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Sg Or eres paads gy trir sa tesireres I z retpiedocsaagtes Usa rreeere i ptee es erence eeisete sates cette POSER: e433 re qagigdatea shar sa sz ees aeana tn piatrtctatees tee - v4 he irigess paeaeteaeegaas era ase eebabaeeaine ssis8e5) a soesee poe arr Stone we Shetits ms earsaar = = 4 ors besser ess paret eat SST Se or) rea rast ees iree reat 4 rarea scowed ere te ee ated ararerasen tiie sae Lireyseiais se oersasseas peavy eter orle Seee oe es Sieertee Met scnees yo apo bar be es hin om ane mar eee eee eee Ot t i) te i 4 The Howell Collection OF HISTORICAL | : MATERIALS fe Presented by Kay Kyser And his Mother Emily Royster Howell Kyser As a Memorial To her Brother Edward Vernon Howell Dean School of Pharmacy 1897-1931 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA . ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC A SOCIETIES wHOII0G. 19094 fet This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS ONLY, and is subject to a fine of FIVE. CENTS a day thereafter. It was taken out on — the day indicated below: | a wari. ' eye: my, : REPORT ¥eye OF THE: INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN HELD IN TORONTO, CANADA JUNE 241TH—30tTH, 1909 UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN OF CANADA TORONTO: GEO. PARKER & SONS, PRINTERS, 73 ADELAIDE ST. W. 1910. * VOLUME | CONTAINING OPENING SESSION OF CONGRESS. — EVENING SESSIONS. _ 7 JOINT SESSIONS. ir ¥ S mn oe Y AND THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS: ~ - 2 - » = ART, / EDUCATION. | LITERATURE. | ALSO AN APPENDIX. _ PREFACE. The Quinquennial Congress of Women of 1909 has passed, but its proceedings are not to be ephemeral. A record was promised of its transactions, both for the benefit of those who were able to attend its sessions, and also for those who were prevented from being present. As there were nine sections, all being held at the same time, it was impossible for those interested in several subjects to take them in their entirety—a month instead of a week would have been necessary. We hope by this publication of papers read and the conse- quent discussions that followed, to fill in the blanks that were necessarily left, so that all may participate in the wealth of infor- mation that was poured out upon us by experts in various fields of thought and action. | The opportunity afforded of hearing world specialists speak on such subjects as Education, Art, Health, Industries, Laws con- cerning Women and Children, Literature, Professions for Women, Social Work and Moral Reform, was one that rarely comes, and happily it was taken advantage of. These volumes should be widely circulated, not only in Can- ada but in the other countries that participated in the events they chronicle. , The Quinquennial Meetings were indeed ‘‘a triumph of orga- nization.’’ Few could attend the numerous meetings on so many diverse subjects without seeing how truly the smooth running of the wheels indicated the perfection of the machinery, and we well know how much of this is due to the wise and careful consideration given to all the arrangements by the President of the International Council, the Countess of Aberdeen. It is not as isolated individuals, nor even as isolated Councils, that we are called upon to grapple with the difficulties which sur- i round us, or to endeavour to solve the many problems with which % we are confronted. ‘Twenty-three National Councils are striving, not singly but as one united whole, to further the application of the Golden Rule to the individual, to society, and to the world at + large. iv. PREFACE. The work of compilation has been delayed by the non-receipt of papers from some of the sections. It was hoped to have had a complete return before Christmas, but this for various reasons given by Conveners was impossible. It was thought better to wait than to- have the Sections incomplete. In order to keep the volumes within the prescribed limit, namely, 500 pages each, it was necessary to condense many admir- able addresses which the editor would gladly have given in full. However, if in some cases matter was left out, the condensation was made with care, and if possible under the contributor’s super- vision. May I quote in conclusion the words of one of the delegates which express the exact feeling of those engaged in the work chronicled here:—‘‘That underlying all our differences of educa- tion, outlook, environment, our lack of insight, our dull misunder- standings, we saw in those wonderful meetings something of the underlying unity, something of the need for spreading and sustain- ing that intelligent good will among the women of all nations which is the best justification for the existence of the International Coun- ceil of Women.’”’ M. Epaar, President of the National Council of Women of Canada.* [The Editor of this and the succeeding volume greatly regrets that in several instances it has been found impossible to locate valuable papers and reports of interesting addresses. They have, therefore, perforce been omitted. With regard to papers sent in but not read, the general policy has been followed, owing to exi- geneies of space, of leaving them out, except in special cases. | oe “While this volume was in the press, the beloved President of the Canadian Council passed away in London, England. Sa ; : INDEX. ; Page. Formal Opening of the Congress ......0.. ccc cece eee cence renee 1-2 MEBs! DVI ADV: DGB a liye .s be wiales Waweeie bk eo sleitie hate te ah ave vi alwieze &'oce a Address by Hrg EXcELLENCY THE COUNTESS GREY.......... .eseeee- I Address by Hera EXCELLENCY THE COUNTESS OF ABERDEEN............. 2 Evening Sessions of Congress ........0.. 5. cee ever en eee ROE eye 3-26 Thursday Evening Session ................ sein clon Pete ind atie a eerie hiss 3-12 RUMMAGE SRN OLOE Hot. oo ly /s etie here pies ne/e oo ely Mele A aies ER Ooo meee vb ote 83 Women’s: Influence iw Poetry, Fiction, the Drama and History.......... 3 By Mrs: Aenes Knox Brack, United States.. Abstract of an Address on Industrial Conditions for Women............ 8 By Miss A, M. MacLean, United States. Summary of an. Address on Settlements. ... 2.0.0.0. ck ee ene es ewe o ne 9 By Miss JANE ApDDAMS, United States. SERA ae Py OVINE. SORBION ie scp ais anew ew 90 is Vie hip es. boa wisre ea bie lecech bonus Bene 11-12 Summary of Address on Heredity and Eugenics..............0...0505 11 By PROFESSOR RAMSAY WRIGHT, Canada. Summary of Address; on the Werk of the Women’s, National: Health, Asso- Bretton Of IPAQ We eee isc era ch ilin st aly ele ne Scheie aisle ota. gk wrelal's aE By Sir Wm. J. THOMPSON, F.R.C.P.S, Re VOUI SOR IB OT eas akg uiik 0 bie opeh lenis ovals trcierel pte gitie's's es weed 12-26 Secieties in Germany for Furnishing Legal Aid to the Needy.......... 12. By FRauLeLn Ipz. Kizcu.. Co-Partnership in Housing as a Method of Physical and Social Recon- BR OT oe ie getk hate Sobol demrade 0 gua arn Gera + Vat OE oe hy a ee we 8 8 19 By Miss SYBELLA GURNEY, Great Britain. Note on Other Speeches........+... permease bab gates alin Sate cae sate x deren eet 26 AEE MOBOLOT Boek a abled wee ete yaks woe eee kale mmeeo Riragts cuca 27-165: ‘““Play and Playgrounds’’ ..... 3 Lod COTO Arranged by Sections on Education, Phebe Social Work. and Moral Reform, How Children from the Elementary Schools.in Denmark Pass Their Sum- Pie TACOS tr neil Ore nee says ain pis Ok eS bac © cieth aed wee eS Gunes 27 By Frixes Eruve Hansen. pepaeton POOLE LOINC HES ic Ss er scnids Grete a Sipe eg oR Ce wee Sh es Bea vue ee tor ae By Proxen ScHNSLLE, Norway. Play and Playgrounds............seseseeecesseeseeees Sey oe ee By Miss. Sapa, AROS, United States. vi. INDEX. _ Page Work of the Playgrounds Committee of the Canadian National Council OF SWomen oo cine ecare soe Oh a a oe EEE Nee Lote uty an pe aenne ere vee 38 By Miss PETERS.’ D)ESCUBSIOM 0 oe hea We oe ea deo ie SAWN OO Nok Reg ENOER SENG c Suhig! gents gedaan gttangt sane ean ome 39 ‘‘The Education of Mentally Defective Children’’ .................. 40-57 Arranged by Sections on Education, Philanthropy, Social Work and Moral Reform. The Edueation of Defective Children, in Holland! oo. 0.0000 eS Se Se 40 By Miss Van Ewyck. Les‘Hnfants Anormaux: en: Beloiques 25 03. 2s ee pee sos se ow a ee ce ag re) Eerit par M. Nywns, et lu par MULE. MARIE POPELIN. Types of Feeble-ninded: Childrens ss 268 55-0 oe) se eee 44 By Miss Drnpy, England. ‘*Certain Aspects of Moral, Physical and Social Education’’ ........ 57-87 Arranged by Sections on Education, Health, and Social Work and Moral Reform, : The Educational Responsibilities of Parents ...........cic0ceocwones 57 By Miss Maup C. Epear, B.A., Canada. Moral: Teaching, Direct and Indirect. 0.2 on, capa ee eek vnete ee 63 By the Hon. Mrs. FRANKLIN, England. A Higher Standard of Morality...........6. ean Sa bre Gu ae Benne arc tle 69 By Dr. RosaLige SLAUGHTER-MoRTON, United States, SNR eine meee Cian Saves etal Vora ech ip oa In Ue ane eee oa aeaS 87 Arranged by Sections on Health and Physical Training and Professions and Careers for Women. Rie atrainino® Of GN UPs6S 2). cysG fice wis ote ier Stlaets os leet ayn oie ieee ae 87 '- By MaBeL PAINE, M.B., B.S., Great Britain. Nursitotor the Sick os). co. Spt ete ee tence tense e teen tees eee ees 91 By Miss Estrip RODHE, Sweden. The Profession of Midwives in Denmark.................- ene a tae 94 By Fru ANNA HANSEN. State; Hducation of \NUrsess 20. O50 Gi. cistte ss’ 6.00 acark ie Sos a sk bo ae eee omen 96 By Miss ETHEL ENsom, New Zealand. Trained. Nursiig an Canada oo a0 cies ceare hs mie! aie ne nae ty Be is ern: 97 By Miss SNIVELY. The Victorian Order’ “of GNUTrses o/.4 0. eaisss pete ins ora Late sonatas ees 98 By Miss Mary A. MACKENZIE, Canada, Afternoon Session, Monday, June 28th oo... c ys 4 vee ee es scien LOSS ELE Arranged by Industrial Section and Sections on Laws and Philan- thropy, on ‘‘Women and Children in Industry.’’ Specific Legislation Regulating Woman and Child Labor...........0..06. 104 By CONSTANCE SMITH, Great Britain. The Child in “Tadustry a ele ee ae 109 By Miss Hiupa MarTINDALE, Great Britain, INDEX, Vil. Page PPS OG TSE E sete eek Soa stoih wane eu ta cea 'e binlel o's Gree as FATHR Wit here las Pole Vip (Are «oid ae 117 mivernoon “Session Tuesday, dune 29th ie Meese. ce Aue Cob Pa eee « 117-165 Arranged by Sections on Philanthropy and Social Work and Moral Reform on (a) ‘‘ Housing of the Poor,’’ (b) ‘‘Care of the Sick Poor,’’ (c) ‘‘Associated Charities,’’ (d) ‘‘Temperance.’’ Reo PLUG IOaTI O1 VW OF AYO VV OMEN « aigje' satan) ale 6 6 bee 4 wer ath win-vho\e We diese ee 416 117 By Mrs. Mary Hiecs, England. Management of. Houses for: Working People. oo... ss ci les rie ee eevee 125 By Miss Marion BLACKIE, Scotland. MRSA AG idee yds SUevaiaiats oceemet amet T a Rost Malate sty'o aalie’ Sin ecpin Wee eho cke sans elas’ s 130 By Mrs. GEORGE CADBURY, England. MEY OT 8 OMICS era's ye ie gara SO es eee lk erent s Nuwlel a em te Saar e el 135 By M. T. MonteEpari, Italy. Broustie OF EnOek OOT- AN Canada oS sia eg pe sia ok oon boon SIE bee gious k's 140 By Miss FItTzGIBBon. Account of the Societies in Florence for the Relief of the Poor in Their CUTE ROI OS 8 et pn eae erry Mie Suit alco Sg a tp chao GRE Sah oe ao eS 140 By Emma R. Corces, Italy. Ora ritatie v1 ScociatiOMs. in SCOCKNOIN SV Senco oe che oe mek eee cee ewes s 142 By BaRoONESS ELLEN VON PLATEN, Sweden. PacriewWork Of the~tuscan Mederation. ¢c).iie rercs ceies bageleee es cle bh eae ls 146 By ELENA FRENCH CIN, Italy. memperance Work In Swede Fo 5 fe tines say we oes vate ei wsah Wal miate Serna cs 149 By Miss Ina RoGBERG. Report on Temperance Work in Holland.........0..cceceedecececevens 150 By Miss HENRIETTE CROMMELIN. Pteeee ts DALY ALC Oy as ile Mes ses inte bale Se ole sie cece abe hee ts 154 By Mrs. W. H. JOHNSON, Great Britain. eee etiee I Daily ET Os te ee vi 4 Soo Nir eer a cies Woke Wow e'4cate Wine 6 sacs 159 By Miss IsaBeL Marris, Great Britain. Some Account of What Has Been Done in Italy in the Matter of Found- Bar Ler DerauGe G8 CUOs, age cor cel alters salory else ate behets oop ae 162 By MARIA CAMPERIO SIEGFRIED. BU OSE) PAT ci teca ciate ace) ¢ sterelh tesa GN crac ris fom 65) s asehh age ae ee (Fee wl eons 166-262 EPEFOCMCLOPY HOINATK Ge hu titty ce qele tin mW Pag teevere diel de atone wel 8 ace wary 6 eth we oy 166 Value of Encouraging Handicrafts and Home Industries................ 166 3 By Mrs. HELEN ALBEE, United States. : Notice of Paper on ‘‘Home Industries in Philanthropic Work’’...... 174 By Miss CRAwLey, England. The Spinning and Weaving Industry in Scotland...................... 175 i By Her GRACE THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. ane Process of Making: Homespun Tweed po.) ie oe oe Daas ae wate ele e's 178 By Her GRACE THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. Vili. INDEX. Page Modern Developments of Handicrafts and Home Industries in Great Bri- tain and Ireland............. pate suuar wie ete 3 ee ahaha sg bul tahatatie a ake By Miss ELLEN Stones, M.A. ‘ Women 's tadestriesta Daly si ee so oe aie aie aie nae Sa yew ate hep 8. Read by the MarcHEst Bourson DEL MONTE. Atte anc Cratte in Anrstnid sss aos vias ace oe UNIS ei ree Ws ee aren SOd Read by Frav HarniscH, of Vienna. Amelesey, Industries oP. eae ens ss BAN oA nolg he Sele Wie tly tgp 194 By Miss AnTonta WILiiams, London, Canadian Handicrafts and Home Industries................0ceeeesees 196 By Mrs. Drenam. as Woman in Music (with reference to Holland)............ccccccecccces 197 By A, M. GerTH vAN WYK. PE ISLC “TN: ROHS co. eae geese ahd sea gta ah ronda ates ne Hightneae pha ate plate: sistas ~. “98 Musical Development in Canada. 2 ois .ucul. s «kas ss sobs tN ee eee ale 201 By Ametia B. Warnock (‘‘Katherine Hale.’”) Woman’s Position in the Music World of Sydney...........cceee cee ees 203 By Mrs. Borsen, Australia. The Status of Women in Music, Educationally and Professionally—Music Pr the = omic ae tk wea aaa on oe eee a a eee eee 206 By FrRoxkEN Eva Upmarx, Sweden. The -Value“O£. Miisic in the: Home Ho as Pw ee ee eee ee ee 207 By Mrs. Howarp Guiover, England. Some Practical Thoughts on the Teaching of Music in Girls’ Schools.... 212 By Crecitia Hit, England. The Aesthetie and National Value of Musical Clubs.................. 218 By Mrs. Grorce Dickson, Canada, Other Canadian ‘Musical Clithaic... ctsie scones ie Wes nieen Gases Ge aenienr ee ne geeeens 222 The Parl ‘Grey. Musical Copipetition 22s). ee Poss esis «a snack ba eteaes cae 223 The Dutch Women ‘in "Att. oc sccao.s sis «egies sin attalesn Fiabe eae a ee ae 225 By G. H. Marius. German Artists—Their Work, Education and Organization.............. 227 By FRAu MARTHA GIESE. The Status of Women in Architecture, Painting, Sculpture and Design.. 229 By Miss Grerpa SPRINCHORN, Sweden. Impressionist Painting and Painters.............-..0.0000: Bhat Paik wll 233 By Kate UrquHart, United States. The Sign Hvil and ‘Poster Mubwamee. 2. es Paes Ge ewes wae. 240 By Mrs. W. Hewes OvrpHant, Canada. The Theatre as a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil........... LFS . 245 By Mrs. Symes-THOMPSON, England. Phe Valoeief Payeante. 0255 fos ee ee eine 253 By Mrs. Harvey Darton, England. Page Programmes of Afternoon Concerts..............c0 cess Sin aie vie asters 2. 860 BeCtON” Olt SUCH AOI en ea ven yb ecewiee hs eh wells wave cvacorced ees simOS- OOD PRE TOULUCLOLY: IGE ALES ooo ceca a his cine Sioke och aie ek eu eee uae ha wie 4 wih gh ace 263 mencational Progress in Canada 20/20 isin Le eee aay we Ne vn F b's pw es 263 Remarks by Miss C. M. Drpgick. Educational Progress in Denmark........ mh na pms easiest ok aoe Ga ote © st ailt) eeOaD By FROKEN Hennt FORCHHAMMER. The Evolution of the School System of Austria.............cecee see 266 By Frav HaIntsen. Elementary Education of Girls in Germany...... ROCCHI oR omar Seca SOT By FRAULEIN MARI£ HERZ. The Progress of Higher Education. in GermMmay. inc .es anes oven eae’ 270 By FRAULEIN ALICE SaLoMon, Ph.D. The Progress of Education Since 1904 in Great Britain and Ireland.... 272 By Mrs. OgILvy GoRDON. Instruction and Education in the Dutch Indies.............sesseeee0es 274 By H. C. Sanpt vAN NOOoTEN. ere itei CUMOTEN CES eR OU re.,. OCS oe > gig eid wale bLip VRS a bes oe eee alee 277 By H. VAN STEENBERGEN. Sehools of Agriculture i ED LCGLY - grain wine suecne pies whee nh siace oes we bale dee ewe > 278 By MaARgia CAMPERIO SIEGFRIED. A Few Observations on Woman’s Education in Italy............02.c00. 280 By Maria PASOLINI PONTI. The Progress of Education in Norway Since 1904......... 0... cc ecseees 280 By FROKEN AMALIA HANSEN. Report of the Progress of Education in Sweden, 1904- 1909 Pee std patina on Siste 281 C By FROKEN ALEXANDRA SKOGLUND. Meet raining Schools 036. obs hele Ci ee hock ee ded had wees ti eB By Mr. J. A. Daus, M.A., Canada. Pome eo CceniOnal Wea g ohh, fo ere es Spee cu chee es 286. By. Mr. J. A. JOHNSON, M.A., Tasmania. Per cuo muy aha: CidnOON Os Pedy oe es Oe ee Noe _ B91 By Miss F. Metvitia, M.A., Scotland. The Early Education of Children.................005. Saw Bincen is sua 203 By 8S. P. Rosins, aD. Canada. The People’s High Schools in Denmark................ Phe wale ala sin ce OO By Fru HastRvp. Tae Training of Girls for Future Careers. 2 ooo s eile ee ac nt oe bs 302 By FROKEN AMALIA HANSEN, Norway. The Training of Girls for Professional Careers...........c0eceeeececes 303 By Mrs. Ogitviz Gorpon, Scotland. Xe INDEX. Page Discussion. .... esses eee cere eee one ete e ett e esas ee cesenee Legere « . 309 The High School as a Preparation for Life... .........0cse sees cee caees 309 By Miss C, McCrosen, England. | The High School as a Training for Life from the Point of View of a PATONG er sh Sia eck aay este So lacara eo Sea st saa a ahs eat aes oa tats Wiese pao Le. By Mrs. ALFRED POLLARD, England. Summary of Address by Mrs. May Wright Sewall............ccseeceees 318 TPISCUSSTOB so piss otis a5 is dra celaa eiie wastemme em eT «Cals ued ctert baste ee ane i iseeteaa scenes Detaiaeal 318 The Work of Women on Educational Boards............. ccc cceeecseee 319 By Miss MacDona.p, Scotland. DIBEUSSIOR 5 Fs ae oc Rez ace o's Shs goa e Saale ote iowa igor e ip sig siete woos ace esata 322 The University Graduate and Social Service...... ccc secs er cccccccccoves 323 By FROKEN AMALIA HANSEN, Norway, Scholarship and Service Ofitie State. i one ee rence wee 323 By Miss CHRYSsTAL MACMILLAN, Scotland. The University Graduate and, the, Homes.'s 4 vases sale se ie see weds oe 4 ote 327 By Miss ALICE YOUNGER, Scotland. EDIGGUBSTON See a eep e Saeie ie Cau Sete els Sates gent ote Moats aiiepalaice s aia knits 334 Summary of Address on Co-education in Sweden. .........ceceeeeeceeess 335 By Dr. ALEXANDRA SKOGLUND. Summary of Address on Co-education., 2201 iicoe met sia ute eres 335 By Mrs. May WRIGHT SEWALL, United States. Co-education in Collegesand: Universities: .J...0. 2... syeiseswoceecee eeu 336 By Dr. EvizA RITCHIE, Canada. Summary of Address on Co-edu@ation) 255. 0sues is lac boeken e 340 By Miss Dsrick, Canada. DIBCUSSION M25 Wiser la to Ob wg Geek aie ene eee ate Weta ota tales Ik ciate a foraie anayerenememcines 341 Technical: Teaching in Canadian Schools... 2 a4 ws welt ee wien a niet opiate 342 By Mrs. Hoopuess, Canada. Homemaking jin “the Schoolssa 20 oo a os pees a as Ci ae cen ree eres 343 By Lapy CarLaw Martin, Scotland. Summary of Address on Simmons College, Boston..........c..ee000 348 By Miss ARNOLD, United States. Education and+Democracy 4.45 Pens okies SO Ree ein eae ee eae 349 © By Mrs. Henry Murr, England. DISCUBBIOM ors oot wn Pagan os wire cee ene ea at oa as ee 354 Summary of Address by Dr. GEORGE PARMALEE, Canada.........eee0ee. 356 Remarks by Miss VAN RENSSLAER, United States...........ccseeeeeeee 357 INDEX. Xi. Page Summary ol wddress ony Lechmeal Scholes sie e arin tin esate oie o's elolehes 357 By Dr. HAMERSCHLAG, United States. Remarks by Mr. JAMES L. Hu@HES, Canada. 2. ... 0... ee ee cee ee 307 Remarks by MRS. OGILVIE GORDON, Scotland. ............ sce e ee eee eens 357 Panerai Omarion he isa, elas ia 5 ee atam pole g Ae iatly geet oterk 6 358 Reetion: ON TAberatre so.g2 nee vole a a aes 859 Message-from: PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. 0. ol hace wee ee cee ee eee 359 Bt lan CU CKALUTO ery ce rine ete eee eo de Cec mai pk waite Seeks Gotan ss wala ets 360 By Miss AMELIA B. WARNOCK eRe etree ars AAT Ohta ty tect area cle 456 pists "e Sip ahd aye benim acd ao Maia s Wises 370 The Functions of Literature in Relation to Life............. 00... ce eeee 370 Abstract of Address by Miss Krys, United States. Training for Librarianship and the Work of Children’s Libraries....... 372 By Mary W. PLUMMER, United States. ‘The Training of Women Librarians in Germany................eceeeee 379 | By Frau Luise LESEr. Public Libraries for Children. ..............3. NL oe. Raa a ewe bce Saree wan: 384 By JOHN BALLINGER, Great Britain. The Necessity of Literary Education for Students of Music and Art.... 388 By Dr. ALBERT Ham, Canada. Programme of Session on the Greater Use of Public Libraries........... 394 Programme of Session on Reading and Literature... 1.2... 02... ec ee eee 395 Programm? of MESSIDIOM: EMGur TOSSE no wshat. pute Ue ae at ween ns eh eta be 395 peer or Canadian Women Journalists i022). 5 oie ge eee ct eos eee oe 396 By Miss Margorig MacMurcuHy. ie esponsibility of Women to the Presa. 00.2 cc ee sis cas leer we oe os 400 By, MARGARET HAMILTON ALDEN, United States. The Possibilities of Women’s Work in the Daily Press in Norway...... 405 By Miss ANNA HOOSLEF. Programme of Session-on Journalism... ec. ces elec veces nuns 407 Modern Journalism and Every Woman’s Responsibility Towards it....... 408 By Miss L. DoveatL, England. What Practical Step Can Women Take to Eliminate Pernicious Elements TTHEIN CWEDAPOTS Vee k pel y Sule sis cen eGurse sateen nine SUMTE ade nse DRGs ola lanel 418 By Miss MARGARET GUNN, Canada. Women: in: Moderir Dntelsuiterature ya np a sect Rage Wate oe ww ctvsatele oteeis 421 By Miss C. GRANSBERG. Sli. INDEX. Be Woman Writer: of: Sweden: ¢ oso. Ga eo ues ee. SMS ee rere ca By the COUNTESS LAGERBERG Sweden’s Greatest Woman Poet. ........cccccccceccancccece opperewerce ¢ ©." * By Mrs. A. E. B. Frigs. Quelques Mots sur L’Influence Domestique et Nationale des Femmes-de- Hettres Polpes ooo es. ae RS alee rey tee eee ere! «cee Par MLLE. MARGUERITE COPPIN. Famous Writers who Owe Much of Their Renown to Mother, Wife, Sister 436 By Miss EstHER BoTTine, Canada. Famous Writers who Owe Much to the Influence of Mother, Wife, Sister 437 ; By Mrs. WALTER W. BLACKIE, Scotland. i: - Appendix eeoceeveeeoeceeceoeeorveve te & 7 SUM SEMA APU, Mie Riventtieag De epee NM Pa gM DDE ut Si tily & 444 The Work of Women in Modern Astronomy.........c.cceee es is 444 By Miss H, S. Leavirt, United States, Industrial Legislation in New South Wales, Australia................ ~ 450 By ANNIE JANE DUNCAN. Legislation on Women’s Work im Italy. .. 02.2. ccc ceecctse ccc vewecees 459 Upemployment in .ltalye cia aces< Gece soe sales violas Se ankceoe ek Ba aveilens (akan ea a Political Social Reform in the State of New South Wales........... ‘472 By Sama S, NOLAN. Report Reparding the Industries of the Argentime Republic, etc...... 474 Social Work and Reform in the Argentine Republic. ...... sibig wilde. ceive « 483 By EmMMa« C. DE BEDOGNI. Quinquennial Congress JUNE 24th to 30th, 1909. THURSDAY, JUNE 24TH, 10 A.M. CONVOCATION HALL, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. * CHAIRMAN, Lapy EpGar. President National Council of Women of Canada. FORMAL OPENING OF THE CONGRESS. The Chairman, Lady Edgar, wave the following address :—- Your Excellency, President, and Members of the International ~Council of Women: One week of hard work has passed, and although Council affairs have not yet been concluded (there are two more meetings), the Quinquennial Congress of Women, under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Canada, opens to-day. A royal treat is offered, as will be seen by consulting the hand- book. The nine sections are so full of interest that it will be hard indeed to choose which one to attend. There is no lack of variety in the programme, and questions of vital interest to the world at large, the country and the home, will be discussed. There are depths to be visited, there are heights to be climbed, - in this Congress of Women. The meetings will be of supreme in- terest to thoughtful workers in many fields, who realize their responsibilities as parents, teachers, social reformers and profes- sional women. It is an ideal occasion when women from so many different countries are present to give us their ideas as to the solving of problems and the overcoming of difficulties that in ' varying degrees are the same all over the world. We are honoured to-day by the presence on the platform of our Honorary President, the Countess Grey, and our Advisory President, the Countess of Aberdeen, and I now have the pleasure of calling upon Her Excellency to give us an address. a An address was given by Her Excellency, the Countess Grey, Honorary President of the Council, as follows :— ‘*Ladies,—As Hon. President of the Canadian National Conn! eil of Women, it is my privilege to associate myself with Lady wf 2 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Edgar in offering a cordial welcome in the name of the women of > Canada to you, the delegates from over seas, and especially to Lady Aberdeen, our admirable and invaluable President of the Interna- tional Council, on this, the occasion of your first official visit to the Dominion. ‘““You come at a time when the greatness of our Canadian destiny is assured to us, and yet at a time when the lines of our national development are not so stereotyped as to prevent our adop- tion of the best methods of social organization, as may be sug- gested by the experience of other countries. ‘We realize that it is in our power, if we have sufficient know- ledge and sufficient heart to apply that knowledge, to eliminate from the life of the Dominion much of the preventable waste, dis- ease and death which together constitute such an appalling annual loss, exceeding indeed that sustained by countries liable to be en- gaged in actual warfare. ‘‘No less do we feel that the future happiness of our people largely depends on the degree in which the softening influences of art and culture enter into and illumine their lives, and we are glad to be given this opportunity of learning from our visitors what methods of nature study and manual training we should adopt, with a view of acquiring for our people that love of beauty and handicraft dexterity which will enable them to make their homes, both in the rural districts and in the towns, more and more the respective centres of enlightened happiness and competing art and beauty.’’ Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, in her address tendered sincere thanks on behalf of the International Council of Women to the officers and members of the National Council of Women of Canada for all they had done, as well as to all the others who took part in preparing the elaborate weleome to this city. She also thanked Her Excellency, the Countess Grey, for the kind spirit of her address, and for the gracious hospitality extended at Govern- - ment House, Ottawa, during the previous week to the over-seas delegates and visitors. Continuing, Her Excellency spoke of the Quinquennial Meet- ings in London, Eng., and in Berlin, and added :— ‘‘Now it comes to Canada’s turn. There were many who said it would be impossible to hold a Congress here. There would be no suitable buildings and the Atlantic Ocean lay between, and so forth. I think this morning’s gathering and the beautiful building we are in is the best answer to these doubters. ”’ She returned thanks to the Conveners and Committees of the nine sections for the ‘‘feast of fat things’’ placed before them in the Congress programme. Adjournment was then made to the various rooms where the nine Seetions of the Congress were held. ‘ Evening Sessions of Congress HELD IN CONVOCATION HALL THURSDAY, JUNE 24ru. Chairman—His Honour THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF ONTARIO. Arranged by the sections on Art, Literature, and Professions for Women, with an address by Miss Jane Addams, in connection with the Social Work and Moral Reform Section, which was, at the speaker’s request, transferred from the evening of Tuesday, June 29th. The programme opened with illustrations of sacred music from the 15th to the 19th century, given by the Choir of St. James’ Cathedral, Toronto, under the direction of Dr. Albert Ham. -These selections were well rendered and were much enjoyed by the aud- lence, WOMEN’S INFLUENCE IN POETRY, FICTION, THE DRAMA AND HISTORY. By Aagnés Knox Buack, Professor of Elocution, Boston University. There is profound significance in the venerable Bede’s story of Caedmon’s inspiration and the beginning of poetry and creative literature in England. English literature and all that this term stands for in the various types of poetry, the drama, prose, fiction and history, began in an institution, the shaping genius and control- ling influence of which was a woman, the Abbess Hilda, of the sev- enth century. I never think of the story of the peasant boy, and the noble Abbess, in the Northumbrian Monastery that overlooked the North Sea, and see afar inland the hills of heather which roll up to the Scottish border, without reading in it prophecy as well as fulfilment. Wind-swept and wave-washed, a waste of haunted moorland behind, the restless sea in front, what more fitting birth- _ place could English literature have had? Three of the greatest periods of creative activity in the sub- sequent history of British literature testify to the significance of his story of the dawn-time. It is no happy accident surely that these periods should coincide with the reigns of Queens, and 4 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Queens who were in the closest touch with the men and women whose. work and achievement shed glory upon their reigns. Think of Elizabeth and Elizabethan literature; Queen Anne and the writers of the time of Queen Anne; the Victorian literature in prose and in verse, with the roll- call of far-shining men and women ! What is true of British literature is true of world-literature from the time when the old Egyptians gave to the spirit of wisdom the form of a woman, and the Greeks embodied their ideal of lib- eral culture in the grave majesty of Athene. In analyzing woman’s influence in fiction, poetry, drama and history, it may be premised that only in prose fiction, and in that special form of prose fiction which is called the modern novel, has - woman produced a body of original work that is entitled to rank with such epoch-making masterpieces as the Iliad, the Divine Com- edy, and Shakespeare’s plays. In poetry and drama, while she has touched supreme distinction in Sappho and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her power has lain rather in sympathetic interpretation than in originality of conception and execution; in history her func- tion has been not to record and narrate, but to shape and inspire. In a word, her influence in fiction is creative; in poetry and the drama sympathetic and interpretative; in history guiding and de- termining; everywhere pervasive and inspirational. What are the fundamental qualities and characteristics, the special powers of head and heart which make woman so strong in this great art-form of expression, the modern novel? Rapid intui- tion is one of these. The average woman gets at things by a flash. She usually overleaps the slower reasoning processes, The details, the successive steps, often weary and annoy her. Insight into char- acter and skill in delicate analysis of motive is another charac- teristic that has made woman so successful as a novelist. Again, she has superior sensitiveness—innate recognition of the finer and more subtle shades of feeling, as in George Sand’s novels; more than this, woman has in an eminent degree the gift of fruitful sympa- thies. Here we catch a glimpse of those higher elements of imag- ination and reverence which constitute a woman’s elemental power and peculiar influence. She has ‘‘le don terrible de la familia- rité,’’ and her great contribution to modern literature is the expres- sion of this in the terms of personalism. As Sidney Lanier put it, ‘‘the enormous advance from Prometheus to Maggie Tulliver— from Aeschylus to George Eliot—is summed up in the fact that while personality in Aeschylus’ time had got no further than the conception of a universe in which justice is the organic idea, in George Eliot’s time it has arrived at the conception of a universe in which love is the organic idea; and it is precisely upon this new srowth of individualism that George Eliot’s readers crowd up with interest to share the tiny woes of insignificant Maggie Tulliver, while Aeschylus, in order to assemble an interested audience, must have his Jove, his Titans, his earthquakes, his mysticism and the blackness of inconclusive fate withal.’’ EVENING SESSIONS. 5 The same development characterizes woman’s influence in poetry. Take the poetry of passion and emotion. Shakespeare says of love: *‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds, Admit impediments. Love is not love, Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. ‘‘Oh no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, ‘Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. *“Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. ‘‘Tf this be error, and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.’’ In world literature there is no nobler, no profounder expres- sion of concentrated emotion than this. The twenty-third of Mrs. Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese is on the same theme; it has less majesty, less sweep of vision, but in it what longing and tenderness in the poignancy of the personal appeal! ‘‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. ‘*T love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as men turn for Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. ‘*T love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints; I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears of all my life! And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.’’ It is as an interpreter that woman has influenced the world through the high drama. Such artists as Rachel and Signora Duse show that the genius for interpretation in literature is not a single _ power, but a combination of powers. It unites the talent for ac- quiring knowledge with the gift of imparting it. It not only grasps the thought in all its fulness, but re-creates it and invests it with its own highly tempered intellect. In Bunyan’s immortal allegory there is no more wonderful passage than that which describes the 6 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Interpreter’s house: ‘‘Then he went on till he came at the house of the Interpreter, where he knocked over and over; at last one came to the door. Then said the Interpreter: ‘Come in; I will show thee that which will be profitable to thee.’ So he commanded his man to light the candle. Then he took him by the hand and led him—.’’ Here, in a series of unforgettable pictures, the glor- ious dreamer gives concrete embodiment to the truth of the deepest experiences of human life. He sets forth with vividness the things that are of eternal worth, and makes us forget, for a time at least, the trivial and the base. To interpret truly and nobly is to make real, to bring home with conviction to the minds and hearts of men the beauty and wisdom and experience of the world’s greatest thinkers. The prime force that contributes to this end is dramatic instinct. This gift woman possesses in a marked degree. This in- stinct, this impulse to treat objectively as well as subjectively all that touches deeply and intensely, is the warp of the interpreter’s web, into which the dark or bright colours of memory and imagina- tion and emotion are woven. Imagination deals with the spiritual realities which material realities only shadow forth; it penetrates the mystery of the universe of which all visual appearance is but the vesture that reveals it to the eye of sense, so that things which are unseen are known by the things which are seen— “And, as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen Turns them to shape.”’ The poet’s pen, the imagination’s bodying forth! But beyond and behind are the forms of things unknown, images of beauty, things for which the speech of mortal has no name, the city that heth foursquare, a pure river of water, the Ancient of Days! The Interpreter in the dream lit his candle; the artist brings to her work illumination—the illumination that gives to dramatic instinct that artistic insight without which art sinks to the level of artifice; the illumination which betokens delicate intellectual poise, with its strength and harmony in every conception, and an emotional na- ture sensitive to every finer intuition. When one considers the intellectual and emotional qualities which make women successful in the field of the modern novel, even the modern historical novel, the wonder grows why she has not. accomplished more in strictly historical research and reconstruction. Such powers of description, narration and exposition of things of the real world, as are shown in the letters of Madame de Sévigné, Lady Mary Montague, and Jane Welsh Carlyle, or in the essays of Madame de Staél, are an earnest of what yet may be achieved by women in this department of literature. But if women have not written history in the grand style, they have made it. The influ- ence of woman in history is the history of the world. Every crisis in history, political, ecclesiastical, domestic, has been controlled by a woman. Upon her the social structure rests, and when she sinks ruin is imminent. The corruption of woman is a sure sign of a ~ EVENING SESSIONS. 