven and a new earth had opened before him.
The committee has started among its members a small circulating library, made up of some of the interesting current literature written by members of both races. Names of such books will be gladly supplied to interested readers by our secretary, Edith A. Hoopes.
We realize keenly that the subject of right race relations cannot be adequately dealt with by a small committee, but that realization of individual responsibility should rest with each one of us, for each has some contact with the colored race. As Friends, we should earnestly endeavor to make these contacts those of a true follower of Christ, for out of the sum of them all grows the general feeling of bitter- ness or good-will. Friends, the opportunities are at our
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very doors ; there are always the poor and discouraged to whom a friendly visit and a cheery word are helpful, and at the other end of the scale is the group before mentioned -intelligent, educated, keenly sensitive, suspicious of the white race, needing to be approached with utmost tact and patience and wisdom, and in the Spirit of Christ; also with a full realization of the part played by our own race in laying this problem upon our land-this problem so fraught with sorrow and tragedy that we must indeed stand with bowed heads and very humble hearts in con- templation of its magnitude. All along the line between these two groups are types and varieties and conditions, each needing to understand and to be understood by its white fellow citizens for the mutual help of both.
A· highly educated colored teacher sent to one of our committee this message : "Tell the Friends not to give up my race, we are an excitable people and we need the quieting influence of the Friends."
May we whole-heartedly strive to meet this need and to answer this call !
Signed in behalf of the Committee,
ESTHER MORTON SMITH, Chairman.
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Report of Visitation Committee
To the Yearly Meeting:
. At our last Yearly Meeting the condition of many of our small meetings claimed the serious attention of the Body and the Extension Committee was directed to nomi- nate to the Representative Meeting for its approval, Friends to visit any or all of our meetings and to appoint meetings for Divine Worship.
Accordingly, fifty-three Friends representing all the Quarterly Meetings were appointed, and met soon after- . ward, not only promptly to get under the weight of the service laid upon them, but also to be ready to attend the Quarterly Meetings held in Fifth Month.
We are cautioned to make our reports brief, but it is not easy to give even a summary of the exercises and labors of so large a group.
Three lines of service claimed our attention :
1. The Visitation of Quarterly, Monthly and Particular Meetings.
2. Appointed Meetings.
3. The study of conditions in our Meetings.
At present there are in our Yearly Meeting seven Quar- terly Meetings, thirty Monthly Meetings and forty-eight Meetings held on First Day; the large majority of these also hold week-day meetings for worship. There are ten closed Meeting Houses still owned by us where occasional appointed meetings are held; though the fact of closed meeting houses is not necessarily a wholly discouraging feature, in the light of the growth of other meetings. There are sixty-two recorded ministers : thirty of these are grouped around six of our large city or suburban meet- ings, and in many of our smaller meetings there is no resident minister, and little vocal service.
In the aggregate we find from reports from nearly all members of the Committee, that seventy-seven visits have been made to Quarterly Meetings, other than those to
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which said members belong ; forty-four to Monthly Meet- ings, four hundred sixty to Particular Meetings and one hundred three to Appointed Meetings for Worship or Conferences.
With these facts before us we would report that all our Quarterly and Particular Meetings have been attended. In the spirit of love, sympathy and helpfulness, we have endeavored to enter into the problems and responsibilities of the meetings and members.
Appointed Meetings have been held one or more times in Pennsylvania at Exeter, Maiden Creek, Millville, Pennsdale, Marshallton, London Britain, New Garden, Norristown, and in New Jersey at Atlantic City, Arney's Mount, Burlington and Crosswicks.
In addition to these, many Appointed Meetings have been held during the year under the auspices of Quarterly Meeting and other Committees.
As a Religious Society we have a grave responsibility to our members and to our neighbors-and in this spirit we would give expression to some of the deep concerns and exercises that have arisen in our hearts.
We believe that there is much to encourage, in that many of our young Friends are quite alive to the importance of upholding the standards of Quakerism throughout our borders, but we feel the loss of a certain shepherding of the flock by concerned Friends who, in years gone by, under a sense of Divine Guidance went throughout our meetings, for the strengthening of the life and growth therein.
We have some large meetings and we have small meet- ings, but there are some of our members who are so far distant from any meeting that they cease to feel their re- sponsibility. May we not advise Friends, especially our younger ones, that in establishing their homes, they may, so far as it is possible, do so near one of our Meeting Houses.
