mt sre tenon = oe
Crema 4s}
Withdrawn trom Crerer Library
oe The Library
SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
AT CLAREMONT
WEST FOOTHILL AT COLLEGE AVENUE
ert “CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA
“O Wwf”
4
cde) aha | jas ae
ay Sy Ae
At 4 |
2:
THE SOCIAL ENGINEER »
sa aee 9 Me »
2,
. ote © 4. d
oot
>
a2
. a @%e 9%, #. iy e See Le = 292 99 ° = 2 ®%e 2 = ° ° 2
BY
EDWIN L. EARP
Professor of Christian Sociology, Drew Theological Seminary
NEW YORK: - - EATON & MAINS CINCINNATI: - - JENNINGS & GRAHAM
‘Theology Library
SCHOOLOR THEGL@ey AGE REMeN i California
Copyright, 1911 by EATON & MAINS
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER WHO TAUGHT ME BY HER QUIET CONFIDENCE IN
THE INTEGRITY OF HUMAN NATURE, HER
TRUST IN THE LEADING OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER, AND HER UNTIRING
ENERGY IN DOING GOOD, MY FIRST LESSONS IN SOCIAL ENGINEERING
Withdraw. i Cc 2 : = \rerar Dip, > = ; fl LaAR y Nn i I 208024
Be
CONTENTS
PAGE NWTRODUCTION «c)- sos sso e sete ce estes Seana ta hair ore connie eras / xi Why We Need the Social Engineer..............-.-- xi
All Human Life Socialized To-day in Consciousness and INGHVEIN esaGorae panba uaa DSS Do aOo od COCO nO ODED xiii The Religious Social Engineer............--.+.+-+++5+ Xviil
PART I THe SocraL ENGINEER IN THE MAKING
CHAPTER PAGE I Tur SoctaL CONSCIOUSNESS. .....2-+cee eee recess 3 Its Meaning and Value............+----+++-+5 3 Public Opinions, 5 isjasjso0025 ods epmiacs sis sees oe 6 The Social) Wille oe slerssina cele a iakemteianiesels evere @ ee 10 Social Control and Reform.............---+-+: 12 TE SoctaL ORGANIZATION. .....0002.c0cceceerceces 14 The Reasons for Social Organization........... 14 The Principles of Social Organization.......... 19 The Kinds of Social Organization.............. 21
The Relation of Social Organizations to Each (ONG dened AA 9 ot Gon oC bebo HEnead ce ea 3 III Socta MACHINERY AND SociaAL ENGINEERING.... 26 Social Machinery Defined.........---+20+++++> 28 Social Engineering Defined...........+++++--- 33 IV Soctran CuassIFICATION, CLEAVAGES, AND ConriictT. 37 Social Classification—How Constituted......... 38 Varieties of Social Classification...........---- 41 Factors Which Give Social Advantage.......-. 43 Social Cleavage Defined..........-.-+eeee ees 48 Social BarrierS........-2ccecseesceesesecrers 50 neta) OGIALC Uaeis ae erelacsietserencrereroueaieorehsneL ony atone 52 Christian Education and Society.........----- 55 V Tue Socray Erriciency oF THE INDIVIDUAL..... 59 Fundamental Questions.......-..++++eeeesees 60 Categorical Answers......-+-++++eee errr eres 61 Explanations. .......-.eeeseeeeeeereeeeees 62 An Educational Problem........-.-.+-+++++++ 70 Social Efficiency Utilized.........6--+2+-2 500 72 What the Church Can Do.......-..---+++-++- 76
Vv
vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE VI THe DrvELOoPpMENT AND EDUCATION OF THE
SOCIALSMIND foie ceetee oo tee em ie rere 81
What We Mean by the Social Mind............ 81
The Development of the Social Mind........... 84
The Education of the Social Mind............. 86
VIT Socrat: PROGRESS. \ nies) eel ele ote ol) s aie eet = we ee 91
A Topic of Social Education.................. 91
Tdeas of “Propress.i..eo ce ene 5 2 nee se Sees the 92
How Progress May be Measured..............- 95
Kinds of Progress to be Measured............. 97
Definitions of Progress..............-2+-e20005 99
VITL SocranSruping ne: aan. elo eee tte ieee 103
Specific Social Studies...............:.......-. 105
A Special Commission on Social Studies........ 106
A List of Specific Problems..................- 107
IX FRrenpsarp as A SoctaL Force...............-. 112
The Art of Making Friends................... 112
Friendship-a Paradox.4......¢.<.-0--s+--+-+e- 114
The Basis of Friendship...................... 115
Characteristics of True Friendship............. 118
Christian Hriendship..-m.c seats eee 120
XA SOCEAD LEADERSHIP? soe eoe iia oa nti ere 122
In the Field of City Government.............. 123
In Legislation and Administration............. 124
In the Field of Organized Industry............ 125
In Organized Charity... 0.1 c > es iar 126
XI THe Caukca’s: PERIL... oe oe cee eee ee rece 128
What Is'a Peril? sccicelhac sccm ete crcl erence 128
Failure to Attract the Multitudes.............. 129
The Spiritual Death Rate.................... 131
Failure to Master the Modern Social Movement. 132
PART II Tue SocraL ENGINEER AT Work XII THe Meanine or Socran SERVICE............... 137 Among Church Denominations................ 137 Illustrations of Social Service................. 139
Individual Social Service..................... 141
CONTENTS vil CHAPTER PAGE
XIII How tro Work THE SpsciFic Firups or Socran SHR VICE eed aelorfersiotcG oisieevesorieavalever keieunete 145 How to Do—the Modern Question............. 145 Methods Develop Readily for the Busy Man.... 146 Specific Wields eines ote ree cee erate ee te 148 The Study of the Fields.................++065 149 The Motive for our Study..............-.00-- 150 he Study of, Causes... asta cic vctsiels see ss = ole 153 XIV Soctarizep CHARITY.........0cccs cece cece eeees 157 What Concerning the Poor?..................- 160 What Concerning the Afflicted?..............-. 164 What Concerning the Bad?...............++-- 166 XV Tram Work For THE COMMUNITY.........--.-- 169 How ta Proceeds cca eis ello ts osnle sl eleleiei= te alas 172 1. Team Work Against Tuberculosis......... 172 2 For Public Health 02.2.5 2.2.00 ce cine os 174 8. Social-Service Department in Hospitals.... 175 4, Against Juvenile Delinquency...........- 176
5. For Keeping Boys in the Church During IAdolescencete acini sea atsinm ele sirieiscis ose 177 6. In Church Federation.............+++0- . 178 7. In Relating the Church to Industry....... 179 XVI Tue Crry PROBLEM...........0 cee ee eee e eres 181 The City Not a Menace........-+--++++eeeeee 182 The Fact of Congestion.........-2+s+eeeerees 183 The Results of Congestion..........-+-.s+++++5 186 The Causes of Congestion........--.++ss++++: . 187 The Relief of Congestion.............+++eee 190 XVII Preventive Soctan ENGINEERING......+-+-+-+- . 194 Prevention in the Medical Profession.........-. 194 Prevention of Germinal Diseases..........-+-- 195 Prevention of Drunkenness.........+.+se-es+5 198 Preventive Criminology......--+sssseeeeereee 201 Preventive Work for Defectives........+++-++> 203 Preventive Work Against Pauperism........-.- 204 XVIII PREVENTIVE SALVATION........-0eesee ee seeeeee 206 What Has Led to Emphasis on this Subject. ... 207 The Value of Prevention.........--+++-++ee05 209 The Method in Preventive Salvation.........-- 210 Guarding the Sources of Life.........-.++.+++: 212 _ Preventive Salvation Not Negative.........+-- 213
Preventive Salvation Educational..........+-- 215
vill CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE XIX Soctan SinNING AND SoctaL SALVATION........ els Definitions aon eee ee ote 218 The Social Perspective of Sin................. 221 Society May Sin Against the Individual........ 225 Society May Sin Against the Group............ 227 SocialliSalvation seers see ee eee ieee 228 The Social Factors in Salvation............... 228 What Can the Church Do?.................... 235 XX Tar CHURCH AND THE WORKINGMAN............ 238 What the Subject Implies.................... 238
The Church’s Present Attitude toward the Labor: Movement. sece eo. ee ee eee 241
How Can the Church Help the Labor Movement? 244 What Can the Labor Movement Do to Help the
* Chureli 2: ot 900 i 4 Sein Ste nine ec ee 249 XXI Tue Soctan SETTLEMENT............-ceccceeeee 251 Carrying the Church to the People............. 252 The Integrity of Human Nature............... 255 The Ministry of Personality..................- 255 " What Can the Church Do?.................... 258 XXII Tue Socran Causzs or THE Boy PROBLEM...... 262 We Have a Boy Problem... ..¢....<sasnsceuse 262 Family Neglect a Social Cause................ 265 Community Neglect... 5.254... «s0utl. «caumenee 268 Church Neglect a Social Cause................ 269 Preventive Salvation the Solution............. 271
XXIII Toe Socran Causes or THE Sprearruan DpatH RADISH EL AR BO ans ce eo Oe Rae 273 The Popular Use of the Term................. 273 Neglectof Childhood)... ... teas = oes +. eee 275 Neglect to Organize Adult Members........... 278 Other Causes Named............0..ccccccccce 281 XXIV ConseRvVATION OF CHRISTIAN RESOURCES........ 283 The Hacts in the:Casersse saeces one eee 285 What) Shall WesDo?s) san aaenie. en cee ee 293 XXV Tue Socta, Empnasis tn MopeRN Epucation... 297 Why We Need this Emphasis................. 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY,.« ten etreioeh eee eee eee 309
PREFACE
Iw presenting this work to the reading public under the given title, ‘‘The Social Engineer,’ T am fully conscious of its limitations with re- spect to the whole field of social service which has taken on technical forms in industry, in re- ligion, in philanthropy, in medical practice, and in the ever-increasing fields of charities and cor- rection within a very recent period. Yet I am quite sure that the subjects treated in the first part contain many of the essentials which any man should know before choosing social en- gineering as a lifework; and in the second part I have endeavored to point out some of the spe- cific social tasks and to indicate some of the methods which may be of practical interest to all who feel the need of doing the things that count for most in the betterment of human society. We are conscious of the fact that to- day the greatest waste of time and resources is not in lack of machinery or of men, or of knowl- edge of the forces available for achievement, but, rather, in the lack of men who can keep others at work with the machinery, and in re- lation to all the forces available, without so- cial friction.
The social engineer is meeting this need in
1x
ne PREFACE
modern society, and I shall feel gratified if in this volume I may have shown what he is in the making, and how he does his work in the fields of opportunity. As one deeply interested in the social tasks of the modern Church, and from the viewpoint of one engaged in teaching young men who are to become leaders in organizing the Church membership in performing these tasks, the writer has placed especial emphasis upon religious social engineering, while not neglecting to give the widest scope to the work of the social engineer in every phase of social organization for the elevation of humanity.
The purpose of this book is to meet a felt need now being given intelligent expression by men’s clubs, brotherhoods, Bible classes, Young Men’s Christian Association classes, and other organizations with philanthropic motives, for a text-book on social studies and actual social service. It is hoped that it will not only serve a demand of the busy pastor in the modern so- cialized ministry of the Church to the com- munity, but that it also may be of practical in- terest to the general public.
Epwin L. Harp.
Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J.
INTRODUCTION Wuy We NEep tHe Socian ENGINEER
Tere never has been a time like the pres- ent when the social class-consciousness was so highly developed. In all current literature we read the products of this class-consciousness in discussions of socialism, capitalism, trades- unionism, social democracy, class conflict, race antagonism, social classes, woman and child labor, congestion of population, race suicide, divorce, gamblers versus the people, the de- cisions of courts and the interests of a class, Legislatures versus the people, the saloon -versus prohibitionists, revisionists and ‘‘stand- patters,’’ and a thousand or more distinctions of a smaller group differentiation.
The problem of the unemployed is becoming acute in most of the great cities of the world, and the task of Sisyphus must be every year repeated in making up the budget for the vic- tims of poverty. The problem of congested quarters of the cities with the attendant misery. is disheartening to the most optimistic social workers in this field, and they begin to ask if there is not something fundamentally wrong with our economic system that permits these
conditions to exist. Xi
xii INTRODUCTION
Organized labor and organized capital, work- ers and employers, are often in conflict, involv- ing loss and suffering to both, and also to the public, which is dependent upon them for all it needs and uses in the complex industrial and commercial life of modern times.
Again we find the opportuneness of this subject illustrated from the fact that there are sO many organizations being formed in our cities and industrial centers to-day for the pur- pose of civic betterment, community welfare, and the bettering of the conditions under which men and women labor. Social settlements and institutional church work carried on by the so- cialized church organizations furnish splendid opportunities for our young people to engage in forms of social service, and afford channels of work where the social energies of the youth may be released for life-saving and life-im- provement. Many of these social organizations, as now conducted, are not distinctively Chris- tian, but could be easily made so if the better trained of our young men and women would join them, and by the force of Christian motive and character dominate their policies and ac- tivities.
Questions of sanitation and health and the social character of disease were never so em- phasized before in our growing city popula- tions. In one school last year in one of our
INTRODUCTION xiii
growing industrial centers during the first three days of the fall term, under the direction of a trained nurse as medical inspector, eighty-five children were sent home because their condi- tion was a menace to the health of the hundreds of their neighbors’ children present in the building; one case was that of scarlet fever.
Hospitals are to-day organizing, in connec- tion with their clinical work for outdoor pa- tients, and even for those receiving treatment in the wards, departments of social service for the purpose of helping the patients in their home environment, and of ministering to their social needs in the conditions causal to their real trouble. Men and women of broad charity and thorough training are needed who can take up the difficult task that is yet to be done after the physician has dismissed the case; and fre- quently they must call upon the organizations of the Church to look after those cases which require social treatment.
All human life to-day is being socialized in consciousness and in activity. In considering its ethical phase it should be understood at the outset that the modern movement for social service does not differ from other religious movements for moral reform so much in aim as in method or points of emphasis. It is a movement that involves organization of indi- viduals, codperation and federation of groups
xlV INTRODUCTION
in mass-effort for the accomplishment of social tasks. It recognizes that the powers of evil to- day are socially organized, and therefore the salvation of society involves social methods and machinery in order to overthrow the or- ganized powers of evil. It recognizes that to- day it is possible to ‘‘sin by syndicate,’’ and therefore our methods of salvation must be so- cialized. It is a movement to regenerate en- vironment so that the spiritual life of the in- dividual may have the best chance to function and prove its quality by fruitage.
While not ignoring the value of remedial agencies, it places emphasis on the preventive methods in moral reform. It seeks to better the conditions of living men not so much by prohibiting evils themselves as by the releasing of energies that will keep the life of the indi- vidual in society normal.
It means that the social consciousness of so- ciety has been aroused to the necessity of doing something heroic to regenerate the changing so- cial order by bettering the conditions of living where the life struggle and class conflict are most threatening to the whole structure of Christian Hivtaer a serious search for a social antitoxin that will destroy the toxic effects of social sinning in the body social; an earnest attempt to apply the preventive meas- ures of the gospel to the problem of sin as well
Pas a
INTRODUCTION XV
as the redemptive agencies of the Word of God. It means organization to discover the causes of social ills and an organized effort to destroy sin at its source. It means an earnest endeavor to save human life by regenerating and transforming the environment that pollutes and destroys the springs of human life. It is our endeavor not so much to save from the slum as it is a determination to remove the slum; not alone the screening of our children from infectious mosquitoes, but the filling up of the pools where they breed.
Social engineering means not merely chari- ties and philanthropies that care for the vic- tims of vice and poverty, but also intelligent organized effort to eliminate the causes that make these philanthropies necessary, and it means also an attempt at a readjustment of our economic and industrial system by wise states- manship through social control, so that the profits of social production may be more equi- tably distributed to all the legitimate factors in society.
In one age the master of the household could say to the men involuntarily idle, waiting in the market place for a chance to work, ‘‘Go work in my vineyard’’; but in our organized indus- trial age the captain of industry may send a message from his touring car in some remote village of the Alps through a cable company of
xvi INTRODUCTION
which he may be a director to some one in au- thority in ‘‘the system,’’ saying to this man, or group of men, ‘‘Go work in the mines, the smelters, the shops, the mills,’’ or in any other of the many activities in the complex organized process of getting the fruits of his vineyards or fields in place and form for the use of the consumer in a world market, as the case may: be.
We see the same fact in our church work; in one age it is the Master’s command for the seventy to go out into the cities and villages by twos or for the one hundred and twenty to go by ones to preach the good tidings of the kingdom; but to-day his command may mean the organization of societies, the establishment of institutions, the building of vast structures, the management of world-wide enterprises for doing the work of redeeming men and regen- erating human society.
In the industrial and commercial world we have learned that codperation is better than destructive competition, therefore we have cor- porations and mergers for conducting the great businesses of society with the maximum of effi- ciency and with the minimum of waste and cost in the process of production and distribution. So in the religious activities of the world we are learning that federation and codperation are better than denominational self-interest
> =F
INTRODUCTION XVii
and waste of economic resources and men in duplicating of work and overlapping of ter- ritory. Therefore the great religious denomi- nations and their subordinate organizations within them are becoming socially conscious of how, by federative action, they may together carry out the social program of Jesus and real- ize the vision of the prophets and the social ideal of the apostle Paul.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the modern social movement is that it seeks not to get all men to think alike, or to hold the same opinions about any given plan or project of social reform, but its chief aim is to get men to act together in an organized way for the de- struction of evils in society and the creation of good in the community. As a result, we find the most fruitful examples of social unity to- day in the field of service and not in the fields of controversy. We have no time for burning heretics in our haste to brand sinners in high places. We see religious denominations that differ widely in theological discussions working shoulder to shoulder in the battle with the slum and in the task of evangelizing the world in this generation.
This, then, is our point of view: we have reached a stage in the evolution and develop- ment of methods in social engineering where we see the need of emphasis upon the task of
XViii INTRODUCTION
realizing in social conduct the moral and re- ligious ideals we have been teaching the indi- vidual who lives in a real world that confronts him so often in the Christian race with a social handicap.
It is not religion that becomes insipid and unattractive to so many young men and women in our day, but rather more often our inapt, unrelated, sometimes erroneous, though usually well-meaning interpretations of the historic facts about it, or our blundering methods in carrying out our problem.
Tur Reuicious Soctan ENGINEER
The religious social engineer is one who can help the religious leader to establish a desired working force in any field of need, and keep it in sympathetic codperation with all other forces working for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth in harmony with the program and leadership of Jesus Christ.
It would be a calamity for a hungry house- hold if the harvest hands in getting ready for their work should plunge into acrimonious dis- cussion over the relative merits of machinery and methods, and even kill one another with their sickles, or play Juggernaut with their reapers and forget all about the harvest field, the threshing, and the grist.