7 nation’s downfall. Messalina was more ominous than Nero. On the other hand, many a nation has received everlasting uplift from a noble woman. Reference has been made to the Abbess Hilda in the seventh century. Of similar significance is the story of Queen Margaret of Scotland at the close of the eleventh century. The high-souled, sensitive Saxon princess who wedded the swarthy Mal- colm gave to Scotland those elements of imaginative vision and re- ligious zeal which have characterized the nation ever since. That woman has won her pre-eminent success in literature in the novel is a fact of peculiar moment. The modern novel dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, when, stimulated by the efforts of the four sturdy writers of the time of Queen Anne, the higher education of women began to take shape and form. There never was a time when there was in England a lower esti- mate of women than at the close of the seventeenth century. After the Restoration we have the decay of the Feudal ideal. ‘‘The pas- sionate adoration with which woman was regarded in the Age of Chivalry had degenerated into a habit of insipid gallantry or of brutal license, contempt veiled under a show of deference, a mock- ery of chivalry, its form without its spirit. This was the attitude towards women in the years succeeding the Restoration.’’ It was this that made Defoe propose as one of his projects a college for the higher education of women. Swift, too, the black-browed, the terrible Dean, saw that only by such opportunities as a college could afford could woman be given her due and rightful place. And you all know what was accomplished in this direction by the essays of Steele and Addison in the Tatler and the Spectator. They Showed to the world what it had lost sight of—the true feminine ideal. When in the 49th Tatler Steele said of the Lady Elizabeth Hastings, ‘‘to love her is a liberal education,’’ he not only paid the most magnificent compliment on record, but he gave external expression to the dignity and benign power of woman in her sev- eral relations and true sphere. Now that everywhere women are admitted to the higher insti- tutions of learning on equal terms with men and have full oppor- tunities for undergoing that elaborate discipline which is the basis of all true originality in speculation and productive scholarship, we may reasonably expect worthy results in other departments of thought and expression. More than this, may we not dream that as a result of this educational activity these native qualities of wo- man, trained and disciplined to new powers, may give the world literary forms hitherto unthought of. We see indications of this around us. Woman’s attempts at social reconstruction and reor- ganization in the form of problem-drama and sex-romances, blun- dering and ludicrous, and worse as many of them are, make us dare to hope that a woman will give the world a work of art, that, like a mirror, will reflect the complex and multitudinous life of modern society, with its hungry materialism shot through by the aspiration of the human soul, and its grief and sorrow illuminated by the “light that never was on sea or land.’’ 8 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. ABSTRACT OF AN ADDRESS ON INDUSTRIAL CONDI- TIONS FOR WOMEN. By ANNIE Marton Machran, A.M., Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Adelphi College, Brooklyn, New York. ' Well-housed and well-dressed people seldom know much about the lives of less fortunate social groups. But this knowledge makes for social solidarity. It is the purpose here to tell a story of toil in industries that concern us greatly, in the hope of arousing in- terest in the women who have been so aptly called ‘‘our proxies in industry.’’ I shall give you a few fleeting glimpses of girls making cloth and-clothes and shoes for us. The workers are rightly enough called ‘‘girls,’’ for they are young. Seventy per cent. of the wage- earning women in the United States are under twenty-one years of age. Thus it is a problem of youth that confronts the one who would aid our women toilers. These girls are working to-day in textile mills where the air is thick with lint that clogs their lungs, and the roar of the ma- chinery is deafening. They are tramping back and forth tending looms, or running with spools, or heckling flax till they are brown with dust and dirt. ‘They grow old before their time trying to make a living, and a hard task it is. Wages are low and living expenses are high. In the shoe shops long ago women were unknown, but with the introduction of machinery, and the consequent minute division of labour, the factory doors were thrown open to them, and now they are found by the thousand making shoes for us. Two genera- tions ago the New England workers sang of ‘* Poor lone Hannah, Sitting at the window binding shoes; Faded, wrinkled, Sitting stitching in a mournful muse; Bright-eyed beauty once was she When the bloom was on the tree; Spring and winter, Hannah’s at the window binding shoes.”’ No longer does poor lone Hannah sit at the window binding shoes. She sits or stands with scores of others in lofts away from view, and vamps and stitches, and ‘‘lines’’ and ‘‘eyelets’’ and ‘‘turns,’’? and in other ways takes part in seventy or more pro- cesses in order that we may have fashionable footwear at all seasons of the year. Shoes are cheap and the workers’ wages low. There is much slack time in the trade, when it is difficult to earn even the meagre pittance of three or four dollars a week, but they go on courageously. Other girls are spending their lives stitching seams and tucks and bands in eramped quarters and in foul air, driven almost to despair by the necessity for speed. Their faces grow haggard and ° EVENING SESSIONS. 9 their nerves are worn in the frantic effort to earn a few more cents each day. Their bodies bend to their machines, which go ~ racing on relentlessly. So much of all this is monotonous. It is a constant feeding of goods into the machine, always the same thing, with never the joy of making an entire garment and viewing the finished product with the delight of the maker. Women work day in and day out for weeks and even months, sewing together two pieces of muslin to form pockets for little boys’ ‘‘pants.’’? Once I watched this constant stream of pockets issue forth from a huge machine, and looked at the dull despair on the girls’ faces. It made a strong impression on me, so one day I told a lady of my acquaintance about it. I described to her the dreary work of making pockets for tiny fists to stretch. Her sympathy was aroused and she exclaimed at once, in a frantic desire to right a wrong: ‘““How awful! Don’t let us have pockets.’’ Her little five-year-old son, standing near, cried out: ‘‘Oh, mamma, I’d rather have the pockets than the pants.”’ We must seek some more logical method of making industrial life pleasanter for the worker than by ceasing manufacture. Many efforts are being made to improve conditions. 1. Good employers with their ‘‘ Welfare Work’’ are trying to offset the disastrous effects of toil, by making their factories clean and bright and pleasant. _ 2. Trade organizations are teaching working-women the value of combined action. The trade union is deserving of consideration among ameliorative agencies if for no other reason than because it means that those needing help are striving to help themselves. And this is the basis of democracy. They are no longer passive recipients of favours nor disheartened slaves who fear to utter protest. 3. Private organizations of all kinds are manifesting an in- terest in the wage-earner and offering her greater opportunities for self-improvement, and for rest and recreation. 4. The State itself is meeting certain needs by legislation, and thus protecting the woman whose lot is cast with the toiling millions who go out early to a weary day and return late, haggard and worn. These women have freed us from many tasks that were in earlier days performed at home. They have given us leisure, but they have left us social responsibility. They have freed us for ser- vice. Let us not forget our young emancipators. ADDRESS ON SETTLEMENTS. By Miss Jang Appams, of Hull House, Chicago, U.S.A. A SUMMARY. Miss Addams opened her address on Settlements with a few general remarks, telling us that the first Settlement was estab- lished by University men in London a quarter of a century ago, when an earnest group of men strove to apply the arts of friendship and sympathy to the problem of living. 10 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. A group of people who live in a neighbourhood, bringing into it and developing out of it conditions of life forms the true nucleus of the ideal Settlement. Miss Addams then went on to say that she should speak more especially of the work of Hull House, becanse she knew its work and its results more fully than those of any other Settlement. American Settlements have to face the peculiar conditions of a conglomerate neighbourhood. Over thirty distinct nationalities are represented by the people living in the immediate neighbourhood of Hull House; and these must be interpreted to the community and to one another. The children of these people must not be allowed to take on a superficial Americanism and feel contempt for their foreign-born parents. Hull House workers strive not to separate parents and children. Partly to conserve this end and to preserve the filial feeling of the children, as well as to encourage and develop the best that is in the parents, a Labour Museum has been established at Hull House, to which women of all nationalities who dye, weave, spin, etc., contribute the products of their handiwork. It is hoped that thus the children may be made to understand that the parents have valuable assets in their hitherto unappreciated old-country hand industries. The child’s pride in its parents is fostered, and charm and background are added to its conception of its mother. Working towards the same, as well as other, good ends is a Music School, which has also been established at Hull House. Here the children are taught to compose as soon as to Jearn to read music. They learn to record beautiful themes heard in church or synagogue, as well as the haunting melodies of the old unwritten folk-songs of the fatherland of their parents. Another very important section of work at Hull House is found in the relation maintained between it and the factory girls of the community. The Settlement workers follow the girl from the factory to the home of her old-world father, who keeps her in the house every evening for fear of harm coming to her on the streets. She has no opportunity for fun in her life, and this kills the natural joy of life for the hard-worked factory girl. It is one of the great American experiments this gathering in our factories of these hordes of young girls who have never before known any real freedom from surveillance, who have never even gone unattended on the streets in the old countries, and who have never before known the intoxicating sense of liberty and power that comes to the wage-earner who knows himself or hoe eco- nomically independent. Hull House Woman’s Club is another important factor in the work of the Settlement. It serves to relate the women of the neigh- bourhood to the needs of the district and of the larger community. For instance, the underlying causes of the neighbourhood death- rate, which was tremendous, were studied by some of these women, who were appointed to investigate the conditions around Hull House. EVENING SESSIONS. 11 The Hull House workers also look up lonely, forlorn foreigners and try to make them happier. ‘They introduce the solaces of art and music and social intercourse to people whose lives would be, . otherwise, absolutely destitute of any such enriching influence. Hull House has twelve beautiful buildings, in which forty resident workers live. And nine to ten thousand people belong to the various clubs and organizations, through which a new technique of social intercourse is learned and the obstacles of differing lan- guages and environment are overcome. What unites is greater than what differentiates is the belief of all true social workers and with one accord they all aim to bring about unity of thought, feel- ing and effort. MONDAY, JUNE 28TH. Chairman—Sir JAMES WHITNEY, Premier of Ontario. Arranged by the Sections on Education, Health and Physical Training and Philanthropy. The programme of this meeting consisted of two addresses, both illustrated by lantern views. The first, by Professor Ramsay Wright, Vice-President of the University of Toronto, was on HEREDITY AND EUGENICS. Professor Wright exhibited diagrams of the ‘‘cell,’’? and described its various modifications and especially the different pos- sible combinations of the elements in the reproductive cells. He showed how combinations of characteristics might be repeated in a succession of cells: The lecturer then went on to speak of the pro- gressive decadence observed in certain large cities. For example, in one it had been shown that twenty-five per cent. of the popula- tion were responsible for fifty per cent. of the new generation, and that this twenty-five per cent. lived in the slums. One-third of the taxes of London were devoted to the care of the unfit, and this one- third fell on a constantly decreasing proportion of the fit. Aleohol, among other things, had a marked effect in producing degeneracy. Two suggested remedies for degeneracy were the eareful regulation of marriage by excluding the unsound and the adoption of a system of eugenics, or good breeding. The second address was by Sir Wm. J. Thompson, F.R.C.P.S., Physician-in-Ordinary to His Excellency, the Lord-Lieutenant of Treland. It described THE WORK OF THE WOMEN’S NATIONAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION OF IRELAND. This Association had been founded by Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, to check the ravages of consumption, ete., in Treland, and had already, in two years of work, effected a decrease 12 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. in the death-rate. It sought particularly to reduce infant mortality. Its methods in all cases were largely educative. It endeavoured to diffuse a knowledge of proper dietary and housing conditions, as well as of other precautionary and curative measures. Numerous pictures of the operations of the Association were shown during the lecture. TUESDAY, JUNE 29TH. Chairman—F rau StRITT. Arranged by the Sections on Laws Concerning Women and Children, the Industrial Section, and the Section on Social Work and Moral Reform. SOCIETIES IN GERMANY FOR FURNISHING LEGAL AID TO THE NEEDY. By FRAvuLEIN Ipr KircuH. To-day it is my intention to make you acquainted with an im- portance branch of the social efforts in Germany, with the legal information for those who have no means, and especially with the legal aid societies for women and worked by women. Our social and commercial relationships and therefore our legal constitution have become considerably more complicated in the last centuries. Law, or let us say the laws, touch our daily life more closely than in former times. More and more frequently do we come face to face with the question: How are we to act? What does the law say in this case? The well-to-do have almost always legal advice at their dis- posal; not so the poor. ‘The latter often suffer considerable loss in consequence of their poverty and ignorance in legal matters, for our legal constitution is founded upon the principle that whoever acts wrongly out of ignorance has to bear the consequences. Con- sequently the duty is really laid upon the State to procure for the poor population legal information gratis. But here, as we shall see, we are poorly provided. The poor man is therefore fre- quently not in the position to act in correspondence with the laws and his own interests by the conclusion of agreements and other legal transactions. Even when right is on his side, it may easily happen that he cannot maintain really existing claims, because of some wrong step. This is in every sense a pitiable state of cir- cumstances. Legal protection must here come to the rescue, and first of all by means of gratuitous information, e.g., advice about the con- clusion of contracts and the drawing-up of those contracts and other necessary documents, such as petitions to authorities, ete., free of cost. EVENING SESSIONS. 13 The necessity and usefulness of such legal protection is to-day In Germany an almost indisputable fact, but it is difficult to find the proper ways and means. Until a short time ago there were few means at the disposal of poor people in need of advice in order to make the pursuit of their rights easier. We have in Germany the privilege of the poor in law-suits; that is to say, a person who is not in a position to defray the costs of a law-suit without interfering seriously with the necessary sup- port of himself and his family, can, under this and some other con- ditions, prosecute free of expense and, in cases of exigency, demand. from the state the services of a lawyer. But in order to accomplish this aim, sufficient legal aid is necessary. Many people think now that all difficulties are removed, as the court clerks are obliged by the State to give information in matters touching the privileges of the poor and to draw up documents. But in numerous eases the questions have nothing to do with the privilege of the poor; indeed they have nothing at all to do with legal prosecutions; e.g., take the question: When must I give notice? Then again, a law-suit is to be and ean be avoided by timely advice on many questions. For such cases the clerks in the Court of Justice are scarcely to be taken into consideration, as they are not competent to give information on such questions. This means of procuring legal aid must accordingly be pronounced quite in- complete. Further, the judges in cases of voluntary jurisdiction, e.g., in eases of guardianships and the property of deceased persons, fre- quently give the necessary advice in order to hasten the settlement of the cases. The above-mentioned might be called the principal points of the Government gratuitous legal information. In addition to this, in larger towns many industrial courts and commercial courts also furnish legal advice free of cost, but the poor applicants for help generally know nothing about this fact. In the towns eighteen years ago, if other legal information were wanted, one could have recourse only to an advocate or to a so-called pettifogger or unlicensed lawyer. But our poorer people could not meet these lawyers’ costs. There was only the unlicensed attorney left to them, and unfortunately we must state, regarding these gentlemen, that many combine lack of legal knowledge with great want of conscientiousness. The applicant for advice, however, generally realizes this only when it is too late. My remarks up till now have referred mainly to the towns. I may mention that in the country legal aid is still more insufficiently given. Of course, under such circumstances there are thousands who must relinquish the pursuit of their nights. The realization that something must be done for the poorer classes has since the year 1890 given rise to the following organiza- tions :-— 1. Trade Union Offices of the Social Democratic Party. 2. Protestant Legal Aid Associations. 14 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. 3. Roman Catholie Legal Aid Societies. 4. Legal Aid Societies for Women, worked by women. do. Legal Aid Societies, organized by societies oF the public welfare. 6. Legal Aid Societies, founded by political nioeibatond The fact that all these institutions have developed in the most satisfactory manner is the best proof of the need of them. . In the year 1907 gratuitous information was supplied by all of the above-mentioned institutions in about one million cases and the necessary legal documents drawn up. In the work of the Legal Aid Societies for Women are included 20,000 ceases out of the million. To specialize the varieties of the work of the individual insti- tutions would take us too far. I am prepared to refer anyone who wishes for more information to literature on the subject. A decree given in Prussia in 1904 has stimulated especially the municipal authorities to a greater activity in this sphere. In consequence of this in the last three years about eighty large muni- — cipal legal aid offices for general use have been founded, all of which contribute to make the supplying of gratuitous information a more uniform effort. In my above remarks I have endeavoured to give you a general survey of the origin and development of the gratuitous legal pro- tection movement in Germany. I am glad to be able to state that the German women have recognized from the very beginning the importance of the question and have put this knowledge into practice. With this I come to the Legal Aid Societies for Women. Already in the year 1893 a Legal Aid Society for Women was founded by Mrs. Adele Gamper and Mrs. Marie Stritt, in Dresden. The stimulus was given by the first Phaeee ih lady lawyer, Dr. Emily Kompin. It is to the zealous endeavours of the lady founders that we are principally indebted for having in Germany ninety-five legal aid societies to-day. Most of them are independent societies and defray their expenses, at least in the first years of their existence, entirely by a single or yearly contribution from charitable fellow-citizens. In the year 1904 the Legal Aid Association for Women was founded, to which to-day belong about seventy-four German and five Aus- trian legal aid societies. The municipal legal aid offices for general use first formed a union in the year 1906, with which the Legal Aid Association for Women is also affiliated with the right to a seat and a vote on the committee for the election of the actual president of the association. And so from the very beginning the women actively engaged in the sphere of the legal protection work shared in the founding of this liberal-minded organization, and in this way received recog- nition of their work. : 5 i My : if EVENING SESSIONS. 15 Let us now turn to this work in detail. Every Legal Aid Society for women has, apart from the practical work of furnish- ing information, about which IJ shall speak later on, set before itself an ideal task. We legal protectionists want by means of continual propaganda to win even public opinion, and especially the women, in ever-in- creasing numbers, for the women’s movement of to-day. We endeavour to accomplish this task by lectures, meetings, petitions, ete. By constant propaganda for the conclusion of marriage con- tracts, we seek to avoid as much as possible pecuniary harm, done to the wife by a thoughtless or unscrupulous husband. Further, we seek to get as many women as possible to under- take guardianships of poor children, for just the most important duties of this office are more suited to women than to men. And now I have said enough regarding our outward activity. I shall now turn to the actual legal aid work of women for women; that is, to the giving of information in legal matters. At first many people were distrustful of the new movement, and therefore opposed it. Others were indifferent, which is worse. People could not conceive it possible that women, and even girls, could occupy themselves with such questions, that they could put themselves in the possible position of coming in contact with vice and immorality. But only people who have no experience in this work can allow themselves such a one-sided judgment. We, who are engaged practically in this work, must confess that there are occasions when our feelings are shocked, but we endure this gladly in the consciousness that, by our information and practical help, or perhaps only by a sympathetic word, we are making the life of a poor fellow-creature at least a little easier. In our work we hold it essential that woman should stand face to face with woman, because as a woman she can enter into an understanding of her trouble in a way in which a man cannot pos- sibly enter into it. Only experience can show us to what extent the activity of our Legal Aid Societies is useful and beneficial. But we are no _ charitable association, in the usual sense of the word. We don’t want to give alms. The aim of our work is to obtain justice for helpless women and girls with no means of their own, who from ignorance, inex- perience or other reasons have been brought into distress and need. And how many poor unprotected women are there who have been brought to distress and shame by the hard struggle of life, by the often unjust views of the world regarding morality and conduct, or by their own or others’ faults. | . Our work is a responsible and difficult one. We unprofes- sionals therefore may never forget that we have not a systematic knowledge at our disposal and therefore we are open to instruction from a professional side, when we do not see clearly in any par- ticular matter. Jn Frankfurt a few barristers and judges are 16 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. always ready to give us information in the friendliest manner, and in the Academy for Social and Commercial Science we attend all the lectures which have an important bearing on our work, that is to say, especially on legal matters. Our consultation hours are three times a week from three to six. The questions put to us are of the most varied kind. Some- times we are engaged in a written or spoken intervention between two conflicting parties; then again with the drawing up of petitions to boards or authorities, letters to superiors, and so on. We must also be as correctly informed as possible about all kinds of chari- table institutions, so as to be able to give the desired information on questions bearing on these matters. The religion, politics and worldly position of the client are not taken into consideration. Our only condition is that our clients must be without means of their own. Sometimes we feel ourselves favoured by fate in being able by means of our work to make an attempt to bridge the gulf between the well-to-do classes and the poor. To give you a clearer idea of our task, I should like to give you a few instances of our practical work. For example, there is the oft-recurring relationship of debtor and creditor resulting from the lending of money. We really can- not think it possible that people who must work hard for every shilling are ready to lend five pounds without a thought, and, what is still worse, without the least security. Sometimes it is the neighbour who has received the help, some- times the sister. Often there are girls who lend money to their intended husbands. It is by no means an exception that these girls lose these fiancés when they have parted with their last penny, and they must count themselves fortunate if their money only has been sacrificed. Often it happens that by our mediation larger sums are paid back to our address by instalments, but it sometimes results in a law-suit which we institute, and after it is signed by the client we hand it to the court. Only as an exception we receive full power from our client and carry the matter through in the name of our Legal Aid Societies. In addition to this, we have not infrequently to deal with the question of servants’ wages. In this matter we see what ignorance prevails amongst us women, even in those legal questions which touch our daily sphere of work. Housewives are as a rule very much astonished when we. inform them that in one direction or another they have acted illegally; e.g., that the girl in the case in question has a right to her full wages or to receive the due notice. . In contrast to the circumstances existing in many American towns, it is necessary in Germany, on the dismissal of a servant, to give due notice, provided there are no legal reasons for instant dismissal, e.g., theft, ete. Generally we succeed in arranging these matters by mediation. Further, we cannot warn our clients too often or too earnestly against the signing of contracts, etc., which they have either not EVENING SESSIONS. 17 read or not understood; e.g., a rent contract is generally signed without the tenant’s having any idea of its contents. When afterwards disagreeable consequences follow for the tenant, the legal aid societies must come to the rescue. Then we must make people understand that the landlord has kept to the contract and that they themselves by their signatures have undertaken obliga- tions and given up rights. Women clerks often sign blindly any. contract drawn up by an employer as. soon as an apparently good situation is offered. They first become aware of the importance of their signature when it is too late. Then, again, we have often to do with more or less complicated matters concerning legacies. Often it happens that we only succeed after years in arranging the matter, that is to say, in bringing about the payment of the par- ental legacy. This is always an especial pleasure to us, as it would often be quite impossible for those poor women and girls who live so far from their homes to get their money without our help. ; Less complicated, but so much the more earnest, are the cases dealing with the maintenance of illegitimate children. It is especially difficult for some of those mothers to bring their case forward. Many are afraid of reproach on our part, and it is only when they see that it is not our intention to blame them that they lose their embarrassment. In these cases we do not, how- - ever, presume to judge, and, above all, do not consider ourselves justified in condemning, . It seems to us more right to offer practi- eal help by attempting to bring the father to pay for the mainten- ance of the child. If the father declares himself agreeable to an amicable settlement, then the monthly payments must be made to our address, so that we always have the matter under control. Another sad side of our work is divoree. It is with great hesitation that the women reveal their misery to us, but gradually we succeed in learning the miserable circumstances of their mar- ried life. In most cases we cannot advise a reconciliation. There is no help but divorce. ® We then institute the suit and undertake the correspondence with the lawyer in case of the law-suit’s having to be conducted elsewhere. I should be compelled to trespass considerably on the time allowed me were I to inform you in detail of the many-sided- ness of the questions put to us and the settlement of the same. I hope, however, that I have succeeded in convincing those who have occupied themselves little with this question, that the efforts of the gratuitous legal aid society for women serve a really useful social purpose. I have spared you statistical details. I should only like to give you the number of visits to our Legal Aid Society at Frankfurt a.M. during the last five years :— HOGA Ue ey UNAM ely 2.601 RO I 2s RRA 2,884 TOO Ge ORAS 0 asia 2.472 ‘ LOOT Rel eM RENE 3,505 18 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. As you see, we can state with satisfaction that an ever-increas- ing use is being made of our society. In the same way nearly all other German legal aid societies for women have a corresponding increase of activity. The aim to be attained by us women in the legal aid movement is to have the municipal legal aid bureaus put under the direction of men and women lawyers on equal footing. It was, therefore, the greatest pleasure for me during my nine years of activity in this legal aid work to have been able in Frank- furt a.M., m the spring of 1906, to find the necessary means to appoint a lady lawyer, Miss Dr. Alix Westerkamp, who since then has worked with untiring zeal and brilliant success for our cause. I am sorry to say that up to the present we are the only legal aid society under the direction of a lady lawyer. -Towards the expense of this appointment we succeeded in receiving a yearly subsidy from the town to the amount of 1,500 marks. Nearly a year ago we managed to effect a union with a Legal Aid Society in Frank- furt a.M., which is directed by various men lawyers. Our full independence in every respect is, however, maintained in this union. At the same time we have carried into practice a principle of the women’s movement, namely, to work on the same footing alongside and with the men, so far as it is up till now possible in the sphere of jurisprudence. fam aware that my address to-day has not given you absolutely new information. J was, however, able to find out that there is a Legal Aid Society in New York. este fel sat Ae Ae ae SU) ees ea eg pi hah tl JOINT SESSIONS, 119 status, to the great unpaid industry, the sweated labour of mother- hood, and to compulsory rearing of unwanted babes. The revul- sion from motherhood, so marked a feature of our time, is not a re- vulsion from motherhood per se—that is woven into the very strands of our nature—but from unnatural motherhood, motherhood in- compatible with the welfare of the child and the welfare of the race. Out of the unnatural conditions at present prevailing in dis~ arranged human society are springing evils in so plentiful a crop that good men and women start back in dismay. Those who wish to understand what true evils are should read ‘‘The Cleansing of a City’’ (published for the Natural Purity Crusade by Greening & Gould, 92 St. Martin’s Lane, W.C., price 1s.), and especially the forceful appeal of Mrs. Bramwell Booth dealing with the law as it affects women, for she, perhaps more than anyone else, is In a position to know the world-wide facts. If these evils are to be minimized and wrongs to be redressed, it must be the work of an enlightened womanhood, a united womanhood, using the new free- dom to probe deeply into causes, and not simply to tinker with effects, demanding as its rights a voice in National Councils, and the redress of all inequalities that make the rearing of healthy citi- zens an impossibility, sweeping away from our national housekeep- ing filth and impurity, and laying firmly new foundations of social order. But for all this, we must have as a fulerum some point, not in theory, but. practical and at close quarters with actual facts. It is because I think that such a point is to be found in the ele- mentary need of womanhood, the need for a safe and sanitary place which it can call home, that I am devoting my energies to make this point clear. Employment for men, homes for women—these are the fulcrums for the solutions of social questions. Suppose, for a moment, we could from the point of view of an omniscient ob- server survey the busy hives of human industry which we call cities, as if they were so many anthills. Suppose we could distinguish sexes, and also single out the workers inside homes from those who work out of them. What should we observe? The great ma- jority of men would be observed hurrying to daily toil, whilst the great proportion of women would still be in the home. But if we could also compact the decades into hours, we should watch also an increasing stream of women workers issuing daily to their work, and a certain displacement of male by female workers. Could we also uncover, not only time, but space, so that beneath our eyes the thronging multitudes of the cities stood in the midst of space com- paratively unpeopled, we should see that each of the city anthills exercises a sort of suction on both males and females, so that to them is drawn a constant stream of unpaired industrial units, as if by compulsion to the vertex of activity. And I am persuaded that we should find the female stream growing in two ways: first, by numbers who have left homes for daily occupation, and secondly, by the numbers indrawn to the city. We must remember that this is a new fact, a growing factor in modern life. Comparatively recently domestic service was the one avenue taken for a woman at “4 — 120 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CF WOMEN. to self-support by the largest numbers. It led rather to modified dependence than to independence. ‘To-day, whilst the armies of domestic servants have greatly increased in numbers, they are surpassed by the women industrials, each self-supporting and in- dependent. How profoundly this must modify all women’s ques- tions! Yet for these women workers, often sucked into our great cities, the primary need is the home. For want of it countless numbers go under and numerous agencies are Ses pieking up derelicts. Is it not time we addressed ourselves to the root estes Where is the independent woman to live? For want of the con- sideration of this question she is hustled into overcrowded, in- . sanitary and unsafe conditions. She is sweated and pressed into the abyss, and in her unprotected state she is preyed upon by those who exploit her womanhood for the basest ends. Read the latest revelations of the syndicate of international bullies, if you doubt it. Must not the whole. force of womanhood be thrown on the scale against such a state of things? Must we not declare with one consent that there shall be safe, sanitary and decent shelters for every woman worker in every large centre of population, and with this as our fulcrum we shall see that the wrongs of woman- hood are redressed. I must briefly refer to my own investigations. Struck by the fact that women in extreme destituticn were always falling into my hands as a rescue-worker, in such a state that they would be easy prey, or often, alas! after they had become such, I set myself to investigate causes. The revelations from actual experiences far surpassed what I had expected. I found that a woman was not safe from the worst insult, even in our national provision for ex- treme destitution, the Tramp Ward, and that it is useless for her salvation. I found out by degrees that hardly any of our large towns possess safe and sanitary women’s lodging-houses, and such as are managed for private interests are often hotbeds of vice, into which, if a pure girl fall, she perils everything. Perhaps I can best give the actual state of things by quoting a dialogue from the ‘‘ Autobiography of a Tramp,’’ appearing April, 1909, in the Weekly Budget, which bears marks of being a genuine history: ‘Shall we take kip (find lodgings) on Luton?’’ I queried. (A tramp is speaking). ‘“Yes, we will put up at Cook’s.”’ ‘*Good kip ?’? ‘*Pretty decent; only take married couples, and you know what that means, eh?’’ ““Yes; monopoly of all the crooks, dozens of squalling kids, and prospect of matrimony for the blessed bachelor!’’ I answered. ‘Exactly, that’s Cook’s to a T,’’ replied Tony, laughing; ‘‘it always puzzles me why some enterprising man of means does not start ‘kip houses’ for women in this country. There’s a good opening, I said.’’ ‘Good opening! I should say there was,’’ said Tony; ‘‘and Ha houses are badly needed in the country. Many a woman has JOINT SESSIONS. 121 to sleep out and her kids, too, because she can’t get ‘kip.’ Half the lodging-houses in the country won’t take them in because the predominant single element object to them.’’ **Don’t wonder,’’ I exclaimed. ‘‘That’s right enough; but the poor wretches must sleep some- where; they must have a shelter,’’ says Tony, with some consider- able emphasis. If these words applied only to those women who are dragged about by working-men without a domicile, they would be bad enough. But the facts are actually much worse. Two unpro- tected girls took refuge in the brick fields of Manchester in their ignorance; the consequences remind one of the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Te such lodging-houses the unprotected female is often directed by the police, who know the perils of the streets. Women of every social grade may be drawn here by misfortune. Miss Meredith Brown, when, moved by compassion, she pene- trated into ‘‘Women’s Doss Houses’’ in London, though told it was unsafe for a woman to go unprotected, found there a woman Sun- day school teacher, who wept when she said, ‘‘There’s hardly a well-known hymn or story in the Bible I don’t know, and that hymn brings it all back.’’ She says: ‘‘The saddening impression re- ceived from such a visit is the awful degradation of womanhood in that room and the wastage of human life.’’ ‘‘Yet,’’ she says, ‘‘downstairs is a small basement kitchen in which were four or five girls. Two of them appeared to be not more than 15. One told me that she had lost her train and got stranded. They had nowhere to go and were recommended to this place by a woman they met.”’ It is a fact that degraded women act as fishers, dragging girls into a life of infamy. Throughout England the common lodging-house, if not for ‘‘Men Only,’’ is usually for ‘‘married couples and single women.’’ What the prospects of matrimony are with men of the migrating class, and whether it is in the interest of the country to promote such unions, is a question to which the answer is plain. But, as a fact, the married couples in these houses are simply known as “Double,’ ’ and since the point in lodging-house-keeping is to fill the beds, no questions are asked, and too often, if a single woman applies, she is told she cannot have one unless she brings her ‘‘man.’’ Poor and undesirable as this accommodation is, it is often insufficient, since women lodgers do not pay as well as men. Yet if a woman does not fall into such places, has she any better refuge ? The fearful fact has been disclosed that there exists a powerful organization with a network of brothels and agents preying and trapping defenceless womanhood, and taking advantage of these primary needs to enslave and debauch. I got a brave woman to spend a month in women’s lodging- houses in London. She had not the skill afterwards to disentangle what could be made public from what she saw, and what no editor would publish, My own pamphlet on Women’s Lodging-Houses was twice expurgated before it was considered fit to be published. £22 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Yet in such places I found young girls there by misfortune. The state of things that has grown up is so evil that it will need a strong and united effort to battle with it. Yet, for the sake of pure womanhood, it must be done. The painted armies of the ‘‘Streets,’’ considerably reinforced by those who fall unaided, are a formidable menace to the citadel of womanhood, the home. The very reluct- ance of women to touch the ‘‘Social Evils’’ with their finger tips ministers to it. Therefore I have set myself a task no less than to arouse public attention, that of women themselves, to the hous- ing of the poorest woman-worker, because if this is tackled in the right way we may build from the bottom upward national provi- sion for all grades of women-workers. It is evident that the need must be greater at the bottom, where you find the sweated worker hanging on to a scanty subsistence as a last refuge from shame or from dependence on public charity. But those most cap- able of self-respecting support should reach out their hands to their struggling sisters. Is the organization of womanhood a dream? This splendid Congress witnesses that it is not. There is a solid- arity in womanhood. Let it find a real basis in this elementary work. Let us see that the independent woman-worker, of whatever grade, is rightly and safely housed—I .would say rather, ‘‘homed.’’ My own poor women call it coming home to be in a safe place where they are cared for. One striking fact about Mrs. Pee Booth’s Hanbury shelter, where lodging is to be had for 2d.,, that so many of the inmates are permanent lodgers who look ay it as home. I must now briefly recount some instances in which it is being done. Glasgow set a noble example of municipal housing for both sexes. In 1892 a women’s lodging-house was built, accommodating 125 women-lodgers. It has been twice enlarged and now accom- modates 258. The cost of the site and furnishing was £9,028 or £36 per bed. On this a yearly interest of £3-19 was paid. The receipts in 1907 were £1,269-13-5; in 1908 £1,262-4-4, and 99 per cent. of the beds were full. This shows that there is need for more accommodation, as there is always a minimum and a maximum, as in large hotels. The nightly charges are 3d. 3%4d. and 4d. Those who have visited it testify that it is well conducted, forms a safe refuge for women, and that municipal control means well-regulated hours and entire absence of the degradation, vice and uncleanliness inevitably found in the common lodging-houses. Manchester is about to build a large women’s common lodging- house, after several years’ determined petition on the part of the Women’s Local Government Association. Unfortunately the other municipalities that have provided accommodation have perpetuated the mixed common lodging-house by providing accommodation for married couples and single women, as at Huddersfield, where I have slept and examined the disadvantages of the joint accommodation for both sexes. Private enterprise has also begun, as is frequently the case in England, to supply the need. In London Miss Meredith Brown was moved by compassion to open, first a shelter, and afterwards JOINT SESSIONS. vi 123 Portman House, Lisson Grove, a lodging-house for women workers, under the patronage of Princess Louise. Visitors to London should inspect this, as it is conveniently near to Paddington Station. Though want of room has prevented the furnishing of as much sitting-room as the late Miss Meredith Brown desired, it is so much superior to what the poor women can get that when I slept there un- known, it was described to me by an inmate, quite unaware that I was not myself a poor woman, as a ‘“‘paradise. Not one in a thou- sand would have built a place like this for the likes of us.’’ The Salvation Army, under the guidance of Mrs. Bramwell Booth, who has found the need in connection with her rescue work, has women’s shelters in Whitechapel, Bristol, Liverpool and else- where. Those shelters touch the lowest class and are well conducted and homely. I slept in the one at Bristol, which provides for sev- eral classes of individuals at current prices. There may be some objection to supplying shelters (as at Hanbury Street shelter) under current prices (2d. per night), as playing into the hands of sweaters, but the great need is shown by the fact that numbers find this shelter superior to anything they can obtain, and make it their home. It must not be forgotten that the dangers of an over- crowded and insanitary private lodging for women may be as great as those of the common lodging-houses. Few working men’s homes in crowded districts have suitable space for a woman lodger. A single woman may occupy a bed in a married couple’s room, or, worse still, occupy the same bed with growing lads. These are facts I have known covered by the word ‘‘lodger.’’ The insecurity of foothold is such that I have been told, ‘‘We have to drink to keep in with them.’’ | The question of the children also demands consideration. Many women have to keep one or more children on a bare pit- . tance. If they lose their little home and sink, thus weighted, where are they to go? If to the common lodging-house or to the furnished room, what becomes of the children? Colonel Vincent, of Ayr, Scotland, who opened, about two years ago, a lodging-house for women and children, accommodated in 1908, 3,303 women and 2,459 children as nightly lodgers. For these the ordinary expenditure was £65-7-8 and the receipts were £65-13-3. I own two lodging-houses which between them supplied about 11,000 beds to women and children in 1908, at a cost of £225. As my rescue work, involving free lodgings to destitute women, is carried on in connection with the smaller of the two, the cost is not quite covered by the receipts, which amounted to £181, but the previous cost of the rescue work has been diminished, whilst it is, I believe, more effective. Turning now to another side of the question, there is great need for housing women of a higher class. In all our large towns where there are large numbers of women clerks, women shop- assistants, or even women teachers, it is frequently the case that after securing work, little thinking of the housing question, the woman worker is in great straits to find a suitable shelter within 124 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. the reach: of the purse. How many go under through this cause or loneliness in unsuitable surroundings! We shall never provide for the need, except by thorough organization of womanhood for united help and protection. Miss Emily Janes in a private letter says: ‘‘I wonder if you are interested in the rapidly increasing number of young gentle- women, who are in need of shelters. One can form some idea of the thousands when one hostel had to refuse some 700 applicants last year.’’ A lady endeavoured to move the London County Council to start a women’s hostel by collecting some 300 signatures of women willing to reside there (which would have made it a financial success). But alas! in vain. So private enterprise has had to come forward to build St. George’s House, Brabazon House and Hopkinson House, Westminster, and capital is urgently needed for a projected hostel. The Girls’ Realm is being appealed to and a site has been found near Marylebone Road. It is estimated that on the first outlay of £33,000 the interest would be 6 per cent., but is it not pitiful that schemes involving health and security to women workers should need to appeal to a species of charities, when they are profitable investments, for the philanthropy of 5 per cent. at least? I have been assured, by a woman worker of standing, that even to get a flat is difficult, those within reach of the woman office-worker’s purse being in workmen’s dwellings, and _ in many ways not desirable for a single woman. Those in better — surroundings were almost unattainable in price. In conclusion, moved by a growing sense of the need for and the utility of women’s lodging-houses, I have recently endeavoured to bring this home to the national conscience in every way possible. I am not conversant with the need outside the United Kingdom, but. I am persuaded that wherever women are earning an indepen- dent livelihood the need exists. As a result of the steady efforts in my own country a National Association for Women’s Lodging- Houses has just been started. Its objects are: To link together all existing organizations interested in open- ing and maintaining women’s lodging-houses or shelters for women and girls in the United Kingdom. To collect and disseminate information as to the existing lodg- ing-houses and the need for more by correspondence, conferences, deputations to public authorities. To promote legislation as regards common lodging-houses so far as they may affect women. To encourage the formation of local committees affiliated with the parent association. This new organization has found a home under the wing of the British Institute of Social Service, 11 Southampton Row, W. C. It will need time and patient effort to bring home to the public mind and to cover, however imperfectly, the vast field open for the housing of the woman worker. Out of the real knowledge gained by experience will, I am convinced, spring a flood of light on women’s problems. We shall have a real fulcrum for uplifting JOINT SESSIONS. 125 the down-trodden, and many facts that help in the temperance and other crusades. In conclusion, one thought has always been very near me in all my effort—the thought of the homeless Christ, who also asks, in the person of these His poor sisters, for protection and shelter, since many of them have not where to lay their head. MANAGEMENT OF HOUSES FOR WORKING PEOPLE. By Miss Marion B. Buacxig, Scotland. In the days when every man was his own architect each house took on even externally the impress of its owner. It grew with the family needs, a room was added here and a window there, according to the requirements and taste of the occupiers. Thus we have such quaint and original buildings as are found in Nor- mandy, in many parts of England and elsewhere. Even in the houses of the poor some marks of individuality could be seen. In modern times dwellings for our city toilers, at least, are turned out by the hundred all of the same pattern, with nothing to distinguish one from the other, giving no hint outwardly of the human souls who live within. ~ But open the doors and enter these houses and an infinite variety meets you at once, which becomes more and more evident as you get into closer touch with the lives of the people. The ‘practised eye can recognize almost at a glance the home of the well-doing artisan and his thrifty wife, her shelves a glory of shining pewter and glistening crockery, her curtains and covers patched and darned and patched and darned again, where there is always a ‘‘something green’’ kept growing on the window- ledsxe. Likewise, alas! the houses of the idle, the thriftless and the drunken can rarely be mistaken. They bear many a sordid mark of the careless habits and reckless lives of those who dwell in them. As we take note of these things, their true significance is borne in upon us and we are filled with the intense conviction that the problem of ‘‘Housing the Poor’’ in our large cities is to a great extent a moral problem. It is not merely a question of stone and lime, of erecting suitable buildings with adequate ac- eommodation.and convenient arrangements for family life; or even a question of placing those buildings in the most healthful situation, with abundance of free air-space and amidst the most pleasing surroundings. These are matters to be by no means neglected, and they may well engross the earnest attention of our city authorities and of all those who erect house properties for working-class tenants. But the real and innermost problem means a very great deal more. Surely John Ruskin and Miss Octavia Hill, of London, must have realized this fact, some 45 or 00 years ago, when, by a veritable social and moral inspiration as it were, they devised the system of House Managament by 126 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. ladies which will go down to posterity identified with the name of Miss Octavia Hill. The industrial classes in our Scottish cities are housed chiefly in tenements or large or small blocks of buildings. Cot- tages of two, three, or four rooms, such as are to be found in many parts of London, are extremely rare, if not altogether unknown in the large towns north of the Tweed. This custom of building, even for well-to-do people, flatted houses has pre- vai'ed in Scotland for many generations and came to us, we are told, from France. May I point to this in passing as an early evidence of the international sentiment which this Congress seeks to promote! | Certainly the tenement system lends itself to congestion and over-crowding, and is partly responsible for the marked deteri- - oration to be observed amongst. those who have inhabited for long years those crowded centres—a deterioration which is moral as well as physical. Nor is this surprising when we remember that the bulk of those so herded together are ‘‘untrained, undis- eiplined grown-up people,’’ without a notion of law or order, ready to pick up additional evil habits from those around them, when there is none to teach them ‘‘a more excellent way.’’ I say the bulk; for let us be thankful that there is always a leaven of steady, well-behaved, vigorous, self-reliant people, both men and women, without whose presence the results of tenement life would be infinitely more disastrous. It is just here that the lady managers of houses may step in and hold their beneficent sway, for such it has proved to be everywhere that the system referred to has been introduced. Miss Hill is in the habit of saying that she has no system, that ‘‘it is a person, not a system, that is required.’’ While this is no doubt true, we who humbly follow in her footsteps are glad to realize that the work has certain definite features, certain fixed aims, which may guide us in our efforts. It combines the double advantages of a well-planned system carried out by those who are able to exert their personal influence. For it is the system at our back which many a time gives the power to produce any moral effect at all. The aim is to provide sanitary, healthy houses for working people, giving due attention to convenient fittings, etc., on which depend so much of the well-being of family life; to protect respectable people from disreputable neighbours; to encourage prompt payment of rent, thus enabling them to avoid the incubus of debt; to maintain the property in good repair while giving a regular return to the landlord. By these means also the relation between landlord and tenant is invariably placed on a better footing. My own experience in Glasgow of ‘‘Management by Ladies’’ extends over twenty years. The houses under our society are chiefly of one room and kitchen or single apartments. Rents, JOINT SESSIONS. . 127 _ which are fixed at the usual rate customary in the district, range from 2s. 2d. to about 5s. weekly, according to cubic capacity, and this in some instances includes tenants’ taxes. Many of the occupants are unskilled labourers on a wage of from 16s. to 21s. per week; others are more skilled workers earn- ing weekly 35s., 36s, or even 40s.; whilst a goodly number are single women and widows with families or without, who receive for their work the merest pittance, which frequently requires to be supplemented either by charity or poor relief. Our method is as follows: The landlord of the property agrees to receive a certain percentage on his capital, limited to five per cent.; and we assume the entire powers and duties of ownership. We pay all taxes and burdens, attend to painting and cleaning of stair-cases, lobbies, etc., to all the current repairs required, and to more extensive alterations as the need for them arises. It has fallen to us from time to time, to throw out new windows; to remove the dividing wall on a stair-case, the chief purpose of which would seem to have been, to exclude the hght; to introduce improved sanitary appliances or special water supply to each house; to build additional washing houses; to replace chimney stacks or a portion of the roof; to renew floor- ing, doors, window-sashes, etc., ete., etc. Whilst we have had a continuous and never-ending war with smoking chimneys! How we long for the practical woman architect to arise who will specialize on chimneys, and, perhaps, save the long-suffering housewife from this intolerable and often insurmountable griev- ance. It has been a positive delight to clear away the old- fashioned bed spaces or closed-in beds, another early custom Scotland has shared with France, and which dies hard, but which I am thankful to say, according to modern sanitary regula- tions, is now inadmissible in the houses of the poor. Each tenant pays a deposit equal to four weeks’ rent on entering. If no undue damage has been done to the house, and if the rent has been faithfully paid up, this is returned intact on leaving. lady volunteers collect the rents weekly, paid in ad- vance, and make their calls with great regularity. Besides insisting on the punctual payment of rent, it is their duty to see that houses are kept clean, well-aired and not over-crowded, passages and stairs swept daily (in weekly turns) and washed down twice a week; to investigate the state of sinks and sanitary conveni- ences, washing houses, ashpits, and open courts, so that no refuse of any kind be left about; in fact, to keep a watchful eye on everything that concerns the physical and moral well-being of the inhabitants, as well as the preservation of the property. Good tenants who have paid regularly are allowed a bonus of two weeks’ rent in the six months at each holiday season, in January and in July. This commission is not in any way returned to the property, for the work is on a strictly business basis. When all payments have been made, the surplus remaining forms a reserve 128 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. fund to be drawn upon for large alterations which are sure to become necessary, the nature of which has already been indi- cated. The financial position of our work has always been excel- lent. This we regard as the pulse which indicates the success or non-success of the system. Not only are the houses efficiently superintended, but the tenants are brought under an effective control. Indeed, it is in the strict rule underlying the ready sympathy and friendly help in time of need that the real value of the work lies. For although it is important that no material assistance be given, without special consultation, there are many opportunities of bringing genuine distress in touch with the proper charitable agencies, of finding work for unemployed, or of lightening in other ways the heavy burdens of those who are in trouble. With all the authority of the landlord to support her, the lady manager is quite an autocrat in her own domain and has practically unbounded influence over her tenants. If she is endowed with wisdom and tact she quickly becomes the trusted friend and adviser of the entire family circle, her lightest word received with a reverence that is most touching. Whilst exacting from the people particular performance of their duty, endeavour is made that no duty incumbent on the landlord may be over- looked. Small repairs are attended to at once, and the comfort of the tenants considered in every way that is possible. Some selection of tenants is absolutely necessary, a sifting of the bad from the good. This gives the well-doing a chance to bring up their families in better surroundings, saved from the horrible contamination of evil neighbours. Habits of thrift and order grow up surely, if slowly, and it is wonderful to note how soon people begin to rise to the higher standard of conduct that is expected—a standard that may even be insensibly fixed by the popular voice of the residents themselves. And when this is achieved the very atmosphere we would aim to produce has indeed been created. Under careful superintendence the general health of a tene- ment improves rapidly. A small building was placed in our care twenty years ago. Its condition was such that the Health Officer had marked it on the City Map to be cleared away. Thanks to the better management the mark was shortly with- drawn. For many years that property has been regarded as an object-lesson in the locality—a much healthier abode than tene- ments more recently erected, while the intrinsic value of the structure itself has increased enormously. After removing by degrees the uncontrollable section of the population, there remained a goodly number of respectable folk, some of whom are in the same houses still. It could scarcely be said that the tenants of to-day, chiefly dependent on the casual labour of the docks, are all exactly model characters, but the majority are well-disposed, if struggling, people, desirous to do their duty up to their light. JOINT SESSIONS. 129 Arrears of rent were gradually paid up, accumulated debts of more that £30 recovered, and each householder was induced to pay the deposit of four weeks’ rent required. The red mark in a tenants’ book denoting arrears of payment is now looked upon as a disgrace. Many avoid this successfully from year to year and earn the half-yearly bonus with regularity. Ejectments, once a frequent occurrence, are most rare. Yet it is highly salutary that it should be known, that we not only have power to eject, but that, if rules are disregarded, this power will inevitably be exercised. Seeming severity is sometimes the truest beneficence. I have known marked improvement follow the shock of eject- ment and an indolent man find work at once, a quest in which for months he had been unsuccessful. It is what people are able to do for themselves which strengthens and builds up the char- acter, not what is done for them by others. Dirt, disease, drink and darkness are the chief enemies we have to contend with. A gospel of soap and water, aided by judicious compulsions, may at least hold the first enemy at bay, and attention to the laws of hygiene may make some impression upon the second. Of disease it has been said, ‘‘if we can elimin- ate or diminish sickness among the poor we shall eliminate or diminish half the existing amount of pauperism.’’ And if we could eliminate drink, that worst enemy of all, we should elimin- ate a large proportion of sickness and disease for which it is re- sponsible directly and indirectly. Disease and drink are undoubtedly the main factors in the production of both poverty and crime. : I rejoice to note that among working people in Scotland there is an ever-growing public opinion against intoxication. A man who indulges too freely in alcohol loses caste even with his own class in a way that was not the case fifteen or twenty years ago. May we look forward with hope to a future when this dark stain on our civilization will be effectually removed. City authorities are waking up to the fact that for healthy development light is a prime necessity. Streets are opened up and buildings cleared away, which helps to admit to congested regions all the sunlight that is available. But better lighting by night is a erying need. Sufficient has been done, even in this direction, to demonstrate that light is a notable purifier. If we could only spread a flood of brilliant electric light all over our back lanes and side streets, much of the vice and crime which lurk and prosper in these dark corners would vanish away and the work of the police would become by comparison quite a sinecure. Ruskin has said that ‘‘woman’s duty in the commonwealth is to assist in the ordering, the comforting, the beautiful adorn- ment of the State.’’ The ‘‘Management of Houses’’ offers un- rivalled opportunity to fulfil this mission. Her capacity for detail, and inherited instinct for household affairs stand her in good stead in this enlarged form of housekeeping. In London 130 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. many women make this their profession in life, earning five per cent. on the rents collected. To provide an adequate salary, or living wage, a large amount of property must, of course, be undertaken. Whether the work be done by voluntary or professional collectors, devotion and earnestness are necessary qualifications without which no success need be looked for. Many a useful lesson of patience, fortitude and simple faith may be learnt by the collector from those under her care, whose interesting life- histories are unfolded before her. For the benefit is not all on one side. In the practical details of the work valuable habits of punctuality, thoroughness and accuracy are formed, whilst the serious nature of the duties to be discharged and the responsibil- ity involved, help to ripen the judgment and to deepen and strengthen the character all round. ‘‘True character,’’ says a modern theological writer, ‘‘is only produced by the sense of responsibility acting freely in the human spirit. Responsibility makes men.’’ And surely it also makes women. HOUSING. By Mrs. GrorGE CapBury, England. Every great nation is gradually waking up to the fact that we cannot rear healthy citizens in unhealthy homes; that not only the physique suffers, but that character, intelligence and moral fibre are degraded, stultified and weakened by the conditions in which millions of people have to exist in the great towns of every country. We have evidence of this in the fact that we have had visitors, many of them, sent officially by their Governments, to see the gar- den village of Bournville from almost every civilized country— from Canada, America, Australasia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Russia, China, Japan, ete., ete. Men and women who should be the strength of our nations are housed in close, dirty, evil-smelling lanes and courts, deprived of fresh air and sunshine, strangers to the sight of grass, flowers and trees. They are without opportunity for healthy recreation. Little wonder if, while some bravely battle against their surround- ings, a great number succumb, and go to swell the mass of vicious, eriminal and diseased humanity, which is a disgrace and menace to their country. The evil does not only exist in large towns; it is to be found in an acute form in rural districts, in country towns, even in villages where land is available for building decent homes with gardens. A few facts from various authorities will enforce these state- ments. Sir Walter Foster says that one-tenth of the total number J EN JOINT SESSIONS. AR of houses in England ought to be condemned, they are so bad and unhealthy. In Berlin more than one-half the families live in one room, more than 2,000 of these take in- lodgers; there are also 24,000 cellar dwellings, sheltering 91,400 persons. In New York there are 82,000 tenement houses, with no less than 350,000 dark interior rooms without any light whatsoever. The ‘‘double-deck- ers’’ or ‘‘dumb-bell’’ tenements are buildings, five, six or seven storeys high, built adjoining each other on a plot of land about 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep, of which the building covers over 75 per cent., leaving the small space of 10 feet unoccupied in the rear. In the centre of each tenement is an entrance hall, and a long cor- ridor about three feet wide, badly lighted and ventilated, with seven rooms on either side; and of the fourteen rooms on each floor, only four receive direct light and air. The other five rooms on either side are supposed to get their light and air from a high, narrow shaft, entirely enclosed on four sides and without any intake of air at the bottom, so that instead of fresh air and sun- shine they get foul air and semi-darkness, while the shafts act as conveyers of noise, odours and disease due to the emanations from the other families. To this may be added the fact that a family living in a double-decker tenement pays from 12s. to 18s. a week for four rooms, only two of which are large enough to be deserving of the name. In Seotch towns no less than 280,447 families live in two rooms, and 394,000 persons live in ene-room dwellings. Neces- sarily there is constant sickness and disease. The general death rate in one-roomed tenements in Glasgow is nearly twice that of the whole city, and the death rate from pulmonary tuberculosis is 2.4 per thousand against 0.7 in other houses. Dr. Juillerat says after investigations made in Paris: ‘‘The insanitary house, lacking light and air, is the principal factor in the propagation of tuberculosis. Dwellings are to be found in Paris which are active and permanent centres of infection.’’ Again, ‘‘The houses included in our enquiries for 1906 show a num- ber of rooms without proper air or light, or of dimensions sufficient for proper habitation. In 405 blocks newly visited, 3,616 rooms are in this condition; that is to say, nearly 4,000 human beings are living under the fatal influence of darkness or insufficient space to dwell in health.’’ Measurements and weights have been carefully taken of boys and girls in a Birmingham Board School and in Bournville, at the ages of 6, 8, 10, 12: Weights at 12 years of age. Boys. Girls. Bouppiablers (Goo aks 71.8 lbs. 74.7 lbs. Floodgate street... 63.2 Ibs. 65.7 lbs. Heights at 12 years of age. | Boys. Girls. Bournvillewere cs. ee a 54.8 ins. 56.0 ins. Floodgate Street ............ 52.3 ins, 53. Lins. 132 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Take again some figures showing the infant mortality of vari- ous districts. In a crowded district of Birmingham the deaths per thousand, taking the average of four years, were 331, against 72.3 in the neighbouring garden village of- Bournville. In the Austral- asian Colonies the infant mortality is 80 per thousand, as compared with 146 in London and 176 in Lancashire. Thus we see that as compared with the Australasian Colonies the excess deaths in one year (1904) in the other areas were as follows: London, 23,958; Scotland, 26,361, and Lancashire, 34,918, while the excessive deaths from phthisis in these areas were nearly 8,000, and the infant mor- tality from 30 to 120 per cent. greater. In England, as a whole, out of 944,703 infants born in 1904, no less than 137,490 died with- in twelve months. Hence, in view of the foregoing figures, we may say that at least 52,000 infants, or 1,000 per week, were unneces- sarily sacrificed. Tn Glasgow 72 per cent. of those suffering from infectious diseases lived in one-roomed tenements. If we are so convinced of the existence of this evil and the necessity of remedy, how is it that we do not move more quickly in the direction of improvement? Those who care for their coun- try, for their fellow citizens, for the little children dwelling in darkness and wretchedness, are fighting for reform, but many forces are against them. The laws concerning land, selfishness, carelessness, greed; and, worst of all, the apathy of the people themselves, who have lost hope. No greater work awaits the re- former, no higher task the administrator, than the transforming of slums and rookeries, and the turning of fresh air and sunshine and the beauty of grass and trees and flowers—now too often the privilege of the few—into the birthright of the poor and those who eannot help themselves. A decided advance has been made in the last twenty years. The idea of garden villages, garden cities, garden suburbs, has been evolved and materialized in England, France, Germany and Amer- ica. At Bournville there are now 750 houses, with a population of 3,500. Most of the schemes so far have been the work of pri- vate individuals. The movement will need in the future to be the work of the State and of municipalities. For this we must have legislation. It is needed in order to deal with slum property; with compulsory sale of land; to make restrictions as to the number of buildings on a given area; to enable municipalities to obtain leases of land for development on easy terms. Private enterprise has been handicapped in obtaining cheap land for workmen’s dwellings, and much of the inferior housing accommodation is due to the con- ditions of sale or lease being so oppressive and exacting as to com- pel the builder to build insanitarily. Much may undoubtedly be accomplished under the law as it stands, but fuller powers and liberty of action must be conferred upon our local authorities, and a more enlightened policy adopted at the Local Government Board, before any very wide or far- reaching reform can ‘be looked for. It is heart-breaking for the administrator to find that, while he is busy with the Herculean JOINT SESSIONS. 