SER IE nee Tate eth Ta a HET eT tee NES ner rte tay aie me NON ee me ee aT eee ea ese RL Se ee, Fe Fhe sat eee A, tree! wr Seep PEGG Te SNS SE a me at a a ena eee ee Ne! mip eee, Fe ee ee Te er ete BANS ONS eS TTS im SRT re SHE iene ane atte oe x Na SNAG ETE IS eet ae RT ae END Nw Nat renee tS jis Se i ash SF nee ae Soca AON at are NR he ea Ma aie ate SOS a Re TS fae er ee we Lr rey ree ne a Nat Nat TER re AN iy met Ale NY Fay CARE REE Ur Or nc nee ae Z Sica ep scrotal, Bote ae RO er ee ee See ee Ae SEs ST tance ST Ree Th ae Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/sonofbowerylifesOOstel_ 0 an vi ia yu \ hie, abba Wiss va PRAT it i ir. ‘ el gong , ii Nee Kn ay vt A SON OF THE BOWERY CHARLES STELZLE Fane MOE PRINGE> No 1 | “ MAR 4 - 1927 POON, | rN. OGIGAL SE OF THE BOWERY he Life Story of an East Side American BY Wz CHARLES ’STELZLE NEw “BW yorx GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY thy i 2 i pag a My Fe ahd ie on yi ba oN ee | Paya 4 5 th if +7 F A men n iy Ate Can bel wily Neihves 2 2 ; i YW INTRODUCTION The editor of a magazine in writing an article about me one time, said that ‘“‘Stelzle just missed being a great man.” The writer missed the whole point of my experience. I hon- estly never tried to be a “great man,”—nor wanted to be. I just tried to make the most of whatever job came along— and this naturally led me into many other fields. Really, the only job for which I was regularly trained was that of a machinist. Incidentally, his viewpoint has been invaluable to me—no matter at what else I may have worked. It is a joy to be free from the embarrassments and restraints of “greatness,” because I can just go along doing pretty much the things I want to do—go to the movies, sit on a fire-hydrant, hobnob with the socially ostracized “under dog,” accept alike “superior” or “inferior” jobs—without feeling that I am sacrificing my dignity or crocking my “greatness.” Most of the chapters of this book were printed serially in the Outlook during the early half of 1926, but they have all been elaborated and some entirely new chapters have been written. I wish to express my appreciation to the Outlook editors for their permission to use this material in book form. CHARLES STELZLE. iz trey . . AERTS ae | ‘ ; te) : bay lee) iit, * es is) hi hd iP eis ray ey "a ay, ' bd ri ew RA i Taal : noe ov CONTENTS Our SIDE OF THE City Home Forks OrF THE BOWERY GETTING OuT INTO THE WoRLD LEARNING THE MAcHINIsT TRADE Tue Boss AND THE BARKEEPER . BREAKING INTO THE MINIsTRY . PIONEERING WITH CHURCH AND LABOR CAMPAIGNING FOR WoRKINGMEN OBsERVATIONS OF A SOCIOLOGIST THe Facts Asout SURVEYS ORGANIZING THE LaBor "TEMPLE THE Work oF THE Lapor TEMPLE . BUCKING THE RADICALS Promotinc NationaL MovEMENTS GETTING OuT oF THE CHURCH FIGHTING FOR A BETTER CITIZENSHIP FACING THE PROHIBITION QUESTION . DoING THE WorK OF AN EVANGELIST SOLVING THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM . MEETING SoME oF AmMERICcA’s Bic MEN ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES . PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY CHILDREN OF THE CITY SomE EXPERIENCES IN FoREIGN COUNTRIES Lagpor Lreapers HERE AND ABROAD THE RELIGION OF THE NEw Democracy . 1x PAGE 13 21 30 40 46 53 66 77 96 IIO 117 124 134 146 167 176 IgI 210 223 243 257 266 280 295 313 328 be) thi 4 ast ace My aly (ihe R itt TOM vi Peel thy] J A A SON OF THE BOWERY rie Ri pre ase ice) ; ah i Cee a pitt 5» ae Mayor Mitchell’s Committee on Employment, of which Elbert | H. Gary was the Chairman. I accepted both positions. Shortly afterward I was requested to become the Director of Relief’ and Emergency Measures for Mayor Mitchell’s Committee, my particular job in this connection being that of relating the’ public and private agencies in New York which had to do with THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 225 the securing of jobs for the unemployed and the furnishing of relief to those who needed it. It is interesting in this connection to note that my salary as Secretary of the Federation of Churches Committee was paid entirely by Charles L. Bernheimer, a well-known Jewish philanthropist of New York. I think I never before realized how eit were the programs of committees and social agencies in meeting par- ticular emergencies—such as unemployment, for example, Anything out of the routine of their particular work seemed to stagger them. Apparently there is always difficulty in having such groups face fundamental facts and deal with questions in a scientific manner. Judge Gary was undoubtedly appointed Chairman of Mayor Mitchell’s Committee largely because he was a big employer of labor. The United States Steel Corporation, of which he was the head, gave work to many hundreds of thousands of men, and it was generally stated that all Judge Gary had to do to start a movement toward the re-employment of those who were out of work was to make a request of other large corpora- tions that they take on, at least temporarily, some thousands of men, thus “setting a good example’ to the smaller employers, who would take hope and do likewise. But Judge Gary frankly stated that he himself could not order the re-employment of many thousands of men which the Steel Corporation was com- pelled to let go. He was very plainly disturbed about the entire situation and at a loss to know just what to do. I called on him at his home very early one morning on an urgent business matter in connection with the work of the Committee, and found him still in bed. He requested that I be brought to his room, where I found him in a red flannel night-shirt, sitting up in a big, old-fashioned four-poster bed, looking rather worn and pale. “There are so many things to think about,” he wearily said to me, but he immediately plunged into the business and in a few minutes was as bright and alert as I had often seen him before the big Committee cf which he was the head. His reactions were remarkable, but it was quite obvious that the 226 A. SON OF THE BOWERY terrific unemployment situation in New York was a very great burden to this man who would undoubtedly have done anything in his power to better these conditions. I came to have a pro- found respect for the head of the United States Steel Corpora- tion during these very trying times. His humanitarian spirit and his kindliness of heart were frequently apparent. As can well be imagined, plans of every sort were suggested to the Mayor’s Committee for the relief of the unemployment situation. It was part of my job to listen to the many Com- mittees and individuals which had such plans to suggest, for every one who had anything to offer was gladly welcomed. I recall that growing out of a mass meeting held in Brooklyn, a rather imposing group of gentlemen came to my office in the Municipal Building with the suggestion that the Committee raise $1,000,000, to be spent in wages, and that it establish work-shops in which the workers were to be paid at “union rates.”’ It did not dawn upon the advocates of this plan that it would have required the raising of several million dollars in addition for the purchase of raw materials, the securing of equipment, and the payment of supervision, nor was an ade- quate plan for the disposition of the product of these workers thought out. The only suggestion that the Committee could make when I asked them regarding the latter point was that they thought the products of each group could be exchanged among other groups in the same company employed by the. city, which of course was absurd. The shirt-waist makers, for example, who they recommended should be organized, could have made enough shirt-waists in a week to have kept the rest of the Company clothed for a year. I suggested that while it was important to care for the unemployed, it’ was equally necessary to safeguard those who had jobs and those who were engaged in legitimate business enterprises so that they would not be undercut or undersold. The establishment of public works of various kinds was also vehemently urged and the municipality made a strenuous at- tempt to push in every possible way the enterprises over which it had control, but in most of the plans submitted by those — interested, it was forgotten that whatever is bad business or THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 227 bad economic practice for an individual contractor or manufac- turer is also bad practice for the State or the municipality. It was recommended that the city make repairs in the streets dur- ing the winter season, unmindful of the fact that the work | must inevitably be torn up again in the summer because of the impossibility of doing good work of this kind when the weather was cold. It meant in substance that all the people of the city would be compelled to pay generously for poor work and it was questionable whether the neediest of the un- employed would get the work to do. “Making work” proved to be a very unscientific policy. As is always the case when unemployment is being discussed, much was said during that winter about moving New York’s tenement poor to the farms, the usual argument being that the farmer can never secure the help which he needs. Of course, it was forgotten that the farmer needed extra help only at the time when he is sowing or harvesting his crops, and that dur- ing the winter season he himself has very little to do—and that the great lack of employment in New York came in the dead of winter when the farmer could not possibly employ extra help. So insistent, however, were the demands that the Mayor’s Committee open the way for work on the farms that I telephoned the head of the Farm Labor Bureau of New York State, asking him how many men he had sent to the farm dur- ing the past year. He replied that jobs had been found for about 5000, but in answer to my question, he said that prac- tically every man so placed had previously worked on a farm and that of those who had not done so, nearly every one came back to the city. The schemes for moving the city poor on to farms are always evolved by city people for their own benefit—they wish to be rid of a problem which seems to be beyond their own solution so they attempt to shift it on to the farmer. If it were possible to persuade a thousand thin-blooded tenement- house men to move on to the farms, they would meet on the way a thousand husky young farmers who had failed to make good—for social or economic reasons, it does not matter which —who were about to try life in the city, where incidentally they 228 A. SON OF THE BOWERY generally win out. If it was not possible for the farmer boy to succeed on the farm, how could it be expected that an inexperienced city man would do so? One of the most pathetic scenes in New York during this winter was the groups of men who very early in the morning, before daylight, waited about newspaper offices to secure the first copies of the papers, glanced through them hurriedly and then ran to the place advertised as wanting help. In some cases literally hundreds applied for one job. It was estimated that in New York State there was spent annually in “want” ad- vertising in daily newspapers fully $20,000,000, or a cost of $5.00 per unemployed person, there being in the course of the normal year something like 4,000,000 persons seeking work. There were many possibilities of fraud in this “want’’ ad- vertising business, and it surely was a wasted effort, to be moderate in one’s statement, when 100 men applied for a single job with the further possibility that none was fitted for it. As over against this method was that of the public or State employment agency, which furnished jobs at an average cost of much less than $1.00 per man. In Illinois, for example, at that time, the cost was 71 cents per job; in Massachusetts $1.04; in Wisconsin 35 cents; in Colorado 41 cents; and in Oklahoma 27 cents. A labor exchange cannot create jobs, but it can most effectively bring together the manless job and the jobless man. The Labor Exchange established in New York City by the State became active too late to accomplish very much good during the winter of 1914-1915, but this method is undoubtedly one of the best to meet the unemployment prob- lem. Setter still would be the national labor exchange pro- posed by the Federal Labor Department through which there might be developed an interchange of men and jobs between the various States. About 1000 private licensed employment agencies were in business in New York during the winter. Many of these were high-grade organizations and rendered good service. There will no doubt be continued need for some of the private enter- prises in times of normal unemployment no matter how effi- cient the Government may become in finding jobs for the un- a THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 229 employed, but the possibility of fraud is so great that the State should exercise greatest care in protecting the victims of fraudulent labor exchanges. The seasonal worker suffered greatly in New York during this period. This was particularly true of the “needle trade,” which is New York’s chief industry. The great fluctuations in this trade always cause considerable unemployment even under normal conditions, A serious attempt was made to work out a plan whereby this industry could “straighten the curve” in its production department. The deplorable condition that existed in the industry was due very largely to the frequent change in styles, particularly in women’s apparel. The general im- pression seemed to be that change of style furnished more work, but in actual practice retailers are afraid to lay ina large stock because they fear being caught with out-of-season gar- ments on their hands. They therefore buy sparingly, and the manufacturer does not dare keep his employees at work with the hope that he can later dispose of his accumulated stock. The result is that he compels the workers to do rush work far into the night when he is busy, and there is scarcely anything for them to do at other times. This entire question of seasonal employment was discussed by the Mayor’s Committee, because it had been demonstrated in some other industries that the operations and the output might be so organized as to give employees fairly continuous work. For example, at one time every housekeeper believed that Monday was the only day in the week in which to have the laundry man call for the weekly wash. Hence, the delivery wagon tried to call on everybody on that day and return the clean laundry in three or four days. The result was that the employees in the laundry were rushed to exhaustion three days in the week and loafed the rest of the week, but to-day some of us will permit the delivery wagon to call on Thursday, and we are content to receive the clean laundry on Monday or Tuesday. It required a little time to become accustomed to this change, but now that we have become used to it, it does not work much of a hardship on us and it permits the laundry man to run his business in a saner fashion for all concerned. 230 A SON OF THE BOWERY His employees work about an equal number of hours every day and their work on the whole is steadier and more satisfactory. The readiness of the Mayor’s Committee to grasp at almost every kind of proposal as a solution was demonstrated one day when a rather spectacular and fantastic plan to house homeless men was suggested by a representative of the “hoboes,”’ who had wandered into the city. The latter requested that the city give them the use of an old building which they desired to convert into a “Hotel de Gink,” furnishing it themselves and foraging for food throughout the city. The plan was to estab- lish a kind of communistic enterprise in which those in the Hotel would pool their earnings and their “findings.” The men who constituted this group tried to make it plain to the Committee that they distinguished between the “hobo,” the “tramp” and the “down-and-out.” The “hobo,” they said, was a workingman who preferred to wander from city to city, find- ing such employment as he could, but always ready to work when it was possible; the “tramp” was a man who would not work and was often a criminal—with these the regular “hobo” had no dealings; the “down-and-out’”? was a man who was totally incapacitated. When this proposal was submitted to the Committee, I was the only one of the entire group of nearly 100 who spoke against it, pointing out the inevitable result of permitting several hundred men of this type to live under conditions which re- quired the very highest kind of character and sacrifice. Then there were certain moral and sanitary conditions which would inevitably have to be considered, but to my pleadings the Com- mittee paid absolutely no attention. They turned over one of the City buildings on Center Street and christened it ‘““Hotel de Gink” as requested. Within a week complaints began to come to the Committee through the Police Department, and in a very few days there- after the building was closed and the “hoboes”’ scattered. Early in the winter rather strenuous attempts were made to have the city open the armories for work shops, but those in authority, while apparently willing to codperate in relieving the suffering among the unemployed, were afraid that the gather- THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 231 ing together of great masses of unemployed men in buildings stored with arms and ammunition might result disastrously should radical leadership be developed. Continuous efforts were made by so-called “Parlor Social- ists’ and some social workers to create a stampede of the unemployed in order to “impress” the Mayor’s Committee with the seriousness of the situation—as though the Committee did not realize that it was up against as troublesome a condition as any group of men could possibly face. Night after night groups of such agitators of social unrest appeared upon the various bread lines in the city, telling the wretched men who stood there that they were fools to beg for a loaf of bread and a cup of coffee at midnight, and then sleep in a hallway or on the docks because they had not the nerve to make a demonstra- tion which would show New York what it meant to be out of a job. But the men who crowded the bread lines were strangely docile. Revolutionary or radical doctrines made little impres- sion upon them. Large numbers were by no means tramps and “down-and-outs’’—it was pathetic to see how considerable a percentage were those who had apparently been working steadily until that winter. Night after night I took my place at the head of the bread line, pulling up my overcoat collar and jamming down my hat to keep out the cold, and going straight down the line of from one to two thousand men, I interviewed more or less briefly, but sometimes at length, as many men as there was time for, trying to find out where they came from, what they expected to find in New York, and discovering, if possible, just what sort of men they were. There they were, scarcely a man having an overcoat—sometimes they had only an under- shirt, a pair of trousers, a coat and a pair of shoes and an old hat, with the thermometer almost down to zero. Promptly at twelve o’clock the side-door of Fleischmann’s Bakery at Broad- way and Eleventh Street was opened—for this is where the biggest line was formed—and as each man received his loaf of bread and cup of coffee, he promptly swallowed the hot coffee, and tucking the loaf of bread under his coat he would run to some doorway or to some other sheltered place, liter- 232 A SON OF THE BOWERY ally tear the loaf of bread to pieces and devour it like a wild animal. It was no wonder that men feared being out of work more than they fear going to hell. We saw to it that every man had at least a place in which to sleep and that he started the day with something to eat, but — the great number of unemployed made it utterly impossible to give every man a job that would keep him alive. Many were shipped back to their own towns because they would have a better chance there than in New York. One of the most serious situations produced by the large numbers of homeless men that crowded the city was the use > of the back rooms of saloons in the downtown districts for lodging-house purposes after the legal hour for closing. Thousands of men patronized these saloons, a five-cent drink entitling them to a “flop’—a place to sleep. Naturally, these places were outrageously unsanitary, but the authorities insisted that if they were to force the saloon to close it would throw these unfortunate thousands on to the street on cold, bitter nights. The Municipal Lodging House, controlled by the city, did an excellent piece of work in meeting the needs of homeless men, arrangements being made to care for at least three thou- sand men in the house, and by utilizing the annex across the street they were ready to take care of fully twice this number. The question as to whether out-of-town men should be cared for by New York was discussed by various groups at work on this problem, and it was finally agreed that as other cities were undoubtedly caring for some of New York’s citizens who had sought work elsewhere, it was only fair that New York should make provision for these men from out of town who had wandered into the city in search of work. A study of about 1500 men at the Municipal Lodging House revealed the fact that about 20 per cent would not work even though jobs were offered them; 20 per cent could ‘not work because they were altogether incapacitated; Io per cent could be put into fair physical condition if they were given proper medical attention, and the remainder—so per cent—were will- ing to work and fit for jobs if they could be found. THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 233 It became necessary for the Unemployment Committee of the New York Federation of Churches to raise a considerable sum of money to carry on its work, and Theodore Roosevelt was urged to give an address at the Metropolitan Opera House, the proceeds of which were to be devoted to the Committee’s work. Mr. Roosevelt spoke on his trip to South America, reading his speech as was usually his custom. I remember, with much amusement, that as he finished each sheet he threw it back over his shoulder onto the platform, until when he had completed his address he stood in the midst of a heap of his white-sheeted manuscript, which was quickly grabbed up _ by souvenir hunters from the audience after Mr. Roosevelt had left the platform. The Police Department of New York, whose work had already been largely socialized under the direction of Commis- sioner Arthur Woods, undertook to find jobs for men through its patrolmen. These officers went from house to house, ask- ing that the unemployed be given a chance to keep areaways