Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 84

On Christmas, 1878, in London, this army of Christian workers was christened "The Salvation Army," consisting then of about 20 workers and about as many posts, with a few hundred members, and some 3,000 souls seeking salvation during the year. To-day there are scattered through 47 countries and colonies as follows:

Fifteen thousand separated workers, entirely supported from its funds; 40,000 unpaid local officers, who support themselves and give their spare time; 16,000 bra.s.s bandsmen (unpaid); 50,000 other musicians, composing thousands of hymns and hundreds of new tunes annually; 250,000 penitents profess salvation publicly in the course of a single year; 6,000 centers have been established, where an average of fourteen to twenty meetings are held weekly, half in open air, half in buildings; 84,000 meetings weekly; 10,000,000 weekly listeners; 520,000,000 listeners in a year. To the poor the gospel is being preached everywhere.

In 1880 the first Salvation Army officers landed in New York.

The Salvation Army struck root in its new soil from the outset.

The work has gone on steadily forward, and it is noted throughout the world for the wonderful spirit of humility and devotion among its workers, who came to be increasingly widely recognized. They made rapid strides in America. They founded homes for the homeless; work for the workless; establishments for labor bureaus and social-relief inst.i.tutions; establishment of industrial homes; workingmen's hotels; working women's homes and hotels; the establishment of the beautiful Floral Home, Los Angeles; Benedict Hotel for Young Women, Boston, and a number of cheaper-cla.s.s hotels for women in New York, Chicago, and Boston; these all supply a clean, comfortable bed, with good moral surroundings, kindly sympathy, and religious services. In New York and other large cities day nurseries have been opened in connection with some slum posts; here mothers bring their children to be cared for during the day, while they are out at work earning the wages upon which the family depend for existence. There are more than 100 rescue homes located in leading cities of the world, and more than 7,000 fallen women were taken care of during the last year.

Farm colonies have also been established, and fresh-air camps are organized for summer outings. In the summer ice is furnished to the needy of the tenements; in winter, coal.

Who can estimate the good done by this n.o.ble army? How their efforts help to cast gleams of sunshine into the desolate hearts and homes of the needy. In civilization, religious and sociological reforms the Salvation Army is doing a magnificent work.

_Philippine Island exhibit_.--The insular exhibit of the Philippine Islands at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was one of the great features of the fair and deserves especial mention, although it does not come under group 129.

No other one exhibit was so widely commented upon in the press and by the public as the insular exhibit. Everybody who went to the exposition visited the Philippine village and went away full of wonder and with new ideas regarding our island possessions and our governmental policy in regard to the Filipinos and the islands.

In the Philippine village or grounds there were erected a number of typical Philippine buildings. The native villages presented the life of the Negritos, Igorrotes, and other tribes. A number of buildings displayed the native woods, and some were devoted to commerce, agricultural products, and others to educational matters.

The educational exhibits attracted unusual attention. The main school building was constructed after a Manila cathedral. The main feature of the educational exhibit was a model school, taught by Mr. Hager and Miss Zamora of the Philippine Normal School. The Filipino pupils were objects of great interest and curiosity.

No doubt many visitors were interested in the Igorrotes or in some other one slight feature which left no deep impression of the actual condition of the islands. But everyone who went attentively through the Philippine village knows just what kind of people the Filipinos are, and learned much of their customs and their industries, and also acquired a fair knowledge of the resources of the islands and the many problems confronting our Government. The Philippine exhibit was one of the greatest features of the fair.

_Humane Education Society._--The pamphlets issued by the Humane Education Society during the progress of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition are far-reaching as an important factor in true education, and can not but result in good. Children through their influence will be trained in habits of kindness to the dependent lower creatures, become gentler to each other, more amenable to authority, and better in their conduct. Through the efforts of this society Bands of Mercy have been organized in the various schools and churches throughout the country, and as a result children become more humane.

Pamphlets of instruction of methods of forming humane education societies were given out with other literature on humane treatment of animals which could not fail in arousing interest.