133 task of removing slums in the centre of a city, wide belts of houses are springing up on the outskirts so built and planned that, in the course of a few years, they must inevitably degenerate into slums as bad as those now being removed at such a heavy cost in trouble and money. As matters now stand, so long as certain by-laws and building regulations (not always of the wisest, by the way) are complied with, our authorities are practically helpless to regulate the spread of towns, and must stand by while monotonous rows of monotonous houses are crowded on the land at the rate of perhaps 50 houses to the acre. There cannot be a single solution for all the evils of the housing conditions, Some reformers approve the building of tenement houses. In Glasgow they are in great favour, but we who stand for real home life, and the benefits and joys of a garden, cannot admit that they are a worthy solution of the difficulty. Cheap land and cheap rail- ways, and judicious distribution of factories, will obviate the neces- sity of crowding to one centre. Thirty to forty inhabitants to the acre is a sufficiently dense population. Some of the so-called model dwellings have 800 to the acre. Those in the lower rooms are de- barred from sunshine and free circulation of air; the young child- ren in the top rooms are rarely taken out of doors because of the long flights of steps. As far as possible ‘‘garden’’ suburbs, villages and cities must be encouraged, and every reasonable facility given to enlightened landowners wishing to develop their land in this way. In answer to the objection sometimes raised that the cottages in these places are too expensive for the ordinary working man, we would reply that cottages in Bournville can be had for 4s. 6d. a week up to 12s. without taxes, and no man ought to receive a wage which would make a home at that rate impossible. With all this, there must also be an effort to educate public opinion, for no administration or legislation can be permanently successful without this driving force behind it. Public opinion is deplorably lax and sluggish, and as soon as active steps are taken by sanitary authorities the voice of vested interest makes itself heard. Facilities to enable municipal authorities and rural coun- ceils to form schemes for town planning will promote effective im- provement in the future. Two hundred and forty years ago, after the great fire of London, Sir Christopher Wren endeavoured to introduce a system of town planning, but he was before his time. Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, Holland, Bel- gium, Italy, Austria, and, indeed, most civilized countries, have schemes for town planning except England, the United States and France. A town-extension plan contemplates and provides for the de- velopment as a whole of every urban, suburban and rural area likely to be built upon during the next thirty or fifty years. Wide avenues are provided for the main traffic between the centres and the outskirts, narrower streets for ordinary traffic, and, again, nar- rower and less expensive roads or drives for purely residential ? 134 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. quarters. Parks and small open spaces and playgrounds are pro- vided for beforehand, instead of waiting till the land required has risen to an impossible price and in a sensible plan these lungs are located on back land, not on valuable frontage. Districts are allo- cated for factories on the opposite side of the town to that from which the prevailing winds come, and here there are railway lines and, where possible, water communications. The future town is divided into zones; high buildings close to each other are allowed in the centre, and on main arteries. In residential] districts build- ings must be lower and more dispersed, the further they are from the centre of the city or its main arteries. In those streets where traffic is light and a sufficient distance is maintained between the opposite lines of houses, narrow and inexpensive roadways or drives, with wide footpaths, are allowed in order to keep down the cost of estate development, which in modern English suburbs is responsible for at least 1s. per week on a 6s. house. While speaking of town planning, perhaps we may be allowed to suggest that the Canadian Government should pause before sell- ing land so extensively to private individuals, and consider if it may not be well to work schemes of town planning and municipal ownership. An excellent method of providing suitable houses is through the Tenants’ Co-partnership Building Association. This provides for joint ownership and joint responsibility. At a recent conference on housing, an owner of small houses complained that it was hard that all the blame for bad houses should be cast on the landlord. If he repaired and painted his houses one week, they would often be in as bad a condition the next, when occupied by a certain class of tenant. This is, of course, true, and we must own that the tenants need educating equally with the landlords. But the difficulty is met by the Co- partnership Association. A large number of shareholders, mainly working men, own together a certain number of houses, and all are responsible for the general condition. It appears to be a better system for a working man to have a share in 100 houses than to own one, as he so often has to move and follow his work. In conclusion we must say we look with envy on those who have the task of developing Greater Britain. What opportunities you have with your great tracts of land, your newer laws, your freedom from tradition, your young enthusiasms! In the Old Country we have difficulties that you probably will not have to face. But we love the Old Country, with all her disadvantages and mistakes, and we shall work on for a happier home life for all our people. ‘“We will not cease from mental strife, Nor shall our sword sleep in our hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England’s green and pleasant land.”’ JOINT SESSIONS. 135 THE CHILDREN’S HOME. By M. T. Monrepari, Italy. Among the modern educational institutions, the ‘‘ Children’s Home’’ (Casa dei Bambini) is, considering its geniality and im- portance, well worth being made known at a Women’s Congress, where children’s education is of the highest interest. This is not the moment to speak of the social mission of such ‘an institution and of its correspondence with modern times, but to illustrate the educational systems intended to develop the young minds committed to the care of the Home. We shall, therefore, simply mention that the first ‘‘Children’s Home’’ was founded in Rome, in January, 1907, and that it was originally planned by Engineer Edoardo Talamo, Director-General of the Roman Institute for Real Estate, and that it followed as a natural consequence of the reform of the old and gloomy tenement houses in the Tiburtine Quarter (one of the worst in the Capital), which were converted into new buildings constructed according to. modern systems of hygiene, where even the poor man may now enjoy the privacy of his own little apartment gladdened by clean- iness, air and sun. The little children, whom mothers are obliged to leave alone -many hours of the day, would have seriously damaged the new houses, had not a timely soclicitude foreseen this evil and prevented it by preparing an appropriate place in the same building, where they might assemble under the watchful care and supervision of a skilful and intelligent mistress. The educational methods adopted in the ‘‘Children’s Home’’ are the result of my long scientific and pedagogical experience, and I believe they are the ‘‘sole’’ and ‘‘first’’ application of scientific pedagogies. Unfortunately, however, didactics have always been entangled in such a difficult network of philosophical questions that the teachers have been unable to focus their attention on the sub- ject to be educated, namely, on the child. | Up to now the would-be educator started from pre-conceived ideas based upon pre-established theories, as, for instance, on the nature of the human soul, which has for a long time been discussed in various pedagogical schools, without ever coming to a definite conclusion; thus settling in his mind an unique ‘‘ideal’’ of the ‘*child’’ which prevented him from discovering the real nature of his pupil and of gaining a thorough knowledge of the complex psychological problem entrusted to his care. He then proceeded blindly in his work of education without any clear idea of his mission and without stopping to examine the result of the method he followed. Now, my system destroys altogether the ideal fabric of the old educator, and places before him the ‘‘living subject,’’ the ‘‘child.’’ who is to be studied directly, accurately and in all his manifestations. A direct and intelligent study of the pupil is therefore the basis and the starting point of the educator, who should be a scientist and a psychologist, always watchful and eager 136 . INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. to obtain those materials indispensable to his educational career. He should also, according to my system, leave his little pupil full liberty of manifestation. It therefore follows that the moving principle of the system is liberty. The restrictive methods of former days have now been abol- ished in the ‘‘Children’s Home’’ and have been replaced by the loving guidance of a mistress who does not pretend to ‘‘teach,’’ but simply to ‘‘direct,’’ so that the pupil may almost unconsciously find himself on the road which will lead him to the full and harmonious development of his physical and intellectual powers. Hence the name of directress is given to the mistress. As I have already mentioned, my system is the result of long experience, which I have gained by experimenting at first with defective children. In the year 1898-99 I was at the head of the orthophrenic peda- gogical school, founded in Rome as a consequence of the series of lectures on the special education for defective children, which I was commissioned by the Ministry to deliver in the Normal Schools of Rome. I took up the difficult task of giving a rational and useful edu- cation to the phraenasthenic subjects who were in a special depart- ment of the asylum of Rome, with the greatest enthusiasm, select- ing as guide the works of the first educators for the defective, namely, those of the French alienists Itard and Séguin. It may now well be asserted that Itard and Séguin were the initiators of real scientific pedagogy. By means of long and accurate study, based always on observation and giving the best practical results, these two eminent scientists pointed out a clear way to whoever wishes to follow a rational mode of education. I studied their works with the greatest attention till I had thoroughly grasped all their views. At length, after sound theoretical preparation and after long practical experience gained abroad in the Institute for the defective of Bicétre, and in the additional classes of London, I was able to choose a series of subsidiary didactic methods, organ- izing them into a well-constructed and logical system. I should, however, acknowledge that I did not keep strictly to the theories of Séguin, but that I adopted a new form of didac- tics, which, when applied to the defective, gave excellent results. The same methods, partly modified, are now used for normal child- ren between three and six years of age, with the most satisfactory results, and it is not improbable that they will effect an important reform in the modern primary school. Both the origin and the application of my system show that it is essentially experimental, and as I have already said, it starts from the study of the child, who will gradually, by means of didactic systems and educational exercises, be made to develop his special tendencies and inclinations. The mistress knows her little pupils ‘‘physically’’ by taking the measure of their bodies at regular periods (application of an- thropological pedagogy), and ‘‘psychologically’’ by studying and e¢ Why he Gar _JOINT SESSIONS. © 137 observing all the manifestations of their souls (true application of infant psychology). A little child from three to six years of age is at a period of life in which a wise and efficacious mode of education is most neces- sary to aid the formation of his personality—but up to now we have often incurred the danger of crushing out his budding life. Unfortunately, there are still a great many schools for little child- ren, attended principally by the children of the poor, where the system in use renders the little pupils inert and passive, strains their memory in a most outrageous manner, till they often lose all their mirth and even that beautiful smile so natural to childhood ! Whoever visits the ‘‘Children’s Home’’ is, on the contrary, struck by the obvious activity and happiness of its little inmates. Not one of them is left without some occupation; they all take an interest in something and are busy at what is most congenial to their natures and to their wishes. My system might also be called physiological, because it reaches the soul gradually through the senses; from the education of the senses it passes on to the ideas, and from the ideas to the senti- ments. The didactic material which is used for the education of the senses is varied but simple, so that a child may make use of it without assistance, and it is arranged in such a way that he may perceive each error and correct himself by trying over and over again. The mistress’ task consists merely in displaying the ma- terial before her pupil and in watching the work of the latter in order that she may witness his progressive development. All the senses are trained; feeling, smell, stereognostic, ther- mic, barometrical, visive, noting in the latter the chromatic from the optical sense of forms, distances, ete. After such a training a child will naturally have acquired many clear and exact ideas of things, and, above ali, he will have grown familiar with ‘‘observation,’’ which is so necessary in life and yet so often neglected. Other very important educational exercises are those relating to practical life—the children are taught how to dress, undress and get up. They go through these exercises daily and take the _ greatest interest in them, and when at last they can do everything without help and feel utterly independent, they are really over- joyed and begin to feel conscious of possessing some inner strength. I put special importance on the language of our children, which between the age of three and six is still in a state of forma- tion. In the ‘‘Children’s Home’’ a special system of respiratory gymnastics is adopted, together with various exercises of pronun- ciation intended to correct those defects of language (as stuttering, lisping) so common among children, and which may, if not cor- rected in time, persist during a whole lifetime and often cause serious annoyance. My system ensures a clear and perfect pronunciation. Having succeeded in giving-the children a thorough knowledge of the 138 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. spoken language, I have deemed it expedient. to form the graphic language, for when a child has completed his fourth year of age he is already able to distinguish different objects (education of the senses) and having been trained by a well-timed education to dis- tinguish the sounds of the human language and to execute the principal movements relative to the organs of elocution (education in the language) a new psychological period begins to assert itself under the shape of curiosity (a characteristic quality at that age), which leads him towards a higher education, and he may then begin to supplement the phonetic language by the graphic one. And I venture to say that not only he may, but he must do so, in order that his psychological development be rationally aided. Asa useful help for children in learning graphic language I have in- vented a method which is quite special and completely different from the usual methods in use up to now, and which has given the most satisfactory results during several years of practical applica- tion. To give an idea of my method I think it will be useful to reproduce a brief but clear explanation of the same by Prof. Giulio Ferrer: ‘*The system is based on the well-known principle of the asso- ciation of ideas, but its highest efficacy depends upon a special training of the muscular sense, as, for instance, disposition and preparation for writing. When this system has been applied to normal children of from four to five years of age, the result has been as follows: Children succeed in writing well ‘‘by themselves,’’ in the same way as they are able to speak ‘‘by themselves’’ after the exercises of spontane- ous repetition of the words they hear. It is not even necessary to place a pencil in their hands or to order them to go through their writing exercise. It is enough to train a child in the way we shall explain as briefly as possible, and some day he will be ‘‘ready’’ to write; urged by some inspiration or stimulation, and following a natural impulse, he will take up a pencil or a bit of chalk, and will write just as he pronounces words. Indeed he will write words with real enthusiasm, tracing well-shaped graphic signs, without going through the long and tiresome series of ‘‘strokes’’ and of isolated letters, with great economy of ink and paper and consequent nega- tive cleanliness. DISTRIBUTIVE EXERCISES. The first exercise is that of finding corresponding pieces and fitting them together. It is a useful preparation for reading, drawing and writing, and should be adopted as soon as the child has succeeded in distinguishing the colors and the shapes of the designs. 1. Fit the corresponding figures on the colored designs which are traced on a smooth piece of cardboard. 2. Repeat the same exercise with figures merely traced. (In these two exercises the child’s attention should be drawn particu- JOINT SESSIONS. 139 larly to the different shapes of the figures, making him follow the edge of each one with his index finger). 3. Follow the edge of each figure with a little rod held like a pen. 4, Fill up with free strokes of coloured pencil the simple fig- ures marked by the designs, and go on gradually to more compli- cated figures, which the mistress may draw out also for the fitting of models (flowers, animals, common objects, etc). d. Leave the children free to draw whatever they like, but when their work has been accomplished ask them to explain what their drawings were intended to represent. SIMULTANEOUS READING AND WRITING. The children are shown a board with painted ‘‘vowels’’ in their written form (preferably straight handwriting). These figures will appear before the children as varied and irregular. Show them the same letters coloured in the same way, but moveable (iron, wood, pasteboard and even paper) and pass on to the fitting exercise, adding the name of each vowel according to the primary teaching of objects. Feeling is associated with this exercise and the pupils are made to touch the letters, following the direction of the writing. When the children no longer find any difficulty in recognizing, fitting, finding and touching the letters, great attention should be given to the sense of feeling and to the muscular sense. With this object in view a large piece of pasteboard is prepared, upon which some letters will have been pasted after having been cut out of a sheet of glazed paper. The children are then made to touch the letters, following the direction of the writing, first with all the fingers of their right hands, then only with the tip of their right index fingers, and fin- ally with a httle rod held between their fingers like a pen. Whilst continuing to teach the relative nomenclature by means of the phonetic system, we should pass on to the ‘‘consonants,’’ from the simplest up to the most complex forms. All the exercises previously gone through with the vowels are now repeated with the consonants, which will in a very short time enable the children not only to form ‘‘words’’ with the aid of the moveable alphabet, but to ‘‘read’’ them and ‘‘write’’ them. This result may be arrived at in a few weeks, sometimes in a few days, with normal children from four to five years of age. Prof. Ferreri therefore proves that when all material difficul- ties in the way of learning graphic language have been eliminated, the latter becomes a task of primary importance in the unfolding of the language and in the psychic development of the child. And perhaps future generations will prove the truth of this assertion by experiencing its astonishing efficacy. Moral education is not neglected in the Children? s Home,’ and is especially promoted by natural education, namely, by oo ~ 140 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. tivating the soil and by breeding animals. Nor is social education forgotten; on the contrary, it is always borne in mind by the mis- tresses, whose friendly and affectionate conversation tcaches the little pupils to be gentle and to help each other, and leads them smoothly on to the full development and to the application of the most noble ethical sentiments destined to be the ground-work of the life awaiting those infant souls. HOUSING OF THE POOR IN CANADA. By Miss FirzGIppon Speaking to the preceding papers on the housing of the poor, Miss FitzGibbon said that the great difficulties in Canada lay in the high rents and in the fact that there were almost 1 small and inexpensive houses. Thirteen to twenty-four dollars a month had to be paid for poor quarters by working-people. The remedies that are being tried are building societies, buying on the instal- ment plan and division of expense by two families living in one house. But there is still a large class of people left who can afford to pay only about five dollars a month in rent. Emigrants from the old countries should take into careful consideration the fact that rents in Canada are high—even in proportion to the higher salaries paid here than in the old lands. Ignorance of this and kindred facts resulted in the establish- ment of ‘‘Shacktown’’ in Toronto last year, and many more joined the ranks of the unemployed out here than would have done so had all the economic conditions been understood. ACCOUNT OF THE SOCIETIES IN FLORENCE FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR IN THEIR OWN HOMES. By Emma R. Corcgs, Italy. There are in Florence many societies which assist the sick poor in their own homes, and there is not one which is not working with the greatest assiduity and zeal. The spirit of charity which fills the greater number of our citizens is shown especially by their visits to those sick persons who either from social necessity, or family reasons, cannot take advantage of the public hospitals, and are lying without proper nourishment, medicine or clothing and sorely in need of assistance. We have the Medical Mission founded in 1880, which is situ- ated in Venti Settembre Street and which, besides medical and surgical help, distributes medicines, linen and clothing free of charge. It has a Home at Viareggio which receives the sick and convalescent from the Medical Mission, and also extends its work JOINT SESSIONS. 141 to the poor of Viareggio and the neighbourhood. The Medical Mis- sion is supported by voluntary donations; doctors and assistants give their services free of charge, the drug stores lower their prices, etc. Every year a statement is published and the accounts are kept with admirable exactness. We have also the Institution ‘‘ Antionetta,’? for women who, having several young children, cannot go to the ‘‘Maternity’’ when the next little one is expected. This was founded by the noble lady Countess Maria di Frassineto in 1894, in memory of her be- loved daughter, the Marchioness Antionetta Frescobaldi. Its pro- gramme, carefully drawn up, promises the mother the attendance of a trained midwife. It is under the direction of the well-known Prof. Antonio Martinetti, who has, through his constant energy, given to this truly humane work an impetus most continued and increasing. The mothers are visited for some time before the birth of the child, as well as for some time after. They are supplied with proper food, with linen, with an outfit for the baby, and so, forgetting their poverty, and feeling they are cared for and loved, they pass safely through the dangerous period. The institution is well worthy of the name which the Florentine lady wished to continue in the sacred cause of charity. With the same object and with a somewhat different arrange- ment is the Provident Society for Asistance in Maternity. The pre- sidents are Countess Editta Rucellai and Prof. Guiseppe Resinelli. Besides the members who have provided capital for the develop- ment and upkeep of the society, the women themselves who wish to have the benefits of the society pay an admission fee of one lira and a contribution of 25 centimes per month. The society is estab- lished with the view of assisting the women to escape the dangers to which their ignorance and negligence may lead. And ag they become members tnemselves they are helped in their homes, not only because they are poor, but as a right. It would be well if this society, established about three years ago, were better known and could be developed as largely as are some younger institutions. Under the watchful care of Miss Alice Burke, the society for treating sick children carries on its work for the benefit of the sick poor in their homes, particularly in chronic cases, which are num- erous, and for which no hospital is provided, as in the case of infectious diseases. Personal visits are made by the society, food and medicine are distributed, and linen is lent; doctors also visit. If the case is one of infectious illness it is visited by a nurse spe- cally appointed to this work. The regulations are very clear, which results in the greatest order in the carrying out of the work; then there is the greatest good resulting from the kindness of the ladies concerned, and the whole work is carried on without any special fund, with only the small subscription of 6 lire per annum from the associates, some voluntary donations, and the proceeds of conferences held by prominent persons, The work of aiding the suffering child, of restoring happiness at the age when there should be only smiles, to the little ones languishing in tears, is surely a 142 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. blessed work and one which cannot fail to be supported by the public, because it has the blessing of God. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, perhaps older than the above, has the same object. Men belonging to our upper classes, ladies and young girls, unite to succour the sick, giving them care and assistance. Thus the Helping Sisters of the Society in Regina Vittoria Street have by their kindness attracted to their aid a number of ladies and young girls. One must see to believe the goodness of this band of helpers, who go from door to door, from house to house, with their kindnesses. Some nurse the sick, changing their beds, washing them, and tidying them; some arrange the houses, get the children ready for school, light the fire, sweep the floor, do every kind of humble work with eare; ignored by many, blessed by few, but animated with the true spirit of charity and conscious of the good work they are doing. The Anti-Tuberculosis Society is also extending its work, but not having a sanitarium of its own to receive the sick, only too many in number, who come to our city, it limits its aid to the giving of food and medicine, separates the children from the in- fected family, sends them to various institutions, to convents, to places specially prepared in the country, where the poor little ones have good food, are kept warm, live in the open air, and have a chance to escape from the infection which threatened them. And everywhere all over our city are other groups of people uniting themselves for the assistance of the poor in their homes. Florence, the centre of art, the garden of Italy, is becoming the headquarters of the most important charities and a centre of bene- ficence. CHARITABLE ASSOCIATIONS IN STOCKHOLM. By Baroness ELLEN VON PLATEN, Sweden. At different periods and in various countries the great ques- tion of helping the poor has been studied with the earnest desire of finding the best way of assisting them intelligently and efficiently. Experience has proved that gifts indiscriminately distributed usu- ally encourage mendicity and idleness, often causing moral injury instead of assisting the recipient to escape from his miserable con- dition, and of aiding him to become a useful citizen. In England and America the defects of the old system of help- ing the poor have long been acknowledged, the want being strongly felt of organizing Charity so that no help should be given without examination of each individual ease of distress. With this noble aim in view the ‘‘Charity Organization So- ciety’’ was started in London in 1869, and twenty years later a Swedish “‘C. O. S.’’? commenced operations in Stockholm, Fru Hierta-Retzius taking the initiative. JOINT SESSIONS. 143 The office of this Society is intended to be a centre of reference for all interested in works of charity. All applicants for assistance may be sent there, when careful enquiry is made to test the truth of their statements, and find out how and by whom they had better obtain help, while in each case likely to be permanently benefited and suitable for assistance by Charity rather than by the Poor Law, such remedies are offered as are likely to make the applicant self- supporting. When eases are sent to the office, reports about the in-_ dividual are forwarded to those sending in the case after due investigation has been made. If the various means of help required be not obtainable from those interested in the applicant, the Society in some cases furnishes adequate assistance, either in the form of loans running without interest, or as gifts. The C. O. S. also acquires information regarding charitable institutions, their conditions for admission, and other details con- cerning their work, thus being able to furnish the public with reliable statements if requested to do so. During the past seventeen years Fru Agda Montelius has volun- tarily devoted her time to superintending the work of the Society, and proved that a woman possessing great organizing powers, and feeling real compassion for these unfortunate people and a sincere desire to better their material and moral condition may be the means of obtaining great results. The life and soul of the Society, Fru Montelius, stimulates and inspires her companions—all honorary workers, courageously continuing her work with a perfect under- standing of the principles of reformed charity. All in all there are about 800 different Charitable Associations, Benevolent and Relief Funds in Stockholm. For the relief of children alone a vast number of societies and institutions have been started within the past few years. In 1901 was initiated the first ‘‘Mjolkdroppen’’ (Milk-drop) Charity, which has had many successors in Stockholm and most of the large towns in Sweden. Here milk is distributed daily to such children as for one reason or another cannot obtain natural nourish- ment. The children are duly examined each fortnight by a physi- cian, a nurse exercising control in the homes and giving the mothers advice concerning the care of their children and similar matters. For unmarried mothers and their babies the first Infants’ Home was opened in 1903 on the initiative of Fru S. von Koch. The mothers are allowed to remain here with their first-born infant for a twelve-month, caring for one or two infants besides their own. The infants remain in the home till they are two years of age, when good homes are found where they may be boarded, should the mother not be able to make arrangements for her child. The Home tries to guard the child’s rights with respect to the father. These Homes are extremely active in strengthening and keeping up the connection between a mother and her child. Those mothers who are forced to work away from their homes during the day so as to earn their livelihood, can leave their chil- dren at ‘‘Créches’’ for the day. In some ae these the infants are 144 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. taken charge of generally from two to seven years of age for the low sum of three halfpence a day. For children attending the board schools, who have very bad homes or both of whose parents work away from home, Fru Anna Hierta-Retzius’ excellent Workshops for Children have been opened, where the children spend their leisure time instead of roaming in the streets; 2,300 children attend these schools in Stock- holm at a very small cost, only about $5.00 to $8.00 a year for each ehild. They are taught all kinds of practical trades: brush-making, basket-work, joinery, tailoring, cobbler’s and metal work, besides mending, dress-making, weaving, etc. ‘The instruction is given by artisans, by paid and voluntary teachers (between seventy and eighty young girls from our very best families devote themselves to this work). Twenty-two years have now elapsed since Fru Retzius founded her first workshop for children in Stockholm. Their popularity has steadily increased, and now they are scattered all over the country to the number of 74, even far beyond the Polar Circle. The latest triumph for our Workshops for Children is, that when King Edward visited Sweden last year he considered them so satisfactory that he presented a sum of money to Fru Retzius for their benefit, which she calls ‘‘King Edward’s Fund.’’ ‘‘Barnavarn’’ (Children’s Shelters) are also arranged for such children, who are allowed to spend their leisure hours there, learn their lessons, and get food and care until their return home in the evening. Delicate children attending school are despatched to the coun- try during the long summer holidays with the so-called school colonies, supported by private associations, or else to private homes, being received either free of charge or at a very low rate. It is really a joy to see what a couple of months spent in the country can accomplish in procuring a good result. For children that have lost either father or mother, orphanages have been opened, many owing to the initiative of women. One name among many must be mentioned, viz.: Elsa Borg, who died this year (1909). During her active life she established five Chil- dren’s Homes, where girls are trained and educated to be com- petent domestic servants. In order that the nursing of children may be improved several nursery schools have been established on the initiative of women, - where young women may learn, both theoretically and practically, how to take care of children. The work of nursing the sick poor in their own homes has been going on in Stockholm for twenty-one years, and, from a small beginning in a single parish, it has grown to be a recognized insti- tution, now comprising ten parishes of Stockholm. Annual grants are given to those associations that carry on the work, both from the Boards of Guardians and from the Parish Councils. These associations are in constant co-operation with the C. O. S. and with the Public Health Officers. JOINT SESSIONS. 145 District. Nursing was first started in 1888 in Stockholm by Fru Ebba Lind af Hageby, a sister of Fru Retzius, who, having pro- eured from England documents re District Nursing, set about orga- nizing the work with such modifications as would be necessary for earrying it out in Stockholm. One branch of benevolence, which is not direct charity, 1s the erection of dwelling-houses where, for very reasonable rents, single women or widows with children may obtain rooms and certain other advantages. One of the oldest and largest associations for the relief and support of the indigent is Allmaénna Skyddsforeningen (Society for the Protection of the Poor), which consists chiefly of ladies, who each undertake the protection of one or more people, assisting them with advice and information, as also with gifts. In close connection with this society are the so-called Arbets- foreningarne ( Workers’ Unions), which provide work at home, such as plain work, knitting, etc., ete., for the wives of the poor, who can by these means obtain an income without leaving their homes. The workwomen are well paid, the work being sold, or executed from orders given by hospitals, regiments, etc., ete. For the aged poor there are alms-houses for men, widows and domestic servants, and homes for ‘‘Pauvres Honteux,’’ as we call them, that are supported by funds obtained partly from the interest upon donations made for the purpose, and partly from voluntary cifts and contributions from the persons benefited or their friends. For those suffering from some defect or other, as cripples, the blind, deaf-mutes, idiots, and blind deaf-mutes, there are not only asylums but also educational establishments; in most cases women have instigated their formation. For the entire group of those unfortunates that are classed as **Fallen Women,’’ many attempts have been made in recent years to assist and raise them in various directions. Those women who have made the best initial efforts in this matter and also gained the best result are Elsa Borg and Maria Wingqvist. The latter, some years ago, set up an agricultural colony. Her idea is that love of Nature and becoming accustomed to healthy work will in many . cases prove of assistance in the work of redemption and salvation. It has become more and more apparent while carrying on our varied work that all these various societies and establishments ought to co-operate the one with the other, as also that all purely social undertakings, which could not come under the heading ‘‘Charity’’ should still possess as aim the betterment of the community. In 1903 a confederation of the societies working for the due solution of various social problems—The Social League—was formed in order to promote social knowledge, and further proper training for social work. By this League a Committee was appointed to enquire into the working of the laws relating to the relief of the poor in Sweden. When the report was ready a Congress assembled to consider the matter and on that occasion an alliance, ‘‘Svenska Fattigvardsfor- 146 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. bundet’’ (Swedish Poor Relief Alliance) was formed for the entire country in order to promote the well-being of the lower classes. This alliance, among other measures, intends to fulfil its mis- sion in the following manner: 1. By providing parishes, associations, and private persons with information and advice concerning the relief of the poor and eharity in general. 