and sidewalks free from dirt and litter, each house-owner pay- ing a small sum per week directly to the man who did the job, but the patrolman on the beat seeing to it that he was paid. When enough jobs of this character were found in a block or contiguous territory to permit a man to earn a minimum of $10.00 a week, he was given a broom and put to work. The policeman also saw to it that he did his work properly. Another department of the city that rendered excellent service was the office of George McAneny, President of the Board of Aldermen. Contributions of food were obtained by Mr. McAneny from the leading hotels in the city—in some cases these hotels preparing a special heavy soup or stew, al- though in most instances the food regularly served to the guests was contributed. This food was taken every morning in auto- mobiles to the various workshops being conducted by the Mayor’s Committee and the churches, where the men and women were served with a midday meal, the remainder of the food being taken to their homes. Special care was taken that this food was good and wholesome because, as one of the hotel men put it, “We could serve food that happened to be a 234 A SON OF THE BOWERY little off to our guests and explain the situation and make good, but if we serve poor food to the unemployed, we would never hear the end of it either from the public or the unemployed themselves.” “Bundle Day” was inaugurated by the Women’s Division of the Mayor’s Committee on Unemployment, and was or- ganized and pushed to a successful finish by Miss Frances E. Kellor. Five hundred thousand bundles of old and new cloth- ing were received and distributed among the poor of the city, the Police Department, the Public Schools, the Street Clean- ing Department, the Churches and Neighborhood organiza- tions, the Express Companies, and the Railroads, and some of the large Department Stores cooperating with the Committee. Four large buildings were used. The entire enterprise was conducted upon the basis of a department store organization, the Wanamaker store furnishing a large staff of expert workers to organize the various “departments.” Many of the labor unions in New York assisted in meeting the unemployment situation. They assessed their working members five per cent of their wages for the benefit of the un- employed, and in some cases where it could be arranged, mem- bers worked only five days per week, permitting the unem- ployed to have their jobs on the sixth day. The out-of-work funds which many labor unions provide were completely ex- hausted because of the unusual tax made upon them. It was significant that only in rare cases did trade-unionists apply to the regular relief agencies for help. The unions ordinarily took care of their own needy members. It was probably true that more church members applied to relief agencies for assistance than did members of trade-unions, if one were to eliminate the Hebrews, who are rather poorly organized as trade-unionists and who, in New York at any rate, are often extremely poor. It was frequently pointed out during the winter that the city owed organized labor a debt for relieving the pressure of poverty through the liberal use of its funds and its other methods for caring for its own members. But in the last analysis, it was undoubtedly true that the churches of New York did more to meet the unemployment THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 235 situation than either the Mayor’s Committee or any other organization. In this particular case the churches were the first to organize and actually furnish jobs—indeed, the churches found more work for the unemployed than did the Mayor’s Committee, and if the truth must be told, the Mayor’s Com- mittee, because of its inability to organize quickly and carry out most elaborate plans which its experts were quite proficient in preparing, included the work of the churches as part of its own enterprise, paying part of their expenses in order to make a report of activities actually carried on and jobs actually fur- nished. The Protestant Episcopal Churches of New York be- gan very early in the winter to establish workshops, the work originating in St. Bartholomew’s Church and being under the immediate supervision of Deaconess Charlotte M. Boyd. The churches employed continuously throughout the winter thou- sands of men rolling bandages for city hospitals and for the warring European nations. Men worked five hours per day, five days per week and received fifty cents per day and a mid- day meal. Additional emergency workshops were conducted for women, who were paid at the rate of sixty cents per day, and who were employed at making women’s and children’s garments which were disposed of in such a manner as not to come into competition with regular dealers and manufacturers. An “Unemployment Sunday” was observed by the churches early in the winter when a special appeal was made to furnish work of some kind to those who needed it. A card containing suggestions for possible jobs was widely distributed, listing about a hundred various kinds of work that might be given in an emergency. These suggestions were offered under classi- fied lists to housekeepers, office managers, storekeepers and landlords. Following are some of the suggested jobs: To HovusEKEEPers—Clean cellars, attics, closets, and areas; paint walls outside and inside; paint woodwork; pol- ish floors and furniture; attend to carpentry jobs from cellar to roof; have doors adjusted; have windows tightened; have carpets beaten and cleaned; attend to plumbing jobs; attend to papering and calcimining; catalogue the library; mend 236 A SON OF THE BOWERY library books; have mattresses mended and re-made; clean garage; polish brass-work and silverware; repair awnings; upholster furniture; mend carpets and rugs; repair transom fixtures; repair window shades; repair light fixtures; clean flues and plumbing traps; whitewash cellar and coal bins; cut and chop deadwood and boxes for kindling; make gar- den and lawn improvements. To Orrice Manacers—Arrange old files; classify or catalogue old material on the shelves or in the corner; check up accumulation of reports; have the auditing done; re- arrange partitions; do that circularizing campaign; copy records; tabulate and classify past experience; make up new list of old customers. To Store-KEEPERs—Take inventory of stock; have the cellar cleaned; remove packing cases; paint the woodwork; build extra shelves; have your accounts audited; get out cir- culars to your customers; attend to cellar elevator; have the sidewalk work done; do neighborhood sample distributing. To LanpLorps—lInspect your property now, and do not leave it entirely to your agents; attend to the plumbing and painting; have the cellars waterproofed; clean walls and ceilings; attend to papering and calcimining; repair and clean areas; repair woodwork; clean chimneys; repair sidewalks; repair outside walls; repair roofs; make garden and lawn improvements. | “Give a man a day’s work” was the slogan used in connection with this particular effort. The proposal was made to the various churches by the Un- employment Committee of the Federation of Churches that at their midweek meeting they devote a few minutes to the “good and welfare of our neighbors,’ when the question should be asked, “‘Are any of our neighbors in distress of any kind?”— and if any were so reported, somebody was immediately to be appointed to render such assistance as was required. If the local church could not furnish the needs of such persons, the Central Committee was prepared to do so or to suggest how it might be done. A day and night telephone service was main- THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 237 tained by this Committee throughout the entire winter for all kinds of emergency calls. The churches codperated closely with the recognized relief agencies in ‘all important things. several district organizations were formed by the Federation of Churches which were equipped to take caré of applicants for relief and which found jobs for many men and women. In some instances local secretaries were employed by these district organizations to serve the needy in the community. “Be a good neighbor’ was another movement which I inaugurated. One saw this slogan all over the city on the screens of hundreds of picture houses, on posters in department stores, railroad stations, office buildings and theaters. Atten- tion was called to the necessity for food, clothing, shelter and other requirements for the unemployed, giving specific direc- tions how such service might be rendered, thus democratizing the entire task of helping the unemployed. Many hundreds of volunteers wrote to my office, offering their services in this connection, and in a large number of cases permanent relation- ships were established so that the “good neighbor” thereafter saw to it that the particular family or individual for whom he had become responsible during this special period of need be- came his permanent charge. Many of the particular cases taken care of in this way were furnished by the regular relief agencies which had previously thoroughly investigated their necessities. For the benefit of individuals in the churches and others who desired to be of service in special cases, the Church Federation Committee printed an informational folder regarding the func- tions, resources and availability of the principal agencies in New York which might help in cases of special distress, listing the civic, philanthropic and health agencies, public institutions, and all others that render service in relation to relief or un- employment. For the poorer sections of the city special surveys were made and: conferences held, and the churches in these communi- ties were backed to the full extent of the Committee’s ability through special funds and services. The finding of a job was urged upon the entire membership of the New York churches 238 A SON OF THE BOWERY as a “religious task.” It was shown that the securing of work would save many an individual and family from entire collapse, and that at that particular time jobs were by all means the best thing that could be given to keep them from going to complete destruction. Frequent bulletins were issued to the leaders throughout the entire city. A particular day was set aside for canvassing the neighborhoods of the churches in order to find jobs for the unemployed. Committees were organized in many of the churches for this purpose, and the net result of this effort was not only most satisfactory to the Committee, but the individual members of the church who rendered this service became enthusiastic in the performance of this task; they saw how easily a most practical effort for the relief of the poor may be organized in their own communities. I prepared a series of “Unemployment Don’ts’” for em- ployers which were widely printed in the newspapers, not only of New York, but throughout the country during the winter. The following were some of the suggestions: Don’t wait for a panacea for the unemployment problem —so far as you can, work it out in your own field. When enough of us do this, the question will be settled. The un- employment problem must be democratized. Anyway, there is no panacea. When an “expert” presents one, it is time to adjourn the meéting. Don’t forget that whatever is bad business practice for you must be bad business practice for the municipality; therefore do not expect your City Officials to become re- sponsible for an unemployment-relief proposition which is based upon bad economic principles. Don’t try merely to find an excuse which may justify your inactivity ; but rather find ways in which you may make jobs as a civic or religious duty. Don’t let your factory run down at the heels. If your output is running below normal, utilize this slack period to overhaul your plant and machinery. You can do it better now than when your factory is running full time. Don’t cut down the rate of wages. It will be much fairer THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 2389 to reduce the hours of labor or the days per week, thus dis- tributing the work among a larger number. You will re- ceive full value for your output when you finally sell it. It isn’t fair to take advantage of the workingman’s helpless situation simply because he must have a job, fio matter what he’s paid. Don’t turn down a man simply because you cannot give him a steady job. Sometimes a day’s work will put new life into a man who has lost all hope. There are odd jobs which may justify your employing him temporarily. Make a sys- tematic study of your plant and its surroundings in order to find odd jobs. Don’t turn away applicants for minor positions on account of their poor appearance—if you give them a little work it will help them pull themselves together. You will probably find that the applicant for a job who wears a seedy coat will take on a different appearance when he’s on the job. Don’t give your foreman permission to discharge a man without grave fault or the very best reasons. Ask yourself what will become of this workingman’s wife and children if he loses his job simply because the foreman had a grouch. Don’t fail to pass applicants along to any other job that you may have heard about if you cannot find jobs for them. Forget your dignity and your superior position, and remem- ber that the applicant for the job is a human being, and that it may save him from despair if you can help him now. While it is probably true that the bread lines established throughout the city helped in a good many cases, there can be no doubt of the demoralizing effect of the bread line upon both the donor and the object of this form of charity. To the donor it becomes too easy a solution for the problems of pov- erty, and the man who takes the loaf of bread and cup of cof- fee night after night can never again be the same high-spirited worker that he may have been. Indeed, the worst effect of unemployment upon the mechanic particularly is, not that he suffers from hunger, but that his character slowly becomes weakened and his skill is lost. He deteriorates in almost every 240 A SON OF THE BOWERY way. The man who has been out of work for six months will find it extremely difficult to become the man that he was before he lost his job. Certain “experts” on “panhandlers” and the unemployed in general told us rather insistently that the wood pile was the acid test for the “‘job hunters.”” This may have been true for husky, well-fed men, but the test fell down when it was applied to thin-blooded anemic men and those who had been suffering from influenza and pneumonia, and there were more such cases than the ‘experts’? seemed to know about. Furthermore, the latter were the last to find jobs, and the effects of unemploy- ment were felt among them most keenly long after the unem- ployment situation had begun to improve. For after the win- ter had passed, the perilous months of March and April, with their high peak of pneumonia, had yet to be faced by those who were the least prepared to meet them. Probably those who suffered most in New York during this winter were not the men on the bread line, but the semi-professional people who in many industrial enterprises were regarded as luxuries because they did not immediately produce. These people did not hang around bread lines and they were too proud to ask for help from anybody. Then there were the gentlewomen who had never been out of work. There came into my office one day the widow of a former assistant district attorney in New York City. She had been raised at Newport and had about her all © the signs of culture—at least, in her speech and manner— — but her clothes were poor and even though it was raining, she — had no umbrella. I afterwards learned that she had twice at-_ tempted suicide because of the distressing situation in which — she found herself. Furthermore, the clerks and stenographers — who lived in hall bedrooms and could not pay their rent and — who needed to make a good appearance in finding any kind © of job suffered greatly. How many of these there were, and what they did to live through the winter, nobody will ever know. It was quite apparent as a result of my interview of © many thousands of individuals during that winter that in- efficiency was a frequent cause of unemployment even during — normal conditions, and it became impressed upon me that public — THE UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 241 schools must give more attention to industrial education. As a matter of fact, the curriculum of the public schools, I found upon investigation, is framed up for the most part to meet the requirements of the very small percentage of children that go to college. Our public educational system has not departed very radically from that which was in vogue when only priests and the leisure class were educated. Likewise, the large number of misfits in life was due to the small attention given to vocational guidance. When boys and girls left school, they went out merely to hunt “jobs” and it did not matter much what kind of jobs they were, so long as they furnished immediate work. Often in after years they found themselves in blind alleys because they had become too old to hold the jobs which they obtained as children. Later they helped swell the ranks of tramps and hoboes, and society, which was careless in training them to become good citizens, hunts them and is worried by them when work is scarce be- cause they then become a menace to the state. After all, assuming that a worker has become competent, it frequently happens that for some of the reasons already given, and many which might be added, it is impossible for him to fortify himself against times of unemployment which in most cases seem to be inevitable, and for reasons for which he is not at all responsible. Usually it is a question of being given a chance to earn a living wage. Students of economics would understand at once that it is not so much a question of the number of dollars a person earns which determines whether or not he is earning a living wage—it is a question of what these dollars will buy, because the purchasing power of the dollar varies so greatly not only at different times but in different parts of the country. | Before an industry is permitted to establish itself in the community, it should be investigated as to its working condi- tions and the wages it pays so that it may not later become a charge upon the community, in that the community must take care of its derelicts when this “parasite” industry has squeezed the vitality out of the workers employed for a brief period at less than a living wage. Every industry seeking to take ad- 242 A SON OF THE BOWERY, vantage of a city’s reputation, good-will or other asset, which have been acquired through many years of faithful dealing with its citizens, or because of the development of strong com- mercial pride, should be asked to furnish a clean “bill of health,” just as a philanthropic or social agency which desires to have the support of the city is expected to give an account of its methods and work before it is permitted to operate. Whether or not it is possible to enforce such a policy through process of law, it may easily be done by commercial clubs, chambers of commerce, or legitimate employers’ associations. An industry is self-supporting only when it yields wages sufficient to maintain the workers during times of inevitable unemployment, when they are compelled to stand in reserve, awaiting the convenience of the employer, as well as when they are actively engaged. It may be necessary to work out in every industry a system of compulsory, subsidized, unemployment in- surance, the trade bearing the cost. At any rate, while em- ployers are making plans for increased efficiency by the intro- duction of new machinery and better systems, they cannot afford to neglect the human elements, which are after all their chief asset. Unemployment will some day be fought just as we have waged war against typhoid and tuberculosis. In former days when great epidemics swept over the city we said it was due to a “dispensation of Providence.” ‘To-day we hold the Board of Health responsible. In like manner we shall not try to find refuge behind a lazy man’s excuse when thousands of men and women are unemployed. Society will soon learn that it is as guilty if men do not work as though they worked under un- sanitary conditions, | XX MEETING SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN I MET and talked with Theodore Roosevelt many times dur- ing the twenty years that I was engaged in various national enterprises, the first time being in the White House on a Mon- day morning after I had preached in a Washington church. Inevitably our conversation drifted toward the relation of the workingman to the Church. “Tf there is one thing above another that I desire for the Dutch Reformed Church, it is that it may become a church in which the workingman will feel at home. Whether it be true or not, there has arisen in the mind of the average working- man the impression that the Church is too ‘swell’ for him. You know I have very little use for that sort of thing. That is why I attend that little church over there—’ pointing through the walls of the White House to what I afterward found out was a comparatively small church building. Mr. Roosevelt’s interest in ordinary people was always to me one of his most marked characteristics. During his visit to the Labor Temple to which reference has already been made, we sat before the meeting behind a curtain which shut us off from the view of the audience but which gave us the opportunity to see every face in the crowd. Singling out various individuals Mr. Roosevelt asked me most interestedly who this and that person was, wanting to know something about them; and they were invariably the humblest people that came within his vision. His close association with Jacob Riis, about which Mr. Riis often told me, proved his interest in the welfare of common men. One morning a committee of about a dozen men including myself went to meet Mr. Roosevelt at a small hotel in New York, to talk over with him a certain situation concerning which he wanted advice. As I came into the room William 243 244 A SON OF THE BOWERY Fellowes Morgan, one of New York’s most noted civic and commercial leaders, introduced me to the President. Whereupon Mr. Roosevelt smiled and said to Mr. Morgan: “Oh, yes, I have known Mr. Stelzle for a good many years. I have read all of his books, and I’m proud to say that I’ve sat at his feet and learned of him.” Although Mr. Roosevelt had the reputation among some people of being strong-willed and self-opinionated, I found him to be exactly