We would also encourage our members to start new meetings where there is a small group of resident Friends, rather than retain their membership in a distant meeting-
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or to remove their certificates to a small meeting and give their strength and influence to neighborhoods where they are so much needed.
Where there is but little ministry in our meetings, there is the same need of responsibility for spiritual exercise, either vocal or silent, on the part of the whole member- ship; there is needed, too, a willingness to go forth in a ministry of service to the brethren.
We would that our members might be more fully alive to the opportunities afforded by First-day schools and Bible classes in our small meetings. They tend not only to keep our members interested in religious life but are an influence for good in the neighborhood.
We feel that we have been helped spiritually in the exercise of the service which we have endeavored to per- form.
We would encourage our members to reach out to oth- ers, and by invitations through signs of welcome outside our Meeting Houses and by cordial greetings inside, make them feel at home with us.
As a religious Fellowship within the Church Universal, we need to rededicate ourselves to the task of evangelism, of winning souls to Christ Jesus, with a renewed sense of responsibility, not only for the Society of Friends but for the Kingdom of God; we ought to feel the need for self-examination to fit us for service and to deepen us in spiritual life.
We have a deep yearning that the life and love of our Saviour may be burned into the conscious experience of our members of all ages, and that, if the Yearly Meeting continues us in service another year, many may come for- ward to assist in the upbuilding of His Kingdom through the Gospel Message that the Society of Friends still has for a sin sick and war ridden but seeking World.
On behalf and by direction of the Committee.
PAUL D. I. MAIER, Chairman.
PHILADELPHIA, Third Month 13, 1923.
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Report of Advisory Committee, Secretary's Office
The Committee in charge of the Secretary's office report a year of increasing activity and growth in the work. A more general use is made of the office both as a bureau of information and in other ways. Our English Friends also make use of it and we are pleased to note an increased interchange in various ways between London and Phila- delphia resulting in a more efficient co-operation between us. Our Secretary has kept in touch with Federal and State legislation and in that service has traveled to Wash- ington, Harrisburg and other points in various interests, besides attending a number of Conferences either as a delegate of the Yearly Meeting or in a semi-official capac- ity, and has also taken a large part in arranging for pro- grams, transportation, etc., for English and American Friends.
The Extension Committee has claimed an increasing amount of time in distributing some 400,000 Pennsbury leaflets during the year and in the work of other depart- ments.
The American Friends' Service Committee and its subordinates have also had frequent claims on his time.
The increasing growth of the business of the Book Store is due in part to the faithful labors of our Secretary and there is a wide field for spreading the influence and the usefulness of this department of the Yearly Meeting.
The expenses of the Secretary's office have amounted to about $4,000, which is $640 less than the amount allotted to it by our budget made up last year.
We submit the attached tentative budget for the Secre- tary's office and for the Book Store for the fiscal year ending in the Third Month, 1924.
We join with many other Friends in bearing testimony to the faithful and diligent work of our Secretary, William
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B. Harvey, during the past year, and this has often meant not only hard travelling and absence from home, but calls of a most varied character on his mind and body.
· We recommend the appointment of a Committee to nominate to the Representative Meeting in the Fourth Month next a Friend to act as Secretary and a Committee of three in charge of the Secretary's office, all to serve for the term of three years, and that the present Commit- tee and Secretary be continued until that Committee makes its report.
GEORGE M. WARNER, WALTER T. MOORE, For the Committee.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Third Month 14, 1923.
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Report Friends Fiduciary Corporation
To the Yearly Meeting:
We report a steady growth in the activities and useful- ness of the corporation during the year. Three trusts from Middletown Preparative Meeting and one additional trust from New Garden Monthly Meeting were received to be administered by our corporation, making a total of forty-three trusts amounting to $29,211.43, belonging to eight different meetings, under our direct administration.
In addition our corporation during the year entered into special arrangements with the Westtown Boarding School Committee and with Philadelphia Monthly Meeting under the terms of which we hold title as trustee to all ground rents, mortgages and registered securities belonging to them, without however assuming any responsibility for reinvestment or collection of income.