A grand and n.o.ble work is being done throughout the world by the humane societies. Too much can not be said in praise of the work being accomplished by the little children as members of Bands of Mercy.

This is a report of a few important exhibits. It was impossible for me to give an accurate report of all the important exhibits viewed by jury group 129. There were several things I consider of vital importance to humanity exhibited under other groups; you will no doubt receive reports concerning them. One was the "Model Nursery," which no doubt appeals to all womankind.

Another, the school exhibits in manual training, drawing, nature study, and kindergarten exhibits. Most of this work is developed through the training of the powers of the child by our great army of n.o.ble women teachers.

Group 135, Miss Margaret Wade, Washington, D.C., Juror.

Under the group heading "Provident inst.i.tutions," the six cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Savings banks, life insurance, accident insurance, sickness insurance, old age and invalidity insurance, fire, marine, and other insurance of property.

Miss Wade expressed a somewhat pessimistic view of the work of women in this special department, as she said "the part taken by women as shown by their exhibits showed no high degree of excellence, the only exhibit in group 135 being not up to the standard, and therefore, in her opinion, it would have been no advantage to women to have had their work exhibited separately."

This would be a somewhat difficult cla.s.s, no doubt, for women to endeavor to make an exhibit, because, while thousands of them are employed in the offices of insurance companies and as solicitors, it is probably not a field in which they will a.s.sume the risks involved for many years to come.

Group 136, Miss Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago, Ill, Juror.

Under the group heading "Housing of the working cla.s.ses" the five cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Building and sanitary regulations, erection of improved dwellings by employers, erection of improved dwellings by private efforts, erection of improved dwellings by public authorities, general efforts for betterment of housing conditions.

Miss Addams says in her report as group juror of the above:

From the nature of the exhibits in this department it is difficult to divide the work of women from that of men, for, although the erection of dwellings by public authorities, as in London, was naturally done through men who were members of the London County Council, and while the model dwellings erected by large employers, such as those built by Mr. Cadbury, at Port Sunlight, England, or by the Krupp Company, in Germany, were naturally carried through altogether by men, the earliest efforts for amelioration in housing conditions, and in many cases the initiatory measures for improved dwellings, have been undertaken by women.

The activities of Octavia Hill, in London, preceded by many years the governmental action, and there is no doubt that the creditable showing she was able to make on the financial as well as on the social and educational side had much to do with making the movement for better housing popular in London. The efforts of Fraulein Krupp in connection with the model housing at Essen are also well known, although, of course, this was not indicated in the Krupp exhibit.

Of the five grand prix which were given for general achievements disconnected with exhibits, only one was awarded to a woman, that to Miss Octavia Hill, although a silver medal was also awarded to Frau Rossbach, of Leipzig, Germany. Two gold medals were given to American enterprises in model housing which were carried on almost exclusively by women--one to the Boston Cooperative Society, which was founded and largely directed by Mrs. Alice Lincoln, and one to the Octavia Hill a.s.sociation, of Philadelphia.

On the whole, the special work of women in connection with housing showed most satisfactory results in "rent collecting,"

which has become a dignified profession for many English ladies who conscientiously use it as a means of moral and educational uplift to those most in need of sustained and continuous help.

Improvements in housing conditions are so closely connected with the rate of mortality among little children, with the chances for decency and right living among young girls, with the higher standards and opportunities for housewives, that it has naturally attracted the help of women from the beginning of the crowded tenement conditions which unhappily prevail in every modern city.

Group 139, Miss Mary E. Perry, St. Louis, Mo. Juror.

Under the group heading "Charities and correction" the seven cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Dest.i.tute, neglected, and delinquent children; inst.i.tutional care of dest.i.tute adults; care and relief of needy families in their homes; hospitals, dispensaries, and nursing; the insane, feeble-minded, and epileptic; treatment of criminals; identification of criminals; supervisory and educational movements.

Miss Perry reports:

_Department O, Group 139._--(1) Cla.s.s 784: Vacation Playground, Mrs. E.A. De Wolfe; Philadelphia Night College for Girls, Mrs.