the reverse in my dealings with him, and this occasion proved what I have just said. He had come into the conference with a carefully prepared plan which he himself had drawn up and which he read to the group of men whom he had invited to confer with him. Immediately sev- eral of those present began to criticize Mr. Roosevelt’s pro- posal, and he sat listening, without saying a word. When they had finished he saw the defects of his plan, and promptly threw it into the waste-basket, saying: “That settles that. Now what have you got to say?” And for several hours he listened to his advisers and took from them the counsel which they gave. When I began my independent work, I wrote to Mr. Roose- velt, telling him about my plans just as he was starting on his famous trip to South America, but before going away he dropped me a line, saying: Good for you! J am extremely pleased at what you are about to undertake. When I get back in the spring, I hope you will let me come in and see you so as to understand more clearly just what you are doing. Good luck to you always. I believe in you with all my heart. In the Associated Press stories of a speaking tour Mr. Roosevelt made in New England shortly before this time, the President was reported as saying that I was one of the men who had given him new light on the social and economic situa- tion in this country. When Mr. Roosevelt organized the Progressive Party, I accepted the candidacy for the Assembly in Essex County, New © OO a SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN) 245 Jersey, where I lived at that time, mainly for the purpose of giving me a good excuse to make campaign speeches for Mr. Roosevelt throughout the State. The leaders of the Progres- sive Party in Essex County had prepared a “‘slate’’ which was to be submitted to about four hundred delegates who had been invited to a dinner in Krueger’s Auditorium in Newark, but the convention went into session and nominated its own men, al- though it was agreed that all the candidates should be heard. Matters went along swimmingly until the twelve candidates for the Assembly were to be nominated. When my name was suggested by the committee, an apparently organized move- ment to nominate the secretary of the convention in opposi- tion to me became evident. “We want Smith—we want Smith—we want Smith!” they shouted in unison. “Mr. Smith’—this really was not his name—made the first speech, and he said in substance: “You boys know me—I have been secretary of this com- mittee ever since it was organized, working night and day to put this thing across in the county. I think I deserve this office, and I hope you'll vote for me. That’s all I’ve got to say.” When I was introduced by the chairman, I told the dele- gates that actually I did not want the office, that I was as busy as I could be, not only in New Jersey, but throughout the entire country, promoting the principles for which the Pro- gressive Party had declared itself, and that I had permitted the use of my name merely because the voters in the section of the county in which I lived had at a popular meeting unani- mously nominated me for the office. “Tf you want Mr. Smith for your candidate, by all means nominate him, and I assure you that I will talk for Mr. Smith and work for him with far more enthusiasm than I would work for my own election.” And to the amazement of the entire convention, when the vote was taken I received nearly four hundred votes, while Mr. Smith received about half a dozen. As a result of this nomination I was given an unusual opportunity to make all 246 A SON OF THE BOWERY the speeches that I cared to in favor of the National candidate. Calling on Mr. Roosevelt for an appointment one morning at his office in New York, I was told that some cameramen had just finished putting him into some motion pictures, but that at that moment he was being shaved by the barber, who had come to his office, and that he was being interviewed by two newspaper men and was conferring with a delegation from out of town; but that if I wanted to go in and join the “gang” there was no doubt that Mr. Roosevelt would be glad to see me. But in less than ten minutes I was alone with Mr. Roose- velt. I found him thoroughly excited. President Wilson had been in New York the day before and had made his famous reversal regarding his attitude toward the war. Ina speech he had declared that he now favored having the United States en- ter the war, and was ready to go the limit in fighting the Ger- mans. Mr. Roosevelt was himself to speak in the Brooklyn Academy of Music a few days later, and he had his prepared speech in his hand and began reading certain passages to me, asking me what I thought of the ideas which he was to advo- cate. The memory of the details of the speech has gone from me. I can simply picture Mr. Roosevelt excitedly walking up and down his office reading and punctuating what he had to say by jabbing his finger at certain paragraphs as he read them. When Chief Justice William Howard Taft was President, I called on him at the White House to invite him to speak at one of the big workingmen’s meetings which I held annually in connection with the Presbyterian General Assembly. I was ushered into Mr. Taft’s private office and stood at the side of his desk as I presented my case. He listened most attentively, with that ever-present little twinkle in his eye, and interrupted me to tell some stories about preachers, at which he himself laughed most heartily and in which I joined—because they were really very funny stories. Indeed, as we swapped stories I completely forgot that I was talking to the President of the United States, and I was abashed when I started to leave to find that I had been sitting on the edge of President Taft’s SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN 247 flat-top desk. I suppose that Mr. Taft’s inimitable little chuckle had put me off my guard. A newspaper syndicate by which I was once employed one day wired me to get an interview with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on the labor question. Mr. Rockefeller received me very gra- ciously, saying that he had known about me and my work. An hour’s talk with him on some of the most vital social and eco- nomic questions that affect labor’s welfare left me with the feeling that he thinks as deeply and sincerely about big moral and ethical problems as he does about financial questions. I found myself inclined to agree with the statement made to me by an official of the United Mine Workers of America, who had spent much time in Colorado, where they had just passed through some rather unpleasant labor troubles, that he felt Mr. Rockefeller was thoroughly sincere, and that he would do the right thing. There was complete absence of formality or display of any kind in Mr. Rockefeller’s office. In the most democratic man- ner imaginable we talked; he with no apparent effort to con- ceal his thoughts, and I with the feeling that I was speaking for labor, trying to express its viewpoint. There was one striking thing about this man who had been so severely abused by those who did not agree with him; in all my conversation with him there was not the slightest trace of bitterness or even. sarcasm when he spoke of those who were opposing him. “What about a ‘living wage’? was one of my questions. “How much do you think the average man should earn?” Without hesitation he replied: ““What he earns should give him a decent home. He should be able to educate his children. He should be able to afford reasonable social and religious ad- vantages. And he ought to be able to lay aside something for a time of special need.” But right then one of the Rockefeller secrets of getting rich was revealed. “Some of the miners in our camps won’t buy ready-made clothes,’ he said. “They have them made to order. I wore ready-made clothes for some years,’ he added. I almost gasped audibly as he told me that he used to walk down Sixth 248 A SON OF THE BOWERY Avenue in New York to select a cheaper tie than he could buy in the store of a famous haberdasher on Fifth Avenue whose name he mentioned, where he would be compelled to pay a couple of dollars more for it. For I was wearing at that mo- ment a tie that came from the Fifth Avenue shop. The Bureau of Social Hygiene, which Mr. Rockefeller or- ganized—the business of which it was to study the question of prostitution—had made its annual report a few days before, and I said to Mr. Rockefeller: “Do you believe that a considerable number of women be- come prostitutes because they do not receive a living wage?” Mr. Rockefeller replied: “This is the general impression—it was my impression at one time—but apparently those who have studied the question fully agree that women do not go wrong merely because they do not receive a certain wage. Women’s morals are not de- termined by the difference of a dollar or so a week in their wages. There are many other elements that enter into this question. Often it’s a matter of clothes, desire for a good time, loneliness, misunderstanding on the part of the girl’s mother, or harsh treatment at home.” Then he added: “TI am sure that working-women as a class are just as moral as those of the so-called “upper-class.’”’ After a moment’s reflection: “More so, when you consider the temptations to which they are subjected.” Mr. Rockefeller said in answer to my question whether he thought the fundamental principles of Jesus could be applied to the problems of industrial life to-day: | “Yes. But who will interpret those principles so as to give © us the final word regarding them? We cannot lay down © ethical laws, and compel all others to abide by them. The © Bible doesn’t tell us specifically what we must do. I some- times wish it did. It would make life so much simpler. But — no doubt it’s a good thing it doesn’t. We are all of us com- — pelled to think through these questions for ourselves. We must not become dogmatic about these matters. Nor dare we SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN 249 decide them for others. Every man must work out his own salvation. “T believe that labor and capital are partners,’’ was another of his answers. “Partners cannot get along very well unless they understand each other’s viewpoints. One of the reasons there are so many labor troubles is that we are forgetting the human element. Labor is being looked upon as a com- modity, as part of an equipment, as something that may be bought and sold. We sometimes forget that we are dealing with human beings. The big thing we've got to do is to inject the spirit of brotherhood into the labor question. There is no other way.” “Are employers of labor as a class giving serious thought to the solution of the labor problem?” I asked. “No,” he replied, slowly, and with apparent regret. “Their attitude is too largely negative. Few of them have positive plans. They seem to expect workingmen themselves to arrive blunderingly at constructive programs.”’ “What about your attitude toward organized labor ?”’ I sug- gested. “Our men may organize if they wish. We do not discrimi- nate against them because they are members of the labor union. Our only contention is that they have no right to keep out of the mines men who may not wish to join the labor union.” He reflected a moment, then said earnestly: “There’s a great change coming in the selection of the kind of men who will direct great industrial enterprises. Hereto- fore the chief consideration has been a man’s ability as a finan- cier and organizer. In the future first place must be given to his ability in getting along with other men. He must have more of the social spirit. This does not necessarily mean mere sociability, although that will help. He must have a keener sense of social justice and fair dealing. For the labor problem is coming more and more to be a great human problem.” Mr. Rockefeller impressed me as a man who, with the enor- mous responsibility of being the richest man in the world, is honestly trying to administer his great fortune so that hu- manity will get the benefit of it. Possibly some of his ad- 250 A SON OF THE BOWERY visers may fool him once in a while, and he occasionally may make mistakes; but the only fair way to judge a man is by his general tendencies. Eagerly I class Dwight L. Moody, the evangelist, among the great men I have known. He was a big-hearted man who knew the needs of the world and faithfully tried to supply them, not only in his own special field of evangelism, but in the field of education, of social service, and of general human betterment. Up to the time he died he probably set in motion more organizations and movements in this country for the building up of the people than any other man. It is my con- viction that some day the directors of the Hall of Fame in New York City will be proud to add his name to the list of notables who should be remembered for the greatness of the contribution which they made toward the common good. Personally, I owe him a debt of gratitude. When I desired to become a preacher and had been rejected by several theological seminaries for my lack of scholarship, somebody told me about the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. I wrote Mr. Moody, telling him about my situation and referring him to a mutual friend for particulars. A few days later Mr. Moody met this — friend. The big, human evangelist asked him simply one ques- tion, “Has he sand?” I was accepted. No doubt “sand” is not a very practical — substitute for scholarship in a theological seminary, but I have © always been grateful to the man who made it possible for men like myself to enter the Christian ministry. It was a rare treat when Mr. Moody came to address the - students at the Institute. The fine ideals he held up before them were decidedly inspirational. Perhaps this was the best © service that he rendered to the students. I never heard him without coming away with a bigger conception of what it meant to be a Christian worker. And always his message was a sane, healthy one, and invariably there was a touch of humor. In the class-room he often asked the students for new ideas. One day a particularly clever plan was suggested to Mr. Moody for Sunday-school work when he was presiding at the Institute. ee SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN 251 “What do you think about this?” he asked the superin- tendent of the Moody Church Sunday School, who was present. “We have been aiming to do it for two years,” replied the superintendent. “Don’t you think it’s about time you fired?” quickly laughed Mr. Moody. He never seemed to me just like an evangelist. There was an utter lack of professionalism about him. He did not need to be assured that his campaign would be a success before he began his work. To him it was a question of an opportunity for doing a big piece of work for God and for humanity. He did not always succeed. But he always did his best to succeed. Mr. Moody’s breadth of view was most stimulating, espe- cially in a day when narrowness in methods of work and theo- logical belief controlled to so great a degree. He invited to his Northfield conferences men like Professor Henry Drum- mond and Dr. George Adam Smith, when they were regarded as arch-heretics by the conservatives who thought they domi- nated this annual conference. He gave the Roman Catholic Church in East Northfield a fine organ when their building was being erected, for, said he, “if they are going to have music, they might better have good music,” and the Catholics reciprocated by furnishing enough stone to build the founda- tion of the Congregational church, of which Mr. Moody was the chief supporter. In spite of the opposition of many Church workers in his day to the so-called socialized or “institutional church,” Mr. Moody spoke most cordially of the social features of the Moody Church in Chicago, and one Sunday morning I heard him make an earnest plea for five hundred dollars to be used for the work of the Boy’s Brigade. The simplicity of his message was such that it gripped all classes. The first time I ever saw Mr. Moody he was talking to a young sister of mine in an inquiry room in a mission chapel on the East Side of New York. She was about four- teen, and Mr. Moody was quietly explaining to her the religion pwhich he had just been preaching from the pulpit. i 252 A SON OF THE BOWERY Even during Mr. Moody’s day there came the signs of swift change in our social and economic conditions. He frequently spoke of the problems of the workingmen. I often wonder what the message of Mr. Moody would be in view of the situa- tion which now confronts the Church and the Nation. I know that the narrower followers of this great man would declare at once that, were Mr. Moody here to-day, he would preach in just the same old way. I do not believe it. He would apply the old Gospel to present conditions. Mr. Moody often told the story that the beginning of his power came with the realization that God was waiting to find a man through whom he might show the world what he could do with one who was thoroughly devoted to him. There is no doubt that God is waiting for such a man to-day. One afternoon I was traveling west from Philadelphia. When the conductor came through the car to take up my ticket, he said to me, with a considerable show of pride, “John Mitchell is in the car forward.”’ We were just passing through the mining region of Pennsylvania, where Mitchell, as Presi- dent of the Miner’s Union, was worshiped by the coal-diggers. I found Mr, Mitchell reading a recent book on economics. We talked the rest of the day on many phases of the labor question, and I was much impressed with his fairness. Even when he spoke of those who so bitterly hated and opposed him, Mr. Mitchell did not say an unkind word about them. I followed Mr. Mitchell’s career for nearly twenty years, meeting him annually at the conventions of the American Federation of Labor and becoming very well acquainted with him. Always he won the respect of fair-minded men, and his host of friends among employers of labor indicated his broad- mindedness. Mr. Roosevelt was among those who deeply admired him. : When Mr. Mitchell died, the story was printed that he had left a fortune of a quarter of a million dollars. Some people are prone to regard suspiciously the accumulation of wealth by any labor leader, and certain venomous charges had been publicly made against Mr. Mitchell during his lifetime, which I had felt called upon to refute. His secretary, who had been SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN) 253 working with him throughout his entire career, and who had kept an accounting of all of Mr. Mitchell’s investments from the very beginning, submitted a financial statement to me, which showed Mr. Mitchell to have had remarkable business ability in making investments and which cleared him of any charges of questionable policy. Let it be said, however, that so high was the regard of the public in general, even among employers of labor, that there was scarcely a suspicious ques- tion raised as to how Mr. Mitchell had obtained his money. I had many opportunities to meet William Jennings Bryan, and in the course of the years we became very good friends. He always had my profound admiration because of his un- doubted sincerity and integrity. One knew where to find him, whether he was right or wrong. He was ever faithful to his convictions, and it was his staunchness and sincerity that made the American public believe in him, even when they did not share his views. I recall one occasion when he was among those who should have been his warmest friends and admirers. When action upon the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was im- minent, about fifty men and women, leaders of national dry organizations, came to New York to decide upon a common program. There were so many factions and so many antipa- thies between them, that it was impossible to agree upon a common meeting place. Because of the contention among the leaders, it was not until well toward evening that it was finally agreed to meet in the parlor of a small hotel, to which place the fifty Prohibitionists made their way. Arriving at the hotel, nearly an hour was spent in “milling around” because the question of the presiding officer had to be settled, and again, the unwillingness to give any organization the place of preeminence prevented the selection of a chairman. At last a group of two or three representatives of the most powerful national organizations came to me, asking if I would take the chairmanship because, as Wayne B. Wheeler, representing the Anti-Saloon League of America, remarked with a smile: “You are not tied up with any of the organizations and we know that you will give everybody a square deal.” 254 A SON OF THE BOWERY It was then about five o’clock and the conference remained in session until nearly ten, without adjourning for dinner. Much of my time as chairman was occupied in preserving order between the contending forces, and in the course of the discussion Mr. Bryan, who had also been invited to attend the conference, was mercilessly scored by certain of the “brethren” because they said he had come so late into the Prohibition fight. Mr. Bryan, it seemed to me, justified his record on the Prohibition question. But during that whole discussion he smiled at the rapier thrusts made by his friends, and outlined without the slightest trace of bitterness what he believed should be done to bring about Prohibition as quickly and as completely as possible. A few days before a mass meeting which I was organizing in Louisville, and which was to be held in the huge armory on a Sunday afternoon, I became disturbed about the success of the occasion because of the terrific heat and many counter- attractions. So I telegraphed Mr. Bryan, who was somewhere in Michigan or Minnesota, asking him if he would hurry to Louisville to speak with me. He promptly wired his accept- ance. When afterward I spoke to him about the payment of his expenses and fee, he said, very heartily: “That is all right, Stelzle. We'll call it square. I had a good time and the peo- ple seemed to enjoy it. So just let it pass.” During the following summer I traveled with Mr. Bryan on a Chautauqua circuit in the Middle West. He spoke in the big tent in the afternoon, and I addressed the crowd at © night. Each morning we traveled in a day coach to the next city on the circuit. I recall that he talked more about the © Bible on those trips than of any other subject. : It was interesting to behold the manner in which he con- — versed with people on those day coaches. His memory of men — and events was most remarkable. I saw at least one of the — reasons why he had so strong a personal following. He