2. By arranging congresses in the capital at suitable intervals, or, when it be deemed desirable, to hold them at some other place in Sweden; and 3. By the publication of a magazine and other printed matter. A consulting relief officer has been appointed who, by travel- ling about and lecturing, by giving advice and assistance when the relief of the poor is to be reorganized, tries to render the reliet as effective as possible. Plans of up-to- date poor-houses, homes for Peang ities etc., ete., are lent. One of those who have been most active on behalf of the Alli- ance is Froken Ebba Pauli, whose power and knowledge have been recognized by the State, since she has been put on a committee for the revision of the existing Poor Relief Law. In order to educate people of all classes of society interested in scientific methods of assisting the poor, this Alliance has arranged courses lasting about one week, not only in the towns but also in the country, lectures being given on subjects relating to Poor Relief and on other questions. One course lasting six months has been earried on for the purpose of educating masters or matrons of Poor- Houses, Alms-Houses and Children’s Asylums. The opportunities for education in these matters that pre- viously existed were a two to three years’ course at the Deaconesses’ or Deacons’ Homes, the Samaritan Home in Upsala, founded by Ebba Bostrom, and Elsa Borg’s Bible Women’s Home. Special short courses for the training of charity workers have also been given. It is clear to the women working for the relief of the poor that feeling an interest in these matters is not enough, there must also be full knowledge of conditions and training for working practi- eally. It is only by these means that by degrees the public will be influenced, and understand the importance of charitable associa- tions that are ‘‘associated charities.’’ SOCIAL WORK OF THE TUSCAN FEDERATION. By Evena FrREeNcH Cin], Italy. The Tusean Federation, though little more than an infant, has passed through its difficulties and troubles. While in the beau- tiful city of Florence, where it has its headquarters amongst the ancient artistic beauty which is our glory, there is a happy revival of the love of art, most of our cultured ladies taking a lively inter- JOINT SESSIONS. 147 est in all its developments; when, however, it comes to moral ques- tions, one often finds indifference or hesitation. - And indifference and hesitation were our stumbling-blocks at first. What was this Federation for? Had we not already too many charitable institutions for our activity and our financial pos- sibilities? No, there must be some hidden motive—the three or four of us who stood by it were poor, mistaken innocents; there was sure to be some subversive power at work there. And when the ladies who collected to form the first committee—in the ma- jority Catholics and Conservatives—heard of the others who were being asked to join the Federation—J ewesses, Socialists, Free-think- ers—the general alarm assumed gigantic proportions. I dwell on this because I own that when I now see these very same ladies willingly discussing or working with some of those they used to look upon as ‘‘terrible elements’’; when I see the ‘‘terrible elements,’’ who on their part were rather contemptuous towards the bearers of medieval names, and according to them, still with some medieval ideas; when I see them recognize the real worth of many of the grand ladies, it seems to me that the Fed- eration has, at least in part, fulfilled its greater aim and has done some real and profound good, which, please God, will in time bring forth its abundant fruit. But of things practical what have we done? Not much, [I fear. We have got together, through the admirable energy of some of our ladies, twenty-four small circulating libraries for elementary schools. Little children, having learned to read. and having no means of exercising their newly acquired knowledge in their homes, take advantage of these collections of books, selected by some of the members of the Committee formed for the purpose. We obtained permission from the municipality for ladies to inspect the schools and the meals there given to the children; some of our number were also admitted to the ‘‘Congregazione di Car- as? At the Lying-in Hospital our suggestion that girls who had fallen once should not be placed side by side with thoroughly per- verted women, was earried out. The memorandum from the National Council of Women re- quiring us to give our opinion on the ‘‘Inquiry into Paternity”’ question, created great agitation and discontent; many members declared themselves incompetent of judging, and abstained from voting. Nevertheless we had a majority in favour of the father as well as the mother being held responsible for the upbringing of the illegitimate child. We gave lectures on elementary hygiene to working-class moth- ers, printed synopses of the lectures being distributed to them. The audiences were fairly large. Our intention was to give further attention to this important question, but the terrible disaster of Calabria and Sicily fell upon us like a thunderbolt and naturally enough absorbed all our thoughts, our means, and our energies. 148 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. As it may be imagined, all our ladies set to work and were ready to help in providing clothing or in nursing the wounded, either in the hospitals or in the very places of the disaster. All worked hard at whatever there was to do for the relief of the poor sufferers, in spite of the filth, the bad smells and the con- tinued danger from the ever recurring earthquakes. Whatever we collected in Florence, either in goods or in money, was deposited at the offices of the Charity Organization, which is associated with our Federation, and whose Directress (Miss Cam- meo, 17 Pa. Sta. Maria Novella) enjoys everyone’s confidence. Only two exceptions were made. Once we sent a small sum to Naples to provide clothes for the women at the hospital, and also money to pay half the expense of one of the wooden cottages which are being used in the formation of a little agricultural colony in Calabria by M. Morabits and Marchese Nunziante. When the fever of work for our poor brethren, to whom the United States and Canada have shown such liberality, was a little abated, we were glad to hear of the noble work that two members of our Federation had been privately carrying on. Miss Cammeo, at the Charity Organization office, had estab- lished a small money-lending bureau in order to cope with the usur- ers. She told us of cases in which over a hundred per cent. had been extorted from poor persons. Another lady had formed a society, to the use of which she had anonymously devoted a goodly capital, for the purpose of buying up old houses, having them put into a hygienic condition and then letting them out at low rents to the poor. Two other ladies, under the auspices of the Tuscan Federa- tion, turned their efforts in the direction of establishing an in- surance bank for servants in their old age. They published an excellent pamphlet on the subject, which was largely distributed. The latest and most interesting part of our work has been the discussion of two articles on a law about to be brought before Parliament. It is proposed to obtain more accurate information about the mothers of foundlings brought to the hospital, in order that such children, when they reach the age of twenty-one, may have the right to claim such information. With regard to their fathers, the old law is enforced that no enquiry be allowed. We voted unanimously that a petition should be made to the Government that, seeing that those two articles did not in any way benefit the child, and that they left the illegitimate mother in a still worse condition, the said articles should be entirely sup- pressed until the ‘‘Inquiry into Paternity’’ had been brought for- ward and discussed. There have naturally been many other proposed good works considered, which after ample discussion did not seem practicable, Other schemes have also been initiated, such as the League for Social Purity. JOINT SESSIONS. 149 Our Federation is made up of delegates of 34 charitable insti- tutions, as well as other members, amounting in all to 108 women. Most of these are now very enthusiastic and earnest about the work to be done, and we hope that with time much lasting good will be accomplished. TEMPERANCE WORK IN SWEDEN. By Miss Ina RoGBERG. There is a strong work for temperance in Sweden. Seven large societies, with a very efficient organization, containing nearly — half a million of members (close upon one-tenth of the population), are in the field. Many persons are total abstainers without be- longing to any temperance association. But unfortunately there is much drunkenness too in Sweden, and many strongly uphold the present state of things—a liquor traffic regulated by the Gothen- burg system—and on many hands indifference is hindering the carrying out of reforms. Among the societies we here mention are not the largest, but those that may especially interest us as women, the Women’s Chris- tian Temperance Union, and the Swedish Students’ Total Abstin- ence Association. The former has grown successfully and unites women all over the country in a beautiful work, spreading the ideas of temperance and moral education by lectures and literature and realizing them in practical enterprises of great value; for instance, larger and smaller restaurants, reading-rooms with refreshments, sale of hot milk insmarket places, courses of cookery lessons, tem- perance exhibitions, homes for students and orphans, temporary rescue homes, etc. The association publishes a monthly publication which is in the sixth year of its issue. It has a membership of about 6,000 women and 2,000 children. An important reason why the membership is not larger is that nearly half of the members of the older associations are women. The Swedish Students’ Total Abstinence Association embraces numerous branches at almost all the various educational establish- ments in Sweden, with a membership of more than 11,000, among them a large number of girls. Teachers, clergymen and physicians have joined the union in order to help and encourage the move- ment, which appears to give a hopeful promise for the future of the nation. Since 1892 Sweden has a law that prescribes temperance in- struction in schools. In 1901 an institution, called the Central Association for Scientific Temperance Instruction, was founded by the united temperance societies. The association has to supply, at the lowest possible price, suitable illustrative materials for such instruction, to have able lecturers, instructors and teachers, and facilitate the sending of these persons to schools and clubs of young people to give instruction on the nature and effect of intoxicating liquors. By means of this excellent institution the temperance 150 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. cause has been powerfully promoted in all quarters. Popular scien- tific courses, 36 in number, have been held in different parts of the country, each with thousands of attendants, largely teachers. Num- erous exhibitions of temperance literature and illustrative mater- ials have been arranged. A permanent exhibition in Stockholm, to which the city gives a yearly grant of 1,000 kronor (Swedish erowns), has, since it was opened, had about 40,000 visitors. In 1908 a three months’ course of study for teachers was held in the capital, comprising chemistry, physiology, hygiene and alchology, at a cost of 25,000 kronor. Last month the Parliament granted the considerable sum of 83,000 kronor for such courses to be held this year and in 1910. In all the Parliament has granted for this year and the next 201,750 kronor to further temperance work and instruction. The W. C. T. U. shares in this grant for the first time. The temperance people have realized more and more that good instruction must crystallize in effective legislation. The temper- ance societies hold biennial Prohibition Congresses, and the prohi- bition idea is gaining ground. The first aim is an effective law, granting to every man and woman of full age the right to vote against the liquor traffic, what we call the ‘‘local veto.’? The local veto bill passed the second Chamber last year, but was refused in the first Chamber. Last autumn the Central Committee of the Temperance So- eieties of Sweden sent inquiries to all the communes and town councils in the country, asking their views of the local veto bill. We have in Sweden 2,406 country communes; 1,342 answered. More than 1,000 fully agreed; only 59 opposed. "The towns in gen- eral declined to express their opinion, but only one declared against the bill. Two towns are already ‘‘dry,’’ and in the villages of the whole country there are not a hundred saloons. The local veto bill fell through in the first Chamber again this year, but the day of victory is surely approaching. Another bill, asking for an in- vestigation as to the possibility of liberating the State, the coun- ties and the municipalities from their economical dependence on the liquor traffic taxes, did pass both chambers. The temperance question is now of such importance in Sweden that every political party must take account of it and have it on its programme. REPORT ON TEMPERANCE WORK IN HOLLAND. , By Miss HEenrtettE CROMMELIN. As the curse of strong drink is prevalent in our country as well as in neighbouring lands, we have felt the need to fight against it seriously. The drink which does most to ruin the country is the jenever (gin), of which the greatest part is manufactured in the town of Schiedam. If we wish to see both the magnitude of the evil and also the strength of the temperance movement, I cannot JOINT SESSIONS. LoL do better than recommend a visit to Schiedam. There we may see the huge distilleries, where endless sacks of good corn are daily changed from blessing into curse. Men with flushed faces, fierce looks, more like Italian banditti than cool-blooded Dutchmen, tend the huge fires bare-breasted. They work very long hours, but have ‘‘free drink.’’ Some of them take 20 small glasses a day, these are considered very moderate; others make the bargain that they will be allowed 40 per diem. These latter are by no means rare. Of course these men are always under the influence of drink, though probably never openly ‘‘drunk and disorderly.’’ 4 But in this same Schiedam the temperance movement is get- ting stronger and stronger. Many of these wretched men in the dis- tilleries are getting won over to total abstinence and to Chris- tianity. A year ago it was my privilege to speak at a gospel temper- ance meeting in Schiedam in the open air on Ascension Day in the very heart of the town, to a very sympathetic audience, with our backs to a disused distillery and temperance banners floating around. This is only an instance of the fight going on everywhere. We Dutch have begun slowly; but, thank God, we are doing it steadily. The first National Total Abstinence Society was founded on the 10th of May, 1881; this was the National Christian Total Ab- stinence Society. But the ground had been prepared beforehand by the Dutch Union for the Abolition of Strong Drink. These two societies are still the leading temperance societies in the land. The latter has been converted into a total abstinence society of late years and is now the most important association in the neutral group, as the N. C. G. O. V. is among the Christian group. The ground had been prepared for the founding of the first National Total Abstinence- Society in yet another way, by perse- vering, prayerful, individual effort on a smaller scale. It was the Rev. Adama van Scheltema, in Amsterdam, and Prof. Valeton, to- gether with Miss de Ranitz, in Groningen, who first lifted up the banner of Christian total abstinence in Holland as early as 1862. The book which first inspired these three was Mrs. Wightman’s ‘‘Haste to the Rescue.’’ While the two men have gone to their home above, after a long life spent for God and man, Miss de Ranitz is privileged to see even more than they did the triumph of the principle. She still lives and works and humbly feels she has been used as an instrument in the hands of Almighty God. At present the temperance societies in Holland may be grouped under three heads: (a) The group enbrateia (Greek for sobriety), a federation of Protestant societies working on Christian lines, numbering 20,000 members. (b) The Roman Catholic group of sobrietas, with 50,000 members. (c) The religiously neutral societies, numbering 30,000 mem- bers. Total, 100,000 members. 152 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. The total abstainers in these groups are about 33,000, divided as follows: (a) members Enbrateia, 20,000; (b), members Sobrietas, 3,000; (c) members the neutral societies, 10,000. The Enbrateia group consists of nine societies. The greatest of these is the N. C. G. O. V., which counts 10,000 members, and is the largest Total Abstinence Society in the country. It also in- cludes the Salvation Army, with 6,600; the Band of Hope, with 4,000 members. There is also a Christian Women’s Temperance Union among them, but it is not great in numerical strength, counting only 111 members. Small as this society is, it is never- theless very active where it does work. It supports a women’s asylum for inebriates and labours with truly Christian earnest- ness and devotion. In the Roman Catholic societies the total abstinence element is yet small, as may be seen from the figures, but it is growing, and much good work is being done and prepared. Among the neutral societies we must mention the already named Dutch Union for the Abolition of Strong Drink (name has been altered to include all intoxicating liquors), further the Teach- ers’ Total Abstinence Union, with 750 members. Needless to say, this society is of very great influence, with an eye to the future generation. Their leaders are very active men. Finally there is the Volksbund, a large association of 20,000 members, who do no direct, but a good deal of indirect temperance work—improvement of houses for the poor, schools for cookery, evening classes, flower shows, ete., ete. All the societies represented by the three groups have in this year united in a National Bureau Against Alcoholism, where ques- tions of general interest may be discussed and common work is done. Every affihated society remains entirely free to join or to withdraw from any common action. So the temperance organization in Hol- land is getting more and more on a solid basis of autonomy and unity at the same time. The methods of action in most of the societies are principally these: first, individual effort by the single members; then public propaganda by means of meetings, in the summer often in the open air, in the winter aided by dissolving views, choral and other musi- eal societies; further, a most important part of the work is done by the publication and sale of temperance literature. The N. C. G. O. V. alone has a yearly budget of 3,200 dollars for her publication department. Nearly every society has its own weekly or monthly organ, and there are two scientific temperance monthlies, the one issued by enbrateia, the other by the neutral parties. The care of inebriates also forms an item in the work. They are often sent to asylums for inebriates. The Government helps by paying one- nalf of the fees for poor patients. The political side of the work is not so developed with us as in some other countries; still many requests are sent by temper- ance societies to the Government or to provincial or municipal auth- orities. The Government gives a yearly grant to the temperance ASNt ye oS te eee, JOINT SESSIONS. 153 societies, at present amounting to $6,400. Many town councils are also beginning to give grants. In the last two years a new depar- ture has been taken in the temperance line. There is no local option law in Holland as yet, but of late the temperance workers are organizing trial votes in various places, to see what the result would be if the votes were taken. Small towns, villages and rural districts have been chosen and in each of the seven cases the result has been very satisfactory, a large majority being for the closing of all public houses. In the rural district of Smallingerland, in the Province of Friesland, the results were as follows: Votes taken, 6,035 (3,070 men and 2,965 women; valueless and blanks, 419 (223 men and 196 women) ; remain, 5,616 (2,847 men and 2,769 women) ; of these 3,642 (1,734 men and 1,908 women) voted for the closing of all public houses (wine, beer and spirits), 1,059 (559 men and 500 women) voted for the diminution of the public houses, 801 (479 men and 322 women) voted for the con- tinuation of the present system (limited number of licenses accord- ing to population), 114 (75 men and 39 women) voted for entire freedom of the liquor trade. These trial votes will become a power- ful weapon in the hands of the temperance army to obtain a local option law. If one notes the figures one remarks that the votes of the women are slightly in advance of the men ‘‘on the right side.’’ We notice this at every poll. This brings me to the infiuence, to the work of women, in our national temperance movement. The importance of the influence of woman as wife, mother, sis- ter, the home influence of woman in this tremendous struggle, has always been recognized with us. How could it be otherwise, espe- cially where a woman was one of its first advocates? But the pub- lic place of woman in this struggle is also being recognized in these latter years. I have mentioned the Christian Women’s Temperance Asso- ciation; there is also a Neutral Women’s Temperance Union, but it is also small, only counting about 100 members. On the whole, we may say that our strength at present does not lie in separate organization, but in working together with the men. Women are gaining an increased influence in the mixed societies. In the N. C. G. O. V. there are two women in the Council (the first seat was won with some opposition) and one woman in the small Executive Council of five. Many women have seats in Pro- vincial Committees and still more in the local committees. Some women are chairmen of their local branch. I believe pretty much the same conditions exist in the other Protestant and Neutral Asso- ciations. In the Band of Hope, male and female leaders are about equally divided. Miss de Ranitz started the first Band of Hope in Groningen as early as 1864. As to the actual results of the temperance movement in Holland, we may say they are very en- couraging and give rise to deep thankfulness. 154 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. ‘h The consumption of alcoholic drinks has been decreasing grad- ually during the last thirty years. In 1877 the consumption of distilled drinks reached its highest point, 9.98 litres (at 50 per cent. alcohol) a head. In 1908 it was brought down to 7.07 litres, that is, a decrease of nearly three litres, or 29 per cent. a head. The consumption of wine has likewise decreased; the consumption of beer has risen slightly, but not in the last years. So there is every reason for thankfulness and, looking to God for our help, we make ours the motto of our Province of Zealand, Luctor et emergo—I wrestle and I escape. TEMPERANCE IN DAILY LIFE. By Mrs. W. H. JoHNnson, Great Britain. ‘‘Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl chain of all virtues.”” So wrote Bishop Hall in the early part of the seventeenth century, and the words are an amplification of St. Paul’s ‘‘Let your moderation be known unto all men’’ (Phil- ippians 4:5). There never was a time when such words were more needed than to-day. In a book recently published, ‘‘How Cicero’s Age Resembles Our Own,’’ by Mr. Warde-Fowler, we find a picture of social life in Rome which might easily be mistaken for a sketch of the history of England during the nineteenth century. We read: ‘‘The idea of money-making took possession of the na- tional mind, to the exclusion in many eases of the sense of duty to the State. As was only natural, the standard of living among the wealthy went up with astonishing rapidity. Dress, particularly women’s dress, became more expensive. Money was spent reck- lessly upon entertainments. Ostentation and extravagance affected the whole of the upper class. ‘Along with this change went a great increase in wild specu- lation and a rapid inflation of the business of money-lenders. Everyone wanted money, and few were scrupulous as to how they satisfied their needs. Inevitably the moral standard of the nation declined. In private life the same slackening of the old standard was noticeable. Divorce became more frequent. Men avoided marriage as a harassing tie. Women gave way to passion and excitement. ‘Race Suicide’ became a fear which haunted the minds of public men. . . Colonies were regarded as possessions which were valuable because they enabled those who exploited them to grow rich. . . Yet, oddly enough, there was at the same time a decided revival of the love of country life. A well-known writer of the day complained that in town there was no time to breathe. All who could afford it had country houses, to which they went as often as possible for the refreshment of good air, of leisure, and of rural pursuits.’’ Such extracts surely apply and might have been written of our own time. Let us try to see how ‘‘temperance in the daily life’’ of each one of us must be beneficial to our own generation, NOS age ees PBR ES Fs OM JOINT SESSIONS. 155 and do its part to render the next generation more efficient and freer from the vices which sap the life of a nation. Temperance, that is, the observance of moderation.—Modera- tion, the state or quality of keeping a due mean between opposite extremes, freedom from excess, self-restraint, self-control, calmness —these are the dictionary meanings of the two words Temperance and Moderation. Temperance, then, we understand, means -the virtue of self-government. The temperate man is the well-con- trolled man, whose habits and feelings in daily life are his ser- vants, not his masters. He remembers to— “Think naught a trifle, though it small appear, Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, And trifles life.’’ —(Young, Love of Fame). Moderation, in St. Paul’s use of the word, in the sentence al- ready referred to, ‘‘Let your moderation be known unto all men,”’’ means something more. In Luther’s German Bible it is rendered ‘‘Liindigkeit,’’ yieldingness, giving way. Forbearance, gentleness, are the alternate readings of our revised version, and both sug- gest the thought of giving way. From the point of view of prin- ciple, therefore, the Christian is to be fixed as a rock; from the point of view of self-interest, he is to cultivate meekness, not weak- ness. It is his aim to walk so as to please God and to be endowed with the heart at leisure from itself and therefore free for others. St. Paul’s words go on, ‘‘The Lord is at hand’’—in the sense of His Presence standing by, the calm and overshadowing of His real- ized Presence, where bitter things, things narrow with contractions and distortions, must die, and in which all that is temperate and loving lives. Temperance in daily life embraces first a duty to- wards self. ‘*A human personality is a sacred trust of being. Every man holds himself in trust from his Creator . Although the animals have, like us, the instinct of self-preservation, they cannot share with us this god-like power of holding self in trust for noble uses. But the Soul can say to itself: I have been raised out of uncon- scious nature and am a personal being, knowing myself and moving off on lines of my own choice and aims. I will keep that which has been committed to my charge; I am responsible to myself for myself.’’—‘‘ Christian Ethies,’’ Newington Smythe. So when the prodigal’s false life drew near its end, and he was about to return to seek again his true life, we read, ‘‘He came to himself,’’ and so to each one of us comes the duty of self- preservation, not merely the effort to preserve self from harm or death, but to keep self, both bodily and spiritually. Hence the duty of self-preservation embraces the obligations of all those vir- tues which are conducive to healthful and vigorous life, such as chastity, temperance, moderation, self-control and a general rea- sonableness in the methods and fashions of business and pleasure. These are duties which moralists from the earliest times have been resolute to teach. 156 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Next the duty of self-development. Life can maintain itself only through growth, and this growth must be an endeavour, in- telligently and persistently pursued, to aid the individual nature in finding and assimilating the best materials for its growth. A certain largeness of interest and generousness of human sympathy goes with the true idea of a well-educated man. Self-cultivation— a labour of correction and improvement and development. We have to restrain our desires and tempers and enlarge our better qualities; even here an extreme specialization of education is be- coming so exacting that the temptation to lose one’s soul in ab- sorbing study is a real danger. Self-education must be kept from a false exclusiveness. A man may give his life in exchange for his science, his art, but true life cannot maintain itself long apart from the universal human life; the single branch bearing its single cluster must abide in the vine, and all this, self-cultivation has in view, the proper fulfilment of public duties. We go forth to our labour as citizens, housekeepers, parents, to take our share of com- mon claims, and to make this world of ours, or rather our little corner of it, somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before we entered it. If this is our spirit we shall, as George Macdonald says, ‘‘one day forget all about duty and do everything from the love of the loveliness of it, the satisfaction of the rightness of it.’’ Turning now to the practical application of temperance in daily life, we realize that it means that the individual must be just, must see things as they are, must Judge the truth and look upon life fairly. The habit of justice needs much self-discipline; it demands vigorous moral training and ceaseless vigilance. The obligation of personal justice implies also acting fairly in our personal dealings with our fellow-men. The rule of taking thought for the feelings and wishes and comfort of others; the rule of putting ourselves in their place, and considering how such and such a look, or tone of voice, will affect them; the rule of giving up what we might lawfully do ourselves, because perhaps they do not understand it, or it annoys or distresses them; the rule of trying to remember always that we are bound to them, bound to think not only of what we choose or have a right to say and do in their behalf, but of what it is fair and kind and useful for them, for us to say and do. ‘“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not Himself.’’ (Romans 15: 1-3). Temperance in daily life embraces the obligation of giving to every man his dues, and it carries in it the further obligation of trying to make things right in the world. The whole duty of justice is not fulfilled in the life of the man who, though himself just, has no will to see justice done to others. Temperance bids us choose carefully the weapons and consider the time and the opportunity—it bids us not to make haste to be con- tentious even for the right, though we are to be watchful of public JOINT SESSIONS. 157 interests and willing, whenever required, to.throw ourselves into the effort of seeing justice done. The first woman who in our later times recognized a call for special self-devotion to a definite work was Elizabeth Fry. Hers was a life of definite, orderly, regulated duty—temperate, intelli- gent, sustained—and it broke upon the world almost like a dis- covery, that among human occupations and employments there was a large space for the activities of women; there was work which they could do, and none could do but they. To-day this precious gift of the ministry of women, which is so widely recognized, de- pends largely for beneficial results on whether it is undertaken in a spirit of self-government and honest self-mastery. The ser- vice which rests on love and is rated by thoughtfulness, issues in self-surrender. The impetuous vigour of early days loses its. self- confidence without losing its strength; it produces that temper- ance which bears the trial of delays and reminds us that ‘‘By desiring what is perfectly good, even when we do not quite know what it is, and cannot do what we would, we are part of the power against evil, widening the skirts of light and making the struggle with darkness narrower.’’—George Eliot. Temperance in daily life bids us take care of one of the most precious of God’s gifts—our health—that which the Beloved Dis- ciple wished for his well-beloved Gaius. ‘‘Beloved, I wish in all respects that thou mayest prosper and be in health.’’ (III. John 2). It is an old man’s wish for a young man, of one who had come nearly to the end of life and knew the value to the worker of a healthy body. We have no right to fritter away our health by carelessness or negligence or bravado and then offer God a self- maimed life. ‘‘Economy in health is as much a virtue as pamper- ing is a vice.’’——-E. E. Holmes. The day comes when we want our health as well as our money to spend for God and so to the tem- perate in daily life, the due care of health, the simple food, the quiet suitability and modesty of our dress, the regular hours of work, the due amount of recreation, the daily effort to do our best, all go to make up that which we really are, which we breathe out from our life wherever we are known, that which our name suggests whenever it is spoken. In these days of the multiplica- tion of newspapers and cheap magazines, temperance in daily life should surely lead us to make some strict rule for ourselves in the matter of our reading, so that our time for reading may be largely used for such literature as tends to elevate our character, and also to make us speak and write with greater ease and directness. Temperance in daily life must affect us in the use we make of our money. It teaches us the prompt payment of debts and bids us enquire into the way in which we invest our wealth. It is as much a duty to take care with whom we place our money as on what we spend it. The careless way in which we spend small sums, the lavish expenditure on our persons, the want of self-denial in buying presents we cannot afford, our carelessness in losing things, all suggest a greater need for temperance in daily life. 158 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. It will lead us also to inquire into the conditions of the worker, whether he or she receives a due share of the payment made, and this alone opens up for the thoughtful a wide field for enquiry, which, as we pursue it, will convince us more and more of the need of that moderation which will make us just, true, merciful, self-devoted and full of love. The question of gambling and betting must be considered by those who desire to be temperate in their daily lives. Our money is not ours to throw away as we like; we have to use it as God’s stewards, and we have no more right to throw about our money in gambling—i.e., in taking that which belongs to another without work on our part—than we have a right to lose our health by in- temperance, or to waste our time, or to take our own life. We are told by the chaplains of our gaols that a very large percentage of the prisoners come there through betting and gambling. ‘‘Gambling in many caSes arouses a mad passion which when once stirred is harder to overcome than the passion for strong drink, and carries men and women to an even greater degree of culpable, criminal recklessness.’’ (Quoted by Archdeacon Sinclair). In the face of such statements we can no longer listen to the selfish policy, ‘‘T do not bet or gamble for more than I can afford to lose,’’ for- getting that to each of us comes the voice, ‘‘I am my brother’s keeper.’’ Temperance in daily life will affect our conversation. It bids us beware of off-hand assertions, which are so full of danger when the speaker is contemptuous or taking. We can none of us tell all that comes of our words and deeds on others. The falsehood which we uttered in joke has taken root in some one’s mind near us. The bad word, the hasty burst of ill-temper, are taken to mean more than they really do, and they make others think little of the wrong- fulness of them. They lead them to language and to passion which we should perhaps shrink from, but to which we first opened the gate. By our want of temperance in our words we have made our brother to sin. .We shall also avoid the spirit of gossip, the love of hearing about other people’s affairs and talking over them in a way which so often degenerates into scandal. (Gossip and tale- bearing and misrepresentation must have no attraction for us—our minds will be filled with nobler thoughts and higher interests, and when our attention is called to others, let us remember: ‘‘They that most impute a crime Are pronest to it, and impute themselves, Wanting the mental range; or low desire Not to feel lowest, makes them level all. Yea, they would pare the mountain to the plain To leave an equal baseness!’’ —Tennyson. Time forbids me to enter on the subject of worry, the great antidote for which is work. ‘‘Self-invented worries have no promise of grace’’ and must not enter into the life of the temperate. We JOINT SESSIONS. 159 read that Michael Angelo tells us that he always painted the Blessed Virgin young-looking, as he ever thought of her as taking the frets and worries of her sword-pierced life trustfully. In conclusion, temperance in daily life leads us to see we need a quieter, simpler and yet more earnest line of thought in our everyday life. We need to avoid the fever of. extreme fashions and of exclusive pursuit of either work or pleasure. ‘“Remember this—that every little is needed to make a happy life.’’—Mareus Aurelius. ‘‘There is no action so slight nor so mean but it may be done to a great purpose and ennobled therefore. Nor is any purpose so great but that slight actions may help it and may be so done as to help it much, most especially that chief of all purposes, ‘the pleasing of God.’ ’’—Ruskin. *‘In your faith supply virtue, and in your virtue knowledge, and in your knowledge temperance.’’—II. Peter 1:5, 6, R.V. TEMPERANCE IN DAILY LIFE. By Miss IsAsen Marris, Great Britain. As it is already very late, there is no time to comment upon the valuable and interesting papers on the question of Temperance to which we have listened. I will therefore turn at once to some practical aspects of this problem and their bearing upon daily life. The word ‘‘intemperance’’ is usually connected with the grosser forms of indulgence, indulgence in drink, vice and gambling. It seems to me, however, that there is a danger lest we should over- look other and more subtle forms of intemperance. Over-indulg- ence in pleasure, intemperate expenditure of money, intemperate use of valuable time—these are common failings which nevertheless tend to produce very serious results upon our national life, physi- eal and moral. The woman-worker, professional or philanthropic, who without driving necessity continues her labours to the point of a breakdown in health, or to the narrowing of her mental outlook, would be seriously offended with the person who told her that she was ‘‘in- temperate.’’ Men and women who constantly succumb to the al- lurements of the bridge-table, the matinée, or the music hall, would smile with contemptuous pity were the same term applied to them. The little servant who cannot pass a draper’s shop without buying a new collar or a cheap brooch; the middle-class woman who spends hours at bargain sales and in the continual overhauling of her wardrobe, and the woman of fashion who gambles at bridge to pay for the gowns she ‘‘positively could not resist,’’ are surely, each of them, intemperate in regard to dress? If we were honest, should we not apply the same blunt term to the excessive novel-reading of many young ‘girls, and the equally excessive smoking of many young men? Imagine the flood of indignation that would be let 160 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. loose if one had the courage to tell Mrs. Jones of the back street that she was intemperate because she wasted hours and hours a day in gossiping at her door, and because she could no more resist repeating (with embellishments) some spiteful rumour than Mr. Smith could resist the attraction of the public house! These are all conditions which have daily to be reckoned with, however. | Let us at any rate face them in all seriousness, and call them by their right name. 7 There is not time now to discuss, as I had hoped might be possible at this meeting, certain remedies for these conditions. May I, however, before passing on to one particular aspect of this ques- tion, make an appeal for what I can only call ‘‘daily mental book- keeping’’ in the training of children? We do not want to train up a race of little prigs, but, while avoiding this, is it not possible to teach children to make a kind of calculation at the end of each day, by means of which they shall realize how much actual time they have spent on their own pleasure, on helping other people, in learn- ing to do something useful, or in doing something which they did not like doing? Possibly an actual calculation of this nature might give wholesome pause to some of the happy-go-lucky people whose complete self-absorption is none the less real and serious because it is entirely unconscious. In this connection I should lke to men- tion the work of the Ministering Children’s League. This society was started nearly twenty-five years ago by the Countess of Meath. Its motto is, ‘‘No day without a deed to crown it,’’ and the ob- servance of this motto goes some way, if not quite far enough, to produce the training I have suggested. The results in the way of character development that have resulted from the work of this league are very fine, apart from the many institutions in all parts of the world—in Egypt, in Russia, in Australasia, in England—in- deed the world over—which have been organized as the outcome of the children’s thought and work for others less fortunate than themselves. | IT want now to speak particularly of the question of temper- ance in regard to expenditure. The uncompromising facts revealed by the bankruptcy courts, together with one’s own observations, seem to bring home the fact that nowadays a lower standard of conduct and opinion in regard to debt and long credit prevails than formerly. We need to get back the old pride which decreed that . what one could not pay cash for, that one went without. Now, however, we have the credit system, for good or ill, with all its developments and ramifications. I want very briefly to raise this question: Can the Women’s Councils do anything to check the evils which arise from some forms of this method of trade? Most of us have had some experience of the temptations put before servant girls and poor women by the travelling trader, the back-door pedlar. The facilities for the purchase of furniture on the ‘‘hire-purchase’’ system are occasionally useful, but in most — cases they prove highly undesirable. The possibility of procuring and using goods before they are paid for tends to blunt the sense. JOINT SESSIONS. 161 of moral responsibility and to discourage thrift. The methods of these credit traders are often extremely dubious, as has been proved by His Honour Judge Parry and others in their County Court investigations. Judge Parry’s own words give a good idea of the present conditions of this method of trading. He says: ‘‘If it were a competition ‘to sell the best goods at the most reasonable prices, it would perhaps be healthy enough, but it seems to be rather a competition to give the longest credit for the most inferior article. . . . Tradesmen tell you that they have given credit either because a man was in receipt of good wages, or because he was out of work. In the first place they ought clearly to insist on cash, and the work- man ought to get the benefit of a cash price; in the second they should only give credit if they knew the character of the man, un- less they call it charity. . . But in truth, credit is given recklessly and equally to those in work and out of work, for necessities, lux- uries and inutilities, and given at a price which includes the profit of the credit-giver, his costs in making weekly collections, the costs of his solicitor or collector, and considerable tribute to the main- tenance of the County Court.”’ The following figures, quoted from Judge Parry’s paper read at Manchester in 1904, throw a somewhat startling light on this matter. Increase of County Court cases between 1893-1904: Inerease (not total number) of summonses issued....... 137,905 Pr cveneeror summonses heards (fic. aes hla Piles Fine one 89,027 Pe Pe se GE WATTAITS TIGSIIOG sO T4i e.g aidin cus 9 cteei a Oe te 59.955 etre Meee AINTISONINGN thigh. sy so yoF esis, Chis ele a ewes 4,177 Judge Parry remarks in comment, ‘‘To me the most deplor- able revelation is in the indication this gives of the growth of thriftlessness.’’ Surely such thriftlessness indicates a form of in- temperance, of lack of power to resist that which could not be paid for? It is not possible to enter into the question of imprisonment for debt and its effect upon this system, nor into the benefit to the unfortunate debtor resulting from an ‘‘ Administration Order.’’ The following figures, however, taken from an analysis of cases dealt with under Administration Orders, give further hght upon the class of goods and the class of temptation offered by this system of trade. 3 Out of 450 cases there were: 154 drapers, 130 general dealers, 60 jewellers, 35 grocers, 24 money lenders, 10 doctors, 5 tailors, 3 shoemakers, 3 coal dealers and 3 butchers. These figures show that the chief credit traders are not dealers in the actual necessities of life. . The following are quoted as fairly typical cases: Railway porter—weekly wages 16s. 6d.; wife and one child; had 19 creditors, 18 of whom were travelling drapers; debts £30. Labourer—weekly wages 18s.; wife and six children, two of whom together earned 10s. weekly; had 18 creditors, 11 of whom 162 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. were travelling drapers. Under the judgment summons this unfor- tunate man was ordered to pay 35s. weekly! Ostler—weekly wage 21s.; wife and no child; 25 creditors, 14 of whom were travelling drapers. Such facts and figures as these cannot fail to make us pause and try to realize the amount of misery, deceit, weakness and dis- appointed hopes which they suggest. I have brought them before you, together with my previous remarks, more or less tentatively, hoping that at some time in the near future this question of daily temperance (or intemperance rather) may be discussed in its gen- eral aspect, and also the question of intemperance in regard to ex- penditure in particular. ‘Surely it is necessary to safeguard our children by giving them even more training in self-control and by instilling in them a habit of mental and moral ‘‘stock-taking’’; to inform our girls and wo- men of the in-utility and the risks of the credit system, and to press for legislation which shall make this system less hable to abuse. This question, both in principle and in detail, is so closely interwoven with those of drink, poverty and lack of comfort in the home, of thriftlessness, and of improvident marriage, that it behoves us to take due account of it when we are dealing with these difficult problems which sap the health and vigour of national life. A SHORT ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN ITALY IN THE MATTER OF FOUNDING TEMPERANCE LEAGUES. By Maria CAMPINO SIEGFRIED. I have been asked by the President of the National Council of Italian Women to make a brief report for the Congress at Toronto of what has been done in Italy towards the struggle against alco- holism. The following is the information which I am able to place before you. The first Temperance League was founded in Florence in 1899, after several years of preparatory work, consisting of lectures given to the working classes, in the barracks, in the universities of northern Italy. Numerous newspapers and pamph- lets liberally distributed, opened the eyes of the public to the dangers that threatened our country, but they were met with derision and incredulity. ‘‘ Alcoholism in Italy,’’ they said, ‘‘why, we are the most sober people in the world; we are held up to other countries as an example; do not let us always try to imitate what is done abroad.’’ But the good seed soon triumphed in spite of all, and the Florentine League commenced its work with twelve members. It has no religious or political character, and is com- posed of total abstainers and of associate (temperance) members. JOINT SESSIONS. 163 Immediately after this there was founded a monthly journal en- titled the ‘‘Bene Sociale’’ which is to-day still the principal organ of all the existing Leagues. Since its first issue up to the present date 90,000 copies have been distributed, and the number of tracts published has reached a total of 69,000. _ The Florentine League was represented at the International Congress of Paris in 1899. It was not till 1903 that two other Anti-Alcoholic Leagues were founded, one in Bergamo and another in Brescia, then one in Venice, and at Torre Pellice in 1904. In 1905 one was started at Udine, and in 1906 at Belluno, in 1907 at Milan, and finally in 1908 in Leghorn. As you see, therefore, in the space of ten years Italy has founded ten Temperance Leagues. Many National Congresses have been held in our country, one at Venice in 1904, at Verona in 1905, and the last in Milan in 1907. It was after this last Congress that the representatives of the _ different leagues decided to form an Italian Temperance Federa- tion, with a Central Committee whose Lodge is in Milan. Its aim is to maintain regular relations with the different leagues, to be of one understanding with respect to collective movements, to exercise the public forces, to encourage the forma- tion of new leagues, to enlist members and make every effort to propagate the cause of temperance, and to organize congresses. All the different leagues in Italy keep their own list of mem- bers and their own organization, but they are united by a common statute. The Central Committee is nominated every two years by secret votes of the representatives of the different leagues of the Federation, and every two years there is also given to the General Assembly a statement of the financial position, and the progress that has been made in the work. The pecuniary resources are derived from subscriptions of the members of the league, voluntary donations and subsidies from the municipalities and from the Government. This year a representative of the Federation will be sent to the International Congress in London, who will have special in- structions to ask all the members of the Congress to vote that the next International Congress in 1911, be held in Milan. During the two years that our Milanese League has existed, we have carried on our labours mostly amongst the working classes. Doctors and professors have offered to give lectures free of charge. The subjects have been splendid and the lectures given numbered as many as eighty, and interested the public most vividly. Besides these we organize during the summer months mountain excursions for workmen. The ex-President of the Alpine Club him- self, along with several doctors, places himself at the head of this undertaking. Each workman makes a contribution of two frances and has to bring food for’ two meals. All alcoholic drink is for- bidden. These excursions are very successful and often more than 200 men take part in them. Their conduct is all that can be desired, so after having made this successful experiment it was decided to try 164 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. a similar one with the women and children. The attempt proved excellent and the workmen are now allowed to. bring their families with them, and they also take pleasure in the beauties of nature and enjoy the pure mountain air. The drinking houses so crowded on Sundays are deserted. Milan does not yet possess Temperance Drinking Houses such as they have at Bergamo and Leghorn, but we intend soon to make a trial with the ‘‘Roulette’’ (a small wagon containing all sorts of healthy drinks) which will be placed before the entrance of the manufactories in the centre of the working district. A propaganda amongst women has not yet been undertaken and so far only tracts have been given to young mothers to en- lighten them as to the danger of giving liquor to their children. However, the once sober Italian woman has begun to drink, and she and her children accompany her husband to the saloon, and if she works in the factories she is quite willing to take drink in the morning, she gives it to her children when she takes them to school, thinking to warm them, she finds it not only in the ‘‘cafés’”’ but in the shops, where they keep a small supply at the back to attract their customers. The Milanese League is trying to get the municipality to enact that an hour’s lesson shall be given once a week in the public schools to instruct the children in the matter of the league. Lectures on this subject have been given to teachers of both sexes, and a visit to the Insane Asylum showed them the injury done by alcoholism. We hope that in time all teachers of the young will form amongst themselves Temperance Leagues, and that they will orga- nize them amongst their pupils. It is sad to think that Italy ranks fourth in the consumption of alcohol. Emigration is one of the causes of this, and it has in fact been proved that emigrants who have left their country poor but sober, have returned to their native land enriched, but with the habit of liquor-drinking. The death rate caused by acute alcoholism has much increased in the last four or five years and alcoholic insanity is continually in- creasing. One of the most ardent champions in the campaign against alcoholism, Prof. August Ford, came amongst us a few days ago and he has founded the lodge of ‘‘Bons-Templiers Neutres’’; after giving three brilliant lectures he succeeded in inducing forty per- sons to join the Order. This small group of abstainers will soon become without doubt a strong organization for propagandism and will possibly have more success than our League. It is, alas! so easy in these modern times to fall into excesses, and one can only hope by strong efforts and steady work to under- mine the enemy. You will ask what our Government has done to help us in our fight against alcoholism and we.must admit that up to the present time it has shown an absolute indifference. One law only has been passed, that which authorizes the municipalities to limit the sale of liquor. JOINT SESSIONS. 165 Milan has taken advantage of this to send out notices that no further authorization will be given for the opening of more drink- ing-houses.. The effect of this law depends entirely on the muni- cipal authorities in the large and small cities of the empire, which are not likely all to be in favour of this anti-aleoholic movement. The vintage crisis which is at present troubling Italy has also convinced the Government, the vine-growers, that vine culture is too abundant and that it must be replaced by other products, such as tobacco, vegetables and wheat, which is deficient in this country. It is time to close this report already too long and to ask your indulgence for the writer. Consider the ruin which is produced everywhere by the abuse of alcohol in all forms. Consider that it is only by force of example that we can prove to anyone that they can get on without liquor. Therefore we trust that all the Committees of the Temperance Leagues will double their energies and their efforts in order (1) to organize Sub-Committees whose business will be to endeavour to gain new associate members; and (2) to nominate amongst these associate members commissioners who wil! devote themselves ac- tively to making popular the known effect of the dangers derived -from the abuse of spirituous liquors. Art. Conveners—Mrs. Dignam, Mrs. ALBERT AUSTIN. a The Art Section of the International Congress, convened by Mrs. Dignam and Mrs. Austin, was held in the Convocation Hall Building. The Morning Sessions were devoted to Arts and Crafts and allied subjects; the afternoons to Music. From four till five each afternoon Musicales were given in Convocation Hall by some of Toronto’s well-known artists, after which the members of Congress were invited to afternoon tea arranged by fifty of Toronto’s hostesses. In addition to the papers given many eminent men and women among the foreign delegates, as well as Canadians, took part in the discussions. Miss Evelyn Fletcher Copp gave two demonstrations of the Fletcher method of teaching music, which were enthusiastically received. Dr. Ham provided a delightful beginning for the even- ing programme devoted to Art and Literature, by bringing sixty of St. James’ Cathedral Choir to demonstrate English Cathedral music from the fifteenth century and Christopher Lye down to the present time. The Congress Hall was enriched by the exhibit of the Home Industries and Handicrafts of Canadian Women, arranged by the Women’s Art Association of Canada, the pioneer society in the revival and encouragement of the Canadian Arts and Crafts. » BO? A Sey we GS fet) | Tae sien ae steps: Rati A Dae Sheen ta mlesy tas 4 Sane Ra 172 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. is so subtle in its character, so widespread in its expression, so unanimous in its unselfish devotion to an ideal that it is impossible to classify it as yet. It is as if a flame from Heaven had descended and had touched a heart here and there and the multitude, though scattered and isolated and unknown to each other, work with a common impulse as one man. The call does not come to the every- day workman to come up higher—it knocks at the door of men and women of influence, of means and of leisure and bids them come forth first to learn the lesson themselves, and later to organize and | train a small coterie of open-hearted people who are ready for the message. As one of the pioneer craft-workers in the States, I have come into intimate relations with those who devote themselves to this cause, and never have I known people of such broad views, great hearts and utter forgetfulness of self.as these fine souls repre- sent. It is a privilege to know them and to labour with and for them. They work as if all depended upon their own efforts, yet they pray and trust as if all depended on God. They are as a rule too liberal to be found within any creed; but by their works they prove the faith that is within them. I look upon them as one of the chosen people of our day and they are true to their trust. Now I come to my last definition of value—efficiency in pro- dueing results. It is true there are bizarre, fantastic things done in the name of crafts; yet under all lies a sincere desire to break away from demoralizing standards set by the limitations of ma- ehinery and department stores. For the most part, craft products are honest and simple. As a proof of their integrity, set a bit of craft pottery on a mantle shelf cluttered with those strange unre- lated things known as Christmas souvenirs, photographs, the bric-a- brace gathered by the average housewife with a view to adornment, and see how curiously out of place the modest craft jug looks. Hither it or much else must go. Throw a hand-woven searf of good workmanship across a table and note how quickly the patterned things in the room will try to stare it out of countenance. Craft things do not affiliate easily with the meretricious productions of the hour; so one of the results of craft work is its purgative influence. When once imbued with the craft spirit there is a grand clear- ence of the house, and a generous bestowal upon poor relations of things formerly admired, and probably gratefully received by the unenlightened. Craft work fosters a love for honest workmanship, for subdued colours, plain backgrounds, few things. It exposes the true character, or rather the lack of it, of glued joinings, simu- lated carvings, gilded traceries, false imitations. It stimulates a regard for spaces where one can move about freely without stumb- ling over superfluities. It quietly removes outlived heirlooms and unmeaning relics of former days from the drawing-room and public gaze and relegates them to their proper place—the attic trunk, or the upper shelf of a closet, to be taken down at house-cleaning time and wept over, if need be, and tenderly restored to obscurity. ART. 173 A very gratifying result is that when properly managed on business principles by people with original artistic ideas, industries are more than self-supporting and meet with ample encourage- ment from the public. John Graham Brooks, the economist, who made a special study of crafts both in this country and in Europe, told me that he found but one condition, which was that where the product was good and artistic, the demand for it was greater than the supply. It often takes a little time to create a market; but there are always people who prefer hand-made things, who will pay a good price for them. : Another result is that the spirit is infectious. A successful eraft-worker arouses more honest envy in the hearts of her friends than any other vocation. They say frankly, ‘‘I would give any- thing to do what you have done, for you have really accomplished something worth while’’; not knowing the blood and tears that go into-that elusive compound ealled success. Every successful indus- try builds larger than it knows. It may be likened to the old-time mustard seed, or the leaven in a measure of meal, or to anything that multiples in a miraculous way. The winds and the birds must carry the news of it, for queries come from far and wide regarding it; now from Labrador or the Aleutian Islands; now from China, Corea or the Philippines; or some Guardian of the Poor from England seeks an interview; or some teacher in a National School in Ireland writes for instructions and materials to start with; or someone at the head of an Indian reservation in Oregon or a mission in Wisconsin, a church settlement in New Hampshire, or the superintendent of an insane hospital, or the principal of a school for defective or incorrigible children appeals for advice. These are eloquent testimonies to how much people ~ believe crafts are needed, and how eager certain ones are to serve the cause. I cannot go so far as to say that all imitators of a successful industry are successful, for many are headed by what I call chronic philanthropists, who have a consuming desire to strangle the old serpent of poverty and suffering with one jewelled grip. They wish to reach as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. They go in where conditions are only half-baked, and rush out at the first intimation of failure. They forget, if they ever knew, that poverty is the lawful child of ignorance and sloth, and though they may relieve its misery to-day, it will be just as needy to-mor- row unless a higher impulse is given. They do not know until they have tried and miserably failed, that a woman who cannot do well ordinary scrubbing, which takes but a pair of hands and knees— you supplying the cloths—cannot be trusted to do artistic work that requires hands, eyes and a conscience, to say nothing of that late flower of human intelligence known as taste. No, they have heard that a certain craft work gives employment and they want to call a meeting at once, over which they preside in much purple and fine linen, and tell the huddled, confused group of women, who-probably have had an intimate acquaintance that very morning 174 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. with hunger and cold, that now they shall have work to give out, a new kind that will pay-—httle dreaming of the time it takes to gain proficiency in the smallest detail of a craft. I think I ean measure the heart-breaking hopes aroused by philanthropy, who having delivered herself of her filmy injudicious promises, goes home to a bountiful table and warm bed, leaving the poor wretches to swallow their future tears of disappointment, uncomforted, when the gilded scheme comes to naught. Then philanthropy shakes her Paris bonnet dubiously and says wearily, ‘‘ Well, we tried, but we could do nothing with them. We spent no end of money. We ~ must send coal again, to-morrow.’’ Oh, the needless, wanton cruelty in touching ruthlessly upon the lives of helpless poor as is so often done! Only hardened, careless beggars can stand it. Let me emphasize:—Handicrafts are not for the ignorant, debased poor, who need money at once for to-day’s erust; they are quite unequal to the requirements. Crafts are adapted only to people with a measure of intelligence, to those with a certain love of form and colour, to women with home ties that cannot be evaded—how many hundreds of such have written to me for work or advice; to busy women with little children whose needs outstrip the family purse—they make the best workers of all, for family cares have taught them to exercise industry and frugality, and their exper- ience as housewives has taught them how to arrange their duties so as to leave them several hours a day of leisure to work—which the ordinary idle woman never finds. Handicrafts appeal also to young women who want to earn money for an education. The true craft-worker remembers she has two very difficult élements to deal with—matter with its unknown possibilities and unexpected perversities, and human nature with all its limitations of ignorance and prejudice. They can be harmonized; but much practical education lies in the path of the harmonizer; she will be humanized as well, and will realize, before she goes a great way, that human beings, no matter how poor or dependent, have certain inalienable rights and sensibilities that must be respected. The value of any industry to any given community depends upon how it is run; upon its permanence—for every new-made grave over an abortive industry is a severe blow to the general cause; and also upon its aim. If it merely gives out work and deals with its people at arm’s length, it is no better than a factory that subordinates everything to a good balance sheet. But if it is inspired by a desire to serve others, if the guiding mind feels it is consecrated to a divine commission, if the eye is open to inner visions, and the ear to hidden counsels, it will be an inspiration to all that come within its influence and an illumination to those who direct it. . The paper on ‘‘The Brabazon Employment Society,’’ con- tributed by Miss Crawley, England, under the heading of ‘‘ Home Industries in Philanthropic Work,’’ was given also in the section on ‘‘Philanthropy,’’ and will be found among the papers of that section in Volume II. 3 ART. 175 THE SPINNING AND WEAVING INDUSTRY IN SCOTLAND. By Her Grace THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. Her Excellency Lady Aberdeen spoke on the Irish Industries and. read this paper by Her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland :— In these days of monster factories and steam machinery where- by labour is concentrated and specialized, the tendency is to reduce the worker to the level of a mere machine, to obliterate his individ- uality, and to crush out the slower methods of hand manufacture. It is therefore with a feeling of more than ordinary interest that we hear of a home industry which is still competing successfully in the open market with the general products of machinery, and which, under the fostering care of the Scottish Home Industries Association, is helping to develop the artistic and industrial capa- bilities of the natives of the Highlands of Scotland. It may be of interest to consider the circumstances which led to the formation of an Association which has been so successful in saving one of the last of home industries, while adding to the resources of a struggling population. The inhabitants of the wild and mountainous regions of the North of Scotland, a hardy and courageous race, make a precarious living by farming and fishing. The farms, or, as they are gener- ally called, crofts, are small pieces of land consisting of from three to ten acres with small dwelling-houses attached. These houses are certainly undergoing gradual improvement, but the majority of the ecrofters, especially in the Outer Hebrides, cling tenaciously to the type of dwelling their fathers occupied before them. These consisted of a small, thatched cottage, a humble and primitive structure, having dwelling houses, stable and byre under the same roof, while many houses had no chimney in the living-room, and the smoke from the peat fire escaped only by a hole in the roof. The crops raised by the crofters are almost exclusively oats and potatoes. But the soil of these mountainous regions is poor; it does not adapt itself to cultivation, and ill repays the time and labour spent on it. Some years one of the heavy frosts so frequent in the Highlands would blight the potato crop on which these poor people depended for food. Some years a tempest of wind and rain would devastate their small crop of oats. The herring fishing could not be depended on to bring in sufficient money to support a family —some years it would be good, some years bad. Many, then, were the scenes of poverty and distress to be witnessed in the little thatched cottages so picturesquely situated on the mountain sides. In the year 1884, after a succession of more than usually bad seasons, benevolent ladies began to consider ways and means to alleviate the distress, and set themselves to organize some cottage industry which might make the people at least partly independent of the agricultural and fishing industries. Their attention very naturally turned to an industry which had been practised in the houses of the people from time immemorial—the spinning and weaving industry. 176 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. We are told that these handicrafts were introduced into Seot- land by a colony of Fiemings, who established themselves in this country in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Certain it is that for hundreds of years this industry had been established in Scot- land, and throughout many generations all clothing for the use of men and women had been produced by home and local industry: It was this industry, then, that the benevolent ladies of 1884 set themselves to promote and encourage, and it was for the home- spun cloth made in the small cottages that they sought to find a market. The success of the undertaking far exceeded their most sanguine hopes. The durability and wearing qualities of the tweed, the softness of its texture, the excellence of its colouring, and the lightness of its weight, earned for it immediate popularity. The cloth became fashionable, and as the years went past the demand for it became greater. By the year 1889 the trade had increased to such an extent that the ladies and gentlemen interested in its promotion came to the conclusion that combined action and co-op- eration were necessary to secure solid and permanent results. Thus it was that the Scottish Home Industries Association was formed, under the patronage of H.R.H. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll. Many philanthropic-minded ladies and gentlemen came forward to help the good cause, and gladly put their hundreds and their thousands into the enterprise, without hope or expectation of any return for their money. The objects of the newly-formed Association were :— (1) To improve the condition of the poorer inhabitants in the Vest and North of Scotland by affording them proper facilities for the making and disposal of their hand-made goods. (2) To improve and develop such industries and arts as can be earried on in the homes of the people. (3) To circulate information regarding these, and to give instruction in them. (4) To pay the workers a fair price for their labour. Since ‘its inception the Association has aimed at these objects, and as a consequence has done invaluable work. Its first care was to bring up to a high standard of bx tallence the quality of the goods offered to the public. With this end in view competent technical teachers were employed by the Associa- tion to go to the homes of the people to give them instruction in spinning and dyeing and weaving. Spinning-wheels, dye pots and hand looms were given away to workers by the Association, and in many of the poorer islands, where the inhabitants could not afford to purchase the best quality of wool, the Association supplied, and still supplies, them with it at greatly reduced price, and on credit. In order to keep the workers in close touch with the Associa- tion, depots have been established in different districts, where goods are collected and paid for, and sent to the headquarters of the Association in London, where a general manager presides. ART. 177 The commercial operations of the Board of Management in London have been conducted on strictly business principles. It has paid its way all along, and has held fast to the principle that only as a self-supporting business could the success, or even the existence, of such an Association be secured. In order to bring prominently before the public the work done by the Association, exhibitions and sales are held in different parts of the country several times a year, and the Scottish Home Indus- tries Association has also been represented at International Ex- hibitions in America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Paris and Berlin. | Some idea of the work done by the Association in the interests of the poor may be obtained when we mention that during the year 1908, £10,000 worth of tweed has been sold for the Highland erofters and cottars. But this gratifying result has not been reached without much labour. The Association has had many battles to fight on behalf of the industry that it fosters. It has had to repel attacks on the hygienic qualities of the cloth, it has had to contend with com- _ mercial rivalry, and lastly, and hardest of all, it has had to fight strenuously against a large and ever-increasing trade in cheap and shoddy machine-made imitations of the homespun tweed. Al- though possessing none of the characteristics of the homespun cloth, the machine-made material commends itself to the public by reason of its cheapness, and a large trade was done in it by dealers. The Association’s greatest triumph was achieved in 1908, when the Board of Trade, at the instigation of the Association, prosecuted one of the worst offenders. This prosecution has had the good effect of frightening other imitators, and causing a boom in the genuine article. An application for registering a trade-mark to be stamped on hand-made tweeds in the Outer Hebrides is now before the Board of Trade and with every likelihood of being granted. The result should be a largely increased sale of the genuine homespun. | In conelusion, it is only fair to the Association to say that it has not confined itself to encouraging only the tweed industry in the Highlands. Within recent years it has greatly widened its sphere of usefulness, and does good work in fostering home indus- tries all over Seotland. At the depot in London may be found beautifully knitted goods from Shetland; stockings, hand knit, of all shapes and sizes, from Ross-shire and Inverness-shire; pottery from Fife; baskets from Central Counties; and iron and metal- work, lace and linen embroidery from the Southern Counties. Lately fresh interest in home industries has been aroused by the formation of a ‘‘Gaelic Society’’—An Comunn Gaidhealach— which, burning with patriotic zeal, is setting itself the task of reviving Gaelic art, music and literature amongst the northern people, and generally instituting a co-operative movement amongst all those attached to the Gael by hens of blood and sentiment for restoring and preserving the traditions of the past. 178 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. THE PROCESS OF MAKING HOMESPUN TWEED. By Her GRACE THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND. So much ignorance has been displayed as to the process con- nected with the production of homespun tweed that it may be of interest to give a short account of it here. Only those thoroughly acquainted with the process realize how laborious and tiresome it is, and the uninitiated have very little idea of all the tiring work the women go through before the wool, dirty and greasy, full of heather and peat dust, becomes a length of beautiful tweed. There are still many who do not understand that the whole process, from beginning to end, is entirely done by hand. Teasing.—After the wool is thoroughly cleansed by washing, it is dried, shaken up, sorted, and pulled lightly asunder. This process is commonly known as teasing, and in country districts is generally done during the long, dark winter evenings, when the old women, children, and even the old men, are set to work. Dyeing.—After the wool has been thoroughly cleansed and picked to pieces it is ready for dyeing, and this process gives scope for much ingenuity on the part of the workers. In the olden times the only dyes available were those made from local plants and herbs, and it has been said that the colours in the clan tartans of Scotland were determined by the dye-yielding plants locally available. These native or vegetable dyes are still largely made use of by workers, and it fills us with wonder and admiration to see the beautiful colours they produce. The peat-soot, scraped from the rafters, furnishes a soft yellow-brown dye; the heather, pulled just before flowering time, yields a dark green; the lichen, picked from the stones, produces a beautiful and never fading bright brewn; while purples are obtained from the roots of the water- lily and bulrush, and blue from the bark of the elder trees. Of late years the demand for more brilliant shades than could be produced by these natural dyes has resulted in the introduction of mineral dyes. - Carding.—The next process the wool goes through is known ag carding. In this the hairs of the wool are all drawn in one direction by the cards. These are implements like hair brushes, set with metal teeth. With the backs of the cards the wool is made info long rolls, and then it 1s ready to be spun with thread. Spinning.—The spinning is done entirely on the old-fashioned hand-spinning wheel, and is a pleasant occupation, although a lengthy process. When we consider that the most expert spinner cannot spin more than one pound of wool in a day, or as much as wonld make one yard of material, we get some idea of the tedious- ness of this part of the work. Weaving.—When a sufficient quantity of thread has been spun it is carried to the house of the weaver, where it is woven into eloth in the old-fashioned hand-loom. The superiority of hand- loom over the steam-power weaving is generally acknowledged. ART. L79 Every district has its weaver, and in nearly every Highland village the click of the shuttle may be continually heard, going monoton- ously backwards and forwards. Washing and Waulking.—The weaving finished, the web is carried home again, and it is now nearly ready for the market. It has still, however, to be thoroughly washed and waulked. This last is a mode of felting or thickening, and it is to this final process that the homespun tweed owes its reputation for being waterproof. The web, as it is called, is now finished, and the proud and victorious owner, wrapping it up in a clean piece of cloth, usually her best tablecloth, carries it off in triumph to the depot of the Scottish Home Industries Association where she gets full return for all the long hours of toil and labour. MODERN DEVELOPMENTS OF HANDICRAFTS AND HOME INDUSTRIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By Miss ELLEN StTonss, M.A. The handicrafts and home industries about which I have been asked to speak include the following occupations :— Hand Spinning and Weaving. Needlework and Dressmaking. Embroidery and Lacemaking. Wood and Metal Work. Enamel and Jewellery. Leather Work and Bookbinding. Lithography. I. A. HAND SPINNING AND WEAVING. Hand Spinning and Weaving in England and Wales. These occupations are carried on successfully by some individ- uals, firms and institutions, not only in London and the neighbour- hood, but ilso in a few country districts as cottage industries. 1. The most important of these is, perhaps, The Queen-Mother Alexandra’s Royal Technical Schools at Sandringham, where the curriculum includes hand spinning and weaving, tor which pur- pose three looms are kept. 2. Another prominent one is ‘‘The London School of Weay- ing’’ in Berkeley Square. Here are produced tapestries as made in olden times, hand-woven rugs, homespuns made by the Scottish crofter women, hand-woven silks and linens, cloth of gold and aluminium tissue for Court dresses. Also ecclesiastical embroidery, such as altar frontals, chasubles, ete. The school has for its object the opening up of the field of textile laboue for women. 180 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. 3. The .Anglesey Industries of North Wales also include hand weaving. Tis is & cottage industry founded under Royal patron- age in 1900. 4. The spinning and weaving industry at Winterslow, South Wilts, is also a rural one, in which the pure wool supplied by the farmers of Winterslow is worked up by women in their spare time. 5. The Stockenden Industry at Limpsfield, Surrey, employs a small number of women—but this, as well as the Brema hand-loom work is carried on as a private venture. Another example of this kind is Miss C. Brown, of Kensington, whose beantiful hand-woven fabrics interested me extremely. She makes silk, woollen, linen and cotton material for dresses, casement curtains, portieres, ete. These fabrics are very strong and durable, and have a peculiar character of their own, but my interest chiefly centred in the beautiful colours, particularly in shot fabrics, which Miss Brown uses. B. IN SCOTLAND. Hand Weaving in Scotland. In many different parts of Scotland distinguished ladies, viz., the Duchess of Sutherland, Lady Aberdeen, Lady Dunmore and others, who had started various home industries for the benefit of the tenantry agreed to work together, forming a general association under the presidency of the late Countess of Rosebery in 1888. An exhibition of hand spinning and weaving was held, the examples of tweeds and blankets being exceedingly good. The ‘‘Harris Tweeds’’ have carried a wide and splendid repu- tation. Made on the barren island of Harris where the fishing in- dustry of the men is often precarious, the women are enabled to add to the family income by weaving these tweeds. This industry was largely encouraged and put on a business- like basis by a Mrs. Thomas in 1857. Hand-loom weaving in Aberdeenshire was once a flourishing industry—plain and twilled linen, draper towelling and tablecloths were made. But there seems now to be only a hmuted demand for their hand-woven goods. C. IN IRELAND. Hand-woven Goods in Ireland. In Ireland home industries are largely carried on in rural dis- tricts by that part of the population not engaged in agriculture, viz., girls and women. ‘These industries are of two kinds :— 1. Those which provide necessaries for the home itself. 2. Those which aim at inereasing the family earnings. Among the latter are hand-spinning, weaving, machine-knit- ting and shirtmaking. (I shall speak of lacemaking later on.) The difficulties in maintaining the smaller industries are as follows :— ART. bs 181 1. The want of trained hands. 2. The difficulty of purchasing raw material favourably. 3. High freight charges. The advantages are: The cheapness of labour and the low rent of buildings. The Technical Instruction Department gives assistance to these industries in various ways. Trish hand-woven linens are justly celebrated. Some of the most beautiful damasks and cambrics are made in this way, the very finest yarns not being able to stand the strain of the power loom. The superiority of the hand-woven damask is due to the fact that all the preparatory processes are generally done by hand. The hand-loom weaver has a much greater scope for following out his own designs, some of the Irish ones being the best in the world. The conditions of labour are better and the training has a more refining effect on the worker. Ireland is justly celebrated for hand loom woven linen, and Scotland for tweeds and woollen goods. England once had a flour- ishing industry of hand-loom woven silk. My mother used to tell of a great house full from top to bottom of the great Jacquard silk looms in Spitalfields, where my forefathers settled when driven out of Flanders. But I have seen a Jacquard loom only in an exhibition and few people can now buy silk at £5-a yard. II. NEEDLEWORK. Fine Needlework. Following weaving comes the making up of materials. In @ueen Alexandra’s School at Sandringham plain needlework is taught, and there is in England a limited demand for fine hand needlework for underclothine—especially for trousseaux and babies’ and children’s garments. A depot for hand-made garments at the West End is favoured by Royalty. There are societies for helping poor gentlewomen and crippled girls to earn money by fine needlework. Many private people do it, but the work is not well paid, and not always well done. The two reasons for the decline in hand needlework are :— (a) The cheapness and facility of getting ready-made clothing. (b) The necessity or choice of wearing woollen, silk, or woven cotton_underelothing in the English climate. III. DRESSMAKING. Dress Designing and Dressmaking. These subjects are now taught in Technical and Evening Con- tinuation Schools and will no doubt prove very helpful home indus- tries to many girls and women. The Camberwell Art School in 182. INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. South London has an excellent class for dressmaking. It is a two years’ course and includes lessons on human anatomy, scientific dress cutting, studies of drapery, colour and working from antique designs. In the Camden Art School lectures on design and style of dress and decoration of the home are given. IV. EMBROIDERY. An interesting development of hand-woven linen are the crafts of hand embroidery, drawn-thread work, sprigging and making of veined handkerchiefs. Many girls and women in North Ireland are learning with ease and rapidity to embroider all kinds of gar- ments and fancy articles. The Garryhill Cottage Industries, started by the Countess of Bessborough on her husband’s estates, comprise some of these handicrafts. Hemstitching and sprigging classes are held once a week at Garryhill House under the supervision of two paid teachers. The girls work at home, and the work is paid according to its merit when finished. The Marlfield embroidery is one of the cottage industries of Clonmel, Ireland. It consists of adaptations from Indian and Egyptian designs, worked in white hnen thread upon coloured linen and cotton stuffs. Silk and woollen materials are also used, the embroidery being done in silk or wool. The girls are of the labouring class, and do the work at home. The industries depend on private orders. The Drumbeg HEm- broidery Industry of Donegal is somewhat of the same character. V. ART NEEDLEWORK. Art needlework embraces designing, as well as the working out of beautiful patterns in suitable materials. Although a modern development it is but the revival of an ancient industry, e.g., the Bayeux tapestry worked by Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, and her maidens. There is also extant > a beautiful piece of silk embroidery worked by Mary Queen of Seots and doubtless many other examples. About the middle of the last century public taste in art pro- ductions was at its lowest ebb. We have to thank the late Prince Consort for the revival of a more artistic spirit in designs for manuiactures, and many Royal and distinguished ladies for the foundation and encouragement of various schools of art needlework in London and many other towns of Great Britain and Ireland. Foremost of these is the Royal Sehool of Art Needlework, South Kensington, founded under Royal patronage. At The Queen- Mother Alexandra’s Technical Schools at Sandringham, embroid- eries and Norwegian tapestry-making are taught. These crafts are admirably taught in the Camden and other Art Schools of Londen, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin and other ART, 183 - large cities—while the Schools of Embroidery at Leek, in Stafford- shire and Macclesfield in Cheshire, produce very high-class work. These towns are in the heart of the silk manufacturing district. Most of Messrs. Liberty’s well-known art silks are finished, dyed and printed at Leek, Staffordshire. The increased demands of ecclesiastical needlework have given an impulse to these industries. In the Camden Art School the syllabus includes various kinds of embroidery, commencing with hand stitches, followed by frame- work of different kinds for domestic and ecclesiastical purposes. Cut-work, white-work, cross-stitch, etc., are included in the courses of study. The beautiful pall for the coffin of the late Queen Vic- toria was executed at the Royal School of Art Needlework, South Kensington. The frontal for St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, and the flag presented by the people of Ireland to H.M.S. ‘‘Hibernia’’ were made at the School of Art Needlework, Dublin. An associa- tion of poor ladies also undertakes to make altar frontals—two hav- ing been thus provided for a new church in my own neighbourhood. An old Camden Art School student not only designs and exe- cutes beautiful needlework, but she has also invented and patented a washable colour for painting on linen and flaxen materials. Bold designs are most suitable for this invention—named Wash- wella. VI. A. LACEMAKING IN ENGLAND. Hand-made Lace. Reports from the old centres of hand-made lace.show that this beautiful handicraft, notwithstanding several valiant efforts made to reinstate it, is declining in England. In Buckinghamshire, many years ago, in towns such as Win- slow and its surrounding villages, all the young girls used to attend the Lace School, where they learned to make the delicate pillow lace. This is a cottage industry and girls could live at home and help swell the family earnings by their work. Pillow lace requires much deftness to manipulate the numerous bobbins. The pattern is pricked out on paper and pins are put in round which the threads are twined. This craft, once learned, is never forgotten. At an exhibition recently held in Kensington a Bedfordshire woman was making pillow lace after thirty years’ interval. But times have changed—and now the country children go to day schools and learn to read, write and perform other accomplish- ments instead of lacemaking. The quickest hand-worker can only earn 6d. a day at lacemaking—this being the market price for the trade in England. In Belgium the price is 4d. a day. Country girls, instead of staying at home, either go to the lace factory where they can earn 18s. a week, or to service. Only the middle- aged or old make any quantity of lace. They prefer small pieces, such as borders for handkerchiefs, for which the market price is 2g, 6d. SPE aR INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Efforts are being made to revive this handicraft, such as the pillow lace industry at Winslow, worked under the auspices of the Hon. Rose Hubbard. Specimens of this lace were shown at the exhibition. One reason for the decline in the Buckingham lace industry, is that these laces can be so well imitated by machinery that often experts only can tell the difference. Honiton lace is rather different, the sprigs and flowers being made separately; each worker can put more individuality into the work—this making it more difficult to imitate in machine -made goods. B. IN SCOTLAND. ro Lacemaking in Scotland. An admirable lacemaking industry flourishes in the village of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, formerly the home of hand-loom weay- ing. In this village a few old people made coarse lace, but by the efforts of the Rev. W. Webster and his wife, the manufacture was ereatly increased and improved, and now women can earn 4s. to 5s. a week in making fine, firm lace. Valenciennes lace is accurately copied, and about 200 different patterns of lace are produced at Pitsligo. In summer from 50 to 60 and in winter about 150 persons are employed in this industry. C. IN IRELAND. Lacemaking wm Ireland. Many of the Irish lace industries were started with the special purpose of helping certain districts during periods of distress, such as the famine. This needed business organization. The Cork School of Art turned its attention to improving the designs for lace, and was most successful in applying art principles of lacemaking. Workers were organized and technical education was given. The Irish flat needle point and the rose point were the special laces made. Beautiful examples of lace made in Ireland have been shown at the Exhibition of the Irish Home Industries, the United Gentle- women’s Handierafts and Home Industries Exhibition, and the Daily Mail Lace Exhibition. They inelude the Boris Lace Industry, the Limerick Lace Schoul; Run and Tambour Lace, the work of the Carmelite Convent, New Ross, the Money Guyneen, the Curraghmore and Carrickmacross Lace made by the County Longford Home Industries Association. Another subsidiary industry is the cleaning and restoring of old lace and embroideries. Knitting, once a flourishing cottage dustry in England, i now chiefly pursued in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. In Wales it is a common sight to meet women knitting as they walk along. In Ireland and Scotland hand-knitted stockings are consider- ably in demand, and at Balbriggan the stockings are hand em- broidered. ART, 185 Quite recently there died at Nottingham at the age of 94, Miss Annie Birkins, who was employed for over sixty years as chevron worker for Messrs. Morley. Miss Birkins knitted the King’s first pair of socks. She also decorated stockings for Queen Victoria, for Queen Alexandra, and socks for the King of Denmark, the Czar and other royal personages. Shetland Kmtting. The delicacy of knitting for which Shetland is celebrated is due to the extremely fine quality of wool of the Shetland sheep, which is a small creature more like a goat in its running, climbing and leap- ing. -The wool is short, very soft and silky, and the fleece of a sheep of genuine breed only weighs from one to two pounds. The women are very rapid knitters; if it were not for this fact the work could not be sold for the terribly cheap prices asked—too cheap for any handicraft. Petticoats, spencers, belts and babies’ and other shawls are examples. VII. A. Woop-CARVING. Wood-Carving in England. This craft is taught in the Camden and other Art Schools. The elass is intended for the study and practice of architectural and ornamental wood-carving. Some fine designs for ecclesiastical wood- carving were exhibited at the show of work on the occasion of the annual prize-giving last December. The Advisory Sub-Committee have tried for a long time, but unsuccessfully, to get cabinet-mak- ing introduced into the school, which is situated near to one of the most important furniture-making areas in London. Queen Alex- andra also has a school of wood-carving at Sandringham. B. IN IRELAND. In Ireland the Bray Art Furniture Industry, County Wick- low, supples pulpits, altars, lecterns, choir stalls, etc., as well as smaller articles—chairs, book shelves, bellows, etc., tea-cup stools and paper knives. The scheme originally intended not only to educate, refine and develop artistic faculties, but to provide interesting and profitable home-work in spare time for men who wish to spend most of their evenings at home. But the Department Regulations compel the evening wood- carving students to take up two other subjects and to pass a pre- liminary course in English, mathematics and drawing. A good many private individuals make a great success of wood- earving. It is also carried on successfully in some districts as an evening occupation in boys’ clubs. Our boys learn manual train- ing in the Elementary Schools, but at present in England we have not begun any systematic training in wood-carving as a remunera- tive occupation for winter hours, such as is done in Norway, Ger- many and Switzerland. 186 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. In the time of the plague and fire of London, England pro- duced Grinling Gibbons—perhaps another artist in wood-carving may arise without the aid of two such calamities. VIII. METAL WORK IN ENGLAND. Metal Work and Enamelling. ‘These subjects are most successfully taught in the Camden Art Schools. There classes are held for hammer-work, repoussé, soldering, stone-setting, making cups, spoons, candlesticks, neck- laces, brooches, etc. Enamelling by the Champlevé, Cloisonné, Limoges, Bassetaille and painted enamel methods is engaged in. A most beautiful set of jewellery was sent up for the National Competition this year. This work is now taken up in many schools and guilds of handicrafts, and is afterwards practised by private people—some of the most artistic productions being those of Mrs. Hensley, of Farn- ham. Besides those done for the ordinary market there are some industries which endeavour to provide work as a second trade. Such is the Casual Labourers’ Art Metal Industry, the South- ampton Branch of the Home Arts and Industries Association. This was started :—First, for giving additional means of earn- ing to irregularly employed labourers. Secondly, for providing means of living for men who are looking for situations. Thirdly, for instructing young men in the use of tools and handicrafts. There is also the copper work done by the Cornish fishermen under the guidance of the Newlyn Artists, which is very profitable. TX. BOOKBINDING. The craft of bookbinding is now taught in Technical and Art Schools, and it is also pursued by private people on their own account. Two or three ladies will join together and have a properly fitted up workshop where books are handsomely and artistically bound. The difficulty is to find purchasers for beautiful but costly books. They are generally made to order. eather work, bookbinding, Gesso-work, Marqueterie, wood- staining and other crafts are taught in the Working Ladies’ Guild, Brompton Road, London, while various private people exhibited leather work such as belts, purses, card-cases, buttons, at the Ideal Home and Gentlewomen’s Handicraft Exhibition held in London recently. X. LITHOGRAPHY. This craft is taught in Technical and Art Schools. Some beau- tiful specimens were produced in the Female School of Art, Queen’s Square, Bloomsbury, now closed; showing exact productions of deli- eate colours. Just now the subject of lithography is under dis- eussion, suffering probably from trade depression and the favour shown by the public for the three-colour process. Time fails me for discussing some of the more useful handi- crafts such as basket-weaving, basket-making, chair-making and can- ART. 187 ing, straw-plaiting and other kindred occupations, which are car- ried on in certain localities of Great Britain and Ireland. Nor have I been able to touch on pottery, for which some of our districts are famous. CONCLUSION. In conelusion certain points seem to emerge from the somewhat bewildering number of handicrafts in which our population is engaged. Hand Work as a Means of Inving. 1. As regards the hand weaving it seems clear that in parts of Scotland and Ireland it meets a genuine need, and enables the labouring classes to augment an otherwise scanty income, and to live more comfortably. In England it only meets a limited need, and employs but few workers. Lacemaking in Ireland and in some few districts in England also provides a part of the maintenance of girls and women at home. But some of the industries I have quoted, only sell at fancy prices through the help of committees who get up sales and exhibitions. Home needlework, except dressmaking, is not a craft that pays well, when done to earn money. A woman can only eke out a scanty income by making nightdresses at 2s. 6d. each. The paying of art leather, wood and metal work depends greatly on the artist and his or her friends. For real art work of any kind there is generally a good market, except in times of great depression. The copper work done by Cornish fishermen and the _ brass work of Southampton labourers, is not always above criti- cism and might not be bought by connoisseurs. These fancy crafts depend a good deal on some form of sub- sidizing, which often has a legitimate object other than the encour- agement of the best art. 2. Another point must not be lost sight of, one which particu- larly affects girls and women. In encouraging girls to learn lace- making and embroidery at home, it has been found that they are apt to spend too much time on the industry and neglect the house. Girls find it difficult to decide between two duties. For this reason where these home crafts are encouraged on any large scale, as in Ireland, domestic subjects have to be taken as well. There is also another aspect of this question, viz., the educa- tional and refining effect of the craft on the worker. This result is not lightly to be lost sight of. There is so much real education to be obtained by producing true forms of art that I should like every- one to study some artistic craft. In old days guilds were formed to set up a standard of good work, and also to limit the numbers employed in any special crafts. There is nothing now to prevent the market being flooded with inferior work, which any amateur can produce. The only resource we have is to try and improve public taste so that we shall only want the best articles. 188 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. WOMEN’S INDUSTRIES IN ITALY. Read by the MARCHESE BOURBON DEL MONTE. Under the form and with the laws of a commercial society our National Co-operative Society has for its object the furtherance of art. Its intention is to raise the rate of women’s wages by means of art and of provident actions and its ultimate principles are the beautiful and the good. For this reason it is ineluded in the section of Literature and Arts. It is only a few years old, having been started by a small exhi- bition in Veneto Road in May, 1902, under the patronage and encouragement of the Roman Federation of Women Workers. No one passing under the plant trees shading the broad road would have his eyes attracted by the splendour of the locality or by the richness of the show, but still within this little room there was a revelation to be seen, a new ideal was at work, a new activity was started in this century of awakening and renovation. The little exhibition was repeated in 1903, and again in the following year. But the ladies who had organized the exhibition realized its limits and the little influence it had, and the Countess Cora di Brazza Savorgnan, one of the most active among them and with high ideals, profiting by the results of this early effort, pro- posed the formation of a great Co-operative Society. No other enterprize, and we say it with pride, has in so short a time had so great a development as our great co-operative asso- ciation, the ‘‘ Women’s Industries of Italy.”’ Yet Cora di Brazza had to fight for her ideals, as is always the case with anything that is new and appears too great for the strength that is so far ready to carry it out, and she found much opposition and little encouragement, but she gained her end at last chiefly through the help and counsel of prominent men and the wisdom and unanimity of some of her lady friends. On the 22nd of May, 1903, there was founded the joint stock co-operative society, ‘‘The Women’s Industries of Italy.’’ The capital of the Society is not limited, the shares are £100 each, the chief office is in Rome, there is power to Lec agencies, with branches in Italy and abroad. Professor Cesare Vivanté gave the opening address, explaining the objects, ideals and hopes of the ladies, and said :— ‘“We wish to establish a vigorous agent of commercial economy, which will open the world to the industries of Italian women, _ which by patient education and with the aid of art will be refined and beautified. We wish to create by means of co-operation a great industrial house and by this means be able to dispense with the middleman who makes his gains through the unorganized work of women. : ‘“We wish to spread by the channels of commerce the beauties of Italian art by means of a well organized group of agencies in every plaee where the love of the beautiful is felt. Our patterns will be taken from museums, from books, from ancient designs, ART. 189 from every source whence the artistic treasures of our forefathers may be made available for the newer industrial forms, where they may be of service in procuring the more liberal remuneration of our women workers. ‘*Winally, we wish to raise their entire economic condition. Our constitution is as follows:—The interests of the shareholders shall be looked after by a supervising council; at the head of this shall be a central committee of directors consisting of 24 members who shall have charge of the artistic developments of the association, and who shall assist it either personally with advice, with patterns and models, and by means of inspection, or indirectly by the visits of inspectors who shall carry outside Rome the views and aspirations of the society and so aid industrial art and be the means of enlarg- ing the market for work. The Committee shall in concert with the Council of Administration appoint a technical board which shall decide, without appeal, all questions as to the acceptance of work, and the cost price thereof. This Board is to be entrusted with all the regular technical work so essential to the prosperity of the Association and the furtherance of art. On it is laid the twofold duty of the economic and artistic organization, and it has to be the continuous instrument in bringing these two elements into harmony, without which the whole work of the Association would be in- effectual.’’ We then had to find a place suited for our office, and to select an honest and capable staff and all would be ready. We were able to obtain under favourable conditions the location of the Bank of Italy in Marco Minghetti Street, and on the 26th of March, 1904, we had a solemn inauguration attended by our well-wishers, and faithful supporters and by a concourse of the workers. The Supervising Committee, the most vital body of the Society, at once set about forming regional and local committees with the object of allotting to them their share in the produce, and making them understand the duty and the advantage of reciprocally assist- ing. The Committee, therefore, made an appeal to all the cities and nearly every district of Italy responded with one accord, and all over the country from Piedmont to Calabria, from Venice to Sicily, committees were formed to the number of 32, others being still in formation. These Committees represent the work, either in whole or in part, of 273 Laboratories, and besides we have in all the eantons of Italy nearly 1,000 workers who send their work directly to the Co-operative Society, being bound by the commercial regu- lations affecting it. The ladies of the Committee have worked wonders both at headquarters and further afield. They have not confined them- selves to providing material and finding workers, but they have also been the revivers of ancient treasures, of handicrafts and lace work long forgotten, they have sought them in the beautiful churches, in the palaces where they have lain for ages, in the miserable hovels where they were discarded and hidden; they have taught the poor women the beauty of the workmanship and how to 190 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. revive the tracery of. the long forgotten and faded treasures, have in fact educated them to the dignity of the work. In every canton of Italy the remains of past grandeur are to be seen in models of art and of taste. During the centuries that have past it was not easy to keep alive the industries revived at the time of the Renais- sance, and in fact many have been forgotten, many have but a struggling existence. It is the pride of our society to boast that the Co-operative Society of the Women Workers of Italy has re- vived these many forgotten industries, and in such a short time. A unique example, say those who are competent to speak, in the history of industrial arts. Anyone who enters the shop in the Mareo Minghetti Street, may admire in the vicinity of boxes of sardegna which cost only one lira, beautiful table-cloths from the hand of Casamassella; close to laces from Burano and nets from Canonica, the simple plaited straw work of Florence; may, in fact, find the masterpieces of the finest intelligence close to the sim- plest and most primitive objects of daily use. It is one of the canons of the Women’s Industries of Italy to sell nothing that is not beautiful, and to beautify everything that is useful. The result of our studies is to find the beautiful in the most elementary forms, in the most simple utensils, and we discover that even the unseeing eye may be opened to the beautiful, and that the taste of the most ignorant may be cultivated. And already we see how taste is improving in almost every locality, and how the love of beauty of form is becoming an inspiration. To the primitive rudeness of the workers is now succeeding the perfection of workmanship, a veritable imitation of the ancient art. Perhaps this is not enough, and after having taught the workers to participate in this eternal fountain of education and culture, the study of Classic Art, it may be as well that they should seek for applications of it appropriate to the present day, and that they should learn how to invent for themselves, and to understand how to carry out their own inventions. The Committee at Bergamo has in fact opened a holiday school for design, where they have collected all kinds of patterns specially suitable for lace work and embroidery, thus educating the taste, awakening the intelligence and setting the workers free from the necessity of designers. It is to be hoped this institution will have its imitators. The work of the Women’s Industries of Italy is not limited only to the carrying out of artistic handicrafts, it has also taken up social and economic matters. The local committees have certainly improved the relations be- tween the different classes of society, binding all together in the name of art, the great consoler, and of the labour which is the source of mutual esteem. In the committees ladies are brought in close contact with the workers, the poor women workers, they see with their own eyes the misery of their lives, understand how hard are the conditions under which they live, how scarce the food and how uncertain its supply, learn how much simple and ignorant ART. 191 virtue there is in the world; and on the other hand the workers learn how much true love is necessary to lead to the assumption of the responsibility that the desire to do good has imposed, and they understand, too, how indispensable to them is the aid they receive from a superior culture. Thus between the ladies and the workers there are established personal relations of friendship and affection, and the benefit to both classes is mutual. In places where there are no committees and where the com- mittees have not taken up the whole of the work, there are work- shops established which are carried on either by nuns or by lay persons according to the habits of the districts, and in all the work- shops of the Women’s Industries of Italy is to be found that spirit ef true vitality, which is both spontaneous and promises to become, let us hope, that forerunner of our industrial future. And the good done by such committees and workshops and its effect on the rising generation may be considered under the fol- lowing heads :— , First, that of Hygiene, which has been too little considered in industrial labour, in spinning mills and other factories. Secondly, that of Wages, which have on the whole been some- what increased, and Thirdly, that of Morality. HYGIENE, The work given to the women to do in their homes admits of a certain amount of liberty as arranged by all the committees and does not subject the worker to the necessary but hard discipline of the factory, and the close confinement in workrooms is avoided; and thanks to the fine climate of Italy it 1s possible for the work to be carried on in the open air for many months of the year, under the health-giving influence of the sun, the children at play around and in the neighbourhood of the little stove which needs the watch- ful eye of the house mother. The work being distributed at the workshops keeps the babies from the street and out of the un- healthy factories where in former days in Italy both women and ehildren went to work; the result of the progress of this new intellectual movement, is to place the child under the care of teachers who know him, love him, and look after him hour by hour. And surely the mind of the child must benefit by this change; it sees only what is good, it is not thrust out when it reaches the age of fifteen, as used to be the case when the family was large, to seek its living somewhere outside the home. And this just at such a dangerous age and at such serious risk owing to its ignorance and its love of play. I will give the instance of the Island of Trasimene where all the women workers have an account in the Savings Bank of Rispar- mio, where the children set aside their own dowry and the women make their own housekeeping money; and I may mention Burano, where, after the founding of the school for lacemaking, it was re- marked that marriages became more numerous and the number of illegitimate children decreased. 