Wilson; Missouri Industrial School for Girls, Mrs. De Bolt; Illinois Industrial School for Girls, Mrs. Ameigh; Industrial School for Girls, Washington, D.C., Amy J. Rule. Cla.s.s 785: Door of Hope, Mrs. Moise. Cla.s.s 786: Committee on tuberculosis of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, Miss Brandt. Cla.s.s 787: Johns Hopkins School for Nurses, Miss Ross; anatomical and pathological exhibit, Mrs. Corrine B.

Eckley. Cla.s.s 788: Seguin School for Backward Children, Mrs.

Seguin; Compton School for Nervous Children, f.a.n.n.y A. Compton; Chicago Hospital School, Mary R. Campbell. Cla.s.s 789: Police supplies and detective exhibit, Mrs. M.E. Holland. Cla.s.s 790: Missouri State board of charities, Miss Mary E. Perry; New Hampshire State board of charities, Mrs. Lilian Streator; Ma.s.sachusetts charity and correctional exhibit; Jewish Charitable and Educational Union, by committee of ladies; the Catholic University of America made an exhibit of all the Catholic inst.i.tutions relating to charities and correction, which was collected and installed by the union, but put in charge of the "Queen's Daughters," Miss Mary Hoxsey.

(2) Cla.s.s 784, 35 per cent; cla.s.s 785, 30 per cent; cla.s.s 786, 20 per cent; cla.s.s 787, 40 per cent; cla.s.s 788, 30 per cent; cla.s.s 789, 15 per cent; cla.s.s 790, 40 per cent; total, 30 per cent (average).

(3) Missouri State board of charities, Ma.s.sachusetts exhibit in charities and correction, Johns Hopkins School for Nurses, committee on tuberculosis of the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York.

(4) It is a very noticeable fact that women are taking the place of men in charitable inst.i.tutions. This fact, however, is more clearly demonstrated in the general educational exhibit. The exhibits relating to dispensaries and nurses were mostly prepared by women; in fact, they seem to have a monopoly on this particular line of work.

A part of the anatomical and pathological exhibit was in charge of Mrs. Eckley, anatomist, from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Chicago, Ill.

The number of women entering this field was shown to be steadily on the increase, and the exhibit relating to medical schools also showed a great increase in the number of students.

Nearly all of the reformatory schools for girls and prisons and reformatories for women are under the charge of women, and a great many of the State board of charities are practically under their control.

Women are taking the place of men in the distribution of charities in the larger cities, and Mrs. M.E. Holland, who installed the exhibit on police supplies, and who is also the editor of the Detective, was, at the same time, in charge of the Chicago police exhibit. This is one of the cases where a woman has entered the profession of detective.

(5) No foreign exhibits were installed by women, although about 15 per cent of the foreign exhibits were prepared by women.

(6) The most noticeable work given to women at the fair was along the lines demanding executive ability, as is required in organizing exhibits, where tact and business capacity were essential to success. (See answer 4.)

(7) Their work differed from the work at other expositions in the fact that scientific material was presented in an attractive and comprehensive way, so as to be easily understood and appreciated by the general visitor.

(8) Yes. Their work could easily be compared to that of men. It was of the same grade, and there seemed to be no question or suggestion of inferiority.

(9) Yes; the work of women was as well appreciated when placed by the side of that of men as when separately exhibited.

(10) The results would not have been better if separately exhibited. Exhibits must be scientifically cla.s.sified in order to be appreciated by the general visitor. If the exhibits prepared by women had been separated, it would have left a great gap in the scientific arrangement required in a collective exhibit, as in group 139. The exhibits in this line prepared by women would not and could not have covered the subject completely.

(11) See answer to No. 7.

There were no manufacturers in group No. 139 except manufacturers of prison cells, and no women are employed in such factories.

Thirty per cent of the work of organizing, collecting, and installing exhibits in group 139 was performed by women, and about 40 per cent of the actual work was prepared under the direction of women, such as teachers in reformatory inst.i.tutions, etc.