Before the Christian minister to-day lies the
a~
_—
_-
INTRODUCTION XIX
great world field of teeming, throbbing, strug- gling human population, a vast network of organizations of human beings grouped in ac- cordance with the natural laws and forces that are at work through heredity and environment, and also the social integration and differentia- tion of these groups into voluntary and pur- posive associations, in response to psychic forces that have been aroused by an intelligent response to human needs immediately felt or more remotely discerned. His task is none other than the redeeming of the world, the re- generating of human society. . He is not only to proclaim, as did John the Baptist, that the king- dom of heaven is at hand, but also, with the daring and confidence of his Lord, he is to say not only ‘‘To-day is this program being fulfilled in your ears,’’ but is to back it up by sacrifice in intelligent service, and compel the multitudes among whom he has done his work to say, ‘‘This day is his program being carried out in our town.’’ His work is not done when he has preached his message to the individual alone, but it reaches further and includes the regenera- tion of the social order, so that the individual may find it easier to keep saved. To succeed in this field to-day he must not only understand the principles of social engineering, but he must have as his assistant the social engineer.
The man at the head of a great construction
XxX INTRODUCTION
company is just as much interested in securing a practical engineer to keep his men at work in the right place and at the right time as he is in securing men who can manage the technique of planning a structure and of judging mate- rials. In church work to-day we often have good leaders who know the technique of organi- zation; we have men who can finance church enterprises; but we often fail of the best re- sults in a community full of opportunities be- cause we lack the practical social engineers who can organize and keep at work the masses of men and women within the membership of our churches and Sunday schools. You sometimes hear of friction between groups of persons in carrying out some great enterprise in church work. Why is this? It is often because there is no one to do the work of a practical social engineer, who knows how to keep everybody at work in such an organized way that there will be no friction or interference between groups. It was during the Boxer rebellion in China, ten years ago, that a Methodist preacher who had studied practical engineering in his years of preparation saved the day for civilization and the Christian Church in that great empire. So we should insist that the men who go out from our colleges and theological seminaries shall have that acquaintance with practical so- cial organization and social engineering which
po +
INTRODUCTION “a
in any emergency of the social struggle will enable them to engineer all available forces in the defense of the faith.
We want men to go out from our halls of Christian learning with hearts warm with the love of Jesus for the world, and with heads clear with Paul’s vision of the kingdom; men who are wise enough, broad enough, and far- seeing enough to measure all the difficulties and relate themselves to the forces available for conquest; men with faith enough in their re- sources to say, ‘‘We are well able to possess the land’’; men who are strong and pure enough to utilize even the help of a Rahab in securing information regarding the character of the modern Jerichos. Sometimes even good men are so afraid of soiling their garments of ceremonialism that they allow the enemies of decent society to maintain not only dirty, dis- eased tenements, and contaminated milk, and an impure water supply, but also to pollute the innocent of our churches and homes by their unholy institutions open seven days in the week. Yes, we even let them elect sometimes aldermen to hold a deciding vote as to how our reforms shall be allowed to proceed, if at all.
We need men for these social tasks who are seeking a place to serve and not merely a place of honor. In all our religious organized effort in the past we have often suffered defeat be-
Xxli INTRODUCTION
cause we have allowed men to be in office who wanted the place rather than a chance to serve with efficiency.
Again, we need men of knowledge. Piety is an indispensable asset, but without knowledge it can be almost as inefficient in securing re- sults as indifference. We need men who know how to find the sources of evil and hit them hard at the strategic time and place, rather than waste their energies upon nonessentials which belong to the category of diversions; men who will not be diverted from the source of the fire in the basement by the sight of smoke es- caping from the roof of the building. We need patient men; not that kind of patience which cries, ‘‘O Lord, how long?’’ and does nothing; but that kind which after putting the rascals out of office is willing to pay the extra cost of keeping them out until the new regime has vin- dicated its right to remain in the confidence of all decent people and receive their support.
We must, therefore, develop a new type of minister or religious worker, a religious social engineer, for the work of the Sunday school, who understands the psychology of the adoles- cent and knows the social forces which domi- nate the thinking and conduct of young people; a social engineer for the men of the church who have no work to do in many cases worthy of a man of strength, one who knows the city and
INTRODUCTION Xxill
its needs and can relate the men and women of the church and the community to the civic life of the town or city. Another type of social en- gineer should be developed for the country problem, who will be able to direct the social forces of a whole county and relate them to the best interests of the State and nation. Still another type of engineer is needed who will be able to deal in an intelligent way with the for- eigners in the villages and towns and the great colonies of them in our large cities. In other words, we need a type of man who knows the value of social machinery, and how to run it, and is willing to stay on the job.
PART I
THE SOCIAL ENGINEER IN THE MAKING
CHAPTER I THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Tr the social engineer is to become an im- portant factor in our modern civilization, it will be necessary for him to develop in himself the social consciousness before he can hope to succeed in molding the opinions of others in the performance of social tasks. It is, therefore, our purpose in this chapter to point out some- what in detail the function of the social con- sciousness in the doing of social service. This will involve a discussion of its meaning, its re- lation to public opinion, the social will, the work of social reform, and the establishment of per- manent social control.
Irs MEANING AND VALUE
Now, we all know that we live in many re- lations of which we are never conscious except as they are pointed out to us, and in others of which we are conscious only at times. In fact, the mind is made up of a body of knowledge, a mere fragment of which we hold in conscious- ness at any one time, and it is by the aid of the memory, or of some other person repeating to us the facts, that we bring these fragments of
3
4 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
knowledge into consciousness. So with the mind of the community. Many things are go- ing on of which the community is not aware, whether for good or ill, and these facts must first come into the consciousness of society be- fore anything will be attempted in the line of social service for the betterment and welfare of the community. The great task in social en- gineering is to keep society conscious of its needs until it can be aroused to do what ought to be done to better the conditions of which it is aware, or to change the social habits and cus- toms of a people so that evil may be avoided or good achieved.
We often make use of an ‘Irish bull’’ in the expression, ‘‘One never takes advice until it is too late to take it.’? The reason for this is plain. The one giving advice seldom has it in consciousness until the tendencies he sees in others have already led to conditions which awaken it, and the one to whom it is given sel- dom, if ever, brings it into consciousness until a condition is reached that awakens him to it, and then it is often too late to take it, for that particular case at least. For illustration: here is a boy who becomes conscious that he has taken cold and so he goes to his mother with the fact. Now, it is not likely he was conscious at the time of any indiscretion, such as going out without his rubbers, talking at the door without
= =
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS ak
coat or hat too long with his chum, or sitting in a draught while in a perspiration after play at recess. His mother may have warned and ad- vised him concerning all these points, but his trouble was in not having them in consciousness at the proper time to avoid the result. So in every community there is great need for that kind of social engineering that will keep the in- dividuals and the groups, as well as society at large, conscious of what is necessary to do to prevent social ills as well as of what may be done to destroy them after they have taken root. The greatest service of the life guards at the seashore is warning people of the dangers and keeping people from going out too far. It is only incidentally they have to rescue from drowning some foolish one who has not taken heed and ventured too far out.
In the work of social service for the com- munity there are greater need and more promising results in the sphere of keeping the social consciousness of the people awake to the modes of prevention rather than to the methods of rescue. Our resolutions of indignation on the discovery of conditions of evil in a community will mean more when we have done more public service to pre- vent them. As Professor Patten has well said, ‘‘When we see a drunken man reeling in the street we talk much about the weakness of hu-
6 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
man nature, and not enough on why the saloon remains on the corner.’”!
Social consciousness, whether in the indi- vidual or in the mind of the group, involves not only the consciousness of the presence of others but the idea of moral obligation in those relations; not only the notion of how others may help me, but also how I may help others by rightly associating myself with them for our mutual good and well-being. We see, then, that there is nothing mysterious about the social consciousness, but that it is a familiar fact of ordinary Seatiae, What we need to under- stand is its relation to the work of social service and social organization. In the history of all social reform there must first take place the awakening of the consciousness of need. This in its organized form we call public opinion, in group action the expression of the social will, and in the changed social order we desiente it as social reform, or social control.
Pustic Oprnion
It is not only necessary to have present in society the consciousness of social needs, but these needs must be intelligently understood before anything is likely to be attempted in an organized form for the good of the community. This intelligent understanding of social needs
1“The New Basis of Civilization.”
st
==
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS is
we call public opimion. Professor Cooley ex- presses the idea as follows: ‘‘We may find so- cial consciousness either in a particular mind or as a cooperative activity of many minds. The social ideas that I have are closely con- nected with those that other people have, and act and react upon them to form a whole. This gives us public opinion, in the broad sense of a group state of mind of which the group is more or less distinctly aware. The unity of public opinion, like all vital unity, is not one of uni- formity but one of organization or interaction and mutual influence.’’! Here, it seems to me, is one of the most fruitful fields of social en- gineering for our Sunday schools, and brother- hoods, and kindred organizations of young peo- ple, as well as for the public congregation, and that is, the development of the social conscious- ness of many individual minds into organized expressions of public opinion.
Public opinion is not possible without the means and agencies of intercommunication of minds with similar ideas. A distinguished mis- sionary, returned from the Philippine Islands a few years ago, said: ‘‘In the Philippines there is no public opinion because there is no way of creating it. They have [then, 1905] no news- papers; and if they had, the people could not
1See Publications of American Sociological Society, vol. i, 1906,
e *p. 101.
8 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
read them, because they have so many different languages and dialects, and there are few in- telligent enough to read if they could get them. In this country you buy your public opinion for two cents in the morning and one cent at night.’’ He meant by this that to have public opinion that will respond to a need in the community we must have the means of communication. The Sunday school is a significant illustration, be- cause we have in our organization and litera- ture the means of performing for the public this most important social service. Of course the initiative must be taken by the minister, su- perintendent, and their intelligent and efficient corps of teachers. In matters of civic improve- ment such a movement may be started with an adult Bible class, or a brotherhood, or Epworth League, Christian Endeavor Society, or some other adult organization in the Church com- munity. To illustrate how public opinion may be effectively organized: some years ago a student in one of my classes in the university who was preaching in a country town dis- covered that there existed in that place a no- torious gambling den that was so conducted in connection with a candy shop and cigarette stand that many of the boys and young men were being corrupted and drawn away from the Sunday school and church. He asked me what he should do. I advised him to organize a
= oF
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 9
committee of trusty men to investigate, get facts and affidavits, and, after finding the law applicable to such facts, to present them to the proper authority and at the same time give the facts to the public, preferably through the daily press; and if it refused, to employ the pulpit and platform in giving the facts to the public. He succeeded in a short time in ridding the town of a social evil by organized public opinion that the people as individuals had been conscious of for years, but had never before seriously considered removing by concerted action.
By using the International Lessons and the publication of literature on the same themes we have done a splendid service for church unity and Christian federation among Protestant de- nominations; and by the adoption of such de- partments of social service in the Sunday school literature of the present the editors have taken a wise step toward making possible the spread of public opinion of a sane, Christian type upon many of the pressing social problems of the present, such as child-labor, divorce, the social evil and the disastrous line of social diseases that follow in its wake, the improvement of the conditions of the wage-workers, the menace of congested population in the cities, and the betterment of life conditions in the rural dis- tricts.
10 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
THe Sociran WiLL
The Hebrew prophets were led to say, ‘‘The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,’’ but the modern prophet can change that a little and say, ‘‘The people are destroyed for lack of well-codrdinated social action in matters they already know full well.’’
*‘Social will differs from public opinion only in implying a more continuous and effective guide to social development.’’! We discover after a little investigation that many of the ills of society are not directly willed by anybody, but are the by-products of conduct otherwise willed—for example: drunkenness, social dis- eases, accidents in industry, the slum, depriva- tion and suffering of neutrals in warfare, ete. All are the results of ignorance. A young man is killed in the act of trying to stop a runaway horse, not because of any bad will, but, prob- ably, because he was ignorant of the method of seizing him with the minimum of danger and the maximum of good result. A man greatly esteemed by his firm, and of great value to the community and the Church, in attempting to catch a car in motion, that he may meet an ap- pointment, is crushed beneath the wheels. Here is an ill to the community the result of conduct with good intent. The high death rate of in-
1See Cooley, op. cit., p. 104.
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 11
fants in the downtown district of the city is not due to the bad will of anybody in particular, but, rather, to the lack of social will in provid- ing for the inspection of the milk supply, the cleaning of the streets, and the proper enforce- ment of adequate tenement-house laws. ‘‘Thus it is not bad will, but lack of will, that is mainly the cause of evil things; they exist outside the sphere of choice. We lack rational self-direc- tion, and suffer not so much from our sins, dark as those may be, as from our blindness, weak- ness, and confusion.’
While it is true that most ills in society are not directly willed, yet it is, nevertheless, true that there are some very great evils that are directly the outcome of the evil, selfish will of certain individuals who, like a distinguished citizen of no mean city, when before an investi- gation committee, declared he and his political associates were working for their own pockets all the time. Such evils as have been unearthed during the last ten years have been possible be- cause the public had not yet become conscious of its power to correct them, while individuals who knew they were breaking the law were will- ing to take the risks because of the ignorance of the public, or because they thought public servants could be bought off with threats or bribes. The public social will has been stirred
1 Cooley, op. cit., p. 106.
12 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
to action in punishing the ‘‘boodlers’’ and ‘‘grafters,’’ ‘‘rebaters’’ and ‘‘loan sharks’’ in many parts of the country, and we believe it is possible so to develop the social will that so- ciety by its obedience-compelling power may be able to bring all wrongdoers to justice, and so modify legislation that the individual wrong- doer can no longer dodge behind the corpora- tion, or the corporation dodge behind the law; we shall then have brought that kind of reform through social control that will guarantee the greatest good to all legitimate factors of human society.
Socran ControL AND REFORM
All our social activities, however, expressed in movements and organized effort for social reform, would be but a thankless task if they did not result in permanent habits of social con- trol in the community. We have had some splendid examples in the recent past of how the will of the people can be aroused so as to inau- gurate great social reforms, as, for example, in city government administration, State pro- hibition, control of public service corporations, and anti-gambling legislation; but it yet re- mains for us to prove that we can keep the public conscience keyed up to the tension of our knowing whether these reforms are to be made permanent and progressive until we have
m= =<
THE SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS 13
reached the state of permanent stable social control.
Here, then, is our supreme task—the develop- ment of administrative efficiency that will re- sult in permanent social control. This can be done only by persistent effort on the part of all our educational institutions and agencies in the home, in the Church, in the State, and in the nation at large in awakening the social con- sciousness of individuals and groups to see the social needs of our times; in the organization of public opinion through the various means in intercommunication that will become an in- telligent guide of the social will, which must be aroused to definite and persistent effort by altruistic motives in the Christian community, and in the patient, persistent performance of public duties until reforms become permanent habits established in institutions of social con- trol.
CHAPTER II SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Ir is our purpose in this chapter to give more in detail the reasons for social organization in the community, the principles to be observed in the formation of such organizations as shall be of real value to the life of the people, the kinds of organizations that best meet certain classes of needs in society, the principles gov- erning the relation of organizations to each other, and the conclusions we may draw from these facts that may be of value to the social en- gineer in every community.
Tur Reasons ror SoctaL OrGANIZATION
It must be understood at the outset, by all workers within the Church and Sunday school, or any like organizations which propose to do social service, that the reasons for social or- ganization are primarily and fundamentally ex- pressed in the various needs of society and the actual conditions of human beings outside of rather than within the special group that is merely seeking to perpetuate its own organized existence, or to get glory by making some kind of a statistical report at a convention of the
14
AAs =f
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 15
like-minded. Whenever any organization has reached a stage where most of its energies are put forth to maintain its own existence, rather than perform a service to the community, it has already forfeited its right to be called an organization for social service. It would be like a fellow I saw once attempting to mow a field of grass; the most of his time was spent in whetting his scythe, going for a drink, eating his lunch, and resting in the shade. The real reason for his being there was that the grass needed to be cut.
We are beginning in our day to sympathize with the tramp (rather than with his employer) who left his job because he could not see any sane reason for carrying a pile of stones from one side of the road to the other, repeatedly, even to furnish an industrial test for a ‘‘hobo.”’ Many young men and women lose interest in organizations within the Church and com- munity because there seems to be no real good reason for their existence. There are always fewer desertions from the army in times of war than in times of peace, because the rank and file can see more clearly the reason for drill and forced marches.
There is a law in society that should be emphasized by all social workers ; it is that the association of presence is always strengthened by the association of activity; that is, people
16 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
who have been associated in like forms of work are more likely to get along together in an or- ganization that depends for its strength upon the unity of its members. Or, in other words, the strongest and most vigorous organizations are those which have as their real object the doing of work that counts for something in a community apart from the existence of the organization itself. I sometimes think the real reason the disciples had toiled all night and had taken nothing was because they had east their net on the wrong side of the ship; or, to put it in another way, they had put the ship between the net and the fish, for when, at the command of Jesus, they cast their net on the right side of the ship, it was ‘‘filled with a multi- tude of fishes.’’ It seems sometimes that as ‘‘fishers of men’’ we get the organization be- tween our real purpose and the people. We seem to spend more time in holding meetings and banquets, and geeing and hawing over points of constitutionality and parliamentary practice than in actual work in the fields of op- portunity.
All social organization is based primarily upon needs that are felt in the community, and begins its life only after these needs have been intelligently understood by some one in the group who takes the initiative, and when they have been made known in an intelligent way to
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 17
others of the group. Later on, however, in the administrative work of social organizations needs more remote are discovered, and ways of meeting them are provided for by further organization, until, finally, we reach the stage of culture and civilization that is made up of a vast nexus of voluntary purposive associations and organizations to meet the various needs of men with highly developed social con- sciousness.
Tt will not be necessary to go into detail con- cerning the many and various needs now in the consciousness of society. We give only one or two examples: The fact of cruelty to and neg- lect of children has been known and felt by the human race since the days of Solomon, when with real tact and practical wisdom he settled the dispute between two women as to who was the rightful mother of the child in question ; but, as a matter of history, there lives to-day in the vigor of age the man who organized the first ‘‘Gerry Society,’’ for the specific purpose of the prevention of cruelty to children. Now, everywhere, we have established child-saving institutions, and only recently a Conference on Dependent Children was held in Washington, D. C., at the call of the President of the United States,! which has led to the use of the expres- sion, ‘‘conservation of the national resources in
1 Called by President Roosevelt, January 25-26, 1909.
18 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
children,’’ and the proposed bill in Congress on a ‘‘Federal Children’s Bureau,’’ which has for its purpose ‘‘the investigation of all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child- life, and especially questions of infant mor- tality, the birth rate, physical degeneracy, or- phanage, juvenile delinquency and juvenile courts, desertion and illegitimacy, dangerous occupations, accidents, diseases of children of the working classes, employment, legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories, and such other facts as have a bear- ing upon the health, efficiency, character, and training of children.’’