was © much like Theodore Roosevelt in that respect. I have always regretted that Mr. Bryan allowed himself to be persuaded to take the place of leadership in the fight for — SOME OF AMERICA’S BIG MEN 255 the Fundamentalists, because, although he was in many re- spects a great Bible-class teacher when he limited himself to a popular presentation of practical, ethical teaching, he obvi- ously was not a theologian in the larger sense. Mr. Bryan frequently remarked to me that in nearly all of the political ideas which he advocated he was in advance of his time, and that after he had promoted them and spent time in educating the public to them, others had received the credit for the doctrines he had promoted. He candidly admitted that he was not always right, but he believed that the general tend- ency of his philosophy was sound in so far as it affected the welfare of humanity. There is no doubt that Mr. Bryan’s chief value to our coun- try was that of a crusader. It may be true that he was not a great statesman. But in his capacity as crusader he made a more profound impression upon his generation than most of the statesmen of his time. On Palm Sunday, 1926, I began a series of addresses in the First Congregational Church of Washington, D. C., of which Dr, Jason Noble Pierce is pastor. My general theme was “America at the Crossroads,” and, twice a day for a week, I presented to interested audiences various problems that confronted our country. But for Sunday morning I selected the subject, “If Jesus Should Enter Washington To-day.” President Calvin Coolidge sat about four seats from the platform, and during the entire discussion listened intently as I took up one after another the conditions that Jesus would find were he to visit the Capital of the United States. I confess that for the first time in many years I had “‘stage-fright”’ before I began to speak. Strange to say, however, it was not the consciousness of the President’s greatness that disturbed me—it was the sense of his modesty and simplicity. The church was packed, and thousands had been turned away, but Mr. Coolidge seemed entirely oblivious of everything but the religious atmosphere of the day—the beginning of Holy Week. What added a special tenderness to the occasion was the fact that his father 256 A SON OF THE BOWERY, had died during the previous week, and this was the first re- ligious service he had since attended—possibly the first public function of any kind. At the close of the service, the congregation remained standing as Dr. Pierce led me to the President’s pew and pre- sented me to him and to the guests who had attended the service with him. I then walked with the President down the aisle and escorted him to his automobile. His questions, as we slowly walked to the curb, indicated his interest not only in the subjects I had been talking about, but in the broader social work in which I was engaged, and to which I had casually referred in my address. XXI ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES QO NE day a committee of labor leaders representing an In- ternational union whose local in New York City had had a dispute with an employers’ association, called at my office with the request that I serve as arbitrator in the case in ques- tion. “T am surprised that you should come to me again,”’ I re- marked to the committee, “when in practically every case that I have thus far arbitrated in your industry I have decided against the union. The fact that I am a member of the Ma- chinists’ Union has never meant that I would grant special favors to workingmen.” “That’s all right,” the chairman of the committee said. “We know when we are right and when we are wrong, but we labor officials can’t tell the boys that they are wrong, because they will think that we have been bought up by the bosses and that we are double-crossing the union. They know that you don’t give a damn, when you arbitrate one of our cases, what the bosses or what the union thinks. You always give every- body a square deal and the men trust you. In this particular case they say they won’t accept anybody but you as arbitrator.” After hearing the arguments on both sides in this case, I again decided against the union. In experiences of this nature covering a dozen years or more my decisions have gone against the labor unions about two- thirds of the time, although it should be said that in every case the arbitrators representing the union side always signed the decision which I wrote. This cannot always be said for the employers, for in many cases when the decision was in favor of the union there was somebody on the employers’ side who presented a minority report. However, this was merely a matter of record, because as chairman of the arbitra- 257 258 A SON OF THE BOWERY tion committee in the particular cases which I have handled my decision was final. Most of the cases which have come under my observation and consideration had to do with the printing business in New York, no doubt because of my practical experience as a ma- chinist in the shops of R. Hoe & Co., the printing-press manu- facturers, where I worked for eight years; and the major part of these cases were in connection with the mechanical depart- ments of the New York newspapers. After my first experience in this particular field in which, by the way, the decision went against the labor union, Her- mann Ridder, publisher of the New York Staats-Zeitung, re- marked to me that he was mighty glad to have found an “im- partial” arbitrator who actually knew the printing business, because, he said, “on a number of occasions we have had deci- sions rendered by perfectly honest men whose rulings we, as employers, could not accept because they did not give working- men a fair deal.’’ He quoted a famous bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who went out of his way ordinarily to ex- press his sympathy for workingmen, and actually did much in New York City to further their cause, but who in an arbitra- tion case gave them a decidedly raw deal simply because he did not understand the technical aspects of the newspaper printing business. As a result of the confidence gained through the decisions made in a number of cases, I understand that my name ap- peared at the top of the lists of suggested arbitrators submitted by both the publishers and the unions in a number of impor- tant arbitration cases, and so, for some time I served in this capacity, not as the representative of any organization that was trying to reform somebody, but merely as an individual who — was interested in bringing about better relationships between employers and employees. Some of these cases had been held up for several years be- © cause both the publishers and the union were afraid to submit them to arbitration on account of the great uncertainty as to — how an outsider might regard what was to them a most impor- . tant question, for arbitration decisions come to have much the | ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES 259 same standing that decisions in courts of law possess—they are constantly being quoted by succeeding arbitrators, or in the presentation of cases both by employers and employees. Some- times the questions considered involved the carrying out of definite agreements made several years before, but certain con- ditions had changed so decidedly since the agreement was en- tered into, that one side seemed to be given undue advantage. For example, it had been agreed by the union and the pub- lishers that five men should constitute a crew on a “shaving machine,” an appliance which shaved the inside of stereotype plates used on the cylinders of newspaper presses, and in the agreement it was specified just what place each particular man of the five was to occupy in his relationship to the running of the machine. The place of one of these men was to be at the “tail” of the machine, to which the stereotype plate was finally delivered after the machine had automatically done its work; but in one of the newspaper offices a very ingenious arrange- ment had been perfected whereby the tail end of this shaving machine was run through a hole cut in the partition which separated the stereotype-room from the pressroom, where the plate was used. Obviously there was no room for the man as- signed to the tail end of the machine to stand. In order to function at all, it would have been necessary for him to go into the pressroom and there take the plate from the machine, but the rules of the pressmen’s union prohibited the member of any other union from working within the pressroom, although a member of the pressmen’s union was permitted to handle the plate as it came through the partition. The stereotyper’s union, however, insisted that five men must be employed on the machine, and so the fifth man continued to remain as a member of the crew, taking his place in the pressroom, but doing ab- solutely nothing, although he had drawn his weekly wages for two years when the case came to me for arbitration. After looking over the situation, and after hearing both sides of the case, my decision went against the union, although techni- cally they were right in their insistence that the agreement of the publishers to employ five members of the stereotyper’s union on the shaving machine had been violated. My point 260 A SON OF THK BOWERY was that there were still five men at work on the machine, even though the fifth man was a member of the pressmen’s union, and that it was absurd to insist upon the enforcement of a technicality which severely penalized an employer who was trying to maintain great efficiency without reducing either the number of workers or the amount paid for running his plant— and the union finally agreed with me. Apparently, they were afraid of establishing a precedent which might some time in the future injure them in the making of a contract concerning the number of men who should be employed in operating this kind of machine. Taken as a whole, it has been my experience that the repre- sentatives of the labor unions presented more carefully pre- pared briefs than did the employers. I recall one instance in which the question of an increase of one dollar per day was asked in the wages of the men in a union which represented approximately twenty-five hundred members. When the question of the cost of living was con- sidered, the employers, besides some mere generalities, pre- sented simply several sheets of brown paper upon which were penciled the prices of food which had been secured in Washing- ton Market on the morning of the hearing. The union, on the other hand, had very carefully prepared an elaborate statement based upon a study made of the rise and fall of prices cover- ing a number of years and giving their authorities for the statistics employed. The case for the employers had been so poorly presented that I insisted upon another hearing in order to give them an opportunity to secure more complete figures for their side, although the labor representatives of the board protested most vehemently against such a proceeding. I in- sisted, however, that as an arbitrator I had the right to ask for all the facts available, and I felt that I was not in a posi- tion to make a decision on so important a case with the material which had thus far been given me. The employers rushed a couple of men to Washington, who spent a week in getting the best figures available, which were then submitted at the next hearing of the Arbitration Committee. However, in this case ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES 261 the decision went in favor of the union, although the full amount asked for was not granted. In another instance, a contract between the employers and the union had been so loosely drawn that it was capable of several different interpretations, and when it came to the de- fense of the employers’ side, there was such indifference mani- fested as to the importance of these points that I indirectly in- timated in the early part of the day that if no better evidence could be produced on the side of the employers the decision would go to the union. During the luncheon recess the em- ployers saw to it that the afternoon session was attended by several of the leading lawyers of the city, who had been re- tained by their organization to argue the case for them. This arbitration resulted in a compromise decision. It should be said that in both the cases just described all of the material had been gathered together by the workingmen themselves or by their elected officials, who had had no legal training but were graduates from the shop, although several were still working in the shop. In one instance the three men who represented the union had worked almost continuously for three days and three nights, getting very little sleep, in the preparation of their material. Since statistics and statistical studies enter so largely into in- dustrial matters, the practice during recent years has been for the unions to employ agencies or professional statisticians who prepare the briefs dealing with the larger economic and statis- tical data, and employers, too, are less and less dependent upon their own wisdom and sense of superior knowledge of business in order to win their cases. They also are employing profes- sional economists who give their entire time not only to the preparation of special cases, but to the constant study of data dealing with this phase of their business, so that both sides are better prepared for emergencies, and mainly to lay the founda- tions of a better understanding between the two groups. In one important industry this plan was inaugurated at my sug- gestion, when the employers lost their case because of the crude- ness of their contract. 262 A SON OF THE BOWERY One of the most encouraging features in this connection is the fact that in recent years the experts employed by one anion and those engaged by the employers work jointly to produce material upon which there may be based a common agreement, thus narrowing down the possibilities for controversy. Hot-headedness in an arbitration case usually results in last- ing bitterness. However, sometimes a strong personality will stand out, having such fine qualities that the mere matter of explosiveness on occasion is forgiven, especially if the guilty man himself has a sense of humor. I recall a prominent newspaper publisher in New York City who, in a certain arbitration hearing shook his fist in the faces of the three representatives of the union and called them the vilest names that he could think of, but the three unionists sim- ply continued to puff away at their cigars and smiled at the excited representative of the bosses, Finally, I quietly remarked: “Mr. Blank, these men do not deny that they are what you are calling them—so this is not a question for arbitration. Let us go ahead and talk about things which will really stir them up and to which you can get a comeback.’”? The excited publisher joined heartily in the laugh of the crowd. “Well,” he said, “they are damned good fellows, anyway,” and the trade-unionists came back at him with the same com- pliment. The committee then proceeded to its business. There was probably no man representing the publishers who was more generally admired by the workers than Don Seitz, then of the New York World. Characteristically, he gave his opinions bluntly, and never minced matters, but he was always so eminently fair—sometimes opposing his fellow-members of the employers’ group—that he won the respect of every man of the opposition. It is generally assumed that when one side in a controversy is willing to arbitrate and the other is not that the former is manifesting the finest spirit and is to be commended for its fairness; but it doesn’t necessarily follow that he who is will- ing to arbitrate is surest of his grounds. The fact is that fre- quently when one side has nothing to lose and everything to ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES 263 gain—that is, when it is least sure of its ground—it makes a show of fairness by saying that it is willing to submit its case to arbitration, with the belief, as is often true, that the arbitra- tor will compromise the claims of the two contending parties, and thus give the side which really had no case more than it is entitled to. | There are very few cases which cannot fairly be settled by arbitration, assuming that both sides are adequately presented and the arbitrator is unprejudiced and has a sufficient knowl- edge of the technicalities which may be introduced to permit him to give a fair judgment. Often, however, the arbitrator may have a clear and definite opinion regarding the technical and legal points involved and still bring in a decision which, while not absolutely unjust, nevertheless results in bitterness or hard feeling, because of the failure to consider the human element in the controversy. It is often assumed that lawyers or judges make the best arbitrators because they possess “the judicial mind,” but the trouble is that their tendency is so strongly in favor of the absolute observation of the letter of the law that they often forget the human side of the question. This, added to their lack of knowledge of the business itself, sometimes results in decisions from lawyers which are anything but satisfactory to the workingmen, who in such cases are usually the greatest sufferers. The major portion of the international unions throughout the country and the American Federation of Labor itself are opposed to compulsory arbitration. More and more, however, the tendency is toward the compulsory presentation of the facts before an arbitration board, and hence to the public, and after the arbitration board has made its decision it remains for public opinion to enforce it. If public opinion does not co- incide with the view of the arbitration board, the side which has been discriminated against stands guiltless; but if, on the other hand, the offending party refuses to accept the just deci- sion of the board, it stands condemned by the public, receiving no sympathy from it, with the result that it is soon whipped into line. 264 A SON OF THE BOWERY Whether or not an industry can afford to pay increased wages does not always depend upon the profits which are being made at the time of the demand for the increase. In one of the decisions which I rendered in connection with a newspaper arbitration I stated: “Whether or not the newspaper is making money cannot be the determinating factor in deciding how much wages should be paid to its employees. In the first place, workingmen should not be penalized because of the publisher’s errors of judgment, lack of business enterprise, mistaken edi- torial policy, or any other reason which may cause a newspaper to fail to produce fair profits. Furthermore, publishers of newspapers may see fit to conduct their affairs so that a larger future reward will come to them rather than a comparatively small immediate return. If a newspaper is conducted at a loss in spite of no assurance of future prosperity, then the personal desire for continuing such enterprise should not be a sufficient reason to request employees to work for less than a living wage.” It is a question whether any industry which cannot pay a living wage has a right to live. It is an extremely difficult matter for an arbitrator to base his findings upon figures presented regarding what it costs the average worker to live, because often there is a variation in fig- ures of this kind of from fifty per cent to one hundred per cent—depending upon who presents them. If the principle of the living wage as submitted by social workers and so-called experts were to be applied to industry as a whole, it is probable that the total annual income at present produced in the United States would not be large enough to provide such a wage for every worker, and it is a serious ques- tion whether a particular industry should be compelled to pay its workers the “living wage’ which may have been submitted in a particular controversy, while there are many other in- dustries with which it would come into more or less competi- tion that pay very much less than this living wage. There is endless controversy regarding the living-wage question because the value of money changes so frequently. The purchasing power of the dollar varies very greatly from time to time. Also ARBITRATING LABOR TROUBLES 265 standards of living are constantly changing. Before the war the average American workingman was satisfied if he had enough to eat, clothes enough to wear, and a home to live in. But to-day, on account of the marked elevation of standards of living, he is no longer content with merely making a living —he is keenly interested in making a life. Thus it will be seen that the “living wage” question will always be subject to ar- bitration. XXII PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY Whee things are wrought through publicity than this world dreams of. Other elements enter into the success of great public enterprises; but organizations and movements which require the good will and support of the people for their highest success can secure them only through legitimate publicity methods. The problems of the publicity man are principally those of human characteristics and relationships. My experience in the social field, together with the surveys of special situations and of entire communities which I had been making for many years, proved to be invaluable, in qualifying me for publicity work. I began to write for the newspapers when I was about eighteen, the first article being a “contribution” sent to the American Machinist in which I had the audacity to take issue with a famous mechanical engineer with regard to some me- chanical process. I recall that one of the foremen in the shop said if I continued that sort of thing I would get myself into trouble, but I remember that he himself lost his job before I left the shop. While I was still writing for the Labor Press of America, I received a letter from the General Counsel of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a syndicate which furnished features to several hundred daily newspapers throughout the country, wanting to know if I would write a daily editorial for them. The managers had seen my work in the labor papers and as the publications for which they furnished material consisted largely of evening newspapers read by workingmen, they thought that that was just the kind of stuff they could use. For three years thereafter I wrote every day with the ut- most liberty for the N. E. A., mainly on industrial and inspira- tional subjects. The articles were only about 300 words in 266 PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY ~— 267 length—although I recall the managing editor telling me that if I could put my ideas into seven words he would pay me just as much for my work. In this connection he told me the story of Rudyard Kipling, who, it appears, during his early newspaper experience was one day hanging around the make-up table of the newspaper on which he worked, and casually re- marked to the make-up man, “I am glad to see that you get so many of my stories into the paper.” “Yes,” this czar answered, “your stuff is short and helps to fill up the holes on the page.”’ He also reminded me of the story of a young reporter who was told to condense a column of matter which he had written to a couple of hundred words. “It can’t be done,” feelingly said the reporter; to which the editor retorted: “Tt can’t be done? The story of the Crucifixion, the greatest tragedy in history, was written in less space than that!” Once the managing editor of a certain syndicate asked me to “cover” an evangelistic meeting of a nationally known preacher and to write only regarding certain phases of the meetings. At the end of a week, after I had wired half-a- dozen stories, I sent a telegram, saying: “May I also write about my personal reactions regarding these meetings ?” To this the editor replied in substance: “No—ninety per cent of the people of this country are nuts, and we have got to write for the nuts.” For a couple of years I furnished the editorial for the Sun- day Edition of the Philadelphia North American, which was spread clear across the top of the editorial page, and for a sim- ilar period I wrote for the Newark Evening News a daily col- umn interpreting the news of the day from the standpoint of a sociologist. Labor conventions and religious gatherings of national im- portance were also covered for syndicates of newspapers and usually for the most important local paper of the town in which these meetings were held. Serving as an “unofficial” inter- preter of such proceedings, I had the utmost freedom in writ- ing about the transactions of these bodies. These tasks were, 268 A SON OF THE BOWERY however, taken rather seriously because of my keen interest in the activities of the organizations whose meetings I reported, and invariably they dealt with subjects with which I was thor- oughly familiar. In 1903 I wrote my first book, entitled, ““The Workingman and Social Problems.” It was a comparatively small book, but I shall never forget the thrill that I experienced when upon reaching my home one evening, the first copy of the book, with its gilt title, was prominently displayed on the mantel of the living room. Since then I have written a dozen books on boy’s work, publicity, labor, prohibition, and general social conditions —some of them fairly pretentious—but I shall never forget the first little volume on the workingman which was really a narrative of some of my earlier experiences. I have been happy in presenting to the American public the work of the organizations which I have served as publicity counselor, because I accepted only those enterprises into whose work I could enter with spirit and enthusiasm. I have never - undertaken to do publicity work for commercial organizations. As ordinarily I promoted simultaneously half a dozen or more campaigns, there was sufficient diversity in the work to keep my mind fresh and alert. One of the most fascinating publicity campaigns I ever conducted was that of the National Reform Association in con- nection with its International Christian Citizenship Conference at Winona Lake, Indiana, during the early part of July 1923. For many months it had been the advertised purpose of the of- ficers of the Conference to prepare a message on world peace which was to be sent to the rulers of every country. But the Conference was coming perilously near to its close, and the message had not yet been written. So I took up the subject with the steering committee one morning and urged upon them the importance of delegating somebody to prepare this message. “You have been writing the official statements each morning which have gone out to the country through the press. I would recommend that you yourself write the message on world peace,” half facetiously said the bishop who was the presiding PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY _ 269 officer of the committee. The committee took his remarks seri- ously, although I vigorously protested that I was not the man to write the document. On the night of July 4, after I had fin- ished my day’s work, I tackled the job and wrote and rewrote sentence after sentence until at three o’clock.in the morning I had finished the statement. When I presented it to the com- mittee a few hours later, they unanimously voted to accept it as it stood without changing a single word. Here are some of the paragraphs in this six-hundred-word message : “Humanity is staggered by the possibilities of another world war. Homes in every land, over which the shadow of sacrificial death still hovers, are saddened by the prospect of still further heartbreak and suffering. The people in these lands have already given millions of their sons in the belief that their supreme sacrifice would make the world safe for democracy, create a high idealism which would make the world a fairer place in which to live and end war for all time. “None of these hopes has been realized. Men hate each other as intensely as ever. Chaos reigns in every human relationship. Economic and political conditions have sunk to low levels. Nations have been guilty of promoting selfish and ignoble loyalties. “Efforts have been made to avert the disaster which is inevitable if present tendencies continue. Every such method for adjusting these difficulties has failed. “The time has come to try Christianity. It has never failed in any field when given a fair chance. And civiliza- tion is entitled to every opportunity to free itself from its present predicament. There is an inescapable obligation on the part of every nation to make its contribution to consum- mate this desired end, even at great sacrifice to itself. “The nations of the world must depart from selfish in- dividualism and inhuman isolation. They should unite in creating new standards which are based upon the teachings 270 A SON OF THE BOWERY of Jesus. He must be acknowledged as the Supreme Arbiter in every national and international difficulty. Loyalty to Him should be the chief desire of the nations. “Tt should be recognized that nations are accountable to the same Christian principles as those which pertain to all Christian men and women as individuals. There is no double standard of morality and ethics—one for men and another for nations. There is only one morality, one honor, one righteousness. “We believe that God’s judgments can be averted only by national repentance for sin and by national obedience to the laws of love and brotherhood and fair play, as taught by Jesus, and that such obedience will bring peace to the world, and a restoration of prosperity and happiness to all the peoples. “We further believe that civil rulers are his ministers as certainly as are the rulers of the Church and that these rulers are directly and immediately responsible to Him for their official conduct. “Tt is because nations and rulers have held themselves above all moral law, becoming a law unto themselves, as far — as their civil lives are concerned, that present-day world con- ditions have become so chaotic. “We, therefore, an Assembly of 2000 Christian men and women, constituting the International Christian Citizenship : Conference, unite in asking the rulers of these United States — and of the world to join in setting up the Kingdom of God _ on earth, acknowledging Jesus Christ Lord of lords and King of kings, so that justice and happiness and brotherhood and peace may prevail throughout the whole earth.” This message was adopted with enthusiasm by the entire Conference and was telegraphed to every part of the United States, holding first-page position all that day in most of the - great metropolitan newspapers. The means of sending the message to foreign rulers had not _ been determined. I suggested that it be cabled in its entirety © to the King of England, frankly with an eye to the publicity PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY = 271 which would thus be obtained. I understood, of course, that ordinarily communications are not sent directly to the King. When I found that my suggestion was promptly accepted by the committee, I ventured to add that if the document were sent as a week-end message, the cost would be only about one- fourth of the regular cablegram rates, and that it might be a stunning thing to cable the message to every ruler whose country might be reached. This was enthusiastically done. Shortly afterward the text was put into the form of an elegant four-page document, and sent to the eighty-three kings and rulers of the world. Many of them responded through their representatives, expressing deep appreciation of the sentiments contained in the pronouncements. During the war Ivy L. Lee, who was director of publicity for the American Red Cross, asked me to call at his office in New York to discuss candidates to head two important depart- ments which were to be organized in the Red Cross office at Washington, one having to do with the churches of all denom- inations in America, and the other for the purpose of appealing to the workingmen of the United States. After we had dis- cussed possible directors for about half an hour, he said sud- denly: ‘““Why don’t you take both jobs? You can’t do any- thing bigger than head these departments and really make a success of them because you will be dealing with the two greatest classes in this country.” , I hesitated. Whereupon Mr. Lee urged me to come down to Washington and look over the work which the Red Cross was doing. A few days later I appeared at the Red Cross Building, and Mr. Lee, without any further argument, led me to an office and said, ““Here’s where we are going to put you, so hang up your hat and take off your coat and get busy on the job.” I was not prepared for this sudden “call to service’; but I followed Mr. Lee’s instructions and remained in Washington until the end of the war, promoting night and day to the best of my ability the big job which had been assigned to me. With the utmost liberty to proceed in arousing church members and workingmen to a sense of their responsibility, I evolved a multitude of methods and sent out numerous messages 272 A SON OF THE BOWERY through the religious press and the daily newspapers. The church organizations and the labor unions were glad to enlist in promoting my plans. At one stage during the Red Cross campaign organized labor throughout the United States became very indignant at the Red Cross officials because they permitted the official organ to be printed in the plant of a concern which bitterly fought the unions. The various craftsmen identified with printing de- cided to boycott not only the periodical but the Red Cross itself. When this information was brought to me, I made the re- quest that I should be permitted to confer with the national presidents and secretaries of the organizations involved. To the group which met in Washington I pointed out the disas- trous effects such action would have upon the Red Cross Christmas campaign for membership, and also that the reaction against the labor unions of the country for halting the activities of the Red Cross during the war would very seriously affect the standing of organized labor in the mind of the public. Fi- ‘nally, I persuaded the group to meet with the council of Red Cross officials, as a result of which meeting the proposed boy- cott was never inaugurated. In the midst of the national fight for Prohibition I or- ganized the “Strengthen America Campaign,” the object of which was to raise a fund of approximately $1,000,000 to buy space in daily newspapers to help put across the Eighteenth — Amendment to the Constitution. The money was to be raised — by local committees and used by them in their home-town news- ~ papers. Hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers printed the — sixty different pieces of advertising material which I prepared. — The labor press of the country used page advertisements and printed special articles at various stages of the campaign. A set of a dozen posters printed in colors was widely displayed. Thirty leaflets especially for workingmen were ordered from the printer by the million, Full-page advertisements appeared simultaneously in the Saturday Evening Post, the Literary Digest, the Independence and The Outlook. Big prohibition | mass meetings followed by open forum discussions were held in various parts of the country, three of them in connection PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY 278 with the conventions of the American Federation of Labor in San Francisco, Baltimore, and Buffalo. A monthly newspaper called The Worker was edited par- ticularly for workingmen and had a wide circulation through- out the entire country. In a three-hundred-page book entitled “Why Prohibition?” was published the result of my two years’ study of the economic phases of the liquor problem. Many magazine articles were printed. A motion-picture film was made and exhibited at strategic points. Much of the material employed in the “Strengthen America Campaign’’ was sent to several foreign countries which were engaged in temperance and prohibition propaganda. Governor Willis of Ohio, meeting me in Washington one day, said that in his travels throughout the State he carried with him two books; one was the Bible, and the other was my book “Why Prohibition?” One of the leading jurists of Ken- tucky, who was seated next to me at a banquet in Louisville, at which I was to speak, but not having caught my name when we were introduced, told me of an experience which he had while making some prohibition addresses throughout the state with two or three other lawyers. “Each night I presented a new set of facts to my audiences, to the amazement of the lawyers who sat on the platform with me, and who spoke at the same meetings. They were very curious to know where I had gathered together this mass of material, but I was slow to tell them because I did not want them to steal my thunder,” he said to me. “The fact is, I got my dope from a book called ‘Why Pro- hibition?’,’’ he continued. “I think that that is one of the best books ever written.” The man who sat next to the Judge was convulsed with laughter as the Judge continued to speak so enthusiastically of my book, and finally turning to him, he said: “The man who wrote that book is seated at your side, Judge.” The Judge turned to me in great surprise and he said, ‘Are you Charles Stelzler’ I admitted it. Arising with great dig- nity, he bowed in true Southern fashion and said, “Please, sir, 27 4 A SON OF THE BOWERY let me take your hand again. I think that your contribution in the form of that book has done more to bring about prohibi- tion than anything that was ever printed.” It was of great interest to find reported in the daily news- papers and in the Congressional Record whole sections of “Why Prohibition?” quoted as original material by members of Congress, which, of course, was perfectly all right, because it was with the hope that the material might thus be used that the book had been sent to every member of Congress. One of my most worth-while campaigns was to help the Women’s Trade Union League of New York City to raise enough money to buy a building of its own. “Shall thousands of our working-girls continue to use back rooms of saloons, rented dirty parlors, or noisy street corners for their get- together affairs?” was the title of a folder prepared for the League. The most active promoter of this campaign was Mrs. Willard Straight—now Mrs. Leonard K. Elmhirst, who, as chairman of the Campaign Committee, not only herself con- tributed liberally, but worked indefatigably for weeks, per- sonally soliciting funds. There were in New York City in 1920, 691,720 women who were “gainfully employed.” The great majority of these women were eligible to become members of the Women’s Trade Union League. The difficulty of finding a suitable meet- ing place for working women was even greater than was the case with workingmen. Most of the social functions of the organized working women were held in the upper story of a downtown hall which had very meager facilities. However, a very small percentage of the women could be cared for in this hall, so that they scattered into smaller groups in some of the meanest places in town. Unfortunately, in their effort to improve themselves, the organized women workers received very little encouragement from the men. It is true that the labor union demands “Equal pay for men and women for equal work.” They make this demand, not so much because they are interested in having women receive as much money as they receive, but because they fear that unless the women do receive as much money, they will themselves be crowded out of an ——— PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY = 275 industry in which they both happen to be engaged. It thus comes to pass that working women are compelled to pretty much shift for themselves. The Women’s Trade Union League has been making a strenuous fight championing their rights, and so far as it has been able, to provide such educa- tional and social facilities as to enrich the lives of many of those who have been severely handicapped because of their small opportunities. Workingmen in America are seeking to-day something more than a full pay-envelope. They want fuller and richer person- alities. They are seeking, not only a living, but a life. During the past half dozen years this cultural yearning on the part of the workers has found expression in the Workers’ Education Movement. Groups of workers have come together all over this country for the voluntary study of subjects ranging from economics to art, from philosophy to science, in study groups, resident colleges, summer schools, Chautauquas, and Labor In- stitutes. No less than 35,000 adult workers have been en- rolled in such classes, and more than 300,000 trade unionists _ have been provided with illustrated lectures in union halls and addresses and debates on industrial subjects. The Workers’ Education Bureau, which is conducting this _ work in America, invited me to make a study of the entire field in which it was operating, and to make recommendations for its promotion and support. I felt very keenly that few enter- | prises were of greater importance than one which broadened _ the vision and action of the American workingmen, because if | democracy is to endure it must be an educated democracy. It is true that knowledge has increased among workingmen, but _ real understanding has not kept the same pace. One of the most important developments of the Bureau was a ““Worker’s Bookshelf.”’ In the general preface to each of its volumes is printed the following paragraph: “The Worker’s Bookshelf will contain no volumes on trade training nor books which give short cuts to material success. The reasons which will finally govern the selection of titles for the Workers’ Book- shelf will be because they enrich life, because they illumine human experience, and because they deepen men’s understand- 276 A SON OF THE BOWERY ing.’ The Bureau is the result of the wholly unselfish efforts of Spencer Miller, Jr., who has succeeded in enlisting the sup- port of the American Federation of Labor, whose affiliated bodies are pledged to responsibility for at least half its finan- cial support. When this country celebrated the Tercentenary of the land- ing of the Pilgrims, the American Bible Society observed “Mayflower Universal Bible Sunday’? on November 28th, 1920, the object being to have the ministers throughout the United States preach on “The Pilgrims and the Bible’ on this occasion, and to promote the use of the Bible in as many ways as possible. I was requested by the Society to prepare literature for this celebration. When I called on the Secretary of the Society to ask him if he had any material which might serve as the basis of what I was to prepare, without a smile he handed me a copy of the English Bible. “That is fine; this gives me a very good beginning,” I said, and he did not hear from me again until about a month later when I placed on his desk copy for a complete program for the observance of the day, which included a specially drawn poster for the cover page with the title “In the Name of God, Amen!” This was followed by the Mayflower Compact, the story of the Pilgrims, the principles that governed the Pil- grims, an article describing conditions in this country three hundred years after the Mayflower landing, a chapter on the Bible and the Pilgrims, a story of how the Bible is distributed in this and other countries, concrete suggestions for the ob- servation of “Mayflower Universal Bible Sunday,” and the reproduction of the covenant of the First Church of Christ in Plymouth, In addition to this material, I prepared a tiny booklet en- titled, “A Little Journey to Plymouth—Where the Mayflower Landed.” This task involved several visits to Plymouth, where a study was made of materials found in the local museum and in other institutions in Plymouth; the reading of every book that I could find dealing with the Pilgrims, a study | of the work of the American Bible Society, and the working PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY = 277 out of a complete program for the observance of the day by various organizations which would be likely to be interested. During the days of my childhood there was a very strong prejudice among the poor in the tenements against the hos- pitals. It was even with great reluctance that they went to the free dispensaries. This prejudice was due to a belief that in the hospital they were given the “black bottle,’ supposed to contain a drug which would kill them so their bodies might be used for laboratory purposes. Thus many children were allowed to die lacking proper medical care. Now the death rate of infants in New York City is usually the lowest among the ten largest cities in the United States and the lowest among the great cities of the world. Many causes enter into the saving of the lives of children: control over contagious diseases, the supply of pure milk, municipal sanitation, control over respiratory diseases, control of congen- ital diseases, the development of more careful nursing science, and the work of the visiting nurse. For three years I directed the publicity and promotional work of the Visiting Nurse Service which is administered by the Henry Street Settlement, and which was organized about thirty years ago by Miss Lillian D. Wald. During these three years approximately two hundred and fifty nurses made 400,- 000 visits a year to about 42,000 patients. The value of the maternity work done by these nurses may be measured by the fact that the death rate among the mothers they attended was only one-half that of similar cases in the city as a whole. When it is remembered that ninety per cent of New York’s _-sick are sick at home, the value of the visiting nurse is readily apparent. Three years were also spent with the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, whose annual budget is over $1,000,000, and which is probably the largest relief agency in this country. I have known few men in the philanthropic field who took their task more seriously and who showed greater compassion for the problems of the poor than William H. Matthews, who 278 A SON OF THE BOWERY was the head of the Relief Department of the A. I. C. P. He was thoroughly human and sympathetic. One day a visitor reported to him concerning a case to which she had been assigned. With obvious glee she said that the woman was altogether unworthy. “You seem to be glad that she was a fraud,” indignantly retorted Mr. Matthews. “I think I should feel sorry if I were you,” he added. In spite of a great multitude of details on his shoulders, this unusual “social worker”—how he hated to be called by this name—personally visited many of the families, whom he might easily have assigned to his corps of fifty odd assistants. About the same time that Miss Wald startled New York by her revelations of life on the East Side, another pioneer in so- cial settlement work, Dr. John L. Elliott, secured his “baptism of fire” on the untried West Side and founded Hudson Guild on the fringe of “Hell’s Kitchen,” which for many years was a sore spot in New York City. There in the reeking tenements amid the docks and railroad yards, warehouses and slaughter houses, the Guild, setting out to lift up the people of the com- munity to a higher plane of living and thinking and to secure communal effort in a district of heterogeneous nationalities, has stood out like a beacon light. I have been helping Dr. Elliott promote this work for several years. Dr. Elliott, who is also an Ethical Culture leader, has always upheld the principle of the “uncommon fineness in the common man,” and believes, not in the charity which hands out doles in Lady Bountiful fashion, but which sets out to teach the people it wishes to help, to help themselves and in turn to aid others. While social settlements as a whole are supposed to stand for democ- racy in their various relationships, there is probably none which has worked out this principle so definitely and practically as Hudson Guild. And it is in working with such leaders in the life of America and helping make known the work that is being done by these welfare, civic and educational agencies that one feels that one’s own work is richly rewarded and distinctly worth while. PROMOTION AND PUBLICITY = 279 These paragraphs by no means tell the whole story of ten years of publicity effort, but merely cite typical organizations throughout the country for whose work there has been a cry- ing need, and whose own work and needs I have had the privi- lege of presenting to the American public. XXIII CHILDREN OF THE CITY HE city is the modern miracle. It is like a ‘“Pandora’s Box’’—with its traditional mixture of good and evil. Some believe that it is an evil genie spreading its baneful in- fluence over the entire country, bringing ruin and disaster wherever it touches. In any event, there it is—splendid, power- ful, dominant. The city has come to stay. The forces respon- sible for its growth march on with inexorable law as their basis. While the city is a world phenomenon—many of the largest cities of Europe having grown faster than most of the cities of America—the growth of the cities of the United States is most remarkable because of their number and the conditions under which they have developed. In 1800 there were only six cities in the United States hav- ing a population of 8000 and over, but in 1920 there were 924 such cities. In 1800 only 4 per cent of the population lived in cities of this size, whereas, in 1920 nearly 44 per cent lived in such cities, although in 1920 52.4 per cent of the population of the United States lived in cities of 2500 inhabitants or more. Almost 10 per cent of the population of the United States lives in the three cities of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. More than one-half of the population of New York State lives in New York City. New York City has a population which equals that of 13 sovereign states. Certain portions of it are so densely populated that if the entire city were equally crowded, it would contain all the people living in the United States, all those living in Canada, and all those in London, Berlin, Paris and Tokio. Unquestionably the cities of America present many very perplexing problems—housing, transportation, food supply, health, sanitation, industry, immigration, moral conditions, and so one might go on—but concretely, there are few problems 280 CHILDREN OF THE CITY 281 of greater importance than that of the city’s children. There is no doubt that those who are active in work in behalf of children occupy the most important field in this country. This must be obvious to every student of our national life. .From time to time I have made independent studies and investiga- tions in the social and economic field. Many of these investiga- tions had to do with the welfare of children. In one of these studies I found that during recent years there has been a very decided tendency toward juvenile delin- quency, which, however, is not always shown by general statis- tical reports, nor proven by figures on crimes and arrests. According to the Police Court judges, the young people who appear before them are often hardened criminals before they are twenty. The public school authorities in New York City have openly admitted that their curriculum did not include direct training in character. A judge with large experience with criminals has said, “Gunmen, thugs and bootleggers are not made ina day. They are the product of homes where lax- ity and indifference reign. The criminals of to-morrow are in our homes and schools and on our streets to-day—impres- sionable, eager to learn, and looking for a hero to worship and a gang to join.” Statistics for the leading countries of the world indicate that the United States is “the most lawless nation on earth.” A special Committee on Law Enforcement of the American Bar Association reported in 1923 that 9500 persons were killed in crimes of violence in the United States during the preceding year, and that during the preceding ten years no less than 85,000 persons perished by poison, pistol or knife or other un- lawful and deadly means. Commenting on this situation, the New York Times said editorially: “This means that every year more than four times the number of people lose their lives at the hands of criminals in this country than were killed in the Battle of Gettysburg, and that every 514 years more people are killed in the every- day witks of life in the United States through crime than were killed in the American ranks during the World War.” 282 A SON OF THE BOWERY Robbery is 36 times as prevalent in New York as it is in London. In Chicago it is 100 times as prevalent as in London. There is no doubt that if the amount of this lawlessness is to be decreased, special attention must be given to the children of our country. Whatever may be the immediate cause of the tendency toward criminality and recklessness among young people, it is obvious that there is a serious and fundamental lack of character among them and that very few have had any direct moral training. Another serious phase of the child problem in this country is its industrial aspects; in other words, the question of child labor. Most of us are deluded by the statement that it is a good thing for all children to go to work—but there is a vital dif- ference between child labor and children’s work. The first may easily destroy child life, whereas the second may enrich it. It is generally supposed that the street experiences of the newsboy make him bright and clever, but the fact is that all street trades hold more perils for children than ever before, because the streets themselves are filled with greater danger, and the ir- regularity of the hours, the night work, the weather, the traffic, the glamor of the crowd and lights, and the general reckless- ness of life and morals which dominate the city, produce ar- tificiality, delinquency, and mental incapacity for permanent work, The real curse of child labor is not in the fact that children are compelled to work; even a child of eight may perform a certain routine of duties without serious injury. It is the con- tinuous toil for long hours under unsanitary conditions with improper and insufficient food that stunts the body and the — mind so that when the child arrives at the years when it should be giving expression to its best self, it is simply impossible for it to appreciate the real values of life. The pathetic part of the whole thing is that there comes no realization to the child of a be that which is missing. Life has lost its largest and fullest © meaning. It is limited to the routine of getting a living. According to the Census Bureau’s report for 1923, there were over 200,000 children in various institutions throughout the United States on a particular day when the census was CHILDREN OF THE CITY 283 taken. Altogether, there are more than one-quarter of a mil- lion children who are dependent upon private or public benev- olence at any one time, and about 500,000 dependent children are cared for during the course of the year. Of course, ina sense all children are dependent, the majority of them on their own parents, but some, unfortunately, on strangers and soci- ety. If it could be made perfectly plain that so-called ““depend- ent children” are not at all different from other children in their personal needs, it would help clarify the situation. In former days it was the practice to assign all dependent children to orphan asylums regardless of their requirements. To-day there is a very definite movement on foot to abolish all orphan asylums and to place dependent children in foster homes or to have the State or a private agency furnish “‘widow’s pensions” so that the child may be kept in the home. However, the indiscriminate placing of children in foster homes is just as vicious as the indiscriminate herding of boys and girls in child-caring institutions. There are some foster parents whose sole purpose in opening their homes to unfortu- nate children is to procure the services of a household drudge at the lowest possible expense, just as there are some institu- tions in which all the tedious toil from floor-scrubbing to laundering is still being done by hands that should be busy with baseballs and dolls. The human element in caring for children is far more important than any other consideration, and service by trained, devoted persons is more essential than external con- ditions in the family home or in the institution. Big buildings and elaborate organizations and spotless equipment cannot of themselves satisfy the heart needs of the growing child. Un- fortunately, many institutions and agencies for children, while having on their Board of Directors high-grade men and women, are actually operated, in part at least, by low-grade em- ployees who have no special fitness or training in the care of children. It is beginning to dawn upon many of us that however bad a child may be, it is not fair to put him into an institution until pains have been taken to know him and find out what a carefully selected home can do for him. A correctional. in- 284 A SON OF THE BOWERY stitution should be thought of as the last resort in trying to make a good citizen out of an under-privileged, dependent or delinquent child. It has been found that the great majority of criminals in our penitentiaries have been inmates of juvenile correctional institutions or reformatories, many of whom could have been saved in their own or other homes and given better care than they received during the years which they passed in these institutions. That great numbers of the inmates of our penitentiaries have previously been in such juvenile institutions is a challenge to our current method of dealing with juvenile offenders. It is quite apparent that if we fail to give dependent children our best in their childhood, they will give us their worst in their manhood. There is perhaps no greater heart appeal than that of the sick little child. What is merely discomfort to grown people often means death to him. The mustiness of dark, inside bed- rooms and the fetid odor of the streets where the tenement poor are compelled to spend the nights are responsible for sad, hollow-eyed children who cannot understand why they are caused so much unhappiness. Heartbroken mothers then know a woman’s greatest anguish—to look on helplessly while their little children wilt and die. They haven’t much of a chance when they live so closely packed together—often three and four children sleeping in a squalid bed in the tenement which they call their home. This is particularly true during the summer season in our great cities. Familiar as I have been with the life of the poor in the tenements in New York, I have never been able to ac- custom myself to the pitiful sights in New York tenement dis- tricts in August. This is the harvest season for death’s reaper. He stalks through streets and alley-ways and climbs the long stairs to reach his victims in the dark rooms into which the light of life has never found its way. Stagnant air, choking humidity and overpowering smells, sickness, poverty and hope- lessness—and many other things that one cannot even mention —are the causes of great discomfort and unhappiness. Hordes — of wilted people swarm the streets and jostle each other on the packed sidewalks. Mothers patiently fan fretful, ailing babies : CHILDREN OF THE CITY 285 through the long hot evenings. Restless, wan little children droop on doorsteps and in dark hallways because it is too hot to play. Pavements glare in the brazen heat and a sticky fog hangs over the city while the sun-baked tenements stifle help- less little children. On any hot summer night it would appear that the entire population had been driven from its stifling rooms. Fortu- nately, as many as can do so seek relief on the high roofs of their tenement homes, although often at the peril of falling into the street below. Mothers with little babies on their laps are lined up on the sidewalks seated on boxes, benches and chairs—rows upon rows of them, as many rows as the side- walks will hold. Garbage cans are filled to the top with reek- ing vegetables and other refuse from tenement kitchens, while little children are compelled to play in the stench and filth. Peddlers may be seen selling new mattresses which are piled high on their wagons and their customers buy them because their old ones are filled with vermin which the summer always breeds, in spite of all that the most industrious tenement house- wife may do. Meanwhile bonfires are devouring the discarded mattresses. After heavy rains, gutters are filled with water from over- flowing sewers, furnishing bathing facilities for small boys. Among the many tragic things in these tenements is that of young girls who are making a brave fight for life and every- thing else that is sacred—like beautiful flowers growing out of the stench and the mire. _ Countless children in New York’s tenements know nothing of growing things beyond the stunted, trodden grass of ugly city squares, or struggling plants on sunless window sills. Yet a knowledge of the country should be a part of the memory- heritage of every child—they should see the summer clothe it- self in green; they should see planting and harvesting; they should learn the secrets of the woods. A tenement child who lacks these things is robbed of much that enriches life. _ The “fresh air” work done by welfare organizations in New York City has signed the life warrants of thousands of little children every summer. Among the more prominent organ- 286 A SON OF THE BOWERY izations carrying on such work is the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, whose publicity I handled, as already noted. About 7,000 children were sent to the country by the A. I. C. P. each summer, the cost being approximately one dollar per day for a child or its mother. Five fresh air homes were conducted by the Association where good food, tonic air, spot- less beds, fragrant flowers, the smell of the woods and the tang of the sea, worked wonders during the two weeks spent in these homes by the average child. Of the million dollars an- nually spent for its relief work of every kind, about one-tenth was used by the Association for its fresh air work. The daughters of the poor in our large cities are peculiarly tempted, although be it said to their credit that they are as a class as strong and womanly as those who move in-the so- called higher life of society, even though their manners and their language may sometimes seem rather rough and crude. I think of Maggie, a rather pretty child, of seventeen, who, like most East Side girls, was fond of society and dress. I never saw her at home when her hair was not done up in curl papers. One day I heard that Maggie had been married. She had known her husband two weeks and their honeymoon lasted just two days because a detective came to the house, saying that her husband was wanted for forging a check. I have al- ways believed that he was a sham detective and that her hus- band was a scoundrel. When I called the next day to find out if anything had been heard regarding her husband, the young bride said to me: “When I look back at my young days (she was seventeen) and think of the fun I used to have, I am sorry I ever got married, but my mother said that I had better marry him because he looked like a gentleman and that I might get some one who would beat me just like my father used to beat her. “Oh, but I got a lot of presents,’’ she went on. “Here is a lemonade set and a coffee pot, and I got these tin dishes from my grandmother. My husband bought these six chairs and looking glass on the installment plan, but I suppose they will be taken away now because I cannot pay for them. But I don’t CHILDREN OF THE CITY 287 like these chairs—they are too dark anyway; don’t you think so?” . And yet there wasn’t anything particularly wrong with Maggie; she simply did not have a fair chance, There was no normal outlet for her natural desire to see more of life than was possible in the wretched tenement in which she lived. A recent study made in eight cities of 23,000 children under one year of age, by the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labor, for the purpose of discovering the cause of infant mortality, showed that there was a marked influence on death rates by the amount of wages earned by the bread- winner of the family. The report states that “for infants whose fathers earned less than $450 the death rate was 166.9, as compared with only 59.1 for those whose fathers earned $1250, or over. The group of babies whose fathers were classified as having no earnings had the highest rate of all, 2LO.0; Following are the death rates per thousand of children under one year of age in the eight cities studied, according to the wages earned by their fathers: Earnings of Father Death Rate RIT CEL URAC CH meeraMiny Muench annie RN AMEN) 166.9 fe ALO e ries ta) 0b) Rh an le ee 125.6 ROO ATG DOAK INA Aur Sane Phen se ia Aye 116.6 TUDO ST 5 8 An aI OSE 107.5 mesuton Slicuieny Warde. eek ih See Nib ayia 82.8 Epil hc ciTacliprct ahs Aiea sae CE ONO Cyiays it 59.1 PMC UTNE EEN OAT ty RT Hal 0) 210.9 _ From these figures it will be observed that a child whose father earned $1250 and over has three times the chance to live as compared with a child whose father earned less than $450. It shows that there is a distinct relation between wages and child life, that poverty is an important factor in determin- ing death rates. _. Another important point brought out in this study by the Children’s Bureau was that the mortality rate for infants whose 288 A SON OF THE BOWERY mothers had worked away from home during pregnancy was 176.1 per thousand as compared with 114.6 for those whose mothers had worked at home, and with 98 for those whose mothers had not been gainfully employed. This excess mor- tality was especially great among the babies whose mothers had no intervals, or only short intervals, of rest from work before confinement. The infant death rate in families which lived in homes with two or more persons per room was two and one- half times that in families which lived in homes with less than one person per room, showing the effects of overcrowding. To meet the problems enumerated and many others which might be elaborated, I conducted publicity and promotional campaigns for various children’s organizations in the United States, setting up programs which they were to carry out, and helping them to present the major facts to the public and to raise money for carrying on their work. The Knighthood of Youth was organized by the National Child Welfare Association and was promoted to meet the growing juvenile delinquency in the United States. It was felt by the promoters of the Knighthood of Youth that children could not be taught in the abstract or by mere preaching or nagging—which was the method adopted in the average home. Children learn by doing—they like to play at something. They find inspiration in working for a record and receiving recogni- tion and marks of honor for work well done. The Knighthood of Youth, of which Dr. John H. Finley, associate editor of the New York Times, was the president, was organized upon the basis of a modern crusade for boys and girls with character as its quest, and to dramatize what are or- dinarily irksome tasks by putting romance into otherwise dis- tasteful performance of duty. Deeds of knightly valor were — no longer to be confined for America’s young to the legends | which had come down through generations of grown folk—_ they were to be given the chance to perform their own deeds of | chivalry and conquest, but instead of spending time trying to. rescue helpless maidens from impossible situations as did the knights of old “when barons held their sway,” the youthful CHILDREN OF THE CITY 289 knight was first to conquer himself and then to proceed to perform deeds which would have as their basis honesty, friend- liness, kindness to animals, courage, justice, purity, helpfulness, thrift, loyalty, and the practice of the Golden Rule. Daily rec- ords were to be kept of specific deeds done and “‘score cards” were furnished upon which these records were kept. Another organization in the interest of children whose work I promoted was the Child Welfare League of America, which is a voluntary association of over 125 public welfare depart- ments and private agencies and institutions caring for and placing children, which were organized to help meet the needs of the one-half million dependent children in this country who annually must be cared for in public institutions and private homes. | I worked out for the League the following creed, which de- fines its aims and methods: “tT. We believe in saving the home in order to save the child. 