During the year we acquired title to the Bradford Monthly Meeting and Middletown Preparative Meeting properties, also to eight properties belonging to Philadel- phia Monthly Meeting including that at Fourth and Arch Streets, Philadelphia, and to the Westtown Boarding School farm. Our corporation now has title to seventeen pieces of real estate belonging to eight different meetings and committees and located as follows :
In Philadelphia five
In Chester County .five
In Delaware County three
In Montgomery County .two
In Berks County two
The operations of the corporation have been carried on at a very moderate cost. The operating income of $415.80 exceeded the operating expense by the sum of $340.48, thus wiping out the deficit of $95.44, with which we com- menced the year, and leaving a surplus on Twelfth Month 31, 1922, of $245.04.
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Statements of Assets and Liabilities and of Income and Expenses, for the year ended 12th Month 31, 1922, pre- pared by our Treasurer, also Certificate of the Auditors, are attached hereto. A full copy of the Treasurer's re- port is on file in the Book Store, 304 Arch Street, for examination by interested Friends during Yearly Meeting Week.
The attention of the Yearly Meeting is called to the fact that there are two vacancies in its representation in this corporation caused by the deaths of Brinton P. Cooper and George S. Hutton.
Respectfully submitted, WILLIAM T. ELKINTON, President.
PHILADELPHIA, Third Month 13, 1923.
STATEMENT OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES Twelfth Month 31, 1922 Assets.
Cash
$743.63
Trust Investments-
First Mortgages
$23,050.00
Corporate Bonds
3,900.00
Judgment Bonds
1,320.00
Government Bonds
485.00
28,755.00
Advances
79.65
$29,578.28
Liabilities.
Trust Funds-Principal-
Birmingham Monthly Meeting $500.00
William P. Townsend Fund
1,776.43
Bradford Preparative Meeting 1,800.00
Chester Monthly Meeting (Pa.) 5,350.00
Media Preparative Meeting 1,600.00
Middletown Preparative Meeting
5,000.00
New Garden Monthly Meeting
3,300.00
West Chester Preparative Meeting.
8,085.00
West Chester Women's Preparative
Meeting
1,800.00
$29,211.43
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Trust Funds-Undistributed Income-
Chester Monthly Meeting (Pa.) $13.75
Middletown Preparative Meeting 107.82
West Chester Preparative Meeting.
.24
121.81
Surplus
245.04
$29,578.28
STATEMENT OF INCOME AND EXPENSE For year ended Twelfth Month 31, 1922
Income.
Commission, Received From Beneficiaries .. $76.20
Interest Received From Provident Trust
Company on Bank Balance 29.60
Registration Fees Received From Westtown Boarding School, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and Others 310.00
$415.80
Expense.
Commission Paid to Provident Trust Co ...
$25.49
Interest Paid to Beneficiaries on Uninvested
Principal 24.58
Sundry Expenses 25.25
75.32
Net Gain For Year $340.48
Deficit First Month 1, 1922 95.44
Surplus Twelfth Month 31, 1922 $245.04
Certificate of the Auditing Committee
We have examined the securities in the possession of the Provident Trust Company, Philadelphia, agent for Friends' Fiduciary Corporation, and find that those on hand on Twelfth Month 30, 1922, agree with the list pre- pared by our Treasurer, Albert B. Maris, which is attached hereto, and are in all :
5 Personal Bonds
13 Corporate Bonds
1 Government Bond
8 First Mortgages
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We have also examined the Treasurer's accounts and the vouchers for his payments made during the year 1922 and find the same to be correct, there being a cash balance of $743.63 on Twelfth Month 30, 1922.
(Signed) HERMAN COPE, J. SNOWDON RHOADS, CHARLES LIPPINCOTT.
Third Month 27, 1923.
To the Yearly Meeting:
The Committee appointed on Second day to nominate thirty members of this Yearly Meeting to serve on the Friends' Fiduciary Corporation for the coming three years would report the following names for that service :
William T. Elkinton
Sarah Emlen Moore
Franklin S. Hilles
Mary Hutton Biddle
Samuel L. Smedley
John V. Nolan
Charles W. Ash
Jane T. Whitson
G. Walter Sharpless James W. Edgerton
J. Henry Scattergood
Ezra Evans
Howard H. Bell Charles Evans Walter P. Hutton
Francis R. Taylor
Richard S. Dewees
Anna M. Darnell
William E. Rhoads
Anna P. Sharpless
Henry W. Comfort
Jane B. Haines
Melva Gertrude Edgerton
Florence T. Steere
On behalf of the Committee,
SAMUEL L. SMEDLEY.
Charles A. Lippincott J. Snowdon Rhoads M. Albert Linton Anna Rhoads Ladd Charles J. Rhoads George Vaux, Jr.