Another example is to be seen in organized labor. Starting with the consciousness of need under the conditions of long hours, in unsani- tary surroundings, at a meager wage, the move- ment to better these conditions by shorter hours for a day’s work, healthful conditions in which to work, and higher wages, has gone on until its demands embrace needs more remote, even the distribution of profits, as well as legislation and political control in the interests of the wageworkers. So from the initial reason for organization we at length reach the point of intelligent consideration and practical treat- ment of ‘all the more remote factors in any problem that presses on the public for solution.
AS
a
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 19
THe PRINCIPLES OF SoctaL ORGANIZATION
When the social consciousness of a com- munity has been aroused by the needs felt and intelligently expressed, and social organization determined upon, it is of importance to know what are the essential principles of social or- ganization if we would reach the best results in social service. We consider these to be as follows:
1. Function and not form. It matters little what form an organization may assume if it has a true function. In fact, it is a well-known principle in biology that function gives form to the organism. This can be observed in the changed condition of the skin of a boy’s heel after going barefooted in the summer time, or in the calloused palms of the college professor after hoeing his garden in the springtime, or in a thousand instances in the life of fauna and flora in the changes that take place in the proc- esses uf evolution. So with a social organiza- tion; its functions should determine its form; the work it has to perform in society should de- termine the character of its formal structure.
9. Purpose and not plan—that which keeps in view of the end toward which we are work- ing apart from the initial need. We can some- times afford to differ in matters of plan if we can all agree on the purpose for which we are
20 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
organized. When a man in deep water is cry- ing for help a lifeboat may be best, a rope may be good, a strong swimmer may be available, or even a plank thrown to him may buoy him to shore; but all the time there is but one pur- pose, and that is getting him on shore.
3. Consecration as well as a constitution. In fact, in most societies that do any real work in the community there are few of the workers that remember a line of the constitution. Some- times we have to be reminded of constitutional limitations in the way of a man of unusual fit- ness for public office, and proceed to get around them by legislative enactment for the sake of utilizing the man of real consecration to public duty. There is little use in attempting social organization for any specific task unless there is consecration and patience enough to make things go in spite of opposition and discourage- ment, for these inevitably follow social innova- tion.
4. A strong conviction in the social mind that human nature is capable of responding to per- sonal appeal in the endeavor to save individuals, and groups from one condition to a better state of existence—such a faith as Jesus had when he committed the whole scheme of a world’s re- demption to a few fishermen, taxgatherers, and tentmakers, who up to the day of Pentecost
1 Secretary of State Knox, for example.
aoe
=<
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 21
seemed to have understood his mission but poorly, and yet with consecration and zeal they wrought until they had turned the whole world upside down and placed the cross at the front of the conquering legions of the Roman empire, which made forever possible the dominance of Christian over pagan civilization.
It is that Christian principle of conscious- ness of kind that enables us to see in every human being, no matter how low in the scale of life, a member of the human brotherhood who needs our sympathy and our help, that motive principle in society that releases energies for rescue and reform not by virtue of what man is, but by virtue of what he may become, by the grace of God and the help of his fellows.
Tar Kinps or SoctaL ORGANIZATION
The kind of social organization necessary for the performance of social service in any community will have to be determined from the character of the needs, immediate or remote, to be met. For example: in a city where there are vast numbers of delinquent boys who have been before the juvenile court and put on pro- bation, an organization like the ‘‘Big Brother Movement?’ in New York city might be what is needed, or a ‘‘Big Sister Movement’’—organi- zations in which the individual man or woman, acts as a big brother or sister to some boy or
22 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
girl who is without home advantages in giving through the ministry of personality an example of better living and a chance to improve oneself by honest effort without the stigma of accepting charity and thus becoming pauperized. In an industrial center where there are frequent ac- cidents resulting in loss of work, and sometimes in the loss of the breadwinner, social engineer- ing might take the form of an organization to place in remunerative service children old enough to work, or a day nursery to care for the little ones while the mothers and older mem. bers of the family are at work, or societies for loans of money to buy coal or pay rent under such conditions. Or it may be a need more re- mote, such as an educational society to help some worthy boy or girl through the college or professional school. In the congested city it would mean the institutional church, or the so- cial settlement, or a commission appointed by the city authorities.
The mission fields afford another example; here some schools support their own mission- ary, or a native Bible worker; or the church may establish a whole mission station in some part of the home or foreign field, and call upon the organized groups of the various societies of the church to raise the funds necessary. We may classify social organizations, therefore, from the viewpoint of need, or from the view-
Enid —
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 23
point of the specific activities they perform in the social field.1
Tue RELATION OF SocrAL ORGANIZATIONS TO Eacu OTHER
Tt is a well-known fact in church work that there is often a lack of harmony and coopera- tion between the various subsidiary organiza- tions of the local church, and often between like organizations of different denominations. Now this is being overcome in many quarters by the progress of federation and brother- hood among the like-minded in denominational bodies. This, however, is characteristic of all social organizations. There are stages in the life of organizations in their relation to each other just as we observe in the group life of the race. Conflict is followed by toleration of equals; alliance and codperation follows, and at length sympathetic and pleasurable relations are established as a result of an intelligent understanding of mutual interests in the same social field. It would be a fact greatly to be deplored if the various organizations of the Christian Church should fall behind industrial and political organizations in the progress of peace. The time will come in the local church and the individual denomination, as well as be-
1¥or a fuller classification see chap. iv of “Social Aspects of Religious Institutions,” by the writer.
24 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
tween all the forces of Christian effort, when the program of Paul! will be carried out in the endeavor to minister to the social needs of mankind.
Social organization in the church for social service in the community does not necessarily involve a separate group of men and women, or of boys and girls with banners, banquets, and bouquets, but, on the contrary, it may mean no specific new organization within the church at all, but, rather, an intelligent direction by the superintendent of the Sunday school, teach- ers, and special field workers, of capable young men and women, and even big boys and girls, in lines of effort of their own accord or under the direction of social organizations outside that can be trusted to give such direction. In fact, a great mistake is often made in organiz- ing a separate group in competition with, if not in actual opposition to, like organizations already in the field that should be strengthened by strong men and women from the Church, rather than harassed by their misdirected zeal, aS is sometimes the case. The Associated Charities, for instance, or the Children’s So- ciety, Rescue Mission, Clinic, the Municipal Dis- pensary, Lodging House, the Day School admin- istration, Boys’ Club, Chamber of Commerce, City Clubs for Community Improvement, and
11 Cor. 12.
se A er:
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 25
many other like organizations for community welfare and social betterment, may well be co- operated with and enriched by the services of men trained in the Church and Sunday school; and many cases of need and plans for com- munity improvement could be delegated to these organizations and societies.
But in communities where this cannot be done let there be organized first a group for the intelligent study of the needs to be met, a care- ful survey of the membership with respect to fitness for leadership in the various groups to be formed to meet specific needs; and, where proper leaders cannot be secured, it would be better to wait before organizing until such leadership as is needed may be trained or other- wise secured.
Gastronomical appeals should seldom, if ever, be made for purposes of membership or of arousing interest. If we must have banquets, ‘‘feeds,’? and suppers, let them be only inci- dental to the serious work of interesting men in their fellows. Social organization, there- fore, must be based upon reasons that appeal to men, principles that are fundamental to suc- cessful effort and achievement, and of such kinds as the various needs require, and so re- lated to the entire field of social service as to avoid social friction and economic waste in min- istering to the social needs of the community.
CHAPTER IIT SOCIAL MACHINERY AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING
In the last chapter we considered social or- ganization from the viewpoint of the reasons for such organization, the principles underly- ing such organization, the different kinds of organizations that correspond to the needs in society, and the relations existing between dif- ferent kinds of social organizations. It is de- sirable at this point to consider the practical phases of social activity by discussing social machinery and social engineering.
In the ordinary fields of human activity we are confronted with certain tasks, we are ac- quainted with the forces about us available for work, and we therefore invent machinery or utilize mechanical appliances already invented to accomplish the work involved in our tasks. We also discover that better work can be done, and our tasks accomplished quicker, if we know how to engineer the forces available and direct the workers so as to secure the greatest effi- ciency with the least waste of time and material. This involves the practical engineer as well as the one who can work out the technical prob- lems connected with our work. So in the work
26
—
ee
SOCIAL MACHINERY 27
of the church and its various organizations it is not sufficient to merely organize a group of workers for any social task. We must also con- sider the social forces available, we must also invent social machinery, and utilize the prac- tical engineer in directing the workers in the field as well as discover the technical ability of the professional leaders in social work.
Not disregarding the achievements in pure science, we are to-day putting greater emphasis in education upon applied science, upon those studies in mechanics and engineering that will equip men for doing things as well as knowing things. So in our religious and moral activities, we do not depreciate the achievements of the philosophers, the theologians, and the sociolo- gists in the fields of discovery and organization, yet to-day we need to place more emphasis upon the practical tasks of utilizing the social forces we have discovered, and in keeping men at their work until achievement for society has been realized. In religious education we have been for years drawing out of the treasure house of knowledge the truths of the Word of God for human conduct, but for some reason we have not gotten the results in achievement for the human race that all this teaching would de- mand. So we have begun to look to the field of applied Christianity, with the purpose of in- venting ways and means of utilizing all these
28 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
forces and splendid energies in the Church and Sunday school that seem to have in large meas- ure been going to waste because we have had no social mechanics through which to make use of them. And even where we have succeeded in social invention we have been defeated in our purpose often from the lack of practical men to manage the forces in the field. We have often placed men in responsible positions in church work not because they were competent but simply because they wanted the office, or because we were willing to submit to a majority vote. In some communities churches and Sun- day schools have been depleted in ranks not be- cause there was no machinery and organization, but because there were no practical leaders available to do the work required.
Socotra, MacHINERY
By social machinery we mean that which so- ciety invents or appropriates for the purpose of making its will effective. It may be a plan or mode of action involving an individual, or a group of individuals, or even another organiza- tion which is subservient to the larger group. Yor illustration: an agent, delegate, or ambas- sador is not a vital part of the organization or society sending him, but simply a part of the social machinery used to carry on its work. Or, again, take, for example, the printing office of
SOCIAL MACHINERY 29
the government, with its network of organiza- tion: it is established, organized, and equipped for the purpose of printing the matter used in government business, thus making the will of the government known to individuals, com- munities, and responsible groups which com- pose the nation at large. We may classify briefly these various agencies and machinery of society as follows:
1. Civic: such as bureaus, departments, com- missions, boards, trustees, ete.
2. Military: such as armies and navies, with their subdivisions and boards, staffs, etc., con- stabulary, ete.
3. Educational: institutions, school boards, surveys, research bureaus, institutes, museums, exhibitions, ete.
4. Religious: churches, institutional boards, missions, settlements, classes, etc.
5. Industrial and Commercial: transportation and intercommunication lines, manufactories, markets, trade centers, etc.
6. Charities and Philanthropies: almshouses, asylums, dispensaries, hospitals, etc.
7. Correctional Agencies: courts, prisons, re- formatories, industrial colonies, juvenile courts, and probation system, etc.
All of these agencies and machinery of so- ciety are invented or created and utilized by the group life of the State to make the social
30 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
will effective in carrying out the policies of the government. Now, the practical question for us in this connection is, How are we to relate the millions of men and women, boys and girls who are in our Sunday schools (and will be passing through and out into the intricate net- work of society from generation to generation) to the tremendous social tasks involved in'the use of all this machinery. that society has in- vented and will invent to make its will effective? How can the Sunday school as an educational institution apply the knowledge of social or- ganization and of social machinery, as above described, to the task of socializing the indi- viduals we control so far as their moral and religious instruction is concerned?
It may be assumed at the outset that most of the adults in the school have gleaned a body of knowledge from contact with society, as they are daily a part of it, hence this body of knowl- edge needs only to be systematized in the mind | of the student; and to do this the teacher must be able to give the student the principles and theory of social organization. He can do this by the use of text-books or by the ordinary method of the lecture room. This is the theo- retical part of the task.
The students are, however, capable of being organized for social group work, so that they - may get a practical knowledge of the subject
Fee —<
SOCIAL MACHINERY 31
under discussion. It is true this will be on a small scale, but almost all the phases of social machinery may be demonstrated in this way among the students in the community life. This involves also field work under the leadership of a competent and prudent teacher or helper. For example: visits may be made to legislative halls, courtrooms, industrial plants, banks, so- cial settlements, institutional churches, hos- pitals, asylums, dispensaries, parks, play- grounds, country suburbs, etc., where the organized life of society may be demonstrated and the working of social machinery observed. Again, these phases of social activity may be demonstrated by maps, charts, photographs, and by getting the workers in these various fields to visit the class and describe their work in a personal way.
It is true that some of our social tasks may involve the invention of new modes of activity, as, for example, the kindergarten, the Sunday school and church nursery room, etc.; but most of our social tasks may be performed by simply utilizing the machinery already in use by others or by adapting old methods to new conditions. There is one fact with respect to social ma- chinery that is most encouraging: it is that it has no patents—so we can appropriate it at will. We sometimes think, however, that what is used in so-called. ‘‘secular’’ society should, there-
32 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
fore, per se, not be used by a religious in- stitution. I have no sympathy with that view. ‘<The altar sanctifieth the gift,’’ and one of the lessons we want to learn quickly in our church work is not to let the devil have the monopoly of much of the social machinery available for doing good in the community.
An old godly shoemaker in a Southern town was unalterably opposed to the introduction of an organ in the church where he worshiped. At last the younger members of the congrega- tion outnumbered the ‘‘conservatives,’’ and an organ was purchased. The first Sunday there- after service was well started by a hymn, ac- companied by the organ, after which the super- intendent of the school called on the old brother to pray. All was quiet. Again the superin- tendent said: ‘‘Brother B—— will please lead us in prayer,’’ and to the amusement of the school and the amazement of the superintend- ent, Brother B made reply, ‘‘Call on your machine.’’ The point I wish to make is this: in the work of social service for the community the Church and Sunday school do not neces- sarily need to invent new forms of social ma- chinery for carrying on such work, but they can easily and readily utilize the forms of or- ganization and machinery already worked out for them in the community, and the great op- portunity we now have is to give many of these
A= a:
SOCIAL MACHINERY 33
so-called secular forms a religious significance by manning them with religious workers.
Socotra ENGINEERING
We mean by this expression the art of making social machinery move with the least friction and with the best result in work done. It is well known that the man who is at the head of a great construction company is in- terested in securing men who can manage the technique of planning a structure and judg- ing materials. When the great Stadium at Syracuse University was being constructed I used to admire greatly the president of the con- struction company, the architects, and the en- gineers, who did the planning and the buying of materials, etc., but no class of men gave me more inspiration to do big things than those men we call practical engineers, who kept four or five hundred men steadily at work on the job in such an organized way that there was no loafing and no getting in each other’s way, while the structure went steadily but surely up to completion.
Now, in the work of religious social engineer- ing we need just such men as can get things done by the use of ordinary men in forms of constructive work in the community.
T know a church that has succeeded in secur- ing over five hundred new members in less than
34 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
fifteen months, making in all over a thousand members, and, on personal investigation, I dis- covered that it was due not to any new ma- chinery brought into the church service, nor by: any startling new methods of work, but simply by practical engineering of the forces of the church by a few men, the pastor himself being the leader. During the winter a few years ago he found the shops in his district running on part time, or closed because of the financial de- pression. He got some of the wealthy men to volunteer to give practical help to the families of these shop men, and he thus won many of them and their families to his church. Again, the following winter, he wanted to interest the men of the church in the working men outside the church, so he codperated with the Young Men’s Christian Association field-workers and canvassed his whole district one Sunday for a big evening service for men, giving them the main floor of the auditorium, while the gallery was reserved for the women; and then he se- cured the strongest speaker for men available, so that as a result he has to-day the support and good will of every labor union in that part of the town, because he has demonstrated to them that he and his churchmen are interested in the temporal and spiritual welfare of the men of the community. Now he has solved the problem of social engineering. |
¥ SOCIAL ENGINEERING 35
It may be thought by some that we have few such men and women in our Sunday schools and churches who know how to do the practical engineering in the group work of the com- munity. I think this is not the case. I believe there are many such if we only knew how to discover them. A man who is working in the ‘gang’? to-day may be a foreman or practical engineer to-morrow in the work of construction in the building trades. So in our church work: if we know the needs of the work we are under- taking, and the machinery to be manned, we can ~ often discover the right man in one of our groups to become a leader or social engineer in the work of constructive social service in the church community.
In education emphasis is being placed to-day upon discovering the aptitudes of the student, and then directing his education according to his bent. So in this work of social leadership we may not hope to succeed by trying to put all through the same mold. We must recognize, as did Paul, that there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit, and seek to get men and women into forms of service they can do, and so direct them that together they may accom- plish much for the uplift of the whole com- munity and at the same time develop in the man a character worthy of any religious test.
Such men will be trained only in the labora-
36 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
tory of human experience, so we must begin by teaching the boys to work for their fellows. We can begin with team work in play, until we get them in later years to stand firm in every good work for social reform and not shirk even when the struggle is hard and expensive.
If it is a social service of a political char- acter, do not put a crank on the job, but some man who knows something about politics, who has been in a caucus, who knows how to get things done in such a-body representing differ- ing interests. A good illustration of this is the attempt to organize the forces of the Church in anti-saloon work. You cannot make a moral issue a political issue and then hope to succeed in the campaign as you would in a debating so- ciety or in a revival meeting. The character of the task demands political methods (of course of the right sort). If the task is one of charity or philanthropy, put a man on the job who knows how to deal with the case, or who knows to what institution within the city to refer it. If it involves financial ability, put a man on the job who has some notions of finance, and who knows the value of money. If it is a religious task, put a man on the job who has gifts of spiritual insight and whose heart interest is in that kind of work.
CHAPTER IV SOCIAL CLASSIFICATION, CLEAVAGE, AND CONFLICT
We have considered thus far in our studies in the field of social service the meaning and value of social consciousness in the forming of public opinion, arousing the social will, and de- veloping social control; the meaning and prin- ciples of social organization; and the practical value of social machinery and social engineer- ing in carrying on our work in the fields of so- cial activity. We come now to the considera- tion of another very important subject which confronts the social engineer at every turn, and that is the fact of class consciousness which is awakened by the facts of social classification, cleavage, and conflict, which may have been in the process of formation long before the many ‘become conscious of their presence in society. Unless the social engineer admits these facts and studies them, he will often be defeated in his plans in the practical fields of social reform.
While there is, no doubt, to-day a great deal of random, meaningless talk about the signifi- cance of ‘‘the class struggle,’’ ‘‘the class con- sciousness,’’ ‘‘the caste system,’’ and like terms, yet there is some serious discussion among
37
38 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
earnest men whose interest in the welfare of society is unquestioned concerning the mean- ing and ultimate results of class consciousness and class conflict in America to-day.’