192 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. WAGES. The Women’s Industries of Italy is endeavoring to distribute the work in such a way that those trades which receive a lower salary (matchmaking, hand weaving, ete.), shall be carried out in places where the cost of living is low, while those handicrafts which are better remunerated shall be followed in the large cities where the cost of living is greater. The Association carries on its work with the idea of fixing the price in relation to the cost of production, it fights against monopolies, does away with middlemen, and its operatives find in the wages earned, in the benefits accruing, in the reserve fund, in the distribution of tools, the very greatest advantage. The inborn alertness of our women, united to the energy of the directors, has made our Co-operative Society an artistic centre unique in Italy; it is a centre of attraction, a true lantern whose beams illuminate all those who meet there and share in its benefits, and it is certain that in a few years it will be able to compete with even the most powerful foreign organizations. The desire, how- ever, to give a better remuneration and establish a better com- mercial footing is what we are most concerned with. Much has been done if one thinks of the scanty means at our disposal, but much is still to be done. The entire country of Italy ought to see about developing its industrial handicrafts, and more particularly those which are tra- ditionally the industries and arts of our land. Italy should become like France, a great centre of production, and should do away with foreign productions. This is the thing we should all be striving for. And so we have travellers, stores of merchandise, representa- tives and commissioners of export. And thus we have two forms of commerce, direct relations which we have with the consumers who come to buy of us directly, and also relations with the com- missioners of the great wholesale and retail OMS who are de- veloping our great export trade. The funds at the disposal of the Society are certainly not sufficient for this organization and so our administration presents the greatest possible difficulty, but the Tombolo of the Telegraph, which was voted to us by the House of Parliament, and the aid which at the Congress of Cremona of last September was promised by the People’s Banks of Italy, are certain guarantees that the problem of sufficient funds will be also solved. And we can thus be certain of a larger income to devote to the acquisition of work, which will encourage the new centres of production, and be able to find a more ample field and one more suited to all our present exigencies. It may be interesting to state the progress of our sales. In 1904 the sales amounted to...... $ 55,375.73 In 1905 the sales amounted to...... 128,933.54 In 1906 the sales amounted to...... 208,324.19 In 1907 the sales amounted to...... 237,730.40; and these figures only represent in part the entire amount of the ART. 193 ~ products. Committees and workshops produce and sell on their own account also, being besieged by the continually increasing favour of the public, by the offers held out to them by merchants who pay without delay, and by the necessity of supplying the ordi- nary expectations and the new demands of the workers. The Administrative Council in no way opposes itself to this, but it only reserves to itself as much as is possible the central direc- tion of this growing movement in the economic and artistic direc- tion, recognizing that the committees and workshops should have full liberty to carry out their own initiative, by means of which a complete assortment is collected from the various districts thus representing the numerous characteristics and the indestructibility of the Latin race. The Society has the noble, moral and social desire to help itself and to give help; it is not ruled alone by the thought of gain but by a love of the good and the beautiful which spur it on and guide it. It works for the freedom of the worker, for the equality of human opportunities. The association for labour in all its forms is a sign of the pro- gress and of the attainments and the glory of our modern times. As concerns profits the past term gave a net profit of $7,605.27, of which there was assigned $1,232.25 to the shareholders, being a rate of 3 per cent. The remainder having been apportioned as follows: $3,823.80 to the workers, $1,274.61 to the administration and $1,274.61 to the reserve fund. It is a noteworthy fact that very few of the charelaideva of our Society withdraw their dividends, the greater number give them up in favour of the workers. On. the ‘other hand, the first year gave the workers a share amounting to rather less than 2 per cent., the second year 2.30 per cent., and the present year 2.50 per cent. as the result of the progress which is our continued hope. The Co-operative Society of Women’s Industries of Italy took part in the exhibition at Liége in 1905, at the concourse of Gaulois in 1906, and has always taken medals and diplomas. At the Milan Exhibition in 1906 it had its first great success, but to this glory has to be added the record of the sad occurrence of August 3rd, when the whole of our buildings were destroyed by fire. A blow the sad consequences of which we still feel. On this occasion all the committees without exception came to our aid and the Co-operative Society showed, as was just what should be, that it was indeed a united society held together by a true solidarity and not by egoism or by divided or pEvate interests. So much for its history in the past. As for the future? Much has been done and much is still to do, and we tell this to our associates, to our friends, to every coun- try. The future will surely smile upon us, but we must have no weariness in the activity of those who direct; the good conscience and fidelity of our members must never decrease, committees and workshops must remain united to us and must understand that the 194 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. grandeur of the Co-operative Association consists in the united strength of all, united in one single aspiration and in one sole desire. We need in fine that all around us should have the same faith in self-sacrifice, and in the beauty of reciprocal affection. ARTS AND CRAFTS IN AUSTRIA. Read by Frau Hainiscu, of Vienna. Arts and Crafts in Austria occupy an important place in in- dustry, and are under Government control. We must distinguish between lace and needlework and the Arts and Crafts. In Vienna girls have the opportunity of attending the Imperial School of Textile Arts, where instruction is given in designing for ceramics, carpets, ete.. In other towns there are similar Government schools. Besides this, there is in Vienna a School of Arts for women and girls, where instruction in painting, sculpture, goldsmith and jewellers’ work is paid for. The most prominent artists in Vienna teach in both of these schools. Lithography, engraving on wood and copper are taught in the Imperial Photographie School. The graduates of this school obtain well paid positions. The lace industry is especially protected by the Government, which has established many schools. In Vienna is the Central School, where new methods of work originate, and whence designs are distributed. There is a society of ladies” “hi, WE highest aristocracy which helps the Government to sell the la@@g@produced everywhere, so that there is no loss in passing through the hands of merchants and the whole profit goes to the worker. Besides this Government lace industry there is the independent peasant industry in lacemaking carried on in the homes. This is practised in the Slavic and Hungarian districts. The embroidery and fine needlework are done in convents, however, mostly. This work does not pay any longer and with few exceptions is engaged in only by rich ladies. Painting and sculpture are taught by the most eminent artists in their studios. For the study of music there are rich opportunities in the Vienna Conservatory of Music, which is an academy with a four years’ course, where the dramatic art is also studied. ANGLESEY INDUSTRIES. By Miss ANToNIA WiuulAmMs, London. Many people who know Anglesey only from the windows of the Irish mail as a bare, wind swept plain, may be suprised to hear of its possessing any noteworthy industries. They think the dwell- is ae / Nest ‘ AP oe A ORE | re he Rt eet Pee i Ee a hoe Ore i i es CCR Om Ts Dare, Oe at ee Se ee TE ee Pal Re ee eT eee, ae) I PUEP Pda (ih Poe Pid eG fea RE RAT UR ome Ns rue cam imu ae Bub HU DEAD aD ME? aii SMA ian ite a SERN weed Ak ye ae “ ae) 4 Py with on Ji Py ARi® i it f Te r 4 } t Mi, ra ; ay atic str ad De a a Ua ala Uv dh vat OU ak Mer EN Fakta AWB ; i ee iy OFT SAAN CAA eaate ag ale AMT ARR ALA ta vay Uru OMEn Wa ARAN Lit ao “ready sales on market day ART, } 195 ers in the scattered white-washed cottages and gray farm-houses must be so isolated from each other and so shut off from the busy world. But isolation does not necessarily imply stupidity. Hach year at the Exhibition of the Home Arts and Industries in London there is a stall of Anglesey industries, which have hitherto won many awards of merit from the judges. Individual workers in knitting and basket-making have been commended, and in 1905 the exhibit of flannels, homespuns and serges as a whole, won the silver -eross of distinction for general excellence, in competition with Eng- land, Scotland and Ireland. This is the more encouraging, as it was only in 1900 that a definite organization began work, having as its aim the improvement of existing industries and their intro- duction to a wider market. The first step taken was the holding of an exhibition at Menai Bridge in September, 1900, with a long prize list to discover modern workers and a loan collection of old work to afford inspiration from the past. It was eminently suc- cessful and with part of the proceeds a teacher was engaged who held classes in basket-making at many centres during the winter. These have been followed in other years by lessons in other sub- jects, including knitting, carving, dressmaking, laundry work and cooking. But weaving is the chief of the industries. The little factories of the island had long produced woollens of strength and durability. By means of experiments and suggestions for the dyeing and weav- ing these have now been fitted in colour and texture to meet a wider and more critical market. The grays and browns of %e tweeds and flannels which found vat Holyhead and Llangefni are now seen side by side with fabrics of less homely colour and of softer finish and have been honoured by Royal patronage. The making of linsey, a mixture of silk and wool in two colours which formed the life-long best gowns of our great-grandmothers, has also been re- vived with success. An industry with picturesque features, said by tradition to date from the days of Elizabeth, is the mat-making of the villages on the south-west side of the island. These mats are made of the morhesg or sea rush, a kind of bent grass which covers the sand hills between the farm lands and the sea. This is cut and harvested in late summer when the sand hills and valleys are dotted - with what appear at a distance to be encampments of tiny straw hats and resolve themselves into stooks of drying morhesg. This grass is then plaited into long strands and woven in substantial mats by the village women, who may be seen at work outside their cottage doors. The mats are used for covering hay stacks and before zinc was so much used, the mat industry was said to bring into the one village of Newborough a yearly sum of £1,000. Game bags, brooms and baskets are also made of the Morrhesc but to a much smaller extent. Those interested in Anglesey industries realize that their work has many critics who regard their aim as a vain attempt to resusci- tate the past. But that is not so. The old industrious country } Ae Marites, | 196 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. days are gone. Anglesey women no longer drive their cows to pasture with growing stockings in their hands. The farm labourers no longer gather round the open farm kitchen fires in winter even- ings and carve the wooden bowls and spoons for the use of the home. What the organization tries to do and has already done with a great measure of success, is to improve the class of work and to increase the trade in Anglesey goods and thus to save what already exists from sinking into inanition. The dullness of life in the country villages is said to be among the causes of the migration into the towns and depopulation of the country. By means of classes to promote new interests and by encouragement to those already working, the organization tries to make the village life fuller and therefore happier. That the efforts are not fruitless in awaking interest seems proved by the success of the local sales held annually in various country houses kindly lent by their owners. The old designation of Anglesey was the Mother of Wales. To in any measure deserve this title the island must strive to foster and promote all “‘the things that are more excellent.’’ This is the aim, high in theory and sensible in practice, of the promoters of Anglesey industries. CANADIAN HANDICRAFTS AND HOME INDUSTRIES. By Mrs. DIGNAM. The purpose of this paper is to direct the attention of this Congress to the industries of our aborigines, the home industries of our pioneers, which are being revived, and the handicrafts of the new settlers who are coming to Canada from all parts of the Old World, and many of whom are skilled craft workers. The pottery and basket-weaving of the Indian women, the homespuns, carpets, rugs and rush-bottomed chairs of the first set- tlers, and the lace, embroideries, needlework, pottery, etc., of the newcomers, furnish the most striking illustration of imitative genius, fertility of resource, and patient achievement. It is in the study of these early but until recently almost © disregarded arts, that we understand how ‘‘ Art is not only a primi- tive instinct, but a spiritual need,’’ and how these home products were to primitive and pioneer people their poems, paintings, sculp- ture, cathedrals, and music, which, preserved, become the thrift and adornment of the home. Through them we trace the thought . of the worker, in conception, acquirement of skill, appreciation of colour, utilization of crude materials, power of selection, imita- tion of nature, and see the aesthetic qualities. of mind that led to the desire to make those things beautiful which were necessary to the home. The Women’s Art Association of Canada has for more than twenty years laboured to preserve our inheritance, to revive the ABT. 197 past, and foster what presents itself from year to year through the increasing immigration. The beautiful homespuns of Quebee are a tradition of Brit- tany, the designs of which have remained simple and character- istic for three hundred years. Through the efforts of the Art Asso- ciation the homespuns have been improved in weaves, colour and in variety of weight and design. The traditional characteristics have been preserved. Beautiful Indian bead work and basketry is still obtainable and is being carefully looked after. Scattered from coast to coast over Canada are isolated.workers in Honiton, Duchess, Limerick and other laces, who find a sympa- thetic interest and opportunities for the sale of their work in the galleries of the Art Association and in the frequent exhibitions arranged in the important cities and towns. Wood-earving, leather work, enamel and metal work, bookbind- ing, pottery, china painting, design, are some of the handicrafts successfully taken up by groups of ladies, who work in auxiliary clubs in the Art Association, thus creating a more intimate know- ledge and appreciation of crafts, which are often neglected in a new country. The regeneration of the handicrafts, the humanization of the fine arts, is the real meaning of the arts and crafts movement. The prospect of happiness more generally diffused, of a condition where virtue is its own reward, where vice is rendered difficult because of the love of excellence in attainment cultivated among people of all conditions, may well quicken the imagination and spur to earn- est endeavor everyone who desires to see art become a civilizing force in the world. This is an object worthy of engrossing the attention of the finest talents of our modern complex civilization. In Canada the resources are vast and the possibilities as yet un- dreamt of. Interchange of national products would strengthen and ‘enlarge the field of effort as well as demonstrate the importance of preservation and development. Generations of inherited taste and skill are difficult to acquire, and crafts once lost are difficult to find again. WOMAN IN MUSIC. (With reference to Holland). By A. M. GertH vAN WYK. The woman born with a talent for music is truly a child of fortune. In every age musically-gifted women have been known and appreciated as performers—witness the many renowned prima donnas who have taken an invaluable part in the history of music. Men had, of course, no fear of rivalry so far as singing was con- cerned. In that branch of art men and women could work together -—mnay,. they even wanted one another—without any question of rivalry between voices of different compass. \ 198 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. Perhaps, indeed, it is owing to this habit of working together that the development of a girl’s musical talents has never been looked upon as objectionable or unwomanly. » Schools for musie, conservatories, have opened their doors wide to the divinely-gifted of both sexes. The woman of musical ability has never needed to fight against the public opinion as her sisters with a taste for science, etc., have had to do. Her path in that respect has been a comparatively smooth one. She is not restricted by any laws. In Holland art is no Government business . Woman must find her own way. She has opened a path of honour for herself in the musical world, and a place in public opinion. Names of women such as Noordewier-Reddingius, De Haan-Manifarges, Julia Culp, Tilly Koenen, and others, as performers are known far beyond our borders, and are examples of the fact that our women have their share in the splendid reputation which Dutch singers have acquired abroad. Men and women have the very same chance of getting on in the world, some being provided with diplomas, others having to make their way by dint of talent and energy. later life he will searcely stoop to what is base and unworthy in music, art and literature. Under this aspect of the child’s musical development, let us now consider the practical steps which may be taken by the par- ents. Happy those children with fathers and mothers or other near relatives who are able themselves to play and sing to their little ones from the days of infancy. You can take your little child on to your lap and play to him, letting him place his tiny fingers on yours, and he will enter into the spirit of the new game and feel that he is himself bearing his part. Very shortly he will try to sing for himself the well-known melodies, and it is a surprising fact that many children with a good ear will sing before they can speak, and are looked upon as prodigies by their admiring parents, till they discover that it is only part:of a child’s natural develop- ment. Play to him of the very best, selecting simple and melodious compositions with well-marked rhythms, but do not bewilder by too wide a range at first, repeating rather a few pieces until they become familiar. The March from Faust seldom fails to please, and I may also suggest as suitable The Harmonious Blacksmith, Schumann’s Kinderscenen, and many of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. As soon as he is old enough, tell your child the names of the composers and of the compositions, and any little story about the piece which will arrest his attention, and help him to associate them in his memory. At last the time comes when in addition to appreciating his mother’s performance, the little child can sing songs for himself to her accompaniment. All babies should be brought up on nursery rhymes, and they will form a natural starting point which will lead on to other things, such as Grieg’s Children’s Songs, Liza Lehmann’s Daisy Chain, many of Schumann’s songs, some of the songs out of Hansel and Gretel, not to mention ‘‘Gaudeamus,’’ beloved of the school boy, and many of the old English folksongs collected by Cecil Sharpe and others. Continue to play regularly to your children, so that as years go on they become familiar with the great musical heritage of the past, from Bach’s Preludes and Fugues and Beethoven’s Sonatas onwards, leaving on one side music of a more sensuous type, and the modern impressionist school, which may well be omitted until later. You will find it interesting to take a wide range of music; do not limit your playing to pieces written for the piano, but play through the notable parts from the scores of operas, threading them together by means of the plot, which you should relate while ' you are playing, and illustrate the personages by motif and phrase when necessary. Here you will find a large storehouse of mythol- ogy and legend to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of the child’s imagination. Some of Wagner’s music dramas may be in- troduced by Constance Maude’s ‘‘Stories of Wagner’s Heroes and Heroines,’’ and ‘‘Lohengrin’’ and ‘‘Siegfried’’ will be particularly attractive heroes to young people. Do not be afraid to interrupt 8 ay tai CAL BRAY feeb hes?) ih 210 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. your playing by explanations, but comment and elucidate special passages as you go. With older children you may draw attention to the construction and give some hints on musical form. ‘Though I have insisted that musical education shall not be limited to piano lessons, it is well that all children shall have some practical training in instrumental playing for a few years, in order to discover latent powers, and to give them some idea of the technical side of the art. It will be unwise to waste much time over this in the case of children who are without talent, but all should have instruction in theory and in class singing and system- atic ear-training. This question, however, scarcely comes’ within the scope of this paper. save that the parents should insist on the inclusion of these subjects in the schoolroom curriculum. Mothers who have specialized in music will like to undertake the first piano lessons; those who do will find their task greatly lightened by using Mrs. Spencer Curwen’s Method and Teacher’s Guide, a sound and truly educational system of teaching, by means of which many difficulties are smoothed away which lie in the path of those unaccustomed to teaching beginners. After the days of home music lessons, the parents whose child- ren are educated at a day school must choose an instructor, and it cannot be too much insisted upon that highly qualified teaching is just as necessary for the beginner as the advanced pupil. The parent or home governess can co-operate to a most valuable degree by being present at the lessons in order to assimilate the teaching, note the failures and strengthen the hands of the teacher gener- ally. Above all, can they help by daily superintending the child’s practice, as more harm may be done by a week’s slovenly practice than can be counteracted by the lesson. Moreover, you are far more likely to get the best from a musical professor, however con- scientious, when he realizes that his work is backed up by sym- pathy and influence at home. It is further all-important that the place of music in the child’s mental development shall be more clearly recognized and valued by the parents themselves. I think it advisable that every child should learn the piano until the age of about ten, as this instrument is self-contained, and a better medium than others for studying the general theory of music. It is seldom wise for a schoolboy or schoolgirl to attempt more than one instrument. It is hard enough out of a busy school life to set aside time for adequate practice, and if that time has to be divided between two instruments, technical proficiency becomes hopeless, unless the general education is to suffer. After the age of ten, if your children show promise of musical capacity, let some of them drop the piano and take up the study of another instrument. Do not let them all swell the crowded ranks of pianists and violinists, premising that a pianist is first and foremost a necessity in the home. If you are lucky enough to include within your circle a viola, ’cello, clarionet or other of the instruments so sorely needed for amateur orchestras and chamber music, you will have complete the family trio, quartette or piano ART. 11 quintette. This link of interest between parents and children, brothers and sisters, will be cemented in a common delight, and the young men and maidens will not need to go outside the home for their social recreation. No one who has experienced the thrill of taking a part, however humble, in concerted music, will fail to appreciate the powerful attraction of such musical evenings. For young men an enthusiasm for music is of especial value. The parents who have successfully stimulated this interest (be it active or passive) in their sons have provided them with a wholesome and elevating hobby, which will leave no room for more undesirable pursuits. A child who has lived in a musical environment will be quite prepared to find delight in a fine concert, but although it will be wise to make this a rare treat in the earlier years, when outside excitements are to be avoided, it may well take its place in the regular order of a musical education after the age of twelve is reached. Should a great artist visit your town and you are able to let your child participate in some great musical event, you will give him a recollection for a lifetime, a red-letter day, from. which he may date his first musical enthusiasm. It is always well to give some preparation for any unfamiliar composition which is to be performed at the concert. The pro- gramme is announced beforehand, and you can get arrangements of symphonies and other works, and play over the chief subjects at any rate, so that the child shall be familiarized with the music to some extent and not quit the concert-rocm in a state of bewilder- ment, induced by a succession of novelties. In London and Bris- tol, and possibly in other towns, educational concerts for young people have been started, at which suitable programmes are arrang- ed, and explanations given during the afternoon. This is a scheme which may well be commended, and which will go far towards creating more intelligent and discriminating audiences. The musical future of a country hes in the hands of the public. As long as they are content with a low standard and are incapable of giving encouragement to real talent or of recognizing genius, so long the native art wi!l languish and will be forced to seek a. hear- ing in foreign countries, as has, alas! happened before now in Eng- land, to our shame be it said. Therefore the musical centres of home life should form the nucleus of an educated public opinion, which will spread outwards and leaven the community. Some of my hearers may think that I have made undue claims for what may be attained in the home through the power of music. Music, we must remember, is the youngest of the arts; as a develop- ment of the modern world it has to-day a wider, a. more potent and a more popular appeal than it has ever had before. Greece may have said the last word in sculpture; the mastery of the Italian painters has never been surpassed; we shall never read another Divina Commedia, nor will a greater Hamlet pass before our eyes. But in music the world is still young, its possi- 212 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN, bilities are undeveloped, it is ours to make or mar. This youngest of the arts is, I venture to think, also the highest, for is it not the most spiritual, does it not appeal directly to our emotions and stir our very souls? Is not harmony so bound up with the powers of the unseen that in music may be the key to life itself? ‘‘There are in music,’’ says the prose poet Thoreau, ‘‘such strains as far surpass any faith which man has ever had in the loftiness of his destiny. Music has caught a higher grace than any virtue I know. It is ‘the arch-reformer.’ It hastens the sun to his setting; it invites him to his rising. .. . When I hear this I think of that everlasting something which is not mere sound, but is to be a thrill- ing reality; and I can consent to go about the meanest work for as many years as it pleases the Kindoo penance, for a year of the gods were as nothing to that which shall come after. What, then, ean I do to hasten that other time, or that space where there shall be no time, and where these things shall be a more living part of my life?’’ SOME PRACTICAL THOUGHTS ON THE TEACHING OF MUSIC IN GIRLS’ SCHOOLS. By Crcitia Hint, Head Mistress of Wentworth Hall School, Mill Hill, N.W., London, England. Officier d’Académie (University of France). The position of woman in the world of music is of an import- ance not perhaps fully realized by herself. I do not claim for her any pre-eminence in creative talent. The compositions of women, with a few trifling exceptions, do not hold any lasting position at the concert or the opera. Nor am I dealing with the women whose talents as singers or instrumentalists bring them before the public. ‘But I refer to the hundreds of women of average musical ability who pay for the seats in the concert halls and opera houses (the audience for whom the composers and performers work). I refer to the women of leisure and taste, who find time to practise music in their own homes, who play and sing to their men-folk when they come home in the evening, who include music in the entertain- ments they provide for their friends; I refer to the amateurs who arrange programmes for charity bazaars, who give village concerts — in the winter to their poorer neighbours; who interest themselves in the choir of their church, and are on friendly terms with their organist. These women wield an influence which, if judiciously exercised, could work powerfully in the furtherance of that cause which all patriotic musicians have so earnestly at heart; the music of England and of the English-speaking race. All art that is to end on a national basis must start from a local point; every musical woman can create an atmosphere of music about her, a local school of taste and enthusiasm. That this fact is being gradually recognized is proved by the more serious and dignified position given to musical education in ART, | 213 the curriculum of all our good schools in England. I need hardly remind my audience, however, that the time is still recent when it was not so; when a girl’s whole musical education consisted in practising very many hours a day on the piano, and in producing something brilliant for the school concert at the end of the term. Only four years ago an eminent musician at a public meeting said, ‘‘In spite of the time spent by a girl in learning music, it was: a hundred to one that when she left school, she knew nothing of the: grammar of music, nothing of the history of the art of music, probably nothing at all of form, and last and worst of all, she was unable to read at first sight with anything like decent fluency.’’ We are doing our best to change this state of things. I would elaim that, by our more enlightened system, we shall in time pro- duce not only good performers, but intelligent audiences; girls who Inmow the difference when they hear it, between a Gigue and a Sarabande, who can discern the poverty of a song even through the glamour thrown over it by a favourite singer, and who ean, by their appreciation of what is really good, bring about that de- mand for the best music that will alone create the supply. For so long as the trashy, sickly song is applauded and encored, so long will new and more trashy and more sickly songs be produced; and when the women, who of necessity form the bulk of the audience, hiss these songs off the platform, then only will our singers turn to the inexhaustible gold mines of pure music. ‘‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.’’ T hope my audience will bear in mind that I am almost entirely ignorant of the conditions of musical education in Canada, and that many of my statements may seem absurd, or, what is worse, palpable platitudes; I can only speak of England, and it may per- haps interest you to hear what our good schools in England are doing with splendid and disinterested energy. SINGING. To begin with, they recognize that the child’s musical educa- tion must begin where Nature and Tradition would have ‘it begin: —with Song. ‘‘Let everything that hath breath sing to the Lord.’’ Every child should sing every day, and above all, sing the national folk-songs of her country. Her child’s mind must be steeped in the beautiful melodies that have survived the lapse of ages and are still as fresh as a wild rose from the hedge-row. This will give her music the right shape to start with. Early associations will give her the recognition of what is really beautiful in melody; her taste will be wholesome, fresh and discriminating. The literary beauty of these folk-songs, their dramatic simplicity, their intense patriotism, the haunting beauty of such tunes as ‘‘The Bay of Dublin,’’ the wild grandeur of ‘‘The Flight of the Earls,’’ the naive sorrow of ‘‘Barbara Allen,’’ the lovely curves of sound in ‘‘ Early one morn- ing’’—should satisfy every romantic and artistic craving of the ehild’s nature. These are the tunes that should be hummed and whistled about the house and the playing-field, these songs should 214 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN. form the schoolgirl’s repertoire, and be the choicest birthright of every British child. Serious musical education begins with the proper singing elass (which in the junior forms should be given for fifteen minutes every day), exercises in time and rhythm (best taught by the French in their admirable solfége classes), reading at sight (through the medium of the tonic sol-fa, side by side with the staff notation), ear training, by means of carefully graduated musical dictation not only of simple tunes (or even a succession of one or two notes), but of time exercises on one note; all these are the indispensable daily bread of the singing class, and form the foundation of proper musical knowledge. No matter how late a child takes up an instru- ment, she will learn it the quicker for this previous practical work, not one minute of it will prove wasted, not one lesson but will bear its fruit. As the child advances through her school life, the class singing is given less often; sight reading becomes more advanced.