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The charter of Friends' Fiduciary Corporation pro- vides under Item Sixth :
"The basis of membership in the Corporation shall be by the election from nominees of the con- stituent bodies for triennial terms as follows :
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting at large, 30."
At the Yearly Meeting held in 1920, the following min- ute was adopted.
"The Committee appointed a year ago to consider the formation of the Friends' Fiduciary Corporation submitted a report, stating that the general canvass had been made of the interests of the Yearly Meet- ing to be affected by the creation of such a corpora- tion.
"The answers to Queries sent out by the Committee had been so favorable as to encourage them to pro- ceed in the formulation of a plan, which was sub- mitted to this Meeting in considerable detail. The report was acceptable to the Yearly Meeting and was endorsed by it. The Friends named as corpo- rators to represent the Yearly Meeting (30 in num- ber) are:
William T. Elkinton and others.
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Letters Sent to Groups of Friends
To the London Yearly Meeting of Friends:
Dear Friends: As we read from day to day in the public press of the turmoil of Europe, the critical con- dition in the Near East, the unrest in India and the: wretchedness of distraught Ireland, our hearts go out to you in the difficulties of your international situation.
Again as we read of your internal problems, the after- math of the war, in labor difficulties, unemployment, shortage of houses and other troubles, we are moved with sympathy at your social and industrial perplexities.
We are accustomed to seeing of late, suggestions in the press, by cartoon and otherwise, that our country is too much aloof from the distress of war-ruined Europe.
We would have you believe that we are beside you at this time as bearing your burdens with you and fur- thering by written and "living epistles" and international unity with you that is an earnest of the better things to be when men all over the earth shall be as brothers in the spirit of Christ.
J. Rowntree Gillett, Henry T. Gillett, Dr. Henry T. Hodgkin and A. Neave Brayshaw have helped and edi- fied us, especially our younger members.
We are not without problems similar to, if not quite as urgent, as yours, but we are grateful for the prohibi- tion law which, despite all publicity to the contrary, is increasingly bearing fruit in sobriety of life, thrift, health and decrease of common crime within our nation.
Drink, if not the root of all evil, is a root of much evil. It is being uprooted from our land. Would that all so- cial evils could go with it.
There is indeed work for all of us in the Lord's vine- yard, but the laborers are few. Let us be among them ..
We value your letters with their spiritual inspiration and their practical advice.
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May our feet and yours be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and ready for His errands.
"Be swift, my soul, to answer Him, Be jubilant my feet- Our God is marching on."
We are in love, your friends.
Signed on behalf and by direction of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, held Third Month, 26th to .30th, inclusive, 1923.
Correspondent. Clerks.
To the Fritchley General Meeting of Friends:
Dear Friends : We thank you for your epistle received at this time. As we turn our thoughts with you to the need of rebuilding the broken walls of our spiritual Zion we have it once more laid upon us to realize and to pub- lish that in brotherly union there is strength.
May it be with all those who bear the name of Friend that they may help every one his neighbor, and every one say to his brother, "Be of good courage." So the car- penter may encourage the goldsmith and he that smooth- eth with the hammer him that smiteth the anvil.
For lack of vision the people perish.
May it be given us to strive together in ardor for the common service of that Master who commands our help to bring His Kingdom in.
In acknowledgment of our weakness and lukewarm- ness in service, but in prayer that we and you may be guided into a greater depth of life, we are in love, your friends.
Signed on behalf and by direction of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends, held Third Month, 26th to 30th, inclusive, 1923.
Correspondent. Clerks.
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3 Mo. 31, 1923.
To Dublin Yearly Meeting:
Dear Friends: We often have you in mind as our daily press brings to our notice the sad state of affairs in your national life.
We are wont to believe, that time under God's favor, will work out for you a release from the distraught con- dition in which you have been held for years past, and that sooner than you now allow yourselves to hope, your prospects will brighten.
With this thought and prayer uppermost with us we send you a message of our love.
He who has promised to be riches in poverty and a very present help in every needful time is not forgetful of you. He tests and tries those whom He would fit for His service and we are told that His chastening rod may be laid upon those whom He tenderly loves.
In what may seem to you our selfish state of isolation we would send you evidence of a love that knows no boundary lines. That perfect love that casteth out all fear is what we crave alike for you and ourselves, and to Him, our Lord and Saviour, who begets this in our hearts, we would commend one another.
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