It will not be possible for us within the limits of this chapter to go into a full sociological treatment of the origin of class based upon facts of race differentiation, or differences growing out of degrees of vitality, or of per- sonality. But we will confine our discussion to some of those more simple and practical dis- tinctions of class which are based upon some social advantage gained by the possession of wealth, culture, skill, leadership, heroism, fam- ily, pedigree, or royal prerogative.
Soctan CLASSIFICATION
One of the first questions raised is, How are social classes constituted, and how do class dis- tinctions arise in any country, especially in a democracy like our own? I think that all so- cial classification grows primarily out of the tasks we have to perform in doing the world’s work, or the place we fill in society made for us or by us, and the natural consequences in phys- ical, mental, moral, and social structure that follow. ‘‘Class distinction’’ is a term that has come to represent various classifications of
1See Professor Cooley, ‘Social Organization,” chap. xxi; also John R. Commons, Publications of American Sociological Society, vol. ii, 1907, pp. 138ff.
a 8
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 39
population within the boundaries of a nation, State, or community, and has its true basis in social advantages of the individuals or groups * with a class consciousness. It is possible to con- ceive of a time in the history of the human race when every individual in the struggle for ex- istence—with the crude weapons which nature furnished him, or his unfolding mental abilities could invent, and his unskilled hands could fashion—was on an equal footing with every other creature of his own species, just as we may conceive of a time in the history of the earth’s surface when everything was at sea level; for there was no land with hills and mountain ranges.
From another viewpoint it is possible to con- ceive of a state of society at some ‘‘millennial dawn’’? when every man will be again on an equal footing socially with every other man, just as we may conceive of some distant day when this old earth by the process of erosion and deposit will again be reduced to a dead level, or, like other dead planets, be reduced to a condition of absolute death, when there will be no question of class distinctions because there will be no one to raise the interrogation. But when we come to study the actual world in which we live and move and have our being we discover natural forces which produce varia- tion in every aspect that appeals to the human
40 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
senses. In the inorganic world we discover the variations in configuration of the earth’s sur- face of rivers, lakes, and oceans, of mountains, hills, and valleys, and in the quality of soil and minerals that rib the eternal hills. In the or- ganic world also we have the innumerable varia- tions in structure, form, and quality of fauna and flora that keep the zoologist and the bota- nist until now busy in making their classifica- tions. It is not strange, therefore, that in the world of human associations we should find variations and classifications of men and women, the result of the operation of social laws and forces just as real and effective as those we have discovered in the inorganic and organic spheres of nature’s activities—with this marked difference, however, that here we are dealing with the element of freedom in personality which gives a relativity to all class distinctions, because no barriers are absolutely fixed, for even the barriers of caste, as in India and in other countries, have been broken by the force of Christian brotherhood.
From an economic standpoint many class distinctions are natural and necessary, for. the greater part of the world’s work is economi- cally dependent upon class distinctions. Heco- — nomically, it is inconvenient for a professional man, who must always be dressed in suitable form to receive his clients, to be his own coach-
a= “2
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 41
man and groom his own horse. Likewise it is inconvenient for his wife to receive callers while she is busy with domestic duties in the kitchen. Hence the natural thing is for the professional man to hire a coachman, and his wife a maid or cook. So in every sphere of human activity, a division of labor is necessary from an economic standpoint, and this tends naturally to fix or mark off one class from another in conscious- ness; and yet we can see that all are equally necessary for the economic and social life of the - community, and hence from a broader and more intelligent viewpoint each class should be hon- ored as a necessary part of the social process.
VarIetIES OF SoctaL CLASSIFICATION
In monarchical governments we generally speak of four classes of population—the rul- ing class, the titled class, the gentry, and the peasants—while in a republic like ours, based upon ideas of equality, liberty, and fraternity, there is, theoretically, but one class—‘‘the peo- ple’’; but as a matter of fact we have at least three, if not four, general social classes: the wealthy, élite, or leisure class, which usually in- cludes those who govern; the middle, or pro- fessional and employing class, usually owning more or less property or controlling property interests; the so-called working class, or labor- ing class, those who do the manual labor neces-
42 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
gary in the supply of human needs; and a fourth class, known as the pauper class, who are un- able to produce for themselves and are depend- ent upon those who give to their support wholly or in part. There are still other classifications that are more general in character, based en- tirely upon what is termed social standing. These are sometimes called the upper classes, the middle classes, and the lower classes. At other times they are designated the élite and the common people. From an economic view- point they are called rich and poor; from an educational basis, the educated and uneducated, the learned and the ignorant; from a moral viewpoint we classify men as good and bad; from a religious test, as saints and sinners, believers and unbelievers; from a theological standpoint we label them as orthodox or het- erodox.
It is easy to see at a glance without very much reflection that in the constitution of all these various social classes there is a quantita- tive as well as a qualitative element; and if we go back far enough in the historical evolution of society, we will find that all classifications have their basis in property, prowess, or phys- ical and psychical traits of personality. These more modern classifications of society are based upon the same principles, or upon principles that have been derived from these. This ac-
ae A =
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 43
counts for the fact, as we shall see later, that in communities where the caste system or other artificial distinctions have not already become fixed the barriers between the various social classes may be easily crossed, as the individual may possess or be deficient in these principles or possessions which entitle him to class dis- tinction. One proof that such distinctions of class are more or less artificial and quantitative is the fact that under the stress of some su- preme need or sudden danger or fear these ideas of class distinction for the time being vanish from consciousness and all seem to be on a common level—for example, a shipwreck ora fire. It is, therefore, safe to conclude that social classifications are largely a matter of the social class-consciousness, and leisure tends to emphasize such distinctions in consciousness ; and, as a rule, those who make the most of such distinctions are those who lack the wider social perspective, or do the least of the world’s work. After all, it is those who flaunt their fur-_ belows in the faces of those who toil that stir up the greatest amount of hatred or ill feeling between the social classes of a community.
Factors Wuaicu Give SocraL ADVANTAGE
If we discover that class distinctions are natural and necessary, and that class conscious- ness is a fact in society that cannot be ignored,
44, THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
it is a matter of interest to all educational in- stitutions that have to do with the plastic period of youth, when social ambitions are ripening into definite fruits of activity, that they should take into consideration what are the factors available in the life of the individual that may give him social advantage among his fellows in the realms of social progress.
Among the many factors which give social advantage may be enumerated the following:
1. Blood relationship, or the status of one’s family. It is an old saying that ‘‘blood will tell,’’? and there is nothing which gives greater advantage in society in many parts of the world than the fact of being born well. In some com- munities one’s pedigree or family tree is an asset which gives him entrance to the highest social circles. Of course one in this country of heterogeneous population does not insist on climbing the family tree too high, lest, as a dis- tinguished African from the South said, ‘‘he find an ape up there.’’
2. Wealth. Just as among primitive peoples property was a mark of social distinction and a gauge of power in the community, so to-day wealth has become a social barometer, and fre- quently those who have the greatest wealth hold the highest place in the social scale, if we are to judge from the attention they receive from their fellows, deserved or undeserved. This
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 45
point can be emphasized by reading the guest list of public functions and state dinners.
3. Culture. In every country the wise and the cultured have sooner or later gotten to the top in the social scale, and in no country more than in the United States is the cultured man, the educated man, or the man of practical wis- dom thought more of and respected more by all classes of society. Hence next to wealth, culture or learning gives one social prestige. We see this illustrated again and again in the eareer of the American student. Coming, as he often does, from the homes of those who struggle for existence, and do the hard labor of the world’s work, after passing through the school, the academy, the college, or the univer- sity, he has usually won a position in the social scale which gives him the hope and the ambi- tion, if not the actual ability, to attain to the highest positions in social standing in the com- munity where he lives.
4. Position or profession. In America posi- tion, or profession, such as governments offer, or the management of some great industrial or commercial enterprise, or the profession of teaching, of preaching, of the law, or of medi- cine, gives social advantage. Here, as in all other factors, character counts for more than the mere position or profession. The time has come when society rewards a man not by virtue
46 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
of his office, or the cloth he wears, but by the character of the service he renders to society.
5. Leadership. The ability to take the lead in any movement among any body of men, as illustrated in military circles in the army and in the navy, in political life, as well as in the field of athletic sports. In America many a man of humble origin, like the immortal Lin- coln, has won his place in the hall of fame and in the highest circles of society by the genius of leadership in all these fields of human en- deavor.
6. Skill or inventive genius. The ability to do something that no one else can do, whether it be in the field of diplomacy, in statecraft, in invention, navigation, engineering, or as an ‘‘Tndian’’ scout.
7. Heroism. The man who dares to take his life in his hand for the rescue of his fellow man, or who does some daring deed for the good of the State, or the safety of the fatherland, wins social advantage though he may have been reared in the lowest circles of society.
8. Vicarious service. The man or woman who gives up social opportunities for the sake of service to others, like the missionary, the physician, and the nurse, has always won a place in the social esteem of his or her country- men, though sometimes the coronation has been too long delayed. John Wesley, Florence Night-
= a
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 47
ingale, and Bishops William Taylor and James Thoburn furnish us splendid examples.
These are some of the more important fac- tors that give social advantage, but there is a growing social consciousness in every com- munity that includes the humbler factors of everyday tasks well performed. So we are com- ing to see that anyone who does a requisite part of the work necessary for the health, happiness, and safety of the community has won the right to our respect and social esteem, whether he sit in the office of state, the professional chair, whether he stand in the place of the captain of industry, the captain of the ship, or the cap- tain of the army, or whether he be the humble citizen doing his daily tasks as the scavenger of the city, the stoker of the boilers, or the private in the commissariat. All are doing a part of the work of the world which makes our social progress possible, and should, therefore, have a share of the social honors and esteem that we have to offer as a reward.
The Sunday school and other institutions of the Christian Church are doing a great service in keeping open the doors of opportunity that lead to social progress, and nothing will con- tribute more to the effectiveness of that service than the knowledge of what really constitutes social classes and what are some of the factors that give social advantage.
48 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
SoctaL CLEAVAGE
When we use this term with reference to so- ciety we do not mean for the reader to infer that we believe society to be inorganic, and sub- ject to the laws of cleavage as the term is used in geology. It is only in an analogical sense that we consider society as capable of being split up into groups or structures in the same way as one would split a rock for building pur- poses. It is true that in race differentiation and in countries where castes are formed we have a stratification of society almost as marked as that in the earth’s structure; but in modern so- ciety among progressive peoples, especially under democratic forms of government, we have no such barriers that exclude one class from another, and yet we have that principle of social differentiation at work that makes progress and nation-building possible. 'This we call social cleavage. You may have a rock mass that is of little use in its present form and po- sition, but by understanding its lines of cleav- age you may utilize it in structure building in any place or in any form most desirable and most useful. So with a population mass; it seems to us sometimes a useless incumbrance in the savage group, the teeming wretches of the caste, or the threatening movement of the mob; but when we understand how men may.
a=
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 49
be organized and grouped in codperative en- deavor, and in sympathetic altruistic service for the good of each in society, we see how it ~ ean be utilized for the good of the community. While the actual lines of social cleavage may, not be visible to the unthinking in a population group, yet they are there just as surely as in the rock mass from which we shape the blocks of the granite or marble that make up our noble structures. We can observe this in a new set- tlement; out of the population mass there de- velops organized and orderly society because the possibilities of social cleavage were present in the population mass.
I wish it understood at the outset that social cleavage, in itself, is not an evil, as many would suppose, but a good to society if intelligently utilized by social leadership. The real difficulty in society is not in the fact of social cleavage and social organization, but, rather, in social friction and social conflict. To make use of the analogy a little further: We find that the lines of cleavage and the utility of a rock mass de- pend upon the process of rock formation— the way the structural units were put together. So in society, the utility of social cleavage de- ‘pends upon the social process by which the in- dividuals of a population mass are related to each other in the development of society itself. If men are taught from birth to despise the
50 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
members of another group, as under the caste system, then it will be almost impossible to de- velop an organized democratic government and society among them. If men of any country are taught from childhood to consider themselves as members of a ‘‘class,’’ and to despise as ene- mies those below them in the scale of life, then it will be impossible to avoid social friction, class hatred, and class conflict. Social cleavage is thus changed to social stratification, and we get as a result social barriers set up between classes, because class consciousness has de- veloped faster than social consciousness. These facts give to the Church and Sunday school an unusual educational opportunity; for, as we shall see later in the discussion, Christian edu- cation is the only force that can develop a so- cial consciousness in the individual and in the group that will be able intelligently to make use of the great law of social cleavage in de- veloping the ideal society.
Soctan BARRIERS
When we speak of social barriers between various groups of population it is only in a metaphorical sense that we use the term, for the life of the community is a whole that can- not be regarded as actually set off by fences or walls. It would be nearer the truth if we spoke of these barriers as terraced, for we find it very
A= -—=
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS BL
easy to slip from one social plane to another, as it is possible by ambition and energy to ascend.
Of course in a country like India, where the caste system has long been established and recognized, these barriers seem absolutely fixed for life—as absolute as that gulf between Dives and Lazarus; and to some extent in a monarchy these barriers are more or less fixed between the ruling class and the titled classes, and those beneath them in the social scale, yet it is quite possible in a constitutional monarchy for dynas- ties to change, or be set aside, and for a man to rise from the peasant to the ruling class. But in a republic, such as our own, these bar- riers are in no sense fixed as yet, these terraced walls may be scaled by the ambitious when righteous endeavor is persisted in, or when the gracious hand of inheritance is reached down to help one up, so that it is not unusual in this country for young men and young women to rise from the humblest circles of the struggling masses to the highest positions of social dis- tinction among the truly élite. On the other hand, it is equally true that the man who does not rightly appreciate the position that he holds by inheritance, or has reached by endeavor, may easily slip to the bottom of the social scale, and. even lower, into the very pit of the depraved, by social sinning.
52 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
It frequently occurs in modern American so- ciety that many families through financial suc- cess are prematurely placed in social positions for which they are by education and training unfitted, and hence they are an embarrassment to themselves as well as to their associates, and such have won for themselves the title of the ““noor rich.’? Some of them rightfully deserve such a title, because they usually advertise the fact by the loudness of their dress as well as by the boisterousness of their speech. On the other hand, there are those in every community who are well born, well bred, and truly cultured who, through struggle, misfortune, or circum- stances over which they have no control, are living on the verge of need, and whom we right- fully designate as the ‘‘rich poor,’’ and in a more scientific classification we could number them among the truly élite.
We find, therefore, that social cleavage based upon natural distinctions among men is a good, and makes social progress possible, while artificial distinctions tend to social strati- fication, and are a drag to progress, and usually result in social upheavals, cataclysms, and so- cial revolution.
Socran ConFuict
Social conflict takes place in society after so- cial groups have been formed, and is not an
a= a
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 53
unmixed evil, for it may result in social prog- ress. In fact, some sociologists have based their theory of society upon this principle. It is claimed that conflict either results in con- quest, thus giving the stronger a better chance, or it results in a combination of smaller and weaker groups against the strong until we reach the struggle of equals, which must ulti- mately end in toleration; and when equals come to tolerate each other they are not long in de- veloping a consciousness of kind that will re- sult in sympathy, and later in pleasurable as- sociation. So there exists the hope that conflict between nations will ultimately result in the federation of the world and the brotherhood of man. But in the process there is the enormous waste of life and substance, and men are asking seriously if there is not some other and better way to reach this supreme goal of society which Christianity has contributed to the world as a workable program. Why do we still have social conflict? We think of the wars of history and of the present, of race antagonisms and class conflicts between groups of the same race— actual warfare, which we name in milder terms, such as strikes, boycotts, lockouts, struggles between organized and unorganized labor, be- tween organized employers, organized em- ployees, competition as destructive of values 1Gumplowitz, ‘“Der Rasenkampf.”
54 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
in many instances as war or fire or famine. On the other hand, we see groups in conflict be- cause of the moral struggle involved and the moral values that are at stake—conflicts of re- ligious groups for the doctrines they hold as essential to salvation. Why all this? we may ask. Is there no better way? It is easy to give a philosophical answer, but it is quite another thing to solve the actual problem.
The reason is largely one of consciousness. One of the chief causes of social conflict is the fact that we develop class consciousness faster than we do social sympathy, or what I term the true social consciousness, that takes account of moral obligations and responsibilities for the other group whether strong or weak. A second cause of social conflict is the passion in the hu- man heart for social justice. Now, the two go together; so long as you have class conscious- ness you will have social injustice; and social conflict is the result. But, on the other hand, the passion for social justice develops the social consciousness by seeking to help the weak and defend the good, and hence the tendency is for groups to develop a wider reaching social con- sciousness until codperation has displaced con- flict and peaceful relations result.
Now, this seems to leave us in a sort of dilemma as to how we are going to succeed in maintaining peace in orderly, progressive so-
aS
ss
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 55
ciety. It is just here that I wish to put em- phasis upon Christian education in the Church and Sunday school as the chief factor in the solution of this perplexing problem of to-day.
Curistian EpucatTion anpD Society
One of the best examples of the development of social cleavage of the right sort is to be found in our educational system in the United States, and especially in a college, high school, or a graded and progressive Sunday school. Here we have the graded system that tends to sepa- rate the pupils in class-conscious groups, while at the same time there is developed what we call ‘‘college spirit’’ that unites all in one larger group, or the denominational spirit that unites all the various groups of one Sunday school and church into a conscious social group of larger dimensions.
The evil result in the history of Christian education under denominationalism has been the tendency to denominational caste, or re- ligious social stratification, so that instead of being a help to religious progress it has been a fruitful source of religious strife, intoler- ance, and bigotry. But in modern times the spirit of brotherhood and federation seems to have well-nigh removed all the barriers; so that it is a common thing to-day to see the members of the various denominations
56 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
yoked together in the band of volunteers for the evangelization of the world. Here, then, it seems to me, is the supreme opportunity of the Church and Sunday school—to instruct the millions of the most susceptible youth of our generation so that they may see the value of social cleavage as a part of the social process, and at the same time be taught the meaning of social justice that requires of them enlistment in the warfare against organized vice and sin and crime; and, further, they should be given that view of society that will enable them to see the obligations we bear to one another in the great social fabric of which we are but a part, a social consciousness that will overcome class consciousness and lead them to see the rights of others in the fields of opportunity.
Much of the conflict in society to-day is the result of inadequate notions of honor in social service. If men could be led to see the dignity of toil wherever honestly expended for the pub- lie weal, they would be so moved by the sense of justice that every man who does a necessary part of the work that contributes to the life, health, and happiness of society would receive not only his rightful due of the honors society bestows, but would receive also a larger share of the profits of social production.