2. We believe in care and training for every child accord- ing to his need—in his own home, in a foster home, or in an institution. 3. We believe in the beneficent influence of the family home for delinquent children, under intelligent and sym- pathetic care and supervision. 4. We believe that service by trained, devoted persons is more essential than external conditions in the family home or in an institution. 5. We believe that all projects in behalf of children should be based on knowledge and experience, and on recog- nized standards of child welfare work. 6. We believe in an infant and maternal welfare program which safeguards mother and child in the prenatal and post-natal period. 7. We believe in systematic health work with the individ- ual through childhood and adult life. 8. We believe in the study of the mental life of the child in order to understand behavior and develop character. 290 A SON OF THE BOWERY 9. We believe in a school system that recognizes its social responsibilities for the better adjustment of the child in home and in school. 10. We believe in a system of group activities for super- vised play and for character-training. 11. We believe in raising the standards of parental responsi- bility—through the education of parents in the care of their children, and, in cases of improper guardianship, or flagrant neglect in the home, through legal action. 12. We believe in State programs of child welfare, in which the services of public and private organizations shall be harmonized and codrdinated to deal with prenatal and post-natal care, pre-school and school care, recreational, educational, and vocational guidance, the building up of character and health, special care for dependent, de- linquent, and defective children, and to provide super- — vision of the work of private child-caring organiza- — tions.” One of the worst influences in some institutions is the name — which some sincere souls have fastened upon them. Here are | a few examples: ‘Home for Erring Females,’ “Society for | Penitent Females,’ “Home for Destitute and Orphan Chil- — dren,’ “Institution of Mercy,” “Foundling Asylum.” Such titles may be descriptive, but they are not very conducive to the self-respect of people so classified, either during childhood or at maturity, particularly the latter. They may be useful for publicity purposes, but they are degrading to their “inmates.” It is just as easy to select names which develop friendliness, and which are remembered with esteem and affection. The National Child Labor Committee, for which I con-— ducted an emergency campaign, had for many years been mak- ing a most heroic fight for children who work. The public for the most part knows the work of the Committee only in connection with its attempts to secure Constitutional Amend- ments and other spectacular proceedings, but the chief task of the Committee has been to remove the original causes of the hurts to children in industry. Studies of the child problem CHILDREN OF THE CITY 291 are made by a technically trained group of men and women, each expert in his own field. These workers not only study conditions, but investigate the methods and laws which are being depended upon to remove bad conditions. The doctor on the staff covers the state health machinery; the educational expert studies school laws and administration; the recreational expert looks into the organized opportunities for the play-life of children; the agricultural expert be- comes familiar with the chances offered the child on the farm to develop mentally, socially and economically, especially as compared with the opportunity furnished the city child; the child labor expert investigates conditions among children en- gaged in industrial occupations of every kind and the chances they have to develop normally; the juvenile court expert re- ports on such matters as standards, jurisdiction, procedure, and cooperating agencies in the treatment of delinquent children; the staff lawyer draws up a summary of laws and their enforce- ment, and makes recommendations for new laws when neces- sary. When this group of experts comes into a community at the invitation of local organizations, and works with them until the task has been completed, there is presented to the people a well- rounded plan for the complete elevation of children who work. One of the most useful functions of the Committee has been the securing through its experts of State Code Commissions and advising them in the preparation of a Children’s Code— the Children’s Bill of Rights. Every year in the United States over a million children be- tween 14 and 16 leave school to go to work. Hundreds of thousands are recruited to protect America’s “infant” indus- tries—even though it has been clearly demonstrated that American workshops can succeed without child labor, and in spite of the fact that we have quite generally accepted the dic- tum that any industry which cannot afford to pay a living wage o adults has no right to live. There are few agencies that work among children which get loser to them than the social settlement because not only are heir buildings in operation every day in the week and every 292 A SON OF THE BOWERY evening, but the contacts are more direct and more personal than they are in almost any other relationship. In early days church people had a strong prejudice against social settlements, because, it was declared, they did not teach religion. This criticism was unjust. There are different ways of teaching religion to children and some of these methods are better than those employed in the average Sunday School. The high grade workers in the average social settlement are capable of giving children a finer outlook upon life and a better train- ing in morals and ethics—even though this is done indirectly— than many another society which claims to be purely religious in its character. Furthermore, it should be remembered that a social settlement is not organized primarily for the purpose of teaching religion any more than the public school is organ- ized to teach religion. In all fairness the critics of the social settlement should have differentiated between the functions of institutions which were organized for the purpose of teach- ing English and mathematics, those organized for the purpose of teaching social ethics and community responsibility, and those which were organized to teach religion, pure and simple, as most of us understand it. The social settlement, while it was organized primarily to emphasize the social aspects of the child’s life, nevertheless had a broader concept of its responsibilities than almost any other similar enterprise. From its very beginning I have been familiar with the work being done at Christodora House—which faces Tompkins Square in New York City—serving for part of this time as its publicity counselor. It was organized in the basement of a tenement house on Avenue B, near Eleventh Street, by Miss C. ee —— I. MacColl, who for nearly thirty years has been its head © worker. Christodora House, while having all the elements | found in the average social settlement, has an atmosphere which | is peculiarly its own. There is a personality—an individuality perhaps—which dominates every part of its work. It offers hospitality to every worthy organization in so far as its facili- ties will permit. Its Music School is of special value because — the study of music is combined with extensive social work. For | CHILDREN OF THE CITY 293 instance, good manners, dancing, and English are included in the curriculum, although apparently they haven’t anything to do with music, but they help give a cultural background which it is necessary for an artist to have. The “Poet’s Guild’ of Christodora House is composed of representative American poets, banded together for the en- couragement of young people of the East Side tenements who possess the poetic instinct. Among those who are members of the Guild are Edwin Markham, Margaret Widdemer, Robert Haven Schauffler, Anna Hempstead Branch, Percy MacKaye, Angela Morgan, Amelia Josephine Burr, Charles Hanson Towne, Herman Hagedorn, and about a score of others of equal reputation. The dream of the Guild is to found a “Poet’s House’’ where East Side boys and girls can find a spiritual home. It is hoped to have a little theater with club rooms and pictures and books and music, and a dramatic school with a chance to paint and model, to dance, to play, and to sing. It was a real pleasure to help promote for a year the work at The Music School Settlement, which is situated in the heart of the most densely populated and most needy part of New York City. Nobody knows the struggle for self-expression going on in this district. In the midst of extreme poverty and sickness, of loneliness and discomfort, of cold and hunger, and of every other kind of suffering there is nevertheless a deep yearning for music, The children living under these conditions need an emo- tional outlet from the hard facts of life which they meet daily —in the shop where only their hands are employed in running the machines, and in the home where the monotony and dull- ness of their tasks demand such an expression. At The Music School Settlement a thousand children are annually given such a chance. There are individual lessons on the piano, violin, and ’cello, and in voice culture, theory, en- semble and sight-reading. Half of these students are in the harmony classes. Nearly 100 teachers are on the staff in vari- ous departments. Three orchestras are conducted : the Seniors, the Juniors, and the Elementary, each of which averages about 294 A SON OF THE BOWERY fifty pieces, which give free monthly concerts. Students range from 4 years to 34 years in age. The work of The Music School Settlement is particularly effective in the heart of this, the most foreign section of New York City, because music is the universal language which speaks to all hearts. | XXIV SOME EXPERIENCES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES M Y first experience in Europe was in 1910. It was about this time that several of the leading New York Churches seemed enamored of English preachers. They had called several English ministers, and the impression seemed to have gone out among the ministers, particularly in England, that there were great opportunities for them in the United States because of the alleged incompetency of American preachers. One day I met with the Presbytery of London, and after ad- dressing them on some phase of the industrial situation in the United States, I was surrounded after the meeting by a group of a dozen or more who questioned me very closely about the opportunities which they might have in America. Looking at them half quizzically but with a serious face, I said: “To tell the truth, the reason that these American churches are calling so many English preachers is because they like your brogue and your long hair, but after you have been over in our country for some time and your speech becomes Ameri- canized and your hair falls out, you'll have to make good like the rest of us.” They looked at each other quickly in surprise. J did not stop to explain. When I walked out of the church, my friend who had introduced me to the meeting—himself a prominent min- ister who was later called to one of our larger American churches—simply howled with laughter, and every once in a while during the day as we traveled about, he would slap his knee and would refer to the joke on the London preachers. On this first trip to Europe, I addressed some of the leaders in the universities and seminaries, and also some large meet- ings of brotherhoods in various parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which were composed mainly of workingmen. In 295 296 A SON OF THE BOWERY Belfast I told the audience that at the close of my address I would be very glad to answer questions. The first question put to me was submitted by a rather aggressive-looking Socialist. “Do you think it is right for a church to own a distillery ?” he asked me. 7 Turning to the questioner, I said, “I suppose that you really mean whether it is right for the Church to accept a contribu- tion from a distillery,’ because I felt sure that he had not stated his question correctly. “No,” he came back, half fiercely, “I mean just what I say. Do you think it is right for the Church to own a distillery?” “Not on your life,’ I fired back at him. Whereupon the presiding officer arose and said that the Irish Presbyterian Church had been left two distilleries by the will of their former owners, and that they had not yet been able to dispose of them. I was amazed later to discover that fifteen hundred clergymen, all of them in the Church of Eng- land, I understood, owned stock in English breweries and distilleries, The whole question of prohibition is quite different in Eng- land from that in the United States, and it will undoubtedly take a very much longer time to have prohibition placed upon the Statute books in England than it did in America. I found, for example, that whereas in the United States the people in the rural districts were strong for prohibition, the same class in England drinks as much, if not more, than they do in the towns. Furthermore, the race question in the southern part of the United States, which was largely responsible for the South- ern States voting for prohibition, does not exist in England. Indeed, the Negro in England is almost upon an equality with the white race. At any rate, he is scarcely ever discriminated against. The attitude of the employers of labor in England is also different from that of employers in America. There is no particular desire on the part of English employers to have their workers cease drinking, as they themselves ordi- narily use intoxicating liquor. In the United States prohibi- tion has largely been made a moral issue. It is not so re- garded in England. eee IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 297 However, there is a marked difference in the attitude of many English labor leaders toward the liquor problem. One day I met in the House of Commons about thirty of the mem- bers of Parliament, all of whom represented the Labor Party. Arthur Henderson presided. This meeting was in the nature of a reception given to me, at which I was expected to discuss American social and economic conditions. Most of the after- noon was spent at this “tea” and as there were among the group some of the most notable of the labor men who later took their places in the Labor Ministry, there was a most profitable discussion. I observed that while it was possible for members of Parliament to secure almost any kind of a drink which they desired, these thirty labor leaders all drank tea. I went to London in 1924 primarily for the purpose of ad- dressing the convention of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. About 2,000 delegates went from the United States to attend this advertising meeting. However, I re- mained about three months to study social conditions in Europe. Extensive preparations had been made for my giving a num- ber of addresses in London and on the Continent. In prac- tically every case I was introduced as the founder and superin- tendent of the Labor Temple in New York City, although my work at the Labor Temple had really been quite incidental com- pared with a number of other activities. It indicated that the work at the Labor Temple was in the minds of Europeans the most striking thing with which I had had to do. I addressed all kinds of audiences, from great crowds at Wembley—the big fair that was on while I was in London— to crowds of working people in the east end of London. In one of the smaller assembly rooms in the House of Commons a reception was given me by some of the leaders in social work in Great Britain. The Deputy Speaker of the house presided. _ The occasion was the meeting of the International Conference on Labor and Religion, whose convener was F. Herbert Stead, and the Chairmanship of whose Committee in America had been offered me. ‘The interest in the subject of labor and 298 A SON OF THE BOWERY religion has grown in Great Britain in a most remarkable way, particularly among the prominent labor leaders, My own presentation of conditions in the United States was given careful attention, although it was very striking that in the discussion which followed exactly the same problems were brought to the attention ef the conference that one heard on similar occasions in the United States. This to me was an evi- dence, not only of the international character of the problem of the Church and Labor, but that there seems to be a like- mindedness on the part of Labor as a whole toward the Church and religion. There were perhaps few questions upon which the Churches of the world could more profitably unite, with the assurance, not only of unanimity of expression, but for the purpose of carrying out a definite program, than that of deal- ing with their relationship to the workingman. On a Sunday afternoon in East Ham—which is in the ex- treme east end of London—I talked at a most remarkable meeting of over a thousand workingmen, the institution under whose auspices the meeting was held being the outgrowth of an evangelistic campaign conducted by Dwight L. Moody many years ago. The form which this organization took after Mr. Moody’s visit was another evidence of the extreme practi- cality of Mr. Moody’s ideas regarding what should be done to meet the social needs of working people in the districts in which they lived. I had letters of introduction to about fifty of the leaders in public life in several European countries, but I presented very few of them during the months that I was studying social and economic conditions in these countries, mainly because I found my greatest interest in talking with the people themselves, visit- ing their homes, and entering into their social activities. Be- sides this, I interviewed literally hundreds of men and women who were actually in daily contact with the people and their problems, and I felt that they could best tell me what their conditions were, how they felt, and what they thought. I soon discovered that the knowledge of Americans concerning these — conditions was so meager or inaccurate that it was easily under- stood why there was so much prejudice against European peo- — IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 299 ple. It is almost tragic that we should know so little about the nations overseas. This lack of knowledge applies not only to the people them- selves, but to great national problems. It was peculiarly so with regard to the League of Nations—its formation, its sup- port, its purpose and its activities. On the steamer going to Europe was one of New York’s greatest “civic reformers”—a business man of outstanding ability, integrity and unquestioned accomplishment and culture. Talking to a representative of the League of Nations who was aboard, he remarked: “I suppose that since the League has assumed such large proportions, you have a Secretary who gives his time perma- nently to its work between the annual meetings of the General Assembly.” He was amazed when informed that eight hundred people were steadily at work for the League in Geneva, and that three hundred of these were in the Labor Department alone. I was frankly captivated by the spirit and culture of the Eng- lish. One could see that there were hundreds of years of de- velopment back of them. I refer, of course, to the upper classes. But even among many of their workingmen there was a depth and stability which was very obvious. Their serious- ness of purpose and homely culture was seen in their work, their homes, and in their evident yearning for literary and re- ligious knowledge. I attended a meeting of Aldwich Lodge of the Masonic Order in London. The members were all dressed in evening clothes, with white kid gloves, together with their regular re- galia. There was a dignity and order throughout the entire convocation which was extremely impressive. I attended re- ligious services frequently, going to various churches, but al- ways was there that same composure which denoted strength and confidence. The same thing was true of labor unions and literary groups. And unquestionably one saw it in the respect shown for law—particularly as it applied to obedience to the policemen’s gestures as he guided traffic on London’s crowded thoroughfares. The weeks spent in Switzerland were also a revelation of 300 A SON OF THE BOWERY the wonderful character of the people. The histories and tra- ditions of the centuries have left their mark upon them. It is not necessary to go into the story of Geneva, for example, which owes so much to the statesmanship of John Calvin, who helped to make it the city of refuge for those who had ad- vanced ideas regarding the progress of the human race. Cal- vin himself undoubtedly was guilty on some occasions of nar- rowness. At least so history tells us. In the main Geneva will always stand as a monument to this remarkable states- man, who tried to make religion the dominant factor in the government of the city, but it is a city whose sympathies have been so enlarged that it seems the natural thing for the League of Nations to find shelter within its bounds. The Wall of the Reformation in Geneva, with its remark- able proclamations of historical events in the history of the nations, in their fight for religious and political freedom, is one of the most stirring things that I have ever seen. If the spirit of these proclamations could but control the League of Nations, righteousness and justice and peace would fill the whole world. As one visits the principal cities of Switzerland, the differ- ence in the great cathedrals in Protestant and Catholic cities becomes pronounced. ‘Those, for example, in Lausanne and Zurich, from which all the old Catholic material has been re- moved and in which the very simplest decorations are