Report of the Philanthropic Committee of Phila delphia Yearly Meeting of Friends Our Committee during the past year has felt an increasing concern to do active work upon our own initiative in as many parts of the Yearly Meeting territory as possible. Where it has been apparent that certain causes could best be served by financial assistance to institutions in which our members are actively working, we have made direct appropriations of money. The various organizations which we have seen fit to assist in this way are the Spring Street Mission, the Home for Destitute Colored Children in Philadelphia, the Laing and Schofield Schools, the Sarah Ann White Home in Wilmington, the Thomas Garrett Settlement Work of Wilmington, and Friends' Neighborhood Guild. We also made an appropriation of one hundred dollars ($100.00) to the Summer School for Religious and Social Study to be held at George School, with the hope that several of our members may be concerned to attend and become better informed concerning the complicated social problems with which our Committee deals. We have also freely purchased literature dealing with temperance, tobacco, peace, and purity, which has been distributed through the Central Bureau or placed on the shelves of this office, subject to call by local workers. The Central Bureau has made it possible for our Sub-committees to keep in close communication with the clerks of Quarterly and Monthly Meetings' Committees engaged in philanthropic work. We have placed in the Bureau a small loan library of books dealing with most of the important subjects under our care. Our Legislative and other Sub-committees have sent out through the office letters to the law-makers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, urging legislation on important matters such as equal suffrage, local option, prohibitory amendment, child labor, and the protection of women in industry, urgently asking their support of these measures. Suggestions for community work have been prepared by most of the Sub-committees and distributed throughout the Yearly Meeting territory. Topics of interest to Young Friends' Associations, dealing with equal rights, prison reform, temperance, purity, and work among colored people, have been tabulated and sent to the secretary of each Association. In some instances we have offered speakers for meetings held under the auspices of Young Friends' Associations or local committees. Purity The Sub-committee on Purity arranged for a course of lectures by Laura B. Garrett, to be given to the mothers of the pupils in two of the Friends' Elementary Schools of Philadelphia, and also a series of five lectures given to the older girls at the Friends' Neighborhood Guild. The Committee is satisfied that these courses have more directly reached a considerable number of people. than any previous efforts made by the Committee not be presented to large masses of people at once. have done. We recognize that this subject can. touch but must be given to comparatively small, selected groups. The Committee has exercised care as to the instruction in this subject in Friends' Schools throughout the Yearly Meeting, and has kept in with the larger movement outside our Society by association with the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Disease, and has sent a minute to the Vice Commission earnestly recommending the closing of all houses of vice in the city. Temperance Members of the Temperance Committee were present at Harrisburg at the hearings of the Local Option Bill which suffered a defeat not altogether discouraging, considering the size of the vote in its favor. The still greater number of votes favorable to the Prohibition Amendment was encouraging. The Committee has circulated copies of the Anti-Tobacco and the Anti-Cigarette laws of Pennsylvania, and prepared and sent out suggestions for General Exercises to all First-day Schools. It has prepared and furnished about four thousand (4000) copies of a leaflet entitled "What Does Signing an Application for License Mean?"; these leaflets have been distributed directly to the men who signed applications last year. The State Superintendent of Scientific Temperance Instruction has been employed to give instruction in several Friends' Schools in this Yearly Meeting, and we are arranging to continue and increase this kind of work. The final passage of the Webb Bill, prohibiting the shipment of liquors in original packages into prohibition territory, is a source of satisfaction to this Committee, as it seems to mark real progress in the public interest given to the subject. While no direct legislation dealing with temperance has been accomplished in any of the states in which our members live, the increasing numbers of bills dealing with local option, regulation or prohibitory amendment which have been introduced into the various legislatures indicate keen interest in the subject. The dry territory of Central Pennsylvania has been increased by the refusal of the judge of the Twentieth District to grant most of the applications for license made in Huntingdon County. An aggressive campaign has been carried on in Chester County with a view to inducing the judges by popular petition to refuse all licenses. As a result, half the licensed places in the County have been closed. Equal Rights The Sub-committee on Equal Rights has been very active during the year. It has furnished speakers for meetings at Horsham, Thornbury, and Concordville Young Friends' Association, and to Philanthropic Committees for meetings at Wilmington and Dolington. It also held an evening meeting at Race Street, Philadelphia. The greatly increased interest in the movement for equal suffrage enables this Committee to carry on its work very hopefully. The opportunities practical for it to use seem to be letters to legislators, public addresses, and the circulation of literature and sug gestions bearing upon the subject. Prison Reform The Sub-committee on Prison Reform has provided a speaker for a conference at Kennett Square and, in conjunction with Dr. Louis N. Robinson of Swarthmore, is working out plans for the better information of Friends on this subject, with the hope of inducing more of our members to engage as did our ancestors in the work of prison reform. We have offered to provide speakers from the student body taking work in Dr. Robinson's department, for Young Friends' Associations or other meetings. In several cases this offer has been accepted. There is no subject claiming the attention of our Sub-committee upon which the opinion of intelligent people is more rapidly changing than in the administration of prisons. We are increasingly recognizing that prevention and reform are more important than the mitigation of hard conditions or the economic care of Social outcasts. Proper Publications The Sub-committee on Proper Publications has through its members encouraged local newspapers to suppress the details of vice and crime, exercised a care over improper bill-posting in our towns, and where we have had representation on library committees, have endeavored to encourage the purchase of properly selected books and magazines for the reading table. We have subscribed for copies of "Scattered Seeds" where their distribution promised to be helpful. |