The evils in society will never be removed by simply crying down the conflicts that may be
a
_s
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 57
oaly a result and not a cause, when the real task we have to perform is the removal of the causes of these results we so vigorously decry. The industrial problems of to-day will never be solved by running down organized labor, nor by abusing the organizations of capital, but, rather, by giving to all men the facts that will arouse their innate sense of justice, and lead them to deal justly with their fellows. But you ask, ‘‘How can this be done?”’ It is not so diffi- cult as it seems, for we are apt to become dis- couraged at the bigness of a task because we see it as a whole, when, as a matter of fact, our part in the process of performance may be but a simple part of it all. For example, tell your class on Sunday not only the precepts of Jesus that bear upon the theme, but tell them also of some concrete case you know of in your own community. Tell the city boy how the farmer boy must go without many good things because the unscrupulous commission man cheated his father out of nearly all the profits of his sea- son’s toil in raising his crop for market; or tell the boy in the country how some poor man in the city was robbed of his property by some unscrupulous ‘‘loan shark’? when he was in - need, because he was unable to. push his case with any hope of success in the courts. Take your class for an outing and show them the actual groups of living human beings that
58 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
make possible social classification, cleavage, and conflict. In fact, when we come to look about us, the easiest task we have in the Sunday school and in the day school and college is to give the student a concrete example of what we mean by our words. It is not easy, however, unless the teacher himself knows what the facts are, and the reason he does not know them is not because the facts are hidden, but because he has not trained himself to discover and to remem- ber them.
Jesus’s life and method were successful be- cause he lived with the people the things he was constantly teaching them. The teacher and the social leader in every field will succeed likewise when he learns to teach others by self- mastery of the truths he wishes to impart.
There are a number of interesting problems that would logically come under this heading for discussion, such as race prejudice, the Negro problem in America, the labor problem, pauper- ism, and the like, but we defer them until later. It is possible in such discussion as this to ignore the value of the individual as a factor in so- ciety, so in our next chapter we will consider the social efficiency of the individual.
CHAPTER V THE SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF THE INDIVIDUAL
We pointed out in the last chapter how it was possible for us in the discussion of social classification, cleavage, and conflict to ignore the value of the individual as a factor in so- ciety. We therefore take up in this chapter the topic of the ‘‘Social Efficiency of the Indi- vidual.’’ .
Some time ago a student in one of our lead- ing universities wrote me a letter of inquiry con- cerning several practical problems in current sociological discussion. Among other things it was asked if it were not true that to-day em- phasis is being placed upon the endeavor to recover the great man in society rather than upon the questions of the mass, or the power of environment. In replying to this question I said, among other things, that it is true we are looking to-day for the great man in society, but it is also true that we measure him, neverthe- less, in terms of social value, and that his effi- ciency in society as an individual always de- pends upon the fact that he has in some way achieved social esteem by the service he has ren- dered to society; and this service is possible of
59
60 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
achievement because he has developed a social consciousnss in advance of the social conscious- ness of his fellows representing the group, and also because his will is controlled by social mo- tives rather than by selfish ones, and, further, because such a man is in a real sense the prod- uct of his age, and the society he serves, plus that element of personality which we decivaan as freedom of the will, self-determination, or the power of initiative.
In this day of fads in social discussion, and in social legislation and social organization, of socialistic theories, of socialistic parties in politics, one is apt to become bewildered, and from the viewpoint of the individual is apt to ask: ‘‘Who’s who?’? and ‘‘What’s what?” ‘‘What is the individual, anyway?’’ I propose, therefore, in this discussion to state certain fundamental questions concerning the efficiency of the individual in society ; to give certain cate- gorical answers to those questions, to give an explanation of my answers, and to show, in con- clusion, how the Church and Sunday school and other religious social agencies may develop the social efficiency sought in the individuals com- ing under their instruction.
(QUESTIONS
1. What is the individual ‘‘socius,’’ or the individual as we find him in society?
ae eS a
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 61
2. What is social efficiency in the individual?
3. What are the elements of such efficiency in the character of such an individual?
4, What are the factors that give the indi-
vidual in society such elements of character?
The answers to these questions will furnish us not only with useful knowledge with respect to the members of a social group but will also furnish us a program by which we, as preachers and teachers, may do effective work in making society better through our influence upon the individuals, and the social groups as well, that come under our instruction.
ANSWERS
It will serve our purpose better to give first a simple categorical answer to each of the ques- tions just given above, and then to give a more extended meaning of the terms employed in these answers.
1. In reply to the first question I would say, as follows: The individual ‘‘socius’’ is the product of heredity (used in its broadest sense) and environment plus personality.
2. By social efficiency we mean the ability of the individual in society to express himself by activities that may be measured in terms of social values.
3. The elements of character of such an effi- cient individual are those physical and psy-
62 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
chical abilities which win for him the highest social esteem and enable him to perform for society the greatest good.
4. The factors that produce such elements of character are those physical or psychical forces and powers available in the life of the individual for his highest development and use.
For the most of my intelligent readers this would be sufficient, merely to state the ques- tions and answers as above, and leave it to the reader to work out in detail their meaning. But words and terms do not always have the same content and meaning for the different individ- uals using them, so we deem it necessary to give some words of explanation, which we hope will lend additional interest to the subject under consideration.
EXXPLANATIONS
1. When we behold a great man in society, majestic in his proportions, it is not a sufficient answer to the inquiring mind to say, ‘‘Thou hast made him a little lower than God and crowned him with glory and honor’’; we want to know something of the process by which such characters are produced. It is not enough to simply say, ‘‘God made him great,’’ for we want to discover some of the agencies that have been used in the process, and know our relation to them, if we are to be coworkers with God in the
ae er
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 63
molding and fashioning of human character. Even when we see a thoroughbred horse or a good cow with a record we want to know some- thing of how they get the breed. The taunt of Cassius to Brutus concerning Cesar may be- come for us a method of serious inquiry when we consider the greatness of a Moses, a Paul, a Lincoln, or of any other great man of the pres- ent who is doing great things for humanity. We should know upon what meat they feed, that they have grown so great, in order that we may be most effective in the service we can render for human betterment.
If the individual is a product of society through the forces of heredity, environment, and of personal freedom, it is, therefore, of the utmost importance that we know the laws of heredity in the transmission, from parent to offspring, of physical, psychical, and moral traits that shall vitally affect the efficiency of the adult life. We should know also the great social laws of environing conditions repre- sented by the terms ‘‘imitation,’’ ‘‘opposition,”’ and ‘‘adaptation,’’ and our power to control them through education! We should also understand the range and limitations of per- sonal choice and the power of initiative and self-control. We are just beginning to learn
1 For a fuller explanation, see “Social Aspects of Religious Insti- tutions,” by Edwin L. Earp, pp. 5-7.
64 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
how social man really is in his entire make-up. If you isolate him from society, he soon loses his reason, as is shown by imprisonment in soli- tary confinement, and in employment like the isolated lighthouse tending, where now they place two together to avoid insanity, and it is said that even this social circle is so small that both are apt to become insane.’ It is also shown in the study of suicide. Professor Ross says: ‘‘Few commit suicide from physical an- guish, from pain, cold, or hunger. A man is more likely to renounce life when some catas- trophe happens to the image of himself he is accustomed to see in the eyes of others.’’... ‘Again, there is nothing like social relations to keep down suicide. Isolated, the individual who meets with shipwreck lets go of life; knit up with others, he is supported by sympathy and encouragement, and hangs on.’ Again, the fact is shown from records that from three to five times as many single as married per- sons commit suicide. No individual of real value is isolated from society. Even the ‘‘wild man of Borneo,’’ of whom the college students some- times sing, is a rare exception, and the fact that he ‘‘has just come to town”’ is proof that even he is not entirely devoid of social instincts.
1See Publications of the American Sociological Society, vol. i, 1906, Discussion by Mrs. Gilman. 2See op. cit., p. 102.
re
ae.
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 65
2. In explaining our second proposition—that social efficiency is the ability of the individual “<socius’’ to express himself by activities which are measured in terms of social values—we are not interested, especially, in all the phases of human activity covered by this definition, but, rather, with that kind of social efficiency that may be measured in terms of moral, spiritual, and economic advantage to society—whether expressed in a qualitative or quantitative way. Now, it must be understood at the outset that society is not always conscious of such ability, nor does it always measure it contempora- neously with the life of the individual possess- ing and expressing it. For example, take the life of Jesus. It is growing in social estimate with every century, and men like the writers of the American Constitution, or Abraham Lin- coln, receive more social esteem. to-day than ever before, because society is more and more conscious of the social value of their deeds. So with the religious reformers like Savonarola, Calvin, Luther, Knox, the Wesleys, and the missionary pioneers of every century. It is difficult to determine the exact degree of in- dividual social efficiency when questions of honor and social standing are raised. Yor il- lustration, take the life of the stoker on a battle- ship as compared with that of the captain on the bridge, the skilled workman as compared
66 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
with the contractor or archiect, the worth of the city scavengers to the health and happiness of the people as compared with the work of the sanitary officers, the mayor and aldermen of the city government. No one can determine off- hand the relative value of the activities of such men without considering all the factors in the process of keeping the city well governed, or the battleship in efficient service, or the build- ing complete for the uses for which it was de- signed and erected. The ability of any indi- vidual to serve his age lies in reality in the fact of his possessing, in some measure at least, a social consciousness. Without it he may do the directed work of society that may be of im- portance, but he will be in no sense a leader without it. It is not alone in what the initial activity is in itself, but, rather, in the cumula- tive and multiple effect, by wise social direction, upon the activities of others that we are to find the social worth of the individual. In other words, a man’s social efficiency consists not alone in what he can do himself directly for so- ciety, but also in what he can get others as in- dividuals and organized groups to do for the good of society at large. Such efficiency of the individual is ideal when every act, consciously or unconsciously, contributes to the good of self, offspring, and society as a whole. Another fact must not be overlooked. The
Sant ==
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 67
individual to receive the highest social estimate of worth must have the esteem of his fellows as well as ability if he would be most efficient in service to society. We could name men living to-day who have rendered able service to so- ciety and possess ability, but who could not, if they desired, render the same service to society because they have lost the esteem of the people at large. We have seen in every community, especially in church and Sunday school work, persons possessing ability, yet lacking in the confidence of the people; like a pretty, noble- looking horse my father owned once that could pull a mighty load on occasions, but would in- variably balk on a hill when you needed him most. We could never depend upon him—he was worthless for team work.
3. In reference to our third proposition. Here we are more specific in stating the ele- ments of character of such an individual as we are considering—his physical and psychical abilities. When we consider some of the great men who have done the greatest things for hu- manity we find that most of them were men of physical endurance as well of psychical pre- eminence. Moses, while a student in Egypt, was athletic enough to do to death a brutal Egyptian taskmaster and brickmaker, and when one hundred and twenty years of age he was a mountain climber with an eye like the eagle’s,
68 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
undimmed. Paul, in spite of his ‘‘thorn in the flesh,’’? was able to stand beatings with rods, contentions with beasts, shipwreck at sea, and when cast out of the city for dead upon the rub- bish heap, he got up and went to preaching again the same day. John Wesley, after stand- ing the scoldings and physical violence of a termagant, could rise at four in the morning, preach from four to six times a day, and write on an average a book a week. Abraham Lincoln could in his youth split rails all day on a diet of salt pork and hominy, and our active ex-Presi- dent Theodore Roosevelt, warrior, statesman, reformer, writer, and peacemaker, could never accomplish his great tasks for the good of hu- manity if he had not a splendid physique made rugged by strenuous activity in the saddle, on the chase, and on the tennis court. But apart from these physical elements of character, there must be those psychical abilities that give in- tellectual grasp of social problems, and control of social forces, that can formulate plans, or- ganize campaigns, and direct great governmen- tal policies; tactfulness and skill in managing men so as to avoid discord and social friction.
4. In explaining our fourth proposition—the factors that give the individual such elements of character and ability—it remains for us sim- ply to enumerate some of the physical and psychical forces and powers that are available
a
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 69
in the life of the individual for his highest de- velopment and social efficiency. The physical factors, such as light, heat, electricity, radio- activity, and gravity; the psychical factors, such as love, anger, sympathy, codperation, and consciousness of kind, when related intelligently to the human will in society, are sources of energy that may be put to social uses. But added to these are those physical and psychical powers represented in the products of applied science, and by the men and organizations about us in human society; and also the spiritual powers available to the man of prayer, and to the needy before they cry, all come within the range of individual activity, and may be so con- trolled and directed by the human will as to make the individual a social factor of the great- est efficiency. When we say available in the life of the individual ‘‘socius,’’ we, of course, mean only in a relative sense, for no physical, psy- chical, or spiritual force or power is available to the man who is without the knowledge of them or their uses. When we look over the great field of human struggle and endeavor we find many things to encourage us, but there are also many discouragements in vast numbers of individuals and individual groups that are not only without social efficiency, but are, on the contrary, a drag to social progress. We see men who mean well, but do blundering things;
70 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
others who know better, but lack the will to do. It remains for us to consider how this efficiency is to be utilized in the various fields of human need, and the part the Church and Sunday school may perform in bringing these facts to the knowledge of the thousands of our young people who may become socially efficient in carrying on the world’s work to-morrow.
It remains for us to show that the subject is an educational problem and how the Sunday school and Church may cooperate with other educational institutions in the development of the individual for efficiency in specific fields of social service, and how this efficiency can be utilized in the various fields of human need.
An EpucationaL PRoBLEM
From our viewpoint the individual is not educated when he leaves the school or college with a certain amount of knowledge about himself and the things about him, but, rather, when he has become related to the actual life of society in a vital way by being able to do things through the utilization of the forces and powers physical and social over which he has control. Mr. James P. Monroe stated the case in a very forceful way in the opening ad- dress before the Social Education Congress in Tremont Temple, Boston, November 30, 1906, in answering the question as to what social edu-
ae a
‘ SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 71
cation really is. He said: ‘‘Emphatically, it is not mere book-learning. It must of necessity involve also hand-learning (or manual skill), bread-and-butter-learning (or industrial effi- ciency), head-learning (or what we Yankees call ‘gumption’), discipline-learning (or self-con- trol), leadership-learning (or executive ability), fellowship-learning (or good citizenship), and, above all, ethical learning (or fundamental mo- rality). Social education does not permit a youth to drift into an occupation; it fits him for some industry best suited to his powers. Social education does not leave a boy to pick up his ideas of citizenship from barrooms and ward heelers; it organizes every com- munity into a local town meeting, to teach and foster real self-government. Social educa- tion does not place the family on one side and the school on the other, competing for author- ity ; it leads the school to understand the family and the family to understand the school, so that each may encourage, strengthen, and supple- ment the other. Social education does not ignore foul sanitary conditions, does not shut its eyes to known moral evils; it insists that the first duty of the school is to establish a sound body and a wholesome mind. Finally, social education does not let the bugbear of sectarian- ism stand in the way of leading every school- child into the presence of Almighty God. And
72 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
these pressing, these insistent, these life-and- death problems of making every boy and girl— physically, mentally, industrially, socially, and morally—into the best man or woman possible, are not the business of the teacher alone, are not academic questions to be discussed in doc- tors’ theses. They are your business and mine, to be seriously undertaken here and now. Never before were youth so well trained men- tally as they are at present; but seldom before have they been so ill prepared socially as they find themselves to-day.’’*
From these statements in answer to what social education is, we observe that the devel- opment of the socially efficient individual in- volves not only the theoretical training of the schools, but also the actual utilization of the forces and powers available in the life of the individual in relation to all the factors of the community life; it involves doing things as well as knowing things.
Soctan Erricrency UTILIzEp
When we come to study the lives of those who have done things that have amounted to some- thing for society, we find that most of them have been devoted to some specific field of social serv- ice, and that back of it all was an earnest moral purpose which received its initial impulse, in
1 See Social Educational Quarterly, for March, 1907, p. 3.
ae a
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS ‘7%
most cases, from the teachings of religious truths as expressed in the Bible, and in the lives of men who were directed by the Spirit of the Master. Social efficiency as we have defined it may be utilized:
1. In the field of government—in city, State, and nation. Men have not always been found capable when tasks of government were thrust upon them by custom of hereditary rulership, or by the whims of popular suffrage, because they had not been socially trained for such tasks. Men have often utilized their powers in governing in the interests of themselves and their friends or business associates rather than in the interests of all the people, and especially the oppressed, who most needed their sympathy and help. We have seen examples of this in republics as well as in monarchies and despot- isms, in modern cities as well as in those of medieval times. There is no field that offers the individual, socially trained, a greater oppor- tunity for service than the modern American city. There is no field of government where social efficiency is more in need.
2. In legislation and administration. Many of our laws have become obsolete, or have been declared unconstitutional, or have been dis- obeyed or denounced as unjust, because men in legislative halls have not considered the social import of lawmaking, and have enacted meas-
74 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
ures by majority vote in the interests of a class, a corporation, or an individual. Also in the administration of the law decisions have been made by a jury under the intimidation of the crowd, or by a judge who did not have the sense of social justice and responsibility. Not only must the lawmaker be educated to see the good of society, and be free from the bribes of the lobbyist, but also the executors of the law must be men with a developed social consciousness that will enable them to render social justice impartially.
3. In the fields of industry. Men may utilize their social efficiency in the fields of industry. Here men must be educated socially for the tasks of managing men and directing great in- dustrial and commercial enterprises and con- cerns in the interests of society at large, which will give to them the best personal returns as a reward, for the public will not begrudge the individual even vast accumulations of wealth when they have been achieved by enterprises conducted in the interests of the community and society as a whole. Leaders of organized labor must also be men who comprehend the relations of labor to capital, and of both to the great pub- lic who use the goods produced for the market by industrial concerns. In recent years we have witnessed the utilization of the social efficiency of the individual in this field as never before in
a A: a
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 75
the cases of men who by their power of social perspective have averted industrial warfare by wise counsels and by directing others in the pursuits of peace.
4. In the fields of religious activity. Here we need men educated for the social tasks of the evangelization of the masses of the world’s population both in the home and foreign fields, and in directing the policies of the great or- ganized movements for ministering to the spiritual needs of mankind. We see some ex- cellent illustrations of this fact in the states- manship of some of our bishops in the home and foreign fields, and the secretaries of our foreign and home departments of missionary work, as well as in the splendid program of the secretaries of the Young Men’s Christian Asso- ciation.
5. In the management of organized charity and philanthropy. Never before were there evident so many great gifts and foundations for the betterment and welfare of the depend- ent, defective, and delinquent classes. Our educational institutions must furnish the men and women socially trained to carry out the purpose of these foundations in such a way that the problems of poverty may be solved rather than made more difficult by the very methods adopted for their solution. It took a century for England to repeal the poor laws that were
76 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
increasing the pauperism they were meant to remove. ‘To-day some of our charitable institu- tions are managed by men and women who have so little knowledge of real charity that they would rather read an enlarged monthly statis- tical report of cases treated than present a statesmanlike program for curing some of the ills for which the institutions were founded.