now employed, bring out the austerity of the Protestant religion; whereas, in the Catholic cathedrals, as in Fribourg, one finds the color and warmth which is particularly appealing to vast numbers of the people who are attracted by the ritualistic form of service. The playing of the great organ in the Cathedral at Fri- bourg, said to be the finest in the world, is most thrilling. The story is told that the eyes of the builder were removed because of the fear that he would construct another organ for some other city which might surpass the Fribourg instrument. Per- haps this story is of a piece with stories of a similar character referring to other constructions—buildings, monuments, or memorials, which one so commonly hears in various parts of IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 301 Europe. If these stories are true, the idealists who centuries ago saw the “vision splendid’ must have been very jealous of others who might be given the same vision. I spent two weeks in Geneva, studying the League of Na- tions, but mainly the Labor Department of the League. From nine in the morning until the closing hour, I was interviewing heads of departments and executives regarding the work which they were carrying on in behalf of the entire civilized world. Many difficulties presented themselves—differences in coun- tries, in laws, in customs, in economic status, indeed, in stand- ards of every kind—but in spite of this the impression which I obtained from these interviews and the analysis of the re- ports which I read and which I have since carefully studied leads me to the conclusion that here is an enterprise, whatever _may be its political implications, which is worthy of the sup- port of every right-thinking people the world over. It has rightly been called a real “Parliament of Man.” While in London, I visited Westminster Abbey many times and was much impressed as I saw the statues and memorials to kings and statesmen and poets and soldiers and other great peo- ple who were honored here, and frequently I was caught up with surprise as I] saw way off in an obscure corner of the Abbey the name of some great hero whom I had always ad- mired. But the thing that impressed me most of all was that in the midst of all this greatness—crowded with histories which had made England famous, and about whose names its won- derful traditions had been written—a great space was devoted to the Unknown Soldier. To me it was significant that whereas in the past the history of the nations has been written about the lives of kings and commanders, the common people being used merely as a background for their own exploitations, here was a recognition of the masses, and a prophecy of the better days to come. It was with a good deal of a thrill that I stood on the long city pier on the river front of Hull, in the fall of 1924, and gazed across the Humber, and recalled that just on the other side a contingent of the Pilgrims had arranged with a Dutch 302 A SON OF THE BOWERY captain to take them across to Holland, in their first flight towards freedom. The immediate occasion of my being in Hull at that time was to attend the convention of the British Trades Union Con- gress. It was significant that it was just one hundred years since labor in England was permitted to organize, and it was the first anniversary of the coming into power of the Labor Party. Much was made of these facts during the sessions of the convention, which continued for a week. In addressing a mass meeting of workingmen in Hull on Sunday night, I said incidentally in the course of my address, that after witnessing the scenes in Hull’s public houses on the night before and seeing large numbers of workingmen and women reeling about in the streets all during the evening, I was not particularly disturbed about whatever competition working people of this type might offer the American work- ingman in the industrial field, because on the whole, the Ameri- can workingman was quite able to hold his own under present conditions. The introduction of the fraternal delegates at the Labor Con- gress was a noteworthy event. When the five delegates from the All-Russian Council of Trade Unionists appeared upon the platform, the delegates arose to their feet and cheered ter- rifically. The delegate from the Canadian Trades and Labor Congress was also enthusiastically received, but to my amaze- ment, when the two delegates from the American Federation of Labor were presented there was scarcely a handclap. Later it was demonstrated to me that at least part of the opposition to the American delegates was due to the fact that the British Trades Union Congress is so thoroughly wedded to its political program that it is utterly out of patience with the American Federation of Labor on account of its lack of inter- est in the formation of a political party. I was impressed with one outstanding fact in all the discus- sion during the week. The Russians, in spite of the glowing — picture of their idealistic dreams, told a story of hunger and suffering of every kind—and Russia, as it was stated, has a “dictatorship of the proletariat.” The British had a Labor IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 303 Government in power, but there were pitiful stories told of unemployment and underfeeding throughout the country. But when the American delegate presented his report after having been at least tacitly charged with representing a government that was plainly capitalistic in its character, he told of the great progress made by American workingmen, the abundance of em- ployment, the large sums of money being deposited in Labor banks, and in general the healthy conditions under which the workers of his country were living—although he frankly ad- mitted the conditions were by no means ideal. These strong contrasts stood out very clearly after each country had told its story. I was in Berlin during the summer of 1924, and even at that time the Salvation Army was conducting its feeding stations in the public parks and at other points. J saw one day a line of old women waiting with kettles and every imaginable sort of receptacle to receive the food which would be given to them by the attendants. Noticing the unusually refined features of the women as compared with those that one ordinarily finds on the “bread line’ that I have seen in our American cities, I re- marked to the social worker who was my guide in the study that I was making in the homes of Berlin’s poor: “These women do not look like beggars or tenement house people.” To which my guide replied: “No; many of these women formerly belonged to the aris- — tocracy of Berlin. They have been deprived of practically everything which they owned before the war and are living in little rooms in near-by tenement houses doing the best they can, but dependent mostly upon charity for their maintenance.” I noticed women of a similar character on the streets of Ber- lin, sometimes long after midnight, selling boxes of matches. The appearance of the men upon the streets, even among some of the business men, indicated their straitened circumstances. Their clothing was either very cheap or very shabby. Many travelers passing through the city, even those walking along Berlin’s famous thoroughfare, Unter den Linden, carried their shoes in their hands or slung over their shoulders so as not to wear them out. 304 A SON OF THE BOWERY On account of the food blockade during the four years of the war, it was said that 763,000 civilians died, consisting mainly of women and children. I saw some photographs taken of groups of children by the relief agencies in Berlin which showed that not only were their bodies greatly emaciated, but they were stunted in growth and showed other signs of under- nourishment and malnutrition. But one needed simply to cross the city to the West End to find the cafés and theaters crowded to the doors. ‘The sign, Verschlossen, was frequently found on the outside of these cafés—closed on account of the crowds. Entering one of these cafés one evening, I ordered my dinner, and when I had completed my instructions to the waiter, he asked me what kind of wine I wanted to drink. I replied that I did not drink wine, and bowing very gravely, he remarked that all those who sat in that particular section of the café were expected to buy a bottle of wine, but that I might go to another part of the café and order my dinner without this “extra.” Making my way to the place designated by the waiter, I again repeated my order for dinner, but was then informed that I was expected to order a glass of wine. Evidently my situation had become obvious to groups of diners seated near by, and they laughed rather sneeringly as I left the table and walked toward the checking room to get my hat—for the care of which I had paid half a mark when I entered. There is no doubt, however, that large numbers of those who patronized the West End cafés were visitors to the city, and, of course, there were many Germans who came to Berlin who had plenty of money to spend. They, however, did not represent the great mass of people in Germany, nor could it be said in fairness that they in their extravagance represented the people in Berlin. One could scarcely recognize in the young people and the middle class in Berlin the typical German that one sees in America. The girls in Berlin walk the streets with the same swagger air that one sees in New York. Indeed, they are dressed much like the most stylish New York girls, and if they were in New York, they would easily pass for typical : OE a IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 305 Americans. Those in the restaurants and cafés have the same smart air that one sees in similar American institutions. Unfortunately, impressions regarding Germans are obtained by Americans principally from cartoonists. Nowhere does one see a greater refinement and culture than among typical Berlin people. The discipline among the children and the edu- cational facilities offered them create a sturdy spirit which manifests itself in every walk of life. This was noted particu- larly among the boys and girls as they walked along the street, bareheaded, with a strong, steady stride, with head uplifted and with high spirit. One of the most dramatic incidents which I ever experienced happened on the Sunday afternoon that all of Germany cele- brated the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the World War. In Berlin the memorial service—for the celebration took the form of remembrance of the soldier dead—was held on the steps of the Reichstag Building, which was appropriately dec- orated, not only with flags and banners and evergreens, but with soldiers in their wartime uniforms and the officials of the new Republic. There must have been fully a quarter of a million people in the immense audience, which was packed sol- idly as far as the eye could see. There were times when it seemed that scores must be crushed to death as the crowd swayed back and forth. I sat astride of the crouching lion on Bismarck’s statue which faces the Reich- stag Building. From this point of vantage, raised as I was about fifteen feet above the crowds, I could see and hear all that went on. About a score of others were huddled together on top of the statue, in imminent peril of being pushed off on to the heads of the crowd below. There I sat with-my camera, taking dozens of pictures. It had been arranged that exactly at noon the entire nation was to pause for two minutes with heads uncovered, out of respect to the soldiers who had died in the war. At the first sound of the cannon, which was to be the signal for the two minutes of silence, a large group of men back of the monu- ment, who proved to be Communists, began to sing: their in- 306 A SON OF THK BOWERY ternational hymn, and fiercely pulled their hats down over their heads in defiance of the request that their heads remain uncov- ered. They threw their “Red’’ literature into the air and gave cheer after cheer for the Communist party. ‘This naturally destroyed entirely the climax of the meeting, which ended in great confusion. -A group of mounted police tried to rush the Communists back of the statue but failed to disperse them. It seemed to me that the people themselves showed mighty little spirit in not protesting against this direct insult offered their soldier dead. I wondered what would have happened in almost any city in America if a similar demonstration had been attempted at a memorial service. On the following Sunday, I attended at the “Grosser Schau- spielhaus,” the fifth anniversary celebration of the signing of the German constitution at Weimar. This was one of the most enthusiastic meetings which I attended in Europe. The hall, which accommodated, say, about four thousand people, was packed, each person having paid an admission of approxi- mately thirty cents. The audience appeared to be a horizontal slice of the population in Berlin: all classes were represented. Again there was an opportunity to express the war-like spirit which I had heard existed in Germany, but the sentiment which received the greatest applause was that expressed by the speaker representing the Democratic party, who declared, “We are through with war; we are finished with militarism.” This seemed to be the prevailing sentiment wherever the people were gathered together. It was rather striking, however, that one of the speakers, in protesting against the phlegmatic attitude of the Germans toward the new Republic, declared most earnestly, “We are a republic without Republicans, a democracy without Democrats.” It was also significant that in spite of the ex- hortation of the Democratic daily newspapers in Berlin to the people to display the “black-red-gold flag” of the new Republic, scarcely a flag of this character was shown in the city, except on the public buildings and the newspaper offices themselves. I attended another meeting in what was formerly the home of one of the nobility in Germany of a society representing the owners of large estates. At this meeting, which consisted IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 307 largely of the aristocracy of Berlin, a strong monarchistic spirit was displayed. It was manifested, not only in the ad- dresses given, but in conversations which I had with many of those present. Probably one reason why the Roman Catholic Church is making such progress in Germany to-day is that many of the people, having been deprived of the comfort of political authority to which they had been accustomed, are now seeking the note of spiritual authority found in the Church. On several occasions while in the city I ate my lunch in the Schloss, which was formerly the Kaiser’s home in Berlin—but I ate it in the kitchen. However, the Kaiser’s kitchen was rather a pretentious series of rooms which were altogether comfortable. The lunching arrangements were conducted by an Austrian-Polish noblewoman who desired to do something for the German students of Berlin and she secured the use of the Kaiser’s kitchen from the local authorities. Discussing the question of the inflation of the German mark with a prominent official, he frankly admitted that however unethical it may have appeared, it was imperative that Germany continue this process so that its own internal debts might be paid even if they did destroy the fortunes of vast multitudes of its own people, and to save the country from the revolu- tionists, who would have seized it upon its financial collapse. When deflation came, the Ruhr situation alone saved Germany from disintegration, for it held the country together. Probably few people realize what the inflation of the mark meant to the people within Germany itself. With the fall of the mark from a value of eight marks for the dollar in Feb- ruary, 1919, to 18,000,000,000 marks for the dollar in 1922 those who had lived in great comfort were suddenly reduced to the most abject poverty. They could not maintain the houses in which they were living, for it was impossible to pay the taxes and the upkeep, and I was told that many gave away their homes because of the necessity of living in the most reduced circumstances, The rapid fall in the value of the mark during the last six months of the inflation period resulted in a riot of spending because it was realized that any money possessed on a certain 308 - A. SON OF THE BOWERY, day would have only one-half or less of its value on the day following, so that when workingmen, for example, received their day’s pay, they spent every mark before going home. It did not matter much what they purchased; it was anything to get rid of the money which they knew would be greatly cheap- ened over night. The whole experience had a most demoraliz- ing effect upon the entire nation. One of the striking things encountered in Germany was the “Youth Movement.” Night after night I saw groups of young people parading through Unter den Linden with military pre- cision in their movements—boys and girls together, carrying guitars and zithers and other musical instruments, and often singing as they marched. The movement had its origin, I was told, in the desire on the part of the youth in Germany to be free from all adult control—in politics, in religion and in social and economic life. -They stood for the simple life. They did not drink or smoke. They were said to hold to the highest ideals in their conduct. They roamed about the country and conducted meetings in churches or upon the streets, their lead- ers speaking in favor of simple living. Originally they re- sorted to the woods, were plainly dressed and lived on vege- tables. They danced the old folk dances and sang the old folk songs. But as the movement grew it seemed to flatten out. While its adherents studied philosophy and religion the move- ment somehow lost its romance and appeal. They no longer had the “searching spirit” as one social worker put it to me. Many of the young people I found to be eager to express their ethical ideals, and they turned to Socialism because they felt that there was no response in the Church. Much the same kind of thing was found among the working people of Germany. In the main they have long been opposed to the Church, but it was said by those who were closest to them that real religion and the ethics of Jesus have always ap- pealed to them. This has been the supreme motive of the best of the Socialists and Communists, I was told, even though they were alienated from the Church itself. The reason why Marx- ian Socialism has been so bitterly hated is, it was said, because it destroyed patriotism among fully one-third of the popula- IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 309 tion, so that patriotism as it exists in America, in France or in Poland does not exist in Germany. Socialism, its leaders have openly declared in the German Reichstag, is an international patriotism, which, while idealistic, seems far in the distance. It may be well to remark at this point that one reason why the Jews are so bitterly hated in Germany is because of this same reason—that is, the strong international spirit which exists among them is stronger than the German spirit. One of the most prominent leaders in the industrial life of Germany said to me that as the Germans had for two thousand years been accustomed to being ruled by a “Kaiser,” it was simply impossible for them to adjust themselves to the ways of a democracy. When I asked him if he really believed that they had learned nothing in two thousand years in the way of self-government, and that they were not capable of keeping abreast of all modern tendencies in this direction, he simply shook his head half-pityingly as though I did not understand, remarking, however, that the German people are quite different from every other race in the world—temperamentally, his- torically, politically and scientifically. He said that there never was a time when the majority of the German people favored a republic, and that between sixty and seventy per cent of the people were at heart in favor of a monarchical form of gov- ernment. I went to Mexico while that country was in the midst of one of its periodical revolutions—during the interval when Pancho Villa and Carranza were the centers of attraction. I found that fundamentally the revolutions in Mexico were due to economic causes more than to political controversies, and that one of the chief causes for Mexican revolutions was the fact that the people were landless. Every revolutionary leader during the past one hundred years has promised to give back the land to the people, but not one of them has made good on his promises. Diaz even cheated them out of what little pieces of land they had left. | One reason why it was so difficult to conquer the armies of ‘Carranza and Villa was that most of them had no permanent abiding place. They owned neither houses nor lands and they 310 A SON OF THE BOWERY could live just as comfortably in the fastnesses of the moun- tains, depending upon forays for food and supplies, as in the average Mexican “town.” Juarez was just across the river from El Paso, but so far as its general appearance and the character of the population was concerned, it might just as well have been in the heart of Mexico. ‘The one-story adobe houses in which the people lived, looked as though they had risen out of the earth on which they stood. They were of the same color because they were made of the dirt of the roadside—low, almost window- less, usually very dirty inside, with dirt of different varieties, they were monotonous and uninviting. The houses were built of home-made blocks about one foot square and probably three inches thick. It was not much of a trick to build a house of this kind, and there was not much loss when it was blown up by the enemy—that is, the financial loss was not very great, however it may have affected the domestic life of the people. I passed a corner where a few days before the soldiers had piled up corpses by the dozens and burned them in the sight of all those who cared to look. Stray arms and legs and heads were kicked back into the fire as though they were chunks of wood. Some of them still remained lying in the gutter. I was in Juarez on the Sunday evening when Carranza came to establish his capital in that city. The streets and roads were lined with soldiers who served as guards, and hun- dreds of Secret Service men mingled with the crowds. It was interesting to study the soldiers who stood on guard, many of whom were old men, but there were boys who could not have been more than fourteen or fifteen. I saw many Mexican boys with limbs shot off and their faces badly bruised, victims of the revolution. Two little fellows growing weary of stand- ing still so long, began to play.