6. In our educational institutions. Here, as in no other field, we need men so trained with a social perspective and insight that they may adequately direct the educational forces in every community, State, and nation that en- lightenment and culture may become universal, and international peace, comity, and good will become permanent possessions of humanity as a basis for yet undreamed-of stages of progress.
Wuat tHe Cuurcu Can Do
It may be asked how the Church ean co- operate with other institutions in this educa- tional problem of developing socially efficient individuals. In response to this inquiry I would reply as follows: In the first place, the Sunday school and Church, taking the child at the most plastic period of its life, can in a large measure sweeten the fountains of heredity by sanely and judiciously directing the child’s mind with respect to the responsibilities of mar- riage and parenthood. As a matter of fact,
<=.
Zs
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 77
from a long experience in Sunday school work in many different parts of the country and in many individual churches, I do not remember to have heard anything very definite and en- lightening on the subject of heredity or the responsibilities of marriage in any class of whatever grade I have attended. I do not claim that this is the experience of others, but it indicates that a great opportunity is lost on many a young man or woman by the Sunday school in this most important subject of hu- man concern.
The Sunday school can do much to control the forces of environment in the development of child life, and thus have much to do with this most important factor of individual social effi- ciency. Some social workers of long experience claim that environment is about nine tenths of destiny. We know from the actual facts in the treatment of orphans and neglected children that it is at least eighty-five per cent of the battle for good citizenship and good health. The Sunday school can also bring to bear upon the perscnality of the child the spiritual forces at the command of the Church. It can teach the individual how to link himself with God through meditation and prayer, so that one shall chase a thousand and two shall put ten thousand to flight. Thus we see that in the development of the ‘‘socius’’—whom we defined as the product
78 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
of heredity and environment plus personality, the Sunday school may play a most effective part in the directing of these three factors in the life of the individual in society.
In the second place, the Church and Sunday school can discover to the individual the forces and powers available in his life and capable of being utilized by him in the performance of so- cial tasks when the proper training has been secured. I do not claim that the Church is to push its educational work to the point of labora- tories, and drill grounds, and proving stations for the training of all the youth within her grasp, for this may be well done by institutions that are not devoid of Christian motive; but I mean to say that in every Sunday school com- munity it is possible for the teacher to show the student examples of the socially efficient individual, and point out many, if not all, the factors that had to do with the making of such a man of worth to society. The stories of Moses and of Joshua, of Samuel and of David—men of the highest social efficiency in their day—can be related in a few minutes toa class of intelli- gent boys. So with the lives of many great men of history and with men who are living to-day in the esteem of the nation and of the world at large. The factors in their life processes may be related in an hour, and some of them could be made.a profitable study for a series of lessons.
ae
a
SOCIAL EFFICIENCY OF INDIVIDUALS 79
In relating to a class of boys the reasons for the social estimate of Israel upon men like Samson and Gideon, it should not be forgotten that there are equally good reasons for the social estimate of the American people upon the life of a William McKinley or a Grover Cleveland, and that there are men living whose lives in the making are as simple as the story of Moses or Gideon. But even the physical forces and powers, as well as the social forces and groups, at the command of the individual to-day may be brought within the range of the Sunday school work in illustrating the topic under discussion.
In the third place, the Church and Sunday school can furnish the religious and ethical mo- tive that will give quality to the life of the in- dividual upon whom society will put the highest estimate of efficiency. A man may win the so- cial esteem of to-day by some brilliant stroke of genius, but unless there is an ethical purpose and a religious quality to his life society will not long hold him in high esteem. On the con- trary, many a man who with these qualities has toiled on without recognition of his work in his day and generation has later received, or will yet receive, a due estimate of his work if it has been well done in the interest of society. The crucified of one age is the exalted of another if his work has been wrought for the saving of the race.
80 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
So I claim that while we may have the highest conceptions of social action by the in- telligent group, we should not forget the social efficiency of the individual, and while we are studying the factors of great social move- ments we should not neglect to teach to the stu- dent of to-day the factors in the life of the in- dividual upon whom the age sets the highest estimate of worth. As an educational problem all this involves a development and education of the social mind.
CHAPTER VI
THE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION OF THE SOCIAL MIND
Wuat We MEAN By THE Socrat MInpD
Tr will not be practicable for us to enter into a more thorough treatment of the social mind from the viewpoint of the social psychologist, or from the standpoint of the sociologist who places emphasis upon the mind of the group— or the manifestations of mob mind—or the decisions of orderly society. But we treat the subject in a rather. unacademic way. be- cause the ordinary man makes use of ex- pressions that indicate he knows what is meant by the term. We, for example, fre- quently hear people say, ‘‘We must make up our mind to do this, or that, or so and so,”’’ which would indicate an association or group of ideas that was common to all and yet could be best expressed by the action of the group as a whole. According to Professor Giddings, ‘<The social mind is the phenomenon of many, individual minds in interaction, so playing upon one another that they simultaneously feel the same sensation or emotion, arrive at one judg- ment and, perhaps, act in concert. It is, in
81
82 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
short, the mental unity of many individuals or of the crowd.’’! According to Professor Cooley, the social mind is but a larger aspect of mind in general. To quote: ‘‘Mind is an or- ganic whole made up of cooperating individu- alities. .. . When we study the social mind we merely fix our attention on larger aspects and relations rather than on narrower ones of or- dinary psychology. The unity of the social mind consists not in agreement but in organiza- tion.’ Professor Wundt, of Leipzig, says that from the viewpoint of the experimental psychol- ogist a people or folk may have a mind or soul as well as an individual.® Of course he was in this connection considering not the social mind so much as the manifestations of the mind of the group. But there seems to be in the mind of the ordinary reader some confusion after reading these definitions as to whether the so- cial mind can be the possession of the individual] while at the same time it is the possession of the group; and, again, as to whether the group may not possess a mind so narrow as to be en- tirely devoid of social content in the true sense of the term ‘‘social.’? TI think, therefore, that we may get some help toward clearing our minds of this confusion by defining the social
1See “Principles of Sociology,” 1908, p. 134.
? See Publications of American Sociological Society, pp. vi, 97.
‘From “Lectures on ‘Volkerpsychologie,’ ” in Leipzig, 1910, taken from my notes.
> +
THE SOCIAL MIND 83
mind as follows: (1) The social mind consists in a body of knowledge or of ideas, that may be realized in conduct that has social values, and may be expressed in thoughts, feelings, or deeds. (2) This body of knowledge may be possessed by an individual in society, or by a group in its relation to other groups or indi- viduals, or by a nation at large, and ultimately by humanity asa whole. (3) Such a social mind can be developed only through experience in human relations.
We must be careful just here not to confound the social mind with the social consciousness, and it would be well for the reader to review just at this point Uhapter I. Mind is a body of knowledge upon which the understanding or mentality of man is founded. An idiot may be conscious, but he has no mind to speak of, no ' knowledge. But a normal individual person is never conscious of all he has in his mind at any stated period. Consciousness is a state of mind; social consciousness the state of the mind with reference to society, and may be mani- fested by the individual or by the social group. Tn this connection it is well to be reminded also of the importance of making a distinction be- tween consciousness of society or of things about us and the social consciousness. They do not necessarily mean the same psycholog- ically. Social consciousness implies the ability
84 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
of the individual person or group to make use of ideas for the advantage of society as well as for self. In fact, no idea, whether in the con- sciousness of the individual or in that of the group, can be properly called social until it can be expressed in terms of social activity of some sort. To be aware of persons or of a social group does not prove that an individual or a society of individuals has a social consciousness, in the true sense of the word, any more than to be aware of a flock of sheep would prove for the pack of wolves that they had any social con- sciousness so far as the interests of the sheep were concerned. Social consciousness always involves a moral element in human associations as well as the element of utility. We may say, therefore, that the social mind involves the ability of a group of persons possessing a body of knowledge to think together, to feel the same way, and to act together for the good of the group and other groups, or for individuals within or without the group. And it also equally implies the ability of the individual possessing such a body of knowledge to act in a similar way with the same motives and for the same ends.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Socran Minp
How can the social mind be developed? This is the important question for the educator to
a A --
THE SOCIAL MIND 85
answer, and to none is it more important than to the religious social engineer who has the chance to develop in the individuals of the com- munity the mind of the Master, and to bring together that body of knowledge which may be utilized for the mutual uplift of the whole com- munity. I would answer this question in brief by saying: The social mind can be developed by the presence of those who possess it-—by the principle of imitation through the awakening of desire in the soul of the individual or of the group. In short, by the ministry of personality. Upon this fact is based the entire success of the social-settlement movement. The social mind develops in the same way that any mind de- velops. In the individual it is the unfoldment of the instincts and desires into their corre- sponding faculties of personality throughout the entire period of growth. So for the group: in the process of association there will be pe- riods of conflict, toleration, alliance, sympathy, and pleasurable codperation between groups. No group can possess the social mind without having mastered itself in all these stages of as- sociation. So we find that the basis of social control is self-control in the individual factors of society. The social mind is developed in the beginning for the race in the family group, and other factors of the social composition, such as horde, clan, tribe, and folk, up through all
86 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
the stages of nation building, and will reach its culmination in ‘‘the parliament of man’’ through the ‘‘federation of the world.’’ For the individual social units to-day the social mind begins to develop in the family, and is more rapidly developed by association in the vast and intricate network of voluntary and purposive organizations in the social constitu- tion of the State or nation, and through the Christian world-view of the brotherhood of man.
THE Epucation of THE Socran Minp
Another question of interest to the modern educator is, How may we educate the developed social mind? Men and nations are often stimu- lated to heroic and beneficent deeds for the good of others by the applause or approval of the crowd; but they are as frequently spoiled by the flattery or deterred by the threatening of the multitude. What we need most in our day, is an educated and cultured social, mind that will be so well developed in all its faculties that there may be always in every community and nation rational social action, the result of well- balanced judgments and properly controlled emotions.
We can educate the social mind only by dealing with the social units within the range of our educational institutions, and I include
AS ao.
THE SOCIAL MIND 87
among them the Sunday school as one of the most important.
1. We must teach men and women what so- ciety is and what it is not; what we can do to reform and change the social order and what we cannot do. This, of course, involves the study of the science of society in the curriculum of the schools, as well as sane teaching in the Sun- day schools of the country the principles of social structure and of the modern social move- ment, with emphasis, of course, upon the social message of Jesus and the prophets, and the splendid social program of the apostle Paul.
2. The student must be related to society as it is, and be taught the importance of heredity and environment in the life of society—that both are socializing factors in the life of every individual for good or evil. He must be shown also the social character of religion, that his life may be based properly upon the relation of every creature to the Infinite Creator, and espe- cially of the individual to Jesus Christ. He must be taught the social basis of morals. This can be done more easily than some think. For illustration: Professor Sweet, of the Syracuse Mechanics School, related one evening to the Schoolmasters’ Club of Syracuse how he taught a class a lesson in social morals en one occasion in his school. A young fellow had borrowed from one of his classmates, without asking, a
88 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
pair of calipers, and having broken them by carelessness in the using returned them to the locker without telling his classmate either that he had borrowed them or had broken them; and when it was discovered and reported to the pro- fessor he said to the whole school next morn- ing at chapel: ‘‘Some young man has lost a great opportunity of his life—an opportunity of winning the esteem of his classmates—but now has won their condemnation and distrust by not being a man and making it right with his classmate’’; and he added in his address to the club, ‘‘You can readily see that such a lesson in social morality would make a lasting impression upon a whole class of young boys and girls in any school or college recitation room.’’ And we might add, that such lessons in social morality may be easily taught in the Sunday school classes of all grades in every community. The student can be taught also the social character of industry—how socialized the labor necessary in production for the world markets has become to-day. This would lead to a better understanding between employers and their workers, and of the responsibilities of all organized industry to society at large. The social character of commerce could be easily illustrated by the various communities, States, and nations that are bound together in social organizations by the bands of commercial en-
a> =
THE SOCIAL MIND 89
terprises and needs. Also the social signifi- cance of government could be illustrated by the examples of men serving the State with effi- ciency, and by: the examples of others who ex- ploit public office for private and personal ends.
3. We can educate the social mind by socializ- ing our educational agencies and equipments. The teachers in all our schools must be them- selves equipped with the social mind—with thorough knowledge of society and the relation of the individual to it. Many of our text-books must be modified to suit the changing needs of the social consciousness and activity of our age. Literature and history written with individual or partisan bias will illustrate what I mean. Of course for the Sunday school and Church it means the modification of our interpretation of the social teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and a corresponding change in our Sunday school literature, which, happily, we are getting under the efficient leadership of editors and secretaries. Again, the socializing disciplines of industry, trades, and crafts must be more widely introduced and more efficiently equipped in our public schools. The homes and family life of the masses must be improved in many quarters. This can often be done indirectly through neighborhood meetings, lectures, moth- ers’ clubs, etc., under the auspices of the school. Our cities can be educated so as to develop civic
90 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
pride among their inhabitants by improvements in their streets, parks, playgrounds, buildings, etc., and by organizing local community im- provement associations such as have been or- ganized with promising results in many cities and towns. All these agencies and factors of our ordinary community life can be socialized for the education of the social mind in the life of the present.
To do all this there must be, of course, an aroused social consciousness, an enlightened public opinion, persistent social effort by the will of the people held firmly directed by in- telligent social control toward the Christian ideal for the government of society—the king- dom of God on earth. What institution fur- nishes a better chance for social service along these lines of efficient individual effort than the Sunday school, with its millions of young plastic lives and thousands of strong, educated young men and women, who give promise of efficient social leadership when they shall have developed and educated this mind in them that was in Christ Jesus?
CHAPTER VII SOCIAL PROGRESS
WE can readily see that the study of social progress belongs to the general topic of social education, for, unless we know something of its meaning, how are we to know the worth of our educational system, and what will be the ultimate outcome of all our efforts to teach the individual his relation to life? What may seem progress in the popular mind may be retro- gression, and what may seem to be going back may be but the wiser course in order to find the right road to our destination. It is, therefore, important at the outset that we have clearly in mind some definite notions of what is meant by social progress. If we are not able to define progress, have we a right to go on with any system that may ultimately lead us into defeat in the struggle with other competing factors and forces in the make-up of human society? If we are retrograding, may it not be possible for us to discover the fact and prepare to meet it by teaching the principles of progress to the social units, and inspiring them to fall in line with the best policy and win victory out of seeming defeat? We all have some general
91
92 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
notion of progress, yet how few of us have clearly in mind any adequate definition of prog- ress, or have in hand any norms by which to measure it! These we must have, as social en- gineers, if we are to do our best work in fulfill- ing the social tasks of instructing those who are to be the contributors to progress or be- come a drag to the forward movement of so- ciety.
It is our purpose, therefore, in this chapter to give the reader some of the ideas of social progress, the norms by which it may be meas- ured, and what we consider to be an adequate definition.
IpgAs oF Progress
Our ideas of social excellence are either retrospective or prospective. We either think the former days were better than these, or we look for good days to come; we either look to the past for the ‘‘Golden Age,’’ or we look for- ward to the ‘‘millennium’’ that is to be.
History furnishes us with stretches of time and milestones of experience, so that we can compare age with age, or study the course of life in cross-section, so to speak, and discover by the scientific method of observation and in- duction whether this age is in the line of prog- ress aS compared with any other age. So we speak of the ‘‘Dark Ages,’’ the ‘‘ Middle Ages’’;
a >
SOCIAL PROGRESS 93
of the periods of the ‘‘Reformation,’’ the ‘“‘Renaissance,’’ the ‘‘Aufklaerung’’; of the days of Feudalism, slavery, absolutism, Democ- racy, constitutional government, etc., and we may rightly ask, ‘‘Does this method constitute for us a norm of progress?”’
Among the prospective ideas of progress may be mentioned the following:
1. The Hebrew people had their ideal of progress, when an age of peace should come in which nation should no longer lift up sword against nation, nor even learn war any more; that splendid time which the prophets had fore- told when no man shall say to his neighbor, ‘““Knowest thou the Lord?’’ for they shall all know him from the least unto the greatest.
2. Jesus and his apostles thought of a future state, when there shall be one fold and one Shepherd, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, when all peoples shall know of the Fatherhood of God and acknowledge the brotherhood of the human race.
3. The philosopher has an idea of the time when that state of society shall have been reached wherein the conduct of every individual will contribute to the good of self, of offspring, and of humanity at large; a time when nature’s law of need and supply, desire and satisfaction, shall be so adjusted that there will be no longer
94. THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
suffering and pain; a condition of development when tasks now irksome will be pleasurable be- cause persisted in, and because they are neces- sary for the common good.!
4. The economist has his ideas of progress, in which every nation shall come to a state of economic and industrial independence, when by a division of labor there shall be no longer destructive competition between states, but a reciprocity that will be mutually beneficial to all.
5. The sociologist has his ideas of progress which shall gradually establish for the civilized world an equilibrium between population in- crease and the nation’s ability to maintain its standard of living with an increasing ratio of social betterment, leading ultimately to perfect control of society over the reproductive forces of the population and the productive agencies which furnish the necessary commodities of life.
6. The educator has an ideal of progress, when every member of the state will know how to read, write, and cipher, and the great mass of the people have many things that go to make up the cultured social mind; when every child shall learn to become a breadwinner for the family group or for society, and be at the same time so related to the life of society that he will not take the bread of another in winning his own bread.
1 Compare Spencer, “Data of Ethics.”
Eo
+
SOCIAL PROGRESS 95
7. The statesman thinks of a stage of prog- ress that will bring to every citizen the greatest measure of freedom under the law, and main- tain the full measure of his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, a time when all who want work can find it at good wages, and a state in which everybody will enjoy the greatest amount of happiness.
From all these ideas of social progress, retro- spectively considered as well as prospectively outlined, we should be able to deduce some defi- nite norms of progress by which it may be measured, and also to postulate a practicable definition.
How Procress May pr Mrasurep
We can state at the outset that our measure of social progress may be either quantitative or qualitative. But it is not safe for us to measure progress by the quantity of goods we may possess, or by the balance sheet of the na- tion at large. A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth, but, rather, in the quality of the character he has acquired, or in the quality of the life he manifests toward others in society. We may state also that our measure of progress must be based upon the whole range of man’s pos- sibilities, from his lowest estate to the highest achievement of which he is capable through
96 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
self-realization and divine grace. This includes the concepts of man’s sainthood as well as his beginnings in savagery, or his degeneration to the condition of the savage. It can also be stated that our norms of progress will be found in man himself as the measure of all things. We begin with the individual and note the changes in him for progress in social better- ment; we study the social group in which he lives, moves, and has his being, until we have reached the organized consciousness of hu- manity at large.
Christian education deals with man in all his social relations, and with him in the use he makes of the social machinery and organization by which he achieves for the betterment of him- self, of his family, the State, and the world at large. We, therefore, expect a demand from the educators of our youth for some norm of progress by which the individual in every rela- tion may be measured. Here we discover that progress is a sociological concept of humanity, for no nation or people in these days of com- plex social relations, world-wide in scope, liveth unto himself. Now, if progress does not con- sist merely in quantitative elements, but, rather, in qualitative achievement, then progress must be measured by some ethical standard which will enable us to determine the real values of human life as it proceeds on the earth.
> +
SOCIAL PROGRESS 97
It is also true that our measure of human progress must be the practicable and workable principles at the basis of social ethics. These we find in Christian philosophy to be (1) the perfect or ultimate man, (2) the perfect or ulti- mate society, (3) the perfect or ultimate laws governing men in society. These we must de- termine as to content in the light of human ex- perience, the Scriptures, and sanctified reason, and then they become for us the measures of progress; for to our thinking there can be no movement beyond the perfect that may be rightly termed progress. Hence progress is, after all, determined more by comparison with one’s ideals than by measurement with actual things.
Kinps oF Progress To BE MEASURED
Our norms of progress will depend upon the kind of achievement we propose to measure:
1. If we propose to measure material prog- ress, we usually consider the statistics of one’s wealth or possessions, and for the nation the balance of trade or the surplus in the national treasury. If we view it from the viewpoint of population and the military strength of a na- tion, we count those able to bear arms and tabu- late the birth rate and the death rate.
2. If we view progress from the point of education and culture, we take the school cen-
98 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
sus, and the number of educational institu- tions and cultural organizations, their relative strength and endowment as compared with an- other age or another nation in the same period. We also measure the progress of individuals in a school by the number of those who are capable of meeting certain educational tests.
3. If we consider progress from the religious point of view, our norm is the relative number in attendance upon religious worship, and of those who are communicants or adherents of the various faiths.
4. From the moral point of view we measure progress by the statistics of vice and crime as represented in the general classification of the criminal code. Also from the prevalence and strength of moral sentiment expressed in the press, or by the public platform, or in general conversation in the presence of some instance of wrongdoing.
d. If we measure human progress from the sociological point of view, our norms are unity and complexity of social organization, the amount of social machinery, and the efficiency of social engineering, the lack of friction be- tween the various factors that operate in hu- man society, the relative chances of war and peace in a given case of provocation.
6. Social progress in general must be meas- ured in terms of life, for the fullest life consists
A> yet
SOCIAL PROGRESS 99
in the greatest measure of health, wealth, and goodness, or social esteem. We therefore measure the progress of our age by the vital statistics which mark control of diseases, by the figures which reveal the general distribu- tion and possession of wealth, and by the in- stances that reveal the righteousness and good- ness of society in dealing with its component members and with its neighbor groups.
In all these fields of human activity Chris- tian education is the supreme agency for the promotion of that kind of intelligence which makes social progress possible and knowable.
DEFINITIONS oF PROGRESS
According to Hegel, the great German phi- losopher, human development, or progress, is conceived as a process of self-realization. Step by step man comes to know himself as a self- conscious and self-determining being, as a con- stituent factor in the universe, as an organic whole. History has been, therefore, the prog- ress of the consciousness of freedom. Freedom was at first conceived as an abstract principle in the universe, and was believed to exist only in one person—God himself in heaven, or the monarch on earth. Hence the absolutism of the Eastern world. The Greeks advanced this idea to include the citizens as against slaves; ‘Rome advanced the idea to include personal
100 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
rights under the law, and, finally, the Germanic peoples reached the conception of freedom as the birthright of all men.1
According to Auguste Comte, progress has been realized in three stages of development: 1. The theological, in which every act and event was conceived as a direct intervention of Deity. Man could, therefore, make no progress in science or morality because he was childish, superstitious, and hero-worshiping. 2. The metaphysical stage, in which man sought to in- terpret the world in terms of principles, ab- stractions, entities, and, therefore, lost himself in fruitless speculation. The human mind was free but wasted its energies in questionings concerning the unknowable. 3. The positive, or scientific, stage, in which speculation gives place to observation, experiment, induction, and generalization. Men, finding that there are enough knowable facts to keep the mind busy, build on foundations of fact, learn the secrets of nature which enable them to master the ma- terial and moral conditions of life.?
According to Herbert Spencer, ‘organic progress consists in a change from the homo- geneous to the heterogeneous,’’ and this prin- ciple he applied to all progress, including the society as well, for, says he, ‘‘From the earliest
1 Vorlesungen iiber die Philosophie der Geschichte. 2See his “Philosophie Positiy.”’
ae
ee
SOCIAL PROGRESS 101
_ traceable cosmic changes down to the latest results of civilization we shall find that the transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous is that in which progress essen- tially consists.’
According to Professor Giddings, ‘‘objec- tively viewed progress is an increasing inter- course, a multiplication of relationships, an advance in material well-being, a growth of population and an evolution of rational con- duct.’? Subjectively, ‘‘progress is the expan- sion of the consciousness of kind.’? And we quote further: ‘‘The successive world empires of Persia, Macedonia, and Rome prepared the way for the Christian conception of universal brotherhood. It made but little impression upon the social mind until it was converted into an ideal, into a doctrine that all men through a spiritual renewing were made brothers. Chris- tianity became the most tremendous power in history. Gradually it has been realizing its ideal, until to-day a Christian philanthropy and Christian missionary enterprise, devoting them, selves to the diffusion of knowledge and the im- provement of the conditions and the upbuilding of character, are uniting the classes and the races of mankind in a spiritual humanity.’”
My own definition of progress is as follows:
1See Westminster Review, April, 1857. *See “Principles of Sociology,” p. 360.
102 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
1. For the individual, progress consists in the measure of self-realization and self-control, and in the social efficiency and socialization of the individuals of the group. 2. For the nation, it consists in the development of rational social control of all its members, and in a conscious- ness of kind that overcomes social friction, the evolution of social organization, and invention of social machinery that enable it to utilize and control all the social forces and energies within and resist the social forces and powers from without that are harmful, and in the re- lating of itself to all other social groups in a sympathetic and pleasurable way. 3. For hu- manity as a whole, progress consists in the con- sciousness of an onward movement of the race toward an ideal state of society recognized by the social mind in general as attainable, and in social efforts for its attainment.
To make progress thus defined possible there is always implied in all the social factors the intellectual grasp of the social significance of all educational fields. How this intellectual grasp may be attained by all the social factors can be shown only by a more thorough discus- sion of the social aspects of education. No edu- cational institution has a better chance to con- tribute to this result than the Sunday school that is up to date in its method of organization and teaching.
CHAPTER VIII SOCIAL STUDIES
THERE are times when certain needs are so keenly felt and conditions so evidently ready for reform that men act spontaneously for the relief of their fellows, but at other times the needs for social action are so remote or hidden to the ordinary man of affairs, and conditions so deceiving to even the interested, that there must be long and persistent and patient study before adequate measures can be put in opera- tion for the permanent good of the community. So it is necessary for the best results to inau- gurate in every community social studies by men who hope to do the most good for their times, and those who shall come after.
No one knows when he sets out upon the task of social study what are to be the factors of the problem he is seeking to solve. Take, for ex- ample, any particular case of drunkenness, pauperism, or homicide in your community; then take up a study of all the influences and factors in the life of such an individual, and you will be surprised to find how far-reaching in social relations and causes this case roots itself. So for the institutions, good or bad, laws
103
104 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
and customs that need revision or reform. All furnish interesting fields and phases of social study that will make more real to the men of to-day the problems of the social engineer in every age as well as our own.
Do the men of the community have, as a rule, any adequate notions as to why we have the various classes of society, persons varying in degrees of personality, in vitality, and in social status among their fellows in the same community? Have they always a clear idea as to why we have the struggles of class organizations in the great industrial world, or in the political, religious, and moral group- ings of the race, or why we have experienced in every age the struggles of race antago- nism and social friction? Denominationalism is in itself a field for social study that is extremely fascinating and profitable for men of the Church to-day. Municipal, State, na- tional, and international conditions and needs are available for our study, and offer a wide field for social investigation by men who have in consciousness the world program of Jesus.
But we must be more specific in our treat- ment of social studies. Conditions of living vary greatly in different communities, so that the problems of the congested quarters of the great cities, the uptown districts, the suburbs, and the country are not the same, and these
ae -
SOCIAL STUDIES‘ 105
vary according to climate, race, and industrial conditions in the respective localities. But we, nevertheless, discover sooner or later that even our specific and particular problems are re- lated to the greater world-problems of social welfare and social control.
Speciric Socran Stupies
I know of no better way of calling attention to some of the specific problems for our social study by the men of our churches than by point- ing to the official statement of the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of 1908,' especially the paragraphs on ‘‘The In- dustrial Situation,’’ ‘‘The Labor Movement,’’ ‘*Conference and Conciliation,’’ and ‘‘The So- cial Creed of Methodism.’? Under the last heading we have the following:
“The Methodist Episcopal Church stands: For equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life.
‘‘For the principles of conciliation and ar- bitration in industrial disputes.
“‘For the protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational diseases, in- juries, and mortality.
“<FHor the abolition of child-labor.
‘“‘For such regulation of the conditions of
1See ‘Methodist Discipline”; also “Federation Publication,’’ No. ) Pp. 5.
106 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
labor for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community.
‘“‘For the suppression of the ‘Sweating System.’
‘‘For the gradual and reasonable reduction of hours of labor to the lowest practical point, with work for all, and for that degree of leisure for all which is the condition of the highest hu- man life.
‘“‘Ror release from employment one day in seven.
‘‘Wor a living wage in every industry.
‘“‘Wor the highest wage that each industry ean afford, and for the most equitable division of the products of industry that can ultimately be devised.
‘‘For the recognition of the Golden Rule and the mind of Christ as the supreme law of so- ciety, and the sure remedy for all social ills,”’ ete.
A Sprcraa Commission on Soctan STUDIES
Now in every church community there are to be found conditions prevailing that involve one or more of these points of our social creed, and I think it is possible for the men of the Church to take up in a systematized way the study of these conditions with a view of proposing methods of meeting them.
To be even more specific with respect to so-
ae
SOCIAL STUDIES 107
cial studies affecting the Church, I quote from the Commission to the Methodist Federation for Social Service given by the last General Conference (1908) :
““We request the Federation to give the full- est possible consideration to the following ques- tions, and to present their findings thereon as a memorial to the General Conference of 1912 for such action as that body may deem wise:
‘*(1) What principles and measure of social reform are so evidently righteous and Chris- tian as to demand the specific approval and support of the Church?
“*(2) How can the agencies of the Methodist Episcopal Church be wisely used or altered with a view to promoting the principles and measures thus approved?
‘*(3) How may we best codperate in this be- half with other Christian denominations?
‘‘(4) How can our course of ministerial study in seminaries and Conferences be modi- fied with a view to the better preparation of our preachers for efficiency in social reform?’’
_A Last or Speciric Prosiems ror Socran SrupDIEs
Under the heading ‘‘Methods,’’ in its pam- phlet on ‘‘ What is it?’’ the Methodist Federa- tion for Social Service furnishes the following list of problems it proposes for practical study:
108 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
‘‘ Associated charities; poverty, its relief and prevention; public health; child labor and child saving; cooperation and profit-sharing; the housing of the people; wages and conditions of labor; immigration and the needs of the foreign communities in the cities; marriage and di- vorce; municipal ownership and control of public utilities; social and college settlements ; temperance reform; organized labor; arbitra- tion and conciliation; religious and moral edu- eation; in short, all problems which touch the daily welfare of God’s children, our brethren.”’
It will not be possible for the members of a brotherhood, men’s Bible class, or any similar organization of the Church, to take up the study of all these problems at one time, nor will it be necessary in any single case to do so, but in every community some one or more of these social problems are pressing for solution.
But I wish to consider also some of the most characteristic studies that relate more vitally to church work, especially in our day:
1. How to maintain the downtown church, or the church in a changing population of the tene- ment dwellers, especially where most of them are of foreign birth.
2. How to maintain the efficiency of the coun- try church in the community where the popula- tion is changing as in no other locality, and where our method has usually been that of
aS -
SOCIAL STUDIES 109
sending men who were, in the nature of the case, less fit for the task than others, not only with respect to age (young men or very old men), but also with respect to preparation and ex- perience.
3. The problem of race prejudice and race antagonism, not only between Negro and white, but also between Jew and Gentile, Asiatic and European, Slav and Teuton, Indian and white man, and many others that seem to deny the principle of universal brotherhood of man. We know how it can be overcome in the indi- vidual case by Christian education and culture. Is it not worth while to study how it may be universally destroyed?
4. Divorce and its causes. The report on marriage and divorce for the years 1887-1906 in the United States, recently given out by the Department of Commerce and Labor through its Bureau of the Census, gave to the world some ‘startling results, as to the frequency of marital disunion, and the causes therefor.
5. Social diseases and their relations to the family. For some of the most convincing and startling results of such a social study I refer the reader to the paper of Prince A. Morrow, M.D., published in the ‘‘American Journal of Sociology,’’ March, 1909. The two that exact the greatest tribute of human life and hap- piness are tuberculosis and gonococcus infec-
110 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
tion, or syphilis. While these are subjects for experts of the medical profession, yet we all know what good the laymen can do in the field of prevention, and of remedy, and it is here that our social studies need to be pushed with haste and energy, yet with wisdom and Chris- tian sympathy.
6. Child-labor, child-saving, and the juvenile court and probation system, and their results upon modern standards of life and morals. Men are idle while women and children are at work. Why is this? and how can it be stopped? is a social problem of the greatest modern in- terest.
7. Organized labor and its claims, its possi- bilities for good as well as for evil, when under the leadership of strong men, furnishes another field for social study that will help the Church as well as society when taken up seriously by Christian men everywhere.
8. The standards of living in the cities and in the country and their relation to the moral and religious life of the people in the com- munity.
9. The problem of the liquor traffic: How it may be controlled or destroyed. There is un- doubtedly enough impulse and purpose within the churches to-day, if properly organized, to win in the struggle against the saloon. It has been done in many States, counties, and com-
a
s
SOCIAL STUDIES 111
munities in recent times. There is need yet for study as to how the whole question is, after all, to be solved as a world problem, as well as a local or national one.
10. Social education. We have just begun to see the possibilities in this great social field. In industrial education, moral teaching, and re- ligious education in the community we have another social study of supreme importance to the Church.
These are some of the specific problems of social significance that are pressing for solution to-day. We have not the space for details in method, even if they were desired, but in clos- ing I wish to say that, in my judgment, the best method for social studies is that of field work in daily contact with men and human affairs, although we must not ignore the work of other men recorded in useful books and magazines for reference. These will help us to see beyond the narrow experiences of our day’s work in our little field, and, besides, they give us a wider range and more extended vision.
CHAPTER IX FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE
THE social engineer must understand the so- cial significance of friendship, and he must master the art of making friends.
Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis, in his book on ‘‘Man’s Value to Society,’’ says: ‘‘ Destiny is determined by friendship. Fortune is made or marred when the youth selects his companions. Friendship has ever been the master passion ruling the forum, court, and the camp.’’
Some one has said that ‘‘genius is a function of race and fame a function of history’’; but when we come to study the causes of fame we could as truthfully say that it is the function of friendship, for there has been no great man in history who has not reached his place of honor by the gift of his friends. We see the working of this social force in the State, the Church, and in the social life of the community everywhere, in placing men and women to the front whether they are worthy or unworthy.
The offices of the State, from the chief execu- tive to the janitorship of the loekup of some rural village, are filled by men who never could have won these positions save by this social
112
=
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 113
force of friendship. Bishops and prelates, as well as pastors, are often chosen not on merits alone but by their friends. In social clubs men are chosen because of their ability to win the friendship of those who are members, and the positions of honor are filled on the same grounds. In all the great modern fields of philanthropy and intelligent organized charity work, this is the greatest social dynamic that keeps men and women bound to their tasks in the social uplift of the masses. It is this social bond that neutralizes the dispersive forces of jealousy and hatred and holds orderly society together in family and social groups. It is therefore fitting that we seek for the sources of this important factor in human experience, and endeavor to describe some of its more in- teresting characteristics in order that the so- cial worker may be the better able to utilize it in the performance of his social tasks.
There is nothing more mysterious and yet more masterful than friendship. We know full well its worth in life and its power to spur us to action in another’s behalf, and yet we often question why we have the friends we do have and not the friendship of others. Bacon says in his essay on ‘‘Friendship,’’ ‘‘The best way to represent to life the manifold use of friendship is to cast and see how many things there are which a man cannot do himself; and then it will
114 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
appear that it was a sparing speech of the an- cients to say, ‘That a friend is another him- self,’ for that a friend is far more than him- self.’’! ‘‘How many things are there which a man cannot, with any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man can scarcely allege his own merits with modesty, much less extol them; a man cannot sometimes brook to supplicate or beg; and a number of the like. But all these things are graceful in a friend’s mouth which are blushing in a man’s own. But to enumerate these things were endless; I have given the rule, when a man cannot fitly play his own part, if he have not a friend, ‘he may quit the stage.’ ”’
Friendship is a paradox among the social forces, because its effects are both dispersive and unifying to society, for it plays the most important part both in the disintegration and in the founding of the family group. When a boy I used to watch with eagerness a bluebird as she came every spring to build her nest and rear her young in the top of an old gatepost in front of our country home. It was my delight to climb the gate and peep down the hole in the top of the post at the chubby, featherless crea- tures in their cozy nest; but when they grew bigger with their full plumage, and flew away to their Southern clime, I was sorry, for I missed their plumage and their song. But when ~ 18elby, p. 72.
oS -
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 115
I grew older I learned that a higher law than love for the parent nest impelled them to fly away and leave the nest in the gatepost—they went away to build other nests in other gate- posts, and to cheer other boys with their plu- mage and song.
Likewise, when we see a well-ordered family, contented and happy in their home, we would gladly have them all abide, yet we know full well that there are higher claims which they must meet in obedience to the laws of their be- ing and of the social order in which they find themselves, making it necessary for children now grown up to leave the parental fireside and seek other places of abode near or far. This . part of the social process which we may observe from day to day in every community we call the disintegration of the family. There are many abnormal factors as well as normal laws that contribute to this result, but greater than all is that social bond we call friendship, which often leads to the marriage union.
1. The basis of friendship. One of the most difficult problems of social philosophy is to find a satisfactory theory with reference to the basis of friendship. If it were simply a matter of friendship between the members of the sexes, it would be a matter easy to explain; but we find, on the contrary, that this phenomenon fre- quently exists between man and man, woman
~
116 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
and woman, or between men and women who have no thought of wedlock. We observe also that friendships are frequently formed between persons of opposite temperaments, or between persons who are unattractive, friendships under circumstances so various that one is often led to believe it to be merely a matter of chance.
Various explanations of the phenomenon of friendship have been offered, among which have been the following: First, that based on the doctrine of the transmigration of souls in which it is assumed that the souls of persons once in social relations in another state of being find their fellow souls in this life. In the absence of proof of the doctrine of transmigration, this theory lacks the dignity of an explanation.
Another view is that there exists in members of the human species a kind of social affinity which causes two persons of corresponding ele- ments of character to become friends on ac- quaintance, much in the same way as two chemi- cal elements possessing an affinity for each other would unite in the accidents of nature or the experiments of the laboratory. This theory does very well as an explanation until one of these friends loses his social affinity, and knocks his neighbor on the head, sulks in solitude, or forms another disturbing combination with a new ‘‘affinity.’’
Still another theory is that based upon evolu-
aS =
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE ay
tion, which claims that man originally was like other animals, living solely for self, until in later stages of his development higher instincts similar to gregariousness in animals led him to form friendships for his own advantage ; therefore, according to this view, friendship is based upon utility, for it is claimed we make friends with those who benefit us most. But when asked to explain why one person is friendly to another who may have become a burden and a care, or even a social disadvan- tage, the advocates of this theory reply that along with these instincts of friendship have developed other attributes of character such as honor, faithfulness, constancy.
One other view is that based upon the teach- ings of revelation, namely, that man was created and endowed with a nature so like the Divine that had he remained obedient to the moral law there would have been no enmity be- tween man and his fellow beings. Love and good will would have bound together the indi- viduals of the human race. Sin is regarded as the disturbing element in human nature and the chief cause of social friction, and only as it is eliminated through the atonement can men come to love the unlovely and be real friends one with another. This view implies that every human being, whether high or low in the scale of life, possesses at least some element of the
118 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
divine nature, and few have become so brutal but that they are capable of being friendly in some degree.
2. Characteristics of true friendship. True friendship is constant. As one of the old prov- erbs puts it, ‘‘A friend loveth at all times.’’ There are false friends who are friendly when we are in prosperity, but who desert us when adversity overtakes us—those who are friendly when we are well spoken of, but desert us when our name is in ill-repute; but the true friend remains constant under such circumstances and stands the closer by when adversity comes.
Real friendship has a positive element. If a man expects to win friends and hold them, he must be friendly to others, ‘‘A man that hath friends must show himself friendly.’’ One can- not expect to keep friends constant unless he reciprocates their good fellowship; there must be reciprocal exchanges of feeling and actions or friendship will not last. It is a delicate plant and is readily destroyed by too much heat (anger), or dies in a cold atmosphere (indiffer- ence).
True friendship has also an element of sacrifice. The true friend will make sacrifice for those whom he loves. Even life itself is considered not too great a sacrifice for the altar of friendship. ‘‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
ae
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 119
friends’? (Jesus). In feudal days many a knight gave his life to defend his overlord. Cases are not wanting to-day where life is im- periled for the sake of a friend.
Friendship has the right to command. ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you”’ (Jesus). Where true friendship exists a look, a nod, or a whisper, expressive of need, is a command and is quickly obeyed by the trusted friend. Obedience is the test of friend- ship, but it is a dangerous test when pushed too far, for friendship, however true, is at the breaking point when it becomes a tyranny.
There is in true friendship also an element of frankness. A true friend will tell us our faults as well as applaud our virtues. ‘‘Faith- ful are the wounds of a friend’’ (Proverbs). Those who prize the true friend should receive correction from him with the same eagerness as they do his applause. Bacon says truthfully, ‘‘Hor there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self, and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man’s self as the liberty of a friend.’’
‘Take to heart what your wife says to you when she is angry with you,’’ was the advice once given to me by a friend who had observed from a long experience as a man of affairs how difficult a thing it is for a man to see his own faults, and how seldom he has the privilege of hearing them rehearsed by his friends or even
120 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
his enemies, except perhaps by the latter in the midst of the excitements of the campaign, when he is apt to think with self-complacency that his faults have been greatly exaggerated for cam- paign purposes only. So it seems to me that one of the greatest gifts of friendship is the ability to give or take a rebuke between friends that are true. In fact, it never pays to break with a friend because he rebukes you when in a temper or mood. He will relent by the next meeting, while you have gained by the expe- rience as well as won again his affection. In fact, I count to-day among my best friends the men with whom I have exchanged, on occasion, the sharpest words of frankness, if not rebuke, to say the least.
3. Christian friendship. Christian friendship has a distinct and characteristic element which differentiates it from all other forms of friend- ship in that it is exerted toward those who are unfriendly and even toward our enemies—‘‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink’’ (Paul). One of the noblest titles given to the Son of man, the Founder of Chris- tianity, was that heard frequently on the lips of the common people, ‘‘He was the friend of sinners.’’ As a social force Christian friend- ship became the greatest social dynamic of his- tory. In it there lies a deep and helpful phi- losophy, for we are taught to take the initiative
Ae ot
FRIENDSHIP AS A SOCIAL FORCE 121
in showing ourselves friendly to the friendless. We have it expressed in the Golden Rule, “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’’ In this we see friendship firmly estab- lished on an altruistic basis, free from mere self-interest or utility at first hand, and taking on that broader scope which embraces the en- tire moral order of the world. It has in view the social uplift and betterment of all men, in bringing in a world-kingdom of humanity which is the highest social ideal for the race, seen in vision by the Hebrew prophets, preached by the greatest of the apostles, and beautifully expressed by one of our poets as ‘‘the parlia- ment of man and the federation of the world.’’
CHAPTER X SOCIAL LEADERSHIP
WuHen we look all about us to-day at the com- plex social order in which we are living, the net- work of associations in which men are grouped and regrouped in response to certain needs felt and clearly defined ; when we view the organized character of the evils that destroy human life and cause untold misery to homes and indi- viduals, we are led to see at once that one of the greatest tasks the Church of to-day has to perform is the furnishing of social leaders in the struggle for good citizenship and moral re- form.
In talking to a socialistic labor leader some time ago in one of our great industrial centers, he said that he believed the greatest service the Church could render the modern labor move- ment was the furnishing of leaders with some definite aim for the welfare of the workingmen in this world, for what they need most is to be shown how to make this world more like heaven. We wish in this chapter to show where such leadership is needed and how it may be devel- oped by our brotherhoods and other religious social organizations.
122
a=
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 123
In tHe Fievp or Ciry GoveERNMENT
The great struggle of the Church in all ages has been in the cities, and at no period of his- tory has that struggle been more clearly under- stood by men of keen insight in religious work than it is to-day.
The Church inaugurates social reforms and yet is often compelled to leave to a boodling, grafting administration the task of carrying out those reforms. In other cases where church- men have been elected they have proven them- selves to be so inefficient in sound leadership that they have lost for the Church the benefits of a reform movement, and the city has been plunged back into the old regime by the votes of those who cannot excuse inefficient service even when rendered by a pious man. Hence it seems that in this field one of the first tasks of the Church—represented by its civic and social groups in the brotherhood movement—is to de- velop for the tasks of government that class of men who will make good the reforms the Church must have in order to maintain her life in the community.
Now, I do not mean to say that the Church is to go into politics as such, but I do say that one of the chief tasks of the Church is to create issues that the political party that hopes to suc- ceed must adopt, and to train men for civic work
124 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
that the same party cannot afford not to nomi- nate and elect. So it seems to me that our brotherhood chapters and men’s clubs could well afford to take up this problem of social leadership in city government as a part of their legitimate program.
In LeEcIsLATION AND ADMINISTRATION
In the second place, social leadership is needed by the Church in the field of legislation and in the administration and execution of the laws that control the people. In this field suc- cess can be reached by first directing our atten- tion to public opinion and social custom, which lie at the foundations of much of our lawmak- ing, and have much to do also with obedience of and respect for the law. It is a very diff- cult thing for any man, however just, to exe- cute the law impartially when he is handicap- ped by a boisterous public demand for some- thing else. As a distinguished district attorney some years ago in New York said with refer- ence to the trial of a notorious case, ‘‘Gentle- men, we have come to the spectacle of a trial by newspapers, rather than trial by the courts.”’ Here, then, is another field where the Church can do much toward the development in every community of social leadership that will count heavily in the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness.
ae =e
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 125
In THE ETeELp oF OrGANIZED INDUSTRY
A third field where the Church needs to be represented in social leadership is that of or- ganized industry. In years past even good peo- ple who desire to be impartial in their judg- ments have been so appalled by the manifesta- tions of power by organized labor in times of strikes, boycotts, and lockouts, that they have, without investigating the real causes of the dis- turbance, decided the case against the laboring men, and have been ever after biased in their opinions of the entire labor movement. It is about time for all good people to begin to study the real causes of industrial conflicts and also to formulate some saner notions as to the pos-
sibilities for good, not only to the laboring men
themselves but also for the employers and the public, in the organized movement among men for their betterment as a class, not only in the conditions of work, but also in citizenship, and ultimately in all that pertains to the welfare of society as a whole, not excluding the religious interest, that is taking on organized forms of expression.
‘I believe the time will come when the labor movement, under intelligent moral leadership, which it already has in a marked degree, will wage war against social vice and crime as strenuously as it ever has against an unjust
126 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
employer or a soulless corporation. We dis- cover here, it seems to me, one of the greatest fields for Church activity in seeking to make that social leadership in all industrial centers an ally of all the moral and religious forces of the community. The men’s organizations will be wise in encouraging and supporting such of their members who have an ambition for leader- ship in this the greatest movement of our age. Leaders of organized labor, as well as leaders of organized capital, must be men who com- prehend their mutual relations, and the rela- tions of both to the great public who use the goods produced for the market by industrial concerns. In recent years we have witnessed the utilization of such leadership in this field as never before in the case of men who, by their power of social perspective and sense of social justice, have averted industrial warfare by wise counsels in directing others in the pursuits of peace.
Tar Frenp or OrGANIZED CHARITY
*Still another field where the Church’s in- terest in social leadership is strong is that of managing organized charity and philanthropy. Never before were there evident so many great gifts and foundations for the betterment and welfare of the dependent, defective, and delin- 4 See discussion in Chapter XX.
a=
SOCIAL LEADERSHIP 127
quent classes. In this field the Church has the keenest interest and has ever furnished some of the best workers. So in all the fields of religious activity and education there is need to-day for men of social training for the tasks of utilizing the forces available for social
progress.
CHAPTER XI THE CHURCH’S PERIL
THERE are some folks who to-day are seri- ously concerned about what they call the ‘‘peril’’ of the Church, and yet when you ques- tion them as to what it is they seem unable to define it; and yet they assert that they feel the Church is in peril. The social engineer should inquire the causes of this fear, and endeavor to show what these expressions of fear mean; and if he finds there is a real peril threatening the Church, he should seek to know how it may be averted.
Wauart Is a Peri?
Our ordinary notions of peril involve the conception of something alarmingly and immi- nently threatening at the moment, like an ava- lanche in the path of a mountain climber, or a rushing torrent to the inhabitants of a village in the valley below the broken dam. But, as a matter of fact, a peril may be even greater where seemingly there is nothing impending; for instance, the peril of diseased milk to the babies of the tenement, of poisoned food to the workingman (before pure-food legislation) who
128
ge
THE CHURCH’S PERIL 129
had to buy it in cans rather than in juicy beef- steaks, because of his meager wage; the gentle buzz and bite of an infectious mosquito to the unsuspecting dwellers along the levees, or the deadly bite of the tsetse fly in the camp of the ivory-hunters in Africa, or the bacilli of tuber- culosis to the workers in the vitiated air of the sweatshop. In fact, a man to-day may be in as imminent peril of the hatpin of some feminine strap-hanger in the rush of the subway as he would be of the surgeon’s needle in an opera- tion for cataract.
So I believe we are not to look to-day for the greatest perils of the Church from the gates of hell, for we have the promise that ‘‘they shall not prevail,’’ but, rather, in our lack of ability to marshal our forces for victory; not that she shall meet defeat in this field or that field of missionary enterprise, but, rather, that she may miss altogether the meaning of the word of com- mand from the Captain of our salvation.
Farture to Atrrract THE MULTITUDES
One of the chief phases of this modern peril is our failure to make the church attractive to the multitudes—not the peril of some Etruscan maiden in the raid of the Sabine warriors, but, rather, that of some modern maiden who ceases to receive the attention of her suitors.
Talk with the preachers and earnest laymen
130 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
in our cities and suburban towns, and most of them will tell you they are putting up a con- tinual struggle to keep their congregations, especially during the evening services, respect- able in size. So it seems to me, as I walk the streets of our great teeming cities, with their places of amusement crowded, the parks and breathing places of the multitudes filled even during the hours of service in the churches, that in some way we have not yet learned the full significance of Paul’s words of instruction to the young preacher, Timothy, ‘‘to adorn the doctrine of Christ.’? To me the greatest peril the Church faces to-day is that we will fail to make her courts attractive to the multitudes that need her message.
During the Hudson-Fulton celebration in New York city we saw simple historical facts and incidents of our American history so adorned that actually millions of people—men, women, and children, even mothers with babies in their arms, from the East Side and the West Side—so crowded the line of march that they literally risked their lives to see the parade, and as I viewed it from a window in the Methodist Book Concern building at Twentieth Street and Fifth Avenue, I thought within me, ‘‘Would that we had the gift so to adorn the historical facts of our precious faith, and make the personality of Jesus Christ so at-
a=
THE CHURCH’S PERIL 131
tractive in all our ministry, that we could win the multitudes like that, or at least have it said of us as it was of him, ‘The common people heard him gladly.’ ’’
Tue SpreiruaL Deata Rate
Another phase of the Church’s peril, it seems to me, is the appalling spiritual death rate we find in all our Church statistics when properly considered. We have the young life of the com- munity with us in the Sunday school, baptized and enrolled as members of the kingdom of God, and yet how many slip out during the period of adolescence and are never reclaimed! If you are not convinced of this fact, count the boys and young men, and even the girls, on the streets in your town during the hours of Sun- day school and church service.
Then, too, we have a number of backsliders after revival meetings that aggregate almost as many, if not more in some cases, than those we hold as faithful members. An experienced worker in the city of New York, of wide and ripe experience in rescue mission work, told me that at least four out of five of all the men re- claimed on the Bowery had been at some time actively connected with some church or Sun- day school. And he further added that in visit- ing many prisons and questioning the prisoners, he found that many of these also had been at
132 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
one time attendants at church services, either in this country or the old country.
Now, is it not time for the brotherhoods and other social organizations of the Church to make a serious search for the causes of this spiritual death rate, and seek the means and methods of reducing it? It can be done by placing such emphasis upon preventive salva- tion, by socializing our activities in making for them a better environment, as we have in get- ting the children into the Sunday school, and the adults by rescue work and revival effort. We should do this and not leave the other un- done.
Farture to Master THE Mopern Sociau MovEMENT
In the last chapter I mentioned the furnish- ing of social leadership as the Church’s Op- portunity. To fail to lead the modern social movement by failing to furnish leaders in the social crisis of our day is another phase of the Church’s peril that we should seriously con- sider as men.'! In fact, I can see no other reason greater than this for social engineering being organized, and I can conceive of no greater task for our men’s organizations te take up in every community than this.
1 Compare Mott, John R., ‘‘The Future Leadership of the Church.’* Part II.
Ae __
THE CHURCH’S PERIL 133
Tt would be a great pity if the movement of organized labor should get the notion that we were not interested in their cause for the wel- fare of their families, and it would be equally a great pity if the organizations of employers should cease to find sympathy from us in their difficult tasks of adjustment of business to meet the demands of the changing social order. This is another phase of the Church’s peril—that we fail to grasp our opportunity to lead, and be like a voice crying in the wilderness, not know- ing what or whose way we are exhorting the people to prepare. This to me is our supreme task for the present—to address ourselves to a study of these social phases of the Church’s peril, and by diligent social engineering master them.
PART II THE SOCIAL ENGINEER AT WORK
CHAPTER XII THE MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE
THE movement for social service among the various denominations means that the social consciousness of the Church has been aroused to the necessity of doing something heroic to regenerate the changing social order by bet- tering the conditions of living where the life struggle and class conflict are the most threaten- ing to the whole structure of Christian civiliza- tion; a serious search for a social antitoxin that shall destroy the toxic effects in the social body caused by social sinning; an earnest attempt to apply the preventive measures of the gospel to the problem of sin as well as the redemptive agencies of the Word of God. It means organi- zation to discover the causes of social ills, and an organized effort to destroy sin at its source. It means by earnest endeavor to save human life by regenerating and transforming the en- vironment that pollutes and destroys human life. It is our endeavor not so much to save from the slum as it is a determination to remove the slum; not alone the screening of the children from infectious mosquitoes, but filling up the pools where they breed. It means that the
137
138 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
Church has to-day the opportunity within her grasp to extend the consciousness of brother- hood among all the social groups now antago- nistic and competitive, and to give unity of ideals to the nations of the world, so that wars may cease. And, further, she has the social pro- gram in the teaching of Jesus, when rightly in- terpreted, to socialize the races of men in con- sciousness, so that prejudice and race conflicts shall be done away and the world kingdom of redeemed humanity be made possible of reali- zation.
But to be more specific: we do not mean by social service anything like what are known as church socials, pink teas, tableaux, church sup- pers, however useful they may be in developing sociability among the people of the neighbor- hood; nor do we mean any form of religious vaudeville by which a few dimes and dollars are gotten into the church treasury; but we mean, rather, those serious altruistic activities of Christian people that help somebody out of diffi- culty, and better the moral tone of the com- munity, and advance its economic and social welfare—such activities as are carried out by an organized enlightened public opinion through the agency of trained men and women with the group consciousness back of them as an en- couragement and support in the performance of hard tasks. It means also the conduct of indi-
AS ~
MEANING OF SOCIAL SERVICE 139
viduals with a social perspective that sees: be- yond the immediate act to the social values that are created by the social energies released by the initial deed.
InLustrations oF Socrau SERVICE
The act of the good Samaritan was an act of individual social service because it furnished a basis for imitation for others, so that Jesus could say to the young lawyer who had ques- tioned him as to who is one’s neighbor, ‘‘Go and do thou likewise.’’ Neighborliness in Jesus’s mind meant the conduct of the good Samaritan, for he put the emphasis there when he asked, ‘“Who was neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’’ But the social idea can be greatly extended by us in modern times by the concept of organizing a posse to capture the robbers, or an organized police patrol, so that the way to Jericho may be made safe for other travelers.
Again, we may illustrate social service by the efficient policy of the chief of the board of health in one of our progressive cities, who prosecuted the milk dealers who furnished diseased milk to the homes of the poor, resulting in an in- creased infant mortality, instead of being con- tent in thinking his duty to the city ended with the burying of the dead, the victims of disease produced by impure milk, or in helping the
140 THE SOCIAL ENGINEER
widow or bereaved father to bear the expense. So that now in this same city the infant mor- tality has been reduced to the normal rate.
Social service means the placing of a danger sign on the tailgate of